Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release Palestinian tax revenues Israel's ultranationalist minister of finance Bezalel Smotrich froze in early May, three U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios. Why it matters: The Biden administration is extremely concerned the Palestinian Authority could collapse if the tax revenues are not transferred soon, U.S. officials say. An economic crash could in turn lead to an escalation in the West Bank in...

The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for the federal government to win court orders when it suspects a company of interfering in unionization campaigns in a case that stemmed from a labor dispute with Starbucks. The justices tightened the standards for when a federal court should issue an order to protect the jobs of workers during a union organizing campaign. The court unanimously rejected a rule that some courts had applied to orders sought by the National Labor Relations Board...

Former President Donald Trump made his first visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday since a rioting mob of his supporters mounted an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump, now a convicted felon, is huddling with GOP lawmakers at their campaign headquarters on both sides of the Capitol complex. His meetings mark his triumphant return to the top of the Republican Party after the violent attempt to steal the 2020 election briefly made him a pariah. Some Republicans, namely those...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday to begin setting an ambitious agenda for Washington if former President Trump is reelected and Republicans win back control of the Senate and keep their House majority. GOP lawmakers are growing increasingly confident about their prospects in the November election, given President Biden’s low approval numbers and want to have a bold agenda ready to go in January. Feeling the Senate majority is within their reach,...

Russian prosecutors said they have approved an indictment of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia for over a year, falsely accusing him of espionage and referring his case to a trial court, where he could face a series of secret, closed-door hearings. The 32-year-old reporter, whom the U.S. government deems wrongfully detained, has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison since March 29 last year, on an allegation that he, the Journal and the U.S. government...

Tesla (TSLA.O) shareholders were set to approve Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package in what is being seen as a thumbs-up to his leadership - and an enticement for keeping his focus on the electric-vehicle maker. Musk posted a chart on his social media platform X late on Wednesday that showed theresolution and another vote to move the company's legal home to Texas - were set to pass by wide margins, though shareholders are allowed to change their votes up to the start of the annual meeting...

Several organizations sued the Biden administration over an executive order that aims to suspend the flow of illegal immigration into the country. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to strike down President Joe Biden’s executive order, which pauses new asylum requests after 2,500 daily average illegal crossings over the span of a week, following through on a pledge the organization made the day Biden announced his order. The ACLU was joined by other...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) slammed judicial activists who continually strike down Florida laws that they don’t like only for their rulings to get continuously overturned by higher courts. DeSantis made the remarks on Wednesday after federal Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee, who is one of the left-wing judges who routinely strikes down bills that DeSantis signs into law, batted down Florida’s new law to protect minors from transgender procedures and treatments. “It is wrong to...

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) blasted the Biden administration for suing Oklahoma ahead of the implementation of a new law that would allow nonfederal police to arrest illegal immigrants. Lankford sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter Thursday that labeled the Biden Department of Justice as “hypocritical” for attempting to halt the state’s immigration enforcement efforts — a law that the senator said state leaders back home passed because of federal inaction to secure the border three...

Imagine deciding to take up a hobby that usually requires many years to perfect at age 35, and three years later ending up in the top 30 in the world at the highest international competition for it.That's what happened to a 38-year-old math and physics teacher from Diepenbeek, Belgium. According to Netherlands News Live, Mieke Gorissen has jogged 10km (a little over six miles) a few times a week for exercise for many years. But in 2018, she decided to hire a running trainer to improve her technique. As it turned out, she was a bit of a natural at distance running. Three years later, Gorissen found herself running her third marathon. But not just any old marathon (as if there were such a thing)—the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. And not only did she compete with the world's most elite group of runners, she came in 28th out of the 88 competing in the race. With the heat and humidity in Tokyo, even completing the race was a major accomplishment. (Fifteen women competing did not finish the marathon.) But to come in in the top 30 when you just started focusing on distance running three years ago? Unbelievable.In fact, Gorissen could hardly believe it herself. A video of her reaction upon hearing her results has gone viral for its purity and genuine humility. "No," she said when a reporter told her she came in 28th in the race. "That's not possible."Then she burst into tears.Her emotional disbelief is so moving. "I was already happy to finish the race," she said through sobs. "I do think I have reached my goal and that I can be happy.""I also think I lost a toenail," she added, laughing.Even after the English translation ends in the video, it's clear how much this finish meant to her. A remarkable accomplishment for a 38-year-old who knits and reads for fun and who has only run two marathons prior to competing in the Olympics. See on Instagram According to her Olympic profile, she's glad she got started with distance running later in life. "If I started running in my teens, it wouldn't have been good for me," she said. "I wasn't really happy then, I would have been too hard on myself and I would have lost myself in it in a way that wasn't healthy. It came at exactly the right time."Congratulations, Mieke. You've given us all the inspiration to set new goals and dream bigger than we ever thought possible.This article originally appeared on 08.12.21