The Afternoon Wire is The Investigative Journal’s daily afternoon news briefing covering government, the courts, and international affairs.
Good afternoon. Russia’s overnight missile and drone barrage on the Kyiv region killed 17 people in one of the deadliest strikes of the summer, according to Ukrainian officials. In Washington, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination cleared committee and heads to the Senate floor, while Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary remained too close to call. Federal courts handed the administration a split week on immigration enforcement. Here is where things stand as of Wednesday afternoon.
Government
Blanche nomination advances to the Senate floor
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines Tuesday to advance the nomination of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the full Senate, CBS News reported. The vote followed Blanche’s decision, disclosed late Sunday, to formally rescind the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” a move that The Washington Post reports resolved a standoff with Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, whose support had been in doubt.
The path forward is not without friction. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she will vote no on the floor, according to CNBC — meaning Blanche, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, can afford to lose no more than two additional Republicans if Democrats vote as a bloc. A simple majority is required for confirmation; the timing of the floor vote had not been formally announced as of Wednesday afternoon.
Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary too close to call
Former Detroit health director Abdul El-Sayed held a narrow lead over Rep. Haley Stevens on Wednesday in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, with returns showing roughly 49 percent to 47 percent, according to The Detroit News. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who ended her campaign July 5 but remained on the ballot, drew about 4 percent. NBC News’ live results showed the race uncalled hours after polls closed.
The contest — a proxy fight between the party’s progressive wing, which backed El-Sayed, and its establishment, which lined up behind Stevens — is reported to be the most expensive Democratic Senate primary on record, with total spending estimated near $80 million. Voters in Washington state also went to the polls Tuesday, where all 10 U.S. House districts held top-two primaries, per The Washington Post.
Senate panel to vote Thursday on Fauci contempt resolution
Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a resolution Tuesday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, with a committee vote posted for Thursday’s business meeting agenda, the Washington Examiner reported. The move follows a July 29 hearing at which Fauci, appearing under subpoena, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights repeatedly rather than answer questions about pandemic-era research funding, according to NPR.
Paul has said that if the resolution clears committee he will send a referral directly to the Justice Department, arguing that a refusal to testify would fall outside the scope of the preemptive pardon Fauci received covering conduct between 2014 and January 2025. It should be noted that invoking the Fifth Amendment is a constitutionally protected right and is not a finding of wrongdoing; no charges have been filed, and any contempt question would remain an allegation unless and until adjudicated.
U.S. revokes visa of Brazil’s ambassador in escalating diplomatic row
The State Department revoked the U.S. visa of Brazilian Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, CNN reported Tuesday, in what officials described as a response to Brasília’s weeks-long delay in approving President Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Brazil, Florida state Rep. Daniel Perez. A State Department official said the action would be reversed if Brazil grants the approval, per U.S. News & World Report.
Officials emphasized that a visa revocation is not an expulsion, and Viotti’s status in Washington was not immediately affected. Brazil moved to revoke a U.S. official’s visa in a reciprocal step, according to wire reports, and the dispute comes atop earlier friction over Brazil’s denial of visas to two State Department human rights officials. The exchange lands months before elections in Brazil, adding a political charge to what both sides still describe as a procedural disagreement.
Courts
Decision point today in work-permit and asylum-fee challenge
A closely watched immigration stay reaches its limit Wednesday: Judge Nathaniel Gorton of the federal district court in Boston had barred retroactive application of new time limits on immigrant work permits and asylum fees enacted in a 2025 law “until at least Aug. 5,” according to Bloomberg Law. Filings indicate the stay was designed to prevent workers with previously valid authorization from losing jobs while the court weighs the merits.
What happens next — an extension, a merits ruling, or a lapse — will determine whether the new limits begin applying retroactively to existing permit holders. Employers and immigration attorneys have told courts the retroactivity question affects workers whose authorizations were issued under prior rules, records in the case suggest.
Somalia TPS stay extends a running battle over court authority
Judge Allison Burroughs issued an administrative stay Friday preserving Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals while she considers an amended complaint alleging Fifth Amendment violations in the termination, Fox News reported. The plaintiffs, led by African Communities Together, refiled after the Supreme Court’s June ruling sharply limited lower courts’ ability to block TPS terminations, shifting their theory to constitutional discrimination claims, per The Washington Times.
The administration has pushed back sharply: DHS General Counsel James Percival characterized the order publicly as part of a pattern of lower-court “defiance, obstruction, and delay” following the Supreme Court’s decision. The stay came days after a federal appeals court struck down similar stays covering Ethiopia and South Sudan, underscoring how narrow the remaining legal path for TPS plaintiffs has become. The underlying case remains pending, and no court has ruled on the merits of the discrimination claims.
Split ruling in New York: mask ban blocked, 287(g) ban stands
Judge Mae D’Agostino granted a preliminary injunction Monday blocking New York’s ban on federal agents wearing masks during operations, holding that the state measure conflicts with the Constitution’s supremacy clause. “New York cannot impose its own uniform requirements on federal agents simply because it disagrees with how the Federal Government is exercising its authority,” she wrote, according to Courthouse News Service.
The ruling was not a clean sweep for the federal government. D’Agostino declined to enjoin New York’s “Termination Act,” which bars state and local agencies from entering or maintaining 287(g) immigration enforcement agreements with federal authorities and takes effect Aug. 25, Gothamist reported. The split outcome preserves state control over its own agencies’ cooperation while stopping the state from regulating federal personnel directly — a distinction likely to recur as similar laws advance elsewhere.
Border wall construction may proceed in Big Bend area
A federal judge declined to block construction of the administration’s planned border wall segments in the Big Bend region of Texas, ruling that plaintiffs could not sustain claims under a federal environmental statute because the administration lawfully exercised waiver authority that bypasses it, Houston Public Media reported. The decision clears a near-term legal obstacle for one of the more geographically contested stretches of planned barrier, though litigation over other aspects of the project continues.
International
Russian barrage kills 17 in Kyiv region; no missiles intercepted
Russian strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded 44 overnight into Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, in an attack Ukrainian authorities said comprised 24 ballistic missiles, four Zircon or Oniks missiles, and 115 drones, according to Associated Press reporting carried by NPR. Ukraine’s air force said preliminary data showed none of the missiles were shot down, with impacts recorded across 26 locations. Zelenskyy said the strikes hit civilian sites including a brewery, building-materials warehouses, and a Nova Poshta mail-sorting center; Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed the facilities handled dual-use goods tied to drone production. The accounts could not immediately be reconciled.
The barrage underscores Ukraine’s acute shortage of interceptors for U.S.-made Patriot systems — the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing ballistic missiles — a shortage NPR reports has been worsened by demand from the Iran war. “Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine, for its part, continued deep strikes into Russia, hitting a Wildberries logistics warehouse in the Tula region — by a Ukrainian tally, the 14th warehouse of Russia’s largest online retailer struck in under three weeks.
Rubio cites progress, “not finality,” in Strait of Hormuz talks
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiators have made progress in Oman-mediated talks with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz “but not finality yet,” according to CBS News’ live coverage, while President Trump said further details would be announced “in 48 hours,” per ABC News. The talks are aimed at converting the memorandum of understanding both countries signed in June — following the major combat operations the president announced Feb. 28 — into a durable war-ending arrangement.
The regional picture remains volatile. Yemen’s Houthis claimed a drone strike on what they called a “sensitive target” at an airport in southern Saudi Arabia and an attack on a Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu in the Red Sea, framed as part of their declared maritime blockade of the kingdom. Those claims could not be independently verified, and Saudi authorities had not confirmed damage as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the same coverage.
Ceuta counts its dead as Europe scrambles on border response
Spain is still tallying the human cost of last week’s mass crossing into Ceuta, when an estimated 60,000 people surged into the North African enclave from Morocco in roughly a day, most by swimming, NPR reported. Spanish officials’ death toll estimates have climbed from 57 to at least 88, according to Euronews, with Moroccan officials citing lower figures; many victims reportedly drowned or were crushed at the breakwater. Roughly 90 percent of those who crossed had returned to Morocco by Saturday, per NPR.
The fallout is reshaping European border politics in real time: Spain is installing a 500-meter floating containment barrier along the breakwater, 22 EU member states have called for coordinated border action, and Italy suspended passport-free Schengen travel with Spain, Euronews reported. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the enclave as his government faces questions over preparedness and over Rabat’s role in policing the frontier.
Congo Ebola deaths pass 1,700 in fastest-growing outbreak on record
The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 1,707 people out of 3,802 recorded cases as of Tuesday, The Hill reported, making it the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease since its discovery — outpacing even the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic’s early trajectory. The outbreak, declared May 15, involves the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved treatment, according to STAT News.
Health officials say contact tracing is effectively not working in the region, hampered by armed conflict, attacks on health centers, community mistrust, and a significant funding gap — meaning the outbreak’s true scale may be undercounted. The World Health Organization is moving to accelerate therapeutic and vaccine trials, data from the response indicates, but responders warn the window to contain regional spread is narrowing.
Tomorrow’s Watch
Fauci contempt vote. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up Sen. Paul’s contempt resolution at Thursday’s business meeting, per the committee’s posted agenda. If it advances, watch for the promised referral to the Justice Department — and the legal debate over the pardon’s scope.
Jobless claims, 8:30 a.m. ET. The Labor Department releases weekly initial unemployment claims, a reading that has drawn added scrutiny amid recent signs of a cooling labor market, via the DOL’s weekly report.
Michigan, called or contested. Absentee and provisional counts could decide the El-Sayed–Stevens race Thursday; a razor-thin margin raises the possibility of a recount fight in one of 2026’s marquee Senate battlegrounds.
Iran announcement window. President Trump’s stated “48 hours” for further details on the Iran talks points to a possible announcement as soon as Thursday; any Hormuz arrangement would carry immediate implications for shipping, oil markets, and Patriot interceptor allocation.
Hiroshima at 81. Japan marks the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, an annual moment for nuclear policy debate that lands this year amid active questions about proliferation and missile defense. The House holds a pro forma session at 9 a.m.; the chamber remains in August recess.