U.S. Central Command completed the eleventh consecutive night of strikes against Iran overnight, hitting military operations centers, drone storage facilities, maritime capabilities, and logistics infrastructure around the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices have now crossed back above $4 a gallon nationally — up from $3.87 just one week ago — as the conflict grinds on with 18 American service members killed to date. President Trump is weighing whether to expand the campaign and has explicitly warned nuclear sites are on the table if Tehran does not change course.
The SAVE America Act — requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote — reached 50 Senate votes during a vote-a-rama session, with Sen. Susan Collins flipping to support the original version. The 60-vote filibuster threshold held, but with Vice President Vance as a potential 51st vote, conservatives say a path still exists. The Senate is roughly 48 hours from recess, making the next moves critical.
Todd Blanche's path to the Attorney General's office remains blocked as the Senate recess approaches. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) says he will not support Blanche unless Trump's nominee first meets with women who say Jeffrey Epstein abused them as minors. The Judiciary Committee vote has not yet occurred, the margin for error is essentially zero, and the clock runs out in roughly 48 hours.
After churning through the Gulf for days, Tropical Storm Bertha is coming ashore along southeastern Louisiana today with 50 mph sustained winds and up to 4 feet of storm surge expected. The storm's lopsided structure — heavy rain largely confined to its southern half thanks to wind shear and dry air — is keeping the worst impacts mostly offshore. Coastal flooding and gusty winds remain the primary threats from the Florida Panhandle through Louisiana.
Andrew and Tristan Tate appeared in federal court Monday after U.S. Marshals arrested the social media influencers Saturday in Miami on a sealed warrant. British prosecutors are seeking their extradition on a total of 59 charges — including rape, sex trafficking, and assault — with Andrew alone facing 42 counts. The brothers' attorney claims the arrest is politically motivated; a U.S. district judge will determine extradition eligibility in coming weeks, with the next hearing set for July 27.
Canada has pulled out of the joint opening celebration for the new Gordie Howe International Bridge — the massive new span linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit — in direct protest of Trump's 50% tariffs imposed this week. Those tariffs were levied using a never-before-invoked provision of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, covering everything from Canadian wine to hockey sticks to cement. Canadian crossings into the United States have already fallen nearly 37% since the trade war intensified.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham's Labour government has launched a legal appeal to block the release of crime rates broken down by migrant nationality, fighting an Information Commissioner's ruling that ordered publication of data from 2018 through 2024. The Ministry of Justice argues releasing the data would be "disproportionate." Reform UK's Robert Jenrick blasted the decision, saying a Reform government under Nigel Farage would release the statistics immediately.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed this week the space agency has captured imagery of unidentified aerial objects it simply cannot explain, stating: "We have captured imagery that, based on the data we have within that imagery, we don't know what it is." The admission comes as the Trump administration continues releasing formerly classified UAP files, including infrared footage from 2023 appearing to show a U.S. F-16 shooting down a diamond-shaped object over Lake Huron.
Researchers at MIT and Switzerland's EPFL have built an 8.8-ounce robotic bird that flies through the air, plunges into water, swims below the surface, and relaunches skyward — all using the same set of flapping wings. It is the first bird-scale machine to complete the full air-to-water-to-air cycle without switching propulsion systems, and the research has been published in the journal Science. Defense and search-and-rescue applications are already being discussed.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina didn't just set soccer records — it set American sports records. The match drew 38.937 million US viewers, making it the most-watched English-language soccer broadcast in history and the most-watched non-Super Bowl sporting event in the country since the 1984 Winter Olympics. With the entire tournament hosted on American soil, the numbers suggest soccer's long-predicted arrival in the US mainstream is no longer a prediction.
