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Simply the latest news, updated on the hour.

Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 9:48 AM EDT

World

AI Summary

  • Global markets are exhibiting volatility with traders alarmed by a significant momentum shift, underscored by underlying issues in earnings quality, while geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran escalate, raising concerns of a broader regional conflict.
  • The global energy sector faces precarious supply conditions, with traders warning that markets are operating with depleted buffers, exacerbated by ongoing geopolitical instability and increased demand.
  • International relations are strained as US-Iran tit-for-tat actions spiral into a wider regional crisis, prompting a "Worldwide Caution" from the State Department and highlighting Jordan as a new focal point.
  • Technological advancements, particularly in Artificial Intelligence, are presenting complex challenges and ethical dilemmas, from AI systems triggering wrongful police stops to the Supreme Court's collision course with AI development, and its potential use in shaping political discourse.
  • Environmental concerns are intensifying, with the US experiencing a convergence of extreme weather events including floods, heatwaves, and wildfire smoke, while global biodiversity faces threats from hybrid fish integration and policy shifts affecting renewable energy subsidies.

ZeroHedge

  • Traders Stunned By Momentum Meltdown As Earnings Quality Problem Simmers Under The Surface an hour ago by Tyler Durden

    Traders Stunned By Momentum Meltdown As Earnings Quality Problem Simmers Under The Surface Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, 📈 Technical Backdrop – Coiling Below The Record Here is where the quiet-index story gets interesting for traders. The S&P 500 closed the week at 7,457.69, and that put it right on top of its 50-day moving average near 7,464. Call it dead flat against the line. The index still sits about 6.8% above its rising 200-day average near 6,985, so the primary uptrend remains fully intact, and it is roughly 2% below the June 2 record high of 7,620. Momentum

  • US-Iran Tit-For-Tat Spirals Towards Broader Conflict 2 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    US-Iran Tit-For-Tat Spirals Towards Broader Conflict The escalation pathway in the renewed tit-for-tat conflict between the US and Iran is becoming increasingly alarming and has been underway for eight days. US forces reportedly struck Qeshm Island and the southern Iranian cities of Shadegan, Sirik and Hajiabad, while Tehran retaliated with drone and missile attacks targeting US bases and critical infrastructure across Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, according to Bloomberg , citing Iranian state media. The latest escalation could open the door for Israel to rejoin the fight. Itamar Ben Gvir, an Israeli security cabinet minister, told listeners on Israeli radio that

  • French Gambling Regulator Orders ISPs To Block Polymarket 2 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    French Gambling Regulator Orders ISPs To Block Polymarket Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com, France’s Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), or the National Gambling Authority, has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket. Prediction websites are considered illegal gambling, the ANJ said in a Friday press release . The regulator said that Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France and that advertising unauthorized gambling sites constitutes a criminal offense with fines of up to 100,000 euros ($114,000). Prediction markets allow users to buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of future events, from elections and sporting events

  • Germany To Join French Nuclear Exercise, Deepening 'Counter-Russia' Deterrence 3 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    Germany To Join French Nuclear Exercise, Deepening 'Counter-Russia' Deterrence In the latest development related to what some analysts have called the 'new Cold War' and nuclear saber-rattling between Russia and the West, Germany and France are planning a major nuclear exercise later this year. The atomic drills were announced Friday, after a joint top-level meeting of the French and German governments near Cologne. "Alongside this work on a shared doctrine, German conventional forces will this year take part in a nuclear exercise of the French military ," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled . picture alliance/dpa He detailed while at a

  • Nearly Half Of Poles Now Want To Stop Arming Ukraine 3 hours ago by Tyler Durden

    Nearly Half Of Poles Now Want To Stop Arming Ukraine Authored by Andrew Korybko, The reason is Poles’ radically shifting views towards Ukraine since the start of their spiraling dispute sparked by Zelensky’s state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits. Leading Polish conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita published the results of a survey that it commissioned showing that 45.2% of Poles now want to stop arming Ukraine. The majority are from the opposition, which includes conservative and libertarian-nationalist (populist in American political parlance) groups who a separate survey recently showed could form a coalition government after fall 2027’s next Sejm elections,


The Guardian

  • São Tomé and Príncipe heads to polls in tense presidential election 10 hours ago by Eromo Egbejule in Abidjan
    Sao Tome and Principe, Africa, World news

    Incumbent Carlos Vila Nova hopes to defeat his former party and secure second term as independent Voters in São Tomé and Príncipe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials. According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora. Continue reading...

  • ‘We are preserving a tradition’: how Ghana’s sensationalist film posters became collectible art a day ago by Carlos Mureithi in Greater Accra
    Ghana, Film, Art, Africa, Culture, Art and design, World news

    Hand-painted works are often wildly unfaithful to the movies they portray – reinterpretations that sometimes resulted in threats, insults and even physical attacks from viewers who felt duped Sitting on his porch in Teshie near Accra, Heavy J dipped a brush into red oil paint and dabbed it carefully on to his canvas – a flour sack – adding blood to a knife being wielded by a man. Higher on the canvas, he had started on an outline of a skull. Heavy J was creating a poster, but not as you might have expected for a horror film. Instead, it

  • Seven Americans quarantining at Kenya Ebola facility after US travel ban, says aid group 2 days ago by Reuters
    US news, Kenya, Ebola, Africa, World news

    Aid workers are first known people to quarantine at facility, which sparked huge opposition in Kenya Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility in ⁠Kenya after the US government introduced travel ⁠restrictions, the head of a US charity ​employing them told Reuters. The aid workers are the first known people to quarantine at the facility, which has sparked huge opposition in Kenya and is at the heart of a legal case in which a court has ordered the work to be ⁠suspended. Construction continued, however, according

  • UK aid cuts ‘reduce bilateral support to some African countries by 90%’ 3 days ago by Heather Stewart
    Foreign policy, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Aid, Politics, Labour, Charities, Society, UK news, Africa, World news

    Critics say Foreign Office figures send ‘global message about the role the country wants to play on international stage’ Labour’s foreign aid cuts mean reductions of as much as 90% in the bilateral support the UK will give to some African countries, Foreign Office figures show. The department’s annual report includes a long-awaited breakdown of how the reduction in the aid budget will affect individual countries for the next three years. Continue reading...

  • Uganda calls for travel restrictions to be lifted after last Ebola patient discharged 3 days ago by John Musenze in Kampala
    Global health, Ebola, Global development, Uganda, Africa, World news, Infectious diseases, Medical research

    Country begins 42-day countdown to outbreak being declared officially over, as numbers continue to rise in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo Uganda has started lobbying countries to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions after discharging its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital. The discharge of a Congolese national from the Mulago national referral hospital’s isolation centre in Kampala on Thursday triggered the start of a 42-day countdown required by the World Health Organization before Uganda can officially be declared Ebola-free, provided no new infections are detected. Continue reading...


South China Morning Post

  • Kyiv pounded in Russian missile barrage as air defences run low 2 hours ago by Reuters

    Russia battered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight with one of its biggest ballistic missile barrages of the war, killing at least one person and wounding 16 others, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. A series ‌of powerful explosions thundered across the darkened city in an attack that involved 41 missiles of various types and ravaged buildings across several districts. Residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket and a dormitory were among the structures damaged, said Kyiv Mayor...

  • Can Russia and China ever have a truly equal relationship? 2 hours ago by Nikola Mikovic

    China and Russia are not formal allies, but their ties have grown significantly closer in recent years. The two countries have been “comprehensive strategic partners of coordination for a new era” since 2019, often sharing the goal of countering Western dominance in the international arena. But which nation holds the upper hand in this relationship? Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on an article in The Wall Street Journal on relations between Moscow and Beijing, said on July 14 that...

  • France and Germany reach nuclear deal as Europe builds up defences 4 hours ago by Associated Press

    The leaders of Germany and France announced on Friday that the German military would participate in a nuclear exercise under a French initiative to deepen European nuclear cooperation. The move by both countries to deepen nuclear cooperation underscores growing European defence self-reliance amid concerns about the future of US security commitments to the continent. “We will have German conventional forces participate in a nuclear exercise conducted by the French armed forces before the end of...

  • Lebanon’s president to meet Trump, push for Israeli withdrawal 6 hours ago by Reuters

    Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will make ⁠his first trip to the White House this week to present a plan to US President Donald Trump on how to disarm Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Aoun, who served as the commander of Lebanon’s US-backed army before being elected president last year, is the first Lebanese head of state in nearly 20 years to visit the White House, where he will meet Trump face-to-face for the first time. Tuesday’s meeting comes...

  • Hong Kong’s 5-year plan must focus on what the city does best 13 hours ago by Regina Ip

    Hong Kong has embarked on the path of drawing up its first five-year plan – a significant moment in its history. Hong Kong’s first five-year plan should be more than a local economic blueprint. Properly conceived, it should define how the city contributes to China’s national development while preserving the global connections that make Hong Kong uniquely valuable. Success will depend on three mutually reinforcing pillars – deeper integration with the mainland, seamless connectivity across the...


New York Times

  • Why Jordan Is Becoming a New Focus in the U.S.-Iran War 15 hours ago by Greg Jaffe, Julian E. Barnes and Jonathan Swan
    US and Israeli Attack on Iran (2026), United States Defense and Military Forces, United States International Relations, Deaths (Fatalities), Missiles and Missile Defense Systems, Defense Department, Jordan, Iran

    Four Iranian attacks in five days have targeted U.S. troops in Jordan, U.S. officials said, including one on Friday that killed two soldiers and left another service member missing.

  • A Modest Proposal for the Strait Dispute: A Shared Pact Among Gulf States 6 hours ago by Neil MacFarquhar
    US and Israeli Attack on Iran (2026), Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline, United States Defense and Military Forces, United States Politics and Government, Ships and Shipping, International Relations, Defense and Military Forces, Steel and Iron, European Union, Gulf Cooperation Council, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Crocker, Ryan C, Ghalibaf, Mohammad Baqer, Maloney, Suzanne, Trump, Donald J, Belgium, Bahrain, Europe, Iran, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz

    A London-based research group has invoked a now-defunct European pact on coal and steel to suggest forming a coalition of countries that would share control of the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Trump Gutted Civil Rights Agency, Stifling U.S. Scrutiny of Workplace Bias 5 hours ago by Coral Davenport
    United States Politics and Government, Civil Rights and Liberties, Workplace Hazards and Violations, Discrimination, Labor and Jobs, Government Contracts and Procurement, Hiring and Promotion, Race and Ethnicity, Regulation and Deregulation of Industry, BAE Systems PLC, Caterpillar Inc, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Government Efficiency Department (US), Labor Department (US), Meta Platforms Inc, Oracle Corporation, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Tesla Motors Inc, United States Navy, Musk, Elon, Trump, Donald J, Norfolk (Va)

    A little-known federal office spent decades investigating potential discrimination by government contractors — until it was stopped by the Trump administration.

  • Vance Remarks on Epstein and Israel Echo Conspiracy Theories 12 hours ago by Tim Balk and Lisa Lerer
    Right-Wing Extremism and Alt-Right, United States Politics and Government, Vance, J D, Epstein, Jeffrey E (1953- ), Barak, Ehud, Israel, The Joe Rogan Experience (Radio Program), Rogan, Joe, Conspiracy Theories, Anti-Semitism, Mossad

    The vice president’s comment that there were ties between Mr. Epstein and the “highest levels” of Israeli intelligence troubled some in his party.

  • Failed Immigration Cases Leave Chicago Prosecutor’s Office Reeling 3 hours ago by Danny Hakim
    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US), Chicago (Ill), United States Attorneys, Demonstrations, Protests and Riots, Boutros, Andrew, Federal Actions in US Cities, Decisions and Verdicts, Assaults

    Prosecutors have fled the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, angry about the cases they’ve been told to bring against protesters and immigrants.


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