CHANGE OF HEART — The nation’s most interesting mayoral race this fall is happening in the traditionally blue city of Indianapolis. The 16th largest metro also happens to be the largest city where Republicans believe they still have a shot after losing Jacksonville, Florida, and Colorado Springs’ mayoralties this past May.

This isn’t your standard blue lockdown city: Indy has a history of electing pragmatic GOP mayors, among them Dick Lugar, William Hudnut, Stephen Goldsmith and Greg Ballard, who opposed Mike Pence’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act even as a Republican, and marched in the city’s Pride Parade.

Voters here find themselves awash in what promises to be the most expensive mayoral campaign in the city’s history as Republican multi-millionaire storage executive Jefferson Shreve challenges the well-funded, two-term Democratic incumbent Joe Hogsett. Insiders expect the race could eclipse $15 million, nearly surpassing the sum spent on the state’s 2022 U.S. Senate race.

The campaign’s latest turn this summer includes a remarkable policy pivot from Shreve, a former city-county councilor, on gun policy — one that, if successful, could presage an evolving tone from Republican candidates in their long and reliable alliance with the National Rifle Association on guns.

In July, Shreve, who earned the NRA’s backing as recently as 2016 in an unsuccessful run for state Senate, rolled out a public safety plan that virtually echoed that of his Democratic opponent: raising the firearm purchase age to 21, ending permit-less carry and banning assault-style weapons across the city — a move that would defy the red state’s General Assembly-supported preemption of municipalities regulating firearms.

The NRA felt blindsided and called his change of heart “truly pathetic.” Local talk radio hosts declared his campaign dead on arrival. But Shreve, who sold his self-storage company Storage Express for $590 million last year, said it’s an example of a businessman who reviewed the data and made a change.

“I’m not a career politician,” Shreve said in a statement. “I’m a career chief executive. As a CEO, you have to change course when the facts change or you fail. And the facts on violent crime in Indianapolis have definitely changed. We have to change some policies here in Indianapolis while respecting that different policies will work for other parts of the state.” He added: “The personal stories from people who’ve been affected by gun violence have had a profound effect on me. The people I’ve heard from, like mothers who’ve lost their children, deserve to feel supported.”

In some ways, Shreve’s position is a throwback to another Indianapolis Republican mayor-turned-U.S. senator: Lugar, the late senator who received an “F” rating from the NRA in 2012 for his position on guns.

In 2006, Lugar won the endorsement of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In 2011, he became the first GOP senator to call for the renewal of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, in the wake of the Tucson, Ariz. shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The commonality: Shreve and Lugar shared a campaign consigliere in Mark Lubbers, the Indianapolis politico and businessman who is Shreve’s current sherpa.

The 180-degree turn by Shreve could be a model for Republicans in urban areas, according to Paul Helmke, the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne and past president of the Brady Center.

“If Republicans are going to start doing well in cities, they’re going to have to start talking about gun violence prevention,” Helmke told Nightly. “If they don’t start proposing things like Shreve is proposing, they’re not going to be able to win in those cities.”

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— Biden hails ‘next era of partnership’ between U.S., South Korea and Japan: President Joe Biden on Friday signed historic agreements with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, bridging the fraught history between the two countries with promises of strengthening each nation’s economic and national security interests.

In what was a clear message to China, Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the first trilateral meeting between the three countries that wasn’t held on the sidelines of an international gathering. The administration announced agreements to improve coordination on ballistic missile defense and information sharing, to contribute economic data such as an early warning system for supply chain disruptions, and to better coordinate national security such as multiyear plans to hold military exercises.

— Court tosses Jan. 6 sentence in ruling that could impact other low-level Capitol riot cases: A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a new sentence for a North Carolina man who pleaded guilty to a petty offense in the Capitol riot — a ruling that could impact dozens of low-level cases in the massive Jan. 6, 2021 prosecution.

The appeals court in Washington said James Little was wrongly sentenced for his conviction on a misdemeanor offense to both prison time and probation. The decision could invalidate the sentences of dozens of Jan. 6 defendants who received what is known as a “split sentence” for a petty offense. The practical effect, however, may be limited as almost all of them have likely already served their prison terms long ago.

— Wealthy oil nation lays groundwork for ‘eye-popping’ climate fund: The United Arab Emirates is considering creating a multibillion-dollar fund to spur clean energy investments across the world that it plans to unveil at this year’s U.N. climate talks in Dubai, according to people familiar with the plan.

The fund could amount to tens of billions of dollars, with a sizable slice of the money coming from the UAE’s sovereign wealth reserves, according to seven people with knowledge of the discussions. A G-7 government official said envoys from the oil-rich Mideast nation had privately mentioned the idea of a fund of at least $25 billion.

NO SHOW — Former President Donald J. Trump plans to upstage the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday by sitting for an online interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to The New York Times.

In the past 24 hours, Trump has told people close to him that he has made up his mind and will skip the debate in Milwaukee, according to two of the people briefed on the matter. Trump left himself something of an out to change his mind with an ambiguous post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Thursday. He wrote that he’s polling well ahead of his rivals and added, “Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?”

THE DEBATE WHISPERER — Brett O’Donnell, the bard coach of GOP debates, is now tasked with readying Ron DeSantis for the first 2024 presidential primary debate, making the Florida governor the sixth GOP presidential candidate to hire O’Donnell over the past two decades — and potentially his toughest challenge yet. No candidate ever wants a poor debate showing, but this one could be especially critical for DeSantis, writes POLITICO. It comes at a moment when he has struggled to reverse a view that the once-leading candidate to topple Donald Trump may now be careening towards also-ran status.

PARTY CRASHERS — Self-funding businessperson Perry Johnson may have just snagged a last-minute invitation to next week’s Republican debate. And he might not be the only party crasher.

Johnson’s apparent qualification came in a whirlwind, 24-hour period in which a series of polls appear to have qualified him for the first primary debate in Milwaukee, according to POLITICO’s tracking of the parameters set out by the Republican National Committee.

Another candidate, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, also claimed on Friday to have made the debate, even though it is not clear he did. But his announcement does not match POLITICO’s analysis, and an RNC official told The Associated Press, which first reported Suarez’s claims, that the committee considers Suarez short of its criteria. Though the roster of qualified candidates has been set for weeks — eight, including former President Donald Trump, who has said he’s not likely to show up — Johnson and a handful of other lower-tier candidates have been inching closer in recent days.

PRIVATE MEETING — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met privately with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday, the latest in his effort to fortify relationships with three Republican governors alienated by Donald Trump, POLITICO reports.

The meeting, at a hotel in Buckhead, Georgia, preceded DeSantis’ appearance at a gathering of presidential candidates hosted by conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson. The two talked for about 30 minutes and did not discuss an endorsement, according to two people familiar with the meeting. It’s the second time in recent months that DeSantis has met with Kemp. He also huddled with the governor at the Georgia statehouse earlier this year.

MOONLIGHTING — While he now oversees the world’s fifth-largest economy, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has increasingly been moonlighting as a quasi-city executive of San Francisco, his hometown, and approaching its woes as a litmus test for his success in Sacramento, writes POLITICO

San Francisco’s dual symbolism is evident far beyond its 47 square miles: It’s a world-class city, an engine for commerce that nurtured the tech revolution and dawned same-sex marriage bells. It also retains an almost mythological status among critics, many on the right, who portray it as a modern hellscape and an indictment of progressive governance. Newsom, in his last term as governor and widely viewed as a future White House aspirant, is at the center of that debate. As San Francisco goes, so goes California. And as California goes, so goes Newsom.

TENSE RELATIONS — The coup in Niger is injecting fresh tension into the France-U.S. alliance, write Nahal Toosi and Clea Caulcutt.

The two countries are at odds over how to respond to the ouster of the West African country’s president in July. France is refusing to diplomatically engage with the junta and strongly supports a regional body that has threatened military intervention. The U.S. has dispatched an envoy to meet with the junta leadership and held back from officially declaring the takeover a coup — insisting there’s still a negotiated way to restore democracy. French officials also support a peaceful resolution, but they are bristling at the U.S. approach, saying engaging the junta empowers it.

MORNING BREW — After 57 years of waiting, England wants to celebrate its first World Cup final with a traditional pint of ale. But archaic licensing laws have other ideas, writes Andrew McDonald.

Decades on from the 1966 World Cup final — the last, and only, time either the England men or women’s football team made the final — England’s Lionesses are set to face Spain in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday. But there’s one problem: the game, hosted by Australia, kicks off at 11 a.m. U.K. time — before many of England’s public houses are allowed to serve booze.

Politicians, lobbying groups and fans have united behind calls for leniency so that Sunday’s game can be enjoyed — or endured — with a morning pint.

IS SOCIAL MEDIA FUELING HOMICIDES? — There’s been a nationwide resurgence in violence that has erased more than two decades of gains in public safety. In 2020, homicides spiked by 30% and fluctuated around that level for the next two years. There are early signs that the 2023 rate could show a decrease of more than 10% from last year, but that would still leave it well above pre-pandemic levels.

Criminologists point to a confluence of factors, but there may be another accelerant, writes Alec MacGillis for Pro Publica: social media.

Smartphones and social platforms existed long before the homicide spike; they are obviously not its singular cause. But considering the recent past, it’s not hard to see why social media might be a newly potent driver of violence. When the pandemic led officials to close civic hubs such as schools, libraries and rec centers for more than a year, people — especially young people — were pushed even further into virtual space. Much has been said about the possible links between heavy social media use and mental health problems and suicide among teenagers. If social media plays a role in the rising tendency of young people to harm themselves, could it also be playing a role when they harm others?