Government & Politics

MEDIA THRASHING: “Media members thrashed Robert Mueller’s anticipated appearance Wednesday on Capitol Hill, calling the hearing a ‘disaster’ for Democrats and saying the former special counsel was ‘boring’ and didn’t defend his work forcefully,” The Washington Free Beacon reports. Meanwhile, Fox News provides five key takeaways.

NO PROSECUTION FOR BARR: “The Justice Department said Wednesday it will not prosecute Attorney General William P. Barr for contempt of Congress, rejecting House Democrats’ attempt last week to punish Mr. Barr in a spat over the 2020 census. The move is in keeping with longstanding department policy, and follows the lead of the Obama administration, which likewise refused to prosecute then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after he was held in criminal contempt.” (The Washington Times)

ASYLUM BAN BLOCKED: “Delivering a painful defeat to the Trump administration’s most sweeping effort to single-handedly overhaul the asylum system without Congress, a federal judge on Wednesday blocked a rule that made most migrants from Central America and other countries ineligible for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. … Earlier on Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington declined to block the policy as requested by plaintiffs in a second court challenge to the controversial policy.” (CBS News)

FEDERAL EXECUTIONS RESUME: “The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it will resume capital punishment for the first time in nearly two decades. Attorney General William Barr has directed that executions for five death-row inmates be scheduled. If carried out, they will be the first federal executions since 2003.” (The Hill)

Legislation

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? “The House voted 264-169 on Wednesday to pass legislation that would create a new Treasury Department agency to provide taxpayer-backed loans to endangered multiemployer pension plans and some other types of endangered plans.” (Washington Examiner)

A BROKEN BLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY: “On Wednesday, in a lopsided 429-3 vote, the House passed a bill that will stop bad robocalls.” (The Daily Wire)

TRUMP VETO: “President Trump has vetoed three congressional resolutions that would block his emergency arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). … Congress is not expected to have the two-thirds majority needed to override Trump’s vetoes.” (The Hill)

National Security

NOKO PROVOKES: “North Korea test-fired two new short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its first missile test since its leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to revive denuclearisation talks last month. … Firing a ballistic missile would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the North from the use of such technology.” (Reuters)

CHINA RANCOR: “China sharpened its hostility toward the United States and Taiwan in a new high-level report on its future military strategy that accused Washington and its allies of undermining global stability. Releasing the document on Wednesday, officials of the People’s Liberation Army repeatedly warned that Beijing would be willing to deploy military force to assert its claims over Taiwan.” (The Washington Post)

Around the Nation

PUERTO RICO GOV. RESIGNS: “Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation Wednesday days after demonstrators at the island’s largest protest in recent history called for his ouster over a scandal involving leaked private chats as well as corruption investigations and arrests. His resignation, effective Aug. 2, came late Wednesday night on a recorded video published on Facebook.” (NBC News)

EPSTEIN INJURED: “Jeffrey Epstein was reportedly found injured in a New York City jail cell on Tuesday after a possible suicide attempt. Epstein, 66, was discovered at the Metropolitan Correctional Center nearly unconscious and with wounds to his neck.” (Fox News)

Closing Arguments

POLICY: Proposed rule change would increase SNAP integrity (American Enterprise Institute)

POLICY: How to make student debt affordable and equitable (Manhattan Institute)

HUMOR: “I’m still sharp as a tack,” insists Mueller moments before taking phone call on a banana (The Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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