A significant government meeting highlighted key developments in both the political and financial arenas. Alan Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was released from Rikers Island after serving 100 days of a five-month sentence for perjury. His early release was attributed to good behavior. Weisselberg was convicted during the 2023 civil fraud trial against Donald Trump's real estate company.

In a related political context, Peter Navarro, a former advisor to Trump, also made headlines by appearing at the Republican National Convention shortly after his own release from prison, where he served a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

On the financial front, Wall Street experienced a downturn, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 400 points, although it remained above the 40,000 mark. The Nasdaq fell by over 140 points, contributing to a challenging week for tech stocks, while the S&P 500 also closed in negative territory. This decline was exacerbated by a global tech glitch that added uncertainty to the markets.

In international news, American journalist Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony in Russia after being convicted in a trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, is the first American journalist arrested on espionage charges by Russia since the Cold War. The publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Omar Latour, expressed his dismay at the severity of the sentence during a discussion on efforts to secure Gershkovich's release.