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- Iran Denies It’s in Talks with US — Hours After Trump Teased ‘Imminent’ ...
Alex Brandon/AP Photo Iran has denied it is engaged in negotiations with the U.S. — directly contradicting President Donald Trump’s announcement made just hours earlier that fresh talks aimed at ending the six-month conflict would begin Monday and that a peace deal was “imminent.” “We are not currently negotiating with the United States. Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing. The statement came after Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that negotiations would start “tomorrow afternoon” and focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. The president also claimed he had abandoned plans for what he described as “the biggest attack since World War II” after appeals from Iran and regional allies including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. “I’m not looking to kill people, ’cause people die,” Trump told reporters. “A lot of people die. And we don’t want that.” He added: “Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.” Trump also declared over the weekend that the “perimeters” of a deal had been agreed to, and days after he warned the U.S. would strike Iran “very hard” if diplomacy failed. Previous ceasefire efforts collapsed last month, triggering renewed exchanges after Iran attacked a shipping vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Baqaei added that talks between Iran and Oman were close to reaching an understanding on a shipping route “acceptable to both sides,” adding: “We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides – neither the northern route nor the southern route – but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security.” He stressed, however, that any agreement would not amount to reopening the strait.The post Iran Denies It’s in Talks with US — Hours After Trump Teased ‘Imminent’ Deal first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - Todd Blanche Scraps Trump’s $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Days Before Se...
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally rescinded the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund late Sunday after reaching an agreement with Republican senators who had withheld support for his nomination. The fund, which emerged from a settlement tied to President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, drew criticism because payments could have extended to participants in the January 6 Capitol riot. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) had made clear they would not back Blanche’s confirmation unless the administration abandoned the fund. Blanche announced Sunday that he had signed an order eliminating the fund following weeks of negotiations with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to vote on advancing his nomination to serve as attorney general permanently on Tuesday. “My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions,” Blanche wrote on X. “We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement. The Department always welcomes and appreciates productive engagement with all members of Congress.” My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions. We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and as a result issue the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement. The… pic.twitter.com/U6hs15kw2D — Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) August 3, 2026 The signed order accompanying the post states that the attorney general’s May directive creating the fund “is rescinded and shall have no force or effect,” adding: “This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no fund.” The move removes a major obstacle just days before a pivotal Senate committee vote, but comes after Trump vowed he would “push hard” to revive the fund, despite Blanche previously telling Congress it was effectively defunct. Sunday’s order also narrows another disputed element of the IRS settlement involving tax audit protections for Trump and his family. Under the revised language, the agreement applies only to claims that were already open when the settlement was reached and does not prevent future examinations of the president’s tax filings. Watch above via CNN.The post Todd Blanche Scraps Trump’s $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Days Before Senate Vote first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - Letters: Tower Light Logging, VOMs and Plain Talk
Here is a sampling from recent letters to the editor. Read more Radio World reader letters. Should We Log Tower Light Observations? Regarding Gregg Skall’s article “What to Know About Your Station Log” in the May 20 issue: I have spent most of the last 25 years conducting ABIP inspections in New England and Florida. Before that I was a station owner, chief engineer/operator and director of engineering for 50+ years. Gregg states that regular observations of tower lights must be logged. I agree 100% that this is an incredibly smart practice. However I cannot find in the regs that the actual logging of these observations is required. FCC rule 47 CFR § 17.47 requires that these observations be made (unless there is an alarm system in use) but does not explicitly state that they must be written down in a station log. Moreover, 73.1820 talks about the logging of lights that have been extinguished or are not functioning properly, but it is silent regarding making an entry when everything is functioning correctly. Logging regular observations is prudent, especially if there should ever be a problem such as a plane strike. However I fail to see where making these entries has been codified into the rules. Robert A Shotwell Former owner Spectrum Investigative Services Inc. Author Gregg Skall responds: Bob Shotwell is correct. The article’s wording was not intended to suggest that logging of regular observations is required; it’s not. However, if you observe extinguished or malfunctioning is observed, the log must state the nature of the problem, the date and time of extinguishment or improper operation, and the date, time and nature of adjustments, repairs or replacements. Fig. 1: A small multimeter that fits into a tool kit. I’ll take the VOM Hi Mark Persons: My preferred type of multimeter (“Here’s Something I Can’t Live Without”) is still the analog VOM or volt-ohm-milliammeter. Sometimes waiting for the digital voltmeter or digital multimeter to lock up can cause one to lose a significant event. The meter sweep of the VOM can show the transient of interest that has a rise or decay time much faster than the DMM can provide a solution (voltage or current indication) for. One such usage is tracking down ringer failures on analog phone lines — yeah, those still exist in my world. From there you can determine if the signal occurrence is OK or… [TheTopNews] Read More.12 hours ago - Kamala Harris Reveals Her Master Plan for Democrats to Beat ‘Cheating’ Repub...It might be time to ditch the the Electoral College, according to Kamala Harris. The ex-vice president floated the idea as one of her suggestions for her fellow Democrats, if they want to beat the “ruthless” Republicans in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Harris dished her three-pronged plan for Dems while speaking at the National Urban League Conference on July 31 in Nashville. She said Dems have no choice but to consider radical ideas as a way to counter “cheating” by the GOP. “I know this is going to be controversial coming from me in particular — we need to revisit the Electoral College,” Harris said. The idea drew a few claps from the crowd. “We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts,” she continued. “We need to revisit, if they so want, statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.” Harris, of course, was talking about adding four judges to the U.S. Supreme Court. Former President Joe Biden was the last commander-in-chief to pick a Supreme Court justice back in 2022, when Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed. Her recommendation Dems need to “revisit” the Electoral College comes two years after she lost it 312-226 to President Donald Trump. The president received about 77.3 million votes in 2024 — which was a shade less than 50% of the votes — on his way to winning 31 states, while Harris earned roughly 75 million votes. Harris on Friday ripped one of Trump’s ’24 slogans as a way to drive home her point about drastic changes. “In light of and in this environment where they are cheating, we will be too big to rig. Too big to rig,” she said. “It means being ruthless — they are ruthless! We need to be ruthless too.” Harris continued, “and by that, I do not mean cruel. That is not our nature. By that I do not mean breaking the law. That is not what we do. But I do mean we must be uncompromising, and we must allow for a real conversation about revisiting certain things.” Watch above via Fox Nashville on YouTube.The post Kamala Harris Reveals Her Master Plan for Democrats to Beat ‘Cheating’ Republicans: ‘This Is Going To Be Controversial…’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.13 hours ago
- Trump Makes the Case For His Anti-Weaponization Fund: ‘Their Families Were Des...President Donald Trump made a case for moving forward with his “anti-weaponization fund” during a flight aboard Air Force One on Sunday. After a day of golf at his Bedminster Club, Trump answered reporters’ questions during a brief gaggle, while pausing to take a shot at ABC News. REPORTER: You said the anti-weapon — TRUMP: Who are you with? REPORTER: I’m with ABC News. You said the anti-weaponization — TRUMP: BBC? REPORTER: ABC. TRUMP: Oh, ABC. That’s worse. REPORTER: You said the anti-weaponization — TRUMP: I like BBC better than ABC News. “The anti-weaponization fund is back on the table. What are your plans?” the reporter finally managed. “No, if they don’t approve — Look, we have a man named Todd Blanche. He’s outstanding in every way. Most of you know who he is. You’re not gonna find a better person. And everybody agrees. And it’s because I backed Cornyn’s opponent and his opponent won in a landslide. That’s the only reason it’s happening,” Trump said. “But I will say there are a lot of people that like — People were hurt so badly,” Trump continued. “Twenty-two suicides. They were destroyed. Their families were destroyed for doing things that, honestly, there’s never been an attack on any group of people in this country, in my opinion. Maybe one. There’s one group that was attacked violently and viciously, like these people were attacked. And this would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered. A lot of people like it.” “If they don’t approve Todd, I’ll put it back on the table. A lot of people like it. A lot of big supporters of Trump like it,” he added. Lame-duck Senate Republicans John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have all said they will not vote for Blanche unless they get written assurances that Trump’s $1.8 billion fund is completely dead. At issue are the people Trump wants to pay off, including the Jan. 6 rioters. In a Friday interview on CNN, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said “the math’s just not there” on a Blanche confirmation. “I’m a hard no on Blanche, and I mean, I haven’t encountered a single…Republican that’s like, ‘Oh, I love that $1.8 billion slush fund,’ or whatever you want to refer to it at all,” Fetterman said. “It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, it’s unconstitutional, honestly, from what… [TheTopNews] Read More.14 hours ago
- ‘I’m Not Looking to Kill People’: Trump Declares Iran Peace Deal Is ‘Imm...President Donald Trump announced a peace deal with Iran is “imminent” while speaking to reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One. The president said talks to finalize the agreement will begin on Monday, with Trump saying the U.S. will get the two things he has pushed for most: the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a guarantee Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump said he was ready for a full-blown assault this weekend, but called it off at the last minute after Iran pleaded for him to abort the mission; the president said Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries also lobbied him to postpone the strikes. “I’m not looking to kill people, ’cause people die,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people die. And we don’t want that.” He added it was going to be the “biggest attack since World War II,” but he was holding off on it to see how the latest round of deal talks go. Trump on Saturday said the “perimeters of a deal” had been agreed to. His announcement came a day after he said the U.S. planned on ramping up its strikes on Iran. “We will be hitting them very hard,” Trump said during a televised press conference Friday at Camp David. “And you know at some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’” The Wall Street Journal reported on the same day,”For weeks behind closed doors, Trump has been telling aides that the Iranians are ‘crazy,’ according to U.S. officials. He also has complained to confidants that the interim peace deal was ultimately meaningless, officials said, and that he always knew it wasn’t going to work.” The latest deal talks follow the 60-day ceasefire agreement the U.S. and Iran reached in mid-June. But that agreement fell apart after Iran hit a Cyprus-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz last month, leading to nearly two straight weeks of retaliatory strikes from the U.S. Trump on Sunday said he was hopeful this time around would be different. “We will see,” he said about the deal talks. “I would love to do that and save a lot of lives.” Watch above via Fox News.The post ‘I’m Not Looking to Kill People’: Trump Declares Iran Peace Deal Is ‘Imminent’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.15 hours ago
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