July 17 2026 News

The U.S. military struck infrastructure targets in Iran for the first time in this round of fighting overnight, while the regime widened its retaliatory strikes to U.S. targets in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday. Both sides have been gradually intensifying the fire exchange after Iran resumed attacks on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway over which the regime has sought to assert sovereignty. In the sixth consecutive round of strikes, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said that “fighter jets, aerial drones, and warships launched precision munitions that hit dozens of Iranian military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities.” Iranian state media also reported six bridges and parts of the Semnan Airport in the north were damaged as a result of U.S. strikes. A senior U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that the bridges were targeted to cut off supply routes to a port city and naval base in the Gulf.

President Donald Trump delivered a national address Thursday evening focused on ensuring free and fair elections, during which he announced the declassification of sensitive intelligence documents that he described as revealing profound weaknesses in America’s election infrastructure. According to a report from Fox News, the documents, which were posted to the White House website as the speech unfolded, highlight risks associated with hacking, exploitation, and potential foreign interference. Trump emphasized that this information had long been withheld from the public. “This vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you,” Trump stated during the address. “The American people are beautiful, our great American people. But that all changes right now.”

Ukraine and Russia launched missile and drone attacks on Thursday on vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, stepping up hostilities in a zone vital for grain exports that have triggered a rise in global wheat prices. Ukraine’s military said it struck six Russian tankers and two tugboats, while Russia’s defense ministry said its forces hit a maritime vessel and a speedboat of the Ukrainian armed forces while they were en route to ports in the Odesa region. Russian forces also struck a number of other military and industrial targets, the ministry said. Ukraine has stepped up wider attacks on Russian energy targets, including oil refineries and tankers, seeking to undermine Moscow’s war effort. Russia also has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s deepwater Black Sea ports in the Greater Odesa area, which handle much of the country’s grain and other cargo and are vital to its wartime economy. The Ukrainian attacks have forced Russia, the world’s top grain exporter, to limit shipping in the Sea of Azov — a route that handles about a quarter of its grain exports, sources told Reuters. Shipping remained restricted on Thursday, they said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pledged Wednesday to immediately expel any Israeli citizens identified within the Southeast Asian country, as federal agencies look into allegations that Israelis joined an international technology retreat located in the Muslim-majority nation. “If we find any Israeli, we will deport them immediately because we do not recognize Israel,” Ibrahim said during an interview with English-language news outlet Free Malaysia Today, as quoted by JNS. Addressing reports alleging that Israeli citizens holding dual nationality had entered the country, Ibrahim warned that passport holders from the Jewish state “will be deported if the allegations are proven true.” He added that “all relevant agencies are already conducting investigations.”

Twenty-nine countries on Thursday signed an agreement to establish ​the World AI Cooperation Organization, ‌an intergovernmental body China says aims to promote international cooperation and global ​governance in artificial intelligence. Representatives from ​the 29 countries, including Russia, Belarus, ⁠Serbia, Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela, ​as well as 10 African ​and 12 Asian countries, signed the agreement as founding members. The organization’s headquarters will be ​located in Shanghai, Chinese state ​agency Xinhua said.

That secret number is called the GDID, or Global Device Identifier. It is a unique 64-bit string assigned to every Windows installation when you set up your PC and sign in with a Microsoft Account. It acts like a permanent, invisible license plate for your specific machine. However, a VPN cannot alter the way your operating system behaves at the machine level. Your GDID remains attached to background data your PC shares directly with Microsoft (known as telemetry). If investigators or tech companies track your online activity, they can match the encrypted traffic running through a VPN to the exact GDID sending that data from your computer, easily unmasking you.

Ask Claude to make a pamphlet critical of President Donald Trump or Britain’s King Charles III, and Anthropic’s chatbot would oblige. Prompted to do the same for Thailand’s king, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince or China’s leader, and the artificial intelligence model declined. It is a key finding from a Meta Oversight Board study released Thursday, showing that major AI systems, including those built in the U.S., are more likely to refuse to criticize restrictive leaders or governments. It raises concerns that the large language models powering chatbots and AI agents could be regurgitating and spreading government influence over online speech as the technology is increasingly adopted worldwide. “There is a real risk that, if model developers do not undertake human rights due diligence and implement mitigation measures, they will build AI infrastructure that, intentionally or not, has the effect of extending illegitimate restrictions on freedom of expression globally,” according to the report from the quasi-independent body.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, researchers have identified concerning changes in the eye’s cornea following administration of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, raising new questions about possible long-term effects on vision. The study, conducted by scientists in Turkey and published in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology, tracked alterations in the endothelium—the delicate inner layer of the cornea responsible for maintaining clarity by regulating fluid. In a cohort of 64 participants, measurements taken before the first dose and approximately 75 days after the second dose revealed notable shifts that could signal stress on these critical cells.

Heavy smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada enveloped a swath ​of the U.S. from the Midwest to the Northeast on Thursday, prompting warnings from officials that residents should stay indoors wherever possible ‌and avoid the acrid, unhealthy air. Detroit registered the worst air quality of any city in the world on Thursday, according to monitoring company IQAir, with a pollutant index of 600, twice the level considered “hazardous” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal data showed dangerous levels of smoke across Minnesota, Michigan, northern Illinois, northern Ohio and into Ontario, with hazardous readings in such major cities as Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Toronto. Ten states ​reported at least some locations with an "unhealthy" reading, stretching from Minnesota to as far south as Maryland.