Brutal Dictator’s Grandson Disqualified From Major Boxing Bout Over HeadbuttAziz Abdul, the 25-year-old grandson of Uganda’s brutal former dictator Idi Amin, was disqualified from a boxing bout at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, after headbutting his opponent, England’s Damar Thomas.Read more on The Guardian:Latest Live UpdatesTrump Launches Initiative To Encourage Veterans To Become Truck DriversPresident Donald Trump on Thursday touted a new initiative aimed at facilitating military veterans’ transition into the trucking industry.“Freedom Haulers,” as his administration is calling it, would allow veterans who drove heavy machinery while serving in the military to more readily qualify for a commercial driver’s license if they apply within two years of leaving active duty service.Under Trump’s plan, soldiers with experience could skip the required road skills test — Trump called them “redundant” Thursday — while those without experience would receive subsidies for commercial driver’s license training.Trump also used the announcement to slander truck drivers who are immigrants, describing them in broad, demeaning terms as reckless drivers who “don’t speak English [and] can’t read basic road signs,” causing “many, many preventable deaths.”In a crackdown earlier this year, the Transportation Department said it canceled 30,000 commercial licenses it claims were issued illegally.It also attempted to withhold federal highway funds from states that refuse to go along with its efforts to seize licenses from immigrants, though that effort ended up in court.The U.S. is currently 82,000 drivers short, according to a tally by the American Trucking Association.Dad Who Gave Georgia High School Shooter A Gun Is Sentenced To 15 Years In PrisonA man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school 45 miles northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.A defense attorney for Colin Gray asked the judge for a sentence that would amount to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years on probation. The district attorney said Gray deserves a sentence of 80 years in prison.Read more at The Associated Press:Darline Graham Touts Opposition To Abortion, Trans Athletes In New Campaign VideoNewly sworn-in Sen. Darline Graham is introducing herself to South Carolina voters as an opponent of abortion, transgender athletes and voter fraud in a new campaign video as she vies to stretch her temporary seat into a full term.“I’m honored to serve South Carolina and grateful for President Trump’s endorsement, and I’ll work hard every day to earn it,” she says in the 30-second video released Wednesday.Graham has never held office and was little known before being appointed to backfill the Senate seat held by her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, after his sudden July 11 death.“I’m a conservative Republican and I believe this: Every life is precious, men don’t belong in women’s sports, and only American citizens should vote in our elections,” she continues.The video comes ahead of Aug. 11’s Senate Special Republican Primary, when the party will select a new GOP candidate for the November election after Lindsey Graham’s death.Darline Graham’s top competitors include former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner and U.S. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman.Oops! State Dept. Mislabels Every Country On A Map Of Africa At Global ConferenceU.S. diplomacy is a little lost. Quite literally.In a presentation this week, a U.S. State Department official used a graphic featuring a wildly inaccurate map of Africa, including mislabeled countries, with high-level African officials in the audience.Read more:Andy Beshear: Mitch McConnell Is 'Ruining' His LegacyKentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) warned Sen. Mitch McConnell’s legacy will be tainted by the Kentucky Republican’s refusal to be transparent about his health issues. “Mitch McConnell cares about his legacy and he’s ruining it,” Beshear told SiriusXM host John Fugelsang on Thursday. “Listen, I think his legacy is one of over-politicizing everything in the Senate. I don’t think it’s a positive legacy, but I know he thinks his legacy is being the longest-serving majority leader in the Senate’s history.”“Well, guess what? On his Wikipedia page five years from now, that’s going to be a paragraph. But what we’re going through right now is going to be a page,” Beshear said.The governor has been pressing McConnell about the status of his health in letters, demanding the senator share more information with the people he represents. McConnell remains in rehab care after he was hospitalized a month and a half ago.Thom Tillis, John Cornyn Reject Effort To Ban IRS From Granting Tax Audit ImmunitySens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) joined their GOP colleagues Thursday in rejecting an effort to ban the IRS and Treasury Department from entering into legal agreements that grant people immunity from tax audits – even as they remain opposed to confirming President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee because he signed off on deal like this for Trump and his family.The Senate Finance Committee voted 13-14 along party lines to reject a Democratic effort to amend an unrelated tax bill by adding this language to it. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has also raised concerns with Trump’s immunity deal, also voted no.Tillis said he opposed the amendment because Blanche, who is currently the acting attorney general, is “working in good faith” with him and Cornyn to revise the language of Trump’s IRS settlement. They are demanding a relatively small change: that Trump’s corrupt immunity deal is only retroactive, not prospective.Blanche is eager to secure their support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which postponed a Thursday vote on his nomination because of the GOP senators’ opposition. They are trying to get to an agreement soon, as the Senate goes into recess next week for more than a month.Tillis said he was originally working with Blanche to put something on the Senate floor to rein in Trump’s settlement deal, but now he’s “convinced that the best way to do this is to end it by renegotiating the agreement and settling it for good.”Key MomentFIFA Plans To Sell Stakes In World Cup Organization Prompts Major BoycottJuly 30 (Reuters) - UEFA’s member associations have unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions in protest at FIFA’s plan to sell stakes to external investors in a subsidiary that will run the global governing body’s tournaments.The tournaments include the World Cup, the European soccer body said in a statement.The decision was taken at a virtual meeting on Thursday.Trump Slams Republicans Stalling Blanche Vote, Threatens To Withdraw Nomination Until They're Out Of OfficePresident Donald Trump lashed out at Republicans who have stalled Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general.“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it!” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday. “He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time.”Trump turned his ire to Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, who on Wednesday canceled a planned committee vote on Blanche’s nomination over Trump’s settled lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.“However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting,” Trump posted. “Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.” Vance And Netanyahu Had ‘Frank And Candid’ Meeting Amid Tensions: ReportVice President JD Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, but the summit appears to have done little to thaw the frostiness between the two. Vance, long a skeptic of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, has publicly criticized Netanyahu’s government, which frustrated the Israeli leader.According to an Axios report Thursday, the meeting was as tense as you might expect.“It was a frank and candid conversation,” an Israeli official reportedly told the outlet, while a U.S. official acknowledged that “the conversation was direct.”Read more at Axios:Father Of 10-Year-Old Rescued By A Teen Lifeguard Expresses Gratitude For The SaveThe father of a young boy who was rescued by 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams in Santa Cruz, California, said he is “beyond grateful” for the teen’s actions. “I cannot even express how much gratitude I have towards him,” Sumit Rai told NBC News on Thursday.“I’m beyond grateful, and forever grateful to Ryder,” he added.The father added that his 10-year-old son told him he was unconscious when the lifeguard rescued him.Video of the rescue went viral this week and even caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who called the lifeguard “very brave” on social media. Trump invited the lifeguard, and “perhaps” the boy he rescued, to the White House.It was Williams’ first rescue, he told NBC News. He said the boy was limp, and the volatility of the water made it hard to pull him out. “This is my job and I love what I do,” the lifeguard told NBC News.See All Updates