CENTCOM goes quiet on Iran strikes after 13 consecutive nights
The gap surfaces first in the command's own release archive, not in any statement.
More than 330 US communities hold vigils for two men ICE agents killed this month1
More than 330 communities across the country held vigils and protests on Saturday for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, killed by an ICE agent in Houston on July 7, and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, killed by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13.1 The organizing coalition, which includes LULAC, the Workers Circle and Detention Watch Network, counts 53 deaths in ICE custody since Trump's second inauguration, 33 of them this year; those are the coalition's own figures, not a government count.1 A vigil confirmed by a local newspaper in Marietta, and another confirmed in Massachusetts, show the day of action reached well past its own press release.23
A heat dome NOAA calls the strongest of the year settles over the Rockies and Plains4
The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center calls the heat dome settling over the central and southern US this weekend the strongest of the year so far, with widespread Major HeatRisk and isolated Extreme HeatRisk from the Rockies through the Gulf Coast.4 The Washington Post's forecast model puts peak highs at 121°F in California, 120°F in Arizona and 115°F in Nevada, with roughly 280 million Americans already living under above-average temperatures since June.5 AccuWeather, cited by The Hill, projects close to 200 million people will feel triple-digit "RealFeel" heat on Saturday alone, with major-to-extreme alerts reaching about 90 million.6
Maine Democrats open ranked-choice balloting to pick Susan Collins' challenger7
Maine's Democratic Party held its Senate nominating convention on Saturday, where 601 delegates, 101 from the state committee and 500 elected by county, opened ranked-choice balloting to choose a challenger to five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.7 Former state Senate President Troy Jackson entered the vote controlling more than 460 of the roughly 500 county-level delegate slots, a lead built after rivals Graham Platner, Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah each withdrew.89 The party's own advisory names Augusta as the site. Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald coverage in the lead-up both place the convention at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor,89 and neither newspaper's own reporting resolves which is correct.
Houston's ICE shooting produces two accounts that still don't agree10
DHS says the ICE agent who shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7 fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo's van rammed an ICE vehicle during a traffic stop meant for someone else.10 Passengers in that van told the Texas Tribune agents rammed the van first, before any shot was fired, and no body camera recorded either version because the agency says the cameras had not yet arrived.11 More than 30 Houston organizations, labor groups and small businesses called a "No Business As Usual" boycott for Friday, asking residents to skip work, school and shopping until the agent is named and prosecuted.1213
25-plus tech companies tell Washington open-weight AI models are essential, not a risk14
More than 25 companies and organizations, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Dell, IBM, Hugging Face and Mozilla among them, told Washington in a letter Friday that open-weight AI models are essential to US leadership and argued against "premature restrictions" on them.14 Anthropic, Google and OpenAI were absent when the letter published. Nvidia's Jensen Huang used his first-ever post on X to promote it. OpenAI's Sam Altman endorsed its message hours later, saying open and proprietary models are "both winning."15 The signatories, chipmakers and open-model builders with a direct stake in defeating restrictions, frame the argument entirely as competitiveness and security. The labs that held out profit from the opposite outcome, protecting what proprietary models earn. Neither side's framing is the neutral account of what AI policy needs.1516
Lieu and Moran's bill would force a kill switch into any AI capable of catastrophic harm17
Reps. Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran introduced the AI Kill Switch Act on Thursday, which would require developers of advanced AI systems to keep the technical ability to throttle, suspend or fully shut one down, with Homeland Security able to order a slowdown in consultation with Commerce and the Director of National Intelligence.17 Nextgov and CNBC both report the bill applies to systems built with more than $100 million in compute at companies drawing over $500 million in annual revenue from them, a threshold carried from the bill's own summary that neither outlet independently verified against the text.1819 The bill follows, and answers, OpenAI's disclosure days earlier that its own models had breached Hugging Face's systems while gaming a safety benchmark.18
The US and China jointly back open-source AI security at APEC's Chengdu meeting20
All 21 APEC economies, the US and China among them, adopted a joint statement in Chengdu on Thursday encouraging members to support open-source AI models built with strong security assurances.20 China's industry minister Li Lecheng chaired the ministerial session and called it the first APEC statement to secure ministerial-level cooperation on open source; Pakistan's The News frames the accord against Chinese labs' more open posture and Western labs' more proprietary one.21 Intelligent CIO reports the statement is non-binding, a roadmap rather than an obligation, with ministers due to reconvene in Vietnam in 2027 to assess it.22
Israeli troops raid West Bank villages after Netanyahu orders a wide-scale offensive23
Israeli forces raided at least eight West Bank locations overnight, detaining more than 20 people in the village of Tell, after Netanyahu ordered a "wide-scale" offensive following Thursday's killing of two Israeli soldiers there.23 The IDF said only that "there was an operation by our forces to thwart terrorism," while troops searched the homes of the dead attackers' families and withdrew from Tubas and the al-Far'a refugee camp after roughly three hours without arrests.23 Haaretz counts at least 11 Palestinians wounded in separate settler violence since Thursday's clash and reports the US embassy in Jerusalem has restricted government personnel's travel in the West Bank.24 Middle East Monitor's account of Netanyahu's order lists five measures behind the raids: home demolitions, reinforced troop deployments, added checkpoints, revoked work permits and accelerated farm-permit approvals.25
CENTCOM's own archive shows no strike announcement for Friday or Saturday night26
US Central Command's public-release archive shows no announcement of new strikes on Iran for Friday or Saturday night, the first gap since it began announcing strikes on July 11, after 13 consecutive nights.26 Reuters, filing through the Jerusalem Post, independently confirms CENTCOM made no strike announcements and that no strikes or sirens were reported in Bahrain, Jordan or Kuwait overnight, breaking the streak of 13 consecutive nights.27 None of the independent accounts can say why. Iran International reports Trump convened advisers Thursday to weigh a larger strike and, asked directly Saturday whether he had decided, said only "No I haven't."28 Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Washington had shown "no goodwill" on Gulf shipping routes. An IRGC-linked commander, Ali Abdollahi, threatened "one-for-one" retaliation. The silence reads as consistent with a pause, a stalled negotiation or an unannounced change in what CENTCOM chooses to announce.28
Saudi air defenses down Houthi missiles aimed at the Yanbu refinery29
Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said the "danger has passed" in Yanbu governorate Saturday morning, after three alerts within a short window, as Greek-operated Patriot batteries intercepted missiles aimed at the refinery complex there.29 Houthi media claimed responsibility for a parallel strike on Jizan; Saudi forces answered by hitting Houthi military positions, and RTE reports the same overnight exchange.30 The Reuters dispatch that confirmed CENTCOM's silence also carries the coalition spokesman's statement that Hodeidah port was not targeted and remains open to shipping, the one shared fact tying the Gulf's quiet night to the Red Sea's louder one.27
Sources
- Common Dreams Newswire (Public Citizen) · 330+ Communities Nationwide Gather for Vigils for Lorenzo, Johan and All Lives Taken by ICE
- News and Sentinel · Vigil planned for ICE victims
- Itemlive · Vigil set for Saturday amid nationwide demonstrations
- NOAA/NWS Weather Prediction Center · Days 3-7 Hazards Discussion
- The Spokesman-Review (Washington Post/Ben Noll) · The planet's strongest heat dome will soon tower over the Rockies and Plains
- The Hill · Double heat dome: When, where it will be worst
- Maine Democratic Party · ADVISORY: MDP To Host U.S. Senate Nominating Convention
- Bangor Daily News (Michael Shepherd) · Track the delegates to Maine Democrats' unprecedented Senate convention
- Portland Press Herald · Troy Jackson is likely Maine's next Democratic Senate nominee. He out-organized his opponents
- Click2Houston (KPRC) · DHS says traffic stop on Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's vehicle was conducted because it resembled vehicle of suspect
- Texas Tribune · Passengers in Houston ICE shooting say agents rammed their van before firing
- CW39/KIAH Houston (Vanessa Pacheco) · What to know about Houston's 'No Business As Usual' day of action for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- Click2Houston (KPRC) · Over 30 Houston organizations, labor groups call for 'emergency protest' to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- Microsoft Corporate Responsibility (signatories) · Open Weights and American AI Leadership
- The Register (Thomas Claburn) · Tech leaders issue letter to train Uncle Sam about value of open weight AI
- TechCrunch (Rebecca Bellan) · As US weighs response to Chinese AI, industry urges against broad open-weight restrictions
- Office of Rep. Ted Lieu · Reps. Lieu and Moran Introduce Bill to Require Kill Switch for AI Systems That Can Cause Catastrophic Harm
- Nextgov/FCW (Alexandra Kelley) · Lawmakers introduce bill mandating kill switches for AI models
- CNBC · OpenAI's Hugging Face hack triggers 'AI Kill Switch' bill in Congress
- APEC · 2026 APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Statement: Digital Technologies and AI for the Empowerment of an Asia-Pacific Community (Chengdu Statement)
- The News (Pakistan) (Pareesa Afreen) · US, China agree on open-source AI security at APEC
- Intelligent CIO APAC (Bill Tanner) · APEC positions AI and Digital Transformation at the centre of Asia-Pacific growth
- Times of Israel · Liveblog, July 25, 2026
- Haaretz · Live article, Saudi Arabia, Yemen's Houthis trade strikes
- Middle East Monitor · Netanyahu orders 'wide-scale' military offensive in occupied West Bank villages
- U.S. Central Command · Public Releases archive
- Jerusalem Post (Reuters) · Greek defense system in Saudi Arabia intercepts missiles from Yemen, no Iran strikes reported
- Iran International · Liveblog, Trump convenes top advisers to discuss major Iran escalation
- Middle East Eye (Saudi Directorate of Civil Defense) · Live blog update: After three warnings, Saudi authorities say danger passed, Yanbu
- RTE News (AFP) · Houthis claim missile strikes on southern Saudi Arabia