Eastern Herald

Iran FM Abbas Araghchi on Thursday condemned Trump's plan to use $100bn in frozen Iranian assets to cover Hormuz losses as 'incendiary,' warning it threatens global sovereign wealth. US strikes on Iran entered their thirteenth night.

Norway Football Federation president Lise Klaveness will file a formal FIFA ethics complaint over Balogun's reversed red-card ban, which came after Donald Trump called Infantino. She warns the whole game is at risk when rules bend to political pressure.

A Florida pastor is suing OpenAI after ChatGPT reportedly offered spiritual reassurance instead of urging him to seek emergency care for a pulmonary embolism. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, could set the first US precedent for AI medical liability.

Samsung Biologics made a $1.8 billion all-cash offer for Swiss peptide drug maker PolyPeptide, entering the GLP-1 manufacturing market in South Korea's largest biotech deal. PolyPeptide's board and majority shareholder both backed the offer.

China's Navy fired a ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in June, prompting Japan to revise its security documents and discuss hosting US nuclear weapons. The shift puts Japan's postwar Three Non-Nuclear Principles under formal review.

Putin told North Korean FM Choe Son Hui that NK troops' deeds in Ukraine would never be forgotten, Russia's most direct acknowledgment of Pyongyang's military contribution. Kim Jong Un reiterated that developing relations with Russia in all areas remains a strategic goal for Pyongyang.

Trump is sending dozens of extra refueling tankers to Israeli airports as Ben Gurion fills with US military aircraft, disrupting civilian flights. Washington is weighing a major expansion of its campaign against Iran, including strikes on power plants and underground nuclear sites.

Trump Media is launching Truth API, a paid data feed delivering Trump's Truth Social posts to Wall Street trading firms milliseconds before the public, set for August 1. Democrats and ethics lawyers called it brazen corruption and insider trading, with calls for SEC review.

xAI has filed the first civil lawsuit by an AI company against a user, accusing a South Carolina man of using Grok to generate child abuse material. The case arrives as regulators in the US and Europe examine how AI platforms handle child protection requirements.

Founded by a UX design veteran and an enterprise sales veteran who met at Accenture in 2010, Surgy Health has rebranded from a UX studio into an AI-native healthcare software company serving hospitals across India and the Gulf. Every healthcare AI company has a pitch deck. Fewer have a founding story that started 14 years before the company did. Surgy Health is a Bengaluru-based healthcare AI company building an AI-native software suite for mid-market hospitals across India and the Gulf Cooperat

Manila demanded China Daily remove an AI video depicting Filipinos as monkeys, timed to the South China Sea arbitration anniversary. Defense Secretary Teodoro called it contemptible propaganda exposing China's moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

Japan's parliament passed the first amendment to the Imperial House Law since 1949 on Friday, allowing adoption of distant male relatives into the succession line. The change retains the ban on female emperors despite polls showing 73 percent of the public favoring a woman on the throne.

Xi Jinping launched the World AI Cooperation Organization at WAIC 2026 in Shanghai, pledging 5,000 AI training slots for developing nations and calling AI development a 'symphony not a solo.' Beijing announced AI centers with BRICS, ASEAN, and the African Union, positioning China as champion of equitable AI access against US chip restrictions.

Donald Trump accused China of stealing voter data on 220 million Americans in a prime-time White House address that ABC, NBC and CNN refused to carry. Experts said Trump conflated data collection with electoral manipulation, four months before US midterms.

China approved Apple Intelligence for mainland launch with Alibaba's Qwen AI and Baidu powering features after years of regulatory delays. Apple, which earned $20.5 billion from Greater China last quarter, had rejected DeepSeek before settling on Alibaba as its China AI partner.

Google added AI avatars and Gemini Omni multimodal video creation to its Workspace Vids product Thursday, directly competing with HeyGen and Synthesia. The upgrade includes SynthID watermarking and restricts personal avatars to users aged 18 and older.

Flash flooding struck Texas Hill Country for a second consecutive year on Thursday, killing at least two people as rescuers pulled more than 230 from the swollen Guadalupe and Pedernales rivers. Governor Greg Abbott confirmed the deaths while flood operations continued into the night.

Brussels has issued binding DMA obligations requiring Google to share search data with rivals by January 2027 and open Android to rival AI services by July 2027. Fines of up to 10% of global turnover could follow if Google fails to comply, with a separate penalty expected next week.

Four Raptor engines failed to ignite during Starship Flight 13 at Boca Chica on Thursday, triggering an automatic abort before liftoff. SpaceX will replace two engines and retry within days as its stock slipped below the $135 IPO price.

The Trump administration imposed 25 percent tariffs on thousands of Brazilian imports on Thursday, citing Brazilian court orders directing American technology firms to remove political content, effective July 22. Brazil called the measure groundless, activated its Economic Reciprocity Law, and filed a WTO challenge.

US forces launched a new wave of strikes against Iran on Thursday, marking the fifth consecutive night of attacks aimed at degrading Iranian military capabilities, US Central Command announced.

Gabriel Perez, a White House teleprompter operator with advance access to Trump's speech scripts, has been suspended and placed on unpaid administrative leave after allegedly earning nearly $100,000 betting on the content of presidential remarks via Kalshi. The CFTC is investigating.

Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians across Gaza Thursday through air strikes, tank fire, and a car attack, lifting deaths since October's ceasefire above 1,100. The strikes hit a displaced-persons tent camp and residential neighborhoods as Prime Minister Netanyahu faces October elections.

President Trump is set to allege in a primetime East Room address that China compromised U.S. voter data and the CIA concealed it during his first term. Cabinet members including CIA and FBI heads will attend as Trump also pushes the SAVE America Act ahead of November's midterms.

Vice President JD Vance accused Israeli government members of running a 'foreign influence campaign' to kill the US-Iran deal on Joe Rogan, citing Time Magazine's report on a former Trump manager hired by Israel to target MAGA voters.

DHS on Thursday reinstated the public charge test for green cards, making Medicaid and food stamp use a factor against 588,000 annual applicants. About 950,000 people in immigrant households may forgo legally available benefits due to the chilling effect.

Zelenskyy dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Thursday, citing friction with Ukraine's top general, sparking protests in Kyiv and three other cities. Fedorov, 35, had built Ukraine's drone warfare program over six months but clashed with the traditional military establishment.

Twenty-six Meta employees filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming AI monitoring systems targeted those on maternity, parental, and disability leave for layoffs. The suit alleges Meta's performance ranking tools penalize workers who cannot accumulate AI scores during protected absences.

China expelled Politburo member Ma Xingrui over family corruption, the third removal under Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-graft drive. The former Xinjiang party chief and rocket programme head was found to have betrayed party principles, with corruption among family members running rampant.

Anthropic's 'There's Hope in Hard Questions' AI ad featured burning houses, surveillance cameras, and cemetery imagery, drawing widespread ridicule and calls of 'worst corporate communications ever.' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he thought it was satire.

OpenAI researcher Miles Wang is in talks to raise $200 million at a $2 billion valuation for an AI startup targeting drug repurposing and discovery, with Lightspeed Venture Partners in early discussions. Wang disputed the reported figures but declined to provide alternatives.

Tadej Pogacar broke the Col du Tourmalet climbing record and reclaimed the yellow jersey on Stage 6 of the Tour de France, leaving Jonas Vingegaard with a major deficit and raising the question of whether this race has already found its winner.

Conor McGregor grabbed Max Holloway's Oakley sunglasses off his face during the UFC 329 press conference faceoff and was restrained by security three times in scenes that turned Las Vegas fight week into exactly the spectacle McGregor has always guaranteed.

A wildfire swept through Almera's Los Gallardos on Thursday, killing at least twelve people including four suspected British nationals found trapped in vehicles Andalusia's deadliest blaze on record. Nineteen remain missing as firefighters and military emergency units battle the still-uncontained fire in extreme heat.

Israel will return the first 'pilot zone' in southern Lebanon to Lebanese control 'in a matter of days,' a US official confirmed, with CENTCOM coordinating transfers under the June 26 framework. Rome negotiations next week will determine the sequencing of further handovers across the occupied south.

Canadian PM Mark Carney signed mining, energy and AI pacts with Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Thursday, the first Canadian PM visit in 26 years. The two nations also established a Saudi-Canadian Coordination Council to formalise what have been ad hoc commercial ties.

The Bayeux Tapestry arrived at the British Museum on Friday after a secret Channel Tunnel crossing, its first visit to Britain in nearly 1,000 years. The medieval artwork will remain on display until July 2027 as part of a France-Britain cultural exchange that also sends the Sutton Hoo collection to Paris.

Only five vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday as US and Iranian forces resumed strikes, against a prewar baseline of 130 daily crossings. Zero large tankers have used the US-coordinated southern route since July 7, pushing Brent crude up more than $4 on the week.

A monsoon landslide buried a Rohingya community school in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing seven children and their teacher. The deaths underscore the acute vulnerability of a million displaced people living on degraded hillsides with no safer ground to move to.

President Trump told allied leaders at the NATO Ankara summit that 111 missiles were fired at the USS Abraham Lincoln by the 'Islamic Republic of Japan,' apparently meaning Iran. The remark drew immediate notice in diplomatic circles and was not corrected on stage.

China recovered the Long March 10B rocket booster after its maiden launch, making it only the second country after the United States to demonstrate propulsive recovery of an orbital-class vehicle. The milestone accelerates the global reusable rocket race.

Lagos is one of the largest cities in Africa, spread across the mainland and several islands connected by a small number of major bridges. Its transport system mixes buses and ride apps with informal options that locals use every day. Knowing how each option works before arrival will help you reach your destination without wasted time. Getting From the Airport Murtala Muhammed International Airport is located in the Ikeja area on the mainland, and the journey to popular accommodation zones such

Donald Trump agreed at the NATO Ankara summit to give Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missiles domestically, a first for Kyiv. Advisers caution the factory setup could take 12-24 months, raising questions about Ukraine's immediate air defense shortage.

The US and Iran halted military operations on July 10 after two days of strikes, with Washington saying technical talks continue. But the structural dispute over the Strait of Hormuz that broke the June ceasefire remains unresolved, leaving mediators with days to prevent renewed fighting.

France defeated Morocco 2-0 in Boston's World Cup quarterfinal on Thursday, with Mbappe scoring and assisting Dembele's goal. France advance to a Tuesday semifinal in Dallas, with Mbappe standing one goal behind Lionel Messi's all-time World Cup record of 21 goals.

The Visvaniti Foundation held its 1st Annual Meeting in New Delhi, bringing together cultural leaders to demand a measurement framework for India's creative economy. Bharat Art Conclave proposed an eight-pillar Cultural Index to rank states by cultural development.

PepsiCo posted $24.18 billion in second-quarter revenue, beating Wall Street estimates, but core EPS of $2.20 missed by a penny as CEO Ramon Laguarta warned that the U.S. consumer is deteriorating faster than the company anticipated, driven mainly by gas prices. Full-year 2026 guidance was affirmed.

Saudi Arabia is examining whether to reroute the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor through Syria rather than Israel, according to two sources familiar with discussions, in a potential setback for Israel that reflects changing Gulf priorities after a year of war in Gaza.

Japan's southernmost islands are bracing for Typhoon Bavi, the season's ninth typhoon, which is forecast to pass over the Sakishima chain with gusts reaching 216 kilometers per hour on Saturday. Airlines have canceled dozens of flights as Miyakojima, Ishigaki and the Yaeyama region face the risk of violent winds powerful enough to topple houses.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday renaming Palm Beach International Airport as President Donald J. Trump International Airport at a cost of $5.5 million, with the airport code changing from PBI to DJT on August 18.