Digested week: So long primary school, it’s going to be hard – for me | Emma Brockes

• Laala Bechetoula and Prof. Michel Chossudovsky held a video debate on July 15, 2026, focusing on the ongoing genocide in Palestine. • The discussion highlighted devastating casualty figures, reporting over 73,000 deaths and 173,000 wounded over a period of a thousand days.

• U.S. forces have launched new strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure, specifically hitting bridges and a railway junction according to Iranian state media. • Iranian official Mohammad Ghalibaf has emphasized that Iran will maintain its claim to the Strait of Hormuz by force if necessary.

• Renewed hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz are threatening to disrupt one of the world's most critical maritime supply chain arteries. • The instability risks increasing costs for fuel, transportation, and agricultural inputs, which could trigger a broader global inflationary shock.

• Experts discussed the impact of tariffs, geopolitical tensions, and economic pressures on virgin and recycled plastic and metal markets during a virtual Supply Chain Outlook event on July 15, 2026. • The session focused on how these external forces are disrupting commodity markets and altering the flow of raw materials.

• The text discusses a conceptual shift in international relations, referencing Otto von Bismarck's principle that "the flag follows trade" (Die Flagge folgt dem Handel). • This perspective suggests that geoeconomics now drives geopolitics, meaning that national security strategies and military conflicts are increasingly dictated by economic interests.

• The ongoing conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran has highlighted a significant disconnect between global financial markets and actual economic activity. • Oil markets have experienced extreme volatility, though these fluctuations are driven primarily by shifting perceptions and expectations rather than fundamental economic shifts.

Former Greater Manchester mayor expected to take reins as prime minister and appoint new cabinet on MondayAndy Burnham has become the leader of the Labour party, paving the way for him to take over as British prime minister on Monday.The former mayor of Greater Manchester won the overwhelming support of MPs, trade unions and party branches, making him the only choice to take over from Keir Starmer. Continue reading...

US president accused China of meddling in his 2020 election defeat and said system was ‘catastrophically’ unfair. Plus Christopher Nolan’s epic take on The Odyssey hits the big screenGood morning. Donald Trump accused China of interfering with the 2020 election in a primetime televised address that laid bare his continuing obsession with his defeat to Joe Biden, but which opponents warned was a smokescreen for him to meddle in the forthcoming congressional midterms. Trump’s claims are unverified.In a 25-minute speech, the US president cast extraordinary doubts on the integrity of the US electoral process, saying it was “catastrophically” short of standards of fairness and trust, while vulnerable to trespassing by foreign powers. Democrats warned that Trump was trying to sow confusion, spread misinformation and lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the midterm elections.What was the aim of Trump’s address? In this analysis piece, Sam Levine explains how the president is using his office and US intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in elections. Instead of offering smoking-gun evidence, the release of new papers seemed to be a return to a classic Trump strategy of flooding the zone with information in an attempt to muddy the waters.What did US networks do about broadcasting Trump’s allegations? The US’s largest television stations split on whether to air Trump’s White House address, which was filled with unproven accusations. While CNN, ABC and NBC chose not to air the speech live, CBS, Fox News and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) aired at least large portions of the speech live.What did Rubio say? “They can call themselves anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist, communist, anarchist or Marxist. It’s always the same. It is a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality and justice liberation – an overwhelming need to tear down, to wreck, what is beautiful and what is right on behalf of people who are only filled with ugliness,” he said. He called leftists “an encroaching darkness” and “the enemies of civilization”. Continue reading...

The US state mourns its longest-serving senator while Republicans scramble to choose a successorThe South Carolina state house is a microcosm of the US’s contradictions. Outside there are memorials to the Confederate war dead and African American history. Below a statue of Strom Thurmond, a longtime US senator and racial segregationist, are the names of his five children including Essie Mae, whose mother, a Black maid, was 15 when Thurmond impregnated her.Thurmond died at the age of 100 in 2003; his successor, Lindsey Graham, a lifelong bachelor who never had children, died last Saturday at 71. His sudden exit leaves a void not just in Washington but the state that molded Graham, elected him to the Senate four times and wrestled with his shape-shifting journey from Ronald Reagan Republican to Donald Trump sycophant. Continue reading...

Pollution levels in the city were elevated as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south across a huge swathe of the USThe sun shone feebly through the thick haze. The smell of burning wood hung thick in the air. Many New Yorkers donned masks as the air quality plummeted amid health warnings.The National Weather Service issued an air-quality alert because pollution levels were elevated as smoke from raging Canadian wildfires drifted south across a huge swathe of the US, reaching all the way to New York City and even beyond out into the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Democrats also criticize speech as ‘lies and long-debunked conspiracies’Sign up for US News Breaking emailTrump makes unverified claims of China ‘election meddling’Donald Trump repeated calls in his Thursday speech for the passage of the Save America Act – a rebranded and expanded version of last year’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) act, which passed in the US House but didn’t get a vote in the Senate.This year’s version includes a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to criminal liability for election officials who register a voter without proper documentary proof of citizenship. Continue reading...