The Great American State Fair on the National Mall closed early Friday as a dangerous, record-breaking heat wave gripped the nation's capital, forcing organizers to suspend the event with plans to reopen at 5 p.m., CNN reported.

The shutdown comes as Washington, DC, braces for highs near or above 100 degrees for a second straight day, with a heat index expected to climb as high as 113 degrees. At least 20 locations broke or tied daily temperature records Thursday, with cities including New York and Newark registering hotter conditions than Phoenix, the desert city known for extreme heat.

DC has activated an extreme heat alert through July 5 as hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the capital for holiday events. Organizers of National Mall celebrations, including the fair, are adding water stations, cooling tents and air-conditioned buses in an effort to keep attendees safe.

The fair isn't the only casualty of the heat. Philadelphia canceled its Friday Independence Day parade, one of the nation's largest, "due to extreme heat," while Norristown, Pennsylvania, and Haddon Township, New Jersey, also scrapped their parades.

A new analysis published Friday by World Weather Attribution found that the intensity of the heat and humidity this week would have been "virtually impossible" without fossil fuel pollution driving climate change.

"When a historic 4th of July celebration is disrupted... it shouldn't take another scientific study to wake people up," said climate scientist Friederike Otto, per CNN.

The heat is also straining the region's power grid. Energy Secretary Chris Wright ordered data centers in the Mid-Atlantic to switch to backup power this week to preserve capacity for residential air conditioning, as more than 19,000 Con Edison customers in the New York area lost power Thursday.

Officials are urging anyone attending outdoor Fourth of July events to take frequent breaks in the shade, stay hydrated and watch for signs of heat-related illness, particularly among older adults, children and outdoor workers.

Resistance is mounting across the United States against the increasing use of surveillance tech company Flock Safety’s cameras, with a growing number of cities canceling contracts as the artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers are quietly being installed in thousands of locations nationwide.

State and local police departments first used the Atlanta-based company’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems for standard law enforcement purposes, but they are now being employed for a much broader range of uses, including immigration-related searches and other actions supporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Trump administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown.

“We have cameras that are used for everything from illegal dumping to drug houses to hotels that are just big problems,” Flock Safety engineer Kevin Cox told prospective customers during a demonstration of the company’s Condor Camera, according to a Thursday report in The Washington Times.

“There are endless, endless uses for what we can do with these things,” Cox added.

Those uses include spying on constitutionally protected protest activity and enforcing abortion bans by tracking pregnant people’s travel across states—even ones in which the medical procedure is legal.

The ACLU—which recently launched a “Get the Flock Out” campaign to “fight creepy ALPR cameras”—says there are currently between 80,000 and 100,000 Flock devices installed nationwide that conduct more than 20 billion scans per month. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies use the cameras, and some of them keep their locations a secret.

“Flock’s ALPR cameras aren’t like your normal traffic cameras,” the ACLU explained. “This surveillance technology records and tracks every car that comes into view, and then an AI algorithm catalogs the make, model, color, license plate number, bumper stickers, and even scratches. This personal information is then uploaded into a nationwide database that any law enforcement agency with a Flock contract can search—with few regulations or oversight on how they use what they find.”

The backlash against creeping state surveillance has even transcended the partisan divide.

“I think our country is in a kind of uniquely anti-surveillance environment right now, which is to say that, in a time where it seems there is nothing that is not partisan, opposition to government surveillance is nonpartisan,” ACLU privacy and surveillance attorney Chad Marlow told The Washington Times on Thursday.

There is growing action—both legal and otherwise—to end the use of ALPRs across the country.

According to the public information project Ban Flock Cameras, 82 Flock contracts were terminated across 28 states between August 2021 and May 2026, with 39 of those cancellations occurring in the first five months of 2026 alone.

Even Amazon-owned Ring announced earlier this year that it would stop doing business with Flock Safety.

Susie O’Hara, a member of Santa Cruz, California’s nominally nonpartisan City Council, told WBUR earlier this year that she grew increasingly concerned about local use of eight Flock cameras last year after learning that police were sharing data gleaned from the cameras with the company’s national network without city officials’ knowledge, a violation of state laws banning the practice.

O’Hara became increasingly convinced that Santa Cruz should cancel its Flock contract after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a US citizen, in Minneapolis in January.

“I have goose bumps on my arms thinking about the absolute chaos that was happening in Minneapolis,” she said. “And just the absolute insanity of what we were seeing... It was totally clear to me that we should in no way consciously be in this system at all—just no way.”

Less than a week after Good’s killing, the Santa Cruz City Council voted to terminate the city’s Flock contract, becoming the first municipality in California to do so.

“For us, the threat to our civil liberties was greater than any benefit we could get from the flawed product,” Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley told KQED at the time.

Chad Kemp, who represents District 32 on the nonpartisan Dane County Board of Supervisors in Wisconsin—which in April voted to stop funding two dozen cameras leased from Flock—told The Washington Times that “there’s a public safety issue here, but there is also a privacy issue.”

“There are serious concerns about individuals who can be monitored without their knowledge, or if it is even constitutional or ethical to track people without a warrant,” he added.

At the national level, US Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) last year launched an investigation into the use of Flock cameras to track pregnant people across state lines for abortion care and to conduct unauthorized immigration enforcement operations.

Krishnamoorthi and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have also urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Flock Safety “for failing to implement cybersecurity protections, allowing Americans’ personal data to be exposed to hackers, criminals, and spies to steal.”

Their demand came after the cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock revealed that hackers stole passwords and data from at least 35 Flock customer accounts.

In May, US Reps. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) introduced a bipartisan amendment to a bill that would prohibit state and local governments receiving federal highway funds from using ALPRs for purposes other than electronic toll collection.

It’s not just Flock. Axon, Vigilant Solutions—a subsidiary of Motorola Solutions—Genetec, PlateSmart, Innova Systems, Rekor, ELSAG, Perceptics, Jenoptik, and other firms market ALPRs to law enforcement agencies, private companies, and others.

“It doesn’t matter which company has its creepy cameras in your neighborhood,” the ACLU said, “they all have the same problems: a lack of transparency, oversight, and regulation into how they collect, store, and use our data, and how to hold public and private actors accountable if they abuse it.”

Major American corporations that benefited from tax cuts enacted last year by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are donating to the campaigns of GOP lawmakers who made the windfall possible.

A report published Friday by Unrig Our Economy spotlights seven House Republicans who voted for the sprawling and unpopular GOP budget package, which extended tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans while inflicting unprecedented cuts on Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance—with disastrous consequences for millions of low-income families across the country.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), one of the lawmakers featured in the new report, has received campaign donations from corporate PACs representing 3M, Amazon, Walmart, AT&T, and other companies that collectively received billions of dollars in tax breaks from the Republican law, which restored a provision allowing businesses to immediately write off new investments.

Amazon saw its US income taxes fall by more than half last year due to the GOP law, even as the company’s profits grew. Unrig Our Economy noted that Amazon, whose PAC donated thousands to the Republicans spotlighted in the new report, has an effective federal tax rate of 1.37% following enactment of the budget law.

Miller-Meeks, who has received at least $57,000 in donations from the PACs of companies that benefited from the 2025 law, issued a statement Thursday bragging about supporting “the largest tax cuts in American history,” not mentioning that the benefits will disproportionately flow to profitable corporations and the richest people in the country.

“Thanks to the Republican tax law, corporations are receiving tax breaks, House Republicans are getting campaign cash, and working families are getting stuck with the bill,” the report states.

Another Republican lawmaker featured in the report, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, received $2,500 in campaign donations from the PAC of FirstEnergy, which reaped $500 million in depreciation deductions thanks to the GOP tax law.

“Bresnahan voted to give FirstEnergy hundreds of millions in tax breaks even after the company raised utility prices for his constituents,” Unrig Our Economy’s report observes.

The report also points out that Bresnahan “owned stock in every single one” of the companies who contributed PAC money to his campaign following passage of the Republican budget package last summer.

“This comes after Bresnahan has already faced scrutiny for dumping stock in Medicaid providers and selling off bonds in Pennsylvania hospitals before voting to slash Medicaid and put rural hospitals at risk,” the report notes.

Leor Tal, Unrig Our Economy’s campaign director, said in a statement that “one year ago, House Republicans ripped away healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans, so that corporations could get massive tax breaks.”

“Now, many of those companies are dishing out PAC money to the Republicans listed in this report,” said Tal. “Republicans in Congress sold out many of their own constituents to help corporations get even richer. It’s time that House Republicans step up, do the right thing, and start fighting for working Americans—not giant corporations.”

Miles Taylor, the former Trump administration official turned vocal critic, issued a stark warning to Americans on the eve of the nation's 250th anniversary, arguing the country now faces a fundamental choice about its future under President Donald Trump.

In an op-ed published Friday, Taylor wrote that the traditional "pillars" of American democracy — the rule of law, free dissent, separation of powers and the loyalty of public officials — are buckling under Trump. However, he also argued that beneath those pillars lay something else: "popular sovereignty," the idea that governing power belongs to the people alone.

"When a free people find that democracy's pillars appear at risk of collapsing, they must decide whether to fight or flee," Taylor wrote. "There's only one right answer in my view."

Taylor built his argument around the story of Todd Beamer and the passengers of United Flight 93, who voted to storm the cockpit of their hijacked plane on Sept. 11, 2001, ultimately crashing it into a Pennsylvania field rather than allow it to reach its intended target in Washington.

Taylor wrote that the passengers' vote, cast with "no court" and "no president or army" able to save them, proves that in America, "authority runs upward, from the people."

He warned that Trump's actions — jailing critics, deploying troops domestically — are consequences of a deeper failure, writing that "an autocrat is downstream of the abdication" by voters who returned him to power.

"Nature destroys everything it creates, but it creates from everything it destroys," Taylor wrote. "Perhaps we’ll lose the whole building. That would be quite a trial. Yet from the rubble, a free people can always, always, always build again. If we choose to. That’s the promise beneath each personal ruin in our own lives or a once-in-a-century national catastrophe. We’re not doomed. We’re never doomed. We retain the option to rebuild."

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen marked the United States' 250th anniversary with a scathing essay arguing the nation's defining trait isn't liberty or opportunity, but cruelty, and placed President Donald Trump at the center of that critique.

In the essay, Nguyen described Trump as a "would-be American Nero" whose government has turned immigration enforcement into what he called a spectacle of "cruelty," pointing to masked agents pursuing immigrants in the streets and harsh detention conditions.

Nguyen, who arrived in the U.S. as a Vietnamese refugee the year before the bicentennial, argued that the "cruelty" wasn't new but had been present since the nation's founding, citing the displacement of Native Americans, slavery, and the exploitation of Chinese, Mexican and other immigrant labor as part of a continuous imperial pattern.

"Empires do not often share power or decline gracefully. The idea that the United States might save itself from itself seems far away, just as the idea that Israel could do the same looks impossible," Nguyen wrote.

"Change will come mostly from external defeats and pressures and from the explosions of internal contradictions. The role of patriotic Americans is not to participate in the cruelty and to call out that cruelty for what it is. But too many Americans believe that patriotism means continuing to exert American power and violence, masked by the rhetoric of democracy and freedom, in order to keep a staggering giant on its feet."

Nguyen connected that history to current foreign policy, criticizing bipartisan U.S. support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza and linking it to what he described as America's own founding violence. He also pointed to the war on Iran as evidence of imperial overreach.

Nguyen concluded that saving the country requires humility and repentance rather than continued assertions of dominance, arguing that both Israel and the U.S. are currently "led by its worst," and that new leadership alone won't fix the underlying problem unless it rejects the idea of American exceptionalism entirely.

Right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel is accusing Pope Leo XIV of doing the work of the Chinese Communist Party with his criticisms of artificial intelligence.

According to a Thursday report from CNN, Thiel told the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Tuesday that the pope was inadvertently serving as a “Chinese communist agent” when he released a 42,000-word encyclical that called for strict regulation of AI, a technology that the pontiff said heightens the “risk of dehumanization” throughout the world.

Thiel argued that this sort of thinking was dangerous, CNN reported, because it could result in the US losing the “race” to build more advanced AI to China. Because of this, Thiel continued, the pope is essentially “working for the Chinese communists” by trying to tap the brakes on AI development.

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has long decried AI critics in harsh terms. Over the last year, he has been delivering a series of lectures in which he has said that opponents of AI development are working as agents for the Antichrist.

Journalist Christopher Hale, who writes the Letters From Leo newsletter, noted on Friday that Thiel in the past has even speculated that Pope Leo could be “a manifestation of the Antichrist.”

Thiel has said that he instructed Vice President JD Vance, a longtime political ally who received major funding from the tech billionaire for his 2022 Senate campaign, to ignore the pope’s moral guidance despite influencing Vance to convert to Catholicism, Hale added.

“Thiel seeded the vice president’s Catholic faith,” Hale wrote, “and he now tells wealthy festival audiences that the leader of that faith works for a communist government.”

In addition to his attacks on the pope, Thiel also warned about “a democratic-socialist takeover of the Democratic Party,” pointing to recent victories in New York and Colorado of candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Thiel said that this “takeover” would doom the US, arguing that “when the Democratic Party goes, this country is over,” according to CNN.

The New York Times reported in May that Thiel has grown so concerned about the political situation in the US that he’s created a “foothold” for himself in Argentina, which is currently being governed by ideologically likeminded libertarian President Javier Milei.

“Thiel, who has a history of collecting backup countries as he hedges his bets against the United States, is considering making Argentina another Plan B,” the Times reported. “Born in Germany and raised in the United States, he received citizenship in New Zealand in 2011, and applied for a passport in Malta in 2022.”

A close call involving performers at the Great American State Fair could land President Donald Trump behind bars, one journalist cautioned on Thursday.

Performers narrowly avoided injury Thursday when a section of the stage at the Washington, D.C. event appeared to give way, sending debris crashing down just feet from where they stood. According to Drop Site News founder Ryan Grim, however, the incident could end up haunting the president.

“This is incredibly dangerous stuff. Trump cutting safety corners with stage building is the kind of thing somebody can genuinely be prosecuted for if someone dies, which is not uncommon if you slap it together like this,” Grim wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 530,000 followers. “This equipment is deadly when falling from those heights.”

Organized by the Trump-linked group Freedom 250, the fair got off to a rough start last week after most of the artists previously slated to perform at the event backed out after learning of its connections to Trump. The fair has also experienced power failures that melted perishable foods and stalled a Ferris wheel, and has been ridiculed over what appear to be near-empty fields and booths.

Fair organizers have yet to release a statement regarding the incident Thursday, which had been initially flagged by independent journalist Aaron Parnas but since picked up by several news outlets.

President Donald Trump's obsessive push to revamp Washington D.C. was born during a motorcade ride to face election interference charges, according to a former campaign official who was with him that day.

On August 3, 2023, Trump was riding to the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse for arraignment on four counts tied to his effort to overturn the 2020 election when he began stewing over the state of the capital, the ex-official told Semafor. Homeless encampments lined the streets. At one point, the vehicle swerved to avoid bricks and concrete dumped in the roadway.

That ride, the official said, is where the fixation began.

Trump "looked out the window and saw a U.S. capital that had been slow to recover from COVID-19 and was bucking a national decline in crime," Talcott reported, describing the moment "the real estate developer-turned-president developed a new fixation with what he regarded as a second-tier swamp town."

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has moved with intensity to reshape the city, The Daily Beast reported Friday. His building spree includes a new East Wing ballroom, a 250-foot Triumphal Arch planned for Memorial Circle near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, a Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool recoated "American flag blue" that has since developed algae problems, and a championship golf course makeover.

The combined price tag — drawn from a mix of private contributions and taxpayer money — looks set to surpass the $1 billion mark, based on estimates by the Financial Times. The ballroom and its security alone account for roughly $800 million of that total — nearly four times Trump's original $200 million estimate.

Administration officials described a president who cannot let the subject go. "When he's motorcading around town, he points stuff out," one told Semafor, adding that Trump raises the projects during unrelated meetings and keeps mock-ups on his desk.

Will Scharf — the White House staff secretary serving as chair of the National Capital Planning Commission — told the Financial Times that Trump is "intensely involved," recalling "long conversations" on flights about "the virtues of Corinthian versus Ionic columns."

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a House Oversight Committee member, warned about the taxpayer exposure. "We should have some oversight about who these contracts are going to, that they're not no-bid contracts, that there's proper management of those funds," he said.

Donald Trump Jr. sent a ‘groveling’ fundraising email instructing recipients to complete a Republican Party questionnaire and "have it back to us by 11:59 p.m.," according to a New York Times column by Michelle Cottle.

The email is part of a fundraising style that has become a signature of MAGA world – one that trades polite requests for demands. Kellyanne Conway has sent messages ordering supporters to "verify your G.O.P. Party Affiliation immediately." Other appeals have warned recipients their "MAGA Membership" faces "termination pending," or threatened "final WARNING: complete and total termination."

Democrats, meanwhile, are stuck in a different rut. Their fundraising emails read less like commands and more like apologies, with subject lines such as "Can I explain?" and "You deserve an explanation" – the tone, Cottle wrote, of a "contrite boyfriend" rather than a confident political operation.

The contrast captures a broader divide between the parties' brands. Republicans lean on urgency, tribal loyalty and the sting of exclusion. Democrats lean on guilt, hand-wringing and pleading.

Cottle argues neither approach is sustainable, and that Democrats in particular need to ditch the groveling for something more inspiring if they want voters to actually feel proud to write a check.

President Donald Trump, who turned 80 last month, made only three public appearances in Washington before 11 a.m. during the entire month of June, according to a Daily Beast analysis of his official schedule and White House pool reports published Friday.

The Daily Beast's review found that the president's “shockingly lazy” schedule listed "Executive Time" beginning at 8 a.m. for 26 of the 30 days in June. Public events, when they occurred, were typically scheduled for the afternoon or later.

The same pattern held in the preceding months, the outlet found. Trump had "Executive Time" listed on his schedule 26 mornings in May and every day in April. He had public appearances before 11 a.m. on 11 days in May – four of them golf outings and three during a trip to China – and on six days in April.

Scheduled morning events have also frequently run late or been canceled, according to the Daily Beast's review. A bill-signing set for June 10 at 10 a.m. was delayed more than an hour. A housing bill signing scheduled for noon on June 24 was called off entirely – Trump announced the cancellation in a social media post sent shortly before 11 a.m., after Republican lawmakers had already set up for the event in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.

The White House did not directly address the Daily Beast's questions about the president's schedule or the meaning of "Executive Time." A spokesman sent the outlet a statement describing Trump as sharp and energetic and criticizing past media coverage of former President Joe Biden's health, without addressing Trump's own schedule.

The Daily Beast also cited reporting from a recent book on the administration by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, which described Trump as a "night owl" prone to staying up through the night on the phone or watching television. On one such occasion, the book recounted, "an aide checked on the President only to find that he was still asleep in the residence." The book also reported that Trump and first lady Melania Trump maintain separate bedrooms at the White House.

WASHINGTON — Ever throw a party only to have no one show up? Awkward. Lonely. Embarrassing.

Welcome to President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair, where even the baptism pool was empty in Friday’s 100-degree heat as two men waved large flags to a crowd of two and a half — a little boy danced to soulless piano playing to the massive “revival” tent’s eight rows of empty chairs.

America may be back according to MAGA bumper stickers, but if Trump’s fair is any barometer, the nation’s surely seen better days.

At this lightly attended spectacle, even hologram Abraham Lincoln was left addressing an audience of one in the air-conditioned Illinois exhibit.

But it was not just dead presidents getting a cool reception. Even America’s living U.S. trade representative Ambassador Jamison Greer’s panel commemorating Horespower of America — Thursday’s official theme at this state fair — was only attracting a crowd some 15 people when Raw Story visited, not including his three-person, suit-donning security detail and a handful of event staff.

It seems pigs are more popular than politicians, though.

Thursday morning’s youth livestock exhibition featured pigs. The live display attracted a rotating cast of some 20 people on one grandstand — even as the other rodeo stand remained empty throughout the porky presentation — which was far more interest than Trump’s trade rep garnered.

“I guess, technically, that’s a rodeo,” an older man told his unimpressed partner as they passed the day’s sparsely attended youth livestock show (Thursday’s afternoon “rodeo” was later canceled, apparently due to the heat).

In the stifling temperatures, grumblings were heard amongst attendees when they reached exhibits, only to be turned away by event staff, like the temporarily shuttered Virginia and Texas exhibits.

“Oh no,” one lady exclaimed. “I just wanted to get out of the heat.”

Other makeshift fan-waving visitors peeked their heads into exhibits just for a second as they hunted for hydration that was cooler than the lukewarm-to-hot bottles of water passed out for free.

“There’s no water,” one female scout yelled to her small group huddled outside the Maryland exhibit.

Other visitors were surprised to see their home state’s packed like sardines in exhibit halls, like the one small temporary building dedicated to Rhode Island, Vermont and — because they have so much in common — Kentucky.

“I don’t know why they have Vermont and Rhode Island in here, too,” one man complained through a southern drawl.

“Kinda weird,” his female companion agreed.

One of the more popular exhibits seemed to be the South Carolina one, as older visitors found respite in the state’s six large white rocking chairs.

Another popular exhibit was Florida’s, but folks waiting in the 40-some-odd-people-long line weren’t quite sure why there was a line, let alone why they were waiting in it.

“Is this the line for Florida?” Raw Story asked as Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Free Bird” wailed over the loudspeakers. “What’s in there that’s so good?”

“Yeah,” a family at the end of the line said just about in unison.

“We were wondering the same thing,” a lady chimed in.

“A little puppy,” an Asian tourist mimed with her hands.

“Oh, okay,” the lady replied. “Like a little stuffed animal.”

While there was some MAGA gear spotted throughout the crowd, one visitor’ proudly wore an “all of us are immigrants” shirt.

“Sometimes the possibilities of good trouble present themselves,” Bob, who was in town with his wife from Pennsylvania, told Raw Story. “I’m a provocateur.”

Though Bob gave credit where credit was due.

“It’s also a Steve Earle song called ‘City of Immigrants,’” Bob went out of his way to confess to Raw Story later in the afternoon.

While the administration has refused calls to publicly disclose all of the fair’s financial backers, corporate logos are prominent in Trump’s America.

What’s more American than the military-industrial complex? To the chagrin of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, everywhere you looked throughout the fair you could spot a logo of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, GE Aerospace and other contractors.

The Pentagon and other agencies also got in on the action, as they turned their exhibition space into recruiting centers as Air Force Thunderbirds buzzed the National Mall outside.

The Department of Homeland Security even passed out FEMA-emblazoned crayons, coloring books and Pedro the Penguin maps of hazards across all 50 states for kids to color.\

Silicon Valley’s finest also flexed their corporate might throughout the event, including Oracle, Uber, Micron Technologies, Mosaic, and Chime.

Signs for Phorm Energy — a caffeine-spiked drink company co-owned by UFC president Dana White and Anheuser-Busch — were also hard to miss.

Traditional American companies like Wrangler, Tractor Supply and Scott’s Miracle-Gro are also sponsors. And, of course, oil and gas conglomerates like Chevron were hard to miss.

“It’s interesting seeing all the corporate sponsors,” Hannah, a recent college graduate who got her first job working for a senator on Capitol Hill, told Raw Story.

Corporations are as American as mass-produced apple pies, her and other guests were reminded.

“It’s like, ‘Oh yeah!’” Hannah laughed. “I was on a run, and I was like, ‘Wait, I might as well peek in.’”

Her review?

“Not too much of a fan, personally, because I grew up with my grandma telling me how awesome the bicentennial was,” Hannah told Raw Story. “So I was kind of looking forward to that, and it’s definitely a little more politicized than I think the celebration should be.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's inner circle apparently had to fight to keep from cracking up during his very first phone call with Donald Trump — because the American president veered wildly off-script into a bizarre theory about wildlife.

According to Starmer's former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, the conversation started normally enough, with Trump raising his familiar gripes about wind turbines.

But it quickly spiraled into something nobody in the room was prepared for, the BBC reported.

Trump reportedly told Starmer that wind turbines were slaughtering British birds, and that foxes gorging on the fallen carcasses had grown so obese that people could no longer identify the species. McSweeney told the BBC officials in the room were "barely able to contain themselves because it was so funny," though everyone forced themselves to stay composed given the historic nature of the call.

There's no evidence UK foxes are ballooning in size. And while wind turbines do kill some birds, research shows they're responsible for far fewer bird deaths per unit of energy produced than the fossil fuels Trump keeps pushing Starmer to embrace instead.

In June, Trump used Truth Social to announce Starmer's resignation before Starmer himself had said a word about stepping down, tacking on criticism of his immigration and energy record and a sign-off wishing him well. Downing Street said the two men hadn't even discussed it. Starmer confirmed his resignation the next day.

Trump administration officials reportedly believed that the Israeli government intended to assassinate Iran’s top negotiators—including the country’s foreign minister—during peace talks with the US in an effort to sabotage diplomatic progress.

The New York Times reported Thursday that “American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials—Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament—spiked during delicate ceasefire negotiations that began in April.” In response, the US “went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Iran about the possibility Israel could target the two officials,” according to the Times, which cited unnamed current and former American officials.

The US and Israel have killed dozens of top Iranian officials since launching their illegal joint war in late February. But the allied countries reportedly removed Araghchi and Ghalibaf from their target list in late March, opening the possibility of high-level negotiations to end the war.

But Israel remained bent on targeting the negotiators, according to the Times, whose reporting was later corroborated by The Washington Post.

The Times detailed one dramatic incident in April, when Ghalibaf was planning to travel to Pakistan’s capital to meet with US Vice President JD Vance:

Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian airplanes carrying a delegation of more than 70 Iranians from the border of Iran to Islamabad and back again when the session was over.

But on the way back to Tehran, an Israeli security threat emerged.

Iran’s security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from its western border near Iraq, the two officials said.

Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser for Mr. Ghalibaf, who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on his social media page. The plane made an emergency landing in the city of Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to the Pakistani border, and the Iranian delegation traveled some eight hours by land back to Tehran, Mr. Mohammadi and the two officials said.

The Post reported that “cracks emerged” between the US and Israeli approaches to the war following Israel’s assassination of top Iranian national security official Ali Larijani in March.

“They’ve wiped out everybody,” Trump told reporters in late March, suggesting Israel’s assassination campaign was making it difficult to find potential negotiating partners.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in response to the new reporting that “Israel is a state that, on paper, is a US partner, but in reality is so extreme in its obsession to undermine US diplomacy that it even tries to assassinate those the US engages with in crucial negotiations.”

“I can’t recall a government as terrified of peace as the one running Israel,” Parsi added.

At present, the Israeli government—led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—is endangering tenuous US-Iran peace talks with its continued occupation of and assault on Lebanon, which Iran has highlighted as a key factor in the negotiations.

Visiting occupied southern Lebanon earlier this week, Netanyahu declared to Israeli troops that “our insistence is that we will not leave... until the threat is removed.”

Parsi wrote earlier this week that “beyond his long-standing desire to use American force to subjugate Iran to Israeli domination and achieve a regional balance favorable to Israel,” Netanyahu “now also has stark political and personal reasons to restart the war” with Iran.

“The [US and Iran’s memorandum of understanding] has come at a steep political cost for Netanyahu,” wrote Parsi. “His prospects for reelection in October are weaker than they have been in months. Once seen as the Israeli leader uniquely capable of delivering President Trump, he now confronts the prospect that both the war and the ensuing diplomacy will leave Israel in a strategically weaker position—undermining the very case he has made for his leadership.”

“And of course,” Parsi added, “if he loses the elections, he will likely spend the next few years in jail, as he will lose his immunity as prime minister and face trial over corruption charges.”

The story was published in partnership with Common Dreams, read the original here.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) torched what was left of her relationship with President Donald Trump on Thursday after new financial disclosures showed he personally pocketed $2.2 billion during his first year back in office, The New York Times reported Friday.

"The Republican Party hijacked MAGA," Greene wrote on X, the Times reported.

Some MAGA voices went further, framing the windfall as proof of Trump's business savvy rather than a conflict of interest. Iowa activist Kelley Koch, who chairs a group called MAGA Nation, brushed off outrage entirely: "Let's just be honest, people are checked out right now," she said, speaking with the Times.

Democrats weren't nearly as forgiving. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump "the most corrupt president in American history," while Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) accused him of standing "with the billionaire class" while ordinary Americans struggle, the Times reported.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) committed to block House floor proceedings unless House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) inserts the SAVE Act into a must-pass piece of legislation, Punchbowl News reported on Friday.

Luna has pressed for the SAVE America Act – a bill that mandates voter ID and citizenship checks while adding new restrictions on mail-in ballots – to be folded into the annual defense policy bill.

"We should be doing all of the above," Luna told Punchbowl News for its report published Friday. "Why not try? It's crazy."

Luna has already disrupted leadership's plans once – she helped defeat a rule that would have inserted SAVE Act language directly into the defense bill, despite House GOP leaders having spent three years working to keep unrelated amendments out of it.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with inter-party disputes. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl that Republicans "need to be very careful" about how they message the standoff, arguing that Democrats – not Republicans – are the ones blocking the SAVE Act's passage.

“The message we need to convey to our supporters – it’s not Republicans that are preventing the SAVE America Act from being passed. It’s Democrats,” Johnson told Punchbowl News.

This column grimly spent a spring predicting a dark summer of possible chaos and violence, an administration on the move, power grabs at every turn, one preparing for an unpredictable but authoritarian fall season. We would endure a lot of hot weather, late nights, some dangerous dynamics, and Kalshi had odds at 40% that Portland would be ashes by June 15th.

This worry followed protests in Minnesota, the fear of troops coming to Chicago, and everything else you surely remember. Well, the heat came to the East Coast. But nothing else, not yet.

Indeed, so far, if one had to pick a theme or feel for what's happening, it would be a catchy viral meme about what's not happening. "The summer that wasn't."

We are passing through the nation's 250th birthday, the biggest annual summer holiday, made infinitely bigger by the incredible number, and yet it looks like it'll go by largely unnoticed, except for skipping work on Friday, maybe hearing some booms late at night Saturday. One would have expected baited anticipation, pride, and massive celebrations planned everywhere, or at least that would have been the expectation back 10 years ago, "normal America."

I went to a big gathering in my city's central park to watch the U.S. play in the World Cup on big screens with a big crowd — nice weather. Yes, people supported the American team, but not with the passion, anticipation, or hypertension otherwise expected. Everyone's support seemed a bit muted, as if we weren't sure "which" America this team represented. They wore white, not red or blue. If one said, "It's actually the whole country's team," most would reply, "Right. But, again, which country?"

Everyone knows the cause.

Instead of a celebration of the good that this country has done in its years (while acknowledging the horrific), as per usual, the President of the United States made the entire thing, everything official, at least, not about America but about him. Yes, of course, your city park will still have the earnest city band or orchestra playing in the evening and then fireworks. But the tone is set by the institutions functioning as the nation's cerebellum: the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, the Mall. Trump took it all over and made it a MAGA rally. About him.

Well that will blow a tire for the 60% of the nation that is exhausted by this man, consumed with disdain and fury. Interestingly, though, there's some evidence that even Trump supporters don't like having the Fourth of July a personal celebration of Donald Trump, as if they, too, have actually found a line in the sand upon which even they won't cross. He cannot take over everything. Kinda like if he named every NFL team "Trump," like the Buffalo Trump, the Dallas Trump, Seattle Trump, all of them. That would be too far, guaranteed. Perhaps this is, too.

No, no one is fooled. He damn sure can try to take over elections, has taken over the Department of Justice, the military, and planted his face on banners in a Stalinesque way throughout Washington. He can take over most things, and most of those things are the really important ones, as opposed to the "Great National State Fair" that invisibly passed us by and the big celebration planned for the actual Fourth of July — a rally, about him, always, his greatness, a nation relegated to nothing but a stage.

Is it possible that even MAGAs never wanted at least this part?

There are other factors. Yes, there is the heat. Yes, you better believe gas prices play a role. Lots more. And yet the number of artists who checked out after hearing the agenda, the lagging ticket requests before the weather report, the bizarre claw of the UFC fight on the White House lawn, a "Fair" no one asked for, and the fact that Washington is empty, all point to something deeper. Kind of like the U.S. soccer team, it's possible everyone agreed we'd have official "Safe Spots," areas relied on to rest from politics — a "timeout." Is it possible that people from the furthest left, to the most extreme 15% of MAGA muckers, all just want to eat a cheeseburger in a backyard, enjoy a day off, maybe even read in the AC? Sick of it all? Not sure which America we're celebrating, only knowing it's not Donald Trump personally?

Well, something is happening because nothing is happening!

It appears that our kids are out of school, mine seems to be home a lot — which normally indicates something "summery." That weirdly fascinating soccer stuff is on television, and we get to see some kinda cool costumes and customs from around the world. Hollywood released a handful of massive budget movies. Most people have Friday off. There is some evidence that it's summer's big holiday and a lot saying it's not supposed to be like this.

All of this might be an important development; it is possible it is an important element, and it's certainly better than an extreme alternative. But there's also the chance that we're seeing a delay of the dangers to which this column previously pointed. Is this the silence before the storm? Do we all just demand a Fourth of July, especially a 250th (!) without it being centered on "Donald J. Trump," want to be on our best behavior while hosting the world, and only afterwards will we then threaten 250 years by trying to rip the politically beating hearts out of one another toward Labor Day?

And does Trump have plans for late summer? September? Kids back in school, no World Cup, vacations over, working again, drifting into Fall, and then lowers the hammer? The speculation might sound paranoid were it not so damned warranted, given recent history and the stakes at play. Democrats are about to win back control of a critical branch of government. Nothing in Trump's past indicates he'll stand by, sufficiently medicated to just let it happen, and then just move on.

Maybe it makes sense that summer is passing us by wholly unnoticed. Everyone is too tired and terrified of pointing to a flag, whether over the Mall or on a soccer uniform, and saying, "Let's go USA." That just confuses everyone. "Which one?" or "It's under repair, road work" (Now that is a sign of summer), both sound legitimate.

But so does "don't say anything! Don't light a fuse!"

Don't know. You don't know. No one knows, and that's the point. Even Trump, who certainly knows what he might plan for later, sure didn't know he'd be mostly ignored. All anybody knows is that it's 95 degrees and it's not supposed to snow Saturday - must be summer, the summer that wasn't.

And wow, for the love of God, one would've thought this would be huge, just ten years ago. The 250th? World Cup? What could possibly have happened in one decade?

What happened is the biggest threat to that nation since 1861 — and that 1861 Fourth of July passed rather muted, too — the nation had been at war for three months, and the first battle just down the road from Washington was three weeks away. At least the country had its greatest president during such a dangerous time. We're going through it with a less predictable, less educated, and less narcissistic Jefferson Davis as president of both sides.

Our cannons are quiet for now. Maybe that's why summer silently slips by unnoticed - we're terrified of the alternative.

Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist, former Editor of Occupied Democrats, political consultant, author, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com. He does read, appreciate, and learn from the comments.

An ex-GOP operative flagged how Trump is killing what he once touted as his "best" deal at the expense of his supporters.

During an episode of The Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller described Trump's plans concerning the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated and boasted about during his first term.

"The Trump administration decided not to renew the USMCA," Miller noted. "Which is pretty interesting because Donald Trump said that was the best agreement we've ever made, the best trade deal of all time."

While "it's strange that they would not renew the best trade deal of all time," Miller explained, "They're now going to do yearly reviews where Trump shakes down the leaders of Mexico and Canada...not great."

According to Miller, Trump will ditch the USMCA in favor of an arrangement where the U.S. conducts annual reviews of trade with Mexico and Canada. He predicted that the new arrangement would likely hurt American farmers, who supported Trump.

"The farmers, it's one hit after another for the farmers, who, it seems like, every Trump policy is like it's almost like an elaborate plot to see how much he can p— off the farmers and still run up the numbers in rural America," Miller said.

Miller's guest on the show, New Yorker writer Susan Glasser, agreed.

"As far as the farmers go, Donald Trump loves to provide evidence that his ride or die supporters will be there no matter how much he humiliates them," Glasser said. "No matter how much he backs away from policies that would support him, no matter how much he fails to deliver the things that he said he would deliver. That to Trump, that's the ultimate sort of political own, and he loves that move."

A MAGA congressman's attempt to defend his wing from accusations of racism backfired after online critics laid into him.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) took to X with a post that featured a picture of him with a serious expression and one of his quotes pulled and in bold.

"The left has one debate tactic: call you a racist and pray you shut up," the quote read. "I never will."

However, online critics responded by doing more than calling him racist, as they reacted by piling on more attacks and insults against Gill and MAGA.

"Being proud of being racist is certainly a choice," internet personality Jared Shult reacted.

"That's fine," wrote veteran political commentator Jonah Goldberg. "Really. One caveat: that doesn't mean it's okay to be racist."

The popular account Polling USA, which posts political data and commentary, responded to Gill with, "I keep forgetting this guy is a legitimate member of Congress and not a satire account."

"No one is calling you racist as an attempt to scare you into shutting up," wrote Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI). "We call you racist because you refer to Indian Americans as '7-eleven workers.'"

Thanedar also posted a screenshot of one of Gill's past posts, reading, "We don't need to import 7-Eleven workers from India or anywhere across the globe. Hire Americans."

"The fact that you married an Indian American shows that you're just a grifter pandering to a racist base," continued Thanedar. "How pathetic it must be to be that cheap."

Meanwhile, journalist Zaid Jilani wrote, "Let's check back in November 2026 how much people like your brand of white nationalist politics."

A CNN panel had a good laugh as a GOP pundit twisted himself in a "pretzel" defending the Trump family.

While discussing recent revelations about how much money Trump and his family made since returning to office last year, conservative podcaster Ben Ferguson had everyone around him in stitches.

Ferguson, the host of "The Ben Ferguson Show," argued that the Trump family isn't corrupt for its involvement in billion-dollar ventures involving cryptocurrency and tungsten mining because they were engaged in "actual business."

CNN anchor Abby Phillip, who described the Trump family as "real estate developers," shot back by asking, "What do the Trump sons know about mining rare earth minerals? What do the Trump sons know about robotics?"

Ferguson's response was, "A lot, clearly, they made a lot of money off of it because they actually invest in it."

The panel around him, which included political analyst and attorney Bakari Sellers, former Biden White House staffer Yemisi Egbewole, and former Bush White House official Ashley Davis, could be heard laughing together as Ferguson responded.

Sellers chimed in by remarking, "I do hot yoga, and I feel like you're doing a little hot yoga too for that pretzel you got yourself in," which led to Egbewole and Davis laughing more.

"The president makes $400,000 a year," Sellers pointed out. "This quarter, he's made over $1 billion on crypto alone...that fundamentally is unethical. You can call it what you want."

While Sellers mentioned Trump's presidential salary, Ferguson threw in one more defense: "he gives it all away," which also caused laughter around the table.

Former special counsel Jack Smith stunned online viewers by revealing how he prepared for prosecution by the Trump administration.

During an appearance on MS NOW, Smith spoke about hiring lawyers when he left his job as a federal prosecutor because he led two criminal investigations into Donald Trump, including for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

"I resigned as special counsel. I know I need to get a lawyer because the president has said he wants to jail me for doing my job," Jack Smith explained. "And so I retain lawyers, as soon as that becomes public, the president and the Justice Department target that law firm."

Online, viewers reacted to Smith's account of how his fears about the Trump administration came true. Veteran political scientist Norman Ornstein responded by describing the administration as "American Gestapo" in a post on X.

"The retribution is simply staggering," wrote civil rights lawyer Leslie Proll.

"We are in such high cotton here," reacted columnist Sophia A. Nelson. "And nobody in power who can stop him or his minions gives a d—."

"What a refreshing example of an honest, moral and non political American hero," architect and political activist Mike Kihn wrote about Jack Smith. "He will not give in to Trump's attempt to intimidate because, like a legal first responder, he will run to danger, personal or otherwise, not away from it."

"Now listen to the women who testified under oath that Trump r— them," posted journalist Robert Young Pelton. "Or listen to the testimony of those who spoke out from inside the Trump administration, like Miles Taylor."

The Department of Labor's latest economic report revealed concerning trends despite a declining unemployment rate of 4.2%.

Job creation fell sharply to just 57,000 over three months, down from 129,000 in the previous report, according to the survey released Thursday morning.

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman highlighted red flags in specific sectors: nursing jobs added only 22,000 over the past year, compared to 38,000 the previous year, while hospitality hiring experienced significant decline despite multiple cities hosting World Cup games.

"That is something that we need to watch," Goldman said.

He noted economists expect future revisions to clarify the numbers.

"I think, and there are a number of economists who are smarter than me who think, that this might change as we get those revisions in the future months, because this is kind of defying logic and defining what we can see with our own eyes," Goldman said.

Watch the video below.

A security expert warned about the impact of Trump's latest move to send hundreds of FBI analysts to Georgia.

CNN law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller broke down Trump's decision to send 260 intelligence officials to Georgia to investigate the 2020 election results. Miller said the move is "very concerning," especially as Trump pushes the Save America Act, a voter-proof-of-citizenship law.

"There is a through line when you combine the idea that he is pushing the SAVE Act and then, on a holiday weekend, calls in hundreds of FBI analysts," Miller said. "When law enforcement comes in and starts doing things like this...it creates this chilling effect towards election workers and others."

He explained that Trump called in "staff operations specialists and investigative operations specialists to the Atlanta field office," and "this is the kind of people where it looks like you would be dumping a ton of paperwork, maybe ballots on them."

The instructions to these hundreds of FBI analysts could even be to go through the ballots and investigate them "one at a time," Miller added. However, he cautioned that, "if they're doing a recount, that kind of usurps the election authorities of the state."

Whether or not they find anything, Miller warned, "You're creating this atmosphere that there's something wrong there, and I can't see these two things being unconnected," again referring to the Save America Act and noting that this "could have been done last week."

MS NOW's Jen Psaki kicked off "The Briefing" Thursday night with a rundown of the utter failure of President Donald Trump's "Great American State Fair" on the National Mall — and highlighted one moment in particular she thought was incredibly bizarre.

"This was the scene on Tuesday, when there were actually more in the band on stage than there were in the crowd watching them," said Psaki, showing footage of the fair. Crowds did not improve as the week progressed, she noted, "thanks in part to the absolutely bizarre entertainment choices the Trump team booked for the affair."

"This is one of my favorites because it's so strange, this moment when the guy who used to co-host Ted Cruz's podcast seemed to defend the Salem Witch Trials in an apparent debate with someone who I'm guessing is about ten years old," said Psaki, playing the clip of Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles.

"But the one area where the Salem Witch Trials went a little far is, I would say, they weren't organized enough," said Knowles in the clip. "So you had these random judges kind of burning these ladies." (The condemned at the Salem Witch Trials were hanged, not burned.)

"I'm not — I don't know if they were guilty or not, but I think more if it were more formalized, built up a little bit more maybe with like a Grand Inquisitor or something, that would have been a better way to do it," Knowles continued.

"If you don't know what you watched there, I don't know what I watched there either," said Psaki. "But I do know that the person he is talking to ... is definitely a child."

As all this played out, Psaki continued, "you can also see the people who gathered to watch them. And as bizarre as that was to watch, it may have also had the biggest crowd of any event I've seen at this particular fair," with "at least a dozen" spectators. And "things haven't improved since then. I mean, here was the scene earlier today when the stage actually started to fall apart and nearly crushed a group of performers."

- YouTube youtu.be

Trump's plans for a massive fireworks display on July 4 triggered an emergency air pollution warning, according to a new report.

According to MeidasTouch News, an emergency warning went out across Northern Virginia alerting the public about health impacts from Trump's upcoming fireworks show for the 250th anniversary of the United States.

An estimated 880,000 fireworks shells are expected to be launched in the air in Washington, D.C., MeidasTouch reported, comparing that to the 20,000 shells normally used for Independence Day celebrations in the nation's capital. Trump is reportedly trying to break a Guinness World Record with the display.

The huge scale of fireworks is expected to let off large amounts of smoke, particulate matter, and heavy metal pollutants, according to MeidasTouch.

"Officials are reportedly concerned about exposure to both heavy metal particulate matter released by fireworks and carbon-based smoke particles," MeidasTouch noted.

The Northern Virginia emergency bulletin warned that the air pollution will create "unhealthy conditions for sensitive groups, including children, older adults, and individuals with heart or lung disease," MeidasTouch wrote. It also cited data showing significant increases in cardiovascular and respiratory emergency cases following this kind of event.

MeidasTouch wrote, "Healthcare facilities are reportedly being advised to prepare for elevated cardiopulmonary patient volumes during the two weeks following the celebration."

The bulletin's warning is based on the Environmental Protection Agency's own air quality index (AQI), which is on a 0-500 scale. According to MeidasTouch, the air pollution close to the center of the firework smoke is projected to go above 500 AQI. Workers near the National Mall are being advised to wear N95 respirator masks, according to MeidasTouch.

The smoke from the fireworks is expected to move eastward and "remain trapped" at low altitudes instead of rising and dispersing, MeidasTouch added, which would mean "potentially prolonging exposure for communities downwind."

An author who has written four books about President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that first lady Melania Trump has concocted a "preposterous" new way to try and silence him.

Michael Wolff, co-host of the "Inside Trump's Head" podcast with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, said during a new episode that Melania Trump's legal team has moved to sanction the lawyers representing Wolff for bringing a frivolous lawsuit against her. A federal judge threw out Wolff's anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Melania Trump in May, which he filed after she threatened to bring a $1 billion lawsuit against Wolff for his claims about the Trump family's ties to disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

“Essentially, they are moving to sanction my lawyers for doing nothing more than bringing the lawsuit against Melania Trump,” Wolff said on the podcast. “So this is preposterous on its face.”

Wolff also claimed that he found out about the move from Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer close to the Trumps, whom Donald Trump has described as someone who will "say anything" to make him happy.

He claimed that hearing about the move from Epshteyn revealed that the strategy behind the lawsuit “was being coordinated at the highest levels of Trump law.”

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro became defensive during a press conference Thursday when a reporter questioned the prosecutorial disparity in her office's handling of cases.

While announcing a federal indictment against Olympic athlete David Hearn, who faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly touching detached paint on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a journalist asked how Pirro could justify the aggressive charges.

Pirro cut the reporter off and dismissed the comments, but he continued, "Over 1,000 January 6 rioters caused millions of damage."

Pirro abruptly cut the reporter off again and refused to engage with the question.

She responded, "Are you really talking about January 6? I'm not. Who's next? Not you! No!" As she underscored her unwillingness to address concerns about prosecutorial consistency.

Watch the video below.

Donald Trump Jr. has a stake in a company that stands to profit massively from a potential federal rule change by the Trump administration to allow guns to be sold entirely over the internet, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The issue involves the company GrabAGun, an online firearms retailer that has billed itself as "the Amazon of Guns," and seeks to dominate the firearms retail space.

Trump Jr., who owns a 1.1 percent stake in GrabAGun, "was present at the New York Stock Exchange in July 2025 when the company went public, with photos showing him making a gesture like holding a gun to celebrate the moment as he helped ring the bell," said the report. And he "stands to prosper if the company fulfills its goal of being a dominant seller of firearms online."

Currently, GrabAGun can sell ammunition and some gun accessories entirely online — but it can't sell guns themselves without relying on intermediaries, because federal rules require licensed dealers perform an in-person background check. That could all change if the Trump administration gets its way.

Trump officials, the report noted, have "proposed regulatory changes that, for the first time, would let firearms sales take place entirely online, with handguns mailed directly to buyers’ doorsteps." If enacted, this "could enormously benefit GrabAGun and the president’s son, creating a potential conflict of interest that has attracted the attention of ethics watchdogs."

This comes amid much broader scrutiny of the Trump family's self-dealing and personal enrichment, including a more than 900-page disclosure report that details they made $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency side hustles alone.

It also comes as the Trump administration tries to make other enormous changes to the Postal Service, including making them a gatekeeper for which states do and don't get to vote by mail.

President Donald Trump's "rant" and the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on Wednesday sparked fresh health concerns for one political analyst.

David Pakman, host of "The David Pakman Show" on YouTube, said in a recent video that Trump's speech at the opening ceremony for the new presidential library raised all kinds of red flags. Not only did Trump appear physically exhausted, but he also made some quizzical claims that made Pakman wonder about the state of Trump's mental health.

In one clip Pakman played, Trump appeared out of breath while he was speaking to the crowd. Another clip showed Trump making a strange comment about having a "threesome" with his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric.

"What's coming out of his mouth isn't making a lot of sense," Pakman said. "This guy's not doing well, and it's almost painful to watch."

One clip that caught Pakman's eye in particular showed Trump struggling to read the teleprompter. In the clip, Trump weaves between the history of the Rough Riders and a criticism of NATO.

"I don't think he can do this anymore," Pakman said.

A legal expert pulled apart the Trump administration's prosecution of a U.S. Olympian accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.

During an appearance on CNN, Ryan Goodman, a former Pentagon lawyer and the editor-in-chief of Just Security, said that the case, led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, "smells really bad."

Goodman blasted Pirro's claim that her office would prosecute Olympic canoeist David Hearn based on "evidence" that he vandalized the pool. Hearn said he reached into the pool and touched a piece of detached liner, but didn't actually remove it.

"I wish I could believe her that it was just according to the evidence and not according to the president's behest," Goodman said. "But there's a pattern."

Hearn was originally given a misdemeanor citation in June, and "the next day, the president of the United States said that for people committing that act, they need to spend years in jail," Goodman noted.

"The only way you spend years in jail is if you committed a felony," he explained. "And then a couple of days later, the president of the United States said that people who committed these acts can spend up to ten years in jail. And then lo and behold, we have the shock that the man has been charged with a felony and up to ten years in jail."

Goodman also pointed to Pirro's criminal investigation against former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as evidence of a "pattern" that she follows Trump's orders.

"She also, in her office, tried to bring seditious conspiracy charges against members of Congress because the president of the United States said that they made a video about the military not having to follow unlawful orders," Goodman said, referring to an incident earlier this year.

He said the case against Hearn "smells really bad" because "it's in lockstep with the president," as in other similar cases.

European astronomers have appealed to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, to reject SpaceX's plan to launch 1.7 million satellites into orbit, warning the massive installation would have "devastating consequences for astronomy."

The European Southern Observatory, or ESO, study found 100,000 is the maximum number of faint satellites that can orbit Earth while preserving astronomers' ability to observe distant galaxies and potentially hazardous asteroids, according to Common Dreams.

SpaceX's Starlink, lead by CEO Elon Musk, has already exceeded 14,000 satellites since 2019.

Additional threats include Reflect Orbital's proposed 50,000 mirror-like satellites designed to reflect sunlight at night, which would appear four times brighter than the full moon, explained the observatory.

“These satellites would be the brightest ever in orbit, with damaging consequences for dark skies on Earth.”

The bright satellites would obstruct observations, disrupt human biological clocks and ecosystems, and increase atmospheric pollution from launches and reentries.

“The FCC received over 1800 comments regarding Reflect Orbital and nearly 1,500 comments on the application by SpaceX,” revealed ESO institutional affairs officer Betty Kioko.

Watch the video below.