The rescissions package, approved by the House of Representatives last month, would eliminate approximately $8.3 billion from USAID and $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Vice President JD Vance cast two decisive tie-breaking votes in the Senate on Tuesday to advance a $9.4 billion spending rescissions package backed by President Donald Trump. The measure, which would claw back federal funding from a range of programs, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and public broadcasters NPR and PBS, is now headed into a marathon floor debate.
The Senate twice deadlocked at 50-50 on procedural votes to begin debate on the controversial bill. In both instances, Vance stepped in to break the tie and push the measure forward. The rescissions package, approved by the House of Representatives last month, would eliminate approximately $8.3 billion from USAID and $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
The beleaguered forces of CBS News appear to have completely given themselves over to open-borders advocacy. In an outrageous report, correspondent Lilia Luciano showcases an app designed to track ICE activity, thus helping illegal aliens evade detention and deportation.
Watch as Luciano uses a sympathetic alien in order to sell the app to viewers:
LUCIANO: Oscar works legally in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status, driving horses across the country. He says TPS offers little protection from the threat of an ICE arrest and indefinite detention.
OSCAR: I feel like somebody is behind me, even I don’t do nothing wrong.
LUCIANO: To do his job, Oscar relies on this app called Coqui that shows him if ICE agents are nearby.
OSCAR: ICE presence in 15 minutes from here right now.
LUCIANO: He spotted ICE activity as he was hauling horses from New York City to South Carolina.
OSCAR: In this case I just have to take another road.
LUCIANO: Coqui is one of several apps developed recently to let immigrants know when ICE agents are nearby. Deputy Director of ICE Madison Sheahan told us she thinks the apps are dangerous.
MADISON SHEAHAN: Our issue becomes- is when they become violent and are asking people to go cause violence.
LUCIANO: So the apps are used to alert immigrants where ICE is. Those people are not going to be targeted.
SHEAHAN: Well, if it is impeding a law enforcement effort, that’s where that line comes in, as well.
LUCIANO: So who is behind developing these apps? We came to one farm in New York State to meet with an unlikely founder.
PETER: People feel like they’re being hunted.
LUCIANO: Peter, who asked us not to use his last name, runs an animal rescue and developed the Coqui app. Why did you decide to create this app?
PETER: There is the desire to protect the people that you love, but there’s also a very practical reason. We need help here, and we need workers to get to work.
LUCIANO: People weren’t showing up to work?
PETER: Correct. The people were scared to leave their homes.
A number of developments this week indicate that a blue wave may swell in the 2026 midterms.
From Democrats landing top-tier recruits in critical races, to Republicans in competitive races retiring or forgoing bids, to the fact that President Donald Trump is desperately trying to rig House districts, sign after sign shows that the wind is at Democrats’ backs.
Cooper, who left office after two terms with a positive approval rating, would perhaps be the best Democratic nominee in the race. His entrance into the contest would give Democrats an exceptional opportunity to pick up a critical Senate seat, bringing the party one step closer to taking control of the chamber.
GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina
That’s especially true if Republicans nominate a wackadoodle, which they could very likely do as Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump seems poised to run—something Tillis is warning Republicans not to do.
US health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr (Image credits: AP)
US health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has dismissed two top aides of the department, marking a sudden leadership shift just months into his tenure.Chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson and deputy chief of staff for Policy Hannah Anderson were removed from their roles this week, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The possible reason behind the move remains unclear. An HHS spokesperson confirmed the changes and announced that Matt Buckham, the department’s White House liaison, will take over as acting chief of staff.“He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the spokesperson said as quoted by CNN. “Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again,” he added.Kennedy has not yet chosen permanent replacements.The leadership overhaul comes as HHS faces mounting scrutiny over its efforts to revise vaccine policies and push forward key health and food initiatives.Flick was one of Kennedy’s most seasoned Washington insiders, having held multiple senior roles at HHS during the Trump administration, including acting general counsel, acting secretary for administration, and senior adviser to then-Secretary Alex Azar.Anderson came to HHS with a background as a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill, where she served as a health policy adviser on the Senate’s primary health committee. Most recently, she led health care policy at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
UN Watch: a watershed moment of accountability for those carrying out the UN’s institutionalized bias against the Jewish state. “This week, the dominoes are falling,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “First, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the historic decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN’s pro-Hamas rapporteur, in wake of a massive campaign led by UN Watch. Now the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship. The tide is turning” (UN Watch).
Born in the ashes of World War II and established to ensure that a Holocaust would never happen again, the United Nations has not just horribly failed in its mission, it has become the very thing it was created to oppose and defeat.Just as the League of Nations was dissolved because it failed in its primary purpose to prevent world war, the United Nations has failed in its primary purpose and should be dismantled.The United Nations “should cease to exist except for the sole purpose of the liquidation of its affairs.” They have devolved to an arm of the jihad force.
The League of Nations was established at the end of World War I as an international peacekeeping organization just as the United Nations was founded over seventy years ago in the wake of the Holocaust to ensure “never again.” Democracies, both nascent and well-established, comprised the majority of the founding nations of the UN. America was confident that the UN would be an organization which would work in tandem with American national interests in promoting the welfare of humankind and the basic rights of every human spirit.
Some 60 percent of youth attend college after high school, some of them destined for leadership roles. Unfortunately, the things they’re taught aren’t grounded in reality, which ends up creating adverse consequences years down the line.
The National Center for Energy Analytics (which I have the honor of overseeing as part of my work at the Texas Public Policy Foundation) recently released a study on the instruction of collegiate energy courses illustrating this point.
In “Energy Education: Foundational or Aspirational? A Survey of Top 50 U.S. Universities,” Mark P. Mills, executive director of the National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) and Shon R. Hiatt, PhD, director of the USC Marshall Business of Energy Initiative at the University of Southern California, reviewed 1,425 energy classes among the top 50 U.S. universities from the 2024-2025 school term using a keyword search.
If “energy is needed for every activity, product, service, business, and even every means of exchange,” then how professors teach students about energy matters. At first glance, the AI-driven study’s results were rather reassuring. Among five categories of departments — Law/Public Policy, Engineering, Business/Economics, Art & Sciences, and Other — 42 percent of classes depended on economics, while only 15 percent focused on climate, 8 percent on renewables, 4 percent on policy, 3 percent on fossil fuels, and the remaining 27 percent were non-classified (Other). This appears rather benign.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration is accepting applications for the 2025-2026 Pregnancy Help Organizations Grant Program.
In April, Gov. Sanders signed Act 1006 budgeting $2 million in funding for grants to pregnancy help organizations.
Under Act 1006, grant money can go to pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and other charitable organizations that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.
The State of Arkansas also can award funding to charities that promote infant and maternal wellness and reduce infant and maternal mortality by:
Providing nutritional information and/or nutritional counseling;
Providing prenatal vitamins;
Providing a list of prenatal medical care options;
Providing social, emotional, and/or material support; or
Providing referrals for WIC and community-based nutritional services, including food banks, food pantries, and food distribution centers.
Georgetown University’s interim president, Robert Groves, told Congress he is “very proud” of the school’s financial relationship with Qatar and defended his decision to award a presidential medal to a Qatari royal who openly celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
“I’m very proud of our mission in Qatar,” Groves said Tuesday during a House Committee on Education and Workforce hearing. “It’s completely consistent with the Jesuit animation of working at the frontiers of serving groups that are not served easily in Washington.”
Republican lawmakers at the hearing—which also featured University of California, Berkeley, chancellor Rich Lyons and City University of New York chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez—focused much of their attention on Georgetown’s financial relationship with Qatar, through which the university has received approximately $1 billion from the Gulf state since 2005.
One project the university built with its influx of Qatari cash is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), situated within Georgetown’s prestigious School of Foreign Service. Groves pointed to the ACMCU as one example of the school’s efforts to address “interfaith conflict.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said pro-life legislation passed in the state during her time in office could help close Planned Parenthood facilities in Iowa for good.
Local ABC affiliate KCRG reported that Reynolds mentioned the legislation during a speech at The Family Leadership Summit, a July 11 pro-life event where she celebrated her terms as governor. Reynolds announced in April that she will not be seeking reelection next year because she wants to spend more time with her family.
According to KCRG, she said the state’s heartbeat law was particularly instrumental in closing several Planned Parenthood facilities. Signed in 2023, the law protects unborn life after a heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks of pregnancy. Reynolds said that there is “no effort she is prouder of,” KCRG reported, adding that abortions in Iowa have fallen more than 60% since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas wants the US to help pay for the weapons for Ukraine.
The new NATO initiative to arm Ukraine rubs Kallas wrong.
Not everyone is thrilled by the new plan devised by US president Donald J. Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to send weapons to Ukraine.
The novel initiative will see NATO countries (Europeans and Canada) to cede equipment to Ukraine, and buy back from the US to replenish their arsenals.
This plan sees Trump shifting the financial burden of the war to the warmongering EU powers that want to keep it going.
‘We have spent about $350 billion on the Russia-Ukraine war. And we would like it to end.’
The July 15 ruling came in response to a challenge by GenBioPro, a Nevada-based manufacturer of mifepristone, which argued that the FDA’s approval of the drug should override the state ban. The court rejected that claim in a 2-1 decision, affirming West Virginia’s authority to regulate abortion within its borders.
“As Dobbs makes clear, that judgment belongs with the people and their elected representatives,” Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in the decision. “At a time when the rule of law is under blunt assault, disregarding the Supreme Court is not an option.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who defended the law while serving as attorney general, celebrated the ruling on X.
“Big win out of the 4th Circuit today,” Morrisey said. “I defended this law as Attorney General and am proud to see a victory in this case. West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life. We will always be a pro-life state!”
According to Reuters, the decision marks the first time a federal appeals court has ruled that states may restrict access to the drug.
The July 15 ruling came in response to a challenge by GenBioPro, a Nevada-based manufacturer of mifepristone, which argued that the FDA’s approval of the drug should override the state ban. The court rejected that claim in a 2-1 decision, affirming West Virginia’s authority to regulate abortion within its borders.
“As Dobbs makes clear, that judgment belongs with the people and their elected representatives,” Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in the decision. “At a time when the rule of law is under blunt assault, disregarding the Supreme Court is not an option.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who defended the law while serving as attorney general, celebrated the ruling on X.
“Big win out of the 4th Circuit today,” Morrisey said. “I defended this law as Attorney General and am proud to see a victory in this case. West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life. We will always be a pro-life state!”
According to Reuters, the decision marks the first time a federal appeals court has ruled that states may restrict access to the drug.
The ruling could have broader implications for state-level regulation of abortion drugs. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 28 states currently have some form of restriction on their use.
Mifepristone, now used in more than half of abortions nationwide, has faced renewed scrutiny after several of its longstanding safety restrictions were loosened under the Biden administration.
Earlier this month, CatholicVote and more than 100 other pro-life organizations sent a joint letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging them to restore the previous safety requirements on mifepristone.
LifeNews Note: Elise DeGeeter writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
Wall Street experienced a record-breaking revenue surge in the year’s second quarter, investment bank Goldman Sachs announced Wednesday morning, following the market uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April.
Goldman Sachs’s trading revenue for the second quarter was $4.3 billion, $600 million higher than expectations and $100 million above the first quarter’s total, which was also a record. The company’s total revenue jumped 15% to $14.58 billion, a billion dollars more than what analysts expected. A similar upward trend was seen in the bank’s profit, which rose 22% to $3.72 billion.
“The economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said. “But as developments rarely unfold in a straight line, we remain very focused on risk management.”
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley also reported sizable increases in trading revenue, indicating that Wall Street has benefited from the tariff upheaval, despite market volatility.
After Trump’s tariffs took effect in early April, the stock market index S&P 500 took a drastic dive within minutes. Once an erroneous report indicated Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the S&P 500 added $3 trillion within 10 minutes. The White House quickly denied the report, calling it “wrong” and “fake news.”
Wall Street experienced a record-breaking revenue surge in the year’s second quarter, investment bank Goldman Sachs announced Wednesday morning, following the market uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April.
Goldman Sachs’s trading revenue for the second quarter was $4.3 billion, $600 million higher than expectations and $100 million above the first quarter’s total, which was also a record. The company’s total revenue jumped 15% to $14.58 billion, a billion dollars more than what analysts expected. A similar upward trend was seen in the bank’s profit, which rose 22% to $3.72 billion.
“The economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said. “But as developments rarely unfold in a straight line, we remain very focused on risk management.”
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley also reported sizable increases in trading revenue, indicating that Wall Street has benefited from the tariff upheaval, despite market volatility.
After Trump’s tariffs took effect in early April, the stock market index S&P 500 took a drastic dive within minutes. Once an erroneous report indicated Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the S&P 500 added $3 trillion within 10 minutes. The White House quickly denied the report, calling it “wrong” and “fake news.”
Once traders learned of the denial, the S&P 500 lost $2.5 trillion in five minutes. A similar pattern was seen in the Nasdaq and Dow Jones.
Soon after the higher “Liberation Day” tariffs took effect, Trump implemented a 90-day pause that ended earlier this month. The pause was made to allow time for foreign trading partners to negotiate with the United States on trade deals.
Trump has so far announced trade deals with the United Kingdom, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
The president’s pattern of threatening tariffs and then pausing them or extending the deadline to negotiate has caught the attention of traders, who have created the “Trump always chickens out,” or TACO, strategy to capitalize on it.
Trump disputed TACO, which holds that Wall Street should “buy the dip” following immediate panic caused by a new tariff announcement, considering the perception that Trump will back off on his tariff threats. Trump said his strategy is simply a negotiation tactic.
“We have the hottest country anywhere in the world … Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country, people didn’t think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that,” he told reporters in May.
“It’s called negotiation. You set a number. And if you go down, if I set a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145% tariff. Even I said, ‘Man, that really got up,’” Trump said, adding he brought down the said tariff rate after negotiations.
Trump is proceeding with implementing his next phase of tariffs on Aug. 1, including a 30% tariff imposed on the European Union. The 27-member bloc delayed its retaliatory tariffs this week amid negotiations with the U.S. in the hopes of reaching a trade deal before the new tariff deadline.
President Trump has doubled down on his claims that the Epstein files were created by former FBI Director James Comey, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Last week, in a disappointing post, Trump downplayed the Epstein files and claimed Democrats created them.
Trump wrote, “For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.”
Now he has repeated those claims while addressing reporters outside the White House.
The reporter asked Trump, “Did Bondi tell you your name appeared in the Epstein Files?”
He responded, “She’s giving us a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things they’ve seen.
“I would say, these files were made up by Comey, made up by Obama, and made up by Biden.”
Trump concluded that whatever Bondi thinks is credible, she should release them.
Biden.”
Trump concluded that whatever Bondi thinks is credible, she should release them.
ABC reported more on Trump’s comments on the Epstein files:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release “whatever she thinks is credible” on Jeffrey Epstein as he faces pressure from his MAGA supporters.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he left the White House, said he received a “very quick briefing” on the Justice Department and FBI review of the Epstein files. The briefing took place before the release of the DOJ and FBI memo last week.
The review found no evidence the deceased financier kept a “client list” of associates and no further charges are expected. The department also released hours of footage as part of its review, which officials say further confirmed Epstein died by suicide while in custody in his jail cell in Manhattan in 2019.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders asked the president what Bondi told him about the review, “specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the file?”
“No, no, she’s — she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump responded before making baseless claims the files were created by some of his political foes.
“And in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden — and you know, we and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through,” Trump said.
“We’ve gone through years of it, but she’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said of Bondi. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
Here’s the moment he said it here:
JUST IN: President Trump doubles down and says the Epstein files are just “made up” by Comey and Obama, says AG Pam Bondi is handing it “very well.”
“These files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by Biden.“
What is in the Epstein documents that is causing Trump now to insist over and over that they’re all forged and fake documents fabricated by Comey, Obama, Hillary and Biden? https://t.co/TOFgUkx9qP
🚨 TRUMP: “I would say these (Epstein) Files were made up by Comey and made up by Obama, made up by the Biden info…” compares it to the “Russia Russia Russia Hoax.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that calls for a special counsel to investigate all the Jeffrey Epstein material were “just a diversionary tactic.”
Jeffries said, “At the end of the day the American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole Jeffrey Epstein matter. Donald Trump and his MAGA extremist allies have fanned the flames of this conspiracy theory for years. So there’s only two options at this point, either Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and that whole crew have been lying to the American people over the last several years about what is actually in the Jeffrey Epstein files, or alternatively, Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and his allies in the Trump administration are hiding something from the American people right now. So we’re determined to get to the bottom of this on behalf of the American people who deserve transparency from their government.”
Host Chris Hayes said, “Reporter Annie Karni who was just on in the last block, said that the line from Republicans in the House today were talking about appointing a special counsel. I wonder if that’s something that you would support or other Democrats would support?”
Jeffries said, “Seems to me that a special counsel is just a diversionary tactic. If the files exist, produce them and produce them now to the American people.”
President Trump on Tuesday announced the United States reached a trade agreement with Indonesia.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia after speaking with their Highly Respected President Prabowo Subianto. This landmark Deal opens up Indonesia’s ENTIRE MARKET to the United States for the first time in History,” Trump announced.
“Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” he added.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia… Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” – President Trump pic.twitter.com/RSLscrBNKJ
President Donald Trump has ordered a formal investigation of his predecessor’s use of autopen signatures to sign a number of key documents throughout his tenure, including pardons. In total, the investigation is set to review more than one-million documents signed during the Biden presidency.
Officials familiar with the probe told Fox News that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The White House Counsel’s Office is taking the lead on the probe, while the Department of Justice is also assisting.
A senior administration official told the outlet that they are not yet able to discuss findings of the investigation, though NARA has confirmed that more than 27,000 records have already been turned over to investigators.
“Joe Biden was the worst, most incompetent, and senile president in our country’s history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Tuesday. “It has been widely reported that Joe Biden handed the power of the presidency to an autopen controlled by unelected leftist staffers, who were allowed to make terrible decisions that destroyed our country.”
“The Trump White House is committed to finding the answers to the many outstanding questions the American people still have about how business in the Biden White House was conducted,” she said.
President Donald Trump has ordered a formal investigation of his predecessor’s use of autopen signatures to sign a number of key documents throughout his tenure, including pardons. In total, the investigation is set to review more than one-million documents signed during the Biden presidency.
Officials familiar with the probe told Fox News that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The White House Counsel’s Office is taking the lead on the probe, while the Department of Justice is also assisting.
A senior administration official told the outlet that they are not yet able to discuss findings of the investigation, though NARA has confirmed that more than 27,000 records have already been turned over to investigators.
“Joe Biden was the worst, most incompetent, and senile president in our country’s history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Tuesday. “It has been widely reported that Joe Biden handed the power of the presidency to an autopen controlled by unelected leftist staffers, who were allowed to make terrible decisions that destroyed our country.”
“The Trump White House is committed to finding the answers to the many outstanding questions the American people still have about how business in the Biden White House was conducted,” she said.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of major layoffs at the Department of Education Monday. It’s a huge win for those who believe the department was a failure and in need of a huge reduction in size.
McMahon v. State of New York was a 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting. The case had been brought against Education Secretary Linda McMahon by a variety of lawsuits after she removed 1,400 employees from the Department of Education’s staff.
Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that a lower-level federal court could not block the firing of Department of Education employees while the case was ongoing.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, who signed the executive order that led to the Department of Education layoffs, also celebrated the decision.