President Trump Holds a Cabinet Meeting @ Camp David | Jul. 31, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6vuYip9SWo

You are doing great btw.

Florida attorney general launches probe into Fauci over Covid claims

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a state investigation into Anthony Fauci on Wednesday amid continued GOP scrutiny in Washington.

The Trump-era Covid czar pushed for pandemic safety requirements such as face mask use and social distancing that drew criticism from Republican lawmakers — particularly in Florida, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis — and prompted dozens of appearances before congressional committees, where he was accused of misleading the public.

Fauci declined to answer questions Wednesday at a contentious Senate hearing, exercising his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Uthmeier announced the launch of a state investigation into Fauci shortly afterward.

“Fauci’s lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable,” Uthmeier said in a post on X. “It’s past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID.”

Uthmeier has launched several investigations since he was appointed by DeSantis in February 2025, from suing health organizations over the state’s ban on transgender treatments for children to recruiting rules used by the NFL. In the case of Fauci, DeSantis wrote in a Wednesday X post the former White House adviser cannot claim the Fifth Amendment since he received a preemptive pardon by Biden, and he should be held in contempt for not answering Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul’s questions about U.S. funding going to a lab in a region of China where the first Covid cases were reported.

When asked by another X user about options, DeSantis said only a state attorney general or prosecutor can bring a case due to his pardon.

“It would require either a state AG or local state attorney to bring a case, which would need to establish violations of state law as well as personal jurisdiction over the defendant,” DeSantis wrote.

Paul told Fauci he will face consequences for pleading the Fifth and has scheduled an Aug. 5 committee meeting to discuss whether to declare him in contempt of Congress.

DeSantis made national headlines during the Covid pandemic for rejecting federal health safety guidelines, even making Florida the first in the country to reopen schools. He also picked former UCLA medical researcher Joseph Ladapo to be the state surgeon general in 2021, after the Harvard-trained doctor also gained his own spotlight for writing opinion pieces questioning safety measures such as face mask use and social distancing.

Uthmeier was chief of staff for DeSantis’ office during the pandemic before he was picked to replace now-Sen. Ashley Moody. Uthmeier said about a month ago that he was losing sleep over thinking of ways to prosecute Fauci.

“And when I have a case ready, I’ll bring it,” Uthmeier said at the time.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/29/florida-attorney-general-fauci-probe-covid-claims-01015441

‘Nightmarish’ Wildfire in Crete Kills Two Firefighters as Thousands Evacuate

Greece also worked to contain blazes on Lesbos and in the Peloponnese, where another firefighter died, in the midst of a brutal wildfire season for Europe.

Greece battled a wildfire on Thursday on the island of Crete that has killed two firefighters and forced thousands to flee. The flames were the latest in a series of blazes that have charred Europe this summer and tested its ability to deal with increasingly extreme weather.

More than 220 firefighters were tackling the wildfire in Crete, which broke out on Wednesday in the area of Krya Vrysi, in the south of the island. The fire, one of several that the Greek authorities were trying to contain on Thursday, was being fueled by strong wind, complicating efforts to put out the flames.

“The winds are so intense that aircraft can’t operate,” Giorgos Tsapakos, the deputy regional governor for Crete, told state television on Thursday morning. He said that the fire front stretched over nearly 10 miles but that residential areas were not currently under threat.

Evangelos Tournas, Greece’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection, said late Wednesday that the two firefighters who died in Crete were 58 and 25 years old. The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear.

Summertime wildfires are common in parts of southern Europe. But the blazes in Greece came as fighters were still working on fires in France and Spain. Those had been mostly contained by Thursday, officials said, but they have caused alarm across the continent, where climate change is fueling extreme temperatures and making wildfires more widespread.

Maria Lioni, the deputy regional governor of the Rethymno region of Crete, spoke of “a nightmarish day and a nightmarish night” in comments to state television on Thursday, adding that the authorities had evacuated “many villages, large and small.” She said that it was too early to assess the damage fully but that it appeared to be extensive.

About 8,000 people were evacuated from the southern coastal area of Agia Galini, Ms. Lioni said, although Greece’s Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection later announced that visitors who had been evacuated from the area had started returning to their hotels.

Many residents stayed with relatives or friends in other parts of Crete, while visitors to the island, a popular vacation destination, were moved to hotels in safe areas. About 700 people took shelter at a gymnasium, where mattresses were set up and food distributed.

The Greek authorities were also bolstering efforts to douse wildfires in other parts of the country. Many Greek areas remained at high fire risk on Thursday, including greater Athens, Crete, the Cyclades islands and much of the Peloponnese, according to civil protection authorities.

On the island of Lesbos, nearly 100 firefighters were still putting out flames that broke out near the town of Plomari. In the Peloponnese, a firefighter died on Wednesday on the sidelines of a blaze in the area of Gytheio.

Much of Western Europe is in the grip of another spell of intense heat, the continent’s fourth since May. Officials have warned that a combination of prolonged dry weather, gusty winds, extreme temperatures and low humidity would significantly increase the risk that wildfires will spread and new ones will ignite.

On Thursday, the European Forest Fire Information System said that “very extreme” fire danger conditions — the highest category in its forecast — were expected to dominate a large area of Western and Central Europe through Aug. 5. Britain and Ireland were facing the same elevated risk.

In Scotland, firefighters have been battling a two-week conflagration that has ripped through moorland and forest and destroyed cherished natural scenery. Large parts of central, eastern and southern England were declared officially in drought on Wednesday. On Thursday, scores were evacuated from their homes in Suffolk as fire crews tackled a wildfire at Dunwich Heath.

In France, Laurent Nuñez, the interior minister, told reporters that the situation “remained complicated” and that no one should “let their guard down,” despite a slight improvement in weather conditions, with a rise in humidity and less wind. Overall, more than 14,000 fires have been reported since the start of summer, he said.

Four fires are still active, Mr. Nuñez said, including a massive one in the Gironde area in the southwest. Firefighters there are focusing on treating the edges of the blaze and preventing embers from reigniting. The local prefect said that about 84,000 people who had been evacuated could return home, after more than 220,000 were forced to flee.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/world/europe/wildfires-europe-greece.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1lA.Pi8c.5LPkVbX9e4fA

Brittney Griner Files for Divorce from Wife Cherelle, Who Helped Fight for WNBA Star’s Release from Russia

-Brittney Griner and wife Cherelle are ending their marriage

-The WNBA star filed for divorce in Georgia on Thursday, July 31

-The couple, who met as students at Baylor University, shares a two-year-old son named Bash

https://www.aol.com/articles/brittney-griner-files-divorce-wife-161842000.html