Washington, DC

1. Washington honors Graham
2. Oval Office headway
3. Leagues review sports bill
4. Mail-in ballot fight heats up
5. Consumer confidence slides

Brent crude ▼ 4% as pause continues in Iran conflict.

Washington honors Lindsey Graham

Washington paid its respects to Sen. Lindsey Graham today with services honoring his life and legacy. At his funeral held at Washington National Cathedral, President Donald Trump said the South Carolina Republican “died doing the work he was born to do” and “went out at the peak of his career and the top of his game as a legend.” The service was attended by prominent world leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alongside Cabinet members including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Earlier in the day, his flag-draped coffin lay in the Rotunda in the Capitol, where lawmakers paid their respects — including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who traded his signature hoodie for a suit.

— Lauren Morganbesser

Zelenskyy meets Trump ahead of Russia sanctions vote

Zelenskyy made some headway in his meeting with a more sympathetic Trump earlier today. Zelenskyy described the meeting as “good” and said the two discussed licenses for Patriot interceptors and diplomacy; the Financial Times reported that Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner agreed to visit Kyiv as part of a renewed push to end the war (which would be their first trip to the country as part of the effort). The Senate will take its first vote on the long-stalled Russia sanctions bill later this evening; the test will be how many Democrats support it. The White House described Trump’s separate meetings today with Zelenskyy and Netanyahu as “positive and productive.” The Israeli prime minister finds himself on tougher footing with Trump than Zelenskyy, but each has one less friend in Washington without Graham.

Senators make new offer to Big Ten, SEC on college sports

The Senate Commerce Committee’s negotiators sent a revised version of the Protect College Sports Act to the Big Ten and SEC earlier today, asking for an answer on whether the power conferences are “on board” by 9 am tomorrow morning, according to people familiar with the conversations. Senate negotiators say they’ve made major concessions to the two big conferences. That includes allowing further conference expansion; permitting $20 million in additional money for athlete retention, plus $5 million for women’s sports; and making media rights pooling voluntary. Support from the two big leagues could pave the way for a big bipartisan vote in the Senate — and a possible floor vote before the August recess. SEC leaders believe they’ve made progress in renegotiating the bill, but both conferences now need to do a thorough review of the text.

— Burgess Everett

Mail-in ballot cases converge as SCOTUS petition looms

The legal fight over a Trump executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots narrowed over the last 24 hours to a central question: Can a court block it before agencies have figured out how to implement it? Trump’s lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court last night to lift an injunction blocking the order handed down by the First Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the lawsuit, brought by 23 states and DC, was premature because key agencies have not finalized relevant regulations. Today, in a separate lawsuit brought by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over the same executive order, the DC Circuit affirmed a lower court decision that allowed the order to proceed during litigation. Though today’s decision doesn’t technically create a textbook “circuit split,” it bolsters the administration’s argument that the First Circuit took an unusually expansive view of when courts should intervene.

Consumer sentiment slides in July

Consumer confidence slid in July as Americans’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions fell for the third month in a row, according to a monthly survey by The Conference Board. The drop was steeper than economists had predicted and captured a darker mood than the University of Michigan’s sentiment survey did earlier this month, when Americans appeared to be growing more optimistic on falling gas prices during a pause in the US-Iran conflict. Analysts had warned that renewed fighting could dampen momentum; that seems to have been borne out amid the recent resurgence of violence in the Gulf, which has tempered only in the last few days. The Federal Reserve will weigh in tomorrow, announcing its decision on interest rates.

White House

• The Trump administration plans to unveil bans targeting the imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters to try to protect the US AI buildout. — Reuters

Congress

• Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky asked Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to “verbally address” Kentucky voters to assure them he is fit to serve and, if he does not, Beshear asked Majority Leader John Thune to investigate and begin the process of expelling him from the Senate.
• Joint Base Charleston will be renamed in honor of Lindsey Graham, who served as South Carolina’s senator for 23 years.

Immigration

• The Trump administration adopted a new rule that could channel up to 440,000 asylum seekers into deportation proceedings without a hearing. — LA Times

National Security

• CENTCOM is launching a bilateral task force with the UAE to accelerate military uses for AI.

Health

• An official at the Food and Drug Administration said the US food supply is “safe” but that “challenges” remain in ending the cyclosporiasis outbreaks that have sickened 11,000 people. — NYT

World

• The UAE is quietly seeking to restart economic ties with Iran, including through flights and trade. — FT
• Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s new president.

Polls

• Half of Americans said in a poll that they cannot explain the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and one in three said the megabill “hurt their bottom line.” — Politico

Outside the Beltway

• An 82-year-old Minnesota woman successfully pushed for a new law allowing retirement homes to host alcohol-serving happy hours. — WaPo

— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his meeting with President Trump today.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel