Politics & World Affairs — July 29, 2026

Senate advances Russia sanctions bill. Eighty-six senators voted to advance a sweeping Russia and Iran sanctions bill championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Capitol.

Axios reported the 86-vote tally as a rare display of cross-party agreement in the chamber, with the measure moving forward the same day the Ukrainian leader met with lawmakers in Washington. The legislation, which targets both Moscow and Tehran, carries the imprint of Graham, who died before the procedural vote and had long pushed for tougher penalties on Russia.

Axios · Read more →

Fauci faces Senate hearing. Anthony Fauci testifies before a Senate panel Wednesday, days after Sen. Rand Paul released more than 1,000 pages of his pandemic-era journal entries.

The Hill describes the appearance as likely contentious, coming shortly after Paul made public a large trove of the former official's personal writings from the pandemic period. The release of the more than 1,000 pages just days before the hearing positions the journals as a probable focus of senators' questioning.

The Hill · Read more →

New Jersey faces voter roll probe. Roughly 75,000 noncitizens received jury duty summonses in New Jersey, and Republican lawmakers demanded a bipartisan subpoena investigation into the state's voter registration systems.

Fox News reports Republican lawmakers characterized the jury summonses as the "tip of the iceberg," arguing the episode exposes vulnerabilities in additional state systems beyond those already identified. Their call for a subpoena-backed inquiry is framed as bipartisan, focusing on how New Jersey's voter registration infrastructure handled noncitizen records. The scale cited, about 75,000 people, is central to the lawmakers' case for a formal investigation.

Fox News Politics · Read more →