“Your car air freshener is turning you gay. It is depleting your testosterone. It is wrecking your hormones. I was just in an Uber and the Uber driver had like a pack of trees, a pack of car fragrance trees. It’s disgusting, right? They need to be banned. So I told the Uber driver, ‘Do you realize that those are …

Variety reports: Just hours before “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” was canceled at CBS, Jon Stewart opened up about the uncertain future of “The Daily Show” if the proposed Skydance–Paramount merger goes through. David Ellison’s Skydance Media is in the process of buying Paramount, which is the parent company of CBS and Stewart’s network Comedy Central. On Thursday’s episode …

“I’m not so sure Donald Trump has fully thought this one through, Jake, because you showed at the beginning of the show his very recent social media post where he said, ‘Oh, I look forward to deposing Rupert Murdoch under oath. That should be fascinating.’ “Well, guess who else is going to have to testify under oath at a deposition? …

The New York Times reports: The Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday that it would eliminate its scientific research arm and begin firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, after denying for months that it intended to do so. The move underscores how the Trump administration is forging ahead with efforts to slash the federal work force and …

Politico reports: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called for several Obama administration officials to face criminal prosecution for participating in a “treasonous conspiracy” surrounding the 2016 election on Friday afternoon, the latest example of the Trump administration targeting critics of the president. In a newly declassified report, Gabbard on Friday alleged the officials “manipulated and withheld” key intelligence from …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration said Friday that it would release $1.3 billion in frozen federal funding for after-school programs across the country, after facing growing bipartisan pressure. The Trump administration, which wants to slash spending and reduce the federal government’s role in education, had abruptly withheld the money, along with billions in other education dollars. It …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as President Trump seeks to dispel a storm of criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters. The request was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where Mr. Epstein …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday followed through on his threat to sue media mogul Rupert Murdoch after his Wall Street Journal published an article saying that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday, courts records show. Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and …

Gothamist reports: New York state will pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former executive assistant to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo who accused him of groping her while on the job. The agreement between Brittany Commisso, the former aide, and current Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office is the state’s second settlement of that amount with an employee who accused …

CNN reports: As the Department of Homeland Security scrambles to meet the Trump administration’s quotas for increased arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants, officials are pleading with former ICE agents to return to service, according to an email obtained by CNN that was sent to numerous former agents. It comes with a bonus of up to $50,000. “You served the …

Reuters reports: Donald Trump cannot pursue his nearly $50 million lawsuit against the journalist Bob Woodward for publishing tapes from interviews for his 2020 best-seller “Rage” as an audiobook, a federal judge ruled on Friday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan is a victory for Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster and its former owner Paramount …

Just in via press release: The following is a statement from the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW): On July 2nd, Paramount agreed to settle a baseless lawsuit brought against 60 Minutes and CBS News by President Trump for $16 million. On July 15, during a regular show of The Late Show with …

REPORTER: “ICE operations are taking place predominately in Latino communities-” ICE BARBIE: “I wouldn’t say that’s true, I would say that the media has highlighted operations like that, but we have operations ongoing throughout the country every single day in communities everywhere, so I would not say that anyone could show that they’re highlighted in Hispanic communities. That is absolutely …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Lambda Legal announced today that the federal government has restored more than $6.2 million in grant funding to nine organizations that offer vital health and support services for LGBTQ+ people, including those living with HIV. The restored funding follows the ruling in early June from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of …

NBC News reports: The New York Times described Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson as Trump’s successor as the Republican Party’s “foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.” The senator has seemed a little too eager to prove his critics right, peddling bizarre and easily discredited nonsense about Covid-19. And the Jan. 6 attack. And vaccines. And climate change. And the 2020 …

The BBC reports: Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March, with entire towns and suburbs – once home to tens of thousands of people – levelled in the past few weeks. Satellite images show massive amounts of destruction in several areas which Israel’s military command claims to have under …

CNBC reports: FBI agents assigned earlier this year to review investigative files in the criminal case against notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were instructed to “flag” any documents that mentioned President Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Durbin said Friday. Durbin’s claim came in letters the Illinois Democrat sent the Justice Department and FBI letters asking them to explain what his office …

The Hill reports: Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) wants the House to ditch any subscriptions it has to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) following the newspaper’s bombshell report Thursday that shed new light on President Trump’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I’ll be introducing legislation to end the House of Representatives subscription contract with the WSJ,” Fine wrote on …

The Huffington Post reports: When a president is nominating someone to be a federal judge, they typically work with the two U.S. senators from that state to vet nominees and ultimately agree on someone together. These are lifetime appointments, after all. But Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) say Trump just nominated someone to an open Delaware …

“These bitchy little gossip girls, these reporters, they’re so effeminate and they’re so unbelievably lacking in testosterone and catty and feline in nature, and they’re all little gossips. And all throughout my social feeds, I could see these old journalists that I followed, you know, that just kinda stay in the same job forever and die in that job or …