Good morning and welcome to five things. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, July 31st, 2023.

Ron DeSantis hits a rugged comeback trail. Donald Trump's lawsuit against CNN is shut down.

And New York subway system implements AI-powered surveillance.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is returning to his presidential campaign after his team

dismissed more than a third of its staff. Donors have become increasingly anxious about

his chances against Trump and some are switching to other candidates. In Iowa, New Hampshire,

and other early primary states, DeSantis is trying to interact personally with more voters,

practice known as retail politics, and give more television interviews. DeSantis is also

seeking to draw more distinctions with Trump on policy. The candidate refuses to go after Trump

over his indictments and other legal problems that will flow throughout the campaign,

though some of his aides are starting to become more vocal. Meanwhile, Trump and his allies

say they will maintain their aggressive posture. During a rally Saturday in Erie, Pennsylvania,

Trump said DeSantis, in quote, those other clowns, unquote, running against him should just drop

out of the Republican race. To catch up to Trump, DeSantis has a long way to go if polls are to be

believed. Even while under indictment, Trump has built a lead of more than 30 percentage points

over DeSantis, according to averages of polls compiled by the Real Clear Politics website.

Trump is regularly over 50 percent in these surveys while DeSantis has fallen below 20 percent.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump's defamation case against CNN in which the former

president accused the news outlet of associating him with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Trump alleged CNN's use of the phrase, The Big Lie, to describe his false claims of election fraud

in the 2020 race for the White House, created a comparison with Hitler who used the term in

different contexts alongside other Nazi figures. Trump claimed the phrase as quote,

...