Oil Tops $100 a Barrel After Houthi Strikes on Saudi Tankers

Trump Rebuilds Global Tariffs Under a Different Law

Utilities Join a Voluntary AI Power-Cost Pledge

Intel Posts Its Fastest Growth in 15 Years as AI Demand Lifts Chips

Treasury Sanctions More Than 50 CJNG-Linked Targets

Oil Tops $100 a Barrel After Houthi Strikes on Saudi Tankers

Oil closed above $100 a barrel on Thursday, July 23, for the first time since May after Yemen's Houthi movement, an armed group allied with Iran, said it fired missiles and drones at two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea — the first enforcement of the naval blockade of Saudi ports the group declared earlier in the week. A fire broke out aboard one tanker, both crews were reported safe and five other Saudi tankers reversed course to avoid the area. The US military responded with overnight strikes it said were aimed at protecting commercial shipping, using a B-1 long-range bomber for the first time in the campaign, and President Donald Trump threatened to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant for every ship attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 6.4% to $100.05 a barrel. Household budgets are being squeezed from a second direction at the same time: the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury note, the benchmark that sets the baseline for mortgages, car loans and business borrowing, has climbed to roughly 4.7%, its highest level since the fall of 2023, when inflation pushed rates to heights not seen in decades. Crude is the main ingredient in gasoline, so pump prices tend to follow oil upward within weeks, and rising Treasury rates make new loans more expensive to carry — which is how a war fought half a world away shows up at the gas station and in the family budget.

Al Jazeera / CNN / Yahoo Finance / The National / ABC News

Trump Rebuilds Global Tariffs Under a Different Law

President Donald Trump announced on July 23 that the United States would impose tariffs of 10% or 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, covering roughly 99% of US imports. The administration said those governments had inadequately enforced prohibitions on products made with forced labor, while countries including Brazil and Chile disputed that assessment. The duties took effect July 24 as a temporary, across-the-board 10% tariff imposed under a separate statute expired, although exemptions remain for products including oil, natural gas, fertilizer and some foods. Trump based the new tariffs on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes action against unfair foreign trade practices and offers a potentially more durable legal foundation than the emergency-powers law the Supreme Court rejected in February. Tariffs are collected from US importers, which may absorb the expense or pass it to consumers and other businesses through higher prices. The shift matters because it attempts to preserve Trump's transformation of tariffs into a central instrument of economic and foreign policy despite the Supreme Court's limits on presidential trade authority.

Reuters / AP

Utilities Join a Voluntary AI Power-Cost Pledge

Trump, governors and electric utilities expanded a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge on July 23 that is intended to prevent AI data centers from raising household electricity bills. Participants distribute roughly 80% of US electricity, and the pledge asks data-center operators to pay rates reflecting the additional power-generation and grid infrastructure they require. The administration first sought commitments from technology companies in March and is now adding utilities, developers and state officials. The agreement is not legally binding, and neither the administration nor participating companies have established a uniform method for measuring whether it reduces consumer costs. The issue is becoming more urgent as data-center expansion increases electricity demand; congestion costs in the PJM regional grid rose 81% in 2025 to $3.2 billion. The pledge matters because the political durability of America's AI expansion may depend on whether companies internalize its energy costs or shift them onto households and smaller businesses.

AP / Reuters

Intel Posts Its Fastest Growth in 15 Years as AI Demand Lifts Chips

Intel reported second-quarter revenue of $16.1 billion on Thursday, July 23 — up 25% from a year earlier and its fastest growth since 2011 — with adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share, double what Wall Street expected. The company's data-center and AI business grew 59% to $6.3 billion as cloud companies raced to buy server processors for artificial-intelligence computing, and finance chief David Zinsner said demand now exceeds what Intel's factories can produce; the stock closed at $102.72 on Thursday, up roughly 178% this year. The results mark a striking turnaround for a company that was posting losses and cutting tens of thousands of jobs two years ago, prompting the federal government to take a roughly 10% ownership stake in 2025 to shore up domestic chipmaking. The stakes reach well beyond one company: the world's most advanced chips are overwhelmingly manufactured in Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own, and Intel is the only American firm that both designs and manufactures leading-edge chips on US soil. Its recovery is therefore central to the national bet — begun with the 2022 CHIPS Act and deepened by the government's stake — that the United States can bring semiconductor manufacturing back onshore rather than depend on factories in Taiwan. The report also lands as investors punish heavy AI spenders such as Alphabet while rewarding the suppliers selling them hardware, a divide that is defining this year's stock market.

CNBC / Intel / Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg

Treasury Sanctions More Than 50 CJNG-Linked Targets

The Treasury Department sanctioned more than 50 Mexican individuals and entities on July 23 for alleged ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, targeting cartel leaders, trafficking cells and financial networks operating across several Mexican states. The cartel, known as CJNG, rose over the past decade as a hyper-violent challenger to the older Sinaloa Cartel in the North American drug war, a fight for control of smuggling routes and US retail drug markets that has bloodied cities on both sides of the border. That war has been supercharged by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that Mexican cartels produce from Chinese precursor chemicals and that has become a leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49. Sanctions freeze any US assets held by the designated people and firms and bar Americans from doing business with them, an attempt to choke off the financial networks that move cartel money through legitimate commerce. The designations matter because they extend Washington's financial pressure campaign against one of Mexico's two dominant cartels.

US Treasury

July 24, 1847: Religious Pioneers Settle Salt Lake Valley

Brigham Young and 148 Latter-day Saint pioneers, sent on their journey after 17 months of travel and years of violent persecution following Joseph Smith’s murder, entered Utah’s remote Great Salt Lake Valley, where Young declared, “This is the place,” and began planning a new religious homeland. Their arrival launched a massive westward migration of Mormons seeking political and religious freedom, ultimately transforming the arid valley into Salt Lake City and a lasting center of LDS life.

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Sources

1. Al Jazeera / CNN / Yahoo Finance / The National / ABC News
2. Reuters / AP
3. AP / Reuters
4. CNBC / Intel / Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg
5. US Treasury