Bellwether Report – Week Ending August 7, 2026

By STAFF

This week’s report covers political, world, cultural, market, and sci-tech news from August 1-7, 2026

This report contains the Global Outlook, Headlines Missed, and People Advance Reports.

TOP NEWS TAGS

1. 2026 Elections
2. Iran War
3. Progressive State
4. Fauci Watch
5. Judgefare
6. Todd Blanche Nomination
7. Ukraine War
8. AI Governance
9. Planvasion EU
10. Trump Deportations

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

1. THUNE LETS SAVE ACT DIE – The SAVE Act, aka the SAVE America Act, came closer to not being passed before the summer recess thanks to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). The last attempt failed to pass by a vote of 48-50.

It now appears increasingly likely that mass mailer elections will continue at least until 2026, giving Democrats a decided advantage. For the progressive state press, this defeat of Voter ID legislation was celebrated. At the time of this report, the status of the recess break is still unknown. The Senate is scheduled to take up numerous issues today, including the Todd Blanche nomination.

2. NO DEAL ON HORMUZ, SAYS U.S. – There is no real ceasefire deal in place in the Iran War, and Iran’s recently announced plan for the Strait of Hormuz has been rejected by the U.S. In response to Iran’s plans, the U.S. officially stated, “Any temporary routes will be without any impediments — meaning no approvals or permissions and no tolls or charges. The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway and no party controls the lanes or the ability to transit through them.”
3. MIXED NIGHT FOR DSA IN LATEST PRIMARY ROUND – In Michigan, the DSA won the Democratic nominations for U.S. Senate and the 13^th U.S. House but lost the 7^th House Race and the Governors’ Race. On Thursday, a Trump-backed U.S. House candidate lost in an upset. Andy Ogles (R-KY) lost his primary race to Charlie Hatcher. He is the incumbent, and a reliable Trump ally.

In Missouri, the “moderate’ Democrat defeated the far-left progressive in the Missouri 1^st House. In Virginia, the “moderate” Democrats won most House races. For Tuesday’s Trump-endorsed candidates, it was a near sweep in all races, which include Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, and Washington.

4. PROGRESSIVE STATE DA’S FORMED CONFIDENTIAL GROUP TO PLOT JUDGEFARE ASSAULT ON SECOND TRUMP PRESIDENCY – Democrat State Attorneys from across the country were coordinating their efforts to plot legal entanglements for President Trump before the 2024 election, while Biden was still running against Trump.

The group was called “Privileged & Confidential Common Interest Agreement.” It was a secret society of progressive DAs who wanted to go outside the bounds of government accountability record-keeping to plot their intentions to sabotage the Trump Presidency. What hasn’t been revealed is whether progressive judges were in that group.

5. WAPO “LEAKERS” CALLED TREASONOUS BY TRUMP AFTER CLAIMING U.S. LOW IN MUNITIONS – After a Washington Post article claimed an “insider” revealed to them that U.S. long-range munitions were running low due to the Iran war, President Trump accused the “leakers” of being treasonous.

President Trump wrote, “The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history. The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought.”

6. AFTER CEUTA INVASION, SPAIN WANTS ITALY TO OPEN UP – When a coastal city in Spain was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of “migrants” from Morocco after Spain declared amnesty for any comers, Italy closed its borders. Now, Spain is demanding Italy open its borders within two days.

The Spanish government declared, “We urge the government of Italy to rectify, put an end to the checks and treat Spaniards like other European citizens,” the government said in a statement. If it does not do so before the end of Sunday, August 9, Spain will be obliged to adopt proportional measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens.”

7. BURNHAM JAIL BREAK MAY HAVE CONVICTED CHILD RAPE GANG MEMBERS IN IT – The new Prime Minister of Britian, Andy Burnham, has plans to grant early release to thousands of violent convicted criminals, but wants to do a review on the plan to assure convicted child rape and grooming gang members don’t get out as well. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was the one who raised a red flag that showed, under Burnham’s guidance, five known child rape grooming gang members would be eligible for early release.
8. 8. EU’S AI ACT KICKS IN – Starting this Sunday, the EU’s new AI Act begins to take effect, which includes key provisions empowering the EU to regulate AI models and apply fines to companies that fall out of compliance. The law also gives the EU investigatory powers to penalize non-cooperating companies and individuals.

The Act itself presents a challenge to AI geopolitical realities of power as nations and associations like the EU attempt to use domestic laws to affect foreign AI powers. For instance, the fines countries give to foreign companies doing business in their territory due to non-compliance with their AI rules could become weapons of war in the AI geopolitical reality of power.

9. ISRAEL SAYS HAMAS MUST BE DISARMED BEFORE THEY LEAVE GAZA – Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated Israel has no intentions of withdrawing from Gaza before they have fully disarmed Hamas. Netanyahu declared the Trump administration had “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments. … This is our position. President (Donald) Trump and his team think they can get Hamas to disarm and demilitarize Gaza, we are examining this, they sent us a draft, we did not agree, it is not our draft, we sent our comments…”
10. MAMDANI’S SOVIET GROCERY STORES REQUIRED PHOTO ID – If you wanted to get the promised 30% discount of Mamdani’s Socialist grocery stores, you were going to need Photo ID confirming you are a resident of the city. Zohran Mamdani, the Islamist Socialist Mayor of New York City, is opening his state-owned grocery stores to the public, but only if they have photo ID.

At least that’s what Mamdani initially claimed. After backlash from both Republicans and Socialists, Mamdani reversed his decision, meaning non-New Yorkers can get the discount as well.

HEADLINES MISSED

1. CNN RUNS INFORMERCIAL FOR THE DSA, FEATURING HASAN PIKER – CNN feted self-avoided Marxist Hasan Piker on their “Whole Story” episode called “The Left Insurgency.” The show was billed as an objective examination of the rise of the Democratic Socialists. It ended up being a celebration of the rise of the DSA, with Hasan Piker featured in the event at the beginning and the end.

Hasan Piker has endorsed terrorism by Hamas and by Antifa regularly on his twitch streams, where hundreds of thousands of children and young adults regularly hear messages endorsing political violence. Piker ended the “documentary” by declaring “there is 0% chance that whoever the elected Democrat is that wins the primary will be pro-Israel in any way, shape or form. You’ll see.”

2. AUSTRALIA WANTS TO BE THE WORLD’S INTERNET COP – The Australian government is considering legislation that appears to give Australia jurisdiction over all social media companies worldwide that run afoul of their national laws. The legislation would grant Australia the power to retrieve any data from any person or company affiliated with a social media company.

X protested the bill, claiming it would “compel any person outside Australia to provide information and documents merely because they are affiliated with a company.” X claimed the bill gave no “due regard to procedural fairness, privacy, the broader impacts on online services, and Australia’s digital economy.” Elon Musk called it a “backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.”

3. SCIENTISTS CALL FOR A 50% REDUCTION OF HUMANITY – A group of scientists released a public statement calling for humans to reduce their numbers by 4 billion by the year 2200.

They wrote, “We show that slowing and gradually reversing population growth to ∼4 billion or less by 2200, while moderating per capita impacts, is the path toward sustainability. Global environmental problems are caused by people, nothing else. The more of us there are, the greater our overall economic demands and the greater the associated environmental problems.”

4. U.S. PROPS YEN WITH EUROS – The Department of Treasury is using its Exchange Stabilization Fund to buy Japanese Yen in the hopes of propping up the dangerously weak currency. This hasn’t happened in 30 years. The U.S. is not using U.S. dollars; it is using Euros.

This action follows a recent previous Treasury intervention to help a weakening Argentinian currency. That deal resulted in the loan being paid back in full (at profit). These interventions signal a shift in Treasury policy from two plus decades of international currency passivity to aggressive interventionism.

5. YOUR AI MIGHT BE PROPAGANDIZING YOU – The Federal Trade Commission is looking to create rules to prevent what it suspects is intentional propagandization by AI chatbots.

The FTC declared, “As the proposed policy statement explains, the FTC Act prohibits businesses from engaging in ‘unfair or deceptive’ conduct. The proposed statement goes on to describe how AI companies that distort their systems’ outputs to achieve undisclosed ideological objectives could be deceiving consumers in violation Section 5 of the FTC Act. Such conduct, it explains, may be at odds with explicit and implicit representations made to consumers about the effectiveness and suitability of AI systems for various tasks.”

PEOPLE ADVANCE

1. TRUMP HOPES XOS WILL DAMPEN BIRTH TOURISM – After SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that birthright citizenship means citizenship for anyone born on American soil, President Trump is hoping his pen can limit the damage the ruling has done to U.S. sovereignty.

President Trump stated, “We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair. This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what’s happening now? People are building businesses around it.”

2. FAUCI HELD IN CONTEMPT, GETS DOJ CRIMINAL REFERRAL – Dr. Anthony Fauci has been held in contempt by a Senate Committee led by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Senator Paul is also personally filing papers recommending the DOJ file criminal charges against the doctor. Paul stated, “We will hand deliver it today to the attorney general and we will hand deliver it today to the District of Columbia, to the U.S. attorney there, and from there, we’ll find out. But this way we don’t sit a month waiting to determine whether to bring it to the Senate floor.”

For more on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in the Covid-19 government plan, read our Deep Dive on page 2, The Smartest Man in the World Almost Killed It.

3. AMERICANS REJECT MAIL-ORDER ABORTIONS – A poll commissioned by Concerned Women for America (CWA) shows 70% of Americans want mail-order abortion pills to stop. They want the pill to be prescribed by a doctor, under a doctor’s supervision.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke on this issue during his Senate confirmation hearing. He stated, “We [the Department of Justice] are trying to let the FDA do their work so that we can work to protect the lives of the unborn children and, frankly, the states’ laws.”

4. U.S. MANUFACTURING HEATING UP – U.S. Manufacturing has shown an expansion that hasn’t been seen since 2022, right when the world was recovering from the Covid shutdowns. The Institute for Supply Management showed only one of its 16 industrial categories, chemical production, was contracting. In July, U.S. manufacturing reached 55.6 according to the ISM’s ratings, a level not seen since May 2022.
5. HOSPITAL PAYS AFTER FORCING TRANS IDEOLOGY ON STAFF – Valerie Kloosterman has won $410,000 from the University of Michigan Health-West because of a lawsuit against the hospital. Kloosterman sued after the hospital fired her in August 2021 for refusing to conform to the transgender ideology. She would not reject the gender binary.
6. TRANS OPERATION SUED BY FTC – The Federal Trade Commission is bringing a lawsuit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The organization is accused of misleading families to push harmful “gender transition therapies” to their children.

This is the organization that coined the phrase, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?” The case is now going to trial, meaning the internal communications of the child grooming and mutilating organization will have to turn over its internal communications records to the state.