Dear friends,

Today, July 1, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to participate in a panel event at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking 2025.

The event comes amid a recovery by the U.S. stock market and as the United States works to negotiate tariffs and other trade terms with many European countries. Two weeks ago, British and American leaders hammered out many details of a trade agreement.

For more on this story and other developing news, visit WNG.org/sift.

Two Idaho firefighters killed in ambush, suspect found dead

By Lauren Canterberry

Authorities in Idaho Sunday found the body of a man suspected of killing two firefighters. Investigators believe the suspect intentionally set a fire in the mountains of northern Idaho before shooting at responders who tried to stop the blaze, authorities said at a news conference. Over several hours, the suspected gunman shot at firefighters, killing two and wounding one, said Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. One of the victims was a firefighter from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department, and the other was from the Kootenai County Fire Department. The suspect was believed to have acted alone, Norris said.

Sheriff Norris later identified the suspected gunman as Wess Roley, age 20, who had lived in California, Arizona, and Idaho. It appears that Roley killed himself, the sheriff said. He interacted or spoke with firefighters who arrived at the scene of the fire, the sheriff said. He may have attempted to be a firefighter at one time, but his motivation for the shootings remained unknown Monday. Roley had prior run-ins with police but they were relatively minor things like trespassing.

What led up to the shooting? Firefighters responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain north of the city of Coeur d’Alene around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Norris said. Authorities reported gunshots about half an hour later and determined that a sniper was hiding in the area and using a high-powered rifle to attack those fighting the fire. Norris said he instructed local law enforcement to return fire. Two helicopters equipped with snipers and about 300 local and federal officials joined the effort before they located the suspect’s body. They removed his body quickly as the brush fire was approaching the area, Norris said, and they lifted an order for local residents to shelter in place.

New charges filed after victim of Colorado firebombing attack dies

By Christina Grube

State attorneys levied additional charges against Mohamed Sabry Soliman on Monday after an 82-year-old woman died from injuries received during his alleged firebombing attack earlier this month. Authorities arrested and charged Soliman as a suspect in an anti-Semitic attack carried out in Boulder, Colo., earlier this month. The alleged attacker targeted a pro-Israel event with Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower, injuring over a dozen people. Karen Diamond was the first victim to die from injuries received during the attack.

This horrific attack has now claimed the life of an innocent person, and state prosecutors plan to get justice for her, District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in a Monday release. Prosecutors upgraded two preexisting counts of attempted murder to first-degree murder as a result of Diamond’s death, prosecutors noted. Prosecutors on Monday also filed an additional 66 new charges against Soliman after investigators identified an additional 14 victims injured in the attack, according to the DA’s Monday update.

How many charges is Soliman facing now? The state case against Soliman includes charges on behalf of 29 victims, 13 of whom suffered physical injury, according to the update. Charges include two counts of first-degree murder and 52 counts of attempted first-degree murder. The case also included 28 counts of varying degrees of assault or attempted assault, 18 counts related to the use of an incendiary device, and one count of animal cruelty. The dozens of state charges came about a week after federal prosecutors announced a dozen federal hate crime charges against Soliman.

Trump administration sues Los Angeles over sanctuary city policies

By Christina Grube

Federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit Monday against the city of Los Angeles and several top officials for enacting sanctuary city laws after President Donald Trump’s reelection, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Los Angeles’s sanctuary law limits the extent to which local law enforcement is legally permitted to cooperate with federal immigration agents. These sanctuary city policies violate federal law and foster lawlessness in the city, the filing alleged. The city’s instability reached such heights that the National Guard and the U.S. Marines were called in to stop looting and vandalism, the release noted. LA is flouting federal law and prioritizing illegal migrants over actual American citizens, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the Monday statement. This mentality ends under Trump, she added.

LA’s sanctuary laws were enacted after Trump’s reelection for the purpose of interfering with the federal government’s immigration initiatives, the DOJ added. The city council quickly passed legislation making Los Angeles a sanctuary city weeks after the 2024 election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a concerted effort to fast-track legislation late last year in order to “Trump-proof” the state before the president’s formal inauguration.

Is LA being sued because of the policy, or because the city is accused of trying to stall Trump’s agenda? The DOJ noted that the legal action against Los Angeles was just one case in a string of lawsuits targeting sanctuary cities. New York City became a sanctuary city in 1989, and New Jersey has functioned as a sanctuary state since 2018.

U.S. security agencies warn of Iranian cyber threat

By Elizabeth Russell

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, on Monday warned that Iranian hackers might target American companies and critical infrastructure. In a joint release with other security agencies including the FBI, CISA said focused on the defense industrial base are particularly at risk—especially those in relationships with Israeli firms. Potential cyberattacks could involve ransomware, leaks of sensitive information, or denial of service campaigns.

There’s no evidence of a coordinated Iranian cyber campaign targeting American companies at the moment, according to CISA. But hackers affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compromised dozens of U.S. companies’ industrial control systems in 2023 and 2024, according to the agencies’ release. Victims included companies in industries related to water and wastewater, energy, food and beverage manufacturing, and healthcare.

What should companies do to protect themselves? Implementing multi-factor authentication and strong passwords can mitigate risk, according to CISA. The agency also encouraged companies to secure any usage of remote access technologies and set protocols to block unauthorized access.

Vehicle bomb in Pakistan kills 13 soldiers

By Elizabeth Russell

Thirteen Pakistani soldiers died on Saturday in a bombing attack on their convoy, according to the Pakistan Armed Forces. As the convoy passed through the country’s North Waziristan District near the border with Afghanistan, terrorists rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into one of the army vehicles leading a convoy. The resulting blast killed the soldiers and severely injured a woman and two children, according to the Pakistani military.

Who was responsible for the attack? The Pakistani military on Saturday blamed an Islamic terror group they said was sponsored by India for the deaths. The military also said it pursued and killed 14 terrorists in an intense exchange of fire on Saturday. However, a wing of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the BBC.

How did India respond to the accusation? The country’s Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said it rejected the accusation with what it characterized as the contempt it deserved.

More Siftings

• The Norwegian lottery mistakenly reports many large winnings.

• The Supreme Court will hear the GOP’s challenge to a campaign spending limit.

• Senate Republicans advance their budget megabill in a test vote.

• Canada scraps digital services tax as the United States reopens trade talks.

• Smugglers to serve lives in prison for deaths of 53 migrants.

WORLD-wide

READ Magazine and Digital reports:

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• WORLDkids tells about an Alaskan village that puts driftwood to work.
• WORLDteen reports on record-high heat as the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament kicks off.

LISTEN to The World and Everything in It and other WORLD podcasts:

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WATCH WORLD Watch with reports on:

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Some WORLD readers may also be familiar with National Review. Well, WORLD’s Collin Garbarino recently reviewed a new biography of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Verse of the day

If you’re sweating at your work, at least you are blessed to bless others.

I’ve been astonished by the number of antiwork or anticapitalist clips and memes that inundate my social media streams. I don’t like them. But suppose that you or I could survive without working. How then would we help other people, even those outside our families or friends? How would we support worthy causes, even those beyond our own churches?

This idea of working to bless others is in Scripture. I stumbled across the following passage the other day. The tent-making Apostle Paul gives last-minute exhortations to the tearful Ephesians before he heads down to the dock and leaves them for the last time:

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive,’” (Acts 20:35).

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