📊 Mexico Earthquake, Trump Speech, and Fairlife Cyberattack

Border panic, network shuffle, and ransomware breach.

Jul 18, 2026

Greetings! Happy World Listening Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇲🇽 Mexico-Guatemala earthquake causes injuries but no major damage. A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast near Guatemala. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) placed the epicenter 30 miles southwest of Aquiles Serdán in Chiapas. The quake originated about 9 miles below the surface. A smaller offshore tremor preceded it. USGS recorded at least 10 aftershocks ranging from magnitude 4.9 to 6. The shaking was felt from Mexico City through Guatemala and into El Salvador. Authorities reported no severe damage or deaths. Two people were injured in southern Mexico. A Haitian migrant in Tapachula jumped about 13 feet from an apartment building during the tremor. She suffered fractures but remained out of life-threatening danger. Another person sustained minor injuries from a broken business window. Buildings were evacuated across Guatemala City as residents poured into the streets. Guatemala’s National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction reported no immediate structural damage. Videos showed several landslides on roads leading west. Officials suspended in-person classes across four Guatemalan departments near the epicenter. Mexico City’s earthquake alert did not activate because the initial energy stayed below its triggering threshold.

🇬🇧 Burnham is set to become prime minister without an election. Labour leader Andy Burnham is set to replace Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister. Burnham received support from 349 of Labour’s 401 lawmakers. He was the only candidate to clear the party’s nomination threshold. Labour’s parliamentary majority means its leader also controls the government. Burnham will meet King Charles III at Buckingham Palace for formal approval. Starmer remains caretaker prime minister until that constitutional handover. Britain’s parliamentary system does not require a general election when a governing party replaces its leader midterm. A prime minister can leave after resigning or losing an internal leadership challenge. The next national election is not required until 2029. Starmer announced his resignation on June 22nd after barely two years in office. His tenure was damaged by political missteps and Labour’s heavy local-election losses in May. Burnham’s return to Parliament through a special election intensified pressure on Starmer. The resignation automatically opened a Labour leadership contest. Party rules required support from one-fifth of Labour lawmakers to qualify. Burnham surpassed that threshold without facing another candidate. He will become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade. Four of the previous six reached office through internal party contests rather than a national vote.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

📡 Networks split over whether to carry President Trump live. American television executives debated how to cover President Trump’s 24-minute primetime address. Trump threatened sanctions against outlets that declined to broadcast it live. The speech repeated unsupported claims about fraud in the 2020 election. There is no evidence of widespread fraud that changed that result. Networks tried to balance news value against surrendering airtime to potential falsehoods. Real-time fact-checking became the most common response. Fox News and Fox Broadcasting carried the speech live. ABC and NBC kept their regular entertainment schedules. ABC aired “Press Your Luck,” while NBC showed a program featuring alligators. Both networks nevertheless streamed the address through their digital news channels. CNN declined to carry the speech live. Anchor Kaitlan Collins instead led analysis with correspondents prepared to fact-check it. Trump attacked ABC and NBC during the address for not airing it. He also suggested their broadcast licenses should be revoked. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr has reviewed some ABC-owned station licenses. Carr has also threatened the equal-time exemption used by “The View.” Streaming allowed networks to offer access without turning every broadcast channel into an unchecked presidential feed.

🛢️ American oil firms build new routes around Hormuz. American companies signed roughly $60B in agreements and partnerships with Iraq. The deals covered energy, healthcare, communications, and infrastructure. Chevron ($CVX) signed three agreements with the Iraqi government. Two are intended to increase oil production. The third would finance another export pipeline to global markets. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falah al-Zaidi had urged Chevron executives to accelerate investment. He said Iraq wants long-term partnerships rather than contractors for isolated projects. Iraq and Syria also agreed to prioritize reconstruction of their crude-oil pipeline. An American-led international consortium would handle technical and financial work. The route would connect Basra to Haditha before reaching Turkey’s Ceyhan port and Syria’s Baniyas port. Iraqi officials project capacity of about 2M barrels per day. Goldman Sachs ($GS) estimates seven regional pipelines could carry roughly 14M barrels daily by the end of 2028. That would equal about 60% of the oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz before the Iran war. Prewar traffic through Hormuz reached roughly 23M barrels per day. Some Iraqi oil is already being trucked through Syria for export from Baniyas. West Texas crude rose nearly 5% to $88 per barrel, compared with about $67 before the war.

🗂️ MISC

🥛 Fairlife pauses American production after a ransomware breach. Fairlife suspended production across the United States after hackers breached company systems. Coca-Cola ($KO), which owns the milk brand, disclosed unauthorized third-party access. The intrusion reached systems connected to production. Coca-Cola identified the incident as ransomware and took some operations offline. The company said product quality and safety were not affected. Fairlife’s American production nevertheless remains temporarily suspended. Its Canadian operations continued normally. The company has not determined the attack’s full scope or impact. Coca-Cola notified law enforcement. It also brought in cybersecurity experts to investigate and restore operations. No timetable for resuming production was provided. Chicago-based Fairlife generates more than $3B in annual retail sales. Its portfolio includes lactose-free milk and protein shakes. Ransomware typically encrypts or disables systems while attackers demand payment. Such attacks increasingly target familiar consumer brands and essential services. Recent breaches have disrupted schools, retailers, and grocery supply chains. Fairlife has not said whether customer, employee, or corporate data were taken.

🧱 President Trump races to rebuild the tariff wall. The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s broad emergency tariffs in February. The justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act could not authorize the import taxes. The decision required the administration to refund affected importers. Trump then imposed 10% global tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That authority lasts only 150 days. The current tariffs expire on July 24th unless Congress extends them. Lawmakers appear unlikely to act before the November 3rd midterm elections. The administration is therefore shifting toward Section 301 of the same law. That provision permits tariffs against unfair or discriminatory foreign trade practices. It requires public comments and hearings but imposes no comparable 150-day deadline. Trump has already announced 25% tariffs on some Brazilian imports through that route. Trade attorneys expect replacement tariffs to be ready near the deadline. Monthly import-tax revenue peaked above $31.4B last October. It fell to $22B in both March and April after the court ruling. Refunds produced a $42M Treasury shortfall in May. June recorded a much larger $25.6B loss. The Office of the United States Trade Representative has proposed 10% tariffs on 16 countries and 12.5% on 44 others. Another investigation targets alleged overproduction by 16 major trading partners. Legal challenges remain likely if Section 301 becomes a substitute for universal tariffs.