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汽车钥匙放轮胎上酿偷车案 一对男女被捕

2026年8月7日 23:30 / 新明日报

新加坡警察部队8月7日晚上发文告说，当局7月24日晚上7时45分接到报案，一名受害者称他在同月21日，停在克兰芝环路一座多层停车场的租赁汽车被偷走。 （示意图）

驾驶员将租赁汽车的钥匙放在轮胎上，一对男女涉嫌过后将汽车偷走被警方逮捕，涉案男子将在星期六（8月8日）被控上法庭。

新加坡警察部队星期五（7日）晚上发文告说，当局7月24日晚上7时45分接到报案，一名受害者称他在同月21日，停在克兰芝环路（Kranji Loop）一座多层停车场的租赁汽车被偷走。

兀兰警署警员展开调查，在调阅电眼画面后，于星期四（6日）逮捕涉案的29岁男子，并找回失窃的汽车。

初步调查显示，汽车停好后，车钥匙就放在一个轮胎上。文告并没有透露驾驶员为什么这么做，也没有说明涉案男女如何发现车钥匙等细节。

警方指出，涉案男子将在星期六被控上法庭，若罪成，可被判坐牢最长七年和罚款。针对被捕23岁女子的调查正在进行中。

警方促请车主采取相关防范措施，预防犯罪发生，包括将车停在明亮处、不要将钥匙随意搁置，以及确认所有车窗和车门都锁好才离开。

Senate Republicans push Election Day deadline for California’s marathon ballot counts

August 7, 2026 9:43am EDT / Fox News

The Ballots by Election Day Act targets states like California, where vote counting can take days or weeks

By Alex Miller, Fox News

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, are taking advantage of an opening left by the Supreme Court to halt blue states like California from accepting and counting ballots after polls close on Election Day.

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FIRST ON FOX: A pair of Senate Republicans are bursting through a crack in the door left by the Supreme Court to force blue states like California to vastly cut down on how long it takes to count ballots.

Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are introducing legislation that would create a federal deadline for states to accept ballots received by the time polls close on Election Day across the country.

Lankford pitched the bill, called the Ballots by Election Day Act, as a bid to build more trust in the country’s elections.

TRUMP UNLOADS AFTER SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LATE MAIL-IN BALLOTS IN MISSISSIPPI

A voter casts a ballot at a polling location.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I have made fun of other states for years because there’s quite a few states around the country that can’t seem to figure out how to be able to count,” Lankford told Fox News Digital in an interview. “In Oklahoma, our election ends at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday night.”

“Usually by 9 p.m., all of our thousands of precincts are all in and counted,” he continued. “We start the verification process. We do an audit after that. We have great trust in our elections because we know. We all vote. But we get them all in on that.”

Lankford and Lee’s bill would create a nationwide deadline for counting absentee and mail-in ballots, meaning that if those ballots aren’t in by the time polls close across the expanse of time zones in the nation, they won’t be counted.

CALIFORNIA’S SLUGGISH VOTE COUNTING RIPPED ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM: ‘EXTREMELY EMBARRASSING’

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6399754134112

It targets states, like California and Washington state, where ballot counting can take days, sometimes weeks, beyond when polls close.

“States counting late ballots are inviting fraud and sowing doubt in their own election results,” Lee told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Our bill will clarify protocol and restore trust by counting only ballots received before the polls close on Election Day.”

Lankford contended that those states, “like California and others, New York,” breed distrust in the system.

OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S ELECTION ORDER AS SAVE AMERICA ACT FIGHT INTENSIFIES

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, spoke during a news conference about the SAVE America Act at the U.S. Capitol on March 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“When you vote you may not know for weeks to months what the final election count is,” he said. “That shouldn’t be in the United States of America.”

Their push comes after the Supreme Court’s decision to allow mail-in ballots post-marked before Election Day to still be counted if they came in later.

While the court contended that mail-in balloting could continue, it didn’t explicitly address that there could be no deadline for when the ballots could be counted.

“Once the court made their ruling, as that came out, they left a clear door open to say this could be defined by the United States Congress,” Lankford said. “So I said, let’s step in and actually do that. Let us provide some real clarity for that. This shouldn’t be controversial. This should just be something to build trust in our elections.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Warren presses U.S. companies to share billions in tariff refunds with customers

August 7, 2026 / 8:14 AM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing companies entitled to refunds for illegal U.S. tariffs to return the money they are recouping directly to consumers.

Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, on Friday sent letters to Apple, Amazon, Energizer, Motorola, Nike, Target and Walmart seeking information about the size of the refunds they are receiving for import duties the companies paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In February, the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs were invalid because President Trump lacked the authority to impose them.

Warren also urged the companies to pass the refunds to consumers, saying in the letter that customers “paid higher prices for your products while the tariffs were in place.”

The U.S. government has refunded more than $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs to businesses, or about 60% of what it owes importers, according to a court filing this week. Yet many consumers, who footed some of the bill for those import duties in the form of higher prices, aren’t seeing similar relief, according to Warren.

“Importers pushed the costs of tariffs onto American consumers and small businesses — with estimates showing that American families will have ended up paying 95% of the tariffs,” she wrote, citing data from the Congressional Budget Office.

“But American families have no recourse for the increased prices they paid,” she added.

Warren is asking the companies to disclose how much they have paid in unconstitutional IEEPA tariffs, the amounts of any refunds they have received or expect to receive, and how they plan to spend the money.

None of the companies singled out by Warren immediately responded to a request for comment.

Refunds might not go to “who paid it”

Thousands of companies, from giant retailers to small businesses, are collecting IEEPA tariff refunds. Amazon, for example, said it has received $600 million in refunds for the levies.

Apple received a $2.2 billion tariff refund, according to its third-quarter earnings report, Warren said, noting that the company raised prices on its iPhone and MacBook products this year.

“You have received an astronomical cash infusion in the form of a tariff refund, and Apple customers who paid increased prices for your products, ostensibly due to tariffs, deserve to know how that money will be spent,” Warren said in her letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Nick Baker, a trade compliance expert and co-lead of trade and customs at risk advisory firm Kroll, said that IEEPA refunds go only to the importer that paid them, leaving consumers with little recourse.

“So if and when there is a refund, it might not get to the person who paid it,” he said. “Which is the gripe of a lot of consumers. They have seen prices fluctuate and go up, with some retailers saying it’s in part due to tariffs.”

That’s leading to a wave of class-action lawsuits from consumers suing corporations for refunds of the tariff surcharges.

Nike customers have sued the sportswear company to recoup some of what they paid due to higher prices, alleging that the company “stands to recover the same tariff payments twice — once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds.”

Sharing the money

Some companies have pledged to return any refunds they receive from the federal government to consumers. Other businesses insist they absorbed the cost of tariffs themselves.

Amazon said it would automatically reimburse some customers only under a “limited set of circumstances.”

“In cases where we did see an increase in costs due to tariffs, we largely absorbed those costs rather than pass them on to customers,” the company’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on July 30.

Other big companies that received sizable tariff refunds have vowed to share part of the money with customers. For example, FedEx has launched an IEEPA tariff refund portal where customers can track shipments to determine whether they’re eligible for a refund from the shipper.

UPS also pledged to automatically refund customers when applicable.

“UPS says refunds are automatic, and we’ll issue it to the original payment method. No customer action is required,” Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at New York Law School, told CBS News.

Katelyn Hifferty, leader of Morgan Lewis’ international trade and national security practice, told CBS News that in most cases it’s up to the company whether to share tariff refunds with customers.

“Part of what’s inherently difficult in some of these suits is that a lot of this information is not public. So you don’t know if this company obtained a refund or not, and unless the tariffs were explicitly listed as a line item, you don’t know why the company raised prices,” she said. “Right now, it’s a little unclear what the chances of success are.”

Kamala Harris jabs at Joe Biden’s old faith in a post-Trump ‘epiphany’ for Republicans

2026-08-07T12:09:07.718Z / CNN

By Edward-Isaac Dovere

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Aug 7, 2026, 8:09 AM ET

Joe Biden Donald Trump

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Vice President Kamala Harris listens to President Joe Biden speak at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025.

Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Kamala Harris thinks Joe Biden had too much faith in Republicans, and she’s jabbing at him for it.

“We cannot sit around hoping Republicans will have an ‘epiphany’ and do the right thing,” the former vice president will say in a speech Friday night in New Orleans, “because the American people can’t afford to wait.”

Beyond eventually writing in her post-election memoir that leaving the decision to run for re-election to the former president and his wife was “recklessness”, Harris has been careful in distancing herself from her former boss since she took over the Democratic nomination from him in 2024. But as she mulls whether to run for president again in 2028, she is pushing for a much harder tack than the one epitomized in Biden’s well-known 2019 prediction that “You will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends” once he beat Donald Trump.

As Democrats look forward, Harris will say, they need to be ready for a much fiercer fight. “The good news is Donald Trump will be term limited out. However, please let us be clear: there is no term limit on this new Republican Party built in his image — and folks, there is a deep moral corruption about this new Republican Party,” she will say, according to excerpts of the speech shared with CNN. “Their ideology is clearly to create a smash-and-grab world. To sow chaos, grab wealth and abuse power.”

Harris is delivering the keynote address at the Louisiana Democratic Party’s annual gala, where she’ll also receive a legacy award. It will be her first major speech since the Supreme Court further eroded the Voting Rights Act in the spring by ruling in its Louisiana v. Callais decision against mandated Black-majority districts. The decision to give this speech in Louisiana is deliberate for the former vice president, who is preparing more speeches on Callais into the fall as she decides on her own political future.

Rather than sticking to anything like the status quo, she will urge those at the dinner to discover a “ruthlessness that must be the attitude of the Democratic Party.”

“This fight requires that we start to get comfortable with some things—including having a certain kind of ruthlessness,” Harris will say. “Now, I don’t mean ruthlessness like the cruelty they show. I mean the kind that is uncompromising in its impatience with injustice, that shows no mercy for corruption, that fights back hard when they threaten the power of the people.”

Harris will call for using government revenue to reduce costs on housing and healthcare, addressing inequality in the tax code, improving access to skills training and creating guardrails around artificial intelligence. But she won’t get into specifics.

“We’ll also need to look in the mirror and hold ourselves accountable. Government has to earn the trust of the people,” Harris will say. “And that means responding to the actual needs of the people—not with bureaucracy, but with speed and transparency. Not with process — but with progress.”

One announcement Harris is not scheduled to make on Friday: a decision on whether she will run again.

Trump’s pick for top law enforcement official gets crucial last-minute lifeline for confirmation

Cassidy backs Todd Blanche, clearing major hurdle for Trump’s AG pick

2026-08-07 08:01 EDT / Fox News

By Alex Miller, Fox News

Published August 7, 2026 8:01am EDT | Updated August 7, 2026 11:05am EDT

GOP senators remain noncommittal on President Trump’s attorney general nominee

Fox News correspondent David Spunt reports on the Senate impasse over President Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general as Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis remain noncommittal.

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As Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation appeared headed for sure defeat, one on-the-fence Senate Republican gave him, and President Donald Trump, a vital lifeline.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has remained quiet throughout this and last week on how he would vote on Blanche, who barely survived his confirmation vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now, after conversations with Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), the pieces are in place to confirm Blanche.

“I will vote for Mr. Blanche,” an emotional Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “I’ll be criticized for this vote. What’s new? But, the people of Louisiana can be assured that I worked hard to understand the issue and to make the right decision.”

COLLINS DROPS THE HAMMER ON TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD DOJ, JEOPARDIZING PATH TO CONFIRMATION

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) arrives for a meeting with Senate Republicans in the U.S. Capitol on June 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Senate Republicans overnight released a new version of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” as they approach U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline.(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

With Cassidy’s green light, Blanche has a chance, even with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., missing in action. But to be confirmed, Senate Republicans will need an assist from Vice President JD Vance. Still, it’s unclear whether the Senate will actually vote on Blanche on Friday, which could be the upper chamber’s grand finale of the summer before it exits Washington, D.C., for the remainder of August.

It comes after Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, announced that she would not support Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top prosecutor and law enforcement official, dealing another blow to his rocky confirmation process.

Her defection, despite a heavy lobbying effort by Blanche that saw him make the trek to Alaska, means that Senate Republican leadership can’t afford to lose anymore votes to get him across the finish line, given that , R-Ky., though now back home, has still not returned to the Senate.

Murkowski acknowledged Blanche’s visit to Alaska and heavy lobbying effort throughout the last few weeks, but it’s his connection to President Donald Trump’s nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund, and broader concerns of a weaponized Justice Department, that proved the nail in the coffin for her.

TRUMP’S AG PICK SURVIVES — FOR NOW — AS REPUBLICANS QUESTION IF WHITE HOUSE DEAL WILL HOLD

“The politicization — even weaponization — of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,” Murkowski said in a statement. “I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators.”

“I am also keenly aware that the Department’s nearly $2-billion dollar slush fund—which likely would have rewarded January 6 protesters—is only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage,” she continued. “Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds.”

TRUMP THREATENS TO YANK HIS OWN AG NOMINEE AS GOP REVOLT GROWS

Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, speaks to members of the media following a vote outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025.(Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

To Murkowski’s latter issue, several lawmakers in both sides of the aisle acknowledge that though Blanche and the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to permanently rescind the fund in writing to Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, there’s nothing stopping Trump from reviving it.

And he’s on several occasions made clear he wants to see it come back.

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“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration,” Murkowski said. “I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Before making her decision, Trump already took a snipe at her during an interview with Punch Bowl News published Friday morning.

“I’m against Murkowski,” Trump said. “I do more for Alaska than any president in history. No president’s done for Alaska what I’ve done. She’s not good.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Hillary Clinton blasts Trump’s White House changes as ‘reminiscent’ of Saddam Hussein’s palaces

2026-08-07 10:51 AM ET / CNN

By Donald Judd

Hillary Clinton blasted President Donald Trump’s overhaul of the White House in an interview posted Friday, telling podcast host Kara Swisher that Trump’s “tackied up” decor is “reminiscent” of dictator Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Iraq.

“It’s sad to me — it’s sad that it’s so tackied up, and it’s a reflection of, you know, his narcissistic personality and his need to feel important, including sticking gold embellishments all over the walls of the Oval Office,” the former secretary of state told Swisher on her “Pivot” podcast.

“This is a man who, his mind apparently goes to, ‘Where can I add more gold?’ instead of, ‘How do I get out of Iran without looking like the loser that I am?’”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attends the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, in the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20, 2025.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/File

As first lady, Clinton herself oversaw renovations to the White House Blue Room, but has emerged as a fierce critic of Trump’s massive overhauls to the White House complex, posting, “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” shortly after the administration began demolishing the White House East Wing to make way for the president’s proposed ballroom last year.

“The next president is going to have a big decision. What do you do with a half-finished ballroom?” Clinton said in the interview, referring to it as a “carbuncle on the side of the White House.”

Asked what she would do, Clinton replied: “I don’t know.”

In a statement responding to her comments, White House spokesman Davis Ingle pointed back to the 2016 presidential election, when Clinton lost to Trump.

“Hillary Clinton never had the opportunity to decorate the Oval Office as president because she suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of President Trump, which she has never recovered from,” he said.

Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump has sought to leave his own mark on the building, affixing gold detailing on the surfaces of Oval Office and throughout the West Wing.

President Donald Trump, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on July 21.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In December of last year, he unveiled the “Presidential Walk of Fame” along the White House Rose Garden colonnade, complete with plaques featuring politically-tinged dings against his predecessors — partisan barbs White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed he wrote himself.

And he’s been publicly preoccupied with renovation projects throughout the District of Columbia, including scandal-plagued efforts to refurbish the National Mall’s reflecting pool and erect a 250-foot “triumphal arch” across the Potomac River.

Speaking with Swisher in Friday’s interview, Clinton joked she’d be willing to take on the role of “Secretary of Taking Down the Gold” after Trump leaves office.

“Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Secretary of cleaning it up, fixing up,” she said.

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

Pentagon releases new batch of UFO files: “Did you see that?”

August 7, 2026 / 10:46 AM EDT / CBS News

By Stefan Becket Managing Editor, Digital Politics

Washington — The Pentagon on Friday released a new batch of documents and images related to UFOs, also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP, including a military pilot’s recollection of a huge, strange triangle that blocked out the stars over Afghanistan in 2002.

The 41 new files, posted on the Pentagon’s UFO website, include a mix of documents, images and videos. The records come from the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, State Department and Executive Office of the President, with the oldest being from 1950 and the most recent being from this year.

The disclosure is the fifth release under an executive order President Trump signed in January directing the military and other agencies to produce more documents related to UFOs.

What’s in the new UFO files?

The bulk of Friday’s release includes the type of grainy videos that have been the hallmark of past disclosures, showing flying objects captured by military sensors and cameras.

Six of the videos show different versions of the same incident — an encounter over the Gulf of Oman by Special Operations forces on an AC-130J gunship in September 2021. The clips are cellphone videos of screens on the gunship, showing objects picked up by its infrared and other sensors.

An accompanying intelligence report sheds more light on the footage. The report said the forces onboard the gunship “observed approximately 25 instances of UAPs while conducting a live fire exercise in the Gulf of Oman.”

“The UAPs were observed as cold orbs flying at lower altitudes between 250 to 1300 MPH in different formations as well as maneuvering aggressively. UAPs also appeared to react to the aircraft firing its main cannon,” the report said.

The encounter could not be resolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon’s UAP investigative arm.

One clip submitted by U.S. Central Command shows footage captured by a military aircraft over a populated area in the Middle East in 2025. The video shows what appears to be an object zooming across the screen. The incident also remains unresolved:

Another video shows footage captured by a “U.S. Government Special Agent” in the western U.S. this year. The Pentagon said the video “features two, slow-moving ‘black-hot’ areas of contrast, visible in infrared imaging.”

A partially redacted report about that encounter said the agent received a report about a radio frequency being detected and soon pointed a handheld infrared sensor in its direction.

“He saw a black object in the sky. It was not moving fast. He took pictures using the optical device. While observing he saw a second object to the right of the first and took additional photos/videos. The objects were moving together at the same speed,” the FBI report said. “Both were black hot. He lost view of the objects when they traveled a distance out of view. Total observation time was approximately 5 – 10 minutes.”

Friday’s release includes eight 302 forms, which the FBI uses to record the details of witness interviews. All eight include redactions to shield confidential information, and most are paired with artist renderings from the bureau showing the objects that the witnesses described. Others were released along video footage that the interviewees captured, showing what appear to be orbs and other light sources in the sky.

One noteworthy 302 report records an interview with a former military pilot in 2024. The pilot told an agent that military pilots began seeing strange lights in the sky between midnight and 3 a.m. the year before. The pilot said he first saw the lights during a flight from Massachusetts to Ireland in October 2023.

“[Redacted] was at an elevation of 37,000 feet and believed the lights were higher than him, probably at 50,000 feet or higher. The lights were white in color, would start out as dim, and get brighter before they eventually faded out,” the report said. “The full cycle of the lights would range from 10 seconds to one minute.”

The pilot said he saw the lights roughly 10 times after that first experience.

He also told the agent about something he saw while serving in Afghanistan in 2002.

“At approximately 4:30 AM local time, [redacted] noticed that the stars were getting blacked out over Bagram. It appeared as if something huge went overhead, from west to east, and was an equilateral triangle shape. The object was moving silently, at a consistent speed and altitude, possibly 150 knots, with no lights visible,” the agent wrote.

The pilot “estimated it was 500 feet in size, but he could not fully see the shape of the object.” He reported that the pilot he was with “also observed the triangle, and when it passed over stated, ‘did you see that?’”

The FBI produced this artist’s rendering of the object:

An FBI rendering of the military pilot’s recollection. FBI

The Pentagon said that Friday’s document disclosure won’t be the last under Mr. Trump’s executive order, with a spokesman saying the department “will release additional files on a rolling basis.”

Explainer: How are Reuters/Ipsos US public opinion polls conducted?

2026-08-07T14:41:25.112Z / https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-are-reutersipsos-us-public-opinion-polls-conducted-2026-08-07/

Summary

• Polls collect respondents’ views at a particular moment in time
• All polls are subject to margin of error
• Congressional elections present unique challenges

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Reuters/Ipsos conducts polls of national U.S. public opinion on a variety of political, business and social topics including a regular reading on the approval of the president and on Americans’ views of which party they want ​to run Congress.

WHAT DO PUBLIC OPINION POLLS MEASURE?

Public opinion polls capture respondents’ views at a particular moment in time. By reaching out to groups ‌of people designed to represent the broader U.S. population, they provide a snapshot of national opinion.

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

HOW ARE THE REUTERS/IPSOS POLLS CONDUCTED?

Ipsos uses its proprietary “KnowledgePanel,” a representative sample of Americans aged 18 and over.

Participants are selected through a postal address-based sampling method that includes all U.S. households. They are polled online. Respondents who do not already have internet access are provided with internet service and a laptop at no ​cost.

The data is weighted to reflect U.S. Census data on how the broader U.S. population breaks down by factors including gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity (people of ​Hispanic descent are the nation’s second largest ethnic group), education, household income and census region. Data may also be weighted to account ⁠for political composition using partisan self-identification (benchmarked to the Pew Research NPORS study) or self-reported 2024 presidential vote choice (benchmarked to election results).

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE POLLED?

Six times a year, ​Reuters/Ipsos conducts a poll of at least 4,000 respondents over roughly a week. These polls have a margin of error of about 2 percentage points for the full sample, with ​higher margins of error for smaller sub-groups of respondents.

Over the course of the year, Reuters/Ipsos conducts at least 24 polls of presidential approval and other topics. Those polls reach at least 1,000 people over a few days and typically have a margin of error of about 3 percentage points for the full sample.

WHAT IS A MARGIN OF ERROR?

Margin of error is a statistical term intended to express ​the possible variation between a poll’s finding and what the result would be if the full population were polled. If a representative poll of the U.S. population finds that ​75% of respondents prefer ice cream to Brussels sprouts and has a 3% margin of error, that means that in the full population somewhere between 72% and 78% of Americans hold that ‌preference.

WHAT IS ⁠A ‘GENERIC BALLOT’ POLL?

Generic ballot polls are national polls that provide an overall view of which party poll respondents want to see in charge in Congress. While these polls provide a view of national public sentiment, they do not capture all the nuances of the state-by-state and district-by-district contests that determine control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

House elections in particular are heavily influenced by partisan redistricting, also known as gerrymandering, which has resulted in contests where just about three dozen of the 435 House seats are expected to be competitive ​in the November midterm elections.

Senators serve for overlapping ​six-year terms, which mean that just ⁠a third of the seats in that chamber are up for grabs in a congressional election. This year, 35 U.S. states will hold elections for Senate, with eight states — Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Ohio — seen as most competitive.

WHAT ​ABOUT REGISTERED VOTERS AND LIKELY VOTERS?

Reporting on polls will often refer to the findings from registered voters and likely voters, as ​these are the people ⁠who decide election outcomes. The sample of registered voters represents the widest group of people eligible to cast ballots, and excludes responses from people who aren’t eligible because they aren’t citizens or have criminal records. Just over 60% of eligible voters cast ballots in 2024, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

Pollsters try to measure the views of those who will ⁠cast ballots by ​using models of likely voters, the people who seem most likely to show up on Election Day. ​These models are by nature subjective, and pollsters take multiple factors into account in determining who to include, including respondents’ self-reported level of enthusiasm about the upcoming election and past voting behavior.

Like any attempt to predict ​future behavior, those models can have flaws that cause them to overestimate or underestimate which groups of voters do cast ballots in the end.

Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Alistair Bell

土耳其巴基斯坦与沙特签署共同防务协议

2026-08-07 20:41 / 联合早报

8月7日，沙特阿拉伯王储兼首相穆罕默德（中）与到访的土耳其总统埃尔多安（左）和巴基斯坦总理谢里夫麦加签署了《麦加共同防务协议》。 （路透社）

沙特阿拉伯、巴基斯坦和土耳其在麦加签署了一项联合防务协议。协议旨在巩固这三个与美国结盟的逊尼派穆斯林国家的联盟。

沙特阿拉伯王储兼首相穆罕默德与到访的土耳其总统埃尔多安和巴基斯坦总理谢里夫星期五（8月7日）在沙特麦加签署了《麦加共同防务协议》。

巴基斯坦外交部和沙特阿拉伯电视台（Al Arabiya）说，这份《麦加共同防务协议》在中东战争和沙特南部邻国也门冲突再度爆发的背景下，将这三个国家联系在一起。

路透社报道，三国在联合声明中说，协议旨在加强对任何侵略行为的共同威慑，并规定对三国中任何一方的武装攻击都视为对所有三国的攻击。声明并未详细说明各方在协议中所作出的承诺或义务，但表示协议旨在加强三国的集体安全，并促进该地区及其他地区的和平、安全与稳定。

一名土耳其官员指出，协议本质上是防御性的，并非针对任何特定行为体，对其他地区国家开放，并且不废除或取代任何现有的双边或多边安排。

US appeals court blocks Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project

2026-08-07 14:25:46 UTC / Reuters

By Mike Scarcella

August 7, 2026 2:25 PM UTC Updated 5 mins ago

Construction of a ballroom at the White House seen from a window at the Washington Monument, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 4, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee Purchase Licensing Rights

• Appeals court gives administration 14 days to seek Supreme Court review
• Judge had twice barred above-ground work while allowing underground construction to continue
• Justice Department argued courts cannot review the privately ​funded project

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to ‌stop construction on a $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, dealing the Republican leader a major setback in a case testing his presidential authority.

The Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a divided 2-1 order upheld a preliminary ​injunction won by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued last year after the administration tore down the ​East Wing and began building a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) ballroom without seeking authorization from Congress.

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“Whether or not a ⁠massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the panel’s ​majority wrote. “Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House — the People’s ​House — to fit a particular President’s desires.”

The appeals court placed its ruling on hold for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump appealed after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon twice ​blocked above-ground construction on the site while allowing underground work to continue.

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Leon, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, ​had ruled that no federal statute “comes close to giving the President” the required authority to construct the ballroom without congressional approval.

The ballroom plan, which ‌the ⁠administration has described as necessary for large formal functions and to preserve the safety of the White House, is the grandest of several Trump efforts to reshape central Washington’s landscape of government buildings and national monuments.

A judge in a separate lawsuit recently said Trump’s name was illegally added to the exterior of the Kennedy Center performing arts center and ordered its removal.

In the ballroom case, ​Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth ​said during D.C. Circuit arguments ⁠on June 5 that the courts have no role in weighing the privately funded project and that it would have been improper to block it at any point.

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Roth said the National Trust’s “architectural ​preference” against the ballroom shouldn’t take precedence over national security concerns, claiming evidence that the ​former East Wing ⁠left the president and others in the White House vulnerable to attack.

“They just don’t want to go to Congress,” countered Thaddeus Heuer, a lawyer for the preservation group.

Trump has defended his ballroom and its price tag, which has doubled from initial projections. Trump said in ⁠a post ​on Truth Social last month that the cost rose because “it is approximately twice ​the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal” and promised “it will be magnificent, safe, and secure!”

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Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario, Sanjeev Miglani and Andrea Ricci