The Daily Brief — July 31, 2026
Water systems hacked, no immigrant detention without bail, Trump pushes for Blanche nomination
These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Catch up here on all the news.
Hamas Agrees to Disarm, With Conditions
The Board of Peace, a US-led international body overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition and reconstruction, announced a peace deal yesterday to disarm Hamas and resolve the conflict in Gaza. Hamas agreed to the deal today, but with conditions: Israel must withdraw from Gaza, fund reconstruction, and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, among other terms.
Israel has previously rejected the creation of a Palestinian state, and Israeli officials have said that the deal doesn’t meet their demand for Hamas’s full disarmament.
The agreement gives two weeks for Israel and Hamas to determine a schedule for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and for Hamas to surrender “heavy weapons,” a term used by Hamas.
The deal stems from the ceasefire Trump brokered between Israel and Hamas last October.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza since the October ceasefire, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Blow to “No Bail” Immigrant Detentions
Two federal appeals courts ruled yesterday that the Trump administration cannot detain immigrants already living in the US without offering them a bond hearing where they have a chance to show they can safely live in their communities while their deportation cases proceed.
The Ninth Circuit and Seventh Circuit each ruled 2–1 that a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act allowing mandatory detention without bond applies only to immigrants encountered at the border seeking to enter the US, not to people arrested after living in the country for years.
Four other circuit courts of appeals have also rejected the administration’s position, while two have sided with the government.
The Justice Department is already appealing a similar Sixth Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court.
Newsbreak
I’m so proud to share my new picture book, We Are Mighty, because it’s exactly the kind of book I wish more children had in their hands. It introduces young readers to 12 real people from America’s past who saw what needed doing and did it. Some were famous. Most were not. All of them mattered.
At a time when it can feel like courage belongs only to the powerful, this book offers children something better and truer: the reminder that ordinary people have always shaped history. If there is a child in your life who could use a little more hope, agency, and honest history, I would be honored for you to share it with them.
Water System Hack
The FBI and Environmental Protection Agency warned that water and wastewater utilities in at least seven states have been hit by coordinated cyberattacks this week, with some incidents severe enough to cause water pressure loss and flooding.
In Minnesota, which was hit hardest, more than 30 automated municipal water systems were targeted, forcing some utilities to switch to manual operations.
The attacks targeted the control systems utility companies use to run water towers and treatment plants. In Braham, MN, water treatment plant staff noticed the problem earlier this week and disconnected the hacked system from outside networks to prevent it from being accessed remotely again.
State and federal officials, including the FBI, haven’t formally attributed the hack to Iran, though it has the hallmarks of an Iranian attack. But officials are also weighing whether hackers deliberately made the intrusion look Iranian to inflame tensions during the ongoing US–Iran conflict.
Education Department Breakup Blocked
A Senate committee voted yesterday to advance a bill that would block the Trump administration from further dismantling the Department of Education (ED). Trump has sought to close the ED outright since his 2024 campaign, but only Congress can formally abolish it. Over the past year the administration instead transferred key department functions to other parts of the government.
The bill would prevent the department’s offices that oversee special education, K–12 programs, postsecondary education, and Native American education from being handed off to other agencies. The administration had already signed paperwork to set the transfers in motion during the past year, intending to move special education to Health and Human Services and other programs to the Labor and Interior departments.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted 13–9 to move the bill forward, with Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats, including lead sponsor Sen. Tim Kaine.
The bill heads to the full Senate but faces long odds.
Trump Pushes for “Anti-Weaponization” Fund
President Trump defended the proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund today, even though it has held up the confirmation of Todd Blanche as the attorney general. Trump said the fund is meant to compensate the “great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs” by the Biden DOJ, referring to the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump also accused Sen. John Cornyn of reversing his position on the fund only after Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent, who went on to defeat him.
Cornyn is among the Republicans delaying Blanche’s confirmation until he sees written assurances that the fund will not move forward. Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis — another Republican who has withheld his support from Blanche — also want the DOJ to modify the scope of a separate part of the settlement that shields Trump and his family from tax audits. They want to ensure the shield applies only to past returns, not future ones. But Blanche has refused to meet those demands.
Blanche met with the two senators yesterday, and the sides were reportedly making progress toward resolving the confirmation dispute. A confirmation vote seems unlikely to take place before the Senate is set to leave for August recess next week, however.
Migrant Surge
Spain deployed troops and police to its North African territory of Ceuta yesterday after tens of thousands of migrants crossed the border from Morocco.
Fifty thousand to 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta, a small city. At least 34 people died, most by drowning, according to local officials. It is not yet clear what triggered the surge.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez traveled to Ceuta today and called the crossing “a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity,” and officials say roughly half of those who crossed have already been sent back to Morocco.
Why should trump and his family get any sort of shield from audits? If anything their taxes should be under more scrutiny than most.