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Today’s top stories

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today as President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department permanently. Blanche is expected to face questions about his handling of the Epstein files, the targeting of the president’s political enemies and the broader politicization of justice.

• 🎧 Democrats oppose Blanche’s nomination, ReadNOW’s Ryan Lucas tells Up First. With Republicans holding a razor-thin Senate majority, a handful of GOP defections could be enough to block his confirmation. The hearing begins at 9 a.m. ET. Watch it live here.
• ➡️ Survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, including Dani Bensky, are speaking out against Blanche’s nomination. Bensky is expected to testify before the committee.
• ➡️ Also today, Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is scheduled to appear before a Senate committee this morning to answer questions about her vision and qualifications for the role.

Iran warned it could block all oil export routes in the region in retaliation for the U.S. maritime blockade. Trump says the U.S. will take control of the Strait of Hormuz and has reversed a plan to charge foreign ships a transit fee. The threat and shifting statements come as the U.S. and Iran continue exchanging attacks, with little sign their fragile ceasefire will hold.

• 🎧 Retired military officials and analysts tell ReadNOW’s Tom Bowman that recent U.S. strikes have not done enough to reduce Iran’s threat to commercial shipping. They say it could take weeks of more intensive bombing, and the U.S. may also need to escort commercial vessels through the Strait.
• 🎧  Can the U.S. control the Strait, and is that even the administration’s objective? ReadNOW’s A Martinez asks retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, a former commander of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will pause most vehicle stops during its enforcement operations. This change comes after two deaths associated with ICE traffic stops. Neither person killed was the intended target of the immigration enforcement actions.

• 🎧 Around half of Department of Homeland Security field officers currently wear body cameras. The agency attributes this shortfall to Democratic lawmakers and the impact of partial government shutdowns, ReadNOW’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán says. DHS says all agents will be equipped with body cameras within the next 60 days. Meanwhile, advocates, politicians and community members continue to demand independent investigations into the two shootings.

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Go face-to-face with the person of the moment. ReadNOW’s Newsmakers video podcast brings the biggest names in politics, business, sports, arts, and culture out of the headlines and into the interview chair to discuss the mark they’re making on the world. Follow the Newsmakers podcast or subscribe to ReadNOW’s YouTube channel to get new episodes as soon as they’re available.

Bill Maher received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this summer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has spent more than three decades criticizing figures across the political spectrum and challenging organized religion. In a new episode of Newsmakers, Morning Edition‘s Steve Inskeep speaks with Maher about his approach to comedy, how his Catholic upbringing shaped his atheism, why he invited Louis C.K. to speak at the award ceremony, and what he took away from having dinner with President Trump.