📊 Vietnam Capsize, Proud Boys, and Housing Prices

Maritime tragedy, case dismissal, and all-time highs.

Jul 12, 2026

Greetings! Happy World Population Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇻🇳 Vietnam boat capsizes. A speedboat capsized near Phu Quoc in southern Vietnam and killed 15 Indian tourists. The vessel overturned less than half a kilometer from shore. It carried 32 tourists and four crew members. The group had just left Hon May Rut Ngoai Island. Witness Ashish Kumar said the boat tipped over almost immediately. Nearby vessels rushed toward passengers calling for help. Strong winds and rough waves complicated the rescue. Television footage showed jet skis carrying survivors ashore. Some passengers were trapped inside the overturned boat. Authorities said 21 people were rescued. All 15 bodies were recovered. Kumar said emergency medical care was unavailable when survivors reached land. Some passengers were employees or business partners of Indian electronics maker Lava International. Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung ordered an investigation and a review of local waterway safety. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences as a shoreline close enough to see proved too far to save everyone.

🇮🇷 Hormuz strike cycle deepens. The American military launched another round of strikes on Iran after a civilian vessel was hit in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said one ship ignored an approved route and was struck by a warning shot. United States Central Command said a Cyprus-flagged container ship suffered major engine-room damage. One civilian crew member remained missing. Iran again declared the strait closed until further notice. Explosions were reported in Bandar Abbas and Sirik. American officials said the strikes targeted Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping. The latest operation marked a third round of strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran would pay for its decision. Tehran warned it could target additional enemy bases if attacked again. Iranian and Omani officials had recently discussed safe passage through the waterway. Oman said technical and political talks would continue. About one-fifth of traded oil and natural gas passed through Hormuz before the war. Earlier strikes over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. The ceasefire now survives mostly as hypothetical and thought experiment, while airstrikes and missiles negotiate the shipping lane.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

⚖️ Proud Boys case erased. A federal judge dismissed the remaining Proud Boys seditious-conspiracy convictions tied to the January 6th Capitol attack. President Trump’s sweeping clemency made the outcome largely inevitable. United States District Judge Timothy Kelly said there was little mystery behind the government’s decision. Kelly was nominated by Trump during his first term. He stressed that dismissal did not endorse abandoning the prosecution. The judge called the Capitol riot a perilous assault on the peaceful transfer of power. The order covered Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola. Trump had commuted their prison terms but had not included them in his mass pardons. Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio received a full pardon. Kelly had sentenced Tarrio to 22 years, the longest term in a Capitol riot case. Juries had convicted Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders in separate plots. Another judge has not ruled on a request to erase the Oath Keepers convictions. The Justice Department has abandoned every January 6th case. Prosecution ended not through acquittal or appeal, but through executive erasure. The legal record closed while the historical argument stayed open.

🚧 Khanna stopped in West Bank. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said armed settlers and Israeli soldiers detained his delegation in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military denied detaining any visitors. Khanna was touring the territory for three days. His group visited Khirbet Zanuta, a Palestinian village abandoned after settler attacks. Masked armed men blocked the road and refused to let the vehicles leave. A photographer witnessed the confrontation. Khanna said arriving soldiers interacted amicably with the settlers. He said the soldiers also prevented his party from exiting. The group proceeded only after calls to the American Embassy in Jerusalem and Israeli police. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said troops dispersed Israeli civilians and reopened the road. It said its soldiers did not participate in the blockade. Khanna argued the episode illustrated the ongoing apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and vulnerability of Palestinians without political access or security. He is also exploring a 2028 presidential campaign. Settler violence and illegal settlement construction have surged across the West Bank. The congressman eventually left, but the occupation’s daily checkpoint remained.

🗂️ MISC

🏠 Prices rise as Fed splits. American home prices reached a record while Federal Reserve officials divided over inflation. Existing-home sales fell 2.4% from May to an annualized 4.09M units in June. Economists had expected roughly 4.21M. Sales still rose 2.8% from a year earlier. The median sale price climbed 1.8% annually to $440,600. That was the highest figure in records dating to 1999. Prices have now increased year over year for 36 consecutive months. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) supplied the housing data. Borrowing costs remain another obstacle for buyers. The average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.49%. Federal Reserve minutes showed officials split over whether wartime inflation will persist. Half of 18 policymakers favored higher rates by year-end. The other half favored holding or lowering them. Chair Kevin Warsh did not submit a forecast. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects American growth of 2.3% this year. The economy keeps producing records that homeowners celebrate and buyers experience as locked doors.

🔌 AI power fight grows. AI data centers are driving a new construction boom for natural gas plants. Some facilities consume more electricity than a midsize city. Wind and solar projects cannot currently expand at the same speed. Utilities are also keeping aging coal plants open beyond planned retirements. Renewable-energy advocates are pushing states to impose cleaner power rules. New York legislation would begin renewable benchmarks for large data centers in 2030. It would require at least 90% renewable power by 2040. State Senator Kristen Gonzalez said wealthy technology companies can finance that transition. Michigan, Oregon, and Minnesota have enacted related measures. Michigan requires hyperscale data centers to reach 90% clean energy within six years for a sales-tax exemption. Minnesota and Oregon directed regulators to align new data-center power with emissions goals. Similar bills have emerged in California, Illinois, New Jersey, and other states. Tech companies are also investing in batteries, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear. Grid bottlenecks remain as important as generation capacity. Electricity customers fear being left with higher bills for infrastructure serving private computing demand. AI arrived in the cloud, but its appetite is being built from concrete, pipelines, and power lines.