The United States has recorded more measles cases this year than in any year since 1991, with more than five months still left on the calendar. The country had logged 2,295 cases as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University's U.S. measles tracker. That total edges past the 2,289 cases reported for all of last year and is the highest annual count since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, The Washington Post reports.
President Donald Trump is trying to force E Jean Carroll to pay back the $5.6 million he was ordered to pay the former Elle magazine writer after a federal jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. That money was disbursed to Carroll from a court-controlled escrow account on July 9. But the president's legal team is seeking an emergency injunction that would order Carroll to return the payment to the account in the hopes that the Supreme Court will grant him a legal Hail Mary and reverse the judgment, sending the money back to him. That payment to Carroll " more than three years after the jury's verdict " "should have been the end of this case," her lawyers said. "But Defendant now demands yet another unprecedented remedy. ... The judgment here is final, the money has already been disbursed, and Carroll is entitled to keep it."
Batarti Gabbard, the 55-year-old brother of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was arrested Friday for allegedly trying to lure children to a hotel room ... read more
Fox News host Laura Ingraham is now "warning her own network's audience that the conflict is becoming a political liability for Republicans," and pleading with Trump to find a way out of the war before the general elections. In a broadcast from this week, she "didn't mince words" about what the fallout of the Iran war would be for the GOP. "With the midterm elections a little more than 100 days away, the clock is ticking for President Trump to get out of this war before voters head to the polls," Ingraham said. "It's making a lot of Republicans nervous. It's already, as we know, unpopular. According to the new Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 69 percent of Americans disapprove of the handling of this conflict. Republicans cannot let this become an endless distraction, especially if they want to win in November."
"The Pentagon faces an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the war in Iran, with some critical lines of funding set to run out within weeks even as President Donald Trump escalates the conflict with Tehran, according to lawmakers and current and former U.S. officials," the Washington Post reports. "The funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness, according to four current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the budget constraints." "And the collapsed ceasefire with Iran could further strain the military's budget: After four U.S. service members died during more than a week of intensified fighting, officials in Washington signaled they were preparing for a wider conflict."
Kudos are in order for the bloated orange chomo.