- Monday August 3rd, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
GOP Sens. Cornyn, Tillis confirm they’ll back Todd Blanche for AG after he scraps Trump ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
Sens. John
Cornyn and Thom Tillis confirmed Monday they will vote to pass Todd
Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General out of the Senate Judiciary
Committee after the acting DOJ chief formally terminated a $1.776
billion fund established earlier this year for victims of purported
government weaponization.
“From the
outset, we were clear that we needed a written document addressing our
concerns on the IRS audit agreement and the anti-weaponization fund,”
Cornyn (R-Texas) and Tillis (R-NC) said in a joint statement.
Hero civilian who fired back at In-N-Out shooter trained in self defense after witnessing another mass shooting
“We are pleased
that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating
the anti-weaponization fund … We want to express our gratitude to Mr.
Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward
to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary
Committee soon.”
Trump calls out 'duplicitous' Iranian leadership
President Donald Trump condemned Iranian leaders as "duplicitous" for appearing to back away from intentions to talk on Monday.
Trump wrote on
Truth Social that Tehran had begged for a meeting with the U.S. this
weekend, leading to a pause in strikes only to walk back on Monday.
"Iranian
Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous! They ask for a meeting, some
would say 'beg,' talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate
future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any
discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only
dealing with 'Oman,'" Trump wrote.
Iran denies Trump claim new peace talks planned after US calls off attack
The Iranian
government flat-out rejected President Trump’s claim that new
negotiations were due to get underway later Monday, with officials
stating that no talks were taking place or scheduled.
Trump, 80, told
reporters en route to Washington Sunday night that he had called off a
planned “massive attack” on Iran at the request of US partners in the
region — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
“They thought
that a deal is imminent,” said the president, later adding: “Now what
we’re doing is talking to them [Iran], in the form of a negotiation.
It begins tomorrow afternoon.”
Iran Foreign
Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei claimed Monday that no negotiations
with the US were in prospect and Tehran had no plans to host any
foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days.
The only talks
under way, Baghaei added, were discussions with Oman over management of
the Strait of Hormuz, the closing of which has roiled global energy
markets since the start of Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28.
Former Biden COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha says pandemic ‘probably was a lab leak’
Dr. Ashish Jha,
the White House COVID-19 response coordinator during the Biden
administration, revealed Sunday that he now favors the so-called lab
leak theory as the most plausible origin story of the pandemic.
“When I went
into the White House [in April 2022], my view was, this was almost
surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak,” Jha told CNN’s “State of
the Union.”
“Based on
information I learned and based on information I have seen, I have come
to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak,” he added.
“Here’s the
bottom line: No one in the United States knows for sure. The only
people who know for sure are people — officials in China, and we still
need transparency and accountability on that,” concluded Jha, the
former dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
Idaho In-N-Out Burger shooting motive still a mystery as armed citizen speaks out
Idaho man Jordan Salinas who returned fire: 'He did not like it when bullets started firing both ways'
Police are
still working to determine why a 24-year-old gunman opened fire at a
crowded In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, killing three people and
wounding seven others before taking his own life after taking fire from
a bystander and an off-duty Idaho state trooper.
Twin Falls
Police Chief Matthew Hicks said Sunday that investigators were
confident Chad Williams acted alone in Saturday's attack, but
detectives had not yet established a motive or fully traced his
movements before the shooting.
"We believe
their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing
further casualties," Hicks said of an armed citizen and officer who
returned fire. "We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the
off-duty officer and the citizen, and their heroic action to stop this
incident."
Police have not
publicly identified the trooper or the bystander, but the Idaho
Statesman detailed the heroics of Jordan Salinas, 35, of Kimberly,
Idaho, strapped by the shoulder with a FN Five-seveN semi-automatic
pistol fitted with a suppressor.
Hero civilian who fired back at In-N-Out shooter trained in self defense after witnessing another mass shooting
The good
Samaritan being hailed as a “hero” for firing upon Idaho In-N-Out
gunman Chad Williams in the middle of his deadly drive-thru rampage had
trained for such a moment for years after witnessing another mass
shooting.
Jordan Salinas,
35, a healthcare worker and the full-time caregiver of his brother, who
uses a wheelchair, had been horseback riding with his girlfriend the
morning of the shooting when the couple pulled into the Twin Falls
In-N-Out location for lunch and immediately noticed something amiss.
A large crowd
of people was rushing through the exit doors of the restaurant, which
he assumed was due to a kitchen fire until he heard the unmistakable
pop of gunfire.
Operating on
pure instinct, Salinas sprinted toward the sound of the gunfire – a
response he’d later refer to as “automatic” and “mechanical,” he told
the Idaho Statesman.
Trump v. Smithsonian: A timeline of how the White House fight over 'woke' history unfolded
A 162-page White House report concludes the American History Museum has undergone 'ideological capture'
Fox News
reporter Alexandria Hoff has the latest on House Republicans
questioning Smithsonian officials over claims of political bias on
‘Special Report.’
President
Donald Trump's effort to root out what his administration calls "woke"
ideology at the Smithsonian has grown into one of the most extensive
White House reviews of the institution in decades.
The Smithsonian
oversees 21 museums, the National Zoo and nearly 157 million objects
and specimens while receiving more than $1 billion annually in federal
funding outside of private-side dollars.
The
administration's campaign has placed the taxpayer-supported institution
at the center of a broader debate over patriotism, historical
interpretation and the role of federally funded cultural institutions
amid a growing divide over how people view and retell America's story.
Trump Insists His Polling Numbers Are 'Best They Have Ever Been'
President
Donald Trump insisted on Monday that his approval rating is the best it
has ever been, despite many surveys showing that it has gone down
significantly over recent months.
Trump wrote on
Truth Social that "my REAL polling numbers, not those made up by the
Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been, and why wouldn’t
they be with the biggest tax cuts and employment numbers EVER, the
biggest outside investment in America in world history, a totally
secure border, a giant victory in Venezuela, the denuclearization of
Iran, unparalleled respect and success throughout the world, and much
more?"
The president encouraged the public to "vote Republican for greatness in America" in the upcoming midterms.
Venezuela Oil Deals Stalled by Divisions
Divides in the
oil industry and within the Trump administration reportedly have
delayed new Venezuelan oil production, despite President Donald Trump's
pledge to rapidly restore the country's energy sector following the
removal of strongman Nicolas Maduro.
Nearly eight
months after Trump predicted American companies would quickly rebuild
Venezuela's oil industry, no new petroleum agreements with U.S. firms
have been finalized, according to Axios.
The report
cited more than a dozen oil industry executives, senior U.S. officials,
and Venezuelan insiders, many of whom pointed to the Energy Department
as a key reason for the delays.
Fed's Williams Expects Inflation to Ease, Says Fed Will Act If It Doesn't
Federal Reserve
Bank of New York President John Williams said he remained optimistic
that inflation pressures are on track to ease gradually, but if they
don't the U.S. central bank will not hesitate to respond with rate
hikes to ensure price pressures return to target.
If energy
prices and trade tariffs have peaked and the economy remains on a solid
footing, "I think that some of the big drivers that pushed up
inflation" over the last year and half or so "will not be at play as
much, and then some of the disinflationary forces that we've been
seeing" should reassert themselves, Williams said in an interview with
Reuters on Friday.
Williams said:
"I am quite honestly focused quite a bit on, What are we seeing in the
core inflation data over the next several months? And is that
consistent with a kind of a run rate of inflation moving towards 2% and
really on a disinflationary path consistent with us achieving our 2%
inflation goal on a sustained basis by 2028?"
James Madison knew the antidote for Dr. Fauci’s COVID tyranny
By Josh Hammer
Anthony Fauci,
the public health bureaucrat who became the face of America’s botched
COVID-19 response, testified last week on Capitol Hill.
Except Fauci
actually didn’t testify: In an astonishing act of hubris and disdain
for the countless Americans who bore the brunt of tyrannical COVID-era
“Faucism,” the mad doctor invoked the Fifth Amendment well over 100
times.
Dr. Fauci's handling of the COVID pandemic was:
It’s an
unprecedented defiance of congressional will for a man who has already
received a sweeping presidential pardon. Congress would do well to vote
to hold Fauci in contempt.
Wednesday’s intense senatorial standoff followed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s earlier release of damning excerpts of Fauci’s diary.
Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan rise exposes Democrats’ moral morass
By Isaac Schorr
John Fetterman is a little less lonely these days, but not because his courage has proven contagious to Democratic elders.
The
Pennsylvania progressive has been branded a Benedict Arnold for
speaking the truth about the ascendant, anti-civilizational forces
within his own party
Bernie Sanders
“keeps pushing these communists and these . . . awful anti-American
people,” Fetterman argued last month after the collapse of Graham
Platner’s candidacy in Maine.
His “anti-American” modifier was of special import because it cut to the core of the conflict.
