Breaking headlines from across the country and the world
Axios Former President Trump is bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard onto his presidential transition team, a Trump campaign senior adviser confirmed to Axios. Gabbard and Kennedy, both onetime Democratic presidential candidates, will have an official role in helping prepare for a possible second Trump administration. They both endorsed the former president within the last week. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner “Race and gender” are key criteria in Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of a media personality to host her first sit down interview since joining the presidential race, a report Monday in Politico Playbook revealed. The criteria spotlights the close-mindedness of Harris’s world view, as she attempts to rally support from rural white voters in swing states. The demographic is key to winning the 2024 presidential election, political experts believe. Harris will purportedly sit for an interview this week as part of her campaign’s ramped-up strategy heading into the post-Labor Day push, Axios reported, but questions remain about who she will select to host the interview. READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News More than 200 Republicans who worked for former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, saying democracy would be “irreparably jeopardized” by another Trump administration. “We have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable,” said the letter, which was first reported by USA Today. The group, which put out a similar letter in 2020, said another four years of former President Donald Trump’s “chaotic leadership” would “hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.” READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart “Race and gender” are key criteria in Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of a media personality to host her first sit down interview since joining the presidential race, a report Monday in Politico Playbook revealed. The criteria spotlights the close-mindedness of Harris’s world view, as she attempts to rally support from rural white voters in swing states. The demographic is key to winning the 2024 presidential election, political experts believe. Harris will purportedly sit for an interview this week as part of her campaign’s ramped-up strategy heading into the post-Labor Day push, Axios reported, but questions remain about who she will select to host the interview. READ THE FULL STORY
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Daily Mail UK The parents of Trump shooter Thomas Crooks have hired a team of powerhouse attorneys as the FBI continues to investigate just how much they knew ahead of their son’s assassination attempt on the former president, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. The development comes as one family member shared with DailyMail.com that the FBI, ‘still very much has questions’ regarding how much the killer’s parents knew – while revealing that his father Matthew Crooks, 53, is a gun enthusiast who has sold firearms to relatives in the past. Speaking to DailyMail.com, the family member who asked not to be named said, ‘The FBI still very much has questions about how much they knew and how he [Thomas] slipped through the net.’ READ THE FULL STORY
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FOX News Presidential candidate Cornel West must appear on voting ballots in Michigan, a state judge ruled on Saturday. Judge James Robert Redford issued the ruling days after West and his running mate, activist Melina Abdullah, were kicked off the ballot earlier this month due to technical issues. The Michigan Bureau of Elections had notified West’s campaign of the discrepancies in an August 16 letter. The campaign responded by arguing that the Michigan Democratic Party was weaponizing technicalities in an effort to remove West from the ballot. READ THE FULL STORY
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NASA.gov NASA will return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the spacecraft, the agency announced Saturday. The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew. Wilmore and Williams, who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, have been busy supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other activities. “Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.” READ THE FULL STATEMENT
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Catholic News Agency On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief (Aug.22), a European watchdog warned of serious anti-Christian violence in Europe and called on governments to protect converts from Islam in particular. The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) has reported an increase in anti-Christian hate crimes by 44%. Though the OIDAC Europe 2022/23 Annual Report reports the majority of the 749 cases of anti-Christian hate crimes were acts of vandalism or arson, the religious freedom watchdog noted a marked increase in violent attacks against individual people. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s rejection of petition signatures for an abortion-rights ballot initiative on Thursday, blocking the proposal from heading to the polls on Election Day in November. The ruling affirms the decision from Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston to reject the ballot measure because the group spearheading the effort failed to disclose critical information about the paid canvassers hired to collect citizen signatures. The proposed abortion amendment would have prohibited the state legislature from passing an abortion ban within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, approximately the halfway mark in a typical 40-week pregnancy. READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News Baby foods, from snack pouches to jarred purees found in grocery stores across the United States, may be less healthy than you think, according to new research. In the study, published in the journal Nutrients Wednesday, researchers at The George Institute for Global Health analyzed 651 commercially produced infant and toddler foods across 10 different grocery chains in the U.S. They found nearly 60% of the foods failed to meet nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization. Among all products, 70% failed to meet protein requirements and 44% exceeded total sugar recommendations. In addition, 1 in 4 products didn’t meet calorie requirements and 1 in 5 exceeded recommended sodium limits. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart The recently-installed Labour Party government in the UK is facing accusations of plotting to betray Brexit by reportedly considering a reinstitution of the open borders “free movement of people” with the European Union for those under the age of 30. A report from paper of record The Times of London has claimed that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is mulling a deal with Brussels that would allow EU nationals under 30 to live and work in the UK for up to three years, and the same for young Britons seeking to move to the bloc. The move would reportedly come as a compromise measure amid the left-wing government’s desire to “reset” relations with Brussels, including a desire to see trade barriers reduced between Britain and the EU and clear obstacles for British professionals across the Channel. READ THE FULL STORY
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Axios New survey data shows an elevated share of workers are looking for jobs alongside rising expectations of unemployment in the months ahead. Economic data suggests the job market is softening. Consumers’ expectations about the health of the labor market are following suit. The share of workers who looked for a job in the last month rose to 28% in July, according to a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of consumer labor market expectations. That is the largest share since 2014 and a nearly 10 percentage point jump from the same time a year ago. READ THE FULL STORY
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Fox News President Biden in March reportedly approved in secret a change to the highly classified U.S. nuclear posture in the wake of growing aggression from nations like Russia and China, but the White House on Tuesday said this step was just business as usual. In response to a report by the New York Times that suggested Washington’s nuclear posture had been altered to address Beijing’s expanding nuclear arsenal, a White House spokesperson told reporters the “guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat.” “This administration, like the four administrations before it, issued a Nuclear Posture Review and Nuclear Weapons Employment Planning Guidance,” White House spokesperson Sean Savett said. READ THE FULL STORY
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NBC Montana Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen on Tuesday certified that Constitutional Initiative 128, the proposal to create a specific protection for abortion rights in the Montana Constitution, has received the required number of signatures and can appear on the November ballot. The announcement, two days before an Aug. 22 deadline to certify ballot issues, launches the multi-month fight over whether to solidify abortion access in Montana into a new phase. Similar campaigns in other states, including Arizona and Missouri, have also recently received certification to bring the issue to voters this fall. While abortion is currently legal in Montana under the state Constitution’s right of privacy, backers of the proposal say it will further safeguard access in a national legal landscape roiled by the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart Pro-Palestinian protests will take place nearly every day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) next week, while demonstrators will descend on the city for other causes as well. As the Democratic Party remains deeply fractured due to the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, Pro-Palestinian protests are set for Sunday, the eve of the convention, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the final day of the convention. On Thursday, Harris will accept the nomination at the convention. Below is a list of scheduled demonstrations that will protest against the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war and other causes. The Chicago Sun-Times first compiled the list. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner The Biden administration is aiming to see Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire deal by the end of next week after negotiators made significant progress this week in Doha, Qatar. U.S., Egyptian, and Qatari leaders met in Doha on Thursday and Friday and discussed the latest proposal with the Israeli and Hamas sides. The meetings, according to a senior Biden administration official, “probably were the most constructive 48 hours that we’ve had in this process in many months.” These leaders will meet “again in Cairo before the end of next week, we will gather again at this level with an aim to conclude this. That is the goal,” the official added. “This is kind of the final stage, end game of the process.” READ THE FULL STORY
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Axios Two of former President Trump’s major donors, Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, will be co-chairs of his transition team for his potential return to the White House, his campaign announced Friday. Trump also selected his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, to serve as honorary chairs of his transition team. They’re expected to play key roles in vetting potential hires for ideology and loyalty. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will also serve as an honorary chair of the transition operation. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart Former President Donald Trump is dominating Vice President Kamala Harris among white working class voters, as they find themselves neck and neck in the presidential race, according to a national Pew Research/SSRS poll. The poll, conducted August 5-11 with a massive sample size of more than 7,500 registered voters, finds that 45 percent of respondents support or lean toward Trump, while 46 percent back Harris or lean her way. Independent Robert F Kennedy Jr. follows in third place with seven percent. The one-percent gap between Trump and Haarris falls within the ±1.4 percent margin of error. For reference, in a Pew Research poll conducted in April, before Biden’s disastrous debate performance in late June, found he was in a tight race with Trump rationally. Trump led by one point in that poll (49 percent to 48 percent), though that sample did not include Kennedy. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart A 61-year-old English man has been jailed for 18 months in relation to an anti-migration protest-turned-riot in London in which he was filmed shouting, “Who the f*** is Allah?” Despite not being accused of engaging in any actual violent actions himself, David Spring, of Longfellow Road in Sutton, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for comments he made during a Downing Street anti-mass migration protest that descended into a riot in the wake of the Southport mass stabbing that left three young girls dead. Spring, a 61-year-old former train driver, pleaded guilty to “violent disorder” after the court was shown footage of him making “threatening gestures” towards police and chanting, “Who the f*** is Allah?” READ THE FULL STORY
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Fox News Vice President Harris is doing an about-face on several far-left policies as she distances herself from President Biden and attempts to make a name of her own as the Democratic presidential nominee. In her first policy speech in North Carolina later this week and then next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris plans to present to Americans who she is and how she will govern essentially for the first time since Biden backed out of the race and endorsed her presidential campaign. In recent weeks, Harris has shifted on at least five major policy stances: mandatory assault rifle buybacks, fracking, immigration, health care and a federal jobs guarantee. READ THE FULL STORY
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Axios Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said Thursday that he accepted an invitation from CBS News for a vice presidential debate on Oct. 1. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said earlier this week that he had accepted the Oct. 1 invitation, meaning the two running mates will share the stage at least once before the election. Vance also said that he accepted an invite from CNN for a VP debate on Sept. 18. READ THE FULL STORY
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Fox News President Biden remains bitter toward the top Democrats who organized his ouster from the 2024 presidential race, even as the party prepares a massive sendoff at the Democratic National Convention, according to a report. Biden remains frustrated that former President Obama did not tell him to drop out face to face, but rather relied on his influence behind the scenes, Politico reported Tuesday. Biden is also angry at former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who he believes played the major role in forcing him to withdraw, alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the outlet reported, citing three sources familiar with Biden’s thinking. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. READ THE FULL STORY
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Axios The number of Americans applying for a mortgage hit its highest level since January 2023 last week, while the number of refinance applications surged to a level not seen since May 2022. The number of Americans taking out new mortgages is still extremely low — but at least it’s growing. Lower long-term interest rates means lower mortgage rates, and an opportunity for folks who took out expensive mortgages to see a little bit of relief on their monthly payments. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner Mars‘s crusty interior may harbor massive reservoirs of water, enough to fill an ocean, according to a recent study of seismic data. Scientists have long though that Mars’s surface was once covered by water, most likely stretching across at least one third of the terrain in a massive northern ocean. But the water dried up a millennia ago, and those studying the red planet have debated whether the water simply evaporated due to the planet’s size or was absorbed beneath the surface to be held in vast underground reservoirs. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests the latter after an analysis of seismic data showed that the speed of waves traveling through the planet’s crust indicates similar reservoirs to ones that can be found below the Earth’s surface, according to Reuters. Scientists have also debated whether such water would be frozen or whether Mars’s active crust would keep the water warm enough to be liquid. The study suggests the latter. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Trump campaign have surpassed 150,000 poll watchers and workers after setting out for their goal of 100,000 for their election integrity program, the RNC announced Monday. “The RNC and Trump Campaign set out to build an unprecedented 100,000-person-strong election integrity program,” the GOP announced on X. “We have already passed 150,000 poll watchers and poll workers! Americans are ready to save our country.” The RNC and Trump campaign announced the launch of the massive election integrity program earlier in 2024, describing it as the “most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.” READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner A ballot measure in Missouri that would establish a right to make decisions about reproductive care, including abortion, will appear before voters in November, the office of Missouri’s secretary of state confirmed Tuesday. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft confirmed that the measure had received the necessary signatures to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. The announcement sets up the Show Me State as one of the places where voters will decide on an abortion ballot measure, two years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned lawmaking on abortion to the states. The ballot measure would overturn the state’s current abortion law, which bans the act except in medical emergencies, and instead restrict the state government from making laws on the matter but allow it to pass a law banning abortion after fetal viability with exceptions for the mother’s life or physical or mental health. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart Vice President Kamala Harris is vowing to sign legislation as president that would have millions of illegal aliens eventually securing naturalized American citizenship and imposing nationwide no-excuse mail-in voting. During a rally in Glendale, Arizona, Harris said she would back amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens through so-called “comprehensive reform.” “We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” Harris said. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner The Biden administration has lifted a weapons sale ban on Saudi Arabia, which had been in place since 2021. The ban was originally put in place in response to Saudi Arabia’s war with the Houthis in Yemen. The administration was displaying their disapproval of Saudi Arabia targeting civilians in their attacks. Since then, officials said they are satisfied with the country’s conduct changes — and there have been no airstrikes in Yemen since 2022. “So the Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours, returning these cases to regular order through appropriate congressional notification and consultation,” one official told the Washington Post. READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News Susan Wojcicki, who served as CEO of YouTube for nine years and was one of Google’s first hires, died on Friday at age 56 after a battle with cancer, her family announced. Wojcicki’s husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a post on Friday evening on Facebook. “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer,” Troper wrote in the post. “Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable.” “We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time,” he added. READ THE FULL STORY
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ABC News Former President Donald Trump says he has agreed to an offer from ABC News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10. Trump said so during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club on Thursday. Trump previously said he had been willing to go toe-to-toe with President Joe Biden and agreed to ABC’s first invitation issued in May. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner Vice President Kamala Harris is making substantial ground nationwide in ways that President Joe Biden could not when he was still in the race, according to a new poll. A poll from Marquette University Law School showed Harris is getting 52% of the support of registered voters and that former President Donald Trump is the choice of 48% of those polled. Among likely voters, Harris polled 53%, with Trump at 47%. Results from this statistic include voters who initially did not choose Harris or Trump but were then asked whom they would vote for if they had to choose between the two. Harris has seemingly shored up support for the Democratic ticket in a way Biden did not. In a May poll from Marquette, Trump was the choice of 51% of likely voters, and Biden was the pick of 49% of registered voters. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart Organizers have planned protests in at least seven provinces on Thursday throughout Iraq in response to the introduction of amendments to a core family legal framework that could legalize child marriages, deprive widows of their inheritance, and facilitate sex slavery. The Iraqi Parliament began to debate amendments to the Personal Status Law on Sunday that would, critics say, effectively dissolve the country’s universal standards to protect women and girls on matters such as consent to marriage, alimony, and custody of children by allowing men to opt out, choosing traditional Shiite or Sunni Islamic mandates, instead. While child marriages, sex slavery, and other abuses are rampant in modern-day Iraq, they are not technically legal. Iraqi law currently requires both men and women to be 18 years old to enter marriage, allows a woman to inherit her husband’s assets in the event of his death, and allows for unconditional inter-religious marriage. The amendments to the secularized Personal Status Law, passed in 1959, would allow the relevant men in a marriage or proposed marriage to choose whether to apply Sunni sharia rules or Shiite sharia. It does not discuss other religions, such as Christianity, Zoroastrianism, or the Yazidi faith, which once boasted vibrant constituencies in Iraq but…
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CBS News Authorities found Islamic State group and al Qaeda material at the home of the second suspect in a foiled plot to attack the Taylor Swift Eras Tour shows in Austria, which were canceled on Wednesday. No other suspects are being sought, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in Vienna on Thursday. “The situation was serious, the situation is serious. But we can also say: A tragedy was prevented,” Karner said. The second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian citizen with Turkish and Croatian roots, was arrested by special police forces near the stadium where the concerts were supposed to take place this week, Austrian security authorities said. A 19-year-old Austrian was also arrested. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Associated Press The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in more than a year, a welcome affordability boost for prospective home shoppers and homeowners looking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate. The rate fell to 6.47% from 6.73% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.96%. This is the second straight weekly drop in the average rate. It’s now the lowest it’s been since mid-May last year, when it was 6.39%. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart US President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday approved more than $20 billion in new weapons sales to Israel, brushing aside pressure from rights activists to stop arms deliveries over the death toll in Gaza. The sale comes as Biden has pressed Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire after 10 months of bloodshed, although the weapons would take years to reach Israel. In a notification to Congress, the State Department said it had approved a sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel for $18.82 billion. READ THE FULL STORY
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New York Post Veterans have accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “embellishing” his military career and abandoning his National Guard battalion, highlighting that the now-vice presidential pick for the Democrats never served in combat and retired from service ahead of his unit’s 2005 deployment to Iraq. In a letter posted to Facebook in 2018 as he first ran for governor, retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said Walz retired from his 24-year tenure in the National Guard after learning that his battalion would be deployed to Iraq, despite allegedly assuring his fellow troops he would join them. “On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” Behrends and Herr wrote. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner President Joe Biden’s approval rating has gone up since he stepped down as the Democratic presidential nominee on July 21. Biden saw some of the lowest presidential approval ratings in history in the past year, a trend that was broken in one of the first approval ratings polls taken since he dropped out. In an NPR-PBS News-Marist National Poll released on Tuesday, Biden’s approval rating reached 46%, his highest in more than a year. His approval rating in the last Marist poll taken while he was still running was 43%, with other polls having him much lower. READ THE FULL STORY
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Catholic News Agency The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday denied a stay of a recent ruling that required that the Statewide Charter School Board rescind a contract with a Catholic charter school. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School had asked the court to stay the order so it could preserve the contract while filing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The publicly funded, Catholic-directed institution would be the first of its kind in the nation. The Oklahoma Supreme Court earlier this summer ruled against its establishment, ordering the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to rescind the school’s contract. The court argued that extending public funding to a religious school would be a “slippery slope” that could lead to “the destruction of Oklahomans’ freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.” READ THE FULL STORY
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The Associated Press Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers has secured the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan and will face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the November election. Slotkin and Rogers, long considered the front-runners for their respective party nominations, will now shift focus to the general election. Slotkin enters with a massive fundraising advantage and emerges nearly unscathed from a sparse primary, while Rogers has the backing of national Republican groups and former President Donald Trump. Slotkin defeated actor Hill Harper in the Democratic primary, while Republicans chose Rogers over former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell. Both candidates will now compete for a seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement. READ THE FULL STORY
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New York Post A whopping 98% of California fast food restaurants hiked menu prices and nearly 90% slashed employee hours in response to the state’s new $20-an-hour minimum wage law, according to a new survey. The study by the Employment Policies Institute, a fiscally conservative, non-profit think tank, polled 182 fast food restaurant operators throughout the Golden State about the ramifications of the law, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and went into effect on April 1. Conducted in June and July, the survey also found that not only had nearly all the restaurants raised their prices but that 93% plan to do so again next year. The study also found that 87% anticipate cutting employee hours within the next 12 months, a small drop from the 89% who said they chopped hours this year. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Associated Press A rising tide swept stocks higher, and calm returned to Wall Street after Japan’s market soared earlier Tuesday to claw back much of the losses from its worst day since 1987. The S&P 500 climbed 1% to break a brutal three-day losing streak. It had tumbled a bit more than 6% on a raft of concerns, including worries the Federal Reserve had pressed the brakes too hard for too long on the U.S. economy through high interest rates in order to beat inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 294 points, or 0.8%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 1%. Stocks of all kinds climbed in a mirror opposite of the day before, from smaller companies that need U.S. households to keep spending to huge multinationals more dependent on the global economy. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart Hamas announced Tuesday that it had named Gaza-based leader Yayha Sinwar as its new leader to replace political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran, Iran, last week while attending the presidential inauguration there. Sinwar, who is regarded as the architect of the October 7 terror attack in which Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis, is thought to be hiding underground in a tunnel in Gaza, possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields. The Times of Israel reported: Sinwar was selected by Hamas’s 50-strong Shura Council, a consultative body composed of officials elected by Hamas members in four chapters: Gaza, the West Bank, the diaspora and security prisoners in Israeli jails. READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News A major tax package that would bolster the popular Child Tax Credit and cut taxes for businesses failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday in the face of widespread Republican opposition, despite clearing the House by wide bipartisan margins earlier this year. Known as the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, the legislation would expand the Child Tax Credit to provide relief to lower-income families. Though it’s more modest than a pandemic-era enhancement of the credit, which greatly reduced child poverty and ended in 2021, it could still lift roughly half a million children out of poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The bill also included some revived tax cuts for businesses, like research and development deductions. The legislation fell short in a vote of 48 in favor to 44 opposed, with 60 votes needed to advance the measure. Three Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Rick Scott of Florida — joined with Democrats in favor of moving forward with the bill. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, independents who caucus with Democrats, were also opposed. READ THE FULL STORY …
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Washington Examiner Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is polling better than his Republican challenger while former President Donald Trump has a much larger lead in the same state. Brown is leading Republican nominee Bernie Moreno by 4 points, with Brown getting 46% of the support and Moreno getting 42% of the support, according to a new poll commissioned by AARP from the bipartisan team of Democratic Impact Research and Republican Fabrizio Ward. The same poll shows Trump has a strong hold over the one-time swing state, with a 9-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumed Democratic nominee. Brown is maintaining this level of support because he has a 12-point lead with Ohio independent voters, and 14% of Republicans indicated they would support Brown. READ THE FULL STORY
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NBC Montana Former President Donald Trump on Thursday posted via his Truth Social account that he will fight to prevent men from competing in women’s sports. Trump shared in his post a video of a women’s Olympic boxing match between Angela Carini of Italy and Imane Khelif of Algeria. Khelif qualified to compete in the Paris Olympic Games after being disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association (IBA) finals for not meeting the organization’s eligibility requirements. IBA president Umar Kremlev told a Russian news agency at the time that Khelif has “XY chromosomes,” Reuters reports. READ THE FULL STORY
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NBC News Four U.S. residents wrongly imprisoned in Russia — including journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan — were released and on their way home Thursday, part of a major multinational prisoner exchange the likes of which has not been seen since the Cold War. The massive deal, cut among seven nations, involves 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens held in Russia, and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland. President Joe Biden called the deal that had led to the release of the four U.S. detainees a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” READ THE FULL STORY
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CBS News The price of oil jumped more than $2 a barrel on Wednesday just hours after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an early morning air strike, as jittery investors keep an eye on spiraling violence in the Middle East. Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s capital after he attended the inauguration of the country’s new president, the militant group said. Iranian officials and Hamas have blamed Israel for the strike that killed Haniyeh. Israel has not confirmed that it killed the Hamas chief, but a U.S. official told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on that the U.S. determined that both Haniyeh and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were killed in Israeli strikes. U.S. benchmark oil prices rose $2.64 to $77.38 per barrel, while Brent crude climbed $2.38 to $80.45 per barrel. READ THE FULL STORY
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Breitbart A radical Islamist cleric in Britain has reportedly called upon his followers to raise money to purchase an island in Scotland to establish a de facto Islamic State within the borders of the United Kingdom. According to a report from the Mail on Sunday, Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, a Kuwaiti Shia cleric, is seeking to raise £3.5 million to purchase the private island of Torsa (Thor’s Island) in the Inner Herbides area of Scotland as a destination for Shias from all over the globe to migrate. Al-Habib has allegedly said that the purpose of the purchase would be to establish a “homeland” for his Mahdi Servants Union, a Shia sect of Islam that believes that ‘Mahdi’ will appear as a messiah at the end of time to redeem Islam and establish peace and justice on Earth. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that seniors shouldn’t pay taxes on Social Security, a departure from decades of tax policy. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform. He wrote: “SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!” Social Security can be claimed starting at age 62, although benefits increase the longer one waits to claim them, with benefits capping out at a retirement age of 70. READ THE FULL STORY
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Washington Examiner The parent company that owns TikTok and other apps will be banned from House-managed devices according to a new notice sent to congressional staffers. House staffers received an email Tuesday from the Capitol’s Office of Cybersecurity stating that all apps owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, CapCut, Hypic, Lark, and Lemon8, will be removed and banned from House-managed devices. The Committee on House Administration previously banned TikTok only from House-managed devices in December 2023. “ByteDance products will be blocked and removed on House-managed devices, starting with mobile devices,” the email said. READ THE FULL STORY
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