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.

Another fun day..........

Iran resumes missile attacks as U.S. and Saudis strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

By The Associated Press

Iran launched a barrage of missiles at American forces in the Middle East early Wednesday as the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Tehran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters.

Middle East

U.S. and Iran pause airstrikes as diplomatic efforts move forward

The flare-up on multiple fronts, after several days of relative calm, raised the risk of a return to all-out war. It also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and is unpopular among Americans. It was also likely to add to concerns that the U.S. is further drawing down already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.

Saudi Arabia had accused the Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past two days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while another Iran-backed group — the Houthi rebels in Yemen — said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.

Before the latest eruption, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table. An interim agreement collapsed in recent weeks over renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies that Iranian attacks have again effectively closed.

The renewed hostilities sent oil prices spiking. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.1% to $84.58 a barrel.

Jordan intercepts missiles and U.S. strikes militias in Iraq

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and the headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command in Jordan, in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Jordan's military said five Iranian missiles had been intercepted and destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The U.S. military later announced that American and Saudi fighter aircraft had struck multiple logistics and weapons sites in eastern Iraq in response to the alleged drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Defense Ministry warned that it "does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression."

The Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed armed groups that is officially under the command of the Iraqi military, said at least 20 fighters were killed and 32 others wounded in the overnight strikes.

The groups making up the PMF joined in the fight against the Islamic State group after it seized large sections of Iraq in 2014. The Iraqi government later designated PMF as an "independent military formation" within the armed forces, but in practice the militias have significant autonomy, and some have attacked U.S. facilities.

The office of Iraqi President Nizar Amidi condemned Wednesday's U.S.-Saudi airstrikes, calling them "an unacceptable attack and a blatant violation of Iraq's sovereignty, targeting its official security institutions."

The statement also said Iraq should not be a "launching pad or arena for attacks against neighboring countries or for settling regional and international scores." It called for dialogue and de-escalation.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called an emergency meeting of the country's National Security Council Wednesday to discuss the strikes.

Two Iraqi government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly said a visit to Saudi Arabia by al-Zaidi that had been scheduled for Thursday had been postponed indefinitely.

Attacks on Saudi oil facilities could worsen global energy crisis

Saudi Arabia is also locked in a renewed conflict with the Houthis. The rebels have declared a blockade of Saudi shipping that could choke off another crucial trade route in the Middle East running through the Bab el-Mandeb strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

On Monday, the Houthis said they had launched drones targeting oil facilities used to transport oil from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region to the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, a key bypass for Saudi exports blocked by Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The rebels said their attack was in response to a Saudi drone that they said had breached Yemen's airspace.

Planet Labs satellite imagery from Monday analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq oil processing facility in the kingdom's east. The massive facility is capable of processing approximately 7 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Attacks on Abqaiq claimed by the Houthis in 2019 disrupted production of 5.7 million barrels per day, spiking global oil prices and providing an initial demonstration of the vulnerability of Saudi oil facilities to missile and drone attacks.

Separately, a regional official said an oil refinery in Jazan, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, has temporarily shut down due to "relatively significant" damage from a Houthi attack on Saturday. The official, who was not authorized to brief journalists and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it would take several days to be repaired. The refinery produces 400,000 barrels per day.

The Texas-based IIR Energy consultancy said the facility shut down on Monday after initially operating at reduced rates since the attack two days earlier. Repairs and a tentative restart of the refinery were expected for Aug. 15, it said.

Iran rejects Oman proposal for managing Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz has been a major flashpoint in the conflict. Iran's deputy foreign minister said his country rejected a proposal by Oman, which lies on the other side of the strait, for jointly managing ship traffic.

In an interview with Iran's state-run television that aired Tuesday night, Kazem Gharibabadi said the Omani proposal included dividing the strait into two routes, each allowing the transit of 50% of shipping passing through the waterway.

Iran offered a counterproposal with a temporary plan for transit of vessels through its territorial waters, he said, adding that Iran's policy is for the strait "never to return to its prewar situation." Before the conflict, ships transited freely.

Crash is normal now.......

Dow drops 750 points ahead of Fed decision

By John Towfighi

US stocks extended losses Wednesday morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.

The Dow dropped 750 points, or 1.44%. The S&P 500 fell 0.75%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sank 1.1%.

The Dow erased its gains from yesterday, when it closed higher by 537 points. The index was set to snap a three-day winning streak.

As tech and AI stocks sold off in recent weeks, investors rotated into other sectors like financials and industrials, helping boost the Dow. But the blue-chip index tumbled on Wednesday as investors dumped stocks across different sectors.

Goldman Sachs (GS) and Caterpillar (CAT) each dropped about 4%, weighing on the Dow. The index is price-weighted, so the larger a company’s share price, the more influence it has. Goldman and Caterpillar have the largest share prices in the index.

All told, the Dow is down just 2% since hitting a record high above 53,000 points in early July.

Meanwhile, weakness in tech and AI continues to weigh on markets: The Nasdaq is down about 9% since its last record high in early June, putting it on the cusp of a so-called correction.

Elsewhere in markets, oil prices rose and Treasury yields moved higher. The US 10-year yield rose to 4.63%.

Looking for new routes

Tankers looking for new routes amid widening Middle East conflict

By Tim Lister and Eleni Giokos

The shipping industry is looking for new options after the recent declaration by the Iranian-backed Houthis that Saudi ships trying to reach the Indian Ocean would be targeted, according to analysts.

A number of tankers are using the northern route out of the Red Sea through the Suez Canal or loading oil at Sidi Kerir on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, where crude arrives through a pipeline from Saudi Arabia, according to shipping data.

“Saudi Arabia’s crude export routes are proving more resilient than expected,” according to Amena Bakr at maritime analysts Kpler.

“Rising Sidi Kerir loadings suggest greater use of the Suez-SUMED (pipeline) system,” Bakr noted Tuesday in a post on X. Even so, the Egyptian route “cannot 100% replace Bab al-Mandeb for crude exports to Asia,” she added.

The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabian ports on July 20 and have since claimed to have struck three Saudi tankers — the latest unconfirmed attack being on Tuesday.

Transits of the Bab al-Mandeb have fallen by 22% since the Houthi blockade was announced, according to maritime intelligence group Windward, from about 48 to 37 a day. Windward also noted that war-risk insurers are now excluding vessels with any Saudi port history from Red Sea coverage.

Transits through the Strait of Hormuz remain at very low levels, with the southern route supported by the US military seeing virtually no traffic, according to Windward.

“Hormuz recorded zero tanker crossings in either direction on Monday,” it said.

Crossings were higher on Tuesday, according to Kpler, with 12 confirmed transits, six leaving the Gulf and six entering. It noted the continued trend of ships using the Iranian corridor, which accounted for 10 of the 12 crossings.

“Saudi Arabia has the infrastructure to keep crude flowing, but every diversion comes at the cost of longer voyages, higher freight rates and greater operational complexity,” noted energy consultants MEES Wednesday.

“As the conflict spreads across multiple maritime fronts, resilience is becoming increasingly expensive — even if oil markets have yet to fully reflect that reality,” it said.

You wait.... My big brother is going to get you!!!!!

Trump says Iran "going to get a beating" after strikes targeting US forces

By Aileen Graef

US President Donald Trump promised retribution for an Iranian missile attack that was intercepted by US forces.

“We are going to beat the fucking shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News Wednesday morning.

“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”

Trump also said the US coordinated with the Iraqis before US-Saudi strikes against Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq.

Trump called the militias a “cancer on the world” and did not rule out further action against proxies in the region.

Winning........

Oil jumps after Trump threatens to hit Iran hard

By John Towfighi

Oil prices jumped Wednesday morning after President Donald Trump told Fox News that Iran is “going to get a beating” in response to an attempted attack on US forces.

Brent crude rose 5.8%, to $86.82 per barrel. US crude jumped 6.4%, to $84.30 per barrel.

Dow futures were down 330 points, or 0.6%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were each down about 0.1%.

Like Hitler at the end, delusional......

Trump issues sharp warning to Iran as diplomacy dissolves after US-Saudi strikes

By Sana Noor Haq

US President Donald Trump warned Tehran was “going to get a beating” for an attempted Iranian attack on US forces in the Middle East. Speaking to Fox News today, the US president said, “We are going to beat the f**king sh*t out of them.”

It comes hours after joint strikes by Washington and Riyadh against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities, fracturing tenuous diplomacy.

Trump added that the US coordinated with Iraqi officials before the assault on Iran-aligned militias in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi postponed a planned trip to Riyadh, citing “today’s events.”

The US-Saudi strikes triggered fierce criticism from multiple wings of the Iraqi political body, with former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani cautioning against a “dangerous overstep of the principle of Islamic brotherhood.” The Iran-aligned Iraqi militia targeted in the salvo — the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — echoed warnings of a “highly dangerous escalation.”

73% of US adults say that President Donald Trump is fucking stupid.....

Americans doubt Trump is paying enough attention to the country’s most important problems

By Ariel Edwards-Levy

A record-high 73% of US adults say that President Donald Trump hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with just 27% saying he’s had the right priorities.

That comes amid increasingly bleak views of the Iran war, stagnating economic unhappiness, and broad discontent about Trump’s approach to these challenges.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans think that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions and that his military decisions in Iran have hurt the US. Around three-quarters say the president is not in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives.

Trump’s overall approval rating, 34%, matches the career low he last saw at the close of his first term, following the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Half of Americans now strongly disapprove of him, a high across his terms, with a record-low 15% strongly approving.

Within his own party, his approval rating has hit a new low at 78% among Republicans, and just 19% of Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about the rest of his second term, down from 38% last spring.

While his ratings are underwater across a range of issues tested, Trump sees his lowest numbers on a trio of interconnected issues: Just 28% approve of his handling of the situation in Iran, 25% on inflation and 21% on gas prices, with significant pockets of disapproval even among his supporters.

With an increasing majority of Americans anticipating a long-term military conflict, only about one-quarter think Trump has a clear plan for handling the situation, down from 40% at the start of the war. And 62% now say Trump is not an effective world leader, up from 54% who felt that way early in his second term.

Just one-quarter now say the war has been worth the toll in American lives and dollars, with younger Americans particularly skeptical.

On the most tangible economic fallout of the conflict in Iran, 74% of Americans say rising gas prices have caused them at least some hardship, up from 63% in March, with just under one-quarter believing the president has a plan to address the issue. And 71% say Trump hasn’t gone far enough in trying to reduce the price of everyday goods, up from 58% a year ago.

There are few domestic bright spots for the president, whose issue approval ratings top out at 41% for handling voting rights and election integrity – one topic where his supporters have rallied most closely around him. Just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, a relative positive at the start of his second term, with 35% approving of his management of the federal government.

Following two recent deadly ICE shootings, Americans say by a 20-point margin that the agency is making cities less, not more, safe. And amid the cyclospora outbreak and a surge in measles cases, they say by a 34-point margin that changes to health agencies like the FDA and CDC are leaving the public less, not more, safe.

Trump has never gotten high marks in polling as someone who’s in touch with the problems of ordinary Americans. In the latest poll, just 27% say that description applies to him, while about two-thirds say that he’s someone who does not put the good of the country ahead of his personal gain.

Those numbers reflect broad skepticism about the high-profile projects that would leave Trump’s mark on the nation’s capital. A 58% majority of Americans say they feel dissatisfied or angry about the construction projects Trump has undertaken in Washington, DC, including the effort to build a new White House ballroom and renovate the Reflecting Pool. Just 17% express positive feelings, with another 25% saying it doesn’t matter to them.

At the time of Trump’s second inauguration, nearly half of Americans thought it was at least somewhat likely that Trump would avoid conflicts between his family’s company and his work as president, but a scant 23% think he’s done so at least somewhat well. And 57% say it’s a bad thing that Trump earned more than $2 billion last year while serving as an elected official, including income from cryptocurrency holdings, royalty payments and property investments. Just 7% see that as a good thing, with 36% calling his earnings while president something that doesn’t matter much.

More than 6 in 10 say that Trump has gone too far in pursuing his personal business interests while serving as president and undertaking projects to remodel the White House and other Washington landmarks, with nearly as many saying he’s gone too far in making changes to cultural institutions like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.

These efforts aren’t even very popular among the president’s base. Only 43% of Republicans say they feel positively about Trump’s construction projects, with 35% saying that the projects don’t matter to them. And most Republicans say that his earnings as president are irrelevant, with those who do hold an opinion more likely to see it as a negative than a positive.

 

Will it ever be this good again, we ask. No, you have a kid.......

What “You Only Get 18 Summers” Gets Right About Parenting

The phrase pisses off some parents. But it captures the most cosmic thing about child-rearing: nostalgia for the present.

Inae Oh

Technically speaking, August is not the last month of summer—the season officially ends on September 21. But among faithful disciples of the fun season, it prompts urgency, for it contains what seems like the final stretch before grim responsibility sets in and the self-serious soup fans come out in earnest. It is during these weeks when last-minute beach trips are summoned. When we commit ourselves to plans defined by leisure, not labor. Will it ever be this good again, we ask.

Now, the soup people like to argue that it is precisely this attitude, one they dismiss as panicked and mawkish, that informs much of their opposition to summer. There’s so much pressure, they argue, to build out action-packed days and perfect vacation photos. Let me say emphatically: This camp is wrong. And the same forces that guide them animate the hum of outrage over the sentiment, “You only get 18 summers with your kids.”

Not familiar? Well, like most sources of derision on the internet, “you only get 18 summers” is something of a Rorschach test; its meaning, as much as there is one, depends on who you ask. But lately, my algorithm is brimming with denunciations from parents who see it as just another form of “mom guilt.” As a popular Instagram account for parents wrote in May, the phrase creates “pressure to make every summer magical. Every moment meaningful. Every memory count.” Another influencer lamented similarly on Substack: “The pressure of the ‘you only have 18 summers with your child’ content [pushes] us towards trying to create core memories every summer, to try and make it unforgettable for our kids, while maintaining our jobs, cooking 3 meals a day, and making sure everyone has their basic needs met.”

Does it? I searched for the same militant instructions to build five-star memories, but they eluded me. Instead, I was surprised to find the phrase to be an oddly useful, even if corny, reminder to drop one of the worst habits I have as a parent: constantly counting down to the next activity, whatever thing that gets me closer to an imaginary finish line. To stop planning the next memory, quit all that counting, and just sit in it.

Now, finding an internet headline like “you only get 18” meaningful is a bit embarrassing to admit, like finding insight in “life’s a beach.” But for me, “you only get 18” echoes one of the most cosmic things I’ve discovered about parenting: the feeling of nostalgia for the present, even when it sucks. It’s a bittersweet yearning that defies logic, and yet, for so many of us, it’s real. As Stephanie Murray wrote in the Atlantic about why we long for difficult days of parenting:

Only with distance from the minute-to-minute anxieties of caring for a small child does its sweeping beauty come into full view. But this isn’t so much a shortcoming of youth as it is a gift of age. The experiences that follow early parenthood enrich our understanding of it, allowing us to ponder it anew. Hindsight allows us to put suffering into context and recognize the purpose it served in our lives. Hohlbaum likened it to laying bricks in a road: Only after we find out where the path leads are we able to see the purpose each brick served in getting us there. People with grown children have a deeper appreciation for the initial years of parenthood, because they are observing it from a perspective that only time can grant.

Don’t get me wrong. I relate, so acutely, to the parts of parenting that can reel the mind. (This includes the gauntlet of summer activities that, as Caitlin Murray of Big Time Adulting said in a recent video, can leave parents feeling like we are stuck in a “wet paper bag.”) Still, I can’t help but find the irritation over “you only get 18 summers” misplaced. Is it not an invitation for gentleness, to pause and consider, even mawkishly, to give grace to ourselves when we’re in the wet paper bag? Nothing about parenting will ever be perfect, just like those final weeks of August will never deliver the perfect summer. But it’s never been about the pursuit of some elusive perfect summer anyway. Summer is a season that celebrates saying fuck it: Slam those sweating hot dogs even when the meal prep is right there. Trade nice drinks in favor of cheap, ice-cold beers. Celebrate magic in the ordinary flecks of sunlight. Couldn’t we all use that reminder once in a while?

Stalled tax-administration bill

Finance markup of stalled tax-administration bill is back on, Crapo says

The legislation had been held up by Democrats’ fight against President Donald Trump’s audit immunity deal.

Brian Faler

The Senate Finance Committee announced it will take up a bipartisan tax-administration bill on Thursday that had been stalled by Democrats’ efforts to block the Trump administration’s plan to shield the president from IRS audits.

Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) also released an explanation of the legislation he wrote with ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The bill includes more than 50 relatively uncontroversial proposals. Among them: provisions cutting fees on low-income people who enter installment plans to pay off old tax debts; raising penalties on shady tax preparers; increasing protections for tax whistleblowers; and beefing up online services for taxpayers at the IRS.

The plan is projected to cost less than $400 million.

It was not immediately clear what would happen with Wyden’s proposed amendment to turn off President Donald Trump’s audit immunity. Crapo pulled the plug on a planned hearing last month on the legislation rather than face a vote on it.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of both the Finance and Judiciary committees, has since been demanding changes to the administration’s audit plan in exchange for his support to confirm Todd Blanche, who signed the immunity deal, as attorney general.

But Cornyn’s demands, which focus on limiting the scope of people who would benefit from the audit protections, likely won’t be enough to satisfy many Democrats.

The Judiciary Committee intends to take up Blanche’s nomination on Thursday. The Finance panel’s deadline for submitting amendments is noon tomorrow, and Wyden could still demand a vote. Either way, it appears the issue is unlikely to derail the hearing.

Tax writers in both the House and Senate are hoping to move a package of relatively uncontroversial tax changes in a lame-duck session of Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee approved more than a dozen such bills earlier this year.

“This week’s markup demonstrates the Committee’s bipartisan commitment to improving tax administration and ensuring the tax system works better for the American people,” Crapo said in a statement.

A vindictive Trump administration prosecution

Rand Paul’s about to get his chance to settle his feud with Anthony Fauci

The Kentucky senator believes the former Covid czar belongs in prison. A recent Trump administration prosecution suggests it might not be an idle threat.

By Carmen Paun and Simon J. Levien

Sen. Rand Paul’s said Anthony Fauci belongs in prison. The Kentucky Republican will get his chance to make the case Wednesday when the former Covid czar is slated to appear under subpoena before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that Paul chairs.

Paul reiterated his objective on X Monday, saying the pardon President Joe Biden gave Fauci — Biden said to shield him from a vindictive Trump administration prosecution — would not protect Fauci if he lies to Congress.

The two have a feud dating to the pandemic, when Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about funding risky research in China that Paul believes unleashed Covid-19. Fauci responded to Paul by accusing him of lying. Now 85, Fauci retired from federal service at the end of 2022.

In April, a federal grand jury indicted Fauci’s former senior adviser, David Morens, on three felony charges for allegedly circumventing federal public records laws by concealing Covid-related communications. Federal agents arrested Morens at his home in Maryland, reportedly putting him in handcuffs and making him disrobe. Morens pleaded not guilty.

Paul’s goals go beyond incriminating Fauci. He also wants to show that Fauci funded risky virus research in China.

“The goal is the truth,” Paul told reporters on Monday about Fauci. “I’d like to hear him say he’s sorry.”

The origin of Covid remains a fraught debate, with no scientific consensus on whether it was a lab accident or whether an animal infected a human. But most Republicans and President Donald Trump have embraced the lab leak theory.

Fauci has rejected Paul’s accusations and defended himself vigorously, including in some of the five previous hearings in which they’ve faced off.

He declined to comment.

The debate over Fauci’s legacy has long broken on party lines, and Democrats are expected to defend him against GOP attacks on Wednesday.

“They got a longstanding vendetta against Fauci. He seems to be almost obsessed,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee member, said of Paul on Monday.

Both Paul and Democrats on the committee have supported stricter oversight of gain-of-function research, which aims to make viruses more virulent or more transmissible in order to devise defenses against them. The panel has twice approved Paul’s Risky Research Review Act, which would take funding decisions away from Fauci’s old agency, the National Institutes of Health, and give them to a new Life Sciences Research Security Board appointed by the president. The White House also released Tuesday a new policy stopping high-risk biological research.

Senate online safety package

Kids’ safety advocates draw red lines for Senate online safety package

The letter comes as a markup in children’s online safety is expected in the Commerce Committee next week.

Owen Dahlkamp

A coalition of 60 child safety groups is urging top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee to take up robust online safety legislation in a markup tentatively expected next week.

In a letter sent Monday and shared first with POLITICO, the bloc demanded that committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) only consider legislation with a “duty of care” standard that would require tech companies to mitigate harms they know their platforms cause children.

When the House passed a kids’ online safety package last month, it did not include the provision — an omission that the groups said neutered the bill and “would not actually make kids safer online.”

“This approach would immunize platforms from accountability for the design choices, such as engagement-maximizing feeds, autoplay, and algorithmic amplification, that drive documented harms to young people,” wrote the signers, which include Common Sense Media, Design It For Us, ParentsTogether Action and the Young People’s Alliance.

They also asked the senators not to preempt state artificial intelligence laws and to instead follow the House’s model, in which states could craft regulations stricter than the federal standard.

“Families who have lost children to online harms have spent years telling their stories to this Congress,” the coalition wrote. “And with each day Congress fails to act, more children are being harmed and are dying.”

Last week, Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has been negotiating a safety-focused legislative package with the White House, met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Trump did not commit to throwing his political weight behind her effort after Cruz said it did not have enough support to clear the chamber.

Meanwhile, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) introduced the Digital Age Assurance Act on Thursday. Modeled after a similar California bill, it would require operating system providers such as Apple and Google to collect users’ ages in an effort to ensure that children see only age-appropriate content online.

Cruz and Cantwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Strait of Hormuz patrol?

Allies shrug as US pushes for Strait of Hormuz patrol

The Trump administration is urging the U.K. and France to lead a naval coalition to secure the strait, but allies want to see a ceasefire first.

By Paul McLeary and Esther Webber

European allies are refusing to support a U.S. push to create a joint Strait of Hormuz patrol until they see an enduring ceasefire in the Iran war — the latest sign that Washington’s repeated bashing of its closest friends has carried consequences.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging the U.K. and France to help lead the naval coalition. But even with the assistance of U.K. Defense Minister Wes Streeting, he’s facing skepticism across Europe, according to four British officials and one U.S. official.

Hegseth and President Donald Trump have spent months berating European countries for refusing to get involved in the Iran war. But this effort is the most concerted attempt to seek assistance from allies, and it comes after months of fighting has led to spiraling gas prices, a disaffected public and prolonged closure of the strait.

U.S. and British officials aim to convene an international conference in London that would define roles for countries and determine which warships would hunt for sea mines or protect civilian shipping through the strait, which Iran has effectively halted. But the five officials cautioned the effort has not progressed very far and they didn’t expect any movement soon. The people, like others interviewed, were granted anonymity to discuss internal plans.

The U.S. has paused strikes on Iran since Friday after 12 days of renewed bombing, although officials have not specified what led to the halt.

Hegseth floated the patrol idea during a call with Streeting on Friday, according to one British official. The person said the conversation focused on how the U.K. and U.S. can bring allies together to support American defense, rather than backing offensive strikes on Iran.

Hegseth and Streeting then had a call with French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin on Monday to discuss how to “work together to reassure shipping across the region,” one of the U.K. officials said.

Even with the delay, Streeting expects to speak with counterparts from across Europe to coordinate a future multinational mission in the strait, according to two of the U.K. officials.

“The Defense secretary has been having constructive discussions with allies on diplomatic and military efforts to strengthen maritime security, and these will continue in the coming days,” one of the two people said.

The Pentagon and the U.K. Ministry of Defence declined to comment. The White House and French Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Longtime allies remain frustrated by the Trump administration’s refusal to give a heads-up before the American-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began in February, according to two European officials. And they are wary of jumping into a risky new mission when they have not been treated as partners by the White House.

There was “no consultation with Congress, no consultation with allies, just boom,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said in an interview.

Trump is “deeply frustrated that Congress isn’t supporting it, the American people aren’t supporting it, our core allies aren’t supporting it,” he added.“ You can’t be surprised when you throw a party and you don’t invite anybody.”

Streeting cautioned Sunday that the U.K. has “not joined and will not join offensive U.S. military action in Iran. That’s an area where we have not agreed with the United States. But when it comes to securing maritime freedom and free commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, that’s where we are absolutely aligned.”

But the latest ceasefire is tenuous at best. Trump told reporters Monday that the two sides are “talking right now” and that there was “a good chance” a new round of diplomacy with Iran could yield a more permanent ceasefire or diplomatic breakthrough.

The Iranian leadership does not appear to agree.

“At present, what exists cannot be described as a ceasefire,” said Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson.

Commercial shipping in the region remains at a standstill, with dozens of ships full of oil and other cargo bottled up in the gulf.

And delays have only appeared to build in recent weeks. No oil tankers crossed the once popular strait July 27, according to Windward Intelligence, a private security firm that monitors ship traffic in the region. The commercial ship crossings of the narrow Bab al-Mandeb, which is south of the strait and connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, has fallen 22 percent since the Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis declared a blockade July 20. Tanker transits have fallen 39 percent and Saudi-linked crossings dropped 46 percent, according to the firm.

Two American aircraft carriers are still sitting in the Middle East alongside several other warships, including some carrying about 2,500 Marines. Back-to-back deployments have raised concerns in the Pentagon over keeping them there.

“The particular challenge with Navy vessels, particularly the carriers or submarines out there, is that we are deferring maintenance on them, and at some point you’ve got to pay the piper,” said a former military officer with knowledge of discussions within the Pentagon. “There’s some real readiness concerns that have to be seriously discussed as we continue to resource this operation.”

Returned to open conflict after a temporary peace framework collapsed

Iran launched 'attempted surprise attack' on US forces, CENTCOM says

The two countries have returned to open conflict after a temporary peace framework collapsed earlier this month.

By Emilio Perez Ibarguen

Iran launched “multiple missiles” at U.S. forces based in the Middle East Tuesday evening that were successfully intercepted, the Pentagon said, marking a return to fighting after a short respite over the weekend.

U.S. Central Command, in a social media post Tuesday night, said the launches were an “attempted surprise attack.” The post did not provide additional details about the intercepted attack, and CENTCOM declined to provide further comment when reached by POLITICO.

The attacks come after U.S. forces conducted 13 consecutive days of strikes against Iran, which concluded on Thursday, according to the Defense Department. Most of those strikes were characterized by the Pentagon as attacks meant to weaken Iran’s grasp on the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway for much of the world’s energy supply and a frequent sticking point in peace negotiations.

Fighting resumed this month after a temporary peace framework between the two countries fell apart following Iranian attacks on shipping vessels moving through the strait, which led to U.S. strikes in retaliation.

The U.S. has not publicly said whether retaliatory strikes will be ordered for this most recent attack.

On Wednesday, Trump threatened to begin striking “one bridge or power plant” for every ship attacked in the Arabian Gulf — though the Geneva Conventions prohibit strikes on civilian infrastructure acknowledged to be “indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.”

And the war, which has proven immensely unpopular at home amid rising gas prices and the deaths of American soldiers, shows few signs of ending soon. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to reporters and in public addresses that Iran is desperate to negotiate for a ceasefire, but Iran’s refusal to capitulate as Trump steps up threats of attacks from the skies appear to some to be demonstrative of the limits of an air war alone.

Also on Tuesday, CENTCOM announced that U.S. and Saudi forces struck sites belonging to “Iran-aligned terrorists” in eastern Iraq, in retaliation for attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure over the past three days.

The strikes do not appear to be directly related to the earlier Iranian attack.

“The unwarranted attacks against U.S. forces were not successful,” the announcement stated.

Russia sanctions bill

Senators vote to advance Russia sanctions bill in Graham’s name

The procedural vote came just hours after the funeral of the bill’s main architect, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing

Senators voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to advance a sweeping Russia sanctions bill that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had long sought to move forward before his unexpected death.

The 86 to 12 procedural vote tees up the bill for final passage in the upper chamber later this week.

The vote came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed senators on Capitol Hill — and followed the funeral of the South Carolina senator, who was a stalwart supporter of Kyiv until his passing.

The legislation gained momentum after Graham’s death, galvanizing senators to take action on the bill in his name. Lawmakers renamed the bill after their former colleague.

It would sanction Russian leaders, its energy sector and shadow fleet. It also would extend certain sanctions on Iran — a last-minute addition after lawmakers struck a deal to expand the scope of the legislation earlier Tuesday.

The bill, which has 62 co-sponsors, is widely expected to pass in the upper chamber. The legislation’s path toward passage is likely but not guaranteed, as House lawmakers adjourned for August recess before taking it up.

While House Democrats are likely to push back on the legislation over concerns that it grants Trump wider tariff authority, the bill has broad bipartisan support — and the White House’s blessing.

Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) led a bipartisan cohort of lawmakers that worked to advance the legislation since April of last year. But the bill hit several roadblocks — including resistance from the White House, which wanted more leeway for the president to decide which entities to sanction, and by how much.

After multiple false starts, Graham announced from Kyiv just days before his death that he had secured the green light from the White House on revised text of the legislation.

The revamped bill expands the number of Russian entities that would be subject to mandatory sanctions — including Russia’s shadow fleet of ships ferrying oil — but it also grants Trump broad waiver authority.

The bill would also use tariffs against the top buyers of Russian energy to pressure countries to reduce their reliance on Moscow’s exports. That provision proved problematic for Democrats, who were wary about expanding Trump’s tariff authority.

“It is extremely dangerous to give Trump massive new tariff powers, particularly after we’ve seen the disastrous impacts of his corrupt, chaotic, and inflationary tariff spree,” House Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement after the latest version of the bill was unveiled.

But the vast majority of Democrats still voted to advance the legislation Tuesday. Only 11 Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) voted against the bill.

Ahead of the evening vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the move would show Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “he can’t bully Ukraine” and that the U.S. “stands by” its ally.

The White House confirmed Trump backed the revised iteration of the bill, and Trump earlier this month demanded that Republicans tack sanctions against Iran onto the legislation because “that’s what Lindsey wanted to do.”

That made for a minor speedbump in the bill’s path, though ultimately Democrats agreed to the move since it only extended preexisting sanctions against Tehran.