📊 Child Malnutrition, El Niño, and Job Openings

Aid cuts, climate change, and labor market.

Aug 04, 2026

Greetings! Happy National Coast Guard Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

Forwarded this email? Subscribe to PM Daily below:

SPONSORED SECTION

Sponsor PM Daily! Unlike other free daily newsletters, PM’s ad model works differently: 1. one single sponsor slot per issue; 2. 100% share of voice (SOV) guaranteed; 3. higher return on ad spend (ROAS) from your first placement.

No-brainer, little risk, high upside. Q3 slots are filling up quickly! Reach our rapidly scaling, high-intent, vetted premium audience by replying to this email right now.

🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇦🇫 Afghan children face deepening nutrition emergency. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says acute child malnutrition is critical in 12 provinces. Nearly 3.7M children are projected to suffer from it this year. Another 1.2M pregnant or breastfeeding women are also at risk. Wasting has worsened across more than three-quarters of Afghanistan. Severely affected children require immediate therapeutic feeding to survive. Yet many reach clinics dangerously late, while others never arrive. Aid reductions closed 142 health centers during 2025. More than 13K children consequently lost access to nutrition treatment. Supply disruptions have compounded the funding collapse. Middle East fighting and Pakistan’s nine-month border closure delayed nutrition products. Nearly 1M women and children lacked essential services for five months. WFP is suspending famine-prevention distributions in the worst-hit areas from August through October. Those cuts coincide with Afghanistan’s annual malnutrition peak. Food-assistance funding has fallen about 59% since 2022. WFP needs $540M during the next six months, while Afghanistan’s broader $1.71B humanitarian appeal is only 26% funded.

🇮🇷 Hormuz talks advance while control remains contested. Iran and Oman are making progress on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Regional officials describe separate inbound and outbound shipping lanes. Vessels would enter through an Iranian-controlled route and leave through an Omani-controlled route. The proposal could include fees for security and environmental protection. Negotiations remain unfinished and the final structure could change. Iran also links an agreement to ending the American blockade of its ports. Washington rejects any arrangement requiring Iranian approval or transit charges. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says progress exists without finality. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says an agreement may be close. President Trump opposes tolls and calls the talks Iran’s last chance. Trump says reopening the strait would precede negotiations over denuclearization. Tehran insists it is negotiating with Oman. Before the war, one-fifth of traded oil and gas crossed the waterway. Iranian attacks halted traffic and raised fuel and fertilizer prices. A previous 60-day interim agreement collapsed amid hostilities. The latest diplomacy must reconcile safe passage with a deeper argument over who controls it.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🌡️ El Niño has not begun heating an already scorching year. Wildfires, deadly heat waves, and record-warm oceans are spreading across the planet. Yet 2026 currently ranks as only the third-hottest year measured. Human-caused warming, not El Niño, is driving this summer’s extremes. El Niño’s broad temperature effects are expected to arrive months later. The natural Pacific cycle is nevertheless strengthening toward exceptional levels. Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather estimates a 35% chance that 2026 surpasses 2024. His estimate stood at just 7% in March. Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientist James Hansen expects a new annual record. Daily sea-surface temperatures tied 2024 in May and set near-daily records after June began. Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth and release heat into atmospheric averages gradually. Climate Central scientist Zachary Labe says El Niño may add 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius. He says the larger force remains accumulated greenhouse-gas warming. Nighttime heat is increasingly disrupting sleep, health, and workplace productivity. Europe experienced one major heat wave in May, another in June, and two in July. Scientists disagree about 2026 taking the record.

🏥 Salvadoran detainee dies after reporting medical problems. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo died after a medical emergency at Delaney Hall in Newark. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lists him as 41, while relatives say he was 39. His official cause of death awaits further examination. Lopez-Cornejo had been detained since June 18th. His family says he lacked regular access to medication. He was treated for diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures. His mother, Maria Cornejo, says he reported numbness in his face and arm. She says he spoke with a doctor shortly before his death. ICE says Lopez-Cornejo received proper care from medical professionals. His relatives are demanding an independent investigation. At least 56 people have died in ICE custody during President Trump’s second term. Hundreds of detainees have sued facilities over alleged medical neglect. Delaney Hall has faced protests and a detainee hunger strike. GEO Group ($GEO), a private contractor, owns the 1K-bed facility. Democratic Senator Cory Booker and civil-rights groups renewed demands for its closure. Another detainee died there in December from a pulmonary blood clot.

🗂️ MISC

💼 Job openings dip while hiring steadies. American employers posted 7.36M vacancies in June. That was down from 7.54M in May and matched economists’ expectations. Openings rose by 97K across warehousing, transportation, and utilities. Federal agencies added another 39K vacancies. Wholesalers and manufacturers posted fewer openings. Layoffs remained unchanged at 1.8M. Voluntary quits increased slightly, indicating continued worker confidence. Gross hiring rose to 5.3M. That remains below the post-lockdown period, when monthly hiring often exceeded 6M. The labor market is nevertheless recovering from its 2025 slump. Employers have added an average 92K jobs monthly this year. Last year’s average fell below 10K, the weakest outside a recession since 2002. Economists expect July to add 100K jobs after June produced 57K. They forecast unemployment holding at 4.2%. Retirements and President Trump’s immigration crackdown have slowed labor-force growth. A smaller workforce means fewer monthly jobs may now prevent unemployment from rising.

📈 Profits and cheaper oil lift Wall Street to records. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) rose 1.8% to a new high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.7% and set another record. The Nasdaq composite climbed 2.6%. Palantir Technologies ($PLTR) surged 29.5% after quarterly revenue jumped 93%. CEO Alex Karp also raised the AI company’s 2026 revenue forecast. Caterpillar ($CAT) gained 6.6% after beating profit expectations. Its quarterly sales and revenue exceeded $20B for the first time. Demand for turbines powering AI data centers strengthened its backlog. S&P 500 earnings per share are tracking nearly 50% above last spring. That would mark the strongest annual increase since 2021. Brent crude fell 5.4% to $79.25 per barrel. Oil had traded between $72 and $102 during July. Lower crude eased inflation concerns and pressure in bond markets. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.63% from 4.70%. Nvidia ($NVDA), Broadcom ($AVGO), and Micron Technology ($MU) gained between 2.9% and 8.1%. Markets are pricing strong profits and cheaper energy faster than geopolitical risk.