“Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu, also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, the prefectural government said. The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to rise.” (07/29/26)
“New Jersey will not cooperate with a federal demand for data on the approximately 6,600 noncitizens accidentally added to the state’s voter rolls in 2023 and 2024, Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration announced on Tuesday. … The decision escalates what has become a nationally watched dispute between Sherrill and the Trump administration, one that has exacerbated long-fraught debates over voter fraud and election integrity. [Assistant Attorney General Harmeet] Dhillon said the Department of Justice will continue to pursue the voter records ‘through all legal means,’ though it’s not immediately clear what that might entail.” (07/28/26)
“The United States military says it intercepted ballistic missiles fired by Iran across the Middle East. In a statement on X on Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched multiple ballistic missiles in an ‘attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East’. … The Iranian attacks targeting US bases came as Trump was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been pushing for war on Iran, in the White House. … On Wednesday, the IRGC said it ‘struck and stopped’ three oil tankers in Hormuz, according to Tasnim news agency.” (07/29/26)
“Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities and had issued an international warrant for his arrest. The FSB said that the charges related to Telegram’s failure to remove material ‘used by Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organisations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.’ Soon afterwards, Telegram’s official account on X posted an image of Durov making an obscene gesture with his middle finger. … Russia has repeatedly tried to restrict Telegram’s use in recent years, promoting its own state-backed MAX messenger service. Yet state bodies including the Kremlin and the defence ministry continue to post to Telegram on a daily basis.” (07/29/26)
“South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden fended off a primary challenge from businessman and Bitcoin evangelist Toby Doeden on Tuesday, winning the first gubernatorial primary runoff in state history and advancing to the November general election. The Associated Press called the race for Rhoden within minutes of final polls closing. He had received 70.5% of the vote compared with Doeden’s 29.5% at the time it was called, with approximately 25% of the expected vote counted. The election marked the first time South Dakota voters were asked to settle a gubernatorial nomination through a primary runoff. State law requires a runoff between the two leading candidates when no contender for governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. House receives at least 35% of the primary vote.” (07/28/26)
“Conservative leader Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday after winning the June presidential runoff by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes, a victory that confirmed a regional shift in South America toward the conservative wing. With the ceremony, Fujimori, a four-time presidential candidate and leader of Peru’s largest political party, takes office as the country’s ninth president in a decade. The 51-year-old is hoping to stabilize Peru’s turbulent politics, reduce crime and boost economic growth. Over the past decade, only three of Peru’s presidents have been elected by popular vote. The rest have come into office after their predecessors resigned or were removed by congress amid protests or corruption scandals. Fujimori’s Popular Force party and its main ally, Popular Renovation, will hold half the Senate seats once the new legislature is installed, making it harder for opposing legislators to attempt to remove her as president.” (07/28/26)
“The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence (DNI) in a 51-47 party-line vote, potentially reviving a stalled battle over renewing the nation’s warrantless spy powers.” (07/28/26)
“South Korean authorities on Tuesday briefly ordered civilians to evacuate after what they described as a white phosphorus leak at a U.S. military base near the capital, Seoul. Officials in the city of Pyeongtaek urged nearby residents to move to a safe location and avoid skin exposure after the leak at the Osan Air Base was detected at around 5 p.m. They lifted the evacuation order several hours later, saying decontamination work had been completed, according to text messages sent out by the city. … In a statement, the U.S. 51st Fighter Wing did not mention a leakage of white phosphorus but said it established a 1,000-foot (300-meter) safety cordon around the base ‘due to a ground mishap and out of an abundance of caution’ to protect the base and the local populace. It said reports of a general evacuation of the air base were false.” (07/28/26)
“As it promised last year, Baidu has started testing its robotaxis in London along with partners Lyft and Freenow, the companies said in a press release. Baidu’s Apollo Go RT6 will start appearing in the UK capital (with test drivers aboard to start with), while Lyft and and Freenow, the German taxi company Lyft now owns, will take care of booking passengers starting next year. The trials are part of the partnership between Lyft and Baidu, with the aim of eventually deploying thousands of autonomous vehicles across Europe. To expedite that plan, Lyft acquired Freenow last year to take advantage of its large taxi network operating in the UK and Germany.” (07/28/26)
“The Supreme Court’s job approval rating among all Americans has hit a record low, as support for the high court by Republicans sharply dropped in 2026, a new Gallup poll has found. Just 33% of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, Gallup found. That is a 6-percentage-point drop from the 39% who approved of its work in July 2025, which was the prior low-water mark for approval of the court. A record high of 61% of Americans disapprove of the court, according to Gallup, which has been polling the public’s approval of the Supreme Court for 26 years. That is up from a disapproval rate of 52% last September.” (07/28/26)
