TFI Daily News

World News for World Changers

[newstfionline]

Thursday, July 23, 2026

This Conversation Is Being Recorded. They All Are. (WSJ) To record or not to record? That is no longer a question for people in tech. The answer is a resounding yes. A Zoom call isn’t complete without an artificial-intelligence note taker. Phones are out at meetings, capturing every word. During impromptu conversations with co-workers, someone might turn on the Granola transcription app, which can turn the interactions into one-page summaries or a list of action items. Even at bars and on dates, people are using AI-infused listening apps to analyze conversations later on. Gone are the days of any interaction being private by default. Asking for permission is out, even though in some situations, that could mean violating the law. It isn’t creepy if it’s in the name of productivity, say the people doing the recording. “It happens on a daily basis,” says Eric Bahn, a venture capitalist in San Francisco who started noticing it about a year ago. During his meetings with founders, they put phones out on the conference table and then inch them toward him, like he is an athlete at a postgame interview. Bahn used to ask if he was being recorded. The answer was always “Yes,” followed by, “Is that OK?” Nowadays, he just assumes they are, and chooses his words more carefully. “I just see this as normal protocol,” he says. “Our society is moving to a state of East Germany.”

Mamdani says U.S. authorities should arrest Netanyahu as ‘architect of a horrific genocide’ (Washington Post) New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called on the federal government to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he should be tried for war crimes under a 2024 warrant by the International Criminal Court. In a video posted on X Tuesday, Mamdani described Netanyahu as the “architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people” for his role in the war in Gaza. The New York mayor said his administration reviewed “every avenue available” under to the law to determine whether New York authorities have the power to execute an arrest warrant if Netanyahu travels there, but “it is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this.” “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” he said, adding that Netanyahu is “not welcome” in New York City. President Donald Trump shut down the idea of Netanyahu’s arrest in a Monday post on Truth Social, saying he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Hegseth Estimates Iran War Has Cost $37.5 Billion (NYT) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, under questioning from lawmakers, said on Tuesday that the Defense Department’s latest estimate of the cost of the Iran war was $37.5 billion. Mr. Hegseth and the Trump administration are requesting as much as $70 billion in emergency military spending to cover the costs of the Iran war and pay for new weapons and personnel. Senate Democrats and some Republicans expressed doubts about the need for billions of war funding in addition to the $1.5 trillion the Pentagon was asking for in the upcoming defense budget. “This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “The problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning,” she said. “So I’ll be blunt. The truth is, your request does not make a lot of sense.”

Chile’s Congress puts President Kast’s economic overhaul on track to becoming law (AP) Chile’s Congress on Tuesday approved nearly all of the remaining changes to a sweeping tax and economic overhaul package promoted by President José Antonio Kast, delivering a legislative victory to the conservative leader and his efforts to stimulate growth in one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations. Tuesday’s vote comes as Kast, who took office just over three months ago, struggles to jolt a sluggish economy. The economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter of 2026 after several months of weak growth. Unemployment rose to 9.4% in the March-May period, its highest level since June 2021. Kast, 60, took office in March promising to crack down on crime and illegal immigration while reducing public spending and boosting private sector revenues. His election marked Chile’s sharpest shift to the right since the end of the 1973-1990 military dictatorship, and he has pledged a return to the market-oriented economic policies associated with that era.

French lawmakers approve a sweeping social media ban for children under 15 (AP) France banned children under 15 from using social media on Tuesday, becoming the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms as concerns grow worldwide over the harmful effects of digital content on kids. Both chambers of the Parliament voted in favor of the measure, a flagship initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. The bill also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content. Children’s advocates and parents applauded the vote.

India’s Young Protesters Are Bloodied but Unbowed (NYT) They flocked to New Delhi by the thousands. Young Indians demanding accountability from their government for a flawed education system, hoping for a promise or a signal from those in power that would reassure them about their futures. Instead, the throng of protesters who tried to march to Parliament on Monday were confronted by security forces, batons in hand, tear gas canisters ready. As the crowd swelled, the police cracked down, striking people’s shins, calves and backs, swinging their staves overhead. Protesters hurled flip flops and water bottles back. Many rushed to escape through back alleys and side roads. Plumes of tear gas left people choking. The protesters—mostly young people who chanted slogans, carried posters or stood quietly in solidarity—said they were shocked by the police crackdown and the lack of any real government response. By Tuesday, their sense of anger remained palpable as thousands returned to the protest site near Jantar Mantar, an 18th century observatory, undeterred by spurts of monsoon rain. Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party—a satirical movement that has become a vehicle for the frustrations of millions of young Indians—said that the protest will continue indefinitely. He implored people to keep it peaceful.

China at Risk of 20% Youth Joblessness as Labor Distress Spreads (Bloomberg) China’s unemployment among young people could be headed for levels last seen more than three years ago, as a record number of graduates prepare to enter the labor market at a time when AI is threatening to displace more entry-level jobs. Surveyed unemployment in urban areas for those aged 16-24 came in at 14.9% last month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics this week. While extending a pattern of seasonal decline, it was the highest for June since the government excluded university students from the sample more than two years ago after the rate surpassed 20%.

Japan Is Startled by Prime Minister’s Grueling Sleep Schedule (NYT) Monday was Sea Day in Japan, a public holiday when many people escape the summer heat by swimming, surfing and lounging at the beach. But not Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Ms. Takaichi spent the holiday weekend rereading policy documents and dealing with a backlog of thousands of emails, according to a social media post on Tuesday. She wrote that she eked out a “full five hours of sleep for the first time in ages”—better than the “zero to three hours” she said she is accustomed to. And she said she spent her limited free time ironing undergarments, sewing fraying skirts and reinforcing loose jacket buttons. With her comments, Ms. Takaichi seemed eager to present herself as a down-to-earth leader who doesn’t stop working on behalf of Japan’s citizens. Instead, her post, which has been viewed more than 31 million times, has set off a national debate about work-life balance and the hazards of sleep deprivation.

Two Wars Put Stranglehold on Global Energy Supplies (WSJ) The global economy suddenly finds its energy supplies threatened on three fronts simultaneously: the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Black Sea. The world goes into these disruptions with the lowest levels of oil reserves in years. Conflict in the Middle East broadened this week with Tehran-backed Houthi militants turning tankers back from the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The Red Sea maritime chokepoint, which has become the biggest export route for Saudi Arabia’s crude following the Strait of Hormuz closure, accounted for roughly 12% of the world’s seaborne oil flows before the war. Another disruption: Ukraine has mounted sustained attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and ships in the Black Sea. A barrage of strikes in the waters near the port of Novorossiysk, which handles nearly a third of Russia’s oil exports, has paused flows through a pipeline that delivers Russian and Kazakh oil to the Black Sea. The closing of the three chokepoints collectively imperils roughly a quarter of the world’s oil supply and provides a fresh test of the ability of energy-hungry economies to adapt.

Saudis Reach Deal With U.S. That Could Let Them Enrich Nuclear Fuel (NYT) The Trump administration plans to announce Wednesday that it has reached a broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors, U.S. officials said. The accord is intended to further bind the United States with the Saudi government as the war with Iran strains the relationship. The Trump administration, according to officials, estimates it will provide billions of dollars for the U.S. nuclear industry. Although the agreement likely would have support among many Republicans, some U.S. lawmakers from both parties along with Israeli officials have expressed opposition to such a plan, fearing that the kingdom could use a civilian nuclear project to eventually develop nuclear weapons.

OpenAI says its AI technology acted on its own in an ‘unprecedented’ hack of another company (AP) ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Tuesday that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own in what the company called an “unprecedented cyber incident.” “We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement posted on social media. AI startup Hugging Face said last week that it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent autonomously acting on its own. “We suspected last week’s cyberattack might have come from a frontier lab, given the sophistication of the agent,” Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue said in a statement. “Turns out it did!” Delangue said he spent the past 24 hours working with OpenAI, “and we strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part. It’s quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!”

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Trump to Impose 50% Tariff on Many Canadian Goods (NYT) President Trump on Monday signed orders to impose a 50 percent tariff on a wide range of Canadian goods, claiming that Canada had discriminated against the United States in key industries. The tariffs, which go into effect in 30 days, would be imposed on a range of Canadian exports, including wine, hockey sticks, cement, dairy products, plywood, paper and furniture. Administration officials said the taxes were punishment for Canadian discrimination against three U.S. industries: motor vehicles, dairy and alcohol. The tariffs will undoubtedly reignite a trade clash with Canada, one of America’s closest allies and its second-largest trading partner after Mexico. Canada has been in Mr. Trump’s cross hairs since its government retaliated against tariffs that the president imposed on a wide range of products last year. Trump officials have repeatedly complained that some Canadian provinces have halted purchases of U.S. alcohol and that Canada was one of only two nations, along with China, to hit back against Mr. Trump’s tariffs with its own levies.

Senior Living Facility in Distress as Immigrant Caregivers Are Forced Out (NYT) Channing House, a senior living community just a mile from Stanford University, is home to pioneering scientists, tech executives and inventors. But during a recent meeting, its residents confronted a problem they felt powerless to fix: the sudden loss of their caregivers to immigration policies. The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is colliding with a demographic reality. Americans are aging rapidly and living longer, creating soaring demand for elder care when the industry is already buckling under the weight of chronic labor shortages. Millions of immigrants, eligible to work in the United States, fill positions across the elder care industry such as nurses, dietitians, fitness instructors and maintenance technicians. And countless undocumented immigrants care for seniors in their homes, part of a vast informal economy. Immigration enforcement is choking both labor pools.

9 dead, 60 hurt in 9 different mass shootings across US (ABC News) At least nine mass shootings erupted over the weekend across the United States, leaving nine people dead and at least 60 wounded, authorities said. The mass-casualty shootings occurred in Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, Tennessee, and two in Minnesota. Among the incidents, one occurred in the parking lot of Waffle House in Newark, Delaware, while others unfolded during a party at an Oklahoma City restaurant, outside an event center in Minneapolis, and in a park in Jackson, Tennessee, according to law enforcement.

Nicaraguan Leader Says He Plans to Abolish Elections (NYT) President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua said on Sunday that he would abolish his nation’s elections, a blatant move to further strengthen his and his wife’s authoritarian grip on the nation of seven million. “There will never be elections here again,” Mr. Ortega, 80, said at a government rally marking the 47th anniversary of his leftist movement’s revolution, to a smattering of applause. He then accused his opponents of trying to use elections “to seize the government, to seize power.” The pronouncement was an explicit end to any pretense that Nicaragua still had a democracy. Mr. Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, have exerted complete control over the Central American nation for years. Their government has rigged elections; dismantled institutions; killed protesters; targeted dissidents; and jailed critics, journalists, religious figures, opposition politicians and even longtime loyalists, according to human-rights groups and the United Nations.

US pledges to crack down on Haitian gangs making money off social media (AP) The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Monday that the U.S. government soon will move to stop violent gangs in Haiti from making money off social media posts. Gang leaders in the troubled Caribbean country are prolific users of social media and have celebrated killings, issued threats and posted musings on various sites. Younger gang members also post music videos and wave cash they’ve earned in an effort to recruit children in the impoverished nation. Efforts to crack down on the gangs’ use of social media are not new. In 2023, YouTube banned Johnson André, considered Haiti’s most powerful gang leader and also known as Izo, following heavy criticism after he received an award for surpassing more than 100,000 subscribers.

Two Young Brothers and Their Search for Venezuela’s Dead (NYT) He had hacked apart concrete and sawed through rebar and pressed on through heat and dust and exhaustion, persevering as men far bigger and stronger collapsed. Now, on Day 25 of his search, Winder Delfín, age 17, had finally found what he was looking for. Deep in the tunnel he had dug with his brother Deivi, age 15, his father and his stepfather, Winder could make out the flower-print dress that belonged to his grandmother. He hoped his mother and little brother were just beyond. A month after a pair of history-making earthquakes ripped across Venezuela, the country’s hardest-hit state, La Guaira, remains a scene of grueling, painstaking searches for the dead. From dawn until far past dusk, thousands of survivors fan out across the remains of the residences that once stood just blocks from the beach, climbing onto the mountains of rubble with pickaxes and sledgehammers, fueled by an obsessive desire to recover the bodies of the people they loved. Officially the death toll is 5,208, but the government has said it could be as high as 10,000. The hands of the searchers bleed. Dust coats their lungs and reddens their eyes. At night, some sleep atop the debris, too tired to go anywhere else. They live on donated sandwiches and plastic thimbles of coffee and the hope that they can somehow heal through their efforts, that those taken so suddenly can rest once they are found.

Where are the Maduros? (NYT) Right where they have been since January, when a U.S. military operation seized the leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, on federal charges of narcoterrorism. They’re being held in a federal detention center in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park. They have not been in court since March; a hearing last month was postponed. It’s difficult to imagine a trial before next year at the earliest. According to others imprisoned with him, Maduro spends much of his time reading the Bible.

The Brown Danube (Reuters) Heatwaves and droughts have brought water levels in major European rivers down to levels not seen in decades. Romania’s state water management agency says that at the Romanian entry point of the Danube, the second-largest river in Europe, the flow was 1,700 cubic meters of water per second. That number is the lowest since 1996. On average in July, it would be 4,700 cubic meters per second. Several ferries and grain barges have cancelled service or are idled, which is bad news for one of Europe’s largest exporters of grain. Heavy rains upriver may soon improve conditions.

Zelensky removes Ukraine’s top general after outrage (BBC) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the country's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi. His dismissal comes just days after the removal of popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov—a move that triggered street protests across the country. Demonstrators had given the president a deadline of Friday to reinstate Fedorov and dismiss Syrskyi, threatening nationwide demonstrations if not. The end of Fedorov's tenure was widely rumoured to be related to tensions between himself and Syrskyi, with the two men not even able to bear sitting in the same room, according to Zelensky. Syrskyi has been replaced by Mykhailo Drapatyi, the now former commander of Ukraine's Joint Forces, who is a popular, battle-hardened general.

US and Iran dig in over the Strait of Hormuz, showing the limits of intensifying airstrikes (AP) The U.S. and Iran are back to bombing every day in a bid to control the Strait of Hormuz. And neither is backing down, showing the limitations of President Donald Trump’s reliance on escalating airstrikes to bend Tehran to his will. While the Trump administration says it is open to diplomacy, Iran so far has refused to loosen its grip over the crucial oil shipping corridor in the Persian Gulf. It is raising questions about the strategy for the next phase of the conflict as intensifying attacks have collapsed an interim ceasefire deal, left additional American troops dead and sent U.S. gasoline prices back up—posing new problems for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had “no interest in meeting.” He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.

Nearly 100 U.S. troops injured in last two weeks of Iran war, Pentagon says (Washington Post) The Pentagon said Monday that nearly 100 U.S. troops have been injured in the war with Iran over the last two weeks, underscoring the significance of Tehran’s strikes on U.S. military installations across the region since negotiations to end the conflict collapsed. The disclosure came as the U.S. military identified two U.S. soldiers who were killed in a fatal attack on Friday night, and after the Trump administration for days declined to detail how many U.S. service members have been injured recently. Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, said on social media that “nearly 100 service members were deemed to have some degree of injury since July 7,” with 96 percent of those since returning to duty.

Trump says US-Lebanon flights can resume, pledges help for that country after meeting its president (AP) President Donald Trump pledged to help Lebanon “a lot” during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country’s leader, Joseph Aoun, who came to push for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The U.S. has championed peace in Lebanon but has been increasingly distracted by new escalation of the war in Iran, which has destabilized much of the Middle East. Trump says he now has little interest in talks with Iran’s leaders to end the war. In the meantime, Lebanon and Israel have held rare direct talks mediated by Washington. “It’s been a very badly treated place and country, and we’re going to have it properly treated and treated with the respect it deserves,” Trump told Aoun during a meeting which wrapped the Lebanese leader’s four-day visit to Washington. “We’re gonna help it a lot,” he said of Lebanon, without giving concrete details. Hours later, Trump made the surprise announcement that he’d allow American carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in 40-plus years after the US suspended the route.

Israel is building a miles-long earthen barrier inside Gaza, entrenching its division (AP) The Israeli military is quietly but quickly building a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the territory, according to satellite imagery, further entrenching the division of the tiny Palestinian enclave. More than 23 kilometers (14 miles) have been constructed in recent months, running through Palestinian communities demolished by the military. That is equivalent to more than half the length of the coastal strip, which is some 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide, and home to over 2 million Palestinians. When presented with the satellite images, Israel’s military confirmed to The Associated Press it has built a physical barrier in the area of the so-called yellow line. The line was envisioned in the U.S.-backed agreement as a temporary division of the territory pending a fuller Israeli withdrawal. But as the truce stagnates, it appears Israel is digging in, heightening Palestinian fears that the line is morphing into a border.

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“The humble man, because he sees himself as nothing, can see other things as they are.”—Iris Murdoch

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Why Canada’s Wildfires Are So Hard to Put Out (WSJ) Hundreds of out-of-control wildfires are burning in Canada, shrouding skies there and the U.S. in an eerie yellow-gray haze and forcing the evacuation of dozens of communities. In some cases, the blazes have flared up so quickly that people in remote parts of northern Ontario have had only minutes to grab essentials before embarking on harrowing journeys to safety by boat as their communities burn to the ground. There are nearly 900 active blazes in Canada, with all but one of its 10 provinces and three territories witnessing fires. Canada’s boreal forest encompasses 1.3 billion acres, or an area roughly seven times as large as that of the 154 U.S. national forests combined. Many of the largest fires, including those sending smoke into the U.S., are in the remote, northernmost reaches of Ontario, where there are no highways, roads or people. Even if air resources are deployed, some fires have become so large and intense that water bombers are unlikely to put them out. Deploying crews is dangerous. “You’re asking the impossible,” said Lori Daniels, a professor in the forestry department at the University of British Columbia. “When you have 900 fires burning simultaneously, the ones that get the greatest attention are those closest to communities, homes or critical infrastructure.”

The Iran war is America’s least popular since polls began (Economist) Not far from Martin Luther King’s grey stone memorial in Washington is a big golden cup honouring Donald Trump. The “Iran War Participation Trophy”, erected by anonymous satirists, suggests that on the battlefield it is not the winning that counts but the taking part. “While some concern themselves with…measurable outcomes, President Trump demonstrated the courage to participate,” reads the inscription. Maura Flint, a local tour guide, says the joke is “very funny” but the reality of Mr Trump’s long war in Iran is anything but. “He doesn’t have a good strategy for getting out,” she complains. “There’s no end in sight.” American voters seem to agree. As the ceasefire unravels, four-fifths think the war will last for “an extended period”, finds a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Nearly half think it will grind on for a year or more, according to our own Economist/YouGov polling. Few find the prospect appealing. Net approval for Mr Trump’s decision to attack Iran now stands at -30% among Americans. The war in Vietnam took six years to become as reviled as the Iran war has become in six months. To Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, the remarkable thing is not just the depth of the war’s disfavour but how quickly it set in. “The war with Iran is the most unpopular conflict among Americans since polls have been taken. That has been true since the war’s first day,” he says.

Earthquake in Peru Kills 6 and Displaces Hundreds (NYT) Six people were killed and at least 20 were injured by an earthquake that hit the central highland region of Peru, the authorities said on Sunday. The quake struck in the Junín region, near the rural district of Chongos Bajos, at 9:24 Saturday night, damaging or destroying dozens of houses and forcing about 300 people to take refuge in a sports stadium because of aftershocks, according to Peru’s National Institute of Civil Defense. So far this year, 450 earthquakes have been detected in Peru, about average for the quake-prone country, according to Peru’s Geophysical Institute.

Andy Burnham will become UK prime minister after a meeting with King Charles III (AP) After weeks as U.K. prime minister-in-waiting, Andy Burnham will take office on Monday, succeeding the departing Keir Starmer, and Britain’s political turbulence will give way, at least temporarily, to smooth choreography. Burnham will become the seventh U.K. prime minister since 2016 in a now well-rehearsed handover after replacing Starmer as leader of the center-left governing Labour Party on Friday. A spokesperson said Burnham will say in his first speech as prime minister he’s “acutely aware” of how many changes of leader the country has been through in the past decade, and will pledge to restore stability. Starmer said much the same when he took office two years ago. Last month he announced he would resign after missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Struggle to recruit soldiers in Ukraine turns violent (BBC) Vasyl Krupych knows what it is to fight for Ukraine. He describes terrifying scenes from battles in the eastern Donbas region where, sometimes praying, sometimes crying, the machine gunner somehow survived the onslaught by Russian troops. But last December, by then serving in the rear, Krupych was attacked by his own countrymen whilst out searching for draft dodgers. He says two men ignored demands to show their documents and fled. When his patrol gave chase, Krupych was badly beaten with a crowbar. He spent six weeks in hospital. Ukraine’s military ombudswoman says such attacks are now “regular” and “a major problem” as the country struggles to mobilise men to fight in the fifth, draining year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Military analyst Ivan Stupak said that “We started to suffer a lack of manpower on the battlefield, constant losses,” he recalls. “Ukraine’s high command had to refill these losses so they started busification.” That’s the term Ukrainians use for mobile patrols that end up with men bundled into buses, and off to serve. “When they need an extra 5,000 men, they start grabbing them—and if they refuse it turns into fights on the street.”

Ukraine fires 400 drones toward Moscow as Zelenskyy grapples with protests (AP) Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on the Russian capital, the city’s mayor said Monday. The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold “key talks” on Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war. Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia. Days of street protests in favor of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy’s decision.

Tens of thousands of Cockroach movement protesters defy police with Delhi march (Guardian) Tens of thousands of protesters have defied police orders and descended on Delhi to demand the resignation of India’s education minister in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in years. A huge crowd, largely made up of students and gen Z-ers, filled the streets in the heart of India’s capital from early Monday morning shouting anti-government slogans. Hundreds had already camped out overnight. Delhi police, which are under the control of the central government, had denied permission for the march to take place. A ban was imposed on all public gatherings, roads across the city were barricaded and the internet was shut down in the centre. Attempts by protesters to move towards the parliament building were met with police brutality including the use of batons and teargas. However, this did little to prevent protesters turning out in their thousands, many of whom were vocal in their anger at Narendra Modi’s government and his ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), accusing them of failing the country’s young people. “They are calling this protest illegal, they are calling us anti-national,” said Rhythm Katoch. “But I am 22 years old and I am standing here to fight for our education system, for the rights of the young people and for our democracy. Is it too much to ask for the government to listen to us?”

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, too much cash is breaking the economy (AP) Picture this: A gas station customer pulls out a wad of bills to pay for a fill-up. The cashier refuses the money, explaining that the station’s bank has stopped accepting notes and coins as deposits because it already is drowning in cash. In most places, cash is king. But in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, having too much is gumming up the machinery of daily life. The Palestinian banking system has more Israeli shekels than it can manage. As a result, paper money has gotten harder for residents to spend and for businesses to put into their accounts. The excess liquidity stems from a conflict between the Bank of Israel and the Palestinian Monetary Authority, which oversees Palestinian banks and financial institutions. Israel limits the amount of physical currency it takes back from the West Bank. Palestinian officials say the cap has not kept pace with growth and is one mechanism used to keep the territory in a state of economic crisis. Unlike in Gaza, where years of an almost total blockade have caused cash shortages, banks in the West Bank are running out of vault space to store stacks of shekels. With Bank of Israel refusing to accept more notes and coins, commercial banks can’t convert the money into electronic balances to pay suppliers or process transfers on behalf of their customers. Mohammad Manasra, the deputy governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, said that “What is being practiced in the West Bank is economic warfare.”

Tehran and Washington Face a ‘Wake Up Moment’ Over the War (NYT) After more than a week of strikes that unraveled an ill-fated cease-fire, the conflict between the United States and Iran stands on a knife’s edge. Now is the time, analysts say, to find a way to draw down an exponentially destructive confrontation—or risk provoking a war that cascades beyond what they may be able to contain. And though the dangers of escalation are growing, analysts say, neither side can really afford it, either economically or politically at home. Over the past few days, Tehran and Washington have dealt blows that quickly went beyond battering military targets and have gradually raised the stakes of their renewed war. Both sides have struck water and desalination plants that risk depriving tens of thousands of power and water supplies during the deadly Gulf summer heat. Traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz is once again blocked both by Tehran and Washington, while the U.S. has reinstated a blockade of Iranian ports. U.S. strikes have heavily bombarded roads and infrastructure in southern Iran, killing and trapping civilians, while raising anxieties it is preparing the ground for a potential invasion in the area. Iran’s strikes on U.S. forces in Jordan have now killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded dozens, bringing the human cost of war much closer to home for Americans while puncturing the Trump administration’s projection of complete military dominance.

Iran’s currency falls to record low (Financial Times) Iran’s currency has fallen to a record low as the US seeks to increase pressure on the country’s battered economy and strikes threaten to reignite all-out war between Tehran and Washington. The rial touched 1.95 million to the dollar on the open market on Sunday, down nearly 10 per cent since a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran started breaking down in early July. The tumble came after US President Donald Trump last week reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports to cut off oil exports and disrupt imports, part of their battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz. He also rescinded a waiver that allowed Iranian oil sales, Tehran’s economic lifeline.

Houthis to impose Red Sea blockade on Saudi Arabia (Bloomberg) The Tehran-backed Yemeni Houthis said they would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, putting at risk the flow of millions of barrels that the kingdom exports via the Red Sea. The move would add greater pressure on the US as it seeks to bomb Iran into submission over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Science shows us what exists but not what to do about it.”—Heinz R. Pagels

[newstfionline]

Monday, July 20, 2026

Ontario Wildfires Rage On, Forcing Rescues and Evacuations (NYT) Out-of-control wildfires in Ontario continued to force evacuations and affect major cities in Canada and the United States on Saturday as the province’s leader made his first visit near the devastated area. Speaking from a parking lot in Thunder Bay on Saturday, Premier Doug Ford said that 191 wildfires—seven more than Friday—were burning northwest of the city and that 73 were raging out of control. Ten communities have been evacuated, and 300 people have been rescued from campsites in 40 operations, Mr. Ford added. Roughly 1.7 million acres have burned in Ontario, data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center shows.

Death toll in Venezuela earthquakes passes 5,000 as searching continues (USA Today) The death toll from a pair of devasting earthquakes in Venezuela has surpassed 5,000 more than three weeks later, authorities said as search efforts continue. The two earthquakes hit less than a minute apart June 24 just after 6 p.m. local time. The quakes had magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, about 14 miles southeast of Yumare, Venezuela, some 173 miles west of the capital of Caracas. The quakes sent buildings tumbling, damaged infrastructure and left nearly 18,000 displaced from their homes. Venezuelan lawmaker ​Jorge ​Rodriguez said in an update July 17 that fatalities stood at 5,069 with another 16,740 injuries. More than 6,400 people have been rescued from the rubble, Rodriguez said in the latest update.

Germany Considers the Unthinkable: Sunday Shopping (WSJ) Bedran Günes, 23, was manning the cash register at Ari Mini Markt, his grocery store, when two officers walked in, demanding to see his merchandise. After surveying his pyramids of cans, arrayed spices and stacks of noodle soup, they issued him a 2,500-euro fine, equivalent to around $2,866. His offense: selling nonperishable food on a Sunday. “I keep doing it because I would be out of business otherwise,” said Günes, who estimates he makes 40% of his sales on Sundays. The scene, which Günes said last took place two months ago, is a snapshot not from a stern theocracy ruled by capricious clerics, but from the capital of Europe’s largest economy. Large though it may be, Germany’s economy is far from healthy. Growth has been flatlining since 2019. Battered by U.S. tariffs and Chinese competition, manufacturers have been shedding thousands of jobs. A desperate government is grasping for ideas to get the engine going again. One of them: to shore up consumption, which has stagnated in recent years, by opening up retail across the whole week. Yet the effort faces formidable cultural and bureaucratic barriers, as evidenced by Günes’s clashes with what he calls the Sunday shopping police.  From Monday to Saturday, stores in Germany operate much like in any other market economy. On Sundays, however, iron curtains roll shut, turning city centers into eerie, echoey deserts. Retail organizations are now urging Berlin to scrap most Sunday restrictions, as others from France to Italy have done.

Russians turn to cash, putting more strain on slowing wartime economy (NYT) Russians are returning to cash, as mobile internet shutdowns disrupt card payments, and more businesses seek to dodge tax under mounting financial pressure more than four years into the war with Ukraine. Russia has added 1.56tn roubles (£14.8bn; $20bn) in cash into circulation since the start of the year. The spike comes amid a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks, which have repeatedly led the Kremlin to shut down mobile internet across large swathes of the country, leaving many unable to pay by card. “Having cash on hand gives you some sense of control and security,” one woman in Moscow told the BBC on condition of anonymity. “If there’s an emergency in the city, I know I’ll still be able to buy basic necessities, even if the mobile network goes down.” With margins squeezed by higher taxes and a slowing economy, pharmacies, restaurants, beauty salons and corner shops are increasingly steering customers towards cash to keep more income off the books. The shift is making it harder for the state to collect tax, just as it faces a widening budget deficit and needs every rouble it can raise to fund the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Top General Becomes a Target of Protesters’ Anger (NYT) Protesters who have taken to the streets this week in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, over a shake-up in military leadership have begun to focus their anger on one man in particular: Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the army’s top commander. This week’s wave of demonstrations began Thursday in support of Mykhailo Fedorov, the 35-year-old defense minister who was ousted by President Volodymyr Zelensky after Mr. Fedorov clashed with General Syrskyi. Mr. Fedorov, a champion of Ukraine’s successful drone warfare program, had accused the general of blocking the broader use of robots in the army, as well as other overhauls Mr. Fedorov had proposed. The protesters in Kyiv have continued to show support for the military as a whole. But the sight of crowds personally deriding General Syrskyi, who commanded pivotal, successful battles earlier in the war, suggested that Ukraine could be in uncharted territory. Historically, street demonstrations have played an outsize role in the nation’s politics.

Men in Shorts Are Shaking Up Japan’s Buttoned-Down Offices (NYT) For more than three decades, Noboru Watanabe wore the uniform of the Japanese salaryman: trousers, a starched shirt, a jacket and a necktie. But last week Mr. Watanabe, 53, an environmental official in Tokyo, ditched the outfit for the unimaginable: a T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. He was taking advantage of a new policy by the Tokyo government to allow its workers to wear shorts in the office, after successive summers of record-breaking heat. The policy is the latest attempt by Japanese officials to persuade the country’s millions of office workers to dress down in the summer to make office life more comfortable, reduce the use of air-conditioning and save energy.

A former prime minister who led Israel out of Lebanon fears mistakes are being repeated (AP) It was just before sunrise when the last columns of Israeli tanks crossed from Lebanon back into Israel and then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who ordered the withdrawal, said the homecoming of Israeli troops sent “shivers down his spine.” That was May 24, 2000, the day Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. By then, many Israelis had grown to view the invasion—initially aimed at ousting Palestinian militants—as a strategic failure, akin to the U.S. military quagmire in Vietnam. Now, 26 years later, Israel is again occupying much of southern Lebanon, and while polling shows that a majority of Israelis currently support an extended military presence in Lebanon, some, including Barak, who remember the pitfalls of the last occupation, are afraid that Israel is falling into the same trap. “Our very presence will become the only goal,” Barak said in a recent interview, recounting what he said he thought of the occupation in 1985, when he was a general in the Israeli military, and Israel was shifting from active fighting to long-term deployment in Lebanon. “We were not serving Israeli security, we were not serving the state. There was no logic to this in 1985, and there was no logic in 2000, when we pulled out.”

U.S. sending dozens of refueling planes to Israel as Iran escalation looms (Axios) The Trump administration notified Israel it is sending dozens more refueling planes to the country ahead of a potential expansion of military operations against Iran, three U.S. and Israeli officials said. After he was presented with several new military plans in a Situation Room meeting Tuesday, President Trump is considering a massive offensive in Iran that would be wider in scope than the current strikes around the Strait of Hormuz. Among the options being considered are bombing Iranian infrastructure facilities like power plants, conducting more attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to bury Iran’s enriched uranium even deeper, and bombing the Pickaxe Mountain underground site that is suspected to be a facility in the making.

US bombing of Iran expands as American troops killed and Tehran retaliates against the Gulf states (AP) The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, hitting around a northwestern city believed to be home to underground missile bases. Iran responded by launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait. The latest attacks again showed how, step by step, the U.S. and Iran have inched closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people, while benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above $90 a barrel, further fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

16 US service members have died in the Iran war, reflecting a conflict fought largely in the air (AP) The U.S. military said on Saturday that two additional service members were killed as part of the war with Iran, bringing the total number of deaths to 16. The deaths reflect the complicated reality that American boots don’t need to be on the ground for there to be lethal risks in a conflict that involves drones, missiles and airplanes. American forces are arrayed across the Middle East, making other nations targets of Iran as the fighting has escalated after a breakdown in peace talks. The deaths in the war are not limited to Americans. Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in U.S. strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge Friday. People working on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also perished in the conflict.

Nigerian children pay the price for the Iran war as malnutrition and poverty surge (AP) Maryam Aminu was hardly surprised when the last of her six children was diagnosed with malnutrition in April for a second time. She was barely feeding the 18-month-old regularly, let alone with nutritious foods. Although the family in northwest Nigeria has struggled with economic hardship, their situation deteriorated after February, when her husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran. Children relapsing into malnutrition has become an increasingly common occurrence in the state and across northern Nigeria, according to local health and aid workers, who cite knock-on effects from the Iran war. Northern Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest regions, is already under pressure from an insurgency crisis. Now, the conflict in the Middle East has worsened food security for millions of people living in poverty, especially children.

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.”—Elizabeth Harrison

[newstfionline]

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Trump Threatens Canada With Tariffs for Wildfire Smoke Over U.S. (NYT) President Trump threatened on Friday to charge Canada tariffs to pay for harms caused by the wildfire smoke affecting American cities, joining a handful of Republican lawmakers who have criticized the Canadian government for what they claimed was poor forest management. In a social media post, Mr. Trump said the United States was being “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable,” and said he would call Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on Saturday to discuss the issue. The president’s post followed earlier criticism toward Canada over the smoke from nearly 200 wildfires burning in Ontario, which is affecting millions of Canadians and has led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from communities across large swaths of the province. The smoke has swept across a number of U.S. cities, including New York, Detroit and Washington, causing hazardous air quality conditions over the past several days.

17 million gallons of water flood the Sunset Strip (Los Angeles Times) The massive Sunset Strip trunk line rupture was L.A.'s worst in years, spilling 17 million gallons of water and forcing the closure of Sunset Boulevard for at least several days. While West Hollywood has dealt with other water main breaks over the years, this one happened at the top of a hill, sending water down into businesses and homes. The mayor estimated that between 150 and 200 cars were damaged or destroyed in the flood.

ICE’s Legal Record (NYT) Federal prosecutors seldom lose cases. More than 90 percent of criminal defendants plead guilty or are convicted at trial. But over the past year, those prosecutors have lost about half their cases against people charged with assaulting immigration officers. A Times investigation has found that is at least partly because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have engaged in misconduct as they try to meet President Trump’s aggressive deportation goals. In dozens of the cases, videos and court records show that federal agents were the first to get physical—shoving, tackling or pepper-spraying defendants. In at least seven, officers’ own conduct caused their injuries. Two judges found that agents intentionally destroyed evidence.

America is losing its hold on international students (Bloomberg) From Ireland and Germany to Japan, more than half a dozen nations are benefiting from Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Spooked by tighter border controls, a surging number of international students are altering their destinations. There were 1.18 million overseas student arrivals in the US in the year through March 31, about 24% below the pre-pandemic average, according to visa arrivals data for the past decade. While overseas student arrivals since 2021 never fully recovered to the pre-Covid era levels, the latest number has touched a new low. It’s about 17% lower than in the two preceding years—a clear sign that Trump’s hardline approach toward higher education has made students wary. In its latest proposal, the Trump administration said it would impose a four- year limit on student visas. By contrast, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong have been successfully wooing students with lower tuition, flexible tenure of the academic programs and clearer pathways to employment. Hong Kong and Japan are also emerging as academic hot spots for Chinese scholars while France is a major alternative destination for African students.

E.U. tells Caribbean nations: Stop selling citizenship or we’ll require visas (Washington Post) The European Union is giving five nations in the Eastern Caribbean two years to end their lucrative citizenship-by-investment programs or lose visa-free travel to the bloc, their leaders say. The nations—Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia—generate significant revenue through their programs. Foreigners who invest in their economies, buy real estate or pay their governments directly gain passports that allow visa-free travel to more than 140 countries and territories, including much of Europe. Costs begin at $200,000. Each of the five received a letter from Brussels last month advising that new E.U. rules make the existence of such programs grounds for suspending visa-free access. The bloc gave them until June 1, 2028, to phase out their programs. Critics say insufficient vetting of applicants can enable money laundering and terrorist financing and increase the risks of identity fraud and illegal immigration. Several E.U. member states offer residence-by-investment programs that can lead to citizenship. President Donald Trump last year introduced a $1 million “Trump gold card” promising a direct path to U.S. citizenship within weeks “for all qualified and vetted people.”

Latin American governments prepare for El Nino as drought, floods and heat loom (AP) Governments across Latin America are mobilizing firefighters, activating contingency plans and preparing water, energy and transportation systems as El Nino strengthens across the Pacific, raising concerns about drought, extreme heat, flooding and other climate-related disruptions in the months ahead. The preparations come as meteorologists warn that El Nino is already underway and increasingly likely to strengthen through the remainder of the year. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, the climate phenomenon develops gradually over months, which gives governments time to prepare before its most severe impacts arrive. But experts say authorities across the region have often struggled to turn forecasts into action, raising questions about whether countries will be better prepared than during previous El Nino events that caused widespread economic damage and disrupted water, energy and food systems.

Andy Burnham is declared leader of UK’s Labour Party, pledges to restore hope (AP) Andy Burnham was officially declared leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, promising to bring hope to the British people and purpose to the floundering government as he cleared his final hurdle to take office as prime minister next week. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, whose nickname is “the king of the north,” was the only contender in the center-left party’s leadership contest to replace departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was forced out by a rebellion within his party. Starmer will remain prime minister until Monday, when he formally tenders his resignation to King Charles III. The king will then ask Burnham to form a government.

7 killed and more than 50 wounded in Ukrainian drone attack on Russian regions (AP) Seven people were killed and 51 others were wounded in Russia overnight by Ukrainian drone attacks, Russian officials said Saturday. Kyiv’s forces are continuing their relentless aerial campaign against energy infrastructure and military targets inside Russia, aiming to undermine Moscow’s war effort and make Russians feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine that is well into its fifth year. Ukrainian special operations also conducted strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in occupied territory.

The Rise and Fall of Ukraine’s Drone Warfare Mastermind (NYT) In his zealous efforts to popularize drone warfare, Ukraine’s young defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, also gained widespread popularity himself. And that, political analysts and opposition politicians said, may have helped bring about his downfall this week, as President Volodymyr Zelensky sided against him in a titanic clash with the country’s top military commander. Mr. Zelensky’s dismissal of Mr. Fedorov, 35, sidelined a potential political rival who had seized the spotlight. The timing of his ouster is awkward, just as drone warfare has helped tilt the scales in Ukraine’s favor. The move also indicates Mr. Zelensky’s misgivings about Mr. Fedorov’s vision of drones as nearly the entirety of the country’s future in fighting the war. Mr. Fedorov had become “a problem and a danger” for Mr. Zelensky, a Ukrainian MP said, by championing a purely technological overhaul of Ukraine’s military that was widely popular but was opposed by the top general actually fighting the war.

China’s Latest A.I. Breakthrough Threatens America’s Lead (NYT) The contest between China and the United States for supremacy in artificial intelligence escalated on Friday when the Chinese start-up Moonshot AI released a new A.I. model that appeared to narrow the lead held by well-funded American competitors. Moonshot said that the model, Kimi K3, was the world’s largest open-source A.I. system, allowing anyone to use, modify and build on it freely. The company said that Kimi K3 performed as well as leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic at some key tasks. The release coincided with an address by Xi Jinping, China’s leader, in which he outlined an ambitious vision for global A.I. development that cast China as the champion of an open approach to the technology.

Japan enshrines male-only succession for the shrinking imperial family (AP) Japan’s parliament enacted a historic revision to the 19th-century Imperial House Law on Friday by insisting only paternal-lineage men can become emperor, sparking concern that the measure could doom the already shrinking imperial family. The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners. Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only males can be emperor. Emperor Naruhito ‘s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan’s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor’s younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito. Next in line after him is the emperor’s 90-year-old uncle.

US strikes Iran’s Revolutionary Guard over attack that killed troops in Jordan (AP) The U.S. military launched airstrikes Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan. (An Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization.) The U.S. has targeted bridges, electrical facilities and other targets in Iran, and Tehran has retaliated by hitting power and desalination plants in Kuwait, threatening daily life in that small, oil-rich desert nation. Iran also has stepped up its threats to further expand the strikes, drawing a warning overnight from the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military’s Central Command also said for the first time it specifically targeted the Guard, a key power base in Iran’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal.

Iranian strike damages a Kuwait desalination plant, exposing water vulnerability in dry Mideast (AP) Iranian strikes on Friday hit a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait, damaging one of the key sources of drinking water in the small desert nation. It’s the latest attack on essential infrastructure across the Middle East that have exposed extreme vulnerabilities in one of the world’s driest regions, which relies almost exclusively on technology to produce freshwater that sustains cities, hotels, industry and some agriculture. In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination, along with roughly 86% in Oman and about 70% in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting systems that supply water to millions within range of Iranian missile or drone strikes. Without them, major cities could not sustain their current populations.

At 91, He’s Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Again. (NYT) On the first day of summer, just after dawn, Dale Sanders, 91, prepared to start the steep, rocky hike up to Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Mr. Sanders’s mantra might resonate with anyone in their tenth decade: “It’s a ‘don’t fall’ day today,” he said, slinging a small backpack onto his compact, wiry frame. The roughly 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia to Maine. Mr. Sanders had been chipping away at it since September, in a bid to reclaim his record as the oldest person to hike the full length. (His goal is to complete a thru-hike, by walking the entire trail in a 12-month period.) Mr. Sanders still has to finish a section of the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. But if he continues at his current pace, the age record will be his again before his 365-day deadline. Mr. Sanders said he plans to finish, even if he runs out of time for it to count officially. Either way, he said he will soon have to look for a new record: “I’m not going to stop unless physically I simply cannot do it anymore.”

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Follow Me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way, there is no going. Without the Truth, there is no knowing. Without the Life, there is no living.”—Jesus, The Imitation of Christ

[newstfionline]

Saturday, July 18, 2026

A Trump Obsession That Carries a Cost for Democracy (NYT) President Trump used a lot of alarming words on Thursday night as he addressed the American people about threats to the integrity of elections in the United States: “Deep state.” “Rigged and stolen.” “Conspiring.” “Manipulation.” “Corrupt.” “Fraud.” “Cover up.” But the bottom-line message he clearly wanted to leave with the public was this: He is not a loser, regardless of the result of the 2020 election. There were dark forces at work to thwart him. And if his party loses this fall’s midterm election, he intimated, that may not be an honest outcome either.

Wildfire smoke makes air unhealthy from the US Midwest to East Coast. Officials say stay inside (AP) Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies in the U.S. on Thursday from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous. Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The smoke is coming from fires that are burning primarily in Canada but also in northern Minnesota. A lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Detroit, where air quality was among the worst in the world for major cities.

Lawmakers demand answers after ‘bombshell’ report of ICE officer shooting in Maine (AP) Democratic members of Congress demanded answers about Homeland Security’s vetting and training of immigration enforcement agents after it was disclosed Thursday that the ICE officer involved in a deadly shooting this week in Maine had a history of mental health issues and violent behavior. The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives. The report on Brouillette’s troubling past comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been on a hiring spree, fueled by vast sums from Republicans in Congress to help carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It raises fresh questions about the department’s efforts to quickly hire, vet, train and dispatch recruits who are being sent to patrol communities across America. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

Texas flash floods leave at least 2 dead in region devastated a year ago (AP) Catastrophic flash floods in Texas have killed two people and forced hundreds of rescues in areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday. Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said. After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic. As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

New Prime Minister Faces Old Problems: How to Make Britain’s Economy Grow (NYT) One after the other, Britain’s recent prime ministers have pledged to revive the nation’s economy. One after the other, the promised growth eluded them. Andy Burnham, set to formally become the newest prime minister on Monday, has arrived with his own version of this pledge: “Good growth in every British postcode.” His plan? Give away power to local officials so they can make their own economic choices. Mr. Burnham has promised to bring about “the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run.” Alongside the so-called devolution of power, Mr. Burnham has said he will bring more public utilities and services under public control, while quickly tackling the high cost of living. But Mr. Burnham will face the same economic challenges that befell his predecessors: a heavy public debt burden, stubbornly high inflation and low productivity growth. Those are compounded by the unavoidable legacies of the country’s decision a decade ago to leave the European Union, which has dragged on the economy, and years of too little public investment. Nervous consumers are saving a lot, rather than spending.

Killings of three British politicians in a decade shine light on febrile political mood (CNN) For the third time in a little over a decade, British lawmakers stood up one-by-one in Parliament on Monday, paid tribute to a slain politician, and echoed each other’s fears about the rising tide of violence in politics. “Politics is a calling for those of us here, but it should not be a dangerous one,” the country’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, as she sought to reassure Members of Parliament (MPs) of their security. The killing of former MP Ann Widdecombe last week, coming after the murders of sitting MPs Jo Cox and David Amess in 2016 and 2021, respectively, has reinforced that the last decade has been one of the most dangerous periods for UK politicians in the country’s history.

Europe is betting big on drones (CNBC) Europe has spent years rebuilding its military in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, investment is increasingly converging around one technology that is seen as central to the continent’s future security: drones. A flurry of announcements over the past two weeks shows just how quickly that shift is accelerating. NATO unveiled a new drone initiative, the U.K. earmarked billions of pounds for drones and counter-drone systems, Germany moved to procure 50,000 drones for Ukraine, and defense tech startup Helsing secured an $18 billion valuation. The developments reflect a broader shift in military planning, with drones and autonomous systems moving from niche battlefield tools to a core part of modern warfare. Battlefield lessons from Ukraine—alongside Iran’s use of low-cost Shahed drones in the Middle East—have shown the importance of relatively inexpensive, AI-enabled drones that can gather intelligence, extend the reach of conventional weapons and increasingly operate autonomously.

Brazen Japanese Bears Are Breaking Into Homes and Raiding Pantries (NYT) The perpetrators are between 2 and 3 feet tall, on all fours. On their hind legs, they can reach up to 7 feet. They’re furry. They love food. They are—you guessed it by now—bears. An area of northeastern Japan is seeing a spate of attempted—and sometimes successful—break-ins, according to local news reports. This week, Asiatic black bears were sighted in Iwate prefecture, causing residents to install traps and electric fences, the reports said. One bear “came inside, right where my father happened to be sleeping,” Yuta Matsubara told a Japanese news outlet. “He noticed the bear, turned around, and shouted loudly, causing it to go back outside.” The bear came back later to try again, which was captured on video. In other instances, bears entered three homes in the prefecture and in some cases raided fridges and pantries for food, according to the local daily newspaper Kahoku Shimpo. One bear has learned how to open sliding doors and enter people’s homes. The encounters between humans and bears in Iwate are the latest examples of a nationwide surge that is testing Japan’s traditional belief in harmonious coexistence with nature.

In occupied zone of Lebanon, Israeli military veterans see shadow of past wars (Reuters) Israeli leaders describe the territory now occupied in Lebanon as a war gain, but some military veterans see the so-called “buffer zone” as a deadly replay of a doomed strategy they experienced first-hand. Gil Shely recalls being told daily ​by his commanders in the late 1980s, in what was known then as the southern Lebanon “security strip”, that he was protecting Israel’s north. “Looking back, it was ‌all fairy tales,” he said. Israel withdrew from that strip in 2000. Its troops are now back. For Shely, it was a moment of dread. “When I hear news that a soldier has been killed there, I am ​crushed. My heart screams out for the unnecessary sacrifice,” said Shely, 56, whose youngest son is soon to enlist in Israel’s conscript military. Veterans looking back three and four decades describe a grinding routine in southern Lebanon—clearing explosives, staging ambushes and clashing with fighters who used Israel’s occupation to hone guerrilla tactics. “I ​lost many friends in Lebanon,” said Erez, 51, who served there in the 1990s. His son is now deployed in the new buffer zone. “We hoped we would never have to go back.”

US and Iran exchange strikes as they struggle over Strait of Hormuz (AP) The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified. The U.S. Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.” Kuwait said Saturday it was intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, while Iraq said it had shot down attack drones over the city of Irbil. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said that the kingdom’s air defense systems had downed Iranian missiles, while air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain according to the government there. Iranian officials say recent U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in Iran. The U.S. military also acknowledged that several more service members were injured.

Growing persecution trends include religious nationalism, transnational repression (Baptist Press) Religious nationalism, transnational repression and state control of religious groups are among growing trends in the persecution of Christians globally, International Christian Concern (ICC) said in its newly released 2026 Global Persecution Index. Terrorism, authoritarianism, restrictions against women and the use of Western-based technology in global persecution are also on the rise, ICC said in its July 2024-July 2025 study of 26 countries in five regions. Despite persecution, Christianity continues to grow globally and in unexpected places, according to the report. “The Iranian house church movement remains one of the fastest growing in the world, driven by underground networks and digital evangelism,” ICC reported. “In China, believers meet in homes and encrypted online gatherings despite constant surveillance, proving again that faith can endure even where freedom does not.”

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”—William Pitt

[newstfionline]

Friday, July 17, 2026

Canadian wildfires (BBC) Of the 858 wildfires currently burning across Canada, nearly 200 are in Ontario, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. This large cluster of fires is sending thick plumes of smoke and raising concerns over poor air quality across Toronto and the entire Great Lakes region, plus New York and Boston. Air quality in Detroit is currently the worst in the world, Swiss air quality tracker IQAir said. Republican lawmakers in the state of Michigan expressed their frustrations in an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, asking for better management of the country's wildfires.

Trump uses primetime address to raise doubts about US elections ahead of midterms (AP) President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms. Trump’s amplification of debunked theories about the election six years ago and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker moments in American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term. Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces escalating strikes on Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in sight, and an immigration crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its sometimes deadly tactics. Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from Republicans.

Storm clouds gather over America’s financial supremacy (Economist) Last month Jamieson Greer, America’s top trade official, complained that Pix, a Brazilian instant-payments system, unfairly disadvantages American firms such as Visa and Mastercard. America proposed an additional 25% tariff on Brazil in response. Yet Brazilians seem unmoved. “Pix is a Brazilian achievement and we will not give it up,” replied Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president and a frequent critic of American power. Even his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, said he was unwilling to forgo the system. The episode captures the new geopolitical reality of global finance. As America pursues what Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, recently described as “economic statecraft in the 21st century”, in which global access to the dollar and the American economy is “no longer unconditional”, and other countries try to respond in kind, the global financial system is splintering into regional and national systems. In January Aurore Lalucq, the chair of the European Parliament’s economic- and monetary-affairs group, cautioned that a hostile America could easily cut off the continent’s access to payments infrastructure. “You won’t be able to say you weren’t warned,” she said, arguing that Europe must build its own alternatives. Weeks later a group of British bank bosses reportedly met in London to discuss building a British rival to Visa and Mastercard. Today diversifying from America is “the ardent desire of policymakers in practically every country”, says Eswar Prasad of Cornell University. While much discussion has focused on the dollar’s role, policymakers increasingly see payments infrastructure as a more viable path to independence.

ICE should keep making traffic stops despite recent shootings, Trump says (AP) President Donald Trump wants Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to keep pulling over vehicles, signaling his opposition Wednesday to plans announced just a day earlier to suspend most traffic stops following another string of fatal shootings. It’s not clear whether ICE will quickly reverse course and resume most stops, which have been a key tool in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Ending those stops, Trump wrote, would be “playing right into the criminal’s hands.” “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site. ICE’s enforcement tactics are coming under renewed criticism after three people died during encounters with federal officers within a week.

Almost Half of House Democrats Vote to End Aid to Israel (NYT) The House on Wednesday rejected a measure to eliminate U.S. aid to Israel, but almost half of Democrats supported the move, reflecting a rapid and dramatic shift within the party away from decades of unequivocal support for the Jewish state. The measure, which sought to cut all $3.3 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Israel from a foreign affairs spending bill, failed by a vote of 104 to 314, with 10 voting “present,” and all but one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a sponsor, voting no. It was the latest and starkest evidence of a major divide over backing Israel within the Democratic Party, which is grappling with a groundswell of hostility in its ranks toward Israel and its conduct of the war in Gaza. Supporters said the measure was their only way to register their opposition to the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and their desire for a fundamental change in course in the U.S. relationship with Israel.

US imposing a 25% tariff on some Brazilian imports starting July 22, citing unfair trade practices (AP) The United States is imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil after finding a range of what it deemed unfair trade practices by the world’s 10th-biggest economy. The tariffs, which were first proposed last month, will take effect July 22. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concluded after a yearlong investigation that Brazil had a range of unfair trade practices, including lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other practices seen as unreasonable and unfair. The U.S., however, has had a goods trade surplus with Brazil for years. After U.S. officials in early June warned that they were proposing the tariffs, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reacted with indignation. He instead pointed to political considerations, blaming his rival in the country’s October elections, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro had recently visited Washington and is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of President Donald Trump.

Europe Wants to Break Free From American and Chinese Technology. But How? (NYT) The French government said this year that it would replace Zoom and other American videoconference software with a French-developed alternative. Germany is building a homegrown platform for artificial intelligence. Companies in both countries are teaming up to build A.I. chips to rival those of the United States and China. These are modest steps in Europe’s high-stakes race to catch up to America and China in the global sprint for digital independence. Without it, Europe’s political and business leaders worry, they will be vulnerable to sudden losses of access to critical technologies, as after President Trump’s recent decision to cut off foreigners from some of Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence models. They will also miss out on revenues from a booming industry. Yet interviews with industry leaders, public officials, entrepreneurs and economists suggest there is currently little question about whether Europe can wean itself off tech dependence anytime soon. It cannot. Instead, political and business leaders across the continent are wrestling with a more limited, but still daunting, question. If full independence is impossible, where should Europe focus its digital efforts, in pursuit of at least partial autonomy?

Russia’s Elite Are Moving Billions Beyond Putin’s Wartime Grasp (Bloomberg) Several of Russia’s richest people including some close to President Vladimir Putin have moved billions of dollars abroad in the past year after growing concerned about the country’s economy and the government budget. High-profile asset seizures have intensified fears among members of the Russian elite that the state could confiscate their wealth or that they may lose their fortunes, according to six wealthy Russians and other people familiar with the thinking of several of the country’s billionaires.

CIA Says AI Drones Give Russian Troops Only 30 Minutes to Live (Bloomberg) Russian soldiers only live an average of 20 to 30 minutes on the battlefield because of Ukraine’s artificial-intelligence attack drones, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday. “Our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine: the average life expectancy of a Russian recruit right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes,” the Central Intelligence Agency chief said at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on Wednesday.

Police round up Hong Kong booksellers as China widens crackdown (Washington Post) Police in Hong Kong arrested five booksellers over alleged “seditious” material on Wednesday, as Beijing imposes increasingly strict control over the once-autonomous territory in successive free speech crackdowns. Authorities raided two independent bookstores, Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield Bookstore, and carried out boxes of books from both stores, local media outlets reported. Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield Bookstore sold books on topics censored in mainland China, including those with unvarnished views of Chinese authoritarianism and Mao Zedong. Police had already raided two other bookstores this year on suspicion of selling a biography of Jimmy Lai, the democracy activist whom U.S. President Donald Trump unsuccessfully pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release from Chinese custody during the U.S.-China summit in May.

China Wants More Babies—So It’s Cracking Down on Chatbot Love Affairs (WSJ) Regulators in China have found unexpected common ground with their counterparts in California and New York: Humans need to stop falling in love with chatbots. But while American lawmakers nudge artificial-intelligence companies to add mental-health guardrails, Beijing is taking a heavier hand. It is policing virtual romance, in part because it wants people to stop dating machines and start having babies. China’s birthrate fell to a record low last year.

US strikes bridges and collapses a tower at a key port as its Iran campaign expands (AP) The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges, electricial equipment and collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran launched new missile attacks against U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East, including Qatar, a key mediator in the war. The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.

Yemen at risk of getting dragged back into war as Saudis and Houthis exchange airstrikes (AP) A truce that ended nearly a decade of war in Yemen has mostly held since 2022. It is being severely tested four years later, as tensions tied to the war in Iran risk spilling over. The civil war in Yemen that began in 2014 eventually pitted Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition supporting the country’s government. While the Iran war that began on Feb. 28 reignited all sorts of regional rivalries, the peace between the Houthis and Saudis had mostly prevailed—until Monday. That’s when Houthis launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in response to airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport earlier in the day that they blamed on Saudi Arabia. No casualties were reported, but it was the most significant confrontation between these enemies in years, raising fears that they could be moving closer to another war. Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, is still recovering from the civil war that plunged parts of the nation into famine.

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.”—Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

[newstfionline]

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Hazy days (Bloomberg) Wildfire smoke drifting east from Canadian infernos is degrading air quality in New York just as intense heat grips the region for a second day. Smoke from hundreds of fires burning across Canada blanketed parts of the region, turning the sun over New York City and Toronto into a hazy, yellowish orb. Air quality dropped to unhealthy levels in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Toronto. Meanwhile, increasingly delicate American electrical grids are buckling in the Midwest and California, with utility PG&E warning of potential power shutoffs across several counties as dry conditions and gusty winds increase fire risks.

House Votes for Permanent Daylight Saving Time (NYT) The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to make daylight saving time permanent, but the measure to spare Americans the semiannual clock-changing that shortens winter days faces an uncertain path to enactment. The measure, fittingly named the “Sunshine Protection Act,” passed on a 308-to-117 vote. Its fate is murky in the Senate, where one G.O.P. leader said it was unclear whether it could move ahead and at least one Republican appears inclined to try to block it. President Trump has championed the effort to save an extra hour of daylight before nightfall and make the time zone permanent, describing the ritual of moving clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall a “ridiculous, twice yearly production.”

Data Centers to Add Billions in Power Costs in 13 States (NYT) PJM, the nation’s largest electrical grid operator, on Tuesday released results of an electricity auction that would add $6.3 billion in costs to the bills of millions of households and businesses within the next three years, an increase driven by the power demands of data centers. During the annual auction, power companies supplied prices that they were willing to accept to supply electricity to PJM at times of peak demand. Those prices are then factored into the electricity rates that are eventually charged to the grid’s customers in 13 Eastern states and the District of Columbia. The PJM grid supplies electricity to 67 million people from Virginia Beach to Chicago. The network of power systems includes the world’s largest cluster of data centers, in Northern Virginia. “Demand growth is not going away,” said Patrick Cicero, a former state-appointed consumer advocate for Pennsylvania who is now counsel for the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, which assists low-income consumers. “The bottom line is high prices are going to remain in place.”

The Pentagon plans to screen troops for testosterone deficiency (WSJ) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said tests for servicemembers 30 and older would help them maintain “lethality.” Hegseth didn’t say which testosterone levels would necessitate treatment and whether there would be separate standards for women. The Pentagon declined to comment.

Mexico asks US state attorneys general to investigate migrant deaths in ICE custody (AP) Mexico formally requested that U.S. state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of migrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or during raids, the Mexican government said Tuesday. The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston. Since the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican migrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations. The United States is not legally obliged to act on the requests.

Cuba plunged into 3rd nationwide blackout in 2 weeks as fuel runs low (AP) Cuba suffered another blackout of the National Electric System, or SEN, on Tuesday, leaving the entire country without power, officials said. It was the third such incident in two weeks as a U.S. oil embargo stresses the island’s grid. Fuel has been running out across Cuba since January, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island, deepening the island’s ongoing economic and financial crisis. Public transportation has largely been halted, and officials have canceled tens of thousands of surgeries. Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it needs. A solution for fuel imports is not yet in sight.

Anger at earthquake response grows in Venezuela (Guardian) Public anger at what many perceive as the Venezuelan government’s botched response to twin earthquakes that killed nearly 4,500 people is growing, with one grieving mother caught on camera berating the son of former president Nicolás Maduro. Maduro’s politician son received a hostile reception while visiting a semi-destroyed social housing project named after his father’s late mentor Hugo Chávez. “I didn’t lose a kitchen! I lost a daughter!” the woman, named as Damely Yaneth Díaz, can be seen shouting at congressman Nicolás Maduro Guerra in scenes captured by the Norwegian broadcaster TV2 last week. “The lot of you should be arrested,” said Díaz, a resident of Catia La Mar, one of the worst-hit areas along Venezuela’s north coast. “This was recklessness and you must pay!” Bystanders cheered on the dissenter, urging the European journalists to continue filming the altercation after officials apparently tried to interrupt their work. Díaz’s comments, which went viral on social media, captured widespread rage at what many see as the government’s inept response to the 24 June quakes, which levelled scores of buildings in the northern state of La Guaira and caused major damage in the capital, Caracas. On Sunday, the government raised the official death toll to 4,490, but that number is expected to rise significantly, with many bodies still being pulled from the wreckage of large buildings.

Britons urged to take ‘small steps’ to prepare for potential national crises (Guardian) The British public should begin taking “small but important steps” to secure and protect water, power supplies and basic phone signal in case of further severe weather emergencies, national crises or cyber-attacks, Downing Street has said. Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs “the risks we face from climate change cannot be underestimated”, and warned of the “significant and prolonged disruption to essential services” extreme weather events could cause. Jones also said the combination of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, and the conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine could enable criminals to carry out “hostile cyber-attacks against businesses and critical infrastructure”. Ministers were warned in May that Britain’s vital supply chains were unprepared for the prospect of a major shock, such as a war with Russia, and that bold steps were needed to catch up with “worst-case scenario” planning by European states.

Ukraine targets another 11 Russian ships in Sea of Azov (DW) Ukraine said on Tuesday that another 11 Russian vessels have been targeted in the Sea of Azov in overnight strikes. Kyiv’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, known by his callsign “Magyar”, said in a statement on Telegram that the targets included five tankers, five cargo vessels and one tugboat. He said the aim was to damage Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” and to limit Russia’s fuel supplies to Moscow-controlled Crimea. Ukraine claims that forces have struck 116 vessels over the past nine days in the Sea of Azov in operations targeting Russian shipping.

More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests (BBC) China is now viewed more positively than the US in many countries around the world, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. It is the first time the organisation has recorded such results. The findings from the non-partisan, US-based think tank indicate that favourable views of China have reached record highs in many countries, while perceptions of the United States have worsened. In general, respondents expressed low confidence in both US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, though Xi scored higher than Trump. While the US was still seen to respect personal freedoms more than China, China was seen to interfere in other countries' affairs less than the US. Pew polled more than 42,000 people in 36 countries between February and May. The research centre found that in 25 of the 36 countries, there were more people who had favourable views of China than of the US.

Israel’s parliament approves laws to enshrine exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from military service (AP) Israel’s parliament has approved laws that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the country’s military in a last-ditch effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition to woo religious political parties ahead of elections in the fall. Lawmakers voted in a marathon session on Monday and Tuesday to both freeze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders and to enshrine Jewish religious studies as a “foundational value” of the state. Both laws represent significant concessions by Netanyahu’s Likud party to ultra-Orthodox politicians seeking to formalize their community’s de facto exemption from serving in the military, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. The military is already grappling with troop shortages and many Israelis have grown tired of the longstanding system that allowed ultra-Orthodox men to avoid service. “Netanyahu is trying to ensure that Haredim are going to negotiate only with him after the next elections,” said Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, head of the religious and state program at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.

US expands strikes into northern Iran and disables ship trying to run blockade (AP) The United States intensified its strikes on Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north as American forces also fired into a ship it accused of trying to break its naval blockade on the Islamic Republic. Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting U.S. allies in the region before dawn and warned its attacks may escalate. Days of back-and-forth strikes by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East — and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz—have shredded the interim deal to end the Iran war and could tip the region back into all-out war. Already, Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others.

In Iran, Trump Has Found an Opponent He Cannot Easily Dominate (NYT) On the 136th day of his war against Iran, President Trump came up with a new plan. He would impose tolls on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for protecting them from Iranian forces. But that was then. On Day 137, he had another new plan. No tolls after all. Mr. Trump’s 180-degree reversal on Tuesday in the face of protests from his Arab allies who were not so excited about paying tolls reflected how adrift he seems to be in prosecuting his war against Iran. What was supposed to be a clean four-to-six-week operation is now in its messy 20th week. Improvisation and impulse are not working. A president who has made flexing his power on the world stage a hallmark of his second term has found in Iran an opponent that so far will not bend to his will and a geopolitical conflict that cannot be won through nasty social media posts or tariff threats. Mr. Trump’s no-end-in-sight venture in the Middle East has become a fresh lesson in why the region has been a sinkhole for presidential ambition for generations. The instruments of power that help advance U.S. interests elsewhere around the globe do not necessarily work there, as many of Mr. Trump’s predecessors have discovered.

Eat your ice cream for a long, healthy life? (NPR) Ice cream is a summer favorite, and Dr. Zeke Emanuel says there’s no need to skip it. In his book Eat Your Ice Cream, he cites evidence suggesting that people who regularly enjoy the sweet treat face a lower risk of metabolic disease—a finding research called “the ice cream paradox.” He also offers simple evidence-based advice for staying healthy: Avoid smoking, vaping and excessive alcohol use. Initiate conversations with people. Casual interactions can help promote positive feelings. Keep moving. Even a walk after a meal can help stabilize your blood sugar. Also, Expand your mind. Emanuel says he realizes most people eventually retire, but take steps to maintain lifelong learning and stay curious. Finding ways to stay engaged and having a strong sense of purpose can reduce the risk of cognitive decline.

[newstfionline]

Thought of the Day

“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”—Abraham Lincoln

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

No relief from the heat as many US cities will see record overnight temperatures (AP) Another week of blistering heat will bring even more health risks in the coming days, as overnight temperatures won’t provide much relief. The National Weather Service is predicting that more than 90 temperature records across the U.S. will be tied or broken this week through Wednesday—and most of those will be overnight heat records. It has already been a sweltering start to the summer across much of the U.S. due to the long-lasting heat dome expected to blanket much of the country this week. The blistering temperatures over the past few weeks have caused heat-related deaths in New Jersey and helped fuel wildfires in the West.

ICE agent’s killing of Maine motorist is at least the ninth death in US immigration sweeps (AP) A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a Maine motorist on Monday, marking at least the ninth death since the start of the Trump administration’s mass deportations campaign. The shooting came less than a week after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a Houston man after an altercation with agents while he was driving to work. Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the agent opened fire after the man “weaponized” his vehicle against ICE agents. Video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers. No immigration officers have been charged in those fatal encounters. No body camera footage exists in the cases.

Judge Denounces Trump’s I.R.S. Suit as Improper Exercise in Self-Dealing (NYT) A federal judge ruled on Monday that President Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming that the extraordinary tax protections he received were part of a legitimate settlement agreement. In the 56-page order, the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, also referred the lawyer who brought Mr. Trump’s case against the I.R.S. to the Florida bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. She added that she would forward her decision to the New York bar for its continuing investigation of the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing this week. The decision by Judge Williams, who sits in Federal District Court in Miami, did not explicitly kill the deal that Mr. Trump had worked out with his own government to receive what amounted to amnesty from I.R.S. investigations. But the scathing ruling exposed the negotiations between Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers and senior officials at the Justice Department for what she says they were: backroom dealings that did not arise from a legitimate legal process. The ruling was the latest example of a federal judge calling out the Trump administration for twisting normal court procedures to the president’s advantage.

The Global Policeman vs. The International Criminal Court (Guardian) Yesterday, the U.S. launched a campaign to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court (ICC). The effort, which is being spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, claims that the court is “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.” The ICC was established as part of 1998’s Rome Statute, which established that genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression are international crimes. The statute established the ICC in order to prosecute and investigate those crimes when countries are “unable” or “unwilling” to do so on their own. Individuals indicted by the court include former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. 125 countries are member states of the ICC (meaning their people can be prosecuted by the court)—the U.S., China, Russia, India, and Israel are among those not under the court’s jurisdiction. The court has come under fire from the White House for a variety of reasons, including its attempts to investigate U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan, as well as its arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for their alleged role in committing war crimes in Gaza.

US expands Cuba sanctions with targeting of tourism industry (Bloomberg) The Trump administration has added Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism to its expanding sanctions list, striking once again at one of the island’s main economic drivers. The ministry was one of 10 agencies and entities that were targeted Monday, according to updated guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. International travel to the island, just 90 miles south of Florida, has hit historic lows after Trump cut off large fuel deliveries to Cuba, forcing resorts to shut, airlines to cancel flights and international operators to abandon their contracts. The country’s electric grid is under growing strain with two nationwide blackouts last week alone.

Starmer’s Last Wish (BBC) Earlier this year, outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government’s intention to pass a piece of legislation named the National Security (State Threats) Act. That bill is aimed at creating a new government-defined category of “designated state threat organisations,” and makes “supporting, assisting or obtaining material benefits from” those organizations punishable by up to 14 years in prison. “Supporting,” in this case, includes expressing “an opinion or belief that is supportive of a designated body”—meaning any speech in support of a group that the U.K. government deems a threat is, again, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The new bill has been fast-tracked through Parliament and is expected to be approved by the legislature later this week.

Europe Takes Step Toward Possible Social Media Ban for Children (NYT) The European Union moved closer on Monday to barring children from social media, in what would be the largest effort to date in the growing global movement to create age limits for apps like TikTok and Instagram. Experts delivered a report to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, recommending that the European Union restrict access to social media for children under the age of 13 unless they are supervised by a parent or teacher. The report, by a child psychiatrist, Professor Jörg Fegert, and an epidemiologist, Dr. Maria Melchior, also recommended that 13- to 18-year-olds should have access only to social media platforms that have introduced safety features such as limits on infinite scrolling. It said toddlers under the age of 3 should have no screen time at all.

2 Spaniards gored as the San Fermin bull run festival concludes (AP) Spain’s famed San Fermin festival concluded with two gorings during the eighth and final bull run held on Tuesday. Both men were taken to a local hospital for care. A further eight runners, including an 86-year-old British man, needed medical treatment for minor injuries. The last death at San Fermin’s bull runs occurred in 2009, but gorings and broken bones are common, partly due to the large number of novice bull runners and foreign tourists who join the experienced locals. Many injuries are from falls caused by panicking runners. This year’s festival comes 100 years since the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises,” which launched the San Fermin festival to international fame.

Armed Standoffs Over Migrants Erupt on India’s Longest Border (NYT) India and Bangladesh share one of the longest borders in the world, through which impoverished Bangladeshis often slip unnoticed in search of jobs and smugglers ferry goods as varied as cattle, gold and raisins. But that sievelike, roughly 2,500-mile border has increasingly become a fault line between the traditionally friendly neighbors. India is rounding up those with Bangladeshi papers, or undocumented immigrants suspected of being from the country, and deporting them across the border, sometimes in the dead of night. Bangladesh, which says India is avoiding proper repatriation channels, has stepped up patrols to stop the influx and push people back across the border. Sometimes people get caught in the so-called buffer zone between the two countries as Indian and Bangladeshi border guards meet to determine their fate.

Lebanese Hold Fast to Their Land Despite Threat of Long Israeli Occupation (NYT) On summer mornings in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, when wildflowers bloomed and the sky stretched clear across the horizon, life and business were usually good for Hikmat Farha. Travelers stopped at the gas station his family had owned for decades. Friends and relatives drifted in and out of his nearby home, where he brewed coffee and shared vegetables from his garden. That routine has been completely upended this year. Flare-ups of violence between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have transformed life in Lebanon’s south. In Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, many businesses have shuttered. Homes sit quiet behind padlocked gates. And the eerie silence is broken only by those who, like Mr. Farha, have chosen to remain, traversing town for groceries and medicine. “We have stayed steadfast on the land, but Marjayoun is like a ghost town,” Mr. Farha, 73, said. “We want peace.” Civilians in the south fear more than just a continuation of the fighting. Israel’s occupation of territory in south Lebanon and a prolonged war could turn temporary evacuations into permanent ones. Many residents still recall Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, when access to homes and farms was restricted for years.

Trump notifies Congress of new war against Iran (Politico) President Trump formally notified lawmakers this weekend that the nation is once again at war with Iran, giving his administration another 60-day clock to use the military in the region without congressional approval. In a letter to Congress dated July 10, obtained by POLITICO, Trump stated that the strikes that began on July 7 represent “military action consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States’ interests both at home and abroad.”

Tehran threatens to halt all Middle East energy exports after US reimposes its blockade on Iran (AP) The U.S. military reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign early Wednesday, hitting an Iranian army barracks and killing at least seven troops while wounding 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said. Days of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East by Iran and the U.S., and both nations’ attempts to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, threaten to push the region back to all-out war. More than 30 people have been killed over “recent days,” Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, without elaborating. Seven of the dead came from the attack on the barracks in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province. The U.S. first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing the interim deal that set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas trade passes during peacetime, has intensified. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.

More than 53,000 immigrants have been deported or repatriated by South Africa in a crackdown (AP) South Africa has deported or repatriated more than 53,000 African immigrants in the space of a month in a crackdown by authorities that has coincided with a series of sometimes violent protests against illegal migration. More than 80% of the immigrants sent home were from Malawi, South African Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said Sunday. Officials did not give a breakdown of how many were deported and how many took up offers of voluntary repatriation. Several African countries have provided planes and buses to bring their citizens home during a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa in recent months that has sparked some attacks against foreigners and left parts of the country on edge.