August 25, 2026
MIDDLE EAST WAR | UKRAINE | U.S. ELECTIONS | U.S. IMMIGRATION | U.S. DRUG WAR | U.S. MEASLES | CALIFORNIA | U.S. AND CANADA | U.S. AND RUSSIA | U.S. AND MEXICO | TAIWAN AND CHINA | FRANCE | ISRAEL AND GAZA | SOUTH SUDAN | CONGO | TURKEY | AUSTRALIA | TODAY IN HISTORY
MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 179.
- Following U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge last week to unleash an “economic D-Day” against Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yesterday warned countries that do business with the Islamic Republic to sever those financial ties or face retaliation from the United State. Details of what such retaliation would entail, and their timing, were not disclosed, and Iran's largest trading partners, including China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, were not specifically named in Bessent's statement. [more]
- The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization says an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman was hit and disabled by an unknown projectile last night. [more]
UKRAINE | Today is day 1,641 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:
- U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed yesterday that his country will assist Ukraine in making its own long-range missiles by sharing classified technical information for British components in the French-produced SCALP missile system. Responding to news of the U.K. move, Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused London of directly participating in the Russia-Ukraine war and of "scheming to prevent any progress in the peace settlement process." [more]
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree yesterday allowing the government to temporarily take control of critical private infrastructure in various sectors, including energy and fuel infrastructure, industrial, communications, transportation, and logistics, if private owners fail to protect it from Ukrainian drone strikes or rebuild it after strikes. Reports cite analysts as suggesting the move could be designed to help the Kremlin pressure infrastructure owners to undertake repairs they might otherwise avoid or postpone. [more]
U.S. ELECTIONS | The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned a lower court order that had blocked implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting. The Court did not rule on the legality of the order, but said it was too early for states to challenge it in June, when they convinced a federal judge in Boston to freeze the order for November’s mid-term elections. A second lower court injunction barring the U.S. Postal Service from making changes to comply with Trump’s directive remains in effect. [more]
U.S. IMMIGRATION | The Associated Press cites State Department documents and unnamed government officials as indicating the Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. The AP notes that revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas is expected to be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security. [more]
U.S. DRUG WAR | In the first such operation in more than two months, the U.S. military struck a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean yesterday, killing two people. Sixty-seven such strikes have been carried out since last September, resulting in 223 deaths. [more]
U.S. MEASLES | The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced today that two people in the state's Lancaster County have died due to measles – marking the first U.S. deaths from the disease in 2026 and the first in Pennsylvania in 35 years. Both deaths were in people unvaccinated against measles. [more]
CALIFORNIA | The state's Senate passed a bill yesterday that allows content creators to be fined by California's Fair Political Practices Commission for failure to disclose when they are paid to post in support of a political candidate or issue on ballots. [more]
U.S. AND CANADA | Canadian government officials are expected to release details today of planned retaliatory tariffs against the United States. The announcement follows last week's U.S. imposition of new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods and U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of "far worse" consequences than existing tariffs if Canadian leaders do not "fall in line." Amidst the ongoing trade dispute, President Trump threatened today to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America." [more]
U.S. AND RUSSIA | Reuters cites data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24 as showing a U.S. military transport plane landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport today, and reports that neither the Kremlin nor the U.S. government has released any information on such a flight, which flew direct from Riga, Latvia, this morning after having arrived in Riga on Sunday from the U.S. Camp Springs airbase near Washington DC. [more]
U.S. AND MEXICO | Following implementation of new tracking and monitoring procedures, cattle exports from Mexico to the U.S. resumed yesterday, nearly two years after they were suspended due to a screwworm outbreak. Reports note that the Cochliomyia worm, also known as the New World screwworm, is now present on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. [more]
TAIWAN AND CHINA | Taiwanese prosecutors announced the indictment yesterday of nine people, including staff from chipmakers Nvidia and Super Micro, on charges of illegally exporting "high-end AI servers" to mainland China. [more]
FRANCE | Authorities say at least 39 people were injured, and about 300 homes were damaged, yesterday when a tornado struck the village of Pomas in southern France. [more]
ISRAEL AND GAZA | Palestinian health officials say at least four people, including two children, were killed yesterday in Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks on suspected Hamas weapons storage sites in Gaza. The strikes came amidst U.S. calls for Israel to draw down attacks in the Palestinian enclave. [more]
SOUTH SUDAN | Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed, and seven other people were wounded, yesterday when armed men ambushed a patrol traveling to a remote area of South Sudan. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. [more]
CONGO | Updated data from the Congolese Ministry of Health indicates that 5,514 cases and 2,642 deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo's ongoing Ebola outbreak – a mortality rate of 47.9% among those infected. [more]
TURKEY | In reiterating its call for Turkey to release philanthropist Osman Kavala from prison, the European Court of Human Rights said today that Turkey has a “systemic problem” that is “marked by the detention and prosecution of political opponents, human-rights defenders, and journalists.” [more]
AUSTRALIA | Amidst concern over generative technologies threatening artists’ livelihoods, Australia’s recorded music industry announced today that it will ban tracks wholly generated by artificial intelligence from its official ARIA charts. The move comes as a version of Madonna’s pop hit “Like a Prayer” that uses AI-generated vocals and drums has spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20. [more]
TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1916, with the signing of the Organic Act by President Woodrow Wilson, the National Park Service was established as an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior to promote and maintain the country’s natural and historic wonders and “provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." [more history]