Thursday morning news: July 16, 2026

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Iran latest » The U.S. military is hitting Iran around the clock now, stepping up the pace of its strikes.

The strikes answer Iran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Now Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to choke off all the region's oil and gas. Iran is also firing missiles at neighboring U.S. allies, from Bahrain to Jordan.

Even so, President Trump says the war could still end in a deal.

TRUMP: They wanna settle so badly. They don't like what we're doing, and they do wanna settle. We'll find out whether or not we settle with them or we just finish it off.

Trump and other U.S. officials say the problem is trusting Iran to keep its word. Tehran, they say, routinely agrees to one thing, then does the opposite.

Mediators led by Pakistan are still trying to revive negotiations.

Lebanon, Israel move toward implementing withdrawal » New developments in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.

SOUND: [Convoys]

Delegations from both Israel and Lebanon could be seen arriving at the U.S. Embassy on Rome Wednesday for the second day of talks between their two governments.

At the heart of those talks a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar:

SAAR: I hope and tend to believe that this round of discussions in Rome will promote it. We have all the goodwill to strengthen what was established in Washington DC on June 26th.

That’s when Israel, Lebanon, and the United States signed a framework agreement outlining the planned withdrawal.

The proposal calls for setting up so-called test, or pilot zones. The Israeli military would withdraw from two small areas and allow the Lebanese army to take control. If all goes well, that would expand to other zones.

Discussions wrapped up yesterday, but there’s no definitive word yet on whether the plan will move forward.

Blanche confirmation hearing » On Capitol Hill:

GRASSLEY: [gavel strike] We, uh, welcome everybody to this hearing when we consider Todd Blanche's nomination to serve as the 88th Attorney General of the United States

That opened Wednesday's hearing for Blanche, who runs the Justice Department as acting attorney general and wants the 'acting' label removed from his job title. Democrats made clear they're not convinced. Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin said of Blanche's time at the department:

DURBIN: Your tenure can be summed up in the four words you said, quote, "I love you, sir," to President Trump. This nation deserves an attorney general who loves the Constitution more than any single president.

Blanche once served as President Trump's personal attorney. But he says he and the department, on his watch, are devoted solely to law and order.

BLANCHE: Above all, we are restoring American trust. In recent years, we watched the Justice Department turned against many of you and a former president, and it damaged the public's faith in justice. We are fixing that.

Senators also grilled Blanche on the Epstein files, after victims' names were mistakenly made public.

BLANCHE: Whenever we learned that any victim's name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it as soon as we could. That doesn't excuse the mistakes of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them.

Republicans hold the votes to confirm him if GOP members hold the line, but he's expected to receive few, if any, yes votes from Democrats.

Hong Kong booksellers arrested » China continues its crackdown on free speech in Hong Kong. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Hong Kong police have raided two independent bookstores and arrested five people for allegedly selling seditious books.

Officers carried out boxes of books. Police claimed the material stirred up hatred against the government and the courts.

It's the third round of such raids in recent months.

Hong Kong was once a haven for the printed word. Mainland Chinese readers even crossed the border to buy books banned back home. But Beijing brought Hong Kong under its communist ruleset in 2020 after imposing a so-called national security law. That law has steadily stripped away the freedoms Beijing promised would last 50 years, after Britain handed the city back in 1997.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

At least 50 dead or missing after boat capsizes » At least 50 migrants are dead or missing after their boat capsized off the coast of Libya. About 60 people were aboard, including women and children, all trying to reach Europe.

Ten survivors swam to a nearby island. The rest are still missing.

It's the latest such disaster there, the main launching point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Smugglers pack them into small, unsafe boats, and thousands die trying.

A U.N. agency says more than 800 have died or gone missing on that route this year alone.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, the possible hidden danger of a medication being used to combat overdoses. Plus, an interview with author giving guidance on how to think clearly about the culture.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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