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Venezuelans search rubble for survivors after 2 strong quakes kill at least 188 LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans searched for survivors beneath collapsed buildings Thursday and rescue teams raced to northern areas rocked by a pair of powerful earthquakes that officials say killed at least 188 people and left more than 200 trapped. https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-earthquake-caracas-rodriguez-aid-0a62e6fc9feb5202a750c4fbb11a6aec?

Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center has closed, governor says The Florida Everglades immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has served its purpose, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday, closing the makeshift facility heralded by the Trump administration and denounced as inhumane by civil rights groups. https://apnews.com/article/alligator-alcatraz-closure-florida-immigration-detention-3c371f51fe71ed64b7ae9d22d0fab5cb?

Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii law requiring permission to carry guns in stores and hotels WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court struck down a Hawaii law requiring people to get permission to carry guns into stores and hotels on Thursday, in its latest opinion backing Second Amendment rights. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-guns-hawaii-trump-c5dbdf945bc870f70a03455f5eb1dec7? Supreme Court clears way for Trump administration to revive restrictive policy for asylum seekers WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for the Trump administration to potentially revive an immigration policy once used to turn back migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-immigration-trump-d36d0092617c7115780c06de38e2000f? The Supreme Court lets the Trump administration end legal protections for Haitians and Syrians WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants fleeing violence and natural disaster in Haiti and Syria, exposing hundreds of thousands more people to potential deportation. https://apnews.com/article/immigration-supreme-court-haiti-syria-tps-1bbbf8115f984a0d53336656924e989d?

👋 Good morning! It's a great day to have a great day. Stat du jour: Cubs SS Dansby Swanson had 11 RBI in Wednesday's doubleheader sweep of the Mets, and has 15 (!!) so far in the series that ends tonight in Queens. In today's edition: USMNT group-stage finale, NBA Draft recap, Bafana Bafana's night to remember, Serena's audacious comeback, 28,221 Jello shots, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Draft recap: The 2026 NBA Draft is in the books, and the biggest story of the second round — aside from the fact that 29 of the 30 picks were involved in trades — was North Carolina big man Henri Veesaar, who rejected an NIL deal worth more than $5 million in hopes of being a first-round pick but ultimately slid all the way to the Hawks at No. 52. Whoops! ⚾️ No. 300: Mookie Betts hit his 300th career home run in the Dodgers' win on Wednesday, becoming the 17th active player to reach that milestone. And it came in a win for Shohei Ohtani, who's now 8-2 with a 1.58 ERA and sits just three HRs shy of 300 himself. 🏀 WNBA All-Star update: Indiana's Aliyah Boston (683,996 votes) and Caitlin Clark (670,510) lead all players in the second voting update for next month's WNBA All-Star Game in Chicago. A'ja Wilson (LV), Paige Bueckers (DAL) and Breanna Stewart (NY) round out the top five. 🏈 Arnold faces life in prison: Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold was arrested on Wednesday and faces four charges of armed robbery and four charges of kidnapping, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The 23-year-old former first-round pick continues to deny all involvement in the incident that first surfaced back in February. 🏀 Reaves signs the max: The Lakers are signing star guard Austin Reaves to a four-year, $185 million max contract, the richest for an undrafted player in NBA history. Reaves, 28, has averaged 21.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists across his last two seasons in L.A.   🇺🇸 STARS AND STRIPES WHY NOT U.S.? (John Dorton/USSF/Getty Images) As the USMNT prepares for tonight's group stage finale (10pm ET, Fox) having already clinched first place after a pair of expectation-altering performances, it's fair for fans to ask the same question that adorns the wall behind head coach Mauricio Pochettino's desk: Why not U.S.? Steven Goff, Yahoo Sports: Mauricio Pochettino is sitting in his makeshift office at the U.S. World Cup team's hotel, the French doors opened to a patio overlooking the sun stubbornly dipping over the Pacific. Four lemons sit in a bowl, a practice the 54-year-old Argentine believes absorbs negative energy. An unused surfboard leans in the corner, decorated in ocean-themed designs by the hotel's executive sous chef, who is also an artist. Down the bluff and in the blue water, surfers are catching the day's last waves before darkness descends. Even the seagulls seem happy. This isn't heaven, but it's just around the corner from it. Pochettino's 20-month coaching project is also in a state of bliss. His U.S. squad began the World Cup with two impressive victories and clinched first place in Group D with one match to spare. The Americans will play winless Türkiye on Thursday at SoFi Stadium before facing a third-place team in the round of 32 on July 1 in Santa Clara, California. While getting to the quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years would be celebrated, Pochettino has gotten his team to believe in more. Behind his desk, the team motto is plastered on the wall: Why Not U.S. Pochettino celebrates last week's win over Australia. (Al Sermeno/ISI Photos via Getty Images) In marker, Pochettino has written quotes and aspirational messages on the wall cover. "Every single quote represents our journey from Day 1 to today," he told a small gathering of reporters Tuesday evening. They include: 'The talent has brought us here, but it is heart, effort and unity that will make us unforgettable.' 'Heart turns effort into belief and when everything hurts, heart keeps us fighting together.' 'Now is our time!' with the date, time and score of the three-goal victory over Paraguay in the June 12 opener. 'Believe, work, compete' is strung together in a circle. "Without one," Pochettino says, shaking his head, "disaster." There are more. 'Thank you for being more than a team – for being a family.' On a whiteboard, in both English and Spanish, a message reads: 'Don't fear the void; it's where the soul learns to fly.' A cynic would dismiss them as corny and contrived, but to Pochettino, these quotes epitomize the mindset and attitude that his soaring squad has embraced leading to, and at, the World Cup. Defying the public's — if not the team's — expectations, the Americans have performed with a pirate's swashbuckling and an artist's grace. They are playing — gasp! — quality soccer. Thoughts of a deep run in the tournament are no longer fantasy. Few if anyone is calling them a trophy contender, but after decades mostly in the wilderness, the U.S. is finding its way.   ⚽️ SURVIVE AND ADVANCE IN PHOTOS: WORLD CUP, DAY 14 (Julian Finney/FIFA via Getty Images) Monterrey, Mexico — South Africa stunned South Korea with a 1-0 victory to finish second in Group A and secure their first-ever trip to the knockout round. What a moment for Bafana Bafana. The loss leaves South Korea fourth among third-place teams, which should be enough to advance. Clean sweep: In Group A's other game, Mexico beat Czechia 3-0 to finish with a perfect nine points (3-0-0) in the group stage for the first time ever. Plus: Mexico's legendary goalkeeper Memo Ochoa entered as a second-half substitute, appearing in his fourth World Cup and taking a final curtain call at the Azteca. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images) Miami, Florida — Brazil clinched Group C with a 3-1 win over Scotland, who still need some help to secure their first-ever passage to the knockouts, while Morocco claimed second with a win over Haiti. But even in defeat, it was the long-suffering Caribbean nation that won the night. Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports: Haiti fell to Morocco 4-2 on Wednesday night in Atlanta, eliminated in the group stage. But that's not the real story for Les Grenadiers, who exit the World Cup with a record of zero wins, zero draws and three losses. The real story is the miracle that Haiti — at No. 87, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament — even reached this World Cup at all, and still closed off its run with 45 of the finest minutes of soccer in the nation's history. Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ermin Mahmić celebrates the victory. (Alex Livesey/FIFA via Getty Images) Seattle, Washington — Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Qatar, 3-1, to clinch third place in Group B and set up what will almost certainly be a Round of 32 clash against the United States. Goal of the day: Bosnia's Kerim Alajbegović, just 18 years old, opened the scoring with an absolute missile from outside the box. Group winners: Switzerland took down Canada, 2-1, to claim Group B. Despite the loss, Canada finished second and will join fellow host countries Mexico and the U.S. in the knockouts.   💯 STAT SHEET BIG NUMBERS Acuff and Coach Cal during a game last fall. (Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) 🏀 30 lottery picks When the Kings selected Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. with the seventh pick of the NBA Draft on Tuesday, he became the 30th lottery pick to have played for John Calipari, breaking Mike Krzyzewski's record for the most lottery picks ever coached. $6 billion and counting: The 41 Calipari-coached players who've been picked in the first round since 2000 (Acuff was the 42nd) have gone on to make more than $3.6 billion in on-court earnings. In all, Cal has boasted, his players have earned more than $6 billion in professional contracts, writes Yahoo Sports' Shlomo Sprung. 🎾 15 minutes Some top tennis players will limit their post-match media appearances next week at Wimbledon to just 15 minutes in continued protest over prize money at Grand Slams. They did the same thing at the French Open, with 15 representing the roughly 15% of tournament revenues offered as prize money, which falls short of what they've asked for. Worth noting: Wimbledon did significantly increase its prize money to a record $86 million (20% more than last year) in response to the earlier protests, a gesture the players welcomed as a "genuine and significant step forward." But that still represents only 14.4% of revenues; players requested 16% from Grand Slams and get 22% from ATP and WTA 1000-level events. Scheffler speaks with the press on Wednesday ahead of the Travelers Championship. (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images) ⛳️ 22 golfers That's how many players have made the cut at all three majors so far this year, a group led by — who else — Scottie Scheffler. His aggregate score of -13 across the Masters (-11, 2nd place), PGA Championship (-2, T14) and U.S. Open (E, T4) is the best of the bunch. The rest: Sam Burns (-12), Justin Rose (-11), Rory McIlroy (-10), Xander Schauffele (-10), Ludvig Åberg (-5), Collin Morikawa (-3), Cameron Young (-2), Matt Fitzpatrick (-2), Aaron Rai (-2), Justin Thomas (E), Maverick McNealy (+1), Ben Griffin (+1), Chris Gotterup (+3), Jordan Spieth (+4), Sam Stevens (+5), Dustin Johnson (+8), Hideki Matsuyama (+9), Brian Harman (+10), Kurt Kitayama (+13), Corey Conners (+14), Michael Brennan (+17). 🍻 28,221 Jello shots Oklahoma may have won the College World Series, but they finished a distant second to mighty West Virginia in the all-important Rocco's Jello Shot Challenge. Mountaineers fans purchased 28,221 Jello shots in the annual contest hosted by Rocco's Pizza and Cantina, situated right across the street from the site of the CWS in Omaha. Charitable endeavor: Rocco's has hosted the challenge since 2019, when the winning tally was a mere 864 Jello shots (well done, Arkansas). And each year, $1.50 of every $5 shot is donated to a local food bank (one in Omaha and one associated with each of the eight schools in the CWS). That means this year they collectively raised $122,273 for charity. Drink up!   🎾 THE GOAT SERENA'S AUDACIOUS, INEVITABLE COMEBACK Serena trains at the All England Club's practice courts on Wednesday. (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images) Nearly four years and another pregnancy after playing what was supposed to be her final match, Serena Williams is taking the court again as a singles player next week at Wimbledon at age 44. It's audacious, it's absurd… it's totally Serena. And perhaps it was inevitable. Dan Wolken, Yahoo Sports: Tennis players are notoriously terrible at retirement. They burn out, get old, become less competitive with age, but the grind is such a part of them that many find it hard to live without it. And there's always that little kernel of what-if doubt colliding with championship ego: How good is this new generation really? Most of the high-profile comebacks have been short-lived and not particularly successful. The game moves on, the competition gets better and the impact of age becomes apparent. Logically, "But it's Serena" shouldn't apply. But it's Serena, and it's Wimbledon. If she can do it at all, she'll do it there — on a surface that doesn't require the physicality of a hard court and where the greatest serve in the history of the women's game can still win her points without having to do anything else. Catch the right draw and an opponent freaked out by playing Serena Williams on Center Court and who knows. For someone who has done what she's done, with even a little competitive drive left in the tank, that's enough to convince her of what's possible. But there's risk, too. Not legacy-altering risk because nobody will remember or care if all this amounts to is losing a few matches and reversing course. The risk is that it goes badly, she looks old and overwhelmed and leaves with a worse taste in her mouth than she's had since retiring the first time. After all, she's 44, hasn't played an official singles match in four years. Her preparation has consisted of a couple doubles matches that showed she still has her racket skills (no surprise there) but didn't tell us anything about her movement or competitive stamina. At the pro level doubles is a vastly different game from playing singles against women in their physical prime. And Wimbledon is a heck of a place to jump back into the pool.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: THURSDAY, JUNE 25 (Yahoo Sports) ⚽️ World Cup, Day 15 The Americans wrap up their group stage tonight in Los Angeles against Turkey (10pm ET, Fox). Plus: Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast in Philadelphia (4pm, FS1), Ecuador vs. Germany in East Rutherford (4pm, Fox), Japan vs. Sweden in Dallas (7pm, Fox), Tunisia vs. Netherlands in Kansas City (7pm, FS1) and Paraguay vs. Australia in Santa Clara (10pm, FS1). Where it stands: In Group D, the U.S. already clinched first place and Australia will clinch second with a win or draw against Paraguay; in Group E, Germany already clinched first and Ivory Coast will clinch second with a win (and likely a draw) against Curaçao; Group F is wide open as Netherlands, Japan and Sweden could all still finish on top. ⛳️ Women's PGA Championship The third LPGA major of the season tees off today (8am, Peacock; 11am, Golf) at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, where 156 golfers will compete for a $13 million purse, the largest in women's golf history. The Year of Nelly: World No. 1 Nelly Korda has hit yet another gear this season with four wins (including both majors) and three runner-up finishes. If she wins again this week, she'll not only join Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1950) and Inbee Park (2013) as the only women to win the first three majors of a season, but she'll also officially earn her spot in the Hall of Fame. More to watch: ⚾️ MLB: Yankees at Red Sox (7:10pm, MLB) … AL Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler (8-3, 1.71 ERA) takes on the team he grew up rooting for. In his three previous starts against the Sox, he's allowed just two runs with 22 strikeouts and two walks. Decent. 🏀 WNBA: Sparks at Tempo (7pm, Prime); Wings at Aces (10pm, NBA) … Dallas (11-6) has already won more games than it did all of last season (10-34). ⛳️ PGA: Travelers Championship (7:45am, ESPN+; 3pm, Golf) … Scottie Scheffler headlines the field in the $20 million event at Connecticut's TPC River Highlands. Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   ⚽️ HOST NATIONS WORLD CUP TRIVIA (Yahoo Sports) All three hosts have advanced to the Round of 32, with Mexico and the U.S. finishing first in their groups and Canada finishing second. Question: Can you name the only two World Cup hosts this century who failed to reach the knockouts? Hint: 2010, 2022 Answer at the bottom.   💵 CASH GRAB TURNING MOMENTS INTO MONEY (Topps) Topps transformed the lasting image of OG Anunoby's Game 4 tip-in into a Topps NOW trading card and sold 105,842 copies. Quick math: While individual cards sold for $11.99, collectors can buy in bulk at lower prices. If you assumed a $10.00 average price, that would mean Fanatics-owned Topps printed (literally) nearly $1.1 million in revenue on one card in mere days. Just wait… The card's sales volume was impressive, but the basketball that Anunoby tipped into the basket will make it look modest by comparison when it sells at Sotheby's next month. Darren Rovell has set his estimate at $3 million. This story appeared in Wednesday's inaugural edition of Dylan Dittrich's Yahoo Sports Biz newsletter. Subscribe here to start receiving it every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.   Trivia answer: South Africa and Qatar

Contraband The Justice Department has announced charges in a "sophisticated" criminal operation that it says used high-powered drones to deliver weapons, drugs, cell phones and escape tools into prisons in East Coast states. Authorities say the rogue drone operation led out of a former daycare in Georgia was a staging ground where multiple drones were launched on covert missions to deliver the contraband by air to 10 federal prisons at night. Read more.

Border wall President Trump wants to finish the border wall by the end of his term and is stepping up efforts on multiple fronts to meet that goal. It’s an enormous task that will require the administration to build around 775 miles of new wall by the end of 2027, and several hundred more miles of secondary and waterborne barrier by the end of 2028. One hurdle, though, is land acquisition, as extending the wall requires seizing privately owned land, primarily in Texas. Read more. War powers A day after voting to limit President Donald Trump's Iran war powers, the Senate walked back its rebuke. The late-night vote on Wednesday came after Trump expressed frustration with Senate Republicans, arguing that Congress had undermined his position at the negotiating table with Iran. Read more.

America's 250th Preparations are underway for America's 250th birthday on July 4, prompting a fresh look at the nation's past — and its future. A new Gallup poll released this week found that 77% of Americans think the country's founders would be disappointed by the way the US has turned out. CNN also spoke with descendants of Jefferson, Franklin and other Founding Fathers, who have plenty to say about the state of the nation. Here's how they see the US today.

Trump Is Drowning Us All in His Green Slime Crisis The president’s signature touch has turned a historic landmark into a national laughingstock. Kermit the Frog said it best: It’s not easy being green. And now the Reflecting Pool, sickly green with algae, is D.C.’s top tourist attraction, a metaphor for what Trump has done to curdle his presidency. Another top stop for gawkers is the tarps hanging at the Kennedy Center, a cover-up in plain sight ostensibly in place to obscure possible damage done to the marble when Trump’s name was yanked off—and, deep down, to protect Trump’s fragile ego from public scrutiny.Trump’s handling of the mess made at both landmarks is typical for him: deflect blame and hide the truth. In the case of the Reflecting Pool, he’s alleged that the debacle is largely thanks to anti-government vandals, suggesting without evidence that someone(s) with a knife or a boxcutter slit the recently-installed blue rubber sheath from the bottom of one end of the historic water feature to the other, 350 feet in all, upending a nearly $15 million upgrade that Trump boasted would last fifty, maybe a hundred years.Questioned how anyone could pull off such a crime amid the continued presence of National Guard troops, not to mention all those tourists and their cameras, Trump said simply that, “I saw it.” (A New York Times account has challenged Trump’s assertion that the damage was manmade, but rather nature asserting itself.) The president told reporters that they would see this evidence in court, where his handpicked U.S. Attorney, Judge Pirro, was threatening ten-year-long sentences to anyone who dared to even touch the pool’s water. (Spoiler alert: we will never see those pictures of the so-called slit. They do not exist any more than the “evidence” Trump said he had gathered about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, or the “evidence” that shows he won the 2020 election “by a lot.”) Late Tuesday afternoon, workers could be seen hauling in fencing to put up around the area, with the Pool reportedly even listed on Google Maps as “temporarily closed.” More National Guard and U.S. Marshals are expected to patrol the site in the coming days as though the area is under serious threat. It sure looks like Trump is spoiling for a confrontation of some kind where he can flex those authoritarian muscles. Meanwhile, a taunting slogan has emerged on social media: “More people were arrested at the Reflecting Pool than in the Epstein files.” Compared to the myriad other problems facing the country, pool liners and algae blooms are no big deal. But there’s a pattern here, Michael Sozan, a senior fellow for democracy policy at the Center for American Progress, told the Daily Beast. “This is how authoritarians try to alter reality. They put the focus on a trivial but symbolic problem,” Sozan explained. “They make it worse through their own incompetence or corruption. They waste taxpayer resources while enriching themselves or their allies. They try to shift the resulting blame to an imaginary enemy.” Taking a step back for the big picture, Sozan added: “He’s arresting people who touched the Reflecting Pool but pardoning people who almost beat Capitol Police officers to death.” Trump is a master of deflection, and while he should be getting hammered for making a bad deal with Iran, we’re more focused on watching a dead duckling get scooped up from the algae and rolling our eyes at park employees dumping peroxide into the water in a desperate attempt to purge the algae. The Reflecting Pool rose to the top of Trump’s concerns in late April after a visitor to the Oval Office reportedly told him the pool was “filthy, dirty,” the water “disgusting-looking” and “not representative” of America’s majesty. Can’t have that! Trump soon made a trip to the area, Secret Service in tow, to see for himself, and with the assistance of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, set in motion the no-bid contracts for the botched renovations that have now become the center of the storm. Under the guise of an emergency, and citing the country’s 250th birthday festivities, Trump hired a company owned by J.J. Cafaro, a Florida friend, GOP donor and two-time felon, to install a water purification system in the Reflecting Pool that was supposed to get rid of the algae. The company, Greenwater Services, had a no-bid contract for $1.8 million, and—cue the laugh track—it certainly lived up to its name. Another $14.7 million no-bid contract was awarded to a Virginia firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, to spread the blue waterproofing material on the pool’s concrete floor, which, in a matter of days, was coming apart and floating to the surface. That was when David Hearn, 67, a former Olympian, stopped in the middle of a 52-mile bicycle ride to check out the Tidal Basin. He was arrested for touching a piece of the blue rubbery material and held for several hours, he claims, without being allowed to make a phone call or being read his Miranda rights. Hearn is now being represented by former White House counsel Norm Eisen, who says, “It is not a crime to touch water.” Eisen touts the recent victory in federal court to free the Kennedy Center from Trump’s grip, together with a judicial ruling that quashed Trump’s so-called slush fund to reward Jan 6 conspirators, as reason to believe our court system can withstand Trump’s authoritarian moves. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, no doubt embarrassed by the publicity, has agreed to drain the pool and fix the problem under warranty. The work won’t be completed by the July Fourth festivities. But maybe it’s a fitting coda for a celebration that fits the world we’re in. Bring on the fireworks and the patriotic music, but leave room for some healthy cynicism (if not a toast) for what some are calling, wait for it, “The Strait of Warm Ooze.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-drowning-us-all-in-his-green-slime-crisis/?

Trump Nominee Busted Deleting Hundreds of Vile Posts The president’s pick to lead a key Justice Department office has a wild social media history. Donald Trump’s pick to lead a key Justice Department law enforcement office was found to have scrubbed hundreds of social media posts that savaged the very senators weighing his confirmation. Konstantinos Ligris, 49, a tech entrepreneur and former real estate attorney, was nominated to lead the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, which awards grants and assistance to state, local, and tribal police forces. The trouble is his old X account, which a Courthouse News review found packed with insults aimed at lawmakers, judges, and the police he now hopes to work alongside. Facing the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning, Ligris claimed he could not recall the posts and said he “routinely” wipes his account every 90 days “for cybersecurity exposure reasons,” as the outlet reported. Courthouse News reviewed more than 300 archived posts in which Ligris went after Democrats and Republicans alike. He branded Sen. Alex Padilla of California a “thug” after Padilla was tackled and cuffed at a press conference held by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota got tagged a “top-rated propaganda peddler” and “partisan hack,” according to the outlet. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, was a “loser and a fraud” and a “socialist hypocrite.” Both Padilla and Klobuchar sit on the committee that will decide his fate. Republicans were not spared. Ligris called Sen. Susan Collins of Maine a “fraud” after she voted against Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. He said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski “sounds almost as dumb as Kamala,” referring to former Vice President Kamala Harris. He also pushed to impeach federal judges who ruled against Trump. In a March 2025 post flagged by Courthouse News, he demanded Congress remove D.C. District Judge James Boasberg, writing: “Impeach all these political hacks.” But the post that stung Democrats most came in 2024, when Ligris replied to a dashcam clip by branding police officers “dumb as dirt.” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, was floored. “At least address the ‘dumb as dirt’ comment,” he said as he pressed Ligris during the hearing. “You want to work with police departments across the United States, and it’s a matter of record that you think they’re dumb as dirt?” Ligris insisted he did not have the post’s “specific reference” and said it may have been a repost. He noted several family members serve as police officers. “I do not believe that law enforcement is dumb as dirt,” he said. Under questioning from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ligris conceded that he had never disclosed the posts to the DOJ and that the department had never raised them with him. Ligris is a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur who founded the law firm Ligris before launching Stavvy, a digital platform for property transactions, as Law.com reported. He now sits as a director at title insurer CATIC, where—in a detail that may raise eyebrows—he chairs the cybersecurity committee. The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department and the White House for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-doj-nominee-humiliated-as-his-deleted-posts-are-exposed/? ps:So pathetic!

Homophobic chant returns in Mexico’s World Cup match against the Czech Republic MEXICO CITY (AP) — Fans at Mexico’s final World Cup group stage match on Wednesday chanted a slur that has previously led to fines and other sanctions against the country’s soccer federation. https://apnews.com/article/mexico-world-cup-chant-3a37becc5d7f4ed5832dcf982a303401

Americans are inundated with suspected scams. New polling shows why few victims report them WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a daily basis — and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC survey. https://apnews.com/article/poll-scams-law-enforcement-social-media-389f8d824b89fa434c297729f2aaf56d?

Trump turns America 250 kickoff into a campaign-style rally The president hosted a rally Wednesday night on Washington’s National Mall, including a series of booming flyovers by stealth bombers, music from military bands and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.” Read more. Why this matters: The rally comes as midterms loom. The president has struggled to deliver the presidency that he advertised to voters — causing his approval rating to dwell at a low 37%, according to the most recent AP-NORC polling. Trump said he’d restored the country to greatness, proclaiming, “Nobody's laughing at us anymore.” Trump’s appearance was only announced after several musicians — including Young MC, Martina McBride and the Commodores — canceled their concerts because of concerns the event had become politicized. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Trump praises US military operation in Iran and capture of ex-Venezuelan president Maduro Trump launches 250th rally, in photos Lawmakers demand answers as turmoil over Reflecting Pool repair continues

What Trump’s refusal to sign the housing bill means to homebuyers and renters Trump’s showdown with Republican Sen. Cassidy: Inside the blow-up on Capitol Hill Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote Trump is frustrated gasoline prices don’t mirror oil’s decline. Experts say it’s not that simple White House seeks $87.6B from Congress for Iran war costs, US farmers and Ebola response FACT FOCUS: Netanyahu’s claims about Iran’s nuclear program run counter to public evidence New York sweep by Israel critics shines light on a fraught issue for Democrats Ex-chief of staff to former NYC Mayor Eric Adams charged with taking bribes Pentagon restores mandatory flu shots for all recruits as boot camp outbreak sickens nearly 300 Trump-endorsed de la Espriella declared winner of Colombia’s presidential runoff election Court filing reveals President Trump spoke to Live Nation CEO before antitrust case was settled Michigan Senate candidate accuses Trump of keeping Canada-US bridge closed to help donor IRS did better than expected in tax season after slashing staff, except on the phone, watchdog says

Senate Republicans reject war powers resolution after Trump berates them Senate Republicans held the late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease the president, after he harangued them face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday. Read more. What to know: In the meeting, President Donald Trump exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure. Cassidy later changed his position after he received a White House briefing on the war. Trump also called off a scheduled signing ceremony on a bipartisan housing bill that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement. Trump said he wouldn’t sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters. North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

June 25, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Two huge earthquakes shook Venezuela last night, crumpling buildings, killing at least 32 people and injuring 700 others. The full extent of the damage was not clear, but one of the quakes was the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. Frantic rescue efforts are underway now. There’s more below. Before we get to it, though, I’d like to turn to my Morning colleague Evan Gorelick to tell you about the remodeling of Washington, D.C. President Trump during a tour of the White House ballroom construction project in May. Doug Mills/The New York Times Makeover money By Evan Gorelick Many of you have written in to ask about President Trump’s construction projects in Washington. Linda from Virginia wanted to know how the administration has been paying for them. Sheila from Connecticut wondered whether taxpayers were footing the bill. Details about these grand public undertakings have dribbled out rather un-grandly. The government’s finance wizards have revised and re-revised, and in some cases re-re-revised, their cost estimates. It’s all about as clear as the algae-clouded water in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The New York Times With no public accounting of the entire construction spree, a team of Times reporters — Luke Broadwater, Marco Hernandez, Junho Lee and Elena Shao — set out to produce one. They found that the Trump administration had mobilized at least $1.2 billion on no fewer than 18 major projects across the nation’s capital. Here’s everything we know, and everything we don’t, about their budgetary provenance. At the White House Jared Soares for The New York Times East Wing ballroom: $400 million from private donors, or maybe taxpayers. Since Trump razed the East Wing in October to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, the costs have piled up. Initially, the government said the project would run $200 million; now, its price tag has doubled. Trump first said that money would come from donors, and the White House even released a list of them. But officials refused to disclose how much each donor had actually contributed, and Republicans on Capitol Hill have offered up taxpayer money instead. Bunker and security center: $400 million from taxpayers. The president asked Senate Republicans to approve payment for security enhancements, including a “massive” military bunker beneath his planned ballroom. That money was later cut out of a spending bill, but the Trump administration has since transferred more than $350 million from the Secret Service budget to pay for some of the upgrades. The finances get even hazier for other ventures on Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump has renovated the Lincoln Bedroom, the Palm Room, the Oval Office and more, but he has not disclosed those costs. Around Washington Jared Soares for The New York Times Kennedy Center: $250 million from taxpayers. Trump secured funding from Congress to renovate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, then slapped his own name on its facade before a judge ordered that it be removed. The president proposed shutting down the center for two years to complete his renovations, but the judge blocked that plan, too. Garden of American Heroes: At least $40 million from taxpayers and unclear sources. Trump wants to build reflecting pools, plazas, dining facilities and an amphitheater — alongside 250 life-size statues of notable Americans — at West Potomac Park. Congress has approved $40 million for the project, but the statues alone could cost that much, according to the administration’s estimates. It’s not clear where funding for the rest of the project would come from. Trump is also spending millions to remodel the Reflecting Pool (travails of which The Times has documented), the Lincoln Memorial and fountains around the city. Face value The aggregate cost of these projects is relatively small compared with, say, the country’s $31 trillion in debt or the $5 trillion we’ve already spent this fiscal year-to-date. Yet it commands an outsize share of our attention. This money is being used to remake some of the most photographed real estate in the country — owned, in a sense, by the American public. So seeing it change is a little like waking up to a surprise nose job; it’ll give you a jolt, for good or ill. The urge to remake the capital in one’s own image is ancient. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, is said to have boasted that he “found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” To fund his works, he often drew from his own fortune and from the private pocketbooks of the city’s elites, so as not to drain the public treasury. Trump’s coffers are murkier. The White House declined to answer many of our reporters’ questions about funding for his projects, but suggested that taxpayer money would likely be used for most of them. Read more about the economics of his Washington makeover. (We’ve made this link free for Morning readers. There are other free links in today’s newsletter, too.) VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES In Caracas, Venezuela. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times Two major earthquakes struck Venezuela last night, killing at least 32 people and injuring at least 700. But those numbers do not include the hardest-hit region, La Guaira, where dozens of buildings have collapsed. And at least two smaller earthquakes have been recorded since the large ones. Residents described scenes of terror and confusion as buildings shook and the power went out. “I’ve never felt something so strong,” said one woman from San Felipe, near the earthquake’s epicenter. She told The Times it lasted for more than a minute and that the back part of her house fell in. President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency. You can follow updates here. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Trump abruptly canceled plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill and instead demanded that Republicans pass his voting-restrictions bill. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced Gen. Christopher Donahue, the top U.S. Army commander in Europe, to retire. The general had been seen as one of the Army’s rising stars. Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has begun cutting staff days into his new role. But this initial round may be smaller than some expected. A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop seeking medical records of transgender young people who received medical care at New York City hospitals. Around the World The New York Times The civil war in Myanmar has raged for five years. Hannah Beech traveled to the center of the armed resistance movement and met rebel fighters who were outgunned and undermanned. Watch her video above. As many as 212 people may have died in Spain during the current heat wave. Proximity to the rapidly melting Arctic is one reason Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world. North Korea deployed its first naval destroyer, the country’s largest warship ever. Other Big Stories Gregory Shamus/Getty Images After weeks of speculation over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding plans, clues suggest that it might be at Madison Square Garden over the July 4 weekend. Camp Mystic, where 28 people died in catastrophic floods last year in Texas, filed for bankruptcy. OPINIONS Thomas Prior for The New York Times For 250 years, America has been a restless improvisation — a nation reshaped by immigration, war and economic and cultural upheavals. Times Opinion writers each picked a piece of this complicated history that represents the best of what this country can be, including: Nicholas Kristof on our public lands. Tressie McMillan Cottom on our libraries. Ross Douthat on our sports. M. Gessen on our righteous anger. John McWhorter on our musical theater. Read all of those, and more, here. Subscribers always win. Here’s why. You can now save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Discover all of our word and logic games (and play past puzzles), earn badges for your achievements, plus more. Time is running out though, so subscribe today. MORNING READS Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times Rebuilding: Ukrainians who have lost limbs as a result of the war with Russia are finding meaning and community by challenging their bodies. Insider out: Dianna Russini was a star reporter for The Athletic who had worked her way into the hypermasculine world of N.F.L. sources and scoop artists. Then she became the story. (This link is free). Prime Day, continued: Amazon’s sales are still on. Wirecutter has guides to deals on travel gear, kitchen equipment, summer fashion and more. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the cheeseburgers at the Obama Presidential Center. TODAY’S NUMBER 20 million — That’s approximately how many honeybees were released on a rural Texas road when a truck flipped over. About a dozen local beekeepers came together to save about 400 colonies of the bees. WORLD CUP Mexico came out of the group stage with a perfect record after a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic. South Africa made it to the knockout stage for the first time with a surprise 1-0 win over South Korea. The U.S. coach, Mauricio Pochettino, says he is playing it (mostly) safe for tonight’s game against Turkey. Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams and Folarin Balogun, all on yellow cards, will not play. You can follow your team’s path to the finals here. RECIPE OF THE DAY Linda Xiao for The New York Times Pantry cooking at its most colorful: harissa chickpeas with turmeric rice. Just toast your rice with butter, turmeric and garlic, and then simmer it in broth until it’s done. While it burbles, roast your chickpeas in olive oil spiked with a harissa spice blend — homemade or store-bought. Get some spinach in there at the end to wilt, and brighten everything up with a squeeze of lemon. VISIONS OF AMERICA Illustration by Tim McDonagh For America’s 250th birthday, The New York Times Magazine asked seven leading historians to profile a founding-era American whose story has rarely been told. Kathleen DuVal, a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, highlighted the life of Mercy Otis Warren, a patriot housewife in Massachusetts who in 1772 wrote an anti-tyrannical play that was published anonymously in a local newspaper. It was a hit, captivating readers “by elevating their personal grievances with British rule by using classical tropes and symbolic language,” and it inspired other plays and writings as the new nation began to build itself. Alexander Hamilton would later write to Warren, “In the career of dramatic composition at least, female genius in the United States has outstripped the Male.” Read more about Warren, and six other founding Americans, here. It’s a free link. More on culture The fifth and final season of “The Bear” arrives in full on Hulu tonight. Here’s what to know before service. Monica Datta’s “Nebraska” is a continent-spanning novel about a mother who kills her youngest child, as told by a highly idiosyncratic psychoanalyst. Our reviewer calls it “electrifying” — and scary. Late night hosts had thoughts about the Great American State Fair. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Pablo Delcan Listen to “The Last 12 Weeks,” a five-part podcast series from Serial Productions, The Marshall Project and The Times. It follows a capital defense team in Texas racing to stop the execution of David Wood, known as the “Desert Killer.” Use your smartwatch to track the health metrics that matter to your doctor. (This link is free). Reduce shoulder pain. We’ve got seven exercises to improve your strength and mobility. Protect your skin. Here are the four best sunscreens tested by the UV-phobic beach rats at Wirecutter. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was encampment. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

📷 1 pic to go Photo via Secretary Doug Burgum/X Ten days from America's 250th birthday, President Trump visited the National Mall last night to open the Great American State Fair, which'll run through July 10 and is anchored by a 110-foot Ferris wheel. Keep reading. 📣 Trump announced the Patriot Games, an August competition for high school students (ages 14-17), featuring "high-intensity challenges designed to test strength, speed, agility, teamwork, resilience and leadership." A male and a female champion will each receive a $125,000 scholarship. How to apply.

🤖 AI agent use accelerates Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Frontier AI labs have spent years promising that effective AI agents will act as our minions in the workplace and at home. That might soon be a reality, Axios' Megan Morrone writes. Use of Codex — OpenAI's agentic coding and work platform — is accelerating, according to a new report from OpenAI, Columbia, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania. Among active users of ChatGPT and Codex at organizations outside OpenAI, just above 0% used Codex in August 2025. That share is now around 17%. Non-developers are the fastest-growing user group, even though writing software is still the core use case for Codex. More data.

🧐 Why Americans hate the "good" economy Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios The big-picture indicators of the U.S. economy — GDP, unemployment and so on — are doing fine while public opinion on economic conditions is at rock bottom, Axios Macro's Neil Irwin writes. The gap isn't just the result of elevated prices across the board: It's higher and more volatile prices for the specific items that dominate Americans' day-to-day living expenses. That's the early conclusion of top Democratic economic policy minds who have embarked on an effort to quantify — and develop policy responses to — the economic forces squeezing American households. The "Kitchen Table Project," led by Biden White House economic adviser Lael Brainard and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Rohit Chopra, could inform the policy agenda if Democrats win control of Congress in November or the White House in 2028. 🔬 Zoom in: Brainard tells Axios that "people are extremely worried about unexpected expenses. … It's the things that are volatile and feel out of control that stress them the most." More than half of respondents to their survey cited beef costs as the biggest driver of grocery price stress. Keep reading.

🏛️ Trump visit goes off rails President Trump abruptly scrapped the signing of a blockbuster bipartisan housing bill yesterday before walking into a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans and getting into a shouting match over Iran, Axios' Stef W. Kight writes. Why it matters: Trump's demand that the Senate gut its own rules to pass a pre-midterm voter ID crackdown has opened one of the deepest GOP ruptures of his second term. Just before the Senate GOP lunch, Trump canceled an event to sign and tout the bipartisan housing package — a bill the White House praised just yesterday as "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history." He said he won't sign until senators pass the SAVE America Act, which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote — holding hostage a bill that passed with astonishing bipartisan margins. 👀 Inside the room: The lunch erupted into a clash between Trump and outgoing Sen. Bill Cassidy — one of four Republicans who voted Tuesday for a war powers resolution to rein in Trump's military campaign in Iran. Trump kicked things off by calling out all four senators who backed the resolution. Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump after Jan. 6, told Trump, "You have not told the American people what's going on" with the Iran war. "It was supposed to last four weeks. It's lasted four months," the senator told reporters afterward. Via X From there, the meeting went off the rails. The president twisted the knife, bringing up Cassidy's recent primary loss to a Trump-backed challenger, which effectively ended Cassidy's political career. "If someone tries to bully me … I ain't going to put up with it," Cassidy told reporters. Hours later, Cassidy struck a warmer tone, thanking Vice President Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff for an Iran briefing after receiving a "quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns." 🗳️ Late last night, Senate Republicans tried to appease Trump: They reversed themselves on Tuesday's vote rebuking him on the Iran war, giving him a symbolic win. Get the latest. Go deeper: Inside the Trump-Senate meltdown ...

America's great political implosion Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images American politics, reordered and reimagined by a decade of President Trump's rise, fall and resurrection, is imploding in substantial ways, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. MAGA is splintering between Trump enthusiasts and true "America First" believers. Socialism is rising in popularity and clout. Democratic leaders are flailing. Israel is bleeding support in both parties. Pro-Palestinian politicians are winning elections. AI is dividing both sides of the aisle, with pro-worker coalitions forming among Republicans and Democrats. And Trump's unpopularity seems set and locked around 60%. Why it matters: Everything is up for grabs — and wildly uncertain. House and Senate control are coin tosses in November's midterms, the 2028 presidential races are wide open, and both parties are equally despised by the electorate. 🔎 Zoom in: The populist forces Trump awakened are devouring the establishment, inflamed by a cross-partisan blend of endless war, soaring prices and elite impunity, as Axios' Zachary Basu narrates. On the right, a historic schism over the meaning of "America First" has left Trump's broad 2024 coalition in tatters. Tucker Carlson and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — voices once synonymous with MAGA — both renounced the GOP this week, casting Trump's war with Iran as a betrayal of his own movement. The rupture is spreading through the outsider media universe that helped return Trump to power, with populist podcasters such as Theo Von, Tim Dillon and Candace Owens turning fiercely critical of the administration. On the left, establishment Democrats fear a socialist "Tea Party" has arrived — toppling incumbents, humiliating party leaders and turning safe blue seats into laboratories for a more confrontational politics. Three democratic socialists backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, suddenly a progressive kingmaker, appear headed for Congress after a shakeup in Tuesday's primaries. A Gallup poll last year found Democrats favor socialism over capitalism by 66% to 42% — the widest gap on record — with the divide sharpest among voters under 30, the engine of Mamdani's coalition. 🔭 Zoom out: A generational collapse in support for Israel is remaking both parties — while surging antisemitism clouds the increasingly toxic debate. The numbers are brutal: Pew Research found 60% of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, including 80% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans under 50. For Democrats, Israel's actions in Gaza bundle together everything young left-wing voters hate about the old party: war, money in politics, gerontocracy and deference to a foreign policy consensus they see as morally bankrupt. For Republicans, the fight over Israel is a fight over the future — pitting an aging, pro-Israel establishment against a base that views foreign intervention as the original sin "America First" was meant to cure. Between the lines: AI is emerging as the next great populist accelerant, fusing fears over lost jobs, soaring power bills and the unchecked power of billionaires. The backlash is scrambling party lines: Progressive labor activists, MAGA antitrust hawks and young voters increasingly see AI as a machine for enriching tech titans while making ordinary work more disposable. Harvard's youth poll found 59% of Americans 18 to 29 see AI as a threat to their job prospects, including 66% of young Democrats and 59% of young Republicans. 👀 What to watch: Trump is deeply unpopular. But the tectonic shifts transforming the two parties — and the country — make 2026 and 2028 impossible to forecast. Control of the House is a toss-up: GOP redistricting established a narrow moat around Republicans' majority, but Democrats lead the generic ballot by 6 percentage points. The Senate map is as favorable as it gets for Republicans, but top election prognosticator Larry Sabato this month moved three races toward Democrats. A 50-50 split is a distinct possibility. The 2028 field, meanwhile, is wide open. The New York Times presidential primary tracker has four potential candidates — Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — clustered within 8 points of each other. Vice President Vance leads Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the GOP side. But Vance serves at the pleasure of a president who likes to keep people guessing.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY June 25 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn Native American forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1950s 1950 Korean War begins 1990s 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. airmen Arts & Entertainment 1988 Teenager Debbie Gibson earns a #1 hit with “Foolish Beat” 2009 “King of Pop” Michael Jackson dies at age 50 Black History 1941 FDR signs order banning discrimination in the defense industry Civil War 1864 Union begins tunneling toward Rebels at Petersburg Crime 1910 Congress passes Mann Act, aimed at curbing sex trafficking Inventions & Science 1956 Last Packard—the classic American luxury car—produced LGBTQ+ History 1978 First rainbow Pride flag premieres at San Francisco parade U.S. Presidents 1953 Jacqueline Bouvier and Senator John F. Kennedy announce engagement Vietnam War 1965 Viet Cong blow up a floating restaurant Women’s History 1993 Kim Campbell becomes Canada’s first female prime minister World War I 1915 Germans release statement on use of poison gas at Ypres World War II 1942 Eisenhower takes command

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Dems fear their own Freedom Caucus Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios House Democrats are preparing for a caucus in 2027 that is expected to be significantly more outspoken and left-wing than the one they have now. Why it matters: It wasn't all that easy to integrate the four-member "Squad" into the Democratic fold. Now, party leadership anticipates it will have to contend with a much larger cohort of rabble-rousers. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) predicted "it will be difficult" to rein in these newly elected democratic socialists: "I think people that follow that [ideology] will cause problems." "If they're actually serious legislators, then they're going to have to be able to work with people," a House Democrat told us. "If not, then they'll just be the Freedom Caucus of the left." Driving the news: The number of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members in Congress is set to more than double following yesterday's New York primaries. State Assembly member Claire Valdez won the seat of retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.). They join Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a DSA member who won the primary to succeed Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) last month, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Zoom out: Factoring in left-wing candidates broadly aligned with the DSA, the numbers get even more daunting for the party establishment. The primary wins of now-Rep. Analilia Mejia and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, the Rev. Frederick Haynes III in Texas, Randy Villegas in California and Matthew Dunlap in Maine were all major victories for the left. Several other progressives are seen as well-positioned to potentially unseat incumbent House Democrats: Mai Vang and Angela Gonzales-Torres in California, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Elijah Manley in Florida, former Rep. Cori Bush in Missouri, and Donavan McKinney in Michigan. What we're hearing: These candidates are already communicating and coordinating with each other in various text chains, with several telling us they plan to continue to work together as a bloc in Congress. "We have to deliver something, and whether it's being a part of the Congressional Progressive [Caucus] or maybe doing our own thing, I don't know," McKinney said. "We have to just push and people have to see us fighting." Said Vang: "As a new cohort of progressive elected, we have leverage ... so [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries needs to be aligned with that. And when I get to the halls of Congress, I do look forward to organizing with my colleagues." Jeffries "knows how to pull people together," said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who is a member of Democratic leadership, noting that Ocasio-Cortez "has been a part of our caucus for a long time." — Andrew Solender

🤬 Summer from hell President Trump is making life hell for Senate Republicans, and they're returning the favor. "I make no apologies for standing up to the president," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters after he got into a shouting match with Trump today at a Senate GOP lunch. "I made it clear that I wasn't going to be bullied." 🤬 Why it matters: One of the deepest GOP ruptures of Trump's second term has opened over his push for a pre-midterm elections crackdown via the SAVE Act. To his fury, Trump is finding that senators he's written off, alienated or even helped defeat in primaries are choosing Senate traditions over his political demands. In the middle is Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who's been blunt with the reality that Trump doesn't have the votes to get what he wants. "I'm certainly not giving my consent to that," Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters today about ending the filibuster. ‼️ Zoom in: Trump's lunch today with Senate Republicans only seemed to move White House-Senate relations from bad to worse. It became a shouting match with Cassidy over the administration's lack of information-sharing with the Senate on Iran. Trump rubbed Cassidy's primary defeat last month in his face during the closed-door meeting, sources told us. 🛑 Just before the lunch, Trump canceled an event to sign and tout a bipartisan housing package — a bill the White House praised yesterday as "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history." Trump said he would not sign the bill until the SAVE Act, requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, is passed. Last week, Trump delayed the Senate confirmation process for Jay Clayton, ensuring Bill Pulte would serve as acting director of national intelligence, at least temporarily. The president has continued his long campaign against the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate, and the blue slips process, which allows senators to block judicial nominations in their state. 👎 The other side: The bloc of GOP senators willing to defy Trump has grown. Cassidy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have been far more willing to speak their mind since losing recent primaries to Trump-backed candidates. They join Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who are leaving the Senate and have less reason to fear Trump's political blowback. That's on top of the usual suspects like Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Murkowski, who have long been willing to vote against their party. The bottom line: It's a midterm year. Republicans want to talk about affordability and hammer democratic socialists. Instead, they're sitting through presidential rants about the filibuster and legislation with no clear path through the Senate. — Stef Kight Go deeper