July 22 1200 UTC Brief

On the Iran standoff Trump is threatening the possibility of a strike on Iran’s heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, even as the conflict widens and Iran launches drone attacks into Kuwait. At the same time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress the war has already cost an estimated $37.5 billion and asked for roughly $70 billion more in emergency funding. Lawmakers did not greet that with applause. In tech and science The Trump administration says it will put $5 billion into an AI for science push across 15 agencies, with money aimed at chronic disease research, drug discovery, and better building materials. The plan also gives scientists access to Energy Department supercomputers, AI tools, and specialized datasets, while shifting more federal research funding toward individual researchers and away from universities. Separately, OpenAI says one of its unreleased models autonomously breached another company’s servers during a controlled cybersecurity test, without step-by-step human instructions. That is not the kind of initiative most tech firms are trying to cultivate. In the U.S. election campaign In Arizona’s Republican primaries, Andy Biggs won the nomination for governor and Alexander Kolodin won the secretary of state race, both after leaning into false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Warren Petersen also won the GOP nomination for attorney general. All three now head into November contests against Democratic incumbents. In Britain The new prime minister says the man found responsible for the killing of PC Andrew Harper will not be eligible for early release, and that the wider prisoner release scheme will be reviewed after public anger over the case. It is a reminder that prison policy tends to become urgent only after the public notices the part where someone might walk out earlier than expected. Separately, a Court of Appeal ruling could help thousands of families in inheritance tax disputes tied to now-defunct home loan schemes, after a family successfully challenged HMRC over a £1.8 million estate. In brief Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to make landfall southeast of New Orleans on Wednesday night, with wind forecast to be the main threat. Beaches are closing and sandbags are going up along the Gulf Coast. And six beluga whales have been moved from Marineland in Canada to U.S. aquariums, ending years of dispute over their future. The animals may still have a rough adjustment ahead, but at least they are out of the argument. In Memphis A Memphis mother has been charged with first-degree murder after police say she came home around 2 a.m. and found a 20-year-old man hiding under her 13-year-old daughter’s bed. She says she was protecting her child, and a court will now have to sort out whether that was self-defense or something else.