Qatar is pushing the United States and Iran to recommit to their Strait of Hormuz memorandum of understanding, with the navigation terms spelled out far more clearly than in the original text. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in Doha on Friday, and the Qatari foreign ministry stressed that all parties stay committed to dialogue, diplomacy and implementing the MoU, including freedom of navigation through the strait. Ambiguity has been the whole problem, because the signed agreement only committed Iran to using its best efforts to ensure safe passage, and one loosely worded article handed Tehran a formal role in defining the waterway’s future administration. Qatar has served as a lead mediator alongside Pakistan since the war began.
https://aje.news/qknv84?update=4801480
Canada is preparing to retaliate if Trump’s threatened 50% tariffs take effect next month. Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that Canada is intensifying negotiations toward a comprehensive trade deal but is ready to respond if the tariffs land as scheduled on Aug. 19. Speaking at a First Ministers gathering in Charlottetown, he called the US measures unilateral and unwarranted and said Canadian governments would do whatever it takes to defend families, workers and businesses. Carney added that he, his negotiating team and the premiers all need convincing that any deal is worth the paper it is written on, while calling the US proposal for interim bilateral arrangements under the CUSMA structure a sensible approach.
https://apnews.com/article/canada-us-trump-carney-tariffs-0591038f6084d8a4210d57bca94de8d3
Iraq was targeted by drones on Friday morning, pulling Iraqi Kurdistan back into an Iran war that had largely spared it. Air defenses intercepted six drones over Erbil, briefly closing the airport in a city where US forces are based, and Iraq’s prime minister condemned the attack while attribution between Iranian forces and Iran-backed Iraqi militias stayed unsettled. The strike followed a 13th consecutive night of US attacks on Iranian command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance sites, with Iranian media reporting blasts in Khorramabad, Jask, Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island. Tehran had just rejected a US ceasefire proposal carried in by the Iraqi prime minister, saying it will not accept a temporary arrangement that leaves control of the Strait of Hormuz unresolved.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-24-july-2026-78c2dbf538f6e61ab816479a4d9bdd85
Wildfires in Spain and France forced one of the largest evacuations Europe has seen this summer. Roughly 87,000 people fled homes in southwestern France and central Spain on Friday as fires burned out of control, and dozens of firefighters were injured. Spain declared a national emergency covering the Madrid region and neighboring Ávila province after two major blazes merged west of the capital, placing the Military Emergency Unit in charge of the response, while French authorities ordered a full evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, where some residents escaped by boat. Three firefighters have died across the region this week, Macron activated the EU civil protection mechanism for the first time this season, and central Spain was forecast to reach 44C.
https://apnews.com/article/spain-wildfires-emergency-54c3d375fa1cca8399ea2645a8e119b0
Brazil is using forensic science to trace the origin of gold and choke off illegal mining in the Amazon. Federal police run a gold lab at the National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasília that analyzes seized samples to determine whether the metal came from a protected area. The method, known as gold fingerprinting, works because gold absorbs trace particles such as silver and copper from the rock or riverbed where it forms, creating a signature investigators can match against stored data from national forests and Indigenous land. Forensics expert Gustavo Geiser says the technique has been under development since 2019 with Brazilian universities using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and laser ablation mass spectrometry, and it matters because Brazil’s top audit institution found evidence that small-scale mining permits were being used to launder gold pulled from protected Amazon areas.
Hurricane Fausto is tracking toward Hawaii and could affect the islands early to middle of next week. Fausto strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane on Friday about 1,560 miles east of Hilo, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and westward movement near 16 mph, and forecasters expect it to cross into the Central Pacific this weekend before weakening to a tropical storm or remnant low as it skirts north of the western main Hawaiian islands. The National Hurricane Center says the risk of wind and rainfall impacts is increasing but it is still too soon to determine exact location or magnitude, though confidence is building that large east shore surf arrives late Saturday. Tropical Depression Seven-E formed behind Fausto and could reach hurricane strength by late in the weekend.
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-fausto-pacific-hawaii-670a242585d9e45166b3e86b96b553e7
A South African court ordered the Ramaphosa impeachment process halted over the Phala Phala scandal. The Western Cape High Court granted President Cyril Ramaphosa an interim interdict in a split 2-1 decision on Friday, barring Parliament’s Section 89 impeachment committee from holding public hearings. The inquiry stems from roughly $580,000 stolen from his Limpopo game farm in 2020, after an independent panel chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo found prima facie evidence that he may have committed serious violations. The freeze holds until his review application challenging the panel report is decided, which is set down for Sept. 2 to 4, and his office welcomed the ruling, reaffirming respect for judicial independence and pledging continued cooperation with accountability processes.
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-president-ramaphosa-phala-ad18deac34dcd2f982079fff559cc161
Uganda relocated endangered Nubian giraffes out of Murchison Falls National Park as oil drilling expands. Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers began translocating 12 giraffes 106 kilometers to Ajai Wildlife Reserve on Tuesday in a project meant to preserve the population, strengthen biodiversity and diversify tourism. An estimated 40% of Uganda’s oil deposits sit in the Murchison Falls area and inside the park, and TotalEnergies began drilling in the Tilenga project area within park boundaries in June 2023, with heavy machinery movement increasing in recent months despite years of opposition from environmentalists. Giraffes have been locally extinct around Ajai for decades, and officials plan to invite nearby communities to see the animals once the move wraps up.
Active New World screwworm cases in the United States have dropped to 10 on the USDA APHIS tracking dashboard, even as the cumulative confirmed total keeps rising. A day earlier the dashboard showed 41 confirmed animal cases with 12 still active, meaning those animals remained under treatment and wound management, while the rest were designated inactive after recovery or carcass management. Each confirmed case triggers a 20-kilometer infested zone with inspection and movement requirements for livestock leaving the area. USDA continues to build its response around early detection, rapid reporting, surveillance, sterile fly releases and producer vigilance.
Japan’s prime minister took a sharp approval hit, and the opposition is moving to capitalize. Support for Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet fell 10 points from June to 41% in the latest Mainichi Shimbun poll, the first time it has dipped below 50% in that survey since she took office last October, while disapproval climbed 9 points to 44% and overtook approval for the first time. The slide came right after parliament approved revisions to the Imperial House Law preserving male-line succession, a change more respondents viewed negatively than positively, and support held firm among LDP backers at 87% while eroding among unaffiliated voters. Opposition parties had already agreed to work together to block the ruling coalition’s secondary capital bill during a Diet session extended to July 25.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260724/p2a/00m/0na/006000c
Venezuela’s earthquake death toll reached 5,398 one month after the disaster, with 16,740 injured. Authorities added 52 more deaths to the official count following the twin magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, while the injured figure has barely moved in weeks. Around 23,335 people remain in 107 temporary camps and 128,324 families have received some form of government assistance, with Caracas and especially the La Guaira coast still badly damaged at 856 buildings affected and 190 collapsed. At least 1,463 aftershocks have been recorded since June 24, and forensic teams are still calling in families to help identify 38 children and adolescents whose remains nobody has claimed.
Kuwait came under Iranian fire again as Tehran widened its retaliation across the Gulf. The IRGC claimed strikes on a Patriot battery, an MQ-9 hangar and an equipment warehouse at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, and said a separate attack on a Kuwaiti telecommunications tower answered US strikes on Iranian telecom infrastructure. Kuwait downed incoming missiles and reported drones at its Abdali border crossing, and sirens sounded across the country on Thursday evening according to state news agency KUNA, followed by sirens in Amman on Friday morning after a reported Iranian missile strike on Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. Jordan said it intercepted five missiles near Al-Azraq, making this the broadest Iranian retaliation of the current window.
https://aje.news/qknv84?update=4801689
