“Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is among the most vocal opponents of moving towards year-round Daylight Saving Time, and has vowed to block any proponents’ efforts to quickly approve the bill on the floor through a process known as unanimous consent, which requires all 100 senators to agree to an expedited vote,” CNN reports. “There […]

“President Donald Trump declared the USA has no need for the Strait of Hormuz — but he still wants to pummel Iran to prove it can never control the vital oil passage anyway,” Mediaite reports. Said Trump, referring to Venezuela: “It’s been incredible actually, it’s got serious oil. In fact, if you combine us and Venezuela, […]

“Democratic Party elder and prior presidential kingmaker Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) jabbed at progressive U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Wednesday, calling out the lack of Black Democrats at his events,” Mediaite reports. Said Clyburn: “I saw a picture that concerned me from the rally. I didn’t see a single person that looks like me. […]

“The House on Wednesday narrowly passed legislation that would limit stock trading by members of Congress, moving months ahead of the midterm elections to address a practice that has stoked public outrage and bipartisan calls for change,” the New York Times reports. “But nearly all Democrats opposed the measure after Republicans added a federal voter […]

“The House narrowly passed its marquee $1.15 trillion defense policy bill largely along party lines Wednesday amid a bitter partisan divide over President Donald Trump’s conduct of the war against Iran and his push for a massive Pentagon spending boost,” Politico reports. ”Just six Democrats supported the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which House Republicans […]

“The Trump administration is weighing military action in the West African country of Mali to target an al-Qaeda-affiliated group known as JNIM, said current and former U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations,” the Washington Post reports. ”If approved, it would add an eighth nation to the list of countries where President Donald Trump has ordered […]

“Saudi Arabia signed a long-sought deal to obtain American nuclear technology on Wednesday, deepening its ties with the United States at a time of war and uncertainty across the Middle East,” the New York Times reports. “The civilian nuclear deal, which would allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium on its soil, represents a triumph for […]

“There is an adage in the financial world: The stock market is not the economy,” the New York Times reports. “Except that, right now, maybe it is.” “Major stock indexes have set record after record in recent years, fueled by seemingly boundless appetite among investors for anything connected to artificial intelligence. The total value of […]

“President Trump on Wednesday witnessed the return of four young Army soldiers recently killed overseas, telling reporters beforehand that each had died supportive of the deadly war he was waging with Iran,” the New York Times reports. Said Trump: “All of them said very strongly, ‘We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.’ ‘They won’t […]

“Half of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base thought the Iran war was worth its economic costs in May. Now, just a little more than a third do,” Politico reports. ”That precipitous, 13-point drop in just two months, according to a new Politico Poll, reveals how the president’s most die-hard supporters are starting to agree with […]

Annie Lowrey: “No less an authority than Sam Altman is arguing that we are in an AI bubble. The International Monetary Fund is citing it as a significant risk to financial stability and warning about what might happen when it bursts: diminished investment, tighter credit, reduced consumption, disrupted trade flows.” “That’s pretty much what happens […]

“Democrats are apprehensive that Republicans’ massive outside spending advantage could erase the prospects of a blue wave heading into the midterms,” Politico reports. ”The three main GOP party committees and their two caucus-aligned super PACs reported $657 million cash on hand at the end of June, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election […]

“If the Houthis make good on their threat to blockade ships traveling to and from Saudi Arabia via the Red Sea, it would yet again upend global oil markets by compromising a crucial fallback for the Strait of Hormuz,” the New York Times reports. “Since the early weeks of the war with Iran, Saudi Arabia […]

“To make it out of a Republican primary in Arizona, there’s one key litmus test: believing the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” Politico reports. ”Election deniers who played prominent roles in efforts to overturn the 2020 results triumphed in statewide Republican primaries Tuesday: Rep. Andy Biggs for governor, state Rep. Alexander Kolodin for […]

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“The White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office are discussing a potential Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week, but no meeting has been set yet,” Axios reports.

“With deadly attacks on an air base in Jordan, Iran has proved that it retains a significant missile and drone arsenal that still threatens American forces and the U.S.’s regional allies, despite President Trump’s claim to have ‘totally destroyed’ Iran’s military,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Regime Change, the juicy exposé on President Trump’s second term by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has passed the publishing milestone of 500,000 units sold (hardcover, audio, e-book) in just one month,” Axios reports. ”Publishing sources tell me the blockbuster is on track to be the bestselling nonfiction book of 2026.”

“Republicans are heading into the fall campaign season with a lopsided cash advantage across their flagship committees and super PACs, but Democrats narrowed the gap with stronger fundraising by individual candidates,” the Washington Post reports. ”The latest campaign finance reports showed the GOP’s wealth concentrated in the hands of President Donald Trump and his advisers, […]

“Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday night challenged the federal government to execute an international arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, calling him a ‘war criminal’ and ‘the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people’ in a striking video statement,” the New York Times reports. “The mayor said the city Law […]

“President Trump threatened to strike bridges and power plants in Iran if its forces targeted any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz from Wednesday onward, as the prospect of a prolonged conflict pushed the price of oil to its highest level in over a month,” the New York Times reports. “In a post on […]

There are few places left on Earth that still feel like the middle of nowhere. Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is one of them. The landscape stretches endlessly in every direction, interrupted only by the occasional herd of wild horses, a caravan of camels or a traditional ger camp. With one of the lowest population densities anywhere […]

“Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he supports a change to House rules that would ban members of Congress from having a sexual relationship with any staffer on Capitol Hill,” ABC News reports. Said Johnson: “I can’t believe it would be acceptable in any situation.” He added: “I think it’s inappropriate, as it would be in […]

“A White House lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on a court that hears litigation regarding trade laws and tariff policies was confirmed to the bench on Tuesday after she apologized for past social media posts that attacked various senators including Republicans,” Reuters reports. “The Republican-led Senate voted 50-48 in favor of Kara […]

“President Trump said he was ordering his administration to allow direct flights from the United States to Lebanon, ending a prohibition that has been in place since Hezbollah hijacked a flight in 1985,” the New York Times reports. “The surprise announcement, which Mr. Trump made on his social media platform after visiting with President Joseph […]

Idrees Kahloon: “Even as he insisted that U.S. global dominance will last forever, Trump is busily dismantling the very economic underpinnings that would ensure future American might.” “When economies lag, hegemony becomes unsustainable. Britain’s decline took only a few short decades. The Soviet Union rivaled America militarily but could not keep up economically, and unraveled […]

“Federal and state officials are investigating reports that nearly 1,000 ballots failed to reach voters in a northern Arizona county with a large indigenous population,” Bloomberg reports. “The ballot issue comes amid Tuesday’s primary elections in Arizona, a critical swing state that President Donald Trump won in 2024 after narrowly losing it in 2020.”

“The Trump administration plans to cut aluminum tariffs for companies investing in smelting plants as it pushes U.S. defense companies to reduce their reliance on foreign adversaries,” the Financial Times reports. “Companies committed to building, expanding or refurbishing American smelting facilities would qualify for incentives amounting to half of the current 50 per cent tariff […]

“Progressive groups are opening a vicious new front in the fight over crypto legislation, targeting Sen Kirsten Gillibrand as she tries to broker a compromise on the CLARITY Act, which has unresolved issues on its ethics provisions,” Axios reports. “The blistering — and deeply personal — attack from Indivisible, Demand Progress and the Revolving Door […]

“The four U.S. soldiers killed in recent days during renewed hostilities with Iran were all assigned to air defense units, assuming the risk of staying on vulnerable bases to protect others from incoming ballistic missile and drone attacks,” the Washington Post reports. “Unlike the past two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where soldiers […]