Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
As renewed hostilities between Iran and the U.S. and its allies enter a 10th day, the Houthi rebels of Yemen say they are imposing an embargo on Saudi oil shipments passing through the Bab el-Mandeb (BAM) Strait. The move threatens to add further pressure on oil exports from the Middle East, already drastically affected by the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day through pipelines to its Yanbu port on the Red Sea in an effort to minimize the energy shortages due to the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. This also raises the specter of the U.S. having to get as involved as it did during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September, which could pull resources away from Iranian-focused operations.
BREAKING: Houthis of Yemen announce a a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia, “effective immediately.”
Saudi Arabia has until now exported ~4.5m b/d from Yanbu in the Red Sea, most of it heading South throughout the Bab al-Mandab Strait between Yemen and Djibouti-Eritrea pic.twitter.com/c96Apzh9As
On Monday, Kuwait said it came under Iranian fire again.
“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks following the heinous Iranian aggression,” the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry stated on X. “The General Staff of the Army notes that any sounds of explosions heard are a result of air defense systems intercepting hostile attacks. Everyone is urged to adhere to the security and safety instructions issued by the relevant authorities.”
Hours earlier, Bahrain said it too had come under a new wave of Iranian attacks.
“The General Command of the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) announces that Iran is continuing its systematic hostility approach through its sinister attacks targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” BDF posted on X. “The General Command clarifies that, with strong will and high combat readiness, the air defense systems attacked, intercepted and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian air strikes today, Monday, July 20, 2026.”
The extent of the damage in either Kuwait or Bahrain is unclear at the moment. These most recent attacks came after U.S. Central Command on Sunday night said it wrapped up a ninth straight day of strikes on Iranian assets, targeting “military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” the command stated on X.
Amid this kinetic activity, as we noted earlier in this story, the Iranian-backed Houthis say they will no longer permit Saudi Arabian ships passage through from the Red Sea into the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of an ‘eye for an eye,’ effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement,” the Houthis stated on Monday, according to the official Houthi SABA media outlet. The move follows increased tensions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia as well as a request by Iran “to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure,” Reuters reported last week. “The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies.”
⚡️BREAKING: Yemen’s Houthis have announced a Naval Blockade on Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea
This move essentially Cuts OFF Saudi oil exports through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait pic.twitter.com/gqV8E5hfq1
Houthi forces on Monday reportedly began issuing warnings on open maritime frequencies near Yemen that the BAM is closed to Saudi shipping and its vessels are subject to attack.
Houthi forces are reportedly issuing warnings on open maritime frequencies near Yemen that the Bab al-Mandab Strait is closed to Saudi shipping. pic.twitter.com/MD0KhmTmJ5
A Houthi shut down of the Bab el-Mandeb (BAM) Strait, a narrow stretch of water between Yemen and Djibouti, would choke off the flow of oil exports from Saudi Arabia, exacerbating the above-mentioned impingement on the flow of oil from the closed Strait of Hormuz.
Having both straits closed at once is something of a ‘sum of all fears’ scenario for the global energy marketplace.
“The full closure of the BAM would cut global oil supply by 7% as it would leave most Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region,” Reuters noted on Monday. “The disruption would add to the massive cut to global oil flows from the war in the Gulf, which has already reduced shipments by 10% of global supply.”
You can read more about the effects of both straits being closed at once in our story about that here.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a strategic chokepoint where the Houthis declared they have imposed an embargo on Saudi shipping. (Google Earth) The Bab al-Mandab Strait between Yemen and Djibouti has become a dangerous chokepoint of Houthi attacks. (Google Earth image)
Beyond affecting the flow of oil, a Houthi blockade on the BAM threatens to open a new front in this conflict.
The Houthis carried out a campaign against shipping in November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians over the latest war between Israel and Gaza. However, while it was ostensibly aimed at only Israeli connected ships, numerous commercial vessels with no clear Israeli ties were attacked as were several U.S. and allied warships. The campaign stretched into the summer of 2025, forcing some vessels to avoid the Suez Canal for a far longer route around Africa, boosting shipping costs by nearly $200 billion at the time.
The Houthi attacks also forced the U.S. and allies to deploy many warships, including the Eisenhower and Truman Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) to both defend against Houthi attacks and strike targets in Yemen. These operations resulted in a large expenditure of air defense and strike munitions.
You can see video of some of those encounters below.
WATCH: CENTCOM releases footage as US HAMMERS Iran
The possibility exists that a new wave of Houthi attacks — especially if non-Saudi ships are targeted — could drag in U.S. forces already in heavy use in the Persian Gulf region battling the Iranians. This sets up a major showdown as Saudi oil is a lifeline to Asian supplies hobbled by conflict in the Persian Gulf. We reached out to CENTCOM for comment and will update this story with any pertinent details shared.
Earlier on Monday, the head of the European-led task force providing maritime security in the Red Sea region told us the Houthis remain a threat to navigation despite not having attacked any merchant vessels since September 2025.
“The security situation in the Bab el-Mandeb remains fragile and is highly sensitive to regional escalation,” Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, Commander of EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, told TWZ. “On the rhetorical level, the Houthis’ leadership reiterated several times their alignment with the broader Axis of Resistance.”
Gryparis’s comments, in response to a query from last week about Iran’s outreach to the Houthis, came before the Yemeni group’s embargo declaration.
“From an operational standpoint, we assess that the Houthis pose a threat and are capable of rapidly escalating,” the ASPIDES commander told us. “We maintain a frequent presence at sea, monitor the situation, and adjust our actions when needed. In the event of a resumption of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels, which remains a possibility, we are present and ready to implement our mandate, within our means and capabilities. ASPIDES remains ready, within its defensive mandate, to adapt to evolving operational requirements.”
A French destroyer operating under EUNAVFOR ASPIDES provided support to a commercial vessel transiting the Red Sea region. (ASPIDES)
Being drawn into defending against a new Houthi campaign on shipping in the Red Sea region would exacerbate the strain on U.S. forces already under tremendous pressure from Iran. In addition to defending against ongoing barrages, the U.S. has committed about 20 U.S. warships, along with hundreds of aircraft dispersed across various bases, vessels, and forward arming and refueling points in the Middle East, to maintaining the newly reimposed blockade on Iranian ports. Moving these assets to another prologned shooting match in the Red Sea would degrade those capabilities and the ability to support a war effort should it fully erupt. It’s a capacity issue.
Expanding the fight against Iran is already in discussion by the Trump administration.
“The U.S. is planning for a wider war,” a U.S. official familiar with internal administration discussions told The Washington Post.
But the official cautioned that “the expansion of U.S. operations will be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defense and long-range munitions and constraints on the ability to surge more troops and aircraft into the area because of battle damage,” the newspaper continued.
“We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that,” the Post said the official added.
One notable detail from The Washington Post’s reporting: even as the Pentagon prepares for the possibility of a broader conflict with Iran, one U.S. official warned that the campaign could be constrained by dwindling stocks of air defense interceptors and long-range munitions,… https://t.co/Xo9A6yNFnppic.twitter.com/dKEN3IGNUr
All this comes as there are increasing signs of damage at U.S. facilities in the Middle East from Iranian barrages. Though largely spared in the initial phases of Epic Fury due to robust air defenses, the airfield at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan has taken the brunt of recent attacks, while several other installations have been hit as well.
The air base has long been a major regional hub for U.S. operations, and is being very actively utilized in the current conflict. It hosts the greatest concentration of U.S. tactical aircraft in the region, and thus is an extremely important target, where, as we pointed out, even one ballistic missile landing on an apron could destroy multiple prized aircraft and take the lives of U.S. service members or cause injuries.
Satellite imagery has emerged on social media purporting to show the extent of the damage at MSAB. The following shows what is claimed to be before and after views of strikes on aircraft hangars and containerized housing units. The imagery is provided by Iran and, because U.S. satellite firms do not collect over American facilities, we cannot independently confirm what is being depicted.
Before-and-after imagery shows at least two dozen containerized living units housing U.S. troops completely destroyed by Iranian strikes at 31°49′57″N, 36°47′47″E.
Two U.S. service members were killed at this site, while a third remains missing. pic.twitter.com/sqPOxhGTLr
Beyond damage, the number of troops killed and injured in Iranian attacks is rising. On Monday, the Pentagon identified two soldiers killed in action.
“1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, was killed in action on July 18, 2026, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, was killed in action on July 17, 2026, during an enemy attack on July 17, 2026, at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The incident is under investigation.”
Both soldiers worked for air defense units. Feehan was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Gonzales was assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command, Ansbach, Germany.
BREAKING: The Pentagon has identified the soldiers killed in action from Iranian attacks in Jordan as 19-year-old Pvt. Isabella Gonzales and 25-year-old 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan.
1st Lt. Feehan was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 32nd Army Air… pic.twitter.com/3PFpnMcOVZ
Today’s identifications came after CENTCOM on Saturday reported that two U.S. service members in Jordan were killed in action on July 17. Additionally, the command said one service member was currently missing, but later said unidentified remains were found.
CENTCOM also reported on Sunday that “a U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. A second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury.”
We have asked CENTCOM and the Army to confirm that Feehan was the soldier killed in Iraq during the controlled detonation or if he was killed in another incident.
It should be noted that in announcing the identities of Feehan and Gonzales, the Pentagon said they died in support of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), which is the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. We asked the Pentagon for clarity and they deferred us to CENTCOM, which has yet to respond.
“In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three other strikes against U.S. forces in the country,” the paper explained. “Those attacks injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted.”
The episode “is the latest example during the Iran conflict of the tension between what the Pentagon says is the need for operational security and the government’s obligation to inform the public about the conduct of the war,” the Times proffered.
The Pentagon pushed back on that claim, rejecting it as “baseless and malicious.”
The Department of War rejects these baseless and malicious accusations of hiding injury numbers as outright lies from partisan hacks at the New York Times who are desperate to smear America’s military and its leadership.
Still, despite the increasing violence, both the U.S. and Iran have suggested that further diplomacy to end the fighting is possible. This is even as both sides declared the ceasefire over and Iranians last week said they would no longer negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding on a possible peace deal.
“You can’t have an MOU that’s alive if they’re violating the terms,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters. “The U.S. always remains open to a diplomatic solution. We’ve tried multiple times with Iran and we’ll continue to try… but their behavior is what we’re responding to — and their behavior is they’re launching missiles and drones against ships.”
.@SecRubio: “You can’t have an MOU that’s alive if they’re violating the terms… The U.S. always remains open to a diplomatic solution. We’ve tried multiple times with Iran and we’ll continue to try… but their behavior is what we’re responding to — and their behavior is… https://t.co/SIYaJOeAHKpic.twitter.com/qv4THvFqRg
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 20, 2026
“Proposals were put forward by the mediators, we were informed of them, and we received them,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said during a press conference. “However, let me not go into details right now. The gist of the matter is that the diplomatic mission has been actively working these days, and some ideas from a number of mediators have reached us—yes, this is confirmed.”
FM Spox: Peace is not a luxury item stored away in the vault of int’l relations, waiting to be handed over. Rather, it is something that must be fought for. Peace comes at an exceptionally high price particularly in our region, where war is being normalized and forced upon us. pic.twitter.com/Ulpt2hPfl4
Still, Trump threatened to continue striking Iran should more U.S. forces be killed.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” the president proclaimed on Truth Social. “This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”
There are no new peace talks scheduled and it remains unclear if they will be. Meanwhile, the new Houthi blockade could deeply complicate an already highly-precarious situation in the Middle East.
UPDATE: 4:50 PM EDT –
CENTCOM announced the start of the 10th consecutive day of strikes on Iranian targets.
“Today at 4 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began a new round of strikes against Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” the command stated on X. “The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Today at 4 p.m. ET, U.S. forces began a new round of strikes against Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction. The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“U.S. forces struck Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial vessels flowing through the Strait of Hormuz,” the command stated on X. “Commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue. Since early May, CENTCOM forces have helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.”
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced it concluded another round of strikes against Iran at 9:00 p.m. ET on July 20, targeting military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems for the tenth consecutive night intending to… https://t.co/e6VYmo3vt6pic.twitter.com/A6b0lMqn4B
Freelance writer and editor Lucy Schiller bumped up against the issues of aging, eldercare and loneliness through her grandmothers. When the family pulled her maternal grandmother, Mary Ann, from assisted living during the pandemic, Schiller became her primary caregiver. Her paternal grandmother, Anita, was less fortunate; she contracted COVID-19 from a home healthcare aide and died in a hospital.
Book Review
Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old
By Lucy Schiller Flatiron Books: 272 pages, $30
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As she relates in “Aging Out,” the shock of Anita’s death was a factor in Schiller’s abrupt relocation from a central New York college town to Pittsburgh, where she knew no one. Schiller calls the move “a half-desperate plan to simply change the background scenery of my life for the millionth time.”
While grieving, scrambling to make a living, taking long walks with her dog and wrestling with her chosen solitude, Schiller embarks on a quest to understand the institutions and attitudes that shape old age in America. “What was the relationship between personal fear of oldness and the ways in which oldness was structured in society?” she asks.
The resulting book, a deliberately meandering account of her Steel City sojourn, weds memoir, travelogue, philosophical rumination and journalistic investigation. Schiller, an MFA graduate of the University of Iowa and now an assistant professor of nonfiction at Texas Tech University, is a fluid writer. But most of what she covers is well-trod ground.
It’s worth asking whom she envisions as her audience. Most older readers know this territory; younger ones have other, more pressing concerns, including how to afford life in the here-and-now.
Perhaps Schiller, a millennial in her 30s, hopes they will identify with her personal struggles. But her loneliness seems largely self-imposed, perhaps compounded by what she describes as “a severe strain” of obsessive-compulsive disorder. “It turns out, laughably, that an interest in privacy, and staying quiet about internal feelings, are hallmarks of this condition,” she writes, offering a partial explanation for her wariness of company.
Pondering the American way of aging, Schiller initially adopts a posture of ignorance and naivete so extreme that it seems like a pose. She puzzles out the distinctions among nursing homes, assisted living facilities and continuing care retirement communities, as well as home healthcare. And she underlines the fact that, when it comes to long-term care in the United States, only the relatively well-off have good choices. This isn’t exactly news.
Another Schiller inquiry involves the familiar complexities of Medicare. She notes that, as a public program for seniors, it is so inadequate that it requires private options, such as Medigap and Medicare Advantage, to paper over coverage gaps. Picking the best plan for one’s needs can be a daunting option, requiring trained help or careful study. Schiller attends an informational seminar by a broker for Medicare Advantage plans and decides, unhelpfully, that they are neither “a solution or a problem.”
Schiller’s reporting methods rely, to some extent, on serendipity. “I tended toward … a kind of diffuse sallying through the world, staying open to the coincidence, digression, and movement,” she writes. She calls the method “antinarrative.”
All that sallying takes her down some unexpected byways. She returns to a western Pennsylvania town called Harmony, where she once had “a horrible, endless date over crepes,” to investigate a strike over pay and working conditions at a troubled nursing home. That leads to a long discussion of the use of restraints on the elderly.
At one point, Schiller finds a company called Papa that employs younger “Pals” to assist older adults. With the backing of health insurance companies, the Pals provide companionship, transportation, housecleaning services and more. Schiller tries something similar as a volunteer for a health insurance company, reaching out to an elderly Black woman by phone. They stumble over time into an unlikely friendship.
One problem with all these efforts to mitigate old-age loneliness, Schiller notes, is that the loneliest generation is actually Gen Z. And the loneliness surveys themselves, she suggests, may be suspect.
Schiller delves, inevitably, into the history of AARP, an organization that even in its earliest days was entangled with the health insurance industry. And consumer advocate Ralph Nader, for whom she does some editing work, tips her to the story of activist Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers.
Kuhn, Schiller writes, understood “the tension between the social so-called nothingness of old age and its vibrant realities.” Which brings Schiller to the intersection of aging and disability, and to Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which provide community-based care as an alternative to nursing homes.
In the end, Schiller has a go at parsing her own motivations. “I had descended into the strange subterranean structures of aging, almost as a way to avoid the contemporary world … ,” she writes. “Age … was a helpful distancing tool: older people’s vulnerabilities, including those of my own grandparents, helped to distract me from my own present and future. … I still did not know how to seal over the gaping wound of the pandemic, how to move forward.”
For all her verbiage, she can find no easy fix, nor even a complicated one. “It was not possible for me to imagine a solution to the level of fragmentation, pain, and dysfunction I saw,” she writes, leaving readers without much justification for having followed her rambling, idiosyncratic quest.
Klein, a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia, has been a three-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
Vaughn Grissom drove in the tying run with a one-out double in the ninth inning and Jo Adell was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Angels a 3-2 comeback win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.
Nolan Schanuel, batting .367 since June 21, sparked the late rally with a one-out single off All-Star closer Riley O’Brien, who is tied for the National League lead with 25 saves.
Jorge Soler was hit by a pitch and Grissom sent a line drive off the right-field wall that eluded a leaping Jordan Walker. Pinch-runner Oswald Peraza scored from second base and pinch-runner Jose Siri reached third.
Josh Lowe was walked intentionally to load the bases. Adell, who homered in the third inning, took three straight balls from O’Brien (3-4) before getting plunked by the next pitch to force in the winning run.
Angels reliever José Fermín (3-1) struck out two in a scoreless ninth.
O’Brien’s fifth blown save laid to waste a strong start by St. Louis right-hander Kyle Leahy, who gave up one run and three hits in six innings. He struck out four and walked none.
Angels starter José Soriano threw his best game since early May, giving up two runs and four hits in seven innings while striking out seven and walking one.
The right-hander, who went 3-6 with a 5.15 ERA in his previous 14 starts, retired the side in order five times and became the first Angels starter to get an out in the seventh since June 16.
Walker sparked the Cardinals’ second-inning rally with a leadoff double over Lowe’s head in left field. He went to third on Lars Nootbaar’s single and scored on Nathan Church’s one-out single for a 1-0 lead.
Blaze Jordan followed with a potential inning-ending, double-play grounder to third base, but Denzer Guzman bobbled the ball and his only play was to first as Nootbaar scored for a 2-0 lead.
The Angels cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third when Adell, mired in an 0-for-24 slump that dropped his batting average to .237 entering the game, led off with his 14th homer of the season.
Up next: Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (5-6, 5.00 ERA) faces Angels RHP Walbert Ureña (5-7, 2.88) on Tuesday night.
1 of 3 | On July 21, 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, which pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, Tenn., in one of the great confrontations in legal history, ended with John Thomas Scopes convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of state law. UPI File Photo
July 21 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1861, the first major military engagement of the Civil War occurred at Bull Run Creek, Va.
In 1918, a German U-boat fired on the town of Orleans, Mass., on Cape Cod peninsula, damaging a tug boat and sinking four barges, and severely injuring one man. It was the only place in the United States to receive an enemy attack during World War I.
In 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, which pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, Tenn., in one of the great confrontations in legal history, ended with John Thomas Scopes convicted and fined $100 for teaching evolution in violation of state law.
In 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, lifted off from the moon in the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle and docked with the command module Columbia piloted by Michael Collins.
In 1970, after 11 years of construction, the massive Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt was completed, ending the cycle of flood and drought in the Nile River region but triggering an environmental controversy.
In 2000, a report from special counsel John Danforth cleared U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the government of wrongdoing in the April 19, 1993, fire that ended the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas.
In 2011, Greece continued efforts to climb out of a financial chasm with a second bailout pledge from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund worth $157 billion. Earlier, the nation dealt with its debt crisis with the help of a $146 billion loan package.
In 2024, President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid in the 2024 presidential race, formally endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump defeated Harris in November 2024 to win his second term in office.
In 2025, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced that it plans to follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender women from women’s sports.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
X-Bow Systems, a company that made its name making solid rocket motors and small space-launch vehicles, has unveiled a new low-cost drone interceptor, named Buckler. The interceptor promises high-speed and a unit cost of less than $100,000, a price point that has only been approached by drone-like systems, not modern supersonic missiles.
The Buckler — named after a small shield of the Medieval and Renaissance eras — is designed to defeat Group 3 drones. As we have explained before, under the U.S. military categorization system, Group 3 is a very broad middle tier of drones that covers designs that weigh anywhere from 56 to 1,320 pounds and can fly at up to 18,000 feet, at speeds of 250 knots or less.
Iran’s now-infamous Shahed-136 long-range one-way attack drone, variants and derivatives of which are now in service in Russia and with several Iranian-backed proxies, falls into the Group 3 category.
A view inside a Russian factory producing versions of the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone. Russian state media
While optimized for bringing down drones, the Buckler can also engage other aerial threats, including subsonic cruise missiles, under certain conditions. This is especially relevant as newer Shahed-derived designs, and many other long-range one-way attack munitions, increasingly blur the line between drones and low-end cruise missiles through the adoption of jet propulsion and higher-altitude flight profiles. Then there is the emerging group of low-cost cruise missiles being adopted in the United States and potential adversaries, as well as existing, more advanced types. Low-flying aircraft and helicopters would also likely be on the menu for this missile, even as a secondary capability.
The high speed of the missile also means that a single Buckler battery can engage targets more rapidly and respond faster over a given range. It also makes it possible for follow-up shots to be taken if an effector misses within a given timeframe.
The Buckler is one of the growing number of responses to the increasing threat of drone-and-missile barrages, which are exposing the limits of legacy air defense models. In conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, most notably, costly surface-to-air missile effectors are routinely expended, in significant quantities, against far cheaper incoming threats.
“This is our answer to the call from the U.S. and its allies: affordable capability at scale,” X-Bow Systems’ CEO Jason Hundley toldAxios.
“You can’t win a war of attrition trading million-dollar interceptors against thousand-dollar threats,” Hundley added.
The company is relying upon its own solid-rocket motor and propellant, allied with an airframe that’s also made in-house, which it says will bring down costs.
X-Bow Systems recently notched a successful flight test for the Buckler, the company says, demonstrating its propulsion system and flight characteristics after completing motor static-fire and igniter testing.
According to Axios, the Pentagon has also requested a briefing on the interceptor.
X-Bow is entering one of the fastest-growing segments of the defense industry. The company is already well established as a producer of solid rocket motors and, last year, secured a $105 million investment from Lockheed Martin to expand production and provide propulsion systems and related services.
The startup will now be hoping that the Buckler’s eye-catching price point of less than $100,000 per copy will set it apart among drone interceptors.
By way of comparison, the combat-proven RaytheonCoyote, in its Block 2 configuration, also primarily intended for the counter-drone mission, has a unit price of around $100,000, based on past reports. AeroVironment’s Freedom Eagle-1 (FE-1), which the U.S. Army picked last year to provide an additional layer of defense against longer-range one-way attack drones and other similarly sized uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), has a target unit cost of between $150,000 and $200,000. These are also notably slower and less responsive systems than the Buckler.
Freedom Eagle (FE-1) Next Gen C-UAS Missile
Toward the higher end of the scale, the cost of a Stinger short-range surface-to-air missile has historically been put at between $100,000 and $120,000, but reports in recent years have said that current-generation versions, including ones optimized for use against drones, can run up to $400,000.
As for the kinds of threats that these effectors are intended to destroy, Shahed-type drones are typically understood to have a unit cost range measured in tens of thousands of dollars.
The Buckler is also intended to bring benefits in terms of speed and scalability of production. This should ensure that production facilities are able to ramp up quickly and, in response to demand, be able to increase the output accordingly. Applying the vertical integration approach, the company says it can address the “industrial-base bottleneck defense leaders cite as the top constraint on scaling interceptors.”
As demand for advanced missile propulsion accelerates, traditional production can’t keep up. Discover how X-Bow is delivering scalable, rapid solutions for urgent national security needs. #TechThisOut with @waltmacpic.twitter.com/nzSbikCz7X
Whether Buckler can deliver on its promised combination of performance, affordability, and production scale remains to be seen. But with militaries around the world urgently seeking cheaper ways to counter drones and cruise missiles that are appearing in greater numbers, X-Bow is entering the market at a particularly opportune moment.
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This month, “Cool Machine,” a riff on 1980s New York in the form of a tightly plotted crime novel, arrives from Colson Whitehead. It concludes his Harlem trilogy, they say. If you’d told readers two decades ago that Whitehead would become a bestselling crime novelist, they might have thought you were kidding. He started out writing innovative novels with such intellectual and stylistic punch that the MacArthur Foundation gave him a fellowship in 2002.
His written output is fun, fearless and fantastic. Where to start? Here’s a cheat sheet.
For N.Y. lovers
With “Harlem Shuffle,” Whitehead begins his crime trilogy in the 1960s in a furniture store with stylish midcentury stock whose owner, Ray Carney, is trying not to be a fence. Love the evocation of Harlem as a place with a cool interconnected community. Worry about that cousin who’s always trouble. The follow-up, “Crook Manifesto,” is set in the 1970s. All of New York City is at a nadir; Ray is on the straight and narrow, but needs an influx of cash (for Jackson Five tickets for his daughter). Then comes “Cool Machine,” secrets to be revealed when it hit shelves this week . And as a bonus, his essay collection “The Colossus of New York,” which is vivid, episodic and yet still a story: “Talking about New York is talking about the world.”
To break your heart
The novel “The Underground Railroad” comes from an imagined misunderstanding, logical for anyone who grew up riding subways: that the path to freedom for enslaved people that we call The Underground Railroad was in fact underground. In Whitehead’s hands, that imagining takes us through both time and place while making visceral the horrors of enslavement. The book won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted by Barry Jenkins into a limited series.
In a rare feat, Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize a second time for his novel “The Nickel Boys,” another work of historical fiction dealing with the devastating effects of American racism. Based on the true story of a reform school where Black boys went missing, the novel pairs the stories of two teens, one a troublemaker and the other caught up by mistake. Barack Obama called it “a necessary read.” Cleverly structured, it seemed difficult to adapt, but director RaMell Ross made it into a brilliant film.
To blow your mind
In Whitehead’s debut novel, the not-realistic “The Intuitionist,” a Black female elevator inspector faces powerful forces aligned against her. Inflected with Thomas Pynchon-like wordplay and situations, it’s both ambitious and funny. So is “John Henry Days,” mixing narrative forms while telling the story of a Black journalist around the year 2000 going to every press junket he can, unmaking the myth of John Henry all the while. And “Apex Hides the Hurt” is a comic novel about the conflicts that arise in a small town when they hire a name consultant for a possible rebranding.
To eat your mind
Just around the time they started staggering onto TV, Colson Whitehead published a zombie novel. “Zone One” is a smart take on the shuffling hordes and pandemic survivors who try to take Manhattan back.
To beat the odds
Whitehead, an enthusiastic amateur poker player, wrote the nonfiction book “The Noble Hustle” about his entry into the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was a luxurious time in media, circa 2011, when ESPN’s Grantland paid his $10,000 entry fee and said he could keep his winnings. The book, expanded from what he wrote for them, includes his training, pending divorce, joking asides and playing for high stakes.
To take to the beach
“Sag Harbor,” set in the mostly Black, affluent beach community in the Hamptons, is the closest Whitehead has come to writing a coming-of-age story. Taking place during the summer of 1985, Benji and his teenage friends banter about culture and get their first taste of freedom.
Victoria Vigors’ holiday of a lifetime was left in tatters at the airport
Victoria, Roxie and Riley before their ill-fated ‘holiday of a lifetime’(Image: Jam Press)
A family’s dream holiday costing £6,500 was left in tatters after they were turned away at the boarding gate. Victoria Vigors, 41, arrived at Gatwick Airport ready for their all-inclusive two-week break to Hurghada, Egypt.
Victoria, who was with children Riley, 15, and Roxie, nine, checked in online for their easyJet flight. But problems emerged when staff scanned their boarding passes at the gate and noticed Roxie’s passport didn’t meet Egypt’s entry requirements for remaining validity.
“My stomach dropped, and I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach,” Victoria, from Kent, told creatorzine.com.
“The kids crumpled and I burst into tears. I begged the staff but there was nothing they could do. We had to be escorted back to get our luggage off the flight. It was so embarrassing.
“The kids were devastated, Roxie kept saying it was her fault and we were so disappointed. It was a really bad day.”
Victoria had saved up for two years for the trip, which she described as the “holiday of a lifetime”. The 41-year-old said it would have been their first two-week trip abroad together, and their first time staying at an all-inclusive resort.
Roxie’s passport expires on January 4, 2027. However, Victoria said she hadn’t realised that could still prevent travel. UK government foreign travel advice states British passport holders must have at least six months’ validity remaining from the date they arrive in Egypt.
Because Roxie’s passport did not meet that threshold, Victoria said the airline refused to let them board. She said she hadn’t known the rules and believed everything was in order.
“I wasn’t aware of the rules. I was given her passport the day before we flew by her dad. In my head, it was six months anyway, so I didn’t think there’d be an issue. For people like me who don’t always travel and it’s the first time with my children, I wasn’t to know.
“I would have thought when I put her passport details in to check in that would tell me it wasn’t valid. That would be a simple system to install so save this agony and heartbreak. It’s crazy.”
Victoria said the family is now trying to secure an emergency passport in the hope they can still get away for at least the final days of the trip, after being told they can’t get a refund.
“I’d been saving up for two years. We were incredibly excited as we’d never had a two-week holiday abroad together or been to a resort like this. It was going to be the holiday of a lifetime.”
Many white evangelical Christians view Donald Trump as chosen by God to lead despite not seeing him as personally devout. A recent study suggests 60 percent of them believe Trump has pushed the US closer to Christian principles, blurring the line between church and state.
For the full segment, watch Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s report here.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the end of a weekend wave of air strikes yesterday, the ninth consecutive night of precision strikes “further degrading Iranian military capabilities,” and the beginning of a new, tenth round today. As the blockade approaches the one-week mark, CENTCOM forces have redirected seven commercial vessels and disabled one kinetically, firing AGM-114 Hellfire missiles into the smokestack of an unladen oil tanker heading toward Kharg Island, since reinstating the blockade on July 14.
U.S. forces enforce naval blockade measures against Iran, July 15, by disabling an unladen oil tanker attempting to sail toward an Iranian port. U.S. Central Command
Over 20 U.S. Navy warships are operating in the Arabian Sea and broader Indian Ocean, which we covered extensively last week, and naval force posture has not changed since. Two CSGs, led by USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush, plus an ARG, centered on USS Boxer, are the primary naval assets supporting Blockade 2.0 and the renewed strike campaign, alongside some 14 guided-missile destroyers and a mix of other surface ships. The video below released by CENTCOM shows F/A-18 Super Hornets armed with AIM-9X, GBU-31, and GBU-54 launching during the campaign.
U.S. forces launching aircraft and precision munitions against Iranian military targets. U.S. Central Command
Moving east, USS George Washington is operating in the Western Pacific. The flattop was spotted conducting a fueling-at-sea with USNS Earl Warren and a replenishment-at-sea with USNS Charles Drewlast week in the Philippine Sea. 1st Lt. Arren Halfacre, serving aboard Washington, said the complex operation with Warren, which involved three fuel lines simultaneously, was a “rarely done evolution” that included roughly 150 Sailors and Merchant Mariners.
USS George Washington (CVN 73) during a fueling-at-sea evolution in the Philippine Sea. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tyler Crowley Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Crowley
Also in the Pacific, USS Theodore Roosevelt is well into the sea phase of exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026 and underway in the Hawaiian Islands Operating Area. RIMPAC 2026 is the world’s largest international maritime exercise and the 30th iteration in a series that started in the early 1970s. Participating units have been operating over the past week south of Oahu, to the west of the Big Island, with AIS transponders broadcasting publicly. Roosevelt welcomed the acting Secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, who observed flight operations, met with senior brass, and took photos with the crew on July 18.
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC). U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Apprentice Tyler Harstad
Back in the continental United States, USS Nimitz is at Naval Station Norfolk, her final homeport before a deactivation that was delayed until next year, moored at Pier 14N. A couple of piers down, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is berthed at Pier 11S. And, further south along the Elizabeth River, USS Gerald R. Ford moved to Pier 5N at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in advance of her first Planned Incremental Availability. On the west coast, USS Carl Vinson, the only carrier currently in San Diego, moored at Kilo Pier on July 17 after a weeklong underway completing flight deck certifications and carrier qualifications with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2.
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) arrives to Naval Station Norfolk, July 9, 2026. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Oscar Pichardo
Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed, three are training or in port in various states of readiness, four are in maintenance, and one is being used primarily for training. Two amphibious ready groups are deployed, four are training or in port, and three are in maintenance.
Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.
Contact the author: ian.ellis-jones@teamrecurrent.io
Colson Whitehead’s latest foray into the bent world of “reluctant fence” Ray Carney — “Cool Machine,” the third and final installment of his Harlem Trilogy — is an American epic disguised as a heist novel. It’s a dizzyingly brilliant measure of the versatility and depth of the acclaimed author’s literary talent.
Book Review
Cool Machine
By Colson Whitehead Doubleday: 368 pages, $30
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After writing two books dealing with monstrous historical trauma and institutional abuse — “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys,” for which he won two successive Pulitzers — Whitehead pivots to an entirely new genre, subverting it, toying with it, making it wholly his own. And while the Harlem novels, too, have a great deal to say about serious subjects such as systemic racism, corruption, and crimes and misdemeanors of various proportions, they often lean on humor to get the message across.
In fact, it’s easy to envision the author at his laptop, as exhilarated as his prose, cracking himself up over how he bends language, employs slang, and forges descriptions like this one about a bar where Carney and a partner in crime conspire over how to fence a stolen diamond necklace: “He met Flinch Wilson at the Marlin, a narrow dive on 110th and Broadway with a decor inspired by an old leather shoe that lived in a drainage pipe.” Or this about a rival who has it out for Carney and his cohorts: “Buzz struck him as a plumber, one who comes back when you aren’t home to strangle your parakeet if you stiff him on the bill.”
“Cool Machine” is set in the 1980s, and Carney is still in the picture. It’s the Reagan era, and predatory capitalism rules, as does Mayor Giuliani, who’s waged war on the mafia and the homeless. What Whitehead dubs the “churn” roils the city and his protagonist. It’s that “churn” that beckons Carney to break his promise to himself and once again divert from his legit furniture store business. The excuse this time is that his wife Elizabeth wants to open her own travel agency, and can’t get a bank loan. Despite the couple’s closeness, for all these years her husband has managed to conceal that he’s a part-time crook. He desires respectability, but savors the buzz, the camaraderie — the honor among thieves. Carney falls in with criminal mastermind Uncle Rich and signs on to his outrageous plan to break into the Waldorf Astoria; the goal is to liberate Jesse Owens’ Olympic gold medal from those who forced him to cash it in.
The intricacy with which Whitehead details the planning and execution of this caper marks him as a top-tier researcher — he’s drawn on many primary sources to ground this work of fiction in historical fact. (There’s also his obsessive use of Pinterest.) The scenes set in the bowels of Grand Central, where there’s a secret train track leading to the Waldorf, are thrilling enough to read for their action, but the atmospheric descriptions are equally delectable: “Track 23’s next departure pulled into the station. One commuter joined Carney and Uncle Rich on the platform, a deflated man in a pinstripe suit with shiny elbows, then another businessman who sagged on one side, as if his briefcase was filled with lead weights.” One of the marvels of this novel is how effortlessly such sentences land, despite being honed to perfection. It would be a spoiler to say anything further about whether the thieves’ mission impossible yields their reward.
Part two of the novel shifts downtown, into the heart of the ’80s East Village art scene. A preoccupation of Whitehead’s — Jean-Michel Basquiat — is the inspiration for a fictional graffiti artist whose omnipresent scrawls capture the pretensions of the burgeoning wheelers and dealers, who, like uptown crooks, are relentless strivers, albeit with sleeker facades. Their snobbery is juxtaposed with Carney’s friend and colleague Pepper’s unsettling bluntness and eyeball to eyeball stare. He’s on the trail of a psychopath-for-hire dubbed “the Melancholy Hitman,” while battling stomach issues that have him downing Pepto-Bismol and coughing up blood in random bathrooms. In this section, Carney plays a supporting role to Pepper’s lead; “Escape from New York” is the enveloping soundtrack.
In the novel’s final act, Carney reemerges from straight life and Pepper from retirement in Delaware to rescue Carney’s nephew, Robert, who’s on the mob’s hit list for a murder he witnessed. Political corruption is rampant, and the revelation of who’s on the take has rattled a lot of cages. Robert is unwittingly entrapped, and has absconded with something mob bigwig Lombardi wants revenge for. Carney dons his best furniture salesman hat to make the pitch of a lifetime, a deal that could save Robert’s life, or take Carney’s. As Carney drives to the meet-up, he reflects on New York’s evolution: “Crime transformed the city by degrees. He thought of what John [his son] told him about rap music, where it came from. Rap was part of the New York environment now, barging from boom boxes and windows. They created something new from the spoils, the theft of turntables from record shops, the rip-off of a musical line or riff from another song — a crooked art.”
For those who enjoy knowing how an author’s inspiration arrives, it’s amusing to note that in the case of the trilogy that kicked off in 2021 with “Harlem Shuffle,” Whitehead told the New Yorker: “I was staring off into space and thinking about how much I like heist films and how much fun it would be to write a heist.” That sounds simple enough, but “Harlem Shuffle” turned out to be years in the making. The idea initially came to him around the same time he was writing “The Underground Railroad,” which was published in 2016. It wasn’t until after the release of that book, and then “Nickel Boys,” that Whitehead decided to lighten the mood by composing a crime novel set in New York City in the 1960s. And while he usually avoids staying on the same topic or voice from book to book, in the midst of writing “Harlem Shuffle,” Whitehead found he was still imagining further escapades for his main character, this time in the 1970s, with the city on the verge of bankruptcy, and incendiary conflagrations between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army trending. As he envisioned what would become “Crook Manifesto,” Whitehead thought: “Why not make it three?”
Carney is part poet. Part crook. Part salesman. Part philosopher. To my knowledge, Carney’s creator is neither crook nor salesman, but Whitehead can lay claim to those other two mantles. His vocabulary appears boundless, as does his apparent love for the city he grew up in, where he still lives. “Cool Machine” is a modern masterpiece and an ode to New York, no matter that rats skitter and cockroaches scamper underfoot. When Carney has the chance to move anywhere in the world he wants, he ponders the appeal of fresh air. “Fresh was nice,” he reflects, “but so was other stuff. Noise, dirt, and struggle.” After escaping Manhattan, he wonders, “Where do you go? There’s no place else. It was like going on the lam from yourself.”
Whether or not New York is your jam, or a place you have escaped from or to, Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy is destined to live on as an American classic. Never mind the rats and cockroaches — it’s the churn.
Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist, and co-founder of the Ink Book Club on Substack. She was director of Oprah’s Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.
A year ago, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump struck a trade deal in Turnberry, Scotland, shaking hands under the spotlight of the world’s media after weeks of trade disputes.
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Defended by the Commission as the best deal it could secure, the agreement imposed 15 percent US tariffs on imports from the EU, while the EU committed to removing its duties on most US industrial products.
The Europeans also pledged to invest €520 billion in the US and purchase €700 billion in US energy by 2028, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil and nuclear energy products.
The Turnberry agreement was supposed to draw a line under the dispute. Instead, it opened a new chapter.
Over the past year, Trump has repeatedly threatened the EU with new tariffs, slowing the implementation of the agreement on the European side, where lawmakers froze its ratification. Following negotiations between the EU’s co-legislators, the bloc eventually removed its tariffs on 1 July.
On the US side, the process has been no smoother. The White House had to adopt new tariffs after the US Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that the duties imposed on US trading partners in 2025 were illegal.
The new tariffs, introduced under a different legal basis, are set to expire at the end of this week, on 24 July, unless Congress extends them – a prospect considered unlikely with the midterm elections approaching.
As the Turnberry deal marks its first anniversary, here are four things to know about the state of transatlantic trade relations.
1. Trade with the US increased in 2025
Despite the tariff war, transatlantic trade has not shrunk. Quite the opposite: EU-US goods and services trade rose by 4.5 percent to €1.8 trillion in 2025, as companies rushed shipments ahead of Trump’s tariffs, offsetting the slowdown later in the year.
Since January 2025, US importers have had to pay around €31 billion in additional duties, compared with €7 billion in pre-tariff years.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, however, some have already been refunded. US data released in mid-July shows that $81 billion was paid back for tariffs imposed globally on the country’s trading partners.
2. Europe is on track to meet its investment pledges
According to the European Commission, the EU will keep its promise to invest massively in the US. In early 2025, it reported that EU companies had pledged €242 billion in investments across various US sectors, including cars, IT, chemicals and food.
Regarding energy investments, an EU senior official said the €700 billion target will be exceeded. The Commission said that, in 2025 alone, EU buyers imported energy products and signed deals worth more than $250 billion.
As the Iran war broke out and the EU phased out Russian gas supplies, purchases of US LNG and oil reached record levels. New nuclear projects will also be carried out in cooperation with US partners.
3. Negotiations continue on exemptions, steel and aluminium
The EU-US trade saga is far from over. Brussels and Washington have started negotiating new tariff exemptions for EU goods. The Turnberry agreement referred to these future discussions, but the White House wanted the EU to implement its side of the agreement before talks could begin.
Last autumn, the Commission, together with European businesses, drew up a list of hundreds of products for which it hopes to restore pre-existing tariff levels. The list, recently transmitted to the US side, covers around €150 billion worth of EU exports and includes iconic products such as Roquefort, olive oil, wines and spirits.
The Europeans also hope to make progress on steel and aluminium. The US still imposes 50 percent tariffs on imports from trading partners worldwide. However, the Commission expects the discussions to be challenging, as the White House wants to bring production back to the US while also dealing with massive Chinese overcapacity.
4. The US is preparing new tariffs
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the White House had to rely on a new legal basis to impose tariffs reaching the 15 percent ceiling set by the Turnberry agreement. But those tariffs expire on Friday, and the US is already looking for new ways to impose additional duties.
European officials therefore expect the White House to introduce new tariffs targeting forced labour and overcapacity following investigations launched under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The forced labour tariffs have already been announced and are expected to come first, despite the EU arguing that it already has legislation banning forced labour.
“Of course we do not agree with the findings on forced labour, and we’ve made that very clear to our United States counterparts,” an EU senior official said. “But the main objective is to make sure that the agreement is respected and that our companies can benefit from the stability and predictability that was set out there.”
So as long as those future tariffs don’t exceed the 15 percent cap, the EU will not go against them.
The Commission is also closely monitoring a US investigation into German drug pricing under Section 301, which could also lead to punitive tariffs if the US Trade Department finds that “persistent underpayment for innovative pharmaceutical products by Germany is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts US commerce”.
‘Can you hear that?” my guide Andrea Wellmeyer asks as I sink a little deeper into the wet ground, cold mud seeping between my toes. When the wind drops, I detect a faint but distinct crackling, similar to the rustle of a sweet wrapper or the bubbling of sparkling water. “That’s the Wattknistern,” she says, “a natural phenomenon caused by the tens of thousands of mud shrimp that live here.”
We’re standing in the Wadden Sea mudflats on Norderney, an island just off Germany’s North Sea coast. It’s Friday evening at low tide. In the town centre, bars are pumping with music, but here, just 15 minutes along the southern edge of the island, it’s a completely different story.
“A lot of the flora and fauna is found under the surface,” Andrea says, showing me the tree-like tops of sand mason worm casings and the tips of marsh samphire growing upwards like tiny asparagus. Flipping over a cluster of wild oysters, she startles a crab that raises its pincers in the air before wriggling out of sight once more. Orange-beaked oystercatchers scurry back and forth on the exposed seabed and a pair of spoonbills wade gracefully through the shallow water beyond.
A beach in Osterhook on the island of Langeoog. Photograph: Tasfoto/Alamy
Norderney is one of the seven inhabited islands that make up the East Frisian islands (Ostfriesische Inseln)in Germany. The others are Borkum, Juist, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge. Stretching more than 50 miles from west to east, they are a popular holiday destination, known for their unique coastal landscapes and diverse wildlife, from grey seals and migrating birds to the creatures found in the mud.
Each island has its own identity, from upmarket Juist with its horse-drawn transport to the historic red brick houses of sleepy Spiekeroog; but all have vast sandy beaches, grassy dunes and tidal mudflats. The islands belong to the larger Wadden Sea Unesco world heritage site and have been part of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea national park since its formation in 1986.
Norderney was one of the first German seaside resorts in the North Sea. Today, historic seaside villas and retreats founded on the health benefits of briny sea air sit next to modern hotels and restaurants, such as Inselloft Norderney and Michelin-recommended Oktopussy, where summer scallops come with a caramelised miso-cauliflower purée. My favourite spot quickly becomes Marienhöhe, a dune-top pavilion built more than 100 years ago, where I eat delicately battered fish with warm potato salad.
Despite being one of only two East Frisian islands where cars are permitted, the best way to explore Norderney is by bike. Leaving the town in the west, I zoom along the bike lanes that run through the dunes, stopping at a popular stretch of beach called Weiße Düne, before heading south towards the island’s tallest building, a lighthouse constructed between 1872 and 1874.
Wild oysters in the Wadden Sea. Photograph: Ron Giling/Alamy
Soon after, roughly halfway across the island, I reach a sign that says I can’t go any further on my bike. This is a Ruhezone (quiet/restricted zone), a highly protected area where you can only walk on a couple of marked footpaths. A rusty shipwreck lies on the sand and seals bask in the sun at the far end.
There are strict rules governing access in several sections of the island, part of a quest to let nature be nature. Heading out with an official guide helps you see and learn more. Alongside Wattwanderungen (mudflat hikes), you can also book salt marsh walks, birding excursions and boat trips to see the seals. The newly renovated visitor centre at Norderney harbour also has extensive information about the local ecosystems.
My next stops are Spiekeroog and Langeoog, two calmer, car-free islands to the east. On Langeoog, I join a tour to learn more about the birds I have spotted over the last few days. “Many species need the Wadden Sea as the focal point of their migration, as a place to rest,” national park guide Fiona Wettstein says. “When they first arrive, they have completely burned through their fat reserves and practically drop down here.”
Greylag geese with chicks on Langeoog. Photograph: Image Professionals/Alamy
Setting off with bikes and binoculars, we spot red knots, redshanks, avocets and sandpipers, as well as squeaking lapwings with long crests and a short-eared owl swooping through the grasses. Geese with fluffy chicks in tow strut around the island, hissing loudly if you get too close. More than 10 million birds make a pit stop in the Wadden Sea every year, with spring and autumn the best time to see them. The shoulder season is also a good time to visit to avoid the summer holiday crowds.
I stay at Silt & Sand, a bright and airy design hotel just behind the dunes that opened last year. The expansive (almost 9-mile-long) beach on the other side is dotted with Strandkörbe, traditional hooded wicker armchairs found on beaches along the German coast.
Despite the chain layout of the islands and their close proximity to one another, it isn’t possible to “hop” between them. Instead, you have to return to the mainland and make your way along the coast to a different ferry terminal each time, the exception being Juist and Norderney, which have a shared departure point in Norddeich. It is possible to walk from the mainland to some of the islands at low tide, but only with a certified guide.
A hotel room at Silt & Sand on Langeoog.
After my first few hours on Norderney, I give up on the weather forecast and start operating on a cloud by cloud basis instead, dark moody skies moving on as quickly as they appear. More reliable is the wind, churning the sea, bending the trees and blowing a fine mist of sand over the compact layer below. Having biked eastwards with ease, I’m met by a roaring resistance on my return, a fierce gust wrapping around my hat and prising it off.
“This connection to the elements is part of the experience,” says Andrea. “Your entire system is challenged and pushed out of its comfort zone, something that doesn’t happen so often these days,” she adds as we make our way back to the familiarity and ease of the town.
Ben Earl has called for a change to the Nations Championship format after England’s “brutal” schedule in the summer leg of the inaugural competition.
England had to play three Tests in three different continents on successive weekends and accumulated 25,000 miles of travel.
Victory over Argentina on Saturday keeps Steve Borthwick’s team in the hunt for a place in the final on 29 November at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.
However, four long haul and four short haul flights in the past four weeks have contributed to players losing sleep and a reduced training schedule.
“It’s been brutal, there’s no two ways about it,” England number 8 Earl said.
“We’ve been speaking about it – why would we not all be playing in one country? So you just don’t travel, you go to one nation and have that festival feel.
“I’m not paid to make those decisions but it has been tough. It’s been tough coming at the end of what’s been quite a long season anyway for most of us.
“It’s been back and forth, coming back to England, seeing your families and then going away again.
“It has seemed a bit weird but it’s just something we’re going to have to get used to because I think it’s just the beginning.”
The competition resumes later in the year for the autumn leg with England next in action against Australia on 8 November.
July 20 (UPI) — The Philippine military accused China of beating and injuring a Philippine Navy sailor with a wooden baton in the latest seaborne confrontation between the two nations over a submerged reef in the disputed South China Sea.
The incident occurred Monday morning near the BRP Sierra Madre, a derelict warship the Philippines intentionally grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal, a reef both countries lay claim to and which the Philippines calls Ayungin Shoal and China, Ren’ai Jiao.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said in a statement that a China Coast Guard rigid-hull inflatable boat with eight people on board unlawfully approached the BRP Sierra Madre and took pictures and video of it.
While two AFP rubber boats drove it away, China Coast Guard personnel on the boat struck a Philippine Navy sailor on his head with a wooden baton. The man suffered a deep gash on his scalp, according to a picture shared online by Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela.
Video of the incident posted online by Tarriela shows some China Coast Guard members aboard a larger boat swinging long sticks down upon members of the Philippine Navy in a smaller rubber boat.
“Striking an unarmed sailor on the head with a baton — inside our own exclusive economic zone — is not law enforcement. It is unlawful aggression, plain and simple,” Tarriela said in a statement.
If there is any party here that provokes and escalates tension, it is only the unruly and barbaric China Coast Guard personnel who clearly do not understand UNCLOS.
China has rejected the accusation, accusing the Philippines of instigating the incident.
“The Philippine personnel first launched malicious attacks on Chinese law enforcement officers using oars, long poles and other tools,” the China Coast Guard said in a statement published online by China’s Embassy in Manila.
“The Chinese side, acting in full compliance with laws and regulations, employed measures such as verbal warnings, evasive maneuvering and proportionate countermeasures to stabilize the situation on site, while exercising the utmost rationality and restraint.”
At roughly 105 nautical miles west of Palawan, the Second Thomas Shoal is well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. The Philippines beached its Sierra Madre warship on the disputed submerged reef in 1999, which it has manned since in an effort to protect its maritime claims.
However, China lays claim to the Second Thomas Shoal and much of the South China Sea via its Nine-Dash-Line map, which has been rejected by several nations, including the United States. The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration also rejected China’s sweeping maritime claims in a landmark 2016 ruling in a case brought by Manila. Beijing rejects the ruling.
Following the incident, the China Coast Guard said in a statement that it would continue to “carry out rights protection and law enforcement activities” and “firmly safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”
The U.S. State Department late Monday issued a statement in support of the Philippines, condemning “China’s dangerous and aggressive actions against Philippine navy personnel.”
State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said the United States calls on China to “immediately cease its destabilizing conduct.”
“China’s troubling pattern of provocation against lawful Philippine maritime operations undermines regional peace and stability and directly contradicts China’s repeated commitments to resolve disputes peacefully,” he said.
“We stand with our ally, the Philippines, and commend the professionalism and restraint shown by the Philippine navy personnel in this incident.”
Pigott added that the United States reaffirms the 2016 tribunal ruling as final and legally binding on both China and the Philippines.
Customers inspect various wind chimes during the opening day of the Furin-Ichi wind chimes market at the Kawasaki Daishi Heikenji Temple in Kawasaki, Kanagawa-Prefecture in Japan, on July 17, 2026. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
Argentina’s players were welcomed home by fans lining the streets as the team travelled from the airport to the Argentine Football Association headquarters. Lionel Messi was absent, and although the squad reportedly were not in the mood to celebrate, supporters still turned out in force.
On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Paramount Skydance’s efforts to complete its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, ruling that the proposed $111-billion merger “raises serious questions” about whether the combination violates U.S. antitrust law.
District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, based in Oakland, granted a request for a temporary restraining order from a coalition of 12 state attorneys general, led by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, to freeze the deal while the court delves more closely into its impact on markets.
The order pauses the deal for 14 days. Martínez-Olguín’s ruling sets up a showdown for Aug. 3, when she considers a motion for a preliminary injunction — which, if granted, could tie up the deal for months in advance of a trial.
“This is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,” Bonta said in a statement. “History tells the tale of what happens when a few people have great power over markets that are central to Americans’ lives: fewer opportunities for more people, worse products and services for all people.”
Two century-old film studios — with rights to Harry Potter, Batman, Scooby-Doo, “Top Gun,” “Ted Lasso” and “Game of Thrones” — would be combined, and HBO, CNN and HGTV would come under new ownership.
“The judge basically said, ‘Look, let’s not race to the finish line here,’” Eric Talley, a Columbia Law School professor, said in an interview. “At the end of the day, maybe this thing gets signed off on, but I think the AGs are going to be given a fair chance to bring their claims forward.”
The ruling dealt a blow to tech scion David Ellison’s efforts to quickly finalize his massive merger, which has the support of President Trump. Ellison wants to complete the deal by September to avoid a higher payout to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders.
Paramount, in a statement, said the restraining order simply preserves the status quo, which Paramount had already pledged to do in court papers last week that offered to hold off on finalizing the transaction.
“We are confident the evidence will demonstrate that the State AGs’ antitrust arguments are without merit as their alleged markets and claims of anticompetitive effects are without any basis in modern market realities,” Paramount said in the statement.
Larry Ellison, co-founder of software giant Oracle, is bankrolling his son’s ambitions to acquire a second major entertainment company in less than a year. The Ellison family acquired the smaller Paramount in August.
The Democratic state attorneys general, including from New York, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, filed their lawsuit a week ago.
The 37-page lawsuit alleges that Paramount’s proposed takeover — the largest Hollywood deal in decades — would violate the U.S. Clayton Antitrust Act, a century-old law to prevent mergers that weaken competition and raise costs for consumers.
The lawsuit represents the stiffest challenge to a deal that had been swiftly clearing its various regulatory hurdles. Nearly two dozen regulators from around the globe, including Australia, Austria and Saudi Arabia, have already signed off.
The U.S. Justice Department last month approved the merger, saying the combination would probably bolster competition — not harm it. That decision wasn’t a surprise because Trump has been rooting for a CNN shakeup. The president told the network’s Jake Tapper earlier this month: “We’re trying to have CNN go on a normal path.”
“This merger is lawful, pro-competitive, and will benefit consumers, creators, workers, and the entertainment industry,” Paramount said. “We will continue to vigorously defend the transaction and will look forward to the hearings on the substance of the State AGs’ action.”
Paramount shares slid 2% to $8.57 on Monday. Warner shares tumbled nearly 4% to $25.86 — the stock’s lowest mark this year.
Martínez-Olguín’s order came after a hearing in Oakland on Friday that represented an opening salvo between the two sides in the fight over a merger that would dramatically reshape the entertainment industry.
“In many ways this case is a poster child for a much larger set of questions — some of which are specific to the entertainment industry but many are more specific to our regulatory state in general,” Talley said.
Because of the case’s expedited status, the judge said she looked closely at only one of the three markets where the plaintiff states allege the merger could bring anticompetitive harms — wide-release Hollywood films.
“Plaintiffs present compelling evidence that the combined firm resulting from the transaction will possess substantial market share in the wide-release theatrical distribution market,” Martínez-Olguín wrote in her 10-page order.
If allowed to merge, Paramount-Warner Bros. would control about 27% of the market of films that are initially released into more than 3,000 theaters.
“On this combined firm market share alone, the Court is persuaded that it can presume the proposed merger is likely to violate antitrust laws,” the judge wrote.
The ruling doesn’t signal that the states will win but, Talley said: “This is an important mark in the road that suggests that, in the eyes of the judge, at least one of their allegations has the seeds of a valid case.”
Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are “temporarily enjoined and restrained from closing or consummating the transaction or taking any steps, directly or indirectly, to integrate or consolidate their operations pursuant to the transaction,” the judge wrote.
The order extends to all officers, attorneys, and “other persons who are in active concert or participation with Defendants,” Martínez-Olguín wrote.
The merger is far from dead, Emarketer senior analyst Ross Benes said in a statement after the ruling.
“The order is likely to be a speed bump,” Benes wrote. “Thanks to the company’s symbiotic relationship with Trump, most challenges ahead that could stop the deal will be steamrolled.”
PHILADELPHIA — Emmet Sheehan backpedaled down the mound, watching the ball fly just over the left-field wall.
His start Monday, much like his season, had its ups and downs. But just when it seemed he’d found a groove, he gave up a momentum-swinging solo home run to Philadelphia’s Brandon Marsh in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’10-7 loss to the Phillies.
It was Sheehan’s first start since the All-Star break, pushed back because of a rainout Saturday in New York. He gave up six runs in 5⅓ innings, raising concerns again over his inconsistency. While the Dodgers (63-38) weather the loss of Shohei Ohtani from the rotation, they need steadiness from the rest of their starters.
“Certainly, he’s getting a lot of opportunity,” manager Dave Roberts said of Sheehan. “It’s not the consistency that any of us like or want, Emmet included. Until there’s another alternative, we’re going to keep running him out there.”
One bad inning from Sheehan pushed the game into the Phillies’ favor. With one out in the second, he gave up three straight hits, a sacrifice fly and a two-run homer by Trea Turner to put the Dodgers behind 4-0.
Sheehan adjusted, navigating the next three innings efficiently without giving up a run.
“It’s just really trying to be convicted in his pitch-making before he touches the stove,” Roberts said. “When there’s damage or things have happened, then he locks in, raises his level of intensity a little bit more. But it’s just got to be that before, you know, things start happening.”
It was clear Sheehan’s delivery wasn’t fully in sync. His velocity steadily dropped, with his fastball averaging 94.7 mph in the first inning and 92.7 in the fifth. But he gave the Dodgers’ offense time to chip away at the Phillies’ lead.
“It’s just trying to keep myself from being frustrated and knowing that our offense is so good that we’re in every game,” Sheehan said.
The Dodgers scored in the fourth when Mookie Betts came home from third as Teoscar Hernández hit into a double play. They scored two more runs in the sixth, with Max Muncy delivering an RBI double after Cristopher Sánchez’s start ended after 99 pitches.
The tide really began to turn later in the inning with two outs and the bases loaded. Andy Pages chopped a slow bouncer up the middle, and Turner charged. The ball hit off the heel of the Phillies shortstop’s glove, and another run scored.
Boos poured down even as Turner was chasing the ball. It didn’t matter that he’d hit the second-inning homer; Phillies fans were going to make it clear how upset they were about his second defensive mistake of the night.
The Dodgers, however, didn’t ride the momentum for long.
Three pitches into the bottom of the sixth, Sheehan grooved a fastball to Marsh, and he hit it out for a 5-3 lead. A double to center — which bounced off Pages’ glove — and a strikeout later, Sheehan handed over the ball.
Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a home run for the Dodgers in the seventh inning Monday.
(Chris Szagola / Associated Press)
“I thought we had a pretty good handle on [my delivery] coming in,” Sheehan said. “The past few starts have been better with that, and then kind of a step back today, which is pretty frustrating.”
Alex Vesia then surrendered a walk and a three-run homer to Turner, who won back the fans (until another botched grounder in the ninth).
From there, the game became a slugfest. Betts, who went four for five, hit two home runs — a solo shot in the seventh and a two-run blast in the ninth.
The Phillies (56-45) hit two homers off Landon Knack to finish with five.
Ohtani update
Ohtani likely will throw off a mound late in the week, Roberts said. But it is still unclear when his next pitching start will be. Ohtani, who has continued to play as the designated hitter, went 0 for 4 on Monday.
Ohtani, who has missed his last two starts and received an Orthovisc injection to manage lingering discomfort in his left knee, has continued to throw on flat ground. He again played catch in left field at Citizens Bank Park on Monday.
Dodgers make trade
The Dodgers added bullpen depth with upside, acquiring right-hander Seth Halvorsen from Colorado. They sent two minor leaguers — right-hander Nick Frasso, who has a 4.74 ERA in triple A, and outfielder Landyn Vidourek, a 2025 third-round pick — to the Rockies.
Halvorsen, coming off a stint on the injured list because of right shoulder inflammation, is set to join triple-A Oklahoma City. He throws a 100-mph fastball but hasn’t found a way to control it. He has a 4.31 ERA and 13 saves in three seasons.
“Hopefully we can unlock some levers,” Roberts said. “But the arm talent’s there. Our guys are really excited about him.”
More than half of Madrid’s population turned out to celebrate La Roja as the players returned to Spain following their World Cup victory over Argentina. The team paraded through the city centre on an open-top bus, showing off the trophy to fans.
Southern Lebanon – Dozens of displaced residents have begun to return to villages in southern Lebanon, as Israel, Lebanon, and the United States announced on Monday that the so-called “pilot zone” project had begun.
The pilot zone plan is part of a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, signed in Washington last month. It will see Israel withdraw from a small number of areas in southern Lebanon, even as it remains in others it has invaded since escalating its war on the country in March, killing more than 4,300 people.
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Israel has been fighting the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which it insists must be disarmed before a full Israeli withdrawal.
Al Jazeera spoke to people in Froun and Ghandouriyeh, neighbouring villages in southern Lebanon to which residents began returning on Monday after Israeli bombardment forced them to flee. The US said Froun was one of three villages that were part of the first phase of the pilot zone plan, while Ghandouriyeh is believed to be in the second phase.
However, some locals have questioned the villages’ inclusion in the plan, saying they were never occupied by Israeli forces. To them, the inclusion of their villages is evidence that Israel is in fact not giving anything up despite the framework agreement, and is instead able to remain in the areas it has occupied.
Lebanese security sources back up that narrative, telling Al Jazeera that the two villages had not been occupied by Israeli forces.
Perched on hills overlooking several Israeli-occupied towns in the Nabatieh and Marjayoun districts, the two villages face the town of Zawtar el-Gharbiya, which is also part of the plan’s first phase.
The road connecting Ghandouriyeh and Froun is fraught with danger: The stretches overlooking the Hujeir Valley continuously come under Israeli fire, and occupying Israeli forces stationed in Odaisseh al-Qusayr, Qantara, Alma ash-Shaab and elsewhere can monitor anyone passing through.
Still, many families have not waited for the outcome of the framework agreement and have begun gradually returning. They include the family of Abu Ali Miqdad, who owns heavy machinery that allowed them to start clearing the rubble of a building they own – containing residential apartments and storage warehouses at the entrance to Froun – in an effort to salvage whatever materials remain.
Abu Ali founded the family business decades ago, before his sons and grandsons joined him. After hours of work, they managed to pull tyres, oil drums and spare parts from the debris.
The grandfather shows little optimism about the current situation, but says he has grown weary of constant displacement. Watching his grandchildren haul an oil drum from the rubble, he says he will keep “clearing the rubble and rebuilding, even under bombardment”.
He says that the presence of the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping patrols brings him some comfort despite the circumstances.
Anxious
Across from the demolished house, one home did survive the destruction. On its doorstep sits a woman in her 70s, dressed in traditional southern Lebanese attire, with her grandson beside her wearing a Spain national team football jersey.
Spanish troops had been patrolling the area opposite Froun as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) deployed south of the Litani River, though its mission is set to end by year’s end under a UN Security Council resolution.
Despite the destruction around her, Sumaya Haidar says she is relieved to be back home, sitting beside her grandson – even though there is no water, electricity or phone service.
Like everyone else in Froun, she is anxious about the town’s fate. Sumaya’s worry also stems from the continued displacement of her children’s families to different towns, leaving them unsettled.
“We put our trust in God,” Sumaya says. “We sit here, we’re not afraid, and we’ll stay. Look at these people – living in schools after losing their homes, and my children are scattered, too.”
State authority
Meanwhile, Lebanese army patrols have been visible for three days in the area of Ghandouriyeh, with soldiers from the Fifth Intervention Regiment standing at the village’s southern entrance.
Ghandouriyeh has suffered even more destruction than Froun: 250 of its 260 homes are fully or partially destroyed, according to municipal council head Mohammed Nader. Along with several council members, he has set up damaged chairs under the shade of a tree for their daily meetings.
Nader, who used to live in Paraguay but returned to serve his small hometown, grows visibly angry when asked whether the village might be included in the second phase of the pilot zones.
Pointing towards the Israeli position just a few kilometres away, he rejects the idea outright, saying Israel wants “to sell us and the state empty walnut shells, calling it a pilot zone, when they never even entered it in the first place”.
The army granted Al Jazeera permission to film its positions in Ghandouriyeh and Froun twice, to affirm its control over the area and its designation as a zone under military oversight. Army patrols were seen repeatedly moving along the line stretching from Kfar Dounine to Froun via Ghandouriyeh, and a checkpoint was observed where service members searched vehicles and checked residents’ identification.
“Extending state authority” is expected to top the agenda when Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meets with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
For the Lebanese government, its presence in Froun and Ghandouriyeh is evidence of that state authority, even if Hezbollah continues to insist that its weapons are necessary to confront Israel if the Lebanese army is not willing to do so.
According to Page Six, the reality television personalities have separated after 27 years of marriage. The news comes after years of rumors, starting during Season 4 of “RHOSLC,” that Trujillo was involved in affairs with numerous men. The drama played out onscreen and bled into Season 5 of the reality series.
The former couple denied the rumors repeatedly.
During a 2023 appearance on the “Behind the Velvet Rope Podcast,” Trujillo called the rumors “pretty ridiculous.” The same year, he and Katsanevas spoke with Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live,” and Trujillo said it wasn’t the rumor that he was gay that offended him, but the rumor that he’d been unfaithful.
“It’s not a gay/straight thing,” Trujillo said. “It’s an infidelity thing. We love our gay community. We’ve been embedded in it for 30 years now, just based on what we do for our business.”
“I’m here to support Angie, and I’ll take the hits,” he added.
Katsanevas noted that Salt Lake City had “come a long way,” and that stereotyping a man for being a hairdresser might have been commonplace 15 years ago but that there had never been infidelity rumors around her marriage “in Salt Lake City or anywhere.”
The former couple tied the knot the same year they launched their business, Lunatic Fringe Salon, in 1999. The husband-and-wife team ultimately expanded the luxury beauty business into a successful franchise that operates across Utah, Idaho and Ohio, with the flagship store located in Salt Lake.
As recently as January, Katsanevas was gushing about Trujillo on “The Viall Files” podcast. The businesswoman and housewife told hosts Nick Viall (of “The Bachelor” fame) and his wife, Natalie Joy Viall, that she and Trujillo met in a hair salon when she stopped by for a haircut more than three decades ago.
“He was working there with his big muscles and his long hair and his hoop earrings and he was so good looking and he was a bodybuilder and a hairdresser,” she said. “You didn’t see straight men doing hair at that time, which I know sounds crazy. Obviously things have changed since then; there are a lot of straight men that are hairdressers, but he was so kind and so sweet, and not really a macho guy. He was soft-spoken, quiet, very focused on his career and shy. And I just love that about him.”
The two became an item when Katsanevas started working at the salon when she was 21 and Trujillo was 24. “He would flirt with me in the back room and hold my hand under the table, and then he asked me to dinner one Valentine’s night,” she said.
According to the salon owner, when she was invited to join the cast of “RHOSLC” in 2021, she wasn’t prepared for the jabs that would be aimed at Trujillo or the toll it would take. “I had no idea what I was signing up for. I had no idea people would say or question my marriage after 30 years,” she said.
Bravo has not yet announced a release date for Season 7 of “RHOSLC,” but the forthcoming season wrapped filming in May and is expected to air this fall. Whether the former couple’s split will play out in the new season remains uncertain.
Katsanevas and Trujillo did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Manchester United and Arsenal fight over France’s Manu Kone, Nico Williams could be heading to the Premier League champions, and West Ham reject latest Crysencio Summerville offer.
The Gunners have also revived their interest in Athletic Club winger Nico Williams, who was part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, with the 23-year-old believed to have a £77m release clause. (Teamtalk), external
West Ham have rejected a second offer from Roma for Dutch forward Crysencio Summerville and the Italian club, whose first bid was 46m euros (£39m), are working on a final proposal for the 24-year-old. (Sky Sports Italia – in Italian) , external
Aston Villa are weighing up a move for Summerville as they look to replace 23-year-old England attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers, who is set to join Chelsea.(Talksport), external
Barcelona have set up a meeting with 26-year-old forward Ferran Torres, who scored Spain’s winner in the World Cup final against Argentina, to find out what his plans are with one year left on his contract and interest from Paris St-Germain. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish), external
Newcastle and Leeds are among the Premier League clubs weighing up a move for FC Midtjylland striker Franculino Dju, 22, with the Danish club seeking in excess of £21m for the Guinea-Bissau international. (Teamtalk), external
AC Milan have identified young Genk winger Konstantinos Karetsas, 18, as their next summer transfer target but may have to sell Portugal forward Rafael Leao, 27, to fund the move. (Gazzetta – in Italian), external
