Democrats have blocked the debate in the US Senate on an annual defense policy bill. They objected not only to the war waged by President Donald Trump against Iran, but also provisions which would integrate more closely the US and Israeli militaries.
In a rare defeat for the National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate voted Tuesday 50-46, mostly along party lines.
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List 1 of 3Iran legislators present Hormuz Management bill as US War heats up
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List 3 of 3Trump met with Iraqi Prime Minister at White House and vowed a ‘lot of deals.’
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In the annual defence policy act, Trump proposed a budget of $1.15 trillion for military expenditures. To advance the motion in the 100 member Senate, it needed to receive 60 votes.
Democrats said that Congress shouldn’t move forward with legislation as Trump escalates his war against Iran. Some Democrats also opposed provisions which would have deepened US intelligence and military cooperation with Israel as well as the record-sized Pentagon budget.
Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “a permission slip”, allowing the Trump Administration to carry out military operations without Congress oversight.
Schumer stated before the vote that “Republicans” wanted the Senate to debate the NDAA, as if Congress could discuss the country’s main national security legislation while ignoring its most urgent security issue. “We cannot.”
A coalition of civil liberties, anti-war and foreign policy organisations also urged Congress to stop the NDAA from being passed unless Senators could be guaranteed a say on a proposed amendment that would bar funding for Trump’s unauthorised Iran war.
Coalition members include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), J Street, CODEPINK, and Win Without War. They argued that Congress could use the “power of purse” it has under the Constitution to enforce the authority it holds over war decisions.
The bill’s opposition was not just due to the conflict with Iran.
This version of the Senate bill has also caused backlash due to measures which would strengthen US intelligence and military ties with Israel.
A key requirement would be that the Pentagon appoint a representative to act as liason between Israel and the US on defense technology. This would involve joint research and production of weapons, as well as the integration into each other’s systems of technologies from both countries.
Human Rights Watch, in its June definition of “data fusion”, defined it as the combining intelligence and sensor feeds into one target picture.
According to the group, the US could absorb Israeli intelligence collected by what they describe as mass surveillance programs that are problematic.
The 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act (normally considered along with the NDAA) would allow for greater intelligence sharing between Israel and the United States.
Democratic opposition
In a letter sent last week, several Democratic Senators including Chris Van Hollen and Bernie Sanders as well as Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey Jeff Merkley, Peter Welch and Peter Welch urged their colleagues not to pass the NDAA until the legislation could be discussed.
In a letter addressed to their colleagues, the Senators stated that they would not vote to force [Trump] into deepening the US’ relationship with Netanyahu’s extremist regime.
Van Hollen argued in a video that was posted on X before the vote that the bill will pave the path for a bloated Pentagon budget and “no restrictions” to Trump’s “illegal war against Iran”. Van Hollen also alluded the Israel provisions “that are crawling along quietly, and have received very little attention”.
He asked, “Why should the United States Congress require the Executive Branch to share intelligence with the Government of Israel regardless of their actions?”
Senate Democrats’ efforts are part of a wider shift in the Democratic Party. Support for Israel is at an all-time low ahead of November’s midterm elections.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in June, Israel’s favorability among Democrats fell from 59 per cent in 2018 to just 22 per cent in May.

The Key Facts
The full text of Arvind krishna’s letter to ibm shareholders
When we shared our plans with you back in April, it was noted that the launch of the z17 would take place in the second half. We expected that Infrastructure revenues would decline by low single digits in the first quarter of the year as this was our strongest mainframe start ever.
What happened was worse than we expected, driven mainly by the shortfalls in Z Performance and associated Software Stack, especially in Transaction Processing. We saw that clients shifted their capex quarterly spend to servers, memory, and storage in the last weeks of June. This was done so they could secure infrastructure before price increases were expected. The dynamic affected client purchasing patterns. We had anticipated a supply-chain impact, but we didn’t anticipate how much the reprioritization of capex would affect our clients. Clients were also distracted by the rapidly evolving, industry-wide concerns about cybersecurity in the third quarter.
This quarter, we failed to deliver on our commitments. Our shortfall was largely due to our inability to adapt quickly and close large deals on time.
These aren’t excuses. They are facts. We are here to guide our clients to growth, no matter the uncertainty in their external environment.
“While our results for the second quarter were disappointing, we saw strength in many other areas, which reinforced our confidence in our strategy and portfolio.”
What to look out for
IBM is scheduled to announce its second quarter earnings on the 22nd of July. FactSet predicts that IBM will report quarterly revenues of $17.2 billion and earnings per share of $2.93, representing annual growths only 1.3% and 3.5% respectively.
Key Background
IBM has been affected by a larger buildup of AI infrastructure in the last few months. Anthropic announced an AI tool that it said would simplify updates to COBOL, IBM’s decades-old software. IBM still sells systems running COBOL. IBM wasn’t alone in this, but global software firms saw their stock prices plummet when more AI tools were released, fueling fears that the technology would automate the tasks provided by these companies.
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In science fiction when humans try to mess with the Sun, they usually do so by covering it and forcing permanent darkness. The company Reflect Orbital is trying to bring the sun to dark areas of the Earth using satellites with large mirrors. On Thursday, the FCC gave approval to a single test satellite. Many scientists have already expressed their displeasure.
Reflect Orbital is now able to launch its Earendil-1 into orbit. The spacecraft is relatively light, at 142 kg (313 lbs).
In its body, a square thin-film mirror measures 18m by 18m (60ft by 60ft). Satellite is expected to be launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 in the second half of 2026.
Earendil-1 will reflect the sun onto Earth, in a 3 mile circle. It can be pointed anywhere there is no sunlight. This is shown on a company’s website, which has an image that can be used to show what it would look like. It’s large enough to illuminate entire neighborhoods and make it seem like it was daytime, when in fact it was night.
Solar panels can only collect energy during daylight hours. Reflect Orbital reports that electricity demands spike around sunset. This means energy companies must rely on alternative sources of power to meet the surge. Battery storage helps keep solar power flowing even after sunset. This increases the use of fossil fuels, which contributes to climate change.
Reflect Orbital wants to launch 50,000 satellites of this type if its tech demo is successful. This would place 16,2 million square metres of mirrors into low Earth orbit, allowing them to illuminate large areas of Earth at will. It is only Earendil-1 that has been approved to launch.
Scientists warn that this is a potential disaster
Since long before the FCC’s approval, academics were opposed to Earendil-1. During the proposal phase, over 1,800 comments were submitted (PDF), and many were negative.
Scientists tend to agree with the idea that 50,000 satellites reflecting sunlight to Earth could be as harmful as having supervillains block out all sunlight.
A number of organizations, such as the American Astronomical Society, and DarkSky International have filed complaints regarding the potential dangers of re-directing small amounts of light back to Earth during the night.
In an open letter sent to Reflect Orbital, DarkSky stated that “the concept of lighting Earth at night from orbit is a novel category of artificial illumination with significant global environmental, cultural and regulatory implications.” According to the scientific evidence available, this technology does not align with principles of responsible lighting or our mission to preserve natural darkness.
Astronomers also oppose the idea of having a large mirror illuminate the night. They note that a mirror in front of an observatory on Earth can overload sensitive equipment. Since most astronomy is done only at certain times due to the movements of the universe, space mirrors that reflect sunlight would miss opportunities for collecting essential data.
The scientists are also not happy with the idea that one company from a country can ruin the skies for everyone else.
Light pollution and blue skies
Olivier Hainaut is an astronomer from the European Southern Observatory, located outside of Munich in Germany. He wrote a study for 2026 that shows the impact of satellite constellations.
In an email, Hainaut explained that “the light from satellites would also scatter in atmosphere and increase the brightness of the entire sky.” The sky appears blue at day because the sunlight is scattered in the air. A similar phenomenon would occur if satellites sent light directly down to Earth. Even if they weren’t aimed directly at the observatories, this light pollution could hinder attempts to see the stars.
American Astronomical Society (AAS) noted that even areas without mirrors directly reflecting the light, light would be polluted by light scattered in the air. The AAS complained to the FCC that an individual RO satellite such as Earendil-1 should have optical brightness at least two to four times greater than the full moon.
Reflect Orbital says there’s “no regulatory framework established for space-based lighting and energy services” and that it is open to working with scientists and regulating. It also plans to use its first satellite to gather data before sending more satellites into orbit.
Experts remain skeptical. Hainaut claims that Reflect Orbital indicated major observatories could be protected from its satellite constellation. However, he wonders what will happen to university-scale observatories and amateur astronomers. Hainaut says these are issues that must be addressed before a constellation of satellites is launched. However, he believes that one small satellite could have value.
Hainaut stated that, “I am opposed professionally to the deployment the entire constellation but I actually like the prototype.” It will allow us to (and everyone else) to test the prototype, measure its brightness, and showcase Reflect Orbital’s capabilities and mitigation plans (for others).

Capt. Capt.
Recently, I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Sullenberger said, “It is still early stages.”
He added, “For the moment, it means that a name might not come to me easily, I may forget something I’ve recently said, or sleep less, but this is just the start of my long journey.”
Gil Rabinovici, a doctor at the UCSF Medical Centre in California, diagnosed the retired US Airways Pilot.
He and his family now hope that he will give others the strength they need to deal with their own condition by making his situation public.
Sullenberger stated, “I’ve spent most of my life serving others, whether it was in the US Air Force as an airline pilot or accident investigator. I also served as US ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization.”
I have been advocating for traveler safety for many decades. “I have been advocating for aviation safety since the early 1990s.
I was very proud of my work in fighting with colleagues for more pilot training and rest.
He said that he sees the diagnosis as an opportunity to better serve his nation.
This new chapter in my life challenges what service means. “The answer to this is speaking up,” said he.
It is my wish that other families who are living with this illness in the dark will be inspired to step out.
Sullenberger claims that the “Miracle on the Hudson”, which occurred in 1926, gave him and his entire family the strength of hope. The captain regrets that his memories may fade but he will continue to act with courage.
He said, “Even though it will affect my memories of the past and I may not be able to appreciate our future, this diagnosis won’t stop me from anticipating or appreciating what lies ahead.” I will be able to navigate through this new chapter with the support of my family.
Sullenberger was a US Airways pilot who has been in the air since 1980. He had logged more than 20,000 flight hours. His plane crashed into a flock after takeoff at LaGuardia Airport.
In the accident, Flight 1549 was forced to land in an emergency in the Hudson River after both engines were lost.
All passengers and crew were rescued safely in this death-defying landing despite the impact force that cracked the fuselage of the aircraft.
Michael Bloomberg, then-mayor of the city, awarded Sullenberger the Key to the City. Tom Hanks’ 2016 film “Sully” praised his heroics.

What games are included in the bundle? Mario Kart World Donkey Kong bananza and Pokemon Pokopia are the games in question. You’ll find a great game regardless of which you choose.
You should grab this offer as soon as possible if you are interested. Amazon may not offer this deal for long, since it is a simple “discount during checkout”. This is not some huge official Amazon deal that they are heavily advertising. This is not something that other retailers can match. This deal could disappear as fast as it appeared.
The consoles of this generation have been strange, largely because the demand for RAM and SSDs has been so high. All the major AI companies buy them to build their data centres. The price of game consoles has historically decreased as technology and parts age. This is not true for this generation. Nintendo is not the only console maker to raise prices. Xbox and PlayStation both have seen several price increases.