David Crowley wins tight Wisconsin race and Iran plot led to Trump’s plane swap: Morning Rundown

David Crowley beats Francesca Hong in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor. An Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump triggered his secret plane swap, officials said. And Amazon’s planned global internet service is behind schedule.

Here’s what to know today.

David Crowley pulls off upset in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has won the Democratic primary in Wisconsin’s race for governor, NBC News projects, dealing a major upset to democratic socialist Francesca Hong.

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The result marks a dramatic turnaround for Crowley, who had dropped out of the race roughly a month ago after initially struggling to gain traction only to re-enter days later with outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement.

Hong, a state lawmaker from Madison, had led in the polls in the final stretch of the race, but faced growing scrutiny over her past controversial positions and general election viability. Her loss is a setback for progressives, who have found success in other high-profile primaries around the country this year against establishment-backed candidates.

Crowley will face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is backed by President Donald Trump, in a general election that will be one of the marquee gubernatorial matchups this fall. Crowley took 39.8% of the Democratic primary vote to 39.4% for Hong with 98% of the expected vote tallied.

Here’s what else to know.

More primary election results:

• Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of Lindsey Graham, and Rep. Ralph Norman advanced to a runoff in the race to replace the late senator on the November ballot.

• Democratic Rep. John Larson lost his primary race in Connecticut to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, becoming the latest example of voters pushing to replace in***bent House members with younger leadership.

• Minnesota state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the Republican primary for governor, defeating Trump ally Mike Lindell and setting up a general election matchup against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

• Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated moderate Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic Senate primary race, notching another wing for the party’s progressive wing.

The threat that led to Trump’s secret plane swap

Warned of a fresh Iranian plot to kill him, President Donald Trump huddled with senior advisers in the final hours of a NATO summit in Turkey last month to work out how he would make it home safely, a U.S. official said. Intelligence showed that the threat possibly involved a shoulder-fired missile aimed at Air Force One as it flew out of Ankara, the official said.

Trump boarded an older Air Force One — not the lavish Qatari jet that he’d flown in on — and secretly flew out minutes later out on another military jet which he entered via a catering truck, a second U.S. official told NBC News.

Misdirection is a tool that the Secret Service often uses, but this case is extraordinary considering the secrecy and methods deployed to spirit Trump out of Turkey. The older Air Force One that left the runway without Trump still had important cargo, including two p***engers in the presidential line of succession.

Read the full story here.

Inflation in focus as wage growth slows for workers

Set to be released this morning, the consumer price index for July is expected to show 3.4% inflation on an annual basis, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones. That rate would be slightly less than the 3.5% rate in June, but inflation would still be higher than wage gains. Wall Street and the Federal Reserve will pay close attention to what’s known as “core” CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, and is also expected to rise 0.2% from June.

Energy prices remain a primary reason for inflation worries as the war in Iran continues, and persistent high prices could potentially influence the Federal Reserve ahead of its next interest rate decision in September.

Why two Fed members say they’re ready to hike interest rates.

At least three dead as severe storms batter the Midwest

A person died in a suspected weather-related house explosion in Indiana, while a 4-year-old boy in the same state was killed when a tree fell on his home. Another person died in Ohio as powerful storms swept through the Midwest, officials said.

Weather gusts in the region were reported at more than 80 mph yesterday. Over 1 million electricity customers across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky were without power.

The two Indiana deaths were in Portage, a city about 30 miles southeast of Chicago where damage from severe weather and the number of trees blocking roads delayed firefighters responding to the explosion. In Columbus, Ohio’s most populated city, response teams witnessed “disaster-like conditions,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said.

The latest on the severe weather in the Midwest.

Staff Pick: Amazon’s planned broadband service is way behind schedule

Elon Musk talks casually about wanting to dominate the internet. Last week, he predicted that his Starlink service would “deliver a majority of the world’s internet” in a matter of years. But wasn’t there supposed to be another satellite service, from Amazon, which will compete with Starlink?

These days it’s easy to forget Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which was announced in 2019 with the aim of becoming a global internet service provider. It hasn’t started selling anything, but anticipation has always been high, so I decided to dive back in for an update on what’s now called Amazon Leo. What I found reading through hundreds of pages of regulatory filings and interviewing industry insiders is that Amazon is further behind schedule than previously reported. Experts also told me that Amazon may have trouble catching up for a simple reason: It can’t get its satellites into space fast enough. — David Ingram, tech reporter

Read All About It

• For subscribers: Survivors have joined search-and-rescue efforts in Colombia after a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook the region and more than 3,000 people were reported missing.

• For subscribers: Newly released text messages from Dr. Anthony Fauci about Covid vaccines in pregnancy have fueled false claims about miscarriages.
• For subscribers: Thousands of tourists are expected to descend on Spain today to watch the first total solar eclipse visible from Europe since 1999.
• A Kansas man shot and killed his four young children and their mother before he turned the gun on himself Tuesday, authorities said.

• The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak tonight and into tomorrow morning. And in some parts of the world, it’ll coincide with a total solar eclipse.

• Robert Gilman, a former Marine, has been released after being held in a Russian prison for more than four years.

• Lucy Davis, 53, an actor in the British version of “The Office” and “Shaun of the Dead,” said she has “incurable” breast cancer.

NBC Selected: Online Shopping, Simplified 

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