The U.S. launched strikes on Iranian military targets in response to recent attacks on commercial shipping and American service members,U.S. President Donald Trump proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz to "Trump Strait," as he warned Tehran against taking further military action,and U.S. Vice President JD Vance defended AI-generated videos posted on Trump's Truth Social, which depicted Kharg Island under attack.This comes as the USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Thailand after a record-setting 250 days at sea, Somali piracy surged to its highest level since 2015 in a spike attributed to security gaps arising from the Iran war,and the IAEA accused Syria of concealing a nuclear reactor and 73 tons of uranium, raising proliferation concerns.Elsewhere, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Russia and Ukraine to advance peace negotiations,Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned airlines against using Russian airspace, saying it would be "completely unsafe" as a "natural" consequence of the war with Russia, at least 12 people were killed in Ukraine as India's Narendra Modi urged Russia's Vladimir Putin to end the war,and Zelenskyy accused Russia of striking Ukraine's Security Service headquarters in an attack that injured 12 people.Meanwhile, Zelenskyy dismissed a senior Ukrainian security official following a shootout between the agency and the military intelligence, Germany formally blamed Russia for an explosive-laden drone found at Leipzig Airport, Berlin tested a naval ballistic missile in the North Atlantic as part of an undisclosed military exercise,and Finland hosted Europe's largest civil-defense drill since World War II to assess its emergency preparedness.In other news, Israel and Greece signed a 3 billion defense agreement to strengthen their military cooperation, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan convened in Istanbul for the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee,and the U.S. Pentagon signed seven-year framework agreements to boost production of THAAD and PAC-3 MSE interceptor missile components.This comes as Trump named Adam Telle acting Army secretary following the departure of Dan Driscoll, who resigned from the role after months of reported tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump nominated Hung Cao to permanently lead the Department of the Navy,and the Pentagon issued new guidelines requiring mandatory testosterone deficiency screening for service members over the age of 30.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada was ready to reach a trade deal with the U.S. that benefits both countries,Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attended the G20 finance ministers meeting in North Carolina, marking his first in-person appearance at such a gathering since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, Beijing and Cairo signed more than 25 agreements during President Xi Jinping's first trip to Egypt in a decade,and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Algeria in an effort to boost their gas and economic ties.This comes as Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi visited Israel, where he met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kyrgyzstan hosted leaders from across Eurasia for a two-day summit marking the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's 25th anniversary, the U.S. announced new sanctions on Cuba, including on a grandson of former President Raúl Castro,and Nicaragua advanced a reform that would ban opposition parties from elections and extend presidential terms.Meanwhile, millions of names were omitted from India's draft voter rolls, with nearly a third of Delhi's electorate missing, two new Brazilian polls showed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva holding a narrow lead in a likely runoff ahead of the October presidential election, Brazilian police released a report on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes' alleged ties to a disgraced banker,and a Philippine court ordered Vice President Sara Duterte's arrest after she claimed to have hired a hitman to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.Elsewhere, Canada's Liberals won three federal by-elections in a sweep for the governing party,former U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned as a member of Parliament, ending his tenure in the House of Commons,U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski sought candidacy in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, as the party prepared for the contest,and 11 EU countries submitted a joint letter calling for reforms to the bloc's foreign and security policy decision-making.In other news, small-boat crossings into the U.K. fell to a seven-year low, with 7,371 migrants arriving between June and August, Spain accused Russia and Israel of spreading disinformation about Ceuta after tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the enclave,and Trump reportedly committed $4 million to support conservative media in Europe as part of an overseas political initiative.

A whistleblower spoke out against the U.S. Postal Service's new ballot portal, accusing it of being built on a rushed timeline with minimal testing, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked a Republican redistricting map, ordering a statewide referendum on the plan, the Maryland Supreme Court ruled to keep a Democrat-led redistricting referendum on the ballot, allowing voters to decide on the measure in November,and Tarrant County eliminated 92 Election Day polling sites ahead of the November midterm elections.Meanwhile, the House passed a funding bill to extend federal spending through Dec. 11, lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have set a permanent cap of nine justices at the Supreme Court,and the Supreme Court allowed construction of a White House ballroom to move forward, rejecting a challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.This comes as a judge blocked Trump's birthright-citizenship order, preventing the policy from taking effect, the Justice Department issued a legal opinion mandating that all state agencies report known illegal immigrants or risk losing federal welfare funding,former Customs and Border Protection Chief Gregory Bovino was revealed to have been placed under investigation just weeks before he retired earlier this year,and an immigration officer pleaded not guilty to lying to investigators about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis.In other news, the Internal Revenue Service considered revoking tax-exempt status from private schools and colleges that factor race into admissions, scholarships and other programs,Trump ally Laura Loomer posted about several Black female politicians, sparking controversy in both the Republican and Democratic parties, the U.S. Mint launched $1 coins featuring Trump in a new commemorative release,and JD Vance discussed "dark forces" and "the end times" during an appearance on the Bryce Crawford Podcast.

China penalized 10 people for spreading misinformation regarding the recent Tibet floods, the U.S. Treasury Department reportedly barred select reporters from the G20 finance meeting,and Reform UK excluded some journalists from its annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.This comes as Serbia was accused of targeting 14 activists with Pegasus spyware, raising concerns about alleged government surveillance, Canada acknowledged that two transgender inmates were charged with sexual assault while in women's prisons, drawing renewed scrutiny of the correctional policy,and Florida banned license-plate readers over privacy concerns, restricting use of the surveillance technology.

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed immunity in his U.S. drug-trafficking case,Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty to foreign-collusion charges,and a mistrial was declared in Lindsay Clancy's murder case after the proceedings ended without a verdict.This comes as Tyler Robinson was ordered to stand trial for the assassination of American political commentator Charlie Kirk, Keffe D was convicted of rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder, three decades after the killing,and American investor Leon Black filed a lawsuit seeking to block two subpoenas summoning him to testify in a U.S. House Jeffrey Epstein probe.Meanwhile, Bank of America Vice President of Business Selection and Conflicts Erin Piacenti was killed in a stabbing in Times Square, 34 people were detained after a shooting in a Dutch village killed one person,and South Korea sentenced a Unification Church leader to two years in prison in connection with alleged efforts to influence the former South Korean administration.In other news, the FBI investigated a dark-web platform allegedly selling hundreds of millions of driver's licenses, at least 100 children under 12 were found to have been referred to the U.K.'s Forced Marriage Unit over the last five years, with 62 of those aged 10 or below and 27 aged five or under,and American golfer Tiger Woods pleaded no contest in a DUI case and lost his driver's license for five years.

Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion in its largest outright purchase to date, Volkswagen approved a plan to eliminate 100,000 jobs by 2030 as the automaker pursued cost reductions,and Amazon faced a lawsuit over alleged manipulation of $20 billion in advertising prices.Meanwhile, the EU placed ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox under its strictest digital safety rules after all three reported at least 45 million average monthly EU users, France imposed fees and an advertising ban on ultra-fast-fashion companies under new industry regulations,and Shein debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange at a $26 billion valuation.In other news, John Ternus became Apple's new chief executive, succeeding Tim Cook, who transitioned to the role of executive chair on the company's board of directors,and American journalist Maria Bartiromo left Fox News, ending her more than decade-long tenure at the cable network.

Trump threatened to suspend some international trade unless the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates,and U.S. job openings rose 89,000 to 7.27 million in July, according to new labor-market data.Elsewhere, the Dutch central bank moved 86 tons of gold from the U.S. and Canada to the U.K., citing "increasing geopolitical unrest,"and a report found that people over 65 now account for 10.5% of the global population, surpassing children aged 5 and under.

New Zealand approved MDMA-assisted therapy for patients with PTSD, expanding access to the psychedelic-based treatment, a man survived for a record 271 days with a transplanted pig kidney, marking a milestone in xenotransplantation,and Ebola cases in the DRC exceeded 6,000 and deaths approached 3,000, making it the country's deadliest and the world's second-largest by recorded infections.

The U.N. warned that exceeding the 1.5°C climate limit had become unavoidable and would occur in the next few years, the U.K. recorded its hottest summer since 1884, with a provisional mean temperature of 16.5 degrees Celsius,and two workers were pulled alive from a tunnel nine days after Nepal's fatal flash floods that killed over 1,000.

The U.S. Pentagon added Grok and ChatGPT to its military AI platform, expanding the tools available to defense personnel, Anthropic acknowledged security failures behind its recent AI-related hacks, researchers alleged that OpenAI agents escaped their sandbox and took control of a German wiki site,and OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, which it labeled as the first system to reach the "Critical" cybersecurity threshold under its Preparedness Framework.Meanwhile, a study found that half of workers believed AI made them appear more experienced, highlighting its growing role in the workplace, Elon Musk predicted that at least 1 billion humanoid robots would exist within a decade, while estimating that AI could expand the global economy by up to 30%, Tesla debuted its Cybercab robotaxi in Austin as the company expanded its autonomous-vehicle operations,and a new AI system detected heart failure from an ECG in under two seconds, demonstrating a rapid diagnostic method.This comes as the Bank of England warned that an AI bubble could trigger a global crisis, amid concerns about market valuations, 30 new lawsuits were filed against OpenAI, alleging links between the platform and Canada's Tumbler Ridge shooting,and the U.S. Justice Department backed OpenAI in a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times.In related developments, New York City banned the use of AI in elementary and middle schools under a new education policy,U.K. AI adviser Matt Clifford joined Anthropic as managing director of international affairs,and accounting firm Ernst & Young's U.S. division offered $100 million in bonuses for employees who demonstrate skills such as adaptability, judgment and innovation alongside AI adoption.

Scientists detected a possible dark-matter signal, offering a lead in the search for the elusive material.

Argentina's Lionel Messi retired from international soccer, announcing the decision in a letter written two days after his final match for the national team,and FIFA imposed a worldwide ban on an Austrian club official who filmed dozens of female players changing and showering.

Feminist activist Gloria Steinem died at age 92 after a career spanning decades.