Politics

Far-right influencers are standing by their man—but not his campaign.

The Washington Post on Sunday detailed how several far-right figures with large online followings—including white supremacist Nick Fuentes and activists Laura Loomer and Candace Owens—have been stirring discord by publicly criticizing the Trump campaign, arguing that he needs new leadership who will direct him to take harder-line stances on topics like race and immigration.

Fuentes dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and demonstrated how much influence he gained since his beginnings as a “fringe YouTube star,” as my former colleague Ali Breland reported. Just last week, Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) called Fuentes “a total loser.” But Fuentes posted on X earlier this month, “We support Trump, but his campaign has been hijacked by the same consultants, lobbyists, & donors that he defeated in 2016, and they’re blowing it. Without serious changes we are headed for a catastrophic loss.”

Dimmock’s candidacy, though, is getting a boost from a newly formed super PAC with connections to McCarthy allies that has spent more $3 million in the race so far — including on brutal ads that highlight the misconduct allegations against Gaetz.

“Your daughters are never safe with the real Matt Gaetz,” a narrator says in one ad from the Florida Patriots PAC, referencing the allegations against him, and showing Gaetz’s mug shot from a 2008 DUI arrest. Charges from that incident were later dropped.

The WikiLeaks dump provided journalists with a treasure trove of correspondence, from Clinton’s backroom thoughts on Syria and China to staffer complaints about the candidate’s “terrible instincts” to campaign chairman John Podesta’s risotto recipe.

Fast forward to this month when it was revealed the Trump campaign was hacked and its emails leaked to the press. There was no media feeding frenzy over the contents of the breach, no divining about how the stolen emails reflect upon the former president or his bid for reelection. Major press outlets instead sat on the story for weeks until Trump’s campaign spokesman broke news of the hack Saturday.

The Board of Commissioners in Cobb County, a suburban area northwest of Atlanta, this week approved $47,250 in funding to purchase around 200 devices for election workers ahead of another heated presidential election this fall

The badges, which cost $150 to $250 per year, can be programmed to send alerts to election authorities, law enforcement or both, said Matt Volkerding, vice president of sales at Response Technologies.

The two companies partnered nearly a month ago to sell the panic buttons to election workers this year and are already in talks to sell 1,500 badges in at least five states. Runbeck approached its existing clients and has been presenting the product at statewide election conferences.

Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down an immigrants rights group in Houston, alleging it is "systematically" flouting nonprofit rules by advocating too aggressively against state laws and political candidates.

It is the latest attempt by the Republican attorney general to shutter groups aiding immigrants in Texas. Paxton has sought, unsuccessfully so far, to close a handful of Catholic-affiliated migrant shelters along the border, alleging they are engaged in human trafficking.

The Justice Department is asking for more time to review the landmark Supreme Court ruling that granted former President Donald Trump substantial immunity from prosecution, further deferring the federal election interference case.

Lawyers for Special Counsel Jack Smith wrote U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ahead of a Friday deadline, to request more time to develop “an informed proposal” about next steps in the four-count felony case against Trump.

The prosecutors said they have been consulting with other parts of the Justice Department but need more time to finalize their position. They proposed filing an update with the court by Aug. 30.

But for years, state employees inspecting Jackson’s primary water system noted few problems with the distribution system — the pipes that delivered water to its customers. In the 16 years before the system collapsed in 2022, leaving roughly 160,000 residents in and around Jackson dependent on bottled water for weeks, inspectors admonished the city just a couple times about the pipes underground. They identified issues with low water pressure just once and noted high water loss a few times. But they issued no formal reprimands or fines.

From 2006 through 2021, Jackson’s inspection score from the Mississippi State Department of Health, which oversees water systems in the state, averaged nearly 4 out of 5. The few times MSDH identified major problems in Jackson, all but one were tied to its water plants, not the distribution system.

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General said the state’s failure to flag ongoing problems in Jackson’s water system, including those in the pipes, contributed to the Jackson water crisis in August 2022. Over several years, the state’s inspections “did not reflect the conditions of Jackson’s system,” the inspector general’s staff wrote. As a result, they wrote, problems “were left unresolved until the eventual catastrophic failure of the system,” when the city’s main water plant finally buckled. It took weeks until the city could reliably pump clean water to residents.

President Joe Biden on Friday designated a national monument to commemorate a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, that left several people dead, hundreds injured and destroyed dozens of Black-owned businesses and homes.

In August 1908, mobs of white residents tore through Illinois' capital city under the pretext of meting out judgment against two jailed Black men. After authorities secretly moved the prisoners to another lockup miles away, the mob took out its anger on the city's Black population.

The riot fueled the formation of the influential civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in 1909.

As Donald Trump tries to distance his campaign from Project 2025, those behind the right-wing policy blueprint to remake the U.S. government continue to brag in private about their close ties to the Republican presidential nominee and how they intend to push a radical right-wing agenda in a second Trump administration.

In July, Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought met with two people he believed to be relatives of a wealthy conservative donor interested in funding the effort. In fact, he was meeting with two reporters with the U.K.-based Centre for Climate Reporting as part of an undercover sting captured on video.

Over the course of two hours, Vought described Trump's disavowal of Project 2025 as mere theater and laid out plans for mass deportations, restricting abortion, gutting independent government bureaucracies, using the military against racial justice protesters and more. The secret plans are "designed to ensure that this kind of radical agenda that the conservative movement has in the U.S. can be implemented from day one," says Lawrence Carter, founder and director of the Centre for Climate Reporting and one of the reporters who spoke with Vought. "They want to make sure that the mistakes from the first Trump administration, as they see them, where not much got done, are avoided this time around."

But when you look past this hyperbole, you’ll find a radically different landscape. In reality, the actual bill is comprised of very popular provisions, crafted with extensive input from AI developers, and endorsed by world-leading AI researchers, including the two other people seen as godfathers of AI alongside LeCun. SB 1047’s primary author says it won’t do any of the aforementioned “apocalyptic” things its critics warn against, a claim echoed by OpenAI whistleblower Daniel Kokotajlo, who supports the bill and “predict[s] that if it passes, the stifling of AI progress that critics doomsay about will fail to materialize.”

Paxton was indicted in July 2015 for failing to inform friends that he would make a commission off their investment in a North Texas tech company and for neglecting to register with the state as an investment adviser. Wice and Schaffer were appointed as special prosecutors after the Collin County district attorney recused himself because of his relationship with Paxton. Collin County taxpayers are on the hook for their bill because the case originated there.

A US foundation associated with oil company Shell has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to religious right and conservative organizations, many of which deny that climate change is a crisis, tax records reveal. Fourteen of those groups are on the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint proposing radical changes to the federal government, including severely limiting the Environment Protection Agency.

Because the foundation itself is a registered non-profit, it must file public returns each year with the IRS, which contain detailed information about the organizations to which it donates. The vast majority of these non-profits have no explicit political focus. They include YMCAs, youth groups, local churches, schools and mainstream charities such as Oxfam and United Way.

But an analysis by the Guardian and DeSmog found at least 21 groups supported by Shell’s foundation that are aggressively opposed to progressive cultural and economic change, including addressing the crisis of global heating.

In a letter made public Thursday, lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference.

Trump’s lawyers wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule Sept. 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July

• Eliquis, a blood thinner from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer: $231 negotiated price, down from $521 list price.
• Xarelto, a blood thinner from Johnson & Johnson; $197 negotiated price, down from $517 list price.
• Januvia, a diabetes drug from Merck: $113 negotiated price, down from $527 list price.
• Jardiance, a diabetes drug from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly: $197 negotiated price, down from $573 list price.
• Enbrel, a rheumatoid arthritis drug from Amgen: $2,355 negotiated price, down from $7,106 list price.
• Imbruvica, a drug for blood cancers from AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson: $9,319 negotiated price, down from $14,934 list price.
• Farxiga, a drug for diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease from AstraZeneca: $178 negotiated price, down from $556 list price.
• Entresto, a heart failure drug from Novartis: $295 negotiated price, down from $628 list price.
• Stelara, a drug for psoriasis and Crohn’s disease from J&J: $4,695 negotiated price, down from $13,836 list price.
• Fiasp and NovoLog, diabetes drugs from Novo Nordisk: $119 negotiated price, down from $495 list price.

The new negotiated prices were compared to the 2023 list prices of the drugs.

Davis, who served four months in 2008 on charges related to her prostitution business and then 18 months in the mid 2010s for selling prescription pills to an FBI cooperating witness, has been involved in politics for years. She ran a protest campaign for New York governor in 2010—an effort managed by longtime right-wing dirty trickster Roger Stone. And since 2008, she has operated a public relations firm called Think Right, which has represented Stone and other conservative figures. In 2012, she was a fundraiser for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. On her LinkedIn page, she says she also “designed proprietary software platform to disseminate issue-based messaging on various platforms such as email blasts, Twitter and Facebook.” She is doing her work for Common Sense through a firm she set up called Buzzify PR.

According to Davis, Common Sense was created “to utilize AI technology to create custom messaging and personalized marketing campaigns working off mobile advertiser ID numbers.” A mobile advertising ID (or MAID) is a unique identifier that is assigned to each mobile device. As Davis explains it,

“Everything you do on your cell phone is monitored by the provider—what you read, what you listen to, what you purchase. There are companies that take that data and use AI to create profiles of the users. They know your attitudes, values, and beliefs based on data from your cell phone provider, for instance what Facebook groups you are part of.”

The US space agency said in a press conference on Wednesday that it will make a call by the end of August.

Officials also said that the astronauts’ space suits are unsuitable to wear on the alternative spacecraft that could be used if Starliner is deemed unsafe.

Nasa also said the two astronauts were “doing great” and went to space prepared for a risky mission.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmor travelled to the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 June, expecting to return after eight days.

Trump has publicly rejected Project 2025 as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has sought to tie him to some of the plan’s most extreme proposals. But in private, Vought said that those disavowals were merely “graduate-level politics.”

In the conservative movement, “we’ve been too focused on religious liberty, which we all support, but we’ve lacked the ability to argue we are a Christian nation,” Vought argued – an idea he’s also talked about publicly. “Our laws are built on the Judeo-Christian worldview value system.”

He said that conservatives should push to have debates over whether to allow mosques to be built in America’s downtowns, and whether Christian immigrants should be prioritized over those of other faiths – ideas that run contrary to First Amendment protections.

“I want to make sure that we can say we are a Christian nation,” Vought added later. “And my viewpoint is mostly that I would probably be Christian nation-ism. That’s pretty close to Christian nationalism because I also believe in nationalism.”

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought a meeting last week with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, perhaps as a Cabinet secretary, if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins, according to Kennedy campaign officials.

Harris and her advisers have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal, say people familiar with the conversations.

The Kennedy outreach, made through intermediaries, follows a meeting in Milwaukee last month between Kennedy and Republican nominee Donald Trump to discuss a similar policy role and endorsement that resulted in no agreement. In those discussions, Kennedy spoke about advising Trump in a second term on health and medical issues.

But Texas joined with 13 other states led by Republican governors that rejected the funding over concerns that they didn’t have enough time to implement the program and that there would be administrative costs that the federal government wasn’t covering. Nebraska was originally among the holdouts, but its governor, Jim Pillen, later reversed that decision.

The federal program is designed to give children $40 a month through electronic benefit transfer cards over the summer when they are not in school, to take advantage of school lunch programs. EBT cards are like prepaid debit cards.

judge barred an indicted, election-denying lawyer from being involved in one of Dominion Voting Systems’ 2020 election defamation cases after she publicly leaked the company’s internal emails.

The lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, had represented former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne in the lawsuit, which Dominion filed because he has repeatedly accused the voting technology company, falsely, of rigging the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump.

Federal Judge Moxila Upadhyaya said Tuesday in a searing 62-page ruling that she was removing Lambert from the case because of her “truly egregious misconduct,” concluding that she “flagrantly and repeatedly disregarded court orders” by publicly disclosing “thousands, if not millions” of internal Dominion documents without any legal justification.

In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

Sasse ballooned spending under the president’s office to $17.3 million in his first year in office — up from $5.6 million in former UF President Kent Fuchs’ last year, according to publicly available administrative budget data.

A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.

Wisconsin voters on Tuesday rejected Republican-authored ballot questions that would have limited the governor’s power to spend federal money that comes to the state for such things as disaster relief, a big win for Democrats who mobilized against them.

From an AP article that was before the vote:

If approved, the Legislature could pass rules governing how federal money would be handled. That would give them the ability to change the rules based on who is serving as governor or the purpose of the federal money.

For example, the Legislature could allow governors to spend disaster relief money with no approval, but require that other money go before lawmakers first.

In a decision posted Wednesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to step aside and said Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about the political ties of Merchan’s daughter and his ability to judge the historic case fairly and impartially.

It is the third that the judge has rejected such a request from lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee.

All three times, they argued that Merchan, a state court judge in Manhattan, has a conflict of interest because of his daughter’s work as a political consultant for prominent Democrats and campaigns. Among them was Vice President Kamala Harris when she sought the 2020 nomination for president. She is now her party’s 2024 White House nominee.

Mucarsel-Powell was responding to reports that Scott is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on his reelection campaign. Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Scott recently "dumped" another $725,000 of his own money into his campaign account. "Two days ago he put $31,996.67. Aug. 6 he put in $850,000," Sherman added.

The claims, which have not been verified by Newsweek, arrive after a USA TODAY/Suffolk/WSVN-TV Florida poll showed that Scott had a net favorable rating of minus 14 points.

The same poll also showed that Vice President Kamala Harris is within "striking distance" of Donald Trump in Florida. Trump still leads Harris by 5 points, but the margin is closer than previous surveys, suggesting the one-time swing state could be a more competitive race than previously thought in November's presidential election.

A number of Ozone Action Days have been announced in Texas in the last month, with millions of residents across the state similarly warned against using drive-through lanes on August 3.

In July, residents in some parts of Texas were also told to avoid using their cars.

Ozone Action Day forecasts are made daily in nine different Texas metropolitan areas during the ozone-forecast season, which runs roughly from March to November, with slightly different windows of time for different areas.