Joe Biden to publish memoir of presidency after November midterms

• President Trump has ordered an additional round of military strikes against Iran while reiterating the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. • In a significant policy shift, Trump has reversed his previous announcement regarding a 20-percent tariff.

• In an article published July 14, 2026, author Colin Todhunter explores how individuals can reclaim sovereignty from the combined influence of state and corporate power. • The piece highlights the rise of an "emerging digital control grid" as the primary mechanism used by these entities to shape and monitor modern life.

• The UN human Rights Office (OHCHR) reports that Sudan's war economy is creating a "self-perpetuating" cycle of conflict, where the exploitation of resources fuels ongoing violence. • The OHCHR is calling on warring parties and international corporations involved in the Sudanese commodity value chain to strictly comply with international law.

• The European Union has banned the import of gold from Sudan to disrupt the financing of the ongoing conflict between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). • To further cripple mining operations, the EU is also restricting the export of cyanide and mercury, chemicals essential for gold extraction.

• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is scaling up containment efforts to combat an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. • The disease has expanded into two additional provinces, Haut-Uele and Tshopo, with specific cases reported in Kisangani.

• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a long-standing territorial dispute dating back to the end of the nineteenth century. • Tensions escalated into a cycle of violence between Hamas and Israel, resulting in deteriorating humanitarian conditions within the Gaza Strip.

• President Trump is struggling to secure concessions from Iran as a recently brokered cease-fire memorandum of understanding has collapsed. • Unlike other international adversaries, Iran has remained resistant to Trump's typical tactics of tariff threats and aggressive social media posts.

More density would also narrow racial pay gaps, while a decline in density correlated to surges in wealth inequalityTripling union membership in the US would lead to a 14.5% raise for the median US worker, shifting $1.2tn to workers annually and significantly narrowing racial wage gaps, according to a new report released Wednesday.The report from the Economic Policy Institute notes that union membership rates across the workforce, also known as union density, was once three times as high as it is today. Union density in the 1950s was more than 30% before it started to decline in the 1960s. By the 1980s, union density dropped to 22.2% only to decline even further in recent decades, to 10% in 2025. Continue reading...

Kathryn Ruemmler welcomes closed-door interview and says she had no knowledge of ongoing criminal activityKathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under Barack Obama, is set to testify on Wednesday before the House committee on oversight and reform about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender.Ruemmler came under scrutiny earlier this year after her name appeared thousands of times in the records related to Epstein that were released by the justice department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She announced in February that she would be resigning from her role at Goldman Sachs as chief legal officer effective on 30 June. Continue reading...

Different Seasons, which incudes stories that inspired films such as Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption, judged to contain ‘objective sensitive material’Stephen King is the most banned author in US schools, according to reportA collection of Stephen King novellas that inspired classic films including Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption has been banned from Utah public schools.Published in 1982, the collection, titled Different Seasons, contains four novellas: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal, Apt Pupil: Summer of Corruption, The Body: Fall from Innocence, and The Breathing Method: A Winter’s Tale. Continue reading...

Comment comes after homeland security sources say federal officers told to temporarily stop pulling drivers overDonald Trump said on Wednesday morning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should continue making traffic stops, just one day after the homeland security department (DHS) said they’d be halting them in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week.Federal officers across the US had been told to temporarily stop pulling drivers over on Tuesday, homeland security sources told the Guardian. That directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado in Houston on 7 July and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what happened. Continue reading...

Rev Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III to lead August march after court rulings weakened voting rightsA coalition of civil rights leaders have announced plans to march on Washington in defense of voting rights following a string of federal and supreme court rulings that have weakened protections against racial discrimination in US elections.Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network is leading the 28 August action, joined by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters ​King, and several civil rights groups. The “March on Washington 2026: Defend the ​Vote” will take place on the 63rd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a ​Dream speech. Continue reading...