While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 7, 2026

Trump says there will either be a deal with Iran or US will ‘finish the job’

President Donald Trump said on July 6 the United States would either reach a deal with Iran or “finish the job,” renewing his threat of military action as Tehran projects defiance following the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Indirect US-Iran talks ended last week without any public sign of headway toward a lasting peace, despite a 60-day ceasefire intended to create space for diplomacy following the US and Israeli strikes that triggered the conflict.

“We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job. OK. And it won’t be tough to finish the job. I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply…. They don’t have any money now. We haven’t given them any money.”

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Last-gasp Mikel Merino strike gives Spain 1-0 win over Portugal in World Cup last 16

Spain substitute Mikel Merino broke through a stubborn Portugal defence in the 91st minute to earn his side a 1-0 win on July 6 and take theme into the quarter-finals, bringing the curtain down on Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup career.

The midfielder scored six minutes after coming off the bench to take the European champions into the last eight, prevailing where his teammates had been frustrated throughout by a determined and resilient Portuguese backline.

A crestfallen Ronaldo left the field to cheers from the sold-out crowd at Dallas Stadium as Portugal exited the tournament a day after the former Real Madrid forward had confirmed the tournament would be his last World Cup.

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‘Agony’ in Cuba amid third nationwide blackout in six months

Cuba on July 6 suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade.

The communist island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US President Donald Trump in January cut off its oil supplies, depleting the dwindling supply of fuel for its power plants.

“There has been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system,” the UNE power utility wrote on X, adding that it was “investigating the causes.”

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French government survives no-confidence vote over heatwave handling

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on July 6 survived a no-confidence motion brought by the Green party over the government’s handling of recent heatwaves, including one in June that killed more than 2,000 people.

The motion followed five days of unseasonably high temperatures in May, then a record-breaking 11-day heatwave in June, which led to school closures and cancelled festivals throughout France.

Green party lawmakers behind the no-confidence vote accused the government of failing to implement measures to address rising temperatures linked to climate change.

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Economies thrive with older, smaller population, new study finds

Declining birth rates around the world have gotten many people worried about the economic impact, with predictions of slower growth and less innovation. But a new paper finds that the opposite may be true.  

Ageing and shrinking populations have historically raised an economy’s output per worker and had no damping effect on overall gross domestic product, according to a new study by Daron Acemoglu – who won the Nobel economics prize in 2024 – David Autor, Keelan Beirne and Andrew Scott.

It finds that workers and companies turn to technology to augment a reduced labour force, raising the productivity of each worker. 

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