• CPB to shut down: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR, PBS, and more than 1,500 local public radio stations, will mostly shut down by the end of this fiscal year. After September 30, a “small transition team” will stay on until January to close out operations. CPB’s announcement comes after Trump signed an executive order ending the funding for PBS and NPR in May. In June, the House of Representatives approved a White House request to withdraw $1.1 billion in already approved funding from CPB. President and CEO Patricia Harrison’s announcement mourned the decision by asserting, “Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life.” The key phrase there is “has been.” When public organizations break the public’s trust, they face the consequences.

• August recess begins, Trump’s nominees still pending: In a rapid change from the rhetoric of July, Senate Republicans went on vacation without making a nominee deal. More than 250 nominees will have to wait until September or possibly later to be confirmed or denied by the Senate. For most of July, Trump insisted that Republicans needed to get these nominees done before going on their annual August recess, but after deal negotiations fell apart on Saturday, he advised the Republicans to just go home. Senators say that Trump is “fed up” with Democrats and that the “nuclear option” — changing confirmation rules via a simple majority vote — is on the table when they return from recess. Some went so far as to say the rule change is “inevitable.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended his refusal to make a deal by implying Trump’s proposed nominees are historically ill-suited for their positions.

• Gerrymanders — SCOTUS and Texas: Congressional redistricting is a thorny issue with few good options. Partisan gerrymanders reduce political competition, but “majority minority” districts that are drawn around racial lines are not a good solution. The Supreme Court is poised to tackle the issue in its next term. The justices will broaden Louisiana v. Callais to examine whether the court-ordered second majority-minority district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments. The issue needs settling as evidenced in Texas, where more than 50 Democrats have fled the state to prevent redistricting that would likely add five more GOP seats in the House. Gov. Greg Abbott has suggested the Democrats’ actions represent an abandonment of office. He has threatened to remove from office any representative who is not in attendance by 3 p.m. today.

• TPS judicial activism and race bait: A new judicial activist ruling dropped last week, and, unsurprisingly, it accuses the Trump administration of racism. San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled that ending Temporary Protected Status for citizens of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal in the U.S. is racially motivated. She added that while the natural disasters that caused the 61,000 people in question to flee to the U.S. have been dealt with, their home countries are still poor and crime-ridden, so TPS cannot be revoked. It’s an incredible overstep from yet another district judge, this time alleging racial motives that are nowhere in the evidence. Judge Thompson says the administration has failed to rebut arguments that these noncitizens should be allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as the trial continues.

• Sydney Sweeney is a Republican: Sydney Sweeney, America’s favorite new sex symbol, is a registered Republican. Records show that Sydney B. Sweeney registered as a Republican in Summerland Key, Florida, in 2024 — the same time the actress was reported to have purchased a $13.5 million home on the island. Online leftists who were already having a meltdown over her American Eagle ad campaign declared their increased hatred for Sweeney after the news broke. Sweeney has been seen as right-leaning in recent years, despite her lascivious filmography, ever since photos of her attending her mother’s 60th birthday party in 2022 showed family members with MAGA-style hats. Some commentators have noted that it was clear Sweeney was not a Democrat, given that she remains silent on political issues. “She’s a registered Republican?” Donald Trump marveled. “Oh, now I love her ad.”

• Trump’s shot across Russia’s bow: President Trump continues to pursue his peace through strength policy, ordering the deployment of two nuclear subs in response to Dmitry Medvedev’s provocative “n-word” rhetoric. Medvedev was the former president of Russia and is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. The U.S. Navy possesses 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines and doesn’t disclose the specific ones deployed or their locations, for obvious reasons. Each can carry up to 20 Trident ballistic missiles armed with multiple nuclear warheads, capable of striking Moscow from thousands of miles away. Trump is signaling that he will not tolerate threats from Russia. Indeed, he has already demonstrated in Iran’s case that he’s not afraid to use his “big stick.” Though Trump may not speak very softly, he is correct on one count: “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences.”

• NH bans trans “care” for minors: In another win in the fight to prevent childhood mutilation, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed a bill into law that makes her state the first in New England to ban “gender-affirming care” for minors. Not only does the new law prohibit healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under 18, but it allows someone who was harmed by this so-called “care” to sue the individual who provided it. Ayotte also signed a second bill banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has now jointly filed 31 lawsuits against Trump in the past six months, is leading the effort of 16 states in suing the Trump administration to try to block the investigations into the medical centers providing this “care.”

• More Fairfax County gender insanity: Luis Enrique Fernandez, a father of six, was suspended from a local pool in Fairfax County, Virginia, because the pool board claims he was acting in a “threatening and abusive” manner toward members of the opposing team. Fernandez suspects it was actually because he told the truth about a male swimmer. On July 13, Fernandez was serving as a swim marshal for a meet when he noticed a boy swimming in the girls’ races. He notified officials, but since no one knew what to do, no action was taken to prevent it. Fernandez asked three questions of three women who were cheering for the boy at the race: “Why are you cheering for a boy in a girls’ race? Why did you register a boy for a girls’ race? Why can’t he swim with the boys?” All excellent questions, and likely why he was suspended.

Headlines

• Rep. Nancy Mace launches bid for South Carolina governor (Fox News)

• UMich accepted over $270M in foreign funds; feds launch probe (Campus Reform)

• European countries slam videos of emaciated hostages, call on Hamas to disarm (Times of Israel)

• White House has no plans for IVF coverage mandate (Daily Wire)

• Migration to red states is accelerating (Daily Signal)

• AI is drastically reducing click-through rates, killing the internet as we know it (Not the Bee)

• Humor: Awkward: Obama, Hillary hire same hitman to kill each other (Babylon Bee)

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