SHERO on Sunday

A lightning-fast recap of the week's most significant political and legal events for July 20th - 26th, 2026, before we are on to the next!

Epstein survivors testified before Congress again this week about their lack of assistance from Trump nominee Todd Blanche. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/via Getty Images)

Welcome to the Sunday Recap, where you can quickly check in to review the week with minimal time commitment and ensure you don’t miss a thing. Each snippet includes several links to credible and free sources, providing more details for those who want to delve deeper into any issue. This kind of newsletter model, which provides free, reliable, independent journalism that connects the political and legal dots for everyone, only works if subscribers support our work with paid subscriptions. There is a lot to cover for this week, so let’s get started!

Gun Violence This Week

At SHERO, we document all mass shooting incidents for the week every Sunday, so please take a moment to review them and remember to keep up the fight for sensible gun reform. There were 14 separate mass shooting events in the United States this past week, in which 12 people were killed and 82 were injured.

1. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Kansas City, Missouri

2. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Baltimore, Maryland

3. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Tucson, Arizona

4. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Minneapolis, Minnesota

5. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Denmark, Tennessee

6. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Asheville, North Carolina

7. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

8. Sunday, July 19, 2026: Minneapolis, Minnesota

9. Monday, July 20, 2026: Denver, Colorado

10. Wednesday, July 22, 2026: Dallas, Texas

11. Wednesday, July 22, 2026: Atlanta, Georgia

12. Friday, July 24, 2026: Grand Haven, Michigan

13. Saturday, July 25, 2026: San Francisco, California

14. Sunday, July 26, 2026: Chicago, Illinois

• Two political action committees affiliated with President Donald Trump paid nearly $8 million in legal bills over the first six months of this year, paying law firms that have been defending him in personal and political court fights that have trailed him through 18 months of his second term.

• Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking survivor and advocate Liz Stein testified and spoke on Capitol Hill this week, urging senators to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination for US Attorney General, and she criticized the Department of Justice for failing to implement the Epstein Files Transparency Act properly.

• Donald Trump is widely expected to announce an agreement allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich nuclear fuel in a deal that includes concessions critics say would make it easier for the kingdom to develop nuclear weapons and one that comes as Trump and his family have strengthened their business ties to Saudi Arabia during his second term.

• Last week, documents were published publicly via a court case filed by a group of California researchers challenging various federal agencies that have canceled Biden-era funding, which proved Donald Trump specifically withheld federal funding for education, energy, health, housing and infrastructure aid in his second term, as political retribution.