The Republican Party — which has had a fraught relationship with the anti-establishment Texas senator — is suddenly leaving little to chance in Ted Cruz’s reelection race. | James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram via AP
The national party wasn’t expecting to have to defend a well-known senator in a conservative bastion.
With a string of polls showing GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead slipping, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick showed up in Washington on July 25 to deliver an urgent plea to White House officials: Send President Donald Trump.
Patrick, who chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state, made the case that a Trump visit was needed to boost turnout for Cruz and the rest of the Texas Republican ticket. The lieutenant governor soon got his wish: Trump announced on Twitter late last month that he was planning a blowout October rally for Cruz, his former GOP rival.
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The previously unreported meeting comes as senior Republicans grow increasingly concerned about the senator’s prospects in the reliably red state, with some expressing fear that an underperformance could threaten GOP candidates running further down the ballot. Cruz’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Beto O’Rourke, has raised barrels of cash, closed the polling gap and emerged as a cause célèbre of liberals nationwide.
Trump’s rally is just the most public display of a Republican cavalry rushing to the senator’s aid. Cruz remains a favorite to win another term, and some senior GOP figures insist the concern is overblown. Yet the party — which has had a fraught relationship with the anti-establishment Texas senator over the years — is suddenly leaving little to chance. Behind the scenes, the White House, party leaders and a collection of conservative outside groups have begun plotting out a full-fledged effort to bolster Cruz.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who’s planning an October fundraiser for Cruz at Washington’s Capital Grille restaurant, said he had a simple directive to GOP givers.
“We’re not bluffing, this is real, and it is a serious threat,” Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said in an interview. “If Ted does his job and we do ours, I think we’ll be fine. But if we have donors sitting on the sidelines thinking that, ‘Well, this isn’t all that serious,’ or ‘I don’t need to be concerned,’ then that’s a problem.”
The push reflects a broader anxiety within the party about the electoral environment this fall. It also has practical implications for the GOP: The resources devoted to Cruz include money that could otherwise be used to oust vulnerable incumbent Democrats in red states like North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri.
With O’Rourke outraising Cruz more than 2 to 1 during the past quarter, right-leaning organizations have begun routing resources to the state. The anti-tax Club for Growth, which spent millions on Cruz during his 2012 Senate bid, has started a seven-figure advertising blitz aimed at tearing down the Democratic congressman. The organization has begun polling the race, and David McIntosh, the organization’s president, recently traveled to Texas to meet with donors who could help fund the barrage. More than $1 million has been raised so far, people close to the group say.
A handful of other well-funded groups are considering joining the effort, including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, the newly formed Senate Reform Fund, and Ending Spending, which in the past has been bankrolled by major GOP financiers including New York City investor Paul Singer. Some of the groups have been in touch with one another as they weigh their next moves and try to determine how much their help is needed.
“I think there will be a lot of money,” said Doug Deason, a Dallas investor and prominent GOP giver who met with McIntosh.
Cruz, who aggressively wooed evangelicals during his 2016 presidential campaign, is taking steps to stir interest among conservative groups. He recently attended a Beltway meeting of the Conservative Action Project, a secretive gathering of movement leaders, where he issued a call to arms to prevent a Democratic coup in his state.
They are responding in kind. On Thursday, the Senate Conservatives Fund sent an email to supporters asking them to finance Cruz. The Family Research Council is planning a multistop October bus tour through Texas. And this week, Tea Party Patriots is expected to start a phone, text and mail campaign bolstering the senator.
“Texas is one of our top priority states,” said Jenny Beth Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder. “We want to help Ted Cruz be reelected to the Senate because he’s championed our priorities on Capitol Hill.”
The senator, meanwhile, is relying on the big donor network that fueled his presidential bid. He’s been reaching out to major givers via text message and has recently been in touch with Bekah Mercer, the reclusive conservative megadonor whose father was a primary financier of Cruz’s presidential bid.
Lee Roy Mitchell, a founder of the Cinemark movie theater chain, is among those concerned that major donors aren’t taking the senator’s reelection race seriously enough.
“We’re solidly behind the senator, and I would like to think most Texans are. I believe they are,” said the Dallas-based Mitchell, an active member of the Koch political network who, with his wife, Tandy, has donated a combined $1 million to a pro-Cruz super PAC. “But there’s a tremendous amount of [Democratic] money being poured in here to change people’s opinions.”
After antagonizing the K Street set early in his Senate career, Cruz is courting it as he attempts to fill his coffers. Cruz has been regularly inviting high-powered lobbyists to dinners at Capital Grille and other Washington restaurants.
He’s been candid during the sit-downs about the threat he’s facing for reelection, those who’ve met with him say.
Cruz has filled his calendar with fundraisers, including at least three scheduled this week. And he’s turned to veteran Washington players like Wayne Berman, who’s hosted several fundraising events for the Texas senator. Berman, who sits on the board of the influential Republican Jewish Coalition, has also reached out to would-be givers from the pro-Israel and financial industries.
“Cruz has made a concerted effort over the last year and a half to listen and work with many of us around town,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief political strategist Scott Reed, who attended a Cruz fundraiser last week.
Cruz is also turning to an old foe: Trump.
The senator and the president have gotten over their nasty 2016 rivalry, when Cruz called Trump a “sniveling coward” and pointedly refused to endorse him on stage at the Republican National Convention; Trump dubbed Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and linked Cruz’s father to JFK’s assassination.
Now, Cruz is leaning on the president to turn out voters with the planned October rally. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. is expected to host multiple events for the senator in the Houston area on Oct. 3.
Trump, aides say, was eager to help. The president personally drafted the tweet in which he announced the rally, which he wrote would be held in “the biggest stadium in Texas we can find.”
Since the 2016 race, Trump has repeatedly told Cruz that he’d like to help him get reelected. Final plans for the event, party officials say, are still being worked out.
Administration officials are among those who’ve privately expressed concern about the senator’s prospects. Those worries burst out into the open over the weekend, when Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told donors at a Republican National Committee meeting that Cruz could lose, a person familiar with the remarks confirmed. The closed-door remarks were first reported by The New York Times.
The sight of national Republicans coming to Cruz’s defense would have been almost unthinkable a few years ago. After being elected in 2012, Cruz clashed repeatedly with GOP leadership — he once took to the Senate floor to call McConnell, the majority leader, a liar. But senior Republicans are putting all that behind them.
Cornyn, who expects to hit the trail for Cruz in October, lavished praise on his Texas colleague, saying that since the 2016 election he’d become a “team player” who worked collaboratively with fellow senators. In 2014, Cruz snubbed Cornyn, refusing to endorse the state’s senior senator in his primary election.
“We’re all adults, and I’d like to think that we’re professionals,” Cornyn said in the interview last week. “We understand what’s at stake.”
Antakya, Turkey – Russian-backed Syrian government forces have pounded rebel-held areas in northwest Syria, killingat least five people in a second day of heavy bombardment, according to rescuers.
The intensified strikes on Sunday, including air attacks, shelling and helicopter-dropped barrel bombs, targeted villages in southern Idlib and northern Hama provinces.
The escalation comes amid growing fears over a seemingly imminent all-out offensive against the densely population Idlib province, the last rebel bastion in Syria.
A baby and a young child were killed in the village of Habeit in southern Idlib in a barrel bomb attack, according to the White Helmets, a civil defence group operating in rebel-held areas.
Three others, including a rebel officer, were killed in air raids and shelling that struck the northern Hama province.
Abd al-Karim al-Rahmoun, a member of the White Helmets in northern Hama, said that about half of the local population had left the sparsely populated region to escape the bombardment.
Activists told Al Jazeera that while hundreds of people have been fleeing the attacks in northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces, there has not been a significant wave of civilians moving towards the north.
In some cases, the activists said, people would leave their villages early in the morning and return after sunset once the bombardment stopped.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), over the past 72 hours, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally have hit rebel-held areas 1,060 times with air attacks, shelling and barrel bombs.
In response, al-Jabha al-Wataniya lil-Tahrir (NLF), a major armed opposition group, on Sunday shelled government forces’ positions in northern Hama, SOHR reported.
Meanwhile, another convoy of Turkish military vehicles crossed into Idlib province on Sunday.
Over the past 10 days, a number of similar convoys carrying weapons and armoured cars have entered northern Syria to reinforce 12 observation points manned by Turkish soldiers.
These outposts, which are located in rebel-held areas in western Aleppo, northern Hama and Idlib provinces, were established under the de-escalation agreements reached by Turkey, Iran and Russia.
“[These reinforcements are] a sign that Turkey treats the issue of Idlib very seriously and it is not going to easily turn a blind eye on any Russian, regime or Iranian military design for it,” said Galip Dalay, director of research at the Istanbul-based Sharq Forum.
Dalay said Turkey would not withdraw its troops from the observation posts any time soon, unless it reached an agreement with Russia, Iran and the Syrian government.
“At this stage I don’t see a deal that exists,” he said. “During this period, targetted attacks will continue … but will not produce any big waves of refugees.”
Already hosting more than three million Syrian refugees, Turkey is keen to avoid a full-fledged government offensive. Its call for a ceasefire, however, was rejected on Friday by Russia at a summit in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Sunday, Suleyman Soyli, Turkey’s interior minister, warned of the possibility of mass displacement in the event of a large-scale military offensive on Idlib.
“We care about humanity and we won’t give up. We will not be responsible for a migration wave in case of possible attacks [on Idlib],” Soyli said.
The northwestern province bordering Turkey is home to an estimated three million people, half of whom are internally displaced.
Soyli added that 255,300 Syrians have returned to their homes over the past two years, including 160,000 who went to the “Euphrates Shield region” in northern Aleppo province, which rebel groups and the Turkish army took over from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in 2016.
President Barack Obama has been out campaigning the past few days, much to the delight of our mostly-destroyed brains. On Saturday, he appeared at a rally for California Democrats, where he told an entertaining story about getting kicked out of Disneyland.
Apparently, Obama once journeyed to Anaheim to see Kool and the Gang during his stint at Occidental College. During the trip, he and his friends found themselves smoking (cigarettes) in some gondolas in the Magic Kingdom, which sounds fun in a “we are currently enrolled in college” kind of way.
Unfortunately, a Disney security officer discovered the teens and escorted them off the premises. He did, however, note that they were welcome back at the Magic Kingdom anytime, which seems like a pleasant way to be involuntarily ejected from a theme park.
Watch the whole pleasant anecdote for yourself below.
We’re just days away from Apple’s next iPhone launch so, naturally, the leaks and rumors have kicked into overdrive.
Now, it looks like we have some fresh details about Apple’s cheapest, 6.1-inch iPhone. New images that surfaced on Twitter purportedly show the new iPhone in four colors and reveal a name: iPhone Xc.
Leaker Ben Geskin posted the images, which show the back and sides of the new iPhone in four colors: red, white, dark blue, and pink. According to Geskin, the images are only of “dummy models,” not actual handsets, but his information lines up with much of what we’ve already heard about the phone.
Previous rumors have suggested Apple is planning to offer the device in a range of new colors, though there’s no sign of the alleged orange variation we heard about awhile back. Geskin also confirms the phone’s size — 6.1 inches — and its LCD display.
Indeed, what might be the most interesting part of this leak is the name of the new model: iPhone Xc. While some onlookers had thought Apple might call the new entry-level phone iPhone 9, iPhone Xc actually makes sense for a lot of reasons.
It streamlines the whole line, for one, by keeping the “iPhone X” moniker in some form. While the “c” harkens back to the short-lived iPhone c, the basic iPhone 5-sized phones Apple offered in a variety of colors as a cheaper alternative to its flagships.
Of course, this is all still just speculation at this point. We won’t know for sure until Apple’s official reveal next week. But all signs certainly seem to point to new iPhones in a lot more colors — regardless of its name.
Might as well run Josh Allen for 16 games and let him take his lumps as part of his progression. Absolutely no point in running Peterman out there again and again. https://t.co/bshhmIKRYk
Todd Clausen @ToddJClausen
I understood the move to bench Tyrod Taylor last year but you can’t convince me (after watching #BUFvsBAL) that Nathan Peterman is better than Buffalo’s former QB.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed on Sunday it launched deadly missile strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq a day earlier.
Rockets struck the headquarters of two Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region with reports saying at least 11 people were killed and 50 others wounded.
The missiles hit the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in the town of Koya, 300km north of Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.
It was the first such attack since 1996.
“The terrorists’ headquarters … was successfully struck by seven surface-to-surface rockets on Saturday by the missile department of the Guards’ aerospace force,” the Revolutionary Guards said on its Sepah News website on Sunday.
The statement added its drone division was also involved in the attack.
According to Soran Louri, spokesman for the KDPI, which is blacklisted as a “terrorist” group by Tehran, the death toll in the rare cross-border attack was 15, he told AFP news agency.
About 30 others were wounded, according to local medical sources.
Iraqi protesters set fire to Iranian consulate in Basra
‘Terrorist teams’
Iranian state television showed images of the missiles being launched and drone footage of the impact.
“The punishment of transgressors was planned following the recent months’ wicked acts by terrorists from the Kurdistan realm against the Islamic Republic’s borders,” the Guards’ statement said.
It cited incursions by numerous “terrorist teams” into Iran’s West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces bordering Iraq.
KDPI recently clashed with Revolutionary Guards forces in the towns of Marivan and Kamyaran in Iran’s own Kurdistan region.
The Kurdish group was holding a meeting at the time of the missile strikes, and the party’s secretary-general and his predecessor were among the wounded, according to one of its officials.
The headquarters is in Koysinjaq, 60km east of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
Bilal Wahab from The Washington Institute told Al Jazeera the attack was retaliation for the groups’ increased “activism and militancy” inside Iranian territory.
“Some of these Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have been trying to approach Washington, DC and find a foothold in the increased American effort in curbing Iranian influence in the region. So this is very specific to Iran’s enemies,” Wahab said.
Territorial violation
Iraq’s foreign ministry denounced the Iranian missile strike.
“Iraq protects the security of its neighbours and does not allow its territory to be used to threaten these countries,” spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub said in a statement.
“But it categorically rejects the violation of its territorial sovereignty by strikes against certain targets on its territory with previous coordination.”
KDPI is Iran’s oldest Kurdish movement and has seen several of its leaders assassinated by Tehran in the past.
Commenting on the events from Iraqi capital Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Rob Matheson said the timing of the attack was significant as it comes a couple of days after the Iranian consulate in Basra was torched during violent protests over lack of public services and jobs.
“There is nothing to link these two events but there is a lot of speculation in Iraq that the latest missile attack in Kurdistan is Iran showing that it can strike back and that it can strike back powerfully.”
Deaths after rockets hit Iranian Kurdish offices in Iraq
“It’s the same story told over and over. All the artist can offer the world is how they see those 12 notes.”
The character who utters this line in A Star is Born is talking about music, but he may as well be talking about the movie he’s in. This is the third remake of an 81-year-old movie, one whose beats are so familiar that you’ll recognize them even if you’ve never laid eyes on any of the other versions.
There’s the sad celebrity self-medicating with booze and drugs, the talented ingenue who becomes an overnight sensation, the whirlwind romance threatened by the cold, hard light of day. You can see where all of it is headed from two miles away.
But that doesn’t matter, not when Bradley Cooper is executing the formula so well. From the view at TIFF, A Star is Born looks to be a commercial and critical success that’ll have people buzzing all fall, and maybe even into this winter’s awards season. Here’s what you need to know.
1. Lady Gaga is a movie star, baby
That Gaga had pipes worthy of a movie musical was never in doubt. But A Star is Born proves she’s a hell of an actor, too. Her Ally has the more dramatic arc of the movie, evolving from bright-eyed nobody to glamorous pop star, and Gaga’s performance rings true every step of the way. For large swaths of the movie, I forgot that I was watching at one of the most famous musicians in the world – she was just Ally.
2. Bradley Cooper has a bright future as a director
A Star is Born is Bradley Cooper’s debut as a director, but you’d never know it by watching. This film has the surefootedness of someone who’s done this a dozen times before, and made me curious to see what he might get up to next.
Oh, and another of Cooper’s gifts as a director? He’s very good at directing one Bradley Cooper. Jackson Maine is one of Cooper’s most riveting performances – Cooper knows exactly how to bring out the nuances playing across Jack’s face in the many scenes he spends gazing at Ally.
3. The chemistry between Cooper and Gaga is
When Jack and Ally meet for the first time, it’s not immediately apparent just how hot this connection is going to run. Cooper gives his characters time to warm up to each other, letting them goof around and reveal their personalities before they fall for each other – so that when they do finally connect, it feels like watching a house catch fire.
Image: Clay Enos
4. The music might give you chills
The best moment in A Star is Born is also the best moment from the A Star is Born trailer: The absolute wail that comes from Gaga’s throat during the song “Shallow,” the first time Jack and Ally perform together onstage. It’s such a transcendent moment that I swelled up before realizing I was about to cry, and started crying before I really figured out why.
The rest of the soundtrack is pretty solid, too. Gaga does a fun cover of “La Vie en Rose,” and Cooper reveals himself as a surprisingly affecting singer with numbers like “Maybe It’s Time.” Get used to these songs. You’re going to hear them a lot for the next few months.
5. This is going to win so many awards and make so much money
Let me reiterate what I said before: A Star is Born is going to be huge. It looks like the kind of broadly appealing crowdpleaser that’ll have long legs at the box office, like Crazy Rich Asians or The Greatest Showman. Your parents will love it. So will your roommate, and your significant other, and your co-workers, and just about anyone else you might go to the movies with.
Including that one friend of yours who’s always going on about awards season, because A Star is Born also looks poised to get a bunch of nominations – for the soundtrack, for Gaga and Cooper’s performances, for Cooper’s work behind the camera as co-writer and director, and maybe even for the Best Picture categories.
via @lequipe) 
making it rain 
at halftime… that’s how Vegas does 
#ForTheCity https://t.co/QHxWfUmOra
Metz 
#AllezParis https://t.co/wQufcx6reK
.Up Eagles 
https://t.co/i5OOIjJZkZ
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Daily Trends Hunter 