“Yemen’s government has accused the Iran-backed Houthi rebels [sic] of working with Tehran to establish a system for charging fees to commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, describing the alleged plan as a major threat to global shipping and energy markets. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said on Wednesday (July 29) that recently obtained intelligence indicated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was helping the Houthis create a technical and administrative framework to collect payments from shipping companies using one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. … Reuters reported that senior Houthi officials travelled to Iran in July to attend the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where Iranian officials discussed the possibility of introducing transit charges for ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb.” (07/29/26)
“Four women speaking to CBS News’ partner network the BBC have accused actor and band frontman Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct when they were teenagers. One woman said the Oscar-winning actor and ‘Thirty Seconds to Mars’ band frontman sexually assaulted her in a motel when she was 17, while another told the BBC said she had sex with Leto in California when she was the same age — which would qualify as statutory rape. A third woman told the BBC that Leto threatened her with sexual assault when she was 19 while she was alone with him in a hotel room. Another alleges the star groomed her as a teenager, on one occasion suggesting they should have sex. … Leto has been plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct for years, but has denied all wrongdoing. No criminal charges have ever been filed against him.” (07/29/26)
“French authorities have moved to expel from the country Xenia Fedorova, a Russian media star who has courted controversy for her pro-Kremlin narrative. Fedorova, the former head of the Kremlin-backed RT France news outlet, was handed an expulsion order by the Paris Prefecture of Police, which handles immigration matters for foreigners living in the French capital, according to a report by French newspaper Libération published Wednesday that was confirmed by POLITICO. ‘By spreading her narratives, [Xenia Fedorova] acts as a conduit for disinformation campaigns led by Russian authorities,’ with the aim of ‘destabilizing public order’ in France, reads the document, seen by Libération. It also accuses Fedorova of ‘contribut[ing] to the spread of disinformation and destabilization’ in order to manipulate public opinion.” (07/29/26)
“A California man accused of deliberately damaging automated license plate readers was identified with the help of other surveillance cameras near the devices, authorities said Tuesday. Marcus Bee, 40, of Pismo Beach, was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism after investigators linked him to damage involving at least three Flock Safety cameras in Monterey County, the county sheriff’s office said.” (07/28/26)
“OpenAI has updated its blog post about the rogue agent that breached Hugging Face and admitted that it also infiltrated other other third-party accounts and services to achieve its goal. In the updated post, the company said it has been finding ‘a small number of cases where the models identified and used publicly exposed credentials at the account-level on other publicly-available services’ during its ongoing review. So far, it has determined that the rogue agent used the credentials of ‘four accounts’ to infiltrate ‘four services’ as part of the Hugging Face incident. It also said that it accessed a ‘few accounts’ as part of other evaluations.” (07/29/26)
“A Kansas high school teacher was arrested and dragged out of a contentious city zoning meeting for continuously clapping in opposition to a proposed data center. Lux Claridge was yanked out of a chair by three police officers and carried out of the Emporia City Commission meeting on July 22 for seemingly disobeying the mayor’s orders regarding clapping against the controversial Flint Hills Digital Campus data center proposed in Emporia, Kansas, the Emporia Police said. … Several oppositionists gave comments and testimonials against the 1,000-acre, gigawatt-scale project that garnered rounds of applause, which provoked one board official to call for order against the clapping that was ‘rude and disruptive.'” (07/29/26)
“The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is banning imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, citing national security risks, in a move that targets China. The measures are likely to test relations with Beijing ahead of a planned U.S. visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in September. China dominates the global market for humanoid robots with an estimated market share of roughly 85%. The FCC’s ban also includes new imports of quadruped robots – often referred to as four-legged robot dogs. … The ban on power inverters, which are used to convert direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity and are used in renewable energy systems, data centers and household appliances, could have sweeping ramifications.” (07/29/26)
“An urgent investigation has been launched into the mysterious deaths of 15 elephants in southern Kenya near the Amboseli National Park. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) told the BBC that experts were examining the carcasses and said that tissue samples had been sent to laboratories to determine whether the deaths were caused by disease, poisoning or another factor. The park and its surrounds are known as the Amboseli ecosystem, a vast area that straddles the border with Tanzania, which is famous for its wildlife. Officials say this is the first time in decades that elephant mortalities on this scale have been recorded in the region where they have successfully cracked down on poaching.” (07/29/26)
“On Tuesday, Apple became the second company to pass the $5 trillion valuation mark, one day after it passed Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. While Apple held the $5 trillion mark for a brief time, that still leaves it in rare territory. Nvidia was the first company to hit the $5 trillion valuation mark, which it did in October. Companies calculate this valuation by multiplying a company’s share price by its outstanding shares. Apple shares have climbed 25% this year, outpacing many other tech companies, CNBC reported. The stock hit a high of $342.89 Tuesday before falling slightly.” (07/28/26)
“Two Democratic candidates locked in a race to fill the seat left by the late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., advanced to a runoff election on Tuesday evening after failing to capture 51% of the vote. The winner of the election will add another Democratic seat in a narrowly divided House of Representatives where Republicans hold 218 seats and Democrats control 212. Adding even one more Democratic member puts increased pressure on Republicans to remain united on party-line legislation. Marcye Scott, the daughter of the late David Scott, and Everton Blair, chair of the Gwinnett County School Board, will face off against each other in a runoff to represent the Peach State’s 13th Congressional District on Aug. 25. A third candidate, Caesar Gonzales, a Republican, did not advance, receiving only 8.7% of the vote.” (07/29/26)
