Top Items:
Washington Post:
CIA had ‘low confidence’ in Iranian threat before Trump switched planes in Turkey — CIA had doubts about Israeli intelligence on a threat to Trump in Turkey that prompted an extraordinary secret flight. — Summary — U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat …
Discussion:
Zeteo, CBS News, The Independent, The Times of Israel, NewsMax.com, Israpundit, Breitbart, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Bloomberg
RELATED:
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Treasury Scales Back Scrutiny of U.S. Shell Companies — The Trump administration will not enforce reporting requirements of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, which was intended to crack down on money laundering. — The Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to scale …
Discussion:
Washington Post
RELATED:
U.S. Department of the Treasury:
FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners — Will Delete Information Previously Reported by U.S. Persons — WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) …
Holly Otterbein / Axios:
Pollsters missed again in Wisconsin. Here's why. — Pollsters appeared to blow another high-stakes Midwest election Tuesday, as center-left Democrat David Crowley stunned socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's primary for governor. — But on Wednesday, the reasons for the miss seemed clear …
Discussion:
CNBC, The Hill, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Free Press, The Bulwark, NBC News, Journal Sentinel, The Daily Caller, National Politics, Washington Post, Decision Desk HQ, Breitbart, Townhall, Staff Stories, The Spectator, NOTUS, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Christian Science Monitor, Vox, Washington Examiner, NPR and CNN
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Dan Merica / Washington Post:
What Democrats can learn from Wisconsin's ‘oatmeal’ win
Discussion:
Slate and New York Times
Politico:
Republicans fear Hegseth's Democrat brushoff could backfire — The Pentagon is shutting congressional Democrats out of classified briefings — and even Republicans are shocked by the brazen partisanship. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trekked to Capitol Hill at least twice in recent weeks …
Discussion:
MS NOW
Anat Shenker-Osorio / Public Notice:
Stephen Miller's secret campaign against helpless kids — PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ — 💥 Subscribe to PN 💥 — Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, is making his dreams come true: accelerating the arrest and removal of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant kids.
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Sergio Martínez-Beltrán / NPR:
Controversial group wins $158M-contract to represent unaccompanied immigrant children
Controversial group wins $158M-contract to represent unaccompanied immigrant children
Discussion:
NOTUS and Maxwell Commons
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Says Hormuz Is Under U.S. Control. Few Ships Are Listening. — With limited bursts of firepower, Iran is able to make the waterway too risky to cross — President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the water tells a different story.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Semafor, Bloomberg, New York Times, Council on Foreign Relations and NewsMax.com
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Yulia Almazova / Wired:
CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues — Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues' cell phones.
Discussion:
Just Security
Mike Allen / Axios:
Haberman: 70% of Trump's brain on monuments — The New York Times' Maggie Haberman tells me 70% of President Trump's mindshare ("maybe plus or minus 5%") goes to his gilding, construction, renovation, renaming and tribute projects. — “He is spending a huge amount of energy …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Madaleine Rubin / New York Times:
ICE Agent Who Pushed Activist to the Ground Pleads Guilty — The agent, Adam Saracco, was charged with misdemeanor after the altercation at a gas station near Chicago last year during the Trump administration's crackdown there. — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pleaded guilty …
Discussion:
Reuters and Chicago Sun Times
New York Times:
Homeland Security Paid $464 Million for Airplanes. Then It Parked Them. — The agency used a no-bid contract to buy 10 used jets, saying they were urgently needed for deportation flights. But the fleet has largely sat idle for months. — Starting last fall, the Department …
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Forbes Fired Top Editor After Discovering He Received Secret $6 Million Payment — Randall Lane, the magazine's chief content officer, received the money from the founder of Shook Research, which has worked with Forbes on content about wealth advisers. — The top editor of Forbes was fired …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com and The Wrap, more at Mediagazer »
Zach Everson / Public Citizen:
Meet the attorneys Harmeet Dhillon installed to turn the Civil Rights Division against its mission — Introduction — On July 8, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon tweeted that she had sworn in more than 100 new attorneys and staff members in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division …
Lisa Lerer / New York Times:
Rep. John Larson, a Longtime Lawmaker, Loses a Primary in Connecticut — In an upset, Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, won the Democratic nomination, capitalizing on calls for generational change. — Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, defeated Representative John Larson …
Discussion:
NBC News, NewsMax.com, Politico, Connecticut Public, The Lever, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Roll Call, Axios, CBS News, CT Mirror, Breitbart, NOTUS, Boston.com, The Gateway Pundit, HuffPost, Fox News and The Hill
M. Gessen / New York Times:
What's Happening in Kansas Should Alarm Us All — On Feb. 25, Siobhan Kirchstein received an official letter from the Kansas Division of Vehicles instructing her to surrender her driver's license. She was one of hundreds of Kansans who received such letters when Senate Bill 244 …
New York Times:
A Third Immigrant Detained at Delaney Hall Dies After Medical Emergency — A Guatemalan migrant was transferred to a hospital when he experienced what appeared to be a seizure, federal officials said. — A Guatemalan immigrant who had been taken to a troubled detention center in Newark …
Discussion:
The City Reporter and Associated Press
Alexei Koseff / Washington Post:
Rep. Max Miller's ex-wife sues after sensitive image of child was publicly shared — The Ohio Republican had released documents through a publicly accessible Dropbox account this month, seeking to fend off allegations of domestic abuse. — Summary — Rep. Max Miller's ex-wife filed …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, Joe.My.God., The Hill, TMZ.com and Washington Examiner
Paul Krugman:
Why Isn't the Price of Oil Even Higher? — Donald Trump is not a well man. He is, unfortunately, also President, which means that we all pay a price for his inability to accept reality. Notably, while he insists that he has “total control over the Strait of Hormuz,” …
Discussion:
Quartz
Margaret Talev / Axios:
Youth poll: Thumbs down on everything — More than a quarter of younger Americans (27%) believe they or someone they know has lost a job because their employer replaced them with AI, according to a new Axios-Generation Lab poll of 18- to 34-year-olds.
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Older Democrats walloped by midterms anti-establishment revolt — House Democrats who have comfortably held their seats for decades are suddenly finding the ground shifting beneath their feet as primary voters revolt against the party's old guard. … - Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) …
Adam Wren / Politico:
Buttigieg's plan to help Dems win again starts with the Indiana state legislature — Pete Buttigieg's efforts to help Democrats regain power are taking on a new focus: state legislatures. — The former Transportation secretary and South Bend, Indiana, mayor is starting by backing a crop …
Discussion:
Political Wire
Jonathan Reiner / New York Times:
I Was Dick Cheney's Cardiologist. Trump Has Not Looked Well, and We Should Know Why. — Dick Cheney's heart problems were never a national secret. — I was Mr. Cheney's cardiologist for 27 years, including his two terms as vice president. During his time in the White House …
Discussion:
The Independent, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Eschaton
CNN:
Exclusive: Former employee at Southern Poverty Law Center arrested on fraud charges — A former employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center has been arrested in California on charges that she oversaw secret payments to informants inside of White supremacist groups, one of whom she was allegedly living …
Discussion:
Fox News, The Free Press, The Maine Wire, New York Post, emptywheel, Wonkette, Wall Street Journal, American Greatness, Townhall, People For, Newsbusters, UPI, ABC News, Politico, Associated Press, One America News Network, Breitbart, US Department of Justice, Al Jazeera, Deseret News, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Wire, Talking Points Memo, HotAir, New York Sun, New York Times, Washington Examiner, The Hill, MS NOW, The Guardian, NBC News, CBS News, Human Events, Legal Insurrection, Washington Post, Blaze Media, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, The Gateway Pundit, NewsMax.com, Joe.My.God. and The Post Millennial, more at Mediagazer »
Ali Bianco / Politico:
Capitol agenda: ‘No tax’ fever hits Congress — Special tax carve-outs for everyday Americans are suddenly all the rage in Congress. What began with President Donald Trump's signature tax cuts has sprung copycats, with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle proposing breaks on virtually everything …
Patrick Reilly / New York Post:
Lauren Boebert's son could see jail time after pleading guilty in child abuse case — Lauren Boebert's troubled son Tyler Boebert accepted a plea deal in his child abuse case that could see him spend time behind bars, according to a report. — Tyler Boebert, 21, will plead guilty …
Discussion:
TMZ.com, Breitbart and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
David Crary / Associated Press:
As Abdul El-Sayed breaks a barrier, anti-Muslim vitriol surges on multiple fronts — Abdul El-Sayed made history this month in Michigan by becoming the first Muslim nominated by the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate. But elation among many of his fellow Muslim Americans was tempered …
Discussion:
5Pillars
Rachel Cohen Booth / Vox:
How money actually works in American elections — The midterms are flooded with cash, but donors don't always get what they want. A political scientist explains where the money matters most. … The 2026 midterm cycle is projected to be the most expensive election cycle in US history …
Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:
August 12, 2026 — In Minnesota yesterday, close Trump ally Mike Lindell, the former chief executive officer of MyPillow, lost the Republican primary for governor to Republican state house speaker Lisa Demuth. This loss comes after Trump ally Representative Andy Ogles lost his primary in Tennessee.
Phil Stewart / Reuters:
Hegseth welcomes Colombia to counter-drug alliance after its election — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed Colombia on Wednesday into a military-led counter-narcotics coalition of like-minded Western Hemisphere nations following the inauguration of its conservative president last week.
Discussion:
New York Times, Associated Press, One America News Network, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg and The Hill
Megan Messerly / Politico:
Leavitt to depart the White House — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving her role at the end of August, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. — The president, in a post on Truth Social, said Leavitt is departing to spend more time with her family, but will remain one of his …
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Post, Daily Mail, CNN, New York Times, Townhall, PoliticusUSA, HuffPost, UPI, The Maine Wire, The Independent, Breitbart, Newsweek, WTTG-TV, The Daily Caller, Washington Times, RedState, Al Jazeera, NOTUS, The Wrap, CBS News, NewsMax.com, NBC News, Fox News, MS NOW, Scripps News, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, New Republic, The Gateway Pundit, Blaze Media, The American Conservative and Straight Arrow
Axios:
Why House Dems may go easy on one of GOP's most vulnerable members — Rep. Mike Lawler's (R-N.Y.) fight to hold on to a key battleground seat is getting a behind-the-scenes assist — for now, at least — from an unlikely group: House Democrats. … - “If you're going to have a Republican …
Reuters:
Trump promised a sex-trafficking crackdown. His Justice Department hasn't delivered — The Trump administration has repeatedly said the fight against sex trafficking is one of its top priorities. — But investigations have stalled and prosecutions declined in the past six months …
Jade Lozada / NOTUS:
Trump Is Personally Invested in His Push to Boost the Nuclear Industry — President Donald Trump could stand to profit from his administration's unprecedented investments into the nuclear energy industry. — Trump has invested between $6.4 million and $19.45 million in U.S. nuclear technology companies …
Ben T.N. Mause / NOTUS:
Trump's Claims About Combating Crime Are Based on Skewed Data — The White House misrepresented and exaggerated a recent crime report to overstate the impact of last summer's federal intervention in four cities, according to a NOTUS review. — On July 23, the Council on Criminal Justice …
