Author: Rana McCallister

Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche survived a crucial Senate standoff after rescinding a $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund and narrowing tax audit protections tied to an IRS settlement, winning the support of previously reluctant GOP senators and clearing the path for a likely party-line Judiciary Committee vote to advance his nomination. It’s official: the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund is, on paper, dead. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went from a nominee with bleak prospects to one who secured the backing of key Senate Republicans after signing an order on August 2 that rescinded the fund and tightened the scope of tax-audit…

The Senate will hold a test vote Monday on a stopgap appropriations bill released Sunday evening that aims to keep the government open through Dec. 11, and the measure carries bipartisan support as lawmakers work under a looming deadline. Senators will face a simple, high-stakes question Monday when they cast a test vote on the short-term funding plan. The stopgap bill is meant to stop a government shutdown by extending funding until Dec. 11. It was released Sunday evening and shows bipartisan support, but the vote is a first step, not a finish line. Republicans have been clear that a…

Young migrants risk dangerous sea crossings to reach Spanish Ceuta, arriving exhausted and uncertain about what comes next. Small groups and lone travelers keep arriving in Ceuta, drawn by the legal and geographic distinction that separates the Spanish enclave from the rest of Morocco. Local officials and humanitarian groups are juggling urgent needs: shelter, food, medical checks and legal orientation for people who land after perilous sea journeys. The human stories are immediate and raw, and they point to larger migration patterns across the Mediterranean and nearby coasts. Dikra, a 20-year-old migrant from Morocco, had spent five days in Ceuta…

A tense showdown over Todd Blanche’s rise at the Department of Justice has turned into a test of President Trump’s influence with Senate Republicans, as holdout senators demand guarantees and the White House weighs pulling a nomination to wait out their departures. The fight over Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has become a raw measure of power inside the Republican coalition. Blanche, nominated to lead the Department of Justice on June 8 after serving as acting AG since April 2, is at the center of a standoff that reaches beyond one personnel fight and into how much a president can,…

J.D. Vance stands out from the usual political playbook, and that difference is at the heart of the backlash he faces from elites and critics on both coasts. J.D. Vance is not in sync with that crowd. That’s why they hate him. Plain and simple: he speaks for people who feel ignored by the political class, and that makes the insiders uncomfortable. When someone with his background refuses to nod along with every elite talking point, he gets attacked from every direction. Vance rose from Ohio’s working-class communities to national attention with a book that captured real struggles in real…

Anthropic’s AI models successfully breached security infrastructure at three organizations during recent cybersecurity “capture the flag” exercises, revealing how automated systems can exploit basic human vulnerabilities and procedural gaps in real-world settings. Anthropic’s models showed they could identify and exploit weak points that humans routinely create, flipping the script on traditional red team assessments. The testing happened during controlled “capture the flag” scenarios, where defenders expect probing but not always clever automation that leverages social engineering. These results underscore how AI can amplify low-effort tactics into scalable threats. Reporters and security teams observed the models using straightforward techniques to achieve…

The Senate unanimously recorded its opposition to clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, tying that rebuke to questions around a pending attorney general nomination and the wider political stakes of a potential pardon. All 100 senators supported a non-binding resolution declaring opposition to any pardon, commutation, or executive clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking conspiracy and trafficking of a minor. Senator Jacky Rosen brought the measure to the floor and asked for unanimous consent, and no senator objected. That vote leaves an unmistakable political mark even if it carries no legal force. The resolution makes…

American oil and gas giants posted massive spring profits even as clashes between Iran and the U.S. disrupted shipments, pushed fuel prices higher, and left consumers around the world facing tighter supplies and higher costs. Big oil recorded unusually large gains in the spring months while global petroleum flows were squeezed by tensions in the Middle East. Those profits arrived at the same time that tanker routes were interrupted and insurance and freight costs rose, making it harder to move crude and refined products where they were needed. Consumers felt the squeeze at the pump and in household budgets as…

Establishment Democrats and self-styled democratic socialists are clashing in public and private, with heated confrontations over rhetoric, policy and electoral strategy sparking questions about the party’s coherence and what voters actually mean when they claim to support socialism. The internal fights have played out from national figures to city mayors, and they show a party pulling in two directions at once. Longtime insiders have publicly challenged progressive rhetoric and policy plans, while a sizeable faction of Democratic voters embraces democratic socialism or tolerates its candidates. That split is reshaping debates over taxes, foreign policy messaging and who represents the party…

Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis have shown a clear pattern of putting political survival and insider instincts ahead of the voters who put them in office, and that attitude was on full display during Todd Blanche’s Senate confirmation process. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have a lot in common. Both are soon to be unemployed, and both have a serial hatred for the people who elected them to public office. That disdain has never been more apparent than it has throughout Todd Blanche’s Senate confirmation process to become America’s next attorney. The confirmation hearings were supposed…