📊 Child Soldiers, Dulles Airport, and Jobless Claims

Sudanese civil war, DC renovation, and Labor Department report.

Jul 30, 2026

Greetings! Happy International Friendship 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

🇸🇩 Sudan’s child soldiers describe mercenary training and terror. Six former child soldiers said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) abducted and forced them to fight. One boy was 15 when fighters seized him at a market in Omdurman. He said captors bound him to an antiaircraft gun during Sudanese airstrikes. Another teenager said he was forced to fire heavy artillery at targets selected by drones. Both said Colombian mercenaries trained children on weapons and punished refusal with beatings. One described being struck unconscious with an electric baton. Another said an 18-year-old friend was shot while trying to escape. Their accounts could not be independently verified but matched other reporting on the conflict. Rights groups say Colombian veterans were recruited through an Emirati-linked contractor. The United Arab Emirates denies arming the paramilitary force or hiring foreign fighters. A former Colombian mercenary said hundreds of his countrymen served with the group in Darfur. He recalled seeing children as young as 13 on the front lines. Sudanese officials estimate that tens of thousands of children, some only 8, have been recruited. The United Nations says every major side has used child soldiers. The RSF and Sudanese government did not answer detailed requests for comment. More than 200 former fighters are being rehabilitated near Khartoum. Sudan’s fourth year of war has turned childhood into another resource for armed factions to consume.

🇷🇺 Russian barrage kills nine as missile lands inside Poland. Russia launched more than 70 missiles and 280 attack drones across Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said more than 260 drones were intercepted. At least nine civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured. Six people died in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including children ages 6, 11, and 17. Their parents were also killed, while two other children were pulled alive from rubble. A ballistic missile killed a 31-year-old man in Kyiv. More than 56K people sheltered overnight in the capital’s subway stations. One Russian missile crossed Ukraine’s western border and landed in rural Poland. It caused no reported injuries or damage. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) scrambled warplanes during the incursion. Secretary-General Mark Rutte called it a reckless and dangerous consequence of Russia’s war. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there was no reason to believe Poland was deliberately targeted. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 10 Ukrainian regions suffered damage. He renewed appeals for more Patriot air-defense systems after meeting President Trump. American interceptor stockpiles have been strained by the Iran war. Russia said it targeted air bases, arms factories, and military logistics. The strike pushed a familiar bombardment across NATO’s border, even if only by accident.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

✈️ President Trump unveils $22.5B overhaul of Dulles Airport. The plan would retire the airport’s widely disliked mobile lounges known as people movers. A new U-shaped passenger train would connect more of the sprawling complex. Officials also proposed a central walking tunnel, additional moving walkways, and new concourses. A parking garage near the main terminal would hold 32K vehicles. Dulles served roughly 29M passengers over the past year. President Trump called its long walking distances unreasonable and described the renovation as overdue. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said construction could begin next spring. Congress would need to approve parts of the plan. The project would not add runways. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and airlines would finance construction through municipal bonds. Officials said the project would not require federal dollars. They did not specify how much travelers might pay through higher fees or ticket prices. United Airlines ($UAL), which operates a major hub at Dulles, has agreed to help fund the work. Airport authority CEO John Potter said the financing commitment is already in place. Dulles sits about 25 miles from downtown Washington and is the region’s main international gateway. The redesign joins Trump’s ballroom and proposed triumphal arch among his Washington legacy projects. Unlike those monuments, this one could spare millions of travelers a ride in a relic they already resented.

🐢 American growth slows to 1.5% while inflation stays elevated. Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5% annual pace from April through June. That was down from 2.1% during the first quarter and below economists’ expectations. Consumer spending nevertheless accelerated to a 3.2% rate from 0.5%. Household consumption accounts for roughly 70% of American economic activity. A measure excluding volatile trade and government spending grew a stronger 3.9%. Business investment outside housing increased at an 8.4% pace. Imports surged 11.5%, partly because companies bought chips and equipment for AI expansion. Those imports subtracted 1.5 percentage points from headline growth. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 3.7% from last year. Core prices excluding food and energy increased 3.3%. Monthly prices slipped 0.1% after energy costs fell 9.2%. Inflation has remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for more than five years. Policymakers left rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive meeting. Three regional presidents dissented and favored an increase. Employers added an average 92K jobs monthly this year, compared with fewer than 10K in 2025. About 72% of adults say preventing oil and gas price increases is very important. Consumers kept the quarter moving, but they did so inside an economy producing less growth and too much inflation.

🗂️ MISC

📋 Jobless claims rise to 197K while layoffs remain historically low. New applications for unemployment benefits increased by 9K in the week ending July 25th. The prior week was revised to 188K, still the lowest level in more than 50 years. Economists had expected 207K claims. The four-week average fell by 5K to 202,750. Weekly claims remain a near-real-time measure of layoffs. Their current level suggests employers are still reluctant to cut workers broadly. Hiring, however, has weakened more clearly. Employers added only 57K jobs in June, less than half the previous month’s total. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.3%. Much of that decline reflected jobless people leaving the labor force. Claims have generally remained between 200K and 250K since the pandemic recession. Hiring began slowing about two years ago and weakened further in 2025. High rates, tariffs, and federal workforce cuts discouraged expansion. Gasoline above $4 per gallon and the Iran war now add pressure to corporate budgets. Inflation measured by the personal consumption expenditures index remained at 3.7%. The economy also grew only 1.5% during the second quarter. America’s labor market is still resisting recession, but resilience is no longer the same thing as momentum.

📈 Microsoft and chip stocks recover most of Wall Street’s loss. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) climbed 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 265 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite jumped 2.5% after nearing correction territory. The rebound recovered roughly three-quarters of the previous session’s decline. Microsoft ($MSFT) surged 15.7% after reporting stronger profit than analysts expected. Its Azure cloud business grew rapidly as customers expanded AI workloads. Investors also welcomed the absence of another major increase in planned AI spending. Meta Platforms ($META) fell 9% after weaker profit and a higher investment forecast. Micron Technology ($MU) rebounded 15.5%. Lam Research ($LRCX) soared 22.3%, while Advanced Micro Devices ($AMD) gained 14.8%. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.66%. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh offered few clues about how aggressively policymakers might fight inflation. Brent crude declined 1.2% to $87.07 per barrel. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.2%, while France’s benchmark index gained 1.1%. Most S&P 500 companies rose even as megacaps dominated the index movement. The rally showed that investors still reward convincing AI profits. It also showed how quickly enthusiasm returns when spending finally arrives with evidence instead of promises.