President Donald Trump and other Republicans have long criticized states that take weeks to count their ballots after Election Day. This year has seen a flurry of activity to address it. Part of Trump’s executive order on elections, signed in March but held up by lawsuits, takes aim at one of the main reasons for late vote counts: Many states allow mailed ballots to be counted even if they arrive after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court last month said it would consider whether a challenge in Illinois can proceed in a case that is among several Republican-backed lawsuits seeking to impose an Election Day deadline for mail ballots.

China said Sunday that European medical device companies will be barred from selling to the Chinese government as a countermeasure for the European Union’s restrictions on the sale of similar products from China. European companies will be excluded if the budget for procurement is above 45 million yuan ($6.28 million), according to a notice from the Finance Ministry on Sunday with the restrictions in place the same day. The move will not apply to European companies that have invested in China and that manufacture goods in the country. China on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties on European brandy, most notably cognac produced in France.

China deployed its embassies to spread doubts about the performance of French-made Rafale jets after they saw combat in India and Pakistan’s clashes in May, French military and intelligence officials have concluded, implicating Beijing in an effort to hammer the reputation and sales of France’s flagship fighter. Findings from a French intelligence service seen by The Associated Press say defense attaches in China’s foreign embassies led a charge to undermine Rafale sales, seeking to persuade countries that have already ordered the French-made fighter — notably Indonesia — not to buy more and to encourage other potential buyers to choose Chinese-made planes.

Israel’s charedi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties are refusing to set foot in the Knesset chamber to vote with their coalition partners until they receive a new draft of the hotly contested conscription bill, Channel 12 reported. The standoff marks a sharp escalation in tensions over the government’s efforts to draft thousands of charedi men into the IDF. United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Roth confirmed to Radio Kol Barama that his party is already boycotting private member bills sponsored by coalition MKs to protest delays in moving the legislation forward. The controversial bill — shelved temporarily during the 12-day war with Iran — is now back in the spotlight.

The grueling, desperate search for 27 missing girls stretched into a third day on Sunday after raging floodwaters surged into a summer camp as rescuers maneuvered through challenging terrain, while Texans were asked to pray that any survivors would be found. At least 51 people, including 15 children, were killed, with most of the deaths coming in Kerr County in the state’s Hill Country. Besides the 43 dead in Kerr County, four deaths were reported in Travis, three in Burnet and 1 in Kendall. Rescuers dealt with broken trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris in a difficult task to find survivors.

A ship came under attack Sunday in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen by armed men firing guns and launching rocket-propelled grenades, a group overseen by the British military said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes as tensions remain high in the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war and after the Iran-Israel war and airstrikes by the United States targeting Iranian nuclear sites. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said that an armed security team on the ship had returned fire and that the “situation is ongoing.” “Authorities are investigating,” it said.

The IDF is considering establishing hundreds of new prison spaces for Chareidi draft dodgers. The IDF announced late last week that it is preparing to begin sending 54,000 conscription orders to bnei yeshivos as early as Tuesday, July 8. However, the army has not yet decided whether to send all the orders at once, on the same day, or to divide the sending of the orders into several stages until the end of July in order to comply with the letter of the law. One of the problems that the IDF is facing is the lack of military prison spaces to implement the enforcement of the draft orders. The IDF’s detention facility has room for hundreds of prisoners, far less than the estimated tens of thousands of Chareidi draft dodgers.

A major demonstration is unfolding tonight outside the Lakewood Police Department headquarters, as hundreds of community members – including the BMG roshei yeshiva – rally in support of R’ Binyomin Kubani, a respected yungerman and father of eight who was arrested on Thursday under deeply troubling circumstances. The arrest has sent shockwaves through the Lakewood kehilla, with many accusing the police of acting recklessly, ignoring basic investigative protocol, and increasingly showing disregard for the overwhelmingly Orthodox Jewish population of Lakewood — which comprises the vast majority of township residents.

Wayne Truex, a former Lakewood police officer and one-time township fire chief, has passed away. Truex, who also served with the Lakewood First Aid Squad, was removed from the Lakewood Police Department after a fatal incident that continues to cast a shadow over his public service record, Lakewood Alerts reported. On August 30, 2002, while on duty with the Lakewood Police Department, Truex struck and killed an Orthodox Jewish man on Clifton Avenue near Bais Faiga. The victim, who had just left a wedding at the hall, was walking toward his parked vehicle shortly after midnight when Truex’s police cruiser hit him. Despite efforts by emergency responders to save him, the man tragically succumbed to his injuries.

President Donald Trump signed his package of tax breaks and spending cuts into law Friday in front of Fourth of July picnickers after his cajoling produced almost unanimous Republican support in Congress for the domestic priority that could cement his second-term legacy. Flanked by Republican legislators and members of his Cabinet, Trump signed the multitrillion-dollar legislation at a desk on the White House driveway, then banged down a gavel gifted to him by House Speaker Mike Johnson that was used during the bill’s final passage Thursday.