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2027 Met Gala to feature designer John Galliano and his controversial legacy

August 3, 2026 / 2:06 PM EDT / CBS News
By Kelsie Hoffman

The 2027 Met Gala is already causing controversy.

The event will feature John Galliano, who is known for his theatrical and dramatic designs. But Galliano’s legacy is also marked by antisemitic and racist comments, which led to his dismissal from Christian Dior in 2011 and a hate crime conviction in France. He was not given prison time.

Galliano has publicly apologized. He has said he was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs at the time.

“The fashion industry — they keep their own, and he is one of their own,” Lauren Sherman, a CBS News fashion contributor and Puck fashion correspondent, said on “CBS Mornings” Monday. “There was forgiveness a long time ago in fashion.”

About 10 years ago, Anna Wintour, then-editor-in-chief of Vogue, “really worked hard to give Galliano a second chance in the fashion industry,” Sherman explained. “She got him a job at Maison Margiela.”

A documentary in 2024, “High & Low – John Galliano,” outlined Galliano’s rise, fall and rehabilitation.

Galliano’s impact on fashion

Galliano was the designer of Christian Dior for about 15 years.

“He sort of was integral to the change and the transformation of the fashion industry, and he was also one of the final designers to sort of do innovative fashion,” Sherman said. “The ’90s was sort of the last time we saw anything new.”

Galliano and Alexander McQueen, the late British designer who was the subject of a previous Met Gala, were the last two big designers to change the way we dress, she said.

The exhibit next year, titled “John Galliano: Horizons,” will be only the third time a living designer is the subject of a solo show at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is set to explore both Galliano’s creative accomplishments and controversies.

“John Galliano’s tribulations and everything that he has gone through has to be a part of this exhibit because that is a part of his body of work in some ways,” Sherman said.

But his controversies may not be the focus the night of the gala, she said.

“I can imagine a world where that night, no one really talks about any of this stuff. Maybe there will be — it will be addressed in some ways by Jewish leaders who maybe end up attending the gala. We’ll see,” she said.

Galliano and Wintour met with influential rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York City in May about the exhibit and gala, The New York Times reported.

In a statement, The Metropolitan Museum of Art said in part that the exhibit will “directly address the rupture caused by his (Galliano’s) antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label and his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity, or origin.

“It will also consider his subsequent treatment for substance addiction and his later public acknowledgment of his actions. Rather than presenting a conventional narrative of disgrace and redemption, the gallery will examine how memory, experience, cultural values, and historical circumstances continually reshape the reception of a designer’s work.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Funeral held for family “wiped off the map” in Russian strike on Ukraine, neighbor says

August 3, 2026 / 1:35 PM EDT / CBS/AFP

The funeral of five members of the same family who were killed in a Russian airstrike last week was held in central Ukraine on Monday, as Moscow again pounded the region.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, a direct hit by an Iskander ballistic missile struck the family’s house in Kryvyi Rih — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home city — on July 30.

At least two adults and four children were killed but the death toll could be higher as all the remains have not yet been formally identified.

On Monday, the coffins of five of the dead were brought to a small church in the town in front of a crowd of several dozen people, an AFP journalist said.

The family was “exceptionally good and sincere,” said Oksana Stretovych, a colleague of one of the deceased, Olena Voronova. “They always responded to all kinds of situations and tried to help.”

This photo shows a makeshift memorial honoring a family whose members were killed in a missile strike on July 30, 2026, in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig on August 3, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images

Stretovych herself heard “a powerful explosion” on the night of the tragedy.

She was unable to sleep because she was worried about her husband and their only son, who serves in the Ukrainian army in “difficult” areas, she explained.

“When I got up and looked around me, not seeing any flames, I still started to try to find out what happened,” Stretovych added. “That’s how I found out about the incident. It’s very hard.”

“Even bigger desire for vengeance”

Stretovych’s son, military officer Taras, also said they were “a wonderful family, a large family, a family of faith, who simply worked for the good of Ukraine.”

Russian forces “simply wiped off the map a great family that we mourn deeply,” he said, adding that he had “an even bigger desire for vengeance.”

Mourners stand beside the coffins of family members who were killed in a missile strike on July 30, 2026, during a funeral ceremony in Kryvyi Rig on August 3, 2026. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images

The priest also described the family as respectable and hardworking.

On the evening of the strike, he said, “at my place, too, in the garage, the window was blown out, and the one in the bedroom as well,” he said.

After the missile struck, the Voronov home “was gone; all that was left was flattened earth,” he added.

More than four years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shelling continues on an almost daily basis and is intensifying on both sides of the frontline, causing a growing number of civilian deaths.

A woman mourns beside the coffins of family members who were killed in a missile strike on July 30, 2026, during a funeral ceremony in Kryvyi Rig on August 3, 2026. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images

On Monday, a new Russian attack near Kryvyi Rih killed three, including an 8-year-old child, at a service station, according to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, Oleksandr Ganzha.

In July, the U.N. expressed concern about an “alarming escalatory trend” of increased civilian casualties in Ukraine “driven by the intensifying use of powerful weapons that are particularly deadly when used in densely populated urban areas.”

3 children among 7 killed in strike on beach, Russia says

In Russia and annexed Crimea, Ukrainian strikes killed 11 on Monday, Russian officials said. Seven people, including three children, were killed and dozens wounded when a drone crashed on a Russian beach on the Black Sea coast, the local governor said.

“What happened today was a deliberate attack by the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, which has no connection whatsoever to military infrastructure,” the governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukraine has escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, partly to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table after nearly four-and-a-half years of war. Ukraine has targeted energy and logistics infrastructure.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged in June that Ukrainian strikes were causing “problems” for Russia, saying they were “observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.”

Last week, Zelenskyy met in Washington with President Trump and representatives of American defense companies, as he pleaded for swifter and bigger deliveries of Patriot air defense systems that are the best way to stop Russia’s ballistic assaults.

The Iran war has drained stockpiles of the American-made interceptors. Mr. Trump has promised to grant Ukraine licenses to build its own Patriots, but production could take a long time to set up.

Trump expected to attend event with mining execs amid critical minerals push

2026-08-03 4:26 PM UTC / Reuters

By Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder

August 3, 2026 4:26 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he holds an umbrella after disembarking Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, U.S., August 2, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer Purchase Licensing Rights

Aug 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is expected to attend a roundtable ​on Friday with top mining executives hosted by the U.S. ‌State Department, according to two people familiar with the planning.

The event is part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to expand domestic and allied supplies of critical minerals needed ​for energy, defense and advanced technologies. The agenda, participants and other ​details remain fluid and could change, according to the sources.

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The ⁠administration has made securing critical minerals supply chains a priority, taking steps ​to boost domestic production and processing, reduce reliance on China and strengthen partnerships ​with allies.

It has argued that expanding the sector will require not only investment in mines and processing facilities but also a larger pipeline of skilled workers, including engineers, geologists, ​miners and technicians, as companies face a shortage of talent needed to ​support future projects.

The U.S. Department of Energy is also expected to host an event ‌on ⁠Friday focused on workforce development, according to a third person with direct knowledge of the planning.

That event will include representatives from all 14 accredited U.S. mining schools, and aims to raise awareness of mining as a career ​path while highlighting the ​need for more ⁠students to enter the field, the source said.

China’s broad network of mining schools has helped it become the world’s ​largest minerals producer.

The White House, Energy Department and State ​Department did ⁠not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“We look forward to continuing to work with (the administration) on solutions to responsibly develop our nation’s vast resources, secure our ⁠supply ​chains and create the mining workforce of the ​future,” said Ashley Burke of the National Mining Association, an industry trade group.

Reporting By Jarrett ​Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mark Porter

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Trump DOJ corners school district with 7-day ultimatum over trans policy keeping parents in the dark

August 3, 2026 1:50pm EDT / Fox News

The DOJ demands the district stop hiding student gender identity information from parents or face court action

By Robert Schmad Fox News

AFL sues Maryland school district, alleges secret gender transition violated parents’ constitutional rights

America First Legal alleges Anne Arundel County Public Schools socially transitioned a student without notifying or obtaining consent from the child’s parents.

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Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon demanded in a letter sent July 29 that a school district in Maryland stop hiding information about student gender transitions from parents or face litigation from the Justice Department.

“By categorically withholding ‘(i)nformation about a student’s gender identity’ from parents except where ‘legally required,’ AACPS appears to have adopted a blanket, district-wide practice of nondisclosure untethered to FERPA’s enumerated exceptions … parents were denied access to their child’s full record, information was disclosed without parental consent, and the parents were denied a hearing to correct the record,” she wrote, aimed at the Anne Arundel County school system.

“Comply with the law or face us in court,” Dhillon later added on X.

The demand marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to challenge school policies that allow students to socially transition without their parents’ knowledge, testing whether federal education privacy law requires districts to disclose gender-identity records. Anne Arundel County now faces possible litigation — and potentially the loss of federal funding — unless it reverses the policy within seven days, escalating a national dispute over parental rights, a significant plank in the president’s policy agenda.

‘SHAME ON YOU’: SHERRILL KNEW VOTER-ROLL BOMBSHELL WAS COMING WHEN SHE CALLED TRUMP A LIAR, DOJ OFFICIAL SAYS

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon arrives for a news conference at the Justice Department on September 29, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)is designed to give parents the legal right to access their children’s educational records, which the Trump administration argues includes information related to changes in their gender identity. The law has previously been used by the DOJ in attempts to overturn similar policies in Maine and California.

LGBT advocates argue that nondisclosure for information linked to a child’s gender identity is important to preserving the safety of children growing up in non-affirming or abusive households. Social conservatives, meanwhile, take the position that schools don’t have the right to conceal information about their children from them.

Before Dhillon sent her letter Wednesday, the DOJ and the Department of Education announced that they had entered a partnership to crack down on transgender nondisclosure policies in both Anne Arundel County and Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan, potentially withholding federal funds from the district until it changes course.

VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT SUED OVER ALLEGED POLICY OF KEEPING STUDENTS’ GENDER TRANSITIONS HIDDEN FROM PARENTS

FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice,” is seen behind the podium in the Department’s headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023.(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo)

In a press release announcing the joint effort, the agencies claimed that the Education Department had received complaints from parents in Anne Arundel County who alleged the district “was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male at school” and declined to provide information about it when confronted.

An Education Department official told Fox News Digital that the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations and a DOJ spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to Dhillon’s remarks when reached for comment.

Students enrolled in Anne Arundel Public Schools are, per district policy, allowed to use any name or pronoun they prefer, even if it doesn’t align with their sex, without requiring parental approval. Staff are, however, instructed to involve the student’s family in developing a support plan for the student unless “there is a genuine safety concern for the student’s physical, emotional, or mental health safety.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OPENS FOUR TITLE IX INVESTIGATIONS INTO MICHIGAN AND NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Harmeet Dhillon speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington D.C., Sept. 2, 2025.(Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Additionally, the policy designates records about student gender identity as confidential medical information and advises that it should be revealed when legally necessary.

The Anne Arundel, Maryland, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, school districts did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

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“School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,” Dhillon said. “FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action. In partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Justice will initiate enforcement proceedings with districts that fail to comply.”

Dhillon’s letter gives Anne Arundel Public Schools seven days to rescind its policy, provide parents impacted with the relevant records and inform staff that they cannot withhold information from parents. If the deadline is not met, the letter claims the district could face legal action.

Furious Trump is considering removing Pirro over Reflecting Pool filing, sources say

2026-08-03T18:35:05.983Z / CNN

President Donald Trump is considering removing Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, over a Justice Department conclusion that problems with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool stemmed from a flawed renovation rather than vandalism, two people familiar with his thinking told CNN.

The president is “furious” with Pirro, one of the sources said, telling CNN that he fumed about her all weekend. They added that based on his criticisms of her, they find it “highly likely she’s removed from her job.”

The other source, a senior administration official, said Trump was “blindsided” by Pirro’s court filing: “The president did not know beforehand that she was going to do that.”

CNN has reached out to Pirro’s office and the Justice Department for comment. The White House directed CNN to the president’s prior comments on the filing and did not comment on the substance of the reporting.

“Frankly, I think she choked, because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said during an unrelated Oval Office event Monday.

“I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed in Jeanine Pirro,” he added. “She folded like an umbrella.”

The Justice Department acknowledged in a court filing on Friday that the president’s $14 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool was “hasty and botched” and said it was dropping the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the landmark. Hearn previously pleaded not guilty to the felony charge in DC’s Superior Court.

Trump and Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime ally of the president, spoke by phone on Saturday about the court filing. Their conversation “wasn’t pretty,” said one of the sources, who was read out on the call.

Pirro told Trump it was the career officials in her office that were responsible for the filing, another source said. A longtime prosecutor who oversees prosecutions in DC Superior Court signed the court filing asking to dismiss the case on Friday.

In addition to the Saturday call, Pirro has spoken with Trump multiple times about the situation.

Trump on Saturday publicly criticized the move, posting to Truth Social: “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”

Pirro argued in her filing that the Department of Interior, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case.”

“Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” it read.

Despite those accusations, the president is not angry with Burgum, the sources said, and he continues to believe that vandals are responsible for the damage to the Reflecting Pool. Burgum dismissed Pirro’s argument in a social media post on Saturday, saying, “The evidence is clear, vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the Reflecting Pool.”

However, internal communications CNN received through FOIA requests between the National Park Service — which oversaw the project under the Department of Interior — and DC Water from March through last month make no mention of any vandalism as the department was planning to drain the pool.

Trump had said the pool would need to be drained to make repairs caused by the alleged vandalism — yet an email from NPS acknowledged as early as July 1 that the pool would need to be drained due to algae. The agency also weighed whether to dye the pool water; in the past, the water has been dyed black to help reflect better.

Hearn has legal options that could unearth more embarrassing details on how his case was handled. The judge hasn’t officially dismissed Hearn’s charges as of Monday afternoon, and his lawyers are expected to file a response to Pirro’s request to dismiss the case this week.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Michael R. Bromwich, an attorney representing Hearn.

Among his options: referring the prosecutors involved to a bar disciplinary authority; asking inspectors general to look at the conduct of the Justice Department and Interior Department; filing lawsuits; seeking more of the grand jury record documenting the prosecutors’ presentation of the indictment; and asking the judge to dismiss the case so it cannot be brought again. Pirro’s office has so far sought only to dismiss Hearn’s charge without prejudice, meaning prosecutors wouldn’t be barred from attempting to revive the case later.

This story has been updated with additional context and reporting.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Sunlen Serfaty and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

SpaceX set to release its first earnings report as a public company. Here’s what to look for.

2026-08-03T13:23:00-0400 / CBS News

By

Updated on: August 3, 2026 / 2:33 PM EDT / CBS News

SpaceX is set to issue its first earnings report as a public company on Tuesday, offering a detailed look at how the rocket, satellite and AI provider is faring after its ballyhooed initial public offering in June.

SpaceX shares have sputtered after initially soaring following the transaction, the largest IPO in U.S. history. The company’s stock price hovered around $110 on Monday, roughly 19% below the $135 per share offer price and 51% below the intraday high of $225.64 on June 16.

SpaceX is scheduled to release its financial results on Tuesday after financial markets close, followed by a call with market analysts.

“Wall Street analysts will focus on the hard numbers, but retail investors will be influenced by some of the sound bites” during the earnings call, Jay Ritter, an IPO expert and professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, told CBS News in an email.

Here are three things to watch for when SpaceX releases its first earnings report.

Is revenue growth strong?

Investors will look at the pace of SpaceX’s revenue growth. The company booked $18.7 billion in revenue last year, but suffered a net loss of more than $4.9 billion, according to a regulatory filing.

Melissa Otto, head of Visible Alpha research at S&P Global, expects the company to report $6.9 billion in revenue in the second quarter, driven by its Starlink broadband satellite network. Gains from the connectivity business will help offset operating losses in the company’s space exploration and AI segments, she said in an analysis.

Analysts will focus in particular on Starlink’s subscriber growth and revenue. Nicolas Owens, an equity analyst at Morningstar covering SpaceX, expects subscriber growth of 93% in 2026, compared with 229% in 2025.

Is the AI business on the right track?

Another major question is whether SpaceX’s massive investment in artificial intelligence shows signs of paying off. In other words, can its AI business start to generate the revenue necessary to justify the company’s $1.4 trillion valuation?

In the first three months of 2026, SpaceX’s AI segment had revenue of $818 million, according to a securities filing. The division is focused on scaling AI compute infrastructure by sending data centers to space and enhancing the performance of Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI that SpaceX bought in February,

Investors will also assess SpaceX’s quarterly AI revenue for clues on how fast the business could grow. That includes plans for Cursor, the AI coding startup that SpaceX recently acquired, and how it figures into the future of Grok, Ritter said.

“If SpaceX can grow this part of its business, it could be an important source of revenue in the next few years, along with Starlink and terrestrial data centers,” he said in an email.

Can the stock regain momentum?

SpaceX’s first earnings report could affect its short-term stock price, which has slumped in part due to investor concerns about the company’s AI investment.

While investors will undoubtedly pay attention to the numbers in the earnings report, Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives & Co., said sentiment will largely hinge on the tone and vision set by Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, on the earnings call.

“Investors are betting much more in the future, and [SpaceX needs] to give them near-term [targets] that they can hit to show the success, because the stock is based on the longer-term vision,” he told CBS News.

Another key test for the stock will come on Thursday, when more than 911 million SpaceX shares worth roughly $100 billion will be released as the lockup period ends.

Short sellers have already made more than $8 billion betting against Elon Musk’s rocket company, driving the stock price down, according to Ritter. However, some investors are expected to shift into buying mode when the lockup period expires, reducing volatility in the shares.

“Some of them will become buyers this week, soaking up shares that existing shareholders will be allowed to sell,” he said. “This short covering will reduce the drop that otherwise will be occurring on Thursday.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

Trump blasts Jeanine Pirro, says she ‘choked’ in dropping reflecting pool case

August 3, 2026 7:33 PM UTC / Reuters

By Nandita Bose

[1/2]Rain falls on the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 2, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Monday for dropping ​a case of alleged vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting ‌Pool in Washington, saying she had “choked” under pressure from a judge and “folded like an umbrella.”

“Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went ​after her and went after her department, and I guess ​she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened,” ⁠Trump told reporters.

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Pirro’s office said in a court filing on Friday that ​the damage resulted from shoddy construction, not vandalism, and moved to drop ​charges against former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of deliberately damaging the newly renovated pool ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration last month.

Trump claimed ​surveillance footage showed people cutting newly installed waterproofing material around the ​pool and argued that Pirro, a close political ally, should have continued pursuing the ‌case.

“Pirro ⁠made a mistake. It was vandalism,” Trump said, adding he was “really disappointed” in Pirro and that “she folded like an umbrella.”

Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime Trump ally, is the top federal prosecutor ​in Washington. Trump ​did not say ⁠whether he had spoken directly with her before publicly rebuking her and did not answer when asked if he ​was reconsidering her role.

Pirro’s office and the White House ​office did ⁠not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The reflecting pool renovation is among several projects Trump has pursued across Washington. He has ⁠demolished the ​White House East Wing to make ​way for a $400 million ballroom and proposed a large arch between the Lincoln Memorial and ​Arlington National Cemetery.

Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The major holes in Todd Blanche’s concessions to Cornyn and Tillis

2026-08-03T16:06:03.032Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/politics/blanche-anti-weaponization-fund-senators

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to have satisfied the demands of Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, at least enough to advance his nomination as full attorney general.

Blanche late Sunday issued a written document that purports to rescind President Donald Trump’s highly controversial “anti-weaponization” fund and limit the tax immunity that Trump’s own government gave him in the same settlement.

But the assurances aren’t exactly iron-clad.

And even after this standoff, Trump still maintains a massive personal financial benefit from the legally dubious settlement — one Cornyn and Tillis apparently haven’t objected to.

First, the news: Late Sunday, Blanche posted a pair of documents meant to satisfy Cornyn’s and Tillis’ concerns. (Either senator could have blocked his nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee by voting no, given Republicans have just a one-seat majority on the panel.)

Cornyn and Tillis responded Monday morning by issuing a joint statement saying they “look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon.” The committee vote is expected Tuesday.

One document states that Blanche’s May 18 order creating the “anti-weaponization” fund, which the administration has said could be used to pay defendants convicted in the January 6 Capitol attack, is “rescinded and shall have no force or effect.”

The other purports to clarify Blanche’s order giving Trump immunity for tax issues, saying it applies only to past tax issues and only to the “named parties in the lawsuit” — i.e. Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization. Cornyn had said he wanted that portion of the settlement to be narrowed.

But both of these apparent concessions feature clear loopholes.

The problem with Blanche rescinding the “anti-weaponization” fund order is that it wouldn’t seem to necessarily fully kill off the fund.

As the National Review’s Andrew McCarthy has explained, the settlement’s terms (see our annotation here) state that it could be “modified only with the written agreement of the parties.” That would include Trump.

So while Blanche has rescinded a separate order he wrote that actually created the fund under the terms of the settlement, the settlement itself still exists — and could seemingly be enforced.

In fact, Cornyn and Blanche basically explained all of this during an exchange at Blanche’s confirmation hearing in mid-July, before they agreed to greenlight his nomination.

When he started pressing Blanche, Cornyn asked whether the settlement agreement had been modified by the parties, including Trump. (It hadn’t, Blanche said.) Under Cornyn’s questioning, Blanche admitted that even if he verbally promised to fully kill off the fund, the settlement remained an “enforceable document,” and Trump could file a lawsuit seeking to enforce its terms.

“There’s no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might [not] raise that issue by way of a lawsuit and — a breach of contract lawsuit in the future,” Cornyn said.

Blanche claimed that, because the fund would have been ended, “the results of such litigation, whatever it would be, wouldn’t be a revival of the fund.” And Cornyn dropped the issue.

But McCarthy wrote that that’s not the full story.

“Absent such a modification agreement, however, the Anti-Weaponization Fund is still viable and could be revived at any time, despite Blanche’s insistence to the contrary,” McCarthy said.

And even some supporters of the anti-weaponization fund suggested Blanche’s document could just be rendered moot.

“Can be undone after Tuesday,” Republican lawyer Mike Howell, who applied to serve on the “anti-weaponization” fund’s board, wrote on X late Sunday. “The Anti-Weaponization Fund is great.”

Blanche and his allies could argue that the new document would make it politically impossible to revive the fund — because it would look so bad and could draw lawmakers to pass legislation killing it off. But there are no guarantees.

While Blanche wrote that the IRS immunity deal was limited to the parties to the lawsuit — seemingly Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — it’s not clear how solid that is, either.

The second document says that Blanche “restates that it is DOJ’s interpretation that the Order only has any effect” for the parties to the lawsuit. In other words, they’re casting this as a clarification rather than a modification.

But the original document sounds like it applies more broadly than just to Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization.

It says the federal government will be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing any and all claims … that … have been or could have been asserted by Defendants against any of the Plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals (including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly), or parties including trusts, parent, sister, or related companies, affiliates, and subsidiaries …”

It’s difficult to square that with how limited Blanche says the immunity deal actually is. And this document, unlike the one pertaining to the anti-weaponization fund, wasn’t signed by Blanche. So again, the issue is whether Blanche’s new document actually changes anything, legally speaking.

Cornyn and Tillis in their statement Monday morning claimed Blanche’s new document was a “binding written order.”

But even if the narrower scope is operable, the updated terms would still allow Trump a major potential financial benefit.

The New York Times has written that giving Trump personal immunity from past tax issues could spare him a $100 million tax penalty.

What’s more, he will have earned this benefit in a highly dubious manner. This immunity will have come from a lawsuit and settlement that a judge has said amounted to an effort to “manipulate the judicial process.” This is because Trump earned the settlement by suing a federal government that he personally exercises control over.

In other words, even if the “anti-weaponization” fund is fully dead and the IRS immunity has actually been narrowed, legally speaking, Trump still comes out of all of this with a major personal win.

It’s still subject to court battles that could invalidate Trump’s immunity. But Cornyn, Tillis and the Republicans who are going to vote to confirm Blanche have apparently greenlit a potential major financial windfall for Trump — a man who has already reaped huge financial rewards from the presidency, rather shamelessly.

So, yes, Blanche ultimately gave in somewhat. The whole thing surely makes it more difficult to revive the “anti-weaponization” fund, at least politically.

But it’s not a case of GOP senators holding a hard line against Trump and getting iron-clad concessions that leave him empty-handed. Far from it.

“It’s not a big ask,” Cornyn said last week of his demands.

Indeed.

JPMorgan Chase to invest $750 billion in increasing the U.S. housing supply and homeownership

August 3, 2026 12:27 PM EDT / CBS News

JPMorgan Chase said on Monday it will invest $750 billion through 2035 to boost the U.S. housing supply, including financing for 1 million affordable housing units and assisting 500,000 people in buying homes.

The investment is part of JPMorgan Chase’s American Dream Initiative, announced in March to boost economic mobility at a time when many Americans say traditional financial milestones are slipping further out of reach. The investment represents a 40% increase in the bank’s housing capital deployment compared to the previous 10 years, the company said in a statement.

The effort is rolling out as housing costs continue to march higher, pricing homes beyond the reach of many Americans. The median price of existing homes in June reached a record $440,660, marking 36 straight months of higher property prices.

“An affordable and resilient housing market is essential to driving economic growth and increasing opportunity,” Michelle Herrick, head, commercial real estate for JPMorgan, said in the statement.

A majority of Americans surveyed by CBS News earlier this year said it’s harder to reach goals like buying a home or raising a family than it was for past generations. Homeownership is considered a key pathway to building wealth, yet fewer than four in 10 non-homeowner households can afford a typical starter home, according to LendingTree.

JPMorgan said its efforts to expand the nation’s housing supply will focus on collaborating with states and local communities to streamline zoning and building codes, as well as to expand tax credits and private-public partnerships.

The banking giant plans to assist 500,000 customers, including 200,000 first-time homebuyers, in buying homes by increasing JPMorgan’s mortgage lending by more than 40%. The bank plans to accomplish that partly by adding 850 new home-lending advisers and by developing new loan products for modular and manufactured homes.

Iran reaffirms support for Hamas as Trump pushes to disarm terror group

August 3, 2026 1:20pm EDT / Fox News

Board of Peace officials held a ‘difficult’ meeting with Netanyahu, urging Israel to halt strikes in Gaza

By Efrat Lachter, Fox News

Israel is ‘very happy’ about Hamas disarmament deal, Trump says

President Donald Trump told reporters during a Friday Cabinet meeting at Camp David that Israel is “very happy” about the deal he brokered with terrorist group Hamas to disarm itself in Gaza.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called Hamas’ newly elected leader to congratulate him and pledge Tehran’s continued support for the group’s cause, Hamas said Monday — as President Donald Trump promotes a landmark agreement intended to strip the terrorist organization of its weapons and power in Gaza.

Pezeshkian congratulated Khalil al-Hayya on his election as head of the group’s political bureau and told him Iran would continue supporting the Palestinian cause, according to a Hamas statement posted in Arabic, and reviewed by Fox News Digital.

“We are with you, and we support you in every action you take, despite the attacks we are facing,” Pezeshkian said, according to Hamas’ account of the call.

Fox News Digital has asked Iran’s mission to the United Nations to confirm that the call took place and provide an official readout.

HAMAS TAPS ‘ULTIMATE INSTITUTIONAL SURVIVOR’ AS TERROR CHIEF, SENDING MESSAGE TO ISRAEL: EXPERT

Analysts say Al-Hayya’s elevation signals that Hamas, after the destruction of Gaza and the losses since Oct. 7, 2023, has prioritized organizational cohesion, armed continuity and the preservation of its Iranian relationship.(Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The reported conversation highlighted a central contradiction confronting Trump’s Gaza initiative: While the White House is presenting the roadmap as a landmark agreement to remove Hamas from power and secure its weapons, Iran — the group’s longtime military and financial patron — was simultaneously reaffirming its support for Hamas and its new leader. Tehran’s backing raises fresh questions about whether Hamas is prepared to surrender the arsenal at the core of its power and how the Board of Peace could enforce disarmament against a group that continues to receive political support from one of Washington’s principal regional adversaries.

Trump in recent days announced what he called a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups,” presenting it as a breakthrough after nearly three years of war. The stakes extend far beyond the wording of the deal: Hamas’ weapons remain the central obstacle to rebuilding Gaza, and the agreement will test whether Trump’s Board of Peace can enforce a postwar transition or whether Hamas will exploit the process to survive, regroup and retain power.

At the center of the effort is Trump’s Board of Peace, the president’s handpicked vehicle for implementing his Gaza policy and potentially extending his approach to other global conflicts. Trump chairs the board, whose executive leadership includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The White House says the board will oversee Gaza’s transition, mobilize reconstruction funding and hold the parties accountable.

But the tensions intensified Monday also on the Israeli side, when Nickolay Mladenov, Board of Peace director-general and high representative for Gaza, and board advisor Aryeh Lightstone met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged Israel to halt its attacks in Gaza.

Israel appeared to reject the board’s two central demands shortly afterward.

“Israel will not withdraw from its current line in the Gaza Strip and will continue to thwart any threat to our civilians and soldiers,” an Israeli political official said. The statement amounted to a rejection, at least for now, of demands that Israel return to the “yellow line” and halt targeted strikes in Gaza.

A Board of Peace official declined to discuss the meeting but said the body remained focused on carrying out the roadmap.

“We are focused on implementation,” the official told Fox News Digital. “We have provided a pragmatic path forward to transform Gaza by removing Hamas from power and seeing it hand over its weapons. These steps would undoubtedly allow for the improvement of life in Gaza and enhancement of security in Israel. We remain determined to advance these objectives.”

Meanwhile, the Hamas terrorist group says it has agreed only to a phased and conditional process involving the storage of weapons after Israel stops its attacks, withdraws its forces and allows more aid into Gaza. Hamas has avoided the word “disarmament” in its statements and insists its weapons would remain under Palestinian control rather than being surrendered to Israel or an international force.

HAMAS AGREES TO COMPLETE DISARMAMENT UNDER ‘HISTORIC’ GAZA AGREEMENT: TRUMP

A drone view shows Palestinians walking past the rubble, following Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the area, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Gaza City, Oct. 11, 2025.(Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo/Reuters)

The board’s 15-point roadmap calls for Hamas to transfer Gaza’s civilian government and security responsibilities to a Palestinian technocratic body known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. Hamas-run police would surrender their weapons to the committee, while heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots and tunnels would be addressed later through a phased decommissioning process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.

The intended endpoint is that only the new Palestinian authority would possess or control weapons in Gaza. But the roadmap leaves unresolved who will enforce the process, what constitutes compliance and which side must act first.

Hamas’ disarmament remains a central obstacle to rebuilding Gaza. Trump has tied reconstruction to the group laying down its weapons, while The Associated Press reported that the Board of Peace had secured approximately $7 billion in pledges by February — a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the devastated territory.

Moumen al-Natour, a Palestinian lawyer from Gaza and co-founder of the anti-Hamas “We Want to Live” movement, said civilians desperately want the agreement to succeed but do not trust Hamas to relinquish power.

“Civilian people inside Gaza Strip… want safety, want to stop this war, want a new government, want to be alive,” al-Natour told Fox News Digital.

But al-Natour, who previously was imprisoned by Hamas, warned that the group would use delays and violations to remain embedded in Gaza.

“I can’t trust Hamas because I know Hamas,” he said, arguing that the group had repeatedly arrested and killed Palestinians who opposed its rule. He said an international force of only a few hundred personnel would be unable to secure Gaza or prevent Hamas from intimidating residents and that a much larger force and a new Palestinian police structure would be required.

Drawing on a grassroots network of thousands of Gazan professionals who reject Hamas’ ideology, the “We Want to Live” movement is promoting its own plan to rebuild Gaza’s civil society and is calling for cooperation with the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic body tasked under the U.S.-backed transition plan with governing and rebuilding the enclave.

Al-Natour also proposed allowing civilians who want to escape Hamas-controlled areas to move into protected zones near the “yellow line” — the boundary separating Israeli-held territory from the rest of Gaza — where they could live under a new Palestinian administration backed by an international security force. He said the arrangement could provide Gazans with a safer alternative while a post-Hamas governing structure is established.

HAMAS SAYS IT WILL DISSOLVE GAZA GOVERNMENT, BUT ISRAEL WARNS GROUP STILL SEEKS HEZBOLLAH-STYLE CONTROL

A mourner carries the body of a Palestinian who was killed in Israeli strikes, according to medics, during a funeral, in Gaza City, Aug. 2, 2026.(Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)

Michael Milstein, a former military intelligence officer in Israel and now head of the Palestinian Studies Centre at Tel Aviv University, said the compromise has been developing for months under pressure from Qatar, Turkey and Egypt.

Milstein said Hamas may be prepared to give up control of Gaza’s day-to-day government and accept restrictions on heavy weapons but is unlikely to abandon its armed organization completely.

Under the model Hamas appears to favor, Milstein said, a technocratic government and international forces would assume responsibility for public services and reconstruction while Hamas preserves its personnel, infrastructure and political influence — an arrangement resembling Hezbollah’s longtime position in Lebanon.

“There is a very, very low chance that Hamas will completely disarm,” Milstein told Fox News Digital, describing the roadmap as the kind of “gray area” Hamas has historically used to its advantage.

The Board of Peace also is pressing for an end to actions that could derail the plan. After Israeli strikes killed civilians and reportedly destroyed medical supplies over the weekend, Mladenov, the director-general of the Board of Peace, called for de-escalation but did not identify Israel by name.

“Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies,” Mladenov wrote on X, adding that he was working with the parties and regional mediators to “create the space for the full implementation of the President’s plan.”

Palestinians inspect the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a medicine warehouse, according to medics, next to tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Aug. 1, 2026, residents had been pre-warned by the Israeli military to evacuate.(Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

Israel, meanwhile, says it will not withdraw before Hamas genuinely disarms. Hamas says Israel must withdraw first.

The roadmap also faces resistance inside Israel’s government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements Minister Orit Strock urged Netanyahu on Monday to convene the security Cabinet immediately and block the international stabilization force from entering Gaza, according to Israel’s N12 news outlet.

In an urgent letter reported by N12 on Aug. 3, 2026, the ministers called the Board of Peace roadmap “dangerous to Israel” and argued that it contradicts Israel’s stated goals of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza. They objected that weapons would be placed under the authority of a new Palestinian body rather than removed from Gaza or handed to Israel and that Israeli troops would begin withdrawing while the disarmament process was still underway.

The far-right ministers also argued that the international force would monitor the separation between Israeli troops and the new Palestinian administration rather than directly disarm Hamas. They demanded that Netanyahu prevent implementation until the roadmap is revised to require full demilitarization before an Israeli withdrawal. The letter underscores that the plan’s obstacles extend beyond Hamas: Influential members of Netanyahu’s coalition are also challenging its sequencing, enforcement and security provisions.

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Israeli troops are pictured outside the Gaza Strip ahead of a military operation in northern Gaza(Daphne Lemelin/AFP via Getty Images)

That leaves Trump’s proclaimed milestone resting on the same question that has stalled previous Gaza negotiations: whether Hamas is truly preparing to surrender the weapons that underpin its power — or merely buying time to ensure that it remains standing when the rebuilding begins.

Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability.She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in political science.