U.S. resumes ‘powerful strikes’ on Iran after tanker attacks

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U.S. resumes ‘powerful strikes’ on Iran after tanker attacks | 7 July 2026 | The U.S. announced a new round of strikes on Iran after several tankers were targeted while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian media reported explosions in the early hours of Wednesday in the southern province of Hormozgan, including at the ports of Bandar Abbas and Sirik, as well as on Qeshm Island, close to the narrowest section of the strait. “The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said in a statement on X. A video posted on social media reportedly shows the strikes on Bandar Abbas.

U.S. revokes Iran oil sales authorization after tanker attacks | 7 July 2026 | The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday revoked its authorization of Iranian oil sales after a series of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz this week. “Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior,” a U.S. official told CNBC, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences.” A liquefied natural gas tanker, an oil supertanker and an unspecified third tanker came under attack in or near Hormuz on Tuesday, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, a naval group led by the U.S. that provides security updates to merchant vessels in the Middle East. The threat to ships crossing Hormuz has increased to “severe” as hostile action by Iran is likely, the center warned mariners in a notice.

U.S. troops headed back to Poland | 6 July 2026 | U.S. troops are set to return to Poland after an initial pause on troop rotations, according to the Polish Ministry of Defense. The Pentagon in May halted a planned deployment of troops to the country, amid longstanding disagreements between Washington and European NATO partners over defense spending and the ongoing Ukraine War. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated on Monday that the troops would arrive in Poland, saying “[t]he rotational presence of American troops in Poland, which was suspended a few weeks ago, is being resumed,” according to The Hill. “It will continue, and in the coming weeks this process will be fully implemented,” he continued.

Less than half of Americans have faith in NATO – Politico | 7 July 2026 | Support for NATO in the U.S. has slipped following President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the military bloc, according to an internal survey seen by Politico. In a report released last week citing polling data, Politico said just 43% of U.S. adults believe NATO would honor Article 5 — the bloc’s collective defense clause in which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all — if the U.S. came under attack. This is the lowest level of confidence among the bloc’s 32 members and well below the 57% average. For years, Trump has accused European NATO members of failing to spend enough on their own defense. Last week, he called the relationship with NATO “one sided” and said it is “ridiculous” to maintain it, pointing to the gap in defense spending between the US and its allies in a Truth Social post.

Le Pen cleared to run for president | 7 July 2026 | Veteran French politician Marine Le Pen has announced that she will run for president in 2027 after an appeals court shortened the ban on holding elected office imposed last year while upholding her conviction over the misuse of European Parliament funds. A three-time presidential candidate who reached the runoff in 2017 and 2022, Le Pen had been widely viewed as the frontrunner to succeed President Emmanuel Macron before last year’s conviction sidelined her from the race. She has denied any wrongdoing. On Tuesday, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld Le Pen’s conviction but reduced her five-year ban on holding elected office to 45 months, with 30 months suspended, making her eligible to stand in 2027. The court also sentenced her to three years in prison, including two years suspended, ordered the remaining year to be served under home detention with electronic monitoring, and imposed a 114,000 fine.

Ukrainian colonel behind attempted terror attack in Crimea eliminated | 28 June 2026 | A high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officer behind a thwarted terrorist attack in Russia’s Crimea has been killed, local news agencies have reported, citing a source in the Russian security services. “Rustem Fakhriev, a colonel of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR), was eliminated on May 18,” the source said. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said previously that Fakhriev organized a failed assassination attempt against a high-ranking Russian officer in Crimea on December 1, 2025. A Ukrainian national, who had been recruited by the HUR colonel, was killed in a gunfight with Russian security forces when he tried to plant a Western-made explosive device on the officer’s car.

Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says | 23 June 2026 | Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting ​in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent U.N. inquiry said ‌on Tuesday. The report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023. Around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found. A previous report by the commission in September found that Israel had committed genocide ​in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited these acts — accusations that Israel called scandalous.

Secret Service knew Trump’s shooter had a rifle and was ON THE ROOF and never told his own detail, bombshell intelligence report reveals | 2 July 2026 | Secret Service agents knew Thomas Crooks had a rifle and had made his way onto a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania, with a clear shot at Donald Trump — and never issued a word to the president’s own protective detail. Those details were revealed in a critical new report released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General. According to the report, the Secret Service missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt Thomas Crooks’s attempted assassination of Trump during the July 13 episode in the midst of the 2024 presidential campaign. The report details that local law enforcement notified the Secret Service of a “suspicious person” on the roof at 6:09 pm. Trump was shot at eight times at 6:11 pm.

Top highlights from Trump’s late night July 4 address: ‘No dream in history is bigger’ –Trump: ‘Our destiny is written by God’; 250 years is still only ‘dawn of Golden Age’ | 5 July 2026 | President Donald Trump delivered a 37-minute speech for America’s 250th birthday after a weather delay in the dark of night that was lit up by a Guinness world-record-setting fireworks display stretching from July 4 into July 5 at Washington, D.C.’s National Mall. While thousands outlasted the rain and dodged nature’s thunderstorm light show, many Americans might have missed the president’s historic remarks. Here are a few highlights: “No dream in history is bigger” than the American experiment –“In this country, we could achieve the wildest and most impossible dreams, and no dream in history is bigger or more incredible than the one that started on July 4, 1776,” Trump said. “The war for independence was launched by minutemen, farmers, blacksmiths, tradesmen who took up their muskets against the mightiest army on Earth, the most powerful army and unbeatable army – until they met us.” “No one made them do it. They fought because they knew that a free people must have a free country. Over 250 years, the world has seen the great empires, vast kingdoms, mighty nations and terrible tyrants: They came and they went, but after two and a half centuries, this American republic still stands tall and strong,” the president added.

DOJ Launches New Crackdown on Birth Tourism After Supreme Court Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order | 1 July 2026 | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice will prioritize prosecutions of birth tourism schemes involving visa fraud as foreign nationals continue exploiting U.S. citizenship loopholes despite yesterday’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling striking down President Trump’s executive order. On Tuesday, the Trump Department of Justice directed federal prosecutors across the country to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of birth tourism schemes. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald issued a department-wide memo Tuesday directing every U.S. Attorney’s office to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security on these cases.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship in 5-4 Decision – Roberts, Coney Barrett Side With Liberals | 30 June 2026 | The US Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship in a 5-4 decision. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. “Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause,” Roberts wrote. Roberts was joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. In September, President Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end birthright citizenship. Several federal judges have blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order.

Trump frees more than half a dozen people he says Biden busted for simply ‘fixing their car’ | 3 July 2026 | President Donald Trump on Friday announced full executive pardons for more than half a dozen people [nine] he claims were “persecuted” by the Biden administration for simply “fixing their car.” In a Truth Social post Friday afternoon, the president took aim at federal prosecutions he characterized as part of the “Weaponization and Stupidity” of the prior administration, saying, “I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!” Those who received clemency were charged after circumventing emissions control regulations that are no longer in effect, a White House official told Fox News Digital. The pardons align with Trump’s broader push to defend the “right to repair.” Earlier in the week, he signed a presidential memo designed to make it easier for Americans to repair their own vehicles by protecting self-repair rights and opening up options for aftermarket parts.

7 nabbed after “8647” anti-Trump graffiti, deliberate slashing stuns the National Mall | 28 June 2026 | Interior Secretary Doug Burgum vowed “full” prosecution Saturday for vandals who allegedly slashed a 350-foot long gash into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and defaced the area with a slew of anti-Trump graffiti. “When people are attacking it [the Reflecting Pool], it is like an attack on our country,” Burgum said. “These are our most sacred monuments, and they [the perpetrators] are gonna be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” Burgum discussed the damage and the Trump administration’s response to it during a Fox & Friends Weekend appearance, revealing that authorities have made seven arrests, issued multiple citations and filed 18 police reports in connection with the vandalism. According to Burgum, the damage extended roughly 350 feet along the pool’s industrial rubber liner, which he said investigators believe was cut with a box cutter. Images show some of the anti-Trump markings the vandals left behind, including “8647,” interpreted by many as a call to violence or a call to remove the president.

Feds confirm Biden admin circumvented court order to keep males out of girls’ sports | 24 June 2026 | Documents released by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) show that officials in former President [sic] Joe Biden’s Department of Education (ED) circumvented a federal court injunction restricting the department’s sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) enforcement efforts under Title IX, including in cases involving transgender students’ access to restrooms and female athletic teams. OSC’s June 9 letter to the White House said the Department of Education ultimately “fully substantiated” a whistleblower’s allegations that the department’s Office for Civil Rights failed to comply with a federal injunction barring implementation of Biden-era guidance that interpreted Title IX to cover sexual orientation and gender identity. The whistleblower, a chief attorney in OCR’s Kansas City office, alleged that the department continued pursuing gender identity, transgender status, and sexual orientation claims under Title IX in states covered by the injunction.

Long Island school clerk caught tearing up ballots, trashing votes to help her candidate win – probe | 25 June 2026 | A Long Island school clerk overseeing board of education elections tore up ballots and threw them in a dumpster to rig the election for a local DJ, a newly revealed internal probe found. Hempstead Union Free School District Clerk April Keys allegedly rigged the May 19 trustee election by smuggling official ballots out of her office and handing absentee ballots to incumbent candidate Victor Pratt so he could trash them, according to a 51-page petition filed by the district with the state Education Department. Keys could now face criminal charges as the district is looking to overturn Pratt’s razor-thin win. The filing, which was submitted June 15 but emerged Thursday, asks state Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa to order a new one election, with a replacement clerk and oversight by the state Attorney General’s Civil Rights office.

Travel restrictions and quarantines implemented after France confirms first case of incurable deadly virus | 25 June 2026 | Travel restrictions have been ramped up after France confirmed its first case of Ebola this week. The Democratic Republic of Congo, which is battling an outbreak of a rare strain of Ebola, has imposed a 21-day quarantine for anyone returning from Ebola-affected areas before they can travel abroad. The restrictions come after France reported its first imported case of Ebola linked to the current outbreak. The outbreak is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain, which has up to a 50 percent mortality rate. Government data released Wednesday reported 1,118 Ebola cases and 291 deaths, making this Ebola outbreak the second largest on record, according to the CDC.

Anthony Fauci is subpoenaed after refusing to testify on COVID origins | 23 June 2026 | Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was subpoenaed by Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul. Paul accused Fauci of dodging a previous commitment to testify before a Senate committee chaired by the Kentucky libertarian. “Last week, Anthony Fauci notified us that he will not voluntarily testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, even though he had previously agreed to do so,” Paul wrote on X on Monday. ‘Therefore, today we have issued a subpoena for him to publicly testify.’ Paul said later Fauci would testify in July… Controversy surrounding COVID origins was fueled earlier this year by congressional testimony from CIA agent James Erdman, as previously reported by the Daily Mail.

Merck Settles Gardasil Vaccine Injury Lawsuit for $50 Million | 22 June 2026 | Merck & Co has agreed to pay 50 million to settle more than 200 lawsuits brought against the drug giant by patients suffering from autoimmune disorders after receiving the Gardasil vaccine. According Merck, this settlement resolves all but one of the pending lawsuits filed against its HPV vaccine. Gardasil [Gardakill] was fast-tracked to licensure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006 and first recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be given to all 11-12-year-old girls. It was known at the time that Merck used an aluminum containing bioactive “placebo” in pre-licensure trials and only tested the vaccine in a small number of children under age 15. The 200-plus lawsuits filed since 2022 were consolidated into one class action case involving plaintiffs came from across the country stating that the vaccine caused serious injury and chronic poor health, including…development of diabetes, premature ovarian failure (POI), infertility, and death.

Biden’s illegal immigration surge triggered 30% rise in home prices, 20% in rents, Fed paper finds | 7 July 2026 | A new Federal Reserve working paper found the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration triggered higher home prices and rents. The paper, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, combines immigration court records with government administrative data to measure how the unprecedented wave of illegal immigration between 2021 and 2024 affected local labor and housing markets. The economists estimate unauthorized immigrant worker flows accounted for about 30% of employment growth, roughly 30% of home-price growth, and about 20% of rent growth in the average metropolitan area between March 2021 and March 2024. The paper describes 2021 through 2024 as an “unprecedented boom” in illegal immigration.

DHS reveals Massachusetts driver involved in fatal crash is Haitian illegal immigrant | 3 July 2026 | A commercial truck driver from Massachusetts being held on 700,000 bail after allegedly killing a Pennsylvania state trooper in a fiery crash with another tractor-trailer Wednesday morning is an illegal immigrant from Haiti, federal authorities say. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tells the Herald that Michael Bon, 33, of Brockton, is a Haitian illegal immigrant who has been in the country illegally since June of 2025. DHS says in June of 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) terminated Bon’s parole, issuing him a notice on June 13. But despite his parole being terminated, Bon refused to leave the country and remained in the United States illegally, settling in Brockton. Bon was arraigned on several charges Thursday morning, including involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, and reckless driving, among other charges. DHS says ICE lodged an immigration detainer against Bon on Thursday. The fiery crash happened on I-81 in Schuylkill County and resulted in the death of 44-year-old State Trooper Michael Pahira, according to the Pottsville Republican Herald.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pardons illegal migrant convicted of sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl | 2 July 2026 | Embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being raked over the coals for pardoning an illegal immigrant slated for deportation for raping a 10-year-old girl. The decision was handed down at the June 10 meeting of the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission (CRC), headed by [ped0] Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, effectively giving Laotian national Tou Lue Vang a clean slate despite his horrific crimes. The commission even praised Vang in a letter informing him of their decision. Upon his arrest in 2005, Vang admitted to raping the girl, astonishingly calling it a “minor thing” and trying to blame cultural norms in Thailand, where he was born in a refugee camp in 1983, the New York Times reported.