“The Democrats’ main Senate super PAC is booking another $54 million in TV ads for the midterm campaign’s final stretch, targeting four Republican-held seats,” Axios reports. “The new reservations offer a roadmap to where Democrats think they can flip seats.” The four states: Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina and Alaska.

A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.

“When President Dwight D. Eisenhower went to the United Nations in 1953 to offer countries nuclear technology and know-how in return for a promise to use them peacefully, the policy went by a memorable shorthand, ‘Atoms for Peace.’ Seven decades later, it could go by a less idealistic name: nuclear hedging,” the New York Times […]

“Prime Minister Mark Carney swept to power promising an ‘elbows out’ stance against President Trump’s tariff threats and rhetoric, vowing he would never accept a bad trade deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Sixteen months later, Carney says he has avoided making a bad deal but critics say it has come at a cost: a […]

“Oil prices are racing back toward $100 this morning after Tehran-backed Houthi militants claimed attacks on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, threatening another important route for oil flows and stoking fears that the U.S.-Iran conflict could escalate further,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A little-known court tasked with handling highly sensitive deportation cases against alleged alien terrorists has laid dormant since its 1996 creation, lacking even a website for tracking any proceedings before it,” CNN reports. “But this month, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court sprung to life with a first-of-its-kind case filed by the Trump administration as it […]

“The number of Senate-confirmed officials who have left their roles in the Trump administration is more than double the amount of departures at this point of President Trump’s first term,” NewsNation reports.

“The Trump administration is back at war. It just doesn’t want to admit it,” The Atlantic reports. “In the 11 days since the United States resumed its air strikes against Iran, neither President Trump nor any other senior administration official has publicly addressed the campaign. U.S. forces began by striking Iranian military facilities but later […]

“Melania Trump urged a federal court earlier this week to sanction journalist Michael Wolff, after he unsuccessfully sued the first lady in an effort to thwart a $1 billion defamation lawsuit,” the New York Post reports.

Adam Serwer: “The Roberts Court accelerated its assault on the freedoms guaranteed by the Reconstruction amendments this term, leaving only the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship intact—and that by only one vote.” “Across multiple cases dealing with voting and immigration, a consistent theme has emerged from the Roberts Court’s jurisprudence: a determination to ignore, […]

“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has kept the city’s business leaders waiting to see his plan to grow the local economy,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “This week, the city’s business elite received an unexpected surprise when Mamdani named a new chair of the city’s powerful Economic Development Corporation: Lina Khan, the 37-year-old who […]

David Graham: “Every politician does some pandering, but few do it as clumsily, or with such evident disdain for their own supporters, as the vice president.”

“A number of congressional Republicans are worried Iraq’s new leader won’t be the partner the U.S. needs in an increasingly turbulent Middle East,” Politico reports. “Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met with both President Donald Trump and a slew of lawmakers last week in Washington — his first international trip since taking office. But those […]

“The trap began with a routine bureaucratic ritual: the head of a family-run contracting company and a small town public-works director trading emails about when the municipality would cut a six-figure check for utility work,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “But lurking online, a cybercriminal pounced with staggering ease. Someone posing as a company employee […]

“Whitney Cummings told a few jokes at the expense of President Donald Trump during last month’s Mark Twain Prize for Humor — but a particularly biting one didn’t make it to the broadcast version,” the Washington Post reports. “The ceremony, which honored Bill Maher, premiered on Netflix on Tuesday. During the event, Cummings joked that […]

Punchbowl News: “Senate Majority Leader John Thune declared earlier this week that he wouldn’t move on the House’s budget blueprint until the Senate solves the Sept. 30 funding fight. That means reconciliation won’t move in the Senate anytime soon — and passing a bipartisan stopgap spending bill could still take weeks or months of additional […]

“A local mayor in central Mexico was shot dead in a town hall, after the politician had survived a previous assassination attempt,” CBS News reports.

“Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh testified before Congress over two days last week, totaling more than five hours. Yet it was comments from several of his colleagues that gave the clearest picture of what the central bank is likely to do at next week’s policy meeting,” Axios reports. “It is a central paradox of Warsh’s […]

Politico: “GOP senators are likely to face a wave of pressure from the White House and House Republicans to move quickly and advance their budget resolution before August recess — the first step necessary to pass another party-line spending bill. But Thune has been frank about the rocky road the effort faces and careful not […]

“Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was replaced as commander in chief of Ukrainian forces late on Tuesday, was a flint-hard, highly decorated military leader and one of the most significant figures of Ukraine’s war against Russia. But his strengths early in the war and his unyielding personality may ultimately have led to his political downfall,” the […]

“The U.S. military used a B-1 long-range bomber on Tuesday to strike Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, U.S. officials said,” Axios reports. “Using B-1 bombers, which can carry two dozen 2,000-lb. bombs or dozens of cruise missiles, signaled a significant escalation and expansion of the U.S. military campaign.”

“A Chinese government spokesperson fired back Wednesday at the Trump administration’s allegations that Chinese researchers are stealing American trade secrets about artificial intelligence,” NBC News reports.

“Democrat Amish Shah will take on GOP nominee Jay Feely in the general election for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, The Associated Press projects, following primaries for both parties on Tuesday,” CBS News reports. “Shah’s win against Republican-turned-Democrat Marlene Galán-Woods marks the latest high-profile defeat for the national Democratic Party.” New York Times: Amish Shah wins […]

“A Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s security detail is under internal review and has been put on administrative leave after being suspected of leaking information for a news story that included details about Vance’s travel,” CNN reports. “A second source confirmed officials had identified a person believed to have been leaking information […]

“Threats against people the U.S. Secret Service protects are up about 40% from a year ago, the agency says, as it prepares for Friday’s rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Axios reports.

“Former special counsel Jack Smith could face potential criminal prosecution after Republicans accused the ex-prosecutor of misleading Congress about the scope of his investigation into President Donald Trump,” Fox News reports. “House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) issued a criminal referral of Smith on Wednesday, arguing newly released records contradict Smith’s testimony to his […]

“Don’t expect a lot of public lamentations from House Democrats next month if Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) loses to his Democratic Socialists of America-backed primary opponent,” Axios reports. “That would be a drastic deviation from recent DSA primary wins, which set off alarm bells among the Democratic establishment.” “In the telling of both progressive and […]

“The stakes of the Iran war are becoming increasingly stark, and President Donald Trump was confronted with the latest evidence today when he traveled to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to pay his respects to four American soldiers killed in the line of duty,” Bloomberg reports. “What was supposed to be a relatively […]

Axios: “Almost a quarter of workers in the U.S. — 23 million adults — are experiencing ‘job lock,’ staying in roles they don’t want to avoid losing health insurance benefits, according to a new Gallup analysis.” “Why it matters: Women and people who have chronic health conditions feel the burden most because health care costs […]

“Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor President Donald Trump pardoned last year on federal corruption charges, is now seeking clemency on behalf of a similarly disgraced political figure: a suburban Chicago councilman who authorities say fled the country just days before his 2005 sentencing in a vote-buying scheme,” NBC News reports.