Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will still be in front of TV cameras even if Vice President Harris ducks out of two suggested debates, a campaign official told The Post.
If Harris is a no-show, “We’ll do town-halls,” said a Trump official.
Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has only formally agreed to a Sept. 10 contest on ABC.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will still be in front of TV cameras even if Vice President Harris backs out of two suggested debates, according to reports.AP
The former president said during this week’s news conference at Mar-a-Lago that he agreed to a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News and a Sept. 25 debate on NBC.
Harris left open the door to the NBC date, but appeared to rule out Fox News.
“Well, I’m glad that he’s finally agreed to a debate on Sept. 10,” she said Thursday. “I am happy to have that conversation about an additional debate, or after Sept. 10, for sure.”
The vice president has not held a single news conference since President Biden‘s July 21st decision to exit the race.
Trump said during this week’s news conference at Mar-a-Lago that he agreed to a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News and a Sept. 25 debate on NBC.AFP via Getty Images
But one frustrated Democratic insider insisted that Harris is “helping run the country.”
“She doesn’t have time to ramble like [Trump] does.”
Said GOP strategist Matt Wolking: “Right now they feel like it’s safer to keep her in a bubble and let the establishment media do her work for her.”
Facebook has nuked the account of famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkinsafter he said that genetically male boxers should not be allowed to fight womenin the Olympics.
On Saturday morning, Dawkins posted on X about the shocking censorship - saying that there was no reason given for the sudden removal of his account.
"My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?"
[Dawkins presumably meant that he posted it on Facebook, not "tweeted."]
Social media exploded in controversy following a women's Olympic boxing match between Italy's Angela Carini and Imane Khelif of Algeria - in which Carini quit just 46 seconds into the fight after receiving a barrage of powerful punches from Khelif.
Notably, the International Boxing Association banned Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting from last year's World Boxing Championshipsfor having failed gender testing.
"This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors," the IBA said in a statement.
Furthermore, IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS that DNA tests "proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events."
There are debates about whether the two boxers in question were of XY chromosome constitution, had high levels of testosterone (they had previously been disqualified in other competitions), or had genetic disorders of sex development (DSDs).
But regardless, to ban someone’s account for expressing the opinion that genetically male boxers shouldn’t fight against biological women is unconscionable. Richard said that one of the boxers is “XY undisputed,” and since I’ve been out of touch, that may be the case. And if that is the case, then there is a real debate to be had.
There’s a general debate to be had about these boxers anyway since, last I heard, people were arguing about every aspect of the two is subject to dispute.
Facebook botched this one very badly, and should restore Dawkins’s account.
The past month has likely been the most eventful in American political history.
Yet the two top officials of the most powerful nation in the world won’t answer any genuine questions.
Three weeks have passed since Joe Biden was pushed out of the 2024 presidential race over deteriorating physical and mental abilities, and he has yet to publicly clarify with any specificity why he took this unprecedented step — or why, if he’s incapable of campaigning for the presidency, he’s fit to serve out his term in the White House.
The “Momala” Harris interview with Drew Barrymore might be the most cringe-worthy display of fawning in recorded history. The Drew Barrymore Show
Then again, not one journalist in the corporate or legacy media has explained how Biden’s obvious senility could turn from a democracy-corroding MAGA misinformation operation into an accepted reality in a single day.
If they were fooled for three years, how can we trust them?
If they weren’t fooled, and they didn’t tell us, how can we trust them?
Well, we can’t. Because they’re back at it.
Message control
The Democrats’ new presidential candidate, who’s never won a single primary vote, might have been crowned but hasn’t given a real interview or even an extemporaneous political statement since Democrat bigwigs pushed Biden aside.
In a functioning liberal “democracy,” this would be pretty big news.
The last time the vice president of the United States had a press conference was December 2023.
The last time she sat down with any media was June 24, when she was interviewed by the sycophants on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Before that was the “Momala” Harris interview with Drew Barrymore, which might be the most cringe-worthy display of fawning in recorded history.
Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits a campaign office on August 9, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.Getty Images
“What is the incentive for her” to take more questions, a person close to Harris’ campaign asked Politico recently.
“She’s getting out exactly the message she wants to get out.”
Indeed, it’s quite the paradox.
The media continue to baby Kamala and get her message out to the public, so Kamala doesn’t feel the least bit of urgency in clarifying her record.
If they were so inclined, the navel-gazing media could probably get Kamala out of her shell by doing some honest, deep dives into her history and positions.
If her lack of transparency were a daily top-of-the-fold story she would be compelled to speak.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he’s done scores of interviews and pressers over the past few months, many of them with antagonistic venues — including taking questions at the National Association of Black Journalists convention just weeks after surviving an assassination attempt.
Kamala hasn’t spoken to a hostile outlet in years.
She won’t even take questions from her fans.
Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, is compelled to answer questions about a throwaway comment he made on a podcast before he was even in the Senate.
Kamala just sends her minions to walk back major policy positions that would fundamentally affect every American.
She staked out these radical positions only a few years earlier while running for the same office.
Kamala isn’t triangulating her views for a general election, she is effectively negating an entire political history through press releases.
Kamala, for instance, says she no longer supports banning all air travel, meat and combustible engines.
That’s nice.
Kamala says she no longer believes in decriminalizing illegal border crossings.
Good.
The media treat her new claims as indisputable.
No questions asked.
No explanations given.
Is Kamala still going to try to ban semiauto rifles through an executive order?
Does she believe all Americans should “end up in the same place” no matter how hard they work?
Does she support defunding the police?
We have no clue.
Media abdication
Most of the media hackery is driven by partisanship.
Some of it is also driven by access.
There are practical concerns for journalists. Any reporters who truly challenge Kamala are sure to find themselves on the outs.
This is why we need a press, not just an outlet, to take their professional responsibility seriously.
Because right now, they don’t.
Instead, the same people who gaslit the nation, concealing the brittle state of the president for years — not just an abdication of their profession but of their responsibility as citizens — are now ensuring that voters won’t be subjected to Kamala’s swirling mind-bending tautologies and nonsensical stories.
And I’d thank them for it . . . if she weren’t running for president.
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, and author of “The Rise of BlueAnon: How the Democrats Became a Party of Conspiracy Theorists.”
Ukraine forces' cross-border attack into Russia's Kursk region has entered a fifth day, with the Russian defense ministry acknowledging it is "continuing to repel" the offensive which has shocked Kremlin leadership and the population.
But this has apparently led to crackdowns on US-based social media platforms and messaging apps. Friday into Saturday there have been widespread reports that Russia has blocked the Signal messaging app while also throttling YouTube.
State media regulator Roskomnadzor told the RBC business daily on Friday that Signal has been banned from the country for "violations" of national law
It has been restricted "due to violations of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes," Roskomnadzor stated.
The statement came Friday within hours after users across Russia complained of widespread outages for the secure messaging app which allows for communication via encrypted text and calls.
Russian opposition activist and independent journalists who are critical of the Kremlin have complained that this move primarily targets them, as they heavily rely on Signal in their reporting and to talk to sources. Similarly, Russia had banned Telegram's messaging app in 2018.
As for YouTube, while it has not been banned, users have noticed loading speeds significantly drop. Some regions of Russia have seen users say that it is inaccessible. This as Russian reserve and national defense convoys have been observed on Russian highways headed south in large numbers.
Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said thousands of glitches had been reported on Thursday with users saying they could only access the platform through virtual private networks (VPNs).
“YouTube is not working,” one anonymous user said in comments on the site.
Reuters news agency reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube. The website remained available on some mobile devices.
A Russian political scientist named Boris Pastukhov, who maintains a popular YouTube channel, has said, "We’ve seen that particular regions lose Youtube connectivity overall or slow down by 90 percent for a few days, which is not really explainable by servers being old."
The fear is that YouTube could be next to be blocked by Kremlin authorities, but this would prove a deeply unpopular move among the Russian population. Reports commonly estimate that more than 50 million Russians use YouTube every day.
At this point a whopping 76,000+ Russians living near southern border areas have had to evacuate their homes amid the ongoing Ukrainian cross-border offensive.
Moscow on Saturday mounted a "counter-terror operation" in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv's advance deeper into Russia and warned that the fighting endangered a nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian units stormed into Russia's western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack, the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv of the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Its troops have advanced several kilometers and Russia's army has rushed in reserves and extra equipment, including convoys of tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units – though neither side has given precise details on the extent of the forces they have committed.
Russia's nuclear agency on Saturday warned the Ukrainian attack posed a "direct threat" to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station.
At least 16,000 civilians have left their homes in Russian border areas, where emergency aid and medical supplies have been ferried in, and extra trains to the capital Moscow have been put on for people fleeing.
TASS has subsequently put this figure at over 76,000 Russian citizens who have had to be emergency evacuated to safety as fighting encroached on dozens of towns and villages, citing the country's Emergencies Ministry.
President Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of "indiscriminately firing various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian facilities, residential buildings, and ambulances." US-supplied equipment, especially Bradley Fighting Vehicles, have been observed during the assault.
Verifiable information coming from the areas of fighting in Kursk has been scant. Each side is claiming successes and advances, but as we detailed Friday President Putin and top Kremlin leadership were caught off guard by these surprise developments.
With scenes like the below now widely unfolding in Russia's southern oblasts, Moscow is likely about to hit Ukraine hard, but it must restore stability and security to Kursk, Belgorod, and Lipetsk first.
Government of Kursk region of Russia/AP
With evidence of a large-scale tank deployment on its own territory to repel the Ukrainian invaders, Russia is very likely to accelerate its war in Ukraine. This is indeed a significant turning point, and not helping matters is the fact that the US is appearing to positively back the cross-border move by Kiev.
With Gilead Sciences on the verge of an FDA decision for its liver disease drug seladelpar, the company has paid Johnson & Johnson $320 million to exit an 18-year-old licensing agreement on the compound.
The buyout removes Gilead’s obligation to pay an 8% royalty on sales of seladelpar, Gilead Chief Financial Officer Andrew Dickinson said Thursday on a quarterly conference call. The licensing deal was struck in 2006, with J&J agreeing to handle the patenting of seladelpar for CymaBay Therapeutics.
In February of this year, Gilead paid $4.3 billion to acquire the California biotech, which had positioned seladelpar for approval to treat primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). An approval is expected to come by the FDA target date of Wednesday, Aug. 14, with Gilead standing “ready to launch,” according to Chief Commercial Officer Johanna Mercier.
“We are able to leverage our existing commercial footprint in liver diseases and continue building upon these relationships to quickly bring seladelpar to many of the 130,000 people impacted by PBC in the U.S. who progressed after initial treatment,” Mercier said.
PBC is an autoimmune condition characterized by impaired bile flow and the accumulation of bile acids in the liver, leading to inflammation and fibrosis.
Over time, patients become increasingly fatigued and develop a debilitating itch (pruritus). In the absence of treatment, the condition can require a liver transplant or lead to premature death. It primarily affects women between the ages of 30 and 60.
An analyst consensus compiled by Bloomberg early this year pegged seladelpar’s peak sales potential at $1 billion.
If approved, Gilead's drug will compete with Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva, which was approved for the disorder in 2016. Before Intercept was acquired by Italian private company Alfasigma last year, it expected sales of Ocaliva in 2023 to reach between $320 million and $340 million.
Additionally, two months ago, French companies Genfit and Ipsen scored approval for their PBC drug Iqirvo.
A (now former) Labour councillor who was filmed telling a crowd in London on Wednesday that far-Right rioters are “disgusting” and should have their throats cut has been charged with encouraging violent disorder.
Ricky Jones, 57, was arrested on Thursday and is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this afternoon.
Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for north London, said:
“Jones was filmed addressing a crowd in Walthamstow on Wednesday August 7th during which he appeared to make remarks and a gesture to encourage others to act violently towards far-Right protesters.”
Ricky Jones, a councillor for Princes, in Dartford, was seen on video footage telling anti-racism protesters in Walthamstow, north-east London: “We need to cut all their throats.”
...
The Metropolitan Police confirmed his arrest on suspicion of encouraging murder Thursday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which included the original footage of Mr. Jones addressing protesters.
The post said that a man aged in his 50s had been arrested at an address in south east London and “was held on suspicion of encouraging murder and for an offence under the Public Order Act.”
Scotland Yard said Mr. Jones, a paid organiser with the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union, was being held in custody at a south London police station.
Before his arrest, the 57-year-old had been suspended from the Labour Party, meaning he will no longer sit as a Labour councillor.
A Labour spokesman said:
“This behaviour is completely unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated. The councillor has been suspended from the party.”
A TSSA spokesman said:
“TSSA remains steadfast in supporting communities that peacefully stand against fascist aggression. We unequivocally do not condone any threats or acts of violence, as these actions are contrary to our values.”
The union did not say whether any action would be taken against Mr. Jones.
In Leeds, two Asian men have been jailed for attacking a group of four white men, one of whom was draped in a Union flag and wearing a Union flag mask.
In Northamptonshire, a 26 year-old man has been jailed for three years and two months after stirring up racial hatred by using social media to call for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set alight, telling commenters it was “100% the plan”.
Goldman Sachs analyst Scott Feiler told clients this AM theconsumer is experiencing a "noticeable slowdown, moderation, or whatever term we choose to use—it's quite evident by now."
Across industries—from luxury brands, airlines, and travel companies to fast-food chains, theme parks, and consumer goods companies—profit warnings and management teams have signaled that a consumer slowdown continues to gain momentum.
Low/mid-tier consumers seem to have reached their limit in absorbing price hikes on goods and services, thanks to depleted personal savings and maxed-out credit cards. This is due to a period of elevated inflation and high interest rates under failed Bideonomics.
The second quarter has displayed unmistakable signs of a consumer slowdown, with the latest credit card data from the Federal Reserve also indicating that some consumers have hit a proverbial 'brick wall.'
For deeper insight into the views of management teams and the analysts who engage with white-collar execs on earnings calls, we've identified several key phrases regarding the consumer mentioned on earnings calls that provide a glimpse into the overall tone on Wall Street. Spoiler alert: the tone is not great.
Let's begin with the number of times "consumer downturn" was mentioned on earnings calls, spiking to six this earnings season, the highest level since GFC.
The number of times "cautious consumer" was mentioned 33 times, a record high.
"Consumer pressure" mentions still lingers near record highs.
"Consumer weakness" mentions surged again.
Talk of "low-income" consumers remains extremely elevated.
Conversations about "credit card debt" are near record highs.
The last time "trading down" spiked on earnings calls was during the GFC.
Talk of "hard landing" remains high.
Perhaps the 'sudden recession' scare earlier this week makes much more sense, given the consumer weakness.
