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Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church for the past 12 years, died Monday at age 88 after a period of significant health challenges. Francis, whose background and social stances made him unique among popes, leaves behind a legacy of attempts to reorient the Catholic Church toward vulnerable populations, both internally and politically.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, Francis became pope in 2013 following the resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The BBC reported that his election made Francis the first Latin American pope in history and the first pope in centuries to take office while his predecessor was still alive. Francis was also the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order known for its missionary work and public service; he adopted the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan religious order.

According to The Associated Press, as pope, Francis embodied the humility and lack of self-aggrandizement represented by these religious orders; he lived in the Vatican hotel instead of the palatial Apostolic Palace, rode in a small car, and wore simple shoes instead of the traditional red loafers of previous popes.

As pope, Francis set a progressive tone for the Catholic Church, per The Guardian. Francis promoted greater incorporation of LGBTQ+ people, women and divorced Catholics into Church life and sometimes leadership positions. While he didn’t generally change official Church doctrine concerning these issues, his tone and willingness to interpret Catholic teachings in more inclusive ways were very different from his socially conservative predecessors.

While not going far enough for some progressives, Francis’ social policies drew anger and opposition from many traditionalists in the Catholic Church, including the generally conservative contingent of United States bishops who sometimes questioned his policies and leadership, according to PBS. Francis’ relationship with the U.S. branch of the Church was not all negative, however. In 2020, he appointed Washington, D.C.’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory as the first Black American cardinal in the Catholic Church.

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Of all the Democratic primaries between a progressive populist and establishment liberal this year, the Michigan Senate contest Aug. 4 could be the most consequential in mapping the party's future.

The race between Abdul El-Sayed, a Detroit-based public health officer, and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a former Obama administration official, has touched almost every nerve on the political left leading up to the 2026 midterms.

Whether it's who is to blame for the 2024 election outcome, what type of candidate is best to defeat Republicans in a general election or the U.S. relationship with Israel and its prosecution of the war in Gaza, centrist and left-leaning factions agree that the stakes are higher than in any other primary battle.

"The crux of the race is between two competing visions for where the Democratic Party should go," said Ravi Mangla, spokesman for Working Families Party, a progressive political party that supports El-Sayed.

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The US has paused strikes on Iran for a second night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.

Trump is said to be weighing up diplomatic and military options in the nearly five-month-old conflict, with Benjamin Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Tuesday. The Israeli prime minister is a vocal critic of Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders and has pressed for the US to continue its strikes against Iran.

Netanyahu is under considerablehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/26/us-pauses-trump-netanyahu-attacks-on-iran-talks-hormuz?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us political pressure to show that his military campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have yielded results before elections scheduled for October.

Tehran said on Sunday it would pause what it called “retaliatory” attacks against US allies in the region. “These [US] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks,” said the army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia. “Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations.”

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Democratic Majority for Israel is behind a million-dollar effort to slow the momentum of populist candidate William Lawrence in the closing days of a three-way primary in mid-Michigan’s 7th congressional district, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running primarily against data center buildouts in the district, but has also made opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war in Iran core parts of his campaign. He has two well-funded centrist challengers. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.

DMFI is using a vehicle called Rolling Sea Action Fund PAC to move money into the race. It is unclear if DMFI is funding the ad buy with a transfer or whether DMFI donors were being directed to Rolling Sea, but Joel Wanger, DMFI’s chief political officer, is organizing the effort.

It’s a PAC affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is regularly used by big money interests as a pass-through to cloak the true source of spending. “Rolling Sea exists as a place to wash money,” as one consultant working on the race put it to Drop Site. The ad buy began with $899,000 being put behind it.

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Luxembourg will not renew its approval for the sale of Israel Bonds in the European Union, the country’s finance minister has confirmed.

In an interview with broadcaster RTL, Gilles Roth said the decision had been taken solely by the CSSF, Luxembourg's financial regulator, which he said had decided two months ago not to extend the bond programme beyond its 31 August expiry date.

Campaign groups in Luxembourg and across the EU have long called for Israel Bond sales to European investors to be stopped. As previously reported by Middle East Eye, they say the programme, which raises billions of dollars for the Israeli government, has helped fund Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Roth defended the CSSF against criticism, arguing that the regulator had followed European criteria throughout and that many of the accusations levelled at it were unwarranted. The discontinuation, he insisted, was a matter of regulatory compliance rather than political pressure.

That account, however, sits awkwardly within the chronology of recent events.

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Hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Sarra, southwest of Nablus, on Friday, burning homes, damaging property and assaulting residents.

The attacks forced several families in the occupied West Bank village to flee for safety, residents told Middle East Eye.

Residents said that at least two homes were set on fire, while several Palestinians suffered from smoke inhalation after the fires.

Eyewitnesses told MEE that villagers also attempted to confront the attackers and prevent further damage.

The attack on the village comes after a series of attacks carried out by settlers in the Nablus area, following the deadly attack on the town of Tell.

Mohammed Turabi, a resident of Sarra, said that he and his family were shaken by the settlers' attack on their home, where they hurled stones and Molotov cocktails.

The courtyard, vehicle and ground floor of the house were burned, but the family says it managed to escape unharmed.

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The Russian government has significantly slashed the 2025 budgets for the majority of its priority domestic technology initiatives, diverting financial resources to sustain unprecedented military expenditures amid widening fiscal deficits.

A recent analysis by the Moscow-based Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CMASF) indicates that allocations for eight primary “technological leadership” programs were cut by nearly 38%. The revised federal budget provides 201.9 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) for these sectors, down from the initially planned 324.4 billion rubles ($4.2 billion).

The space technology sector experienced the most severe reduction, losing its entire scheduled 10 billion ruble ($129 million) budget.

Initiatives focused on domestic machine tools and industrial robotics – grouped under the Means of Production and Automation national project – saw their funding drop by more than 75%, falling from a planned 52.2 billion rubles to 11.8 billion rubles ($152.2 million).

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A devastating tragedy has unfolded in Michigan after emergency crews responding to a house fire found eight members of the same family, including six children, dead. At least some of the dead inside the home had gunshot wounds.

Deputies with the Ottawa county sheriff’s office and firefighters from the Grand Haven fire department were dispatched at about 11.40am local time on Friday to a residence on Riverside Trail in Grand Haven Township.

Once crews entered the smoke-filled home to extinguish the fire, they made the grim discovery.

“Units made entry inside to battle the fire because there was smoke showing from the residence. When they got inside, they noticed that there were several people deceased inside the home,” Capt Jacob Sparks said at a press conference. “Some of the victims did have gunshot wounds to their bodies.”

Officials confirmed the victims were two adults and six children aged five to 15. Their identities have not yet been released.

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