“A bipartisan push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent is heading for a chamber-wide vote after clearing a key House hurdle. The House Rules Committee on Monday teed up a floor vote on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would allow states to enact Daylight Saving Time year-round — with an option to opt out. The committee approved the rule in a 6-4 vote. The measure has the support of many coastal lawmakers and President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly urged Congress to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and end the twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks — a practice currently observed by every state except Hawaii and most of Arizona.” (07/13/26)
“Inflation pulled back in June after surging in prior months due to the Iran war’s impact on energy prices throughout the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Tuesday that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – declined 0.4% on a monthly basis in June and was up 3.5% from a year ago. The monthly decline was the largest since a 0.8% decrease in April 2020. Those figures were cooler than the estimates of economists polled by LSEG, who predicted a decline of 0.1% on a monthly basis and a 3.8% increase from a year ago. They also represent a cooling trend from the 0.5% monthly increase and the 4.2% annual rise recorded in the May edition of the report.” (07/14/26)
“Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a housing bill Monday that will change how the state finances and delivers new affordable housing units. … Assembly Bill 179 is a housing budget trailer bill, aimed at modernizing California’s affordable housing finance system and strengthening the state’s impact of housing investments. The bill will reduce the cost of building affordable housing by an estimated $60,000 to $70,000 per unit through one-stop shop financing reforms and impact fee changes. The legislative changes are designed to take out extra administrative steps and fees in the process for building affordable housing units across the state.” (07/13/26)
“Brazil’s Supreme Court has barred presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro from visiting his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, for 90 days after ruling that the pair had breached the terms of the former leader’s house arrest. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the order on Monday after Flavio read a handwritten letter from his father during a social media livestream. Jair Bolsonaro – a far-right figure who was found guilty in September 2025 of plotting to overturn the result of the 2022 election that he lost to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – is prohibited from using social media or communicating through third parties while serving his sentence under house arrest. The 90-day restriction will remain in place until after the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, scheduled for October 4, preventing Flavio from meeting his father during most of the campaign.” (07/14/26)
“The US military carried out a third night of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said he is reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping. The United Arab Emirates says at least two tankers came under Iranian fire in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran insists it has the right to control. Trump earlier declared the United States would ensure the Hormuz strait is open and said it would charge a 20% fee. Bahrain and Jordan say they have intercepted new Iranian attacks on Tuesday as Tehran retaliates with missiles and drones across the Gulf.” (07/14/26)
“A federal judge Monday voided President Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), finding that the lawsuit that served as the hook for the $1.776 billion so-called Anti-Weaponization fund amounted to collusion as the two parties were never truly averse. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after she was asked to reopen the case [by] intervenors who said a settlement to create an ‘anti-weaponization’ fund tainted the case. … Williams found that Trump’s $10 billion case against the IRS was ‘brought for an improper purpose—to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”’ As part of the order, the judge also referred Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito to the Florida bar for consideration of disciplinary action after finding that sanctions were warranted.” (07/13/26)
“Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at removing President Tamás Sulyok, part of an effort by the country’s new leadership to dismantle the autocratic political system of former prime minister Viktor Orbán. After winning in a landslide election in April, Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power. The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of ‘restoring rule-of-law democracy,’ passed with 139 votes for and six against. Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session.” (07/13/26)
“South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, to serve the remainder of the late Republican senator’s term, which ends in early January. … Graham Nordone will finish her brother’s six-year term, which ends Jan. 3. The senator died Saturday at the age of 71 of what was preliminarily diagnosed as a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries, his office said Sunday. … It’s unclear if Graham Nordone would want to run for her brother’s seat. Graham had been seeking a fifth term in the Senate in this year’s midterm elections after defeating a wealthy GOP challenger in his state’s Republican primary last month.” (07/13/26)
“Previously withheld evidence regarding the [murders] of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the [murders] that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown. ‘Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,’ the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media. The newly obtained evidence includes Good’s car, statements, police body-camera video and other evidence that federal officials had previously withheld in the [murders].” (07/13/26)
“Guinea-Bissau opposition leader and former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira was moved back to prison last Friday following a decision by the West African country’s military court, his family told Reuters. The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup last year released Pereira, the leader of the revolutionary PAIGC party, in February in an apparent attempt to appease the West African regional bloc ECOWAS. He had remained under house arrest on suspicion of economic crimes. … Pereira was previously detained on November 26 when a group of army officers seized power before the planned announcement of presidential election results.” (07/13/26)
