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🌊 Parting shot! Photo: Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios A foggy morning at Acadia National Park's Otter Point on July 15, captured by Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick.

👉 House's Senate marching orders House GOP leaders are turning up the heat on Senate Republicans, calling on them to move quickly on the House's $95 billion reconciliation package despite resistance from Thune. Why it matters: Before they split town, House leaders left some instructions for their Senate colleagues. ⚡️ "The Senate needs to move on reconciliation before November, and I think the pressure from the American people is going to be unbearable if they refuse to act," NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) told us today. "For the Senate to sit on their hands and do nothing, I think, will be unsustainable." Driving the news: Thune poured cold water on the House's timeline, telling reporters this week that he plans to wait until government funding is resolved before taking up the budget resolution. The reconciliation measure would give billions for the war in Iran, farm assistance and include components of the SAVE America Act. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told us in a pen-and-pad session today that he expects the White House to ramp up pressure on the Senate. ☄️ "They can say all day long, you know, 'It's going to be hard.' Everything's hard. Give me a lecture about how hard things are. That's what I do every day. They've got to figure out a way to get it done," Scalise told us of his colleagues in the Senate. Scalise said the reconciliation package — because it only requires a simple majority — means Senate Republicans won't have the "excuse of the filibuster" to avoid passing the stalled SAVE Act. 🔥 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump's "patience is running out" with Thune during a press briefing today when asked about SAVE. "Well, maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes," Thune told reporters when asked about the comments. 🎯 Between the lines: Thune has become a favorite target of House conservatives, who have spent months trying to shame him into taking up the SAVE Act. Thune has repeatedly said he doesn't have the votes. "He seems to be doing his best to try to pretend he's working on the SAVE America Act while not working on the SAVE America Act," Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) told us. — Kate Santaliz

Russia sanctions breakthrough Democrats are indicating to their Republican counterparts that they are prepared to vote as early as next week on a Russia sanctions package that includes an 11th-hour demand from President Trump that the bill also include Iran, according to people familiar with the matter. Why it matters: It would mark a rare bipartisan breakthrough on legislation to help end the war in Ukraine in a Senate that has spent much of the year engaged in partisan combat. 🤝 It also would show that Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can work together weeks before Election Day — a dynamic that could prove critical as the Senate works to avoid a third government shutdown this year. Tuesday's Capitol memorial for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will serve as an emotional backdrop to the Senate's consideration of the bill he spent his final days trying to shepherd across the finish line. 🚨 "I'm optimistic we'll be able to move forward soon," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. "Ukraine has the momentum on the battlefield, and the Kremlin's position is increasingly precarious. It is vital that we move as quickly as possible." Zoom out: The bill, which has more than 60 cosponsors, has been revised twice since Graham's sudden passing on July 11. First, senators lowered the overall rate of secondary tariffs from 500% to 100% and narrowed the scope of the bill, allowing Trump to tariff no more than five countries. In one of his last acts, Graham secured the Trump administration's blessing for the deal, according to his Senate colleagues. 'This is a big effing deal," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, quoting Graham. Then, on July 19, Trump demanded that the legislation be expanded. "Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill. That's what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen," he said on Truth Social. 🔎 Zoom in: At first, there was confusion about what Trump actually meant, but senators appear to have addressed his concerns by including noncontroversial sanctions on Iran that were set to expire at the end of the year. Thune indicated today that his conference was comfortable with the Iran additions. "I think everybody's fine with it, because we would do it anyway," Thune said. The other side: Some Democrats oppose the overall notion of giving Trump another tool to impose tariffs. They may attempt to slow consideration of the bill, but they don't have the numbers to derail it. "The problem with the Russian sanction bill — because I very much support Ukraine — is that Trump is doing everything he can to just expand his reach into tariffs, and that's what he lives for," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). "I think Leader Thune is getting ready to start moving procedurally. People have asked me, and I said I'm not giving up any procedural rights right now." ⏰ The bottom line: Thune and Schumer still need to reach a time agreement on the sanctions legislation. But with Thune indicating that the crypto bill — the CLARITY Act — won't get finished this work period, the Senate may have more floor time to consider the legislation and pay tribute to their late colleague. — Hans Nichols and Stef W. Kight

Uncivil Law (Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty)   View in browser When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September 2024, it left behind it a trail of death and destruction—and a huge number of legal headaches. Residents struggled to understand the process of receiving help from FEMA, people were beset by scams and price gouging, and tenants whose homes had been destroyed or made uninhabitable puzzled over their rights. Pisgah Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides civil legal aid in the region, had 120 staffers, and all of them were somehow affected, Jaclyn Kiger, Pisgah’s executive director, told me. Within about a week, though, Pisgah Legal had hosted three clinics; it ultimately helped thousands of Helene victims. Civil legal services like these may not be well understood, but they serve an essential role in ensuring that everyone has access to justice. The Supreme Court’s landmark 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright established that any criminal defendant has a right to legal counsel. But most legal issues are civil, not criminal. This includes any number of disputes between parties, but also issues such as evictions, scams targeting senior citizens, and domestic-violence protective orders. Recourse to courts in such cases can be lifesaving, but they are not free, and they are not easy for ordinary people to handle on their own. Since 1981, every state has created programs to fund civil legal services with Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. It’s an elegant solution: Lawyers frequently hold money in accounts for clients, accruing interest that doesn’t truly belong to any party. IOLTA-funded programs use that interest to provide legal support without any cost to taxpayers. Kiger told me that Pisgah Legal received nearly $2 million in fiscal year 2025; overall, NC IOLTA provided clients roughly $12 million for civil legal services that year. But in a budget passed this month, the Republican-dominated North Carolina General Assembly effectively cut this funding off. The budget permits $2 million in IOLTA funding in the coming fiscal year for civil legal aid, but that will sunset in the future. (Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, signed the budget—the first that the state has managed to pass in more than a year—while criticizing elements of it, including the IOLTA cut, which he said “cruelly punishes low-income people who need access to justice.”) Most IOLTA money will be redirected to criminal legal services for indigent defendants, which the state is already constitutionally required to fund. Providers I’ve spoken with recently are crestfallen but also baffled. Although they all support funding for public defenders, they note that civil legal aid gets no other state money. “Hundreds of thousands of low-income people in the mountains are going to suffer,” Kiger said. Civil legal services have historically been a bipartisan priority, popular among both parties and lawyers as well. Last year, a coalition of leaders of some of the state’s biggest law firms wrote a letter to the state supreme court backing IOLTA funding for civil legal services. “We believe a fair and functioning court system is not a partisan goal—it is a constitutional one,” they wrote. “By enabling litigants to participate effectively, IOLTA-funded legal aid strengthens both the efficiency and fairness of judicial proceedings.” But some North Carolina Republicans have objected to the fact that some of the state’s biggest providers of civil legal aid also engage in progressive political advocacy or do legal work related to immigration or social-justice issues. The driving force behind the change in this month’s budget is state House Speaker Destin Hall, who is also an attorney in private practice. “IOLTA funds were shifted to ensure they’re not being utilized to bankroll progressive political pet projects like the NC Justice Center or provide government services to illegal immigrants. Instead, those funds will be used to provide legal services to underserved communities,” he said in a statement in June. To that end, the general assembly placed political limits on a small portion of civil legal aid. The budget allows IOLTA money collected before July 2025 to be distributed, but only $2 million a year until the funds run out, and only to providers who don’t engage in political advocacy or take cases involving transgender health care or federal immigration law. This is less a way of removing politics from legal aid and more a way of instituting a different set of ideological priorities, and in any case, it applies only to this small and disappearing pot of money. The overarching goal appears to be not just going after progressive groups, but ensuring reductions in civil legal aid per se. This has led providers to speculate that the general assembly is less worried about “wokeness” and more interested in defending business interests. “I think it comes down to who we serve,” Kiger said. “We are serving the most vulnerable among us.” When I contacted Hall’s office to try to understand the decision, a spokesperson asked me for detailed questions but never replied when I sent them. Ashley Campbell, who leads Legal Aid of North Carolina, the state’s largest civil-legal-aid firm, told me that she sought meetings with Hall but was rebuffed. In a statement, the executive director of the North Carolina State Bar lamented that “months of good-faith efforts” by the bar and NC IOLTA leaders had failed to sway the general assembly: “This loss of funding will prove devastating to the tens of thousands of low-income North Carolinians facing legal concerns that threaten their housing stability, income, access to health care and benefits, and safety from domestic violence and human trafficking.” The defunding of IOLTA in North Carolina is a major event in the state, but it could have national implications. As I have been reporting for more than a decade now, many of the major currents in national politics have originated in the Old North State. The state has also been used as a proving ground, including for Donald Trump–style attacks on elections. Right now, the partisan warfare over civil legal aid in North Carolina is an outlier; Texas GOP legislators even strengthened IOLTA funding in 2023. But a failed Montana bill last year tried to weaken IOLTA, and Trump has proposed eliminating or drastically reducing funding for the Legal Services Corporation, a national civil-legal-aid group established by Congress. People I spoke with in North Carolina worry that the state budget could provide a template for other states as well. If that happens, access to justice could become just another luxury good. Related: North Carolina is a warning. (From 2022) North Carolina is the canary in the election coal mine. (From 2025)

Nun speaks out for first time about being detained by ICE while walking to Mass in Texas A nun who was taken into immigration custody last month in Texas said Thursday that she went into a cold sweat as two armed men approached her while she walked to Sunday Mass in her habit, thinking about the day's Bible readings and carrying little more than her rosary and cellphone. Read More.

Democrats say Social Security boss’ message pushed misleading statements on Trump tax law’s benefits Some Democrats are squaring off with President Donald Trump’s administration over one of the most potent political issues in the country ahead of this year’s midterm elections: Social Security. https://apnews.com/article/social-security-bisignano-message-taxes-democrats-bb6a1a4f0c9d18f5ece322068c920f8b?

What experts are saying as Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda kills more than 1,000 people The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 1,000 people in eastern Congo as health officials race to contain a virus with no approved vaccine or treatment. Read More. By the Numbers: This year’s Ebola outbreak has spread faster than the worst on record The Ebola outbreak in Congo has killed over 1,000 people, reaching the grim milestone nearly three times faster than the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic that is considered the worst on record. Read More.

EU hits Google with $1 billion fine over its Play app store and search The European Union on Thursday hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros ($1 billion) after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers towards its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors. Read More.

Making ends meet A growing number of workers at some of the nation’s largest companies are relying on food stamps and Medicaid, a recent report found. The findings highlight the affordability challenges facing many American households.

Secret keeping A little-known court tasked with handling highly sensitive deportation cases against alleged alien terrorists had lain dormant for 30 years. A first-of-its-kind case filed by the Trump administration sprang it back to life. Trump will welcome the World Series champion Dodgers to the White House President Donald Trump is welcoming Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House on Thursday with a Rose Garden event celebrating their second title in as many years. Read More.

This Won't End Well for Windows: LegacyHive Points to a Troubling Future In the latest escalation of a public feud with Microsoft, security researcher Nightmare Eclipse released the LegacyHive zero-day vulnerability shortly after a major Patch Tuesday update. Expect future attacks. https://www.pcmag.com/news/this-wont-end-well-for-windows-legacyhive-points-to-a-troubling-future

by Seth Pierce Throughout history, human beings have communicated with one another in ways other than the simple use of words. Saying a word in one of the thousands of languages in existence on planet Earth is good, but how we say our words can be more important. For example, we can say “We love you,” and mean that we truly care about the other person; but we can say the same words in a sarcastic tone of voice that really means We don’t love you. We can scream our words, use sarcasm, say them sweetly, sensually, or in a scared manner with a shaky inflection. https://www.signstimes.com/?p=article&a=40086446656.739

The Rapture: Is It True? by Samuele Bacchiocchi https://www.signstimes.com/?p=article&a=40086446656.645

Does Prayer Make a Difference? by Mark Finley https://www.signstimes.com/?

Vertical Morality vs. Horizontal Morality: What does God expect from us? How is our morality grounded? The following article will challenge your thinking. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vertical-morality-maga-christians_l_68dc8386e4b0b11989f00fb8 Thr following is a shorter, summarized version of the above article. https://us.headtopics.com/news/vertical-morality-might-describe-why-maga-christians-seem-74000915#google_vignette

Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe? by Miguel Valdivia https://www.signstimes.com/?

by Steve Wolhberg https://www.signstimes.com/?

Beware of Ghosts by Steve Wolhberg https://www.signstimes.com/?

Baptism by the Book by David Edgar https://www.signstimes.com/?

Suppose Jesus went directly into the MHP upon his ascension. That is what Hebrews chapters 6 and 9 say. It doesn't mean that 1844 was a hoax, a delusion, a falsehood. It doesn't mean nothing happened in 1844. What it does mean is that Jesus wasn't in the first apartment until 1844. It does not invalidate the 2300 day prophecy. It does not mean Ellen White was not the Lord's messenger. It does mean what she said, "I am not a prophet. She could have been wrong. The IJ doctrine wasn't original with her. The IJ doctrine had been circulating in the denomination for decades before she wrote about it in the Great Controversy book. Suppose that the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14 is talking about a last day church preaching the final message to the people of the earth. The word, there translated as "cleansed," really means "justified." It is used in Daniel 12:3. Young's Literal Translation says "Those justifying the multitude...." The word normally refers to the justification of people. The temple was cleansed multiple times in the OT. Never was the word translated in Daniel 8:14 as "cleansed" used.

Government withdraws subpoenas of 3 reporters for The New York Times after admitting legal errors NEW YORK (AP) — Criticized by a federal judge for sloppy legal work, the government on Thursday grudgingly withdrew subpoenas that would have compelled three New York Times reporters to testify about their sources for articles about President Donald Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. https://apnews.com/article/usmediatimesair-force-one-42429e4d4da8accc42b6c3ddf3f4fed5? ps:Once again this administration shows us how pathetic they are!!!!!

🍿 1 for the road: Cinerama Dome lives on The Cinerama Dome sits quiet amid the pandemic in March 2020. Photo: Jay L. Clendenin/L.A. Times via Getty Images Sony Pictures and Alamo Drafthouse are restoring and reopening L.A.'s beloved Cinerama Dome. The historic movie theater closed six years ago during the pandemic, and it's remained shuttered despite attempts to revive it. 🎥 The companies said in a statement: "The restoration will honor the landmark's distinctive aesthetic character, immersive large-format curved-screen presentation, and traditional concession experience that have made it a beloved destination for generations." If all goes well, the Dome will reopen in 2028. Go deeper.

🌖 Astronomers have discovered what could become the first confirmed "exomoon" — a massive natural satellite orbiting a brown dwarf 71 light-years from Earth. Read the paper.

📉 Jobless claims lowest since '69 Data: Department of Labor; Chart: Neil Irwin/Axios Only 187,000 people filed new unemployment benefit claims last week — the lowest number since September 1969, Axios' Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin report. The labor force was much smaller then. Relative to the overall number of workers, this is easily the lowest number of jobless claims on record. 🤖 The big picture: There have been plenty of gloomy warnings about jobs, including worries that AI will lead to widespread layoffs. We appear to be far from that reality. 🧑‍💻 Yes, but: Younger workers are feeling the pinch of the low-hire, low-fire dynamic. Entry-level job postings were down 7.5% in May from a year earlier, Indeed says in a new report. The bottom line: If jobless claims stay low, economists may have to rethink the threat posed by AI and other factors. Go deeper.