Trump Orders Navy to Restore Old Technology in Aircraft Carriers, Costing Billions  —  The Navy spent years fighting the president's push to go back to steam catapults  —  President Trump has directed the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers …

Kennedy Center Board Decides to Inscribe Trump's Name on Building  —  The vote to add “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” is an aggressive test of a judge's order to remove his name.  —  The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday …

US warns Iran it will step up economic pressure; two more ships attacked in Hormuz  —  Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Friday after two more ships were attacked there and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely.

World War Two memorial in Washington vandalized with bubbles and graffiti  —  The World War Two memorial in Washington was vandalized with bubbly soap and graffiti on Thursday, prompting vows from the U.S. government to find the perpetrator.  —  The fountain bubbled over with suds and someone painted …

Can Polls Measure the True Strength of the Left?  —  Recent polling issues could continue in Democratic primaries in part because progressives are more likely to enjoy taking surveys.  —  Progressives had high hopes of dominant victories in marquee primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin …

Top Trump official asked for more resources to fight a small fire near his Idaho ranch  —  Michael Boren, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, asked for more aircraft to contain a 7-acre blaze last month, officials said.  —  Summary  —  Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources …

Little Thefts, Big Charges: Trump's Justice Dept. Targets Lesser Fraud  —  As the Trump administration drops charges against corporations and the wealthy, it is also taking aim at small-scale fraud cases, including against the operator of a weathered food truck in California.

Farage won in Clacton.  But there are bigger tests to come  —  Probe into party leader's finances resumes with Labour government now leading in the polls  —  Nigel Farage declared victory in the Clacton by-election on Friday.  But as he cancelled a major speech planned for later in the morning …

Fox News Poll: A Senate battle looms in Michigan  —  The GOP nominee has an edge in the Senate race, while the Democrat is favored for governor  —  In Michigan, while more Democrats than Republicans are concerned about their candidates' ideological views, Democrats are also more engaged …

It's not just young Democrats who like lefty candidates  —  I have published four long articles this week — and done approximately one trillion interviews about the primary polls in Wisconsin and elsewhere (and recording for NPR's Weekend Edition today) — and am quite tired.

Who Might Replace Karoline Leavitt as Press Secretary?  —  President Trump is losing a key aide.  Karoline Leavitt announced Wednesday that she would be leaving her role as White House press secretary by month's end to spend more time with her family.  A day later, speculation about who might replace her is well underway.

Retail sales unexpectedly fall in July as government tax refunds fade  —  Americans unexpectedly cut their spending in July as a boost from government tax refunds faded.  Retail sales slipped 0.6% last month, the biggest drop since May 2025, from a revised gain of 0.2% in June, according to Commerce Department data released Friday.

Four Things State and Local Prosecutors Can Do to Combat Federal Corruption  —  On Monday, the president's former personal lawyer was sworn in as the country's top lawyer.  As the history books will note, by all appearances, Attorney General Todd Blanche got the job because of his fealty …

Flock announces changes amid backlash over its license plate reader network  —  Flock Safety, the surveillance technology company increasingly under scrutiny from lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties advocates and citizens across the U.S., announced Thursday that it is making changes …

The presumption of irregularity  —  There has been lots of talk in recent months, including from federal judges, about the ways in which the Department of Justice has lost the “presumption of regularity” that is generally afforded to government lawyers.  —  This week has raised …

White House border czar defends ICE electric shock gloves as tools to avoid deadly force  —  White House border czar Tom Homan defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement's plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks, calling them a tool to help officers end confrontations without using deadly force.

Dems sharpen their Trump oversight targets  —  A fresh wave of calls for oversight is reinforcing the likelihood that alleged conflicts of interest will be a top target for Democrats should they retake power in Congress next year.  — Take a letter sent yesterday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren …

How Trump's Unprecedented Effort to Prosecute Noncitizen Voters Fell Apart  —  Reporting Highlights  — Inflated Claims: HSI deployed its tech platform to find noncitizens on voter rolls, despite warnings from agency insiders that it would lead to an “ungodly” number of false positives.

Drunk Trump Aide Busted Playing With Sex Toy in Bizarre Video  —  NOT SAFE FOR WORK  —  The longtime Trump aide was caught having a little too much fun.  —  A deputy assistant to President Donald Trump was caught on camera drunkenly playing around with a sex toy hours after attending a children's hospital benefit gala at Mar-a-Lago.

Judge drops Nevada case against electors accused of forging certificate in 2020 election  —  The yearslong case against six Nevada Republicans who were accused of submitting a bogus certificate that falsely declared Donald Trump the winner of the state's 2020 presidential election has been dismissed, a judge ruled Thursday.

Scoop: Trump team tells GOP to lean in on health care  —  President Trump's top political hands had some surprising advice for Senate Republicans last week: Talk more about health care. … But Republican message testing from Trump's own pollster suggests candidates are better off focusing elsewhere.

ICE keeps racking up losses at the appeals courts on mandatory detention  —  A Boston-based appeals court is the latest to reject ICE's bid to subject millions of people — most of whom have lived in the U.S. for years and have no criminal records — to the prospect of detention without bond.

U.S. ambassador calls settler siege of Palestinian homes a ‘horrific act of terror’  —  JERUSALEM — The U.S. Ambassador to Israel condemned the actions of Jewish settlers who are besieging the home of an American Palestinian family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Judge shows signs of frustration with DOJ attorneys over handling of Epstein files  —  The judge said he had “absolutely no desire” to go down the road of holding government attorneys in contempt, but he gave a history lesson on when he has done so.  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge overseeing …