News From Around the Web
#1 Judge Orders Trump Administration to Explain Why Order to Restore Voice of America Wasn’t Followed - David Bauder on MSN, Jayne, Andrea Weiss, Bloomberg Law, and Gary Grumbach on X
A federal judge on Wednesday essentially accused the Trump administration of ignoring his orders to restore Voice of America's operations and explain clearly what it is doing with the government-run operation that provides news to other countries. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia gave the administration until Aug. 13 to explain how it will get VOA working again. The outlet that dates back to World War II has been largely dark since March. Lamberth said the administration needs to show what it is doing with the $260 million Congress appropriated for VOA's operations this year...
#2 Trump Announces 25% Tariff on India and Unspecified Penalties for Buying Russian Oil - Josh Boak and Rajesh Roy, Oneindia News, Deccan Herald, Maj Gen Harsha Kakar/Congress/RK, Dividend Snowball, Pawan Kumar Mishra, IANS, and WION on X
The United States will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. The new tariffs were part of a flurry of trade activity that included a series of executive actions regarding Brazil, copper, and shipments of goods worth less than $800, as well as a reduced 15% tax on imports from South Korea, including its autos. It was all a prelude to Friday when Trump’s new tariff regime is scheduled to start, an event the White House has portrayed as a testament to Trump’s negotiating skills even as concerns persist about the taxes hurting growth and increasing inflationary pressures....
#3 Congressional Stock Trading Ban Passes Through Committee as Hawley Denies Reports of White House Pushback - Anders Hagstrom for Fox News, Laird of the Manor, The Vigilant Fox, Napoleon Dynamite, Project on Government Oversight, and FED Policy on X
A long-awaited stock trading ban passed through the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday, with committee Democrats joining with the bill's sponsor, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to send the bill to the floor of the Senate. Hawley originally introduced the "PELOSI Act" earlier this year, but what ultimately passed through the dizzying committee markup process on Wednesday was the Honest Act. Both pieces of legislation ban all members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks while in office, in addition to closing various loopholes around direct trades. The critical difference between the two bills is that the Honest Act also bans the president and vice president from making trades while in office. That provision wouldn't go into effect until after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance leave office, however...
#4 Trump ‘Seriously Considering’ Pardon for Diddy Ahead of Sentencing - Vivian Kwarm for The New York Daily News, Megyn Kelly, Matt Walsh, Buzz Patterson, TMZ, and MILO on X
President Trump is reportedly considering granting a pardon to Sean “Diddy” Combs after an official decision has been made on his latest $50 million bail petition. An administration source told Deadline the president is “seriously” weighing a pardon for the hip-hop mogul ahead of his sentencing in October. Combs’ legal team filed yet another bail package proposal on Tuesday, arguing that most people convicted under the federal Mann Act — an anti-sex trafficking law with a century-old history — are released from jail pending their sentencing. Sources told TMZ on Wednesday that Trump is “more than open” to pardoning the disgraced music mogul, but only based on Judge Arun Subramanian’s ruling on the bail petition...
#5 Trump Announces a New Health Tracking System- PBS News, The Last American Vagabond, ABC24 Memphis, Kalamazoo Gazette, WashingtonAmerica.Net, and TechSpot on X
The Trump administration announced it is launching a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems and apps run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness. President Donald Trump, joined by other health officials, announced the new program Wednesday. Watch their remarks in the player above. More than 60 companies, including major tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple, as well as health care giants like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, have agreed to share patient data in the system. The initiative will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications...
#6 Trump Again Slams Fed Chair Powell After Rates Hold - Reuters, Eric Daugherty, Isabella/Benny Johnson, Video Forensics, Paul Mampilly, NYNanc, and Fox & Friends on X
The U.S. central bank held interest rates steady on Wednesday, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments after the decision undercut confidence that borrowing costs would begin to fall in September, possibly stoking the ire of President Donald Trump, who has demanded immediate and steep rate relief. Powell said the Fed is focused on controlling inflation - not on government borrowing or home mortgage costs that Trump wants lowered - and added that the risk of rising price pressures from the administration's trade and other policies remains too high for the central bank to begin loosening its "modestly restrictive" grip on the economy until more information is collected.
#7 Trump Administration Reaches $50 Million Deal With Brown University to Restore Funding - Betsy Klein and Ethan Schenker for CNN, Nick Sortor, J.I.F.F., The Boston Globe, John Wayne's Ghost, Papa Hemingway, and Thomas Register on X
The Trump administration has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with Brown University to restore federal funding – its second major deal with an elite university after last week’s $221 million settlement with Columbia University. In return for Brown agreeing to several measures aimed at dismantling certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the federal government will reinstate all frozen grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, restore the school’s eligibility for future funding, and close all pending investigations into the university, a White House official said. But Brown, which was under financial strain even before the Trump administration began slashing research funding at a number of higher education institutions, was largely able to escape the nine-figure settlements the White House reached with Columbia and is seeking with Harvard University...
#8 37 House Dems Vote With GOP to Deport Illegal Immigrant Drunk Drivers - Elizabeth Elkind for Fox News, Libs of TikTok, Rep Tony Wied, Charlie Ward, and Long Island Life & Politics on X
A bill to deport illegal immigrants convicted of driving while under the influence (DUI) netted the support of 37 House Democrats on Thursday. The bill was introduced by conservative Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., and passed by a 246 to 160 vote. No Republican voted against the bill, and it was opposed by 160 Democrats. Democrats who voted for the legislation include Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as moderate Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., Jared Golden, D-Maine, Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., Don Davis, D-N.C., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., among others...
#9 Deadly Substance Under Scrutiny as Kratom Byproduct Shows up in Gas Stations, Smoke Shops - Angelica Stabile for Fox News, Unga the Great, jmuhj1 Turns out "1984" was a primer, Secretary Kennedy/Nutrition4Health, The Bruiser, and County Rebel on X
U.S. health agencies are targeting a threat to Americans that is readily available nationwide. 7-hydroxymitragynine, also known as 7-OH, is a concentrated form of kratom, a plant-derived substance that has been commonly used for pain relief and as a stimulant. The concentrated byproduct has been linked to opioid receptors in the body, triggering the potential for abuse and various drug-related symptoms. The substance, which is considered a "synthetic opioid," has been bottled into drinks, powders, and tablets that are sold at vape shops, gas stations, and other stores across the country. An uptick in 7-OH-related medical events has led the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to crack down on sellers of these products...
#10 FBI Chief Kash Patel Finds ‘Burn Bags’ of Trump-Russia Documents in Secret Room - The New York Post, Rod D. Martin, Erica Knight, Nick Sortor, Eric Daugherty, and Benny Johnson on X
FBI Director Kash Patel discovered “burn bags” filled with thousands of documents dating back to the bureau’s Trump-Russia probe during the 2016 campaign, a source familiar with the findings told The Post Wednesday. One of the documents, discovered in a purported secret room at the FBI’s DC headquarters, is a classified annex to the 2023 report by then-special counsel John Durham that scrutinized the original probe, code-named “Crossfire Hurricane.” The 29-page appendix to the Durham report, which has never been publicly released, includes details of the intelligence he reviewed, according to Fox News Digital, which first reported on the discovery...
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