July 14, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1790, the inaugural Fête de la Fédération is held to celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation. Commemorating the storming of the notorious Bastille prison in 1789, the now annual celebration is France’s largest national holiday.
QOTD: “They want to take out the U.S. leader—me,” [Trump] said. “I’m on every list. I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of [the Iranians’] lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long.”
CHINA/POL - China purges third Politburo member in deepening anti-graft drive
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-purges-third-politburo-member-deepening-anti-graft-drive-2026-07-14/
China has expelled Ma Xingrui, a former Politburo member, from the ruling Communist Party on corruption charges, making him the third sitting member of the elite decision-making body to be purged since 2025 as President Xi Jinping intensifies an anti-graft campaign.
Ma, who also served as the deputy head of the central rural work leading group, was placed under investigation in April over suspected "serious violation of law and discipline" - the party's euphemism for corruption. Ma's membership in the country's parliament was also stripped last month.
"A decision to purge someone of Ma Xingrui's rank is taken at the very top, with Xi Jinping's backing," said Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt, professor of modern Chinese studies at the University of Zurich. He noted the language used by the anti-graft watchdog on Ma was "extremely serious", with some highly unusual charges.
Investigators found that Ma had sought benefits for others in the selection and appointment of officials and improperly arranged jobs for others, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement.
He "connived at, failed to detect and failed to rein in serious violations of discipline and law, and suspected criminal conduct, by staff members around him," CCDI said.
UKRAINE/RUSSIA - Ukraine targets another 11 Russian ships in Sea of Azov
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-drone-attacks-azov-sea-ships-russia/a-77949717
Ukraine said on Tuesday that another 11 Russian vessels have been targeted in the Sea of Azov in overnight strikes.
Kyiv's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, known by his callsign "Magyar", said in a statement on Telegram that the targets included five tankers, five cargo vessels and one tugboat.
He said the aim was to damage Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" and to limit Russia's fuel supplies to Moscow-controlled Crimea.
The Reuters news agency reported that shipping in the area remained restricted on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
RUSSIA/ENERGY - Russian Refinery Runs Plunge to Lowest in More Than Two Decades
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-13/russian-refinery-runs-plunge-to-lowest-in-more-than-two-decades
A wave of Ukrainian attacks has pushed Russian refining runs to the lowest in more than 21 years, deepening a domestic fuel crunch and further squeezing the global market.
Crude-processing rates have averaged 3.91 million barrels a day so far this month, the lowest level since March 2005, according to figures compiled by EA Analytics. That’s more than 1.4 million barrels a day below the year-ago average, the data show.
The drop in production has prompted a ban on most diesel exports to the end of July, in addition to restrictions on gasoline and jet fuel shipments introduced earlier. The loss of diesel from a key global supplier has driven prices to multiyear highs, with the market already tightened by disruptions to Middle East flows.
Russia has classified its official statistics on refinery operations, making independent assessments of damage to the industry challenging. The Energy Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
MORE: Russia Struggles to Sell All the Oil It's Being Forced to Export
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-14/russia-struggles-to-sell-all-the-oil-it-s-being-forced-to-export?srnd=phx-politics
Russia is struggling to deliver all of the crude it’s being forced to ship overseas in the face of escalating Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries.
Four-week average seaborne crude shipments were almost unchanged at 4.21 million barrels a day in the period to July 12, according to tanker-movements data compiled by Bloomberg. That was down by just 10,000 barrels from the highest since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in 2022, before which about 600,000 barrels a day was piped to refineries in Europe.
But soaring crude exports aren’t being matched by deliveries, leaving the number of barrels at sea back near the highs from around the start of the year as cargoes of Russian oil build up off Mersa El-Hamra in Egypt and in the Riau archipelago, east of Singapore, tanker-tracking data show. A growing proportion of those supplies are on ships that appear to be idling, rather than in transit.
IRAN/US/ISRAEL - Iran Hatched Fresh Plot to Kill Trump, Israel Told U.S.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-hatched-fresh-plot-to-kill-trump-israel-told-u-s-1511d9d2?mod=world_trendingnow_article_pos1
Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. that it said indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.
Iran for years has vowed openly to retaliate against Trump for the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, who was a top general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the president’s first term.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment. Iran’s Mission to the United Nations didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House referred The Wall Street Journal to comments the president made on Wednesday.
Trump on Wednesday alluded to threats to his life when speaking to reporters in Ankara, Turkey[…].
Relations between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have splintered in recent weeks as their interests diverged over continuing the Iran war.
Netanyahu has advocated for keeping up attacks on Iran and accomplishing more war aims. Trump has sought a way out of the conflict, citing concerns it could tank the global economy. The U.S. struck a fragile ceasefire with Iran last month.
CHINA/EU - China urges Europe to stop backing 'illegal' South China Sea ruling to avoid harming ties
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-urges-europe-stop-backing-illegal-south-china-sea-ruling-avoid-harming-2026-07-14/
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday called the European side to be cautious in its words and deeds on the South China Sea and stop endorsing the "illegal ruling" to prevent impact on China-EU ties and cooperation.
"Europe is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to comment on China's legitimate territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a daily press briefing.
The comments came after a joint statement issued on Sunday by countries including some European nations said China's expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis, followed by a relevant statement from the EU.
China has also summoned officials of the embassies of relevant countries in China and the EU delegation to China and lodged serious representations with them, Lin said.
EU/FRANCE/UKRAINE/RUSSIA/MIL - European troops and warplanes join Paris Bastille Day parade in a show of unity for Ukraine
https://apnews.com/article/france-bastille-day-ukraine-troops-parade-d78621ef18de51b16c8ab99e2bf43f4b
Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France’s national Bastille Day celebrations Tuesday as a massive parade showcased support for Ukraine and symbolically flexed European military muscle.
On President Emmanuel Macron’s last Bastille Day as president, he hosted around 30 other leaders for an event that appeared aimed at showing both Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe is united and stepping up to defend itself.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was given an ovation from the assembled European leaders and his country’s troops got the biggest cheers of the day from crowds on the tree-lined Champs-Elysees avenue. Zelenskyy and Macron shared repeated hugs at the end of the parade.
France’s biggest national holiday coincided with raging forest fires and a red-alert heat wave that forced the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters’ balls — and with a highly anticipated World Cup semifinal pitting the national soccer team against Spain.
IRAN/KSA/SEC/THEY’RE BAAACK - Iran-Backed Houthis Strike Saudi Arabia in Major Escalation
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-14/iran-backed-houthis-strike-saudi-arabia-in-major-escalation
The Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen fired ballistic missiles and drones on Saudi Arabia, the worst attack in several years that threatens to draw the rebels into the wider regional conflict between Tehran and Washington.
The Houthis claimed they targeted Abha Airport in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern region Monday and warned aviation companies to avoid Saudi airspace until what they called a Saudi siege of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, is lifted.
State-run Al Ekhbariya TV reported that Saudi Arabia defense systems dealt with Houthi missiles, without saying whether Riyadh would retaliate.
The Houthi strike came hours after the group accused Saudi jets of bombing Sanaa International Airport to prevent a plane carrying the group’s delegation from returning from the funeral of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran.
Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, which is based in Riyadh, claimed the attack on Sanaa, saying Iran had violated Yemen’s sovereignty by landing the plane there.
US/IRAN - Trump backs away from plans to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz as attacks intensify
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-14-2026-abd060c55feea216625689e57d8f76be
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a reversal of plans to charge a 20% toll on cargo going through the Strait of Hormuz, saying that Middle Eastern countries will instead make investment and trade deals with the U.S.
“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump said on social media.
The president said the investments “will be MASSIVE,” though it’s unclear if these would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit last year to the Middle East.
The U.S. had launched strikes earlier in the day, and Iran retaliated by attacking American allies in the region.
The latest exchange of fire leaves in tatters an interim deal meant to pause the fighting, reopen a waterway that is key to world energy supplies and give negotiators time to hammer out a permanent end to the war. Instead, fighting has once again engulfed the region, threatened the global economy and brought warnings to commercial airlines. Unless a diplomatic solution is found quickly, it could intensify into all-out war.
The focus of the conflict now is the strait, through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas passed in peacetime. Iran effectively shut the passage during the war by attacking and threatening ships — a tactic that proved its greatest strategic advantage. It sent the price of oil, fertilizer and other goods soaring at a time when world leaders were already struggling to address rising costs.
MORE: The Fight Over Hormuz Boils Down to One Poorly Worded Clause in Trump’s Deal
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-deal-strait-of-hormuz-b027c30f?mod=world_trendingnow_article_pos5
President Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz and relieve the pressure on the global economy. Instead, it set off a test of wills that has exploded into violence twice in the past two weeks.
The root of the dispute is Paragraph 5, which says Iran will make arrangements to restore shipping through the strategic waterway and then work with Oman to determine how to administer it in the future. But it also includes an Iranian pledge to ensure safe passage and remove military obstacles such as mines.
Trump administration officials saw that clause as unlocking the strait, the main accomplishment of the president’s deal. Iranian hard-liners, however, have used it to push a maximalist interpretation that gives the Islamic Republic exclusive control over the waterway as a key source of leverage.
The U.S. and its Arab Gulf allies don’t want Iranian hegemony over Hormuz, the lifeline for much of the world’s oil and gas supply. The language of the deal has left the two sides fighting over that point rather than making progress on a final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“This gap in interpretation is wide, baked into the deal, and not exactly surprising,” said Michael Horowitz, an Israeli geopolitical analyst. “Washington has tried to convince Tehran that compliance would be more profitable, but this framing misses the point. Iran’s behavior isn’t driven by financial motives but by security concerns and bargaining leverage. It’s a power dynamic.”
Three weeks after Trump signed the preliminary deal to wind down the war at Versailles, France, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is still stunted. Crossings fell to 25 on Wednesday amid the U.S. and Iranian exchanges of fire, from 49 the day before, according to ship-tracking company Kpler. More than 100 ships crossed each day before the war.