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Today’s top stories
A gunman opened fire yesterday evening in a Midtown Manhattan office building, killing four people — including a police officer — before killing himself, city officials say. Police identified the shooter as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, who had a Nevada address. Tamura appears to have driven across the country, entering New York City just hours before the attack, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
New York Police Department officers are seen as they respond to an incident in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York on July 28, 2025. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
- 🎧 Police found a handgun, more ammunition and prescription medication during a search of the gunman’s vehicle, NPR’s Sarah Ventre tells Up First. Tamura had a “documented mental health history,” according to authorities. He was a star high school football player, and the building where the shooting took place houses NFL offices. At this point in the investigation, it’s not known if the shooting happened there because of the football connection, Ventre says. The police officer who was killed, 36-year-old Didarul Islam, is the only victim publicly identified at this time.
The people of Gaza are facing increasingly desperate conditions of hunger, and the consequences of this starvation could endure for generations. Israel is facilitating the delivery of some food aid into Gaza during 10-hour pauses of its war against Hamas. But aid organizations say the amount of aid is a “drop in the ocean” compared to what Palestinians need to address malnutrition, according to NPR’s Emily Feng. Yesterday, President Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed trying to do more to feed the starving population in the Gaza Strip. This is at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim on Sunday that “there is no starvation in Gaza.”
- 🎧 The group of U.N.-backed experts tasked with making famine assessments issued an alert this morning, saying the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.” They didn’t outright declare a famine, but Feng says the fact that they felt the alert was necessary shows how dire the situation is. NPR’s producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, says aid deliveries come at irregular hours — and there’s relatively little of it. Baba says nearly all the trucks are immediately looted by the strongest before the food can reach the weakest people who need it. Aid organizations are calling for all land crossings into Gaza to open for food deliveries, not just one, to make it safer to deliver food.
A coalition of 21 states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit yesterday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The move comes after the federal agency instructed states to provide detailed personal information about food assistance applicants and their household members. The USDA has mandated that states must submit data on all applicants, including their names and Social Security numbers, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from the past five years by July 30.
Deep dive
Statue of Atlas holding giant gaduate cap. Student loan problems, expensive education concept. Vector illustration. Moor Studio/Getty Images/Moor Studio/Getty Images hide caption
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Moor Studio/Getty Images/Moor Studio/Getty Images
Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, greenlighting a history-making overhaul of the federal student loan system. The massive change will affect the lives of nearly 43 million student loan borrowers. House Republicans conceived the overhaul in May. Since then, the Senate has made some changes, and that compromise was signed into law. Here are some details:
- 🎓 Graduate students’ borrowing will be capped at $20,500 a year with a lifetime graduate school loan limit of $100,000. The limit is a drop from the previous cap of $138,500. A lifetime limit for undergrad and grad loans combined is $257,500 per person.
- 🎓 Parents and caregivers using parent PLUS loans to help students will be capped at $20,000 yearly and, in aggregate, $65,000 per child.
- 🎓 Borrowers using the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education plan will have to change plans by July 1, 2028, when SAVE officially shuts down. The two new plans from the law won’t be ready for a year. The Education Department’s Loan Simulator, which helps borrowers navigate repayment options, has not been updated to reflect the legislative changes.
Republicans have reduced the current seven plans to two new ones. Check out the breakdown of the plans by clicking here.
Picture show
Falling by artist Elizabeth Shanefelter is one of the works in The Teen Experience, a show at American University’s Katzen Gallery until August 10th. hide caption
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What is it like to be a teenager today? “The Teen Experience,” an exhibit in Washington, D.C., addresses this question by allowing teen artists to showcase honest portrayals of their lives. However, four artists who worked on a mural were unable to complete their project. Smithsonian officials covered up a mural created by 17-year-old Jewish artist Flair Doherty and three others. One official stated that she believed the mural, which depicted a protester holding a “Free Palestine” sign, was “antisemitic and hateful.” As a result, the artwork remains unfinished in the Smithsonian storage.
- 📷 Read more about Doherty’s experience with the exhibit and see photos of some of the pieces featured, including the unfinished mural.
3 things to know before you go
An exterior view of the NVIDIA headquarters on May 30, 2023 in Santa Clara, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
- Nvidia, a California-based company that designs chips used in AI, has become the first publicly traded company worth $4 trillion. (via WBUR)
- Former N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper announced yesterday that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Thom Tillis, who is not seeking re-election. (via WUNC)
- Next summer, any Minnesotans using social media will receive a notification before logging on, asking them to acknowledge that excessive social media use can negatively impact their mental health.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
