Retiring Sen. Gary Peters stepped off the sidelines Monday to endorse Rep. Haley Stevens over progressive Abdul El-Sayed ahead of Michigan's August 4 Democratic Senate primary — with a new poll showing the race dead-even at 42-41 percent. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are set to stump for El-Sayed across the state next weekend. It's shaping up as one of the sharpest establishment-versus-progressive showdowns of the 2026 cycle.
The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project filed suit against DHS this week, alleging the agency illegally withheld its FY2025 enforcement report — due last December — and stonewalled eight separate FOIA requests. The suit contends the administration has been publicly citing three million deportations while blocking independent verification of that figure. The legal action lands as a parallel Inspector General probe into the department's multi-billion-dollar detention program is already underway.
A pair of federal judges have issued flatly conflicting rulings on the DHS citizenship database the Trump administration is using to audit state voter rolls ahead of the midterms. One judge ordered DHS to restore certain database access; a second judge then ordered DHS to disregard the first ruling entirely. Election officials and federal agencies are now caught in genuine legal limbo with the 2026 midterms closing in.
Federal Reserve minutes released this month show nearly all officials agreed further monetary tightening may be warranted, with the PCE inflation gauge revised upward to 3.6 percent. June payrolls came in at a weak 57,000 jobs — well below forecasts — as Iran-conflict energy costs weigh on the broader economy. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh stated bluntly that prices remain too high, with the next FOMC decision due July 28-29.
American forces conducted a fresh wave of strikes against Iran overnight, pushing CENTCOM's three-night cumulative total past 300 Iranian military targets. Iran retaliated by hitting US-allied nations across the region, and Brent crude surged nearly four percent toward $79 a barrel. Trump formally notified Congress of the resumed military action Friday, while the IRGC renewed threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Sanaa International Airport's runway was struck Monday to prevent a sanctioned Iranian Mahan Air flight from landing with a Houthi delegation aboard — the group returning from Khamenei's funeral in Tehran. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree immediately blamed Saudi Arabia and threatened retaliatory strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The incident marks a sharp widening of the regional conflict beyond the Hormuz corridor.
Cuba's national electric grid suffered its third total collapse of 2026 last week — the eighth such failure since late 2024 — leaving all ten million Cubans without power with no government explanation or restoration timeline offered. Residents in Havana responded by taking to the streets, banging pots and pans and chanting for the lights to come back on. Chronic fuel shortages and a crumbling, decades-old infrastructure are the persistent underlying causes the regime shows no capacity to address.
A Tesla Semi rear-ended two vehicles stopped at a traffic signal on US Highway 50 near Dayton, Nevada, killing married couple Sergio and Jennifer Villanueva and critically injuring a third person. Investigators are calling it the first known fatal crash involving the Tesla Semi since the truck entered commercial service. Federal safety regulators were already weighing mandatory automatic emergency braking requirements for heavy commercial vehicles — this will accelerate that process.
The White House confirmed it is coordinating with the FBI and multiple agencies to investigate a pattern of deaths and disappearances involving eleven scientists tied to classified nuclear, space, and military research dating back to 2022. A retired Air Force Major General is among those who have gone missing. President Trump told reporters he hopes the cases are random but expects answers within the next week and a half; House Oversight Chairman James Comer called it a potential national security threat.
Traders on prediction market platform Kalshi allegedly ran a bot-stream scheme targeting a song called "Earrings" by Malcolm Todd, inflating its Spotify ranking artificially, then cashed out roughly three million dollars in bets tied to which song topped the US chart. Spotify confirmed removing 500,000 fraudulent streams after one of the traders reportedly flagged the suspicious data spike to the company. Spotify has now formally demanded both Kalshi and rival Polymarket stop using its logo, clarifying there is no partnership with either platform.
