“An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fueled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men. The District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast. Prosecutors alleged he lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house in the tourist town of Broome with free alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds. … The convictions included one count of sexual penetration without consent and a dozen indecent assaults.” (08/13/26)
“U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has convened a special grand jury in Washington, D.C., amid a clash with President Donald Trump, according to a report. A special grand jury is a rare legal body that can release a potentially critical report about the subject of an investigation if there is a ‘preponderance of evidence’ of wrongdoing, regardless of whether there is enough evidence to bring the person to trial. … The special grand jury has reportedly been convened as Trump has pressured Pirro to deliver on cases he wants prosecuted. Since Pirro has been in office, she has failed to successfully prosecute a man who allegedly threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent; six Democratic lawmakers who released a video advising military members to reject illegal orders; and [Jerome] Powell, whom Trump claimed had mishandled a Federal Reserve renovation project.” (08/12/26)
“A major oil spill off Oman has spread to the country’s mainland, polluting beaches along the central coast, environmental authorities have said. Oil from the Caroline Bezengi, a tanker that has been leaking crude since running aground off Oman in June, has reached beaches in Ras Madrakah, affecting up to 40km (25 miles) of coastline, the sultanate’s Environment Authority said on Wednesday. … The Caroline Bezengi has been disabled near Oman’s Al Hallaniyat Islands since June 8, when the ship’s crew reported a suspected explosion. The cause of the incident has not been reported.” (08/13/26)
“The Trump administration has filed fraud-related charges against a former Southern Poverty Law Center official who testified during the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation, as its crack down on the anti-hate [sic] group and President Donald Trump’s perceived opponents. The Justice Department originally charged SPLC in an 11-count indictment in April, alleging that the frequent target of right-wing criticism had defrauded donors by using their money to pay informants within hate groups they were monitoring. The Trump administration has framed the payments as paying the hate groups it was supposed to monitor, such as the KKK. SPLC vehemently denies the allegations.” (08/13/26)
“Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time on Thursday, prompting a ‘strong’ protest by Japan, which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar. Putin travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia’s navy was conducting drills. … The four contested isles are part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, which runs in a broad arc from Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan’s main northern island Hokkaido.” (08/13/26)
“Russian forces have struck Ukraine’s Izmail port in southern Odesa, setting off a fire, authorities said, a day after Kyiv pounded Russia’s Novorossiysk port. In a statement on the Telegram app early on Thursday, the Izmail Regional State Administration said Russian forces struck ‘port infrastructure’, causing damage and a fire. … Izmail, close to the Romanian border, is home to Ukraine’s largest Danube port, handling grain and other commodities. The attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN that the country needs 5 percent of the United States’s Patriot interceptor missiles to get through the winter and 10 percent to destroy all of Russia’s ballistic projectiles.” (08/13/26)
“US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)[gang members] may soon be equipped with gloves that can deliver electric shocks as they carry out their law enforcement duties. ICE plans to spend up to $20m (£14.8m) to buy the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE), according to a note published on Monday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The gloves can deliver up to 380 volts of electricity, roughly three times the charge of a standard US power outlet.” (08/12/26)
“Bitcoin retreated toward $63,500 during Thursday trading, declining approximately 0.5% for the session and approaching 2% losses for the week. July’s Consumer Price Index registered a monthly increase of 0.1% with annual inflation reaching 3.4%. The core measure, excluding volatile food and energy components, advanced 0.2% monthly while moderating to 2.5% annually. … Broader cryptocurrency weakness prevailed across major tokens. Dogecoin declined approximately 3% to 7 cents. XRP surrendered more than 1% to reach $1, extending weekly losses near 5%. Solana edged lower by under 1% to $76, while Ether dropped fractionally to $1,880.” (08/13/26)
“A top adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday that Iran could ‘prolong’ the war with the US until President Donald Trump is out of office. ‘We have to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security,’ Mohammad Reza Naqdi told PBS in an interview. … ‘One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost,’ he said.” (08/13/26)
“Karoline Leavitt will be stepping down from her role as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced Wednesday in a Truth Social post. Leavitt is leaving to spend more time with her family, the president said. A member of Trump’s team who followed him from his presidential campaign to the White House, she’s been a fiercely loyal face of the White House. Trump said in the surprise post that Leavitt will become one of his top outside advisers and ‘an influential voice within the Republican Party’ heading into the midterm elections.” (08/12/26)
