NTD News Today

Wisconsin Democrats will head to the polls on Tuesday to make their picks for governor in the latest race to pit a self-proclaimed democratic socialist against a candidate favored by moderates and the national party.

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong has dominated polling in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary against her closest rival, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Two Republican senators on Aug. 10 released text messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued cellphone that showed him discussing potential COVID-19 vaccine risks for pregnant women.

The messages, released by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), date to January 2021, when Fauci headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They were among more than 34,000 messages obtained from the device.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States is “low-keying” negotiations with Iran as economic pressure builds on the regime. The U.S. military had launched strikes against Iran every day for about two weeks straight before Trump announced a stop in the attacks, saying that they would lead to more negotiations. A U.S. naval blockade is still in effect against the country’s ports.

“We are low-keying it,” Trump told Axios about talks with Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

A major earthquake struck the western portion of Colombia on Monday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with local officials reporting damage and injuries.

The quake registered at 7.4 magnitude on the Richter scale, the USGS reported. It hit about 3 miles east of San José del Palmar in the western portion of the country, roughly 250 miles to the west of Bogota, the capital.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Aug. 7 she will not support Todd Blanche for attorney general, putting Blanche’s nomination in jeopardy. Murkowski said in a post on X that she believes the country needs an attorney general “who will check the worst impulses of this administration” and that she’s not confident that person is Blanche.

Murkowski also said she is concerned that if Blanche is confirmed, the government will proceed with a fund of nearly $2 billion to award people who bring forth claims they were targeted unfairly by the government.

The U.S. labor market stalled last month as the economy unexpectedly lost jobs, new government data shows. Payrolls fell by 23,000 in July, from a downwardly revised 20,000 in the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This fell short of the average monthly gain of 34,000 over the last 12 months.

A Senate committee on Aug. 6 voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in contempt of Congress. The full Senate could consider the matter before making a referral to prosecutors, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has said that might result in a negative vote.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called Iranian negotiators "extraordinarily difficult people" and said any nuclear deal would take time.

Speaking to Fox News, Vance acknowledged American frustration with the stop-start nature of diplomatic progress but said Iran's "fractured system" includes both those wanting peace and "crazy radicals who want the war to continue."

Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party’s progressive wing in a battleground state. El-Sayed will face Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination, in November.

President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be announced within days, as Iran reported progress in talks with Oman on a safe shipping corridor and Qatar said mediators were circulating proposals between Washington and Tehran.

Oil prices fell as low as 5% on Tuesday to a three-week low after comments by Qatar and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict, which would improve oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

Senate Republicans are expected to advance acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the next attorney general on a permanent basis. It had been delayed over concerns about the “anti-weaponisation” fund from two GOP members on the panel.

Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) previously threatened Blanche’s bid to lead the Justice Department over the $1.77 billion fund, which would be used to compensate people who suspect they were unfairly prosecuted by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

President Donald Trump told reporters on Aug. 2 that he called off planned military strikes on Iran the night before at the urging of regional allies. The president said negotiations with Iran would begin on Monday. “I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by UAE, and by Qatar, and by Iran,” he said aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “We were all set to go.”

In Michigan, voters will this week pick their nominee for a key Senate race in the fall. In a trend sweeping the nation, a moderate democrat is facing off with a progressive candidate. They are vying to fill the seat of retiring Democrat Sen. Gary Peters. The winner of Tuesday's primary will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November.

President Donald Trump convenes a Cabinet meeting on Friday at his Camp David retreat. The agenda for the meeting will likely focus heavily on foreign policy.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the 13th such meeting of the president’s second term will be “a lot of fun and something different for the cabinet to experience together.”

About 60,000 illegal immigrants have crossed from Morocco into Spain’s tiny Ceuta territory in the past 24 hours, Ceuta’s president said Friday, a figure that is equivalent to 70 percent of the population of the self-governing city in North Africa.

“The situation that Ceuta is going through is absolutely unsustainable,” Ceutan President Juan Jesús Vivas told journalists. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Ceuta on Friday and condemned the border breach, which he described as “a violation of Spain's territorial integrity.”

The U.S. economy expanded 1.5 percent during the April–June period, down from the 2.1 percent gain in the first three months of 2026, according to data released on July 30 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Economists had projected growth of 2.1 percent.

President Trump ordered a new wave of strikes against Iran after Iran attempted a surprise attack on U.S. forces. It comes as the U.S. continues to squeeze the regime economically through a naval blockade and sanctions.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday declined to answer questions from senators following the release of a diary he compiled while working in government. The Fifth Amendment says no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Fauci received a preemptive pardon in 2025.

U.S. and Saudi forces hit Iran-backed terrorist sites in Iraq. Central Command said U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in response to more than 30 aerial drone attacks by the Iranian regime in the past 72 hours. It said the attacks against U.S. forces were not successful.