Iranian island again comes under attack

“You almost don’t want to wake up:” Key Iranian island again comes under attack

By Leila Gharagozlou

US overnight strikes on Iran killed a couple and their two-year-old child in their home in the village of Chah Tangu on the southern Qeshm Island, according to Iranian state media.

Two other children, aged 11 and 7, were pulled out of the rubble after being trapped and now are receiving medical treatment.

Chah Tangu is populated mostly by streetsweepers and laborers and found on Qeshm Island, the largest in the Persian Gulf and close to the vital Strait of Hormuz

Footage of the home released on Iranian media showed the clock in the house stopped at 3:36 a.m. local time when the US strikes hit.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei identified those killed as Qaisar and Zahra Jafari “and their innocent two-year-old child, Sina,” adding that several homes had been destroyed.

“With every explosion, with every crime, with every sanction, with every threat, with the killing of every child, you make Iranians more determined and united in defending their homeland,” Baqaei said in a post on X.

The US has resumed striking targets across southern and coastal Iran after a brief lull in fighting.

A sports center in the town of Farashband was also damaged but no casualties were reported.

One resident of Qeshm Island, a woman aged 50, told CNN that the unpredictability of the conflict has made it difficult to maintain normal life.

“There’s anxiety every time I go to sleep. Will you make it through the night, will your friends and family, will there be strikes, will we get a break. You almost don’t want to wake up in the morning and see what has happened.”

Qeshm Island has been a target throughout the war. In March Iranian state media accused the US of attacking a desalination plant on the island.

US Central Command said American forces had carried out a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran in response to what it described as attempted missile attacks targeting its forces in the Middle East.

Odyssey

'Odyssey' translator Emily Wilson says Nolan shouldn't have written the movie himself

By Dave Davies

Christopher Nolan's new film The Odyssey is a box-office hit. But University of Pennsylvania classics scholar Emily Wilson, who published her own translation of Homer's epic in 2017, says Nolan's script is poorly written and lacking in emotional depth and character development. And, she adds, there are no sex scenes — and all the food looks horrible.

"We need to have a protagonist with detailed, believable motivation," Wilson says. "[But] these desires seem stripped from Odysseus. He doesn't seem to want food. He doesn't seem to want sex. What does he want?"

Set in the aftermath of the mythical Trojan War, The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, the Greek hero who embarks on an epic journey home to Ithaca. Wilson's translation, which took six years to complete, has been hailed for its vibrant language and faithfulness to the original Greek text. But as the first woman to publish an English-language translation of The Odyssey, she's also faced an onslaught of misogynistic online commentary.

Nolan has cited Wilson's translation in discussing his approach to the film, but Wilson says she was disappointed with the adaptation — and especially by Nolan's rendering of the central character. In her translation, Wilson describes Odysseus as a "complicated" man. He outwits the Cyclops and constructs an oversized wooden horse, which allows his soldiers to ambush the Trojans and win the war.

"He's clever ... and smart and therefore a fascinating character," Wilson says. But, she adds, "the movie gives us a version of Matt Damon as Odysseus, who is not required to be smart, instead he's just constantly troubled by anxiety about his role in the Trojan Horse and the Trojan War. ... That's a shame."

Nolan wrote the script for The Odyssey himself, which Wilson feels may have been a mistake: "I do think that it would have been better if Nolan had hired a scriptwriter, because that would have solved a lot of the issues."

Despite her critiques of the film, Wilson says it's "absolutely" still worth seeing. "There's a lot to think about, both in terms of what is this film saying about … war, violence and deception in our times, and also what it's doing with the source material," she says. "The actors are amazing. It's a star-studded cast and they're doing their absolute best with the script they were given."

For her part, Wilson admits to being "addicted" to Homer's epic. In her 2017 translation of The Odyssey, she confined herself to the same number of lines as the original. Now she's working on yet another translation of the epic poem, in which she frees herself from "line-for-line" constraint.

"I ... am using more lines, therefore longer words sometimes. … And I'm also going to have much, much longer end notes," she says. "I'm having so much fun. I'm over halfway through and I never want it to end."

Wilson also has a collection of essays coming out in September. Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature introduces readers to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome and the challenges of translation. In addition, it explores some modern themes, such as parallels between the hip-hop of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and the comedies of Aristophanes in 5th-century B.C.E. Athens.

On role of the gods and goddesses in Nolan's film

They're kind of missing. I mean, there's a moment when Zendaya, who's sort of Athena, but maybe not, says to Matt Damon's Odysseus, who's complaining that the gods don't speak in a language that mortals can understand, and Zendaya says, "Who doesn't understand thunder, fire, a baby's cry?" We understand those things. So implicitly, the gods are present.

But I felt the film, in some ways, wants to have it both ways. … There's noise in the soundtrack; there is thunder. So, of course, Zeus is there. ... Are we actually supposed to believe in Zeus and Poseidon? Or is Calypso a goddess, or is Circe a goddess? I would have liked a little bit more of the divine.

On how the sirens are represented

The sirens in the archaic and classical Greek tradition are always represented in ancient art as kind of bird characters with women's faces ... who could lure sailors to their doom. ... Odysseus blocks his men's ears with wax so they don't hear the enchanting song ... but Odysseus himself is eager to hear their song, so he has the men tie him to the mast. It's a memorable scene in the movie. It's also a very memorable scene in the poem. ... [In the film] they're definitely not birds. They're surrounded by seals. They don't seem to have any clothes on. But I think they're sort of naked seal ladies. But I'm not really sure.

On performing in a school production of The Odyssey when she was 8

I went to the local primary school and the teachers there were getting sick of doing nativity plays every year, so they wanted to mix it up and use their creativity. So they did a kids' adaptation of The Odyssey and [my sister] Bee was Helen of Troy. She was great. And I got to be Athena and I got make my own tinfoil helmet. And we got to gouge out the eye of the headmaster who played Polyphemus. He was wonderfully game, and let us do it. And it was such fun.

And for me as a very shy child, I realized that there was this wonderful outlet through the world of stories, especially through the world of Greek myth. So it turned me on to the fact that this world of magic existed. … I read all of the kids' adaptations that I could get my hands on. And then eventually I went to a high school where I could learn Latin and Greek. And so my life was made.

On how getting her doctorate in the U.S. made her think about translation differently 

When I was studying Homer as an undergraduate, nobody ever said, "You must read this or that translation." Translations were very much despised. They were for amateurs. If you're a serious classicist, of course, you read the poems in Greek. You read the commentaries, you read dictionaries, you read original texts. Whereas once I got to this country [the U.S.], and especially once I started teaching in America, I realized there's so much potential for translations to introduce serious undergraduates to the world of ancient literature. ...

Once I'd been teaching Homer in many different translations for many years, I realized there were things I could convey from the Greek that would actually be useful for Anglophone, English-reading, English-speaking readers to have available to them in a translation of Homer.

On being the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English — but not knowing that until after the fact  

That was news to me. I hadn't even thought about the fact that all of the translations I'd used in the classroom before were by men. I mean, that wasn't actually part of my motivation at all. I've already talked about my motivation in terms of poetics and in terms of pacing and in terms of the proto-dramatic vividness of the poem. It wasn't that I thought, "Homer hasn't got enough girl cooties on it, let me get them." Which, I think, sometimes the online discourse seems to be some version of that. Or some version also ... can be, "Let's celebrate her for being a girl," which I think either one of those is actually a little bit misleading about my actual work.

On why she doesn't consider her work a feminist translation 

I think it's very limiting in terms of women's work — and also in terms of feminism — if you think anything a woman does is inherently feminist. I also think it is misleading about the fact that, of course, there are many, many female classicists, many female Homerists. There were also many female translators of Homer into other languages. … So I think it's this blinkered idea both about gender and about the idea that the English-speaking world is the only thing that exists.

I certainly don't approach the task of translation with the assumption that all female characters will be presented as ridiculous, but I don't think that's actually feminism. I think feminism actually needs to be a bit more than that if there's going to be feminist intervention. I do approach the task of translating Homer with the idea that these poems are really good and they're really good at characterizing all of the characters, including female characters, including enslaved characters, that we really do get these richly realized distinct points of view. But again, that's not actually about feminism.

On the (mostly male) trolls who have harassed her online 

I don't think most of these people are very serious students of Homer or students of ancient history. I think these are people who, from what I can tell, are people who want to construct some kind of narrative to justify prejudices that they are very much attached to. I wish that some of them would just have a face-to-face conversation with me rather than spamming me with emails. ...

I also get so many lovely, lovely emails from strangers all the time. I mean, in fact, I've got far more recently with the new attention to The Odyssey and The Iliad in the wake of this spectacular Hollywood film. So I actually don't want the discourse to be framed in terms of it's all just about hatred and partisanship. I think it's actually a lot of it that's not about that. A lot of the story here is that there really are new readers, new audiences coming to Homer and ancient literature. And also some of my favorites are people who've read The Odyssey or The Iliad years ago or been forced through it in school and then come back to it and realize there is so much more in this poem than I realized when I read it when I was 16.

At least 8 civilians killed and wound dozens

Russian strikes across Ukraine kill at least 8 civilians and wound dozens

By The Associated Press

A Russian ballistic missile and drone barrage across Ukraine overnight into Thursday killed at least eight civilians, including children, and wounded dozens of others, officials said.

The blitz expanded Russia's almost daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities as Moscow apparently looked to exploit Kyiv's critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses.

NATO member Poland, meanwhile, was looking into Ukrainian reports that a Russian cruise missile entered its airspace during the onslaught.

The barrage spanned regions across Ukraine, including areas by the border with Poland that are far from the front line in the east of the country and where Ukraine is believed to store and manufacture weapons for its fight against Russia's more than 4-year-old invasion. Its long-range drones and missiles have battered Russia's oil sector, causing a fuel crisis.

The attack came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump and representatives of American defense companies, as he pleads for swifter and bigger deliveries of Patriot air defense systems that are the best way to stop Russia's ballistic assaults.

The Iran war has drained stockpiles of the American-made interceptors. Trump has promised to grant Ukraine licenses to build its own Patriots, but production could take a long time to set up.

"Given the critical shortage of air defense missiles from our partners, our warriors are accomplishing truly incredible things, demonstrating a very high level of professionalism," Zelenskyy said on social media.

"This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people," he said.

Russia says its attack targeted military sites

Zelenskyy said at least 10 Ukrainian regions were attacked, with dozens of homes, businesses and infrastructure facilities destroyed or damaged.

Russia launched more than 70 missiles, a significant number of them ballistic, he said, along with more than 280 attack drones, of which more than 260 were intercepted.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it aimed at Ukrainian air bases, arms factories and military telecommunications and logistics facilities.

The targets included drone production factories and storage depots, a missile plant, an aircraft repair plant, a factory making electronic components, and a chemical plant, it said.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian attack killed six people and wounded 10, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said.

Children were among the dead, he said on Telegram — a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17 in the Kryvyi Rih area.

The children's parents were killed in the same attack, but two more children were pulled alive from under the rubble, Zelenskyy said.

"It was an ordinary home, blown (to) smithereens by a ballistic missile … " he said on X.

In Kyiv, Russian forces struck the capital with ballistic missiles, killing a 31-year-old man and wounding two others, the National Police press service said. Residential buildings, a market, a garage cooperative, storage facilities and vehicles were damaged in the city, police said.

A cruise missile attack struck the western city of Lviv, wounding 34 people, including three children ages 6, 13 and 15, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv regional military administration. Emergency crews were still searching through rubble.

In the Poltava region, a drone hit company warehouses, killing one person, regional military head Vitalii Diakivnych said.

Poland looks into whether a Russian cruise missile crossed its border

A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Poland overnight, violating NATO airspace, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

Sybiha called it a clear demonstration that strengthening Ukraine's air defense is urgent and serves as a guarantee of wider European protection.

Polish authorities did not immediately confirm Sybiha's comments.

An unidentified object flying westward in the middle of the night was tracked in Polish airspace and an F-16 fighter jet was launched to identify and intercept it, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said on X.

The object disappeared from radar screens before it could be identified, the command said. A helicopter flew to its last known location, where the crew discovered a probable impact site in an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin province, the command wrote.

Polish authorities have not confirmed what, if anything, crashed. Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled to the area Thursday morning to inspect the site.

Ukraine hits 2 more depots of major Russian online retailer

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight.

A depot belonging to Wildberries online retailer was set ablaze in Russia's Penza region southeast of Moscow, in the latest strike on the company's warehouses, Penza Gov. Oleg Melnichenko.

One person was injured and 200 workers were evacuated, he said.

Wildberries also reported that its warehouse in Sarapul in the region of Udmurtia, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, was struck by a Ukrainian drone and set ablaze. It said the workers had been safely evacuated.

Ukraine accuses Wildberries of supplying goods that can be used by the Russian military.

Republicans withhold support

Senate panel delays vote on Blanche's nomination as key Republicans withhold support

By The Associated Press

Todd Blanche's nomination to become attorney general stalled Wednesday as lawmakers scrapped a planned committee vote after key Republicans demanded more assurances about the settlement of President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears at his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 15. During Blanche's tenure as acting Attorney General the Justice Department has been under scrutiny for pushing President Trump's 1.8 billion dollar "anti-weaponization" fund and its handling of the Epstein files.

The Senate Judiciary Committee had been expected to vote Thursday on whether to advance Blanche's nomination to the full chamber. But resistance from two Republican senators on the committee who could block Blanche's nomination threw his confirmation into doubt.

A spokesperson for the committee said in a statement Wednesday night that the vote would be postponed "as work continues to secure sufficient support." The delay came after hours of negotiations between the Justice Department and Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis over the controversial settlement that afforded Trump and members of his family protection from tax audits.

At the center of the fight is the resolution of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. It included a deal to drop tax claims against the president and a now-scrapped plan to create a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate people who believe they were wronged by the Justice Department. The department said in June that it was no longer moving forward with the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" amid bipartisan outrage, but officials have said the audit immunity agreement remains in place.

Cornyn and Tillis have demanded additional assurances in writing that the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" is dead and have pressed for clarification on the scope of the tax immunity deal. Cornyn has said he wants the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.

Cornyn, who recently lost the Republican primary in Texas, accused the Justice Department earlier Wednesday of "stonewalling" and said "the ball is in Blanche's court."

"We're been trying to help them get to a conclusion here and they won't let us. It's befuddling to me," Cornyn told reporters.

Blanche didn't answer shouted questions from reporters as he left Capitol Hill, where he had been meeting with senators Wednesday. The Justice Department sent Cornyn and Tillis new language Wednesday evening in an effort to satisfy their demands, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about sensitive discussions surrounding Blanche's confirmation.

After the vote was postponed, the department said in a statement that it looks "forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns."

Trump on Wednesday downplayed any concerns about Blanche's path to confirmation, calling his attorney general pick and former personal attorney "outstanding."

"Maybe John Cornyn's upset with me because I didn't endorse him," Trump told reporters in response to questions about the senator's requests.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the state's Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, easily defeating Cornyn. Trump had endorsed Paxton.

Some lawmakers have questioned whether the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" could be resurrected absent a commitment in writing from the Trump administration that it is not moving forward, especially since Trump has expressed continued support for the idea. Blanche had previously resisted requests for a formal written retraction, though he told senators at his confirmation hearing earlier this month that the administration would be willing to help craft legislation to bar the creation of the fund.

The settlement resulting from Trump's lawsuit over his leaked tax returns has drawn intense scrutiny both in Congress and in court. The judge handling the case said in a scathing ruling earlier this month that Trump had effectively engaged in self-dealing through the lawsuit and that she was troubled Blanche had signed the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.

Blanche has said he disagrees "with the judge's insinuations" about him.

Favor Democrats by an 8-point margin

Voters favor Democrats by an 8-point margin heading into the midterms

By Jennifer Agiesta, Ariel Edwards-Levy

Less than 100 days before the midterms, voters are agitating for wholesale change in Congress and looking to the Democratic Party in hopes of making that happen.

Democrats lead Republicans on the generic ballot by 8 points among registered voters, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Democrats also continue to hold a significant advantage in voter enthusiasm and have a 20-point advantage in preferences among those who say they are extremely motivated to vote. More Americans say the country would be better off (38%) than worse off (33%) if Democrats were to take control of Congress this November, with 29% saying it wouldn’t make a difference.

In an indication of the hunger for drastic change in Washington, a majority of voters say that Congress would be better off if most of its current members were unseated in this fall’s election, higher by double digits than the share who felt that way ahead of the Democratic wave election in the midst of the Iraq War in 2006.

Voters’ frustration with Washington comes through in deeply negative views of both parties and their congressional leaders, along with a widespread sense that neither side is spending enough time on the economic concerns that have consistently been top of mind for voters.

But it’s Republicans who fare a bit worse on that metric: 63% of Americans say that the GOP is focusing too little on cost-of-living issues, compared with 52% who say the Democrats aren’t spending enough time on it.

By a 10-point margin, Americans now call Democrats more than Republicans “the party of change,” a shift from last spring, when the GOP had a 7-point advantage on that metric. The GOP’s modest edge on perceptions as “the party that can get things done” has also narrowed over the past year. At the same time, roughly half of the public says neither party deserves these labels.

Most Democrats want to see change within their party

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly eager for change within the party itself. Nearly 6 in 10 Democratic-aligned adults say their party needs at least major changes, if not complete reform.

At the same time, those who align with the Democratic Party are now more likely than they were at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term to say the last few years of politics made them feel closer to the Democratic Party (31% now vs. 23% in January 2025).

Those who see a need for change are far more likely to think that younger candidates, new leadership and a stronger stand against Trump would improve the party – rather than a move to either the left or the center. And some said that moving in either direction would be an improvement.

Perhaps the most powerful unifying force on the Democratic side remains anger at Trump, which currently outpaces the loyalty he’s inspiring within the GOP. Seven out of 10 Democratic-aligned voters say their vote in November will be to send a message of opposition to the president, while just 41% of GOP-aligned voters say theirs will be a show of support.

Six in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they’d be upset to see their party nominate a candidate who supports even some key Trump policies, far higher than the share who’d strongly object to a candidate with a pugnacious approach, one over age 70, or one who’s a democratic socialist. By contrast, just 18% of Republican-aligned adults say they’d be upset with a candidate who opposes key Trump policies.

How Republicans reckon with Trump’s influence

Amid some erosion in Trump’s GOP support, 56% of Republicans and Republican-leaners now say he has had a good effect on the party, down from 67% who said so earlier this year.

But Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are not as eager as Democrats are for change within their party, with only about one-third saying the party needs major changes. That sentiment is much stronger among the non-MAGA wing of the party: 46% of those who don’t consider themselves members of the Make America Great Again movement feel the party needs an overhaul, compared with 17% of those who do.

MAGA Republicans and Republican-leaners are about twice as likely as the rest of the GOP to say that Trump has had a good effect on the party, and only about one-quarter as likely to acknowledge former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Attitudes toward Israel shift in both parties

Most Democratic-aligned adults say they’d be fine with their party nominating a candidate who supports cutting aid to Israel, while most Republicans would be less comfortable with a GOP candidate saying the same. But neither party is unanimous on the issue.

Age is a clear dividing line: Democratic-aligned adults younger than 45 are 22 points likelier than their older counterparts to say they’d be enthusiastic about such a candidate. Younger GOP-aligned adults, meanwhile, are 23 points likelier than older ones to say they’d feel at least OK about it.

Muddled midterm messages

Democrats have tried to seize on fighting corruption as a midterm plank. But while some of the examples they’ve pointed to – including Trump’s personal earnings while president – are deeply unpopular with the public, Americans are about evenly split on which party is fighting corruption, with nearly half saying that applies to neither side.

And amid Republican efforts to focus on culture war issues, Americans are nearly as likely to say that the GOP is too focused on race and gender issues (31%)  as they are to say Democrats are doing too much on the topic (36%).

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from July 23-27 among a random national sample of 1,225 US adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Strikes on Iran in retaliation

US launches strikes on Iran in retaliation for failed attack on American troops

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it successfully intercepted an Iranian missile attack on U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East.

By Emilio Perez Ibarguen

The U.S. launched fresh strikes against Iran Wednesday evening in retaliation for an attempted Iranian attack on American forces in the Middle East, the Pentagon announced, the first U.S. strikes following a brief lull in the fighting.

U.S. Central Command, in a social media post, characterized the strikes as a “powerful response” to the Iranian missiles launched Tuesday. Under two hours later, CENTCOM followed up with an additional post saying the strikes hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran in an effort to “further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries.” The targets included “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities,” per CENTCOM, which reiterated that the strikes were a response to an “attempted surprise attack” on U.S. forces based in the Middle East in which all Iranian projectiles were successfully intercepted.

The strikes mark the first ones CENTCOM has publicly acknowledged the U.S. launched on Iran in five days, a respite which was preceded by 13 days of consecutive air attacks on the country. Those strikes have been largely focused on impacting Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for the world energy supply chain that has become a sticking point in peace talks.

President Donald Trump previewed a possible retaliatory strike much of Wednesday, telling reporters gathered at the White House in the afternoon that “we’re gonna be hitting them very hard.”

“They know it’s coming. They’re asking us not to do it,” the president added. “But, you know, they tried shooting last night.”

The renewed fighting this month follows the collapse of a temporary peace agreement between the two countries due to Iran attacking shipping vessels moving through the strait, which led to U.S. strikes in retaliation.

The president made a series of escalating threats towards Iran during the days of continuous strikes, saying last week the U.S. will strike “one bridge or power plant” for every ship attacked in the Middle Eastern waterway. The Geneva Conventions prohibit strikes on civilian infrastructure acknowledged to be “indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”

And the war, which shows few signs of ending soon, has become a source of anxiety for Republicans amid heightened gas prices and the deaths of American soldiers, despite the president’s insistence that Iran is desperate to negotiate another ceasefire. Iran’s refusal to back down has been perceived by some to represent the limits of the U.S.’s aerial assault.

Meanwhile, European allies are dismissing the Trump administration’s efforts to get them to join a naval patrol of the strait, signaling that they want to see a ceasefire in the region first.

Who do you believe???

Trump says it’s "our turn" to strike after intercepted Iranian attack

By Kevin Liptak at the White House

President Donald Trump pledged to forcefully respond to Iran’s attempted attack on US military positions, saying it was “our turn” in the ongoing attacks that briefly went quiet as he sought a diplomatic off-ramp.

“We’re going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them. They know it’s coming,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Iran fired missiles toward US forces in the region overnight, according to the US military. All were intercepted.

It was a departure from the usual pattern in the tit-for-tat attacks, which have seen Iran responding to US strikes, and appeared to demonstrate Iran’s willingness to restart the hostilities.

“They’re asking us not to do it,” Trump said of the US retaliation, adding all the incoming fire had been “knocked down to the ground.”

“But they nevertheless took a shot, so it’s our turn,” he went on, “and we’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point. But we’re going to hit them very hard.”

Later, Trump suggested the attack was carried out by a different faction of Iranian leadership than the officials the US has been talking to.

“It was a different group than we’re dealing with,” he said. “They’ve already apologized, but you know we gotta smack them a little bit.”

Ban new Chinese humanoid robots

Trump administration to ban new Chinese humanoid robots, protecting US AI buildout

Story by Alexandra Alper

The Trump administration on Tuesday plans to unveil bans that target imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking to protect the U.S. AI buildout from national security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth, U.S. officials said.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday afternoon plans to roll out the measures, which bar Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots —  in addition to connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment, the people said.

The restrictions, whose imminent release has not been previously reported, show the Trump administration is aiming to safeguard the U.S. artificial intelligence supply chain from Chinese threats of disruption, data theft and cyberattacks, while also driving firms to shift manufacturing to the U.S.     

"The President has made clear that the United States must have independent and secure supply chains for critical and emerging technologies like robotic devices and power inverters," said an administration official, who declined to be named because the matter was not public.

"Economic security is national security, and the Trump administration continues to implement a nuanced and multi-faceted policy agenda to reindustrialize America," he added.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Humanoid robots, topped with AI-enabled "brains," are forecast by some analysts for broad adoption in consumer and industrial arenas, while explosive data-center construction in the U.S. will depend on reliable sources of inverters.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese AI firms could face U.S. sanctions for stealing U.S. intellectual property. 

U.S. officials are also keen to avoid another scenario as happened with rare earth minerals — critical inputs for tech manufacturing so dominated by China that Beijing has been able to leverage access to them to secure big wins on the international stage.

FCC LIKELY TO EXEMPT NON-CHINESE SUPPLIERS

As part of the measures slated to be announced on Tuesday, the FCC will ban foreign imports of new models of targeted technologies and is then expected to exempt many non-Chinese suppliers from the restrictions, as it has done with recent bans on foreign drones and routers, four additional sources said.

The restrictions, which will go into effect upon publication, will apply only to robot and inverter models that have not yet been released, another U.S. official said. However, the FCC has the authority to revoke authorizations for sales of models that have already been authorized for purchase in the United States.

President Donald Trump is credited with bringing international attention to the tech threat posed by China during his first term, giving voice to concerns about intellectual property theft by Chinese firms, and the threat of state-sponsored spying by Chinese telecom juggernauts like Huawei . 

But he has so far taken a much more dovish approach during his second term, faced with Beijing's aggressive use of export controls on rare earth minerals last year.

The robot ban is expected to hit Unitree, a world leader in humanoid robots with just under a fifth of global market share, according to Counterpoint Research.

The firm, which is one of three Chinese companies dominating the nascent but buzzy industry, was recently added to the Pentagon's list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies, which can be a harbinger of tougher U.S. action. 

Unitree recently formed a partnership with Nvidia to use the AI chip company's cutting-edge Blackwell chip to power the brain of a Unitree robot. Nvidia has said data from the robots will remain in the U.S. and that Unitree's biggest customers are U.S. academic and research institutions.

China hawks fear the robots could spy on key U.S. industries, exfiltrating data to Beijing or disrupting their key functions. 

China is the world’s largest maker of inverters, led by Sungrow Power Supply and Huawei, already heavily sanctioned by the U.S. Beijing has been expanding its share in the Western inverter market by driving down prices.

Reuters previously reported that the FCC was working on a Chinese inverter ban, inspired by recent action by Europe and concerns around disruption and installation of malware.

Authorities want to avoid another Chinese government-linked hacking campaign like the one dubbed Volt Typhoon, revealed in 2023. By taking control of privately owned routers, the attackers sought to hide subsequent attacks on American critical infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Defense is already barred from procuring solar photovoltaic cells, modules or inverters manufactured by a foreign entity of concern, which would include Chinese companies.

Unitree, Sungrow and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A big Fuck You to the orange turd...

Against Trump's wishes, Calif. Young Republicans group endorses Democrat

By Anabel Sosa

In an unexpected move, a group of young Republicans endorsed a Democrat running in their Central Valley district instead of his Donald Trump-endorsed opponent. That bold move could cost that local chapter its official standing. 

Last week, the Madera Young Republicans endorsed Rep. Adam Gray, the incumbent Democrat who has represented California’s 13th Congressional District since winning the seat in 2024. The endorsement was spotted by an online poll tracker, which showed a screen capture of the group’s Instagram post. 

In response the California Young Republicans, the state’s umbrella organization, said it would take swift action against the satellite group. It said the move was an “egregious” violation of its bylaws, which prohibits member chapters from endorsing Democrats.

“We have initiated a formal disciplinary proceedings against the Madera chapter, including the beginning stages of disbandment and dischartering providers to remove this chapter from our organization,” a statement from the California Young Republicans said.

The group denounced the endorsement, calling it an action that “fundamentally betrays the conservative principles” of the organization. 

They continued that the “the decision to endorse a Democrat demonstrates a complete abandonment of the mission and values that define us as an organization dedicated to electing Republican candidates and preserving conservative ideals throughout California.”

Gray is not just any Democrat in California. He leans more towards the middle of the political spectrum, and on several occasions, he has split from his own party. He was notably the sole Democrat from California, and just one of 13 Democrats total, to vote to end the government shutdown last year, a move that signaled he is willing to compromise with Republicans to bring necessary funding, such as SNAP benefits and promised healthcare funding, to constituents. 

It’s unclear why the Madera Young Republicans diverged from the statewide organization, which endorsed Gray’s Republican opponent, Kevin Lincoln. 

Lincoln, a former military officer, won the endorsement of President Donald Trump and other major Republican figures, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and four other Republican congressmen, both current and former, in California. Lincoln also has the support of the Republican Party of Madera County. 

SFGATE reached out to the Madera GOP for comment but did not hear back before the time of publication. Contact information and social media pages for the Madera Young Republicans group are no longer publicly available. The Fresno Bee reported that the group no longer had a social media presence as of last Wednesday.

Gray flipped the Fresno-area seat in 2024, which includes Merced, San Joaquin, Madera, Fresno and Stanislaus counties, by unseating one-term Republican incumbent John Duarte. He notably won by just 187 votes. The district has become more Democratic since redistricting, but it is still looked at as a purple, battleground district. 

A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Gray said in an emailed statement to SFGATE that Gray welcomes any and all bipartisan support.

“Congressman Gray welcomes the support of Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters,” the spokesperson said. “The people of the Valley expect their representative to work with anyone when it means making life better for the communities we serve.”

It's just bullshit and they know it...........

Fauci invokes the Fifth Amendment and declines to testify in GOP-led Senate panel's COVID-19 hearing

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and ALI SWENSON

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions from senators in a Republican-led committee hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move injects new drama into the lingering tensions between Fauci and Republican lawmakers over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accusations he lied about the origins of COVID-19, which he denies.

Fauci was set to answer lawmakers’ questions after being subpoenaed by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long had a fraught relationship with the now-retired infectious-disease expert and led the charge seeking that he testify, again, under oath.

Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth, at least for now, sidesteps calls for his prosecution if he is accused of lying at Wednesday’s hearing, part of a yearslong campaign for his arrest spearheaded by some Republicans in Congress. Though he received a presidential pardon from Democrat Joe Biden, some of Fauci's critics have suggested he could still face charges if he perjures himself under oath.

His refusal to answer questions may also further inflame partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic, which was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020.

Fauci, who helped lead the nation’s COVID-19 response, has long been a target of those frustrations. But to his supporters he is an emblem of sound scientific expertise.

In his opening statement, Fauci said Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said, adding that while it pains him to do so, he is following his attorney’s advice by taking the Fifth.

Paul releases some of Fauci's diary

Paul in his opening statement sought to build the case that Fauci helped produce the COVID-19 pandemic by approving funding of research on virus mutations and then covered up his complicity.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee's ranking member, said the hearing was a partisan exercise that looked backward instead of focusing on current national security challenges.

Leading up to the hearing, Paul released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal diary covering the pandemic years. Pointing to some notes about early efforts at understanding how the virus emerged, Paul wrote on the social media platform X that what Fauci “wrote privately and what he told the country are two different stories.”

Some of the diary entries – including Fauci’s uncertainty in the pandemic’s earliest days as scientists around the world raced to understand the new virus and how best to curb it before vaccines could be created – already were reflected in a 2024 memoir and in interviews at the time.

But they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for mask mandates, school closures and other policies they believe infringed on their rights as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.

Ahead of the hearing, President Donald Trump wrote on social media that he stopped relying on Fauci over the course of the pandemic because he felt Fauci made bad decisions on masks, shutdowns and other issues.

In a statement, Fauci’s attorney David Schertler said Paul’s accusations are “false and disgraceful, and we will examine all options to hold him accountable.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered public office, said Monday that his department gave the diary entries, which were created on a government computer, to the committee. He told a Fox News Channel host that he thought Fauci might lie before the committee, opening him to perjury prosecution.

Paul told Fauci that he may still face repercussions for obstructing a congressional investigation by refusing to testify. That could include a contempt of Congress citation, which would be referred to the Justice Department for consideration.

Scientists scrambled to Fauci’s defense ahead of the unusual hearing — the second time the longtime National Institutes of Health scientist has been back before Congress to discuss pandemic origins since leaving the government in 2022. While the COVID-19 pandemic introduced him to millions of Americans, he talked the nation through numerous outbreaks over decades, including HIV, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks, while advising seven presidents.

Some disease experts criticize the accusations against Fauci

In a public letter, more than 150 infectious-disease experts and other scientists wrote that “no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges” and that they are “urging our elected representatives in Congress stop these witch-hunts.”

The expected crux of Wednesday’s hearing was whether NIH-funded research in China may have played a role in how the pandemic started.

Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, coming to light when it spread at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. There’s no new scientific information supporting that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory, a theory Paul champions. A GOP-led subcommittee that studied the question in 2024 did not find any evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.

Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting COVID-19’s natural origins, the way other deadly viruses including coronavirus cousins SARS and MERS jumped into people.

Republicans also have accused Fauci of lying about whether his agency funded what's known as gain of function research — the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impact — at a lab in Wuhan.

The NIH for years gave grants to a New York nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, which used some of the funds to work with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. But the definition of gain of function covers both general research and especially risky experiments to enhance the ability of potential pandemic viruses to spread or cause severe disease in humans. Fauci has previously stressed he was using the risky experiment definition and that “it would be molecularly impossible” for those bat virus experiments to have turned into the pandemic virus.

Trump, a Republican, last year paused some federally funded gain of function research, and on Tuesday his administration announced new rules to tighten oversight.