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What videos show about ICE’s pursuit of immigrant’s van before Houston shooting

Videos that capture the minutes leading up to and immediately after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Houston early Tuesday morning show agents aggressively following a white work van and then approaching the vehicle on foot.

Security camera footage from nearby businesses and residences, obtained and analyzed by the Washington Post, provides a nearly continuous, six-minute-long view of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s van as he is pursued by federal agents. But the agents were not wearing body cameras, and the videos do not clearly capture the moment an ICE agent fires his gun shortly before 7 a.m. local time — a finding that may complicate any investigation into whether ICE personnel were justified in using deadly force against Salgado Araujo.

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement hours after the deadly shooting saying that Salgado Araujo, 52, had rammed an ICE vehicle and “weaponized” his white work van “in an attempt to run over” a federal immigration officer. DHS did not identify the officer or say how many times he fired but said he did so in “self-defense.”

The videos show federal officers in two unmarked SUVs following him closely, at one point cutting off his van and driving on the wrong side of the street toward it. The videos do not appear to show Salgado Araujo ramming a vehicle, but at times, the van and the SUVs are partially obscured from camera view by buildings and trees.

A DHS spokesperson said the department’s Office of the Inspector General is investigating the agent-involved shooting, and the FBI is investigating “the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.” The agency did not comment on the Post’s attempt to confirm the timeline of events.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the county was collecting surveillance footage and witness testimony to determine what happened.

The videos could provide key evidence to corroborate what transpired. The officers involved in the incident had not been issued body cameras and were not wearing them, according to a DHS spokesperson. Surveillance footage and witness recordings have become key in several shootings over the past year involving federal immigration officers, and in some instances have directly contradicted statements by DHS.

Unlike the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens killed by immigration officers in January, no video recorded by witnesses has emerged so far of Salgado Araujo’s killing.

In a statement Friday, the agency said the officers who followed Salgado Araujo‘s van had seen two similar vehicles weeks earlier on the property of a person suspected of being in the United States illegally. DHS said officers were on their way to that person’s residence when they saw Salgado Araujo’s van. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D., Texas), who represents the district where the shooting took place, said in a TV interview Thursday that an ICE official told her that Salgado Araujo was not the person sought by agents.

Around 5:50 a.m., surveillance video from outside Salgado Araujo’s home shows him getting into his white van and beginning the drive to work. At some point, he picks up the other three men.

An hour later, the van is captured by a camera as it heads south on Highway 90, driving about 50 mph, according to the Post’s calculations. Two black, unmarked SUVs appear to be in pursuit.

His white van makes an abrupt turn onto another street, followed by one of the two SUVs.

The SUV sticks close to the van, pulling up alongside it. Seconds later, the SUV cuts off the van, and Salgado Araujo veers to the left.

Meanwhile, a second unmarked SUV enters Canal Street and drives onto the wrong side of the road toward the van, which backs up as the SUV approaches. It is not clear in the video whether the van makes contact with either SUV at this point.

The van then drives forward, going back the way it came.

As the van drives slowly away from the SUVs, at least three officers are seen pursuing on foot. It is not clear how close the van came to the officers as it turned, but the Post’s analysis indicates at least one officer was close to the passenger side of the van.

The van rolls less than 200 feet before pulling off to the side. Within seconds, several officers converge on the van. Officers pull out at least one person from the passenger side and put handcuffs on them.

Aftermath video of the scene shows Salgado Araujo on the ground by the driver’s side. Two officers are next to him, one kneeling. They appear to be checking on Salgado Araujo, who is visibly distressed.

According to his family, he had been shot in the abdomen. He later died of his injuries.

The three men who were in the van with Salgado Araujo said a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that at no point did Salgado Araujo veer in his direction. All three men were arrested and are in immigration detention.

DHS characterized Salgado Araujo as an “illegal alien” from Mexico, but his son told the Post that his father was doing what he could to legalize his status in the U.S.

Salgado Araujo’s death marks the first fatal shooting involving ICE agents since Good and Pretti were killed in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January during an enforcement surge in that city.

July 12, 2026
Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez will start the All-Star Game for NL

Cristopher Sánchez‘s meteoric rise to the ranks of elite major league pitchers will now come with the stamp of an All-Star Game start.

Sánchez, the Phillies‘ ace lefty, was informed Sunday by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts that he’s the choice to start for the National League on Tuesday night in Citizens Bank Park, a league source confirmed before Roberts made it official.

“I smiled a lot,” Sánchez told reporters, through a team interpreter, after the Phillies wrapped up the first half in Detroit. “It’s reflection of all the hard work that I’ve been doing throughout the year, and I’m just extremely proud of myself right now.”

Sánchez, who will be opposed by Blue Jays starter Dylan Cease for the American League, is the first Phillies pitcher to start an All-Star Game since Roy Halladay in 2011. Curt Schilling, Steve Carlton, Curt Simmons, and Robin Roberts also started at least one All-Star Game as a Phillie.

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“He deserves it,” Roberts told reporters in Los Angeles. “He’s a hometown ballplayer, and I think the city of Philly will enjoy watching and supporting him. He was very grateful. In a time where guys are not wanting to participate in the midsummer classic for the fans, this is a good thing that he’s that excited about pitching.”

Sánchez ranks second in the majors in innings (127⅓), third in strikeouts (144), and ninth in ERA (2.62). The 29-year-old is also second among pitchers in wins above replacement (4.0, according to Fangraphs).

But Sánchez’s chances of starting for the NL improved because neither ERA leader Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers nor Dodgers two-way unicorn Shohei Ohtani will pitch in the All-Star Game. Misiorowski was scheduled to start Sunday for Milwaukee and later scratched with arm fatigue, while Ohtani bowed out with an irritated left knee.

Cristopher Sanchez will join teammates Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber as starters for the National League.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

Sánchez will join the Phillies’ Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber in the NL’s lineup. Marsh was elected by fans to start in the outfield; Schwarber, chosen as a reserve on the players’ ballot, will replace Ohtani as the NL’s designated hitter.

A year ago, Sánchez was overlooked for the All-Star team, which rankled many of his teammates. There wasn’t any chance of that happening this year.

Not after Sánchez went 50⅔ innings without allowing a run, the longest streak ever by a lefty and fifth-longest all-time. He had a 1.80 ERA through 16 starts before stumbling in a five-run start at Washington and a career-worst nine-run start last Sunday in Kansas City.

This season, the Phillies’ frustration stems from the omission of Zack Wheeler, who lowered his ERA to 2.13 with six scoreless innings Sunday in Detroit but also missed the season’s first month while coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome.

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Wheeler said it was “B.S.” that MLB didn’t name him as an All-Star and later replaced him on the NL roster. (Pitchers who start their team’s last game before the break don’t usually pitch in the All-Star Game on one day’s rest.) The league approached Wheeler on Friday about adding him as a replacement, but he said he declined “because they disrespected me.”

But Wheeler also declined to pitch — or even attend — the All-Star Game in 2024 in Texas and last year in Atlanta, his hometown.

“There’s certain circumstances where guys can’t play, they are injured. But this is an honor,” Roberts said. “It’s not only just an honor to be named it, but it’s an honor to participate and want to participate. Cristopher wants to, and I’m excited about naming him the starter in the All-Star Game.”

Sánchez is at his best at home. In his last 56 starts in Citizens Bank Park dating to 2024, he is 23-8 with a 2.21 ERA and 377 strikeouts in 354 innings. This year, he’s 7-1 with an 0.86 ERA in 11 home starts.

“I think it’s just fan support overall,” Sánchez said recently through a team interpreter, “and also knowing every inch of this stadium.”

After giving up two runs on 10 hits Saturday in Detroit, Sánchez said, “It would be awesome to start the All-Star Game at home. With the fans, it just would be an awesome thing. It’s another accomplishment and another goal, for sure, but it would be an awesome thing to do.”

It’s now a reality.

“Yeah, it’s just going to be crazy,” Sánchez said. “You guys know that Philly is the best environment in baseball that there is, so it’s just going to be really joyful and really crazy.”

Staff writer Lochlahn March contributed to this report.

July 12, 2026
Before Reflecting Pool, algae contractor had troubled project on a trash-infested river

A year before Greenwater Services got a $1.7 million contract to clean the algae-infected Reflecting Pool, it had received another no-bid government contract to deploy at the trash-plagued Tijuana River.

Greenwater, which is owned by a Trump donor, was hired to treat sewage in the Tijuana River with its “nanobubble technology,” a system that injects ozone into water. But the monthlong water purification pilot to evaluate the technology was cut short last October when a storm flooded the river’s banks. The remnants of machinery were washed into the border river, with diesel leaking along the way, frustrating scientists and environmentalists at federal agencies who had questioned internally whether the company’s project would work in a flood-prone area.

Eight months later, the company brought its equipment to clean up a mess at the Reflecting Pool in Washington. In April, as part of his effort to remake the nation’s capital city ahead of America’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump drained the pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial to add a new coating to the bottom that would make the water shine “American flag blue.” But a week after the $14 million renovation was finished in June, an outbreak of algae floated along the water’s surface, hiding the new blue coating under a thick, mossy shade of green. Algae had long been a problem for the pool, but a Washington Post analysis of satellite data found that the post-renovation bloom was the worst outbreak dating back at least five years.

The Department of Interior gave Greenwater and its nanobubble technology an expedited, no-bid contract to clean up the muck, even though other companies had expressed interest in the work to the National Park Service. Administration officials cited an urgent need to solve the problem before the 250th celebrations, and said they didn’t have time to allow companies to compete for the bid, according to a federal contracting document.

Greenwater, founded in 2019 in Ohio, is owned by J.J. Cafaro Investment, according to the contracting documents it filed with the government. J.J. Cafaro is an heir to an Ohio-based mall development company and a Republican donor who has given about $350,000 to Trump-related political committees and owns a $16 million mansion down the road from Mar-a-Lago. He said he considers the president “a friend,” and Trump once described Cafaro as “a man who made a lot of money in Cleveland, does a good job and a fantastic man.” Cafaro has denied his relationship with Trump played a role in securing Greenwater’s contract for the Reflecting Pool.

Chas Antinone Jr., Greenwater’s president and chief operating officer, has said the company has been expanding on the use of its technology, mostly in small bodies of water under 100 acres — such as a free demo to Trump’s Bedminster resort in 2024, Antinone told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The manager of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster brought Greenwater into conversations with the Interior Department about cleaning the Reflecting Pool, the New York Times reported.

In total, the federal government has paid Greenwater $2.8 million between the Tijuana River and Reflecting Pool contracts.

Company spokesperson Erin Kramer said Cafaro is not involved in the company’s day-to-day operations, and she shared research showing the technology has cleaned algae in studies. (Cafaro did not respond to requests for comment.)

“Private demonstrations, self-funded projects, research partnerships, and public-agency work are ways new environmental technology moves from research to adoption,” Kramer said in response to questions about the Bedminster demo.

Asked about the Bedminster connections, the Interior Department press office emailed a statement saying the White House was not involved in the selection process for any contract.

Since the Times reported last month on his company’s no-bid contract, Cafaro has become a sort of bogeyman for liberals online. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee’s rapid response X account shared a photo of Cafaro along with news that the Interior Department planned to use the same contractor that installed the liner to repair the pool, even though Cafaro doesn’t own or operate that company.

That photo featured Cafaro posing with former Real Housewives of Orange County star Kelly Dodd. But Dodd later posted a video clarifying that she merely posed with him because “he looked a little peculiar, and I liked his whole [get up]” but she only met him once at an event in Palm Beach, where she also saw Trump.

“This has gone viral. I don’t know why I got lumped in with this guy,” she said. “I can safely tell you I don’t know this man.”

‘Hope it doesn’t rain’

Flowing along the U.S.-Mexico border and discharging into the Pacific Ocean, the Tijuana River has been plagued by untreated wastewater, sewage, and debris dating back decades.

The U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission gave a no-bid contract for Greenwater last year, initially offering more than $2 million for a pilot that would encompass 120 days of work. Officials said there was an “urgent need to assess the effectiveness of this technology in addressing the public health threat” and that “the technology is proprietary and not in use by any other company.”

Until permanent infrastructure to address the pollution problems is in place, officials must “think creatively and evaluate every credible tool that can bring relief to affected Americans now,” Frank Fisher, an IBWC spokesperson, said in a statement to the Post.

After Greenwater secured the project but before work got underway, career scientists exchanged emails asking about the initial $2 million cost and the feasibility of the project. Environmental Protection Agency staff who were consulting IBWC questioned their plans.

“Wow. $2.4m for 90 days?” Thomas Konner, an environmental engineer for the EPA, wrote to IBWC and EPA officials on July 1.

“Hope it doesn’t rain on their parade!” he followed up on Aug. 25.

Months before, another scientist questioned the approach and called it a “Sisyphean task” — and forecast the storm. “I really don’t think the ozone will do any good unless you are able to ozonate the entire flow, but that’s based on my gut feeling and nothing else,” Douglas Liden, then an environmental engineer with the EPA, wrote to colleagues. “I also think the first storm will wash out any equipment you install, just as it did in Nogales, AZ.”

Phillip Musegaas, executive director of the nonprofit San Diego Coastkeeper, which obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request, said local groups have long hoped for a solution to one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters, which has sickened residents, closed beaches, and contaminated the air and water. Greenwater was supposed to take the nanobubble technology to the noxious hot spot — Saturn Boulevard — where the pungent water foams, an IBWC official wrote in the emails planning the project. But the company’s pilot was cut short by the storm and it never went to Saturn.

Debris from the equipment washed into a barrier set up to collect trash along the river, according to photos shared with Voice of San Diego.

“We were skeptical about it, but we wanted to see if it would work properly,” Musegaas said. “The fact that the whole project ended early because they let the equipment get washed away was pretty frustrating.” The company later acknowledged that the nanobubble machines could not operate continuously as intended because trash floating in the river clogged the machines.

The company also said, in a report to the government about that pilot, that its machines hadn’t been affected by a previous rainstorm. The night of the next big storm, Greenwater said, it moved the machines to “a higher elevation” because of rising water levels, but “an unexpected flooding event occurred” that “carried large quantities of trash and debris that inundated and damaged” the machines. The company then said it shut the project down because of “safety concerns and site conditions.” The IBWC said in a December news release, citing the Greenwater report, that the project was “successfully completed” and the “technology has the capability to kill bacteria and eliminate odors associated with sewage.”

Heather Raymond, the water quality director for Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, has tested Greenwater Service’s technology for years. Raymond, who does not work for the company nor on the Reflecting Pool and the Tijuana River projects, said the technology showed promise in trials when her team tested it in large tanks in controlled settings where algae levels were reduced, and small lakes where they saw some improvements in the local advisories for toxin levels.

“There’s still a lot to learn in scaling this up in the water quality conditions and amount of treatment needed to be successful,” Raymond said.

In the case of the Reflecting Pool, workers from the National Park Service used hydrogen peroxide and vacuuming to clear the algae in addition to the temporary units. Greenwater also said it had temporary units running by June 7, but the units were taken offline on June 12. Within 24 hours, an algae bloom developed, and the units returned. The company has since installed a permanent system in the Reflecting Pool’s pipes and said the water has cleared even though green sediment remains at the bottom.

This week, the Reflecting Pool has been fenced off following the Fourth of July fireworks display, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the workers will drain the pool and repair the peeling coating.

The nanobubble technology has been turned off ahead of the draining, a person familiar with the plan said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. By the middle of the week, the pool appeared green and murky, its bottom invisible under the mossy shade.

July 12, 2026
Kevin McGonigle dreamed of going to an All-Star Game in Philly. Now the Delco native is playing in one.

DETROIT — The Phillies were playing that night, so Kevin McGonigle had to get to the ballpark early. Around 10 a.m., when the batting cages would be empty.

He was a senior in high school, and the Phillies hitting coach, Kevin Long, had invited him to take some swings at Citizens Bank Park. Long’s son, Jaron, worked for the agency that represented McGonigle. He asked his father if he would hit with his client, who was a Delco native, a big Phillies fan, and poised to be taken early in the 2023 MLB draft.

“I said, ‘I’d love to. Let me check out what this guy’s got,’” Long said.

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Long is used to working with major leaguers. On the Phillies, he oversees the second-oldest group of hitters in baseball. McGonigle was on the cusp of being selected 37th overall by the Tigers, but at the time, he was still a high schooler at Bonner-Prendergast, still a teenager.

The session was a memorable experience for both of them. They spent about half an hour swinging in the cages. And when they were done, McGonigle still had more questions.

“Hey, can you show me Bryce Harper’s routine?” he asked Long. “Can you show me Kyle Schwarber’s routine?”

Long would demonstrate, explaining how and why a certain player would approach a drill. And so the session went on for another half an hour, with McGonigle emulating the major leaguers he’d grown up admiring, in their batting cage.

“I had a feeling he was going to be special,” Long said. “Had a feeling he was going to be in the big leagues. This quick of success probably surprised me a little bit.”

Bonner-Prendergast’s Kevin McGonigle was the 37th overall selection in the 2023 draft.Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

This week, McGonigle will return to the same stadium, this time as a major leaguer himself. The 21-year-old Tigers infielder will make his Citizens Bank Park debut in the All-Star game, just over three years after that session with Long.

The Tigers drafted McGonigle during Competitive Balance Round A, which falls between the first and second rounds. He went 10 picks after the Phillies selected shortstop Aidan Miller 27th overall.

During the 2025 All-Star festivities in Atlanta, McGonigle was one of the top prospects selected to play in the Futures Game. He was playing for Detroit’s double-A affiliate at the time. But after making the Tigers’ opening day lineup in March, the kid from Delco has put together a sparkling rookie season.

“Growing up wanting to go to an All-Star Game in Philadelphia just as a fan, it was always a dream of mine,” McGonigle said. “Just to go experience it and watch the All-Star Game in Philly. But now I get to have a front-row seat and actually play in it, so I haven’t really been able to think of words to describe the way I feel.”

He has a .285/.394/.424 slash line in his first 92 games, and will be an infield reserve on the American League team.

McGonigle will be staying at home with his parents for the festivities. He said about 35 friends and family members will be in attendance at the game. He also had plenty of family in the stands over the weekend at Comerica Park to see him face his hometown team, a trip planned before McGonigle was selected for the game.

None of this has sunk in yet for him.

“I think it’s gonna all hit me either when my name gets called or the national anthem, somewhere in the lines of the All-Star Game,” he said.

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His phone started blowing up immediately on Friday after McGonigle took starter Aaron Nola deep in the series opener. In the third inning, he sent a sinker 414 feet into the Phillies’ bullpen in right-center field.

After the game, Nola gave an unprompted shoutout to McGonigle, who grew up a fan of his. He was 10 years old when Nola debuted for the Phillies in 2015.

“Good hitting, right there,” Nola said of McGonigle. “Hit that ball pretty hard, out of one of the deepest parts of the field. So hat off to him on that one.”

McGonigle was excited after seeing the clip.

“He gave me some props on that, which was really nice of him,” McGonigle said. “So hopefully, I can run into him at some point, and just get to know him a little bit and thank him for the good words he said about me.”

McGonigle briefly chatted with Harper on the field in Detroit. The first baseman was one of his favorite Phillies growing up, after Chase Utley. He hopes to get the chance to talk more during the All-Star festivities.

“I was nervous to say something to him, and it was just like a normal conversation, which was awesome,” McGonigle said. “I think that’s the best part about it. All these superstars are just normal guys, and you get to build relationships with them, learn from them, and just get to know them.”

He and Long have kept in touch over text since their hitting session three years ago. They haven’t been able to connect in person in Detroit because Long’s duties usually keep him busy in the batting cages underneath the stadium.

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But they have been messaging. McGonigle had a bat sent over to Long at his request. And watching him from the opposite dugout, Long still recognizes the high schooler he swung with back in 2023.

“That’s the same kid,” Long said. “He’s tough. He’s gritty. He puts together these at-bats, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ Takes a really good swing. He’s not trying to baby his swing. He’s letting it kind of eat a little bit, which I like.”

He recalled seeing similarities between a younger McGonigle and former Red Sox infielder Dustin Pedroia, based on his size, demeanor, and his toughness.

What makes him a tough at-bat now for the Phillies to plan for is McGonigle’s discipline at the plate, Long said.

“His swing is a little bit unorthodox, but it’s a tight, compact swing,” Long said. “He controls his barrel very well. Uses the whole field. And his toughness. You can just see it. You can see it as soon as he goes to that at-bat, and overall, what he does at the plate. You sense that he’s not going to get out, or he’s going to make it really tough on the opposing pitcher.”

Long was so impressed by McGonigle back then that he later stopped by one of McGonigle’s games at Bonner in his senior season, to get a look at how he played defense.

He was blown away.

“I’m very proud of him, and I’m glad that we were able to cross paths,” Long said. “Something he’ll remember for a long time, and I’ll never forget it.”

July 12, 2026
Ukraine’s prime minister steps down as Zelensky announces government reshuffle

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelensky announced fresh changes to Ukraine’s government, saying he had offered a new and important position to the former premier.

Zelensky, who has remained in office under martial law because wartime elections are prohibited, has periodically reshuffled his government in an effort to bring fresh momentum to his administration.

Svyrydenko, who has served as Ukraine’s economy minister, was named prime minister in July 2025 at the age of 39 after playing a lead role in securing a mineral agreement between Ukraine and the United States, seen as an important way of tying U.S. interests to Ukraine’s security.

In a statement on social media, Svyrydenko said she was “proud to have had the honor of leading the government during one of the most difficult periods in Ukraine’s modern history.” She also said she had discussed “next steps” with Zelensky, but did not provide further details.

“I remain ready to serve the Ukrainian state and carry out every task aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s position, defending our national interests and bringing a just peace closer,” she said.

Zelensky announced her resignation in a post saying that Ukraine was “changing its political strategy.” He also said he had offered Svyrydenko the opportunity to lead “a new, important area” in Ukraine’s relations with a key international partner.

“Each priority area of foreign policy will be assigned to a specific person with substantial experience who is capable of implementing what we agree on at the leaders’ level and what the Ukrainian people expect,” Zelensky said, describing the impending reshuffle.

The Ukrainian leader also said there would be changes among the top ranks of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.

Zelensky met with a series of senior officials following the announcement, including Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The overhaul, which Zelensky has yet to explain in detail, would be the fourth major reorganization of his government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Ukraine continues strikes against Russian oil sites

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian attack in southwest Russia killed one person and wounded three more, local officials said Sunday, as Kyiv’s forces continued to bombard Russia’s oil facilities.

The head of Russia’s Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said that a child was among the injured. He also said that residential homes and apartment buildings were damaged in the strike, as well as an unspecified “industrial site.”

Russian media outlets reported that the attack’s target was the region’s Syzran Oil Refinery, with many sharing images that appeared to show plumes of black smoke rising over the site. The refinery, which is owned by oil and gas giant Rosneft and sits some 500 miles east of the border, has been a repeated target for Kyiv’s forces.

Meanwhile the governor of Russia’s Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar, said that a tanker had been damaged in a drone attack in the Azov-Black Sea maritime canal. The tanker was empty and there is no threat of an oil spill, Slyusar said.

Ukraine’s drone strikes on oil refineries and other infrastructure across Russia have triggered a widespread fuel crisis with gasoline shortages and rationing in multiple regions and motorists waiting for hours to fill their tanks. Moscow has responded by intensifying its bombardment on Kyiv and other cities, exposing Ukraine’s vulnerability to ballistic missile strikes.

Zelensky has described the strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure as part of Kyiv’s campaign of “long-range sanctions” carried out in response to Moscow’s refusal to halt its four-year invasion of its neighbor.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had attacked the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region. Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the claims.

July 12, 2026
Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard will host Chase Utley and Cole Hamels on their podcast at All-Star Village

The gang is getting back together.

Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Cole Hamels — the core of one of the greatest eras in Phillies history — will record a live podcast on Tuesday at All-Star Village at the Convention Center.

The recording will be an episode of Rollins and Howard’s “6-1-1 Podcast,” which is produced by Major League Baseball. Fans attending All-Star Village on Tuesday will be able to attend the hourlong live show, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Rollins and Howard launched their podcast in 2024 and have been joined this year by Freddie Freeman, Darryl Strawberry, and rapper Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan.

“That’s big bro, right there,” Howard said of Rollins. “Jimmy took me into his house when I first came up. He showed me the ropes and showed me what it’s like to be a big leaguer. It was always natural with Jimmy and us being ourselves around each other.”

Howard said Rollins was a good landlord as he didn’t charge him rent after he moved in during the end of the 2004 season. Rollins did the same a season later for Shane Victorino.

“We kept it clean,” Howard said. “Despite what he might try to tell you about the ‘Dishgate.’ He’ll try to talk about me not cleaning up dishes and stuff like that. I beg to differ. He probably had the cleanest dishes when I was there.”

Howard said the Phillies from his era remain close years later because they always cared about more than what happened on the field. The four players many symbolized from those years will be together on Tuesday.

“That’s what gave such a great bond,” Howard said. “We still have a text chain now where we update each other and try to see about getting together for a golf trip. It was a great time. It was a fun time.”

July 12, 2026
Iran reports new attacks on military targets on its largest island near the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States attacked Iran on Sunday over an Iranian strike on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing. Iran responded with attacks on countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and Oman — the nation on the other side of the strait that Tehran has pressed to join in managing shipping traffic.

The U.S. struck again later Sunday. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency cited the governor of Qeshm island near the strait as saying projectiles had been fired at military targets, with no casualties. IRNA said explosions were also heard in the coastal city of Bandar Abbas and Hajiabad city to the north.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss military operations, said a few strikes were conducted on missile and air defense systems, as well as small boats of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard at a couple of locations around the strait to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping.

Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of their interim deal aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war. The strait, a key route for the global supply of oil and natural gas and long considered an international waterway, has become a sticking point in negotiations that seem in danger of collapse.

The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, was “deeply concerned by the serious escalation,” according to a statement.

Iran says the strait is closed and the U.S. disagrees

The U.S. military’s Central Command said earlier Sunday that it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment, and other sites. It said the attacks, heavier than in recent days, would weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping.

“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” President Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press.

Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that a navy officer was killed. Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it.

“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”

The U.S. has launched three rounds of airstrikes targeting Iran in the last week over Iranian attacks on ships heading through the strait using a route off Oman, seeking to avoid the Islamic Republic’s territorial waters.

The U.S. military and Trump asserted that the strait remained open Sunday. Iran said it was closed until calm is restored, and Tehran would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

The U.S. military said over 140 ships had transited the strait over the past week. A multinational body overseen by the U.S. Navy said traffic continued “at reduced levels” off both Oman and Iran. It said nearly 140 vessels transited daily before the war.

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

Oman summons Iranian envoy to protest attack

Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries.

Qatar’s military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar’s Interior Ministry said, giving no further details on their condition.

Missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said three “land border posts” in the north and an offshore drilling platform of the Kuwait Oil Company were damaged, with one platform worker wounded.

A day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait, the Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in an area on the waterway.

Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the strikes, the first such move since the war began, calling Iran’s acts “irresponsible.”

Three Iranian missiles struck areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan’s state news agency reported.

Sirens also sounded in the UAE, but the government said missiles did not cross into its territory.

Iranian strike on ship harms Indian crew

A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engine room damage,” the U.S. Central Command said.

Oman’s maritime authority said it rescued 23 crew members but one was missing. India’s Ministry of External Affairs called him an Indian national and it was working with Oman to locate him.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been moving along Oman’s shoreline.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings” and ignored instructions to follow what it called an approved route. One “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”

Iranian state media later reported U.S. strikes across the country, including southern Iran in the province closest to the strait and military sites in a province near Tehran.

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

The strait sits in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. Oman on Saturday said it and Iran agreed to continue discussing the strait “at the technical and political levels.”

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal on the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar, and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach an agreement. A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.

Iran’s new supreme leader, unseen since the war began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television.

July 12, 2026
American Caligula: Trump’s assassination paranoia threatens us all

America’s current plight was nailed recently in an analysis by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Jeffrey Frankel, who dedicated an entire paragraph to the notorious despot who was bankrupting the world’s greatest superpower, “building luxurious villas and hosting huge parties.”

Frankel described how this strongman “blamed his troubles on his predecessor … He reveled in gold coins. He insisted that people worship him as god. He grafted busts of his head onto statues of gods. He humiliated senators by making them kiss his feet.” The mad king declared war over a narrow body of water, and also had an unseemly sex life.

Of course, you all know the Harvard scholar was writing here about the Roman emperor Caligula, who ruled the ancient regime during the tumultuous four years from 37 A.D. to 41 A.D., and whose obsessions with large public works, humiliating his political enemies, self-deification, and perversion have sparked two millennia of speculation about his cognitive state.

Why, yes, this does all sound very familiar. Donald Trump has never pushed his favorite horse for a top government position — as Caligula is said to have done with his trusted steed Incitatus — but he did send Pete Hegseth to the Pentagon, which is close enough. Professor Frankel’s riff on the notorious Roman is found in a February essay about Trump, “Caligula Reincarnated,” in which he argues that Trump’s “bizarre words and actions” are reaching the same depths of irrationality.

I agree, and it’s important to note that in the five months since that essay, there’s a new parallel between Caligula’s doomed and dangerous reign and the 47th American president, and it’s becoming a huge danger to civil liberties here at home and to peace abroad: fear of assassination and the paranoia that flows from that.

The last months of Caligula’s reign were marked by his mental deterioration and his panic that the many enemies he’d made in a short time on the throne — the once-allied lawmakers he’d publicly humiliated, or the political enemies that he’d prosecuted — would attempt to murder him. The emperor accelerated the most repressive aspects of his regime, even as he schemed to move the seat of power to Alexandria for his own safety.

In recent days, Trump has begun wobbling down this same bumpy, ancient Appian Way. It’s been reported that a Trump murder threat by Iran, which has seen a top general and its supreme leader killed on orders from the American president or his allies, was relayed to the White House by Israeli intelligence. That prompted a remarkable public moment in which the U.S. leader mused about his own death.

“I speak about it a lot because the life of a president is very dangerous,” Trump told reporters during a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. “I don’t really care, because I’m doing my job … I like being No. 1 on TikTok better. But I’m No. 1 on the list for killing,” which sounds, oddly, like a boast from a TV reality star still obsessed with his ratings.

There are several things to unpack here. First, you probably know this truism: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there’s not someone who’s out to get you. Famously, Caligula was assassinated (as were his wife and young daughter) just before his planned move to Alexandria by his own trusted guards.

Similarly, Trump has been the subject of at least four assassination attempts, including one at a 2024 Butler, Pa., campaign rally in which shots apparently grazed his ear and killed an attendee. This unfortunate situation has felt inevitable as Trump’s toxic, divisive, and often hateful rhetoric lights a spark under a nation where violence was already as American as cherry pie.

But political violence is morally abhorrent and never solves anything. The healing of America from the bad place we’re in right now depends on Trump’s continued health, so he can someday be brought to justice for his corruption and his crimes against humanity. A Trump assassination wouldn’t be just wrong, but it would trigger a wave of repression under JD Vance that would also drive the final nail in the coffin of U.S. democracy.

Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024.Evan Vucci

Still, the actual danger to Trump’s life — which the Secret Service learned of through a tip from some of the same Israeli intelligence officials who worked to goad the U.S. into this botched Iran war in the first place — remains hypothetical. The threat to the liberty of all Americans from the president’s spiraling paranoia is real and already underway.

To begin with, Trump has already used the assassination tip as an excuse to ratchet up tensions in the Persian Gulf, where the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran’s new hard-line rulers had already imploded — bringing new death and destruction while dragging down the world economy. The president, who sounded blasé about his own mortality on Wednesday, has changed his tune.

Trump wrote Saturday in a Truth Social post that “1,000 missiles are locked and loaded” if he is killed by Iranian agents, adding, “Orders have already been given, and the US Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one-year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.” There are many reasons here to worry — not only over the escalation of a war that was pointless from Day One, but also over the likelihood that Iran will be blamed if anything happens to Trump, regardless of who is actually responsible.

But the assassination paranoia is coming out in other, insidious ways. Alarm bells went off this week when Trump flew to the summit in Turkey in his new Air Force One — the $400 million “gift” airliner from Qatar that U.S. taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade, even as Trump plans to keep it for his presidential foundation in 2029 — but ditched it to fly home in an older Air Force model.

The New York Times put five top reporters on this story because Americans deserve an explanation of how and why our tax dollars were spent on this project — exactly the kind of free-press accountability the founders envisioned when drafting the First Amendment. Their sources told them that despite the massive expenditures, on top of the initial corruption, the former Qatari jet lacked key defensive features like advanced anti-missile capabilities — which explains why Trump switched planes after the Iranian assassination tip was delivered.

Staff lay a carpet on the tarmac before President Donald Trump exits Air Force One upon arriving for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday.Alex Brandon

The White House was livid at the article, which it seemed to interpret not as accountability journalism but as a breach of security. Embattled FBI Director Kash Patel was yanked off an airport tarmac where he was flying to Chicago to mainly watch his girlfriend in a country music festival and was summoned for urgent meetings.

Late Friday, federal agents banged on the doors of several Times reporters and delivered subpoenas demanding that they testify before a grand jury on Wednesday, in what appears to be a pivot point for America’s already shrinking freedom of the press under a Trump regime.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” David McCraw, the Times’ lead attorney, said.

Another Jan. 6 coup? Trump is screaming it out loud. | Will Bunch Newsletter

Let’s be clear: Trump is using these assassination fears — real or perceived — to drastically increase his assault on the civil liberties of American citizens, and this is likely to only get worse in the coming days.

While the FBI was out badgering journalists, workers back at the White House were erecting scaffolding on the North Portico of the presidential residence, part of an apparent security upgrade that is supposed to last for months. This is in addition to the failed push for $1 billion in taxpayer money to build a massive underground bunker beneath his new ballroom, meant to replace the already demolished East Wing.

Somewhere underneath all of that, Caligula is surely looking up from his fiery final repose with a knowing smile of recognition.

Scaffolding is visible under a covering with an image of the North Portico over the space as it is renovated at the White House in Washington on Thursday.

The madness has been a slow train coming, but it’s starting to accelerate and may soon run off the rails. The assassination paranoia is a new layer on top of the president’s late-life obsessions with imposing his physical legacy on the nation’s capital and with clinging to absolute power — and thus forestalling the inevitable probes into his rank criminality — by any means necessary.

The increasingly unpopular Trump’s determination to prevent a free and fair midterm election — such as firing the entire Election Assistance Commission, while making extortionary threats for a new law that would make it harder for millions to vote — is not unrelated to his assassination-driven threats to Iran or the New York Times.

It is all moving in the same direction: building the foundation to declare a national emergency, the last refuge of every dictator from Caligula to Adolf Hitler to the strutting strongmen of the 21st century. If, heaven forbid, there is a fifth major assassination attempt against this president, it will surely reignite any smoldering embers of the Nazi’s 1933 Reichstag fire — a justification for the end of civil liberties.

Let’s not sing along to the age of paranoia. The lynchpin of American democracy remains the same as it ever was: the peaceful transfer of power. In the present crisis, that can’t come soon enough.

July 12, 2026
Lindsey Graham was facing reelection in November. What happens now?

The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) comes less than four months before he was set to appear on the ballot as a strong favorite to win a fifth term.

Now, South Carolina Republicans are facing a fast-paced scramble to replace him on the general election ballot. (Graham won the Republican primary by a wide margin this year.)

South Carolina law sets out a timeline for replacing him on the ballot. Its provisions suggest a special primary election will take place Aug. 11, according to the schedule set out in the law.

Candidates can file for the seat as soon as July 21, the second Tuesday after Graham’s death, and the filing period will close on July 28. State law says that the election must happen on the second Tuesday after that deadline. If no candidate secures a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers would take place two weeks later, on Aug. 25.

Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, can appoint a replacement to serve out the rest of Graham’s Senate term, through Jan. 3, 2027, under state law. The replacement could choose to compete for the Republican nomination in the special primary.

Graham, 71, died of “a brief and sudden illness” Saturday evening, his office said in a statement just after 2 a.m. ET Sunday.

Rep. Nancy Mace is looking at a potential run for the seat, according to four people familiar with her thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private talks. Mace ran for governor this year, finishing a distant fifth in the Republican primary.

While Graham drew Republican primary challengers this year, he won the nomination by a wide margin, avoiding a runoff. President Donald Trump supported Graham, a onetime critic of the president who had shifted to a supportive posture in recent years.

One of Graham’s opponents in the primary was businessperson Mark Lynch, who finished second with nearly 29% of the vote. He said on social media Sunday morning that “while we had our political disagreements, today is not a day for politics.”

Previously, Lynch had strongly criticized Graham for his support of U.S. military intervention abroad, seeking to appeal to more isolationist members of Trump’s MAGA base.

The third-place finisher was Thomas Keith Dismukes, a motivational speaker who campaigned on “faith, family, limited government, and the restoration of principles that make America great.” Other Republican contenders included Pat Herrmann, a county Republican Party chair and small-business owner, and Calvin Cowen, an engineer and city council member.

The Democratic nominee for Senate is Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who has been a strong fundraiser in the race.

“I hope that South Carolinians will join me in setting partisanship aside and offering gratitude to Senator Lindsey Graham for his service to the great state of South Carolina,” Andrews said Sunday morning, praising him as a “man of great faith who proudly served our nation as a JAG officer and Air Force colonel.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

July 12, 2026
Philly picks up the pieces from ferocious ‘microbursts’ that sent trees crashing into houses and cars, and cut power

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has declared a disaster emergency one day after at least four storms known as microbursts ripped through parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, downing trees and power lines and causing electrical outages and road closures.

A disaster emergency declaration allows the city to more quickly mobilize resources, bypass certain regulations, and potentially obtain state or federal assistance.

Parker applauded the work of first responders and city crews, who she said had been working since Saturday afternoon to deal with a storm that tore off roofs and partially collapsed buildings in the city.

“I’m here to say we’re not going anywhere, that we’re going to stay at it,” Parker said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

Parker and more than a dozen city officials and staff toured the cleanup effort at Malcolm X Park, where they had to carefully walk around a tree with a branch that looked ready to fall off at any moment.

Parker said the city and related entities are investigating 125 downed wires and handling more than 296 tree emergencies similar to that one.

Office of Emergency Management Director Dominick Mireles said the city has received over 100 public reports of damage to personal property, and there were still about 2,500 power outages around Philly as of early Sunday evening.

Susan Blum, and her dog Lucy, look at the downed trees at Malcolm X Park on Sunday, July 12, 2026, in West Philadelphia. On Saturday severe thunderstorms caused damage across the region. “I felt like we were in the middle of a hurricane,” Blum said. “The rain was going sideways.”Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Mireles urged people to stay out of areas marked off by caution tape due to the ongoing threat of live electrical wires or trees with dangerous overhanging branches.

Mireles emphasized that the city will not charge for tree removal or other services and to beware of people attempting to take advantage of the situation for money.

Mireles said the disaster emergency declaration will help the city to hire more arborists to remove trees and obtain machinery such as wood chippers.

Parker said the fallen trees will not slow down the city’s “clean and green” efforts to plant trees and beautify neighborhoods. She said she was thankful that the storms did not result in any loss of life.

“It was by the grace of God that we stand here today,” she said.

How can damage be reported?

For immediate hazards, and to address any life-threatening emergencies, call 911. All non-emergency issues in the city should be reported to 311.

Parker urged Philadelphia residents with damage to fill out an online survey at https://www.phila.gov/damagereporter.

People with power outages should call Peco at 1-800-841-4141.

For flooding, contact the Philadelphia Water Department at 215-685-6300.

Parker urged people to check on their neighbors and help one another.

What the damage looked like

In South Philly’s Girard Estates neighborhood, Scott Hutcheon used 311 to request help with a mature tree that had splintered apart and fallen on his 2017 Chrysler minivan.

“I really didn’t hear the branch fall, but I heard the winds howling. They were coming down the street like a freight train,” Hutcheon said Sunday.

The 43-year old electrician and father of four had to keep his kids, who didn’t understand how vicious the winds were, from going out on the porch to get closer to the action.

“I don’t think that I’ve seen winds this strong since Hurricane Sandy,” said Hutcheon, referring to the 2012 tropical storm that deluged the region and much of the East Coast.

Multiple fallen trees crushed cars on the 4500 block of Larchwood Avenue on Sunday, July 12, 2026, in West Philadelphia. On Saturday severe thunderstorms caused damage across the region.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Hutcheon said he hopes the tree is removed soon because 19th Street is a bus route, but he understood that workers had to address another tree on nearby Colorado Avenue first. That one had fallen on a house, he said.

His neighbor, Joanne Podagrosi, noted that the storm felled two trees on their block, as well as a large bough of branches. The debris lay on the street late Sunday morning, wreathed by smaller leaves and branches, while police tape kept cars from turning down the street.

“It was just a blur of rain,” said Podagrosi. She said she’s lived on the street 22 years, “and it’s the worst we’ve ever seen.”

What is a microburst?

At least four microbursts hit the region, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Saturday. The first hit Lower Merion in Montgomery County. Subsequent microbursts landed in Northeast Philly, West Philly, and South Philly.

“Microbursts are where during a thunderstorm, we see a rapid increase in the updraft, and then it ultimately stops, and the whole mass of the storm goes down, and that’s how you get those very strong winds,” said NWS meteorologist Ray Martin. “As they say, what goes up, must come down.”

City emergency management officials said winds reached up to 70 mph.

Broken plastic glasses from the Lemon Drop Festival litter the ground at Malcolm X Park on Sunday, July 12, 2026, in West Philadelphia. On Saturday severe thunderstorms caused damage across the region.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Saturday that the city’s 911 dispatchers fielded 3,000 calls during a one-hour period at the height of the storm.

A Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) property on Vine Street near 55th in West Philadelphia had part of its roof blown off during the storm. Eleven units in the building were affected, officials said, and residents were relocated to nearby hotels.

Those displaced residents will be moved into new PHA units on Monday while repairs are completed, according to PHA president Kelvin A. Jeremiah.

Elsewhere in the city, at least two buildings partially collapsed due to the storm: a vacant property at 24th Street near Washington Avenue, and another building in West Philadelphia on Lansdowne Avenue near 56th Street.

Slightly fewer than 7,000 Peco customers remained without power Sunday at 4:30 p.m., down from 34,000 Saturday evening, according to the Peco outage tracker. Most of the outages were concentrated in West Philly and Montgomery County.

The damage was evident to anyone walking or driving around the city.

Trees were ripped from the squares of dirt where they’d grown for decades and lay toppled on sidewalks and roadways. Debris from drywall or similar construction materials was scattered on the Girard Point Bridge linking South and West Philly.

At the Wawa on Bartram Avenue, guests tugged on a locked door and peered inside before seeing the handwritten signs turning them away: “Power outage. System down.”

Just a block away, the traffic light was blinking red, leaving drivers to move through the intersection on their own.

At the edge of Yeadon Borough, a downed tree had dragged an electrical line with it. Cars swerved around both. All along Cobbs Creek Parkway in West Philly, drivers faced fallen trees and road closures.

Signage on Doro Bet notes that they are closed due to the power outage on Sunday, July 12, 2026, in West Philadelphia. On Saturday severe thunderstorms caused damage across the region.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Lower Merion Township was one of the worst-hit places, and its leadership declared a state of emergency Saturday afternoon.

The disaster declaration has since been lifted, but “at least 55 township streets are still blocked or partially blocked with trees,” the township said.

Resident Gigi Moffat said one upshot is that the disaster brought people together. In her neighborhood, people were out cleaning up, checking on neighbors, and offering people coffee.

“Everyone stayed really positive, which is great,” she said.

July 12, 2026