On August 11, 2026, a severe derecho storm caused a massive two-week blackout in Gary, Indiana. Thousands of residents were left without power until most of the service was restored by August 26, 2026.

The storm brought straight-line winds of 70 to 100 mph, striking northwest Indiana and causing power outages for over 370,000 NIPSCO customers. While nearby towns quickly regained power, Gary remained in the dark for a significantly longer period.

Officials and residents attributed the prolonged blackout to aging equipment, inadequate maintenance, and historical underfunding of the power infrastructure.

The impact on residents was profound. Grocery stores closed, gas stations ran out of fuel, and schools had to shut down. People who relied on medical equipment, such as breathing machines and oxygen, faced significant health risks. Additionally, families lost hundreds of dollars in spoiled food due to the hot summer weather.

In response to the blackout, authorities launched an investigation to determine the root causes and implement measures to prevent future occurrences.

Public outrage erupted as Mayor Eddie Melton and community members expressed their frustration with the utility company’s slow response and poor communication. In response to the mounting concerns, Indiana Governor Mike Braun called for an official investigation into the power company’s equipment and repair schedules. By late August, crews managed to restore the data. Electricity was restored to 99% of customers, but discussions on recovery and repairs are still ongoing.

Nepal Floods LIVE Coverage: Nepal continues to battle a devastating flood crisis, with rescue and relief operations underway across several affected regions. CNN-News18 is on the ground, bringing you the latest visuals and updates from the flood-affected areas.

The disaster has caused widespread destruction, damaging homes, roads, and bridges and cutting off several communities. Rescue teams and security forces are working to evacuate stranded people and reach areas that remain difficult to access.

Nepal police said Friday morning that the country’s death toll had risen to 538, up from 390 a day earlier, with 1,500 people missing, including 90 Americans. 

Global food inflation is expected to accelerate to roughly 5% in early 2027, driven by a compounding mix of extreme weather, geopolitical conflict, and fertilizer shortages. Severe empty-shelf shortages are expected to primarily affect vulnerable, import-dependent emerging markets rather than the United States.

Major Drivers for 2027

• The Super El Niño: A historically strong El Niño climate pattern is underway, bringing severe heat, drought, and flooding that threaten global crop yields. [1, 2, 3]

• Fertilizer and Energy Disruptions: Ongoing geopolitical conflict and shipping constraints around the Council on Foreign Relations Analysis choke point in the Strait of Hormuz have severely restricted the international trade of fertilizers and natural gas inputs. [1, 2]

• Climateflation: Extreme heatwaves in Europe and other key agricultural regions have already erased millions of tonnes of grain from baseline forecasts, shifting macroeconomic pressures directly onto harvest yields

Regional Impacts

• Global South & Emerging Markets: Regions in South Asia, East Africa, and parts of Latin America face acute food insecurity risks and heightened vulnerability to price volatility.

• United States: Agricultural buffers, large domestic production, and existing stock reserves make widespread physical shortages unlikely. However, consumers will likely face sticky, elevated grocery bills and persistent food inflation.

Global food inflation could climb to around 5% in the first half of 2027, driven by compounding fertilizer shortages, extreme weather, and geopolitical disruptions.

Core Drivers

• Fertilizer Shortages: Middle East conflicts have restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a major conduit for the global trade of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur fertilizers. Unlike oil, there are no strategic reserves for fertilizer.
• El Niño and Climate Impacts: A strong El Niño pattern, alongside severe heatwaves and droughts ("climateflation"), is threatening staple crop yields in vulnerable regions like South Asia, southern Africa, and Central America.
• Financial Pressures on Farmers: High fertilizer input costs are forcing farmers to either reduce usage—resulting in thinner harvests—or absorb significant financial losses. [1]

Regional and Market Outlook

• Price Increases: Organizations like JPMorgan and institutions tracking agricultural data warn that pantry staples, fresh produce, and beverages (such as coffee and cocoa-derived sweets) face ongoing price pressures.
• Vulnerable Populations: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that acute food insecurity could impact tens of millions of people globally, particularly in import-dependent low-income nations and regions experiencing prolonged dry spells.

In northern Michigan, a gunman killed five people on Friday, prompting a manhunt that ended when the shooter was found dead beside one of his victims. Separately, police in Petersburg, Virginia, arrested a 19-year-old suspect on Saturday after an overnight shooting at Virginia State University that left five people injured — one of them critically — just hours after officials welcomed freshmen to campus. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has seen at least 305 mass shootings since the start of the year.

According to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Dave Sunday, the high-level drug operation was centered around two off-campus fraternities: Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon.

The operation relied on a continuous pipeline of narcotics brought to State College from New York and Philadelphia. Abbatiello, an accounting major who had previously made the dean's list, allegedly used Snapchat to coordinate multi-kilo deals and launder the proceeds. The grand jury investigation revealed that the operation sold bulk quantities primarily to other students, fraternity brothers, and acquaintances at off-campus parties.

Literacy is the ability to read, write, and use printed and written information to function in society. Today, it also includes understanding digital media, numbers, and specialized text.

Types of Literacy

• Basic Literacy: The simple skill of reading and writing words.
• Functional Literacy: Using reading and writing skills for daily life tasks, like reading a bill or job form.
• Digital Literacy: Finding, using, and creating information safely on computers and phones.
• Media Literacy: Judging if news and online information are true or false.

Why Literacy Matters

• Helps people get better jobs and earn more money.
• Lets citizens understand laws and vote wisely.
• Improves health because people can read medicine and safety rules.
• Connects communities and lowers poverty

Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” This was true in the 19th century, when he was decrying the notion that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as American citizens, and that statement still carries weight today. There is currently a literacy crisis happening in the U.S., one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored. Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time, and our children’s future — and our nation’s democracy — depends on us addressing it now.

There is overwhelming evidence that nearly all children can learn to read. But in schools across the country, many students — especially students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities — are not yet skillful readers. Last year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), “the nation’s report card,” showed that not even half (43%) of fourth graders in the U.S. scored at or above a proficient level in reading. And for marginalized students, the numbers are much worse: just 17% of Black students, 21% of Latino students, 11% of students with disabilities, and 10% of multilingual learners can read proficiently by fourth grade.

That any child, let alone the majority of children, goes to school without being taught to read is deeply concerning — and also completely preventable. There are five widely accepted components that are essential to reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Decades of research show that when students receive explicit and systematic instruction across all of these domains, they will learn to read. And when students are given access to texts with rich, diverse characters and cultures and see people like themselves fully represented in school materials, they will become more engaged readers.

The Victim: 10-year-old Shani "Kaidra" Coke, a student at Troy Primary School, was sent to a shop by her grandmother on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, and was later found dead in the bushes with her throat slashed.

The Suspect: Identified as Delroy Coke (also referred to in reports as Delroy Ko), who, according to local reports and records, was a repeat sex offender previously convicted of offenses including a 2019 buggery charge, for which he served time before his release from prison in August 2025.

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, shaking the South American nation and neighboring Ecuador and prompting people to evacuate homes and buildings.

The Jackson Police Department says there's "an active death investigation" underway after the 29-year-old mother of four was found dead hanging from a tree behind a vacant house

The family of a 14-year-old Rochester boy who had been missing for nearly a week says he has been found dead.

Zane Johnson was reported missing on July 6 after he was last seen on El Camino Trail near Conkey Avenue. His mother, Chassidy Johnson, said his body was recovered from the Genesee River on Friday.

"He is always with me, in my heart, in my soul, in my mind," said Johnson.

Family members, friends and volunteers spent days searching for Zane across the city, including near the Driving Park Bridge, where his mother said he was found.

The US military said on Sunday that another service member was killed in action during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone. The death comes a day after the Pentagon announced the deaths of two service members in Jordan.

CNN's Kevin Liptak reports from the White House on the first American casualties resulting from Iranian strikes since March. CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton also break down the current risk level to US troops in the Middle East. 

Nolan Wells’ body was found on Horn Island, Miss., on July 6, two days after he traveled there by boat with friends to celebrate the Fourth of July.

The teen’s mother, Christine Wonsley, has been receiving hate mail amid her unanswered questions about the circumstances surrounding his death.

“Whoever sent this to my home, may the good Lord have mercy on your soul,” she wrote on social media.

Nolan Wells‘ mother has a message for the individual who sent her family hate mail following the death of her son. 

Almost two weeks after the 18-year-old college student’s body was found, following his disappearance on Horn Island amid a Fourth of July celebration, Christine Wonsley has responded to an email from an anonymous sender.

“Whoever sent this to my home, may the good Lord have mercy on your soul,” Wonsley wrote on Facebook, alongside a photo of the message. “Bold enough to send this crap but not bold enough to list your return address,” she continued.