Midday Roundup: Eric Cantor bails on last few months in office

Leaving early. A day after Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., stepped down as House Majority Leader, he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he will not complete his term in Congress. Cantor will resign his seat Aug. 18 and has asked Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to approve a special election to replace him. The election would take place at the same time as the general election, but it would allow Cantor’s replacement to start right away, rather than being sworn in with the rest of the new congressmen in January. Tea party candidate Dave Brat defeated Cantor in the June Republican primary.

African reversal. A Ugandan court on Friday invalidated a law that criminalized homosexuality in the country earlier this year. The country’s Constitutional Court said the measure was illegal because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum. Activists erupted in cheers after the court declared the law null and void. The government can still appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court. The law provided jail terms of up to life for those convicted of homosexual acts. It also allowed imprisonment for those convicted of the offenses of attempted homosexuality and promotion of homosexuality.

Last-minute fix? The House is wrapping up a flurry of activity today before its August recess. On Thursday it approved a bill to reform the troubled VA healthcare system and to fund the federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road construction, through next May. But lawmakers could not agree on a bill to address the problem of unaccompanied minors illegally crossing the southern U.S. border. Republicans voted late Thursday night to stay in session one more day in hopes of reaching a compromise on immigration. A final vote is expected later today. The Senate has already adjourned for the recess.

Foreign policy fail. Americans’ approval of President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign policy has dropped six percentage points, to 43 percent, since January, a new poll by The Associated Press found. According to the poll, between 57 and 60 percent of Americans disapprove of how Obama has acted regarding conflicts in Israel, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq.

What is the world coming to? Turns out one made-for-TV movie about a tornado filled with killer sharks just wasn’t enough. On Wednesday night, the Syfy channel debuted Sharknado 2: The Second One, a sequel to last summer’s viral, campy horror spoof. The sequel grabbed 3.9 million viewers—nearly triple the number who watched the original last summer. Nielsen estimates there were 581,000 tweets about show posted during the airing. At one point, Sharknado 2 held all top 10 Twitter trending topics in the United States.