In a call last week, Blanche, who is serving as both acting attorney general and deputy attorney general, suggested that under his leadership, the department would prioritize restrictions on medication abortion.

Trump’s attorney general pick hints at making national abortion restrictions a priority

Todd Blanche, whom Republicans hope to confirm this week, has repeatedly expressed openness to restrictions on medication abortion.

19thnews.org

We worked closely with @murray.senate.gov and team on this rule. She’s great, she had EXCELLENT staff, and thank you to her and the team.

Senator Patty Murray@murray.senate.gov · 3h ago

Trump & Russ Vought proposed a rule to take every federal grant in America hostage. They don't care about making our tax dollars work better—they just want them to work for Trump. Well, Democrats BLOCKED their corrupt rule, and I'll be fighting to kill it permanently.

If you're having a tough day, I highly recommend giving your brain a break with the @explore.org livestream of Sea Lion Beach in British Columbia, where you will currently see piled-up sea lions in a snoozy cuddle puddle www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uoo...

Orcas are swimming and vocalizing right now on the livestream! 🫍 orcalab.org/live-streams/

Live Streams – OrcaLab

Watch our Live orca cameraS! Our network contains three year-round cameras and five seasonal cameras. All are operated remotely from back at our lab on Hanson Island and streamed online through our pa...

orcalab.org

FWIW, both of VDARE’s founders were on the masthead of the National Review in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Peter Brimelow was also a staffer for Senator Orrin Hatch. This white nationalist thread has been present in the conservative movement for a long time. Screenshot is from 1997.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4h ago

SCHIFF: You told my staff you stood by your article in white nationalist website VDARE where you wrote, 'Muslim immigrants & their kids seem prone to terrorism' C: I wrote that article in support of Trump's travel ban S: Do you stand by it? C: I stand by that article S: That's all I need to know

More than 40,000 Utahns are now in danger of losing healthcare thanks to Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Every member of Utah’s congressional delegation — Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, and representatives Burgess Owens, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kennedy and Blake Moore — voted to pass it.

Medicaid work requirement could leave 40,000 Utahns without healthcare

As the Trump administration presses forward with Medicaid work requirements, state officials estimate more than 40,000 Utahns could be subject to losing health coverage.

sltrib.com

Somehow my computer decided it was in Khartoum overnight

this is legitimately a huge problem that i don’t know how they will resolve, either from an executive or legislative standpoint, and it’s going to be the case across a lot more than just defense

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux@bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 5h ago

I fundamentally do not know how to square the politics whereby Democrats will essentially have to tell the American people that because they (the voters) made an extremely stupid decision, they need to lower their expectations substantially for the foreseeable future, but here we are.

Here is a starter pack of people and organizations working for trans rights in the UK, plus people who regularly post on the topic. The UK press is hopelessly anti-trans, so give these folks a boost: bsky.app/starter-pack...

Just a note that @jbendery.bsky.social is 100% worth following. Always finds stories like these that matter, and yet are a bit under the radar.

Jen Bendery@jbendery.bsky.social · 6h ago

Former J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...

If you are interested in Canadian nuclear opportunities, challenges, policy and regulation, I am offering a new @npsia-ptd.bsky.social class (with my Dad!) in November.

An analysis finds that New Mexico's measles outbreak cost $5.4 million last year. NM had 100 cases. AZ outbreak is more than 3x larger; Utah's is more than 7x larger. TX and SC are each 10x larger. Welcoming back measles is going to be very expensive. www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...

Economic Impact of the 2025 New Mexico Measles Outbreak: Highlighting the Cost of Efforts to Prevent Future Outbreaks | Annals of Internal Medicine

Background: In 2025, the United States experienced its highest measles case count since 1992. In New Mexico, 100 confirmed measles cases (99 outbreak-related cases), including 1 death, occurred across...

acpjournals.org

NEW: Republican officials were set to vote on a plan to cut almost half of Election Day voting locations in Tarrant County, a major Texas battleground county. But all that changed when outraged voters who packed the meeting room demanded their voting locations remain open.

GOP backs down from suppression scheme in Texas after voter outrage

The plan changed at the last moment, when Republican officials were faced with a massive backlash from outraged voters

democracydocket.com

⚠️ Haley Stevens concedes and offers Abdul El-Sayed her “full support”: haleyformi.com/news/haley-s...

Pre-release security review of frontier models is reasonable in principle, argues Michelle De Mooy. But a framework kept secret, with no published criteria or timelines, risks becoming a tool for executive discretion rather than governance. The Trump administration should provide answers, she says.

Five Questions the US Government Should Answer About Its Secretive Frontier AI Framework

Michelle De Mooy proposes a set of questions and standards against which whatever emerges from the Trump administration's should be judged.

techpolicy.press

Good morning from Oregon. Well, not so good. But good if you prefer seeing to, like, breathing. Why does the sun look SO weird? Just convert to monochrome and - pop! - it disappears. Same trick as Monet used in his famous sunrise painting that gave ‘Impressionism’ its name.

I think folks don't quite get what Ukraine is removing from the equation when it comes to their strikes on Wildberries. Wildberies is an online marketplace that focuses on fulfillment by the organization. They have warehouses first, sorting centers second.

Roma tomato harvesting crew in Los Banos CA. It takes longer to fill a roma bucket vs round tomatoes, so the crew spends more time bent over, working in the hot, trapped humidity of the plant rows. The heat wears them out as they carry full 50lb buckets to the trailer. #WeFeedYou

Via @apnews.com: Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate apnews.com/article/mich...

Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary in major victory for Democrats’ progressive wing

Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in a massive victory for the party’s progressive wing in a battleground state.

apnews.com

My ice-cold boring take that will definitely not go viral is that a primary result with a margin of victory of roughly 1 percent tells you precisely nothing about The Future Of The Party.

Whoa

also what we learned from the Cold war in Asia is that it's kinda hard to come up with a plan to use nukes that is both effective and doesn't start WWIII

This Day in Labor History: August 5, 1993. The Family and Medical Leave Act went into effect. This was an important, if not world-changing, piece of legislation that demonstrates the historical difficulties of groundbreaking expansions of the welfare state in the U.S.

“planning to”🙄

HuffPost@huffpost.com · 11h ago

The CDC is planning to create a formal response team this week to deal with the outbreak, The New York Times reported.

Note of gratitude to Gillian Brockell for staying on the beat and keeping visible systems behind heartwrenching videos. That purple line is a plane likely full of families being broken, people who'll be lost to others & themselves, even young ICE employees who'll bring their violence home to others.

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 19h ago

Third long-range private jet ICE flight in one day. This one is headed for Africa, possible third-country nationals onboard.

The thing about tactical nukes is that we deployed them across Asia during the Cold War but withdrew them starting in the 70s (Japan/Okinawa, Taiwan, Philippines) because they were security/logistical/political headaches and basically made obsolete by sea and CONUS based forces.

Jesse Johnson@jljzen.bsky.social · 8h ago

The Defense Department’s policy chief is drafting a new U.S. nuclear strategy that emphasizes the possible use of shorter-range tactical weapons in case of a regional war with China or Russia, according to five people familiar with the plans. www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

It’s really important to understand that the criminal legal system in the U.S. already produced the infrastructure to make ICE possible. If we ever rid ourselves of ICE the way to make it harder to revive it will be destroying and defunding the institutions it has borrowed so much from

The Marshall Project@themarshallproject.org · 8h ago

Adapting to public pushback, the Trump administration is pivoting to expand immigration detention bedspace nationwide.

Republicans are different from Democrats

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 9h ago

Mike Johnson tells Politico that he's standing behind Republican Max Miller — despite the "serious" domestic abuse allegations against him.

“In other words: generative AI is catnip to the men who miss female sycophants.” @katemanne.bsky.social is provocative and insightful, as ever, with this feminist approach to AI.

A Culture Hooked on Generative AI is a Culture that Misses Female Sycophants

And we have missed a central reason why AI is a feminist issue

katemanne.substack.com