World
At least 57 people have died and more than 60,000 people have crossed into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta after a mass breach of the border from Morocco. Spain has deployed troops to the territory and announced a temporary center to speed up the expulsion of migrants who have no legal claim to stay. Italy has demanded that Spain be suspended from the Schengen area over fears of a fresh migration crisis. Humanitarian groups called for a coordinated EU response, and Brussels scheduled emergency talks with Spain and Morocco. The events mark one of the largest border crossings in recent European history and have put renewed pressure on EU migration policy.
BBC News / Al Jazeera
Politics
President Donald Trump has threatened to pull Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general unless Republican holdouts leave office, amid a standoff over an IRS settlement. Senator John Cornyn of Texas has openly defied Trump by standing in the way of the nomination with his lame-duck power. Trump said he would keep Blanche in acting status if needed. The Senate Judiciary Committee has not scheduled a vote, and White House officials are weighing their options. The fight exposes divisions within the GOP ahead of the November midterms and tests whether Trump can enforce party discipline over his own administration.
NBC News / The New York Times
Business
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its July meeting, citing elevated inflation, even as US economic growth slowed in the second quarter of 2026. New tariffs and higher oil prices created a supply shock that dragged down GDP, while domestic demand stayed robust. Internal divisions emerged at the meeting, with some officials dissenting in favor of a rate increase. Bond investors remain worried about the lack of guidance from the central bank, and long-term Treasury yields have moved higher. Markets now expect the Fed to hold rates through the fall and begin cutting only if inflation falls back toward its 2 percent target.
Al Jazeera / The New York Times
Technology
Banks are in talks to lend $15 billion for a massive Anthropic data center in Texas backed by Google, part of a wave of AI infrastructure spending. The 1.6-gigawatt project would be among the largest AI data centers ever built. The European Union has opened a call for local AI gigafactories that could support up to seven facilities, and Brookfield and NextEra plan a $100 billion data center campus in Kentucky. The buildout reflects surging demand for AI computing power, with chips, high-bandwidth memory, and electricity emerging as key constraints. Analysts estimate global AI data center spending will pass the trillion-dollar mark within a few years.
The Wall Street Journal / TechCrunch
Science
Astronomers have found what appears to be a planetary-mass exomoon circling a brown dwarf in the stellar system CD-35 2722. The brown dwarf orbits a star with about half the mass of the Sun, and the newly found moon circles the brown dwarf in turn. The candidate was detected through a repeating dip in the brown dwarf's light. If confirmed, it would be one of the clearest exomoon candidates found to date and a rare example of a moon-sized body outside our solar system. Its planetary-scale mass challenges current models of moon formation and suggests brown dwarfs can host large moons. Follow-up observations with larger telescopes are already planned.
Sci.News / ESO
Sports
Spain has been crowned champions of the 2026 World Cup after a dominant tournament run, cementing its place as the leading force in world soccer. The title is Spain's second World Cup and its first since 2010, and it makes Spain the first European nation to hold the World Cup and the European Championship at the same time since the turn of the century. The tournament was the first hosted by three countries, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and set records for attendance. Argentina reached the final but could not match Spain's control. Attention now turns to the 2030 World Cup, which Spain will co-host with Portugal and Morocco.
ABC News / ESPN
Health
A new study finds that women who received CAR T cell therapy for autoimmune diseases went on to have regular pregnancies and healthy babies. Researchers tracked patients for several years after treatment and found most pregnancies progressed normally, with no pattern of complications linked to the therapy. The autoimmune disease also stayed under control during pregnancy for most participants. CAR T cell therapy, which reprograms a patient's immune cells to attack disease, was first developed for cancer and is now used for conditions such as lupus and multiple sclerosis. The authors say the findings support earlier discussions about family planning and fertility preservation with patients considering the therapy.
Science News
Environment
Arctic sea ice reached its lowest winter level on record this year, according to scientists who track polar ice, as unusually warm conditions persisted across the region. The record follows a year of extreme heat around the world, with wildfires burning across Australia, Argentina, and South Africa. In Europe, a new report found that climate change has sharply increased the likelihood of the hot, dry weather that helped wildfires spread in France and Spain. Scientists say the record low ice and the surge in fires share the same driver: rising global temperatures. They warn that some changes, including the loss of summer sea ice, may already be unavoidable in the coming decades.
NBC News / The New York Times