Live updates: US, Iran exchange fire as Trump insists ‘it will all work out well’

Trump DOJ wants noisy sex judge to withdraw from election case

The DOJ argued that Judge Ross' attendance at the event raised questions about her ability to remain impartial.

Trump knocks ‘chirping’ from ‘political hacks’ amid Iran negotiations

President Trump on Monday urged Democrats and “seemingly unpatriotic Republicans” to stop “chirping” about Iran negotiations and allow him to hammer out a deal without pressure from both sides of the aisle. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Iran “really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one…

'Dude, stop it!' Data analyst laughs at Trump's focus on 'greatly unpopular' priority

President Donald Trump has prioritized making sweeping changes to Washington, D.C., but a data analyst found those plans are strikingly unpopular.The president raged at length over the weekend at a federal judge who ordered his name removed from the Kennedy Center, and his other planned projects – from the White House ballroom to painting the Reflecting Pool blue – have faced legal challenges of their own, but CNN's Harry Enten found little public support for those efforts."I'm just going to quote Michael Jordan here: 'Stop it, just stop it,'" Enten said. "The American people are saying to the president of the United States, you could see right here, kids laughing off there on the side. I mean, just look at this, naming government buildings after Trump, acceptable right now as he is president of the United States of America. Just 9 percent, just 9 percent. Literally, you can put it on your two hands. When you can put something on your two hands, you know, it's a very small section of the public. My little footnote on here includes just 17 percent of Republicans, 50 percent say not acceptable at all – the clear plurality here, and then you get this additional 21 percent who say, you know, it's okay to put President Trump's name on government buildings, but only after he leaves office.""But the bottom line is this, greatly unpopular, President Trump or the government putting his name on government buildings," he added. "I think the American people are standing up and applauding the fact that Trump is leaving this aside, because the American people, simply put, are not with it."Single-digit support is obviously low, Enten said, but he tried to number into context with other topics."Americans who believe it's okay right now to name government buildings for Trump, just 9 percent," he said. "To put that into some perspective, 10 percent of Americans believe that the earth is flat, and 12 percent of Americans think that the moon landing was faked, which of course it was not, and of course, the earth is actually round. So fewer Americans think it's acceptable right now to put President Trump's name on government buildings than believe two conspiracy theories, either the earth is flat or the moon landing was fake, and when you're lower than that, you know that you're doing something quite, quite unpopular."Voters backed Trump for a second term because he promised to tackle inflation, but consumer costs remain high and he has seemingly focused his attention on unrelated topics."President Trump got elected to a second term to deal with inflation," Enten said. "Of course, right now, what we're talking about is President Trump getting record low ratings on inflation, not just for himself, but for any president, and it just goes back to this. Trump on issues facing most Americans focused enough, just 29 percent, just one in three Americans say that President Trump is focused enough on the issues facing most Americans. The clear majority, the supermajority, more than two and three, 68 percent, say, no, he's not focused enough, and that is why his approval rating has been falling in the 30s in multiple polls, because he's focused on the wrong issues.""He's focused on putting his name on the government buildings," Enten added. "They're talking about, what was that, that $250 commemorative bill that we're talking about right there. Dude, again, just to quote Michael Jordan, stop it, stop it. Focus on inflation, focus on the economy, and then maybe your approval ratings will actually get above 40 percent." - YouTube youtu.be

Trump rages against 'unpatriotic Republicans' and 'chirping' war critics in 1AM meltdown

President Donald Trump revealed early Monday morning that his efforts to negotiate an end to his deeply unpopular war against Iran were being compromised by “chirping” critics, whom he pleaded with to stop, “sit back and relax.”“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“The Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.”The Trump administration has struggled to broker a deal with Tehran to end the war, in large part due to the president’s inability to pressure Israel into halting its bombardment of Lebanon – a condition Iran has insisted must be part of any agreement. And, with the war causing economic turmoil across the globe, Trump has reportedly been looking for a way out of the conflict he initiated since at least early March, but to no success.Critics across the political spectrum, Trump admitted, were apparently making negotiations “much tougher,” and to them, the president issued a plea.“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end,” Trump wrote.

Iran's President Reportedly Submits Formal Letter of Resignation

Trump is fast-tracking AI data centers as EPA ignores their potential 'forever chemicals'

Data centers require a massive amount of water to cool their systems, which heat up as they process digital information through numerous computers and network servers. Systems that aren’t “closed loop” have to cycle out water that doesn’t evaporate.Most data centers in Virginia are permitted to discharge water into municipal wastewater systems, the same place household water goes to be treated and recycled for consumption. But there’s limited data tracking of potential chemicals in data centers’ discharge water.At least one data center is permitted to discharge directly into a natural water source in the state: Northeast Creek in Louisa County. Another is applying for a similar permit to discharge into nearby Sedges Creek which feeds into Lake Anna.That water is pretreated before being released into the creek and has limits to certain metals and temperature set by the Department of Environmental Quality. But the knowledge gaps about the chemical makeup of data centers’ water discharge poses major questions over whether “forever chemicals” could be contaminating water from the facilities, posing risks to human and environmental health.Cooling the watersAmazon’s Lake Anna Tech Park project will include an evaporative water cooling system, which is what they use in the Northeast Creek location. The H2O will come from well water until industrial systems are hooked up. At that point, the water will be run through a “membrane” that cools the air and fans will blow it onto the data halls containing the computers.Amazon – which operates dozens of data centers in the state – explained that at the two Louisa sites they are only using the evaporation method a small portion of the year; the rest of the time they pull in air from outside for cooling. Water sent through an evaporative cooling system is considered non-contact, meaning it does not directly touch the computer equipment.“In Louisa County, we rely on outside natural air-cooling for about 96% of the year and only use water-based cooling during the hottest periods, which is about 4% of annual operations,” Amazon said in a statement.After a few cycles the water has to be released. The system dechlorinates the water and manages pH balance before sending it into the creek.“As part of this process, cooling water needs to be periodically discharged; this cooling water is called ‘non-contact cooling water.’ It never touches IT equipment, and it’s treated before release in alignment with state environmental standards,” an Amazon representative said.Larger, newer data centers are more frequently designed with “closed loop” systems, meaning they don’t take in as much water on a daily basis. Initially, hundreds of gallons of water are pumped into this type of system, much of which evaporates, and then it’s topped off as needed.But they take more energy to operate.In an aerial view, an Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes on July 17, 2024 in Stone Ridge, Virginia. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)Closed loop systems will often use what is described as mechanical cooling or liquid cooling, where the water is recycled through the system, cooled, and placed directly on chips to bring the temperature down. The heat from those systems still has to be expelled through an HVAC system.The water is pretreated before being released into the creek and has limits for certain metals and temperature set by DEQ. But with recent reports showing the ubiquitous nature of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in everything from water to soil to household products, community members are increasingly worried about whether the data center’s discharge water contains them, too.Residents have also cited concerns over PFAS being present in the equipment inside of data centers that is used to cool the heated systems and routinely replaced every few years.These chemicals can have serious health impacts when people are exposed to even small amounts, such as decreased fertility, higher risk of some cancers, and weakening of the immune system.Virginia currently does not have requirements for the testing of the discharge water of data centers for PFAS, nor does the federal Environmental Protection Agency.Because the water being discharged from data centers either into wastewater systems or into the creek are not explicitly required to be tested for PFAS, it is unclear whether they are present or not.“We know that they may be using, not only PFAS, but other toxic chemicals. We know that they released massive amounts of water, at least to treatment works, and some of them to surface waters,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz with EarthJustice, a nonprofit that litigates environmental issues.
 ”And beyond that, it’s just a void. There’s really a dangerous lack of information.”The Environmental and Energy Study Institute reports that PFAS can be present in the cooling systems that are liquid based – which is not what the Louisa Amazon data centers use.

Ex-Republican flags 'underplayed' reason GOP lawmakers are about to walk away from Trump

New York Times columnist David French told MS NOW Monday morning that Senate Republicans are quietly reaching a breaking point with Donald Trump — not because they have suddenly grown a spine, but because they are learning that no amount of loyalty is sufficient to protect them from his wrath.French, appearing on Morning Joe with anchor Jonathan Lemire, said the dynamic driving the frustration has been largely missed in the broader political coverage."There's a very important distinction that a lot of these senators are very aware of that has been sort of underplayed in the public," French said. "Trump turned on senators who had, in many ways, been doing everything that they could to signal their loyalty to Trump."He pointed to John Cornyn as the clearest example. Cornyn, who lost his Texas primary last week to Attorney General Ken Paxton after Trump endorsed Paxton, had been working repeatedly to demonstrate his loyalty to the president in the days before the endorsement. His sin, in Trump's eyes, was voting to certify the 2020 election — a single break in an otherwise unwavering record of support."You were not talking about senators who had defied Trump all over the place," French said. "Just very rarely, very selectively. And so they're now learning that to be with Trump, it's 100% or you're going to have a target on your back."French stopped well short of predicting a Republican revolt. But a small degree of independence — yes, he believes that's coming.The signs are already visible. Lemire noted that Senate Republicans cut their recess short last week, going home early after refusing to take up the anti-weaponization fund in the wake of the Cornyn news. They have also put roadblocks in front of funding for Trump's proposed White House ballroom.Lemire suggested the pattern could have lasting consequences, noting that Trump's primary purges may be undermining his own ability to govern and potentially jeopardizing Republican control of the Senate in November — adding to what he called Trump's "increasingly lame duck status."French agreed the frustration was real. "Loyalty is a moving target," he said. "And I do think that frustration is going to spill over in some important ways."

Donald Trump’s “Secret Weapon” just took a dive

Forgive me for beginning my morning column with a pop culture reference two days in a row, but we’re at a stage where life is imitating art way too absurdly not to point it out. In the classic television show The West Wing, one staff member pranks the other by claiming there is a secret… The post Donald Trump’s “Secret Weapon” just took a dive appeared first on Palmer Report.