Politics

Axios reports: As smoke and debris swirled over the Syrian presidential palace, the chatter in the West Wing grew louder: Benjamin Netanyahu is out of control. “Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time,” one White House official told Axios, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.” A second …

NBC News reports: For 21 months of war, the only Catholic church in Gaza has served as a fragile refuge in the besieged enclave, where hundreds of Christian and Muslim families took shelter from the Israeli assault outside its stone walls. The Israeli shelling that blasted through that sanctuary on Thursday — killing three, including the church’s janitor, and wounding …

Politico Magazine reports: The hottest interview a politician can land these days is, obviously, on Joe Rogan’s podcast. But for James Talarico, it fell in his lap — and couldn’t come at a better time. The Democratic Texas state representative may not yet be a household name nationally but he is weighing a dark horse bid for the U.S. Senate, …

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 …

The Associated Press reports: Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 by the next national election as part of measures to increase democratic participation, the government announced Thursday. The center-left Labour Party pledged before it was elected in July 2024 to lower the voting age for elections to Britain’s Parliament. Scotland and Wales already let 16- and …

The Texas Tribune reports: State Rep. Steve Toth, a Conroe Republican aligned with the rightmost faction of the Texas Legislature, announced a primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Tuesday, setting up the state’s latest intra-party midterm clash. Toth, who is serving his fifth term in the Texas House, is part of a group of hardline GOP lawmakers who …

CNN reports: Adelita Grijalva will win Tuesday’s special Democratic primary in Arizona’s 7th congressional district, CNN projects. Grijalva, a former county supervisor, is the daughter of the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district for two decades before his death in March. She’ll be favored to win the Sept. 23 general election in this heavily Democratic district against …

The Hill reports: Dan Pfeiffer, a former staffer for former President Obama and co-host of the podcast “Pod Save America,” slammed a campaign ad for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he seeks to clinch the 2025 mayor’s race in New York City. “This is one of the least compelling campaign videos that I have ever seen. No message. …

NewsNation reports: Ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is expected to announce this week that he is staying in the race for New York City mayor as an independent, sources told Nexstar’s NewsNation. A source close to Cuomo’s campaign said he is set to officially announce his plans to stay in the race as an independent while offering a proposal. …

The Associated Press reports: Democrat Janelle Stelson, who lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry by barely a percentage point in 2024, will run again in the right-leaning congressional district in Pennsylvania. Stelson, a one-time local TV anchor and personality, mounted a challenge to Perry, the former leader of the hardline House Freedom Caucus. It was designed to sway moderate …

Politico reports: A leader of the super PAC supporting New York City Mayor Eric Adams hopes to raise upwards of $10 million from the cryptocurrency community — and has alarmed government ethics groups in the process. In May, Eric Lerner, president of the Empower NYC super PAC, attended the same Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas where Adams traveled on the …

Axios reports: Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is proposing something unprecedented: Having Congress’ ethics office effectively adjudicate whether lawmakers are too cognitively impaired to do their jobs. The 36-year-old Washington Democrat is publicly calling out a dynamic many of her colleagues refuse to even address — arguing Congress’ aging membership is damaging the credibility of the whole institution. Gluesenkamp Perez, an …

The New York Times reports: David Gergen, an inside-the-Beltway veteran who helped shape the public images of four presidents, mostly Republicans, and who, after a turn as a magazine editor, trod a well-worn path from political insider to television commentator, died on Thursday in Lexington, Mass. He was 83. His death, at a retirement community, was caused by Lewy body …

Axios reports: Former President Obama is joining DNC chair Ken Martin for a high-dollar fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey, on Friday evening, Axios has learned. It’s Obama’s first fundraiser since the party’s devastating 2024 losses, and it comes after a string of public headaches for the DNC leadership team. The event comes ahead of New Jersey’s gubernatorial and state …

The New York Times reports: For Netanyahu, a truce also came with personal risk. As prime minister, he led a fragile coalition that depended on the support of far-right ministers who wanted to occupy Gaza, not withdraw from it. They sought a long war that would ultimately enable Israel to re-establish Jewish settlements in Gaza. If a cease-fire came too …

Gay City News reports: More than one million people identify as LGBTQIA+ in New York State and the community’s population has continued to rise, according to the results of a New York State Department of Health survey featuring statistics about the share of LGBTQ people who live in the state. About 8.2% of New York State’s population identifies as lesbian, …

The Hill reports: The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved an amendment to the annual Justice Department funding bill aimed at blocking the Trump administration from keeping the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The committee voted 15-14 to adopt language that seeks to block funding from being used to relocate the headquarters from its current J. Edgar Hoover Building site …

ABC News reports: Six agents were suspended by the U.S. Secret Service for failures connected to last year’s attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, an official told ABC News. The personnel moves were confirmed four days shy of the anniversary of the July 13, 2024, shooting incident that left Trump’s ear bloodied. Corey Comperatore, a firefighter …

The Washington Post reports: Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Elon Musk’s X, announced Wednesday that she is stepping down from the social media platform after two years in the position. Her departure comes a day after the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot launched into an antisemitic tirade Tuesday and invoked Adolf Hitler. Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk after he bought the …

The New York Times reports: Philadelphia’s largest public sector union reached a tentative labor agreement early Wednesday morning with the city’s mayor, ending an eight-day strike that had halted trash collection and other services. “The Strike is Over!” the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, posted on its Facebook page around 4:30 a.m. …