Despite protests from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family and the civil rights group he once led, the Trump administration has made public records of the FBI's surveillance of the slain civil rights icon.
Why it matters: The move pits President Trump's determination to release documents the government has kept secret for more than a half-century against the family's lingering pain over how J. Edgar Hoover's FBI spied on King and tried to intimidate and humiliate him.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will consult with his caucus Tuesday before deciding whether Democrats will go scorched earth against their Republican colleagues during this year's appropriations process.
Why it matters: TopDemocrats have hinted the party may not play ball with the GOP on the funding proceedings, risking a government shutdown at the end of September.
House members are watching with growing discomfort as Democrats in California and other blue states consider joining Texas Republicans in pursuing mid-decade redistricting to gain an advantage in the 2026 midterms.
Why it matters: It threatens, as one Democratic lawmaker put it, a "race to the bottom" that will encourage both sides to test the limits of gerrymandering and further fan the partisan flames engulfing the country.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is stuck between the public, painful demands from President Trump to cancel the August recess and the pleas of members to let them go home.
Why it matters: For senators, the summer recess is next to holy. For the president, confirming his nominees is simply more important.
Why it matters: The judge's July 18 ruling strikes down the "recruitment" section of the 2024 law, which made it illegal for adults to "recruit" minors to get legal, out-of-state abortions.
The case highlights how speech has become a new battleground in the abortion debate.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that President Trump was unhappy with Israel's airstrikes in Syria last week and called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "rectify" the situation.
The intrigue: Axios reported Sundaythat Israel's decision to bomb Syrian tanks and government buildings last week alarmed senior U.S. officials and deepened their concerns over Israel's policies across the region.
The White House is pulling the Wall Street Journal's spot in the press pool covering President Trump's trip to Scotland, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
The big picture: The decision came after Trump sued the news outlet Friday over a story describinga letter bearing his name that the WSJ says was given to Jeffrey Epstein. The president has maintained the letter is "fake."
Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and D.C. are suing the Trump administration over a policy change that restricted undocumented immigrants' access to community health centers, Head Start and other services they've used for decades.
The big picture: The AGs argue the changes put key social safety net programs at risk of closing.
Grocery prices are up 3% over the last year,the latest Consumer Price Index report shows, representing a quiet rise broadly in line with expectations that could still pinch a lower-income family's budget.
Why it matters: With everyday essentials such as coffee rising 13.4% since last June, American families are feeling the pinch at the supermarket, as climate change and other factors decrease predictability in food costs.
Some 700 Marines are being withdrawn from Los Angeles more than a month after they were deployed to respond to protests against federal immigration raids, the Pentagon announced Monday.
The big picture: The Trump administration mobilized more than 4,000 California National Guard troops and roughly 700 Marines in response to the protests, despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Hunter Biden suggested in one of his first interviews since the 2024 election that former President Biden's disastrous presidential debate was partially the result of taking Ambien while traveling.
The big picture: The debate marked a turning point that led to Biden'swithdrawal from the 2024 election, dropping former Vice President Kamala Harris into the race with less than four months to campaign in an ultimately unsuccessful bid.
Nearly 300 current and former NASA employees rebuked the Trump administration's "dismantling cuts and devastating attacks" in an open letter shared Monday.
The big picture: The federal budget for fiscal year 2026 cuts NASA's science spending by 47%, though billions in funding were included in President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" and could be restored.
Polymarket is poised to legally return to the U.S. as prediction markets become an increasingly popular place for Americans to chase riches based on future outcomes.
Why it matters: Polymarket has technically been blocked for Americans, but an unknown number of users have found ways to use the platform.
Justin Fulcher, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has left the Pentagon, Fulcher confirmed on Saturday.
Why it matters: Fulcher's departure marks at least the sixth senior-level staff to leavethe Pentagon in recent months, following a series of scandals and a string of leaks within the Department of Defense.
The U.S. has reached an "inflection point" that demands "swift and decisive action" to reverse erosion of industrial capacity and tech leadership, warns a major new report from the nonprofit Securing America's Future Energy.
Why it matters: "The rise of China as a global economic and military competitor presents one of the most existential challenges the United States has faced in its history," it finds.
President Trump is already fixated behind the scenes on next year's midterm elections for the House and Senate — unleashing his billion-dollar political operation and personally burrowing into the minutiae of races.
Why it matters: Now that his "big beautiful bill" has passed Congress, Trump's ability to accomplish more big things there — and avoid impeachment — hinges on keeping the GOP's razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress in his last two years in office.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City's surprise Democratic nominee for mayor, is scrambling to woo lawmakers, donors, and the city's elite who are wary of the democratic socialist.
So far, they're mostly playing hard to get.
Why it matters: In their party's ongoing identity crisis, many Democrats have attacked or refused to endorse Mamdani to lead the nation's largest city, while others on the left have rallied around the 33-year-old political phenom.
The gutting of federal funding for public broadcasters is expected to cause hundreds of local station groups to significantly scale back or shutter across the country, often in rural places where there isn't any other local news source.
Why it matters: Public broadcasters don't just provide news, but also critical information alerts that can mean life or death for local communities.
