Israel said it sent troops on a limited raid into Gaza for the second night running, as preparations

Looking for something to add to your Costco cart along with the 30 rolls of toilet paper

(Reuters) -Used-cars retailer Carvana Co on Thursday forecast a second-quarter core profit above $50 million as its cost-cutting initiatives helped

Summer + humidity = frizzy hair. It's a simple, all-too-true equation. Thankfully, Revlon is here

Arizona state officials announced Thursday the state will no longer grant certifications for new developments within the Phoenix area, as groundwater rapidly disappears amid years of water overuse and climate change-driven drought.

A triumphant return to the NBA playoffs for Cleveland last season ended with a thud

The head of the International Atomic Agency says that the U.N. nuclear watchdog will “never politicize” its work in Iran

The Big Ten’s westward expansion could challenge the league’s reputation for smashmouth football

A trio of Republican House committee chairs is demanding information from the Department of Justice on the pending plea and diversion agreements between prosecutors and Hunter Biden as part of their ongoing effort to inflict political damage on his father, President Joe Biden. In a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith said the decision by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss to allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanour tax charges and enter into a deferred sentencing agreement on a single charge of lying on a gun background check form “raise serious concerns ... that the Department has provided preferential treatment toward Mr. Biden in the course of its investigation and proposed resolution of his alleged criminal conduct”. Mr Biden, who is President Biden’s youngest and only surviving son, has admitted to what have been well-documented struggles with alcohol and drugs, and during an aborted plea hearing last week said he’d been in and out of rehabilitation facilities on numerous occasions over the last few decades. During that court appearance, US District Judge Maryellen Noreika objected to a provision of the diversion agreement which stated that she — not prosecutors — would be responsible for determining whether Mr Biden might have breached the agreement’s terms, which would necessitate new criminal charges. The judge said the provision in question was “not standard” and “different from what I normally see” and suggested it violates the separation of powers in the US Constitution because it would put the judicial branch in the position of making a charging decision that is an executive branch function. Legal experts have opined that the provision at issue was an attempt by the department to protect Mr Biden from a situation in which a future Republican administration would manufacture charges against him. The current GOP frontrunner for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, Donald Trump, has repeatedly pledged to jail Mr Biden, his father, and numerous other prominent Democrats. The GOP representatives asked Mr Garland to provide them with data on how often, if at all, the Delaware US Attorney’s office and the Justice Department have included similar provisions in diversion agreements. They also demanded information on who — prosecutors or Mr Biden’s defence attorneys — suggested that the agreement should place a final decision on new charges in a judge’s hands, and asked Mr Garland to provide a list of pretrial division agreements for other defendants who’ve been charged with the same gun-related offence as Mr Biden, as well as “all documents and communications referring or relating to each similar pretrial diversion agreement entered into by the Department in the last ten years”. Additionally, the committee chairs asked Mr Garland to provide a “generalized description of the nature of the Department’s ongoing investigation” into Mr Biden and an “explanation of why the Department originally agreed to a plea agreement” with Mr Biden if there are ongoing probes into him. It is unlikely that Mr Garland will provide any response that satisfies the GOP representatives, as the Justice Department’s policy for decades has been to not comment on ongoing investigations, even in response to congressional inquiries. Read More House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner testifies to Congress. Here’s what to know Biden acknowledges Hunter’s daughter Navy in public for first time

Rough all-around for Houston on Sunday.

The PGA Tour starts a disjointed Texas swing

Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is certain that Ukraine will have success in its war against Russia and insisted that Kyiv has a plan for the year head, as he defended the slow pace of his country’s counteroffensive. “I am sure that we’ll have success,” the Ukrainian president told Reuters, adding: “We’ll try to show the result this year. We don’t need to surprise everybody in the world, we need this for ourselves.” His comments came as a top Donbas military official said that Russia’s “third wave” advance near Avdiivka been bogged down on sodden land, with several days of rain having for the moment ruled out any new Russian advance. “We’ve had nearly a week of heavy rain,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. “The terrain is too difficult and equipment cannot move.” Elsewhere, the Kremlin has again warned of the risk of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons being used amid the war, blaming a “deterioration in global security” as a “the natural consequence of the United States’ destructive policies”. Read More Anger as Ramaswamy seems to call Jewish Ukraine leader Zelensky ‘Nazi’ at GOP debate Russia seeks an 8-year prison term for an artist and musician who protested the war in Ukraine Russia reportedly is using Ukrainian POWs to fight in their homeland on Moscow's side Ukraine takes step towards EU membership as European Commission backs negotiations to begin