Daily News Collage — July 26, 2026

• News date: 2026-07-26
• Timestamp shown: 07/26/2026 11:59 PM
• Generation engine: built-in gpt-image (recovered from session transcript)
• Canvas: 1024 × 1536 PNG
• Saved image: My-Library/Images/News-Images/Daily-News-Collage/Images/July_2026/Daily-News-Collage_7-26-26.png
• Workflow prompt: My-Library/Images/News-Images/Daily-News-Collage/Prompts/create-news-collage.md
• Exact generation prompt log: script/logs/daily-ai-news-collage/gemini-prompt_7-26-26.txt

Selected stories

1. U.S. and Iran pause attacks while diplomacy proceeds. Caption: U.S.–IRAN ATTACKS PAUSE
   Source: https://apnews.com/article/ad9fa27d5b1b5fd51e30d923ee738238
2. Extreme heat warnings cover at least 40 million people across the central and southern U.S. Caption: 40 MILLION UNDER HEAT WARNINGS
   Source: https://apnews.com/article/6f185210909edf9dc190e8d5673a9cfc
3. Lake Mead and Lake Powell reach record-low levels amid a Colorado River allocation impasse. Caption: RESERVOIRS HIT RECORD LOWS
   Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-river-water-crisis-trump-cuts/
4. The nationwide cyclospora outbreak changes Americans' produce-buying habits and raises food-safety concerns. Caption: CYCLOSPORA OUTBREAK SPREADS
   Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyclospora-outbreak-fda-opinion-poll/ and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-trump-admin-cuts-have-compromised-food-safety/
5. ICE prepares operations targeting Haitian migrants as Temporary Protected Status is set to end. Caption: HAITIAN TPS SET TO END
   Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-haitian-migrants-arrest-deport-temporary-protected-status/
6. A shooting at a Seattle food festival near the Space Needle kills three and wounds four. Caption: SEATTLE FESTIVAL SHOOTING
   Source: https://apnews.com/article/92628a1f1597e32ba44d6a2de3272646

Generation and delivery

• The built-in image tool rendered twice, but the required post-RUN_START ig_*.png cache search returned no result after either render.
• Recovery command: python3 "/workspace/AI-Automation-Library/script/categories/shared/codex_extract_images.py" "/home/ubuntu/.codex/sessions/2026/07/27/rollout-2026-07-27T13-30-07-019fa3c4-bb89-7380-ab6b-391d07412979.jsonl" --out script/logs/daily-ai-news-collage/extracted_7-26-26
• The last extracted render was copied to the dated path and verified as a genuine 3,253,443-byte RGB PNG at exactly 1024 × 1536. No Gemini fallback was needed.
• Commit/push result: Initial artifact commit 5da78061 pushed successfully to origin/mike_desktop before email delivery.
• AgentMail email result: Attachment send succeeded (status: sent; message ID <0100019fa3cdc116-c2d3f777-e40e-40af-9919-92aa701bcc95-000000@email.amazonses.com>; thread ID 42e067d3-a1cc-4715-b5a9-9e9ed3693462; recipient mikeschecht@gmail.com). Notification-only fallback was not needed.
• Issues: Built-in render persistence issue #28881; successfully recovered from the current session transcript.