August 19, 2026
MIDDLE EAST WAR | UKRAINE | U.S. MEDIA | U.S. FORESTS | U.S. COVID-19 | U.S. AMERICAN SAMOA | CALIFORNIA | U.S. EDUCATION | MINNESOTA AND TEXAS | U.S. AND CANADA | U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT | U.S. AND SOUTH KOREA | ISRAEL, SYRIA, AND TURKEY | CONGO | INDIA | UKRAINE | KENYA
MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 173.
- U.S. President Donald Trump insisted yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz was open, contradicting Iran's assertion that the critical waterway remained shut to shipping. Trump also said that no talks were taking place with Iran following the expiration earlier this week of a 60-day memorandum of understanding between the countries that was to have formed a framework for peace. [more]
- The United Arab Emirates says it has halted all commercial and trade relations with Iran, accusing the country of firing two ballistic missiles into its territory yesterday. [more]
UKRAINE | Today is day 1,635 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:
- A second yet-unidentified Ukrainian man was arrested in Croatia yesterday in connection with investigations into undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022. German prosecutors contend that the goal of damaging the pipelines was to prevent Russia from using revenues from natural gas trading to finance its military operations. [more]
U.S. MEDIA | Television network ABC, its parent company Disney, and eight ABC-owned stations filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, seeking to block the FCC's plans for early review of the stations' broadcast licenses. The FCC cited the network’s diversity and inclusion practices as a reason for the early reviews, but the companies say they are part of Trump administration attacks on speech criticizing the president. [more]
U.S. FORESTS | According to a proposal filed yesterday, the U.S. Forest Service intends to move forward with plans to rescind a 2001 rule that blocked logging, road building, and other development on national forest lands. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the so-called roadless rule has affected 30% of national forest lands nationwide, or about 59 million acres. [more]
U.S. COVID-19 | Dr. David Morens, a former senior advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by concealing federal records related to research grants for programs investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Morens is scheduled to be sentenced in November. [DOJ press release] [more]
U.S. AMERICAN SAMOA | Environmental group Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick yesterday, seeking to block Trump administration plans to auction off sections of water surrounding American Samoa for potential deep-sea mining. [more]
CALIFORNIA | Citing harm to communities related to ramped-up immigration enforcement operations, supervisors for California's San Diego County voted yesterday to stop letting federal immigration authorities train at two local firing ranges owned or leased by the county. [more]
U.S. EDUCATION | The Associated Press cites a whistleblower disclosure from a former Justice Department lawyer as alleging that a Trump administration task force created to combat antisemitism pushed for settlements with Ivy League universities despite government investigations that were rushed and incomplete or that failed to establish legal violations by the schools and that the task force's investigations were "marked by extraordinary procedural irregularities, predetermined outcomes without factual or legal support." [more]
MINNESOTA AND TEXAS | Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the Texas Governor Greg Abbott yesterday, seeking to compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the agency’s crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year. [more]
U.S. AND CANADA | U.S. President Donald Trump announced on social media last night that, following negotiations and an agreed-upon framework for a deal, he was delaying new 50% tariffs on some $20 billion' worth of Canadian goods. Trump said the tariffs would be delayed for three days pending finalization of the new agreement. [more]
U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT | U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new U.S. sanctions yesterday on the president of the International Criminal Court and one of its top prosecutors, saying the court has "maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate" by unfairly prosecuting U.S. and Israeli soldiers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza. ICC officials condemned the U.S. move as "undermining the rule of law" and as a "flagrant attack" on the global tribunal’s independence. Reports note that neither the U.S. nor Israel are members of the court. [more]
U.S. AND SOUTH KOREA | After U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea, the two countries' militaries confirmed today that their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills would end this coming Friday instead of continuing through August 27, as previously planned. [more]
ISRAEL, SYRIA, AND TURKEY | Following Israeli strikes on an airbase in northwest Syria yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the action was taken to prevent the planned deployment of Turkish troops to the airbase, which Israel claims would have been a breach of an Israel-Syria status quo agreement on security matters. [more]
CONGO | New data from the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ministry of Health indicates that 5,021 cases, and 2,378 deaths, have been recorded in the country's ongoing Ebola outbreak. Addressing the outbreak yesterday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it has "spread rapidly and the risk of further national and international spread remains high." [more]
INDIA | Authorities in Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state, say at least nine people were killed, and six others were injured, early today when a fire broke out in a five-story building that houses several hotels in the city. Investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing. [more]
UKRAINE | A day after former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for new elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion, Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies announced today that they are investigating yet-unnamed senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office. [more]
KENYA | KenGen, Kenya's state-owned power utility, says it has tripled its long-term target for expanding renewable energy capacity to meet surging demand and support industrialization. The utility's plan calls for increasing renewable power generating capacity to 5,500 megawatts, up from about 1,500 MW currently, and would include 2,000 MW of new nuclear power, 700 MW of new hydropower, and new geothermal projects. [more]
MUSIC AWARDS | Madonna leads the 2026 MTV Video Music Award nominations, which were announced yesterday. Madonna received 11 award nominations and was followed by Taylor Swift with nine, and Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter with seven each. [full nomination list] [more]
R.I.P. | Frank Beard, the drummer for the Texas rock trio ZZ Top, died yesterday at the age of 77. [more]
TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1960, U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years' confinement by the Soviet Union for espionage following the U-2 Affair. Powers was released in 1962 in exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. [more history]