Monday, Aug. 8

• President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Kentucky to survey damage caused by the state’s worst flooding in its history. The disaster, which was caused by upwards of 10 inches of rain in 48 hours, has caused the deaths of at least 37 people. Biden pledged continued support from the federal government for the people of Kentucky.
• Former President Donald Trump said federal agents raided his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. The FBI later revealed the action was part of an investigation into Trump’s alleged removal of presidential records from the White House.
• A federal judge sentenced father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael to life in prison for a federal hate crime in the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man whom the McMichaels shot while he was jogging in a suburban Georgia neighborhood. The McMichaels’ neighbor and co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan was sentenced to 35 years. These sentences are in addition to life sentences each is serving from their conviction in state court.
• The Pentagon announced another round of aid to Ukraine with $1 billion in military support. Separately, the World Bank said it would provide another $4.5 billion in budgetary assistance to the Ukrainian government, also financed by the U.S. government,.
• The Treasury Department announced sanctions against the virtual currency “mixer” Tornado Cash, which is under suspicion of laundering at least $7 billion in virtual currency, over $455 million of which was allegedly done for a hacking organization called the Lazarus Group that is associated with North Korea. A “mixer” is a service for virtual currency transactions that is purported to increase privacy but is often used for laundering.

Tuesday, Aug. 9

• The Department of Homeland Security announced that it is ending the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols policy, informally known as the “remain in Mexico” rule, that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings on their immigration status.
• Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law, a bill providing $52.7 billion in subsidies for U.S. semiconductor manufacturers and research to boost the domestic chip-making industry so it can compete with its East Asian counterparts, especially China, Taiwan and South Korea. “The future is going to be made in America,” Biden said, calling the law “a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”
• A federal appeals court ruled that the House Ways and Means Committee has the right to see Trump’s tax returns. Trump argued that the request was politically motivated; the appeals court concluded that the request was consistent with the committee’s legislative work.
• The Food and Drug Administration announced emergency use authorization for a monkeypox vaccination method that could expand the availability of doses: A dosing technique that allows healthcare providers to extract more doses of the vaccine per vial, which the FDA says could increase vaccine availability “by up to five-fold.”

Wednesday, Aug. 10

• Biden signed into law the PACT Act, which expands healthcare for about 3.5 million impacted veterans who were exposed to toxins during their service, including smoke from burn pits used to burn waste such as plastic tires, batteries, explosives, human feces and chemicals in Iraq and Afghanistan. The law will provide more than $280 billion over a 10-year period for expanded healthcare and disability benefits.
• Trump sat for hours giving a deposition to the New York Attorney General in which he refused to answer questions over 400 times, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
• Zhang Hanhui, the Chinese ambassador to Moscow, called the United States the “main instigator” of the war in Ukraine, saying that the U.S.’s “ultimate goal is to exhaust and crush Russia with a protracted war and the cudgel of sanctions.”
• The Justice Department accused Shahram Poursafi, an alleged member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of plotting to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton, likely in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in 2020. The department claims Poursafi offered someone $300,000 to carry out the killing.
• Biden again implored the Syrian government to come to an agreement to release photojournalist Austin Tice and send him home 10 years after his abduction. Tice was abducted in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2012. “We know with certainty that he has been held by the Syrian regime,” Biden said. “We have repeatedly asked the government of Syria to work with us so that we can bring Austin home.”

Thursday, Aug. 11

• Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, saying he had personally approved it. “The [Justice] Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland told reporters.
• Thomas Robertson, a former Virginia police sergeant, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison for his involvement in the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig against using new Congress-approved resources to increase audits for households making below $400,000 annually, following Republican pressure to do so. “Specifically, I direct that any additional resources — including any new personnel or auditors that are hired — shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” Yellen said.
• An armed man wearing body armor was killed by state and federal law enforcement officials after he tried to breach the Cincinnati FBI office. The shooting occurred after a motor vehicle chase on an interstate highway, followed by an hours-long standoff. Officials did not identify the armed man.

Friday, Aug. 12

• The FBI revealed that it had recovered 11 sets of top secret classified records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida during its raid on Monday. It did not provide a lot of specific details about the documents or what information they might contain except that some are in the highest level of classification for U.S. government documents.
• Congress passed the Democratic Party’s $430 billion climate and healthcare bill with a 220-207 vote in the House. The bill includes $375 billion to encourage a shift away from fossil fuels and $64 billion to help people cover health insurance premiums. The bill had already been passed by the Senate.

Saturday, Aug. 13

• American spy agencies released an intelligence assessment that shows Al Qaeda has not reconstituted its presence in Afghanistan since the U.S. withdrawal last August and that only a few members remain in the country.

Sunday, Aug. 14

• A five-person delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Taiwan for a two-day visit that included a meet with President Tsai Ing-wen. The delegations was led by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey and included Democratic Reps. John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal of California, Don Beyer of Virginia, and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa. “The delegation will meet with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains, climate change, and other significant issues of mutual interest,” said the American Institute, the U.S.’s de facto Taiwan embassy.