The Daily Brief — July 27, 2026
Seattle shooting, court rejects voting executive order, new lawsuits against Trump tariffs
These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Catch up here on all the news.
Seattle Food Festival Shooting
Three people were killed and five others were injured yesterday in a shooting at a popular food festival in Seattle. Investigators believe two individuals were shooting at each other, not directly targeting the crowd. The wounded, including a 2-year-old boy, were hospitalized in stable condition.
One suspect, a 15-year old, is under arrest, and police are searching for a second but could not rule out that the second suspect was among those killed.
A witness told CNN he heard six to seven gunshots before people started running. What prompted the shooting is still unknown.
The festival began in 1982 and now draws about 350,000 attendees over its three days.
Court Rejects Voting Executive Order
A federal court of appeals rejected the Trump administration’s bid to enforce parts of President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting.
Trump signed the order on March 31, and it directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of citizens by state to determine voter eligibility. The order also instructs the US Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to voters on each state’s approved list and requires states to preserve election records for five years.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking the order, finding that it “directs unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections” and “would sow confusion and threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters” in this year’s midterm elections.
Twenty-three states and voting rights groups sued the administration in two separate lawsuits, arguing that the executive order is unconstitutional because the executive branch does not oversee elections. They also warned the order could disenfranchise millions of voters.
Today, the Trump administration appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court.
Iran War Casualties Top 600
The Trump administration is now saying a lot more US troops have been wounded in the Iran war than it previously disclosed. It also said that, going forward, any casualty after July 7 will not be counted toward the war’s official total.
The Pentagon’s official casualty tracker was updated over the weekend to add more than 140 additional wounded to the toll. The revised update means 624 have been wounded since the war began on February 28. Eighteen US service members have been killed.
Separately, the US has paused strikes on Iran for two straight days after 13 consecutive nights of bombing, and Iran has stopped attacks on US allies in the Middle East. Iran and Oman, both of which are adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, have been holding talks on reopening the waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
Newsbreak
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Paramount Puts Off Merger
Paramount has agreed to delay its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until as late as June 2027, or until antitrust lawsuits against the deal are resolved, whichever comes first.
The agreement pauses the $110 billion deal after 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America sued, arguing the merger of the two Hollywood studios would hurt competition and lead to higher prices for movies and streaming services and fewer movies and TV shows. A federal judge had already issued a temporary restraining order blocking the deal from closing.
The contract between the two companies imposes a fee if the merger is delayed, requiring Paramount to pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders an extra 25 cents per share for each quarter the deal remains unclosed, starting after Sept. 30 — amounting to about $650 million every three months.
Smithsonian Museum
President Trump has ordered “warning” signs placed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The signs present the administration’s view of what it calls inaccurate history inside.
The order directs the National Park Service, which controls the sidewalk outside the museum, to install signage and a temporary exhibit with links to “accurate information” as defined by the Trump administration.
The order follows a White House report released July 4 by Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, which said Smithsonian leadership “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”
Trump has repeatedly said the museum focuses too heavily on slavery. Last year he said that “the Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was.”
Lawsuits Against New Tariffs
Nine businesses have filed two separate lawsuits challenging President Trump’s latest tariffs, which impose double-digit levies on 60 trading partners, including the European Union.
Tariffs are paid by US companies that import goods from foreign countries. The administration says the 60 countries haven’t done enough to block goods made with forced labor from entering the US.
The lawsuits argue the government didn’t adequately justify the tariffs against each specific country or explain how the tariffs would fix the forced-labor problem, as the law requires. Learning Resources, one of the companies suing, was part of the earlier Supreme Court case that struck down Trump’s broader global tariffs.
Biden Drops Lawsuit
Joe Biden has dropped his lawsuit seeking to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with his memoir’s ghostwriter. So far, neither Biden nor his team has given an explanation for dropping the suit.
The material includes roughly 70 hours of recorded conversations and transcripts from 2016 and 2017 interviews with Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter of Biden’s memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.
The transcripts were requested through a Freedom of Information Act request from the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation to the Justice Department. Biden sued the DOJ in May to stop the release.
A three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2–1 last week that there’s a “substantial” public interest in releasing the material.
“…going forward, any casualty after July 7 will not be counted toward the war’s official total.” Why?