Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leads his Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O'Rourke (Texas), by 5 percentage points, 41 percent to 36 percent, with 17 percent expressing no opinion, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. Cruz was leading O'Rourke by 3 points in an April Quinnipiac University poll, though that same poll had Cruz up by 11 points in May.

Cruz is more unpopular than O'Rourke, who represents the West Texas district centered in El Paso, but he also has better name recognition — 41 percent of voters have a favorable view of Cruz and 42 percent view him unfavorably, while 37 percent view O'Rourke favorably and 24 percent have an unfavorable view. This poll "is an early look at the 2018 general election, a survey of registered voters — not of the 'likely voters' whose intentions will become clearer in the weeks immediately preceding the election," The Texas Tribune notes. "If recent history is the guide, most registered voters won't vote in November."

"The numbers also reflect, perhaps, the faint rumble of excitement from Democrats and wariness from Republicans who together are wondering what kind of midterm election President Donald Trump might inspire," the Tribune says. And Trump is only moderately popular in deep-red Texas — 47 percent approve of his job performance while 44 percent disapprove in the new poll. Democrats have never liked Trump, said UT government professor Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll. "And he would have been in a disaster area, except Republicans really ran to him. They like the way that he deals with the Democrats." The UT/TT poll was conducted online among 1,200 registered voters June 8-17, and it has an overall margin of error of ±2.83 percentage points. Peter Weber

"Remember a couple of years ago, when [President] Trump first got into office, we were all so nervous that Donald Trump was some sort of sleeper agent who was going to sell America out to a foreign power behind our backs?" Stephen Colbert asked on Thursday's Late Show. "Well, it's Throwback Thursday!" He ran through the outline of the whistleblower complaint that over the summer, Trump made a very troubling "promise" to an unknown "foreign leader." Colbert saw the silver lining: "Thank God Trump never keeps his promises."

"Trump denies he did anything wrong," Colbert said, reading the tweet. "Very good point: What kind of moron would think you would make an inappropriate offer to a foreign country while you were being recorded?" He let Trump answer that, then played a game to try and figure out what Trump promised to which leader. But it turns out, according to The New York Times, that the complaint actually involves a "series of actions" Trump took. "Oh, a series?" Colbert said. "Great. Now we can binge-watch the end of America."

This story is "stunning," Late Night's Seth Meyers said. "Now, we don't know which foreign leader this is, and this is a complicated story, so just to help you follow along, we put together a helpful little mnemonic device. Remember: It's a [P]romise from the [U]nited States made by [T]rump to an [I]nternational leader, but we do not know their [N]ame. Could be anyone." (It actually appears to be somebody in Ukraine.)

Meyers also answered Trump's question about whether he would say something "inappropriate" to a foreign leader over the phone: "It's not that we're dumb enough to believe it, it's that we're smart enough to believe you're dumb enough to do it." Still, Trump "probably feels like he has impunity to do whatever he wants because so far he's face almost no consequences," he said, making his case for impeachment. Watch below. Peter Weber

Following a public outcry, the Trump administration reversed policy on Thursday and restored the medical deferred action program, which protects immigrants with life-threatening medical conditions from deportation as they receive treatment.

Last month, applicants received letters from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saying that requests were no longer being accepted, and the sick migrants had to leave the United States within 33 days. Recipients who spoke to the media, like 16-year-old Jonathan Sanchez, said that if they went back to their original countries, they would die; Sanchez has cystic fibrosis, and said doctors in Honduras are not equipped to treat him.

When U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped the program on Aug. 7, the agency did so without alerting Congress or the public. Hearings were held on Capitol Hill, with immigrants sharing their stories about how the program helped them, and USCIS said it would reopen cases that were pending as of Aug. 7. In a letter to the House Oversight Committee sent Thursday, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said he had directed USCIS to start considering all applications again.

"It should not take an emergency hearing by Congress — and threats for more — to force the Trump administration to do the right thing," House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement. "Because of the secrecy and obstruction surrounding this policy, we will be taking additional steps to verify that these children and their families do not need to live in fear and uncertainty." Catherine Garcia

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, and other presidential candidates shared their climate change plans on Thursday during MSNBC's Climate Forum 2020.

The two-day event at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service kicked off Thursday morning with a question-and-answer session between students and the candidates. Twelve presidential candidates are participating, with Thursday's lineup consisting of Sanders, Yang, Castro, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), author Marianne Williamson, former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).

Castro said his $10 trillion climate plan consists of a public-private partnership that will result in 10 million new jobs and the United States having net zero emission within the next 30 years. Ryan is calling for a forceful climate police that focuses on bringing manufacturing jobs back to hard hit rural and industrial areas. Delaney said he would re-enter the Paris climate agreement and promote global development of clean technologies.

Sanders declared that "unlike Trump, I do believe in science," and said one of his first acts as president would be to sign an executive order prohibiting fossil fuel extraction on public lands. Williamson said people need to push back against corporations and lawmakers who are tight with the fossil fuel industry.

Yang feels that action should have been taken two decades ago, and wants to see corporations taxed on their carbon production. Bennet said he would give lawmakers nine months to pass climate change legislation, and if they didn't do it he would turn to executive orders. He also discussed the importance of talking about the economy and jobs and how they tie in to climate change, so people don't fall for President Trump's scare tactics. "We can't lose an economic debate to a climate denier," he said. Catherine Garcia

During a chaotic interview Thursday night with CNN's Chris Cuomo, President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani was happy to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of bribing Ukrainian politicians, but he grew enraged when asked about Trump's relationship with the country's leader.

Throughout the rambling, nearly 20-minute interview, Giuliani made it clear that he doesn't like Biden, whistleblowers, CNN, or using his inside voice. His appearance coincided with The Washington Post's report that a U.S. intelligence whistleblower filed an "urgent" complaint last month about President Trump's communications with someone in Ukraine. Giuliani didn't want to talk about that, though, instead telling Cuomo the real story is his allegation that Biden bribed the former president of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor investigating his son.

Giuliani also claimed that several Ukrainians tried to tell him that there was collusion between Ukrainian politicians, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee, but the U.S. ambassador blocked them. This has all the trappings of an "astounding scandal of major proportions," he said, but it's "being covered up by the news." Cuomo finally got a question in about the whistleblower, which Giuliani immediately shot down. "I'm here on television," Giuliani said, while "this guy is hiding somewhere, skulking around."

Cuomo reminded the former U.S. attorney that there are protections in place for whistleblowers. Giuliani said sure, but "some whistleblowers are liars." Giuliani went on to insult Cuomo and CNN several more times, accusing the network of favoring Democrats and covering up their scandals, and patted himself on the back for insulting Cuomo "directly to your face and not behind your back." Lower the volume on your computer, and watch the video below. Catherine Garcia

The whistleblower complaint filed Aug. 12 by a U.S. intelligence official involves Ukraine, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Post reported that the complaint centers around Trump's communications with a foreign leader, and a "promise" he made. The intelligence official was so troubled by this that they notified Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who marked the complaint as being of "urgent concern" and passed it along to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

By law, Maguire was supposed to pass this complaint on to Congress, but he said he talked to Justice Department officials, who claimed it did not meet the definition of an urgent concern and was not under the DNI's jurisdiction. Maguire's refusal to notify lawmakers about the complaint has sparked a battle between Democratic lawmakers and the acting DNI. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Thursday that someone is "trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress. ... There certainly are a lot of indications that it was someone at a higher pay grade than the director of national intelligence."

Trump had a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky two-and-a-half weeks before the complaint was filed. Zelensky is an actor and comedian who was elected in May, and House Democrats are already investigating that call as part of a probe into whether Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani tried to manipulate the Ukrainian government into assisting with Trump's re-election campaign. Catherine Garcia

Southeastern Texas is still being pounded by rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda.

The region has been experiencing heavy rains since Tuesday, and officials in Jefferson County on Thursday said they recorded 43.15. inches of rain. The National Weather Service's Houston office said that Imelda is the seventh wettest tropical cyclone in U.S. history, and the fourth wettest to ever hit Texas.

Thirteen counties have been declared disaster areas, with thousands evacuated from their homes due to floodwaters. In Harris County, first responders said they have responded to 133 high-water rescue calls since noon. At least three deaths have been linked to the storm. Catherine Garcia