U.S. payrolls fell by 23,000 in July, defying forecasts of a gain
Downward revisions erased another 103,000 jobs from May and June, and the share of Americans working or looking for work fell to its lowest in more than five years.
U.S. payrolls fell by 23,000 in July, defying forecasts of a gain1
The American jobs engine stalled in July. Employers cut 23,000 payroll jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported,1 against forecasts of a gain near 83,000.2 The steeper damage sat in the revisions: the government marked May and June down by a combined 103,000.1 Unemployment ticked down to 4.1 percent for an unwelcome reason.1 The share of Americans working or looking for work fell to 61.4 percent, its lowest in more than five years, as people left the labor force rather than found jobs.2 Average hourly earnings rose 3.2 percent over the year.1
A new order tells federal agencies to deny citizenship papers to some U.S.-born children3
President Trump signed an executive order on August 6 directing federal agencies to stop issuing documents that recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the country when neither parent is a citizen and the parents fall into enumerated categories.3 The categories reach the children of designated foreign-terrorist or alien-enemy affiliates, of foreign-government and international-organization staff, and of people who entered a commercial arrangement to "purchase or access" citizenship through paid birth tourism or surrogacy.3 Agencies have 30 days to publish implementing guidance, and the order rests its authority on the Supreme Court's June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara.3 A companion order tightening visa scrutiny of suspected birth-tourism travelers accompanied it, and legal analysts read the pair as deliberately narrower than the day-one 2025 order the Court struck down, SCOTUSblog reported.4
A bipartisan bill would create a 100-foot buffer around houses of worship during services5
A bipartisan bill introduced August 7 would draw a 100-foot perimeter around houses of worship during scheduled services and let worshippers and state attorneys sue in federal court over conduct that disrupts them.5 Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Ted Cruz, joined by Reps. Brad Knott and Tom Suozzi, wrote the Right to Worship Act to bar conduct that "meaningfully interferes" with participation "to the extent that the conduct causes a substantial interruption," enforced by civil penalties rather than criminal charges.5 The measure mirrors a law recently enacted in New York State and follows 2026 protests outside synagogues. Twelve religious and advocacy groups, among them the Anti-Defamation League and the Islamic Society of North America, endorsed it, while civil-liberties critics warned it could chill protected protest, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.6
A telecom failure shut Midwest airspace for hours at one FAA center7
A telecommunications failure at the Federal Aviation Administration's Minneapolis air-route traffic control center on August 6 halted flights across roughly 330,000 square miles of airspace over Minnesota and nine other Midwest states.8 The FAA said it "briefly paused flights into and out of" the center's airspace "due to telecommunication issues," that service was "fully restored" the same evening, and that it "is investigating the cause."7 Minneapolis-St. Paul averaged 90-minute delays before the systems came back online.8
Trump denies reports that the Iran war drained U.S. precision-missile stocks9
Whether the roughly five-month Iran war left the United States dangerously short of long-range precision missiles is now a public dispute, and the answer bears on how ready the military would be for a next conflict. Reuters reported on August 4, citing people familiar with internal military data, that the Army had spent "virtually all" of its ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles and close to half the world's Tomahawks.10 No public government record confirms those figures. President Trump rejected the reporting on August 6. He posted that the country holds "massive amounts" of munitions, with "large amounts ... being manufactured and shipped," and warned that the "leakers" of "treasonous statements" would be "hunted down." A Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, called the shortage reports "fictional."9 Trump has elsewhere allowed that certain munitions are in "tighter" supply.9 Because the depletion accounts may draw on the same leaks, they do not independently confirm one another.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · The Employment Situation — July 2026
- NBC News · The economy lost 23,000 jobs in July as the labor force shrank
- The White House · Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship
- SCOTUSblog · President Trump signs new birthright-citizenship and birth-tourism orders
- U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin · Slotkin, Cruz introduce bipartisan legislation to help protect houses of worship
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency · Lawmakers seek 100-foot buffer zone around houses of worship
- Federal Aviation Administration (@FAANews) · Statement on the Minneapolis ARTCC outage
- ABC News · Flights grounded across the Midwest after temporary outage at Minnesota air center
- CNN · Iran war live updates, August 6, 2026
- CNBC · U.S. has used virtually all of its long-range precision missiles, report says (Reuters)