Current Events
The U.S. strikes three Iranian tankers after Iran launches missiles toward two Navy ships, CENTCOM says
The weekend brings a U.S. strike on Iranian oil carriers, two live election-law fights, and an August jobs gain above the recent monthly pace.
August 2026The U.S. seizes two platforms China's state hackers ran against the Justice Department, NASA, and the Fed
The two platforms trace to a Nanjing firm whose named customers include China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, and the government dates the intrusions to at least 2018.
$40 trillion in federal debt arrives five months early
The federal debt hit $40 trillion five months ahead of pace, as this year's tariff refunds left customs receipts negative for a third straight month.
Record flooding puts Indiana under a federal emergency
The White River set a record 24.9-foot crest at Anderson, surpassing its 1913 high, on a day that also narrowed the childhood vaccine schedule and pulled 1.6 million dozen eggs into the highest-risk recall tier.
Somali TPS ends after the Supreme Court put such terminations beyond a court's review
About 700 Somali nationals lose protection from removal, and the judge who paused the termination wrote that she found their racial-discrimination claim strong but saw no way around the June ruling.
A federal judge clears border wall construction across the Tohono O'odham reservation
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied a preliminary injunction against 62 miles of construction, ruling that a 60-foot strip of border land set aside by a 1907 presidential proclamation lets the government build without changing the reservation's boundaries.
The Justice Department tells the Supreme Court both mail-voting rulings must fall together
Solicitor General D. John Sauer, already seeking a stay of one injunction against Trump's mail-voting order, asked the Court to make a second, nationwide injunction fall with it before ballots go out for the November 3 election.
The ACLU asks a court to block Trump's citizenship order
Filed August 11 in New Hampshire, the request targets an order that stops recognizing citizenship for children linked to terror groups, foreign diplomats, birth tourism, or certain territories, with agencies required to issue public guidance on its implementation by September 5.
A federal judge clears sealed Epstein investigation records for release
Judge Loretta Preska held that Congress's 2025 transparency law overrides the sealing orders and privacy claims that had kept records from Virginia Giuffre's 2015 suit against Ghislaine Maxwell under seal.
Trump narrows the childhood vaccine schedule to 11 diseases
Trump justified the change with a debunked autism link he raised only in his signing remarks, and the country's pediatricians have rejected it.
2,465 measles cases this year put the U.S. elimination status in doubt
No measles deaths have been recorded in the U.S. this year, yet PAHO will decide in November whether transmission unbroken since January 2025 costs the country the elimination status it won in 2000.
Senate confirms Todd Blanche attorney general by one vote
Trump's former personal criminal-defense lawyer takes over the Justice Department, his last votes secured by a written pledge to rescind the $1.8 billion fund several senators had set as their price.
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.
August 7, 2026
The largest copyright case in U.S. history is expected to start paying out around August 10, pricing the books used to train Anthropic's models at about $3,000 each across 440,490 claimed works.
August 6, 2026
A judge ends the last January 6 prosecution under protest, calling the dismissal an epilogue that excuses what that day did to the peaceful transfer of power.
August 5, 2026
The first deaths in a record lettuce-borne outbreak lead a day when the response kept arriving after the harm, from Spokane's arson arrest to 25 states suing over Trump's newest tariffs.
Trump asks the Supreme Court to let his mail-ballot limits take effect before November
The same week, the Justice Department rescinded a $1.8 billion fund to move Todd Blanche's stalled confirmation, and a 100% tariff took effect on branded drugs.
Fires drive tens of thousands from their homes around Spokane
The fire was the day's one crisis with no argument over whose account to believe.
Trump cancels a strike on Iran, citing a deal Iran denies making
The same day, federal investigators were probing a suspected Iran link in a hacking campaign against water utilities in at least seven states.
Current Events, August 1, 2026
Growth slowed to 1.5% in the second quarter, the same week three Federal Reserve bank presidents dissented for a rate hike under the Fed's newest chair.
July 2026Two Senate Republicans stall Blanche's attorney general nomination
Cornyn and Tillis are withholding votes until the Justice Department guarantees a $1.776 billion IRS settlement stays closed, and Trump says he may pull the nomination until both leave office in January.
U.S. and Iran are now striking each other directly
The Middle East conflict the Federal Reserve cited as it held rates over three dissents has become an open exchange of fire, over a strained economy that just absorbed the end of a cap on seniors' drug premiums.
The Trump administration tells the Supreme Court its own voter-list order isn't in effect yet
Solicitor General D. John Sauer's emergency application asks the justices to lift a First Circuit block on the federal voter-list order, arguing no agency has actually finalized anything yet.
Rogoff sues Trump over the 54-minute firing
The fired federal prosecutor argues the administration had no power to remove him before the Senate confirmed a successor.
Vance and Caine objected to escalating the war with Iran, officials say
The account comes only from officials describing a Friday White House meeting, not from Vance or Caine themselves.