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The U.S. State Department got every one of the countries on an Africa map wrong that it was highlighting for funding.

According to The New Republic, the State Department flub unfolded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this week during the annual International AIDS Conference. The U.S. unveiled a map of Africa that showed six countries and the U.S. investment for current Advancing Global Health Annual Program Statement (APS) funding.

"Nigeria drifted into the Sahara Desert, landlocked and lost; Mozambique was relocated to the eastern Horn of Africa; and the Ivory Coast, somehow, found itself nowhere near a coast. The map also included a country with no name," said the report.

The map, posted on X by Ana Lucia Araujo, PhD shows lines from the labels on the right to the "corresponding" countries, with the exception of Cameroon, which was abandoned altogether.

It was about halfway through the U.S.'s presentation when the map came out as State Department employees were talking about the new health agreements. Former Donald Trump strategist Elon Musk has been attacked for the past decisions to slash funding for HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa through the dismantling of USAID last year.

Those in the audience, which included high-level officials from several of the mislabeled countries, took photos of the map and shared it on social media.

Reuters did an analysis of the map and believes it had a watermark showing it was made by OpenAI.

That report said that one photo shared by journalist and AIDS expert Emily Bass on LinkedIn earned about 40,000 views.

They confirmed it was legitimately shown by reviewing a video of the presentation.

In a statement about the huge mistake, the State Department called it "confusion" and said it took “full responsibility.” Audience members said that the map was produced by someone else on the team who changed the slide deck before the presentation began.

“Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work,” said The Atlantic Council's Matt Petit, who focuses on AI and geopolitics.

The speaker at the time was Jeff Graham, who serves as Trump's ⁠top U.S. health envoy. He oversees the full initiative for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

The conference itself was interrupted by protesters angry over Trump's huge cuts to the HIV/AIDS initiatives around the world established by former President George W. Bush in 2003.

Two U.S. Senators have said that someone at the White House is stopping President Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general from signing off on preventing the so-called "anti-weaponization fund" for MAGA allies who felt they were unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.

In an earlier interview, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, "But, I don't know, somebody somewhere, I don't know whether it's the White House, or somebody works there or somebody works for the president, is basically telling them don't agree to those terms. And so we're kind of back to square one."

The terms Cornyn wants include a signed guarantee that the fund will not be started. A federal judge requested the same thing in court, and Blanche refused twice to put such a pledge in writing.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is now part of the small caucus of outgoing senators unwilling to sign off on Blanche without that guarantee.

MS NOW's Ali Vitali spoke to Tillis on Thursday morning. In the interview, the outgoing Republican senator said that Blanche has been working with lawmakers in good faith. The problems are coming from someone else in the White House.

"I think Blanche is trying to fulfill the commitment he made in the hearing. And so, we're continuing to talk, and we need to get to the person who's in the way. Todd Blanche is negotiating in good faith, but it's clear that the approval to get this done is above his pay grade, and we just need to get to that pay grade," said Tillis.

He began to walk away and shouted over his shoulder, "I don't believe it's the president."

Within a few hours, Trump went to Truth Social, writing, "Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this great nominee, who will remain, in any event, as acting [attorney general]. Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office."

The one thing that could stop that from happening is if Democrats win the Senate in the November elections. It's a long shot that requires flipping four seats, NPR reported this week.

Cornyn responded to Trump on X, saying, "POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to Senator Tillis and me."

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that he was shocked by some of the documents revealed in a filing this week from former FBI Director James Comey.

Speaking to host Sara Sidner on Thursday, Honig said the fact that the Department of Justice recruited help from a notorious mobster was shocking.

Comey is accused of issuing a violent threat to kill President Donald Trump when he posted a photo of seashells spelling out "86-47." Comey said that those who worked in food service or restaurants know the term "86" to cancel an order or clear a table. He also made it clear that it was not a threat, much less a violent one.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Secret Service agents exchanged emails revealing that the president was directly involved in the case and was asking for updates for an upcoming press conference.

"The first thing that I think is notable about the reporting is that Donald Trump was directly involved in this, getting real-time updates, getting FBI interview notes on the spot," said Honig, a former federal prosecutor. "... So much for [Todd] Blanche’s claim that we’re completely separate from the president."

Information from the prosecutors at the Justice Department "show how desperately prosecutors are trying to make 86 mean murder and only murder, and they’re failing. First thing they did is they ran that term through the FBI’s Sentinel database, which is essentially everything the FBI has. Came up empty. Then they pulled files from an old mob case that Jim Comey had tried 30-some years ago, came up empty again," Honig said.

Their next option was to get a mobster named Sammy "The Bull" Gravano to say that when he was active 36 years ago, he agreed that "86" was a mob term.

Honig said it was funny because he was working on a case and once spoke to Gravano on the phone.

"We were thinking about calling him as a trial witness for about three minutes, and I said, absolutely not," recalled Honig. "This guy has zero credibility. That’s their star witness now! And if your basis for your case against Jim Comey is Sammy Gravano from 1990 thinks it could mean that, you’re going to lose. I promise you."

Host Sara Sidner said it was remarkable to see how much time and effort was spent to find one mention of "86" meaning to kill someone. She noted anyone who looks up the definition can see it clearly that it means exactly what Comey said it did.

To put it in context, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1969 where a man protesting the Vietnam War said, "If they put a rifle in my hands, the first person I want in my sights is L.B.J." In that case, the high court said it wasn't a criminal threat, Honig recalled.

President Donald Trump once famously bragged that his supporters love him so much that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they wouldn't abandon him. And a new Politico poll reveals that his most ardent supporters still aren't faltering.

Regardless of his scandals, the top MAGA voters are still behind him. Where Trump appears to be losing ground is with non-MAGA Republicans and Independent voters. Previous reports show that Trump is losing ground with some MAGA supporters who felt they were "lied to" by the president.

Now, that loyalty is stretching across to other Republican candidates, with voters saying they don't care what a candidate does; they'll continue to support the Republican.

GOP candidates "confronted with an array of scandals, from a DUI conviction or accepting lobbyist gifts to more serious accusations including domestic violence, sexual assault and antisemitic social media posts" still maintain support among MAGA.

"Two-thirds of self-identified MAGA Trump voters say they would continue supporting a GOP candidate accused of sexual assault — 13 percentage points higher than the share of Trump 2024 voters writ large, which include those who do not identify as MAGA. By comparison, 40 percent of voters who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 would continue backing a Democratic candidate accused of sexual assault," said Politico.

The numbers show that the worst possible issue among MAGA voters would be if Trump shared classified information with a foreign government. Just 57 percent of his supporters said they'd continue to support him. Antisemitic statements weren't much of a concern either, with 58 percent saying they'd still support him. Being accused of sexual assault and selling misleading medical treatments wouldn't phase 66 percent of MAGA fans who said they'd continue to support Trump

If Trump lied about a terminal illness 69 percent of MAGA would stick with him. Everything else over 70 percent of his supporters said didn't matter to them: things like whether he was convicted of a DUI, domestic violence, taking gifts from lobbyists, bullying in the workplace and even wearing blackface.

"Scandal doesn’t mean what it did 15 years ago. The rules have changed, and Republican voters know it," longtime Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told Politico. “Republicans, particularly MAGA voters, have learned that Queensberry rules don’t win in modern politics. Today it’s a full-contact fight, more UFC than civics class, and anything goes.”

President Donald Trump continues to lose ground with key voting groups outside of his MAGA base. It's become so bad that CNN data analyst Harry Enten called it "laughably bad."

While the economy is slowing, inflation is on the rise. Enten was asked by host Sara Sidner just how bad things were for the president, who won his 2024 election on inflation and the economy.

"Sara, the numbers are laughably bad. They are laughably bad. But no one is laughing about these because just take a look here. Trump's not up on inflation. Our latest CNN poll that has been coming out over the last few days, the net approval minus disapproval: 50 points underwater," Enten explained.

He said he checked polls for every past president he could find and discovered that there has never been a president "who had ratings this bad."

"That's an over 50-point shift from where we were before the election, where, of course, President Trump was more trusted on inflation than Kamala Harris, which is why he got a second term," Enten said.

Sidner called it "insane."

"Not only on gas prices, which of course is part of this equation, right? I mean, as I said, laughably bad. You just don't ever see numbers like this," said Enten.

Questions like whether America is on the right track or wrong track now has 70 percent of voters willing to say the U.S. is on the "wrong track." The "right track" number is just 16 percent. A stunning 50 percent of Republicans agreed it was on the wrong track.

"No wonder that President Trump is putting up historic numbers in the wrong direction when it comes to inflation," said Enten.

Republicans also believe that Trump is focused on the wrong things (58 percent) and should instead deal with lowering costs. The overall number is 78 percent of Americans who believe he should deal with the affordability crisis.

Enten noted that prediction markets thought that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates because of the increase in inflation, and at least three governors on the board did support raising the rate. In the end, however, new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh kept the numbers unchanged.

"While the decision to stand pat could be seen as good news for consumers, they might not feel much relief with the average credit card rate still near 20 percent and mortgage rates the highest since last August," reported PBS News on Thursday after the announcement.

MS NOW caught up with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Thursday morning as he explained where things stand with President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee.

Todd Blanche's nomination to lead the Department of Justice has been on hold as Blanche refuses to put in writing that the DOJ won't pursue an "anti-weaponization fund" as part of the president's settlement with the IRS.

Trump's taxes were exposed along with over 400,000 other Americans and businesses, so Trump sued the government for $10 billion. Trump is now telling the government to settle his case with an agreement that would set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay out taxpayer dollars to people who feel they've been wronged by the U.S. government.

Cornyn told MS NOW's Ali Vitali he wanted to confirm that the language in the contract between the U.S. government and Trump isn't changing even after a federal judge shot down the deal.

"This settlement agreement can be modified, may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties," the contract reads, according to Cornyn.

During the committee hearing, he asked Blanche whether the parties had changed the language to say that the fund would no longer be created. Blanche answered, "no."

So, Blanche's claim that the fund was dead doesn't square with the contract language keeping it in place. The two claims conflict and Cornyn wanted to know why, saying he'd be satisfied if they could square that.

"But, I don't know, somebody somewhere, I don't know whether it's the White House, or somebody works there or somebody works for the president, is basically telling them don't agree to those terms," said the senator. "And so we're kind of back to square one."

Vitali asked if he got everything he needed from DOJ and if he doesn't get what he needs is he willing to vote "no" on Blanche.

"I am prepared to vote no. But I do — I do think, I owe it to my constituents and, to Mr. Blanche to try to negotiate in good faith. And that's what we've been doing. And, so we'll, we'll see where things are this morning," Cornyn continued.

Cornyn said he hadn't talked to the president but that it might "help" and go a long way to helping understand what's happening.

"Yeah. He could fix this in a minute. But, I don't know whether — who he's listening to or whether he's motivated to do that. So, we'll see what happens," Cornyn continued.

Vitali said that Trump appears to believe that Cornyn is doing this because he doesn't like Trump.

"You know, I voted with him 99.3 percent of the time," Cornyn paused to laugh. "That has nothing to do with it. This is about making sure that, even if you're the president of the United States, you don't get favorable terms from the government in a settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get. Like protection from audits by the IRS into the foreseeable future. So I think this is about making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system."

Vitali said that before the cameras went live, Cornyn had talked about how "every time he thinks they're getting to a point where there's some kind of deal that could get him to yes, someone else throws a wrench in it. And I asked, okay, well, what's the wrench right now? And he seemed to focus in on the IRS piece of the deal."

A federal judge has already declared that the so-called "settlement" between Trump and the federal government isn't valid. She had asked that Blanche sign a sworn statement under penalty of perjury that the fund wouldn't go forward. Blanche refused.

It was a major question for Cornyn during Blanche's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Over and over Blanche refused to say he would sign something or swear to something because he'd already indicated the fund was dead and felt it would be redundant.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has asked that there be something more than a photo of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to quell conspiracy theories that Republicans are trying to hide a secret death. McConnell's staff is stonewalling questions about it.

Video reporter Nicholas A Ballasy spotted McConnell’s senior communications adviser, Robert Steurer, asking if the office would put out a video or something more definitive to confirm the GOP lawmaker was alive and well. Steurer ignored the questions and instead ran up the Capitol stairs.

Ballasy said it was his second attempt to get an answer out of Steurer.

The video happens as "MISSING" fliers popped up on Capitol Hill asking if anyone had seen McConnell as if he was a missing pet.

For a second time, Beshear (D-Ky.) asked for proof of life more definitive than a photo that could be easily edited or generated by artificial intelligence. The senator's office continues to ignore the governor, who said he hasn't heard a word from them or from McConnell himself.

One of the hometown reporters who's covered McConnell for decades said that the senator is likely "just being a little cranky and pugnacious here in the twilight of his career."

A 9-1-1 call came from McConnell's home on Capitol Hill in June, saying that he was in “cardiac arrest” and that CPR was being administered until EMS arrived. It also sparked a series of bizarre incidents that left folks scratching their heads.

According to McConnell he suffered a fall severe enough to knock him unconscious. However, he said, that he didn't have a concussion or break any bones.

The most recent photo produced by the senator's office shows him sitting in the same hospital chair in what looks like the same room with his wife beside him. The statement said that McConnell was keeping up with physical therapy but isn't ready to return home yet.

The Office of the Attending Physician told Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio that McConnell has been “discharge[d] from hospital care” but is “not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office.” The statement explained that his physical therapy is “designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls."

McConnell has fallen several times over the years. One incident was recorded on video, showing him stumbling as he walked into the Capitol.

The physician said that McConnell's falls are as a result of his "post-polio condition," NPR reported.