Legal Earthquake in Washington
Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Justice Department’s Federal Programs Branch has quit since President Trump’s re-election, drained by the torrent of lawsuits challenging his signature policies and fears of being pushed to bend the law in court. The mass exodus robs the administration of veteran litigators just as legal battles over birth-right citizenship curbs and Harvard funding cuts intensify, raising doubts about the government’s ability to defend itself in the months ahead.

Aviation Horror in Ahmedabad
Investigators say both fuel-cutoff switches on Air India flight AI171 were flipped seconds after take-off, sending the Boeing 787 into homes and a medical hostel, killing 241 passengers and 19 people on the ground in the worst airline disaster of the decade. The sole survivor crawled through flaming wreckage while pilots on the cockpit tape denied touching the switches, leaving unanswered questions that now threaten Boeing worldwide as regulators order emergency inspections of similar jets.

Policy Whiplash on Ukraine
In a dramatic reversal, President Trump pledged Patriot missile batteries and “billions” in top-tier U.S. weapons for Kyiv while warning every country that buys Russian oil it faces 100 percent tariffs in fifty days unless Moscow sues for peace. Markets rallied on the grace period, but diplomats fear the secondary-sanctions threat could rupture global energy flows and spark a trans-Pacific trade showdown.

Tech & Finance Shockwaves
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg heads to Delaware court this week to defend an $8 billion shareholder suit alleging Facebook was run as an “illegal enterprise” that flouted a 2012 privacy order and then cashed out before the Cambridge Analytica storm hit share prices. Across the globe, high-frequency giant Jane Street wired $567 million into escrow so Indian regulators will lift a trading ban tied to alleged index manipulation that could upend the world’s busiest derivatives market. Meanwhile, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s xAI each landed Pentagon contracts worth up to $200 million to build agentic AI for national-security missions, cementing Big Tech’s march into the war room.

Culture & Crime Flashpoints
Beyoncé’s team reported thieves smashed a rental SUV window in Atlanta and stole hard drives of unreleased music, tour set lists, and a laptop just hours before her Cowboy Carter concerts, triggering an arrest warrant and frantic digital manhunt for the missing tracks. In Spain, riot police fired rubber bullets as far-right mobs clashed with North-African migrants for a third night after an elderly local was beaten, exposing Europe’s simmering immigration fault-lines.

Middle-East & Africa Fronts
Israel’s ultra-orthodox Degel HaTorah party quit Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition over stalled draft-exemption legislation, threatening to fracture the government amid Gaza war fatigue and coalition brinkmanship. In Syria’s Sweida province, Druze militias and Bedouin fighters killed 18 security troops while Israel bombed Syrian tanks “to protect the Druze,” opening a new sectarian flashpoint alongside long-running regional wars1. Al Shabaab militants deepened Somalia’s crisis by seizing the strategic town of Tardo and displacing thousands as government forces scramble to regroup.

Disaster & Consumer Alerts
Arizona’s Dragon Bravo wildfire razed the historic 1930s Grand Canyon Lodge and up to 80 other structures, forcing the North Rim to close for the season and sparking a political brawl over federal burn-management tactics. Ford recalled 850,000 popular models for faulty fuel pumps, and U.S. ice-cream makers—representing 90 percent of the market—agreed to scrub seven artificial dyes by 2028 under pressure from federal health chiefs linking additives to ADHD and cancer concerns