5 Big News Stories Overnight - Friday, July 10, 2026

The Fight Over Hormuz Boils Down to One Poorly Worded Clause in Trump’s Deal

The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz and relieve the pressure on the global economy. Instead, it set off a test of wills that has exploded into violence twice in the past two weeks.

The root of the dispute is Paragraph 5, which says Iran will make arrangements to restore shipping through the strategic waterway and then work with Oman to determine how to administer it in the future. But it also includes an Iranian pledge to ensure safe passage and remove military obstacles such as mines.

Trump administration officials saw that clause as unlocking the strait, the main accomplishment of the president’s deal. Iranian hard-liners, however, have used it to push a maximalist interpretation that gives the Islamic Republic exclusive control over the waterway as a key source of leverage.

The U.S. and its Arab Gulf allies don’t want Iranian hegemony over Hormuz, the lifeline for much of the world’s oil and gas supply. The language of the deal has left the two sides fighting over that point rather than making progress on a final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. 

PHOTO: USCENTCOM

Africa CDC warns of ‘fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever’ as DR Congo death toll climbs to 600

France 24 reports:

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now claimed 600 lives, figures published by the World Health Organization showed Thursday – only three days after the figure topped 500.

Updated numbers issued by the UN health agency showed there have been 1,759 confirmed cases in DR Congo since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, including 600 confirmed deaths.

Two other people have died in neighbouring Uganda, where 17 patients have recovered out of 20 total confirmed cases.

"The outbreak continues to expand, and its true scale has not yet been fully established," Anne Ancia, the WHO's representative in the DRC, said Tuesday.

PHOTO: United Nations

Tehran hits Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar after deadly US strikes

Al Jazeera reports:

Iran says it attacked “US bases and strategic centres” in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar after the US bombed Iranian cities for a second consecutive night.

The US attacks have killed 14 people and wounded 78 over two days with blasts reported in Iranian cities along the Strait of Hormuz, including Bushehr, Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Sirik.

US President Donald Trump says the strikes were “retribution” for alleged Iranian attacks on ships transiting Hormuz.

Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad today after millions of people attended funeral processions in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.

PHOTO: Artin Bakhan, Usplash FILE

A $3.2 Trillion Deal-Making Frenzy Is Spurred by the A.I. Economy

The New York Times reports:

An ebullient stock market, huge bets on artificial intelligence and an open regulatory environment have fueled one of the biggest six-month booms in deal-making in years.

Through the end of June, there were about $3.2 trillion in global deals, a 45 percent jump from a year earlier, according to Dealogic, a data provider. That was the most spent on deal-making over a half-year period in at least a decade.

The frenzy heavily favored large companies, with 44 deals announced that were larger than $10 billion, including takeovers and large-scale fund-raising in the private markets. Those blockbusters pushed the overall value of deals higher even though the total number of transactions fell about 1 percent from last year, as companies with less financial firepower or those more vulnerable to geopolitical uncertainties stayed on sidelines.

Executives of many large companies, however, have brushed aside the uncertainties posed by tariffs and the war in the Middle East to pursue takeovers that are more likely to be approved by regulators under the Trump administration than they were during previous administrations.

Florida’s Palm Beach airport renamed for Trump

CNBC reports:

The airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, has officially been renamed after President Donald Trump, the first time an airport has been named after a sitting U.S. president.

Effective Thursday, the facility will be called President Donald J. Trump International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The airport — formerly Palm Beach International Airport — said in an FAQ posted online that “updates to signage, branding and public‑facing materials, will occur in phases.”

As part of the transition, the airport’s FAA locational identifier will change from PBI to DJT. The International Air Transport Association code change is set to occur on Aug. 18.