U.S.

SACRAMENTO — Lawyer Kamalpreet Chohan ran her finger down a list of 57 names of people scheduled to appear during a morning of hearings at the immigration court in Sacramento and pointed out one glaring commonality.

“None of these folks are represented,” she said.

Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to assist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system, where the stakes are a future in the U.S. or deportation.

Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways and the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, causing people to miss them.

Data show that legal representation can be crucial to winning in court, but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.

“Folks go into immigration court not knowing what’s happening. They come out not knowing what’s happening. And when there’s an attorney present,” Chohan said, “it’s just so helpful.”

No guaranteed legal representation

Unlike criminal court, there is no guaranteed lawyer in immigration courts.

Immigrants have to hire one at a cost of thousands of dollars or hope to get represented by one of the nonprofit organizations assisting low-income immigrants. But waitlists with those organizations are long, and many parts of the country just do not have that many immigration attorneys.

Of the roughly 3.2 million pending deportation cases currently in U.S. immigration courts, people in 52% of those cases do not have a lawyer, according to an analysis of immigration court data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a think tank.

A Congressional Research Service study from 2024 found that only 19% of people who did not have a lawyer won asylum or another avenue to stay in the United States. Among those who did have a lawyer, 47% were successful.

“Having an attorney is just super critical to be able to navigate the system successfully,” said Adriel Orozco of the advocacy group American Immigration Council.

Chohan said she frequently runs into people who have been scammed by lawyers or people posing as lawyers who take their money but do nothing for their case.

“I will give him a list of attorneys who are free and we have vetted,” she said, referring to one man who said he had been scammed. “They have long waitlists, but he should still ask.”

Speaking later to the Associated Press, the man described how he left Guatemala after being threatened by gangs and came to the U.S. in 2024 seeking asylum. Ever since, he said, he has done everything that has been asked of him while he tries to make ends meet, occasionally painting houses. He spent $4,500 on a lawyer who in the end did nothing to help him, he said.

“He turned out to be a scammer,” said the man, who did not want to be identified for fear of endangering his case. He is worried about what comes next in court after being warned by the judge that he could be deported. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.

A busy day in court

Outside the Sacramento building where the court is housed is a long line of immigrants waiting for appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in the same building. Volunteers with a local anti-ICE resistance group stand ready to help.

Upstairs, two immigration judges are on the bench. One hears the in-depth individual cases of immigrants who are pursuing their claim of asylum.

The other judge has the master calendar docket, where dozens of immigrants will appear in brief hearings geared at making sure their case is ready to go to the next step.

Signs taped to the wall remind people not to make audio or video recordings inside the court complex. A security guard makes sure no one loiters in the hallways. Most people clutch stacks of papers documenting their cases.

After immigrants file into the courtroom for their hearings, Judge Susan Phan introduces Chohan and describes the services her organization offers.

“You are not required to meet with her, but it is a rare opportunity that we have someone volunteering their time,” Phan said before launching into the day’s work.

Details matter

Chohan, who works with the California Immigration Project, starts each hearing in the courtroom. She has a clipboard to take notes, extra copies of forms and a crate of books for restless children attending court with their parents. She spends the bulk of her time in the waiting room, talking to clients after their hearings and scanning their documents to flesh out what else they need.

Speaking to one young man from Mexico, she asks to see his asylum application, noting that the judge had pointed out that it was lacking in detail.

“Sometimes judges can deny a claim if there isn’t enough detail,” she said through one of the organization’s volunteer interpreters.

The organization frequently holds clinics to help immigrants fill out their asylum application. Chohan said she will alert him to the next one.

Another woman holding a stack of documents is there with her son and wanted to make sure her children could come with her if she is deported. Chohan also briefed her on what to expect at her upcoming asylum hearing and said the organization would send her an asylum filing guide.

Chohan highlighted places on forms where people need to give answers or answer in more detail. It’s OK to write “none, ” but she advises them to not leave boxes blank.

Everything submitted in Spanish must be accompanied by a translation into English that must be done by a person, not an automatic online translator. Copies of every page of a passport must be submitted. Documents must be sent in two weeks before the applicant’s hearing so the judge can review them.

Over and over, Chohan reminds immigrants to download their receipt showing they paid the $102 asylum application fee so they can submit it to the court.

Chohan said a lot of these procedures and forms are discussed in court, but it is happening fast and immigrants are listening through an interpreter, so they don’t always understand.

“A lot of times when they go into court, they’re just happy that they’re out of court and they’re not being arrested,” she said.

A changing court system

Chohan has witnessed the upheaval in the immigration courts during President Trump’s second term.

She was in the court hallways last summer when ICE officers waited to arrest immigrants after their hearings. Earlier this summer she watched as the administration started holding “mega masters,” hearings with dozens of respondents at a time that are meant to clear a backlog but have created chaos.

Chohan said there are not enough pro bono lawyers in the Sacramento area to help everyone who needs one, so the “attorney of the day” program is often the next best thing. She believes everyone should have access to a lawyer.

Until that day, she said, the program “helps bridge that gap.”

Santana writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 10 (UPI) — The U.S. military said it blocked an additional 20 ships from reaching or leaving Iran’s ports, as prospects for a resumption of negotiations on ending the war look bleak.

U.S. Central Command announced in a statement Sunday that its blockade has redirected 55 commercial vessels, up from 35 on Aug. 2. It has also disabled two vessels and boarded two others.

The U.S. military resumed its blockade of Iran’s ports on July 14 amid a resumption in fighting between Washington and Tehran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States is seeking to regain freedom of navigation of the vital energy trade route that Iran has claimed control of since the war between the two erupted in late February.

The Trump administration has said a restoration in a freedom of navigation is necessary for negotiations on ending the war to enter the next phase focused on Iran’s nuclear program. However, Iran is fighting to maintain control of the strait that it seized.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi told reporters Sunday that while intermediaries were in contact concerning negotiations, no talks would be resumed until the United States ended what he called violations of a June memorandum, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

The June memorandum of understanding sought to lay the foundation toward end-of-war talks but differences over control of the Strait of Hormuz opened a new chapter in the war. The United States has been enforcing its blockade of Iran’s ports to coerce it to open the strait.

Aragchi said that while Iran was not in negotiations with the United States, talks were underway with Oman on establishing new maritime routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The foreign minister’s remarks came as U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios that the United States was willing to allow the economic pressure of its blockade to further weigh on Iran’s economy rather than ordering new attacks.

“We are low-keying it,” he said, while stating, “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the they fact that have no money.”

Aug. 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Staff Secretary Will Scharf will be his new White House counsel, promoting another former personal lawyer within his administration.

Scharf, who was on Trump’s legal team in the presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court, will assume his new position Sept. 1, Trump said in a social media statement, replacing David Warrington, himself a former personal lawyer for Trump, who is returning to private practice.

“Will has done an amazing job in his current role as White House Staff secretary and has also served as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. I know him well!” Trump said.

“Will is tough, strong and smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law. Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

As staff secretary, Scharf oversees the everyday paperwork, presidential actions, speeches, correspondence and press releases of the president, and is frequently at Trump’s side during signing ceremonies where he is seen handing him executive orders.

As the new White House counsel, Scharf will be in charge of advising Trump and White House staff on legal issues, including the interpretation of laws and their intersection with policies.

Scharf has also been serving as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, which approved Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom. On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled the ballroom unlawful and ordered its construction to stop, though the ruling was stayed for 14 days to give the White House time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The announcement also comes a day after the U.S. Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, another former personal lawyer for Trump, as attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi, whom Trump fired in April.

At least seven lawyers who represented Trump personally or served on his legal teams now hold positions in his administration, including Blanche, Warrington, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

Scharf was a member of the legal team that successfully argued before the Supreme Court that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for actions taken while in office as part of the federal election interference case brought against Trump by the Justice Department under the Biden administraiton.

PHOENIX — Hezly Rivera is leaning into her role as the leader of the next wave of U.S. women’s gymnasts.

The 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist won her second straight national title on Sunday, rallying from fourth during the final day of competition with four poised and professional routines. Her two-day total of 111.950 was more than a point clear of runner-up Claire Pease, making Rivera the first American woman not named Simone Biles to go back-to-back since former world and Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber did it in 2010 and 2011.

Rivera was the self-described “underdog” in Paris two years ago, when she joined an experienced group that helped the Americans win their third team gold in four Games. While some of her Olympic teammates — Biles and Suni Lee chief among them — have been on an extended break (though Lee announced last month she has started training for a return to competition), Rivera has pressed on.

She edged Leanne Wong in New Orleans last year, but Rivera’s chances for a repeat seemed to be in trouble after she fell face-first into the mat after missing a release on uneven bars on Thursday.

No matter, Rivera began Sunday on bars and put together a gritty set in which she fought through a mini-stall near the end and gave coach Valeri Liukin a “what are you gonna do?” shrug after a dismount that included a small step.

The judges awarded Rivera with a solid if not spectacular 13.850, and her momentum continued to build as she made her way across the competition floor at Matchup Mortgage Arena. Her black-and-white bedazzled leotard glittering under the lights, Rivera put on a performance that made her look every bit the experienced veteran she has become.

Pease and fellow first-day co-leader Skye Blakely couldn’t quite keep up. Pease led with two rotations to go, but her floor routine included one tumbling pass that ended with her stepping out of bounds and another in which she opted to keep her right foot hovering above the floor rather than set it down for a penalty.

Still, Pease’s second-place finish was a marked improvement from a year ago, when she came to nationals fresh off a victory at the U.S. Classic and stumbled to 10th. This time around, she finds herself in a solid position to make the team that will head to The Netherlands for the world championships in October.

Blakely’s bid to build off a promising opening night stalled quickly. She sat at the end of her first tumbling pass and bounced out of bounds on her final one, her score of 11.900 dropping her from contention for the top of the podium on her way to a seventh-place finish.

Charleigh Bullock, who turned 16 last month, was third. Reese Esponda, who trains at the Houston-area gym owned by Biles’ family, was fourth.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, who is methodically building difficulty into her routines as she eyes a third trip to the Games, finished fifth in a meet that doubled as a homecoming for the Phoenix native.

Graves writes for the Associated Press.

In the summer of 2020, the year “Ted Lasso” debuted on Apple TV, the largest audience for a televised soccer match in the U.S. was 1.7 million. Shortly before the soccer-based sitcom returned for a fourth season last Wednesday, nearly 63 million viewers in the U.S. watched the World Cup final.

Brendan Hunt, the actor who plays Lasso’s loyal sidekick Coach Beard in the series, can’t prove the show is responsible for that growth. But since he can’t disprove it either, he’ll just go with the flow.

“I would love it if we’ve had a role at all,” he said. “If we are a pebble in that avalanche, then I’m happy.”

What the Emmy-winning series has undeniably done is bring soccer into millions of unsuspecting households that had previously avoided the sport like a plague. So while Jason Sudeikis, the star and co-creator, alongside Hunt, of “Ted Lasso,” insists the show is not about soccer, the sport sure gets a lot of screen time. And that has made the game more palatable and popular for a public that can now relate to it.

“We tricked them by putting soccer in a comedy show,” Hunt said. “The first thing you’ve got to do to get somebody to become a soccer fan is just make them care about one team, to find one team.

“In this instance we’ve made them care about this fictional team and that easily can transmute, if you’re not careful, into caring about other teams. And then hopefully the sport itself.”

After a three-year hiatus, “Lasso” returned for Season 4 last week with the series’ eponymous title character, played by Sudeikis, returning to Richmond to coach a fledgling second-division women’s team. Hunt’s understated character makes his first appearance of the season in Episode 2 Wednesday.

“He is clearly going through something,” Hunt said. “Is it just what happens to Beard when he’s away from Ted for too long or is there something important that has happened? We’ll find out before too long.”

Speaking of having gone through something, Hunt, who plays a fictional coach for a fictional team, spent the first part of his summer being a very real journalist at a very real tournament, attending 14 World Cup games in more than half a dozen stadiums — including the Spain-France semifinal in Arlington, Texas, which he watched from the press box, and the Spain-Argentina final, part of which he watched from field level.

“That was a really cool experience,” said Hunt, who did a World Cup podcast with Rebecca Lowe, the studio host of Fox’s tournament coverage.

But for Hunt, 54, the most passionate soccer fan among the writers and actors on “Ted Lasso,” the sport was an acquired taste. Half a lifetime ago, Hunt was a die-hard Chicago Bears fan working in residence with an improv group at a small, aging theater in Amsterdam when he got swept up in Dutch soccer culture.

Eventually, he said, he was contributing weekly columns to Sp!ts, a free commuter newspaper in Amsterdam, chronicling his growing infatuation with the sport. When Sudeikis, another Midwesterner, joined the comedy troupe, Hunt began proselytizing about the sport, using PlayStation games to draw in Sudeikis.

“I found a secret that I had to tell everybody,” Hunt said. “When Jason came to Amsterdam, by that point I was fully a zealot. It was like a new recipe. ‘This thing is great!’

“I’ve been doing it ever since. I just have a slightly larger platform from which to do it.”

That platform is “Ted Lasso,” based around a soft-drawling college football coach, and Beard, his quiet but intense assistant. The concept debuted in a 2013 promo for NBC’s coverage of the English Premier League, then launched as a full-blown sitcom during the angst and fear of the coronavirus pandemic seven years later.

The series, with its message of optimism, kindness and patience and its call to “be curious, not judgmental” — a sentiment Lasso mistakenly credits to Walt Whitman — proved to be the perfect tonic for those trying times. Before it paused after Season 3, it had become the most-watched original streaming series across all platforms and the first Apple TV show to cross the billion-minute mark in a single tracking week.

But in addition to all the messaging and positivity, the show also included soccer. The offside rule and promotion and relegation are the butts of repeated jokes and there are discussions of tactics, positions, formations and other game-related details that would have previously frustrated viewers.

“Lasso,” however, proved U.S. soccer IQ was higher than expected; the sport may not have become fully mainstream, but it was no longer a foreign concept.

“There’s just a wider sense of like, ‘yeah, we’re fine. Soccer’s fine,’” Hunt said of the U.S. public. “We don’t need to explain it to people or impress it upon people. The World Cup has sort of finally cemented that.

“It feels like less and less of a capital S struggle right now.”

Brendan Hunt, left, and Jason Sudeikis in “Ted Lasso.”

(Apple TV)

For Hunt, who has been a season-ticket holder for LAFC and Angel City, getting to be a credentialed World Cup journalist — and a participant in the halftime show at the final — were once such far-fetched dreams that they never even made his bucket list. Getting paid to write scripts for a project he’s passionate about, then act out those scripts as a make-believe coach, was once only slightly less unbelievable.

Yet Hunt has done it all — and after a three-year break he’s back doing it again.

“It’s definitely fun,” he said. “For one thing it makes me a little more useful in the writers’ room than I would be on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ And it also means that a world that I already really enjoy has now opened its arms to us.

“The world of football, to have responded so well to this show, has been truly a touching part of this experience.”

And no one can’t prove the show hasn’t played at least a small role in making the U.S. a soccer country at last.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The Defense Department is pressuring U.S. military contractors to produce weapons and munitions “significantly faster” as the country’s stockpile dwindles due to the Iran war, it was reported Saturday.

In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, the Pentagon told industry leaders to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg said contractors have 21 days to submit plans on how they plan to achieve that.

“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg wrote in the Wednesday memo obtained by The Post. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”

Multiple news outlets reported this week that the United States had depleted much of its stockpile of long-range precision missiles in Iran.

In just the first month of the conflict, the military launched more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles, alarming some Pentagon officials, The Post reported.

Officials have said the U.S. military has been launching the missiles faster than manufacturers can replace them.

President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed the reports, saying the United States has “massive amounts” of munitions.

“Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed,” he wrote on Truth Social. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”

“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” Trump added. “Long-term jail sentences will be sought!”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing.”

“We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” he added in a statement to CBS News.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of State announced Friday that the United States intends to give $1 billion to the new government of Colombia, which is now in the control of Abelardo de la Espriella, the right-wing candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a press release, the State Department said the government sent a delegation led by now-confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche to Colombia to attend the inauguration of de la Espriella in Cali, Colombia, on Friday.

“The delegation demonstrates U.S. commitment to reinvigorating the U.S.-Colombia relationship and deepening of our shared security and economic partnership,” the press release from the office of the State Department’s spokesperson said. “As a cornerstone of this renewed partnership, the United States, working with Congress, intends to announce $1 billion in assistance as part of a security package to support President de la Espriella’s administration in achieving our shared goals.”

The goals center around de la Espriella’s promise of an “all-out war” on drug cartels.

De la Espriella, 48, is a lawyer and businessman and has worked to gain a reputation as a maverick outsider who plans to battle crime with an “iron fist,” the BBC reported. He promised to crack down on armed groups, shrink the government by up to 40% and rejuvenate the oil and gas sector.

“I have come to close a long chapter of national resignation and, together with the people, embark on the most profound transformation ⁠of our destiny,” De La Espriella said at the Pichincha Battalion military base in Cali, Colombia, Friday.

“I send a firm message to the Colombian people: The time has come to restore order, authority and freedom,” De La Espriella said. He pledged to crush armed insurgents, rebuild Colombia and defend democracy “by reason or by force.”

The new president comes to power during a time of deep political polarization in the country. He defeated leftist Sen. Iván Cepeda in a runoff election by 250,000 votes out of more than 26 million cast.

De la Espriella said he is bringing “the age of the Tiger,” when the state would be forceful and decisive against crime. His self-chosen nickname is “El Tigre.”

“There will not be a single place in our territory where criminals can feel safe,” he said.

He vowed to “definitively eradicate the scourge of illicit crops,” saying he would use aerial herbicides that did not harm human health or the environment to destroy coca, the plant used to make cocaine. In one of his first acts as president, Colombia would join Trump’s Shield of the Americas program, he said.

His campaign is very different from his predecessor Gustavo Petro. Pedro pushed for a “total peace” strategy to end an ongoing fight between guerrilla groups, the state and cartels.

Sadly, the program failed, critics have alleged. Membership of armed groups has expanded in recent years.

De la Espriella is a citizen of the United States as well as Colombia. He lived and worked in Miami for many years and became a U.S. citizen in 2023.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate passed a stopgap funding bill Saturday that would fund the government through Dec. 11 to prevent a government shutdown in September.

The bill was put in place to avoid a shutdown before November’s midterm elections. It’s unclear if the bill will pass the House of Representatives. The Senate passed the bill in a bipartisan 90-6 vote, with Sen. Darline Graham , R-S.C., voting present.

The Senate is now on a five-week recess and is scheduled to return Sept. 14.

The House passed a similar bill on July 22.

The Senate bill includes a section that would bar President Donald Trump from transferring funds to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a provision that Democrats demanded.

It would also delay a ban on intoxicating hemp products, which is scheduled to go into effect in November. The ban was made law in November 2025 with a one-year delay. The law redefined hemp and would make most hemp products illegal, including CBD, Delta-9 and others. The new delay would push implementation back until December.

A group of Republican Senators, led by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., tried to block the delay of the law, but failed.

“After three unnecessary lapses in funding during the fiscal year 2026 cycle, putting the possibility of yet another harmful shutdown off the table should be a priority for each and every one of us,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Democrats lauded the measure to prevent backdoor funding of the Border Patrol.

“This is an important step forward to prevent a shutdown no one wants and provide the runway we need to negotiate funding bills in the months ahead as we fight to rein in Trump’s corruption and make life more affordable for families back home,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the committee.

The bill also blocks the Trump administration until the end of the stopgap from finalizing a rule that would put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said this week that he’s going to “fight like hell” in December to ensure Congress doesn’t further block Trump’s grant overhaul.

Collins said she will “continue to oppose” the administration’s plans “because I think they politicize the grants process, and I don’t want that to occur.” Murray said she, too, would “welcome the fight.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, praised the Senate bill for including the grant and immigration enforcement language.

“This bill is a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution, but we are still nearly two months away from the end of the fiscal year and should be working together to pass full-year funding bills,” she said in a statement.

After passing the funding legislation, the Senate narrowly approved the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general early Saturday morning.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump‘s former personal defense attorney, as U.S. attorney general early Saturday morning.

Two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against the confirmation. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., missed the vote.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., was a critical vote because he had raised concerns about Blanche. He, along with John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said they were uncomfortable with the politicization of the Department of Justice, as well as the controversial settlement between the president and the IRS in which Trump was given $1.8 billion fund to compensate people that he believed were victims of political prosecutions.

All three of them voted to confirm Blanche.

Cassidy said he chose to vote for Blanche because Trump might nominate someone worse.

“The choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Politico reported Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

The vote tally was 50-49 at 4:31 a.m. Saturday. The Senate then left for a five-week recess.

Blanche has been acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi from the position in April.

“I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice as our great nation’s 88th Attorney General,” Blanche said in a post on X. “I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process.”

Not everyone supported Blanche’s nomination.

“The problem with confirming Todd Blanche is that he has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He just can’t do it,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance the nomination. “He will never do what’s best for the American people. He will only do what’s best for Donald Trump, and you cannot leave someone like that as the nation’s No. 1 law enforcement official.”

“The biggest concern is whether he is now going to be emboldened to go even more gung-ho on Trump’s campaign of using the Justice Department for retribution,” former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson told NBC News in an interview before the confirmation. “There are no guardrails.”

“America is safer with Todd Blanche at the helm of the Justice Department,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement.

Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he disagrees.

“It was a grave mistake for the Senate to approve Todd Blanche as the next Attorney General,” he said in a post on X. “If there is ever a moment in history when we need an AG above reproach, who is dedicated to ending corruption, it is right now. This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than he loves the President. Sadly, Todd Blanche is not that person.”

Aug. 7 (Asia Today) — Four Republican members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee have asked South Korea’s media regulator for a briefing on how it plans to enforce the country’s revised Information and Communications Network Act, arguing the law could infringe on the constitutional rights of U.S. companies and users and be used to suppress politically disfavored views.

The lawmakers said the revised law, which took effect July 7, could expose U.S. companies such as YouTube and their users to penalties without sufficiently clear standards for determining what constitutes false information.

The request follows a House Judiciary Committee subpoena issued to Coupang in February and a July report in which the Republican-led committee accused the South Korean government of discriminating against U.S.-owned businesses.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and Reps. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, Darrell Issa of California and Michael Baumgartner of Washington sent a letter to the Korea Media and Communications Commission seeking details about its enforcement plans. Jordan made the letter public on X.

The lawmakers described the revised law as a significant threat to online speech and expression. They argued that the commission could take action against American companies and users for exercising rights protected under the U.S. Constitution.

Their concerns center on the scope of the law and the standards that will be used to enforce it.

The legislation passed South Korea’s National Assembly on Dec. 24 and took effect July 7. Under the revised law, certain media outlets and content publishers with at least 100,000 subscribers can face punitive damages for knowingly distributing false or manipulated information. Repeat violations covered by separate provisions can result in administrative penalties of up to 1 billion won, or about $705,000.

The Korea Media and Communications Commission has said the law is intended to protect people from harm caused by illegal, false and manipulated information.

The Republican lawmakers, however, argued that the law does not provide sufficiently clear standards for determining false information or explain in enough detail how those standards will be enforced.

They warned that vague provisions could be used against “politically disfavored opinions” and could have a chilling effect on online expression.

“No foreign government should be able to pressure American companies to censor constitutionally protected speech,” Fitzgerald said, describing South Korea’s law as “vague, expansive, and ripe for abuse.”

The Judiciary Committee also argued that the law could affect U.S.-based platform operators such as Google’s YouTube and their users.

The lawmakers said South Korea is following the path of the European Union’s Digital Services Act. The House Judiciary Committee has previously issued reports arguing that European digital regulation can restrict free expression by Americans and hinder innovation by U.S. companies.

The committee has been examining whether foreign digital regulations pressure U.S. technology companies to moderate speech or create barriers to American innovation.

The U.S. State Department has also raised concerns since the legislation passed the National Assembly in December, warning that the measure could create unnecessary barriers to digital services.

The latest congressional action comes as scrutiny of South Korean regulation of U.S.-owned businesses has intensified.

Jordan and Fitzgerald issued a subpoena Feb. 5 to Harold Rogers, Coupang’s chief administrative officer and general counsel, seeking communications between the company and the South Korean government as well as testimony before the committee.

The committee said it was investigating whether South Korean laws, regulations and judicial orders discriminate against U.S. companies or infringe on Americans’ due process rights.

Republican committee members cited a Nov. 13, 2025, joint fact sheet issued after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

They said the agreement committed South Korea to ensuring U.S. companies are not treated discriminatorily or subjected to unnecessary barriers in digital services, including regulations governing online platforms.

The lawmakers have argued that South Korea’s investigation of Coupang and the possibility of criminal penalties against American executives could conflict with that commitment.

According to the Judiciary Committee, South Korean authorities assigned about 400 investigators from 11 agencies to the Coupang customer information case.

The committee said the investigation involved about 150 face-to-face meetings, 200 interviews and more than 1,100 requests for documents and other materials.

It also said a former employee had retained limited, non-sensitive information involving about 3,000 customers and that the information was later recovered. The committee said Coupang had also agreed to compensate users.

In a footnote to its subpoena letter, the committee cited a report that Coupang had announced a compensation package valued at $1.18 billion.

The Judiciary Committee followed the February subpoena with an interim report July 1 accusing the South Korean government of discriminatory treatment of Coupang and other American-owned companies and of violating commitments made between the two countries.

Fitzgerald said Congress would continue examining what he characterized as efforts by foreign governments to export censorship and interfere with Americans’ First Amendment rights.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260807010002272

Aug. 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday urged U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to reinstall charges against several people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Pirro, a long-time Trump ally, has been in hot water with the president since admitting last week that damage to the pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.”

On Friday, Trump said Pirro should “re-visit her hastily made decision.”

“Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM at The Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A D.C. judge on Thursday dismissed the case against the most prominent of the defendants, Olympian David Hearn, 67, who faced 10 years in prison on a felony charge.

Defense attorneys have requested the dismissal of misdemeanor charges against three other people accused of vandalism.

Hearn and the other defendants were indicted on accusations that they purposefully ripped up pieces of the recently-installed blue sealant from the pool’s bottom.

But in court filings, Pirro’s office said she had been misled by the Interior Department into believing they had caused “nearly all of the damage” to the pool.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump posted on Truth Social the following day. “I don’t know what she was thinking?”

Renovating the reflecting pool cost the government nearly $15 million in a no-bid contract.

In court filings, Pirro said the “botched” renovation “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.”

“Davey Hearn is innocent and today’s dismissal reflects that simple fact,” the Olympian’s lawyers said in a statement on Thursday.

“But this case never should’ve been brought in the first place,” they added. “The Department of Justice’s decision to seek an indictment was a miscarriage of justice.”

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Defense Department on Friday revoked Frank Kendall’s access to classified information, accusing the former secretary of the Air Force of leaking sensitive information to the press.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Frank was the source who told reporters that President Donald Trump‘s new Qatari-gifted jet lacked certain security features.

Parnell said the Defense Department revoked Kendall’s “eligibility for access to classified information and his ability to hold any sensitive position.”

“This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One‘s capabilities to a media outlet,” the spokesman wrote on X. “Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty.

“Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it.”

Kendall, a lawyer and engineer, served as U.S. secretary of the Air Force from 2021 to 2025 under the Biden administration.

When asked about the new Qatari jet, Kendall told CNN it would take three to four years to get the plane on-par with the expectations of an aircraft serving as Air Force One.

The New York Times first reported that Trump’s new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8, lacked advanced security features such as antimissile capabilities.

The plane was a $400 million gift from Qatar, but despite retrofitting, did not reach the level of safety required of the U.S. president’s main aircraft, The Times reported.

Trump denied the report and called for the prosecution of leakers, though days later he said the plane would be taken out of commission to be “maxed out” — tacitly admitting it wasn’t fully upgraded already.

The Trump administration subpoenaed four Times journalists over the incident.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Justice Samuel Alito said Friday in a rare interview that he is committed to returning for another term at the Supreme Court.

Speculation that Alito, 76, would retire swelled in June, after NPR mistakenly reported that he planned to step down at the end of this term.

On Friday, the justice put those rumors to bed.

“Obviously I’m here for another term,” Alito told The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s not pleasant, in the sense that it’s a reminder of mortality,” he said to the newspaper about questions related to his retirement.

“It’s like, what are those vultures doing up there?” the justice added. “They are flying around. But it goes with life tenure.”

Alito’s non-retirement was reported by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg, a veteran of Supreme Court coverage, on June 30.

NPR retracted the story later that same day.

Totenberg said she heard a retirement announcement while rushing out of the courtroom and mistakenly assumed it was Alito.

She called it “the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism.”

Alito, a staunch conservative, was appointed by President George W. Bush and joined the court in 2006.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday ordered inspections of hundreds of Boeing 737 Max jets.

The FAA said the inspection comes due to reports of cracks in earlier-model planes’ bear straps, a structural metal component that strengthens doorways and emergency exits.

No cracks have been found in newer models, the agency said.

The FAA order affects 471 planes in the U.S., and it includes models 737-8, 737-9 and 737-8200.

“This [airworthiness directive] requires an inspection of the fuselage skin for existing repairs and applicable on-condition actions,” the FAA said.

“The FAA is issuing this AD to address cracks in the fuselage skin and bear strap, which may lead to the inability of the principal structural element to sustain limit loads and adversely affect the structural integrity of the airplane,” the order added.

Boeing told CBS News it is studying the cause of the cracks and “extended the inspections to 737 MAX airplanes as the model shares a similar design and build process” to its older models.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Trump administration on Friday sanctioned a multinational network of crypto exchanges that authorities say Iran has been using to launder billions of dollars to fund its military.

The sanctions target United Arab Emirates-based Shelbit Exchange, which authorities say has been laundering money by running it through a large gambling website on behalf of the Iranian government.

The move comes as retaliation for Iranian attacks again commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz this week, State Department officials said.

Treasury officials said Iran uses a sprawling network of corporate entities to obscure the origin of the funds and launder money to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“The Iranian regime’s reliance on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a statement, referencing the government’s operations to target Iran’s funding network.

The executive who runs the operations, Iran-born expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, has also been sanctioned.

Kayvanpour’s network of crypto exchanges allegedly includes operations in the Republic of Georgia and Poland, as well as other outfits in the UAE.

The U.S. is also sanctioning Aban Tether, an Iran-based crypto exchange, for processing Iranian assets through Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex.

“We will continue to increase the economic pressure,” Bessent said in a statement. “Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat.”

On Friday, the Senate also passed a bill sanctioning Iran, targeting its energy and weapons manufacturing industries.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is seeking to have a federal indictment against him in Minnesota, arguing that he is being illegally targeted for vindictive prosecution.

According to Lemon’s attorneys, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anger towards the journalist “is well documented, stretching back over a decade.”

The attorneys argued in court filings that Lemon was charged by the U.S. Justice Department “as punishment for his First Amended protected reporting on protests related to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.”

Lemon is one of several journalists facing charges — along with a number of protestors — for violating the FACE Act, which bars interfering or intimidating people as they exercise their constitutional rights to practice religion. He has pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors have alleged Lemon and another independent reporter took part in a “takeover-style attack” of Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon live-streamed anti-ICE protestors entering the charge on Jan. 18. He said during his live-stream as well as afterwards that he entered the church to report on the protest.

In the court filing, Lemon’s lawyers cited public remarks by Trump, as well as current and former Justice Department officials, that were aimed at Lemon ahead of his indictment in late January.

The Justice Department first tried to file a criminal complaint against Lemon, but a magistrate judge ruled against it, citing a lack of probable cause.

The Justice Department then sought intervention from the chief judge and the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals but was rejected. Prosecutors then secured an indictment from a grand jury. Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 to cover the Grammy Awards. He has said he sought to turn himself in but never heard back from the Justice Department.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Friday became the second Republican senator to say she’ll vote against Todd Blanche’s nomination for U.S. attorney general, putting his confirmation further at risk.

Murkowski joins Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Tuesday that she’ll vote against Blanche’s nomination. Blanche, President Donald Trump‘s pick for the role, is now acting attorney general.

Murkowski questioned if Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, would be an effective check against Trump if he’s confirmed as the leader of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a social media post Friday, she listed various ways the Justice Department has been politicized and referred to the $1,776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund order that Blanche said he’s rescinded earlier this week.

“I am … keenly aware that the department’s nearly $2 billion dollar slush fund — which likely would have rewarded January 6 protestors — is only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage,” Murkowski wrote. “Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds.

“The country needs an attorney general who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Collins also questioned Blanche’s independence and approval of the anti-weaponization fund — as well as its connected settlement agreement giving Trump and his family protection from tax investigations — in saying she will vote against the nomination.

Also, “more than 1,200 former Department of Justice employees have opposed his nomination, arguing that he has undermined the institution,” Collins said in her statement Tuesday. “For these reasons, I will vote against this nomination.”

With Murkowski and Collins voting against the nomination, Sen.Mitch McConnell still absent from the Senate and all Democrats saying they’ll vote against him, Blanche can’t lose any more votes and be confirmed.

It is uncertain how Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, will vote. Cassidy has so far declined to comment on the question.

Before Blanche rescinded the $1,776 billion fund order, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn also said they’d vote against him. However, they reversed course on that Monday.

However, Trump said on social media Saturday — before Blanche issued his order on the fund – that if Blanche is not confirmed, he will remain acting attorney general and the fund “would immediately be back on the table,and I will get it done!”

Blanche has been in the acting attorney general role since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — A New Mexico state court ordered Meta to pay more than $550 million and implement changes to protect children after finding the social media behemoth created a public nuisance that harmed young users.

The court issued its order Thursday, creating a $567 million fund, of which $420 million is earmarked for treatment for social media-related harms inflicted upon children in the state. The fund is on top of the $375 million Meta was fined in March for violating the state’s consumer protection laws in the first phase of the case.

“This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement.

“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Torrez sued Meta in late 2023 to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and human trafficking, following a months-long operation involving decoy accounts of children 14 years and younger that found children were being served sexually explicit images and content while enabling adults to find, contact and pressure them into providing sexually explicit or pornographic materials, among other harms.

The court then bifurcated the case into two phases, with Phase 1 being a jury trial that found Meta liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms on March 24. Phase 2 was a bench trial considering whether Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance under New Mexico law.

In the 68-page order on Thursday, Chief District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid found Meta liable for public nuisance.

“The evidence developed at trial reflects that Meta operates its platforms in a manner that injures community-wide youth mental health and safety,” Biedscheid wrote.

“Meta’s platforms are designed to capture attention, including by taking advantage of teenagers’ developing brains and encouraging problematic use. Even without the evidence and testimony that certain percentages of youth with mental health conditions would not have those conditions but for social media use, the highly probable results of Meta’s engagement optimization practices, including employing features that quantify popularity and encourage use at all hours of the day, is that such practices would increase anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation among teenagers.”

Meta is ordered to implement several changes, including improving age verification, restricting use of Facebook and Instagram by minors to 90 hours a month, turning off most push notifications for minors from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days, hiding “like” counts by default for minors and runing a New Mexico public-education campaign.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Families of victims of last year’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem are suing New York City, alleging neglect and failures to follow to its own regulations led to dozens being sickened by bacteria and several deaths.

Three lawsuits filed Thursday by Attorney Ben Crump, along with co-counsel Jared Scotto and Nabeha Shaer, represent five of the seven people who died in the outbreak and 41 individuals and families who say it harmed them.

Announcing the lawsuits during a press conference, Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the civil rights organization National Action Network, said they were not going to allow those harmed to be forgotten, while Crump stated that Harlem, a historically Black neighborhood, was neglected during the outbreak compared with other parts of New York City.

“Harlem is the center of Black America, historically has always been; that does not mean Harlem should be the center of a Legionnaires’ outbreak in the center of New York,” he said. “And so, we’re here today telling people that Harlem should never get less than — it should get everything that everybody else gets.”

Harlem was struck by a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak from July to August 2025, consisting of 118 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that grow in warm water. It is contracted by inhaling water vapor that contains the bacteria.

According to the lawsuits, the plaintiffs were exposed to Legionella bacteria while in the vicinity of cooling towers that tested positive for the bacteria at two locations: Harlem Hospital and the NYC Public Health Lab.

The complaint alleges that the city, along with its health department and a handful of contractors, failed to develop and follow a water management plan required by the New York State Sanitary Code and failed to meet the code’s cooling tower registration, inspection, testing and other related requirements.

Crump and Sharpton spoke during the press conference surrounded by victims of the outbreak, including the fiancee and 6-year-old daughter of Bruce Scott, who died from the outbreak.

“I’m a single mother now,” Lakisha Plowden said as she hugged her and Scott’s daughter, Brooke. “We don’t have her best friend and we don’t have my soul mate.”

UPI has contacted NYC for comment.

“Our lives mean something,” Sharpton said. “You cannot act as though the lives of people and the worth of people depend on what part of the town they live in. Geography does not have anything to do with biology. If Legionnaires’ disease was bad in one part of town it should be valued the same in every part of town. And that is what this is about.”

The announcement came nearly a week after the NYC Health Department declared an end to the Upper Easter Side Legionnaire’s disease outbreak that led to 92 confirmed cases and seven deaths.

President Trump targeted birthright citizenship again Thursday by signing a pair of executive orders purporting to narrow it — including by cracking down on “birth tourism” and limiting which children born to immigrants in the U.S. qualify.

The new orders follow a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that rejected an attempt by Trump to end birthright citizenship outright.

During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump called that decision by the high court “very unfair” and said the new orders were an attempt to end birthright citizenship by other means.

“Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending it a different way,” he said.

Trump promised “big crackdowns” on birth tourism, or the practice of pregnant foreign mothers coming to the United States, or foreign fathers using surrogates already in the U.S., specifically to ensure their children receive U.S. citizenship.

Trump said an entire industry has been built up around the practice, turning birthright citizenship into “a joke.”

“Wealthy people are building businesses around birthright citizenship. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. It’s a disgrace,” he said. “They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.”

The orders were immediately criticized by proponents of birthright citizenship as an indefensible attempt by the president and his administration to make an end run around the Supreme Court’s clear finding that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution cannot be undone by the president.

The amendment reads in part, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

In an apparent response to the president’s new orders, California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted that exact language to the social media platform X. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) also responded on the platform, writing, “Trump doesn’t understand the Constitution — but the 14th Amendment’s promise of birthright citizenship and equality speaks for itself.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that Trump’s “continued crusade to end birthright citizenship is blatantly illegal,” that Democrats would challenge the orders, and that the president had “set himself up for yet another loss in the courts.”

“If you are born in America, you are American — period. The Constitution says it and the Supreme Court has affirmed it,” Schumer said.

A spokesperson for California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office, which successfully sued alongside other Democrat-led states to block Trump’s first order purporting to end birthright citizenship, said attorneys there were reviewing the latest orders late Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which also sued to block the first order, denounced the new orders — and predicted they, too, would fall.

“The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution,” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement. “Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one.”

Trump’s order on birth tourism defines the practice as “the entry of any foreign national into the United States via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil,” or “any effort by any foreign national to facilitate” such entry.

It orders the Homeland Security and State departments to ramp up controls to block such entries, including through the denial or revocation of visas and other travel authorizations for individuals suspecting of participating in such efforts.

“Foreign nationals seeking temporary admission into the United States must adhere to the purposes for which the Congress has authorized their temporary admission, and cannot be permitted to circumvent the immigration laws in an attempt to vest themselves and their children with lasting benefits that are irreconcilable with their nonimmigrant status,” the order reads.

The order purporting to limit which children born in the U.S. are eligible for birthright citizenship describes “certain categories of children” who it says “do not fall within the rule of birthright citizenship as announced by the Supreme Court.”

It orders U.S. agencies not to provide citizenship documents to any child whose parents are not citizens if either of their parents is a foreign government employee, ambassador or a member of a foreign terrorist organization; was “engaged in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship” for them or to ensure their mother was in the U.S. when she gave birth to them; or had paid for a surrogate in the U.S. to give birth to them.

Echoing arguments made before the Supreme Court in defense of Trump’s first order purporting to end birthright citizenship, Trump and other White House officials claimed on Thursday that birthright citizenship was only ever intended for the children of slaves.

“This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves,” Trump said.

Others have said that argument “disregards the historical record” — which clearly shows lawmakers understood that the amendment’s language was much broader than that.

White House officials said the orders would prevent a large number of children from receiving birthright citizenship, hailing it as momentous.

“It ends what has been one of the gravest and most egregious abuses of the American system, and it keeps American citizenship safe,” said Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top advisors on immigration.

Asked if the new orders would withstand judicial scrutiny, Trump predicted they would, before directing the question to White House staff secretary Will Scharf.

“What we’re doing is taking legally validated means that are clearly within our disposal and targeting them square on to this birth tourism industry,” Scharf said. “There’s absolutely nothing in here that runs afoul of any of the Supreme Court’s opinions on the subject.”

Vice President JD Vance also hailed the move.

“Our immigration system has been exploited by those who treat citizenship as a commercial transaction, not a sacred bond. President Trump is taking bold steps to combat birth tourism and restore our sovereignty. A serious nation owes its citizens nothing less,” he wrote on X.

In its 6-3 decision in June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s first order purporting to end birthright citizenship outright, finding that the 14th Amendment — with very few exceptions — provided a right to children born in the U.S. that could not be undone by the president.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts wrote for the court. “The Framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Roberts in full, with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh concurring with the outcome based on separate federal law. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.

The ruling was a major defeat for Trump, and was cheered by immigrant rights advocates, including many in California, as the final say on the matter — though Trump signaled almost immediately that the fight wasn’t over.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — A D.C. judge has dismissed the Lincoln Reflecting Pool vandalism case against U.S. Olympian David Hearn, according to court documents filed Thursday afternoon.

A grand jury charged Hearn with one felony count of destruction of property early last month, alleging that the 67-year-old willfully ripped up a piece of recently installed blue pool sealant from the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump had recently ordered renovated.

The alleged incident involving Hearn occurred June 19 as videos were posted online showing its surface green with algae and blue paint seemingly peeling from the bottom of the pool. Trump claimed vandalism and vowed those responsible would be held to account.

In his order filed Thursday afternoon, Associate Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case but allowed litigation to continue over whether the dismissal should be with or without prejudice.

On July 31, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia filed a motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, stating that the Department of Interior had provided “less than fulsome information at the outset of this case” that led prosecutors to charge Hearn. After he was charged, the DOI provided documents that “strongly suggest that a rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor, led to the damage to the lining of the reflecting pool.”

On Aug. 5, Hearn’s lawyers agreed the case should be dismissed but argued that the dismissal should be with prejudice.

“David Hearn is innocent and today’s dismissal reflects that simple fact,” Hearn’s counsel Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund, Mary Dohrmann of Washington Litigation Group and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP said in a joint statement Thursday.

“The Department of Justice’s decision to seek an indictment was a miscarriage of justice.”

They said they intend to “vigorously advocate” for the case to be dismissed with prejudice to prevent the government from bringing the case again.

“All other legal options also remain on the table,” they said.

Trump maintains that vandalism was the cause of damage to the reflecting pool, despite the admission by his own Department of Interior. After Pirro filed for dismissal, Trump criticized her online, leading to speculation that the former Fox News host may be the next woman he fires.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” he said online.

“I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” he said, before referring to alleged vandalism to grass near the reflecting pool. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

Trump had ordered the Reflecting Pool be painted “American flag blue” ahead of celebrations marking the United States’ 250th birthday. But within days of the $15 million work being completed on June 6, the pool began experiencing issues, from algae blooms to blue coating peeling off the bottom.

Hearn is a three-time Olympia, having competed in the Barcelona games of 1992, the Atlanta games of 1996 and the Sydney games of 2000. He is a former canoe slalom athlete.

Boeing has been cleared to start producing Joint Direct Attack Munition-Long Range (JDAM-LR) precision-guided weapons for the U.S. Navy. The JDAM-LR is essentially a small cruise missile derived from the JDAM family of precision-guided bombs. The weapon will give the Navy, and potentially other services, a new way to bolster stocks of air-launched stand-off munitions. This all follows the Navy’s announcement of successful test launches of JDAM-LRs from F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters back in April.

In a press release yesterday, Boeing announced that it had received an Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA) from the U.S. Air Force valued at $75 million related to JDAM-LR production for the Navy. The Air Force serves as the central manager for the joint-service JDAM program. By definition, a UCA means the parties still have to work out the final details of the deal, which could include the price point. UCAs are often used to kick-start work in response to urgent requirements.

“This first production contract is a major milestone for the JDAM LR program, demonstrating our ability to deliver long-range precision-strike capability at a significantly lower cost,” Bob Ciesla, Vice President of Boeing Precision Engagement Systems, said in a statement, underscoring confidence in the new UCA. “Scaling production of the GBU-75 will provide the fleet with an affordable, sustainable solution designed to eliminate long-range land and sea-based threats to U.S. and international forces and enable them to safely and effectively operate in a contested battlespace.”

GBU-75/B is the designation that has been applied, so far, to complete JDAM-LR munitions. Boeing’s release yesterday also revealed that the core component of the weapon, the so-called Payload Delivery Unit (PDU), has now also been designated BSU-111/B.

Like unpowered JDAMs, the JDAM-LR is more of a kit than a munition by itself. The PDU contains the guidance section, systems to interface with the launching aircraft, a pop-out wing kit, and a compact turbojet engine (understood to be the TDI-J85). PDU is then combined with a standardized low-drag 500-pound-class bomb as its ‘warhead’ to create a complete weapon.

As with JDAM variants – which also come in 1,000-pound-class and 2,000-pound-class variations – the modular kit-type design creates immense flexibility for how JDAM-LRs can be configured. In the past, Boeing has shown depictions of what it originally called the Powered JDAM (PJDAM) paired with general-purpose high-explosive bombs and air-dropped shallow-water anti-ship mines. There are many other 500-pound-class bombs with this same form factor already available, including specialized designs intended to reduce the risk of collateral damage.

In terms of guidance, JDAM-LR leverages the GPS-assisted inertial navigation system from the unpowered JDAM family. This guidance method can only be used to target static coordinates. Boeing has previously shown concepts for multi-mode guidance packages that could also include active seekers, such as a radar or imaging infrared system, which would enable strikes on moving targets at sea and on land. Boeing already produces a version of the 500-pound-class JDAM that adds a laser seeker to allow for the engagement of moving targets.

The biggest capability boost offered by the JDAM-LR over existing JDAM types is, of course, the stand-off range. Boeing says the powered version can hit targets more than 345 miles (300 nautical miles) away. A typical underpowered JDAM can still glide after release, but only out to around 15 miles, according to the Air Force. With the addition of a pop-out wing kit, JDAM-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) types have greater reach, extending out to roughly 45 miles. This all depends on various factors, especially release altitude and the speed of the launch platform.

There are also benefits to this design, and to leveraging existing technology from the JDAM family, when it comes to cost and scalability of production. Boeing says it has also invested nearly $100 million of its own money in this program, which traces its roots back to the late 2010s, at least.

What the exact unit cost of a typical JDAM-LR will be is unclear. However, historically, standard JDAM kits have cost between $20,000 and $30,000. The current price point for a TDI-J85 engine is unknown, but TWZ has used the Williams F107, a larger turbojet used in various cruise missiles, as a point of comparison in the past. Past reports have put the F107’s price tag at some $190,000. A typical 500-pound-class low-drag bomb would add another few thousand dollars to that total.

Regardless, for the Navy especially, JDAM-LR offers a lower-cost and lower-risk pathway to bolstering the standoff munition capabilities of its carrier air wings, and stockpiles of those weapons for future fights. The sevice notably cancelled previous plans to acquire a turbojet-powered version of the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bomb back in 2021 in favor of a new version of the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRAM) with secondary land attack capability. In 2024, the Navy also disclosed that it was axing plans to incorporate land attack functionality on the AGM-158C-3 variant. It should also be noted here that LRASM is a very capable, but also very expensive weapon, with unit costs generally pegged in the $3 million range, regardless of version.

Navy carrier air wings do also have access to the AGM-84K Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) missile, which can be employed by F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. An air-launched land-attack outgrowth of the Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile, the SLAM-ER’s maximum range is reportedly around 170 miles. These missiles also have unit costs in the $3 million range.