• Bolton probe update: John Bolton sent information from classified documents to people close to him during his time at the White House in preparation for his 2020 memoir. This information came to light during the Biden administration, after U.S. agencies obtained it from a foreign adversary’s spy service. The FBI executed a search warrant of Bolton’s home and office last week related to the emails. CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed FBI Director Kash Patel on the emails ahead of the latest developments in this investigation. Although the information was shared improperly, it is not believed to have been ultimately included in the book.

• Bowser sees the light: Credit Washington, DC, Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser for setting aside partisan politics to recognize a good thing. On Wednesday, she acknowledged that Donald Trump’s emergency takeover of the DC police force to combat the city’s high crime has been successful. Bowser said she “greatly appreciates” the resources Trump’s order has provided, noting, “We know that we have had fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides, and we have experienced an extreme reduction in carjackings.” Bowser particularly highlighted the drop in carjackings, down 87% from a year ago, stating, “We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicides or robberies go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer.” Over 1,000 individuals have been arrested since Trump’s order, hundreds of whom are illegal aliens, some with ties to MS-13 or Tren de Aragua.

• Subway-hurling goon evades indictment: There’s an old saying: “A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich.” Well, a grand jury refused to indict the now-infamous DC sandwich thrower. The U.S. Attorney’s office attempted to charge Sean Charles Dunn with felony assault of an officer for throwing his Subway sandwich, but prosecutors failed to convince the jurors to pursue the case. Indictments are usually easily obtained, but the Trump administration may be pushing a bit too hard in recent days. This is the second failed indictment this week, as jurors also failed to pursue the case against Sidney Ried, who “forcefully pushed” an FBI agent’s hand against a cement wall, causing lacerations, during an immigration protest.

• GDP revised upward: The Commerce Department has revised its second-quarter GDP calculations upward, increasing the estimate from a 3.0% to a 3.3% annualized rate. The primary reason for the revision is higher-than-anticipated household spending. Americans spent more on healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and dining out. Meanwhile, businesses bought more equipment and software products. This is further evidence that the U.S. economy is rebounding from the malaise of the Biden era.

• Trump ends small-package loophole: In his ongoing effort to combat fentanyl trafficking, President Trump ordered the closing of the so-called “de minimis” loophole. On Thursday, the White House announced that, beginning at noon today, all foreign-shipped packages worth less than $800 would no longer be allowed to avoid duties and close inspections. For decades, the U.S. had allowed packages worth less than $800 to ship from foreign countries into the U.S. duty-free. Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, asserted that closing this loophole will “save thousands of American lives.” However, it will also generate additional revenue, which appears to be a significant motive for this action. This could disrupt some people’s orders from foreign countries, such as Mexico, which has temporarily suspended shipments as it develops a system to calculate tariffs and duties on packages to comply with the new law.

• Appeals court revives Christian’s lawsuit against trans surgery: Valerie Kloosterman, a Christian who worked as a physician assistant at the University of Michigan’s medical center until she was fired in 2022 following her request for a religious exemption from referring patients for sex-change treatments, will be allowed to continue pursuing her religious discrimination lawsuit against the hospital. On Wednesday, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision, with Judge Eric Murphy writing that “the defendants sought to avoid arbitration altogether by asking for a complete judicial victory.” Kloosterman, who had worked at the hospital for 17 years without any performance complaints against her, was terminated following a meeting with the hospital’s DEI officials, one of whom called her “evil” for her refusal to use patients’ preferred pronouns.

• Dems REALLY hate country’s direction: Roughly 0% (technically 0.4%) of Democrats are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. in 2025. Meanwhile, 76% of Republicans approve of the direction of the country. The 76-point gap is the largest ever measured by Gallup on the issue. Trump’s job approval is even more divided, with 93% approval from Republicans and only 1% from Democrats. Trump’s approval rating on most issues is slightly down compared to his first-term averages, but it has dropped sharply on the economy. In his first term, Trump averaged 52% approval from Americans on his handling of the economy. In his second term, it’s down 15 points to just 37% approval. If the data is to be believed, the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans has never been stronger.

• Leftist group secretly paid influencers to push Dem propaganda: Social media influencing is a nebulous job that doesn’t yet have many rules or regulations. Perhaps that’s why the nonprofit Chorus thought it could pay Democrat political influencers $8,000 a month while totally concealing any connection. The influencers were offered $8,000 per month but were restricted in the type of content they could produce and were absolutely forbidden from revealing that they were part of the “Creator Incubator Program.” Partnership disclosures are a standard journalism practice, but similar practices don’t bind creators and influencers. Graham Wilson, a lawyer involved in the project, bragged on a Zoom call that housing this program in a nonprofit allowed them to avoid the standard “Paid for by…” disclaimers usually attached to political advertising. More than 90 creators were set to take part in the program, bringing Chorus’s monthly payout to $720,000.

Headlines

• FinCEN issues advisory and financial trend analysis on Chinese money laundering networks (Teasury.gov)

• Hegseth ends Pentagon’s use of Chinese engineers to support cloud systems (National Review)

• Iran dealt major blow by “snapback” nuclear sanctions (Newsweek)

• Canadian man charged with illegally voting in U.S. elections (WECT)

• Major Atlanta newspaper eliminating dozens of jobs, scrapping print edition of paper (Fox Business)

• Nantucket’s sewage reveals higher than average cocaine levels in the water (Fox News)

• Parents sue OpenAI, say ChatGPT helped son commit suicide (Not the Bee)

• Loudoun County school has male-only bathroom for staff, but not students (7News)

• Humor: Britain announces reverse crusade where they invite Muslims to come and destroy England (Babylon Bee)

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