In a 6-3 unsigned order Monday, the Supreme Court lifted the injunction blocking Executive Order 14399, letting the administration enforce tightened mail-in voting rules in 23 states and D.C. ahead of November. The ruling clears the Postal Service to check mail-ballot distribution against a DHS citizenship list, though the justices stressed they were not ruling on the order's underlying lawfulness. Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented.
Stocks posted a weekly loss as the 10-year Treasury topped 4.74 percent and the 30-year hit multi-year highs, with the Dow closing at 53,277 and the Nasdaq down 2.05 percent on the week. July CPI eased to 3.4 percent, but Fed minutes showed the real committee debate was between hiking now and hiking later — not cutting. Traders now put September pause odds above 65 percent while still expecting at least one hike before year-end.
The human-caused Hawk Fire has burned more than 13,000 acres outside Reno since erupting Saturday, with zero containment and roughly 1,000 homes threatened. Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency for Washoe County as some 42,000 residents were told to leave and at least 22 homes were destroyed. Gusty winds, low humidity, and bone-dry brush kept about 400 firefighters on the defensive.
Karoline Leavitt has revealed her next move after stepping down as White House press secretary: she's joining the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. The move plants the administration's most visible communicator squarely in the midterm money operation. It's a straight line from the briefing room to the campaign war room.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an unprecedented sanctions campaign Monday targeting Iran's digital assets, gold, aviation, technology, and shipping sectors, calling the goal "economic asphyxiation of this regime." Treasury designated nearly 60 individuals, entities, and vessels accused of sanctions evasion, with targets in China, the UAE, Singapore, Turkey, and Greece. Iran's national security chief vowed to "retaliate in a seismic manner" and said backing the sanctions amounts to an act of war.
Iranian forces attacked an oil tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz just hours after the sanctions rollout, the latest in a string of strikes on commercial shipping in the waterway. New audio has surfaced of the Iranian military openly threatening vessels in the strait. Tehran insists it has a "two-year plan" to absorb the sanctions pressure.
Ukraine observed its 35th Independence Day Monday amid intensified Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, with officials reporting at least seven deaths. Ukrainian drones hit back inside Russia, including one downed over the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant that sparked a fire — extinguished, with no radiation increase. European leaders traveled to Kyiv in a show of support, and London cleared MBDA to share SCALP cruise missile component data so Ukraine can build local assembly lines.
President Trump will award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, plus Canada's Jeremy Hansen, at a August 28 ceremony at Johnson Space Center. The crew flew 252,756 miles from Earth in April, breaking the human spaceflight distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. NASA says Artemis III docking tests launch next year, with three uncrewed moon-base missions targeted by the end of 2026.
A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt clocked 9.39 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging past Usain Bolt's 9.58-second human world record. The feat is a milestone in actuator power, balance control, and bipedal mechanics rather than raw computing. Robots don't get to hold official track records — but the engineering gap just closed in a hurry.
Tom Rahill removed 96 invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades in ten days to win the 2026 Florida Python Challenge and its $10,000 grand prize. Rahill founded SwampApes, an organization that takes veterans coping with PTSD on python hunts in the Florida wetlands. The contest drew 907 participants from 30 states, Canada, and Vietnam, pulling 280 snakes out of eight designated hunting areas.
