July 20, 2026 - Short News

Putin Says Thank You for the War - North Korea's Foreign Minister Travels to Moscow Without Any Official Reason

Officially, there is no special reason for this trip. No summit. No state visit. No anniversary. Yet North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui suddenly finds herself sitting across from Vladimir Putin inside the Kremlin. He publicly thanks North Korea for supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. That sentence alone shows just how close the two countries have become. The longer you look at this meeting, the more interesting what is missing becomes. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang explains why the foreign minister traveled to Russia at this particular moment. In South Korea, officials therefore believe another meeting between Putin and Kim Jong Un may already be in the works behind the scenes. Nobody is saying that officially. Then again, nobody is denying it either.

The direction has been clear for years. Kim Jong Un has made Russia his country's most important foreign policy partner. North Korea supplies soldiers, ammunition, and weapons for the war in Ukraine. Russia returns the favor with economic assistance and technology that many experts believe is already finding its way into North Korea's missile and nuclear programs. At the same time, Kim continues strengthening ties with China. Just this month, senior officials from both countries traveled to Beijing and Pyongyang for high-level meetings. While talks with Washington have been practically frozen since negotiations with Donald Trump collapsed in 2019, a much closer alliance between Russia, China, and North Korea is steadily taking shape on the other side.

When ICE Investigates ICE - Trump Wants the Agency to Start Investigating Its Own Fatal Shootings

It is one of those statements that sounds harmless at first and changes everything once you think about it. Federal agents across the United States were recently informed internally that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations involving officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officially, both the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security deny that any such policy change has been approved. Yet according to several people familiar with the matter, that exact instruction has already been distributed to FBI supervisors and ICE field offices. The consequences reach far beyond questions of jurisdiction. Until now, the FBI investigated whether federal officers had actually been assaulted before they used deadly force. Those investigations repeatedly uncovered evidence that could later be used against the shooters themselves. If the FBI disappears from these cases, the only truly independent agency investigating these incidents often disappears with it.

According to the internal guidance, that responsibility would now shift to Homeland Security Investigations. The problem is obvious. Homeland Security Investigations is part of ICE itself. That means the agency would largely be investigating fatal shootings carried out by its own officers. Several officials familiar with the plan are warning precisely about that outcome. Independent oversight would effectively disappear in many cases. The timing is impossible to ignore. Within just two weeks, ICE agents fatally shot one man in Texas and another in Maine. Both cases made headlines across the country. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed in Houston in early July, even though federal officials later acknowledged he was never the intended target of the operation. A few days later, Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was also shot and killed by an ICE agent in Maine while sitting inside his vehicle. Even today, those investigations are already heavily restricted. Under the Trump administration, the FBI's role in fatal ICE shootings has largely been reduced to determining whether officers were assaulted before opening fire. According to multiple law enforcement officials, earlier investigations into possible civil rights violations or official misconduct have played almost no role in these cases. If even that limited oversight disappears, all that remains is the version of events presented by the agency involved.

The numbers already paint a remarkable picture. Since January 2025, federal immigration officers have opened fire on nearly two dozen people. Six people have been killed, including three American citizens. Most of the shootings involved vehicles. At the same time, the White House has pushed federal prosecutors to bring as many cases as possible involving alleged assaults on federal officers. According to reporting by The New York Times, more than 550 such prosecutions have already been filed. Nearly half of the cases that have already been resolved later fell apart because charges were dropped, dismissed by judges, or ended in acquittals. That is exactly why one question now carries even more weight. Who will investigate the investigators once they begin investigating their own fatal shootings? New York Times wurden mehr als 550 solcher Verfahren eingeleitet. Fast die Hälfte der bereits abgeschlossenen Fälle brach später jedoch zusammen, weil Anklagen fallengelassen wurden, Gerichte sie verwarfen oder Angeklagte freigesprochen wurden. Gerade deshalb stellt sich nun eine Frage mit neuer Wucht. Wer kontrolliert künftig noch die Kontrolleure, wenn sie beginnen, ihre eigenen Todesschüsse selbst zu untersuchen?

When Cell Phones Go Silent, Street Phones Make a Comeback - Crimea Is Bringing Back a Technology That Had Long Since Disappeared

A technology many people thought belonged in a museum is making a comeback in Russian-occupied Crimea. Russian authorities have begun installing public street phones again in Yevpatoria, Armyansk, and Dzhankoi. Free of charge. But with one major limitation. You can only call the fire department, the police, emergency medical services, the gas emergency line, or 112. Calling family, friends, or other cities is not possible. Officially, Moscow says the move is a response to the increasingly frequent disruptions of the mobile phone network. In emergencies, everyone must be able to reach first responders. That is why landline phones are returning to the streets. The first unit has already been installed on Theater Square in Yevpatoria, with additional phones appearing in Armyansk and several locations across Dzhankoi.

Translation: The installation of public telephone booths is continuing throughout the republic.

Calls can be made to local landline numbers within the respective city as well as to emergency service numbers.

This is not an entirely new idea. Back in 2020, Russian telecommunications provider Miranda Media introduced a solar-powered test payphone with Wi-Fi in Crimea. At the time, the company said it planned to install more than 1,200 units across the peninsula within six to seven years. Now the project is returning under very different circumstances. Miranda Media itself only came into existence after Russia annexed Crimea. The company later took over Krymtelekom, which had inherited the confiscated infrastructure of Ukrainian telecommunications providers. Today, Miranda Media also controls telecommunications networks in the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.

Similar street phones had already appeared there earlier. Last year, they were installed in cities including Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Kreminna. The same rule applied there as it does today in Crimea. Emergency calls were allowed. Regular calls were not. The fact that public payphones are making a comeback in 2026 says a great deal about conditions on the ground. While other countries are investing billions into expanding digital communications, Russian authorities are responding to repeated mobile network failures by bringing back a technology that disappeared from most streets years ago. Sometimes a telephone says more about a country than any government statement ever could.

Trump Admits Security Gap on His Qatari Jet - Right After the Investigation Into Journalists

Sometimes a denial only lasts until the next microphone appears. For weeks, the White House had given the impression that the Boeing 747 donated by Qatar was fully ready to serve as Air Force One. Now Donald Trump himself is saying something different. He announced that the aircraft will soon be taken out of service and upgraded once again. In about a month, he said, the plane will be "maxed out." He offered no further details. But that single phrase answers a question the White House had carefully avoided until now. The aircraft was already in service. Trump flew aboard the roughly 14-year-old Boeing 747-800 to several destinations, including the NATO summit in Turkey. Even then, questions were raised about whether the aircraft actually carried the defensive systems normally found aboard an American presidential aircraft. Those include missile defense systems, electromagnetic pulse protection in the event of a nuclear strike, aerial refueling capability, and the technical infrastructure that effectively turns Air Force One into a flying White House. According to reporting by The New York Times, at least some of those systems were missing. New York Times zumindest teilweise.

What makes this even more explosive is not only what has now become public, but how the administration responded. Just one day after those reports were published, the White House brought in the FBI. Several New York Times reporters received grand jury subpoenas. Federal agents personally appeared at their homes to hand-deliver the documents instead of using the newspaper's attorneys, as is normally done. The goal was to identify whoever had leaked information about the aircraft's security systems. Now, Trump himself has indirectly confirmed the central point of those reports. If the aircraft still has to undergo major upgrades, then it clearly was not fully equipped beforehand. Even after Trump's remarks, the White House refused to explain which systems are missing or exactly what will be installed. It also remains unclear whether Trump's timeline of roughly one month is remotely realistic. New York Times erhielten Vorladungen für eine Grand Jury. Bundesbeamte erschienen persönlich an ihren Wohnhäusern, um die Schriftstücke zu übergeben, statt den üblichen Weg über die Anwälte der Zeitung zu wählen. Ziel war herauszufinden, wer Informationen über die Sicherheitsausstattung des Flugzeugs weitergegeben hatte. Jetzt bestätigt ausgerechnet Trump selbst indirekt den Kern der damaligen Berichte. Wenn die Maschine erst noch umfassend nachgerüstet werden muss, war sie zuvor eben nicht vollständig ausgerüstet. Welche Systeme fehlen und was genau eingebaut werden soll, beantwortete das Weiße Haus auch nach Trumps Aussage nicht. Ebenso offen bleibt, ob der von ihm genannte Zeitraum von nur einem Monat überhaupt realistisch ist.

Another detail stands out as well. Immediately after the NATO summit, Trump unexpectedly abandoned the Qatari jet for his return flight and switched back to one of the older presidential aircraft that he himself had mocked for years as outdated and obsolete. According to reports out of Washington, the Secret Service advised him to make that switch. What remains is a story that raises more questions than it answers. A president flies aboard a donated aircraft that apparently does not provide the same level of protection as the existing Air Force One. Journalists report on it. The FBI then hunts for their sources. A few weeks later, that same president publicly admits the aircraft now needs a complete security upgrade. Sometimes a story ends up proving itself.

DOGE Is Officially Dead - But Elon Musk's People Are Still Sitting in Washington's Control Centers

When Elon Musk took over the Department of Government Efficiency together with Vivek Ramaswamy at the end of 2024, the promise was spectacular. DOGE was supposed to shrink the federal government, save two trillion dollars, and dissolve itself on July 4, 2026. That date has now passed. The website is practically inactive, and posts on the official account have almost disappeared. Anyone who thinks DOGE is history because of that is mistaken. The organization vanished on paper, but its people stayed inside the system. According to court records and government documents, numerous former DOGE employees are still working in key positions throughout the federal government. Some are now at the Pentagon, others at the State Department, and others inside agencies responsible for programs worth billions of dollars. The faces barely changed. Only the names on the office doors did.

The State Department is one of the clearest examples. Jeremy Lewin, who played a major role in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, now oversees large parts of America's foreign aid programs. At the Pentagon, Gavin Kliger became Chief Data Officer. Other former DOGE employees continue working much more quietly, but no less influentially. Many of their names only became public through court proceedings or Freedom of Information Act requests. At the same time, a new organization called the National Design Studio was created. According to several people involved, it is viewed internally as DOGE's spiritual successor. Officially, it modernizes federal websites and digital government services. In reality, many former DOGE staffers simply continued their work there. The organization is led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia. Its chief engineer is Edward Coristine, better known by his nickname "Big Balls," the young staffer who gained access to some of the government's most sensitive agencies during the DOGE era.

Many projects simply continued as well. DOGE digitized the federal retirement system, whose paper records had been stored inside a Pennsylvania mine for decades. At the end of June, the Office of Personnel Management permanently stopped sending new paper files. The project now carries a different name, but it came directly out of DOGE. The broader restructuring of the federal government is still being felt everywhere. Agencies were downsized, employees were fired, then some had to be hired back. Entire departments had to be rebuilt. At the same time, legal costs exploded as states, labor unions, and federal workers challenged many of the changes in court. According to calculations by the Partnership for Public Service, the economic fallout has now exceeded 165 billion dollars. That equals more than one thousand dollars for every American taxpayer.

The final irony could hardly be greater. Musk promised savings of two trillion dollars. Instead, overall federal spending continued to rise over the past year. At the same time, many agencies have started hiring again after hundreds of thousands of federal employees left government service. Even Republican senators are now demanding evidence showing exactly where the promised billions in savings were ever recorded. DOGE also continues to live on in the courtroom. The administration repeatedly argued that lawsuits against the organization should be dismissed because DOGE officially ceased to exist after July 4. A federal judge rejected that argument. An organization cannot escape responsibility simply because its expiration date has arrived, she ruled.

Ironically, it was a former DOGE employee who may have described the situation best. On July 4, Katie Miller posted a single sentence. DOGE is not an agency. It is a way of life. It never ends. Looking at Washington today, that is exactly what it looks like.

China Is Now Going After Children's Choirs - Beijing's Campaign Against Taiwan Has Reached Everyday Life

Anyone who thinks the conflict between China and Taiwan is fought only with warships, fighter jets, and diplomatic protests has long since missed the real battlefield. Beijing is now targeting Taiwan where almost nobody is looking. Children's choirs. Barista competitions. Visas. Even flight routes. Just a few weeks ago, Taiwan's National Hakka Children's Choir was scheduled to perform at an international choral festival in Macau. The organizers demanded that the children not appear under the name Taiwan. When the delegation refused, it withdrew from the event. At the same time, the winner of the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego was quietly redesignated. Instead of being listed as representing Taiwan, he suddenly appeared as representing "Chinese Taipei." It is the very same designation Taiwan has been forced to compete under at the Olympic Games for decades.

For Beijing, no stage is too small. According to Taiwan's government, Chinese officials recently pressured several African countries into denying President Lai Ching-te permission to use their airspace. Flight clearances that had already been approved were reportedly revoked at the last minute. Shortly afterward, Kenya denied entry visas to an official Taiwanese delegation traveling to an international ocean conservation conference. Several delegates who still managed to arrive were turned away and sent back home. China has spent years tightening its campaign to isolate Taiwan internationally. Today, only twelve countries officially recognize the island. Beijing blocks Taiwan from international organizations, pressures governments into making political concessions, and leans on companies and event organizers not to refer to Taiwan as an independent country. This is no longer just about global summits or the United Nations. Every competition, every conference, and every invitation has become another political battleground. Today, even a children's choir or a coffee machine is enough to trigger the next diplomatic dispute.

Research shows Beijing has become increasingly intolerant of any public display that treats Taiwan as separate from China. What was often tolerated in the past is now quickly branded as support for Taiwanese independence. That is why even cultural events have become targets for Chinese diplomats. For many people in Taiwan, this is no longer simply about wording. Former World Barista Champion Berg Wu summed it up after the competition in San Diego. Taiwan is not just a name. Taiwan is identity. Taiwan is shared memory. While Chinese warships continue sailing near the island and military exercises become more frequent, the very same conflict is also being fought on concert stages, through visa decisions, and inside the participant lists of international competitions. The pressure keeps growing, one small step at a time. And that is exactly what makes it so effective.