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Iran says it hit a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz, raising the stakes after American attacks on Iranian tankers, while Witkoff and Kushner carry Moscow’s latest peace terms to Kyiv. Elsewhere, Germany’s far right eyes a historic breakthrough, and climate change is making air travel harder to predict.
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The Big Read
Iran Says It Struck a US Ship in the Strait of Hormuz
Iran claimed Sunday that it hit a US ship in the Strait of Hormuz, escalating a fight that had run one way all week. Tehran's assertion follows American strikes that permanently disabled two Iranian oil tankers and destroyed a third on Saturday.
Washington had already warned it would destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet if its warships were targeted again. Both governments claim control of the strait, the channel carrying roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil every day.
Kremlin Calls Three Hours With Trump's Envoys 'Highly Useful'
The Kremlin said Sunday that Vladimir Putin's three-hour meeting with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was highly useful, while declining to say what was discussed. Aide Yuri Ushakov said the envoys outlined several possible avenues toward a settlement, then refused to name a single one of them.
Witkoff and Kushner now travel on to Kyiv, their first trip to the Ukrainian capital, carrying whatever Moscow was willing to put on the table. Putin used the meeting to tell them Russia is making real progress on the battlefield and wants the conflict's root causes addressed first.
Germany's Far Right Bids for Its First State Government
Roughly 1.7 million voters in Saxony-Anhalt head to the polls today, in a regional election with unmistakably national stakes. Lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund, who is 35, could win an outright majority if the smaller parties fall below Germany's five percent threshold.
No far-right party has governed a German state since 1945, and a win here would break that postwar line. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose coalition has failed to blunt the AfD nationally, will absorb the result as a verdict on his own first year.
World View
Volcanic Ash Grounds Flights Across Western Indonesia
Anak Krakatau erupted before dawn on Sunday, pushing ash across western Indonesia and forcing cancellations at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. More than 20,000 passengers were left stranded as controllers detected ash in the airspace and shut several other airports as a precaution.
Mudslide in Eastern China Kills Three After Typhoon Rain
Three people are dead and ten remain missing after a mudslide in Jiangxi province, where days of rain from tropical cyclone Saudel saturated the hillsides. Rescue crews are still digging through debris in Suichuan County, in the city of Ji'an, with the search running overnight.
Japan's Prince Hisahito Turns 20 Under Male-Only Rules
Prince Hisahito, nephew of Emperor Naruhito and second in line to the throne, turned 20 on Sunday as Japan reinforced male-only succession. Lawmakers recently revised the Imperial House Law in a way that hardens those rules, a change most of the public has told pollsters it dislikes.
Need To Know
Trump's War on Mail Ballots Leaves Voters Guessing
Eight weeks from the midterms, Trump's campaign against mail voting and a run of contradictory court rulings have left voters unsure how ballots will be counted. County registrars are reopening contingency plans originally written for floods and wildfires, and steering people toward drop boxes and in-person voting instead.
A Five-Seat Margin Puts Dozens of House Races in Play
Republicans hold 219 House seats to the Democrats' 214, a margin so thin that a handful of flips in November would change who runs the chamber. Washington Post reporters mapped where both parties are spending hardest, from suburban districts to a few rural seats nobody expected to be competitive.
California Made Newsom Famous, and May Yet Sink Him
Gavin Newsom spent last week working South Carolina, the state holding the first Democratic presidential primary, while supporters sold "Gavin 2028" buttons outside his events. Rivals are already assembling the case that his California record, not his national profile, is what voters will actually weigh.
Money & Markets
Budget Travelers Turn to Hostels and Mystery Trips
With airfare and hotel prices still climbing, thrifty vacationers are booking hostels, package deals, and mystery vacations to save money as the travel industry chases luxury spenders. The split market is producing a new tier of low-cost operators aimed squarely at travelers priced out of premium.
The 401(k) Cap Most Savers Never Notice
Most workers stop contributing at the standard 401(k) limit. But a little-read plan document can unlock nearly $50,000 more through after-tax contributions many employers quietly allow, and for high earners the mega-backdoor Roth remains one of the most overlooked wealth-building tools in retirement planning.
Turkey Trims Its Growth Forecasts as the Iran War Bites
Ankara cut its 2026 growth forecast to 3.3 percent from 3.8 percent in a new medium-term program running through 2029. Next year's figure came down more gently, to 4.2 percent, as the government tries to balance price stability against growth before a possible election.
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Blu Dot used Roku Ads Manager to drive incredible results for its furniture sales event. Its strategy hinged on custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
“Roku has been a top performer,” said Blu Dot’s Claire Folkestad. “We have seen…CPMs lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Future Frontiers
A Blacklisted Chinese Firm Kept Buying Nvidia's Best Chips
Washington sanctioned the server maker Inspur over its military work, but a subsidiary called Aivres kept shipping Nvidia's top chips to leading Chinese AI companies. Reporters traced the pipeline across Washington, Jinan, Taiwan, Singapore and two California towns where Aivres runs research and manufacturing.
A Billionaire's Bet to Restore His Daughter's Sight
Bill Ackman's 26-year-old daughter collapsed in February with a brain hemorrhage, and her family gambled on an untried procedure to bring back her vision. Surgeons transferred cell parts from her leg into her eyes, a first, after the bleed left her unable to move, speak or see.
Teachers Stop Policing AI and Start Redesigning the Class
Instructors are giving up on AI detectors and rebuilding their courses so students must demonstrate learning rather than merely submit it. Rachael Zeleny, who directs writing at the University of Baltimore, pointed faculty toward a free tool called Brisk after a wave of suspect essays.
The Score
Michigan Wins on a Hail Mary It Should Not Have Had
No. 16 Michigan beat Western Michigan 13-12 on a second-chance Hail Mary, after officials put time back on the clock for one untimed play. Big Ten officials publicly backed the replay review and the clock adjustment, which did nothing at all to quiet a very loud Saturday night.
Lane Kiffin's LSU Debut Was a 51-10 Statement
Lane Kiffin opened his LSU tenure by routing Clemson 51-10, with transfers Sam Leavitt and Dilin Jones combining for four rushing touchdowns. Dabo Swinney, whose program has now started 0-1 for the fourth straight year, said the best thing about the game was that it ended.
Cardinals and Rockies Tilt Their Caps at an Umpire
Players on both benches tilted their caps Saturday night at umpire Doug Eddings, a day after he ordered a rookie to straighten his. Cardinals pitcher Hancel Rincon was the target of that instruction, which players around both clubhouses described as a power-hungry move.
A 16-Year-Old Just Broke Freddy Adu's MLS Record
Cavan Sullivan scored in the 75th minute to seal Philadelphia's 2-0 win over Montreal and pass Freddy Adu's 2005 mark. Sullivan has seven goals and 11 assists across 27 appearances this year, and is already contracted to join Manchester City at 18.
Life & Culture
Jimmy Kimmel Repeats as Emmy Game-Show Host
Jimmy Kimmel won Outstanding Host for a Game Show for the second consecutive year for ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," beating Steve Harvey and Ken Jennings among others. "Jeopardy!" also repeated in the game show program category.
Venice Quietly Reopens Its Doors to Russian Filmmakers
Ilya Khrzhanovsky's "DAU" sits in main competition at Venice, and Ukraine's culture and foreign ministries call the selection a project linked to the Russian state. Festivals across Europe have edged back toward Russian directors while the war grinds on, usually without announcing the shift out loud.
Africa's Mother Tongues Are Finding a Second Life
Younger people in the diaspora are driving demand for African languages, turning heritage learning into a small but genuinely growing online tutoring business. Families separated by migration are the core market, with relatives at both ends wanting conversations that do not default to English or French.
Deep Dive
Why Climate Change Is Rewriting the Rules of Flying
What it is: Aviation is being reshaped by a hotter, stormier atmosphere, and passengers may have to accept more delays and diversions as climate change intensifies the conditions pilots and airports contend with.
The detail: Rising temperatures thin the air at cruising altitude and on runways, cutting lift and forcing weight restrictions on hot days. Stronger jet streams are producing more clear-air turbulence — the kind pilots cannot see coming — while more frequent extreme storms and wildfire smoke are closing airspace with little warning. Sea-level rise threatens coastal hubs from New York to Bangkok, and volcanic and dust events, like this weekend's Jakarta grounding, compound the disruption.
Why it matters: Aviation moves roughly 5 billion passengers a year and underpins global trade in high-value goods. If routine cancellations become routine everywhere, insurers, airlines, and airports face rising costs that eventually land in ticket prices. The industry is also one of the harder sectors to decarbonize, meaning it contributes to the very warming that is disrupting it.
What to watch: Expect airlines to publish more conservative schedules, invest in real-time weather routing, and lobby for upgraded air traffic systems. Watch for insurance premiums on coastal airports to climb and for regulators to formalize new turbulence-avoidance rules. Sustainable aviation fuel scale-up and next-generation airframes will determine whether the industry can keep growing without making the problem worse — and whether "on time" survives as a category.
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Extra Bits
A 64-year-old Nepali grandmother was pulled alive from her partially buried mud-swallowed home after more than ten days trapped inside, then airlifted to hospital in what rescuers are calling a small miracle.
Montreal's legendary Schwartz's deli has been forced to swap out its beloved black cherry soda after supplier troubles, prompting an existential crisis among smoked-meat purists who insist the pairing is non-negotiable.
A forensic science graduate is using the hair of a museum specimen named Boris the bear to build a reference database that could help identify smuggled wildlife products and put traffickers behind bars.
Today's Trivia
Trivia: "Spam" — the word for unsolicited bulk email — is one of the internet's most universal terms. Its origin has nothing to do with technology. Where does it actually come from?
- It comes from the U.S. military's SPAM (Simple Persistent Automated Messaging) system, used in the 1970s to send mass communications — the acronym was adopted by early internet users mockingly
- "Spam" was coined by an early AOL employee in 1994 who used it internally to describe bulk junk mail campaigns before it spread as general internet slang
- The word comes from a 1970 Monty Python sketch set in a café that serves Spam with every dish — the repetition of "Spam, Spam, Spam" in the sketch became a metaphor for unwanted repetition online
- "Spam" is derived from "spamming," a term from multi-player gaming in the 1980s where players would flood chat channels with rapid repeated messages to overwhelm opponents
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—The Five Minute Daily Team


