Top Items:
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
MAGA world swallows a difficult truth: Arresting Trump's opponents is easier said than done … It's a familiar refrain for Trump's second term: The far right lusts to see prominent Democrats or Trump adversaries hauled off in handcuffs, only to be let down when their revenge fantasies run into reality.
Discussion:
Raw Story
RELATED:
NBC News:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moves to amp up the pressure on Democrats who fled in redistricting standoff — More than 50 Texas Democratic legislators left the state to block a GOP effort to redraw congressional lines. Abbott said they won't be able to wait out the redistricting push.
Discussion:
The Hill, Joe.My.God. and Politico
Anna Bower / Lawfare:
A Legal Standoff in the Lone Star State — Can Gov. Abbott compel their return or remove them from office? And what the heck is a “quo warranto” action, anyway? — annabower.bsky.social — Meet The Authors … A bitter political and legal battle is unfolding in Texas.
Discussion:
NBC News, Straight Arrow News, The Texas Tribune and Reuters
Meghan L. Hall / USA Today:
Crypto group claims responsibility for hurling sex toys at WNBA games … Cryptocurrency meme coin creators say they are responsible for the sex toys being thrown at multiple WNBA games, and they are planning more “pranks.” — From Atlanta to Los Angeles, no arena has been safe …
RELATED:
Catherine Bouris / The Daily Beast:
Don Jr. Posts Bizarre Image of Dad Throwing Sex Toy From White House Roof — CRINGE — The AI-generated image appears to be a reference to an incident involving WNBA player Sophie Cunningham. — Donald Trump Jr. is keeping up his streak as purveyor of unusual memes involving his father …
Discussion:
New Jersey Online, Political Wire and Mediaite
Konstantin Toropin / Associated Press:
US Air Force to deny retirement pay to transgender service members being separated from the service — The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News, New York Post, Newsweek and Reuters
RELATED:
Christopher Wiggins / Advocate:
BREAKING: Air Force rescinds early retirement approvals for transgender service members kicked out by Trump
Discussion:
LGBTQ Nation
Charlie Mahtesian / Politico:
Trump Turns the Screws on the Fortune 500 … Shares of Intel, the semiconductor manufacturer, tanked today after Donald Trump called on the company's CEO to resign because of his past business dealings in China. — It's too early to make any assessments about the president's claims about CEO Lip-Bu Tan …
Discussion:
New York Times, New York Post, Tom Cotton, twitchy.com, CNBC, Business Insider, PCMag, Raw Story and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Politico:
‘He is completely upset’: Why Trump scrapped an India trade deal … Instead, Indian goods now face a 50 percent tariff after Trump hit the country with a 25 percent levy on its goods and then followed up with an additional 25 percent to dissuade it from buying Russian oil that was set to kick …
Discussion:
Raw Story
RELATED:
Reuters:
Exclusive: India pauses plans to buy U.S. arms after Trump's tariffs
Discussion:
Sputnik News and NPR
River Akira Davis / New York Times:
Japan Says Trump to Correct ‘Extremely Regrettable’ Error in Tariff Order
Japan Says Trump to Correct ‘Extremely Regrettable’ Error in Tariff Order
Discussion:
Washington Post, Raw Story, Reuters, The Japan Times, Wall Street Journal and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Joshua Goodman / Associated Press:
Trump doubles reward to $50 million for arrest of Venezuela's president to face US drug charges — The Trump administration is doubling to $50 million a reward for the arrest of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world's largest narco-traffickers …
RELATED:
Rebecca Falconer / Axios:
Trump admin offers $50M reward for arrest of Venezuelan leader Maduro
Trump admin offers $50M reward for arrest of Venezuelan leader Maduro
Discussion:
United States Department …, UPI, Reuters, Raw Story and Daily Caller News Foundation
Erkki Forster / The Daily Beast:
White House Did Have Secret Talks on Epstein Crisis — FLIP-FLOP-FLIP — Trump had forced JD Vance to deny that a meeting was taking place. — Turns out the Trump administration really did huddle behind closed doors to talk about the Jeffrey Epstein files, despite JD Vance's public denial.
Discussion:
CNN, The Guardian, Mock Paper Scissors, Talking Points Memo, New Republic, HuffPost and Reuters
RELATED:
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal grantmaking while ending offensive waste of tax dollars, it is hereby ordered: — Section 1. Purpose.
Discussion:
The Federalist, The Hill, One America News Network and Bloomberg
RELATED:
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
New executive order puts all grants under political control
New executive order puts all grants under political control
Discussion:
OutsideTheBeltway, NewsMax.com, GovExec.com and E&E News
New York Times:
Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels … President Trump ordered the State Department to label drug cartels as terrorist organizations after taking office in January.Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times — President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon …
Wall Street Journal:
How Trump and Putin Reached a New Make-or-Break Moment on Ukraine — The threat of more U.S. sanctions jump-started stalled peace talks but might not produce a deal to halt the fighting — WASHINGTON—President Trump has long believed the crux of foreign policy is two leaders in a room making historic deals.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, CBS News, ABC News, Politico, NBC News, The Independent, New York Times, Raw Story, RTÉ, New York Daily News, Sputnik News, NewsNation, NewsMax.com, Associated Press, Axios and Fox News
RELATED:
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Xi Tells Putin He's Glad to See Attempt at Improving US Ties
Xi Tells Putin He's Glad to See Attempt at Improving US Ties
Discussion:
Reuters, Sputnik News and NewsMax.com
Sean Rameswaram / Vox:
The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS. It may already be in countless classrooms. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced last week that it would shut down after Congress voted to claw back over $500 million of federal funding from the organization.
Stephen Robinson / Public Notice:
Trump's Confederacy rises again — 🗣️ Paid subscribers keep Public Notice free. If you appreciate our fiercely independent coverage of American politics, please sign up and support us. 👇 — 🎯 Subscribe to PN 🎯 — Last Friday, Donald Trump responded …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Washington Times, Deseret News, Washington Post and Associated Press
Punchbowl News:
8/8/25 ☀️ AM: … Add that to the five seats in Texas, one each in Missouri and Indiana, plus two or three in Ohio, where state law mandates a redraw ahead of 2026. … The Sunshine State effort, officially announced by Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez on Thursday …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Fox News, Miami Herald, Axios, Politico, RealClearPolitics and Salon
RELATED:
New York Times:
How the Right Shaped the Debate Over the Sydney Sweeney Ads — Right-wing commentators suggested there was widespread criticism of Ms. Sweeney over her new ad campaign. There wasn't, at least at first. — To hear Vice President JD Vance tell it, the Democratic Party has a serious Sydney Sweeney problem.
Discussion:
FIRST DRAFT, Instapundit, HotAir, IJR, Raw Story and The Hollywood Reporter
NBC News:
Satellite images show Israel building up forces for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, sources say — The buildup comes during a tense time for the U.S. and Israel after Trump and Netanyahu's last private phone conversation devolved into shouting over humanitarian aid.
Discussion:
The Free Press, The Times of Israel, The Forward, Lawyers, Guns & Money, HuffPost, Al Jazeera, The Hill, Politico, New York Post and New York Daily News
Lauren Edmonds / Business Insider:
Google says it's working on a fix for Gemini's self-loathing ‘I am a failure’ comments — Google Gemini users said it's sharing some disturbing messages. — One screenshot showed the chatbot saying, “I'm am a failure.” — Google DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick blamed an “annoying infinite looping bug.”
Sasha Vakulina / Euronews:
Donald Trump hosts historic peace summit between Armenia and Azerbaijan — After almost four decades of bitter conflict, Baku and Yerevan might finally settle for peace in the region. — Donald Trump is hosting the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the White House on Friday …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, Reuters, NBC News, CBS News, Washington Post, NewsNation, Sputnik News, Townhall, Al Jazeera, Axios, Politico, Responsible Statecraft, American Greatness, NewsMax.com, Associated Press, RTÉ, The Gateway Pundit, Christian Science Monitor and Washington Times
Justin Baragona / The Independent:
Alan Dershowitz once again denied pierogi as Martha's Vineyard residents chant ‘time to go’ — 'I am very surprised that you're here because of the things that you've been saying about us and the business online,' the pierogi vendor told Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday.
Katcy Stephan / Variety:
Gina Carano, Disney Settle Legal Dispute Over ‘Mandalorian’ Firing: ‘We Look Forward to Identifying Opportunities to Work Together in the Future’ — Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have reached a mutual agreement in their legal dispute with Gina Carano following her firing from “The Mandalorian.”
Discussion:
Fox Business, twitchy.com, Forbes, Dexerto, The Hollywood Reporter, PinkNews, The Wrap, Daily Mail, Daily Caller News Foundation, World of Reel, WALV-TV, National Review, HotAir, RedState, TMZ.com, Reuters, That Park Place, Ace of Spades HQ, Deadline, New York Daily News, Gizmodo, CBS News, Full Feed and The Post Millennial, more at Mediagazer »
Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:
On Vaccines, Kennedy Has Broken Sharply With the Mainstream — While many officials and scientists embrace other parts of the secretary's agenda, his stance on vaccines is alienating allies who fear a public health crisis. — Even before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office in February …
Discussion:
STAT, Slate, The American Spectator, Ars Technica, New York Post, The 19th, NewsMax.com, Fox News, New Republic, The Independent, TMZ.com, The Gateway Pundit, Pharyngula, Bloomberg, Truthout, Associated Press, Techdirt and Vox
April Rubin / Axios:
Trump administration faces first lawsuit to force release of Epstein files — A democracy-focused legal nonprofit sued the Trump administration on Friday for not releasing Jeffrey Epstein-related documents and requested them in an expedited manner. … - Democracy Forward asked the court …
Discussion:
Associated Press
Harry Stevens / New York Times:
E.P.A. to Stop Updating Popular Database After Lead Scientist Criticized Trump — The database, which helps companies calculate their greenhouse gas emissions, will continue under a consortium that includes Stanford University. — The Environmental Protection Agency said it would stop updating research …
ProPublica:
Veterans' Care at Risk Under Trump as Hundreds of Doctors and Nurses Reject Working at VA Hospitals — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. — Veterans hospitals are struggling …
Lucian K. Truscott IV / Lucian Truscott Newsletter:
Mass arrests, purges, show trials, our very own homegrown Gulag: Is this the U.S.A. or the Soviet Union? — Silly me. All this time I thought the director of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was a bald man who wore little round glasses and was named Lavrentiy Beria.
Regina Zilbermints / The Hill:
Trump orders federal law enforcement to patrol DC — Federal law enforcement officers will patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., for the next seven days, the White House announced on Thursday. — The enhanced federal presence will begin at midnight. It will be led by the U.S. Park Police …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Politico, Newsweek, RedState, CBS News, Fox News, The Guardian, Breitbart, NBC News, The Independent, NewsNation, ABC News, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com and CNN
Steven Beschloss / America, America:
Joy, Sadism and the Missing Link — The once-exuberant White House has gone dark again. Let's defy this regime with song, celebration, love and wit. — When John F. Kennedy was president, he and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy famously hosted exuberant concerts and other memorable cultural events in the White House.
Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Carville: Democrats have to add states, expand Supreme Court to ‘save democracy’ — Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville on Thursday suggested Democrats should add two states to the country and expand the Supreme Court in order to “save democracy.” — “They are just going to have …
Discussion:
twitchy.com, The Independent, New Jersey Online, The Gateway Pundit, Newsbusters, NewsMax.com, Mediaite and New York Post
Joel Khalili / Wired:
Donald Trump Orders Crackdown on Politically Motivated ‘Debanking’ — In a new executive order, the US president has called on federal regulators to investigate and punish banks for alleged discrimination against conservatives and certain types of business.

