Poison in the Park: A British man and woman have been made critically ill by exposure to the Russian nerve agent Novichok, the same chemical weapon that nearly killed a former Russian double agent living in England and his daughter.

The man and woman, both in their 40s, fell ill after visiting the spot in a Salisbury park near where the Russian and his daughter collapsed last March. A friend who was with the pair said symptoms set in rapidly, including pinpoint pupils, seizures, frothing at the mouth, and hallucinations.

  This happened after British authorities had scoured the area to decontaminate it after Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were stricken. It may mean that the de-con teams missed something, and that the chemical is very persistent.

Trump Country: Midwestern farmers who helped put President Trump in office are beginning to feel the pain of his trade war, The Wall Street Journal reports. Tariffs have cut into agricultural exports and sent commodity prices tumbling, the paper reports.

The NY Times reports that Trump’s economic policies are sowing confusion and damage among a variety of American businesses and industries. The paper reports that, “If nothing else, experts say, the unpredictability of many of Mr. Trump’s proposals — the lack of clarity on when or how Nafta might be renegotiated; the risk of potential litigation over his rollback of auto-pollution rules; the ways in which other countries might retaliate against Mr. Trump’s tariffs — seeds confusion across the American economy, making it tough for businesses to plan effectively for the future.”

This doesn’t necessarily hurt Trump’s popularity. The Los Angeles Times feature a story about workers at the Mid Continent Nail Corp. in poplar Bluff, Mo., where 60 people have been laid off and more layoffs could be coming. A machine operator told the paper, “Most workers are behind Trump, no matter what.”

Jawboning: President Trump yesterday called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lower their prices. He tweeted, “The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s. This must be a two way street. REDUCE PRICING NOW!”

Judicial Activism: Poland’s top supreme court justice went to work yesterday despite having been fired the night before by her right wing government. Before a cheering crowd, Justice  Malgorzata Gersdorf  stood on the courthouse steps and said, “I’m doing this to defend the rule of law and to testify to the truth about the line between the Constitution and the violation of the Constitution. I hope that legal order will return to Poland.”

The government had fired 27 of the country’s 72 supreme court justices.

Permawar: The son of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed trying to attack a power station in the Syrian province of Homs, the terror group’s own propaganda agency announced.

Hudhayfah al-Badri and other jihadists were up against Russians and Syrian regime forces. The statement, which identified the man as “the son of the caliph,” did not say when he was killed.

Give Me Liberty: A 44-year-old immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo climbed the feet of the Statue of Liberty yesterday and said she wasn’t coming down until all the immigrant children held by the Trump administration are released. The police eventually reached and arrested Therese Patricia Okoumou, who lives in Staten Island.

American Pie: Joey “Jaws” Chestnut jammed down 74 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes yesterday to beat his own record and win his 11th Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog-Eating Contest on New York’s Coney Island. The #2 man ate only 64. He just wasn’t hungry enough.

This is not a casual thing. Chestnut isn’t some guy who hangs around the boardwalk until the contest comes around. He describes himself as a “competitive eater” and does cycles of purges and training binges.

Chestnut’s previous record was 72. He said after the contest, “I found a vicious rhythm. I was feeling good today.”

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