A senior Conservative MP has asked the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to explain why the UK government appeared to perform a “sudden backtracking on women’s rights” after commitments to abortion and sexual health rights were removed from an official multi-nation statement on gender equality.

Caroline Nokes, who chairs the women and equalities select committee, has written to Truss, who is also the minister for women and equalities and a Tory leadership contender, asking why the key phrases relating to reproductive rights were deleted.

More than 20 countries had signed the original statement that resulted from a UK-hosted conference on freedom of religion and belief earlier this month. That version included a commitment to repeal laws that “allow harmful practices, or restrict women’s and girls’ … sexual and reproductive health and rights, bodily autonomy”.

But those phrases were removed from a later version of the international pact, which is currently online and has been signed by eight countries, including the UK and Malta, where abortion is illegal. Malta had not been one of the original signatories.

Raphael Warnock wants to debate Herschel Walker. Republicans smell a trap.

As Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) sees it, Democrats are pushing for the former NFL star to debate their incumbent in Georgia’s hotly contested Senate race because “they feel like that’s an advantage for their side. And I don’t think Herschel Walker should do anything that gives his opponent an advantage.”

But Cramer also warned his party not to choreograph Walker too closely as the former President Donald Trump-backed Republican tries to evict Warnock from the Senate: “Talking a lot, you make mistakes. Not talking, you don’t make mistakes. Except for the mistake of not talking … people are much more forgiving of your gaffes if you’re talking to them a lot.”

The Warnock-Walker matchup in Georgia isn’t the only midterm race where the Senate GOP is starting to worry about blowing it in a tough environment for Democrats. From Pennsylvania to Ohio to Georgia to Arizona, Republicans are being outraised and not yet running away with must-win races that they need to flip the Senate in November.

The Mega Millions jackpot has crossed the $1 billion threshold. The grand prize in Friday night's drawing will be an estimated $1.02 billion, lottery officials said, though that's certain to grow as more and more tickets are bought as that drawing approaches.

The cash option for that pot of gold would be $602.5 million.

No winning tickets were sold for Tuesday night's drawing, which had a jackpot of $830 million. It would have been the nation's fourth-largest lottery prize of all time and third-largest Mega Millions prize.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has a big lead over New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in one of the most closely watched Democratic House primaries remaining this summer.

Biaggi, who is challenging the five-term incumbent in the Democratic primary for the newly drawn 17th District, is trailing Maloney by double digits in a pair of internal polls commissioned on behalf of the dueling campaigns and shared exclusively with POLITICO.

The point the two teams disagree over is just how much Maloney is ahead — and who’s got the momentum.

Maloney’s polling shows him beating Biaggi by 34 points, 52 percent to 18 percent — almost exactly what another internal survey by his team found in late May and early June. Biaggi’s numbers still show her behind, but by 13 points, 34 percent to 21 percent. Despite the deficit, her campaign says the figures indicate a race that is tightening in her favor.

Biaggi is hoping to become the next progressive to knock out an incumbent Democrat in Congress. Maloney, chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, upset liberals when he chose after redistricting to run in the 17th District. Most of the constituents there have been represented by Rep. Mondaire Jones — but that’s where Maloney’s home is also located, along with a portion of his current seat. The left-wing Working Families Party switched its endorsement from Maloney to Biaggi after the move. Biaggi has also picked up a nod from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Veteran TV journalist Chris Cuomo is coming back to cable news with a new prime-time program on NewsNation starting in the fall, less than a year after his messy breakup with CNN.

Cuomo, 51, announced his new deal during an interview Tuesday with NewsNation host Dan Abrams. It was Cuomo’s first TV appearance since his firing from CNN in December after an eight-year stint.

The combative Cuomo was the most-watched personality on CNN before he was terminated over how he advised his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the handling of sexual harassment complaints brought against him. Andrew Cuomo eventually resigned over the allegations in August 2021.

While CNN executives were aware Chris Cuomo consulted with his brother, they contended they did not know the extent of the anchor’s involvement with the former governor’s staff, as revealed in a report by New York State Atty. Gen. Leticia James.

The second TV debate between the Conservative leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak was halted dramatically after the presenter Kate McCann fainted, cutting short a bitter clash over funding for the NHS and tax cuts.

The event, hosted by TalkTV, had the Tory leadership hopefuls quizzed by one audience member with cancer, who said he had not received proper support from the health service and asked: “Why is the NHS broken?”

The pair talked up plans including cutting the number of NHS managers and rolling out new technology. Truss argued too much of the health service’s infrastructure was crumbling, saying a hospital in her Norfolk constituency was “being held up by stilts”.

But the scheduled hour-long debate was halted just under halfway through after McCann fainted off-camera while Truss was talking.

Viewers heard a loud crash, with Truss looking shocked and holding her hands to her face. She began walking towards where McCann had been standing before the video feed was cut. The debate did not resume.

President Donald Trump didn’t want to disavow the rioters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, and he removed lines from prepared remarks the following day calling for their prosecution, according to new evidence released by a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) posted a video Monday on Twitter showing previously unpublicized testimony from several people close to Trump, centered on a speech he was supposed to give Jan. 7, 2021.

“It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace,” Luria tweeted. “There were more things he was unwilling to say.”

According to video testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s aides were pushing him to record another speech the day after the attack to quell talk of his impeachment or removal from office via the 25th Amendment.