President Donald Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Thursday.

Addressing the press corps during a morning briefing, the president’s spokesperson confirmed that Trump is getting antsy with the fact that the SAVE America Act — which would implement a number of new election-related measures impacting everything from voter ID to mail-in voting — has stalled in the Senate. When asked by the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese if Trump’s patience is running out with Thune, Leavitt was blunt.

“His patience is running out,” Leavitt said. “He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed as possible by the August recess. He knows that’s what the American people want to see passed. He was just traveling on the road yesterday, spoke about this, and there was a very loud applause from the people in the audience, the everyday Americans, because voter ID is common sense. They want proof of citizenship in our elections, and the president feels very strongly about that.”

Leavitt added, “The American people elected overwhelmingly Republicans to not just this White House, but also the House and the Senate,” Leavitt said. “The House did its job, the Senate needs to do its job too.”

In response, Thune took a shot at Leavitt and the White House — claiming they have not helped win over the Senators they need to get the legislation passed.

“Well maybe [Leavitt] or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?” Thune said, according to Politico. “It’s 50 around here, and so instead of, you know, pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats, and if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone.”

Watch above, via CNN.

The post Trump’s ‘Patience is Running Out’ With Top Senate Republican, Leavitt Warns first appeared on Mediaite.

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin joined Fox News’s America Reports on Wednesday to discuss the dignified transfer of four fallen U.S. soldiers, which was attended by President Donald Trump.

Anchor Sandra Smith introduced Griffin during their coverage of the somber event, which included a lengthy moment of silence as the coffins were being transferred.

“Sandra, every president says that this is the most difficult thing that they have to do during their presidency — to go to Dover to meet the families and to greet the caskets of the fallen, knowing that they have sent these individuals, these soldiers, to war. It weighs heavily on them. We’ve heard President Trump speak about that in the past,” Griffin began, before offering a lengthy description of the lives the four fallen soldiers left behind:

This is the third time that he has been to Dover since the start of the Iran War. There were the six service members who were killed early on in the conflict when a drone hit their base in Kuwait. There were the six service members who died in the KC-135 air refueling plane that went down over Iraq. And now today we have these four other soldiers.

First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan — we’re learning more about his life from his family. His family in Utah has set up a scholarship fund for ROTC students at his former alma mater, the University of Southern Utah, with the death gratuity — the $100,000 that each service member’s family will be given by the Department of War — and his family has decided to devote that to future service members. He was supposed to return home and get married. His family remembers him as an adventurer. He went to Mount Everest base camp. He hiked the Camino Trail. He was planning to come home and get married.

Then there was Private Isabella Gonzales, just 19 years old. She had just graduated last year from high school. She told her English teacher, just before she graduated, that she planned to enlist so that she could eventually go to college. She’s from Northern Texas, from Carrollton, Texas.

Sergeant Michael Swinton — his wife is from Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. His wife, Mia, posted a heart-rending post on Facebook showing him hugging his four-year-old daughter. It was the last picture she would take of him through the car window in his uniform as he hugged his four-year-old daughter. He also had a six-year-old son. He was killed in northern Iraq when they were trying to disable a one-way Iranian attack drone last weekend.

And then there is Sergeant Angel Rampersad. We just learned her name and received a photo of her — 28-year-old Angel Rampersad of Queens, New York. She is believed to be dead, because her remains have not yet been identified. They will be identified at Dover. She had been found under the rubble of that drone strike on the Jordanian base.

So these four American heroes have returned to Dover. The president, Secretary Hegseth, as well as the Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, were there to greet them, as well as General Dan Cain. They spent about three hours with the family members. That’s what they do before we see this ceremony and the flag-draped caskets come out of the back of that plane — they spend time individually with those family members. So, a heartbreaking moment today at Dover Air Force Base.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Fox’s Jennifer Griffin Details the Lives of Fallen US Soldiers In Somber Tribute After Dignified Transfer first appeared on Mediaite.

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Exercise is a healthy and, one might argue, necessary part of our lives. The guidelines from public health organizations tell you to aim for at least 150 minutes of “moderate” exercise each week, and that each minute of “vigorous” exercise counts double. That raises the question: What the hell is “moderate” exercise? How do you know when you’re doing it? 

Moderate exercise is sometimes conflated with "zone 2" exercise. These two things aren't exactly the same, but they do overlap a bit. I'll get into the difference below. Moderate exercise includes activities like walking and casual bicycling, and it counts whether you think of it as a workout or not. Getting enough moderate exercise has benefits for your heart, metabolism, mental health, and more—so let's dig in to what it is and how you can know when you're doing it.

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Scientists measure METs, but you don't have to 

If you use a fitness tracker like the Fitbit Air, it may try to tell you that "moderate" exercise occurs when you reach a certain heart rate. This isn't actually the case. The scientists who came up with the exercise guidelines didn't use heart rate as their guide. Instead, they used charts that measured how many "METs," or metabolic equivalents, each type of exercise requires.

I'll explain more about METs below, but the important thing to know is that the type and intensity of exercise is what tells you whether it's moderate, not your heart rate while you're doing it. You can look up exercises on a chart like this one, but here's the basic idea: 

• Walking is moderate exercise; jogging or running is vigorous.

• Bicycling is moderate if it’s under about 12 miles per hour on the flat.

• Indoor cycling is moderate if it’s up to about 100 watts of power.

You don’t have to overthink it. The guidelines that mention “moderate” and “vigorous” activities aren’t asking you to monitor your heart rate or any other numeric metric. They want you thinking in terms of generalities: walking versus running, leisurely bike commuting versus sweating your heart out in a spin studio.

And honestly, if it’s easier to watch your heart rate than to worry about the above, that’s fine. For most of us, 150 minutes of Zone 2 is going to be at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise. So follow that guideline, and you’ll be an overachiever.

It’s not really about heart rate

So why does your watch want to steer you toward a certain heart rate during exercise? Mostly because that's easy to measure. Moderate exercise sorta-kinda matches up to "zone 2" cardio, which I’ve previously explained. (Zone 2 is is the second-lowest intensity in a five-zone system, and the easiest way to know which zone you're in is to glance at your fitness watch.)

While you can use heart rate zones as a rule of thumb to find moderate exercise, this idea falls short in two ways: (1) different gadgets and systems use different cutoffs to decide which numbers count as "zone 2", and (2) for most of us, zone 2 includes most moderate activities but also some vigorous activities. If you’re relatively fit, you can jog at a 12 minute-per-mile pace while keeping your heart rate in zone 2. That’s a “vigorous” activity in terms of METs, though. 

The other reason heart rate isn’t accurate for this task is that your heart rate changes for all kinds of reasons. The hotter it is when you're working out, the higher your heart rate tends to be. Same goes for when you’re nervous or stressed. And as you get fitter, you’ll be able to do the same activities at a lower heart rate. Those activities might feel easier than they used to, but they’re not any less work. 

What is a MET, anyway?

One MET is the energy expended when you’re at rest—the amount of oxygen, calories, etc that it takes to keep you alive and breathing. (We use oxygen in the process of burning calories, so officially a MET is 3.2 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute.) 

Researchers can then put a mask on a person and measure how much oxygen they use while running, walking, playing guitar, etc. If an activity takes twice as much oxygen as sitting still, they say it takes two METs. Here are a few examples (taken from this scientific paper): 

• 2 MET: washing dishes, or playing croquet

• 3 MET: walking at 3 miles per hour (a pretty typical walking pace)

• 4 MET: table tennis, ice skating

• 5 MET: modern dance, fast-paced ballroom dance

• 6 MET: volleyball, singles tennis

• 7 MET: jogging, jumping rope

The numbers go up from there. Speed skating clocks in at 15 MET. To be clear, you will not be measuring METs directly when you exercise. The MET studies are done in labs so that we can use the information to get a sense of what MET values each common type of exercise tends to have.

Moderate exercise is 3 to 6 MET, and vigorous is 6 or more

The physical activity guidelines define “moderate” exercise as at least 3 MET, but less than 6. Vigorous is 6 MET or more. Because METs are specific to the activity, not to how fit you are, it makes the most sense to look at METs in terms of the pace you run or the settings you use on your treadmill or other cardio machine. Here are paces and activities that have been clocked as between 3 and 6 METs: 

• Walking at 3-4 mph (a 15-minute to 20-minute mile)

• Cycling, between 50 to 100 watts

• Shooting baskets

• Playing baseball

• Taking a low-impact aerobics class

And these are vigorous (6 or more MET): 

• Race walking (5+ mph) 

• Walking uphill

• Walking with a 12-pound pack

• Jogging (a 12-minute mile is 8.0 MET; the faster you go, the higher the MET)

• Bicycling at 12 miles per hour or faster

• Swimming laps

• Playing a game of basketball, soccer, or hockey

So when you're trying to get your 150 minutes (or more) of moderate exercise each week, you can count all your walking, your easy bike riding, and your low-impact aerobics class. Give yourself credit for vigorous exercise for all the time you spend jogging (at any heart rate), lap swimming, or rucking. You may find you've been doing more exercise than you think.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) didn’t mince words when asking questions of Dr. David Blight at Tuesday’s congressional hearing on the Smithsonian Institution, a hearing she described as a “Republican white pride rally.”

Ahead of Blight’s testimony as part of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing about the Smithsonian, Crockett said, “It might be uncomfortable for some people on this committee to hear about the true history of America, and I hate that for them, but facts are facts.”

She continued, “And it’s a fact that there is a violent, exclusionary, discriminatory, sexist and racist part of American history, where our Indigenous populations were forcibly displaced from their land, where thousands of black people were unjustly lynched, where Black people were denied the right to vote and they still trying to do it today, where women needed their husband’s permission to open a bank account, where people with disabilities were routinely excluded from schools, workplaces and public life, where four little black girls were murdered by the KKK at the 16th Street Baptist Church.”

“And a lot of this wasn’t that long ago,” Crockett added. “In fact, three of those little girls would be 77, and one would be 74. More than 40 members of Congress serving right now would be older than them. Ruby Bridges, who was the first Black child to desegregate an all-white school, is only 71 years old. More than 100 members of Congress serving right now are older than her.”

With that history in mind, she said, “attacks on the Smithsonian or any other institution that’s willing to tell the true history of America is not only an attempt to rewrite history, but it’s an attempt to erase history.”

Crockett then turned her attention to Blight and asked, “So Dr. Blight, if Republicans are going to ban books, penalize schools and universities, attack museums, if states continue to change curriculum, where do Americans go to learn about the complicated, sometimes racist and violent parts of American history?”

“Thank you for the question. I think they will have to keep going to the same institutions, and we have to keep fighting to preserve what we are doing in those institutions,” Blight answered. In addition to the Smithsonian museums, those institutions also include public schools and libraries, he continued.

“Look, the purpose of history is to enlighten us, inspire us, trouble us, bother us, sometimes make us angry. I find it hard to believe that a young person could go through the Museum of American History and not come out at least inspired with the single most important thing, a sense of the past, a sense of history. Americans have to keep going to those places they trust,” Blight said. “We have to keep those institutions trustworthy.”

This week, Blight published an op-ed in The New York Times that spelled out the importance of Smithsonian Institutes, and the problem with the Trump administration’s focus on dismantling them. “The Trump White House and its history police want us all to live in their chosen bubble, immune from instability or perceived disorder in their take on American greatness,” Blight wrote. “They have a right to their bubble as individual citizens, but to impose it on the rest of us as policy egregiously breaks the public trust.”

Watch the above via PBS NewsHour.

The post Jasmine Crockett Goes Off On Her GOP Colleagues During Hearing She Calls a ‘White Pride Rally’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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The hardest part of sticking to a workout routine may be starting it, but the second-hardest part is figuring out what to do when it's time for another workout when you're still sore from the first one. Below, I'll share some tips for relieving that soreness—but, even more importantly, I'll tell you what not to do. Perhaps the most surprising thing: you probably shouldn't skip your next workout.

Here's what normal exercise soreness feels like

Before we discuss what to do, let's take a minute to understand how you're feeling right now, and why. It's not lactic acid (that's a myth), but rather a phenomenon known as DOMS, for "delayed onset muscle soreness." It's most likely to happen when you do something different than what you're used to. That might mean starting a new workout routine, but it can also happen to people who are already fit but try a new sport or even a slight change to their routine.

DOMS can feel pretty brutal, but it's not serious. It doesn't mean your muscles are seriously damaged, and you're not going to injure yourself by ignoring it. Just to make sure we're on the same page, normal DOMS:

• Hurts the most when you wake up in the morning or when you've been sitting still for a while

• Feels better with movement

• Hurts when you use the muscle and when you stretch the muscle

• Usually starts the day after exercise (rather than the same day), and may last multiple days

• Is often at its worst two days after the exercise that caused it

There are medical conditions that can also cause muscle soreness, so check with a doctor if you think there may be more going on than the usual DOMS situation. One condition worth keeping in mind is rhabdomyolysis, which is muscle damage that gets severe enough to cause muscle breakdown and kidney issues. Dark-colored urine (often described as "tea colored" or "cola colored") is a huge red flag—get to the emergency room if you notice this. I've written more here about the differences between normal soreness and the kind that needs medical attention. But most likely, you just have a normal case of DOMS. If that sounds right, let's talk about what to do about it.

Do some "active rest" or gentle movement when you're sore

You may not feel like moving at all, but it's worth fighting the urge to lie in bed. Once you get up and move around, the DOMS will start to fade, at least temporarily. Definitely do not cancel any plans for the day when you first wake up—that's the worst it's going to feel all day.

So go for a walk. That's my go-to when I'm not feeling great. If you have access to a spin bike, moving your legs at low resistance tends to help relieve soreness. Cyclists will talk about "flushing" out their muscles with easy pedaling; whether that's scientifically accurate or not, it does seem to help. If you're into yoga, a day you're sore is a good time to do some gentle yoga; you can even look up recovery yoga for some videos to follow. (Here's a good one.)

Movement helps to relieve the pain of DOMS, but it doesn't necessarily make it fully go away. If you sit down to watch TV for a while, the soreness will be back when your show is over and you get up. The only thing that can make it go away is time, so you'll have to be patient. In the meantime, here are a few more things to try for temporary relief and to support your body as it naturally clears things up.

Take a warm bath or visit the sauna when you're sore from exercise

Heat tends to make sore muscles feel better, so this is a great time to hit the sauna, if your gym has one. You can also use an electric heating pad like this one, or take a hot bath. Epsom salt baths are popular for sore muscles, but the minerals in the bathwater don't actually reach your muscles. Adding them to a bath can still make it smell nice (get the lavender scented kind) and can make it feel like you're doing something special for yourself, so use them if you enjoy them.

Give yourself a muscle massage

Gentle pressure can feel good on sore muscles, so consider treating yourself to a massage or asking someone to give you a back rub. A foam roller is a good way to give yourself some "self-myofascial release" (I'm convinced that's nothing but a fancy word for massage), or consider a massage gun.

My colleague Meredith Dietz has a rundown of how to buy a good massage gun and another set of tips on the best recovery gadgets from massage rollers to lacrosse balls to free and DIY solutions. We don't have evidence pointing to any specific device as being the "right" one to use, so you get to pick whatever feels good and fits your budget.

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Eat well and sleep well

When you’re sore, it's good time to pay more attention to taking care of yourself. Anecdotally, I find sleep helps to deal with soreness: If I stay up late, I’m more likely to be sore the next day. Eating plenty of protein can’t hurt, either, since protein is important to building muscle. And carbs are important for recovery and fueling, so I wouldn't skimp on those either.

What not to do when you're sore from exercise

Myths abound, so I want to call out a few specific things that you're better off not doing.

• Intense stretching. Gentle movement is fine, but deep or painful stretches can cause muscle damage and make soreness worse.

• Ice or cold plunges (maybe). This one is a bit controversial, but there is evidence that ice baths interfere with the healing process, and probably aren't a good idea to do routinely.

• Taking ibuprofen if you don't really need it. If you need a pain reliever to get through the day, it's fine to take one. But if you get into the habit of taking ibuprofen regularly—like after every workout—it can hinder your recovery.

Don’t skip your workout

When you're feeling sore, you’re probably tempted to just stay home with some Netflix instead of taking your achy body back to the gym. But resting doesn't help much in the long run. Beating the soreness for good comes from getting used to exercise, and you’ll never get used to it if you have to take a week off every time you get the idea to start again.

So go back to the gym, or head out for another run, or whatever is on your schedule for today. Make some effort to continue the schedule that you set up for yourself, whether that was a written program or a promise to yourself that you'd go to the gym a certain number of times per week.

First, do your warmup, but ease into it gradually. If you planned to go for a run, start with a brisk walk and then see how an easy jog feels. If it's a lifting day, start with lighter weights than usual, and only add as much weight as you feel like you can handle today.

Even if you can't manage your regular workout, you're still doing something, and that's buying you insurance against future soreness. You're also not going to get anywhere near as sore after today's workout as you did before. Scientists call this the repeated bout effect: Each workout (each "bout" of training) protects against soreness from the next one.

The New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan revealed”one of the hardest chapters” to write in his new book with Maggie Haberman was about the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, due to his strong personal bond with the conservative influencer.

Swan discussed the friendship during an interview on Meghan McCain’s podcast on July 15.

“I would just have interesting conversations with him,” Swan said. “I just found him a very insightful person who obviously had his hands in all kinds of things.”

He said he spoke with Kirk frequently, including the day before he was shot and killed at a TP USA event at Utah Valley University last September.

“I run that conversation through in my head like, all the time,” Swan said.

Swan went on, saying he and Kirk would pick each other’s brains all the time. He said one of Kirk’s finest qualities was he was a curious guy, and he said his marriage to Erika Kirk seemed to make him an even more well-rounded individual.

“I think he changed a lot in the last 18 months of his life,” Swan explained. “I think he was connecting with his faith in a deeper way, I think he was exploring other points of view in a different way, I think being married had a big effect on him. He was less of a sort of knee-jerk kind of culture warrior.”

Swan said he and Haberman wrote about the day President Donald Trump found out Kirk died in their book on the president’s return to the White House. He said a “distraught” Barron Trump was the one who broke the news to his father about Kirk’s slaying, which immediately rattled the president and everyone in his inner circle.

“It was like a zombie town in the West Wing that day,” Swan said.

He added the Republican Party is still reeling from Kirk’s death because he was the “best fundraiser of his generation.”

Watch above via the Citizen McCain podcast.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report. 

The post Jonathan Swan Heaps Praise on ‘Very Insightful’ Charlie Kirk, Reveals Close Relationship first appeared on Mediaite.

Siri AI is the biggest feature of Apple's upcoming suite of updates. Whether you're running iOS 27, macOS 27, or even watchOS 27, the thing that you'll likely notice first (assuming you're running a compatible device) is that Siri is much smarter now, and even more capable than it was in previous versions. If the beta previews have been any indication, this really is the biggest upgrade Apple has ever given Siri.

But it seems that the company isn't limiting itself to the upgrades it already announced. As it continues beta testing these new updates, and with them, Siri AI itself, Apple seems to be tinkering with its new AI-powered assistant, quietly planting new features that beta testers need to discover for themselves. One such feature? A new Siri AI menu that appears whenever you highlight text in macOS 27.

How Siri AI's hidden menu works in macOS 27

As reported by MacRumors, this new menu appears whenever you select text in macOS 27. When you do, you'll see a floating menu in the top left of your highlighted text. If you move your cursor over it, the menu expands to reveal options, such as "Proofread," "Rewrite," "How does this sound?" and "Edit with Siri." You can also ask Siri AI to pull out key points from the text, or summarize it completely. Depending on the text, you might see other options, too: If you highlight a text from a friend, Siri AI might show you contact info; if the text contains a date, Siri AI might prompt you to create a Calendar entry. It plays into Siri AI's contextual awareness, which is part of Apple's mission to make its assistant more useful in specific scenarios.

The thing is, this menu is disabled by default, as least as of macOS 27 developer beta 3 and public beta 1. Apple did not include it in the release notes, either; instead, a Redditor stumbled upon it, and shared instructions for turning it on on r/MacOSBeta.

How to enable Siri AI's menu in macOS 27

Keep in mind, this feature, as with macOS 27 as a whole, is in beta testing. MacRumors says that the feature does not always work, so you may run into odd bugs or glitches after turning it on. Still, if you're already running the beta and are curious, this is an interesting feature to explore.

To try it out, you'll need to open your Mac's Terminal app. Then, paste and run the following command: sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool true

You'll need to restart your Mac for the feature to take effect. But once you do, you should see the menu whenever you highlight text—albeit with some possible hiccups. If the feature is too unstable at this point, or you simply don't like it, you can undo it by pasting the following command into Terminal: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false