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Republicans have stumbled on a brand new plot to conduct the Epstein investigation. Democrats suppose it’s accurate but any other strive to brush the entire scandal below the rug.

Democrats on the Condominium Oversight Committee flamed Condominium Oversight Chair James Comer in a congressional memo for “running frightened,” accusing the Kentucky Republican of altering the Epstein investigation lawsuits into informal “roundtables” that lack any tips.

On this format, there’s no opportunity to retain in mind subpoenas, and no recourse for Democrats to power votes on transparency measures, per the memo shared amongst Democratic lawmakers final week.

Perchance worst of all, the roundtables are designed to peek and truly feel esteem “stylish committee hearings,” per the memo, however don’t require witnesses to discuss below oath. That can successfully void the investigation of any mark, giving doable witnesses a likelihood to lie ahead of Congress without consequence.

“In a style with runt precedent in neatly-liked Congressional history, Oversight Republicans have suspended the use of susceptible committee hearings in favor of” the roundtables, the memo reads. “Oversight Republicans are warding off hearings to block bipartisan subpoena motions they are shedding. This shift doesn’t accurate have an price on Committee procedure—it limits Congress’s skill to present the fact and protect noteworthy actors accountable.

“By retaining roundtables, Republicans are denying Members their classic rights as lawmakers,” the memo states. “Oversight requires transparency, tips, and accountability. Republicans are forsaking all three. As a substitute of retaining trusty hearings, they are deciding on boards designed to retain away from scrutiny—because they are shedding when the info are on the desk.”

The transition to net hosting roundtables looks to be an strive by Republican management to curtail the subpoena energy of both events. For months, Republicans and Democrats alike have hijacked committee hearings in record to vote on subpoenas that might require excessive-profile figures to discuss on the Epstein investigation.

A number of celebrated figures had been named as Epstein friends within the millions of currently released case data. They comprise Bathtub and Physique Works co-founder Les Wexner, American financier and investor Leon Dim, disgraced British former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and Donald Trump.

Trump is mentioned extra than 38,000 cases within the Epstein data, and modified into flagged in extra than 5,300 data within the doc cache. These comprise cases in which Trump modified into accused—by both victims and witnesses—of abusing youngsters, such as one instance in which he allegedly tried to power a girl between the ages of 13 and 15 years former to present him oral intercourse ahead of he punched her within the pinnacle for biting his penis.

President Donald Trump has many cases claimed to have obliterated Iran’s navy and air power—however it sounds as if Iran has maintained a ways extra militia capabilities than his administration is willing to let on.

Final week, Trump claimed that Iran’s navy modified into “laying on the underside of the ocean, completely obliterated,” apart from a swiftly of “snappily attack ships” that the U.S. militia didn’t retain in mind a threat. However, just a few U.S. officers told CBS News Wednesday that roughly 60 percent of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s naval arm composed existed. In fact, various ships within the Strait of Hormuz had been attacked by Iranian gunboats Wednesday.

That’s no longer all. Roughly two-thirds of the Iranian air power is composed believed to be operational, U.S. officers told CBS News. Almost half of Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles and associated start systems modified into moreover composed intact on the starting of the ceasefire in early April, three U.S. officers told the outlet. Two weeks within the past, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “Iran no longer has any type of comprehensive air defense” functionality.

The Pentagon’s inner intelligence company currently told lawmakers that Iran composed maintained valuable militia functionality, including thousands of missiles and one-plot attack drones, NBC News reported Wednesday.

In a post on X Wednesday, White Condominium press secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off CBS’s reporting as propaganda, ahead of spouting about a of the adminstration’s possess. “The actual fact is that below President Trump’s management, the U.S. militia decimated the Iranian regime’s capabilities in fair 38 days,” she wrote.

President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration has made up our minds no longer to approve a skin most cancers medication that would per chance well per chance save lives, drawing backlash from medical doctors.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Neatly being and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Congress that he had nothing to realize with the choice to protect recognition of Replimune’s drug, RP1, which treats melanoma, shifting responsibility to FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary.  

“This option comes out of FDA, and we have faith ​the route of there. And I’ve been told by Marty Makary that every panel that checked out that drug unanimously voted in opposition to it … because it would no longer appear to work,” Kennedy mentioned to the Senate Finance Committee. 

That is disputed by many oncologists, who identified in a Wall Road Journal op-ed this week that an initial panel permitted the drug ahead of being overruled by the pinnacle of biologics, Dr. Vinay Prasad. They moreover disputed Kennedy’s snarl at a Condominium hearing final week that Replimune did a “one arm trial, and the entire other folk that had been tested moreover got a chemotherapy drug, so we don’t know what the procedure modified into.” 

Finally, no longer one among the sufferers within the trial got chemotherapy; as a substitute they got a particular bask in of immunotherapy, the oncologists neatly-known. A longtime melanoma researcher who worked on the trial, Dr. Anna Pavlick, told the Journal, “In fact, there modified into no question in our minds whatsoever once we executed this peek and we saw the results, that this modified into going to be permitted as a unbelievable alternative for our sufferers because they haven’t any longer have any alternate choices.

“I really have sufferers who have been handled with this drug which would per chance well be composed alive nowadays who would otherwise be ineffective,” Pavlick added. 

Dr. Eric Whitman of the Atlantic Neatly being Arrangement Most cancers Care backed up Pavlick’s assertion. 

“At the same time as you peek advice from the melanoma consultants, other folk that deal with heaps and hundreds melanoma sufferers esteem myself, it’s glaring that here is useful to sufferers and it’s saving lives or it has doable to save lives,” Whitman mentioned. “The community of sufferers and medical doctors don’t perceive the reasoning” for the FDA’s rejection. 

Below Kennedy’s management, HHS has made various questionable choices to damage public health, including blocking off a Services for Disease Management peek showing that the Covid-19 vaccine greatly lowered emergency room visits and hospitalizations this previous winter. RP1 exhibits valuable doable in combating a lethal most cancers, and its rejection suits into a horrifying pattern of choices from the Trump administration that appear to attend the unfold of most cancers.  

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson wouldn’t inspire up President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering procedure Wednesday after it backfired and gave Democrats a protect close.

Virginians voted Tuesday to redraw their tell’s congressional district draw, doubtlessly netting Democrats an extra three to four seats within the November midterm elections. The success of the measure would per chance well per chance doubtlessly peek Democrats grab an edge over Republicans’ possess gerrymandering efforts in red states, and MAGA is already flipping its lid.

Requested the morning after whether he felt the mid-decade redistricting effort modified into price it, Hudson spoke back: “No longer for me to evaluate that, wasn’t my option,” Punchbowl News reported.

Hudson doesn’t appear attracted to taking credit for his event’s political gamble. The North Carolina lawmaker regarded hopeful that Virginia’s Supreme Court will weigh in on a case in opposition to the new measure, in which the NRCC is a plaintiff.

“This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a red tell that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander,” Hudson mentioned in a separate assertion. “That’s precisely why the courts, who have already ruled twice to block this egregious energy grab, should always uphold Virginia law.”

Up to now, 5 red states—Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and Utah—have moved to redraw their congressional maps on the president’s behest in record at hand a doable 9 extra seats to the Republican Celebration.

President Trump is once extra alleging voter fraud—this time, after his gerrymandering defeat in Virginia.

“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans had been successful, the Spirit modified into astonishing, unless the very discontinue when, of route, there modified into a wide ‘Mail In PollTumble!’” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday afternoon. “The put have I heard that ahead of — And the Democrats eked out but any other Crooked Victory! Six to 5 goes to 10 to one, and but the Presidential Election in November modified into very near a 50-50 split.”

The president moreover made time to deride the plot the referendum ask modified into written.

“Besides to to everything else, the language on the Referendum modified into purposefully unintelligible and unfounded,” he persisted. “As all people is conscious of, I’m an terribly intellectual person, and even I had no idea what the hell they had been talking about within the Referendum, and neither attain they! Let’s peek if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’”

Virginians voted 51–49 on Tuesday to redraw their tell’s congressional draw. The permitted ballotmeasure would per chance well per chance give Democrats as many as four extra seats within the Condominium of Representatives. Love Trump wrote, that would per chance well per chance mean that Democrats have a trusty likelihood of taking 10 of Virginia’s 11 Condominium seats near November.

However there might be no proof of voter fraud. And this entire effort modified into kickstarted final year when Trump himself started asking red states to gerrymander to lend a hand him overcome what looks esteem an incoming midterm defeat. The president claimed that Texas Republicans had been “entitled to 5 extra seats.” They obliged, and soon, Republicans in Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio all capitulated. Now Virginia, esteem California, has spoke back. And Trump has an argument.

This might well moreover be a truly long time ahead of the Strait of Hormuz is inspire to alternate as traditional.

A Pentagon overview shared with lawmakers Tuesday printed that it would per chance well per chance take six months for the crucial oil tradeway to be fully cleared of the mines planted by the Iranian militia, per officers that spoke with The Washington Submit.

It’s no longer going, nonetheless, that any mine-sweeping operation will occur without a peace agreement and an legitimate discontinue to the Iran battle—a likelihood that would per chance well per chance very neatly breeze the scorching economic woes into the inspire half of the year or previous.

That would per chance well per chance have serious implications for Republicans near November: Most American citizens attain no longer approve of the battle, with 41 percent of the country uncertain as to whether Donald Trump even has a thought for ending the warfare, per a Politico peek printed final week.

The unpopular battle has moreover ripped the MAGA circulation ultimate down the heart. A number of main a ways-ultimate media personalities—such as Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones—have outright disavowed the president and his methodology to foreign policy for the rationale that battle started, arguing that Trump backtracked on his former platform and campaign guarantees. Trump has rebuked his former acolytes in response, straight attacking them on social media and reposting roar material that requires they “shut the fuck up.”

By Wednesday, the majority of the voting public mentioned that the Condominium should always question Trump, including one in 5 of his possess supporters, per a ballot by Energy in Numbers.

However the rejection is never any longer fully unexpected. The battle in Iran has thrust your entire world into an energy crisis, spiking oil and gas prices, stalling alternate, and tanking economies. Final month, the mark of Brent crude, a worldwide oil benchmark, reached a excessive of $108 per barrel—a dramatic have bigger from ahead of the battle started in slack February, when Brent crude mark around $65 a barrel. At the time of e-newsletter, the mark per barrel modified into hovering around $101.

It is never any longer sure precisely what the battle in Iran has carried out. Trump has beforehand mentioned that his valuable aim within the battle modified into to erase Iran’s nuclear capabilities—however his administration’s fight assessments have stood in distinction to varied assaults they boasted about as currently as final year.

Sooner than the battle—which by no plot received congressional approval—Trump ordered strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear net sites, hitting Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan on June 22. At the time, the Trump administration claimed that the one-off air raid had plight Iran’s program inspire by “years.”

Ancient director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent sparked a maelstrom in Washington when he resigned over the relate final month. Kent argued in his resignation letter that he would per chance well per chance no longer “in ultimate judgment of accurate and unsuitable” toughen the battle in Iran. “Iran posed no approaching threat to our nation, and it’s sure that we started this battle due to stress from Israel and its noteworthy American foyer,” he wrote on the time.

Within the seven weeks for the rationale that battle started, the U.S. and Israel have killed thousands of Iranian civilians and obliterated Iranian civilian infrastructure. Within the meantime, 13 U.S. squaddies have died.

Trump extended the ceasefire between the two nations Wednesday, promising to protect off on the violence unless Tehran modified into ready to present a formal peace proposal. Quickly later on, Iran’s top negotiator mentioned that it modified into “no longer conceivable to reopen the Strait of Hormuz” due to “blatant violations” of the ceasefire, specifying the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and “warmongering” by Israel “on all fronts.”

Democratic Consultant David Scott of Georgia has handed away on the age of 80.

Scott has spent 50 years in politics, and modified into plight to plod for a Thirteenth term in George’s Thirteenth congressional district this year, the Atlanta Journal-Structure studies, despite a viewed decline in his psychological acuity.

One in all his valuable opponents, Georgia tell Consultant Dr. Jasmine Clark, stumbled on final November through a public data ask that Scott has no longer voted within the previous six consecutive elections, including the 2024 presidential election.

“Our ultimate to vote is sacred and repeatedly below attack. I will no longer fathom any elected legitimate asking his constituents for their votes every two years without even bothering to transfer vote himself,” Clark posted on X on the time, claiming that Scott wasn’t even a resident of the district.

There have been varied signs of relate. In February of final year, Scott gave a protracted, incoherent speech about tariffs on the Condominium floor ahead of his microphone modified into minimize off. In December 2024, accurate after he modified into reelected, Scott cursed at a photographer for taking his report while being pushed in a wheelchair outside of the Capitol.

Scott’s psychological and bodily tell modified into neatly-known on Capitol Hill, and his choice to plod again in 2024 frightened colleagues, workers, and lobbyists. So a lot of them told Politico in February of that year that the then-score member of the Condominium Agriculture Committee had concerns with detailed conversations and generally had to count on a script.

Scott is the fourth Democratic member of Congress to pass away for the rationale that starting of Trump’s term, joining Representatives Gerry Connolly, Sylvester Turner, and Raúl Grijalva. All of them had been over the age of 70 representing safe Democratic districts.

This myth has been up up to now.

The Trump administration is taking into account a bailout for Spirit Airways, which is generally a loan price as worthy as $500 million.

The Wall Road Journal reported Wednesday that the proposed deal would per chance well per chance give the federal government warrants for a wide stake within the firm, and that the Transportation Department and Commerce Department are section of the discussions. Nothing has been finalized but.

The price range airline, known (and ceaselessly mocked) for its bare-bones offerings, has been struggling after declaring its 2d economic extinguish in less than a year. Final week, CNBC reported that Spirit is most likely to be liquidated in less than a week, with skyrocketing fuel prices including to the firm’s woes. The airline by no plot recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, as wages and costs shot up.

The airline modified into moreover damage because the domestic flight alternate grew to alter into oversaturated, and a 2023 engine recall for its Airbus planes handiest made issues worse. A merger with JetBlue Airways modified into blocked in 2024, and the firm misplaced $257 million between March 2025, when it exited its first economic extinguish, and the tip of June that year. The firm then filed for economic extinguish a 2d time.

On Tuesday, President Trump lamented the airline’s woes, floating a bailout in an interview with CNBC.

“You realize, Spirit’s in anguish, and I’d like anyone to purchase Spirit. It’s 14,000 jobs, and perchance the federal government should always lend a hand that one out. I told my of us,” Trump mentioned.

However why should always American taxpayers bail out an airline? The final time the federal government intervened to lend a hand air carriers modified into after the Covid-19 pandemic; ahead of that, it modified into following the 9/11 assaults. Both of those interventions had been for companies across the alternate, no longer one singular airline. On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expressed reservations referring to the proposed bailout.

“What we don’t would like to realize is save ultimate money after contaminated, and there’s been a range of cash thrown at Spirit, and they haven’t stumbled on their plot into profitability,” Duffy told Reuters. “And so would we accurate ​prevent the inevitable and then possess that?”

Duffy looks to have been overruled within the day gone by, elevating questions referring to the administration’s motive for searching for to save Spirit. Does Trump, one among his alternate allies, and even his fellow Republicans have a stake in retaining the south Florida–primarily based completely mostly firm afloat?

FBI Director Kash Patel regarded to lie to reporters Tuesday about having a valuable meltdown over IT concerns—contradicting his possess $250 million defamation lawsuit within the course of.

The Atlantic reported over the weekend that Patel misplaced his wintry earlier this month when, unable to log into his work laptop within the morning, he made a assortment of frantic cellular phone calls claiming he’d been fired.

In his lawsuit in opposition to the e-newsletter, filed Monday, attorneys for Patel claimed the assertion he “engaged in a ‘freak out’” modified into fallacious. “Director Patel had a routine technical wretchedness logging into a government machine, which modified into swiftly fastened,” the lawsuit mentioned.

However talking to reporters Tuesday evening, Patel fell apart on the most easy ask referring to the article, and claimed that he modified into “by no plot locked out” of his laptop within the principle space.

“Your lawsuit contends that you weren’t ready to log in to the machine. What did you have after you had been unable to log in to the machine?” one reporter requested.

“Let’s have a peek: How a range of you of us have that’s accurate?” Patel requested the crowd. The same reporter then requested Patel whether he communicated to someone that he believed he modified into fired, and pressed him to acknowledge to the “easy ask.”

“The wretchedness with you and your baseless reporting is that it’s an absolute lie. It modified into by no plot mentioned. It by no plot came about,” Patel mentioned, however the reporter didn’t relent.

“The easy acknowledge to your ask is you are lying,” Patel mentioned, finally including: “I’ve answered your ask. It’s merely as follows: I modified into by no plot locked out of my systems.”

The reporter neatly-known that Patel’s possess lawsuit mentioned otherwise. “Anyone who says—someone that claims the reverse is lying,” Patel mentioned.

Somebody here is lying—however it’s no longer the reporter who modified into asking the questions.

Brutal new polling from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Review exhibits that virtually half of Republicans hate of President Trump’s handling of the mark of residing crisis, one among his main campaign guarantees. 

While 47 percent of Republicans as a entire hate of the mark of residing, the numbers split even extra by age. Forty percent of older GOP voters hate of his affordability handling, while a whopping 60 percent of Republicans below Forty five hate. All of those numbers are down from most modern months, suggesting deep inner disapproval amongst the of us most serious to getting Trump inspire into space of job. 

While his total approval score is composed at 67 percent amongst Republicans, the frustration with mark of residing is composed a valuable warning signal for the event ahead of November’s elections.

Within the meantime, the relaxation of The US is turning on Trump as gas prices upward push and a brand new unending battle looks to be underway. The president’s total approval score is mute abysmal, at accurate 33 percent across the board. His economic job approval is at 30 percent—down eight aspects from final month—and 68 percent of respondents hate of how he’s handled the U.S.-Israeli joint battle on Iran and Lebanon.  

While Trump rants about ballrooms and sends the market into whiplash with his Truth Social posts, millions of American citizens are struggling to give you the money for classic necessities, and getting uninterested in it. Midterms are in eight months.