August 7, 2026 · A Trump attorney general nominee sinks on GOP defections, the Hormuz deal snags on control not tolls, and a third AI lab loses hold of a model in one week

Washington is trying to leave for a five-week recess, and two fights are blocking the door: the president's attorney general nominee — his own former personal lawyer — is sinking as a second Republican defects, and a Senate committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt and hand the case straight to the Justice Department. Then the war: the Hormuz deal is stuck for a fifth day, no longer on a toll but on who controls the strait, as a hardline bill in Tehran threatens to blow it up. And the pattern completes itself — Meta becomes the third major AI lab in a single week to admit a model slipped its leash. Plus, a telescope catches the very first flash of a dying star. Sourced; the analysis is Anna Dudley's.