Michigan, Kansas and Missouri Primaries Will Set Fall Matchups

Senate Advances Stopgap Bill to Head Off Shutdown

ICE Detentions Reach Record as Airport Enforcement Expands

OpenAI Says Astra Solved 10 Long-Open Math Problems

Wall Street Sets Records as Amazon Soars and Oil Slides

Michigan, Kansas and Missouri Primaries Will Set Fall Matchups

Voters in Michigan, Kansas and Missouri will head to the polls Tuesday for primaries that will shape several major November contests. Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary will pit U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens against former Wayne County health official Abdul El-Sayed for the nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters. Stevens will represent the party's establishment wing and El-Sayed its progressive wing, echoing a broader national Democratic debate over the party's direction. In Kansas, seven Republicans led by Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Senate President Ty Masterson and Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt will compete for governor, while Democrats will choose among state Sens. Ethan Corson and Cindy Holscher and Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog. Missouri voters will settle congressional primaries in three districts. The outcomes will establish fall matchups with implications for control of the U.S. Senate and state governments across the region.

WNDU / FOX 2 Detroit / KCUR

Senate Advances Stopgap Bill to Head Off Shutdown

The Senate voted 89–4 on Monday to advance a bipartisan stopgap spending bill that would maintain current government funding through Dec. 11. The measure, negotiated by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine and Vice Chair Patty Murray of Washington, would prevent a funding lapse after Sept. 30 and a shutdown weeks before the November midterm elections. It runs one week longer than the version House Republicans passed, restores program extensions omitted by the House and temporarily blocks a legally contested White House budget office proposal to expand political appointees' control over federal grants. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expected passage before the August recess, but both chambers must approve identical legislation amid pressure from some House Republicans and President Donald Trump for different terms. The broad Senate vote reduces the immediate risk of another shutdown after last fall's 43-day closure, while deferring major spending decisions until a lame-duck session in December.

Roll Call / NBC News / CBS News / Senate Appropriations Committee

ICE Detentions Reach Record as Airport Enforcement Expands

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took more than 46,000 people into custody in July, the highest monthly total of the second Trump administration, according to federal data released over the weekend. As the White House pushes the agency toward 2,000 arrests per day, ICE has deployed officers to at least 15 major U.S. airports to work with the Transportation Security Administration in identifying travelers flagged for overstaying visas. The effort drew attention after agents arrested Fatima Ameaka, a Cameroonian public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore/Washington International Airport before she was released; the Department of Homeland Security said her visa expired in June 2024. DHS highlighted weekend arrests of people convicted of homicide and sexual offenses, while critics said the broader enforcement also captures longtime workers, students and researchers without criminal records. The record detention total and airport deployments show the administration expanding the scale and reach of its immigration enforcement program ahead of the midterm elections.

CBS News / ABC News / DHS

OpenAI Says Astra Solved 10 Long-Open Math Problems

OpenAI said Saturday that an internal version of its next major model family, Astra, produced solutions to 10 problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science that had each remained open for at least a decade. The company said the results included improved high-dimensional sphere-packing bounds, advances in coding theory and circuit complexity, and a construction establishing the existence of non-sofic groups. OpenAI published manuscripts and machine-checkable proof certificates in Lean 4, allowing researchers to test the proofs with software, and estimated the work used about $2,000 in computing at current API rates. Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers said he would recommend one of the proofs for a top journal without hesitation, but the broader set of claims remains subject to scrutiny by the mathematical community. OpenAI did not release Astra or announce a launch date, describing it as a model family intended to work on difficult problems for longer periods than current chat systems. If independently validated, the results would offer evidence that frontier AI systems can produce original, research-grade mathematics and would add to debate about the pace of AI development.

OpenAI / The Decoder / Gizmodo / The Next Web

Wall Street Sets Records as Amazon Soars and Oil Slides

U.S. stocks began August with a broad Monday rally as the S&P 500 closed at a record 7,489.72, the Dow gained about 700 points to set its own record and the Nasdaq rose about 2%. Amazon's market value surpassed $3 trillion for the first time as its shares climbed about 5% to a record $285.01 following an earnings report that showed Amazon Web Services growing at its fastest pace in more than four years. The company became the fifth to reach the threshold, after Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet, and added its latest trillion dollars in market value in just over two years amid demand for artificial intelligence computing. West Texas Intermediate crude fell more than 6% to about $79 a barrel after President Donald Trump called off planned strikes on Iran and Tehran signaled progress in talks to reopen shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The decline in oil eased inflation concerns and supported transportation, consumer and financial stocks, although chipmakers lagged. The session underscored how AI investment and developments in the Middle East are influencing stock valuations and broader market sentiment.

TheStreet / CNBC / U.S. News & World Report

AUGUST 4, 1790: ALEXANDER HAMILTON CREATES COAST GUARD TO INTERCEPT SMUGGLERS

Alexander Hamilton persuaded the first U.S. Congress to fund a fleet of swift “revenue cutters” to patrol ports from Massachusetts to Georgia, intercept smugglers and enforce tariff laws. In a young nation without an income tax, these vessels became a crucial tool to secure customs revenue and stabilize the federal government’s post–Revolutionary War finances.

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Sources

1. WNDU / FOX 2 Detroit / KCUR
2. Roll Call: Aug. 3 / Roll Call: Aug. 2 / NBC News / CBS News / Senate Appropriations Committee
3. CBS News / ABC News / CBS News Baltimore / DHS
4. OpenAI / The Decoder / Gizmodo / The Next Web
5. TheStreet / CNBC / U.S. News & World Report