Trump Reimposes Blockade As U.S. Strikes Iran Again

PARIS - A fast-moving wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest south-east of the capital has burned more than 800 hectares, forced evacuations, and shut part of the A6 highway. French officials sent two firefighting planes as about 400 firefighters battled the blaze. Train service was delayed, horses were moved out of a nearby riding centre, and police arrested two people suspected of arson.

BRUSSELS - The European Union failed Monday to endorse its 21st sanctions package against Russia, leaving the bloc's oil price cap in limbo. The main fights are over Russian LNG transport and Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International. A Wednesday deadline is looming, and without action the cap will likely rise above $44.10, which is not exactly the point.

TOKYO - Japan said Monday it needs to counter foreign intelligence more aggressively after a New York Times report said Russia had turned the country into a spy hub and procurement route for war goods. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Tokyo must address the issue with “even greater rigour.” Japan is also building its first centralized intelligence agency since World War II, with help from Western allies.

BUDAPEST - Hungarian lawmakers voted Monday to remove President Tamás Sulyok, a longtime Orban ally, as Prime Minister Péter Magyar keeps tearing up the old order.

Magyar's Tisza party used its two-thirds majority to push through a constitutional amendment that also targets the head of the Constitutional Court. Fidesz walked out and called it an attack on democracy. Sulyok now has five days to sign it or send it to court, which would only sharpen the fight.

WASHINGTON - Senator Lindsey Graham died Saturday at 71 after a preliminary finding from the Washington medical examiner cited an aortic dissection, a tear in the main artery that carries blood to the heart. His office said the death followed a brief and sudden illness. Graham, a fierce foreign policy hawk and one of Donald Trump’s closest allies, had just returned from Kyiv. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is expected to name a replacement soon.

COLUMBIA - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday named Darline Graham Nordone, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, to fill his Senate seat until a special election. President Trump had already urged McMaster to pick her, calling it “a fabulous tribute.” Nordone will serve only through early January, while Republicans race to set an Aug. 11 primary and a November ballot fight.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Monday voided Donald Trump’s settlement with the IRS, saying his lawsuit over leaked tax returns had been filed for an improper purpose. District Judge Kathleen Williams also barred the IRS, Justice Department and Trump from using the deal in future proceedings, undercutting the protections it was meant to give his family and businesses. The ruling leaves the immunity bargain looking shaky at best.

WASHINGTON - Mexico will file criminal complaints in U.S. courts over the deaths of more than a dozen Mexican migrants in immigration detention and anti-migrant operations, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday. The move follows the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, which she called “practically murdered.” Mexico says 17 of its citizens have died since Donald Trump began his migrant crackdown. Washington and Mexico City are not getting quieter about this.

HONG KONG - Shein is seeking to list in Hong Kong as soon as August, targeting to raise about $2 billion to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The fast-fashion giant has been trying to find a public market that will take it without too much fuss. Hong Kong may be the latest answer. Bloomberg's Minmin Low reports on the company's fundamentals, which is another way of saying investors will be asked to do some math before they do any cheering.

SHENZHEN - Huawei's energy unit has grown into an $11 billion business, putting it close to Tesla's energy division in revenue, Bloomberg reported Monday. Best known for telecoms gear, the Chinese company has quietly built a bigger role in the energy transition, opening new markets as it pushes deeper into clean power infrastructure. The scale is real. The hype, less so.

ATLANTA - England and Argentina meet in Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal with Lionel Messi on one side and a first final since 1966 on the line for the other. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni tried to drain the drama from it. “It’s a soccer match. Period,” he said after his team beat Switzerland. England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had a simpler view: “We can’t just talk about Messi.”

PHILADELPHIA - Kyle Schwarber hit 10 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby and moved on, while Bryce Harper stopped at eight in front of a loud Citizens Bank Park crowd. Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker and Junior Caminero also advanced. The new swing-based format ditched the clock, which at least gave everyone one less thing to blame.

ATLANTA - Ryan Blaney won the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway after a three-hour rain delay and a two-lap overtime finish that came down to 0.068 seconds. The Team Penske driver started from pole, swept both stages and led 171 laps before edging Carson Hocevar at the line. Bubba Wallace crossed second in real time, then fell to 29th after NASCAR penalized him for advancing below the yellow line. Christopher Bell was officially second. Blaney is now second in the standings, 65 points behind Denny Hamlin.

LOS ANGELES - Christopher Nolan says the film industry’s panic over artificial intelligence is overblown, and that the kind of movies he makes should survive it just fine. Promoting The Odyssey, which opens in theaters this week, the director called the idea that AI could replace human creativity “nonsense” and said younger audiences have already coined the phrase “AI slop” for the flood of synthetic content online.

He also pushed back on Matt Damon’s suggestion that The Odyssey may be the last old-school Hollywood epic of its kind. Nolan said that view is “defeatist.”

SEOUL - Legendary Entertainment's first theme park attraction, Kong x Godzilla, opens July 24 at Lotte World. The studio spent years developing the ride, which marks its first step into location-based entertainment. James Ngo, Legendary's executive vice president of franchise management, said the timing fits the MonsterVerse, which now spans five films, a TV series and a sixth movie in the works. The fan base, he said, runs from kids to people in their 60s. That is a lot of ticket buyers.

SYDNEY - Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor who made Dr. Alan Grant one of the most familiar faces in movie history, has died at 78. His family said Monday that his death was sudden and unexpected and that he was surrounded by family in Sydney. Neill also starred in The Piano and a long run of films and TV that stretched far beyond dinosaurs. He had been treated for blood cancer, but no cause of death was given. He was, by all accounts, the kind of actor people remembered well after the credits rolled.