“The federal government agreed to temporarily hold off on construction of a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement [concentration camp] in Northern California. The voluntary pause until Sept. 9 comes after the California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Santa Clara County officials sued the Trump administration last month to block the facility from being developed near Gilroy. The lawsuit remains ongoing. … Community members and advocates for immigrants swiftly opposed the project. ICE has consistently looked to increase its detention capacity in California, where eight [concentration camps] can now hold a combined 9,000 people, though the state has long been a thorn in the agency’s side.” (07/14/26)
“A federal judge on Tuesday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing a policy that targets foreign nationals who study disinformation and hate speech on social media for visa denials and deportation. Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington sided with the Coalition for Independent Technology Research in finding that the administration’s policy likely unlawfully burdens the speech of non-citizen researchers in the United States in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The group’s lawsuit alleged that the U.S. State Department, while claiming it is fighting online censorship that Trump’s allies have argued has affected conservative speech on social media, had been engaged in a far-reaching campaign of censorship targeting researchers and anti-disinformation advocates.” (07/14/26)
“Several people have been killed in Russian attacks on port infrastructure in Odesa and Mykolaiv, and Ukraine said it launched drone strikes on 20 Russian vessels as the warring sides escalated their battle over the Black Sea and key trade routes. Odesa region Governor Oleh Kiper said on Wednesday that a ‘massive’ Russian drone and missile attack on the southern region continued for a fifth day, with civilian, industrial and port infrastructure coming under attack. At least three people were killed and three others wounded in the Russian strikes on Odesa, the city’s military administrator Serhiy Lysak said on Wednesday. … Moscow said on Tuesday that it was preparing to redirect exports following waves of attacks on Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov, while Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the Ukrainian attacks on shipping ‘terrorism’.” (07/15/26)
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close ‘all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies’, Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. ‘Regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all,’ the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran’s IRNA state news agency on Wednesday. Analysts have said Iran has been signalling it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world’s most vital energy arteries at risk. The narrow gateway links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass.” (07/15/26)
“Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist who was detained for months as the federal government sought to deport him, sued Trump administration officials and others on Tuesday, alleging a conspiracy to persecute. The case, filed in federal court in New York, has been brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and claims that top administration officials conspired with private organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation to terrorize and make an example of Khalil and other noncitizens to intimidate and weaken the pro-Palestinian movement. The case names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, senior presidential adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, acting attorney general Todd Blanche, former secretary of homeland security Kristi L. Noem, and John Armstrong at the State Department. Khalil also sued the Heritage Foundation as well as Canary Mission and Betar — which describe themselves as defenders of Israel — and their leaders.” (07/14/26)
“E. Jean Carroll has collected her $5 million judgment against President Donald Trump, more than three years after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, court records show. The money, which was being held in a court escrow account, has been ‘disbursed’ to Carroll’s attorneys, the court filing shows. The amount totaled $5,625,005.48 with interest. … The case arose from a 2022 suit Carroll filed in New York alleging Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store after a chance encounter in 1996, and then defamed her after she came forward with her claims in 2019.” (07/14/26)
“The International Space Station has three new residents. NASA’s Anil Menon and cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 GMT; 7:47 p.m. local time in Baikonur), heading toward the orbiting lab. … The trio caught up to the ISS after just two orbits, docking with the outpost at 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT). The two spacecraft were flying 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Mediterranean Sea at the time, NASA officials said during the agency’s docking webcast.” (07/14/26)
“Yemen’s Houthis said they launched missiles at Abha airport in south-western Saudi Arabia on Monday in response to air strikes on Sanaa’s airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which backs the country’s internationally-recognised [Saudi puppet regime], said its air defences ‘dealt with’ the missiles and no casualties were reported. The Houthis, who control north-western Yemen and are backed by Iran, earlier accused Saudi Arabia of ‘blatant aggression’, saying it had struck the runway of Sanaa’s airport. The strike was claimed by Yemen’s [Saudi puppet regime], which said it wanted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing.” (07/14/26)
“On July 9, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized Reflect Orbital to build, launch, and operate a mirror satellite in low Earth orbit. The experimental satellite, named Eärendil-1, would be capable of reflecting sunlight onto specific locations on Earth during the night. The project has long drawn criticism from astronomers and environmental advocates. … Equipped with an 18-meter reflector, Eärendil-1 could illuminate areas 5 to 6 kilometers in diameter for brief periods (the mirror satellite’s name is a reference to a character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series). The authorization allows the company to deploy the test satellite at an altitude of about 625 kilometers. Its primary objective is to evaluate the technical feasibility of its ultrathin, highly reflective, film-based reflector.” (07/24/26)
“David Sanchez, the brother of Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, was convicted of administrative misconduct on Tuesday and banned from holding public office for nine years over his appointment to a cultural post by the provincial government of Badajoz in 2017. The ruling deals a fresh political blow to the Socialist premier, whose government and inner circle have faced corruption investigations and scandals over the past two years. Last month, a former close aide to Sanchez was sentenced to 24 years in prison in a separate corruption case. David Sanchez was accused of benefiting from an appointment tailored to him because of his family connection to the prime minister, who when the job was awarded had just been elected leader of the Socialists when they were still in opposition. The prime minister has dismissed the case as part of a politically motivated campaign driven by the far right.” (07/14/26)
