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US attacks Iran and Tehran retaliates across the Middle East as both vie for control of strait DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe. https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-13-2026-6c2c44cfdd089d6393d18fa5930ed620?

👋 Good morning! Welcome back. In today's edition: The World Cup semis are set, Wemby signs the max (but not the supermax), Sinner and Nosková crowned champs, Ryu wins another major, Seahawks sold, sluggers take the field, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Wemby signs historic deal: Victor Wembanyama signed the largest rookie extension in NBA history (5 years, $252 million), though it's smaller than it could have been as he opted for the max (25% of the cap) rather than the supermax (30%) to give the Spurs more financial flexibility. ⚾️ ASG headlines: Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez and Blue Jays righty Dylan Cease are your All-Star Game starting pitchers; Shohei Ohtani (left knee irritation) will not participate in the game; Phillies ace Zack Wheeler (10-1, 2.13 ERA) declined an invite as a replacement player, saying he felt "disrespected" by his initial snub. ⚾️ MLB Draft recap: The White Sox took UCLA SS Roch Cholowsky first overall in the 2026 MLB Draft, which featured 613 selections including some familiar names drafted to familiar places like Barry Bonds' nephew Peyton Bonds (Giants), Andy Pettitte's son Luke (Yankees), Jim Thome's son Landon (White Sox) and CC Sabathia's son Carsten III (Brewers). 🏀 Heated altercation: Heat star Bam Adebayo shoved and punched Bucks guard (and former Miami teammate) Tyler Herro on Friday at a practice court in Las Vegas. The altercation reportedly stemmed from critical comments Herro made on social media about Adebayo after the former was traded to Milwaukee last month. ⚽️ More expansion coming? As the first 48-team World Cup nears its end, FIFA president Gianni Infantino appears to already be considering another round of expansion, telling a Swiss broadcaster over the weekend that 64 teams "will be examined" for the 2030 World Cup.   ⚽️ WORLD CUP AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR (Yahoo Sports) Spain, England and Argentina joined France in the semifinals over the weekend, setting up the chalkiest final four in World Cup history. 1, 2, 3, 4: For the first time ever, the World Cup semifinals feature the world's top four teams (No. 1 France, No. 2 Argentina, No. 3 Spain, No. 4 England), delivering a dream scenario for fans in a tournament that has so frequently made us pinch ourselves. From the star-studded Golden Boot race to the world's best teams routinely proving their mettle, this World Cup has thoroughly exceeded its high expectations. And it's not over yet. Here's how La Roja, the Three Lions and La Albiceleste punched their tickets to the semis… (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images) Los Angeles — Spain defeated Belgium 2-1 on Friday afternoon thanks to yet another late-game goal from Mikel Merino, as the Arsenal maestro again saved the day when he pounced on a rebound spilled by Belgium's substitute goalkeeper in the 88th minute. La Roja's historic streak: Charles De Ketelaere's first-half equalizer was the first World Cup goal allowed by Spain since the 2022 group stage, a run of 649 consecutive scoreless minutes that marked the longest in tournament history. More importantly, La Roja are now unbeaten in their last 36 (!) matches, and sit two wins shy of another title. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images) Miami — England vanquished Norway 2-1 on Saturday behind the strength of a Jude Bellingham brace — and perhaps a rogue overhead camera cable — forcing America to bid a tearful goodbye to its new Viking icon, Erling Haaland. Hey Jude: Real Madrid's talismanic midfielder has scored four of England's last five goals, willing his side to victory by marrying his otherworldly talent with a grit that imbues the Three Lions with a fighting edge. That same doggedness has enabled England's defense to protect narrow leads through the dying moments of knockdown brawls in stifling heat. Alexis Mac Allister celebrates scoring Argentina's first goal. (Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images) Kansas City — Argentina has developed a troubling preference for doing things the hard way, outlasting Switzerland 3-1 in extra time of a cagey quarterfinal. And though Lionel Messi failed to find the back of the net for the first time in 10 World Cup games, he did provide a record 10th career World Cup assist on a perfectly-placed corner kick. Cake walk: Argentina is the first nation to reach the World Cup semifinals without facing a single team ranked in the top 10. Despite that historically easy draw, the defending champions have made the path look unusually difficult. But their confidence has scarcely wavered, buoyed by the cohesion and belief built over the course of multiple tournaments in the trenches… and by the presence of their inimitable No. 10. Looking ahead: The semifinals kick off tomorrow with France vs. Spain in Dallas; then it's England vs. Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday, with the final coming this Sunday at MetLife Stadium.   🎾 WIMBLEDON SINNER, NOSKOVÁ CROWNED CHAMPS (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) Jannik Sinner fought back from a set down against Alexander Zverev on Sunday to win his second straight Wimbledon title and fifth Career Grand Slam. It's the type of result you expect from the world No. 1 and budding all-time great, putting him back on pace for a historic season after his early exit at Roland Garros. It would just be nice if his biggest rival were healthy. Dan Wolken, Yahoo Sports: While Sinner was laying waste to this Wimbledon field, dropping just three sets en route to the title, videos emerged of Carlos Alcaraz back in Spain, just starting to lightly swing a tennis racket again after recovering from an inflamed tendon sheath in his right wrist. It is unclear if Alcaraz will be ready to come back by the US Open, which starts in seven weeks. For a tennis player, wrist injuries are nothing to mess around with. But as much as Sinner has enjoyed hoovering up trophies while Alcaraz is sidelined, he should root for his nemesis to return to form as quickly as possible. Because while Sinner's greatness stands on its own, the respect and admiration for his achievements this year does not. Though there are no asterisks in tennis — you can only beat who's in front of you, and every Grand Slam title counts the same — Sinner and Alcaraz are so linked that the absence of one inevitably diminishes any achievements of the other. With all due respect to Zverev, the newly minted French Open champion who played at an extremely high level for the first 90 minutes of Sunday's final, there are only two players in men's tennis who move the needle right now. Zverev is not one of them. At the end of last season, when Alcaraz and Sinner played a third straight major final against each other in New York, some fans wondered if it might get boring if they separated from the field without another worthy rival coming into the mix. But here's the reality of men's tennis: While Zverev is a clear No. 3 and can beat either one on a given day, the only truly compelling storyline in the sport is the race to history between Alcaraz and Sinner. And we can't really measure it when one of them is at a training center hitting Nerf balls. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) Meanwhile, on the women's side: Linda Nosková defeated her friend and fellow Czech countrywoman Karolína Muchová to win her first Grand Slam title, rebounding from what could have been an all-time collapse to complete the three-set victory. ICYMI: Nosková led 6-2, 5-2 when Muchová came roaring back, saving three match points at 2-5, one match point at 3-5 and one more at 4-5 before winning the set to force a decider. But that was as close as she'd come, with Nosková regrouping to win the third set, 6-3, and claim the title. Zoom out: Nosková's victory continued Czechia's unlikely dominance in this tournament, as three of the last four champions — and five of the last 15 — have hailed from the small Central European nation. It also extended a streak of nine consecutive first-time Wimbledon women's champions dating back to 2017.   ⛳️ GOLF ROUNDUP RYU WINS AGAIN AS NELLY, SCOTTIE STUMBLE (Stuart Franklin/Getty Images) The summer of Haeran Ryu continued on Sunday at the Evian Championship, where the South Korean held off a surging Brooke Henderson in a playoff to win her second straight major. Thrilling finish: The final grouping of Ryu, Henderson and Aki Iwai all came to the 72nd hole with a chance to reach a three-way playoff, but Iwai's par (-18) kept her one stroke out of contention after Ryu's birdie (-19) and Henderson's eagle (-19), which put a stamp on one of the best final rounds you'll ever see, even in defeat. The 28-year-old Canadian shot a 7-under 64, carding three birdies and three eagles, including an ace on the par-3 eighth and the aforementioned must-make eagle at the last. Her six eagles during the week set an LPGA record for the most in a single major championship. But Ryu — who shot a 60 on Saturday for the lowest round ever in an LPGA major — would not relent, birdieing the first playoff hole to claim victory. Two in a row: Ryu is the first woman since Lydia Ko in 2016 to win her first two career majors in consecutive starts, having also won the Women's PGA Championship two weeks ago. This is also the first year in LPGA history in which two women won multiple majors; but Nelly Korda, who won the season's first two majors, was part of a much different kind of history last week… (Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images) No. 1 and done: Korda (at the Evian) and Scottie Scheffler (at the Scottish Open*) both failed to reach the weekend, marking the first time since women's golf rankings were introduced in 2006 that the top-ranked man and woman both missed the cut in the same week. But wait, there's more: It's not just that Nelly and Scottie both missed the cut; it's that they entered the week with a combined streak of 112 consecutive made cuts! Korda hadn't missed a cut in two years (34 straight), with her last miss coming in the 2024 Women's PGA Championship. But she often struggles at the Evian, where she'd finished outside the top 25 each of the last two years and has never finished higher than eighth. Scheffler hadn't missed one in four years (!), with his run of 78 straight marking the fifth-longest streak ever. His last miss came 1,428 days earlier at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, which was so long ago that neither Jannik Sinner nor Carlos Alcaraz had won a Grand Slam yet. After Sinner's victory on Sunday, they've since combined for 12. Looking ahead: The even-keeled Scheffler didn't put much stock in the missed cut, focusing instead on the silver lining of arriving at Royal Birkdale earlier than expected to prepare for this week's Open Championship, where he'll look to defend his title. Korda, meanwhile, will take on the Women's Open just a couple weeks later, where a win would give her the Career Grand Slam and a spot in the Hall of Fame — the same stakes she came into the Evian with. *Kim wins Scottish Open: Tom Kim (-17) won by two strokes over Min Woo Lee (-15) for his first PGA Tour victory in three years. Of note: Among the four players tied for third (-13) was Matt Fitzpatrick, whose 28 consecutive made cuts is now the longest active streak on the Tour.   💯 STAT SHEET BIG NUMBERS (Ric Tapia/Getty Images) 🏈 $9.6 billion The reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks have been sold by the estate of the late Paul Allen for $9.6 billion, shattering the previous record for the most expensive NFL team sale (Commanders, $6.05B in 2023). The franchise was sold to an ownership group led by Vinod Khosla, a limited partner in the 49ers who will have to relinquish his minority stake in that team before taking over as the Seahawks' controlling owner. Trending (way) up: While this sale fell just short of the record for the most expensive across all sports (Lakers, $10B in 2025), it continued what's been an exponential increase in NFL sale prices. Consider that it took nine years for the most expensive sale to go from $1.1 billion (Dolphins, 2009) to $2.3 billion (Panthers, 2018), then doubled four years later to $4.65 billion (Broncos, 2022) and has now doubled again four years after that. ⚾️ 27 blown saves The Nationals suffered their 26th and 27th blown saves of the season this weekend — by far the most in baseball, and exactly half of their MLB-high 54 save opportunities — en route to getting swept by the Yankees. That ignominious tally is just 10 shy of matching the single-season MLB record, which they seem likely to blow past given they still have 65 games left. Jekyll and Hyde: The Nationals' late-inning implosions — particularly at home, where their ERA in the eighth inning or later is 8.10 — are even more stark when compared to their unexpectedly good offense, which leads the majors with 516 runs scored. That unlikely paradox of having the most runs scored and the third-most allowed (509) has yielded a team that continues hovering right around .500 (48-49), but will have trouble contending for a wild card (currently 4 GB) unless its bullpen improves from terrible to merely bad. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC) 👊 69 seconds Conor McGregor went down without a fight, literally, in his long-awaited return to the Octagon, blowing out his knee in the opening moments of Saturday's bout against Max Holloway at UFC 329. The 37-year-old Irishman tried pushing through, but the referee was ultimately forced to wave off the contest after just 69 seconds. Déjà vu: McGregor infamously tore his ACL in his first fight against Holloway back in 2013, which he impressively still won via unanimous decision. More recently, his last fight prior to Saturday was 2021's trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier, which ended when the Irishman broke his leg in gruesome fashion. Now, this. "I am beyond dark here," McGregor said later on social media. "I can only describe it as hell." 🏀 20,996 fans The WNBA has a new regular-season attendance record, as 20,996 people packed into Montreal's Bell Centre on Friday to watch the Wings' victory over the Tempo. The game was part of the Tempo's "Cross-Canada Series," an effort by the Toronto expansion franchise to introduce the team to other parts of the country. They played another game in Montreal on Sunday (a win over the Liberty), and will play two more next month in Vancouver. More history in the W: The Aces beat the Mercury 106-58 on Saturday, a 48-point blowout that stands as the third-largest margin of victory in WNBA history. The Lynx hold the record with a 59-point win over the Fever in 2017, and these very Aces suffered the second-worst defeat last year, a 53-point loss that was followed by 16 straight wins and, ultimately, a championship.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: MONDAY, JULY 13 (Ethan Palowitz/Yahoo Sports) ⚾️ Home Run Derby The Home Run Derby is tonight in Philadelphia (8pm ET, Netflix), where for the first time since 2014 the competition will use a swing-based (instead of a clock-based) format. Each player gets 20 swings in the first round, with the top four advancing to the head-to-head semifinals. The semis and finals feature just 15 swings per batter, with the caveat that in all three rounds, players who homer on their final swing get to keep going until they don't hit one out. Who's in? Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber (league-leading 32 HR this season) will try joining the rare club of players to win the Derby at their home ballpark, while teammate Bryce Harper (20) will try doing so again after winning in D.C. as a National in 2018. The other six: Yankees 1B Ben Rice (29), Rays 3B Junior Caminero (28), Cardinals RF Jordan Walker (22), White Sox 1B Munetaka Murakami (20), Red Sox 1B Willson Contreras (20), Royals RF Jac Caglianone (15). More to watch: 🏀 WNBA: Sparks at Dream (7pm, USA); Mercury at Lynx (9pm, NBCSN/Peacock) … Lynx rookie Olivia Miles on Saturday became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 350 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists (21 games). 🏀 NBA Summer League: Bulls vs. Jazz (9pm, ESPN) … Chicago's Caleb Wilson, the No. 4 overall pick, scored 35 points in his debut on Friday. That included hitting seven 3-pointers, matching his total from his entire freshman season at UNC, where that "just wasn't my role." Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   🎾 WIMBLEDON TENNIS TRIVIA (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images) Jannik Sinner's Wimbledon victory on Sunday extended a streak in which just six men have won at the All England Club since 2003: Roger Federer (8x), Novak Djokovic (7x), Rafael Nadal (2x), Andy Murray (2x), Carlos Alcaraz (2x) and Sinner (2x). Question: Can you name the 2002 men's singles champion? Hint: Australian. Answer at the bottom.   ⚾️ RISING STAR TRISTAN PETERS, TAKE A BOW Peters gets a Gatorade bath after his incredible performance. (Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images) White Sox rookie Tristan Peters hit for one of the rarest cycles in MLB history on Friday, becoming the fifth player to achieve the feat as the No. 9 hitter and the third in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to complete his cycle by getting two hits in the same inning. And before you ask, yes, those hits were his home run and triple. Hey now, you're an All-Star: Peters was a 2021 seventh-rounder who didn't make his MLB debut until last season with the Rays, and didn't get a real shot until this season with the White Sox. Safe to say the centerfielder has made the most of it, as he's put up an .832 OPS in 91 games and was named to the All-Star team the day after his cycle. You absolutely love to see it.   Trivia answer: Lleyton Hewitt

Trump Honors ‘Dear Friend’ Graham With a Tribute to Himself The president found a way to make himself the center of attention. President Donald Trump paid tribute to Lindsey Graham—but not without managing to praise himself in the process. The 71-year-old South Carolina senator died on Saturday night. His office said a preliminary examination conducted by the medical examiner found he died from an “Aortic Dissection due to Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.” Trump, 80, initially posted on Truth Social at 3:21 a.m Sunday after hearing the shock news. He wrote, “Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!” In another post, he ordered “all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Saturday evening at 6 P.M,” in honor of his “dear friend” and “truly great man” Graham. Trump shared the flag post three times, on the last adding a video of a flag at the White House being lowered. At 9:10 p.m. Sunday, Trump shared an image of Graham with the caption “So sad!!! President DJT.” The White House shared the post, adding, “Senator Lindsey Graham will be greatly missed!” While Trump did not include a photo of himself, he chose one in which Graham is holding a large printed version of a fake Wikipedia profile page from January that shows Trump as the “Acting President of Venezuela.”Graham is smiling in the undated image, and wearing a black cap that reads “Make Iran Great Again.” Trump first posted the digitally altered image on his Truth Social page on Jan. 11. The previous week, Trump had launched Operation Absolute Resolve, in which U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported them to New York to face narco-terrorism charges. Trump has a history of making aides print hard copies of documents that take his fancy. His 34-year-old adoring aide, Natalie Harp, has earned the nickname “human printer” for her role following Trump around, fulfilling his every request, including fetching merchandise, performing Google searches, printing stories from right-wing websites, and suggesting possible Truth Social posts. Trump phoned into Jake Tapper’s State of the Union on CNN on Sunday to speak about Graham and shared details of their final phone call. “It’s devastating, I thought he was fine. He called me last night, he just got back from Ukraine, he had a great trip, he was telling me about the trip... he was full of vim and vigor.” Trump added, “He was tired... because it’s a long trip but other than that he was fine. He called me, I guess, just moments before... what a terrible loss.” Despite Sunday’s glowing tributes, Trump and Graham had a complicated history over the last decade. Both men ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Graham called Trump a “jackass,” a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” and warned he would destroy the Republican Party. After Trump won the White House in 2016, the pair were convinced into a “make-up” lunch in March 2017, according to New York magazine, and they became fast friends by 2018 and regular partners on Trump’s golf courses. Trump admitted that Graham used to be a “great enemy” but was now a “great friend.” “I really like Lindsey. Can you believe it? I never thought I’d say that, but I do.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-honors-dear-friend-lindsey-graham-with-a-tribute-to-himself/?

Delusional Trump, 80, Dreams Up Approval Figures as Disaster Looms The president seemingly plucked a number showing how popular he is out of thin air. Donald Trump has found a new way of self-soothing—by swapping around his approval and disapproval ratings to make himself sound more popular. In a Sunday night Truth Social post, the 80-year-old president boasted about his “59 percent” approval rating, which he attributed to “prices coming down along with the lowering of oil and gas.” However, there are no reputable polls showing Trump with anything close to a 59 percent approval rating. In fact, several surveys published over the last few weeks show the president’s disapproval rating is closer to 59 percent, and in some cases even higher. There have been repeated warnings that Trump’s poor approval rating and handling of the economy are likely to have a disastrous effect on the GOP in November’s midterms, with Republicans facing a potential electoral wipeout in the crucial nationwide elections. According to Silver Bulletin, Nate Silver’s polling and election-forecasting Substack, Trump’s current national average approval rating is a dire 40.1 percent, while his disapproval rating stands at 56.5 percent. The last time Trump’s average approval rating was above 50 percent was in February 2025, with the deeply unpopular war in Iran and rising gas prices helping drive the president’s national average down into the high 30s at times. Multiple polls published in June and July, which are included in Silver Bulletin’s average, show the president with approval ratings that do not come close to the 59 percent Trump claimed. A TIPP Insights survey of 1,473 U.S. adults, published on July 6, found Trump with just a 38 percent approval rating, compared with a 54 percent disapproval rating. A July YouGov/The Economist survey also revealed similarly dire numbers for the president, with 35 percent of Americans approving of Trump’s job performance and a whopping 61 percent disapproving. There has not been a single poll within 10 percentage points of the 59 percent approval rating Trump claims to have recorded since early June. The closest is a Zogby Analytics survey from early July, which found Trump with a 47 percent approval rating and a 57 percent disapproval rating. Even Rasmussen Reports, one of Trump’s favored polling firms that often skews results to favor GOP candidates, cannot mask how unpopular the president is with Americans. Rasmussen’s latest numbers put Trump’s approval rating at 45 percent and his total disapproval at 54 percent, including 43 percent who said they “strongly disapprove” of his performance as president. Whit Ayres, a leading Republican pollster, warned that historical precedent suggests the GOP is likely to lose control of the House in the midterms because of the president’s poor approval ratings. “We know that the party in power tends to lose House seats in a midterm election, but the number of seats lost is highly correlated with the president’s popularity,” Ayres told The Hill. “When presidential job approval is above 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 14. When it’s below 50 percent, the average loss of House seats for his party is 32.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/delusional-trump-80-dreams-up-approval-figures-as-disaster-looms/?

Trump Crisis Spirals as He Kills His Own Deal His goons are trying to put the pieces back together. Donald Trump is showing the world just how “over” his peace deal with Iran is—as mediators scrabble to salvage talks for an end to the conflict. Washington and Tehran both insisted Monday that they alone control the Strait of Hormuz after an intense exchange of fire over the weekend. The vital waterway in the Persian Gulf transports around a fifth of global oil supplies each year and its closure has sent gas prices sharply higher at the pump. Things kicked off after Iran attacked a container ship on Saturday, with hostilities continuing into Monday morning, the New York Times reports. U.S. military officials say they carried out 140 strikes in an immediate response, with a smaller number of rockets also fired on Sunday. Iran now says it is targeting American military forces stationed in neighboring allied countries like Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. President Trump, 80, tried to calm nerves Sunday during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We bombed the hell out of them last night,” he told the network, insisting that the strait remains open. The Associated Press reports that mediators from Egypt, Pakistan, and Qatar have pushed hard to keep the two sides at the negotiating table. “A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday,” the outlet writes. “Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged ‘de-escalation’ on both sides.” The current flare-up began last week when Iran attacked a number of tankers in the waterway on Tuesday night. Trump responded on Wednesday by declaring his tentative ceasefire agreement, struck last month, was “over.” He promised that “every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20 to one.” The U.S. launched 170 strikes between Wednesday and Thursday. The president has been more evasive about whether the exchange of strikes means a return to full war. “I don’t know,” Trump told reporters that evening en route back from last week’s NATO summit in Turkey. “We’d win it very quickly.” He then appeared to undercut that statement with a Truth Social post on Friday declaring that “the U.S. military is ready, willing, and able” to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.” His post suggested any renewed campaign could last for “a one year period of time, subject to extension.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-crisis-spirals-after-killing-his-own-deal-to-end-the-war-he-started-with-iran/? ps:How pathetic!!

Lost Christian Town Emerges from Egypt’s Western Desert The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of a well-preserved Byzantine-era settlement at the site of Ein Sabeel in the Dakhla Oasis. The archaeologists uncovered a residential town with carefully planned streets and a mid-fourth-century CE basilica at its center. They also found the remains of town squares, an enclosure with thick defensive walls, and two watchtowers. These features suggest a settlement that combined religious, domestic, and defensive functions in a remote desert environment during Christianity’s formative years following the rise of Constantine the Great (306–337 CE). Evidence of daily life in Byzantine Ein Sabeel is also evident through domestic artifacts, ostraca, and Roman coins. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-egypt/lost-christian-town-emerges-from-egypts-western-desert/?

Personally how it looks to me is it will be controlled with crypto currency? Who else will be able to afford to get into this but those who control this form of money?? It seems to be very easy to control, but this is only my opinion!!!

Man who killed Dartmouth professors at 17 to get a chance at parole in about 20 years, judge rules CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Vermont man who was 17 when he and a friend killed a pair of married Dartmouth College professors 25 years ago will have a chance at parole in about 20 years, when he reaches the age of one of his victims, a judge ruled Monday.https://apnews.com/article/dartmouth-zantop-murders-tulloch-juvenile-life-sentence-09f9dd7868602151397ad8f60b829845?

Philadelphia area digs out from damage left by a severe series of microburst storms PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Residents in some Philadelphia neighborhoods and surrounding counties were cleaning up Sunday from widespread damage caused by a line of severe, short thunderstorms that passed through. https://apnews.com/article/flood-damage-philadelphia-weather-d08236ed44fed3eb744cd38562154e00?

China has 8 different political parties, in addition to various social organizations. One organization is devoted to the assistance of disabled individuals. There is a State approved church known in English as the 3 Self Patriotic Movement. Catholicism has many churches, although there is conflict between the Papal government and the Chinese Communist Party. There is also conflict between Tibetan Buddhists and the CCP. The CCP wisely eschews the interference of foreign governments/leaders, such as that of the Papacy or the Dalai Lama, in their internal affairs. Han Buddhism and Daoism also flourish in China; consequently, the idea that "China" hates any organization" is patently false. There are numerous organizations in China, including Muslim, which get along fine with the government.

US and Iran vie for control of Strait of Hormuz in latest attacks Each country asserted Monday that they controlled the waterway after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war. Read more. Why this matters: Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders that the Iran war could fully resume. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: The US military’s latest wave of strikes Oil prices jump following new attacks Iran persecutes its Baha’i minority fiercely in a year of protests and war, rights groups say Qatar’s former ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has died at 74 Support for Israel is less important for younger Jewish Americans, AP-NORC poll finds

Armed Israeli Settlers Detained Ro Khanna. He Wants Their Illegal Outposts Demolished. On a hot Wednesday afternoon in the Palestinian village of Zanuta, California Rep. Ro Khanna walked through the ruins of a Palestinian school demolished by Israeli settlers several years earlier. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/11/ro-khanna-west-bank-settler-violence-palestine-israel/? Rebecca Nagle on the Boomerang of Empire Last spring, President Donald Trump issued the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, taking aim at federal parks, monuments, museums, and sites that have cast the United States’s “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” On the Fourth of July this year, the White House published its 162-page “Saving America’s Story,” attacking the Smithsonian Institution directly for “anti-white activism,” “illegal alien activism,” “transgender activism,” and more broadly for adopting “an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.” https://theintercept.com/2026/07/11/america-250-history-myths-native/? Maine Senate Candidates Claim They’re Just Like Platner — But Entirely Different Candidates entering the Maine Senate race after Graham Platner suspended his campaign following a rape allegation are walking a fine line between distancing themselves from the disgraced candidate and embracing his base, which they’ll need to beat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in November. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/10/maine-senate-platner-replace-nirav-shah-troy-jackson/? Company That Bragged It Could Track U.S. Spies Hired to Investigate “Havana Syndrome” The U.S. military inquiry into the so-called Havana syndrome, the mysterious illness claimed by a litany of American intelligence officers, is tapping a controversial contractor: a private surveillance firm that once boasted of its ability to stalk American intelligence officers. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/12/anomaly-6-havana-syndrome-surveillance/? The Trump Administration Is Overhauling Birth Control Access for the Pronatalist Movement The Trump administration is quietly turning a federal program designed to help lower-income Americans access birth control and other reproductive health services into an engine for pronationalism, a far-right movement with roots in eugenics that pushes people to have more babies. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/10/rfk-jr-pronatalism-birth-control/? DSA Members Urge Campaigns to Ditch Platner Consultant Who Advised Mamdani Members of the Democratic Socialists of America circulated a letter calling on candidates and elected officials to refuse to work with the consultants who handled Graham Platner’s campaign, according to screenshots of the letter shared with The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/10/dsa-graham-platner-morris-katz-consultant/?

I would think those are maily for the cruise ship passengers or such with high volumes of people rushing to the officers.

Well, may need to look for some of my old laptops to say nothing of the many desktops I have stacked up..

I don't think so. China hates any organization. Organizations can threaten their power.

Just a note from a new Linux user on social media, Reddit. ------------------------------------------------------ First-time Linux user here. I was a Microsoft user for about 25 years, then switched to a Mac for work. A couple of days ago, more or less out of nowhere, I decided I wanted to give Linux a try. I remembered I still had an old Windows laptop lying around, about 8–10 years old. I used it regularly until around 2020 and was always annoyed by how slow it was. It really struggled with Windows, it took minutes just to load a browser or open Word. Gaming was never really an option on it anyway, I bought it for office work during my studies. I booted it up and it still turned on, still slow as hell, but it worked. So I grabbed my Mac, flashed a USB drive with Linux Mint, and installed it on the laptop. I didn't care that all the data was gone, I hadn't needed it in the last six years, and I wasn't going to need it now. The installation process was flawless. My printer set itself up automatically, and pretty much everything I needed was already preinstalled. What surprised me even more was how incredibly easy the transition was. I expected there to be a much steeper learning curve, vaguely hearing about "the terminal" and all, but using Linux mint is basically the same as Windows (please dont hurt me) And I don't even know what to say. It might sound kind of weird and a bit ridiculous, but I'm a huge fan of my old laptop now. It kind of gives me these rebellious, "take the power back" vibes. I haven't used my Mac in days, just this old dinosaur of a computer. It runs great with linux and is really fast, at least in the limits of its possibilites. I'm browsing with Brave, writing stuff in LibreOffice, planning things in Obsidian, and installing all kinds of open-source software that kind of does the same jobs as apps I have to pay for on my Mac (even the "app store" works great). Not everything is perfect, but that's kind of part of the charm. I don't know... I somehow became an instant fan. Next I might try to install some old games from the early 2000s I still have lying around on CD. Anyway, that's it. Nothing more to see here. Just wanted to share that I think Linux, and especially Linux Mint, absolutely rules.

There is a difference between traditionalists from whatever faith, and exegetics/ Biblical Theology. I very much respect Jewish teachers who use exegesis, Biblical Theology and archaeology etc. These are indeed brothers and sisters in the faith.

The results of the growth and removal of nodules on her voice box left her with a voice that felt so full of pain, sadness and tears that she was able to sing with power and enters into her listener's ears and flows right to the heart. Such a beautiful voice. Of the three songs of hers I'm familiar with, while all beautiful, my favorite was "It's a heart ache". Loosing her at such a young age is a heart ache.

July 13, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. The cease-fire between the United States and Iran continues to unravel. There’s a lot more news below. But I’d like to start today with the question of who’s really running Venezuela. Marco Rubio Kenny Holston/The New York Times The viceroy of Venezuela In the early hours of Jan. 3, shortly after U.S. commandos snatched Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, from his bedroom in a daring nighttime raid, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s vice president. Speaking in Spanish, he told her she faced a choice: work with the United States or experience an escalating attack on her country’s infrastructure, military bases and senior officials. After some negotiation, Rodríguez bent the knee. In the months since, my colleagues Tyler Pager and Anatoly Kurmanaev report, Rubio has emerged as Venezuela’s de facto viceroy, a kind of heir to the powerful governors who once ruled the domains of the Spanish Empire, including the territory that is now Venezuela. Rubio has effective control of Venezuela’s finances, its natural resources and its government, Tyler and Anatoly discovered after speaking with a dozen officials in Washington and Caracas. He is closely involved in the day-to-day operations of the country, and he remains in close contact with Rodríguez, who now runs Venezuela on an acting basis with the blessing of the United States. He has weighed in personally on her governmental appointments, such as the minister of defense. He asserts control over her public appearances and statements. He successfully encouraged her to remove Maduro’s family and business partners from positions of power, and inveighed upon her officials to provide intelligence that allowed the U.S. military to kill one of the leaders of the gang Tren de Aragua. They trade gossip and selfies over text message. It’s no buddy movie, though. The relationship between Rubio and Rodríguez, the reporters write, “is a manifestation of Trump-era American power, in which the winner takes all regardless of sovereignty and international law.” Then they illustrated that power in a single, amazing paragraph: The U.S. Treasury receives the revenue from most of Venezuela’s exports, then disburses it to Venezuela through the country’s banking system, a relationship akin to parents handing out allowances to children. Mr. Rubio and his team set the conditions on what that money can be spent on, and by whom. Seeking permission Rubio has said that the Trump administration’s plan for Venezuela has three stages: Recover the economy, stabilize the country and transition it to democracy. Before last month’s earthquakes, the administration said it was in the second stage, and trying to bring international investment into Venezuela. To move the effort along, senior Trump officials went to Venezuela to meet with Rodríguez’s administration and strike energy and mining deals. Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Caracas in March. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters Tyler and Anatoly have a great story about one of those visits. In March, Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, met with Rodríguez at the presidential palace in Caracas. Rubio texted her during the visit to ask how it was going. Very well, she responded. I’ll let the reporters take it from there: But the meeting was overshadowed by damaging news. Reuters reported that day that the Justice Department was quietly building a legal case against Ms. Rodríguez. Ms. Rodríguez’s administration was shocked, and sought clarification from the White House. To allay Ms. Rodríguez’s concerns, Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, called the report “completely FALSE.” But the Venezuelan government sought further assurances. So the next day Mr. Rubio texted Mr. Rodríguez the link to a social media post from the U.S. president. “Delcy Rodríguez, who is the President of Venezuela, is doing a great job, and working with U.S. Representatives very well,” Mr. Trump wrote. Ms. Rodríguez was pleased, and wanted to thank Mr. Trump with a post of her own. But first, she shared the draft with Mr. Rubio. She posted it after receiving his approval. The whole article is here. It’s riveting. Some other great reads follow. We’ve made it a free link, along with a few others that caught my eye today: How many books, do you suppose, is too many books? One guy’s landlord thought 10,000 was too many for a Manhattan studio apartment. Here’s the eviction tale from Alex Vadukul, whose job it is to find these sorts of situations. The American socialist movement has been better at critiquing the system than reshaping it. But it stormed the Democratic Party anyway, and it has attained a new kind of mainstream political power. How did that happen? Jia Lynn Yang, who writes about ideas, explored the question. One degree from Kevin Bacon. The art critic Jerry Saltz joined the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” to talk about the best, worst and sexiest trophies in sports. He doesn’t hold back. Beekeepers in South Carolina’s Lowcountry are trying to save local honeybees from invasive hornets. One state official compared the struggle to “fighting Satan.” THE LATEST NEWS Congress Lindsey Graham Will Crooks for The New York Times Senator Lindsey Graham likely died from a tear in his aorta, officials said. His obituary was the most clicked link in The Morning yesterday. After weeks of silence, Senator Mitch McConnell posted a photo and a public statement announcing that he had been hospitalized for a fall, and then had pneumonia. Graham’s death and McConnell’s hospitalization offered the latest reminders that the Senate is run by geriatrics. Around the World Times Exclusive: For years, Israel tried to groom Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset. But in the early days of the war, the plan fell apart. Japan is building a centralized intelligence agency for the first time since World War II. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine dismissed the prime minister as part of an overhaul of his political strategy. Other Big Stories The Supreme Court is asking Congress for millions of dollars for increased security. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan are scheduled to make a rare appearance at the Capitol to discuss the request. The Justice Department is investigating the United Automobile Workers president Shawn Fain over accusations that he abused his office. He has said he faces “bogus allegations.” OPINIONS Celina Pereira Will Democrats or Republicans win the midterms? Six pollsters and pundits, including Nate Silver and Lynn Vavreck, look into their crystal balls. Ideological extremism in American politics has created a race to the bottom, David French writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. TODAY’S NUMBER 800 — That is how many pounds of peanut butter workers troweled into a gigantic hexagon on a gallery floor in the Netherlands to honor the Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers, who died last month at 83. The total volume used for Schippers’s “Peanut Butter Floor” is equivalent to roughly 860 16-ounce jars. SPORTS Jannik Sinner Cameron Spencer/Getty Images Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner came back from a set down to beat Alexander Zverev for his second straight title and fifth Grand Slam championship. Zverev played nearly perfect tennis, but admitted afterward it would take actually perfect tennis to beat Sinner, whose serve was too mighty. World Cup: FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, said he’s considering having 64 teams in the next tournament, in 2030. (This current World Cup had 48.) An expansion has pros and cons. RECIPE OF THE DAY Johnny Miller for The New York Times The algorithm served me a video of some guy cooking steak Diane and suddenly that was all I wanted for dinner. You can make it yourself with any thin cut of beef, but I think a pounded-out filet mignon is best. Serve with those little potatoes that have come to dominate the produce aisle at the supermarket, roasted crisp so you can use them to mop up the sauce that naps the steak. And maybe a thatch of watercress? SAM NEILL, 1947-2026 Sam Neill in Los Angeles in 2024. Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Sam Neill, the versatile New Zealand screen actor who appeared in more than 150 productions over a five-decade career, died today in Sydney, Australia. He was 78. Neill combined a credible Everyman quality with rugged good looks and a hard-to-place accent. He was perhaps best known as Dr. Alan Grant in the “Jurassic Park” series. Born Nigel, he changed his name to Sam at age 11, taking inspiration from characters in western movies. It was, he said, “probably the best decision I made in my life. Sam is easy to say, sounds friendly, sounds a bit blokey and has a touch of the Labrador about it.” Same! More on culture Why, yes, I do want to see every inch of the inside of the novelist Elin Hilderbrand’s house on Nantucket. That kitchen! Wesley Morris, the host of the podcast “Cannonball,” and Caryn Ganz, who covers pop music, agree on this much: Olivia Rodrigo’s new release, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” could be the album of the year. Listen to and watch them talk about its excellence, and about the joys of heartbreak pop. They’re here. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times Avoid that severe stomach bug that’s going around. Rinse your produce thoroughly. Listen to “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the Byrds’ first single, released in 1965. Roger McGuinn, the band’s frontman, turns 84 today. Lessen the dank, fusty, mildew-encouraging funkiness of your cellar (or home), with the best dehumidifier tested by the basement dwellers at Wirecutter. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were awakening, wakening and weakening. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 13 2013 The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first appears, sparking a movement The Black Lives Matter movement begins when Alicia Garza posts a message on Facebook on July 13, 2013 that contains the phrase "Black lives matter." read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1970s 1978 Henry Ford II fires Lee Iacocca Arts & Entertainment 1990 “Ghost” opens in theaters 1985 Live Aid concert raises more than $100 million for famine relief in Africa Black History 2015 Sandra Bland dies in jail after traffic stop confrontation Civil War 1863 Draft riots rock New York City Cold War 1949 Pope Pius XII excommunicates all communist Catholics Crime 1966 A mass murderer leaves eight women dead 1955 Last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain Early U.S. 1787 Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance European History 1793 Charlotte Corday assassinates French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat Sports 1930 First World Cup tournament begins U.S. Presidents 1960 John F. Kennedy nominated for presidency Vietnam War 1969 George Wallace criticizes President Nixon’s handling of the war

⛰️ 1 fun thing: Rare superbloom Green gentians, or monument plants, are blooming in the mountains of Colorado. Photo: John Frank/Axios The green gentian, or monument plant, is superblooming on Colorado's hillsides — a rare phenomenon during which dormant wildflowers blossom simultaneously, Axios Denver's John Frank writes. The plant lives 20–60 years, sending up a flower-covered stalk 5 feet or taller before it blooms once and dies.

⚜️ Data center payout This giant data center is under construction in Richland Parish, La. Photo: Meta Meta announced an expansion of a data center now under construction in Richland Parish, La. — which already was Meta's biggest — to 5GW of compute capacity. That'll make it one of the largest data centers in history. Tax revenue from the data center funded teacher bonuses up to $50,000 this year in rural Richland Parish, Meta said, as part of a PR campaign amid national backlash against data centers. Richland Parish is a four-hour drive north of New Orleans, near the Arkansas state line. The first part of the data center is expected to open in 2028. Meta says it's investing more than $50 billion in the region, with $1.6 billion in local contracts and 1,000+ jobs. Sheldon Jones, superintendent of the Richland Parish School System, called the checks "life-altering for our teachers and their families, and it's transforming our schools." 🥊 Reality check: Data centers have become one of the most contentious local issues in America. Communities elsewhere are fighting over power bills, water supplies and noise complaints. 🎷 P.S. At a New Orleans reception last night, teachers, business owners and community leaders from Richland Parish celebrated Louisiana's future with the state's civic, business, and political leaders, and Dina Powell, Meta's president and vice chairman. Musical performers included Delfeayo Marsalis, a New Orleans jazz trombonist and Wynton Marsalis' brother. More on the bonuses … Full statement.

🕯️ Transforming America's racist landmarks Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A former Ku Klux Klan hall in Texas is becoming an arts center — one of several racist landmarks across the U.S. that communities are trying to turn from symbols of terror into sites of reparation, Axios' Russell Contreras and Delano Massey write. Why it matters: Years after the backlash against Confederate monuments, new fights have emerged over what to do with remaining physical reminders of racism. Zoom in: In Fort Worth, Texas, advocates are turning the former KKK Klavern No. 101 auditorium into an arts and community center named for a Black lynching victim. Similar moves are unfolding across the country: In Laurens, S.C., a former segregated theater that later housed a KKK museum was remade as the Echo Project, an anti-hate education center. In New Orleans, a former segregated school has become the Tate Etienne & Prevost Center, with civil rights exhibits, antiracism groups and affordable senior housing. In Drew, Miss., the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is transforming the barn where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955 into a memorial and a place for reflection. Keep reading.

🦾 Charted: Memory's earnings edge Data: FactSet. Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The AI-driven price boom for memory chips and products is expected to keep Sandisk and Micron atop the sales leaderboard this earnings season, Axios' Matt Phillips writes from consensus Wall Street forecasts. 👀 What we're watching: Whether these giant forecasts (charted above) are achieved, and if they actually excite the market. Just last week, gobsmacking results from Korean chip giant Samsung were followed by a steep sell-off.