Someone get Wolf Blitzer — there’s a bit of a situation to attend to.

CNN was knocked off the air Monday for around 30 minutes, an eternity in broadcasting time, and attributed the break to a “technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery.”

CNN media analyst Brian Stelter described the broadcast during the disruption as little more than “pixelated blocks of color and fragmented on-air imagery” until anchor Dana Bash broke through the static around 12:30 ET.

“Welcome back, and we ARE back,” Bash told viewers. “There was a technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery’s channels that resulted in losing our signal. We’re very sorry for the interruption.”

>> @DanaBashCNN just acknowledged the CNN outage on air: "Welcome back and we ARE back. There was a technical issue across Warner Bros. Discovery's channels that resulted in losing our signal. We're very sorry for the interruption." pic.twitter.com/sEc7wnm3xB

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is “ready” to meet whatever economic challenges lie ahead after he suspended trade negotiations with the U.S., saying: “We have all we need right here.”

“That’s not to say there won’t be challenges in the road ahead, but we’re ready to meet them because we have all we need right here,” he said at a press conference Monday. “Building at home and diversifying our trade abroad, that’s not plan B, that’s been our plan A from the start.”

Carney went on to tout Canada’s broader international trade partnerships and expansions, including with the European Union, which President Donald Trump has also taken aim at.

“This fall we will begin intense discussions with the European Union, the world’s second-largest economy, to build a much stronger and deeper economic and security partnership,” Carney said.

Carney made the comments while announcing the production of six new icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard. This follows his pledge to ensure Canada’s ability to protect its Arctic territory without relying on another country for support.

.@CanadianPM Mark Carney: "The goal of our trade negotiations with the United States has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any time frame...we did make some progress in recent weeks, in the end that momentum reversed and we could not… pic.twitter.com/EnSuPgowPb

Vice President JD Vance slipped up during a set of remarks delivered Monday in Maine as he touched on the ongoing trade war that his boss, President Donald Trump, picked with Canada.

Vance, forever defending Trump, asserted that Canada is in the same league as China on trade policy with the U.S.

“I would not expect that from Canada. We have to remember, Canada is a state — sorry. Freudian slip,” Vance said, prompting laughter from the audience.

“That was actually an accident,” he added.

“Canada is a country that has under-invested in its military, that would quite literally get invaded by a foreign country would it not be for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America,” Vance went on.

Canadians have responded to Trump’s tariffs and talk of absorbing their nation into the United States with boycotts of American goods and cross-border travel.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed put out a statement Monday distancing himself from Twitch streamer Hasan Piker in response to Piker suggesting Jewish Americans could bring violence on themselves by supporting Israel.

“I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence,” El-Sayed said in the statement on his campaign website, which specifically said it was in response to Piker.

“My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters,” El-Sayed said. “Antisemitism is a scourge, and we need to address it in all its forms. And I stand against any rhetoric that puts the community at risk.”

In a clip from Piker’s stream highlighted by Mike Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Piker said, “If Jews in America keep putting this this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”

“Absolutely DISGUSTING,” Rogers said. “If Abdul El-Sayed had any courage at all, he would call this out and disavow Hasan Piker once and for all.”

Piker campaigned with El-Sayed during the Democratic primary but told HuffPost last week he has no further campaign events planned. He said accusations of antisemitism “couldn’t be further from the truth” and pointed to his support for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is Jewish.

El-Sayed stressed Piker doesn’t actually speak for his campaign. “And while politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we’re going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools, and healthcare,” El-Sayed said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new round of economic sanctions against Iran Monday as the war neared its six-month mark, dubbing the effort “Operation Economic Outcast.”

“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent said in a statement announcing the sanctions.

Writing in The Financial Times, Bessent said digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping with Iranian links could all be targeted, implying that other countries that still trade with Iran might be fair game.

At a press conference shortly after, however, Bessent was unable to say specifically which countries might be sanctioned, or when.

“We’ve found the best way to engage through countries is quiet diplomacy,” Bessent said, in apparent ignorance of almost every other diplomatic effort undertaken by President Donald Trump. “We know who they are, they know who they are.”

Alan Eyre, a former American diplomat who helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, told NPR it’s unclear the effort will bear fruit.

“There are no new sanctions that are effective,” Eyre told the outlet, noting that the U.S. has already targeted “the low-hanging fruit, the mid-hanging fruit, the high-hanging fruit, the tree.”

Read more:

President Donald Trump implored his followers not to believe their lying eyes after the latest polling body blow showed he’s deep underwater in 47 of 50 states.

“The Radical Left Democrats are going CRAZY with Fake Polls,” Trump wrote on social media Monday. “They’re putting them out at levels never seen before.”

Trump was likely reacting to a YouGov/Economist poll released last week that sought to break down his net approval rating on a state-by-state basis, with brutal conclusions.

The Economist found Trump had a negative approval rating among “adult citizens” everywhere but in Idaho (+9), West Virginia (+6) and Wyoming (+14).

Everywhere else, including in some critical swing states, it’s a bloodbath.

In Georgia, Trump’s approval rating stands at -31, according to the Economist’s numbers. It’s -25 in North Carolina, -23 in Arizona, -27 in Nevada, -27 in Michigan, -26 in Pennsylvania, and -28 in Wisconsin. All of those states except for North Carolina voted for Trump in 2024 after voting for Joe Biden in 2020. (North Carolina narrowly voted for Trump in 2020.)

(It’s slightly more rosy for Trump if you only count 2024 voters. That smaller pool of respondents shows Trump’s approval is negative in “only” 39 states — but he’s flailing in all the aforementioned swing states.)

Trump, however, disavowed the numbers as no more than a “demoralization operation,” describing it as a conspiracy “where they try to demoralize Republicans so that they don’t go out and vote.”

“The actual Polls are tremendous, and the Spirit in our Country has never been higher,” Trump bluffed.

On Monday’s episode of “Morning Joe,” co-host Jonathan Lemire broke down the numbers.

“My expert analysis on that polling is: it’s real bad,” he said.

Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover.

Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but … drumroll, please … the very first Fat Marmot Week.

Read more, via AP:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has told The Associated Press that Canada should be ready to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the U.S. if the trade war between both countries worsens.

“He underestimates Canada. We’re all in,” Ford, who leads Canada’s most populous province, said of President Donald Trump in an interview Monday. “Up here, we’re at a fever pitch, everyone’s in for an economic war. They know they’re going to have to sacrifice.”

Last year, while advocating for both countries integrating their energy grids, Ford said Ontario could “flick off” Canadian electricity as far south as Florida, at “a moment’s notice.”

In a scathing op-ed published Sunday, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ripped the president apart for his decision to throw the United States into a trade war with its closest ally, Canada.

“President Trump took exception last year when we called his tariffs against Canada and Mexico the dumbest trade war in history,” the board wrote. “It got dumber this weekend as Mr. Trump escalated with another round of border taxes on Canadian imports, a mere 10 weeks before midterm elections.”

Trade talks between the two countries fell apart over the weekend, with Donald Trump imposing a 50% tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that include agricultural products, construction materials and manufacturing components. Like the rest of Trump’s tariffs, the costs will be passed on to the American consumer.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the move as an attack by Trump, and vowed to match the tariffs “dollar for dollar” in a couple of weeks.

“Republicans are already getting pounded on the campaign trail over his tariffs and inflation,” the paper owned by Trump-allied Rupert Murdoch stated. “One reason for Mr. Trump’s frigid approval rating is that voters believe Mr. Trump is waging blunderbuss wars without a strategy, and on trade they’re right.”

Read the full editorial at The Wall Street Journal:

President Donald Trump said tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, automotive parts and steel will increase to 50% starting on Jan. 1, 2027.

“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” he said in a social media post on Monday that announced the increased fees.

“Build in the U.S. and there are ZERO TARIFFS,” he went on. “Canada will be treated like a State no longer! On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US! They do 95% of their business with the U.S., with us, the exact opposite!”

The announcement comes two days after tariffs went into effect on hundreds of goods from Canada amid failed trade negotiations with Canada’s prime minister.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney over the weekend brushed off the tariffs while defiantly calling his country “stronger now than when the United States started this trade war.” Carney also said Canada would match U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar” starting on Sept. 8.

Until a few years ago, if you asked for a nanny recommendation in Baker County, Florida, chances are you would be told to call Rhonda Jewell.

Rhonda started nannying at the age of 17. She took a few years off when her three children were young, but even then, she was always caring for other kids. She was known to show up at her daughter’s baton twirling competitions with a suitcase full of snacks, extra bobby pins, a changing tent, and pillows and blankets for all the girls on the team. Her kids’ friends were constantly streaming in and out of her home, which is exactly how she liked it.

Once, the father of two of the girls she sometimes watched suffered a cardiac arrest. Their mother asked Rhonda to watch the girls for a night or two, but she ended up caring for them for three weeks while their father recovered in the hospital, according to court records.

Read more here:

Sean Grayson, the former Illinois deputy who shot and killed Sonya Massey while responding to her 911 call about a suspected prowler in 2024, has died while serving a 20-year sentence for her murder, it was reported Monday.

The 32-year-old had been undergoing treatment for Stage 4 colon cancer when he died on Sunday, his attorney told multiple media outlets.

Grayson had been found guilty in October of second-degree murder after he fired three shots inside of Massey’s Springfield house, killing the single mother. It followed Massey, 36, reaching for a pot of hot water and telling him: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” according to body camera footage.

Grayson responded by threatening to shoot her in her face. Massey, who was standing at a distance from Grayson, apologized, raised her hands and ducked just before she was shot.

A prisoner review board last month reportedly rejected Grayson’s medical release request, ordering him to stay behind bars despite his advancing cancer. His attorney, reached by the New York Post, was unable to say whether his death was related to his cancer diagnosis.

A spokesperson for the attorneys for Massey’s family wished Grayson’s family “prayers for peace” in a statement to local station WCIA, while adding: “Sonya’s family knows that pain all too well and will grieve her loss the rest of their days.”

The Washington Post has reportedly been ordered to rehire a Black columnist whom it fired last year over comments she made about Charlie Kirk and America’s double standards in race and violence.

Karen Attiah announced her rehiring in a social media post on Monday, sharing a New York Times article about the decision, which was reportedly made by a private arbitrator and includes her receiving back pay.

“The Washington Post fired me last year for speaking the truth after Charlie Kirk’s killing. I fought back,” Attiah wrote.

Attiah was fired in September for gross misconduct over social media posts that the outlet said harmed the paper’s integrity and put the staff’s physical safety at risk, according to a termination letter that she previously shared online and with HuffPost.

One of her posts, cited in the complaint, read: “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is… not the same as violence.”

The arbitrator concluded that her employer “did not have good and sufficient cause” to fire Attiah and that it “violated” its labor agreement in doing so, according to The Times’ review of the decision.

In an interview with Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is confident the GOP will retain its majority in the lower chamber even if the Iran war is not over by November.

“It would be helpful to get that thing resolved in the next 73 days, but if it’s not, we’re still going to win. People know we took the head off the snake. We had to make sure the largest state sponsor of terrorism does not have a nuclear weapon. That was an objective of every administration the last 50 years. Donald Trump did it,” Johnson said.

Despite Johnson’s claims, though, the administration has failed to accomplish the goals it set out at the start of the conflict and has struggled to permanently end the war.

Johnson was also asked to weigh in on a reported recent meeting between House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, ahead of the midterms to go over areas of “common ground,” as first reported by The New York Times.

The Times noted that the timing of the sit-down indicated that some close to Trump recognize there is a real possibility of Jeffries winning the speakership this fall.

“I know Jared, he’s a smart guy and he hedges bets,” Johnson said. “But I’ll tell you what, you better not bet against House Republicans.”

Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir traveled to Iran as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to announce new sanctions targeting Tehran, Reuters reported on Monday, citing Iranian media.

Reuters added that Munir, who has established a good relationship with President Donald Trump, is set to sit down with officials close to the Iranian supreme leader.

Pakistan said Munir’s trip was part of an effort “to promote regional peace and stability,” the news agency noted.

Iran’s currency hit a record low Monday as Washington prepared to announce new sanctions it said would be an “economic D-Day” and would add further pressure on an economy already battered by previous sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade.

The rial dropped to 2.02 million to the U.S. dollar as trading opened on informal currency markets. Iran’s official Central Bank rate stood at around 1.5 million rial to the dollar, but the informal rate is what most Iranians pay.

The currency had already been under pressure before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, with double-digit inflation and negative growth, but has been hitting new record lows as nearly six months of war have taken an even greater toll.

Read more at The Associated Press:

European leaders joined President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday for official celebrations marking Ukraine’s Independence Day as Russia pushes on with its 4-year-old invasion of the country.

One of President Vladimir Putin’s key goals in starting a war with Russia’s neighbor in February 2022 was to place Kyiv in Moscow’s orbit. Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence in 1991.

With no significant changes on the front line for months and no apparent progress after more than a year of U.S.-led peace efforts, the warring countries are locked in a spiral of escalating aerial attacks that are killing civilians and smashing infrastructure.

Read more at The Associated Press:

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced he is pulling out of planned talks with Paramount, accusing the company of “demonstrating a lack of good faith,” The New York Times reported.

The meeting, which was set to take place on Monday, was expected to focus on a potential settlement of the state’s lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith,” Bonta said in the statement to the newspaper late Sunday. “As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again.”

Read more at The New York Times:

For previous updates from HuffPost, click here.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.