Latest news with #Punchbowl
News.com.au
6 days ago
- News.com.au
Alleged road rage incident leaves man unconscious
A man has been injured in a suspected road rage incident in Sydney's southwest. Around 9:50pm on Friday, emergency services were called to a street in Punchbowl after witnesses discovered a man lying unconscious on the road. Police and paramedics arrived to find the 55-year-old man with serious injuries. He was treated at the scene before being transported to Liverpool Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition. The investigation is in its early stages however police believe the man had been driving when he stopped at a red light. It's suspected he exited his vehicle to speak with someone, which may have led to a confrontation. An e-bike was found at the scene, though the rider reportedly left shortly afterwards. Investigators are exploring whether the e-bike rider was involved in the incident.
SBS Australia
7 days ago
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Palestinian woman released from detention after Australian visa cancellation
A Palestinian woman detained for over a week following the cancellation of her visa has been released overnight. Maha Almassri was taken from her home in Punchbowl in Sydney's south-west at 5am last Thursday, and initially held in Bankstown police station before being transferred to Villawood detention centre, according to her family. Her Australian visa was cancelled by Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill after failing the character test, according to a document seen by SBS News. A private Facebook post confirmed her release on Thursday night, which SBS News has verified with a source close to the family. Details of the release are unknown, and the status of her visa is unclear. Australia's Migration Act grants its home affairs minister — or a chosen delegate — the right to cancel a person's visa on character grounds or if the cancellation is deemed to be "in the national interest". The document stated that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation assessed Almassri to be "directly or indirectly a risk to security", therefore deeming she "objectively fails the character test". Alison Battisson, a lawyer acting for Almassri, declined to comment. SBS News contacted Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's office for comment. "The government will not be commenting on this cancellation," a spokesperson for Burke told SBS News. "Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual or her family and is not necessarily consistent with the information held by our intelligence and security agencies."
Politico
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Playbook PM: Redistricting ruffles the 2026 race
Presented by THE CATCH-UP 2026 ON THE BRAIN: President Donald Trump spoke with Texas Republicans this morning, ominously writing on Truth Social that 'with the right Candidate, Texas isn't 'going Blue' anytime soon!' The point of the call? To mobilize the GOP to get five new red seats through the mid-decade redistricting process — a massive undertaking that could have big 2026 implications, as Punchbowl's Jake Sherman notes. The looming redistricting conversation has been growing since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested it last week. Finding five new red seats in an already GOP-tilted Texas could mean moving Republican voters out of some incumbents' districts, complicating their reelection path in 2026. But there's a bigger target that some Republicans, including Trump, are hoping to capitalize on. 'Hispanic voters in Texas have rapidly shifted in favor of the GOP, in large part thanks [to Trump], so a mid decade redistricting will mean significant gains,' Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — currently battling it out in a heated primary against AG Ken Paxton — wrote on X. Not having it is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who together with Texas Democrats at a presser this morning slammed the 'aggressive and egregious gerrymander' as rigging the map 'to disenfranchise millions of people in Texas,' per POLITICO's Nick Wu. DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) also pointed to the possibility that Republican incumbents will lose voters: 'It's basic math.' More eager to play ball is California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been floating an equal and opposite redistricting response in light of Texas' proposed moves. 'Two can play this game,' Newsom, a widely speculated 2028 hopeful, wrote on X today. The messaging war: As Republicans reimagine an even redder Texas, they're still figuring out the right message to sell the sweeping megabill — and beat back Democratic attacks. Republican strategists are pushing a new tack on tax cuts, branding them as 'Trump Working Family Tax Cuts' and hammering how policies like no taxes on tips could benefit new elements of Trump's 2024 coalition, NBC's Peter Nicholas and colleagues report. The speaker's side: 'Every citizen in every zip code in every pocket of America will benefit from the One Big Beautiful Bill,' Speaker Mike Johnson said at today's weekly House Republican Leadership news conference. New numbers out today show Johnson raised more than $50 million for House Republicans this cycle, and he's already transferred more than $14 million to the NRCC, per Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio and colleagues. On the flip side: Democratic strategists are piloting new programs that would overhaul the old style of Democratic politicking to avoid repeating 2024's sweeping losses, NYT's Ken Bensinger and Shane Goldmacher write. 'That mind-set will be on display on Tuesday in Washington when many of the party's keenest number-crunchers are gathering for a closed-door meeting of the Analyst Institute, a progressive nonprofit that focuses on data-driven campaign tactics, to discuss where the party went wrong in 2024.' Other hot-button issues are likely to be on the table, such as stories like the latest from USA Today's Sarah Wire, who writes how states are trying to mitigate the impact of the megabill's cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food assistance, and how voters are mobilizing to town halls, some for the first time, out of concern. Reminder: Another piece of the 2026 puzzle will slot in tonight after 10 p.m., when the results roll in from the Arizona primary for the special election to fill the late Rep. Raul Grivalja's seat. The three-way race has become a litmus-test for the old guard vs. new guard of the Democratic party, as Playbook noted this morning. To little surprise, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has placed her bet on the old guard — in this case former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, per Fox News' Chad Pergram. 'She happens to be [Grijalva's] daughter, but she's made her own mark. I've watched her career carefully in Arizona,' Pelosi said. Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Send me your thoughts and tips to abianco@ 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. TICK TOCK: OMB Director Russ Vought is meeting with Senate Republicans during their lunch today ahead of Friday's deadline to pass the all-important rescissions package. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is still negotiating with Republicans about potential amendments to the bill, telling POLITICO's Jordain Carney this morning that 'we're working on something, but I don't think it's quite ready yet.' Johnson's holding firm that Friday is the deadline and urged senators to pass the bill as-is at his weekly presser, POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill reports. Thune still expects the first Senate votes to happen later today, per Jordain. The holdouts: The latest to come around is Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who secured an agreement to reallocate Green New Deal money to power emergency alerts for tribal communities usually served by public media, Meredith reports. But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is chief among those who've been pushing for amendments, and said there might not be 'openness' to changes, per Punchbowl's Samantha Handler. More on Republicans to watch from Axios' Stef Kight Also on the Hill today: Mike Waltz had his confirmation hearing to become U.N. ambassador, where he said he has plans to make the United Nations 'great again,' AP's Farnoush Amiri and Matt Brown write. Democrats laid into Waltz over his role in Signalgate — saying he lied about aspects of the leaked chats, POLITICO's Cheyanne Daniels writes. … And the presidents of Georgetown University, the City University of New York and the University of California, Berkeley were slammed by House Republicans with questions about antisemitism on campus, per NYT. Today's must read: 'PBS and NPR's Last-Ditch Fight to Save Funding,' by NYT's Benjamin Mullin 2. ON TRUMP'S AGENDA: Trump is on his way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the Energy and Innovation Summit sponsored by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). There's around $90 billion in investments expected to be announced today, per McCormick's office. Among them, a $25 billion investment from Google to build AI data centers and a $3 billion deal with Brookfield to upgrade local power plants, Semafor's Liz Hoffman scooped. Expect a gaggle of the country's biggest CEOs to be spotted. More on the summit from AP's Seung Min Kim and Marc Levy 3. THE ECONOMY, STUPID: Inflation grew slightly in June as the weight of Trump's wide-ranging tariffs started to materialize in the U.S. economy, POLITICO's Sam Sutton reports. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7 percent compared to last June — which is a bit higher than expected and is higher than the previous pace of 2.4. And 'core' inflation, which doesn't include shifting food and energy prices, also slightly rose. Wall Street shares opened higher after the news, per Reuters. What Trump won't like: 'With new, higher tariff rates threatened to kick in starting in August, economists said the June inflation report was unlikely to push the Federal Reserve into cutting interest rates sooner rather than later. Interest-rate futures continued to show odds-on chances of the Fed resuming rate cuts in September,' Bloomberg's Chris Anstey writes. Speaking of the Fed: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants Chair Jerome Powell to also step down from the Federal Reserve's board when his term expires in May 2026, per Bloomberg's Daniel Flatley and colleagues. In the meantime, top contenders to be the next fed chair like Kevin Warsh are calling for cutting interest rates — a move sure to curry favor with Trump, Bloomberg's Catarina Saraiva writes. It's always sunny: 'While many industries have been upended by the president's topsy-turvy trade and immigration policies, Wall Street is quietly humming along just fine,' NYT's Rob Copeland and Stacy Cowley report this morning. 'JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the country, exceeded forecasters' expectations for the second quarter, earning about $15 billion …Citi and Wells Fargo also reported earnings on Tuesday. Wells Fargo announced a profit of $5.5 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago.' 4. FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: Trump may have taken his most decisive step yet putting the screws on Russia, but President Vladimir Putin is not fazed and has no intention of backing away from the fight, Reuters' Guy Faulconbridge and Darya Korsunskaya scoop this morning. His territorial demands over Ukraine may get even more ambitious as Russia's ground offensive advances — and Putin believes Russia can withstand any potential sanctions from the West. The Kremlin rewarded a U.S. citizen, Daniel Martindale, with a Russian passport after he helped them target Ukrainian troops, per Reuters. Standing firm: 'We first and foremost note that any attempts to make demands — especially ultimatums — are unacceptable for us,' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, per Bloomberg's Jennifer Dlouhy and Natalia Drozdiak. Still, Trump's turn toward Ukraine are sparking concerns among some in Russia's top ranks 'that an opportunity may have been missed,' WaPo's Catherine Belton and Robyn Dixon report. 5. CRACKDOWN CENTRAL: 'The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers' Data With ICE,' by ProPublica's William Turton and colleagues: 'ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an 'on demand' process allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the home addresses of people it's seeking to deport. … Last month, in a previously undisclosed dispute, the acting general counsel at the IRS, Andrew De Mello, refused to turn over the addresses of 7.3 million taxpayers sought by ICE. … De Mello said he had identified multiple legal 'deficiencies' in the agency's request. … Two days later, on June 27, De Mello was forced out of his job.' Related read: 'Republicans renew a bid to remove noncitizens from the census tally behind voting maps,' by NPR's Hansi Lo Wang 6. JUSTICE WATCH: Over 75 former federal and state judges today are calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Trump's nomination of Emil Bove for the U.S. Court of Appeals, CNN's Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Jamie Gangel write. 'Mr. Bove's egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position,' the group wrote in its letter. They also reference the recent whistleblower report, which Bove adamantly denied during his testimony to the committee in June. Read the letter Not just judges: It comes as all 10 Dems on the Judiciary Committee wrote to Chair Chuck Grassley in a letter asking him to call whistleblower Erez Reuveni to testify before the panel prior to its vote on Bove, our colleagues on Inside Congress report. And two dozen progressive groups have also sent a letter to the committee denouncing Bove's nomination, Semafor's Morgan Chalfant reports. 'His nomination 'threatens the foundational principles of judicial impartiality and the rule of law,' the groups — including the SEIU, Demand Justice, and Human Rights Campaign — write.' Weaponization watch: 'Dismissals at Justice Dept. Would Bypass Civil Service and Whistle-Blower Laws' by NYT's Devlin Barrett: 'A new batch of more than 20 career employees at the department and its component agencies were fired on Friday, including the attorney general's own ethics adviser, Joseph W. Tirrell. … On the surface, the various groups have little in common. Justice Department veterans, however, see an overarching pattern: a quickening effort by the Trump administration to ignore and eventually demolish longstanding civil service legal precedents meant to keep politics out of law enforcement work, and to give more leeway to the president's loyalists.' 7. BEARING ARMS: '40,000 Troops, 19 Nations: The China Threat Unites U.S. Allies,' by WSJ's Mike Cherney: 'Artillery, rocket launchers and self-propelled howitzers opened fire at a training area in northern Australia on Monday, kick-starting three weeks of military drills here between the U.S. and 18 allies. … The biennial exercise, called Talisman Sabre, is meant to send a message to China: The U.S. and its partners are ready to respond together to aggression from Beijing … During the exercise, the U.S. and its allies plan to fire key land-based missile systems that will be crucial if Washington wants to control important sea lanes around Taiwan in a conflict.' TALK OF THE TOWN Elmo's X account is back to normal after it was hacked and posted profanely about releasing the Epstein files. TALK OF THIS TOWN — Michael Schaffer pens his latest Capital City column: 'Event Planners Are Cancelling on Trump-Era Washington. Is This a Sign of Things to Come?' The gist: There's a 'giant flashing danger sign for a region already reeling from sweeping federal job cuts.' It's part of a changing perception of the U.S. and D.C., 'a city whose pitch to visitors never used to change much based on who was president. What had been a place of monuments and history is now increasingly viewed from afar as a place where your event could be suddenly canceled by authorities or your keynote speaker could be detained at the airport.' TRANSITIONS — Thomas Boodry, Grace Colvin, Alison Anway and Scott Wagner have joined Ballard Partners' Washington DC office. Boodry was previously special assistant to President Trump and senior director for legislative affairs at the National Security Council. Colvin was previously VP of federal advocacy and strategy at The League of Credit Unions and Affiliates. Anway is the chair of Ballard's health policy advisory group, and was previously based in Ballard's Tallahassee office. Wagner is a partner at Ballard and was previously based in Ballard's Miami and Tallahassee offices. … Sarah Pierce is now director of social policy at Third Way. She previously was a policy analyst at USCIS and is a Senate Homeland Security Committee and Migration Policy Institute alum. … Sean O'Donnell is now on the litigation team at Judicial Watch. He previously was IG at the EPA. … Santiago Gonzalez is now VP at NVG. He most recently was legislative director for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Palestinian grandmother detained after Australia cancels visa on security grounds
A 61-year-old Palestinian woman who escaped Israel's war on Gaza earlier this year was detained in Sydney after Australian authorities cancelled her visa on national security grounds, sparking protests and condemnation from her family. Maha Almassri was taken into custody in the early hours of Thursday following a pre-dawn raid by a contingent of nearly 15 Border Force officers at her son's home in Punchbowl in the southwest of the city. She was held at the Bankstown police station and then transferred to the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. According to documents seen by The Guardian and SBS News, Ms Almassri's visa was 'personally' cancelled by the assistant minister for citizenship and multicultural affairs Julian Hill following an assessment by the Security Intelligence Organisation that deemed her to be 'directly or indirectly a risk to security'. The decision stated the elderly woman failed Australia 's 'character test' and her removal was 'in the national interest' under the Migration Act. Ms Almassri arrived in Australia on a tourist visa in February 2024, having escaped the Israeli assault on Gaza through the Rafah border crossing. She was living with her son in Sydney and had applied for a protection visa. While her application was being processed, she had reportedly been granted a bridging visa. Her relatives insisted Ms Almassri posed no threat, citing her poor health, trauma, and the fact she had undergone security checks by both Israeli and Australian authorities before being granted a visa. 'She's an old lady, what can she do?' her cousin Mohammed Almassri told The Guardian, adding that there was ' no country, no house, nothing' for her to go back to in Gaza. She was left terrified during the raid and was unable to speak through tears when he contacted her at Villawood later in the day, Mr Almassri said. 'She was sleeping when the raid happened. She couldn't walk, she was so scared.' Mr Almassri's brother told SBS News the family initially feared that Israeli soldiers had landed at their door. 'They just came like a bunch of police officers and some federal police, and they terrorised everyone inside the house,' Soliman Almassri said in a video message. He described the experience as 'traumatic' and claimed that they had been provided no clear explanation for her detention. The Department of Home Affairs declined to comment on individual cases, citing privacy. However, a spokesperson told The Guardian it would 'continue to act decisively to protect the community from the risk of harm posed by individuals', including 'visa cancellation or refusal where appropriate'. The minister for home affairs also declined to comment directly. 'Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual and isn't necessarily consistent with the information supplied by our intelligence and security agencies,' Tony Burke was quoted as saying by SBS News. 'Our security checks never stop and this cancellation is proof the system is working.' The Refugee Advice and Casework Service, representing Ms Almassri, said that it had 'nothing to comment on at this time'. Human rights lawyer Alison Battisson criticised the Australian government's handling of the situation, pointing to a lack of transparency and the practice of early-morning raids. 'It's a Palestinian grandma. I would be very interested to understand the decisionmaking process behind it,' she told The Guardian. She also questioned how authorities expected to remove someone to Gaza, given the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. 'Individuals can only be detained if there are reasonable prospects of their removal in the foreseeable future,' she said. Ms Almassri's isn't an isolated case. In November 2024, Australian officials confirmed that a Palestinian person's visa had been cancelled onshore on character grounds. Amnesty International previously accused Australia of rejecting over 7,000 Palestinian visa applications since Israel started bombarding Gaza in October 2023. A protest led by Ms Almassri's family was held outside Mr Burke's office on Thursday, with signs reading 'Bloody Burke' and calls for her immediate release. 'She's traumatised, she's sick and this is the treatment she gets from the Australian government,' said Soliman Almassri. 'We demand that she be released tonight.' Ms Almassri's family said she had more than 100 relatives living across Australia. They traced their origin to a town near present-day Tel Aviv, from which they were displaced during the 1948 Nakba, the mass expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians following the establishment of the state of Israel. Her family also reported another relative's visa had been cancelled last week, although this could not be independently verified. The timing of Ms Almassri's detention coincides with the Australian government's release of a new report on combating antisemitism, which includes stricter screening of visa applicants for antisemitic views. While there is no suggestion Ms Almassri holds such views, her supporters fear the increasingly hostile climate towards Palestinians may be influencing immigration decisions.
Politico
02-07-2025
- Business
- Politico
Playbook PM: The megabill blitz is on
Presented by THE CATCH-UP President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-and-spending bill has reached its last hurdle: final passage in the House. But as Republicans in the chamber continue pushing back against the Senate's version of the megabill — and with Mother Nature waging her own temporary blockade — it's still unclear when the centerpiece of Trump's domestic agenda will make it across the finish line. Speaker Mike Johnson can't lose any more than a handful of votes, and GOP leaders this morning launched an all-out, last-ditch effort to assuage potential defectors, POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill and Nick Wu report. Trump has been holding meetings at the White House with a slew of holdouts as he tries to lean on the members and pave a path to passage. Flipping out: According to Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), it seems to be working. Johnson said Trump is quickly working the votes in meetings at the White House, POLITICO's Megan Messerly and Benjamin Guggenheim report. 'Donald Trump is the best closer in the business, and we're going to get it done,' said Johnson, chair of the GOP's Main Street Caucus. 'In the meetings that I was in, the president, I think, closed out just about everybody.' Johnson also predicted that holdouts will quickly realize that 'passage beats the hell out of failure.' On the other hand, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) said Trump did little to sway him, per Punchbowl's Ally Mutnick. What the speaker is saying: 'We're making good progress,' Johnson told reporters, per Punchbowl's John Bresnahan, though he cautioned: 'We can't make everyone 100% happy.' What Trump is saying: Before this morning's meetings, the president doubled down on his demands that Republicans fall in line, saying that the bill is all about 'GROWTH.' 'Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'Republicans, don't let the Radical Left Democrats push you around. We've got all the cards, and we are going to use them.' A White House official said the president is working the phones — as he has over the past few days, per POLITICO's Megan Messerly. Give me Freedom: The Freedom Caucus fell to the administration to sort out. 'The sense is the White House needs to deliver the Freedom Caucus — that's the project of the day,' a person close to leadership told POLITICO's Benjamin Guggenheim and colleagues. 'The White House, the thinking goes, is better situated to discuss executive orders and potential future legislation that could address their concerns.' Though it may be an uphill battle. Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) skipped today's White House meeting, and the group released a three-page memo laying out its members' specific concerns with the Senate bill, seizing on more than a dozen modifications from the Senate, per Meredith. 'Some but not all were due to Senate budget rules requiring the elimination of some provisions to sidestep a Democratic filibuster. One issue that cannot be entirely attributed to decisions made by the Senate parliamentarian include the revised bill's outsized deficit impact.' The back-of-the-napkin math: Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) signaled to reporters that the conference appears to have 'reached a critical mass' of holdouts, adding: 'We'll see what happens at the White House.' To wit: 'If there's four [GOP 'nos'], there's going to be 20 — and it's going to be a jailbreak,' one House Republican told POLITICO today. And then there's this: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) 'enthusiastically' told NOTUS' Reese Gorman that he has a 'vote bloc of 10' lined up against the megabill. Given the scant evidence of a clear path to passage, it's a cloudy picture in the Capitol at present. Follow all the latest with our colleagues on POLITICO's Inside Congress Good Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line if you're also flashing back to the inclement weather that spurred Will Hurd and Beto O'Rourke'scross-country road trip in 2017: birvine@ 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) has formally launched a bid to become chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, according to a letter of intent obtained by Playbook, Ali Bianco and your author report. Gimenez's office confirmed that he notified the Steering Committee of his intention to run. 'The reason why he's served for 25 years and hasn't lost an election is because he's a straight shooter, people trust him,' a Gimenez spokesperson told Playbook. The Florida Republican enters the race for the gavel as the current chair, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), prepares to step down. Green announced last month that he'll resign from Congress for a private-sector job once the chamber passes the megabill. In the letter, Gimenez argued his background — including stints as Miami Fire Chief, city manager, county commissioner, sheriff and mayor of Miami-Dade — positions him as the top man for the job. 'These roles were not theoretical, they were boots-on-the-ground, real world experiences,' Gimenez wrote. 2. TRADING SPACES: Trump announced this morning the U.S. has reached a preliminary trade deal with Vietnam that includes a 20-percent tariff on imports to the U.S and a 40-percent tariff on goods shipped through Vietnam from other nations, POLITICO's Phelim Kine and colleagues report. 'While that's a lower tariff rate than Trump initially threatened with his reciprocal tariffs, it would mark a higher rate than Vietnam experienced during the three-month pause.' In exchange for the negotiated rate, Vietnam has agreed to open its market 'to a variety of U.S. imports that Hanoi has traditionally blocked,' according to a draft version of the agreement. Coming attractions: The draft notes the 'two sides will continue to work on a final deal to be sealed 'within the coming weeks' that will result in a 'substantial reduction.'' It's the first deal the administration has secured that would suspend his reciprocal tariffs that are scheduled to kick in on July 9, though 'Trump and his top advisers have hinted that they may extend the deadline for some of the negotiations' with other nations. 3. RULE BREAKERS: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer kickstarted an 'aggressive deregulatory' effort this week that would slash more than 60 department regulations, 'including eliminating overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers and union organizing rights for migrant farmworkers,' WaPo's Lauren Kaori Gurley reports. The deregulation push comes after Trump's January executive order mandated 'agency leaders to cut 10 existing rules, regulations or guidance documents for every new one created.' Also on the chopping block: 'affirmative action requirements for registered apprenticeships.' 4. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: As the Pentagon formally halts shipments of some air defense missiles and other weapons to bolster the war effort in Ukraine, officials in Kyiv were 'caught off guard by the announcement' and are seeking a meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv's deputy chief of mission, John Ginkel, today to discuss 'U.S. military assistance and defense cooperation,' NYT's Constant Méheut reports. And a handful of GOP lawmakers are slamming the administration's decision, warning it risks emboldening Russia at a pivotal point in the war, POLITICO's Joe Gould and Connor O'Brien report. 5. ABORTION IN AMERICA: The Wisconsin Supreme Court formally overturned the state's 176-year-old abortion ban today in a 4-3 decision, AP's Todd Richmond reports from Madison. The court's liberal majority repealed an 1849 state law that 'made it a felony when anyone other than the mother 'intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child,'' arguing it was overruled by newer state laws around the procedure. Though Roe v. Wade effectively nullified the ban in 1973, it was never officially repealed and 'conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe reactivated it.' 6. COUNT ME OUT: After months of murmurs that he might jump into the New York gubernatorial race, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' that he's 'unlikely' to launch a primary bid against incumbent New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. 'The assault that we've seen on the social safety in the Bronx is so unprecedented, so overwhelming that I'm going to keep my focus on Washington, D.C.,' Torres said. 'So, my heart lies in Washington, D.C. I feel like now, more than ever, we have to fight the catastrophe that is the Trump presidency.' 7. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: In a lengthy dive into Trump's personal coffers in the run-up to his return to the White House, NYT's Russ Buettner reports that records submitted in Trump's New York fraud case show the president's financials were not nearly as stable as he claimed. Though Trump testified in the case he had stockpiled '$300 million and $400 million in cash' via his real estate development company, in reality his 'balance had fluctuated wildly' and within months of his testimony 'all of his cash and liquid investments looked to be at risk.' While Trump 'could have sold more properties, at the expense of his family's future wealth, to cover any shortfall,' upon receiving the nomination, Trump shifted to building wealth by monetizing his last name. 8. MUSK READ: Elon Musk has floated launching his own 'America Party' after recent breaks with Trump. But the Libertarian Party instead sees an opportunity to team up, POLITICO's Andrew Howard reports. 'Making a new third party would be a mistake,' Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila said, arguing libertarians are best positioned to be the 'dissident subversive party.' The centrist group No Labels is also courting Musk, per Andrew. In Washington circles, Musk's third party push is being shrugged off as an empty threat, WaPo reports. ''I think it's the ketamine talking in the middle of the night,' said Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin, referring to media reports about Musk's drug use that he has denied.' TALK OF THE TOWN IN MEMORIAM — 'S. Daniel Abraham, major Democrat donor and funder of Middle East peace initiatives, dies at 101,' by Jewish Insider's Nira Dayanim: 'In 1989, Abraham and Owens established the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, a nonprofit advocacy group … Abraham also donated extensively to the Democratic Party and the Clinton Foundation, giving $3 million to a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's presidential bid in 2016, according to Forbes. In 2018, he was ranked by OpenSecrets as a top individual Democratic donor.' MEDIA MOVE — Brandy Zadrozny will be senior enterprise reporter at MSNBC. She previously has been a senior reporter for NBC and is a Daily Beast and Fox News alum. TRANSITIONS — Kailyn McBride is now comms director for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.). She previously was digital director and press secretary for Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.). … Davis Bunn is now legislative director for Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.). He previously was military legislative assistant for Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.). WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Celia Glassman, deputy director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, and David Schacht, a manager for business transformation at EY, welcomed Abraham (Abe) Robert Schacht on June 23. Pic … Another pic — Zoe Kemprecos, a consultant working for government clients at Deloitte, and Ezra Engel, a captain in the U.S. Army, recently welcomed Diana Jane Kemprecos Engel at St. Mary's in London. She joins big brother Eli. Pic Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
