The cover-up continues. House Republicans effectively shut down Congress yesterday to dodge voting on a bipartisan effort to force the release of Jeffrey Epstein files—some of which may implicate Donald Trump.

WHAT HAPPENED: Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home for a month-long recess just as a bipartisan push for transparency on Epstein was gaining steam.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) blasted the GOP, saying: “They’d rather shut down Congress than vote to release the files. What are they hiding?”

WHY IT MATTERS: The Epstein scandal keeps growing—as Republicans work to shield pedophiles from accountability for their heinous deeds.

Despite public outrage, Trump is now calling the Epstein files a “hoax,” distancing himself from past promises to release them.

OH, AND: Late last night, CNN released newly uncovered photos that show how close Trump and Epstein really were.

WHAT’S NEXT: This isn’t going away. The American people demand justice for the little girls who were sexually abused by the rich and powerful.

Cellphone footage shows Florida deputies punching and dragging William McNeil Jr. from his car during a minor traffic stop, despite his hands being up. Cops claimed he was reaching for a knife—but video shows otherwise. Civil rights lawyers say it’s a textbook case of police brutality and a cover-up, yet no charges have been filed against the officers. Full story from the AP.

Trump’s intel team, led by Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe, is trying to rewrite the 2016 election story—pushing debunked conspiracy theories that Obama officials “rigged” the Russia probe. But Dems say it’s not about truth—it’s about distraction, coming just as Trump faces pressure to release the Epstein files. One called it a “cheap stunt to protect the president from accountability.” Full story from NBC News.

No, this isn’t a joke. House Republicans just passed a measure to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump. The move comes amid rising pressure on Trump to release the Epstein files—prompting critics to slam it as a culture war stunt meant to change the subject. As one Democrat put it: "They’re replacing legacies with branding deals." Full story from The Independent.

NPR’s top editor is stepping down mere days after Trump’s allies in Congress slashed public media funding, citing “liberal bias.” While she claims the decision was personal, critics say the timing reeks of political pressure—and worry it’s part of a larger push to silence independent journalism while the Trump admin dodges questions about Epstein. Full story from NPR.

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Mass starvation is now peaking in Gaza, where at least 10 more people—many of them children—died from hunger in the last 24 hours.

The Gaza Health Ministry says 111 people have now died from starvation, including at least 80 children, as humanitarian groups warn of a deliberately orchestrated famine under Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide.

THE DETAILS: Humanity & Inclusion UK reports aid workers are among the starving. “We are watching them starve to death,” said spokesperson Mara Bernasconi, describing the situation as a “nightmare with no end.”

Alex de Waal, a world expert on famine, said Israel is carrying out “the most minutely designed and controlled” starvation campaign since World War II.

THE HORROR: "I am so hungry," Ruwaida Amer, a 30-year-old Gaza woman, wrote for +972 Magazine earlier this week.

Another Gazan woman, Amina Badir, told Amer while clutching her starving 3-year-old: "Tell me how to save my daughter Rahaf from death. For a week she's eaten nothing but a single spoon of lentils each day."

THE BIG PICTURE: For 654 days, Gaza has endured relentless bombardment and a near-total blockade of food, water, and medicine. Aid trucks are regularly blocked or delayed by Israeli forces.

THE TRUTH: This isn’t a natural disaster. It’s a deliberate policy of starvation—weaponizing hunger as a tool of war, with children as its most visible victims.

The silence of the U.S. government is complicity. The lives of Gazans are being weighed against geopolitical loyalty to apartheid.

Yesterday we asked, given the public backlash to Trump’s immoral immigration policies, which is a bigger problem: illegal immigration or billionaires hoarding wealth?

Lduck voted the latter: “A healthy society cannot exist with a large gap between incomes. Everyone deserves to be able to earn enough money to live comfortably. Disparity between wealth and poverty is a spiritual violation.”

Psycamore agreed: “Illegal immigration is not directly related to social and economic problems in our country. Horrendous, disparate poverty/wealth ratios are!”

Irish Granny voted illegal immigration: “It’s neck and neck BUT HUMAN LIVES are targeted in immigration/deportation idiocy.”

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