Monday, July 19

· The United States released Moroccan prisoner Abdul Latif Nasser, who has been held since 2002 without being charged with a crime, from Guantanamo Bay. Nasser was recommended for discharge in 2016 but remained incarcerated for the entire term of former President Donald Trump. This is the first detainee release from Guantanamo since President Joe Biden took office.

· Attorney General Merrick Garland formally prohibited federal prosecutors from seizing records from journalists in leak investigations in a reversal of department policy, although he allowed for limited exceptions. The move was first announced in June following outcry after it was revealed the Trump administration obtained records belonging to journalists from a number of high-profile media outlets.

· A group of nations including the U.S. and the United Kingdom formally pinned the blame for a series of ransomware, data theft and cyber-espionage acts against public and private entities including Microsoft on actors affiliated with the Chinese government. Beijing called the claims “fabricated” and “hypocritical.”

· Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited the White House to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict among other matters with Biden.

· Paul Allard Hodgkins, a Jan. 6 Capitol rioter who broken into the Senate chamber with a Trump campaign flag and posed for selfies, pled guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and was sentenced to eight months behind bars, the first prison sentence among Capitol insurrectionists.

· The State Department announced it would begin evacuating about 2,500 Afghans who assisted the U.S. military in Afghanistan to Fort Lee, a military base in Virginia, while they wait for their special visas to be processed.

Tuesday, July 20

· The State Department announced it blocked former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and his family from traveling to the U.S. due to his alleged acceptance of bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for political favors.

· The Department of Homeland Security issued a new cybersecurity directive for natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines requiring that owners and operators adopt measures to protect against ransomware attacks and other threats to information technology.

· Trump’s inaugural committee chair Tom Barrack was arrested on foreign lobbying charges with seven counts of unlawfully trying to advance the interests of the United Arab Emirates without disclosing his affiliation.

Wednesday, July 21

· The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that U.S. life expectancy dropped by about 1.5 years overall during the coronavirus pandemic, from about 78 years, 10 months in 2019 to 77 years, four months last year.

· The Department of Homeland Security extended the closures of the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada for nonessential travel for another month until Aug. 21.

· House Republicans announced a boycott of a special committee to investigate the cause and events of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol assembled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Pelosi rejected two Republicans — Jim Jordan and Jim Banks — chosen by minority leader Kevin McCarthy.

· The U.S. and Germany reached a deal to allow the completion of the Nord Stream 2 project, which will run a gas pipeline from Russia into eastern and central Europe, without further sanctions.

· Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said Taliban fighters have gained “strategic momentum” in Afghanistan following the U.S.’s withdrawal of most troops from the country. “This is going to be a test now, of the will and leadership of the Afghan people, the Afghan security forces and the government of Afghanistan,” Milley told reporters.

Thursday, July 22

· The House voted to authorize 8,000 special visas for Afghans who served the U.S. during its occupation of Afghanistan, expanding eligibility to families of Afghans who were killed while working for the U.S. as well as for employees of non-governmental organizations.

· Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of the seriousness of the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant spreading throughout the country. “As long as this virus is out there anywhere, replicating, we’re going to see more variants, and those variants are going to come back and bite us as we’re already experiencing with Delta,” Blinken said in a TV interview.

Friday, July 23

· China imposed counter-sanctions against U.S. individuals including former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in response to U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials in Hong Kong.

Saturday, July 24

· The Justice Department filed to dismiss charges of visa fraud against Chinese scientists after the investigation was widely criticized as racially biased. A draft of an internal FBI analysis questioned the main premise for the investigation.

Sunday, July 25

· Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, who urged the U.S. to “change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy” toward China. Xie reportedly said “U.S.-China relations are in a standstill and face serious difficulties.”

· Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. is going “in the wrong direction” as COVID-19 cases rise sharply in the country, especially among the unvaccinated.

· Pelosi named Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger to the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Kinzinger, who has been critical of Trump in the past, “brings great patriotism to the committee’s mission: to find the facts and protect our democracy,” Pelosi said.

· Marine General Kenneth McKenzie vowed that the U.S. military will continue to offer air support to Afghan forces fighting the Taliban “if the Taliban continue their attacks” now that the U.S.’s ground forces have largely withdrawn from the country.

· Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, coronavirus truther and mask mandate opponent, announced that he and his family all contracted COVID-19.