Newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche tells Meet the Press there is no plan to revive President Trump's so-called "anti-weaponization fund" for people who believe they were wrongfully prosecuted by the federal government, including January 6th rioters.

#Attorney

CHICAGO (AP) — About 213,500 "Goody King" magnetic building toys were recalled in the U.S. on Thursday, due to an ingestion hazard posed that has resulted in at least two children receiving surgeries.
According to a notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, these toys' building cubes can break or open, allowing the magnets inside to become loose. That poses a serious ingestion hazard for children.
When high-powered magnets are swallowed, they can attract each other or other metal and become lodged in the digestive system, the CPSC warns — which can potentially lead to "perforations, twisting, and/or blockage of the intestines, blood poisoning and death."
To date, Goody King seller Yi Suen Commerce is aware of two children who ingested magnets from these toys and needed surgery to remove them. The Hong Kong-based company is also aware of at least 27 reports of the cubes breaking or opening.
Consumers in possession of the now-recalled magnetic toys are urged to stop using them immediately and contact Yi Suen Commerce for a full refund. Affected model numbers and more information can be found both on the CPSC's notice and Goody King's recall website.

#suen

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is preparing to ramp up funding by hundreds of millions of dollars for programs designed to counter China's growing influence around the world, after it had put a halt to many of those initiatives last year during a flurry of budget and personnel cuts.
The administration notified Congress late last week that it intends to spend $175.8 million to replace outdated and aging undersea telecommunications cables in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent China from moving in. The ******* ociated Press obtained a copy of the notification on Monday.
The administration has expressed deep concern about China's activities in the Americas, pushing back on Chinese ownership of ports at either end of the Panama Canal, infrastructure projects funded by China's Belt and Road initiative in the region, and Chinese investment in the telecommunications sector.
A State Department official said China's economic activities in the Western Hemisphere pose risks to U.S. national security and prosperity. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity, said China's offerings may seem cheaper but in the end wind up being more expensive due to cost overruns, hidden maintenance fees and poor performance.
The underseas cable funding appears to be part of a broader push to restore support for initiatives aimed at blunting Chinese influence globally that would cost many hundreds of millions of dollars more. That is even as President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping put on a show of cooperation and Xi prepares to visit the U.S. this fall.

#administration #millions

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz on Sunday blamed former President Biden for the Pentagon being low on munitions but denied that the depletion is negatively impacting the war with Iran.
"We have to take a step back here in that a lot of stockpiles were depleted not only from what we gave Ukraine over the last … four or five years," Waltz told host Kristen Welker on NBC News's "Meet the Press."
Waltz also said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "inherited a depleted situation" from the Biden administration due to U.S. strikes on the Houthis — which the Trump administration carried out for nearly two months last year due to the Yemeni terrorist group targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea.
NBC News reported Friday that U.S. military commanders have been selectively choosing which Iranian missiles and explosive-packed drones to intercept amid an effort to preserve the Pentagon's diminishing supply of weapons that block projectiles from reaching their targets.
Military ***** ysts also ***** s it could take the U.S. four years or more to restock its weapons inventory. But that is only if Congress provides the administration with additional funding for the war.

#four

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that Canada is intensifying negotiations with the United States to reach a comprehensive trade deal but is prepared to respond should President Donald Trump's threat of 50% tariffs on Canadian goods go into effect.
The new tariffs, announced by Trump on Monday, are scheduled to come into effect Aug. 19.
"If these tariffs, or other measures come into force, there's a full range of things that we can do in that regard," Ca rney said after meeting with Canada's premiers and territorial leaders in Charletown, Prince Edward Island.
Carney said "everything's on the table" if an agreement can't be reached before the tariffs kick in.
"We don't need to respond in advance," he said. "In fact, I think it would be counterproductive at this stage to respond in advance."

#come #british #columbia

Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) on Wednesday introduced a resolution requiring House lawmakers to disclose relationships with staffers of other offices or committees to the lower chamber's Committee on Ethics.
Crank's resolution proposes upholding the existing ban on lawmakers from dating their staffers or staffers of a committee they serve on. It also proposes mandating lawmakers confidentially disclose relationships with staffers in other offices or committees to the Ethics panel.
If the circumstances of the relationship changes, members must then give "prompt notification" to the committee.
Under the House Code of Official Conduct, members cannot engage in a "sexual relationship" with their staffers or staffers of committees they work on, with an exception for marriage.
While lawmakers cannot engage in "unwelcome ***** ual advances or conduct" to House employees, the code of conduct does not explicitly bar relationships between members and staffers of other offices and committees.

#staffers #relationships

CAIRO (AP) — The Israeli military is quietly but quickly building a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the territory, according to satellite imagery, further entrenching the division of the tiny Palestinian enclave.
More than 23 kilometers (14 miles) have been constructed in recent months, running through Palestinian communities demolished by the military. That is equivalent to more than half the length of the coastal strip, which is some 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide, and home to over 2 million Palestinians.
When presented with the satellite images, Israel's military confirmed to The ******* ociated Press it has built a physical barrier in the area of the so-called yellow line, the boundary to which Israeli troops withdrew under the October ceasefire deal with Hamas. The line was envisioned in the U.S.-backed agreement as a temporary division of the territory pending a fuller Israeli withdrawal.
But as the truce stagnates, it appears Israel is digging in, heightening Palestinian fears that the line is morphing into a border. Neither U.S. Central Command, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, nor the Board of Peace, the body led by U.S. President Donald Trump meant to eventually oversee Gaza, would comment on the barrier.
Along with the barrier, the military told AP it has developed a "security zone" around the line, equipped with intelligence and technological ******* ets. It declined to give details on the route of the barrier when asked how far it would be extended. It said the barrier aimed to prevent infiltration and protect Israeli troops and Israeli communities near Gaza.

By Andrew Goudsward, Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and Kristina Cooke
July 16 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump renewed his campaign to cast doubt on U.S. elections on Thursday, declassifying intelligence he said exposed fraud and foreign interference despite intelligence findings and independent studies that undercut several of his claims.
Trump has ***** erted that the 2020 elections were "rigged" more than 100 times over the ‌first half of 2026, and has used those claims to push for Congress to pass a restrictive voter ID law called the SAVE America Act, which would impose strict ID requirements on ‌voters, and seek greater federal intervention in elections.
The SAVE America Act has passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives several times with a simple majority, but it does not have the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Republican-led Senate.
Trump, a Republican, said the White House was releasing a trove of classified documents that he said exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. election systems, including claims that:

Olympic track gold medalist Dawn Harper-Nelson and ATHLOS founder Alexis Ohanian discuss the rapidly rising popularity of female athletes, the massive social media audiences they are commanding and how investors are recognizing them as high-yield business **** ets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Tuesday in an immigration case dealing with the government's power over green card holders accused of crimes.
The 6-3 decision centers on an immigration officers' 2012 decision to put lawful permanent resident Muk Choi Lau on immigration parole when he returned from a short trip to China because he had been accused of a counterfeiting crime.
Lau argued that the officer overstepped their authority, and the decision wrongly allowed the Department of Homeland Security under then-President Barack Obama an easier path to removal after he pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit clothes in New Jersey.
The high court disagreed. "Border officers did not have the burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the opinion.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that the decision to put Lau on immigration parole effectively sentenced him to "immigration limbo" before he'd been convicted of any crime.

A powerful earthquake measuring magnitude 7.8 shook the Philippines while triggering three-foot tsunami waves along the coast. At least 19 people have been killed. Among the areas hardest hit is the southern port city of General Santos where several buildings collapsed. NBC's Janis Mackey Frayer reports for TODAY.

NEW YORK (AP) — The copilot of a United Airlines passenger jet that struck a light pole as it landed at a New Jersey airport last month recognized the plane was coming in low, but told investigators he didn't realize it in time to call for an aborted landing, according to a new report Thursday.
Crewmembers on the May 3 flight from Venice, Italy, also recalled hearing a loud "thump" and feeling a "mild jolt" just before touchdown at Newark Liberty International Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board stated in its initial report.
The first officer recalled saying "you are still slow and a little low" as the plane descended, according to the report. He then recalled looking back outside and thinking the plane was low, but just about to touch down.
The report provides the first description of the events from the crew inside the plane, but it doesn't identify a specific reason why the plane came in so low, or make recommendations about how to prevent similar incidents. That is not expected until the NTSB releases its final report, likely sometime next year.
But the report clarifies for the first time that it was debris from the light pole, and not the plane itself, that hit a truck traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike. Law enforcement officials initially said the plane had hit the top of a bakery truck, causing minor injuries to the driver.

Actor James Handy, who appeared in films such as Top Gun: Maverick and Jumanji, has been stabbed to death in Los Angeles.
Michael Gledhill, the son of Handy's girlfriend, has been arrested in connection with the killing, police said.
Officers responded to a home on Wednesday morning after a 911 caller said, "I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin," according to the L.A. Police Department.
They found the 81-year-old in the front yard of the residence, unconscious and suffering from a stab wound to his chest. Paramedics took Handy to a local hospital, where he was **** ounced dead.
The suspect, who lived with his mother, flagged down nearby responding officers, police said, telling them he was the one they were looking for. He was booked on suspicion of one count of murder. His bail was set at $2 million, according to jail records.