Evening Wire: Russia Pummels Ukraine & Brown-Trump Reach Settlement | 7.31.25

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More RussiaGate evidence is brought to light.

Russia pummels Kiev again despite Trump's new peace deadline.

And the NYPD officer killed in Monday's mass shooting is honored in the Bronx.

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Thursday, July 31st, and this is Evening Wire.

Newly declassified files allege Hillary Clinton greenlit the RussiGate smear of Trump's 2016 campaign to distract from her email scandal.

According to memos obtained by U.S.

intelligence, false Russian collusion claims also involved Democratic operatives and groups tied to George Soros's open society foundations and included disseminating information through the media and FBI-linked firms.

Special Counsel John Durham's probe found this intel likely authentic, but long buried, raising renewed concerns over political weaponization of federal agencies.

Mexico and the U.S.

have agreed to extend their current trade arrangement.

President Trump says he's giving our southern neighbor 90 more days, delaying the effect of new tariffs while negotiations continue.

In a post on Truth Social, the president said, quote, Mexico will continue to pay a 25% fentanyl tariff, a blanket tariff on all goods, including 25% on cars and 50% on steel, aluminum, and copper.

Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its non-tariff trade barriers.

President Trump is warning Canada that recognizing a Palestinian state could damage their trade deal with the U.S.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney released a statement declaring that the country would join France and the United Kingdom in affirming Palestine as a state.

President Trump responded on Truth Social last night, saying, that will make it very hard for us to make a trade deal.

New tariffs on Canadian goods are set to take effect tomorrow, August 1st.

U.S.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee are heading to Gaza in response to growing claims of a humanitarian crisis.

The two men will inspect aid efforts tomorrow amid conflicting claims about distribution being held up.

Here's Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.

The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region.

And we will provide more details for all of you once that plan is approved and agreed on by the President of the United States.

Israel has faced international criticism even from allies like Germany as fears of a famine escalate.

The calls come despite evidence of undistributed aid and videos of Hamas feasting below ground.

President Trump repeated his calls for Hamas to surrender and release hostages, saying it's the fastest way to end the suffering in Gaza.

The New York Times headquarters was vandalized.

Daily Wire reporter Cassie Akiva has the latest.

On Wednesday, the phrase, New York Times lies, Gaza dies, was spray painted in large white letters on windows, while sizable sections of the lower-level exterior was covered with red paint.

The vandalism comes a day after the paper published a major correction to a report from last week that went viral due to the use of photos of an emaciated child in Gaza.

The alarming condition of the child was used to accuse Israel of starving the Gazan population.

But as the editor's note now explains, the child was actually emaciated due to suffering from pre-existing conditions.

The child has cerebral palsy, hypoxemia, and was born with a serious genetic disorder.

Russia battered Ukraine's capital overnight in another deadly attack.

The assault left at least nine people dead, including a six-year-old boy, while injuring over 100 more.

A nine-story apartment building collapsed, with rescue teams still searching the rubble.

Ukrainian officials say the barrage included over 300 drones and missiles striking 27 sites across the capital.

President Zelensky called it a brutal answer to peace efforts, urging allies to act.

Meanwhile, President Trump has given Russia an August 8th deadline to show progress or face new sanctions.

President Trump says he's still open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un despite the country's warning against denuclearization efforts.

The White House says Trump hopes to revive dialogue and achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo-jong, says relations with Trump are not bad, but called disarmament demands a mockery.

Meanwhile, Kim himself says the U.S.

must recognize them as a nuclear power.

North Korea claims its arsenal has expanded since the last summit.

Trump, who held three historic meetings with Kim during his first term, says his goal of peace on the Korean peninsula remains unchanged.

Meanwhile, Trump has announced a preliminary trade deal with South Korea, just days ahead of the August 1st tariff deadline.

Under the agreement, South Korea will invest $350 billion in U.S.-controlled assets and buy $100 billion in American energy.

In return, Trump says tariffs on South Korean goods will be reduced from 25% to 15%.

The deal also opens South Korea to more U.S.

exports, including cars and agriculture.

President Trump is unloading on Fed chair Jerome Powell after the central bank left rates unchanged for the fifth straight time.

Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has the details.

In a fiery social post this morning, Trump slammed Powell as, quote, too angry, too stupid, and too political to lead the central bank while blaming him for costing the country trillions of dollars and overseeing what he called a disastrous renovation project.

The Fed's decision to keep rates between 4.25 and 4.5 percent comes amid some inflation and concerns over new tariffs set to take effect this Friday.

Yesterday, Powell said no rate decision has been made yet for September.

It seems to me and to almost the whole committee that the economy is not performing as though restrictive policy is holding it back inappropriately and modestly restrictive policy seems appropriate.

All that said, there's also downside risk to the labor market.

In coming months, we'll receive a good amount of data that will help inform our assessment of the balance of risks and the appropriate setting of the federal funds rate.

Meanwhile, two Fed governors broke ranks in a rare dissent and called for rate cuts.

Both are now rumored to be potential Powell replacements when his term ends in 2026.

U.S.

Senator Bernie Moreno from Ohio posted alarming photos of the woman shown being knocked out cold by a man in the viral video of the Cincinnati brawl last weekend.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more.

The photos show the woman with a severe black eye, bruised and swollen face, busted lip, and black and blue neck and chest.

This is Holly, Moreno wrote.

She wanted to have a nice evening out with friends.

Instead, she got this.

Along with condemning the weak response from Cincinnati's mayor, police chief, and other officials, the senator highlighted a shocking social media statement from Cincinnati's Democratic City Council President Pro Tem Victoria Parks.

In response to someone saying the victims of the mob violence did not deserve being abused like they were, Parks wrote, quote, they begged for that beatdown.

I'm grateful for the whole story.

Parks has previously said she is not seeking re-election.

Fallen NYPD officer Ditteral Islam was honored in funeral proceedings today.

Islam was killed in the mass shooting in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper on Monday.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tish spoke at the funeral held at a mosque in the Bronx.

Tish praised Islam's work ethic and promoted him posthumously to Detective First Grade during the ceremony.

It reflected everything this title represents.

So today, it is my honor and my great privilege to promote police officer Didarul Islam to detective first grade.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also spoke at the funeral, and mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani was reportedly in attendance.

Islam is survived by his wife, two young boys, and a baby on the way.

New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani excused his previous calls to defund the police in a presser on Wednesday and indicated support for increased gun control nationwide.

While Mamdani has walked back some of his comments, comments, he refused to disassociate outright, saying, quote, my statements in 2020 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers felt at the murder of George Floyd.

He also referenced the Manhattan shooting.

Here's Momdani.

Clearly, we are still home to a site of a senseless mass shooting.

And so there is much work for us to do here in New York City.

But there is also so much work to be done at a national level.

And that is why, again, I appreciate Governor Hochul taking this moment to point not only New Yorkers, but Americans towards a way in which we can ensure that history does not repeat itself.

Brown University has reached a $50 million settlement with the Trump administration.

The Ivy League School has agreed to fund workforce development in exchange for restored federal grants and the closure of multiple investigations.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon praised the agreement, saying it will restore merit-based admissions and enforce protections against anti-Semitism and discrimination.

They've also agreed to get rid of the DEI and their hiring practices to make sure that it's based on merit and promotions and admissions are based on merit and not on other ideologies.

And this is no way the administration trying in any way to control what's taught on campuses.

Brown's president called the agreement voluntary while warning of increased federal scrutiny on academic institutions.

Meanwhile, President Trump celebrated the deal on Truth Social, declaring Woke is officially dead at Brown.

White White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt hailed the move as a major win for the administration.

This is yet another huge win for American students and for those who love our country and want to abide by our country's laws.

And a flight traveling from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam experienced some major turbulence before nosediving for nearly 90 seconds.

The Delta flight eventually made an emergency landing in Minneapolis, where at least 25 people were taken to the hospital.

Passengers described seeing the beverage cart flying through the air air and other people hitting the cabin ceiling.

One female passenger was thrown into the air multiple times, resulting in broken ribs.

Passenger Leanne Clement Nash told ABC News all about the terrifying flight.

There's a moment where we thought we were going down, so I'm, you know, still shaking about it.

It was very scary.

One young lady in particular, I believe she got thrown up twice to the ceiling and down and landed on people.

I think she ended up with some fractured ribs.

Those are your drive-home updates this evening.

To learn learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.

And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including Trump's economy gets some very welcome news, the EPA rolls back the climate agenda in a historic way, and ICE is swamped with new applicants.

Thanks for tuning in.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morningwire.