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THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 17 1955 Disneyland opens Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opens its doors in Anaheim, California. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1990s 1996 TWA Flight 800 explodes midair 21st Century 2014 Eric Garner dies in NYPD chokehold 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Russian-controlled area of Ukraine Arts & Entertainment 1967 Jimi Hendrix drops out as opening act for The Monkees Black History 2020 Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis dies Early U.S. 1763 John Jacob Astor is born European History 1936 Spanish Civil War breaks out Exploration 1938 Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan crosses the Atlantic Inventions & Science 1920 Three-point seatbelt inventor Nils Bohlin born Space Exploration 1975 Superpowers meet in space Sports 1941 Joe DiMaggio ends 56-game hitting streak U.S. Government and Politics 1984 Jesse Jackson delivers “Rainbow Coalition” speech at DNC U.S. Presidents 1945 President Harry Truman records his impressions of meeting Stalin World War I 1917 Britain’s King George V changes royal surname World War II 1945 Potsdam Conference begins 1944 An ammunition ship explodes in the Port Chicago disaster

🤖 AI boom guzzles electricity Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios Stat du jour: The combined electricity demand added by Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta between 2022 and 2025 is roughly twice New York City's annual electricity consumption, according to an estimate by Alex de Vries-Gao, a researcher at VU Amsterdam and founder of online platform Digiconomist. Why it matters: The AI industry's pursuit of ever-larger models is fueling debate over whether they'll deliver enough value to justify mounting environmental and financial costs, Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder reports. 👀 What we're watching: The potential for AI to improve people's lives and curb emissions is playing an increasing role in tech companies' sustainability messaging. Google devoted more of this year's sustainability report to AI's environmental benefits, highlighting uses from autonomous vehicles to scaling solar power. Read on.

🎤 Feds probe Trump's longtime teleprompter guy Federal regulators are investigating whether a White House teleprompter operator capitalized on his knowledge of President Trump's prepared speech text by making trades on the prediction market Kalshi, two sources familiar with the matter tell Axios' Nathan Bomey. The speeches the person allegedly traded on included the State of the Union in February. Gabriel Perez, the teleprompter operator, is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegations that he bet on Kalshi "mention markets" using information on Trump's planned remarks, according to the sources. Perez, who has been Trump's prompter guy since 2016, won more than $100,000 on such trades, the sources said. What to watch: The CFTC has discussed terms of a settlement with Perez, which could include him giving back profits from the trades, sources told ABC News, which was first to report the investigation.

👀 Inside Bibi's mystery Trump meeting Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis and Win McNamee/Getty Images. White House officials were surprised in recent days to read in the Israeli press that President Trump would host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. In fact, no meeting has been scheduled, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Why it matters: Netanyahu has visited the Oval Office six times in the 18 months since Trump returned to office — more than any other world leader. Each of those meetings was scheduled within hours or days. This time, Netanyahu has been trying to get an appointment for more than two weeks. The fact that Trump isn't rushing to sit down with Netanyahu in front of the cameras signals not only the divergence of interests between the two, but also how disillusioned the White House is with the Israeli leader five months after they launched a war together. Behind the scenes: Two White House officials told Axios that while Netanyahu wanted to meet Trump, a meeting was never confirmed or added to the president's schedule. "Our impression was that Bibi was trying to will a meeting into existence," one of the officials said. White House officials didn't rule out the possibility of Trump meeting Netanyahu when he comes to Sen. Lindsey Graham's wake at the National Cathedral later this month. Read on.

🔥 Summer is now smoke season Smoke from Canadian wildfires causes hazy conditions in Manhattan yesterday. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images The wildfire smoke drifting into the eyes, throats and lungs of millions of Americans and Canadians this week is a stark reminder that the planet is changing in unsettling ways, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes. The smoke, from wildfires raging in northern Minnesota and Canada, is causing dangerously bad air across the Midwest and Northeast — and could soon waft elsewhere. Air quality alerts have been issued in New York, Chicago, Toronto and more, with officials urging folks to stay inside. 🌎 It's too early to tie these wildfires directly to climate change. But researchers have shown that human-caused climate change is making wildfires both more likely and more intense. Forecasts show a break in the smoke tomorrow. Haze builds back by Sunday. Data: NOAA's Global Systems Laboratory One headline finding from a Climate Central report last year: "Per-person exposure to harmful wildfire smoke in the U.S. was four times higher during 2020-2024, on average each year, than during 2006-2019." The fires themselves have also destroyed homes and devastated local tourism. 😶‍🌫️ The big picture: Massive smoke events like this have happened before — most notably in 2023. They may get more common as North America's forests keep drying up, creating ideal conditions for megafires sparked by lightning and other causes. The bottom line: Americans out West have long understood "fire season." We all need to start thinking about "smoke season."

📺 Trump takeaways: Dark warning on U.S. elections President Trump cast American elections as under siege last night, describing a system riddled with vulnerabilities that hostile foreign actors and unauthorized immigrants are exploiting. The dark, foreboding 25-minute address from the East Room, which repeated fraud theories that have been debunked, served two main purposes, Axios' Alex Isenstadt and Marc Caputo report: Build support for his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and is stalled in the Senate. Return to a topic that fixates him perhaps more than any other: The 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Citing newly released "raw" intelligence, Trump claimed that China carried out "the largest compromise of election data in history" during the 2020 election — obtaining 220 million U.S. voter files and creating "ballots for Biden." One big catch: Voter rolls listing names and addresses are readily available in nearly every state. Some even post them online to promote transparency. He also accused the intelligence community — the "Deep State" — of withholding documents describing China's activities from him when he was in his first term as president. By blaming the intel community of 2020, he excused his own administration — presumably including current CIA director John Ratcliffe, who was DNI director at the time — from catching what he now calls a huge threat. Friction point: Some in Trump's political operation believe that talking about voter fraud will motivate his voters to turn out in November. But outside of the White House, party leaders and pollsters strongly believe that swing voters don't want to hear about it. "It's a stupid, stupid move," said one Republican pollster who works on several campaigns and has tested the effectiveness of the "stolen election" narrative. "Even swing voters who think something wasn't good about the election, when they listen to Trump, just have an eyeroll," the pollster said. More takeaways ... Read the documents ... Behind the broadcast drama. ps:Oh so pathetic

China AI surges, rivalry intensifies Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios America's commanding lead in advanced AI is gone. A Chinese moonshot — literally and figuratively — has caught up to models that defined the U.S. frontier just weeks ago, at a substantially lower price, Axios' Zachary Basu, Madison Mills and Ben Berkowitz report. Why it matters: Kimi K3, a massive new model by Beijing-based Moonshot AI, threatens the foundations of America's AI boom. Its release yesterday dazzled developers, jolted Silicon Valley and reset the AI race overnight. Driving the news: Kimi immediately vaulted into the top tier of global AI, beating Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in front-end coding tests by AI evaluator Arena. In Arena's broader text ranking, Kimi finished ahead of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 — the company's flagship model until Fable 5 arrived in June — while costing 40% less. Unlike the premium U.S. models it's challenging, Moonshot plans to release Kimi as an open-weight model on July 27 — allowing companies and governments to customize and run it on their own systems. The big picture: Even as Chinese open-weight models have gained momentum, U.S. AI leaders and policymakers took comfort in estimates that China remained six to 12 months behind the American frontier. Between the lines: Kimi doesn't have to be the world's single best model to upend the market. Its very existence puts pressure on the pricing power of U.S. labs, the enormous valuations built around their technological edge, and the case for spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ever-larger data centers. The other side: America's frontier labs are hardly out of ammunition — and Kimi may itself reflect the power of U.S. technology. Anthropic has accused Moonshot and other Chinese labs of industrial-scale "distillation" campaigns, allegedly using millions of exchanges with advanced American models as training data for their own systems. 👉 But the strategic problem remains. Even if U.S. labs pull ahead again, China has shown it can close the gap quickly. What's next: The Trump administration needs to maintain American AI competitiveness amid calls to regulate frontier models. Tougher safety rules could slow U.S. labs just as China accelerates. Looser oversight could help them move faster, but raise the risk of releasing dangerous capabilities. The bottom line: America may still push the frontier forward. It can't stop the rest of the world from choosing a cheaper alternative. Go deeper: China's open-weight Kimi model stuns AI world with frontier-level results.

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles. James

US and Iran escalate strikes across Mideast DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified. https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-17-2026-2ad0cfe592eb258cb15a9eb04411d58a?

Japan enshrines male-only succession for the shrinking imperial family TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s parliament enacted a historic revision to the 19th-century Imperial House Law on Friday by insisting only paternal-lineage men can become emperor, sparking concern that the measure could doom the already shrinking imperial family. https://apnews.com/article/japan-imperial-family-succession-blood-patriarchy-cdb66fc2c64c933c98020c989938a8ee?

☀️ Parting shot! Photo: Paula Scholer A stunner snapped by reader Paula Scholer in Utah's Arches National Park in May with an iPhone 12 Pro. Paula's title for the pic: "Captured Spirit."

Natural gas supplies ‘not looking good’ for Southcentral Alaska this winter, Enstar says Southcentral Alaska’s largest natural gas utility said Tuesday it might not have the gas to make it through this winter. That’s after state regulators last Wednesday denied Enstar’s request that would’ve expanded natural gas storage in Kenai, as the region faces a looming natural gas shortage. Read More.

Average 30-year US mortgage rate climbs to 6.55%, highest level in nearly a year The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly a year, driving up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers. Read More.

🚁 1 tech thing: School safety drones Photo: Campus Guardian Angel A Colorado charter school opening next month could become the state's first school to install drones designed to confront shooters, Axios' Robert Sanchez reports. John Adams Academy is joining a growing national experiment with a system called Campus Guardian Angel. 🚔 The small drones emit high-pitched chirping noises, shoot pepper balls and can ram suspects at speeds of nearly 60 mph. Pilots in Austin would use drone cameras and school maps to find shooters and send live video to police. Yes, but: The company's drones have yet to be used in an actual school shooting. Go deeper.

🍄 Eli Lilly has agreed to buy psychedelic treatment developer AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion. Go deeper.

🏛️ Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says he won't vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the permanent role until Blanche meets with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. Get the latest. ⛱️ Johnson's July gambit House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to hold a conspicuously early vote on a short-term funding bill next week — more than two months before the government runs out of money. Why it matters: Johnson may be setting himself up to win in September by losing in July. A failed vote on a short-term spending stopgap could potentially strengthen the GOP leader's hand in another difficult challenge: securing $67 billion for the Pentagon to replenish its munitions through the reconciliation process, according to conservative lawmakers. ⚡️ An early defeat on a continuing resolution would give Johnson a pretext to shoehorn a spending stopgap bill into a September reconciliation package. Call it Reconciliation 3.0 Plus. "The Dems know, 'OK, if we don't do the CR, we'll do it in a [reconciliation] bill," Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) told us. 👀 What we're watching: Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are on starkly different wavelengths when it comes to a third reconciliation package. 🤔 "You've got to think long and hard about this. It's a much easier proposition in the House," Thune said today. But pairing a continuing resolution with reconciliation could have two advantages. First, it makes it harder for House Republicans to oppose the package. It would also present the Senate with a take-it-or-leave-it choice: accept the House reconciliation bill or share the blame for a government shutdown. Zoom out: Republicans are increasingly worried about spending the final month of the midterm campaign defending a government shutdown. House Republicans have little confidence Democrats will provide the votes needed to pass a funding extension. The planned July vote is designed to put both Democrats and the Senate on notice that Republicans don't believe they can count on bipartisan support for a continuing resolution. The other side: GOP senators are deeply skeptical about pivoting to a CR in July. They want to give the regular appropriations process time to work. And they are aware that public talk of a stopgap measure risks undercutting bipartisan negotiations over full-year spending bills. 🚗 Driving the news: Johnson said today he plans to bring a clean continuing resolution to the House floor next week before lawmakers leave for the August recess. (The Senate is scheduled to remain in session for two additional weeks.) But there's little reason to believe it will pass. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn't rule out Democratic support for a clean CR but warned Republicans against taking a "my-way-or-the-highway approach." Meanwhile, some conservatives are threatening to oppose any must-pass spending bill that doesn't include the SAVE America Act. Johnson told reporters he "hasn't decided" whether to attach the measure. Between the lines: Conservatives have been pushing leaders to use reconciliation to fund parts of the government, and a failed CR vote could give Johnson political cover with frustrated appropriators. But the strategy has its detractors. "I've heard it talked about, and I think it's a bad idea," Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), an Appropriations Committee member, told us last month about using reconciliation for appropriations. Yes, but: That entire strategy rests on Republicans actually passing a third reconciliation bill — a prospect about which many lawmakers remain skeptical. The bottom line: Even if the continuing resolution fails, forcing the vote allows Johnson to argue that Republicans exhausted the normal appropriations process before turning to reconciliation. — Kate Santaliz and Hans Nichols

🎰 Federal regulators are investigating whether a White House teleprompter operator capitalized on his knowledge of President Trump's prepared speech text by making trades on the prediction market Kalshi. Go deeper. Trump's Labor nominee touts experience and fraud prevention as he seeks confirmation President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Department of Labor emphasized a steady grounding in labor law built on years of experience in private practice, academia and the federal government as he looked to win over senators in a confirmation hearing Thursday. Read More. Trump administration races the clock to rebuild US tariff wall knocked down by Supreme Court The U.S. Treasury last year swelled with revenue from President Donald Trump’s double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. Read More. Trump media firm plans to sell high speed access to Truth Social posts, possibly Trump's own President Donald Trump's media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets. Read More.

🚔 ICE says all field offices will have body cams soon An ICE agent wears a body camera in March in New York City. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Half of all ICE field offices now have body cameras for agents, with the rest expected to get them within 60 days, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports. That's after ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year. Two more people were killed this month in Texas and Maine, where officers weren't wearing cameras. 📷 Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered immediate body camera use in Minneapolis in February, pledging to expand the technology nationwide. Congress then budgeted an extra $20 million for DHS in April to provide body cameras to ICE agents. A DHS spokesperson said: "ICE will ensure each arrest team has an individual wearing a body camera. Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS." The agency said that the recent federal government shutdowns slowed the camera rollout. Critics say ICE's camera delays are unacceptable amid questions about agents' training and competency. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), who represents the Houston area, said after the ICE shooting there last week: "I think the blame on the shutdown is just ludicrous. They were given $20 million just for this purpose." Go deeper. ps:Should've had these all along!!!!!!!!!!

10 Future Windows 11 Features You Can Try Today Microsoft is focused on addressing complaints with Windows 11 this year, and you can test out major improvements in Insider builds before anyone else. These 10 are my top picks. https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/10-future-windows-11-features-you-can-try-today?

ICE Orders an End to Vehicle Stops After Deadly Shootings by Federal Agents Internal orders handed down by leaders at U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement instructed officers in the field to stop making vehicle stops, according to five ICE officials around the country. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/ice-order-vehicle-stops-killings-shootings/? Intel Pick Jay Clayton Won’t Tell Congress Whether Trump Ordered Subpoenas of NYT Journalists At his confirmation hearing to serve as the nation’s top intelligence officer, Jay Clayton dodged questions about whether the White House ordered him to send subpoenas to New York Times journalists as part of an FBI investigation into alleged leaks of classified information. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/jay-clayton-confirmation-hearing-journalist-subpoenas/? ps:Of course he won't, he doesn't want to lie! Not sure why all the others have!!!!! Trump’s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say Two pro-Palestine groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday that takes aim at U.S. sanctions against international human rights groups linked to efforts to hold Israel accountable for war crimes. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/trump-sanctions-international-criminal-court/? Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Wants to Save Crypto — But Trump Windfall Is a Political Obstacle Donald Trump is cleaning up on crypto, recently disclosing a $1.4 billion windfall. Yet cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have, after a year of flying high in the wake of Trump’s election, plummeted. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/13/gillibrand-crypto-trump-profit-clarity-act/? Democrats Are Desperate to Flip an Arizona House Seat. They’re Rallying Around a Former Republican. As the Democratic Party establishment consolidates around a former Republican they hope can flip a key Arizona congressional seat, super PACs are spreading their resources across candidates in the district’s upcoming Democratic primary — and three of the top spenders have ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/arizona-democrats-republicans-aipac-house-race/? How ICE Arrests Went Quiet — and Got Even More Deadly For the second time in a week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have shot a man dead. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old father from Colombia, was driving slowly in Biddeford, Maine, when an agent shot into his vehicle. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/ice-shootings-maine-houston/? Harlan Crow Maxed Out Campaign Donations to John Fetterman Billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan R. Crow gave the maximum allowed contribution to the campaign for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/harlan-crow-john-fetterman-donation/? Iran Claims to Kill 3 U.S. Service Members in Kuwait After Iran claimed to have killed three U.S. personnel in Kuwait over the weekend, the Pentagon’s official toll of injuries and deaths in the war quietly climbed on Monday. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/13/iran-us-death-toll-casualties-kuwait/? Trump’s Intel Pick Played Key Role in NYT Subpoenas — But Some Democrats Still On the Fence Progressive groups are demanding that Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence oppose Jay Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence, pointing to his role in an attempt to intimidate the New York Times over critical reporting on the Trump administration. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/jay-clayton-nyt-subpoenas-national-intelligence/?

Pending federal hemp ban already hurting Florida businesses On Saturday, St. Petersburg retailer Herban Flow hosted its third High and Dry Festival, which featured dozens of brands showcasing THC-infused drinks, plus adaptogens, nootropics, and alcohol-free libations. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/15/pending-federal-hemp-ban-already-hurting-florida-businesses/? Legal powerhouse John Morgan wades into OpenAI battle over FSU shooting One of the nation’s most powerful law firms is wading into the war against OpenAI, representing two students claiming ChatGPT’s negligence may have caused their wounds in a shooting rampage at Florida State University last spring. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/15/legal-powerhouse-john-morgan-wades-into-openai-battle-over-fsu-shooting/? Florida governor’s betrayal of clean water promise reaches peak with biosolids veto Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a huge fan of Bugs Bunny cartoons. I just love it when he does something outrageous and then turns to the camera and says, “Ain’t I a stinker?” It’s hilarious! https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/16/florida-governors-betrayal-of-clean-water-promise-reaches-peak-with-biosolids-veto/?

Christianity in Pagan Homes It is well known that early Christian communities gathered in private homes. Dedicated church buildings did not appear until much later, with adapted house churches such as Dura-Europos (c. 240 CE) emerging in the third century and purpose-built basilicas becoming common only in the fourth. C.M. Thomas begins her column, “Niche Interests: Household Shrines at Ephesus” in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, with an observation that, in hindsight, seems obvious: the homes in which Paul and other early Christians worshiped were already shaped by generations of religious practice. Early Christian house churches were not, as she puts it, “empty canvases.” https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/christianity-in-pagan-homes/?

Another example of someone who does not cooperate with police getting killed. Police do not bear the sword [gun, taser, pepper spray, baton, restraints] in vain.

AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/ice-david-brouillette-johan-guerrero-maine-shooting-dbc30d6d59e2a95fb470afc188e125c6?

Texas flash floods leave at least 2 dead in region devastated a year ago UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Catastrophic flash floods in Texas have killed two people and forced hundreds of rescues in areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday. https://apnews.com/article/texas-flooding-evacuations-uvalde-camp-mystic-616ad82c32b5728d8a0f894c5e602b24?