According to a statement from the Department of Energy, Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed \u201ca peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement\u201d and \u201can accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question of what those safeguards look like, given the potential for enriched uranium to be used to make nuclear weapons, will be closely scrutinized when the agreement is sent to Congress for review.<\/p>\n
The two agreements, the press release said, \u201clay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese agreements reflect our two nations\u2019 shared commitment to strengthening U.S.-Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at home and security to our allies abroad,\u201d Wright said in a statement. \u201cRest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world\u2019s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
As our colleague Patrick Wintour reported<\/a> earlier:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe timing of the announcement is controversial as the US\u2019s war with Iran<\/a> is being fought in part to prevent Tehran enriching uranium domestically and make it near-impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n The US-Saudi deal is expected to last 30 years and involve US firms such as Westinghouse in developing the programme.<\/p>\n It could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia after a joint US-Saudi study. The proposal has been in discussion for years. At one point the Biden administration wanted to condition Saudi Arabia\u2019s access to the technology on normalising relations with Israel, something Saudi Arabia is still refusing to do.<\/p>\n The plan is expected to be submitted to Congress for review, where it could face opposition among lawmakers who fear a lack of monitoring safeguards to restrict Saudi Arabia\u2019s uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a017.28 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n At a Donald Trump<\/a> event in Marietta, Georgia, the state\u2019s Republican candidate for governor Rick Jackson pledged to ask the Georgia legislature to match the $1,000 federal contribution to childhood Trump investment accounts, and if they failed to do so, would match the figure himself.<\/p>\n \u201cHere in Georgia, we should not stope with $1000,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI believe our legislature will approve that. If they don\u2019t I will personally donate it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson is the founder of Jackson Healthcare, a medical staffing company. His personal net worth has been estimated to be more than $3 billion.<\/p>\n In 2024, the state of Georgia recorded a bit more than 126,000 live births, which equates to $126 million in annual contributions for Trump accounts. Georgia began the 2026 fiscal year with an unprecedented budget cushion of about $15 billion in the bank, with $9 billion in unrestricted funds. This surplus resulted from conservative budgeting that began in 2021 as a reaction to pandemic pressures. That money has become an intense political question, with Republicans<\/a> looking for ways to provide property tax relief while Democrats arguing for a broader investment in health care and child care support.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n As the US strikes again targets in Iran in retaliation for that nation\u2019s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claim to have attacked<\/a> two Saudi \u2060oil tankers for violating a blockade near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint for oil exports transiting the Red Sea.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen, led a military intervention in 2015, triggering a year-long civil war to prop up Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said in an alert<\/a> issued on Wednesday night it \u201chas received a report of an incident 70NM southwest of AL SHUQAIQ, Saudi Arabia. The Master of a tanker reports being struck by an unknown projectile which has caused a fire onboard that the crew are currently fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, responded to news of the Houthi attacks by writing on social media<\/a>: \u201cEveryone saw all of this coming. This chaos was totally foreseeable and Trump chose to start this war anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a018.38 EDT<\/p>\n Trump boasts about helping defeat Jon Ossoff in 2017 special election, fails to mention his role in Ossoff’s Senate win in 2021<\/p>\n During his 75-minute address to supporters in Georgia on Wednesday, Donald Trump took some time out from boasting about what he calls his many accomplishments to attack Jon Ossoff, the incumbent Democratic senator whose withering criticism of the president has thrilled Democrats and led to calls for Ossoff to mount a 2028 presidential campaign, should he first win his reelection bid in November.<\/p>\n \u201cI fought Ossoff before, as you know, and we won. We had a great success against this guy,\u201d Trump said, fondly recalling his role in Ossoff\u2019s narrow loss in a 2017 special election in Georgia\u2019s sixth congressional district, in what was then a Republican-dominated Atlanta suburb.<\/p>\n \u201cHe reminds me of Pinky Herman,\u201d the president said. \u201cDo you ever see Pinky Herman?\u201d Trump asked, a comment that prompted some laughter from his supporters in the hall, and a scramble, among journalists, to figure out what, exactly, he was talking about.<\/p>\n It was not until fully thirteen minutes later, when Trump predicted that Ossoff\u2019s Republican challenger, Mike Collins, is \u201cgoing to beat Pee-wee Herman\u201d, that the 80-year-old president\u2019s reference to the character played by the late comic actor Paul Reubens four decades ago became clear.<\/p>\n For a president who rose to power largely through his insult-comic hits on his political opponents, it was a peculiarly low-energy jibe, given that Ossoff, who was once as skinny as the Reubens character, has now bulked up, and speaks about the president in a tone of righteous indignation that bears no resemblance to Pee-wee\u2019s squeaky voice.<\/p>\n Trump made no mention at all of the prominent role he played in trying, and failing, to stop Ossoff from winning his Senate seat in a run-off election on 5 January, 2021.<\/p>\n The night before that election, in which Democratic senator Raphael Warnock also won his seat, Trump had traveled to Georgia to speak at a rally for the two Republican candidates, senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.<\/p>\n Rather than urging voters to support the Republican candidates, Trump instead undermined confidence in the electoral system in remarks focused mainly on his claim that the presidential election just two months earlier had been stolen from him.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, Georgia! By the way, there is no way we lost Georgia. There\u2019s no way, \u2026 That was a rigged election\u201d Trump began his speech that night.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you win in a landslide, and they steal it, and it\u2019s rigged, it\u2019s not acceptable,\u201d he told the crowd, hours before Republican turnout slumped and Ossoff and Warnock were elected, swinging control of the Senate to the Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n Donald Trump with then-senator Kelly Loeffler at a rally in Dalton, Georgia on 4 January 2021, the night before Republicans lost a pair of Senate runoffs as Trump claimed that elections in the state were \u201crigged\u201d, despite being administered by Republican officials. Photograph: Sandy Huffaker\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a>US announces nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that could enable kingdom to enrich uranium<\/p>\n The Trump administration signed a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that could enable the kingdom to enrich its own uranium for nuclear reactors, US Energy secretary Chris Wright said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a statement from the Department of Energy, Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed \u201ca peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement\u201d and \u201can accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n The question of what those safeguards look like, given the potential for enriched uranium to be used to make nuclear weapons, will be closely scrutinized when the agreement is sent to Congress for review.<\/p>\n The two agreements, the press release said, \u201clay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese agreements reflect our two nations\u2019 shared commitment to strengthening U.S.-Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at home and security to our allies abroad,\u201d Wright said in a statement. \u201cRest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world\u2019s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n As our colleague Patrick Wintour reported<\/a> earlier:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe timing of the announcement is controversial as the US\u2019s war with Iran<\/a> is being fought in part to prevent Tehran enriching uranium domestically and make it near-impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n The US-Saudi deal is expected to last 30 years and involve US firms such as Westinghouse in developing the programme.<\/p>\n It could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia after a joint US-Saudi study. The proposal has been in discussion for years. At one point the Biden administration wanted to condition Saudi Arabia\u2019s access to the technology on normalising relations with Israel, something Saudi Arabia is still refusing to do.<\/p>\n The plan is expected to be submitted to Congress for review, where it could face opposition among lawmakers who fear a lack of monitoring safeguards to restrict Saudi Arabia\u2019s uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a017.28 EDT<\/p>\n The US House of Representatives passed a $1.15tn defense policy bill in a near-party-line vote on Wednesday, after Democrats refused to back the measure amid the war with Iran and Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s push to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.<\/p>\n A key plank of the president\u2019s plan<\/a> to spend $1.5tn on the military in the 2027 fiscal year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the Republican-controlled chamber by a 216-212 vote, with nearly all Democrats opposing its passage. The measure now goes to the Senate.<\/p>\n Congress passes the NDAA each year with bipartisan margins, with the measure\u2019s high cost seen as necessary to make generational investments in the military.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time in 40 years, we\u2019ve been presented a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence. This topline begins to reverse the damage caused by decades of underinvestment in the US military<\/a>,\u201d Mike Rogers, the House armed services committee chair, said before the vote.<\/p>\n But the path to enactment for this year\u2019s NDAA has been complicated by the president\u2019s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress. Last week, Senate Democrats blocked<\/a> the advancement of that chamber\u2019s version of the NDAA in protest of the war, which has flared anew after a memorandum of understanding meant to spur peace talks collapsed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Trump rails against specter of ‘communism’ to supporters in Georgia<\/p>\n Donald Trump is currently delivering what is supposedly a presidential address to promote a new domestic policy, namely the investment accounts for children he calls Trump accounts, but, surrounded by supporters in Marietta, Georgia, his remarks quickly became deeply partisan, repeatedly attacking Democrats and falsely claiming the party is now filled with \u201ccommunists\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump, whose political mentor<\/a> Roy Cohn led senator Joseph McCarthy\u2019s 1950s witch hunts for imaginary communist infiltrators in the US government, made the wild claim that Democrats he called \u201ccommunists by another name\u201d want to blow up Mount Rushmore. He then proclaimed: \u201cwe declare again today that the United States of America will never be a communist country!\u201d The crowd, led by a group of die-hard Trump supporters who call themselves Front Row Joes, for their repeated presence at his rallies, broke into a chant of \u201cUSA! USA!\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump dances after speaking at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, on 22 July. Photograph: Saul Loeb\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a017.05 EDT<\/p>\n As I noted earlier, the parents of Lt Tyler Feehan accompanied Trump from Dover to Georgia aboard Air Force One, after the president attended a dignified transfer for four service members killed in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Trump addressed Feehan\u2019s family and their loss in his remarks today. \u201c[Feehan] was a person that was going all the way. He was going to be a general. He would have been a general very quickly. He was heading in that path,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Donald Trump has started speaking in Marietta, Georgia. He started his speech joking that he was announces his candidacy for another term in office.<\/p>\n Despite insisting that he was only \u201ckidding\u201d, it is something that the president has routinely floated \u2013\u00a0even though a third term would be in direct violation of the US constitution.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.55 EDT<\/p>\n US measles cases hit 35-year high according to new data<\/p>\n The number of measles cases in the US has hit a 35-year high according to new data released by Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n According to the tracker, there have been 2,295 cases of measles in 2026, as of 21 July.<\/p>\n This number is already higher than the 2,286 reported throughout the whole of 2025, and the highest level since 1991.<\/p>\n The grim milestone is also the most cases reported in a single year since the disease was declared eliminated <\/a>in the US in 2000.<\/p>\n Unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status represent almost all reported measles cases, according to Johns Hopkins.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh vaccination coverage has protected even the un- and undervaccinated because of herd protection, keeping measles at bay for the past few decades,\u201d said William Moss, an epidemiology professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. \u201cBut in communities with pockets of susceptible individuals across a broad age range, measles has been able to take hold, infecting those who are susceptible and spreading rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMeasles vaccines are extremely safe and effective,\u201d Moss added. \u201cGetting you or your child vaccinated is the best way to protect against disease.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Olivares<\/p>\n The Mexican man who was hit and killed<\/a> by a semi-truck in Florida<\/a> when running away from federal immigration officials was vacationing in the US with a tourist visa, according to news reports this week.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old, Juan Jairo Coronilla Dur\u00e1n, was killed on 14 July after an \u201cencounter\u201d with federal officials, including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>), a state highway patrol spokesperson said last week.<\/p>\n After federal officials approached him and a group of four men at a gas station that Tuesday morning, they all took off running. The Florida<\/a> highway patrol spokesperson said Coronilla ran into traffic and was hit by a semi-truck.<\/p>\n Coronilla\u2019s death is one of the four ICE-related deaths that took place in less than one week. Two people, one in Texas and one in Maine, were shot and killed<\/a> by ICE officers. And a fourth person died in ICE custody, while being transferred to an immigration detention center in Georgia. The four deaths have led to renewed calls by the public and lawmakers to reign in ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they carry out<\/a> the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive \u201cmass deportation\u201d campaign promise.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Here’s a recap of the day so far<\/p>\n Ahead of Trump\u2019s arrival in Georgia, here\u2019s what\u2019s happened today.<\/p>\n On Capitol Hill, Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, defended the Trump administration\u2019s unremitting \u201ctariff spree\u201d and insisted that prices for American families have not increased in the wake of the president\u2019s duties on several countries. During a heated back and forth with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, Greer noted that \u201ccore inflation fell to 2.6 % year on year \u2013 much better than in January 2025.\u201d While this metric excludes food and energy, overall inflation is actually around o.5% higher than it was when Trump took office.<\/p>\n Trump attended the dignified transfer today of four US service members killed in the Middle East. It was the third ceremony that the president has attended since he launched the war in Iran<\/a> in February. Speaking to reporters on his way to Dover, Trump called it \u201cone of the hardest things to do as a president.\u201d His message to grieving families, he said, will simply be \u201cwe love you, we love your child\u201d.<\/p>\n Earlier, the president took to Truth Social and noted that the US will destroy one bridge or power plant, including those near Tehran, \u201cany time\u201d that Iran \u201cshoots a ship\u201d in the strait of Hormuz. This comes after the US conducted its 11th consecutive day of strikes on Iran, with the war showing no sign if easing.<\/p>\n Senate Republicans<\/a> have also released the text for the Clarity act today \u2013 the legislation that would ban public officials from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrency or digital assets. The bill\u2019s guardrails would apply to the president, vice-president, members of Congress, federal judges and their spouses, and wouldn\u2019t expire until January 2029 \u2013 the end of Trump\u2019s term. The bill is one of the first major attempts to shape cryptocurrency use for those in office, and comes after the president\u2019s financial disclosures revealed the president took in more than $1bn from his crypto businesses<\/a> since returning to the White House.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the House, Republican speaker Mike Johnson is desperate to pass the framework for a budget bill that would guarantee funding for the war with Iran. The legislation, which GOP leaders are hoping to pass by reconciliation and avoid the Senate filibuster, faces an array of challenges, including from fiscal hawks who complain that its expected $95bn cost is not offset by any spending cuts, and other Republicans upset that it does not answer the Trump administration\u2019s request for an extra $350bn in defense spending. Johnson can only afford to lose two votes in his quest to pass the package.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a016.00 EDT<\/p>\n Melody Schreiber<\/p>\n A series of health challenges \u2013 hantavirus<\/a>, screwworm<\/a>, Ebola<\/a>, cyclospora<\/a>, measles<\/a>, whooping cough<\/a>, bird flu<\/a> \u2013 are exposing the widening gaps in America\u2019s ability to prevent, identify and halt infectious disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n The rapid dismantling of the US public health system at all levels means the US is in worse shape than it was before the Covid pandemic, former top CDC officials say.<\/p>\n The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lost<\/a> much of its funding for battling parasites, which are notable global killers, in the last year. Experts were tasked with monitoring potential outbreaks<\/a> \u2013 such as a previously rare parasite called cyclospora \u2013 around the US and the world, lending expertise to help stop crises in their tracks.<\/p>\n But their funding was decimated, and many people at the CDC were<\/a> laid off<\/a> or resigned without being replaced.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we ready for the next big pandemic? My answer is no,\u201d said Dan Jernigan, the former director of the CDC\u2019s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n Debra Houry, the former chief medical officer of the CDC, told the Guardian: \u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019re really moving in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Some 80% of senior leadership positions at the CDC still have no permanent officials appointed, and between 25 and 30% of the CDC\u2019s entire staff are gone.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are boots on the ground,\u201d Houry said. \u201cWhen you have Ebola, hantavirus, measles, and throw cyclospora in there \u2013 staffers were already spread thin, and now they\u2019re spread even more thin.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full report: <\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n As we noted earlier, Trump is now headed to Marietta, Georgia, where he\u2019ll deliver remarks at a local high school at 3pm ET. We\u2019ll bring you the latest as that gets under way.<\/p>\n In the meantime, a White House official says that the family of 1Lt Tyler James Feehan, one of the US soldiers killed during Iranian strikes in Jordan, will be flying with the president and his team. Feehan\u2019s family are from Georgia, the official notes, and the president \u201coffered to give them a ride home\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Senate Republicans<\/a> have also released the text for the Clarity act today \u2013 the legislation that would ban public officials from issuing or sponsoring cryptocurrency or digital assets.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s guardrails would apply to the president, vice-president, members of Congress, federal judges and their spouses, and wouldn\u2019t expire until January 2029 \u2013 the end of Donald Trump\u2019s term.<\/p>\n It also requires officials to either sell their crypto holdings and investments in crypto companies or place them in a blind trust they are not able to control.<\/p>\n The bill is one of the first major attempts to shape cryptocurrency use for those in office.<\/p>\n A reminder that Trump took in more than $1bn from his crypto businesses<\/a> since returning to the White House, according to recent financial disclosures. They showed the president earned more than $500m from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, while another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600m from sales of souvenir-type \u201cmeme\u201d coins stamped with Trump\u2019s face that launched days before his inauguration.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.30 EDT<\/p>\n Also today, top Democrat Chuck Schumer plans to seek unanimous consent to pass his Presidential Airlift Security Act, which would stop the Pentagon from spending more to modify, restore, or maintain the Boeing 747-8 gifted by the government of Qatar, which Donald Trump<\/a> has started to use as the new Air Force One.<\/p>\n Republicans previously blocked the legislation, introduced by the Senate minority leader, last year.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Trump admitted that his jet \u2013 valued at close to $400m \u2013 cannot match the defensive armor of a true presidential aircraft, telling reporters it will soon be grounded and \u201cmaxed out\u201d with the protections it was never built with.<\/p>\n This comes after the New York Times<\/a> reported that the new plane lacks defensive systems fitted to the purpose-built Air Force One fleet, including infrared countermeasures to divert heat-seeking missiles and sensors to detect incoming launches.<\/p>\n The president flew the jet to Ankara, Turkey for the Nato summit earlier this month but switched to an older, more heavily defended aircraft for his return to the US \u2013 at the advice of the Secret Service.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Earlier today, ahead of attending a dignified transfer of US service members who died in the Middle East, Trump claimed that a new poll just claimed that while \u201cAmericans don\u2019t want high gasoline prices but they\u2019re not against the war\u201d. However, the president didn\u2019t elaborate on who published the new data.<\/p>\n For context, a recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll actually found that only 29% of Americans approve of Trump\u2019s conduct in overseeing the war with Iran.<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784761389_863_George-Chidi.jpg\")
George Chidi<\/p>\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Chris_Stein.png\")
Chris Stein<\/p>\n