The United States military said Wednesday evening that it has begun its next wave of self-defense strikes on Iran amid tensions over the downing of an American helicopter earlier this week.
The move is the second wave of strikes on the Middle Eastern country after the U.S. launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday evening in response to the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter.
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The Florida Supreme Court declined Wednesday to halt the use of a new congressional map that state Republicans passed earlier this year amid a mid-decade redistricting push.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed the map into law in May, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Louisiana redistricting case that the state’s existing congressional map that includes an additional majority-black district violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
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Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation founder and former Tennessee assistant district attorney, offered a detailed legal analysis Wednesday of the murder conviction and sentencing of Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teenager found guilty of fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in 2025.
Speaking on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Phillips explained why he believed the jury reached its verdict quickly and why the defense strategy was focused less on acquittal than on reducing potential punishment.
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Whistleblowers and declassified documents have revealed a pattern of the CIA and FBI soft-pedaling findings that could rattle China, raising questions about whether President Donald Trump has the best information about America’s chief geopolitical rival at a high-stakes moment for U.S.-China relations.
A soft-on-China bias during the Biden administration shaped analyses of COVID-19 and election interference at CIA, FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the evidence suggests. Many officials in the sprawling $115.5 billion intelligence apparatus ascribe to a neoliberal worldview that prefers free trade and unfettered scientific cooperation with China, whistleblowers say.
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On the same day U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and the Tennessee Democratic Party dropped their lawsuit seeking to block the use of Tennessee’s new congressional maps during the August 6 primary elections, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction in their own federal litigation.
The NAACP motion argued that the Tennessee General Assembly pursued the redistricting process with “one goal”: the “dismantling” of the Volunteer State’s “only majority Black congressional district that had been in place for decades,” thereby causing the state to violate the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
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The U.S. Marshals Service announced that more than 10,000 arrests have been made by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies participating in the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) since its deployment in September 2025.
According to the Wednesday press release, authorities have made 10,017 arrests since the MSTF was deployed last year. These include 92 homicide arrests, 105 for sex offenses, 962 involving firearms violations, and 1,012 for controlled substances.
According to the Monday press release, authorities have completed total of 10,017 arrests since the MSTF deployed last year. These include 92 homicide arrests, 105 for sex offenses, 962 involving firearms violations, and 1,012 for controlled substances.
TMZ We’re told the jail is taking appropriate steps to ensure the safety and security of all inmates in the facility … but the rep declined to comment on why Anthony specifically is being kept in isolation. As you know … Anthony was found guilty of fatally stabbing fellow teenager Austin Metcalf at a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Anthony walked into the tent of a rival high school at the meet and got into an altercation with Metcalf — which ended with Anthony pulling a knife from his bag and fatally stabbing Metcalf. Anthony’s lawyers argued he killed Metcalf in self-defense, but the jury didn’t agree. Shortly after the conviction, Anthony was sentenced to 35 years … and he took a new mug shot at the jail. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Hill ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Wednesday refused to answer questions during her testimony before the House Administration Committee regarding allegations of the organization funneling foreign campaign donations to Democratic candidates in federal elections, asserting her Fifth Amendment right. Wallace-Jones vowed not to answer any questions during the hearing in an earlier op-ed published by The Washington Post. She held firm to her pledge on Wednesday, refusing to answer even a question about her name from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). “Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission, or even an insinuation, of guilt. It is not a retreat,” Wallace-Jones argued in the op-ed, continuing “it is the only reasonable response to a proceeding that from the beginning has been about harassing a political opponent’s fundraising platform, not genuine oversight.” READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News Just one in every 10 Europeans now sees the U.S. as an ally, according to a major new poll conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations across 15 European countries. In what the think tank described as a “collapse in European faith in the U.S.,” only 11% of the nearly 20,000 European respondents now consider America an ally, down from 16% six months ago and 22% in November 2024. Half of those polled view the U.S. as a “necessary partner,” while 25% see America as a rival or an adversary. The percentage of respondents who view the U.S. as a rival or an adversary grew in several countries, especially Denmark, France, Spain and Switzerland. READ THE FULL STORY
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Noncitizens who illegally vote in U.S. elections will face deportation, among other stricter penalties, according to new guidance from the Department of Homeland Security.
The general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, James Percival, directed the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce the stricter penalties against noncitizens who vote.
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Many American women feel uninformed about the abortion pills’ potential complications, according to a new Charlotte Lozier Institute study.
The study — first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation — found that 52.5% of participants cited bleeding as the abortion-related complication they desired more information on than was provided during the informed consent process. Forty-eight percent said pain was the complication they desired more information about, compared to 33.7% who mentioned mental and emotional health.
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Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is calling for transparency and accountability on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and says he’s asking the Trump administration to implement an International Classification of Diseases code for COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
“Trump’s [Department of Health and Human Services] has to acknowledge that these injection injuries are real. They’ve got to create an ICD code so the doctors can get reimbursed,” Johnson said Monday in an exclusive John Solomon Reports podcast interview. He also said he has met with patients who were at a critical “low point” after fighting the medical establishment for years to be seen and treated.
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A Florida hospital has cut sepsis-related deaths by half by utilizing advanced technology that continuously monitors patients to detect potential early warning signs, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Tampa General Hospital has saved almost 900 lives over four years after implementing the Palantir-developed Sepsis Hub system, The Times reported. The software tracks every patient’s vital signs of every patient around the clock and can notify a “rapid response team” of hospital employees to any slight changes that could indicate sepsis, according to the outlet.
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation to fund key immigration enforcement agencies through the end of his term after Congress approved the package via the reconciliation process.
“This morning, I’m thrilled to sign the Secure America Act to immediately and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of my term,” he said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
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The Coffee County Commission unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday imposing a one-year moratorium on data centers.
According to the resolution, the one-year ban will allow the county’s planning commission to propose zoning regulations regarding data centers.
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Following the record-breaking success of the GlockStore’s 6th Annual Open House, the company’s founder and CEO, Lenny Magill, said plans are already underway to make next year’s event even larger after an estimated 2,000 Second Amendment supporters traveled from across the country to attend the Nashville gathering.
Appearing on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday, Magill revealed that attendance far exceeded initial estimates.
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Veteran journalist and public affairs specialist Clint Brewer and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are raising concerns about the future of NCAA oversight and the growing influence of legalized sports betting following a Texas judge’s decision to restore Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s eligibility despite the NCAA’s permanent ban over sports wagering violations.
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U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), the Tennessee Democratic Party, and several other voters and candidates moved to voluntarily dismiss their federal lawsuit seeking to halt the implementation of the state’s newly enacted congressional map and election law changes ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
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National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-NC, predicted Tuesday that his party will gain seats in the House in the 2026 midterms this November, highlighting how the congressional map favors the GOP.
The comment comes after multiple states launched redistricting efforts in the past year that have resulted in redrawn congressional districts ahead of November. The new maps swing 16 districts more toward Republicans, while just six swing more toward Democrats, according to The Hill.
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After decades of steady growth, attendance in U.S. K–12 public schools has shifted drastically. Over the past five years, registration has fallen by 2.3 percent, or 1.18 million students, and schools show no signs of rebounding. Lower birth rates are the primary driver of the downturn. The number of births in the U.S. has decreased steadily in recent years, with 690,000 fewer children born in 2024 than in 2007.
California lost nearly 75,000 TK–12 students as of the 2025–26 school year, a slide more than twice as steep as the previous year’s. Since 2017–18, the Golden State has seen a 10 percent decline.
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