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Jordanian military says it intercepted five missiles targeting the kingdom after US military says it hit dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets on ThursdayUS launches fresh strikes on Iran after days-long pause, amid fears the war is wideningA liquefied natural gas tanker controlled by QatarEnergy exited the strait of Hormuz overnight – the first such vessel ⁠visible on ship-tracking data to ⁠leave the waterway ​since 11 July, data from analytics firms showed on Thursday.The Al Areesh tanker, which loaded a cargo at Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal around 4-6 July, sailed ⁠out of the strait overnight on 29 July, according to Kpler and LSEG data. Continue reading...

Republican senators sought written limits on settlement, but president held firm despite risk to attorney general pickUS politics live – latest updatesDonald Trump’s refusal to officially end a hugely controversial agreement giving him broad tax immunity and creating a 1.8bn slush fund underscored how the US president’s own self-interest takes precedence above all else in his government.For weeks, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has said that the slush fund portion of the agreement was dead. And for a few brief hours on Wednesday, it seemed that the president might agree to a relatively modest request from two Republican senators to put in writing that there were certain limits on an extraordinary tax immunity deal. After all, it seemed like a small price to pay in exchange for getting Blanche, a staunch Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, confirmed permanently as the US attorney general. Continue reading...

The Trump administration State Department is issuing a mea culpa for using a bizarre map of Africa that mislabeled every country that was highlighted."A video of the presentation given at the AIDS 2026 conference in ⁠Rio de Janeiro ... shows the errant map displayed halfway during a presentation about the State Department’s new health agreements," reported The Guardian, noting the original image was caught by Reuters.The map highlights Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, and Cameroon all in completely the wrong parts of the continent, and often with made-up borders that don't resemble the real ones. Nigeria, for instance, was depicted as in the middle of the Sahara Desert instead of its correct position on the Gulf of Guinea, while Mozambique was depicted where Ethiopia is near the Horn of Africa, instead of its real location in the southern part of the continent.In response to the viral controversy, a State Department spokesperson apologized, per The Washington Post."This was an unfortunate error caused by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference," said the spokesperson. "We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners." The statement did not clarify how these "hasty alterations" could have led to the fictional borders as well as the mislabeled locations.The State Department has endured a number of recent humiliations, including Brazil denying visas to two high-ranking Trump administration officials over allegations of election meddling.

Republicans senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted in favor of the motion to prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against IranSign up for the US Breaking News emailThe US economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth. But consumer spending rose. And the Federal Reserve’s favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month despite remaining above the central bank’s 2% target.The commerce department reported today that growth in US gross domestic product (GDP) – the nation’s output of goods and services – decelerated from 2.1% in the first three months of 2026 and came in below economists’ expectations. Continue reading...

Bangladesh's foreign minister, Dr Khalilur Rahman, said that the improvement of relations with one country does not mean that relations with another country are deteriorating.

A ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, but it has not halted the violence in Gaza, and efforts to secure a lasting agreement to end the war have stalled.

A Russian overnight attack that killed a family near the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih likely used a North Korean missile, two sources said, in what would be the first time such a weapon had been fired in the war in nearly a year.

Figures show hot, dry, windy conditions in EU are 43% more severe than the average over last 20 yearsFire weather in the EU has broken records for severity for this time of year, data shows, as firefighters race to extinguish blazes across the Mediterranean.Inflamed by carbon pollution, the hot, dry and windy weather across the EU from the start of the year until the end of July has been 43% more severe than the average for the same period over the last two decades, data from the European Forest Fire Information Service (Effis) shows. Continue reading...