Good morning everyone. This morning report is earlier than usual because I will be having the exclusive story coming this morning around 10:15/10:30 am, in just a couple of hours. Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure that you had a news rundown before the story drops, because there was a lot of news that happened overnight.
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Here’s the news you missed:
While you were asleep, House Republicans voted against a Democratic amendment that would have required the Department of Justice to release all Jeffrey Epstein-related files.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), was attached to a procedural bill and would have mandated the Attorney General to publish the documents online within 30 days.
The House Rules Committee narrowly rejected it in a 5–6 vote, with Republicans arguing it was not relevant to the underlying legislation. Only one Republican, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), sided with Democrats in support of the amendment.
A separate effort by Democrats to pass a five-page resolution demanding not only the release of the files but also an FBI report on any suppression or destruction of evidence also failed in the committee, with an 8–4 vote. Despite Norman's earlier support for Khanna’s amendment, he voted against this resolution, arguing the Rules Committee wasn’t the appropriate venue for such an action and emphasizing the need to stay focused on the legislation at hand.
The Trump administration has ended bond hearings for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally, meaning they must remain in detention while fighting deportation, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
Trump has privately urged Ukraine to escalate strikes inside Russia and even asked Zelensky if he could target Moscow, according to a Financial Times report.
Not all Republicans are happy with Trump’s pivot on Ukraine, with Marjorie Taylor Greene blasting Trump’s decision to send more weapons:
Trump said he's "disappointed in Putin, but not done with him," claiming they had a Ukraine deal "four times" and expressing frustration over attacks like one on a Kyiv nursing home; he also voiced strong support for NATO, backing Article 5 and noting that allies are now "paying their own bills" while asserting growing respect from European leaders.
Trump praised the Supreme Court ruling on the Department of Education, saying it rightly returns authority 'back to the states'.
A Biden-era plan to replace a coal furnace with a hydrogen-powered one at an Ohio steel mill—cutting 1M tons of emissions annually and creating over 1,000 jobs—has been indefinitely halted by the Trump administration, drawing concern from experts and locals over environmental and economic fallout.
Six Republican lawmakers complained that Canadian wildfire smoke is ruining Americans' summer, just days after voting for a Trump-backed bill that slashes renewable energy support and boosts fossil fuels—policies experts say will worsen wildfires and release 7B tons of greenhouse gases over five years.
Israeli settlers reportedly beat a U.S. citizen, 21-year-old Sayfollah Musallet, to death during a confrontation in the West Bank, as U.S. officials confirm his death and criticism grows over the DOJ’s lack of investigation into his death; meanwhile, the Trump administration pledged $30M to an Israeli-backed program controlling Gaza’s food supply, which the UN has called a “death trap,” amid a conflict that has killed over 55,000 Palestinians.
Good News:
A 9-year-old Minnesota boy miraculously survived after falling face-first onto an arrow that pierced through his brain and nearly exited his skull; doctors called it a one-in-a-million case, with his parents crediting divine intervention for his recovery.
In western India, Dr. Lal Singh is using bamboo to reclaim farmland polluted by fly ash from coal plants—his 5-step method in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region has restored ash-choked soil, with plans to expand the eco-restoration project to UP and Odisha to protect land and water from further contamination.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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