Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including hundreds of pages of newly unsealed search warrant materials catalog the cover-up that ensued after the “Access Hollywood” tapes shot waves of panic through the Trump campaign; The House of Representatives passed a bill that will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025; The International Criminal Court upheld an order granting $10 million in reparations to hundreds of victims of a former warlord from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more.

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National

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, stops to talk to a member of the press on May 4, 2019, in New York, NY. Cohen reported to a federal prison on May 6 to begin serving a three-year sentence for campaign-finance violations, tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to congress. AP Photo/Jonathan Carroll)

1.) Three years after the “Access Hollywood” tapes shot waves of panic through the Trump campaign and the publishers of the National Enquirer, hundreds of pages of new search warrant materials unsealed on Thursday catalog the cover-up that ensued.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Pelosi and other negotiators are closing in on a budget and debt deal that would stave off a government shutdown this fall and speed through must-do legislation to increase the government's borrowing cap. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

2.) Tackling the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that will raise the wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

3.) The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to federal district courts, including two to seats on courts in Ohio.

Democratic presidential candidates from left, author Marianne Williamson, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice-President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., wave as they enter the stage for the second night of the Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC News at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Thursday, June 27, 2019, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

4.) Most Democratic voters feel satisfied with their party’s field of 2020 presidential candidates, the Pew Research Center reported Thursday, as early attention to next year’s race for the White House hit a 30-year high.

In this courtroom artist's sketch, defendant Jeffrey Epstein, center, sits with attorneys Martin Weinberg, left, and Marc Fernich during his arraignment in New York federal court, Monday, July 8, 2019. Epstein pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges. The 66-year-old was accused of creating and maintaining a network that allowed him to sexually exploit and abuse dozens of underage girls from 2002 to 2005. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

5.) Between the decoy passport, his status as a convicted sex offender and untold assets of over half a billion dollars, Jeffrey Epstein had been an unlikely candidate for bail pending trial on sex-trafficking charges before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman made that denial official Thursday.

Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager under fire for buying a pharmaceutical company and ratcheting up the price of a life-saving drug, is escorted by law enforcement agents in New York on Dec. 17, 2015, after being taken into custody following a securities probe. Pharmaceutical honcho Shkreli has been banished to solitary confinement amid allegations he was running his drug company from federal prison using a contraband smartphone, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

6.) The Second Circuit on Thursday affirmed the conviction of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who has been in federal prison since he was found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy charges two years ago.

International

7.) The International Criminal Court on Thursday upheld an order granting $10 million in reparations to hundreds of victims of a former warlord from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with a group of clerics, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Khamenei said Tuesday his country will retaliate over the seizure of an Iranian supertanker carrying 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil. The vessel was seized with the help of British Royal Marines earlier this month off Gibraltar. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

8.) The United States downed an Iranian drone that was threatening a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

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