📊 Bashar Assad, EEOC, and Jones Act

Death sentence, waiver extension, and workforce data collection.

Aug 12, 2026

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇸🇾 Assad receives a death sentence in absentia. A Damascus court sentenced former Syrian President Bashar Assad and his brother Maher to death for murder, torture, and crimes against humanity. Both remain in Russia after fleeing when the Ba’athist government collapsed in December 2024. Six officials were sentenced to death in absentia. Assad’s cousin Atef Najib, political-security chief in Daraa, received the same sentence while in custody. His crackdown on teenagers tortured for anti-government graffiti helped ignite protests in 2011. Security forces answered with lethal repression, and the uprising became a 14-year civil war. The United Nations later estimated 306,887 civilians were killed between March 2011 and March 2021. A separate war monitor put total deaths at 656,493 by March 2025, three months after Assad’s fall. More than 13M Syrians were forced from home, including over 7M displaced inside Syria by December 2024. Assad’s forces repeatedly used chemical weapons. Sarin was confirmed in the August 2013 Ghouta attack, where estimates range from hundreds to roughly 1,700 deaths, and official documents commonly cite about 1,400 to 1,500. Human Rights Watch documented government and allied forces killing Sunnis and burning Sunni homes in al-Bayda and Baniyas. Assad-era authorities also repressed Kurdish political and cultural rights. Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan said state agencies committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human-rights groups nevertheless warned that the proceedings appeared rushed and exposed weaknesses in Syria’s post-Assad justice system. The verdict marks a new attempt at accountability. With Assad protected abroad, its force remains symbolic.

🇰🇵 North Korea launches another ballistic missile. South Korea says North Korea fired a ballistic missile from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan toward its eastern waters. The launch was detected around 6 a.m. Japan also identified a suspected ballistic missile. Tokyo said the weapon apparently fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. South Korea raised its surveillance posture after the launch. Seoul also exchanged information with Washington and Tokyo. It was North Korea’s second ballistic weapons test in less than a week. A short-range ballistic missile had been detected on August 6th. The latest launch came shortly after South Korea and Washington announced their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises. The drills begin August 17th and run for 11 days. About 18K South Korean troops are scheduled to participate. Pyongyang routinely describes such exercises as rehearsals for invasion. Washington and Seoul say the training is defensive. North Korea has historically answered major allied exercises with missile tests and hostile rhetoric. Its weapons program accelerated after leader Kim Jong Un’s diplomacy with President Trump collapsed in 2019 over sanctions disagreements. Pyongyang has since continued developing missiles capable of threatening regional targets and potentially the American mainland. The newest launch adds another familiar cycle of drills, tests, surveillance, and deterrence to an already heavily armed peninsula.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🚢 President Trump extends the Jones Act waiver again. President Trump extended a waiver allowing foreign ships to move certain goods between American ports for another 90 days. The extension takes effect August 17th. It covers oil, fertilizers, fossil-fuel products, soybean oil, and other energy or agricultural commodities. Trump first waived the century-old shipping restriction on March 17th. The administration said the change would make it easier to move oil and refined fuels domestically. Officials tied the original waiver to price pressure created by the war with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, constraining a major route for global oil and natural-gas shipments. Unlike earlier extensions, the Pentagon will now consult the Maritime Administration on which voyages qualify. The waiver does not broadly suspend the law for every cargo. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers says it has increased domestic deliveries of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. She says the extension is intended to keep military and industrial users supplied with critical resources. The underlying 1920 law generally restricts domestic waterborne cargo transport to qualifying American vessels. Supporters say those rules sustain maritime capacity and national security. Critics argue they can raise shipping costs when domestic vessel capacity is tight. The latest extension effectively treats wartime energy logistics as more urgent than normal cabotage restrictions. It also signals that the administration expects pressure from constrained Middle Eastern energy flows to persist. A law designed to protect American shipping is being relaxed to protect American supply.

⛈️ Midwest storms leave hundreds of thousands without power. Severe thunderstorms and extreme winds battered Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. More than 600K customers lost electricity across Illinois and Indiana. Another 290K-plus customers were without power in Ohio. Wind gusts reached at least 80 mph at numerous personal weather stations. Tornado sirens sounded as dark storms moved through the Chicago region. Flooded roads, fallen trees, damaged roofs, and tangled power lines followed. Chicago’s two major airports temporarily halted all flights. Officials warned of lingering delays as carriers worked through the backlog. Tinley Park resident Kerry Hourigan said her home lost its roof. In Homewood, Javid Jenkins searched for generator fuel to keep refrigerated food from spoiling. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine reported that a Roseville resident died after flooding blocked first responders. Forecasters warned that flood dangers would continue beyond the initial storms. Meteorologist Scott Baker described the Midwest as sitting on the edge of a weather pattern known as a “ring of fire.” That setup was funneling repeated rounds of moisture and instability across the region. Officials in Columbus sent government workers home early before another round arrived. Westerville’s library closed after rain poured into its atrium. The storms turned a broad swath of the Midwest into overlapping power, transportation, flooding, and emergency-response crises.

🗂️ MISC

🏛️ Washington moves to stop collecting workforce demographic data. Researchers and civil-rights advocates are fighting a proposal to end a 60-year federal reporting requirement. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public hearing on the plan. Twenty-two speakers testified for more than two hours. Most opposed ending the annual workforce-demographic collection. Six speakers supported the change. Since 1966, many employers have filed an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1). Companies with at least 100 workers and federal contractors with at least 50 report racial and gender representation across job categories. The Republican-led EEOC voted 2-1 last month to stop collecting the data. President Trump’s administration argues the requirement is burdensome and can encourage discriminatory diversity practices. The proposal remains open for public comment through August 24th. Civil-rights groups say the records help reveal systemic discrimination and measure workplace progress. University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Donald Tomaskovic-Devey says he has used the data for dozens of academic studies and two books. Stand with Asian Americans President Rachel Lee says the reports help document barriers preventing Asian American professionals from reaching senior ranks. Conservative advocates counter that the data can promote stereotyping and is unnecessary for enforcing anti-discrimination law. Employer groups at the hearing said they often use the records to detect biased hiring and promotion patterns. One group said the EEOC had not identified an employer that actually used EEO-1 data to impose discriminatory quotas. The argument is ultimately over whether measuring demographic disparities helps prevent discrimination or risks institutionalizing it.

📉 Stocks retreat as oil keeps swinging. American equities slipped farther from recent records as investors watched volatile energy prices and awaited fresh inflation data. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) fell 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 184 points, also 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite declined 0.6%. Brent crude briefly climbed above $90 per barrel before retreating. It settled at $88.91, up 1.4%. Brent traded between $72 and $102 during July as the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed. Higher energy costs have helped push regular gasoline to an American average of $4.01 per gallon. That compares with less than $3.14 one year earlier. Economists expect July inflation to cool slightly to 3.4% from 3.5% in June. The Federal Reserve (Fed) remains divided over whether interest rates should rise. Traders place roughly even odds on an increase at the Fed’s September meeting. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.69% but remains far above its prewar 3.97% level. On Holding ($ONON) plunged 20.3% after issuing a revenue outlook below analysts’ expectations. Aramark ($ARMK) rose 8.5% after beating profit and revenue forecasts. Cardinal Health ($CAH) gained 1.3% after exceeding profit expectations. S&P 500 earnings per share are still tracking about 50% above one year earlier. Markets remain close to records, but expensive oil is keeping inflation, rates, and geopolitics in the same trade.