Important Takeaways:
- The director of the Secret Service is stepping down from her job, according to an email she sent to staff, following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump that unleashed an intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission.
- Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- “I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in the email to staff Tuesday. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
- The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the July 13 rally.
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Important Takeaways:
- State Sen. George Lang was one of the warm-up speakers at a Trump campaign rally Monday, where vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance spoke solo for the 2024 GOP ticket for the first time. The rally was held in the suburb of Middletown, Ohio, where Vance grew up — just days after a Republican National Convention…
- Lang…Used his time…to warn of violence that could tear America apart.
- Lang, who represents nearby Hamilton, Ohio, took the stage shouting Trump’s post-shooting battle cry, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” And Lang insisted that America is in a “fight for the soul of our nation” and for “our kids and our grandkids.”
- “I believe wholeheartedly that Donald Trump and Butler County’s J.D. Vance are the last chance to save our country, politically,” Lang said. “I’m afraid that if we lose this one, it’s gonna take a civil war to save this country.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in the United States on Monday, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both absent to greet him upon arrival.
- Biden’s absence comes as he tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a letter saying Biden had “completed his tenth dose of PAXLOVID” and that his symptoms were “almost resolved completely.”
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also notably not present to greet Netanyahu upon his arrival in the U.S.
- Netanyahu’s arrival comes ahead of his speech before Congress on Wednesday. In June, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-KY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) released a letter inviting Netanyahu to speak before a joint meeting of members of the United States House and Senate.
- Harris and the Senate President Pro-Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA) have reportedly refused to preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) previously stated that he would “not attend” the speech given by Netanyahu, whom he described as a “war criminal.”
- Several sources told Axios in June that House Democrats had been discussing holding counter-programing to Netanyahu’s speech.
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Important Takeaways:
- Sandhurst Fire outside Salt Lake City forces residents to flee homes as flames, smoke shoot into sky
- According to officials, the Sandhurst Fire has so far burned about 400 acres near Ensign Peak and was 0% contained as of Sunday morning.
- Dozens of homes have been evacuated near Salt Lake City as crews continue to battle a large wildfire that broke out over the weekend that sent heavy flames and thick smoke billowing into the sky.
- The SLCPD said it also requested the help of all available on-duty officers to assist with the evolving situation, and officers were patrolling the evacuated area to be on the lookout for suspicious activity.
- Police said they would continue to block all access to evacuated areas, and people who do not live in the area are not being allowed to enter.
- Officials have said that the Sandhurst Fire was manmade, but an exact cause has not yet been determined
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Important Takeaways:
- President Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
- “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for my term,” Mr. Biden posted in a statement on social media.
- Biden said he would address the nation later this week. Mr. Biden is currently at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, as he recovers from COVID-19.
- Shortly after the announcement, he endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination, although Mr. Biden cannot appoint a nominee himself. A source familiar said Mr. Biden and Harris spoke multiple times earlier Sunday ahead of his announcement. There was an emergency meeting of senior Democratic National Committee members happening Sunday.
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Important Takeaways:
- The chaos in Washington, could sway Hamas to harden its stance in the hostage talks and give Iran that impression that now is the moment to increase military activity against Israel.
- Now, he is suddenly a lame duck president with only six months left in office, and there are calls for him to step down immediately in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
- This means that the issue of retrieving the hostages and forming a military coalition against Iran could almost immediately fall into her hands.
- The leadership chaos will be most acute in the next month, given that the question of Harris replacing Biden on the ticket can only be officially decided by the Democratic National Convention on August 19-22.
- This sudden potential shift in leadership comes as Biden and his administration are in the final phase of potentially closing a hostage deal.
- The problem is not just that Harris is untested on these issues, but more that Biden is now at his weakest point during a month when Israel most needs Washington to be in a strong leadership position.
- That will create difficulties with closing the hostage deal and make Israel seem more vulnerable to Iran.
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Important Takeaways:
- Accelerating land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes cracks roads, sinks homes
- According to experts, land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes continues to accelerate. As a result, roads and homes continue to crack and sink.
- “This whole area moved about 5 feet in the last year or so, but then it really accelerated. In the last couple months, it’s moved another 4 or 5 feet.”
- Water main pipes are now above ground to try and prevent breaks. While at least one homeowner uses a garden hose to get water inside. In addition, a rope has been placed at the edge of one driveway to help homeowners climb up to their house.
- Within the last year or so, experts believe some areas have dropped more than 12 feet. Recently, experts have said the land is moving about 12 inches per week.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hundreds of US flights were canceled early Monday, as carriers, particularly Delta Air Lines, work to recover four days after a global tech outage caused massive delays and left travelers stranded at airports around the nation.
- More than 800 flights into, within or out of the United States were canceled by Monday morning, and more than 1,500 flights were delayed, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. Delta passengers have been slammed by nearly 4,500 cancellations since Friday, including 660 on Monday, by far the most of any airline.
- Delta declined to comment on the numbers, but in an update to customers Sunday afternoon, CEO Ed Bastian said the company is working to restore operations after the outage.
- The “largest IT outage in history” – prompted by a software update for Microsoft devices late Thursday into the early hours of Friday – brought down computers and technical systems across the world, causing disorder at airports, outages for 911 services and challenges at health care facilities.
- The outage affected an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices
- Costs from the outage could top $1 billion, Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, told CNN. But it’s unclear if – and how – any customers affected will be compensated.
- Outage caused by CrowdStrike update
- The company said the outage was not caused by a security incident or a cyberattack, but rather a software defect.
- The issue was identified and isolated, and engineers deployed an update to fix the problem, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said.
- Kurtz has apologized to customers and said the company is “deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption.”
- In an update posted to LinkedIn late Sunday, CrowdStrike said “a significant number” of the 8.5 million devices were back online and operational.
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Important Takeaways:
- Four people, who spoke to the Washington Post “on the condition of anonymity,” explained that agents on Trump’s security detail had reportedly asked to be given additional agents and “snipers and specialty teams” for outdoor events or large public gatherings that the former president would attend, as well as equipment such as magnetometers.
- A magnetometer is described as being a “device used to detect magnetic fields” that is used to screen people entering “public events, airports, and government buildings,” according to NorthJersey.com.
- The sources told the outlet that “senior officials” within the Secret Service reportedly cited having a “lack of resources” due to denials of the requests.
- The outlet noted that after the Secret Service had previously denied “turning down requests” to provide Trump with “additional security,” they are “now acknowledging some may have been rejected”:
- The Secret Service, after initially denying turning down requests for additional security, is now acknowledging some may have been rejected. The revelation comes as agency veterans say the organization has been forced to make difficult decisions amid competing demands, a growing list of protectees and limited funding.
- Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle revealed in an interview with ABC News, that there had been no agents on the roof that Crooks was on because of the “safety factor” of placing someone on a “sloped roof.”
- During a recent Secret Service briefing with senators, it was revealed that Crooks had been identified as being a “threat” by the agency 10 minutes prior to Trump taking the stage.
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Important Takeaways:
- Gaza ministry warns thousands of people displaced by the Israel-Gaza war are at risk of contracting the disease which can cause deformities and paralysis.
- The Israeli health ministry said poliovirus type 2 was detected in Gaza sewage samples tested in an Israeli laboratory. It said the World Health Organization had made similar findings.
- UN agencies have been campaigning for four decades to eradicate polio, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, but there has been a resurgence in recent years in Afghanistan and Pakistan and some isolated cases in Nigeria.
- Authorities in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah said this week that wastewater treatment stations had been shut down because of a lack of fuel. They warned that roads “will be flooded by wastewater” and that 700,000 civilians, most of them displaced, would be put at risk of catching sewage-borne diseases.
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