Breaking ... A major test case for voter ID laws could be tangled in courts through the 2022 midterms, Axios' Justin Green reports.

Why it matters: North Carolina judges struck down a 2018 voter ID law, ruling that targeting Black voters counts as discrimination even if there is no evidence of racial animus.

• "[A] previous attempt by GOP lawmakers in 2013 ... was also struck down as unconstitutional," reports the Raleigh News & Observer.
• The court said in 2016 that the law targeted Black voters "'with almost surgical precision."

The categories of qualifying IDs were greatly expanded to include those of college students and government employees, AP reports.

• Free IDs also are available from county elections boards or at early-voting sites. People without IDs can still vote if they fill out a form at the voting precinct.

The plaintiffs' case emphasized analysis by a University of Michigan professor who said Black voters are 39% more likely to lack a qualifying photo ID than white registered voters, AP reports.

Business travel was supposed to recover this year, until Delta hit.

• Now it's not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024, reports Axios' Jennifer Kingson.

1. 🚨 The Pentagon admitted a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan on Aug. 29 (above) killed 10 civilians, including seven children — rather than the Islamic State extremists who were the intended targets. Keep reading.
2. 🇫🇷 France took the extraordinary step of recalling its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia after getting blindsided with a new military pact and submarine contract, Axios' Dave Lawler reports.
3. Apple and Google deleted jailed Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny's tactical voting app from their app stores, per Reuters.

The General Sherman Tree — a giant sequoia that's the world's largest tree by volume — has its base wrapped in a fire-resistant aluminum blanket to protect it from the heat of California's approaching wildfires.

• Firefighters are racing to save the famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from fires in the Sierra Nevada.

The Colony Fire in Sequoia National Park is expected to reach the Giant Forest, a grove of 2,000 sequoias, within days, AP reports.