1.) AXIOS: Trump says Hamas agreed to phased disarmament in Gaza; Israel remains skeptical
A signed and implemented deal would remove a central obstacle to rebuilding Gaza and establishing a new Palestinian government.
Trump announced the proposal before Hamas publicly confirmed its position; Hamas then said it had accepted. The plan calls for Hamas to surrender heavy and light weapons over six to eight months, disclose tunnels and arms sites, and transfer territory to a new Palestinian administration as Israel withdraws in stages. At publication, neither Hamas’s disarmament nor Israel’s withdrawal had begun.
2.) AP: Colin Gray gets 15 years for giving his teenage son the rifle used in a Georgia school shooting
The case turns on a harder question than whether Gray was a bad parent: when does ignoring danger make a parent criminally responsible for a child’s intentional killings?
“Warning signs” is too vague to judge the verdict. This is the evidence prosecutors put together:
- In September 2021, the boy used a school computer to search “how to kill your dad.”
- In May 2023, an FBI tip about an online school-shooting threat was traced to the family home. Deputies could not prove who made it, but told Gray to keep guns inaccessible.
- Gray gave his son a Sig Sauer AR-style rifle for Christmas in 2023.
- The family’s guns were not kept in a safe or secured with locks; testimony placed the rifle in the boy’s bedroom or at the top of an unlocked closet.
- The boy maintained a shrine to the Parkland school shooter. Gray said he did not know what it was.
- In August 2024, the boy texted his father, “This is the end for you,” “Whenever something happens, blood is on your hands,” and “I’m restraining myself for what I want to do.”
- Gray searched for a mental-health facility but did not complete an intake. The boy’s mother said a crisis program was supposed to evaluate him; Gray said he had planned to arrange school counseling the following week.
The defense’s answer was that the boy hid his plan, police had not substantiated the 2023 threat, and several messages had less ominous explanations at the time. That dispute—what Gray actually knew before the shooting—is why this first-of-its-kind conviction creates a difficult precedent.
Why this was a good outcome
This was not a parent being punished merely because his child committed a crime. Prosecutors showed a narrow, unusually grave chain: a prior school-shooting investigation, explicit threatening messages, an unfinished mental-health intervention, unsecured guns and a rifle Gray himself gave the boy. Holding a parent liable in circumstances this extreme may push adults to secure firearms and act on credible warnings before someone is killed.
Why this may be a bad precedent
The son intentionally committed the murders; the father did not. Treating terrible supervision as murder risks judging foreseeability with hindsight and makes the boundary of criminal responsibility hard to define. A cleaner rule would punish reckless gun access or unsafe transfer directly, instead of stretching homicide law to cover another person’s deliberate act—especially when police previously could not substantiate the online threat.
Has this happened before?
In 2024, James and Jennifer Crumbley were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years for involuntary manslaughter after their son’s school shooting.
Why the Crumbleys were convicted
- James Crumbley bought the 9 mm handgun four days before the shooting; Ethan described it online as his “beauty.”
- On the morning of the shooting, school staff called the parents in after finding a drawing of a gun, a wounded person and phrases including “The thoughts won’t stop.”
- The parents declined to take Ethan home and did not tell the school that James had just bought the gun.
- Prosecutors said the weapon was not secured and remained accessible to Ethan.
AP’s trial account explains the evidence presented to the juries.
3.) STATELINE: Ptarmigan Fire crosses into Canada after burning at least 18,000 acres
Oregon and Washington leaders are calling for reinforcements ahead of what they expect will be a grueling August.
Eighteen thousand acres is about 28 square miles: a substantial fire, though still far below the 100,000-acre threshold commonly used for a “megafire.” The more important scale is regional and national. By July 21, U.S. wildfires had burned 3.96 million acres—about 38% more than at the same point in 2025. By July 27, the national total had passed 4 million acres, compared with a 10-year average of 3.4 million by that point.
4.) THE HILL: Senate Republicans block resolution to halt Iran war
Three Republicans joined most Democrats, but John Fetterman voted no and the measure failed 49–50.
Broke with party to halt the war
- Susan Collins (R)Maine
- Lisa Murkowski (R)Alaska
- Rand Paul (R)Kentucky
Broke with party to continue the war
- John Fetterman (D)Pennsylvania
It was the Senate’s 13th Iran War Powers vote this year. Because the resolution failed, it imposes no new legal limit on the administration’s continuing strikes or deployment of U.S. forces.
5.) AP: [UPDATE] Seattle police chief resigns four days after Bite of Seattle shooting
The city gave no reason for Shon Barnes’s departure after criticism of the department’s response.
_QUICK BITES_
PBS NEWSHOUR: The Senate HELP Committee advanced Erica Schwartz’s CDC nomination 12–10; she supports childhood vaccines, but senators questioned whether she would resist political interference from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
NBC NEWS: A senior law enforcement official said a Minnesota water-system cyberattack had the hallmarks of Iranian-backed hackers, prompting the administration to warn other utilities.
Elections
THE HILL: SC U.S. SENATE (R): Ralph Norman (R) leads Darline Graham Nordone (R), 18.6%–16.3%; 26.3% are undecided.
AP: WI GOVERNOR (D): Mandela Barnes (D) quit after the state party reviewed past misconduct allegations; a Marquette poll had Francesca Hong (D) ahead 38%–16%.
[UPDATE] A judge ruled returned absentee ballots cannot be replaced, so votes already cast for Barnes—or another candidate who quit—stay locked in.
THE HILL: MI U.S. SENATE (D): Abdul El-Sayed (D) leads Haley Stevens (D) 54%–39%; 6% are undecided.
THE HILL: IA U.S. SENATE (D): Josh Turek (D) would not say whether he would back Chuck Schumer (D) as party leader.
NOT NEWS NEWS
6.) BLS: Married men earned 50% more than never-married men—but marriage may not be the cause
The wage gap is real; longitudinal data suggest much of it appears before the wedding.
Replot and analysis: Crémieux; data: NLSY79; method follows Dougherty (2005)
The BLS figures compare different groups at one point in time; they do not show that marriage caused the higher pay. The longitudinal analysis found that men’s earnings began rising roughly six years before marriage, and a younger NLSY97 cohort showed the same broad pattern. Older first-time grooms showed no premium, men in “shotgun” marriages had the same premarital gains as other grooms, and wage declines often began before divorce. The likelier explanation is selection and maturation: traits and life changes that make marriage more likely may also raise earnings.