Washington

For seven years, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell vowed to slay Obamacare if only his Republican Party controlled the House, Senate and the White House. But even with those conditions in place, McConnell's efforts to repeal all or portions of former President Barack Obama's landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act came crashing down. The result has Democrats feeling emboldened 16 months before the next congressional elections, and calls into question McConnell's reputation as a master tactician and deal-maker that he earned as Republican minority leader under Obama.

As Obamacare repeal falters, insurers start to press on subsidies

Reuters TV: Dollar walloped by Senate healthcare failure 

A White House commission set up to look into U.S. President Donald Trump's allegations of voter fraud, which critics have said could be a vehicle to suppress voting rights, is slated to meet for the first time today. Studies have shown voter fraud is rare in U.S. elections. Trump charged without evidence last year that millions voted unlawfully in the November presidential election.

Russia investigation

The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. after his father won the 2016 U.S. Republican presidential nomination has said she is ready to testify to Congress to dispel what she called "mass hysteria" about the encounter.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a previously undisclosed conversation during a dinner for G20 leaders at a summit earlier this month in Germany, a White House official said. News of the conversation was first reported by Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Bremmer said Trump got up from his seat halfway through dinner and spent about an hour talking "privately and animatedly" with Putin, "joined only by Putin's own translator." The lack of a U.S. translator raised eyebrows among other leaders at the dinner, said Bremmer, who called it a "breach of national security protocol."

Commentary: Seven is the number that explains why Congressional Republicans won’t turn on Trump

An Atlantic Puffin holds a mouthful of sand eels on the island of Skomer, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Naden

North Korea carries out public executions on river banks and at school grounds and marketplaces for charges such as stealing copper from factory machines, distributing media from South Korea and prostitution, a report by a Seoul-based non-government group said.

Syria

Clashes between rival insurgent groups broke out in Syria's Idlib region in some of the heaviest fighting between Islamist factions which hold sway in the northwestern province, war monitors reported.

France

France's head of the armed forces resigned after a heated dispute with Emmanuel Macron over defense budget cuts, bringing to a head an early test of the newly elected president's mettle.

Business

Google announced an overhaul of its search app on mobile phones to include a personalized feed of links about hobbies, travel, sports and other topics, a move that puts the search company into more direct competition with social networks such as Facebook.

Breakingviews: After half a century of strife, FARC guerrillas are laying down their weapons and integrating into Colombia's political landscape. The Exchange podcast traveled to Bogota to discuss potential dividends from peace, infrastructure investment and the economy with Colombia's finance minister.

U.S. spices maker McCormick & Co has agreed to buy Reckitt Benckiser Group's food business for a higher-than-expected $4.2 billion to give it a wider variety of seasonings and sauces.

Discovery and Scripps in merger talks: sources

Harley-Davidson’s shares skidded to a more than one-year low after the motorcycle maker cut its full-year shipments forecast as demand weakens among its aging baby-boomer customers and as fewer millennials take to motorcycling.

U.S.

Advocacy groups launched petitions and sent letters urging two of the biggest U.S. public pension funds to divest from an investment fund unless it stops paying one of President Donald Trump's companies to run a New York hotel.

Video: Wildfire forces evacuation of California town near Yosemite

Amid public outrage over the fatal shooting of an Australian woman by Minneapolis police, the most persistent question was why officers did not turn on body cameras that could have captured what happened.

Demerara_Guy posted:

Trump charged without evidence last year that millions voted unlawfully in the November presidential election.

That could be the reason he won.

Perhaps, with the strange activities in the last few days of the elections.

Trump is a **** plain and simple.

Bur 100 times BETTER than the DONKEY, DUNCE, FOOL and BLOOD SUCKING Parasite Granger!!!

Focus banna Focus....the conversation is not about Pee Wee Herman, Flintstones, Granger, Caitlyn Jenner...its about Trump.