Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Windsor, Johnston.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says she'll oppose Todd Blanch's nomination for Attorney
“General, further narrowing his path to confirmation.”
Murkowski says she remains concerned that Trump administration could move ahead with a proposed fund to compensate January 6 rioters despite Blanch's pledge to shelve it. Senator Susan Collins also opposed and Mitch McConnell absent from Senate sessions, Blanch can afford to lose only two Republican votes if all Democrats vote against his nomination. Senator Bill Cassidy has not said how he will vote, the Senate committee advanced
Blanch's nomination earlier this week. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are expected to sign a joint defense agreement today, that's according to a statement published by the Turkish President's Office. NPR's Hadil Al-Shalci reports from Istanbul. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan's
Prime Minister Shabbat Sharif, are in the Saudi City of Mecca to sign a Tri-Lateral Defense Agreement, according to the Turkish presidency and the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
“Details of the agreement were not immediately released, but the Pakistani Foreign Ministry”
said that it was intended to quote "strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression." This deal comes as tensions in the Middle East rise with fears of a widening war between the United States and Iran. The agreement would combine the strengths of Saudi Arabia as an oral rich country, Pakistan,
a nuclear power and Turkey, which has NATO's second largest military and a growing defense
industry. Hadil Al-Shalci and PR news, Istanbul. Senator Marsha Blackburn has won the Republican primary in tenancies race for governor. Blackburn beat fellow Washington Republican-U.S. representative John Rose for the nomination. Mariana Vackayal from member station WPLN reports.
If elected, Blackburn would continue a streak of firsts, going from Tennessee's first female U.S. senator to its first female governor.
“She was an early frontrunner in the race, leading in the polls even before she announced her candidacy.”
Her campaign got some flack in the last stretch of the race as she refused to debate her GOP opponents and kept her regimented town halls. She now faces Memphis Democrat Jerry Green in the general election, where she's poised to succeed in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 2006. At 74 years old, she would also make history as the state's oldest governor.
For NPR News, I'm Mariana Baca Yao in Nashville. The Labor Department is scheduled to release its jobs report for July this morning. Economists expect hiring to have picked up modestly after employers at a just 57,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.2%.
This is NPR News. The prime minister of Thailand is pledging stricter gun laws after police say as student to open fire at a high school near Bangkok, killing at least five people. He's also accused of killing his two grandparents before the school attack. Michael Sullivan reports.
The incident occurred at the tipsary not to burry school, not far from Bangkok. Police say the suspected shooter was a student at the school, who allegedly opened fire
with a handgun before barricading himself on the third floor, where police say he eventually
turned the gun on himself. And 18-year-old student told the Reuters news agency he initially thought there were firecrackers going off. "I didn't think it was a gun at first," he said. "There were many shots, then a one quiet, then it started again.
The wounded were taken in nearby hospitals. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai." The authorities in Puerto Rico are beginning water rationing today as a severe drought deep in across the island, more than 180,000 customer accounts will lose water for 48 hours at a time on a rotating schedule.
Officials say the outages could expand to 72 hours and the rationing is expected to continue at least through the end of the month. Officials say they're scrambling to find a long-term solution as reservoir levels continue to fall. In one, just recorded its dryest July and more than 120 years with only about half an inch
of rain. I'm Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, in Washington. This week on here and now, any time, a family escapes the Spokane wildfires just in time. The garage door opened at 2503 and we have a video of the house on fire at 350. And contractors in New Mexico have stopped drilling new wells, but they're still pumping
ground butter to build Trump's border wall. All that and more on here and now any time on the NPR app and anywhere it was in the
