“Two Tennessee National Guard members assigned to a crime-fighting patrol in Memphis fatally shot a man Sunday who turned toward the soldiers with a gun during a downtown pursuit, authorities said. The Guard members are part of a federal task force in Memphis created by President Donald Trump, who last year sent troops and federal agents to Democrat-run cities that he described as overrun with crime. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, had deployed the Guard to support the effort.” (07/05/26)
“The Israeli government threatened on Sunday to disregard an order by Israel’s highest court, escalating a long-running clash between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a judiciary whose authority he has vowed to weaken. … On Sunday, the members of Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet passed a resolution attacking the court over a decision issued last month in a case involving Israel’s broadcast regulator. In apparent defiance of the decision, they said they would not recognize actions taken by the regulator for the time being and would use ‘every legal means’ to annul it. … At the heart of the latest legal dispute is Israel’s broadcast regulator, known as the Second Authority. The agency is still staffed by a board of commissioners from the previous government, which was run by Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents.” (07/05/26)
“The Indian government has directed Meta to immediately disable advertisements and content on Instagram that promote or facilitate child sexual abuse material, a senior official said. It comes after a BBC Eye investigation found that Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, some of which linked users to Telegram channels where the material was offered for sale. The government has also sought an explanation within a week on how advertisements containing such material were allowed on the platform, the official said. Meta has said it has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse material and is continuing to strengthen its detection and defences. Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups and channels related to child sexual abuse material in 2026.” (07/06/26)
“An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City has jumped to 14 confirmed cases, health officials said Sunday. What began as a report of just two cases on Thursday has now increased sevenfold to cover three ZIP codes in the area, NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said in an update. … Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia that occurs from inhaling water droplets from manmade water systems contaminated with Legionella bacteria, usually traced to cooling towers.” (07/05/26)
“In early May, hundreds of Interior Department employees began receiving emails informing them they’d been reassigned to different jobs. Park Service communicators were moved under the Bureau of Land Management support staff. Longtime BLM staff were transferred to similar roles in vastly different agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management or the Bureau of Reclamation. Co-workers sharing an office were placed on remote teams working on new projects. According to DOI, these changes were meant to boost efficiency and balance workloads across its agencies. But to five DOI employees who spoke with SFGATE on the condition of anonymity, because they are afraid of losing their jobs, the changes were baffling. ‘It’s like they put us into a bingo roller cage and plucked us out with zero care about individual wishes,’ said one employee.” (07/06/26)
“A court in Albania’s capital Tirana has freed 19 protesters detained during a violent protest against a resort linked to US President Donald Trump’s family. The protesters released on Sunday were held on suspicion of ‘refusing to obey police orders, organising illegal demonstrations and disturbing public order’, one of their lawyers told reporters. … There have been nightly demonstrations in Albania since May, initially over a luxury coastal resort project which is linked to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in a protected natural area.” (07/05/26)
“At least 11 people have been killed in Kyiv following a second night of Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital in a week, the city’s top military administrator has said. Some 46 people have been injured, including five children, Timur Tkachenko added. Three more people were killed in the wider Kyiv region, emergency officials said. Rescue efforts are continuing at more than 20 locations, Tkachenko posted on Telegram, adding that residential high-rise buildings were hit in two districts. The strikes come on the eve of the Nato summit in Turkey, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to hold talks with President Trump.” (07/06/26)
“Bitcoin touched $63,882 overnight before retreating to around $62,900, per CoinDesk data. The 24-hour high of $63,900 held briefly before sellers pushed it back down. Thursday’s U.S. jobs report came in weaker than expected, giving liquidity-sensitive assets a lift heading into the weekend.” (07/06/26)
“China test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead in the Pacific Ocean on Monday, the first such launch in two years. The missile was launched from a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine and sent a ‘mock warhead’ into the Pacific Ocean, according to a report from Xinhua, China’s official news agency. … The launch came as the leaders of Australia and Fiji announced a mutual defense treaty and a regional security alliance, the latest in a string of agreements Canberra has been striking in with Pacific Island nations widely viewed as efforts to push back against China’s encroachment in the region. Governments in the region were warned of the launch shortly beforehand.” (07/06/26)
“Iran has announced plans to introduce new service fees for commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, while indicating that countries which supported Tehran during the recent conflict could receive preferential treatment. The announcement was made by Iran’s Ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, during the World Peace Forum in Beijing on Saturday. He said Iran was working with Oman on a new framework to manage traffic through one of the world’s most important maritime routes. The proposal comes after a temporary arrangement between Iran and the US under which commercial vessels were allowed to use the Hormuz without charge for 60 days following a ceasefire. It remains unclear when the new system will take effect.” (07/05/26)
