France and Spain are bracing for another heat wave as thousands of firefighters and troops continue to battle unprecedented fires that have forced over 360,000 people to evacuate their homes. In a town in eastern Spain, residents described devastating scenes from this weekend.

José Miguel Encinas: “It was like in the movies, where hell cracked the ground open, and you see the red hell. That’s how it was here. On Saturday night, this hill was horrific. In this area with houses, there were flames 15 to 20 meters tall. It was an atrocity. … I can’t describe the helplessness that a person feels to see their home, their neighbors’ homes, their town, their neighborhood burning.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez linked the fires to the escalating climate emergency.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez: “What we are living is not a succession of isolated events. As has been said before, it is the most painful expression of a climate emergency that is making sixth-generation wildfires more voracious, heat waves more frequent and, as a result, our territory more vulnerable. This is no longer an exception. It is the new reality. Summers are becoming increasingly difficult, destructive and, therefore, deadly.”

Here in the United States, major fires in Oregon have burned more than 1 million acres of land and forced the closure of Interstate 84 for some 70 miles. According to the Oregon Department of Forestry, there are dozens of active large fires burning across the state.

In Minnesota, fires have burned about 68,000 acres in Superior National Forest and nearby areas. The Washington Post reports the Biden administration had approved $10 million to thin out Superior National Forest to help prevent fires, but last year the Trump administration’s DOGE program paused or canceled nearly all of the Forest Service’s grant projects and funds. A former U.S. Forest Service district ranger said, “Had that work been implemented, it would have been effective in stopping or slowing down these fires.”

President Trump is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House today for the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran five months ago. The meeting comes as Trump weighs his next steps in Iran. On Friday, Trump paused strikes after two weeks of attacks. On Monday, Trump told Axios, “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action.” In June, Trump and Netanyahu reportedly had a tense phone call with Trump repeatedly calling the Israeli prime minister “f-ing crazy.”

Netanyahu will also attend today’s funeral for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on July 11. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from an unreleased documentary showing Graham cheering on the U.S. strikes on Iran.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Look what we’ve done here.”

Interviewer: “I know.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “I almost cried.”

Interviewer: “Yeah.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “I mean, like, how long have we been pushing this?”

Interviewer: “I mean, you’ve been pushing this for years, right?”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Right. It’s here. I talked to Trump this morning.”

Interviewer: “It’s literally” —

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “Oh, he’s jacked. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. He loves — he loves blowing stuff up. So, you know, there are a lot of people inside didn’t want to do it. So, I’ve had my challenges.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also meet with President Trump and then attend Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral. Zelensky’s visit comes days after a Russian ballistic missile struck a large defense technology and drone exhibition near Kyiv that had been organized to show off Ukraine’s drone technology. The attack killed at least 10 people and injured close to 100. Meanwhile, Ukraine has attacked a major Russian fuel storage depot located more than 800 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The Ugandan government has started distributing emergency food relief after 19 people reportedly died in the east of the country due to prolonged drought. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a global mapping network on food security, reported conditions of drought in the Karamoja region of Uganda. Crops have failed due to inadequate rain, leaving 1.5 million people in the area to face food shortages and malnutrition. This comes as the World Food Programme has been forced to drastically scale back aid to Uganda after significant funding cuts, most recently from USAID.

The Trump Administration filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court to allow an executive order that would restrict voting by mail. This comes after a federal appeals court blocked key parts of the executive order over the weekend. The Supreme Court has until August 3 to respond. Under Trump’s executive order, DHS would create state-by-state lists of eligible voters who are citizens. The U.S. Postal Service would then use the lists provided by states to assess if voters should be allowed to vote by mail.

In Michigan, Democratic Senate candidates Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Haley Stevens sparred on Monday in the final debate before next Tuesday’s primary. It is one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. The debate moderator, Roop Raj, questioned Stevens about receiving funding from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Roop Raj: “Congresswoman, specifically about AIPAC money, more than $46 million has been spent on AIPAC spending to back your campaign. A lot of people wonder if that is something where they’re — you know, you’re going to do their bidding when you — should you win this seat. Is that something people should be concerned about? And if not, why not?”

Rep. Haley Stevens: “Absolutely not, Roop. Look, I have been very clear, consistent and transparent, and I have continued to be. I want to see long-term peace. I want to see a two-state solution. I am deeply proud to represent one of the largest Jewish populations in a congressional district in the country.”

During the debate, Dr. El-Sayed repeatedly criticized Stevens for taking AIPAC money.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed: “So, I just want to say, the difference between us is $46 million of AIPAC spending. They’ve set a record in this race to help elect my opponent because they know that she’ll be a reliable vote, just like she took last week to send your tax dollars to a foreign government that is aiding, arming and abetting the very people who want to foreclose on the possibility of Palestinian self-determination.”

ICE is reportedly stepping up plans to arrest and deport Haitian migrants, as hundreds of thousands of Haitians are set to lose their status under TPS, the Temporary Protected Status program. The Supreme Court last month sided with the Trump administration to end TPS programs for Haitians and Syrians. According to an internal government document, the plans to round up and deport Haitian immigrants could start this week. Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said, “Once again our community members find themselves in a state of extreme trauma, fear and terror. One of them told me it feels like a tsunami or an earthquake with nonstop aftershocks.”

The Trump administration has issued new regulations that could result in hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers being sent directly to deportation proceedings instead of giving them a chance to be interviewed first by an asylum officer. The rule could impact 440,000 cases.

Doris Meissner, the director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said, “The ultimate impact of making this change certainly seems to be to try to deny as many cases as possible, without regard to the fairness of the determination.”

This comes as the Trump administration has fired more than 100 immigration judges and replaced them with military lawyers and former prosecutors for the Department of Homeland Security.

The Justice Department dropped its case against SEIU leader David Huerta. Last year, he was charged with obstructing an officer after being arrested while protesting ICE raids in Los Angeles. Video from the event showed a masked officer shoving Huerta to the ground during the demonstration. In a statement, Huerta said the Trump DOJ “is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice.”

In Brazil, the eldest son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro has formally launched a campaign to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s next election. Flávio Bolsonaro is a far-right senator who has already received the backing of Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt following his 2022 election defeat to Lula.

In other news from Latin America, former Honduran ​President Juan Orlando Hernández has returned to Honduras eight months after receiving a pardon from President Trump. In 2024, Hernández was sentenced to a 45-year prison term in the United States for taking part in what prosecutors described as “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.” Hernández still faces corruption charges in Honduras, but an arrest warrant against him was recently canceled.

The Washington Post is reporting that the Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up boats in the Caribbean and Pacific has not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the United States. A previously unreported assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration concludes that the attacks have failed to affect the supply or price of cocaine in the United States. The U.S. boat strikes have killed at least 221 people since September. No evidence has been made public linking the boats to drug traffickers.

Last week, Democratic Congressmember Chuy García called for an independent
investigation into the strikes, as well as the recent murder of Ecuadorian prosecutor Alexandra Bravo, who was fatally shot along with her sister by a hitman on a motorcycle last month in the city of Manta. Drop Site News reports that at the time of her killing, she was investigating U.S. strikes on three Ecuadorian boats in which 36 passengers survived. Bravo was investigating claims by the survivors that they had been abducted and then tortured by American gunmen in U.S. military uniforms aboard a U.S.-flagged patrol ship.

In Chile, police say they have captured a man sentenced back in 2023 for the kidnapping and murder of folk singer and activist Víctor Jara under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Nelson Haase was one of a group of military officers who was charged for Jara’s murder. He fled from authorities after his sentence was announced, and was captured over the weekend. Jara was a pacifist who supported the socialist President Salvador Allende and was tortured and shot 44 times five days after the coup brought Pinochet to power in 1973. Click here to see more of our coverage about Víctor Jara.

GOP Senator Mitch McConnell’s office released a new photo of him since he first entered the hospital last month after a fall at his home. McConnell has missed 38 roll call votes in the Senate and has not done any media interviews since he was hospitalized. Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called on Senator McConnell to speak to the public or resign.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “If he can’t give us an update, he should resign, absolutely.”

Reporter: “In addition to the one that he already — the one he sent out about a week and a half ago?”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I think it’s been very clear to people across Kentucky that his update was not sufficient.”

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake has hit southwest Japan, damaging buildings and highways. Many people are reportedly trapped inside a shopping center in the town of Kashima.