“Ukraine is targeting Russian energy infrastructure with its growing fleet of long-range drones and missiles, causing fuel shortages in one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers and embarrassing President Vladimir Putin,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “In dozens of strikes since this spring, Ukraine has pounded oil refineries across its larger neighbor, hitting […]

“A new White House task force reviewing thousands of pages of classified intelligence and law enforcement documents for evidence of irregularities in U.S. elections is expected to begin releasing documents within weeks,” MS NOW reports. “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose acting chief, Bill Pulte, has been accused by Democrats of politically […]

“Over the past year, the Trump administration has made deals to acquire equity stakes in more than two dozen firms, an unusual practice that has extended the government’s influence over industries including semiconductors, nuclear energy, minerals, quantum computers and steel,” the New York Times reports. “Artificial intelligence executives are increasingly wondering if they will be […]

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday that the Pentagon and the Justice Department have created a joint task force to identify and prosecute leakers as part of the department’s effort to clamp down on disclosure of sensitive information,” The Hill reports.

“U.S. states including California and New York have filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, threatening a costly delay to a $110 billion deal that the Trump administration has backed,” the Financial Times reports. Deadline: California and 11 other states sue to block Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning in late June that ‘no country’ can charge tolls through the Strait of Hormuz went viral on Monday, hours after President Donald Trump announced the United States would begin collecting a 20% fee on cargo passing through the strategic waterway,” Mediaite reports. “The apparent contradiction emerged after Trump abruptly […]

“A large group of House Republicans will meet this week with Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel as the GOP races to advance another party-line policy bill — and overcome disagreements over how to pay for it,” Politico reports.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday vowed to ‘dismantle’ the International Criminal Court and urged other countries to join the effort as the Trump administration significantly escalates its campaign against the global institution,” CNN reports.

Punchbowl News: “Seven Democrats have formally declared their intent to vie to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race.” “The filing period doesn’t close until Wednesday, and more candidates are expected to enter before then. Maine Democrats will hold a nominating convention on July 25.” CNN: Democrats in Maine jockey to […]

Nate Silver: “With the Democratic lead on the generic ballot (currently about D+6), you’d expect them to overcome the Republican advantage from redistricting. That could grow, because most polls right now are among registered voters, and Democrats are likely to have an enthusiasm advantage that will show up once there’s a switch to likely-voter polls.” […]

Anne Applebaum: “When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but ‘suckers and losers.’ He put […]

“A federal judge said Monday that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns was filed for an ‘improper purpose’ as she referred attorneys for disciplinary actions,” the Associated Press reports. “The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams amounts to a stinging rebuke of the Republican president’s lawsuit, characterizing it […]

“The Pentagon has spent at least $2.64 billion on operations at the southwest border with Mexico, according to Congress’s audit agency in the most comprehensive cost accounting yet of the military’s expanded role in immigration enforcement,” Bloomberg reports.

Axios: “A person who spoke with Graham shortly afterward said the senator complained he was feeling unwell. When the person urged him to seek medical attention immediately, Graham said he would do so Sunday morning after his scheduled appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.'”

President Trump recommended the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister serve as interim senator for South Carolina. A formal announcement is expected by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster at 4 p.m. ET. CNBC: Trump recommends Lindsey Graham’s sister serve as interim senator for South Carolina.

“President Trump said on social media that Iranian ships will no longer be able to travel through the Strait of Hormuz and America would charge a 20% toll on eligible cargo,” the Associated Press reports. Said Trump: “We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers […]

“A person was killed Monday in an ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine, according to the state’s speaker of the house — just days after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and accountability,” CNN reports. Reuters: Person killed in ICE-involved […]

Chuck Todd: “There are two types of people in politics, there are those who are ideologues, and those that want to be in the middle of everything. Certainly may have their own leanings, they may lean left or right, but ultimately they want to be in the middle of every debate. That is probably the […]

“Sen. Susan Collins has a simple campaign strategy after Graham Platner’s implosion: Stay the course,” NOTUS reports. “Democrats in Maine and at the national level are reckoning with their own tumult after a woman publicly accused the Democrats’ nominee of sexual assault, effectively ending Platner’s campaign. Now the party is forced to launch a two-week […]

“He had one bad moment in the January 6 thing when he stood up — ‘alright, now I’ve had it, that’s it, I can’t do it anymore’ — then he called me about 40 minutes later and said, ‘Did I really said that? I can’t believe it.’ And he took it back. So I give […]

“A former Ku Klux Klan hall in Texas is becoming an arts center — one of several racist landmarks across the U.S. that communities are trying to turn from symbols of terror into sites of reparation,” Axios reports. “Years after the backlash against Confederate monuments, new fights have emerged over what to do with remaining […]

“The death of Senator Lindsey Graham leaves key U.S. allies like Ukraine, which have at times struggled to influence the Trump administration, without one of their most effective conduits to the White House,” Bloomberg reports. “In the last three days before he died, the South Carolina senator met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, strolled through a […]

“President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. is ‘going to get paid for guarding’ the Strait of Hormuz, the major oil-shipping route and epicenter of the re-escalating war with Iran,” CNBC reports. Said Trump: “We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it.” He added: “We’ll become the guardian of the strait […]

CNN: “It was the unlikely beginning of what would become one of Washington’s key political relationships. The Graham-Trump alliance — which at first flummoxed many in both men’s inner circles — steered two terms of presidential foreign policy across multiple continents, and the GOP’s agenda on Capitol Hill.” “Graham, the ultimate Washington power player, had […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham was one of Donald Trump’s fiercest critics when the two men competed for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Graham did not merely argue that Trump was unqualified. He warned that nominating him would be an act of political suicide. Join now to continue reading. Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no […]

“As the federal judiciary makes a rare personal pitch to Congress this week for tens of millions of dollars in additional security funding, the Supreme Court is sending a messenger who is positioned to speak in unusually personal terms about the threats the judiciary faces,” CNN reports. “Justice Amy Coney Barrett has been at the […]

“The yearslong effort to groom the former Iranian president as an intelligence asset culminated in a dramatic effort to take him to an Israeli safe house in the early days of the war. But the plan fell apart,” the New York Times reports.

“Lindsey Graham’s sudden death will be felt well beyond Washington and South Carolina,” Bloomberg reports. “The Republican senator and Donald Trump confidant was a rare bridge between the America First president, international allies who depend on U.S. support (despite Trump’s skepticism), and lawmakers in both parties who still believe in an old school foreign policy.”

“A year before Greenwater Services got a $1.7 million contract to clean the algae-infected Reflecting Pool, it had received another no-bid government contract to deploy at the trash-plagued Tijuana River,” the Washington Post reports. ”Greenwater, which is owned by a Trump donor, was hired to treat sewage in the Tijuana River with its ‘nanobubble technology,’ […]

“I’ve disagreed with many (many) of Lindsey Graham’s choices and beliefs, but he was also — as one of the house managers on the ‘98 impeachment — the one who worked tirelessly to prove there was a smear campaign against me from inside the White House.” — Monica Lewinsky, on X.