The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) says F-16 fighter jets intercepted two civilian aircraft that entered restricted airspace over Bedminster, New Jersey, where US President Donald Trump was watching a tournament at his golf course.
Published On 9 Aug 20269 Aug 2026
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WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general in a vote early Saturday, cementing the command of President Trump’s former personal lawyer at a Department of Justice that Trump has sought to bend to his will.
The Republican-led Senate voted 50 to 49 to make Blanche the second confirmed attorney general since Trump returned to the White House last year with a stated desire to use the law enforcement agency to investigate his political enemies. While Blanche has already been leading the department in an acting capacity, his confirmation could free him to pursue the administration’s agenda even more aggressively.
Blanche said on social media that he was “deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me,” adding that he was “grateful” to senators for working late to confirm him.
The vote followed a tumultuous confirmation fight that exposed deep concerns — from some Republicans as well as Democrats — about installing Trump’s close ally atop a Justice Department that historically prided itself on its independence from the White House.
In the end, Blanche was confirmed by the narrowest of margins, opposed by two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and by every Democrat.
The path to confirmation for Blanche was unusually rocky, due in large part to Republican concerns about a controversial settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.
Under pressure, Blanche publicly promised in writing that the department would abandon Trump’s proposed $1.8-billion compensation fund for the president’s allies, including those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and rein in another piece of the settlement designed to shield Trump and his family from IRS tax audits.
His appeals were enough to win over Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the decisive vote who threw his support behind Blanche on Friday morning. Cassidy said no other nominee may be able to run the department better under Trump and suggested Blanche’s role as Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer can make him more effective at resisting the Republican president’s demands.
“This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances,” said Cassidy, who lost his primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said confirming Blanche would be a “serious mistake.” He begged his colleagues not to be on the “wrong side” of history.
“If there is ever a moment in history when we need an attorney general above reproach, who is clearly dedicated to ending corruption, even at the highest level of our government, it’s right now,” Durbin said.
The vote capped off a bruising confirmation fight, with Blanche’s loyalty to Trump at the center of the stalemate.
Blanche was elevated to the top Justice Department post in an acting capacity after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. Blanche moved swiftly to advance the president’s interests, accelerating investigations into Trump’s perceived foes and announcing the settlement that created the $1.8-billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate Trump allies who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided the president and his family members with immunity from tax audits.
The controversial settlement threatened to torpedo Blanche’s nomination until he formally rescinded the fund in writing under pressure from Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The deal reached between the senators and the department unlocked a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which advanced Blanche’s nomination earlier this week.
Even after the deal, Blanche faced opposition from some Republican senators concerned with the settlement fund and the tax audit immunity.
Murkowski announced early Friday that she would join Collins in opposing Blanche’s nomination, saying the country needs an attorney general “who will check the worst impulses of this administration.”
A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche rose to public prominence as a lead attorney on Trump’s defense team, including during Trump’s hush money trial in New York in which he was found guilty of felony fraud.
He also defended Trump against criminal charges in the two federal cases brought by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, related to Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents at his home in Florida. Both cases were dropped after Trump won reelection in 2024, and despite the seriousness of the charges, Blanche said that experience provided him a firsthand look at what he claims was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.
Blanche entered the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general under Bondi, overseeing the agency’s day-to-day operations and serving as the public face for high-profile and controversial matters, like the release of millions of investigative files related to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats have accused Blanche of prioritizing his loyalty to Trump above all else through investigations against perceived Trump foes such as former FBI Director James Comey and a radical reshaping of the department. Under Bondi and Blanche’s leadership, the department has lost thousands of employees through firings, resignations or voluntary departures.
Blanche’s supporters say his experience as a federal prosecutor and the trust he earned from Trump in the courtroom make him better equipped than Bondi to explain to the White House the legal constraints of its demands. Republicans have also touted his efforts to bring down violent crime, tackle illegal immigration and combat violent cartels and drug trafficking.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary Committee chairman, gave a full-throated endorsement of Blanche ahead of voting, saying he’s led the Justice Department with distinction. “Mr. Blanche is the right choice,” said Grassley (R-Iowa).
It is unclear whether Blanche will fare any better in delivering on Trump’s desire for retribution than Bondi, whom Trump fired amid resistance from judges, grand jurors and the department’s own workforce as prosecutors sought to establish criminal conduct by one Trump foe after another.
Shortly after Blanche took the top post, the Justice Department moved to indict Comey on charges of threatening the 47th president by posting a social media photograph of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47.” Comey’s lawyers are pressing to have the case dismissed, accusing the department of misleading judges, submitting documents containing false statements and withholding key facts.
Blanche has also appointed Joseph DiGenova, a former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump. But it remains uncertain whether that inquiry will result in any criminal charges.
Durkin Richer and Mascaro write for the Associated Press. AP writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche has been confirmed as attorney general – the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Blanche won confirmation in a 50-49 vote, with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski opposing him.
Senator Bill Cassidy was the deciding vote after announcing he believed Blanche was the best option the president would put forward. Washington had been anxiously waiting for Cassidy’s decision due to years of acrimony between Trump and the senator.
The vote brings to an end a lengthy standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration over Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April.
All Democrats voted against his nomination to lead the Justice Department.
Some Republican senators had raised concerns about his handling of the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and his role in establishing Trump’s $1.8bn (£1.3bn) “anti-weaponisation” fund.
The fund was planned to provide compensation to individuals who alleged government persecution but critics including Murkowski feared it would go to individuals who were prosecuted for participating in the 6 January attack on Congress.
Blanche eventually pledged to walk back the fund after blowback from Republican senators during his confirmation hearings.
It remains unclear whether the commitment is legally binding or whether Trump could later persuade Blanche, his former personal attorney, to revive a similar scheme under another name.
These issues meant Collins and Murkowski held off from backing Blanche, with the latter citing her lack of confidence in Blanche to “check the worst impulses of this administration”.
Murkowski announced on Friday she would oppose Blanche, citing concerns over the “politicisation” of the justice department.
As the country fixates on the sad saga of the ruined Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration’s plans to build a 250-foot arch at the western terminus of Memorial Bridge have marched forward.
The project received final design approval in late May from the Trump-appointed U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The problem with that, critics quickly pointed out, was that this approval occurred before a key part of the National Historic Preservation Act — Section 106 — was initiated.
For background: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed NHPA into law in 1966 during an era of rampant unregulated building in order to protect the country’s shared cultural heritage. Section 106, which the Trump administration has been trying to gut, allows for a period of public comment about proposed projects in advance of their approval. This gives time for reasonable concerns to be raised and for pivots in design and siting to take place accordingly.
In a letter submitted to the National Park Service on Thursday by the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) as part of the federal-level reviews of the Triumphal Arch under Section 106, the group’s founding president and chief executive, Charles Birnbaum, called the chain of events leading to the arch’s approval a “radical departure from a well-established series of processes that have made the Monumental Core a global paragon of civic art, landscape architecture, architecture, and planning.”
Birnbaum, who served as coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative at the NPS from 1992 to 2007, also noted, “The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.”
The letter was sent several days after the NPS released a preliminary assessment that found the arch could have significant adverse effects on the historic structures around it. Birnbaum and TCLF, however, worry — based on linguistic hedging in NPS correspondence — that a final “adverse effect determination” will not be made, thus depriving concerned parties of the ability to continue to advocate against the project.
“Given the extensive documentation of adverse effects in the preliminary finding, the suggestion that any uncertainty exists about the final determination is both confounding and alarming,” Birnbaum wrote.
During his tenure at NPS, Birnbaum was the lead author of “The Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes,” which includes a section on “Spatial Organization and Land Patterns,” which, he writes in the letter, “is clear about what is and is not recommended.”
“Identifying, retaining and preserving the existing spatial organization and land patterns of the landscape as they have over time,” is recommended, for example, while, “Allowing spatial organization and land patterns to be altered through incompatible development or neglect,” is not.
“A 250-foot-tall arch in Memorial Circle sited between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House and in the Monumental Core is undeniably incompatible development,” Birnbaum wrote, noting that any new development is stipulated to be in agreement with the cultural landscape guidelines. “The Arch as proposed will not be consistent with the Guidelines and any certification otherwise would not only be factually baseless (in short, a lie), but declaring so would be unprofessional, fraudulent, and, perhaps, illegal.”
Strong words that may very well fall on closed ears, if recent history is any guide. Nonetheless, the resistance forges ahead.
I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt, building an arch to future goodness. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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Judy Collins performs at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 2025.
(Jason Kempin / Getty Images)
Judy Collins: Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour
The singer-songwriter-musician with the lilting voice and eclectic catalog is joined by Bruce Cockburn for an evening of folk-infused heartfelt songs.
8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East. theford.com
Versa-Style Street Dance Company
The troupe marks its 20th anniversary with “Box of Hope” (2nd Edition), a multidisciplinary program featuring West Coast Hip Hop and Street Dance Styles.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. sierramadreplayhouse.org
Betty Boop’s Birthday Bash for a Cause
Kate Micucci hosts an evening of live music — headlined by indie-pop group Dressy Bessy and Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile — animation, comedy, pop-culture nostalgia and the Bob Baker Marionettes to benefit the nonprofits organizations the Birthday Party Project and Saturday Morning Cartoons United.
6:30 p.m. Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. thealex.evnsong.com
The Improvised Shakespeare Company
The troupe takes a single audience suggestion and spontaneously turns it into a full-blown Elizabethan-style comedy that could (possibly) make the Bard himself wish he had written it.
8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East. theford.com
The Complete History of American Musical Theater: The 1950s
An evening of theatrical history, storytelling and live performances revisits the Golden Age of the American musical, featuring such classics as “Guys and Dolls,” “The King and I,” “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story” and “The Music Man.” With Eileen Barnett, Camryn Hamm, Scott Harlan, Hayden Kharrazi, Tony nominee Mary Gordon Murray and Tony nominee Rory O’Malley. Narrated by Dan Fishbach and Mark D. Kaufmann. Produced by the Odyssey Theatre and the Los Angeles Musical Theatre Studio.
8 p.m. Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com
James Morris, from left, Christopher Reiling and Jasmine Kimiko in the play “Slava Ukraini! (or Waiting for Elon).”
(Deverill Weeks)
Slava Ukraini! (or Waiting for Elon)
A Few Thoughts Theatre Company presents a new play by Keith Szarabajka about three soldiers — two Ukrainian and one Russian — trapped together during the siege of Mariupol. Directed by Tony Pasqualini.
8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays; 3 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 31. (no performances Aug. 16, 17) . Atwater Village, 3269 Casitas Ave., Theater #3, Los Angeles afewthoughtstheatercompany.org
Jazz keyboardist Carey Frank.
(Courtesy of the artist)
Carey Frank Organ Trio
Joined by guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Jake Reed, the jazz keyboardist powers a contemporary take on jazz, swing, blues and soul.
8 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. sierramadreplayhouse.org
Summertime! with Bob Baker Marionettes and Kate Micucci
The marionettes and Micucci have a busy weekend, going from Betty Boop at the Alex to celebrating all things sunny and funny at the Ford.
The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East. theford.com
Mozart Under the Stars
A pair of celebrated Canadians, conductor Nicolas Ellis and pianist Angela Hewitt, join the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for their Mozartian summer tradition.
8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave., Hollywood. hollywoodbowl.com
Giselle, the chandelier set piece that travels with the North American tour of “Phantom of the Opera,” photographed the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in July.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Phantom of the Opera
The new North American touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, featuring Maria Björnson’s original design — including a really big chandelier — and based on the direction of Harold Prince, with musical staging and choreography by Gillian Lynne, shifts to Orange County.
Through Aug. 30. Segerstrom Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org/events
Stanley Jordan Trio
The virtuoso jazz guitarist is joined by drummer Chris Wabich and bassist Ahmet Turkmenoglu.
7 and 9:30 p.m. Blue Note Los Angeles, 6372 Sunset Blvd. bluenotejazz.com
Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” directed by Adrian Lyne in 1987.
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images)
A Weekend With Adrian Lyne
The director known for his sleek, erotic thrillers will be on hand for screenings of “Fatal Attraction” (1987) and “Unfaithful” (2002) at the Academy Museum and the theatrical premiere of “Deep Water” (2022), starring Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck, at Brain Dead Studios.
7:30 p.m. Thursday (“Fatal Attraction”) and Friday (“Unfaithful”). Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org 7:30 p.m. Saturday (“Deep Water”). Brain Dead Studios, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. studios.wearebraindead.com
Helado Tropical
The night will be full of Latin beats, rhythms and experimental sounds as Helado Negro and Reyna Tropical team up following the recent release of their nine-song collaborative album.
8 p.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East. theford.com
— Kevin Crust
L.A. Times arts coverage from the past …
Ballet dancers Rochelle Chang, Emily Parker and Raffaella Stroik rehearse a new work by choreographer Lincoln Jones, background, in 2016.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
How a new dance gets made: Behind the scenes at American Contemporary Ballet
Aug. 7, 2016
Emily Parker stood still on pointe. Arms spread like wings, she fixed her gaze somewhere in the distance. Dancers spun around her like ribbons in a breeze. A bend, a twist, a slide of foot, a flutter of light. On and on, with no music, only the tap, tap, tap of toe shoes and the sound of texting from those stretching and waiting in the wings.
Parker relaxed her pose. The other dancers flitted toward windows. Choreographer Lincoln Jones walked among them, hand to chin, thinking, and at times twirling alone as if chasing whispers. The afternoon pressed in. He called a break and headed for a laptop. Dancers from American Contemporary Ballet, which on Aug. 11 [2016] will perform an original work by Jones, dispersed in the studio heat.
A ballet troupe is a small army of fine lines and grace. Some dancers have been with the company for years, others like Parker are new, finding their places amid mats, bags, tape, calluses, balm, egos, sore backs, battered toes and torn tights. They are led by Jones, a dark-haired man who between smiles and asides moves with quiet intensity. His new production for the company’s “Music + Dance: LA II” series was inspired by 19th century French composer Adolphe Adam and set amid a countryside, a lake and a wedding. READ MORE
— Jeffrey Fleishman
The Boyle Heights side of 6th Street PARC underneath the 6th Street Viaduct.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
As the once heralded, now neglected 6th Street Bridge continues its precipitous decline, a new park is being built beneath it that supporters hope could uplift the neighboring community of Boyle Heights and help renew the bridge in the process. Called Sixth Street PARC and scheduled to open later this year, the 12-acre green space is meant to serve as a vital community hub connecting downtown’s Arts District with the Eastside neighborhood. It will take more than good intentions to make that plan work, Sam Lubell writes in a detailed story about the project.
Times classical music critic Mark Swed is currently in Austria, taking in the many wonders of the annual Salzburg Festival. Among them: Gustavo Dudamel leading Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. “In Salzburg, Dudamel indulged the Vienna Philharmonic’s incomparable lushness, those plush strings, glowing winds, golden brass, voluminous timpani. The symphony received mixed reviews, with critics complaining of a lack of transparency, argument and depth. Had they been in Disney Hall, they would have had it all,” Swed writes.
The D.C.-based anonymous arts activist group Secret Handshake is taking its satirical work on tour. The group recently started an Instagram page to chart the journey of a 10-foot golden cup dedicated to Trump, “The Iran War Participation Trophy.” The trophy went to New York City after appearing late last month on the National Mall. This week it popped up on the lawn of the Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minn. Other cities will follow, Secret Handshake promises.
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Dorothy Wolpert, board chair of the Fountain Theatre for 12 has died. She was 91.
(Fountain Theatre)
The Fountain Theatre is mourning the death of Dorothy Wolpert, who served as the theater’s board chair for 12 years. She was 91. Wolpert was deeply involved in the life of the city through her love and support of the arts as well as in her professional life. As the co-founder of Bird Marella, a Century City law firm, Wolpert was involved in cases that advanced equity and social justice, including the landmark school desegregation case Crawford v. Los Angeles Board of Education. She also used her legal expertise in the fight against human trafficking.
Wolpert received UCLA Law’s Trailblazers Lifetime Achievement Award and the ACLU Humanitarian Award, and in 2022 UCLA Law established the Dorothy and Stanley Wolpert Public Interest Fellowship in her honor.
Wolpert became the Fountain’s board chair in 2013, and served until 2025. In an email, the Fountain’s co-founder Stephen Sachs wrote that Wolpert was “instrumental in expanding [the Fountain’s] board, strengthening its leadership, and raising its national profile. She was also a generous supporter of numerous LA arts organizations and a devoted patron of LA Opera.”
“On a personal level, Dorothy was my trusted mentor and confidant. Whenever I faced a difficult decision, she was the person I turned to first. She had a remarkable gift for asking exactly the right question. Her wisdom shaped not only the Fountain, but many of us fortunate enough to know her,” Sachs wrote.
— Jessica Gelt
Here are 18 things you should do if you can afford to go to Carmel-by-the-Sea.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is facing growing scrutiny after internal watchdog offices responsible for investigating attorney misconduct and departmental wrongdoing experienced significant staffing losses during President Donald Trump’s second term, even as complaints against the department reached record levels.
According to a Reuters review of government records and interviews with former Justice Department officials, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) have seen substantial reductions in personnel, raising concerns about their ability to independently oversee the country’s top law enforcement agency.
Federal judges have increasingly criticized DOJ attorneys for alleged misconduct, including accusations of making false statements, ignoring court orders and using legal processes against political opponents.
The Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct by Justice Department lawyers, has seen its workforce fall from 29 employees to just 16 since Trump returned to office.
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At the same time, misconduct complaints have climbed to their highest level in two decades.
Despite receiving 1,666 complaints during the 2025 fiscal year, the office opened only seven formal investigations, the lowest number recorded in the past twenty years. Over the previous decade, the office averaged more than 18 new investigations annually.
Former Justice Department officials told Reuters that staff departures, combined with concerns about political retaliation, have significantly slowed oversight activities.
Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels rejected those concerns, saying OPR remains committed to investigating attorney misconduct and ensuring accountability.
The Department’s Office of Inspector General, responsible for investigating fraud, waste and abuse across the DOJ, has also experienced notable staff reductions.
Government employment records show the office lost 99 employees since the end of former President Joe Biden’s administration, reducing its workforce to 477.
Former officials interviewed by Reuters said the office has become increasingly reluctant to pursue politically sensitive investigations, although Inspector General spokesperson John Lavinsky denied that claim, insisting the office continues to conduct independent oversight regardless of political sensitivity.
Among the most prominent internal cases is the ethics investigation involving former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led federal prosecutions related to Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The investigation examined allegations by Republican lawmakers that Smith’s team improperly influenced the 2024 election and pressured witnesses.
Reuters reported that Smith had already been interviewed by investigators and the inquiry was expected to conclude last year. However, the investigation remains unresolved after reportedly being paused by political appointees.
Separately, the Justice Department has since launched a criminal investigation into Smith, who has denied wrongdoing.
The weakening of internal oversight coincides with an increasing number of judicial rebukes directed at the Justice Department.
Federal judges have criticized government attorneys in several high profile cases involving evidence handling, courtroom conduct and legal strategy.
Among the most notable rulings was a decision by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who accused senior Justice Department officials, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, of failing to properly defend the government in litigation involving former President Trump and instead negotiating what she described as an inappropriate settlement.
DOJ officials have disputed those judicial findings, arguing that several courts have demonstrated political hostility toward the administration.
The Trump administration has also moved to limit outside scrutiny of Justice Department attorneys by challenging state level ethics investigations and seeking expanded authority to restrict oversight by legal licensing bodies.
Administration officials argue that many state investigations are politically motivated and designed to discourage government lawyers from implementing the president’s policies.
Legal ethics experts, however, warn that diminishing both internal and external oversight risks undermining public confidence in the department’s accountability mechanisms.
The reported weakening of the Justice Department’s internal watchdog offices comes at a time when judicial scrutiny of government conduct has intensified, placing institutional accountability under renewed focus. While the administration argues that oversight mechanisms remain fully operational and that many judicial criticisms are politically motivated, the decline in staffing and investigations raises broader questions about the effectiveness and perceived independence of internal accountability structures. As politically sensitive cases continue to move through U.S. courts, the credibility of the DOJ’s oversight institutions is likely to remain central to debates over the balance between executive authority, legal ethics and public trust in federal law enforcement.
With information from Reuters.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s choice for attorney general is facing a tight vote for confirmation in a Republican-controlled Senate nearly halfway through his second term, reflecting mounting doubts about his leadership of the Justice Department as bipartisan concerns over the weaponization of justice intensify.
The confirmation of Todd Blanche hangs on the support of two Republicans who have repeatedly criticized Trump’s stewardship of the department, where Blanche has served as deputy and acting attorney general, roles he assumed after working as the president’s personal lawyer for nearly two years.
Republican senators resisted Trump’s approach to the Justice Department from the start of the presidential transition, rejecting his first choice to lead it, Matt Gaetz, amid concerns he would use the department to pursue political retribution. But after Gaetz withdrew, Trump’s replacement, Pam Bondi, won bipartisan confirmation with the support of the entire Republican caucus.
Blanche is already guaranteed a narrower margin, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announcing she will vote to reject his confirmation, and with Sen. Mitch McConnell absent for health reasons. Democrats are expected to be united in opposition against him.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a figure the president has referred to as a “terrible,” “Trump-deranged” “loser” who “should never be elected,” has refused to comment on her plans.
Her staff has said she is reviewing a commitment Blanche made in writing to formally rescind a controversial, $1.8-billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” announced in May to compensate Trump’s political allies, including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Blanche also said he would limit immunity offered to Trump and his family for future tax audits, although his wording left the door open to negotiating a future deal along similar terms.
“I think certainly the fact that he has signed this order, basically disbanding [the Anti-Weaponization Fund] — that’s a pretty good step,” Murkowski said , adding that she would “like to find out a little bit more about the negotiations.”
Blanche has taken steps to curry Murkowski’s favor in recent months, visiting Alaska and announcing a $400-million settlement benefiting Alaska natives’ healthcare in July.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the other uncommitted lawmaker in the chamber, said he had concerns that Blanche was still effectively working as Trump’s personal attorney under the guise of public service.
“I am very concerned about so-called lawfare — people being prosecuted not for a valid reason beyond somebody in high office being angry at them,” Cassidy said.
“So, I’ve not made a decision regarding Mr. Blanche,” he added. “I’ve got to be convinced that he is an attorney general who just happens to have once been President Trump’s personal attorney, as opposed to President Trump’s personal attorney who is now the attorney general. I think there’s a big difference between the two.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said that he was still working to secure the votes needed for Blanche’s confirmation.
“I’m hoping we’ll get there eventually,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Blanche became the acting attorney general in April after Bondi was fired. Blanche had previously served as deputy attorney general and has been linked to some of the most controversial policies of the Trump administration.
His connection to the settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service took center stage during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Blanche said during the hearing that the controversial fund created as part of the IRS settlement was dead.
But Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refused to vote for Blanche until he issued a more explicit order that killed the fund, which was designed to provide payouts to allies of Trump.
Cornyn and Tillis also demanded that the Justice Department provide constraints to tax audit immunity that was granted to Trump, two of his sons and their business as part of the lawsuit settlement.
The federal judge who presided over the IRS case blasted the proceedings and the agreement as “improper” saying that the two sides — Trump and the IRS — were not truly independent of each other.
The written assurances provided by Blanche were enough to win support from Cornyn and Tillis, though Democrats pointed out that they did not foreclose the possibility that a similar fund could be resurrected in the future.
“The president himself has largely telegraphed that’s his plan,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the committee, said Tuesday before the vote.
Blanche has been the face of the administration’s release of files related to deceased sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi told the House Oversight Committee in May that Blanche had overseen the process, which included delays in the release of files and major redaction issues.
Blanche also faced criticism for a July 2025 prison interview he conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of facilitating Epstein’s abuse.
Shortly after the interview, she was moved from her Florida prison to a low-security prison in Texas where she has reportedly gotten favorable treatment.
Loaded pistol and rifle among items found in suspect’s pocket, car and home following arrest, police say.
Published On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026
A man carrying a loaded handgun and hollow-point ammunition has been arrested at Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf club, days before a scheduled visit by the US president, local authorities said.
The man, arrested on Sunday at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, was identified by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele. The department said he had been seen photographing and filming the grounds while appearing to monitor security preparations ahead of Trump’s scheduled appearance at a Republican Party fundraising dinner on Tuesday.
list of 3 itemsend of list
Deputies said they found a 16-round magazine loaded with ammunition in his pocket, and later recovered a loaded pistol with a round chambered, along with a second loaded magazine, from his vehicle in the golf course car park.
Officials said Taele had already been under investigation by the El Segundo Police Department over a separate robbery case.
On Monday, detectives working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force searched Taele’s Downey home, where they said they recovered an illegally modified rifle, a second pistol, body armour, high-capacity magazines, bulk ammunition and other radio signal devices and notebooks containing what officials described only as “concerning statements”.
The sheriff’s department said it had not identified any credible threat to the public and that Taele is being held without bail while prosecutors weigh charges.
Trump’s visit is part of a broader campaign swing through California and Nevada ahead of the November midterm elections.
A US federal appeals court says EPA likely acted unlawfully in trying to cancel Biden-era clean energy grants.
Published On 4 Aug 20264 Aug 2026
A United States federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration likely broke the law when it tried to cancel a multibillion-dollar clean energy programme, dealing a blow to the president’s broader push to dismantle Biden-era climate policies.
The full US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot freeze roughly $20bn in grants awarded to nonprofit groups for clean energy projects, reversing an earlier decision by the same court.
But the money will not be released immediately. The ruling has been temporarily put on hold to give the EPA time to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene.
At the centre of the dispute is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a programme created by Congress through former US President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
The programme, often referred to as a “green bank”, was designed to give federal money to nonprofit organisations that would give out loans and invest in small energy projects, energy-efficient buildings and clean-energy infrastructure.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been trying to dismantle the programme, saying it doesn’t align with his agency’s priorities and accusing its recipients of fraud, waste and mismanagement.
In a video posted on social media last February, Zeldin described the fund as an example of government waste.
“Shockingly, roughly $20bn of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA,” he said. “This pot of $20bn was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion.”
“The days of irresponsibly shovelling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” he added.
The following month, the EPA froze billions of dollars that were being held at Citibank to be distributed as grants.
The organisations, which included the Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and three others, denied any wrongdoing and sued, arguing the administration was illegally withholding money already approved by Congress and attempting to kill the programme because it opposed its climate goals, not because of evidence of fraud.
Tuesday’s decision overturns a ruling by a three-judge panel of the same appeals court last September that sided with the administration. The full appeals court agreed to revisit that decision, a rare move reserved for significant cases.
The majority of judges said the EPA’s attempt to terminate the grants and claw back the money “based solely on a policy disagreement” likely violated the Inflation Reduction Act. It also said the agency hadn’t provided assurance that it would leave the funds untouched if the injunction were lifted.
The ruling restores an order issued last year by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who found the EPA had failed to justify cancelling the grants and warned the administration was encroaching on Congress’s power to decide how federal money is spent.
The case is one of several legal challenges to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse Biden’s climate agenda. Since returning to office, Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, expanded support for fossil fuel production and sought to unwind clean energy initiatives, arguing they impose unnecessary costs on businesses and consumers.
WASHINGTON — California and 22 other Democratic-led states urged the Supreme Court on Monday to block President Trump’s plan to take control of voting by mail through the U.S. Postal Service.
They said it is too late in the election year to impose a new set of regulations for mail ballots.
Doing so, they said, would lead to mistakes, including eligible and registered voters being told they are not on the federal government’s approved list.
“Because of the high risk of errors and the limited window for correcting mistakes, many of the millions of voters who rely on mail voting — especially voters with disabilities and those in rural areas — would likely be denied mail ballots and disenfranchised,” they told the court.
More broadly, they argued that the Constitution “entrusted the states and Congress — not the president — with the responsibility to set rules for federal elections.”
The justices are likely to act in a few days on whether to allow the Trump administration‘s plan to proceed pending the adoption of new and detailed guidelines.
Last week, Trump Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer sent an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court contending judges in Boston moved too quickly to halt the administration’s new federal restrictions on voting by mail.
He argued judges should stand back for now, even though the midterm elections are only three months away.
Trump’s executive order required the U.S. Postal Service to use state-by-state lists of eligible voters who may send a ballot by mail.
Until now, states have had the constitutional authority to register voters for federal and state elections. And nearly a third of Americans now vote by mail.
Trump, however, has insisted that voting by mail leads to fraud, including by allowing noncitizens to vote.
Congress has refused to adopt new voting restrictions at Trump’s behest.
Instead, he issued an executive order on March 31 to enlist the Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure “citizenship verification and integrity in federal elections.”
The order called on Homeland Security to compile state-by-state lists of citizens who are eligible to vote. And it told the postal service that it must use those lists to restrict who may vote by mail.
“The USPS shall not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual unless those individuals have been enrolled on a State-specific list,” the order said.
But a federal judge and the 1st Circuit Court in Boston ruled Trump’s new regulations may not be enforced this year, at least in the 23 Democratic-led states which sued.
On Monday, they told the court that USPS delivered nearly 100 million mail ballots to or from voters in 2024, with roughly 30% of all voters nationwide casting ballots by mail.
Strikes hit Gaza homes two days after US unveiled plan for Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal.
Published On 2 Aug 20262 Aug 2026
Israeli forces have killed at least five Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip.
At least two people were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in central Deir el-Balah, while three others were killed in a strike on an apartment in northern Gaza City, according to local officials.
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The strikes came on Sunday, two days after US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace published a 15-point roadmap for implementing last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, extending a pattern of continued Israeli strikes despite diplomatic breakthroughs.
The roadmap has yet to be implemented on the ground. Hamas has said it will hand over its weapons for storage only after Israel halts military operations and withdraws its forces in line with last year’s agreement. An Israeli official told the Reuters news agency there would be no withdrawal from current positions unless Hamas undergoes “genuine disarmament”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the initiative, but far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called it unacceptable and said Israel should continue targeting Hamas leaders.
Former senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, based in the United Arab Emirates, said Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser on the US initiative, told him he was working with Israel to halt the attacks on Gaza. Dahlan said talks with Washington were continuing, and that the agreement’s success now depended on Israel fully ending its daily strikes.
Separately, Israeli strikes destroyed a medical supply warehouse in central Gaza on Saturday, leaving a crater 20 metres (66ft) wide and 10 metres (33ft) deep, part of a broader wave of attacks that has continued despite the ceasefire push.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s mass deportation project Thursday, ruling alongside the 7th Circuit that most immigrants cannot be held without bond while fighting to remain in the U.S.
The rulings will apply to jurisdictions that stretch across much of the southern border, affecting states where large numbers of immigrant detainees are held in federal custody. Unless immigrants are caught while crossing the border or soon after, they will now be entitled to a bond hearing, where a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to justify their indefinite detention.
The twin decisions come little more than a year after the Department of Homeland Security ordered “mandatory detention” for all immigrants picked up by its agents — a policy that had previously only applied to those caught at the border.
The policy shift sowed chaos in federal courts, as thousands of immigrants began suing for bond hearings that had long been automatic. California’s district judges were overrun with emergency petitions for writs of habeas corpus, a legal maneuver rarely used outside death row appeals.
“Versions of this case have played out in federal courts across the country,” Judge Daniel A. Bress wrote for the 9th Circuit on Thursday. “The vast majority of the district courts to confront the issue have concluded that [mandatory detention] is limited to the border.”
Those district court battles have grown increasingly heated as caseloads have swelled.
This spring, Eastern District of California Chief Judge Troy Nunley took the rare step of sanctioning a government lawyer over failing to tell the court if and when a man he’d ordered released had actually gone free.
The attorney told Nunley he was drowning in nearly identical cases and had fallen behind with the paperwork. In an interview, Nunley said he and other judges were “up all night” ruling on emergency petitions and ensuring those orders were followed.
The sanction was later transferred from the lawyer to the U.S. attorney’s office, though Nunley warned that he would issue more if he didn’t see proof immigrants had been set free as ordered.
“A pattern of unchecked and unaddressed mistakes in complying with court orders will be viewed as a deliberate and strategic choice,” he wrote in his order.
The majority of appellate courts have now also sided against the administration. As of Thursday, two circuits have affirmed the government’s position and six opposed it, teeing up what experts call an inevitable Supreme Court challenge.
Both of Thursday’s decisions invoked the high court’s future stake in the case. The 9th Circuit wagered that only two justices were likely to side with the administration, while the 7th merely implored the high court to weigh in.
“At this point, only the Supreme Court can bring uniformity and settle this question once and for all. I anticipate that it will do so soon,” Judge Diane S. Sykes wrote in her dissent.
“We share the dissent’s hope that the Supreme Court will settle this matter,” Judge Joshua P. Kolar wrote for the majority.
Interim United States Attorney General Todd Blanche is facing a possible roadblock from within the Republican Party as he faces a confirmation hearing to formally lead the Department of Justice.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Republican Senator John Cornyn said he was still sceptical about confirming Blanche to the top federal law enforcement position in the country.
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“I’m not prepared to vote yes,” said Cornyn.
The senator’s comments come a day before a key committee vote in the US Senate to move Blanche’s nomination forward.
Cornyn cited concerns about Blanche’s current stewardship of the Department of Justice, which he has led in an acting capacity since April.
Previously, Blanche served as deputy attorney general, and before joining President Donald Trump’s second term, he worked as the Republican leader’s criminal defence lawyer.
But Cornyn has questioned a rare settlement Blanche brokered in May, in response to a lawsuit Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Under the deal, Trump and his family would be shielded from future IRS audits. The scheme also created a so-called “anti-weaponisation fund”, under which individuals deemed to have faced alleged political persecution could seek financial compensation.
Blanche has backed away from the “anti-weaponisation fund” amid bipartisan backlash. Critics had described it as a slush fund that would benefit the president’s allies.
Earlier this month, a federal judge also ruled the settlement illegal, accusing Blanche of double-dealing by working on behalf of both the federal government and Trump as a private citizen.
During his confirmation hearing, Blanche again assured lawmakers that the fund was dead, but Cornyn said he was awaiting written guarantees on the matter.
“I haven’t seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested,” Cornyn told reporters.
Cornyn spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold a Thursday vote on Blanche’s nomination, the first step in a wider Senate debate on his confirmation.
All Republicans on the committee would need to vote in favour of Blanche for him to progress to the broader confirmation hearing.
While Republican lawmakers have generally been wary of opposing Trump, Cornyn has become an increasingly public critic of the president in recent months.
Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent, former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in May. Paxton went on to win the Republican Party’s nomination in May, allowing him to progress to the midterm election in November.
That race will see Paxton take on Democratic upstart James Talarico in what is expected to be one of the closest Senate races of the season.
Cornyn will leave the Senate, where he has served for more than two decades, at the end of his term in January.
In an Oval Office news conference on Wednesday, President Trump was asked about Cornyn’s reticence about approving Blanche for the attorney general role.
“ Well, all I can say is Todd Blanche is outstanding,” Trump said, before questioning Cornyn’s motives.
“Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him. I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem.”
Critics have accused Blanche of placing his loyalty to Trump above all else, including by using the Department of Justice to prosecute the president’s political adversaries.
Under Blanche’s watch, for instance, the Justice Department chose to file a second indictment against James Comey, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, over a social media message made of seashells.
Blanche has denied any claims that his relationship with Trump presents a conflict of interest, saying he acts independently of the president.
However, he did little to shed the perception during a mid-July hearing before US lawmakers. Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, asked at the time if Blanche considered Trump a “friend”.
“I’m his lawyer,” Blanche replied, before quickly correcting himself to say “was his lawyer”.
The Department of Justice has had a long tradition of prosecutorial independence, whereby criminal charges are not meant to be influenced by politics.
Roughly six weeks before the first midterm ballots are mailed out, the U.S. Postal Service is emerging as a pivotal player in an election season that will determine control of Congress.
President Trump is seeking greater control over mail balloting through an executive order while a change to how the agency processes mail is leading to criticism that it’s failing to deliver ballots on time.
Democratic officials have raised concerns over the past week about how quickly the Postal Service will process ballots after tens of thousands of them in California and hundreds in Wisconsin arrived at local election offices too late to be counted in elections earlier this year. The top election offices in Kansas and Michigan are urging voters who want to cast their ballots early to avoid the mail and instead drop them off in person.
The Postal Service replied to those concerns by saying it remains “committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process.”
“We provide a secure, efficient, and effective way for citizens to participate when policymakers decide to use mail as part of their elections,” it said in a statement Tuesday.
The Postal Service faced similar questions about mail delivery in 2024, but the scrutiny this year is heightened because of an executive order Trump issued in March that seeks to create a national voter list to guide the Postal Service in deciding who gets a mail ballot.
The order has sparked multiple lawsuits and federal court orders, leading to a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the administration is asking the justices to allow it to impose its restrictions on mail balloting.
Trump has lied for years about voter fraud to try to explain away his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, and mail balloting is a favorite target, even though he has used the method himself. During a recent stop in Michigan, he falsely characterized mail balloting as “inherently corrupt” and added, “Hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots.”
A 2025 report from the research group Brookings identified about four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Despite Trump’s attacks, the method remains popular with voters of both major parties. In 2024, nearly 30% of U.S. voters cast their ballots by mail, according to federal data. In Michigan, where competitive U.S. House and Senate races could help determine the balance of power in Congress, the state said it has sent out more than 2 million absentee ballots for the state’s Aug. 4 primary.
“We want to keep vote by mail. We want to protect it. We want to expand it,” said Jonathan Smith, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which launched a campaign in April promoting it and is opposed to turning the Postal Service into an election administrator. “Why? Because it works.”
The Postal Service proposed a rule in June in line with Trump’s executive order that would create a national list of eligible voters, based on databases kept by other federal agencies. Only those on the list would be eligible to receive mail ballots.
Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts. A federal judge there blocked Trump’s order last month, and an appeals court upheld that ruling, prompting Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court. But the appeals court for the District of Columbia refused Tuesday to block the order in a separate case, calling a legal challenge premature.
Democratic senators and governors have written to the Postal Service urging it to abandon efforts to implement Trump’s order.
“Donald Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to meddle in our upcoming elections,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a statement to The Associated Press. “At best, this new push will exacerbate already severe delays for mail-in voters and at worst, it will stop eligible Americans from casting their ballots.”
In a letter to Democratic senators earlier this month, the heads of the Postal Service said they were abiding by the court rulings that had halted the executive order. But Smith, of the postal workers union, told the AP on Tuesday that USPS information technology staffers who are union members are working on a planned portal for the list of eligible voters “behind the scenes.”
The Postal Service declined to respond to Smith’s statements and said it could not comment about whether it’s moving forward with work related to Trump’s order because of the litigation.
The postal workers’ union opposes the plan for a portal, a national list of eligible voters and using that list to determine who can receive a mail ballot. Smith said it shouldn’t be postal workers’ responsibility “to decide who can vote and who can’t vote.”
The Postal Service has been under financial stress for years and has been consolidating mail processing into fewer regional centers. Mail travels an average of 139 miles to reach one and sometimes 500 miles, according to a recent Brookings report.
In January, a group of mostly Democratic senators said it was concerned about a decision to end twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. The result is that mail arriving after the only daily dispatch would go out the next day.
California officials said the change was a factor in the state rejecting more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary, with 63% of them arriving too late despite a seven-day grace period. Officials worried that some ballots were postmarked at processing facilities the day after they were dropped off at a post office, possibly invalidating them. Wisconsin officials also said hundreds of ballots from an election in April arrived late.
The Postal Service said postmarks generally are being applied with automated equipment at processing centers, “in the same manner and to the same extent as before.” It said someone who wants to make sure their ballot envelope gets a timely postmark can get a free one applied by a postal worker.
A report on the 2024 election by the USPS Office of Inspector General said the Postal Service handled more than 59 million pieces of ballot mail from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15 that year and that 97.3% arrived on time.
The Michigan secretary of state’s office is advising voters to hand-deliver ballots to their local clerk’s office or a drop box.
“We’ve seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they’re always concerning, and that’s why we’ve put out that guidance,” said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie.
The Postal Service said its Michigan centers are not seeing processing delays.
In Kansas, concerns about late ballot deliveries in the state’s 2024 primary election prompted a quip on the social platform X from Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican: “The Pony Express is more efficient at this point.” Asked his view now, spokesperson Whitney Tempel said Schwab still believes “keeping your ballot out of the hands of the federal government is best.”
Jamie Shew, a Democrat elected to oversee elections in Douglas County, home to the main University of Kansas campus, said his office is trying to change voters’ perceptions.
“I think voters are used to, you can drop it off on Friday and we’re going to receive it by Election Day,” Shew said Tuesday. “That’s just not the reality.”
California’s state budget includes $10 million for social media campaigns and other efforts to discourage last-minute ballot mailings.
And the Postal Service said it hasn’t changed its own longstanding advice for voters: They should get their ballots in the mail at least a week before their state’s deadline for receiving them.
Hanna writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Michael Casey in Boston, and Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.
Last week, it was reported that US President Donald Trump placed massive attacks on Iran on hold after a meeting with advisers at the White House. Clearly, domestic political pressure on him and on the Republican Party over rising economic costs is fierce. Current polls suggest nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose the war.
Despite assertions, notably by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that Iran’s military has reached “its lowest point ever”, Iran is still able to conduct massive drone and missile strikes. Some intelligence suggests Iran has reconstituted and increased its capacity to build these weapons.
Meanwhile, the US has moved more aircraft and missile defence units in preparation for what may be a campaign to target staging points for Iranian forces. Two Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) and components of the 82nd or 101st Airborne are currently stationed in the region.
Yet, reports that the US and its Gulf allies have exhausted defensive missile magazines, as well as Tomahawk land-attack missiles, may be a powerful constraint.
While Trump appears not to have made a decision yet, he has several options on how to move forward.
The first option is ramping up air and missile strikes. One of the challenges of this strategy is that the list of military targets may have been exhausted. If so, expanding the aerial campaign would mean attacking largely civilian infrastructure, including energy production facilities, electricity and power grids, bridges and roads, and television and phone networks. The likely outcomes are all bad.
Trump would be accused of war crimes. The Iranian public would coalesce in their resentment against the US. Iran’s ability to strike back would not be significantly curbed and it may strike Gulf desalination and energy infrastructure. The result would be a humanitarian catastrophe. No plans exist to deal with this contingency. And of course, oil could soar to $150 or even $200 a barrel, triggering an international economic disaster.
Another option is a ground invasion of some sort. The forces currently deployed in the region are too small to achieve any realistic military objectives. A MEU numbers about 2,500 marines and only 800 of them are infantry, able to conduct very limited ground operations. Airborne units deploy with only a few days worth of bullets, beans and batteries. Resupply is essential for these units.
As retired US Army General Barry McCaffery has pointed out, even 150,000 troops may not be enough to secure control of the Strait of Hormuz along the Iranian coast.
Attacking Kharg Island requires a long and dangerous transit from the western end of the Strait of Hormuz. That would create conditions for a high number of casualties among US troops.
The third option is for Trump to employ a nuclear weapon, at least as a demonstration shot. That would open a catastrophic Pandora’s box of consequences. Trump would be declared a war criminal. Wherever and however the weapon is detonated—an air or surface burst—it would have destructive outcomes.
If exploded exoatmospherically, the nuclear bomb would emit an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which would destroy virtually all chip-installed systems for hundreds of miles beyond Iran. Few modern militaries, including in the Gulf, are protected from EMP due to costs. A surface burst would form a radioactive cloud that would travel east given the winds and affect populations well beyond Iran.
A major geopolitical consequence would be that such an attack could change the way Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sees the possibility of using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
Given this list of unpalatable options, the most promising is to claim victory and pursue negotiations. Trump will say he has brought Iran to the negotiating table even though talks between Washington and Tehran have not stopped despite the escalation. The first issue would be reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb. Oil prices would drop. Stock markets would rebound.
Trump would take the credit. And a devastating war and economic crisis would be sensibly avoided. This is his best and only sensible option.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Shein says it swung to a quarterly loss as its sales slowed after US President Donald Trump removed an import duty exemption on small packages.
It also comes as uncertainty remains over the tit-for-tat US-China tariffs wars, which is currently paused.
The fast-fashion giant, which has its headquarters in Singapore but was founded in China, said it lost $99m (£74.1m) in the first three months of the year, compared with a net income of $395m a year earlier.
The announcement is part of the firm’s preparations ahead of its stock market debut in Hong Kong, although the filing did not give any details on the size, timetable or pricing of the planned initial public offering (IPO).
“In response to the increased duties and taxes, we are pursuing a wide range of options, including increasing our prices in the US market to offset a portion of the increased costs,” Shein said in the filing.
The company also said the Iran war had hit demand, increased costs and caused delays of deliveries in some markets.
The first-quarter figures also partly reflected a paper loss of $328m due to an accounting change for special investor shares. The shares can be turned into ordinary stock later, and their value can change before a listing.
The filing showed that in the year to the end of March 2026 Shein had 281 million active customers – a rise of more than 16% on a year earlier – who placed a total of more than one billion orders.
On 10 July, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave Shein approval for a Hong Kong share sale after failed attempts to list in New York and London.
The Hong Kong share listing is expected to take place in the coming months.
The figures show the impact of a Trump-signed executive order to end a global tariff exemption that had been used by US shoppers of low-cost goods.
That order, which came into effect on 29 August 2025, broadened an earlier presidential action which specifically targeted cheap products from China and Hong Kong to cover the rest of the world.
The so-called de minimis exemption had allowed goods valued at $800 or less to enter the US without paying any tariffs. US consumers relied on the exemption to buy cheap goods from online commerce sites like Shein and Temu.
The White House said the global exemption was being used to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids” to the US.
“The removal of the US de minimis exemption has had an adverse impact on our sales in the US and the overall growth of our net revenues,” Shein said in the filing.
Earlier in July, the European Union imposed a €3 (£2.56; $3.42) levy on low-value e-commerce imports.
The measure is aimed to curb what the trading bloc has said is unfair competition from China.
ICE officer under review for alleged mental health struggles, violent behavior amid deadly shooting case in Maine.
Published On 26 Jul 202626 Jul 2026
United States President Donald Trump’s border czar says the vetting of an immigration officer involved in the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Maine is under internal review after the officer’s relatives revealed to The Associated Press that he had a history of serious mental health struggles and violent behaviour.
Tom Homan said on Sunday that if the allegations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer are true, “I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.”
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“There’s several things under review,” Homan said on CNN about the officer, Army veteran David Brouillette. “The training is under review. I know this specific case, as far as the vetting, is under review by the internal affairs section.”
Questions about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) rush to hire, train and deploy thousands of new ICE officers to carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown have come into stark focus after back-to-back deadly shootings of immigrants in Maine and Houston.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered a pause in vehicle stops after the Maine shooting, but Trump almost immediately reversed course and insisted the stops resume as a necessary tool in his campaign to round up and deport immigrants without current legal status.
DHS did not immediately respond on Sunday to a request for comment about the internal review.
Homan said that “changes have been made” and that acting ICE director David Venturella has issued a new directive that body cameras must be in use if officers make a vehicle stop.
“Right now, on all vehicle stops, there’s at least one body camera on site to record the entire event,” he said.
He said Venturella “sent an instruction out that he wants at least one body camera on those vehicle stops, so we have everything on video”.
It is unclear if the steps the department is taking will be enough to quell the concerns coming from certain Congress lawmakers over DHS training and tactics as it tries to reach Trump’s mass deportation goals.
Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns.
Democrats pressed ICE officials during a closed-door briefing for the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee last week, leaving some with more questions than answers.
Lawmakers were told during the briefing that there have been 56 complaints of excessive force against ICE officers – 32 were cleared, and one was referred for disciplinary action.
No discipline had yet been handed out, the lawmakers said they were told. The rest of the incidents are still under investigation.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has pushed for the use of body cameras and ensured funding for the effort. She had said it was “extremely unfortunate” that the officer involved in the shooting in her home state was not using a camera.
A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that in nearly half of U.S. states halted President Trump’s executive order to create a federal list of eligible voters and limit delivery of mail ballots only to people on that list.
The ruling Saturday by judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump issued an executive order in March for the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters. It also ordered the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.
Trump has claimed the proposed changes are necessary safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting, but state election officials argued they were ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia challenged Trump’s order in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston. They argued that Trump’s order was unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the authority to set election rules.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani agreed and halted Trump’s order from being implemented for the Nov. 3 elections, but only in the states that have sued.
Trump’s executive order is part of his ongoing campaign to restrict voting access and raise doubts about the integrity of the election system before the November midterms.
The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment Sunday about the court ruling.
Bynum writes for the Associated Press.
July 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump‘s latest round of sweeping tariffs was hit with a lawsuit on Friday, just hours after going into effect.
Two small businesses challenged the newest levies, which apply 10% to 12.5% tariffs to more than 80 countries, justified under a provision to prevent goods made with forced labor from being imported.
The lawsuit was filed by a spice company in New York, Burlap and Barrel, and a California watch store, Collective Horology.
They are represented by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal nonprofit that won a Supreme Court case against the president’s previous round of tariffs.
Since the loss in court earlier this year, Trump has explored other legal authorities to support his tariffs and bypass congressional approval.
“Forced labor is morally indefensible, but an important objective does not give the government permission to ignore the law,” said Sara Albrecht, CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, in a statement. “The administration allowed one global tariff to expire and immediately replaced it with another under a different statute. Changing the statute doesn’t change the law. Every tariff authority has limits, and every administration must respect them.”
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs said the U.S. Trade Representative “failed to provide a reasoned, record-based explanation for its determinations.”
“This is the third time the administration has attempted to impose its global tariff policy without following the statutory limits,” said Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Liberty Justice Center, in a statement.
“Section 301 is a targeted, country-specific and practice-specific remedial authority,” Schwab added. “It is not a freestanding authorization to tax substantially all imports from substantially all countries at preestablished rates.”
President Trump’s $1.4-billion crypto windfall has become the biggest obstacle to passing his sweeping digital-asset legislation as Democrats demand tougher language to prevent the president from profiting off an industry his administration regulates.
Senate Republicans released a proposal this week intended to break a months-long impasse over the bill, known as the Clarity Act. But Democrats and consumer watchdog groups dismissed the terms almost immediately, complaining the bill would not stop Trump or his family from continuing to profit from his meme coin and other crypto ventures.
Trump needs the support of at least seven Senate Democrats to pass the legislation, which would set rules for digital assets. Ethics has emerged as the biggest, though not the only, sticking point.
“It’s the linchpin,” said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat and key negotiator who has been supportive of the crypto industry.
A spokesperson for the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House has consistently asserted Trump is not involved in managing the family’s crypto ventures and has denied conflicts of interest.
Democrats have specifically taken issue with a provision that would leave Trump’s Justice Department as the primary enforcer of the new ethics regulations, preventing state attorneys general from acting as an independent check.
Another Democratic negotiator, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said they’re working on a compromise ethics proposal to send to the White House but didn’t provide details.
Senators in both parties said they see the negotiations in the coming week as key to whether a bill reaches Trump’s desk this year. But after the chilly initial reception to the latest White House offer, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.C.) said he didn’t think the Clarity Act would pass the chamber before the month-long August recess.
“We’ll see where the votes are,” Thune said.
Alsobrooks, Gallego and other crypto-friendly Democrats are demanding changes to other pieces of the massive bill, including consumer protection and illicit finance measures.
The bill has other issues, including opposition from banks intent on tightening restrictions on stablecoin rewards. Tillis and several other Republicans said they are considering backing changes to reflect banks’ concerns that their deposits could shift to stablecoin accounts, crimping their profits and customers’ access to credit.
Tillis has floated adding “circuit-breaker” language empowering the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or other regulators to step in if bank deposits drop — an idea opposed by GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, the crypto industry’s biggest backer in the chamber.
Critics said the draft’s ethics protections are porous. It would let Trump divest a large stake in his crypto venture or move it into a blind trust for the rest of his term, but stops short of requiring him to sell.
“It’s going to allow him to keep making money the way he has in the past,” said Scott Greytak, deputy executive director of Transparency International US, an anti-corruption advocacy group.
The restrictions also hinge on whether an official has a “direct interest” in a crypto asset — a threshold that may not apply to Trump.
The president is a significant owner of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture, through an entity called DT Marks DEFI LLC, which holds about a 38% stake. Whether that counts as a direct interest “isn’t clear,” said Zach Everson, research director for Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project. “Does direct interest describe how he holds the crypto?”
Because the bill wouldn’t apply to the children of government officials, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump could continue their own crypto business interests. And much of the family’s fortune has already been made: Trump and his affiliates have earned a huge windfall from meme coin and token ventures, income the legislation would not claw back.
Critics also decried a provision that would sunset the ethics requirements on Jan. 20, 2029, the day Trump’s successor would be inaugurated. That could prevent the next administration from holding Trump accountable.
The White House and Republicans argued that Trump had gone further in backing ethics restrictions in law than any previous president.
“History will remember this as the moment a president chose a higher standard of ethics than the law required of him,” Lummis, a key architect of the bill, said on X.
Democrats were skeptical even before the language was released. “Any meaningful ethics provision would be shot down by the White House,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said.
The politics of crypto have long divided Democrats, and a bipartisan deal on the legislation risks provoking a backlash from progressives. Failure to reach a deal, however, could make the party the target of a torrent of crypto campaign cash.
Crypto group Fairshake and its two affiliated super PACs have raised $164 million for the midterm elections, Federal Election Commission filings show, and have spent $66.6 million so far.
It’s the kind of political arsenal that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York can ill afford to have aimed at his candidates as the party seeks to regain Senate control.
But others, like Murphy, have warned that blessing Trump’s big crypto bill would undermine Democrats’ midterm message.
A potential presidential candidate, Murphy said Wednesday while addressing the left-leaning Center for American Progress that the bill is before the Senate “because the industry paid for it” and urged Democrats to instead turn fighting crypto corruption into a potent campaign issue this fall.
Markets have grown less convinced a deal gets done. On Polymarket, the odds of the Clarity Act passing this year fell to about 1 chance in 3 earlier this week after Republicans released the new draft.
That’s about half the odds the prediction market gave passage after the Senate Banking Committee backed an earlier version of the bill on May 14.
Dennis and Patterson write for Bloomberg. Bloomberg writers Yash Roy, Lydia Beyoud, Aidan Williams, Bill Allison and Olga Kharif contributed to this report.
President Trump says damages will be paid for by Iranian money that the US has ‘in its possession, and controls’.
Published On 24 Jul 202624 Jul 2026
United States President Donald Trump has pledged to use frozen Iranian assets to pay for any damage to ships and cargo in the Strait of Hormuz, garnering strong condemnation from Tehran.
Tensions between Iran and the US have escalated since the beginning of July as the two sides trade attacks and Tehran targets US military bases in the region.
list of 3 itemsend of list
Washington completed its 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran late on Thursday, with Trump saying he is considering a “massive attack” on the country, “bigger than ever before”.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump said that damages would be paid for by “Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls”.
“These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do,” Trump added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Trump’s comments and said in a post on X on Friday morning that seizing another country’s assets to “pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent”.
“Those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalise confiscation, no one’s assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful,” he added.
The case of Iran’s frozen assets has been an issue that the two sides had been discussing in the now-collapsed memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreement that was signed between Tehran and Washington in June as a pathway to end the war.
But the US and other governments have “frozen” Iranian assets for decades.
While the exact amount of frozen money belonging to Iran is not known, some estimates put it at about $100bn.
Washington first froze Iranian funds in 1979 after US citizens were taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.
At the same time, Trump pledged “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
But on Friday morning, the Iranian army announced in a statement carried by the state Mehr News Agency that it had launched a new wave of drone attacks on US military installations in Bahrain and Jordan.
Moreover, ship tracking data seen by the Reuters news agency found that the number of tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, the lowest level since May 7.
When a pitcher purposely throws high and inside, the batter has four choices.
He can stare down the pitcher. He can charge the mound. He can get revenge by walloping the next pitch for a hit.
Or he can ignore the intimidation tactic and continue as if nothing happened.
The last choice is the wimp’s way out, since the batter will lose his teammates’ respect, while opposing pitchers will consider him a pushover and fire more brushback pitches at him.
Ever since the Dodgers visited the White House last spring to commemorate their 2024 World Series win, President Trump has launched a barrage of metaphorical fastballs trying to hurt Los Angeles — in the courts, in speeches and on social media, but especially via his deportation deluge that’s starting to simmer again.
So how have the Boys in Blue responded in defense of the metropolis they wear on their jerseys and the community that has sustained them for nearly 70 years, making Dem Bums one of the most valuable franchises in baseball?
They’re scheduled to visit the White House today so Trump can use them as a photo op and bask in their 2025 championship.
That’s like staying in the dugout during a bench-clearing brawl after a pitcher plonks a batter, then offering the offender a handshake the next inning.
Winning back-to-back titles and blazing through this season has brought Angelenos much-needed happiness during a terrible stretch for the city — but winning is what the Dodgers are supposed to do. They’re also supposed to do more.
This is the team of pioneers like Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax, Glenn Burke and Fernando Valenzuela. The squad whose mythology insists it’s a franchise apart from the rest of professional sports because the Dodger Way is kinder, braver and more willing to take moral risks that transcend baseball and make society better.
And yet manager Dave Roberts told Times sports columnist Bill Shaikin in February that he would gladly accept another White House invitation “to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”
Well, thank God the Dodgers broke baseball’s longstanding tradition of segregation long before Roberts, who is Black and Japanese American, was born!
Manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on from the dugout during a 2025 game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego, California.
(Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Most of the Blue Crew fans I know — who are mostly Trump haters, by the way — roll their eyes every time a wokoso member of Dodger Nation complains about the team’s White House visits or the failure of players, coaches and executives to speak out more forcefully against Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign. Politics have no place in baseball, my friends and family members will say.
But standing up for L.A. by snubbing Trump or calling out his war against us isn’t political at all.
Angelenos need a champion on the Dodgers to say what needs to be said: The City of Angels is wonderful, and Trump is wrong to target it. If you can’t stand up for the simple belief that we don’t deserve to be Trump’s personal piñata, then you have no place playing for the Dodgers.
Only two players have announced they’re not going to the White House: superstar Mookie Betts and fan favorite Kiké Hernández. The latter, a native of Puerto Rico, endeared himself to the Dodger faithful last year during the height of the immigration raids with an Instagram post that read, “I cannot tolerate watching our community continue to be violated, attacked, abused and separated. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and their human rights.”
This time around, Hernández told the Times that he’s not going so he can focus on a rehabilitation stint in the minors. When pressed by reporter Maddie Lee, he said, “I’d rather take a day off than do team activities.”
Nice way to rhetorically strike out, Kiké.
Betts, meanwhile, said he wants to spend time with his newborn child — as legitimate a reason as any. But then he sat down for a short interview with Fox News.
“I don’t know why the world sees athletes as political figures or these people that can make change,” Betts said. The future Hall of Famer, who like Roberts owes a lot to Robinson for paving the way for him and other Black players, hemmed and hawed as if he didn’t quite believe what he was saying.
Dodgers past and present haven’t been averse to political stands — they just usually happen to be of the conservative variety.
After his retirement, Robinson campaigned for Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful 1960 presidential bid but left the GOP eight years later, accusing Nixon of “prostituting himself to the bigots in the South” to win the presidency.
Other Dodger legends, from former owner Peter O’Malley to Steve Garvey to Tommy Lasorda, were proud, vocal Republicans as well. Reliever Blake Treinen pitched in a game with “Charlie Kirk” written on his hat after the assassination of the far-right commentator — you know, the guy who lambasted L.A.’s response to Trump’s immigration hammer as “open rebellion to American sovereignty and authority … in a corrupt blue city.”
Treinen — who skipped the Dodgers’ 2021 White House visit when Joe Biden occupied the Oval Office — was at it again this year when he and teammate Alex Call declined to wear Pride Night-themed caps, choosing instead to play with the standard-issue one. They followed the example of Dodgers titan Clayton Kershaw, who wore a Pride cap last year but adorned it with a verse from the Book of Genesis commandeered by MAGA Christians to accuse LGBT+ people of appropriating rainbow colors to celebrate their supposedly wicked ways.
Dodgers management didn’t browbeat Treinen and Call, and that’s fine — ballplayers should be entitled to share their personal thoughts, however noxious. I even understand why the team might want to ham it up with Trump this week — that’s what multimillionaires seem to want to do these days, after all.
Federal agents stage outside Gate E of Dodger Stadium on June 19, 2025.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
What offends me most is that Dodgers owner Mark Walter knows what Trump is doing to L.A. is wrong, even if he’ll never publicly say anything.
Last June, the team announced that it had prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot — the feds denied that this happened. The Dodgers also announced they would donate $1.1 million to nonprofits to assist people affected by the immigration raids — a response to community disgust about video of federal agents in front of a Dodger Stadium gate with people who had been detained at a nearby Home Depot.
Soon after, the Dodgers were hit with a federal civil rights complaint, filed by a legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller, accusing them of discrimination because of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. This year, Walter’s investment firm rid itself of all shares in GEO Group, which runs immigrant detention centers on behalf of the federal government.
Yet now, the Dodgers are going to the White House.
Enjoy the trip, fellas. Hey, maybe one of you will shake Trump’s hand and tell him that multicultural, immigrant, Dodgers-blue Los Angeles is all right.
Hey, maybe the Angels will win the pennant.
There are certain truths that are self-evident to all but the willfully blind or stubbornly obtuse.
Heat is hot.
Rain is wet.
Donald Trump is the most brazenly corrupt president in the history of the United States.
The money-grubbing chief executive has raked in at least $2.2 billion during his first year back in office. He’s funneled millions of taxpayer dollars and foreign payments to his businesses. The grift, er, gift of a tricked-out Air Force One from the Qatari government — which Trump plans to keep in retirement — is only the most high-flying example of his avarice.
There’s so much more.
The notorious tax dodger filed suit against himself, allowing his complicit Department of “Justice” to engineer a flimflam settlement amounting to a get-out-of-jail free card that shields Trump and his sticky-fingered family from Internal Revenue Service oversight. He’s used his pardon power to draw contributions.
It’s so blatant and so consistent with Trump’s dodgy corporate background — a career checkered with six bankruptcies — that it’s easy to shrug off his presidential swindling as just more of the same. That’s been Trump’s political superpower: normalizing the outrageous and anesthetizing many Americans to all but the most extreme affronts. Even those have limited shock value these days.
On Thursday, California’s junior U.S. senator, Democrat Adam Schiff, will take to the floor of the chamber to assay the president’s many conflicts of interest, warn against complacency of the seen-it-all variety and offer his prescription for a cleansing once Trump slinks out of the gold-slathered Oval Office.
George Skelton and other analysts cover the insights, legislation, players and politics you need to know. In your inbox Monday and Thursday mornings.
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“The scope of the corruption we’ve seen in this administration is beyond anything we have imagined in prior years or prior administrations, “ Schiff said in a preview of his speech. “It’s really novel and breathtaking.”
Schiff is, of course, one of the president’s long-standing nemeses. As a House member, he led Trump’s first impeachment trial. His frequent criticism of the president, on the cable TV circuit and beyond, earned Schiff a slug of juvenile nicknames and other Trumpian put-downs, as well as a federal investigation — which now appears dormant — into supposed mortgage fraud.
Trump defenders will be quick to dismiss Schiff’s floor speech as just more overripe agitation.
Birds fly. Fish swim. Schiff attacks Trump.
But the purpose of his remarks, Schiff said, goes beyond simply enumerating the abundant examples of presidential profiteering. (It was a struggle, he said, keeping the list to a top 10.) His intent, he said, is “to bring home … the real cost to ordinary people” of Trump’s egregious self-dealing. Explaining why — in a practical, feel-it-in-your-wallet sense — people should care.
“If a president approves a merger not because it’s good for consumers, not because it’s good for the economy, but because participants in the merger paid him millions, what’s the cost to them?” Schiff said, referring to the proposed marriage of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery and the money CBS shelled out for a flimsy lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” The settlement was widely seen as a way to smooth Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media, which is now bidding to swallow Warner Bros.
“The cost is they’re paying more for their streaming services,” Schiff said. “They’re getting laid off if they work in the industry. “
In 2024, Democrats lost the White House at least in part because they spent so much time talking about noble but abstract concepts like defending democracy and the rule of law, rather than highlighting ways they’d work to bring down the price of bacon and eggs.
Times change. Now it’s the cost of beef and gas that’s plundering paychecks.
Schiff insists it’s not an either/or choice. To prevail in November’s midterm elections, which means winning at least one chamber of Congress, Schiff said Democrats should discuss both affordability and Trump’s venality. He sees the two as being irrevocably entwined.
“The positive message is we are singularly focused on your cost of living,” Schiff said from his office on Capitol Hill. “We want to build more housing and bring down the cost of housing. We want to attack anti-competitive mergers of grocery stores and food companies to bring down the cost of food. We have a whole agenda that is designed to make your life more affordable.
“Why isn’t the administration doing this?” he said. “And the answer is, they’re corrupt. They’re focused on their own economic well-being. They’re doing great for themselves. They could care less about you.”
Schiff plans to introduce a number of proposed remedies. They include legislation to ban corporate executives from serving in the executive branch if they’ve been convicted of corruption or financial crimes, and a requirement that government employees recuse themselves from matters affecting the financial interests of any employer they’d worked for within the previous four years.
Although the measures stand no chance of passing in the current Congress, Schiff said “it’s important to show the American people, ‘Hey, this is what we intend to do if you give us the majority.’”
He acknowledged that the depth of presidential dishonesty, its constancy and deep weave in the fabric of this administration, can have a deadening effect: “When the guy working the teleprompter at the White House, betting on how many times the president will use a certain word in his speech, is a blip in the corruption…”
But Schiff said it’s important not to turn away or shrink from the malodor rising from Trump’s swampy Washington.
“You just have to take the time to break it down for people,” Schiff said. “I think putting things in context, trying to snap people out of the norm-shattering numbness of this administration, is a daily challenge. But it’s one that we have to undertake.”
There’s no certainly no harm in stating the truth. It’s worth trying, over and over.
The must-read: Trump, long a critic of ‘forever wars,’ may be stumbling into one with Iran
The deep dive: Unhappy with Kaiser’s medical dispute process, some patients push for state reform
The L.A. Times Special: Chabria: Newsom pushes California to crack down on sex trafficking — fast
Until next time,
mzb
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