July 2026
Saturday, 18 July 2026
A handful of chip stocks drag the whole market down
A selloff in a few AI and chip giants pulled global markets into their worst week since spring, while US strikes on Iran entered a seventh night and Israel struck a Gaza funeral.
Friday, 17 July 2026
US strikes reach Tehran as Iran hits Gulf neighbours and moves to choke Hormuz
A collapsed ceasefire has become a sixth day of open war between the US and Iran. The fighting is now reaching oil tankers, bystander Gulf states, and prices far from the Gulf.
Thursday, 16 July 2026
China's economy posts a record-low 4.3% as shoppers stop spending
China's growth hit one of its weakest rates ever while consumers default in record numbers; Venezuela's US-installed government opens talks with the opposition; and the US strikes Iran again.
Wednesday, 15 July 2026
Europe moves to choke Sudan's war by banning its gold
The EU cut off Sudanese gold to starve a two-year war of money, as Ukraine opens a new naval front, US inflation falls for the first time since 2020, and DR Congo's Ebola toll is likely far worse than the official count.
Tuesday, 14 July 2026
China expels a third top leader as Xi's purge climbs into the ruling elite
Beijing removes a former Politburo member for corruption — the third since 2025 — while Trump's threatened 20% toll on the Strait of Hormuz drives oil to a one-month high, and nine European nations agree to build a missile shield around Ukraine.
Monday, 13 July 2026
Europe's deadly summer: wildfires rage as heat quietly kills thousands
Fires burn across Spain and France while new data shows heat killed 2,700 in the UK and 10,000 across Europe. Plus: US and Iran trade fresh strikes and oil jumps, Venezuela's quake toll passes 4,490, and Ukraine shuts Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov.
Sunday, 12 July 2026
Nigeria frees all 44 schoolchildren and teachers held captive for two months
A Nigerian army operation brought home every pupil and teacher seized from three rural schools in May — a rare clean win against a wave of mass kidnappings, and the freshest good news in a heavy week.
Saturday, 11 July 2026
China catches a rocket coming home — and America's cheap-space monopoly gets a rival
China recovered an orbital rocket booster for the first time, narrowing the one lead the US held alone in cheap space access. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve leaned toward raising interest rates, Ukraine's drones cut deep into Russia's fuel supply, and Congo faced the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
Friday, 10 July 2026
Ukrainians turn on their own draft as the war enters its fifth year
A crowd in Lviv overturned a conscription officer's car and tore off his uniform — the sharpest sign yet that Ukraine's deepest shortage is not weapons but willing soldiers. Plus Europe moves to arm itself, war costs reach Japan's factory prices, and a breakthrough in the Darfur atrocity case.
Thursday, 9 July 2026
Trump orders a cutoff of all US trade with Spain — but the power to do it may not be his
At a NATO summit in Turkey, the US president told his own treasury secretary to end trade with Spain over its defence spending. The catch: Spain doesn't run its own trade — the EU does. Plus divided Fed minutes, a gloomier IMF, and an ICC breakthrough on Sudan.
Wednesday, 8 July 2026
A ceasefire with Iran unravels as the US and Tehran trade strikes across the Gulf
Three tankers hit in the Strait of Hormuz triggered fresh US strikes on more than 80 targets in Iran; Tehran fired back at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, and each side now accuses the other of breaking the truce first.
Tuesday, 7 July 2026
Hamas gives up its government on paper — but keeps its guns, and the war grinds on
Hamas dissolved its Gaza governing body to make room for a UN-backed technocratic committee, but refused to disarm, so real control hasn't moved. Turkey jailed comedians and banned protests before hosting a tense NATO summit, half a million people are trapped in a besieged Sudanese city, and China told the world not to "over-interpret" a Pacific missile test.
Monday, 6 July 2026
Israel's government says it won't obey its own top court — a first, and a warning
Netanyahu's cabinet formally declared it will ignore a High Court ruling, crossing a line no Israeli government has crossed before. Plus OPEC opens the taps as Hormuz reopens, Trump works the phones on Ukraine, and Venezuela's quake toll climbs past 3,300.
Sunday, 5 July 2026
Two enemies who hate each other attack Mali together — and its army is running out of ground
A Tuareg separatist group and an al-Qaeda affiliate, whose goals are opposite, struck Mali's army in five towns on the same morning. Plus a besieged Sudanese city under drone fire, Ukraine's strikes deep inside Russia, and a Peru election settled by 50,000 votes.
Saturday, 4 July 2026
Europe counts its heatwave dead — at least 3,700 gone, and the toll is still rising
France, Belgium and the Netherlands report thousands of excess deaths from June's record heat, most of them elderly people who died at home. Meanwhile a UN "red alert" over Sudan's el-Obeid, a fresh Chinese patrol off Taiwan, and Moldova's government collapses.
Friday, 3 July 2026
Iran buries Ayatollah Khamenei with a week of mourning — and behind the coffins, a quiet fight over who leads next
Iran began mass funeral rites for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in the first hours of its war with Israel. A week of choreographed grief hides the real story: for the first time in 36 years, no single person is clearly in charge.
Thursday, 2 July 2026
Britain unveils its biggest defence build-up since the Cold War — and its own generals call it half enough
Starmer's £15bn defence plan lands to a strange chorus: not "too much" but "not nearly enough." Meanwhile Sudan's paramilitaries are accused of crimes against humanity, India logs its driest June in 12 years, and euro-zone inflation eases.
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
A ceasefire between Pakistan and the Taliban collapses, and each side calls the other's strike the first one
Afghan and Pakistani forces traded strikes across the border after eight months of calm, with dozens of civilians reported dead — and both governments insist they were only answering an attack. Elsewhere: Ukraine's drones push Russia to import petrol, Gaza's occupation deepens, a deadly heat dome moves from Europe to North America, and central banks quietly start selling dollars.
June 2026
Tuesday, 30 June 2026
The Supreme Court tells Trump he can't fire a Fed governor — and draws one bright line he can't cross
A 5-4 ruling keeps Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve board, shielding the central bank from a president who has spent a year demanding lower interest rates. The same court let Trump fire officials at three other agencies. Plus Pakistan strikes Afghanistan, China and the EU open trade talks, and a Pacific pact shuts China out.
Monday, 29 June 2026
Ukraine takes the war to Russia's refineries, and Putin admits the fuel is running short
Long-range Ukrainian drones hit two more Russian oil refineries overnight, and for the first time Putin acknowledged a "difficult period" and fuel shortages — with rationing now reaching Siberia, thousands of miles from the front.
Sunday, 28 June 2026
Burkina Faso cuts ties with France, finishing a divorce that was already over in everything but name
A West African junta formally severs relations with its former colonial ruler — the last paperwork on a split made years ago. Plus Ukraine strikes deep inside Russia, Europe's strongmen recede, Trump threatens a 100% tariff on digital taxes, and bird flu reaches its last continent.
Saturday, 27 June 2026
A drone hits a cargo ship in the world's busiest oil lane, and a fragile peace with Iran starts to crack
Iran struck a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, the US hit back, and a preliminary deal to end the Iran war now hangs on who controls one stretch of water.
Friday, 26 June 2026
Twin earthquakes flatten Caracas, and a hollowed-out Venezuela struggles to dig itself out
Two of the strongest quakes in a century hit Venezuela seconds apart, killing at least 188 and trapping hundreds — in a country whose state capacity was gutted long before the ground moved. Plus oil falls below pre-war levels as Hormuz reopens, Ukraine's strikes reach deep into Russia, and rescue offers arrive from rivals.
Thursday, 25 June 2026
The Senate votes to end a war that's already winding down — and Trump calls it meaningless
US senators reclaimed their war power over Iran on a 50-48 vote, four months after the fighting began and with a ceasefire already in place. The same day, oil slid below $70 as tankers returned to Hormuz, China pressed Taiwan's waters, and two huge earthquakes flattened buildings in Caracas.
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Congo's Ebola outbreak becomes the worst-starting one ever — because it was caught too late
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has infected more people in its first month than any on record. The reason isn't the virus — it's that the world saw it months too late.
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
A paramilitary the Sudanese state once built now encircles a city of half a million
The RSF has surrounded el-Obeid in central Sudan, and governments warn of a massacre if it attacks — the latest turn in a war fought by a force the army created.
Monday, 22 June 2026
A record heatwave shuts down a continent's daily life as Europe and India learn the same hard lesson
Trains stop, schools close, and festivals empty out as extreme heat strains systems built for a milder world — while China answers US trade curbs with its own, and Britain's prime minister edges toward the exit.
Sunday, 21 June 2026
Colombia votes on whether to fight its endless war or keep talking to it
A presidential runoff Sunday pits a hard-line crackdown against a decade-old peace strategy — as Bolivia sends in the army, Congo's Ebola toll climbs, and a rare climate pattern unsettles global markets.
Saturday, 20 June 2026
A Lebanon ceasefire holds by a thread as no one fully controls the peace
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to halt fighting, but Israeli strikes killed dozens after the deadline, the US-Iran talks meant to seal a wider war were cancelled, and the EU split over how to deal with Russia and China.
Friday, 19 June 2026
Niger's airport burns — and the soldiers who promised to stop this can't
Attackers hit the capital's airport hours after militants overran two army bases, exposing how little the Sahel's juntas have delivered on the one promise that put them in power.
Thursday, 18 June 2026
The G7 hardens against Russia as warning shots, a drone, and a quiet phone call all land in one day
As the G7 summit in France closed with a pledge of more air defence for Ukraine and tighter sanctions on Moscow, three separate incidents — a Russian warship firing near a British yacht, a drone hitting a children's bus, and an EU official quietly calling the Kremlin — showed how fast a nervous standoff can move in any direction.
Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Japan raises rates to a 31-year high as the world's central banks fight one war's energy shock
The Bank of Japan lifted its key rate to 1% — its highest since 1995 — as the Iran war's spike in oil prices pushes up the cost of living across oil-importing economies. The move puts Japan alongside the European Central Bank, which hiked last week, while the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England weigh whether to follow.
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
After two years frozen by one country's veto, the EU opens its door to Ukraine and Moldova
The EU formally launched membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova on Monday — a step blocked for two years by Hungary, and only unfrozen after Viktor Orbán lost power. The day's other news: Japan's central bank pushed rates to a 31-year high, Sudan's drone war passed 1,000 civilian dead, and shipowners stayed wary of the Hormuz deal.
Monday, 15 June 2026
The day a US order pulled the world's most advanced AI offline — and Iran and America agreed to end their war
Washington told Anthropic to block foreign access to its top models; the company switched them off for everyone, and allies from Ottawa to Brussels are asking what it means to depend on a tool another government can turn off. Meanwhile the US and Iran reached a deal to end their war, with a signing set for Friday.
Sunday, 14 June 2026
Switzerland votes on whether to cap its own population at 10 million
A Swiss referendum to legally limit the population could unravel the country's labour deal with the EU. Plus EU accession talks open for Ukraine and Moldova, Congo's Ebola toll passes 710, and China builds a payment rail to rival the dollar.
Saturday, 13 June 2026
Students fill Jakarta's streets warning Indonesia is "heading to bankrupt
Hundreds marched in Indonesia's capital against fuel price rises and a costly free-meals programme dogged by poisonings and corruption — plus the EU restarts Ukraine and Moldova's membership bids, Ebola reaches a Congo camp, and an aid-cuts warning on HIV.