Vice President Kamala Harris is a mysterious public figure indeed. Despite hitting the campaign trail, she’s managed to stay virtually entirely on script — and never off the cuff. She's distanced herself from her past positions, sponsorships, and even her current agenda, but not personally, of course. Announcements of her shifts have come through anonymous aides and unsourced campaign statements. No comment, no interviews; she wouldn’t even sit down for Time’s servile profile. You might call it the “Wizard of Oz” campaign strategy. “Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain! The great Her has spoken!” It’s not bad; brilliant in its simplicity. But with every passing day, the act grows a little more dangerous. You can play the great and powerful Oz for a good long while, but eventually, someone pulls back the curtain. Meanwhile, her scant and shallow policies have drawn polite applause from corporate media. It’s not cynical pandering or “flip-flopping” any more. When Harris does it, it’s “worth reflecting on [her] transformation,” as Playbook put it. But even Playbook is a little suspicious of the whole thing. After she copied her Republican opponent’s no-tax-on-tips idea, aping it so plainly that she announced it in the same city where he debuted the plan, our intrepid reporters admitted surprise that “she had endorsed any policy proposal at all.” The very next day, it was excitement again. Harris’ complete lack of a foreign policy is exciting to those tired of a field dominated by Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama’s people. There’s no actual sign that those same blob people won’t end up back in charge, but there’s something so invigorating about a blank canvas, isn’t there? Democrats are even telling reporters (on background, of course) that there’s no reason to muck up the "enthusiasm and energy” with policy, and they’re right. Democrats have nothing to gain and everything to lose by putting Harris on the stand. Remember the last time they tried to put Harris in the spotlight? Democrats and their media pals tried to make “Excuse me, I’m speaking” into the “Yas, queen!” of 2020, but it didn’t really take. If Harris were cool or smart — or good at her job or even remotely passable — she would have been a star of the administration. Instead, she was hidden away from the press, and there’s no intent to shift course now. The strategy worked for Joe Biden in 2020. But he had COVID to hide behind — and an incumbent weakened by his own COVID policies and consumed by his personal gripes and feuds. The unintended consequence of all that hiding, however, was declining public trust. When his actual abilities were finally revealed during the first re-election debate against former President Donald Trump, it all came tumbling down. The longer Harris waits before giving an interview, the closer the focus it will receive. Her virtually inevitable meaningless meanderings, nonsense slogans, and awkward cackles will be carefully scrutinized. In a normal campaign, these sorts of moments can blend into the noise and get lost in the news cycle. No such luck when simply speaking itself could generate a headline. You can play the great and powerful Oz for a good long while, but eventually, someone pulls back the curtain. Victor Davis Hanson at Blaze News: Tough on borders, soft on truth Blaze News: 50 years of fraudulent political journalism Blaze News: Dems say Project 2025 is extreme. Turns out that Americans are on board with its policy recommendations. The Spectator: Harris allies lean on influencers to post about campaign Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford's newsletter. The fire rises: The New York Times: Immigrants are becoming US citizens at fastest clip in years The Biden-Harris administration is naturalizing more citizens than the federal government has in a decade. That’s not a coincidence, of course, and it isn’t just about clearing up backlogs. There’s a political agenda here, and it culminates in November. Miriam Jordan reports: Naturalization applications typically spike upward in the approach to an election. “The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election," said Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that uses government data to analyze immigration trends and that offers services to immigrants who seek professional help in navigating the application process. "Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency," Mr. Wang said. Politico: The nation’s best hackers found vulnerabilities in voting machines — but no time to fix them

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Following a yearslong legal battle against Apple, Spotify seems to be finally getting some fairness in promoting its music streaming platform. Starting today in Europe, the company can finally display promotional offers and pricing information for each subscription tier on the Spotify app. According to an updated blog post, Spotify celebrates the progress it achieved after the European Commission discovered that Apple violated the EU's antitrust laws and fined over $2 billion a year ago. With that, the platform is now opting for one of Apple's in-house options for music streaming services in the EU, so it can finally display its pricing information on the Spotify app and more. The Music Streaming Services Entitlement offers Apple's in-app purchase system and the ability for developers to include a link to their website to inform users of other ways to purchase digital goods or services. Developers can also invite users to provide their email addresses to send them links or simply provide information about purchases available on the developer's website without a link. Spotify submitted a request, enabled the entitlement in Xcode, and used the required StoreKit APIs to do that. The Music Streaming Services Entitlement option differs from the complicated new developer terms Apple outlined last week. That said, Spotify won't be paying a Core Fee for downloads nor offering its app outside the App Store, even though the company still thinks Apple is demanding "illegal and predatory taxes." At the end of the day, it's great that Spotify can finally display its subscription prices in its EU app. However, the company won't likely drive more sales or have a subscription grow just because it can display this information. Still, it's a win for both the music streaming platform and its users, who can have a better experience inside the app. BGR will continue to monitor everything related to iPhone sideloading, the new App Store rules in the EU, and new antitrust cases against big techs. Don't Miss: Apple makes revisions to purchases outside the App Store in the EU The post Spotify can finally show subscription prices in its EU iPhone app after Apple relents appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $224 iPad, New back to school blowout, $198 Sony XM4 headphones, $98 eufy smart lock, more Best Apple Watch deals for August 2024 Today’s deals: Rare PlayStation 5 discount, $19 Roku, $20 pet hair remover, $60 Keurig coffee maker, more Today’s deals: $65 smart TV, $18.50 Apple AirTags, $30 electric toothbrush, $424 Lenovo laptop, more

Vice President Kamala Harris has a perceived advantage over former President Donald Trump on several leadership qualities such as honesty, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds.

Germany has issued a European arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor who allegedly was part of a team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, according to a report by three German media outlets published Wednesday.

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The U.S. Secret Service has fulfilled only one of six recommendations made by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General related to the incidents that took place Jan. 6, 2021.

Republican Donald Trump will head to the swing state of North Carolina on Wednesday, struggling to turn the page on a difficult stretch of a White House campaign in which his lead in opinion polls has all but evaporated.