July 22, 2026 - Short News

Hegseth Demands Another $95 Billion for the Iran War - Even Republicans Want Answers

PETERS: "WIN THE WAR! The men and women need leadership! WHEN WILL YOU SHOW LEADERSHIP?!" HEGSETH: "Why don't YOU show some leadership and stand up to your fellow Democrats who won't FUND the troops! Who stand and play partisan politics while YOU don't give us the money!" Peters: "You, sir, are the failure…When will you show leadership?" Hegseth: "You have Trump Derangement Syndrome and can't actually commit to anything meaningful, so I put this on you."

Washington, D.C. (KB) - The Iran war is becoming more expensive, more deadly, and harder to justify with every passing day. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the war has already cost the United States $37.5 billion. At the same time, the White House is pushing a new $95 billion spending package, including roughly $70 billion for the war itself and other military operations. Just days after Donald Trump claimed that a deal was close and the war would soon be over, his administration is now asking Congress for even more money.

Since the escalation began in July, 17 American service members have been killed and more than 100 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Missile and ammunition stockpiles continue to shrink, the Strait of Hormuz remains a major threat to global oil shipments, and gasoline prices keep climbing. The hearing quickly turned into an open political brawl. Democratic senators accused Hegseth of demanding billions for a war that a majority of Americans oppose. Patty Murray called it another forever war. Jeanne Shaheen questioned why the Pentagon needed additional funding when a large share of the money Congress already approved has not even been spent yet.

But uncomfortable questions also came from Republicans. GOP senators demanded clear answers about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the true cost of the war. General Dan Caine admitted that no one could honestly predict how expensive the conflict would ultimately become. The enemy gets a vote, he said. The hearing exploded when Senator Gary Peters described Hegseth's strategy as a complete failure. The Defense Secretary responded by accusing Democrats of suffering from a pathological obsession with Donald Trump. Peters fired back that America's troops were not the problem - their political leadership was. As Washington keeps arguing over billions of dollars, Congress is already preparing another vote on limiting the president's war powers. Any hope that this conflict will end soon now looks more distant than ever.

France Pulls the Emergency Brake - Social Media Will Be Off Limits for Children Under 15

France is taking a step no other European Union country has taken before. On Tuesday, Parliament passed a law banning children under the age of 15 from using social media. At the same time, mobile phones will also be banned in high schools. President Emmanuel Macron wants the new rules in place by the start of the new school year in September. Before that can happen, however, the Constitutional Council still has to review the legislation. The driving force behind the law is growing concern over the impact social media is having on children and teenagers. According to France's health authorities, one out of every two teenagers now spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. Around 90 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 go online every day using their phones, and 58 percent primarily use social media. The agency warns of declining self esteem and increased exposure to content involving self harm, drug use, and suicide.

One case in particular drew nationwide attention. Several families have sued TikTok, arguing that content on the platform contributed to their children's suicides. One mother said her daughter received her first smartphone in seventh grade. It took months before the family realized the girl had begun harming herself, developed anorexia, and fallen into severe depression. She spent a year and a half in the hospital before recovering. The new law does not apply to online encyclopedias, educational websites, or scientific resources. Critics from the political left question whether the ban is constitutional and argue that enforcing it will be extremely difficult. Authorities still have no clear answer on how existing accounts belonging to minors will be identified and removed. A reliable age verification system for new users has yet to be created.

France is not acting alone. Australia has already banned social media for children under 16. Spain, Denmark, Greece, and the United Kingdom are all working on similar legislation. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also called for stricter age limits. She believes children under the age of three should have no screen time at all. The European Commission is now preparing its own proposal, which all 27 member states will eventually have to consider.

He Was a Tourist, Not a Migrant: The Man ICE Drove to His Death in Florida Had a Visa and a Return Ticket

St. Augustine, FL (KB) - A few days ago, we reported on the death of a man in Florida on July 14. At the time, it was a longer report about an unidentified man who was struck by a semi truck while running from immigration agents. Our investigation was not yet complete, and authorities refused to answer questions. Today, the dead man has a name, a family, and a story. And that story turns the official narrative upside down.

The man was not a migrant. He was a tourist.

Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, 28, was from San Luis de la Paz in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, where he owned a restaurant. On July 14, he died in St. Augustine on Florida's Atlantic coast after, according to authorities, running across a busy roadway and into the path of a semi truck. Our investigation has now established that Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán was legally in the United States on a valid tourist visa and already had a return flight home booked for the following Saturday. He had no intention of staying in the United States. He did not want to leave either his children or his wife behind.

Read also our article: A third person dies in one week during an ICE operation in Florida

You have to look at the timeline of this man's life to understand the enormity of what happened. Coronilla had been in the United States for just three weeks. First he stayed with friends in Georgia, then he spent a few days on Florida's beaches. Two days before his scheduled flight home, he was dead. A man who came to visit relatives and see the ocean ended up crushed beneath a semi truck while being chased by agents of a country where he was nothing more than a guest. He leaves behind a wife he had been married to for ten years, a seven year old son, and a daughter who was only seven months old.

Read the full article here

Trump Opens the Door for Saudi Arabia to Enrich Uranium - Raising New Fears of Nuclear Weapons

Washington/Riyadh (KB) - The Trump administration is set to announce a sweeping nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The deal would allow the kingdom to build a civilian nuclear program and, for the first time, could permit uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. That single provision has sparked fierce opposition in Congress and in Israel for years. The concern is straightforward. What begins today as a civilian nuclear program could become the foundation for a nuclear weapons program tomorrow. The agreement is intended to strengthen ties between Washington and Riyadh after tensions created by the Iran war while delivering billions of dollars in contracts to the American nuclear industry. Westinghouse, the U.S. reactor manufacturer, is expected to be among the biggest beneficiaries. At the same time, Trump is abandoning safeguards previous administrations considered non negotiable. Unlike the agreement with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia would eventually be allowed, following joint studies, to enrich its own uranium or reprocess plutonium.

With that decision, Washington is moving away from its long standing policy of nuclear nonproliferation. The agreement with the Emirates was considered the international gold standard because Abu Dhabi agreed to give up domestic fuel production and accepted the strictest inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Saudi Arabia will now receive significantly greater freedom of action. According to officials in Washington, the agreement also includes secret side letters that will not initially be made public for reasons of national security. That alone is expected to fuel an even bigger fight in Congress. The timing is especially sensitive. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has already stated that Saudi Arabia would without any doubt build nuclear weapons if Iran does the same. At the very same time, Riyadh has continued diplomatic talks with Tehran following the restoration of relations between the two countries. So while leaders publicly speak about stability, concerns about a new nuclear arms race in the Middle East continue to grow behind closed doors. Trump argues that closer economic and military ties will create greater security. His critics believe the exact opposite. They warn that today's multibillion dollar agreement could become tomorrow's nuclear crisis.

DW Correspondent Arrested Again in Turkey - New Charges Over Online Criticism

Pressure on independent journalists in Turkey continues to intensify. Deutsche Welle correspondent Alican Uludağ has been arrested again even though he had been released from pretrial detention only two months ago while awaiting trial. This time, the trigger appears to have been a social media post criticizing Turkey's judicial system. Prosecutors in Ankara have opened a new investigation accusing him of inciting hatred and hostility and spreading disinformation. They have not identified which specific posts form the basis of the new charges. As a result, both the accusations and the legal basis for his latest arrest remain unclear. Uludağ has spent years reporting on human rights abuses and corruption in Turkey. In 2021, he received the Raif Badawi Award from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for his reporting. Earlier this year, prosecutors had already charged him with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and spreading misleading information. Those charges reportedly stemmed from older posts on X criticizing the Turkish government's release of suspected members of the Islamic State terrorist organization.

After that arrest, Uludağ spent several months in pretrial detention before being released in May pending his trial, which is scheduled for September 18. In a letter to colleagues at Deutsche Welle, he described prison conditions as filthy and infested with bedbugs. Now he finds himself back behind bars once again. The case illustrates how quickly criticism of Turkey's courts or government actions can result in new criminal investigations, even while earlier charges are still awaiting trial.

AI Companies Are Buying Up Old Books by the Millions - Because They No Longer Trust Their Own Systems

London (KB) - In the age of artificial intelligence, old printed books have suddenly become one of the most valuable resources in the technology industry. Companies developing new AI models are buying used books around the world in enormous quantities. The reason is surprisingly simple. Books printed before 2022 are guaranteed not to contain text generated by artificial intelligence. That makes them more valuable for training future AI systems than much of today's internet. According to the book database ISBNdb, some customers are placing orders ranging from one thousand to one million books at a time. Older printed works are viewed as clean training material. Meanwhile, the internet is increasingly flooded with automatically generated content. When AI systems are repeatedly trained on material created by other AI systems, researchers warn of so called model collapse. The systems begin reinforcing each other's mistakes and gradually become less reliable.

There is another growing problem. Authors who oppose having their work used to train AI are now deliberately inserting material designed to confuse models or produce inaccurate results. Older books contain none of those manipulations, making them even more desirable. The boom is already transforming the rare book market. Booksellers report that instead of selling a few dozen books a week, they are suddenly shipping hundreds. Buyers pay little attention to subject matter or price. The only thing that matters is that the books carry an ISBN and were published before the AI explosion. The most controversial part comes afterward. To digitize them, the spines are cut off, every page is scanned, and the physical books are destroyed. A U.S. federal judge recently ruled that this process was lawful because the digital copies remain inside the company and the original books no longer exist. Critics argue that the cultural damage is permanent. Rare and limited edition books are disappearing forever, not because nobody wants to read them anymore, but because machines do.

Trump Rebuilds His Tariff War - The Supreme Court Stopped Him, So He Simply Found Another Law

Washington (KB) - Donald Trump did not lose his tariff war. He simply rebuilt it. After the Supreme Court struck down major parts of his second term tariff program in February and rejected his use of emergency powers, the White House turned to a different law. The temporary 10 percent tariffs expire on Friday. A new package is expected before the week is over. For businesses, that means another period in which nobody knows what products will face new duties tomorrow. The administration plans to cover almost all American imports. Canada, Mexico, and the European Union are expected to face tariffs of 10 percent, while China, India, Japan, South Korea, and dozens of other countries could face tariffs of 12.5 percent. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the measures would affect roughly 99 percent of all U.S. imports. At the same time, Trump is threatening Canada with an additional 50 percent tariff on selected products even though both countries remain parties to the North American free trade agreement.

That decision has raised serious concerns. This time, Trump is relying on a little used section of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930. The law allows much faster action and gives the president considerably broader authority than the legal framework the Supreme Court already rejected. Trade lawyers are already preparing for another round of court challenges. For businesses, it means months of renewed uncertainty just as many had finally adjusted their supply chains to the previous rules. Additional investigations targeting more trading partners are already underway, making further tariffs in the months ahead increasingly likely. Average U.S. tariff rates could climb back to roughly 17 percent, almost reaching the levels that existed before the Supreme Court's ruling. The objective has not changed. It is not fewer tariffs. It is the same tariffs under a different legal justification.

The consequences no longer fall only on foreign exporters. According to estimates by the Federal Reserve, the tariffs already in place have noticeably increased the prices of many everyday consumer goods. While the White House continues talking about bringing manufacturing back to America, businesses are struggling with constantly changing regulations, new cost calculations, and supply contracts that can become worthless within weeks. Companies willing to invest need predictability. That predictability is disappearing from American trade policy. Trump presents this latest round of tariffs as another display of strength. For many businesses, it means something far simpler - nobody knows what the rules will be next week.