Monday, July 25

• Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said he would place a hold on United States security assistance to Rwanda over concerns about the Rwandan government’s human rights record and role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Rwanda.

Tuesday, July 26

• Family members of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces in May, met with Secretary of State Blinken to renew their demands for justice and accountability from Israel via U.S. investigation.

· Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), who heads the House committee that oversees inspectors general, and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Jan. 6 committee and the Homeland Security Committee, called on Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to step aside from his office’s investigation into the Secret Service’s deletion of text messages from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying his office had admitted in congressional briefings that it became aware that agents’ text messages were erased in December 2021, but did not report that to Congress until this month.

Wednesday, July 27

• President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 after contracting the virus last week. He also gave a speech praising his administration for the progress it made against COVID-19 and renewed his calls for Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.
• Blinken said the U.S. put a “substantial proposal on the table” to facilitate the release of U.S. citizens Brittney Griner, a basketball star, and Paul Whelan, a former marine, who are both held by Russia in what the U.S. has called “wrongful detention.”
• The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points, each of which is one hundredth of 1 percentage point, for the second time in two months, to fight the U.S.’s highest inflation in more than 40 years. “The current picture is plain to see. The labor market is extremely tight, and inflation is much too high,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said.
• The Senate passed legislation to subsidize the domestic semiconductor industry in an effort to boost U.S. companies against their Chinese competitors as well as alleviate shortages. The Senate passed the bill 64 to 33.

Thursday, July 28

• Congress passed the bi-partisan CHIPS and Science Act, which provides $52 billion for semiconductor production subsidies and research and development and outlines a vision for U.S. science policy more broadly.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan during their fifth phone call. Xi stressed that U.S. should abide by the “one-China principle” and stressed that China opposed “interference” with Taiwan by external forces.
• The Coast Guard reported that at least five migrants drowned and another 66, including two minors, were rescued in an incident involving a suspected human smuggling boat near Mona Island, an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico. The bodies were found on Thursday by Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Park Rangers.
• The Washington Post reported that text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, increasing the volume of missing potential evidence about the time around the attack.
• The New York Times reported that the Biden administration expects to begin a COVID-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September.
• The Department of Labor reported that fewer Americans applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in four weeks. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending July 23 declined by 5,000 to 256,000 from the previous week’s 261,000.

Friday, July 29

• The House passed a bill to reinstate a long-expired ban on assault weapons. It was approved by a 217 to 213 vote in the Democrat-majority House. All but two Republicans voted against it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the bill a “crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our nation.” It is unlikely to succeed in the evenly divided Senate.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that vessels off the east coast of the U.S. need to slow down more often to help save North Atlantic right whales, a vanishing species of whale, from extinction. “Changes to the existing vessel speed regulation are essential to stabilize the ongoing right whale population decline and prevent the species’ extinction,” the proposed rules states.
• Blinken said he urged the Kremlin to accept a proposal for the release of U.S. citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, who are detained in Russia, in exchange for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, during a call with Blinken’s Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Saturday, July 30

• Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again in a rare “rebound” case following treatment with an anti-viral drug. White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter that Biden “has experienced no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well.”
• White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, who announced early in July that she was stepping down, said that she had decided to remain in her position. “I’m not done here and there is so much more good work to do with all of you,” Bedingfield said.

Sunday, July 31

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi started a tour of four Asian countries: Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. “The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,” a statement read. Biden administration officials later said they expect the trip to include a stop in Taiwan as well, which could draw ire from China.