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THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 27 1974 House begins impeachment of Nixon On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate. The Watergate scandal first came to light following a break-in on […] read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT Cold War 1953 Armistice ends Korean War hostilities Crime 1996 Bombing at Centennial Olympic Park 1981 Six-year-old Adam Walsh is abducted European History 1794 Robespierre overthrown in France Inventions & Science 1949 First commercial jet makes test flight

Most people stop listening to new music at age 33. A 2015 Spotify study found that overall listening time doesn’t drop as we age — we simply replace current music trends with replaying what we already know. Ok, the little feedblitz experiment (automated emails) didn't do so hot, so I should be resuming this one. A lot of you were having issues subscribing, which is a system fault of theirs. But that's alright. That one is fully automated with new stuff, so you can continue to get it if you like, or unsubscribe. Definitely your choice. James

Police arrest 1 person and search for another after Seattle festival shooting that killed 3 SEATTLE (AP) — Police arrested one suspect and were looking for another after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others injured, including a toddler. https://apnews.com/article/seattle-shooting-space-needle-92628a1f1597e32ba44d6a2de3272646?

On a West Bank Eviction Tour, Israeli Settlers Advertise “No Arabs Here” WEST BANK — On a hillside overlooking the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, a crowd of Israelis and Jewish visitors from abroad gathered for an inside look at how settlement works. They listened intently as Netanel, an Israeli settler-soldier in olive fatigues with a rifle strapped to his back, advertised his group’s impact in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/23/west-bank-israeli-settlers-palestine/? Hegseth Is Pushing Testosterone. The VA Has Already Struggled With the Treatment. Providing continuing hormone-replacement therapy at “the High-T Department of War,” as Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling it, may prove difficult for the federal government because the department in charge of healthcare for veterans has already documented a struggle to manage service members’ hormone therapy, The Intercept has found. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/24/hegseth-testosterone-hormone-therapy-veterans-affairs/? U.S. Website Gave False Approval to Green Card Applicants — Then Blamed Glitch and Took It Away When Jesse Miranda, a U.S. citizen, sponsored an application for a green card for his wife nearly a year ago, he understood the process would take time. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/23/approved-green-cards-uscis-website-glitch/? Trump’s Crypto Corruption Puts Centrist Democrats in Bind The latest version of a sweeping crypto bill exposed a deep divide between progressives and moderate Senate Democrats: whether to accommodate the industry ahead of the fall midterms, or declare open war on it. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/23/trump-crypto-conflict-clarity-act-democrats/? Rubio’s Paranoid Cuba Report Designed to “Justify a Military Attack on Cuba,” Says Democratic Rep. A report published this week by the State Department is the latest weapon employed by the Trump administration in its campaign for aggressive intervention in Cuba, according to members of Congress and experts on the beleaguered Caribbean island nation. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/26/cuba-marco-rubio-state-department-report/? Pete Hegseth’s Crisis of Masculinity On Wednesday at 11:07 p.m. ET, the president went on Truth Social to share an important piece of information with Americans. It wasn’t an update on the sinking U.S. economy, the failing forever war with Iran, a remembrance of the Americans recently killed in that conflict, rising gasoline prices, the more than 800 lawsuits against his administration, a cyclosporiasis outbreak, surging cases of measles, the problems with his Qatari-gifted Air Force One, or comment on any of the swirling crises that typify the day-to-day of Donald Trump’s America. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/25/pete-hegseth-testosterone-military-masculinity/? Leaked Email Reveals New Requirements for ICE Vehicle Stops Less than two weeks ago, following a pair of fatal shootings by immigration officers in Texas and Maine, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered a halt to vehicle stops nationwide. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/25/trump-ice-vehicle-stops-policy/? Trump’s National Killer Police Force Within the span of a week, federal immigration agents shot and killed two people in Maine and Texas, and another was hit by a truck and killed in Florida after trying to avoid ICE agents. A fourth person recently died in ICE custody after reportedly being denied medication. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/24/trump-ice-deaths-mass-deportation/?

Hobie, Very interesting. Thanks for posting that. The word is used 3 times in the Greek OT: Job 40:20 επελθων δε επ ορος ακροτομον εποιησεν χαρμονην τετραποσιν εν τω ̀ ταρταρὼ Job 40:20 (LXXE) (40:15) And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in the deep. ]Job 41:32 (41:24) τον δε ̀ ταρταρον̀ της αβυσσου ωσπερ αιχμαλωτον ελογισατο αβυσσον εις περιπατον Job 41:32 (LXXE) (41:23) and the lowest part of the deep as a captive: he reckons the deep as [his] range. Pr 30:16 αδης και ερως γυναικος και ̀ ταρταρος̀ και γη ουκ εμπιπλαμενη υδατος και υδωρ και πυρ ου μη ειπωσιν αρκει Pr 30:16 (LXXE) The grave, and the love of a woman, and the earth not filled with water; water also and fire will not say, It is enough.

Raúl Castro is absent as Cuba celebrates the anniversary of a key revolutionary attack Cuba held a traditional rally on Sunday to commemorate one of the revolution’s most important anniversaries but former President Raúl Castro was conspicuously absent. Read More.

As Trump boosts nuclear power, regulators seek to eliminate a longstanding radiation safety practice The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to eliminate a foundational safety principle that has for 50 years minimized the radiation people in the United States are exposed to and that has been adopted around the world. Read More. A forced-labor crackdown or an end-run around Congress? Dissecting Trump's new tariffs The Trump administration has imposed double-digit tariffs on more than 60 countries, using a legal justification that permits the president to levy import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Read More.

Immigration FAQ Immigration is among the most important economic and political issues and a main topic of discourse and debate among policymakers and the public. But misperceptions persist about many fundamental aspects of this crucial topic. https://www.epi.org/publication/immigration-faq/? Social Security FAQ Social Security turns 90 this year. Despite its popularity and exemplary record of never having missed a payment—even after the 9/11 terror attacks and Hurricane Katrina—misperceptions persist about many fundamental aspects of this universal program. https://www.epi.org/publication/social-security-faq/?

Social Security FAQ Social Security turns 90 this year. Despite its popularity and exemplary record of never having missed a payment—even after the 9/11 terror attacks and Hurricane Katrina—misperceptions persist about many fundamental aspects of this universal program. https://www.epi.org/publication/social-security-faq/?

Oregon fire looms near town as fourth firefighter dies weeks after Colorado blaze FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — As dry, windy weather fueled a big wildfire near a city in central Oregon, a fourth firefighter died after he and several colleagues last month were overcome by a fast-moving wildfire near the Colorado-Utah border, authorities said Saturday. https://apnews.com/article/wildland-firefighters-death-colorado-utah-41f7f9576a4b65a58709ca7807233a33?

The Greek word Tartarus appears only once in the entire New Testament. 2 Peter 2:4 Young's Literal Translation 4 For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved, Well, this explains a lot.... "There is one word in the New Testament that comes straight from Greek mythology. Not a metaphor. Not a translation choice. The actual name of the abyss where the Titans were imprisoned. It was written by a Jewish fisherman from Galilee. The letter is 2 Peter, composed in Koine Greek for diaspora communities spread across the Roman world in the first century CE. Verse 2:4 is about angels who sinned and what God did with them. Most translations render the passage simply as "cast them into hell." But the Greek word Peter chose was not Hades. Not Gehenna. Not "the pit." The word came directly from "Tartaros," the deepest region of the underworld in Greek mythology, a place so far below Hades that, in Hesiod's Theogony, a bronze anvil dropped from the surface of the earth would fall for nine days before reaching it. The verb Peter used, "tartarosas," appears nowhere else in the entire New Testament. Every other writer who needed a word for the realm of the dead reached for Hades or Gehenna. Only this one verse goes to Tartarus. In Hesiod's account, written roughly seven centuries before this letter, Tartarus is where Zeus imprisoned the Titans after the war for Olympus. Sealed away from the rest of creation. Absolute confinement. Peter placed fallen angels there. He was writing for people who had grown up inside Greek cultural memory. He did not need to explain what Tartarus meant to them. He needed only to use the word, and they would already understand the weight of it. He did not argue against the mythology. He absorbed its cosmological grammar and refilled it. The prison stayed. The inhabitants changed. Scholars call this kind of move a recontextualization: taking the structural logic of a pre-existing concept and fitting it to new theological meaning. It is one of the more quietly stunning word choices in the entire text. A fisherman. A word borrowed from Hesiod. One verse that most readers have never noticed, because every translation made it vanish back into "hell."....

Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics A forced-labor crackdown or an end-run around Congress? Dissecting Trump’s new tariffs Brazil’s government denies visas to US officials over upcoming elections Sons of man shot and killed by ICE in Houston demand accountability at congressional hearing Trump returns to correspondents’ dinner for a rambling, insult-filled speech 3 months after shooting WATCH: Trump alludes to third term at rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner Maine Democratic delegates choose Troy Jackson as new nominee to face US Sen. Susan Collins Democrats select South Carolina to kick off presidential nominating contest in 2028, leave Iowa out Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years Trump orders new signs outside Smithsonian saying some exhibits are inaccurate

Airstrikes have paused and talks are pressing forward. But can the US and Iran take the off-ramp? WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has paused its airstrikes on Iran after nearly two weeks of intensifying bombing, while diplomatic efforts have pushed forward to try to avert a return to all-out war. https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-trump-diplomacy-netanyahu-d491158a4c9a1d3429a87a6ed58f2f72?

As Lake Powell shrinks, marinas are having to adapt to dwindling water levels Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the United States, is shrinking. Overuse, drought and climate change have pummeled the lake fed by the imperiled Colorado River to near historic lows, made worse by the driest winter on record and extreme heat. Marinas in this important tourist destination have had to adapt. Boat ramps have closed or moved, new ones have been added and marinas have been temporarily relocated to deeper waters. "The Colorado River is in full-blown crisis mode," said John Berggren, regional policy manager with Western Resource Advocates, an environmental nonprofit. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Water hauling in drought is the new chore no Rockies rancher asked for Virginia study on groundwater, data centers calls for tighter water regulations AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that

Exclusive: In a Ukrainian bomb shelter, Laura Loomer explains shift on Russia’s war KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Laura Loomer became infamous for spreading conspiracy theories online. Now, as she travels across Ukraine to see the damage inflicted by Russia in its yearslong war, she wants to admit that she fell for some falsehoods of her own. https://apnews.com/article/laura-loomer-trump-ukraine-russia-interview-101852f6deab17e1d8d215fdde675ee5? ps:So now that she's OK with Ukraine, trump is now going to be on there side?? Pathetic!! Exclusive: In a Ukrainian bomb shelter, Laura Loomer explains shift on Russia’s war Laura Loomer became infamous for spreading conspiracy theories online. Now, as she travels across Ukraine to see the damage inflicted by Russia in its yearslong war, she wants to admit that she fell for some falsehoods of her own. A close ally of President Donald Trump, Loomer has completely reversed her longtime criticism of Ukraine and is urging fellow conservatives to be wary of Moscow’s propaganda, which she blames for duping large swaths of the American right. She spoke with The Associated Press in Kyiv from an underground bomb shelter as the city faced another ballistic missile attack. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ 2 dead in Ukraine from Russian attacks, 4 more in Russian-held area hit by Ukrainian drones

🐸 1 for the road: Georgia swamp joins icons An alligator suns itself at the Okefenokee Swamp in 2024. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images The latest UNESCO World Heritage site, joining iconic places like the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon, is a swamp in Georgia — the 407,000-acre Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. "One of the South's last truly wild places, the Okefenokee is home to an astonishing array of wildlife, including black bears, red-cockaded woodpeckers and thousands of alligators. Its flora includes black gum trees and carnivorous plants with names such as hooded pitcher and golden trumpet," The Washington Post reports (gift link). 🌱 Why it matters: The swamp — one of the world's largest intact freshwater ecosystems — has faced threats from proposed mining projects for decades. As of yesterday, the Okefenokee is a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognized for its "outstanding universal value" to humanity, though the designation alone doesn't prevent future mining proposals. The big picture: The Okefenokee is the only World Heritage site in Georgia and the 27th in the United States. Read the announcement.

🎮 Crisis for video-game industry Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios The video game industry faces an existential crisis, reports Axios' Herb Scribner, an avid gamer. Why it matters: The business has weathered bust-and-boom cycles before. But the current shifting demands — along with the advent of AI — are changing what video games look like, how they're made and if people can afford to play them anymore. Gaming is surviving but not thriving: Sony is cutting physical disc production to save money. Microsoft's Xbox unit recently laid off thousands of workers, dashing the dreams of developers. "Our business today is not healthy," CEO Asha Sharma told staff. Companies are canceling video game production left and right over development costs. 💰 Among the converging pressures: Wall Street expects steady growth, while tentpole games have become more expensive to build. "Grand Theft Auto VI," for example, reportedly cost up to $2 billion to develop. At the same time, the AI boom is driving up hardware costs, and the rise of mobile gaming has supercharged competition for consumers' attention. Read on.

🥬 Cyclosporiasis rising Data: CDC. Map: Brad Jennings/Axios. Cyclosporiasis cases have now been reported in at least 41 states, and infection rates continue to rise in the five states where the CDC has declared an outbreak. The CDC reported 4,173 confirmed cases in the U.S. between May 1 and July 20. Investigations continue to focus on contaminated iceberg lettuce as a source for the outbreak, Axios' Brad Jennings reports. Between the lines: Case numbers are likely higher than the map suggests. The CDC notes that it's aware of at least 7,400 cases — many from Michigan and Ohio — that have not yet been lab-confirmed. Plus, some people who get sick never get tested for cyclosporiasis.

Unions vs. AI Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Union contracts are becoming one of the strongest guardrails American workers have against AI, Axios' Josephine Walker reports. 🗞️ The NewsGuild currently has between 85 and 90 contracts with explicit AI provisions, NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss says. ✨ At Politico, unionized reporters forced management into arbitration after the newsroom introduced inaccurate AI reporting tools without the union's permission. Management dismantled the tools. 🎥 Entertainment union SAG-AFTRA negotiated protections that prohibit AI replicas from replacing actors without their consent. 🎮 A union representing workers at ZeniMax, the Microsoft-owned video game company, won contract provisions requiring AI to support — not replace — workers. The agreement also requires management to notify the union and negotiate before deploying new AI tools. Read on.

It's on! Susan Collins vs. Troy Jackson Troy Jackson, a former state lawmaker and logger, won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine yesterday and will face longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November. Jackson, 58, will need to convince the state's large independent voting bloc that it's time to replace Collins, 73. Jackson is a former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger from rural northern Maine. He campaigned alongside Graham Platner and was a favorite among progressives to replace him, AP reports. Republicans immediately launched an ad campaign accusing Jackson of having a volatile temper and linking him to Platner. The Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans' super PAC, plans to spend over $42 million against Jackson. Keep reading.

🔮 What Sam will tell the White House Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images OpenAI CEO Sam Altman heads to Washington this week to preview the company's most powerful AI yet, pushing for speedy approval of a model that just hacked a real company, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei writes in his weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter. Why it matters: Altman will tout a model powerful enough to solve an 80-year-old math problem, breach another company's system unprompted and begin to make complex work more cost-efficient for U.S. business. 👀 What Sam will show: It does original science. An internal model solved the 80-year-old Erdős unit distance problem, the first prominent open math problem cracked autonomously by AI and verified by outside mathematicians. It allows government and business to unleash swarms of agents, working together, without rest, on complex business areas. Legal, finance and recruiting at OpenAI now run 85%+ of their AI work through agents. It doesn't quit, even when it should. OpenAI revealed its long-horizon model repeatedly circumvented safeguards during internal use, forcing a pause and a rebuilt monitoring system. Then it hacked a real company, Hugging Face. 🧑‍🏫 A new idea: OpenAI will be pushing the idea of "knowledge per dollar" as a fresh concept for measuring the economic power and value of AI. 👉 Lingo: Look for Sam to promote "teams of agentic AI" as the next paradigm shift — all coordinating with each other and working seamlessly while you sleep or go about your business. OpenAI argues these AI teams will change the basic math of how to measure productivity.

🇮🇷 Trump pauses strikes President Trump directed the U.S. military not to conduct new strikes in Iran on Friday, breaking a nearly two-week streak of daily attacks, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Why it matters: It's unclear if Trump's order on Friday was a one-off or the start of a lull after 13 days of U.S. attacks. 💡 Between the lines: Trump's decision reflects that, short of a return to major combat operations, the current level of U.S. strikes has reached the limit of its effectiveness. If Trump orders a return to strikes, the U.S. military can mobilize on relatively short notice. The U.S. military is still preparing plans for a possible return to major combat operations, but Trump hasn't ordered it to move in that direction, the sources said. How it happened: Every afternoon for the past two weeks, Trump has approved strike plans submitted by the military. They were conducted within hours. On Friday, Trump received a similar plan but didn't give a green light. Instead, he directed the military not to conduct strikes, the sources said. Shortly after the Friday directive, Trump told reporters at the White House that he could continue or even escalate strikes, including "knocking out everything they have." But he made clear that he thinks the "smarter strategy" is to "make a deal" with Iran. "We're talking to [the Iranians] right now," Trump said. "I think they're getting more and more serious as the days go by. We're locked and loaded and ready to go, but we're talking to them." That night, Trump said at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner that he doesn't think Iran is ready to make a deal at the moment, "but I'm willing to listen." 🇮🇱 Behind the scenes: The Israeli security cabinet and Israel Defense Forces expected another round of U.S. strikes Friday, and even prepared for a massive U.S. attack that could trigger retaliation against Israel, Israeli officials say. The cabinet and military didn't feel they had a full picture of what the U.S. would do, so they prepared for a major bombing offensive and remained on high alert. On Friday night, the Israelis were notified that Trump did not approve more strikes.

100 days 'til Election Day Data: Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals We're 100 days out from the '26 midterms. There are 18 true toss-up races for the House and four for the Senate, according to the latest ratings by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Axios' Hans Nichols tells us what he's hearing on the Hill: The House environment favors the Dems. The terrain favors Republicans. The same is broadly true on the Senate side — except the structural advantages are even greater for Republicans, Hans writes. THE HOUSE: Currently 218 Rs, 212 Ds, 1 independent and 4 vacancies. 🫏 Why Democrats are upbeat: The polls. The latest Fox News poll has Democrats ahead by 7 points on the generic ballot. Toss in Democratic enthusiasm — and Democratic candidates outperforming 2024 nominee Kamala Harris in the vast majority of special elections — and you can see why House Republicans are privately so nervous. The cost of living. Yes, inflation has cooled. But prices have risen during the first two years of President Trump's current term, and that's especially true on the one billboard everyone sees — gas prices. The real political gift for Democrats is the direct link between $4-a-gallon gasoline and the unpopular war in Iran that Trump launched. 🐘 Why Republicans are cautiously optimistic: Redistricting. Add up all the mid-cycle redistricting in nine states, squint through a Republican lens, and you'll see nine new GOP seats. Put on Democratic glasses and assume Republicans are renting a few of those seats (especially in mostly Hispanic parts of the Rio Grande Valley) instead of owning them, and it looks closer to six seats. Either way, Republicans like where they ended up in the redistricting wars of 2026. 🌽 One key battleground: For House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the road to the majority runs through Iowa, which has been hit hard by inflation and retaliatory agriculture tariffs. On a good night this year, Democrats could pick up two seats. But if Republicans hold all four seats, it's hard to see Democrats winning the gavel. THE SENATE: Currently 53 Rs, 45 Ds, and 2 independents who caucus with Ds. 👀 Why Republicans are upbeat: Democrats need to flip four seats — with North Carolina, Maine, Alaska and Ohio presenting the clearest path. In Maine, after populist Graham Platner flamed out, Democrats have an untested statewide candidate, ex-state Senate President Troy Jackson, against a proven winner, Sen. Susan Collins. If Democrats lose Maine, they'll need to win in three double-digit Trump states. If they lose Maine and Michigan, make that four states Trump won handily. ⚡ This brings us to the final wildcard of the Democratic primary season: the Aug. 4 showdown between Rep. Haley Stevens and progressive insurgent Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Stevens' money advantage is staggering — $50 million to $1 million on the PAC front in the last two months. And yet the race is tied in the polls. Many establishment Democrats think El-Sayed — who has the support of progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — is too far left to win a general election. El-Sayed's run for Senate is something of a proving ground for AOC, who's weighing a bid for Senate or president in 2028.

The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack is killed in a confrontation with police BERLIN (AP) — The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. https://apnews.com/article/germany-berlin-lgbtq-pride-parade-van-ramming-3ba5e3f1becffd0da5f47b29aa08da9d? Germany says fatal Berlin Pride attack believed to be an act of Islamic extremist terror A van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others injured is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, Germany’s interior minister said Sunday. Authorities said the suspect is believed to have injured several people after he drove a van into a crowd at a park near the Pride festival’s closing party. He then allegedly attacked other people with a weapon, suspected to be a machete. “Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said. He put the total number of injured at 29. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Photos show the aftermath of a van-ramming attack near Berlin’s Pride Festival WATCH: Moment Berlin Pride goers told to leave the event due 'to a difficult situation'