The U.K.’s left Labour Party won a landslide victory in Thursday’s general election, delivering a huge blow to the ruling Conservative Party after 14 years in power, according to an official exit poll.

Incumbents are on a losing streak all over the world — particularly in Europe, where inflation has fueled voter discontent. In Britain, however, the Conservatives’ looming defeat is largely of their own making.

The British networks’ exit poll indicated Labour won 410 seats in Parliament, a majority of 170.

The Conservatives are on track for 131 seats, down a staggering 234 from Boris Johnson’s 2019 victory.

The centrist Liberal Democrats are set to win 61 seats, while Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform Party were projected to win 13.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer will become the country’s next prime minister.

The Consverative Party has shuffled through 5 prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit referendum, and three since 2022.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has spent the past 20 months trying to pick up the pieces after his short-lived predecessor Liz Truss panicked the markets with a tax-slashing budget, and her predecessor Boris Johnson was swept out by a slew of scandals.

Before that, it was David Cameron who gambled the country’s future by calling — and losing — the 2016 Brexit referendum, widely seen as a precursor to Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S.

Cameron’s successor, Theresa May, resigned in 2019 after Parliament repeatedly rejected her proposed divorce deal with the European Union.

The combined shocks of the pandemic and Brexit battered the economy and decimated public finances. Regardless of their platforms, neither party will have much cash to play with.

Sunak argued Labour would endanger an economic recovery that’s just starting to take hold.

Voters didn’t seem to buy it, in part because Labour is also campaigning on fiscal responsibility and moderation.

A former prosecutor and human rights lawyer, Starmer pulled the party back to the center ground after replacing left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as leader in 2020.

His critics say he lacks vision and charisma. His backers say his unruffled, pragmatic style is just what the country needs after a prolonged political circus under Johnson and his successors.

Starmer’s platform is short on eye-catching proposals. He says his priority is to build the foundations for long-term economic growth.

In a telling sign of his low expectations, Sunak tweeted two days before the election: “Stop the supermajority. Vote Conservative on 4th July.”

After that election five years ago, the Conservatives were flush with confidence and Labour was lost in the political wilderness. On July 4, the roles officially reversed.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a big rocket and drone attack at Israel on Thursday and threatened to hit new targets in retaliation for the killing of a top commander, in the latest surge of violence in the steadily worsening conflict across the border.

Sparked by the Gaza war, the conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel has been gradually intensifying for months, raising fears of a full-scale war, which both sides have indicated they want to avoid and diplomats are working to prevent.

As the latest violence played out in areas at or near the frontier – in keeping with the pattern of the last nine months – the sound of sonic booms rattled nerves for the second successive day in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over several areas of the country, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in the south on Wednesday. Nasser is one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to be killed by Israel during the conflict.

The Israeli military said around “200 projectiles and over 20 suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory”, a number of which were intercepted by Israeli air defences and fighter jets.

Israel’s ambulance service said no casualties were reported. The Israeli military said some of the drones and interceptor shrapnel set off fires.

The Israeli air force “struck Hezbollah military structures” in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla”, it said, referring to two villages in south Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating Nasser, indicated his group would widen its targeting.

“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said.

Diplomatic Push

The United States has been leading diplomatic efforts to deescalate the fighting. Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire as long as Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The hostilities have inflicted a heavy toll on both sides of the frontier, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Amos Hochstein, a senior U.S. official at the heart of the diplomacy, discussed French and American efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials on Wednesday, a White House official said.

“France and the United States share the goal of resolving the current conflict across the Blue Line by diplomatic means, allowing Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return home with long-term assurances of safety and security,” the official said, referring to the demarcation line between the two neighbours.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday Israeli forces were hitting Hezbollah “very hard every day” and will be ready to take any action necessary against the group, though the preference is to reach a negotiated arrangement.

Hezbollah also launched rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for Nasser’s killing.

Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets along the border with Lebanon after its Palestinian ally Hams launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, declaring its support for the Palestinians.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and some 90 civilians, according to Reuters tallies. Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians.

President Joe Biden told Democratic governors during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that part of his plan going forward is to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. so that he can get more sleep, according to three sources briefed on his comments.

The remarks, first reported by The New York Times, came as the 81-year-old Biden sought to reassure a group of more than 20 state leaders about his ability to defeat former President Donald Trump in November and govern effectively for another four years.

Biden’s comment left several of the governors in the room frustrated, sources told CNN, and is one of the reasons that some of the participants have been rankled by the statement of loyalty and enthusiasm from them distributed by the Biden campaign on Thursday.

The White House did not immediately comment about what the president said. A Biden campaign aide argued that, as well as doing debate prep in the week after his two trips to Europe, Biden was engaged in hours of official work in addition to the hours of campaign work.

“President (George W.) Bush went to bed at 9, and President (Barack) Obama made dinner at 6:30,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz. “Normal presidents strike a balance, and so does Joe Biden. Hardly the same rigor as Donald Trump, who spends half of his day ranting on Truth Social about plans that would cause a recession and the other half golfing.”

Biden also made a joke to the governors that didn’t go over well: “I’m fine — I don’t know about my brain, though.” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chairwoman, said the president was “clearly making a joke and then said, ‘All kidding aside.’”

In the wake of Biden’s poor performance during CNN’s presidential debate last week, some Democrats have begun to call for the president to drop out of the race, leaving the White House scrambling to convince skeptics within the party and voters. In the days after, administration officials have provided confusing and conflicting explanations as they attempted to spin a performance that exacerbated voters’ concerns about Biden’s age.

Following the meeting, Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Kathy Hochul of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota painted a positive picture of the meeting during a news conference, adding that Biden is “all in” and “in it to win it.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Walz dismissed any concerns about Biden’s age and health, saying the president is “fit for office.”

Biden, the oldest president in US history, has faced questions around his age and health for years. They came to a head during the debate, when he was hoarse and at times unintelligible, leaving Trump — who is only three years younger than Biden — to appear more fit. The majority of debate watchers deemed the former president as the winner of the stand-off, according to a CNN poll.

And Biden’s debate performance opened the floodgates for more scrutiny and reporting on the president’s health, with sources describing a decline in his mental fitness.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that the president’s “lapses” have increased and grown more worrisome, with a source telling the Times that Biden’s six-day debate preparations at Camp David didn’t start before 11 a.m. and that the president was given time to nap each day.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped a question during Wednesday’s briefing about whether the president takes daily afternoon naps following the Times’ reporting. But she offered jet lag and travel fatigue as an explanation for Biden’s poor debate performance after previously chalking it up to a cold.

Amid increasing pressure to consider dropping out of the race and growing concern whether he can serve another term, CNN has previously reported that Biden has privately expressed that the next stretch of days will be critical for whether he can save his reelection bid.

President Joe Biden reportedly told a group of Democratic governors on Wednesday that he saw a medical doctor after last week’s debate against former President Donald Trump, contradicting a statement made by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the same day.

Three people with knowledge of Biden’s private meeting with more than 20 Democratic governors said Biden informed them that he was examined by a doctor after the debate, adding that the doctor gave him the all-clear, POLITICO reported. The president’s meeting with the governors took place as some Democrats and political commentators expressed concern about the president’s fitness and ability to continue his re-election campaign following his detrimental debate performance.

During a White House press briefing on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre told CNN Senior White House Correspondent MJ Lee that Biden has not undergone “any kind of medical exam” since his annual physical in February.

“We were able to talk to his doctor about that, and that is a no,” the press secretary said.

“He hasn’t had any kind of medical exam?” Lee asked again.

Jean-Pierre simply replied, “No.”

Lee wrote on X Thursday morning that another White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, confirmed that “Biden was examined by his doctor in the days following last week’s debate ‘to check on his cold and was recovering well.”

White House spox Andrew Bates confirms Biden was examined by his doctor in the days following last week’s debate “to check on his cold and was recovering well.”

I asked WH press secretary yesterday if Biden had gotten any medical exam after his February physical and she said no: https://t.co/qhNHlElUTf pic.twitter.com/GOUUiXhIoR

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 4, 2024

“A White House official adds when Biden was seen by his doctor after the debate, it was a ‘brief check,’ not a physical. My question yesterday was not whether he had gotten another physical,” Lee added.

In an interview that aired Wednesday on a Wisconsin radio station, the president acknowledged that he “screwed up” his debate performance, but urged voters to focus on what he has done during his time in the White House.

“I had a bad night, I had a bad night. And the fact of the matter is … I screwed up, I made a mistake,” Biden said, according to NBC News.

“I didn’t have a good debate. That’s 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years. I led the economy back from the brink of collapse,” Biden continued.

Trump took some shots at Biden following the debate, saying, “[T]here is a BIG GAP for Crooked Joe to make up, and with his mind and memory completely shot, and marbles in his mouth, it’s not going to happen!”

In a leaked video that went viral on Wednesday night, Trump called Biden a “broken down pile of crap,” adding that he thinks Biden is “quitting the race.”

Former President Donald Trump released a 4th of July message on Thursday, dropping the hammer on President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and special prosecutor Jack Smith.

Trump, who was widely viewed as the winner of the first presidential debate last week, has remained relatively quiet while Biden attempts to assure allies and voters that he has the mental and physical stamina to continue his re-election campaign. Trump released his 4th of July statement hours after a leaked video of the former president calling Biden an “old, broken down pile of crap” went viral on social media.

Was this leak supposed to hurt him, because it definitely humanized him
pic.twitter.com/AuPpQ5I3CF

— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) July 4, 2024

“Happy Fourth of July to all, including to our highly incapable ‘President,’ who uses Prosecutors to go after his Political Opponent, who choked like a dog during the Debate but tried to pretend it was ‘International Travel’ (only 12 days rest!) and, when that gig was up, he blamed it on a ‘cold.’ Therefore, why would anyone say he’s cognitively challenged?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Also, respects to our potentially new Democrat Challenger, Laffin’ Kamala Harris,” Trump added. “She did poorly in the Democrat Nominating process, starting out at Number Two, and ending up defeated and dropping out, even before getting to Iowa, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a ‘highly talented’ politician! Just ask her Mentor, the Great Willie Brown of San Francisco. Someone else that I have to compliment is a Deranged Biden Prosecutor named Jack Smith, who has become a Legend in his own mind for all of those cases he has lost. The Corrupt Prosecutors are working hard for Crooked Joe, but it will never be enough — MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump is celebrating a string of recent victories, including last week’s debate and the Supreme Court’s ruling that gave him immunity from prosecution for official acts as president, a decision that will likely delay his Washington, D.C., trial past the election.

Following Biden’s poor debate performance, Trump has also seen a boost in the polls. The latest polls from New York Times/Siena and The Wall Street Journal give him a six-point lead over Biden nationally.

The next few days could be vital for Biden’s re-election campaign as he seeks to recover from what he acknowledged was a poor debate performance.

Biden is set to deliver remarks at the White House to a group of veterans and their families on Independence Day, and ABC News will release a pre-taped interview between anchor George Stephanopoulos and the president Friday evening, which is Biden’s first interview since the debate.

The Economist added the U.S. presidential seal to a walker mobility aid to make a blistering point about President Joe Biden on its new cover.

“No Way To Run A Country,” read the headline of the magazine’s front page for its upcoming July 6 edition.

The cover story — titled “Why Biden Must Withdraw” — described Biden’s first presidential debate performance as “awful” and “agony to watch.”

But the “cover-up has been worse,” it continued, slamming the Biden campaign’s contempt-provoking bid to “deny what tens of millions of Americans saw with their own eyes.”

It’s right that Democrats “have begun to call openly for him to step aside,” the essay said. Biden and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump “offer a choice between the incapable and the unspeakable. Americans deserve better,” it added.

Update:

“Mr. Tucker Carlson should check his FSB sources more carefully,” presidential spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement, per Newsweek, referring to Russia’s Federal Security Service. “The president of Ukraine has a completely different schedule, and Tucker Carlson is not on it.”

Zelensky has not been a fan of Carlson, saying following his interview with Putin, “I don’t have time to hear more than two hours of bullsh*t about us, about the world, about the United States, about our relations and this interview with a killer.”

Original:

Top-rated conservative journalist Tucker Carlson announced Wednesday that he has booked a long-awaited interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Looks like we’ve got the Zelenskyy interview. We’ve been trying for two years, and with particular intensity after interviewing Putin in February,” Carlson announced in an X post.

“The point is to bring Americans much-needed information about the conflict that’s completely reshaping their country’s position in the world. Coming soon we hope.”

Looks like we’ve got the Zelenskyy interview. We’ve been trying for two years, and with particular intensity after interviewing Putin in February. The point is to bring Americans much-needed information about the conflict that’s completely reshaping their country’s position in…

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 3, 2024

Earlier this year, Carlson conducted what was perhaps the most high-profile interview of his career when he sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The two discussed a number of topics, including U.S.-Russia relations and the War in Ukraine, while Putin delivered a nearly hour-long overview of the history of Russia.

“Two years into a war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed… But they should know,” Carlson said when announcing the interview.

“They are fawning pep sessions specifically designed to amplify Zelensky’s demand that the U.S. enter more deeply into a war in Eastern Europe and pay for it. That is not journalism. It is government propaganda. Propaganda of the ugliest kind, the kind that kills people.”

Carlson has long stated that he wants to interview Zelensky and get his take on the conflict.

“I heard some messages in media, and, also, my guys who are advisers, they said. So I don’t have to do — I don’t have time to hear more than two hours of bull**it about us, about the world, about the United States, about our relations, and this interview with a killer. So I have got some briefly what were there,” Zelensky said shortly after Carlson conducted his interview with Putin.

Despite the Ukrainian state’s often hostile stance towards Carlson and Americans who question their nation’s multi-billion dollar commitment to Ukraine, Zelensky appears set to give the long-awaited interview.

The political giving of the Duong family has become the subject of increasing scrutiny following the FBI raids of David Duong and his son Andy Duong’s homes two weeks ago. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home was also raided by federal officers on the same day.

The Duongs, owners of Oakland’s curbside recycling contractor California Waste Solutions, have donated millions of dollars to candidates for federal, state, and local office over the past several decades.

They’ve also been under investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission and Oakland Public Ethics Commission for allegedly funneling money through “straw donors” to the committees of local politicians, including members of the Oakland City Council, who’ve been in a position to vote favorably on contracts and other business the Doungs are seeking.

Now, some politicians who’ve taken money from the family are pledging to give it over to charities.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta received $155,100 from the Duongs and their associates for his campaigns but his team said they’re giving it all to charities “out of an abundance of caution,” according to ABC7. State Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who is married to Rob Bonta, has also taken money from the Duong family; her campaign plans to turn it over to nonprofit groups.

The Oaklandside closely reviewed campaign finance records going back to 2013. We learned that the Bontas have also received money from some of the suspected straw donors allegedly used by the Duongs to illegally give campaign contributions to Oakland politicians.

“Straw donors” are often friends, relatives, employees, or other associates of someone who wants to contribute a larger amount of money to a candidate or campaign than they are legally allowed to do so under campaign finance laws. That person will get people in their network to contribute smaller amounts of money out of their own pockets and later reimburse them.

The Duongs’ alleged straw donors include several men linked to the Music Cafe, a Chinatown karaoke bar that was busted in 2018 for selling cocaine and ketamine and human trafficking.

State campaign finance reports show that Rob Bonta has taken a combined $35,800 from Mon Kil Quan, the owner of the company that ran Music Cafe and held its liquor license, and Charlie Ngo, a manager at the karaoke bar who was arrested during the 2018 raid. ARDA LLC, a company owned by Quan that ran the Music Cafe, also gave Bonta’s campaign $1,500 in 2017. There is no indication that these donations were so-called straw donations.

State Alcohol Beverage Control agents were tipped off in 2018 about allegations of drug sales and prostitution at the Music Cafe, which was located on 9th Street in downtown Oakland. After infiltrating the bar pretending to be customers, agents were able to purchase ketamine and cocaine, and they set up a deal with one of the bar’s managers to take a young woman to the downtown Marriott Hotel for sex.

When they raided the bar in October 2018, the ABC agents recovered thousands in cash, drugs, and other evidence. Ngo was charged with possession of ketamine and selling ketamine.

Andy Duong was not named in the ABC report written after the raid, and he was never accused of any wrongdoing.

However, investigators with the state Fair Political Practices Commission wrote in a report from 2021 that Duong talked about being the owner of Sancha Bar, the tea shop and bakery that shared space in the same building as Music Cafe and that he also held himself out to people as an owner of the Music Cafe karaoke bar.

Ngo’s first contribution to Bonta was for his 2022 reelection campaign—he donated $500. Campaign records show the money arrived on Oct. 19, the same day that Ngo gave Terry Wiley’s campaign for Alameda County District Attorney $500.

That was also the day that Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s office—where Wiley served as Assistant DA—decided to dismiss the case against Ngo “in the interest of justice.”

Quan gave $16,200 to Bonta’s 2022 reelection campaign and $18,200 last year to Bonta’s 2026 reelection committee, according to state records.

When Mia Bonta was running for state Assembly in 2021, Quan contributed $9,800, according to state records.

Nathan Click, a spokesperson for Rob Bonta’s campaign, said that the $155,100 flagged in recent media reports as money recieved from the Duongs includes money from “any of their business entities or associates mentioned in the recent coverage or the FPPC report,” and that all of this is being donated to charities. “The checks to the charities were disbursed Sunday June 30. They will show up on our July 31 report,” he said.

Click also told Politico today that David Duong and Andy Duong weren’t particularly close to the Bontas. In response to a characterization that Andy Duong made in a letter to his father about Rob Bonta, calling him the Duong’s “best ally to ever,” Click said, “That has never been true.”

The Bontas supported Sheng Thao early on in the Oakland mayor’s race, appearing at her Nov. 10, 2021, campaign launch event. Thao is one of several Oakland councilmembers whose election campaigns have received thousands of dollars in suspected straw donor contributions traced by investigators back to the Duongs.

Quan gave Thao’s officeholder committee $800 in 2019 and provided her with another $800 through a company he owned, Teamac Imports.

The Oaklandside was unable to contact Quan and Ngo for this story.

The leader of right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation says the Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling could bolster a second American revolution, as defined by his group’s Project 2025 plan.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, foundation president Kevin Roberts outlined how the ruling might help transform the federal government with conservative policy proposals, should Donald Trump win the White House in November and adopt Project 2025.

He said the Supreme Court’s judgment on Monday, that presidents are immune from prosecution for “official acts, will free them up to introduce policy without having to “triple guess, every decision they’re making in their official capacity.”

“In spite of all this nonsense from the left, we are going to win. We’re in the process of taking this country back,” Roberts said. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”

Roberts’ Project 2025 vision of a bloodless revolution includes an action plan to dismantle what he has described as “the deep state,” by removing civil service employment protections for all federal employees with “policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” in their job titles.

Removing the employment protections, which have been in place for 135 years, would make the civil servants at all levels of the federal government easier to fire and replace with Republican loyalists.

After replacing the civil service, the Project then proposes the implementation of several more right-wing policies.

These include eliminating the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, rolling back renewable-energy programs to create a regulatory environment that favors the fossil fuel industry, limiting mail-order abortion pills, and removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring policies from federal programs.

Most importantly, in relation to the Supreme Court ruling, Project 2025 wants to consolidate executive power by reducing the independence of federal agencies and increasing presidential control over policy implementation.

Roberts appeared on the War Room podcast on Tuesday, during its first broadcast without host Steve Bannon, who on Monday reported to federal prison in Connecticut to serve a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.

Bannon is a staunch advocate for Project 2025, having previously said that he envisions the Make America Great Again movement “will govern the United States for 50 years.”

In the episode, hosted by former congressman Chris Brat, Roberts said listeners ought to be encouraged by Monday’s Supreme Court ruling.

“We’re in the process of taking this country back,” he said. “No one in the audience should be despairing.”

Roberts referred listeners to Alexander Hamilton’s 1788 essay Federalist No. 70, which speaks of the need for a “vigorous executive.”

“Put politics off to the side, any president having to second guess, triple guess, every decision they’re making in their official capacity—you couldn’t have the republic that you just described,” he said.

The War Room podcast broadcasts four hours per day, five days per week, on conservative cable channel Real America’s voice.

Former President Trump is leading President Biden 49% to 43% among likely voters in the latest New York Times/Siena College poll — a three-point swing for Trump since the debate, and his largest lead in the survey since 2015.

Perhaps no single poll carries more weight among Democratic elites, who have spent the last week panicking over whether Biden should withdraw from the race after his disastrous debate performance.

The highly anticipated, post-debate poll detonated in the same hour that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris dialed into a campaign call to try to reassure staffers about the state of Biden’s candidacy.

“I am running. I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out. I’ve been knocked down before and counted out my whole life. When you get knocked down you get back up,” a defiant Biden said on the call.

The poll, conducted by telephone from June 28 to July 2, found Trump’s lead is even bigger — 49% to 41% — among registered voters.

74% of voters overall believe Biden is too old to be an effective president, up five points since before the debate.

That includes 79% of independent voters, 59% of Democrats, and a majority of every demographic, geographic and ideological group surveyed.

More voters overall believe Biden should remain the nominee — but that’s driven in part by Republicans, who likely see Biden as a wounded opponent.

Biden’s campaign sent a memo to House Democrats Wednesday morning — before the results were released — suggesting that the Times/Siena poll would be an “outlier,” according to Politico.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS from June 28-30 found Trump leading Biden 49% to 43% — another grim result for the president, but unchanged from April.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll taken June 28-30 has Trump with a 41% to 38% lead over Biden — a shift from a May survey that found the two tied at 37%.

A Reuters/Ipsos online poll taken July 1-2 shows Trump and Biden tied at 40% in a head-to-head contest.

“Both internal and outside polling confirm that the race remains incredibly tight and I agree with the Times that today’s polling doesn’t fundamentally change the course of the race,” Biden campaign pollster Molly Murphy said in a statement.

“President Biden continues to narrow Trump’s support among independents, and we have work to do to bring home our coalition — all the while Trump appears unable to expand his coalition.”

Below the toplines, post-debate polls have been littered with red flags about Biden’s age and mental competence.

A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted June 28-29 found that an astonishing 72% of voters do not believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to be president — similar results to the Times/Siena poll.

The USA Today poll found that 41% of Democrats want Biden replaced as nominee, while 32% said the same in the Reuters poll.

A Wall Street Journal poll, also released Wednesday, found that Trump leads Biden 48% to 42% among voters nationally — and that a staggering 80% of voters believe Biden is too old to run for a second term.

A sustained polling decline could open the floodgates for more Democrats to call for Biden to step aside, especially if the surveys suggest that Harris would perform against Trump.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Tuesday became the first Democrat in Congress to call for Biden to withdraw.

Two vulnerable House Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) — said Tuesday they expect Trump to defeat Biden.

The Washington Post is reporting that Special Counsel Jack Smith may try to convict former president Donald Trump all the way through the election and up to 11:59 am on January 20th. After the oath, the Justice Department has long maintained that it will not prosecute a sitting president.

There is also a long-standing policy of the Justice Department to abstain from criminal proceedings before an election to avoid the appearance of trying to influence the outcome.

Smith has signaled that he will discard that policy and that he is prepared to try Trump not only up to the election but through the election.

He is now reportedly willing to try Trump up to January 20th.

Smith has made trying Trump before the election the overriding priority in his two cases against the former president. He failed repeatedly to force a shorter schedule on appeal before the Supreme Court. His arguments were revealing. He suggested that the public should have a possible conviction before they cast their votes. It flipped the DOJ policy on its head in openly seeking to influence the election.

The Supreme Court was not persuaded, though Smith did succeed in effectively cutting the appellate process a bit shorter. He then lost in spectacular fashion before the Court on presidential immunity.

According to the Post, he is not giving up the ghost and is now committed to a trial running up to Inauguration Day: “Current officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed … that if Trump wins the election, the clock on the two federal cases against him would keep ticking until Jan. 20, when he would be sworn in as the 47th president.”

Even with Smith’s continued push to try Trump at all costs before the Inauguration, it could be a challenge. There is a 30-day period before the Supreme Court case is effectively returned to district court.

Judge Tanya Chutkan has been highly favorable for Smith and highly motivated in seeking a trial before the election. That led to problems highlighted in the recent opinion. Chutkan was so motivated that she failed to create an adequate record on these issues. That record will now have to be established.

If Chutkan rules as she did earlier, she is expected to be hostile to Trump’s claims on his conduct falling within official functions. However, she will need to make the record and her decision could again be appealed. The Court left clear guidelines that will make it difficult for Chutkan to, again, dismiss such claims.

Moreover, the pre-trial motions were stopped with the latest appeal. They must now be addressed.

Finally, she pledged to give the Trump team over 80 days for preparation after the appeal, which will be added to the 30 days, the period for the remand record, and the pre-trial motions.

There is also the need for the court and Smith to deal with the Fischer decision limiting the use of the obstruction charges — impacting two of the four counts against Trump. As I have previously written, Smith has various options but could trigger a new reversal on appeal if he follows his signature inclination to resist legal limits.

In other words, Smith’s appetite for a trial before the Inauguration may exceed his ability to force that expedited schedule.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team was notified last week by federal authorities in the Southern District of New York that he is a subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to two sources familiar with Combs’ ongoing legal troubles.

The same sources confirmed that a federal grand jury is hearing evidence as part of the investigation but there is no indication that charges are imminent.

A subject of an investigation is someone who is within the scope of a criminal investigation, according to legal experts. An individual is designated a target when prosecutors likely intend to seek an indictment from the grand jury against the person.

A person’s status can be upgraded or downgraded during an investigation. Combs has not received a target letter, the sources said, and the Southern District of New York is not required to send one.

This news comes three months after Combs’ houses were raided in both Los Angeles and Miami by law enforcement officials.

In May, Combs apologized after a video, obtained by CNN, showed him beating his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

In a video apology posted to his Instagram, Combs admitted to the incident and said he took “full responsibility.”

“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Combs said. “I was f—ed up — I mean, I hit rock bottom — but I make no excuses.”

Combs initially denied Ventura’s allegations of assault and sex trafficking, which she described in a federal lawsuit filed in November. The two settled for an undisclosed amount the following day.

At the time of Combs’ admission of the assault, an attorney for Ventura, Meredith Firetog, said, “When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday.”

Firetog added, “He was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation.”

Ventura’s attorneys did not respond to a question about whether she has been called to take part in any grand jury proceedings.

Meanwhile, Combs has been accused of a wide range of allegations in multiple civil lawsuits. The latest lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, accusing Combs of sex trafficking by a former adult film star.

The former music executive has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. Jonathan Davis, attorney for Sean Diddy Combs, dismissed the latest lawsuit.

“No matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone,” Davis said. “We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court.”

Officials in a Northern California community cancelled an annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration as an estimated 26,000 residents remained displaced by a growing wildfire, while hundreds of firefighters toiled under extreme heat to keep flames from reaching more homes.

The Thompson Fire broke out before noon Tuesday about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Sacramento, near the city of Oroville in Butte County. It sent up a huge plume of smoke that could be seen from space as it grew to more than 5.5 square miles (14 square kilometers).

Oroville Mayor David Pittman said there was a “significant drop in the fire activity” Wednesday, and he was hopeful that some residents could soon be allowed to return home.

The fire’s progress was stopped along the southern edge, and firefighters working in steep terrain were trying to build containment lines on the northern side. By Wednesday evening, containment stood at 7%.

“On that north side they have some real struggles in terms of the topography,” Pittman said.

More than a dozen other blazes, most of them small, were active across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. A new fire Wednesday afternoon prompted brief evacuations in heavily populated Simi Valley, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The state’s largest blaze, the Basin Fire, covered nearly 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County and was 26% contained.

In Oroville, a state of emergency was declared Tuesday night and evacuation centers were set up. The evacuation zone expanded Wednesday into foothills and rural areas beyond the city of about 20,000 people.

With July Fourth in mind, authorities warned that fireworks are banned in many places, including most of Butte County. Authorities also cited the ongoing evacuations and damage caused by the Thompson Fire for the cancellation of Oroville’s fireworks show, which had been specially permitted.

California State Parks officials said in a statement that many agencies have a large number of resources responding to the blaze and are working to get everyone back home as quickly as possible.

“These agencies also have employees with families displaced by these evacuations who are tirelessly assisting the community of Lake Oroville,” the statement read.

Authorities warned of full legal consequences for any illegal use of fireworks.

“Don’t be an idiot, cause a fire and create more problems for us,” Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said. “No one in the community is going to want that.”

There was no immediate official report on property losses. An Associated Press photographer saw fire burn three adjacent suburban-style homes in Oroville.

The fire ignited sprigs of grass poking from the concrete edges of Lake Oroville as gusty winds whipped up American flags lining a bend of the state’s second largest reservoir and the nation’s tallest dam.

Residents standing on hillsides watched the orange glow as aircraft made water drops. A crew of more than a dozen firefighters saved one home as goats and other farm animals fled.

The cause of the blaze was being investigated. Red flag warnings for critical fire weather conditions were in effect when it erupted.

“The conditions out there that are in our county this summer are much different than we’ve experienced the last two summers,” said Garrett Sjolund, Butte County unit chief for Cal Fire, during a briefing. “The fuels are very dense, brush is dry. And as you can see, any wind will move a fire out very quickly.”

The conditions led the utility Pacific Gas & Electric to shut off power in some parts Northern California to prevent fires from being ignited by downed or damaged wires.

In Southern California, Joshua Tree National Park officials closed Covington Flats — an area with most of the park’s important Joshua tree populations — on Wednesday because of extreme fire risk after spring rains led to abundant grass that has now dried.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay, who is Dean of the USC Annenberg School, are close to purchasing control of Angel City FC, the Los Angeles women’s soccer franchise that is the most valuable women’s sports franchise in the world.

The investment from the Bay-Iger group will be new capital at a pre-money valuation of $250 million, two people with knowledge of the transaction said — an eye-popping number that raises the stakes in women’s sports.

One of the people declined to specify the investment but said the team now values itself at more than $300 million, indicating that the new investment is at least $50 million. The couple will replace Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as the team’s controlling shareholder.

The other person close to the transaction said the investor Marc Lasry and the Manchester United owner Avie Glazer also bid competitively, but Bay and Iger pitched their long-term commitment to the enterprise and building the brand in the long term.

They were also eager to have a woman own the team, and are stressing Bay’s role in the deal. Puck’s Dylan Byers first reported the agreement, and reported that Bay was the buyer. The team’s other shareholders include actors Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria and the soccer stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm.

Iger and Bay attended the Angel City defeat to the Kansas City team Sunday.

Big money has poured into sports in recent years, including professional investors. But Jessica Berman, the National Women’s Soccer commissioner, said at a Semafor event last week that while she welcomed Wall Street money — the NWSL was the first professional league to allow institutional investors to own teams outright — she seemed to prefer the simpler model: rich people.

“Knowing that there’s a human we can go to to make decisions, that can bind the capital without having to go to an investment committee or a group of people who need to get approval from investors is really important,” she said, “especially in our league that is so fast growing and we move very quickly.”

An ancient sword known as the French version of King Arthur’s legendary “Excalibur” has mysteriously vanished from the town where, according to local lore, it had remained lodged in a rock for 1,300 years.

The Durandal sword appears to have been taken by a thief from its stone in the tiny medieval town of Rocamadour, where it was one of the town’s main attractions, The Telegraph reported.

For centuries it’s been believed the sword once belonged to Roland, a semi-legendary knight who bravely fought for Charlemagne in the eighth century.

Officials in Rocamadour have launched an investigation into the disappearance of the sword, which was yanked from its spot in a cliff wall some 100 feet off the ground.

Durandal was an indestructible sword and the sharpest in the world, able to cut through stone with a single blow, according to the legend.

The sword’s magical qualities were described in the 11th-century epic poem “The Song of Roland.”

The poem, written in old French, is the oldest surviving major work of French literature, with the sole surviving copy stashed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, according to the Telegraph.

Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel before he gifted it to his best soldier, according to the legend.

Roland, before his valiant death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, tried to break the sword on the rocks to prevent his enemies from taking it — but even he could not destroy the sword.

The knight threw the sword into the air, which then traveled hundreds of miles before landing in the cliff in Rocamadour, legend says.

The disappearance has devastated the locals.

”We’re going to miss Durandal. It’s been part of Rocamadour for centuries, and there’s not a guide who doesn’t point it out when he visits,” mayor Dominique Lenfant told La Dépêche, a French newspaper.

“Rocamadour feels it’s been robbed of a part of itself, but even if it’s a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are entwined,” she added.

Police are trying to determine how someone could have scaled 100 feet of the sheer rock face to snatch the sword.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Wednesday morning about large Fourth of July celebrations.

The security organizations say the biggest threats are lone offenders and small groups, who may have a larger agenda, and find large events such as holiday gatherings “attractive” targets, according to a bulletin.

“The political environment of the country certainly doesn’t help,” Aaron Katersky, a security correspondent, told ABC News.

“The police are being told by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to be on watch for these types of things that are notoriously difficult to guard against.”

Katersky added that big cities including New York and San Francisco are likely potential targets.

He added that citizens should proceed with caution, however they should not panic.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings on the Fourth of July have steadily increased over the past three years.

The organization tallied a total 80 mass shootings that occurred over the past three years between July 1-7, according to Mark Bryant, the executive director of the nonprofit that tracks US shootings.

The group defines a “mass shooting” as a shooting that kills or injures four or more people, not including the shooter.

Last year, in 2023, there were 28 mass shootings over the July 4th week, followed by 27 in 2022 and 25 in 2021.

President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job after a disastrous debate performance last week.

The president, who the ally emphasized is still deeply in the fight for re-election, understands that his next few appearances heading into the holiday weekend — including an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — must go well.

“He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place” by the end of the weekend, said the ally, referring to Mr. Biden’s halting and unfocused performance in the debate. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.

Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said the claim was “absolutely false” and that the White House had not been given enough time to respond.

The conversation is the first indication to become public that the president is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday. Concerns are mounting about his viability as a candidate and whether he could serve as president for another four years.

A top adviser to Mr. Biden, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation, said the president was “well aware of the political challenge he faces.”

Campaign officials were nervously watching polls, recognizing that bad numbers could fuel the crisis. A CBS News poll on Wednesday showed former President Donald J. Trump edging ahead of Mr. Biden since the debate with 50 percent to 48 percent nationally and 51 percent to 48 percent in battleground states.

Mr. Biden is slowly reaching out to Democratic elected officials and has a meeting with Democratic governors at the White House scheduled for Wednesday evening.

He is also continuing to reach out to people he has long trusted and has told at least one person that he is open to the possibility that his plans to move on from his debate performance — and flip the focus back to his challenger, Mr. Trump — may not work.

Several allies of Mr. Biden, who has huddled with the family and advisers since the debate on Thursday, have underscored that the president is still in the fight of his political life and largely sees this moment as a chance to come back from being counted out, as he has done many times throughout his half-century career.

But he is also cleareyed, they said, about his uphill battle to convince voters, donors and the political class that his debate performance was an anomaly.

California Democratic delegate Areva Martin told media personality Stephen A. Smith that passing over Vice President Kamala Harris as President Biden’s replacement should he withdraw from the race would destroy the party.

“If you pick a White man over Kamala Harris, Black women, I can tell you this, we are going to walk away,” Martin said Tuesday. “We are going to blow the party up.”

As speculation over Biden’s status as leader of the party grows, Democrats are openly divided over who is qualified to run against former President Trump in the months before the election.

“Who are we agreeing [to]?” Martin asked Smith. “There’s a long list of Democrats, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, the list goes on and on.”

“Where is their consensus?” she continued. “You’ve got to build consensus. And there is not consensus right now.”

“So where are we getting agreement from on whom this ideal Democratic candidate should be?” Martin said. “Tell me that.”

Martin, a civil rights attorney, said that the Biden administration deserved credit for its diversity.

“Joe Biden, when he gets re-elected, which my prediction is that he will, he brings with him Kamala Harris, the most diverse administration in the history of this country,” she said. “Y’all need to just stay the course. We got more Black judges appointed under Joe Biden than anyone, even President Barack Obama.”

Martin also compared the presidential race to a sports match, saying that Biden is the “star player” and deserves support.

“I don’t know anything about sports, but I know you don’t give up on your star player in the middle of a game,” she told Smith.

“We are almost at the finish line. We have an opportunity to save this democracy. And I bet you, [if] you blow up Joe Biden, you might as well give Donald Trump the keys to the White House and let him start ruling the country in August,” she said.

A new national poll from CNN indicates that three-quarters of voters say the Democratic Party would have a better chance of keeping the White House with someone else other than Biden at the top of the party’s ticket.

And the survey, released Tuesday by CNN, suggests that Harris performs slightly better than Biden in a match-up with Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.

The poll was conducted entirely after Biden’s extremely rough performance during last Thursday’s face-to-face showdown between the two major party contenders.

President Biden’s campaign is intensely trying to quell speculation that he may drop out of the 2024 race following his lackluster debate performance last week.

Most top Democrats have voiced support for Biden continuing in the race, while members of his family, including first lady Jill Biden, have declared they also want him to remain a candidate, casting doubt on the potential for replacing Biden.

But if Biden were to step aside, several prominent Democrats could be waiting in the wings as possible successors.

Here are the top possible Biden replacements:

Kamala Harris

If Biden were to decide against seeking reelection, Vice President Harris would be the most obvious choice to replace him. Harris has defended Biden and emphasized his ability to serve another term in recent days, as have most other top Democrats who could be considered.

Serving in the country’s second-highest office has given her some amount of executive governing experience, and Biden choosing her as his running mate already made her one of the top possible candidates for the 2028 nomination.

With the presidential primaries concluded, Harris is also the only possible contender who could claim some past electoral mandate for the nomination, with the country having indirectly elected her as first-in-line to the presidency four years ago and Democratic voters backing Biden this year with the knowledge that she is the running mate.

But Harris has some vulnerabilities. Her favorability rating has often been even lower than Biden’s, though she has improved somewhat in the past couple months and has a higher net approval rating than Biden, according to FiveThirtyEight.

She also could be dogged with criticisms of the Biden administration’s policies like immigration, on which she was spearheading an initiative.

Still, Democrats could take a hit by passing over the first female Black vice president as its nominee when having the chance because Black voters will be a key constituency. A poll last month showed Harris would perform better with Black voters than Biden.

Gavin Newsom

If Harris were to be passed over, the California Gov. Gavin Newsom would almost certainly be at or near the top of many Democratic delegates’ list to be the nominee.

Newsom has become one of the most prominent Democrats in the country over the past few years, in part because of his defense of Biden and his sparring with prominent Republicans, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Despite ongoing speculation of Newsom having presidential ambitions, he has repeatedly denied interest in running for president in 2024. Following Biden’s debate, he appeared in the spin room to argue against ditching Biden just because of one performance and called talk of Biden being replaced “unhelpful and unnecessary” in a fundraising pitch for the president on Friday.

But if Biden were to step aside, Newsom would very likely receive significant calls to throw his hat in the ring.

He would be able to run on a record as a two-term governor of one of the largest economies in the world and tout many accomplishments during his tenure for the left in the solidly blue state. He also has overcome an attempt to recall him and is seen as a top possibility to run in 2028.

Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer first came to office in 2018, boosted by the slogan “Fix the Damn Roads,” which put a pragmatic focus on repairing the state’s infrastructure. Since then, she has become a rising liberal star in the Democratic Party.

Her easy reelection victory in 2022 brought with it Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate, marking the first time in decades that Democrats had a trifecta of power in Michigan. She was also reelected alongside the passage of a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, an initiative she championed.

Whitmer has been able to notch key victories, including the repeal of the state’s decades-old abortion ban and a “right-to-work” law to prop up unions.

Still, Whitmer has been among the clearest of the rumored choices that she is not angling to replace Biden and is fully behind him.

Politico reported the Whitmer called Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon on Friday to make clear she was not responsible for her name being floated as a possible replacement and is willing to help Biden with the campaign. She appeared in an ad supporting the Biden-Harris ticket that she posted Sunday on her account on the social platform X.

Pete Buttigieg

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was relatively unknown when he first began his run for president in 2020 but gained traction and popularity as “Mayor Pete,” having served as the mayor of South Bend, Ind.

Buttigieg became a close advocate for Biden throughout 2020, culminating in his selection as Transportation secretary, making him the first openly gay Cabinet secretary. His success has raised speculation that he may try for another presidential run down the line.

In particular, he had a high-profile moment in 2021 as Congress passed and Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure law into effect.

Buttigieg’s youth would also be a sharp contrast to Biden despite having less experience than some other rumored possibilities. But he struggled in 2020 with rallying minority, and especially Black support, and could face controversy over the administration’s handling of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro gradually rose to higher office in his home state before being elected state attorney general and eventually governor in 2022. He has developed a reputation over his career as a more moderate Democrat but was elected after running on key liberal issues, like protecting abortion rights and raising the minimum wage.

His ability to comfortably win the governorship in the battleground by almost 15 points, as well as his youthful energy, has sparked rumors he could be a future face of the party, possibly running for the Oval Office in four years.

But he would also likely get some attention this year if Biden were to end his presidential bid. He has been one of Biden’s top surrogates and called on his fellow Democrats to put in the work necessary to get Biden elected, saying “hand-wringing” and “fretting” are not the answer.

“Democrats, stop worrying and start working. We all have the responsibility here to do our part,” Shapiro said during a Friday interview on MSNBC.

JB Pritzker

As the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker is already set to receive some attention next month as the host governor of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This, along with his rising national profile, could yield some support for his name to be placed in contention for the nomination.

Pritzker is in his second term as the head of the strongly Democratic-leaning state and has been an ardent defender of Biden throughout the 2024 campaign. Also one of Biden’s top surrogates, he defended the incumbent following special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents and pushed back against Democrats planning to vote for anyone other than Biden in November.

Pritzker also received attention after his abortion-rights group announced a $500,000 investment into efforts to enshrine abortion rights into the Florida state constitution.

But as with other Biden surrogates rumored as future presidential candidates, Pritzker has remained behind Biden.

As the debate was wrapping up on Thursday, Pritzker argued on X the choice was “clear” in picking Biden over Trump, saying, “Voters face a stark choice in November. A president with the experience to fight for hardworking families across the country vs a 34-count convicted felon who cares only about himself.”

Andy Beshear

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) pulled off an impressive reelection victory in his ruby-red state last year, improving his margin by a few points over his first election in 2019.

That thrust his name into the national conversation as someone who may have a future in the party, even though he will be term-limited in the next election. The governor is widely popular, only in his mid-40s and managed to win statewide as a Democrat twice in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since the 1990s.

Beshear addressed the possibility of Biden being replaced Monday, telling reporters he will support Biden as long as the president remains the Democratic nominee.

“The debate performance was rough. It was a very bad night for the president, but he is still the candidate. Only he can make decisions about his future candidacy. So as long as he continues to be in the race, I support him,” he said.

When pressed on whether he could replace Biden, Beshear said talk of serving is “flattering” but is a “reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently flew over 100 Chinese illegal migrants back to their country, the agency announced.

In a press statement released Tuesday, the DHS explained that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “conducted a removal flight” carrying Chinese nationals over the weekend. The flight carried 116 Chinese migrants, according to the Associated Press.

The DHS disclosed that the flight was its first large charter flight since 2018. The agency’s statement did not disclose details about the migrants, but it referenced efforts to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt illicit human smuggling.”

“DHS continues to work with the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security and National Immigration Administration on additional removal flights,” the department said.

The number of encounters with Chinese migrants at the U.S. southern border has skyrocketed in recent years. Border officials arrested more than 37,000 Chinese migrants in 2023, and encounters with Chinese nationals have increased by more than 6,000% since 2021.

The press release also promised to deliver “tough consequences” for illegal migrants, and referenced measures that President Biden has taken to curb illegal immigration at a time when the president is being heavily criticized over his border policies.

The DHS also said that the flight is the result of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s “continued efforts to engage the [People’s Republic of China] on areas of mutual interest.”

“DHS regularly engages counterparts throughout the hemisphere and around the world to accept repatriations of nationals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States and take other steps to reduce irregular migration, promote safe, lawful, and orderly pathways, and hold transnational criminal networks accountable for abusing our lawful trade and travel systems and the smuggling and exploitation of vulnerable people,” the statement read.

“To that end, the United States also welcomes the recent announcement from Ecuador to require visas for passport holders from the PRC given smugglers’ efforts to exploit that route.”

Mayorkas also added that Americans “should not believe the lies of smugglers.”

“We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” he said.