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Updated July 13, 2026 at 10:12 AM CDT BANGKOK — A huge fire tore through a music bar in Bangkok overnight, killing at least 27 people and leaving 25 hospitalized in critical condition on Monday as investigations began into the Thai capital's deadliest blaze in 17 years. Bangkok city officials said the fire at the Rong Beer Na Ladprao bar in a northern part of the Thai capital broke out shortly before midnight Sunday, and it took about half an hour for firefighters to bring it under control.

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. On a sweltering morning in early July, Thomas Andrade, the co-owner of Everett Auto Parts in Massachusetts, supervises as a team of workers carefully straps two Chevy Volt hybrid batteries to a pallet, ready to ship out for recycling. Selling off valuable bits and pieces of a vehicle is, fundamentally, how a salvage yard makes money.

Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. AI-powered platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates in text messages, holding personalized conversations with thousands of potential voters simultaneously. The bots are also gathering data, learning what each voter wants from their representatives and using that information to shape future campaign messaging.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: Last week, some retired judges took a bus tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to stress the importance of independent courts. Ohio Public Media's Sarah Donaldson tagged along for a morning. SARAH DONALDSON, BYLINE: The brown and black coach with the Justice in Motion decal on its side, kicked into drive Tuesday in the Greater Pittsburgh region. By Wednesday, it's idling on a main street in Ohio's capital city, Columbus.

Jubilee Media produces some of the most watched content on YouTube. That includes the show "Surrounded," which has increasingly become a stop for politicians hoping to make inroads with young viewers. Copyright 2026 NPR

This much is undisputed: On Nov. 2, 2023, a guard and a prisoner at a federal penitentiary in California got into it over a straw sunhat that the officer had confiscated. The man — identified in court records by his initials, J.M. — walked out of the office, as Officer Sandra Munagay followed him. When he stopped and turned around, Munagay "cocked back … and punched me in my face," he said in an interview. That is on camera.

ISTANBUL — President Trump says that the U.S. will not allow Iranian ships to move through the Strait of Hormuz. "We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran's ships or customers from entering or leaving," he said in a post online. Trump said other countries will be able to move through the waterway, but that the U.S. would charge a 20% toll on cargo.

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Strikes between the U.S. and Iran stretched into early today, marking a third straight weekend of fighting. Iran responded to U.S. attacks by striking U.S. allies in the region. The U.S. weekend attacks came after Iran announced the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. A dozen states, led by California, are suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios, television newsrooms, and other entertainment properties.

Florida citrus growers expressed optimism as the recent growing season topped the forecasts and ended slightly ahead of the production from the prior season. While still close to historic lows for an industry that once dominated the citrus juice market, on Friday the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased the orange production by nearly 6 percent from an April forecast, putting it a little more than 5 percent above the 2024-2025 growing season.