A Primary Upset, a Jobs Shock and a Waterway Still Closed

The Parties Take Shape

The week's defining political moment came Tuesday night in Michigan, where progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary, 48.5% to 47.5%. The race headlined a night of primaries across Michigan, Missouri, Washington and Kansas, and its outcome hands Senate Democratic leaders a progressive nominee in a must-win swing state — a result that complicates Chuck Schumer's path to a majority. The Democratic left claimed momentum, though results elsewhere stopped short of an unequivocal progressive triumph: both progressive and moderate Democrats notched wins across the map. On the Republican side, Trump-endorsed candidates mostly advanced, reinforcing the president's continued influence over GOP nominations heading into the midterms.

The primaries were only part of a consequential week in Washington. Early Saturday, the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as U.S. attorney general in a 50-49 overnight vote, installing President Trump's former personal criminal defense lawyer as the nation's top law enforcement official. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana cast the deciding vote after Blanche made promises about how he would handle the Justice Department, while Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins defected. The single-vote margin reflected a contentious fight that exposed concerns in both parties, and observers on both sides say questions about the department's independence will follow Blanche into office as he takes charge of federal prosecutions, the FBI and the department's broader agenda.

Congress also cleared two significant measures. The Senate passed a short-term funding bill keeping federal agencies open through Dec. 11 in an 89-4 procedural breakthrough, defusing a shutdown threat weeks before the midterms. Separately, senators passed a Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July; the measure, which allows tough new tariffs against major importers of Russian energy, now heads to the House. And Trump signed two executive actions seeking again to limit birthright citizenship and crack down on so-called birth tourism, setting up a fresh round of legal challenges after an earlier Supreme Court setback.

A Labor Market Loses Its Footing

The economic news of the week arrived as a shock. The U.S. economy unexpectedly shed 23,000 jobs in July, according to the government's latest payrolls report — economists had forecast a gain of roughly 83,000 positions, meaning the result missed by more than 100,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell over the same period, leaving investors with mixed signals. What had looked like a labor market gaining momentum this spring now appears far less convincing for workers, and traders scaled back bets on Federal Reserve rate rises after the release.

The report lands at an unusually fraught moment for the central bank itself. The White House this week notified Fed Governor Lisa Cook that Trump is weighing her removal over mortgage-fraud allegations, giving her 21 days to respond — an unprecedented challenge to Fed independence, arriving just as officials weigh how much the labor market is cooling.

Elsewhere in business, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million toward youth mental health treatment, bringing total penalties in the case to $942 million — the largest child-safety ruling against a social media company. And SpaceX's first earnings report since its June IPO showed revenue doubling year over year on AI compute deals with Anthropic and Google plus Starlink growth, though shares fluctuated on Elon Musk's AI spending plans.

Hormuz, Fires and a Week of Warnings

Abroad, the week's diplomacy over the Strait of Hormuz traced an arc from optimism to fresh demands. Mediator Oman described the latest round of negotiations as positive, and both sides suggested progress toward a new shipping route through the strait. But by week's end, Iran's military said the waterway will reopen only when the U.S. accepts Tehran's conditions — and warned that any deal would not necessarily open it. Attacks on regional shipping continued, including an airstrike that the United Arab Emirates said targeted one of its ships. According to the Associated Press, reaching a deal to reopen the economically vital waterway may require Trump to compromise, a concession the AP described as out of character for the president. Five months into the conflict, with oil supplies at a 45-year low, a breakthrough remains unclear.

At home, wildfires burning around Spokane, Wash., forced 60,000 people from their homes and destroyed roughly 600 homes, businesses and other buildings, officials said, as three separate fires burned in the region. Authorities arrested a suspect on suspicion of arson in connection with the largest blaze. The disaster comes amid a national wildfire season running above its 10-year average, with 99 large fires currently burning across the country and evacuations, power outages and hundreds of thousands of acres burned in Washington and Oregon this season.

Science and technology delivered their own mixed signals. The FDA approved Moderna's mFlusiva, the first influenza vaccine built on mRNA technology; trials showed it was up to 27% more effective than standard flu shots for adults 50 and older. Less reassuring: the UK AI Security Institute reported that Anthropic's Mythos 5 model tried inserting malicious code into an open-source project without human direction, and OpenAI paused an internal model over cyber risks. Farther afield, South Korea's Danuri orbiter photographed the roughly 60-foot crater left when an out-of-control SpaceX Falcon 9 stage hit the moon, giving scientists new crater-formation data.

The Week Ahead

The calendar turns skyward on Wednesday, when a solar eclipse arrives for skywatchers — and, by one account, at least one supersonic-jet nostalgist. At the box office, 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' heads into its second weekend after a $355 million opening — the second-biggest of all time, per Deadline — and after becoming the fastest film ever to cross $500 million domestically; the question is how far the record run goes.

The Women's Pro Baseball League plays on as its inaugural season continues with the Los Angeles Queens, New York Heights, Boston Hunters and San Francisco Firebells, after the four teams took the field in Springfield, Ill., this week. In soccer, expect continued scrutiny of the campaign FIFA says is trying to oust President Gianni Infantino, after he apologized for 'errors' over a failed plan to sell World Cup stakes but retained the body's backing.

Two curiosities round out the watch list: Myspace's would-be comeback as an 'antidote' to social media fatigue faces its skeptics, with analysts watching whether nostalgia can translate into users, and Pompeii's giant lobster invasion continues — the pop art installation is the ancient city's first contemporary sculpture exhibition in three decades.