U.S. Hiring Slows, but Remains Solid

Employers across the U.S. added 187,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate sank to a near record low of 3.5 percent, new data showed today. Most people who want to work can find jobs, according to the report.

But the pace of hiring has slowed over the last two months, a sign that the economy is cooling as the Federal Reserve battles inflation.

Health care and leisure and hospitality added many of the new jobs, while most other industries — including manufacturing, transportation and warehousing — were flat to negative on job growth.

“While we never want to read too much into any one jobs report, the trend over the past few months is pretty clear: We’re getting back to something approaching normal,” our colleague Lydia DePillis said.

Even as business slows, it appears that corporate leaders are avoiding cutting payrolls drastically: Layoffs are remaining low, and the number of total hours worked has decreased slightly. Overall, economic growth has remained vigorous, and each sign of weakness so far has seemed to find a counterbalance.

“Economists are feeling better and better,” Lydia said. “They’ve gone from almost uniformly predicting a recession this year to pretty much betting we won’t have to go through one at all.”

A G.O.P. climate strategy takes shape

Conservatives are laying the groundwork for a 2024 Republican administration that would dismantle President Biden’s efforts to slow global warming. The move is part of a sweeping strategy called Project 2025 that Paul Dans of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank organizing the effort, has called a “battle plan” for the first 180 days of a future Republican presidency.

The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and throws open the door to more drilling for fossil fuels. If enacted, the climate and energy provisions would be among the most severe swings away from current federal policies.

In the Republican primary race, Donald Trump’s appeal among likely voters is less dominant in Iowa than it is nationwide, though he still leads his nearest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, by double digits, according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll.

Kyiv tries to bring the war home to Russia

A Ukrainian maritime drone damaged a Russian warship on the Black Sea hundreds of miles from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory. The attack struck near the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

It was the most serious strike on Moscow’s Navy since last year, demonstrating both the escalating conflict at sea and the growing range and capability of Ukraine’s drone force.

Niger coup’s leaders sever ties with France

The coup leaders said that they had cut military ties with France, Niger’s former colonial ruler, throwing into uncertainty the future of 1,500 French troops based there. Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained by his own guards for over a week, called on the U.S. and other allies to help restore order.

His appeal came ahead of a Sunday deadline set by Nigeria, Senegal and other West African countries for the coup leaders to hand back power to Bazoum or face a military intervention.

The Ninja Turtles are back

There’s a refreshing sense of nostalgia in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which opened in theaters this week, our critic Maya Phillips writes. The familiar playfulness has kept the franchise popular over the years.

This time, the four shelled martial artists are trying to stop Superfly (voiced by Ice Cube), from taking over the human world. The action shines, the music is on point and the casting boasts the talented voices of Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Jackie Chan.

If the kids would rather stay home, here are five movies to stream right now, including the newest “Guardians of the Galaxy” adventure.

Digital replicas are filling screens

Striking television and movie actors fear that Hollywood studios could use digital replicas of performers without compensating them. The technology for morphing flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars has been improving for years and is already being employed by some in the industry.

The Apple TV+ comedy “Ted Lasso” has used a technique known as crowd tiling when groups of extras are filmed in various alignments for scenes of filled soccer stadiums. In “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the character Grand Moff Tarkin was portrayed by a composite of the actor Peter Cushing, who died decades earlier, and another actor who performed motion capture work.