Briefer News

Justice Department clears Paramount's Warner Bros. takeover.

Today's events

• Justice Department clears Paramount's Warner Bros. takeover.

  The Antitrust Division closed an eight-month investigation, finding the purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery unlikely to harm competition in streaming, linear television or theatrical film after reviewing two million documents.¹Jul 27 · DOJ
• Homeland Security lets asylum cases skip the interview.

  An interim rule effective immediately lets immigration officers refer affirmative asylum applications to immigration judges without an interview, and drops the requirement that referral letters assess the applicant's credibility.²Jul 28 · DHS
• Air Force says nearly half its aircraft are over forty years old.

  Under Secretary Matthew Lohmeier told a Dayton industry conference that retirements are outpacing production, and set out an acquisition overhaul meant to put the defense industrial base on a wartime footing against China.³Jul 27 · Air Force
• Regulators reopen the question of round-the-clock oil futures.

  The futures regulator extended comment to August 26 and added questions about a round-the-clock crude oil contract the New York Mercantile Exchange listed July 8 and the agency stayed a day later.⁴Jul 28 · CFTC
• Navy gets seven years of submarine-hunting sonar across the Pacific.

  Fisheries regulators authorized low-frequency active sonar training and testing in the western and central North Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean from August 2026 through August 2033.⁵Jul 28 · NOAA
• Federal agencies told to patch two flaws already under attack.

  The cyber agency told civilian departments to prioritize fixing a Fortinet information-disclosure flaw and a command-injection hole in Arista's VeloCloud Orchestrator, both with evidence of active exploitation.⁶Jul 27 · CISA
• United States puts new duties on a South Korean chemical.

  Commerce ordered customs to collect antidumping duties on monomers and oligomers from Korea after the trade commission found American producers materially injured; charges reach back to January 5.⁷Jul 28 · Commerce
• Blood proteins can predict when a fatal nerve disease begins.

  A National Institutes of Health-funded study of people at high genetic risk of Lou Gehrig's disease found a protein panel that estimates symptom onset to within about eighteen months.⁸Jul 27 · NIH
• Hybrids reach a record share as electric-car sales fall.

  Hybrids took sixteen percent of new American light vehicles in the second quarter, a record, while battery-electric slipped to six percent and plug-in hybrids to 1.4 percent after tax credits expired.⁹Jul 27 · EIA

Allied Governments

• Britain's new prime minister hosts Ukraine's president.

  Andy Burnham received Volodymyr Zelenskyy as his first foreign visitor and handed Kyiv the intellectual property for Stone Cloak, a tablet-sized jammer that hinders Russian air defences tracking drones.^aJul 27 · No.10
• Britain raises Iranian attacks on the Gulf with the Emirates.

  In a call with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the prime minister welcomed Emirati efforts to support negotiations between the United States and Iran, and thanked him for protecting British nationals.^bJul 27 · No.10
• Britain's foreign secretary takes the World Bank seat.

  Ed Miliband will serve as Britain's governor to the bank, attending its annual meetings in Bangkok in October; Kirsty McNeill becomes minister for development.^cJul 27 · FCDO

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