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The White House wasn’t ready for the revolt against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation.President Donald Trump’s inner circle “seemed surprised” by the Republican pushback to Blanche’s nomination, MS NOW reported Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote on whether to advance Blanche’s nomination Thursday morning. But late the night before, the committee postponed the vote, after Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina made clear that they would not support Blanche. Earlier Wednesday, the president had suggested that Blanche’s confirmation was a sure thing.“All I can say is Todd Blanche is outstanding, and I thought it was pretty routine because he’s so good,” Trump said. “He just wouldn’t find a better person.”The two GOP lawmakers have demanded that Blanche put into writing that Trump’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is actually dead. Blanche had declared the fund was dead in June, but staffers at the Department of Justice and White House have continued telling MAGA allies they could still expect to receive some form of payment. Even if he’s not confirmed before the Senate’s August recess, Blanche will continue to serve as acting attorney general. But it would be a humiliating blow to the president, who is clearly losing his grip on party members.

More than 1,200 AI company employees signed a petition calling for “governance tools” to “buy time to address emerging risks.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s efforts to bring in private investors to the World Cup has triggered a revolt among global soccer officials

U.S. economic growth dropped to 1.5 percent in the second quarter, down from a 2.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday.Economists were expecting a gross domestic product growth rate of 1.8 percent, but thanks to President Trump’s Iran war, disastrous tariffs (including new tariffs levied on more than 50 countries last week), and cuts to government spending, we are, once again, not doing as well as Trump claims.“Americans are feeling gloomy: consumer confidence remains in the doldrums as households worry about rising costs,” The Economist reports. “Although annual inflation slowed to 3.5 percent in June from 4.2 percent in May, thanks largely to a temporary fall in petrol prices, renewed fighting has since pushed oil prices higher again.”Regular gasoline came in at an average of $4.22 a gallon in the second quarter, a dramatic increase from less than $3 a gallon before the U.S. and Israel began the war on Iran in February. Now that the shaky U.S.-Iran ceasefire is dead, Americans are bracing, once again, for painful prices at the gas pump.These latest figures reaffirm that the main concern right now for Americans is cost—of just about everything. Even Fox News recognizes that voters are unhappy with Trump’s economy and want “major change.” And by “major change,” we do not mean more tariffs.Plus, the Federal Reserve opted to hold interest rates steady for a fifth consecutive meeting on Wednesday. New Fed chairman Kevin Warsh acknowledged that there’s no quick fix to ease the cost of living, telling reporters there is no “magic wand” to bring prices down. In other words, Americans are getting the worst of both worlds: an economy that’s slowing down while prices keep climbing.But of course, in Trump’s own words, he “doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situation” when making decisions about the war in Iran.

Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. Demonstrators in Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar burned US and Israeli flags. and vowed to fight for national sovereignty. Caracas, Venezuela – Hundreds of Venezuelan activists took to the streets on Friday, July 24, to denounce the US and Israeli presence in the Caribbean nation. The rally “against imperialism and Zionism” took place in Caracas’ […]

John Perry· The Grayzone In his national address on July 19, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega stated that when the country’s next elections take place in 2027, none who promoted a violent anti-government insurrection in 2018 will be allowed to stand for office. The pledge was universally interpreted by Western media outlets as a total ban […]

While Israel’s impunity for conducting unbridled violence is cracking in the U.S., politicians’ habit of tying career survival to Tel Aviv persists in traditional power structures, writes Ramzy Baroud. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Hukabee at a celebration in Jerusalem of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. (US Embassy Jerusalem. Flickr/CC BY 4.0)  Ramzy Baroud Z Network […]