President Trump said he has "no objection" to temporarily withdrawing Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination after Republican Senators Cornyn and Tillis threatened to block the vote over a Trump-IRS settlement granting the president's family immunity from tax audits and creating a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund. Blanche has served as acting AG since Trump removed Pam Bondi in April over her handling of the Epstein files. Trump said on Truth Social he would re-nominate Blanche after the two senators leave office.
The Commerce Department's advance estimate put second-quarter GDP growth at an annualized 1.5 percent, missing the 2.1 percent economists projected and down from Q1's pace. Core inflation remained stubborn at 3.3 percent, though consumer spending rose a resilient 3.2 percent. A widening trade deficit and heavy AI hardware investment were the primary drags on growth.
President Trump announced his "Board of Peace" has secured a deal for Hamas to disarm and Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza in structured phases, with decommissioning of heavy weapons and tunnels potentially taking 200 to 350 days. Hamas immediately signaled it would not surrender weapons before Israeli withdrawal, and Israel remains deeply skeptical the group will follow through. The framework exists on paper; implementation is the open question.
The Senate Education Committee passed a bipartisan bill that would block the executive branch from dismantling the Department of Education, a rare display of cross-aisle cooperation in the current Congress. The measure still needs a full Senate floor vote. It arrives as the administration has moved aggressively to reduce the department's staffing and operational scope.
Spain sent its Armed Forces to the tiny enclave of Ceuta after roughly 60,000 Moroccan migrants — about 70 percent of the city's normal population — surged across the border fence, with at least 24 people dying in the chaos. Authorities linked the mass crossing partly to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling that recently barred the immediate return of migrants arriving by sea. Morocco says it is cooperating with Spain to halt further crossings and begin processing returns.
During high-level meetings this week, President Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly discussed imposing a land blockade on Iran as part of a broader pressure campaign mixing kinetic and non-kinetic measures. The conversation comes as commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed sharply since Iran resumed attacks on shipping earlier this month following U.S. military strikes.
Every UEFA member federation — all 55 — voted unanimously to boycott FIFA competitions if world soccer's governing body proceeds with plans to sell equity stakes in its tournaments to private investors. The standoff pits European football's collective voice directly against FIFA's leadership and could fundamentally reshape how the sport is financed at the global level. No resolution is in sight, and FIFA has not indicated it will back down.
Apple reported Q3 2026 revenue of $109.4 billion — up 16 percent year over year — with iPhone sales jumping 22 percent and services revenue hitting $30.7 billion. Net income came in at $29.8 billion, gross margins exceeded 50 percent, and CEO Tim Cook called it the strongest June quarter in the company's history with double-digit growth across every product line and every geographic market.
Researchers at China's Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology embedded two cooperating strains of engineered bacteria directly into a plastic film, producing a material that fully breaks down within six days when triggered — leaving behind no microplastics. The team demonstrated it with a functional wearable electrode that performed normally and then degraded completely. Next target: making the breakdown activate in water, where most plastic pollution eventually accumulates.
A man walked into a Welsh library this week to return two books his grandfather had checked out 116 years ago, and staff accepted them without incident. The overdue fine, if calculated at standard rates, would presumably be staggering — but no one appears to have pressed the issue. Library staff called it a charming reminder that some things do eventually come full circle.
