“Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, a move that opens a new front against the United States in its war on Iran and widens the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf. Iran had pressed the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the U.S. continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure. … The full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait would reduce global oil supply by 7% as it would leave most of Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region. The disruption would add to the massive cut to global oil flows from the war in the Gulf, which has already reduced shipments by 10% of global supply.” (07/20/26)
“More than 30 years after an Alaska man vanished without a trace, an anonymous confession breathed new life into the cold case and ultimately led investigators to the alleged killer. Christopher Popps, 54, of Michigan, was arrested after Alaska State Troopers said they traced the confession back to him, accusing him of fatally shooting his former co-worker, Patrick Orville Dearth, in 1993 before dumping his body inside a barrel off a remote highway. … The breakthrough came on Jan. 22, 2025, when Alaska State Troopers received an anonymous tip from someone claiming to have committed a murder in the Fairbanks area in 1993, according to the agency. … they found human remains inside a barrel down a steep embankment near Mile 47 of the Steese Highway. The Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office later identified the remains as Dearth and ruled his death a homicide. As investigators dug deeper, they identified the anonymous tipster as Popps.” (07/20/26)
“Militants linked to al Qaeda and a Tuareg-led separatist group ambushed a military convoy in northern Mali over the weekend, and a source close to the rebels said more than 50 soldiers and allied Russian fighters were killed and others taken hostage. The attack marked the latest in a series of escalating assaults by the two groups, which joined forces for nationwide attacks in April that killed the defence minister and hit the airport in the capital Bamako, and launched a second wave this month aimed at seizing the town of Anefis.” (07/20/26)
“Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery hit a roadblock Monday after a federal judge temporarily paused the proposed merger, granting a request from a coalition of 12 state attorneys general who sued to thwart the $110 billion deal. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order barring Paramount from closing the transaction, a corporate tie-up that would unite two movie studios, two streaming platforms and two news organizations under the control of David Ellison, the son of billionaire technology tycoon Larry Ellison. … The states argue the deal would reduce competition in three areas: wide-release theatrical film distribution, anticipated top-grossing movie distribution, and the market for distributing basic cable channels to cable and satellite providers.” (07/20/26)
“The European Commission slapped Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress with a record €550 million fine on Monday for failing to stop the sale of illegal and harmful products on its platform. ‘There were a lot of counterfeit products, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics which stayed online for a very long time,’ the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen told reporters ahead of the announcement. ‘Products were still being recommended and advertised on the platform … even after it was already known that they did not meet the standards.’ The penalty is the biggest ever imposed by the EU executive under the bloc’s rulebook policing online platforms, the Digital Services Act, which requires very large platforms, including AliExpress — owned by China’s tech giant Alibaba — to assess and mitigate the risks associated with the spread of illegal content and goods on their systems.” (07/20/26)
“Tropical Depression Two is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Bertha later Monday in the eastern Gulf, which would become the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Depression Two formed in the eastern Gulf on Sunday and is expected to bring days of heavy rainfall to parts of the Southeast. Tropical Depression Two was located about 100 miles south of the eastern Florida Panhandle Monday morning, with maximum sustained winds increasing to 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). … According to the NHC, Tropical Depression Two is currently forecast to move slowly northwest along the northern Gulf Coast over the next several days.” (07/20/26)
“Boris Nadezhdin, a Russian anti-war politician who had hoped to stand in parliamentary elections later this year, has announced he is ending his role in opposition politics for now, blaming what he said were politically-motivated legal setbacks. Nadezhdin, 63, a former liberal lawmaker, has been an outspoken critic of Moscow’s war in Ukraine …. In a statement, Nadezhdin said he had ran out of political road however, after a series of setbacks. He received a small fine on Friday for displaying ‘extremist symbols’ and was this month designated a ‘foreign agent’ by the justice ministry. Both rulings disqualified him from running for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in September elections, his statement – issued on Sunday – said. He said he had also been banned from leaving Russia.” (07/20/26)
“A collection of poems, some scribbled on slips of paper between food deliveries, has won Wang Jibing one of China’s top literary honours. Low Flight, inspired by the everyday challenges delivery riders face, has bagged the Lu Xun Literary Prize – named after a writer who has been referred to as the father of modern Chinese literature. … The monetary awards for recipients of the Lu Xun Literary Prize are not publicly announced – though as of 2014 it stood at 100,000 Chinese yuan ($14,800; £11,000). Born in Jiangsu province, Wang left school as a teenager due to financial hardship at home. He took on various jobs, from construction to scavenging for waste and selling things at a street stall, before becoming a food deliveryman. But his love for reading persisted, and over the last decade he has been posting his own poems and essays on social media.” (07/20/26)
“At least 930 people have died in Congo’s Ebola outbreak, the country’s Ministry of Health said Monday, with 37 new deaths recorded in a 24-hour span Friday into Saturday, one of the highest totals. The deaths were recorded out of the 2,344 cases confirmed as of Saturday, the health ministry said. The Ebola outbreak that was declared in eastern Congo on May 15 is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. The Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak is less common than others that cause Ebola disease, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment.” (07/20/26)
“The Food and Drug Administration said Sunday that a Taylor Farms lettuce sample initially reported as positive for Cyclospora should be considered a false positive following an additional laboratory review. ‘Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive,’ the agency said. The FDA said no product samples had produced a confirmed positive result for Cyclospora as of Sunday.” [editor’s note: I predict that FDA will eventually just announce what we already knew — explosive diarrhea is a frequent and long-known side effect of eating food from Taco Bell – TLK] (07/20/26)
