“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)
“Idaho voters will decide in November whether to restore widespread access to abortion after years of some of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, election officials confirmed Monday. Idahoans United for Women and Families said Monday that a ballot initiative it created to carve out reproductive healthcare protections, including the right to abortion, met criteria to be on voters’ ballots for the general election on Nov. 3. Voters will see the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, which says it will establish ‘a right to make private reproductive healthcare decisions’ on their ballots. The proposal would prevent the state from prohibiting or interfering with reproductive healthcare, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage management and childbirth care.” (07/14/26)
“The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could be four times bigger than official figures suggest. According to the DR Congo’s latest official figures, the haemorrhagic fever has infected more than 1,960 people and killed over 700 since it was detected two months ago. But WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu told reporters in Geneva that its modelling indicated ‘the scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found’. According to official numbers, this is already one of the largest Ebola outbreaks recorded, with the virus spreading faster than ever seen before.” (07/14/26)
“Public confidence in American higher education has taken a fresh hit, erasing a brief period of recovery, as concerns over campus politics and financial value intensify, according to a new Gallup poll obtained by Fox News Digital. The latest data reveals that just 38% of U.S. adults maintain a ‘great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in higher education. The figure represents a noticeable drop from last year, when trust in the sector experienced a modest uptick to 42%. … The current 38% confidence mark underscores a steep, long-term decline from 2015, when 57% of Americans expressed solid trust in higher education. Significant drops followed in 2018 and 2023.” (07/14/26)
“The U.S. government just staged its [stolen] crypto for an exchange, and it took an extra hop to get there. Wallets tied to the government moved about $288 million in [stolen] bitcoin and ether onto Coinbase Prime over roughly half a day on Monday, blockchain data from Arkham shows. The ether went direct, while the bitcoin took a detour through intermediary wallets first. The movements are despite an executive order in March 2025 by President Donald Trump, which designated [stolen] bitcoin for the country’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and said it should not be sold.” (07/14/26)
