AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines on Capitol Hill, where Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have introduced sweeping regulations for cryptocurrencies.

MAN: Three-fifths of the senator's duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.

AMNA NAWAZ: By a vote of 49 to 50, lawmakers rejected the measure, known as the CLARITY Act, in what's seen as a major setback for the crypto industry.

Democrats had pushed for stronger safeguards to prevent the president and other officials from profiting while in office.

FBI Director Kash Patel defended his handling of the agency during a nearly five-hour Senate hearing today.

Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel was questioned about his firing of experienced agents and the FBI's plans for the midterms.

At one point, he refused to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

And he defended the agency's loosening of certain hiring requirements related to prostitution and bestiality.

Patel said the change was about protecting victims, not lowering standards.

KASH PATEL, FBI Director: We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked.

We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you are a victim of these awful, heinous acts.

SEN.

JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): And when you saw bestiality, I say this with respect, the person who recommended it, why didn't you just say, what planet did you parachute in from?

AMNA NAWAZ: In a statement provided to the "News Hour," an FBI spokesperson said the agency is not relaxing hiring standards, calling the idea -- quote -- "totally false."

For the first time ever, the U.S.

military has confirmed it has weapons in space.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made the announcement at a conference yesterday, saying the U.S.

has, as he put it, on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.

He did not detail what those weapons are or how they work.

But there's already been pushback, with China's Foreign Ministry warning against an arms race that could turn space into a war zone.

And a Kremlin spokesperson called for the -- quote -- "complete demilitarization of space."

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen accused each other of more attacks today as that conflict only grows worse.

The Saudi military says Houthi strikes injured more than a dozen people across several cities, including Jeddah, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently visited.

In the meantime, the Houthis released this footage, claiming to show fighting with Saudi-backed forces in Yemen's north.

The U.N.

estimates some 125,000 people in Yemen have been displaced by the violence, with many living in makeshift camps and tents.

KHADIJA KUDAF, Displaced Yemeni (through translator): We fled from the war and took nothing with us.

We didn't even bring the children's clothes.

We have no flour.

The children are hungry.

We have no food.

AMNA NAWAZ: Separately, a new assessment finds that the war in Iran cost the U.S.

more than $38 billion through August 1.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also says the conflict will continue costing up to $3 billion a month or more and will also drive up inflation.

In California, prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty against Nick Reiner in the killings of his parents, director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.

The L.A.

district attorney said today that his office has done a thorough review before reaching its decision, which included speaking to the victim's family.

Nick Reiner will instead face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was charged with first-degree murder last December, just days after the fatal stabbing of his parents.

Nick Reiner has twice pleaded not guilty.

On Wall Street today, stocks slipped ahead of tomorrow's Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 300 points.

The Nasdaq gave back around 200 points.

The S&P 500 also ended firmly in the red.

And it was a night of records at the 78th Emmy Awards, with one show leading the charge.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY AND WOODY HARRELSON, Actors: The Emmy goes to "Widow's Bay."

AMNA NAWAZ: The Apple TV hit about a cursed New England town, part humor, part horror, took home 14 wins, the most ever by a comedy series in a single year.

The show's star, Matthew Rhys, became the first man to win two lead actor awards in the same year.

He also won for the limited series "The Beast in Me."

"The Pitt" and its star, Noah Wyle, both won for their second straight year.

And with her fifth straight Emmy for hacks, actress Jean Smart is now the first woman to win for every single season of a TV series.

Still to come on the "News Hour": NATO jets shoot down a drone in Lithuania, as Russia continues to provoke Europe; how communities on the East Coast are trying to protect against erosion; and we catch up with the hardest-working man in jazz, Christian McBride.