President Trump said the U.S. will hold off on attacking Iran since negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz are still ongoing. The pause follows a sharp escalation on Friday, when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck two oil tankers attempting to transit the strait under U.S. military escort. Tehran claims the ships used an “undeclared route.” This comes as a New York Times visual investigation found evidence suggesting the U.S. dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on a home on Qeshm Island, killing three people.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza over the weekend, killing at least 25 Palestinians. On Saturday, the strikes killed seven people across the strip. On Sunday, the toll climbed higher. At least 18 were killed as warplanes hit Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. Gaza’s Health Ministry says 152 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in July, the highest of any month so far this year. Since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,200 Palestinians. This is an eyewitness to one of the airstrikes on Sunday.

Abu Rushdi Al-Madhoun: “They said there was a truce, but where is the truce? This truce is just us collecting corpses, collecting flesh, collecting brains, dismembered men and hands. Why?”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally terminated President Trump’s $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund late Sunday. The fund was designed to potentially compensate rioters in the January 6 insurrection, which drew criticism even from Republican officials. Blanche’s order caps weeks of negotiations with Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both of whom blocked his nomination for attorney general over the fund. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Blanche’s confirmation Tuesday. The deal also notes that the immunity agreement Trump struck with the IRS only quote “applies only retroactively” and not future tax filings.

The U.S. is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in 30 years with more than 2,300 confirmed cases as of last month. A cluster of infections has been reported in states like Arizona, Delaware, South Carolina and Utah as vaccination rates plummet due to the Trump administration’s policies and misinformation. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. continues to defend his role in propelling anti-vaccine policies and skepticism nationwide. In an interview with CNN Sunday, RFK Jr. failed to take responsibility for the measles outbreak.

Dana Bash: “The outbreak is happening on your watch. And even before becoming HHS secretary, for years you have been one of the leading voices questioning the efficacy of vaccines. Do you accept some responsibility for this measles outbreak?”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Absolutely not.”

Capital One says it closed the Trump Organization’s accounts after an internal anti-money laundering investigation. The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to Trump’s family business. Capital One made the claim while seeking to dismiss the Trump Organization’s lawsuit. That suit accuses Capital One of illegally “debanking” the Trump Organization on religious or political grounds — a claim the bank now disputes.

The Trump administration on Friday dropped its case against the former U.S. Olympian canoeist Davey Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. On June 19, Hearn stopped by the pool while on a 64-mile bike ride. He says he touched the pool to see what it felt like and was then arrested, handcuffed and held for five hours by U.S. Park Police. President Trump in response blasted U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who said the damage to the Reflecting Pool was due to poor construction and not the act of vandals as Trump previously claimed.

In Spain, migrants are returning to Morocco from the enclave of Ceuta after attempting to cross the border. The local government reports as many as 86 migrants were killed in the crackdown. Some of the victims drowned. Others were crushed while trying to climb the breakwater that holds the border fence. About 60,000 people crossed into the Spanish enclave from Morocco since Thursday, and authorities say virtually all have now returned voluntarily. Spain’s Civil Guard officers installed a 500-meter floating barrier along the sea border Saturday. Meanwhile, hundreds of Ceuta residents rallied against a planned far-right, anti-migrant demonstration, forcing organizers to cancel it. This is a Moroccan migrant, who swam into Spain’s Ceuta.

Mohamed Sahil: “We’re really hungry. We’re trying to hold out. We’re holding out a bit. We eat a little, a little, sometimes, even though it’s not a good meal. We do it so we don’t die. That’s all. We eat sugar, cakes, things like that. We drink water.”

We’ll have more on this story later in the broadcast.

In Greece, two firefighters were killed Sunday when two helicopters battling a massive wildfire collided west of Athens. Two other crew members in one of the helicopters were rescued. More than 100 homes were destroyed overnight this weekend in blazes that broke out around the coastal village of Porto Germeno. Hundreds of people have been evacuated. This is a local resident.

Giorgos Mavroidis: “It’s not a good situation. This is extremely sad. The wind is very strong and keeps changing direction. It’s difficult to deal with. The firefighters, who are trained and experienced, can’t contain it. How can we?”
Meanwhile, Hungary has temporarily shut down the country’s sole nuclear power plant for the first time in more than four decades amid a scorching heat wave and severe drought that triggered water-use restrictions in more than 100 cities and villages.

In more related news, Britain’s National Farmers’ Union warns rising heat and a water drought could lead to shortages of certain foods in parts of England. This is at least the third drought in five years, with some areas of England not seeing rain in over a month.

Here in the United States, in Washington state, nearly 65,000 people have received evacuation orders amid ​intensifying wildfires around the city of Spokane. Local officials say blazes in the region have destroyed more than 700 ​homes and businesses.

In Cuba, the electricity grid collapsed on Sunday, plunging the island into another nationwide blackout. The island has suffered at least three blackouts in July alone due to a U.S.-imposed ​oil blockade, following the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro back in January. Venezuela had been Cuba’s primary oil supplier. Imports from Mexico also ​halted amid ⁠increased U.S. pressure.

Another immigrant has died in ICE custody. Twenty-nine-year-old Prisciliano Trejo Ricano reportedly began feeling ill while jailed at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and was reportedly denied medical care. He was suffering from an aggressive form of leukemia and died on July 24 after being transferred to the hospital. At least 50 immigrants have died in ICE custody since Trump returned to office.

In Texas, a key witness in the Houston ICE fatal shooting of 52-year-old Mexican father Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is speaking out after his release from an ICE jail. Surveillance footage and witness accounts have repeatedly refuted ICE claims that Salgado had attempted to assault ICE agents when he was shot in the abdomen and killed. Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was a passenger in Salgado’s van. He spoke to CNN last week.

Ed Lavandera: “Did Lorenzo threaten ICE agents?”

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego: “That’s a lie. At no point, neither behind nor in
front.”

Ed Lavandera: “At no point were the ICE agents in front or behind?”

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego: “Lorenzo never did that.”

Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio is calling on Congressmember Max Miller, his ex-son-in-law, to step down in light of his daughter’s domestic abuse allegations. Miller’s ex-wife Emily Moreno, who is the daughter of Senator Moreno, claims that Miller burned her by throwing hot water at her, held a gun to her head and fractured their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Miller is also accused of abuse by former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who was in a relationship with Miller prior to his marriage to Moreno. On social media, Senator Moreno wrote, “He should not serve in the House of Representatives. I believe Max Miller needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake. I believe he should not be free to continue endangering others until he does.”

In Georgia, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins is facing scrutiny over his son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, who has been linked to white nationalist and antisemitic online content. Reports revealed that Scheer shared neo-Nazi imagery and produced promotional material for Collins’s private trucking company. Collins ended his news conference early after repeatedly declining to answer questions about his son-in-law. Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff said, “He needs to apologize for his office’s ties to white supremacists, he needs to release every single email, text message, and communication between his office and these white supremacists, and he needs to finally answer the question you’ve all been asking him for two weeks and that he’s refused to answer, which is — how much did he or his businesses pay this neo-Nazi for his services?” He’s running against Collins for Georgia Senate.

Here in New York, Dominican American scholar, historian and prison abolitionist Dr. Johanna Fernández has passed away after a years-long battle with cancer. She was 55. As a professor of history at Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center, Fernández was a leading scholar of the Young Lords, publishing the award-winning book “The Young Lords: A Radical History” in 2019. In 2015, she co-curated the exhibition ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York.
Fernández also created the Latinx Freedom Movement Archive and Exhibition Project, alongside historian Felipe Hinojosa. She was a longtime supporter of the imprisoned activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Over the years, Fernández appeared on Democracy Now! many times. She joined us in 2015 to look back at the legacy of the Young Lords.

Johanna Fernández: “What we see is that the movements of the 1960s, what is known as the New Left and the Black Power movement, transformed the relationship between people of color and white people, challenged U.S. foreign policy, but also transformed our understanding of gender and sexuality. And those were the issues that the Young Lords were concerned with.”