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Some House Republican women are in open revolt against Speaker Mike Johnson

(NBC News) Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a revolt from House Republican women. Several female lawmakers have been increasingly defying Johnson, R-La., on legislative matters and lobbing public broadsides at him — including a member of Johnson’s own leadership team. This week alone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., launched a discharge petition to go around Johnson and force a floor vote on a congressional stock trading ban, posting on X that she’s “pissed” that leadership isn’t moving fast enough on the issue. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of House Republican Leadership, not only signed on to Luna’s petition but also publicly unloaded on Johnson over an unrelated issue in the national defense bill.

Republican Burchett on Tennessee special election: 'We got a real problem'

(The Hill) Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Republicans have “a real problem” after the party eked out a narrow victory in a ruby red Tennessee district in Tuesday’s special election. “I’m always concerned, to be honest,” Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju when asked about the race, which was more competitive than in recent years. “We got a real problem, and we better wake up,” Burchett added. Republican candidate Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn by roughly 9 percentage points on Tuesday, in a district that includes part of Nashville and some rural parts of the state. The district voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2024, backing him over former Vice President Harris by more than 20 points.

GOP hit with new threat to lose eye-popping number of seats in Virginia over Trump scheme

(Raw Story) Virginia Democrats threatened to go nuclear on the GOP in their retaliatory mid-decade redistricting, potentially deleting as many as four Republican seats to create a map where Democrats win 10 out of 11 districts. Don Scott, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, was asked about redistricting at a meeting of the Virginia Property Owners Alliance. In response, he replied, "10-1 is not out of the realm to be able to draw the maps in a succinct and community-based way," according to Punchbowl News' Ally Mutnick.

Survivors of Boat Strike Were Actively Continuing Drug Mission, Admiral to Tell Lawmakers

(Wall Street Journal) California Democratic Representative and Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee Robert Garcia said bank and financial records are the next “biggest thing” in the release of case files related to the federal sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Garcia appeared on MS NOW's Chris Jansing Reports after the release of photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday.

Epstein Files: Congressman Reveals 'Biggest Thing' Coming After New Release

(Newsweek) California Democratic Representative and Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee Robert Garcia said bank and financial records are the next “biggest thing” in the release of case files related to the federal sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Garcia appeared on MS NOW's Chris Jansing Reports after the release of photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday.

Thursday's Condensed News Cartoons

New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights

(NY Times) The New York Times sued the Pentagon on Thursday, arguing that the Defense Department infringed on the constitutional rights of its journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military. The Pentagon policy “is exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment,” the company said in a summary of the filing. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

FBI makes arrest in investigation into pipe bombs placed in DC on eve of Jan. 6 riot, AP source says

(AP) The FBI has made an arrest in its nearly 5-year-old investigation into who placed pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday. The arrest marks the first time investigators have settled on a suspect in an act that had long vexed law enforcement, spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories and remained an enduring mystery in the shadow of the dark chapter of American history that is the violent Capitol siege.

Trump pardons sports executive charged by his Justice Department

(NBC News) President Donald Trump has pardoned the former chief executive of the entertainment venue company Oak View Group months after he was indicted on a federal conspiracy charge. Tim Leiweke, 68, who remains a shareholder of the company after he stepped down as CEO in July, expressed his "profound gratitude" to Trump for the pardon. Leiweke was charged during the Trump administration. A federal grand jury in Texas returned an indictment in July that accused Leiweke of conspiring with a competitor to rig the bidding process to develop the $375 million Moody Center, a 15,000-seat arena at the University of Texas at Austin.

200,000 children to die this year because of foreign aid cuts:

(The Independent) Around 200,000 more children under the age of five are projected to die across the world this year compared with 2024 – the first time this century that has happened – after unprecedented international aid cuts from countries including the UK and US. A report from the Gates Foundation has projected that, by the end of 2025, there will be 4.8 million child deaths, compared with 4.6 million the year before. Until now, deaths of under-fives around the world had fallen every year since 2000, when the toll stood at 10 million.