Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment at Senate COVID hearing; Paul seeks contempt

This is the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Thursday, the thirtieth of July, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right and declined to answer questions at a Senate hearing on the origins of COVID-nineteen and the U S pandemic response, concluding a long-awaited appearance before a panel led by one of his chief Republican critics. Senator Rand Paul, who has accused Fauci of funding research that triggered the pandemic and lying to Congress—charges Fauci denies—released a trove of pandemic-era diary entries before the hearing. After Fauci refused to testify, Paul said he would move to hold the former top health official in contempt of Congress, though no contempt vote or referral has yet been finalized.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia said its forces joined U S airstrikes in Iraq against Iran-backed militias, describing them as retaliation for attacks on Saudi oil facilities this week. At least twenty members of a former paramilitary alliance were reported killed. The U S military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and warned Iran to halt attacks on American assets in the Gulf or Saudi energy infrastructure. Jordan said it intercepted five missiles launched from Iran toward the kingdom. The United States said it launched a heavy wave of strikes on Iran, hitting dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets, after an Iranian attack on a U S base in Jordan.

In U S legal news, a federal jury convicted Hadi Matar of terrorism charges in the twenty twenty-two stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, who has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel "The Satanic Verses." Matar, twenty-eight, was found guilty of all charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism and attempting to help Hezbollah by attacking the British-Indian author. He is already serving a twenty-five-year New York state prison sentence for the attack on author Salman Rushdie.

In Europe, migrants swam and waded from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, with officials saying the influx arrived within hours. The territory's leader said resources were being overwhelmed and asked the Spanish government to declare a national emergency, while some accounts put arrivals in the hundreds and others in the thousands.

Also on migration, four people died while trying to reach the United Kingdom in small boats in two separate incidents off the French coast overnight, a day after one of the busiest days for Channel crossings this year. The French coastguard said three women were found dead on a boat off Dunkirk on Thursday morning, and a man also died.

In Britain, the U K Supreme Court has given Palestine Action permission to appeal the government's proscription of the group under anti-terrorism legislation. Co-founder Huda Ammori will challenge a lower court ruling that the ban was lawful. The direct-action group was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July last year. The decision came as one hundred and seventeen people were arrested at a protest linked to the group.

Also in the U K, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he will take a "pragmatic" approach to oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, telling reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource "when people are struggling." He said he conveyed the same position to U S President Donald Trump during their first conversation after Burnham entered Downing Street.

In sport, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has been appointed England Test coach, replacing fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum, who remains in charge of the white-ball teams. Joe Root will begin a second stint as England Test captain, replacing Ben Stokes, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced.

In the United States, Colin Gray, father of the teenager who carried out a deadly twenty twenty-four school shooting in Georgia, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on charges stemming from the attack. Prosecutors argued Gray bore responsibility because he had given his son a gun and failed to act as the teen's mental health deteriorated. The judge told him, "It is clear you failed as a parent."

In football governance, U E F A's fifty-five member associations have voted to boycott future World Cups if F I F A and its president, Gianni Infantino, do not abandon plans to sell off part of the tournament to private investors. European football's governing body said, "the World Cup is not for sale."

Also in Israel, Israeli protesters marched in Tel Aviv against settler violence in the occupied West Bank, where attacks on Palestinians and Israeli army checkpoints have escalated. Police blocked the demonstrators' route and confronted them.

That was the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at One News Page.