Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump threatened to “temporarily” pull the nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general, and keep him in the role in an acting capacity until two Republican senators who want Blanche to agree in writing to drop a $1.776bn slush fund for Trump supporters, and limit tax audit immunity for Trump’s family.
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The US Senate narrowly rejected a largely symbolic effort to check Donald Trump’s war in Iran, as a war powers resolution directing the president to end hostilities failed in a 49-50 vote.
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The House Democratic Women’s Caucus called on Thursday for an ethics committee investigation of Republican congressman Max Miller, a former Trump aide who has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife and former girlfriend.
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Trump announced that his so-called “Board of Peace” reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas militants and other armed groups in Gaza.
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New polling commissioned by Fox News shows Texas Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead of the state’s Trump-backed Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, in their contest for a seat in the US Senate.
Current and former prosecutors are denouncing the Trump administration for fast-tracking the deportation of immigrant children, as a key contract for legal services is set to expire on Friday.
A series of federal laws has for decades shielded child immigrants from removal, either to protect their safety or to allow them to testify against abusers or human traffickers.
But the Trump administration has undermined those laws, immigrant advocates and prosecutors say, by directing immigration judges to fast-track deportation cases for minors and blocking their access to lawyers who might help them apply for several forms of relief from removal – including acting as witnesses in cases of human trafficking or domestic violence.
“By arresting and deporting survivors who have come forward and applied for protection, the Administration not only risks endangering the survivor and their family members, but the Government also sends a chilling message to the larger community: don’t call the police, don’t report crime – you or your loved ones will get deported,” reads a Wednesday letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 10 current and former prosecutors. “This undermines public safety for us all.”
Trump's on-again, off-again promise to license Patriot anti-missile system to Ukraine might be off again
Three weeks after publicly telling Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “we’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots”, and two days after Zelenskyy met with Lockheed Martin in Washington to discuss using that license, Donald Trump told the Financial Times on Thursday that he was “not sure” about granting Ukraine the right to manufacture its own Patriot air defense interceptors, to defend against Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“It’s a very extraordinary weapon,” Trump said in a phone call with the FT columnist Ed Luce. “We have to be a little bit careful of who we license to. We don’t really license equipment.”
Luce, whose calls Trump regularly answers, also reports that Trump repeated his rosy assessment of the war he started but has been unable to stop with Iran. “We are beating the hell out of them,” he said.
The president also claimed that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is “very much” in favor of his idea to have the kingdom recognize Israel as a condition of a nuclear cooperation agreement with the US. No such condition was apparently mentioned before US and Saudi officials signed a nuclear deal, and the Saudis have clearly said that they will not recognize Israel unless Israel begins the process of establishing a Palestinian state, something that no leading Israeli politician is willing to do.
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New Fox poll shows Texas Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead in Senate race
New polling commissioned by Fox News shows Texas Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead of the state’s Trump-backed Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, in their contest for a seat in the US Senate.
According to the survey, Talarico leads Paxton by three percentage points, 51% to 48%, among registered voters, which is within the poll’s margin of error.
The same survey shows an even tighter race for Texas governor, with the Republican incumbent, Greg Abbott, just one point ahead of his Democratic challenger, state lawmaker Gina Hinojosa, 50% to 49%.
The polling also suggests that Donald Trump’s unpopularity might be a drag on the Republicans he supports. The president is viewed unfavorably by 54% of Texas voters, which is worse than Paxton (51%), Abbott (49%), Talarico (43%) and Hinojosa (34%).
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Trump claims Hamas has agreed to disarm and allow international force to police Gaza
Writing on social media, Donald Trump announced his so-called “Board of Peace” reached an agreement on Thursday for the complete disarmament of Hamas militants and other armed groups in Gaza.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” the president wrote. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”
Trump thanked Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, and his own “outstanding team” for what he called “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace”.
“At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks,” he added.
Earlier in the day, sources told Reuters that talks between mediators and Hamas leaders in Cairo on implementing a US-brokered Gaza peace plan had made rare progress, although an Israeli official said proposed terms were not satisfactory.
“One year ago there was a violent raging war” in Gaza, Trump said. “We have made historic progress.” He made no mention of the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave.
Israeli strikes killed at least six Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, including two children, medics said.
Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 1,180 Palestinians had been killed, and 3,810 wounded, since Trump announced the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on 9 October 2025.
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House Democratic Women’s Caucus calls for ethics investigation of Republican congressman Max Miller over domestic abuse allegations
The House Democratic Women’s Caucus called on Thursday for an ethics committee investigation of congressman Max Miller, an Ohio Republican and former Trump aide who has been accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife and former girlfriend.
The group’s chair, Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, and vice-chairs, Emilia Sykes of Ohio and Hillary Scholten of Michigan, said in a statement:
The recent reports of domestic violence and child abuse against Representative Max Miller are deeply disturbing and Congress can’t ignore them. Allegations of violence against women and children have to be met with the utmost seriousness.
We therefore call on the House Committee on Ethics to swiftly and thoroughly investigate these allegations.
Every woman and child deserves to live free from fear of violence, especially within the sanctity of their own home, and we will not stop fighting until that’s the reality.
The Republican congressman, 37, who represents Ohio’s seventh congressional district, has denied accusations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and former girlfriend Stephanie Grisham, as he campaigns for re-election.
Moreno, a conservative policy adviser whose father is Ohio senator Bernie Moreno, shares a two-year-old daughter with Miller. The pair have been engaged in a legal battle over custody of their child since 2024.
Grisham, who held the roles of press secretary for both Donald Trump and Melania Trump at various points during Trump’s first term, dated Miller from 2019 to 2020, when he was a White House staffer.
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A former White House counsel and former general counsel of Goldman Sachs, who has faced scrutiny over her past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, told a House committee this month that some of the allegations made by one his most prominent accusers “lacked inherent credibility”, according to newly released transcripts.
Kathryn Ruemmler’s name appeared thousands of times in records related to Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, that were released earlier this year by the US Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The files revealed Ruemmler had accepted gifts from Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019 after he was arrested by federal authorities, at times addressed him as “Uncle Jeffrey” and “sweetie” in emails, and offered him informal advice on how to respond to questions about his sex crimes.
Ruemmler’s testimony before Congress when she was asked about Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein’s abuse, was swiftly criticized by Giuffre’s family. “She should be ashamed of herself,” Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, Sky and Amanda Roberts, said in a statement. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025.
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Two federal appeals courts reject ICE policy to detain undocumented residents with no criminal records
Two federal appeals courts ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration cannot deny immigrants detained inside the United States a chance for release on bond, rejecting a new policy to detain even undocumented immigrants with no criminal records who have resided in the US for years.
In a pair of 2-1 decisions, majorities of the San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court of appeals and the Chicago-based 7th US circuit court of appeals agreed with four previous appeals court rulings across the country that a 1996 law does not mandate the detention of every undocumented immigrant who initially entered the country unlawfully, no matter how long ago.
The majority decision in the 9th circuit court was written by Daniel Bress, a judge appointed by Donald Trump in 2019.
Two appeals courts, the Fifth circuit in New Orleans and Eighth circuit in St Louis have sided with the Trump administration.
The split between the circuit courts increases the likelihood that the US supreme court will eventually take up the issue, as the administration requested last month.
John Cornyn met Todd Blanche on Thursday, source says
Senator John Cornyn has met with acting attorney general Todd Blanche, a source familiar has told the Guardian this afternoon.
It comes just hours after President Donald Trump said that that he may withdraw Blanche’s nomination and nominate him again after Cornyn and Senator Thom Tillis, the two current Republican holdouts, leave office in January.
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The State Department has announced that its limited-edition Trump-branded US passports designed to “celebrate America’s 250th” will become available on 8 August.
In a post on social media, the State Department said that there will be “250,000 commemorative passports” and shared an image of the passport which appears to include a photo of Trump on the inside.
According to its website, the passport, dubbed the “Patriot Passport” will include “custom artwork and enhanced images on the front, back, and inside covers.”
Ahead of the vote on the latest war powers resolution, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said that the war with Iran was “launched without a clear plan, executed without a coherent strategy and has become a costly self inflicted disaster for the American people.”
“Every justification that we were given for this conflict has proven hollow” she said on the floor.
Democrat Mandela Barnes drops out of Wisconsin governor race as democratic socialist leads polls
Democrat Mandela Barnes has announced that he is dropping out of the Democratic race for governor in Wisconsin.
In a video shared on social media on Thursday, Barnes said that “last night I had a very difficult conversation with my staff.”
“We’re incredibly proud of all the things that we’ve accomplished and all the resources that we have raised to spread our message” he said. “But it’s become very clear who our nominee is going to be”.
Barnes appears to be referencing state representative Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, who is currently leading the polls ahead of the 11 August Democratic primary.
“And I said from the very beginning, when I launched this campaign that the number one goal was taking on and defeating Tom Tiffany to deliver big wins for Democrats up and down the ticket” Barnes added. “And Now, it’s time for us to come together, to focus our efforts on that one goal.”
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Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, responded to Trump’s threat to withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general and renominate him after Tillis and Senator John Cornyn leave office in January, saying the president is “getting bad advice.”
“He should listen to Blanche and others who think if it’s dead, it should be rendered completely dead,” Tillis told reporters.
“That same adviser wants to bring it back to life at some point” he added.
A new report alleges that billionaire Elon Musk is preparing to spend $100m to $120m on the midterm elections to help Republicans.
A New York Times report on Thursday, alleges that according to two people briefed on the plans, Musk has has authorized his super PAC to spend $100m to $120m on a new field program in at least eight states to help elect Republicans in November.
Musk was the biggest donor in the 2024 presidential election, spending over $240m.
According to the Times, officials from Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, have communicated their nine-figure budget to Republicans in recent weeks, and that the spending plan is set to begin next month.
The report alleges that Musk’s group plans to first target Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio and is also having conversations and considering spending in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. The super PAC is also planning to spend in House races including in California, Wisconsin and Washington, according to two people familiar.
On Wednesday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer gave a speech on the chamber floor in which he implored Republicans to abandon their support of Trump’s war in Iran.
“Are Senate Republicans listening? The country is clamoring for you to end this war,” he said. “I urge and plead with my Republican colleagues: listen to the American people. Vote to end this war. We’re going to keep forcing Republicans to vote until we do.”
On Thursday before the vote was finalized, Schumer posted on X:
Trump’s war with Iran has been one of the greatest foreign policy dumpster fires in American history, and it seems to be expanding with new attacks now targeting Egypt. Our troops’ lives are unnecessarily at risk fighting a war that was totally avoidable. All while Trump is too busy playing keyboard warrior on Truth Social. We must end this war now.
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A reminder that today a new poll was released on American attitudes about the US-Iran war, with most people believing this is not worth fighting. Trump’s approval rating also showed a slump, according to the new AP-NORC poll.
The results are a stark repudiation of Trump’s approach to the conflict, which has dragged on far longer than he originally predicted.
About two-thirds of US adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile, according to the new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who voted in favor of the latest war powers resolution to prevent Trump from continuing an operation against Iran, wrote on X:
Senate Republicans just voted to continue Donald Trumps war with Iran for the 13th time.
- Rising gas prices
- Increasing grocery bills
- 18 U.S. service members have been killed
- Over 600 Americans have been injuredWe must end Trump’s war.
Senate's latest war powers resolution fails in 49-50 vote as some Republicans side with Democrats
Meanwhile, the latest attempt by Congress to rein-in president Donald Trump’s attacks in the Middle East failed in the Senate on Thursday.
The war powers resolution failed in a 49-50 vote.
Democratic senator John Fetterman voted with Republicans to sink the measure. But notably, Republicans senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted in favor of the motion to prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran.
Mitch McConnell was absent for the vote as he recovers from a June fall and has not received clearance to return to work.
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Cornyn: talks over Blanche's nomination are over for now
Republican senator John Cornyn said talks over Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general were over, likely through the weekend, after Donald Trump said he might withdraw his candidate.
“I don’t discount the possibility that this is just part of a negotiating technique,” Cornyn said of Trump’s comment on social media.
Democratic senator Dick Durban, the ranking member of the Senate judiciary committee, called drama over Todd Blanche’s nomination “a crisis of his own doing.”
In an interview with CNN, Durbin also stood behind senator John Cornyn, one of the Republicans stalling the confirmation vote.
“I think John has made a good stand on an important issue,” Durbin said. “He’s also raised the issue of the future liability of the Trump empire when it comes to tax crimes. I mean, these are legitimate issues he’s raising and I’m sure he’s not the only Republican worried about it.”
US-Iran strikes risk regional war in Middle East - podcast
As we’ve been reporting, the US military has carried out a wave of airstrikes against Iran in response to Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan. The strikes were launched after Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran “very hard” following a days-long pause in fighting. Iran has expanded its military strikes in the region, raising fears of an all-out war.
In today’s edition of The Lastet podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to Guardian senior international correspondent Peter Beaumount.
And House judiciary Democrats have this response:
Trump has been forced to bench his own pick for Attorney General because even Senate Republicans could not stomach installing the President’s forever personal defense lawyer as America’s top law enforcement officer.
Todd Blanche sealed his fate by refusing to disavow Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for cop-beating MAGA foot soldiers or retract his family-sized Super Pardon for the Trumps and all their businesses. It didn’t help that he refuses to end the disgraceful Epstein files cover-up or stand up to any of Trump’s demands that DOJ prosecute his perceived foes or drop charges against his friends and J6 foot soldiers.
The Senate must reject this dangerous nomination for good and demand an Attorney General who serves the Constitution and the American people, not Donald Trump and the Epstein class.
Senator Cornyn responds to Trump on Blanche showdown: 'Potus is mistaken'
In response to that, John Cornyn wrote on X:
POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis
A swing vote on the Senate judiciray committee, Cornyn, of Texas, told reporters yesterday he would not support Todd Blanche’s nomination until he received written confirmation that the $1.8bn slush fund was not moving ahead.
He also wants to clarify that a provision in the Trump-IRS settlement giving the president, his sons and related businesses blanket immunity from tax audits for all matters up until this year could not be applied to future matters, or to people who were not parties to the settlement.
Under pressure, Blanche announced in June that the DOJ was scrapping the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, but has repeatedly declined to say so in writing. Pressed by Cornyn during his confirmation hearing, Blanche acknowledged that Trump or the other plaintiffs in the case could try to enforce the settlement agreement. He also did not say the tax immunity provision was dead.
Cornyn was defeated in his GOP primary in May by Ken Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump. Tillis is not seeking re-election.
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Trump says he may pull Blanche's attorney general nomination until dissenting senators leave office
Donald Trump has said he may pull and delay Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general as he looks to avoid concessions to holdout Republicans John Cornyn and Thom Tillis saying he might re-nominate Blanche once they’re out of office.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform:
Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting. Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.
Cornyn and Tillis both leave office next year, with Tillis not seeking re-election and Cornyn having lost his primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger.
The Senate judiciary committee vote on Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general was scrapped last night, after the two senators demanded further assurances about the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
Cornyn and Tillis demanded additional assurances in writing that the so-called ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is dead and pressed for clarification on the scope of the tax immunity deal.
Cornyn has said he wants the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
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In an interview with Politico yesterday, Senate majority leader John Thune doubled down on his desire to let Republican senators out for the five-week summer recess and onto the campaign trail ahead of November’s midterms – but first he has to get past Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to cancel it.
Just yesterday, Trump insisted in the Oval Office – despite all evidence to the contrary – that Thune “has the votes” to kill the filibuster and pass his unpopular restrictive voting bill (the so-called Save America Act), despite Thune making clear many times the party doesn’t have the votes to pass either measure.
The president even openly questioned whether Thune was the right person for the job. “We will find out, and I will let you know,” Trump told reporters.
Thune hadn’t yet heard those comments when he sat down with Politico. But he nonetheless reiterated that he doesn’t have anywhere near the votes for either measure. He said of the president:
He gets obviously frustrated with me because he sees me as the person that’s the impediment to some of the things he wants to get done. But as I continually point out … I don’t make this stuff up. Math is math, arithmetic is arithmetic. … And part of it, too, is the active role he played in some of these primaries.
He thinks I can wave the magic wand. I wish it were that easy.
Asked about the Oval Office comments later yesterday evening, Thune replied: “That’s a decision that’s made by my colleagues.”
He then joked that if Trump “could find somebody else to do this job, it might be a big relief”, adding:
It is what it is. You just roll with it.
Thune also expressed hope that Republicans would be able to spend election season “drawing contrast with our Democrat opponents rather than us shooting each other”.
He effectively ruled out holding a test vote on killing the filibuster, warning that forcing effectively symbolic votes would risk dividing the party and serve no practical end.
You end up … basically for the 60 or 90 days heading into an election, fighting among Republicans, which to me seems really counterproductive, going into an election that’s pretty high-stakes.
Senate panel advances nomination of Trump's pick for CDC director
The Senate health committee has voted to advance the nomination of Donald Trump’s pick for CDC director, career civil servant Erica Schwartz, bringing her closer to confirmation by the whole Senate.
Schwartz’s resume includes medical and law degrees, a stint as deputy surgeon general, and a leadership position at the US Coast Guard. Her nomination now goes to the Senate for a floor vote. If confirmed, Schwartz will lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s top public health agency, which is still reeling from months of leadership turmoil.
The advancement comes after Schwartz secured a key vote from Bill Cassidy, who said this morning he was confident that she would defend science. He had previously expressed concern over whether she would challenge her potential future boss, RFK Jr, like her predecessor did, if he proposed taking actions at odds with scientific evidence and good public health practice.
At her hearing earlier this month, Schwartz pledged to “never betray the science”, but also repeatedly declined to dissent from some of the actions Kennedy has taken.
Nonetheless, she also secured a vote from Tim Kaine – the only Democrat who voted in support - who said earlier this week he would vote for her as the US tackles measles and other public health crises. Kaine has also previously apologized to former CDC director Susan Monarez for opposing her nomination, after she was ousted by the White House after refusing to go along with Kennedy’s sweeping changes to US vaccine policy, including the childhood vaccine schedule.
Also this morning, the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee voted to advance the nomination of Sean Kaufman, Trump’s pick for assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
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US economy grows sluggish 1.5% in second quarter as inflation tops Fed target
The US economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth. But consumer spending rose. And the Federal Reserve’s favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month despite remaining above the central bank’s 2% target.
The commerce department reported today that growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) – the nation’s output of goods and services – decelerated from 2.1% in the first three months of 2026 and came in below economists’ expectations.
The commerce department also said that its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the measure of inflation favored by the Fed, rose 3.7% last month from June 2025, down from a 4.1% year-over-year increase in May. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core consumer prices were up 3.3% from a year earlier, little changed from a 3.4% increase in May.
The latest data paints a clearer picture of the effects the war in the Middle East has had on the economy after increasing energy prices and pushing inflation higher. The first GDP reading of this year captured the effects of just a month of war, but indicated that consumer spending was starting to slow as prices started to creep up.
Oil prices have come down from their wartime high, and took a sharp downturn when the US and Iran announced a peace deal. But when that deal collapsed and the two countries began trading strikes again, oil prices climbed and still remain much higher than prewar levels.
The pressure is growing within the Fed to raise interest rates in order to combat heightened inflation, which Kevin Warsh, the central bank’s chair, has acknowledged has remained too high for years. Though the Fed yessterday chose to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the fifth straight meeting, three regional Fed presidents dissented, saying they wanted to raise rates to combat elevated inflation. It was the first time in a decade so many Fed officials had dissented in the same direction over a policy vote.
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US unleashes 'heavy wave' of strikes on Iran overnight as peace efforts under threat
The US military struck dozens of targets in Iran overnight in retaliation for Tehran’s attack on US forces in Jordan yesterday, sparking a further Iranian response and threatening prospects for negotiations to achieve a permanent peace.
The strikes – the first in more than five days – were launched hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops. The latest attacks come after a days-long pause in violence between the two sides.
US Central Command said it hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran, including military command centres, as well as missile and drone facilities, in a two-hour wave of strikes.
Iranian state media said three people – reportedly a couple and child - were injured in attacks on the island of Qeshm in the strait of Hormuz and that explosions were also reported in Khuzestan province to the north-west.
Jordan reported incoming missiles for the second day in a row, while Kuwait accused Iran of carrying out a strike that hit a building, killing one person. Both strikes are believed to have been part of an Iranian retaliation against the US attacks.
Mediators insisted talks were continuing despite the renewed exchange of strikes, with the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi saying the key mediator was doing its “utmost to bring all parties back” to the negotiating table.
The renewed strikes came after the US partnered with Saudi Arabia to strike Iran-backed militias in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers. The attacks reignited the armed conflict between Iran and the US and poured water on hopes that diplomacy would be given space to breathe.
Elsewhere, drone strikes led to fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian gas import hub at the port of Damietta, according to the British maritime security firm Ambrey. The Egyptian government confirmed that a drone attack ignited the blaze, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a US-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker. No injuries were reported and the port remained operational.
It was the first time Egypt had been attacked since the Iran war started in late February and signalled a potential widening of the conflict.
Analysts said the flare-ups on multiple fronts after several days of relative calm pushed the region into “uncharted territory”. They also underscored the difficulty of winding down a five-month conflict that has jolted the world economy and which remains unpopular among Americans.
The fighting was also likely to add to concerns that the US is further drawing down its already diminished stockpiles of sophisticated munitions needed to defend its bases and allies.
National polls reveal attitudes of US voters
Several new national polls came out this morning or offered more in-depth details on results, with surveys of voter attitudes on the midterms, Trump, democratic socialism and election integrity.
Here’s a roundup of what’s new:
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A new CNN poll showed Democrats leading Republicans by 8 points in a generic ballot and a large advantage in voter enthusiasm for Democrats heading into the midterms. And a majority of those polls also agreed that Congress would be better off if most current members were unseated this year, which CNN noted was “higher by double digits than the share who felt that way ahead of the Democratic wave election in the midst of the Iraq War in 2006”.
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Washington Post/Ipsos poll from earlier this month, written up today by the outlet, showed that three in four Democrats would consider supporting a democratic socialist for president, though that number dips to less than half when looking at all Americans.
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A Gallup poll shows that Americans across the political spectrum are concerned about pressure on election officials to change results, which comes amid rising political pressure from the Trump administration on election denialism
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The attempt to dilute Black voters’ power by Republicans after the US supreme court gutted the Voting Rights Act is driving Black voters to the polls in larger numbers, a new analysis found.
VoteHub, a data-focused election group, found that Black voters shifted left in partisan turnout in all but one of the 78 Black belt counties it tracked when compared to 2024 turnout. Alabama and South Carolina saw the strongest shifts.
Read more on the survey from Adria Walker:
A new poll out this morning shows Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate for in the Democratic primary for US senate in Michigan, with a sizable lead over US representative Haley Stevens, the moderate in the race.
A poll from Emerson College, a nonpartisan outfit with no ties to either campaign, found 54% intended to vote for El-Sayed compared to 39% for Stevens. Of the 6% still undecided, more were leaning toward El-Sayed.
“There is a clear age divide in the Democratic Primary: voters under 50 break for El-Sayed by 42 percentage points, 67% to 25%, and that gap tightens among voters in their 50s to a 12-point lead, and voters over 60 flip to Stevens by a 14-point margin, 53% to 39%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said.
El-Sayed has a large edge with independents by a 27-point margin in this open-primary state, and Democrats are siding with him by a 9-point margin.
The survey of 700 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted on 26-27 July and has a credibility interval of about 3.7%.
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Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island, commented on X about the Republicans scrapping the planned committee vote for Todd Blanche’s confirmation for attorney general.
The IRS “slush fund” – and whether it is actually not happening – is a reportedly a central issue for two Republicans who would be needed to confirm Blanche.
“Republicans just took down the Blanche vote for tomorrow,” Whitehouse wrote on X. “Shows how truthful Blanche was about the slush fund deal being dead, that he couldn’t even convince Republicans. He’s a slippery weasel, and that was a slippery deal.”
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Gas prices are up almost a dollar a gallon since the day Donald Trump took office; mortgage rates just hit their highest level in nearly a year, and over the weekend a prominent economist said the Iran war is costing the average US household more than $1,200.
Americans are struggling through a deepening affordability crisis caused largely by Trump’s ill-fated war against Iran. They are in need of a boost, something to lift the spirits. Perhaps the president could give a speech, letting the people know that we are all in this together.
Or, he could give a speech announcing that the White House has just ordered 250 brand new Cadillac Escalades, giant SUVs which have a suggested retail price of more than $90,000 each and cost significantly more to customize for secure uses.
“We ordered 250 Escalades. That’s how we look sharp in those cavalcades, you know,” Trump said during a rambling, hour-long address at a General Motors facility in Michigan.
“We look sharp in those Escalades. Our guys are very spoiled. They’re very spoiled. They like the Escalade. So do I.”
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed his government had denied visas to two US officials who planned to travel to the country, accusing them of seeking to interfere in October’s general election.
“This week we had to deny visas to two young folks they were sending to Brazil to meddle in Brazil’s elections,” Lula said at an event late on Wednesday.
Reuters reported last week, citing two Brazilian officials, that visa requests for the two officials in US president Donald Trump’s administration had been rejected because they planned to cast doubt on the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system.
A US State Department spokesperson at the time rejected any suggestion of a “ploy” to undermine Brazil’s elections, calling the claims “baseless” and describing the visit as routine and consistent with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s statutory mandate.
Most Americans say Iran war isn't worthwhile and Trump's approval rating slips, new poll finds
Most Americans say the war in Iran has not been worth fighting and president Donald Trump’s approval rating on Iran has fallen slightly since last month, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
The results are a stark repudiation of Trump’s approach to the conflict, which has dragged on far longer than he originally predicted.
About two-thirds of US adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile, according to the new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.
The poll was conducted 23-27 July, as the US and Iran paused attacks following a nearly two-week escalation in the war.
During the escalation, the US targeted Iranian military and commercial sites while Iran attacked US military facilities in the Middle East, resulting in additional deaths of American service members.
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Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination stalls over Trump IRS lawsuit
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Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney-general stalled last night as lawmakers scrapped a planned committee vote.
Key Republicans, senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, had demanded further assurances about the settlement of president Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Cornyn and Tillis have demanded additional assurances in writing that the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is dead and have pressed for clarification on the scope of the tax immunity deal.
Cornyn has said he wants the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Cornyn, who recently lost the Republican primary in Texas, accused the justice department earlier on Wednesday of “stonewalling” and said “the ball is in Blanche’s court.”
“We’re been trying to help them get to a conclusion here and they won’t let us. It’s befuddling to me,” Cornyn told reporters.
“Chairman [Chuck] Grassley works to set president Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators [John] Cornyn and [Thom] Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” a committee spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement.
“Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report Attorney General-nominee Todd Blanche, who is highly qualified for the job.”
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