Senate Advances Russia Sanctions 86–12 as Washington Buries Lindsey Graham

New Rule Skips Asylum Interviews to Clear a Seven-Year Backlog, Sending 444,000 Cases to Judges

New York Finalizes First-in-Nation Rules Restricting Algorithmic Feeds for Minors

China Begins Mass-Producing Chipmaking Machines the U.S. Tried to Keep Out of Its Hands

Iran Launches Surprise Missile Attack on U.S. Forces, Shattering a Two-Day Pause in the War

Senate Advances Russia Sanctions 86–12 as Washington Buries Lindsey Graham

The Senate voted 86–12 on the evening of July 28, 2026, to advance the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia Act, a package of sweeping new sanctions aimed at Russia's war economy, hours after official Washington gathered at the Capitol Rotunda and the Washington National Cathedral to memorialize the bill's namesake. Graham, the South Carolina Republican who championed tougher Russia sanctions for years, died of an aortic dissection — a tear in the body's main artery — earlier this month at age 71, hours after returning from a trip to Ukraine; President Trump spoke at the invitation-only cathedral service, and Graham's sister, Darline Graham, has been appointed to finish his Senate term. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were both in Washington for the funeral. The 86–12 procedural vote — far more than the 60 votes needed — shows support well beyond a veto-proof majority, a rarity for major legislation in a closely divided Senate. The bill still needs final passage in the Senate and action in the House before it can reach the president's desk.

US News / U.S. Senate / Spectrum News

New Rule Skips Asylum Interviews to Clear a Seven-Year Backlog, Sending 444,000 Cases to Judges

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a rule on July 28, 2026, effective immediately, aimed at breaking the bottleneck in a backlog of roughly 1.4 million pending asylum applications — a queue in which applicants may wait more than 7.3 years for resolution, by the Department of Homeland Security's own estimate in the rule — by letting asylum officers skip the initial interview and send cases directly to immigration judges. The agency estimates the change could move up to 444,000 cases, nearly a third of the backlog, to the Justice Department's immigration courts, where applicants still receive a hearing before a judge but lose the interview with a trained asylum officer that has long been the first step. The rule covers people who entered the country first — on visas or across the border — and then came forward on their own to request asylum before the government moved to deport them; new arrivals at the southern border are handled separately under the reinstated Remain in Mexico program, which since January 2025 has required them to wait in Mexico while their cases proceed.

The Department of Homeland Security argues that years-long waits invite abuse of the system for delay and work permits, and that clearing the queue will let officers focus interviews where they are most needed. Immigration lawyers counter that the interview is where officers assess whether an applicant's fear of persecution is credible, and that the rule shifts cases from one queue to another — the 1.4 million figure is USCIS's own docket, while the immigration courts carry a separate backlog of more than 3 million removal cases, which DHS acknowledges in the rule the referrals will initially grow; court challenges are expected. Issued as an "interim final rule," the change took effect before public comment, and it will shape how hundreds of thousands of people already living in the United States make their case to stay.

Federal Register / USCIS / KTEP / Newsweek / Democracy Now / Vision Times

New York Finalizes First-in-Nation Rules Restricting Algorithmic Feeds for Minors

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, July 28, released the final rules implementing the state's SAFE for Kids Act, making New York the first state to put enforceable limits on the algorithmic social media feeds served to children. The rules require platforms to show users under 18 only content from accounts they follow or select — presented in a set order, such as chronological — unless a parent consents to a personalized feed, and they bar overnight notifications to minors between midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. They apply to platforms whose users spend at least 20 percent of their time on algorithm-driven feeds, and violations carry civil penalties of up to $5,000 each, enforceable by the attorney general. Publication in the State Register on July 29 starts a 180-day clock, making the law effective January 25, 2027. The 2024 statute was the nation's first to target algorithmic feeds for minors, and Tuesday's action moves it from paper to enforcement; James told platforms "you're on notice." The rules set a template other states are likely to copy and tee up a probable First Amendment court fight with the tech industry, which has challenged similar laws elsewhere.

NY Attorney General / NY Governor's Office / NY State of Politics

China Begins Mass-Producing Chipmaking Machines the U.S. Tried to Keep Out of Its Hands

Reuters reported on July 28, 2026, that China has begun mass production of domestically built immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines — the enormously complex tools that project circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, which until now only ASML of the Netherlands and two Japanese firms could supply. A little-known state-owned company, Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group, absorbed teams from China's leading lithography startups and expects to deliver about five machines this year to Chinese chipmakers SMIC, Hua Hong and CXMT, with roughly 20 more in 2027. For years the United States, working with the Netherlands and Japan, has used export controls on exactly this kind of equipment to slow China's development of advanced chips for artificial intelligence and weapons systems. A homegrown supply would blunt that lever, and ASML's shares fell as much as 8 percent on the news, which also helped set off the selloff in Asian chip stocks. There are real caveats: some critical components still come from Japan, delays at local suppliers have held back output, and DUV machines remain a generation behind the extreme-ultraviolet systems used for the most advanced chips. Even so, if the machines work at scale, a central assumption of U.S. technology policy — that China cannot build the tools it is barred from buying — no longer holds, which is why the report rattled markets from Amsterdam to Seoul.

Reuters / CNBC / TrendForce

Iran Launches Surprise Missile Attack on U.S. Forces, Shattering a Two-Day Pause in the War

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired multiple ballistic missiles at American forces in the Middle East at about 5:45 p.m. Eastern time on July 28, 2026, in what U.S. Central Command described as an attempted surprise attack; the military said all of the missiles were intercepted and reported no casualties. Within hours, U.S. and Saudi fighter jets struck weapons and logistics sites across eastern Iraq that the Pentagon tied to more than 30 Iranian-directed drone attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi energy facilities over the previous 72 hours. The exchange ended a two-day pause in American airstrikes that President Donald Trump had ordered to give diplomacy room, and it came the same day Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Iran's foreign ministry had said a day earlier that it was not negotiating with the United States and was talking only with Oman about the future of the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane that carries roughly one-fifth of the world's oil. Oil prices, which had fallen nearly 9 percent a day earlier on hopes the pause would hold, rose about 4 percent after news of the attack. The failed strike and the immediate U.S.–Saudi response signal that the war is escalating rather than winding down, keeping American troops in direct combat with Iran and leaving world energy markets hostage to each new exchange.

CNN / ABC News / News4Jax / Spectrum News / CNBC

JULY 29, 1958: NASA CREATED

The U.S. Congress establishes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a civilian agency to coordinate America’s activities in space, responding to the Soviet Union’s surprise launch of Sputnik. NASA’s creation marks the formal start of the U.S.–Soviet space race and leads to missions that reshape global communications, navigation, and humanity’s understanding of the solar system.

This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our AI policy.

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Sources

1. US News / U.S. Senate / US News / Spectrum News
2. Federal Register / USCIS / KTEP / Newsweek / Democracy Now / Vision Times
3. NY Attorney General / NY Governor's Office / NY State of Politics
4. Reuters via WTVB / Reuters via Kathmandu Post / CNBC / TrendForce
5. CNN / ABC News / News4Jax / Spectrum News / CNBC