President Trump declared on July 7 that the ceasefire is over and went back on the attack against Iran. Iran then announced that it is again closing or severely restricting passage through the strait in response to renewed US military strikes. Commercial shipping has slowed dramatically. According to Reuters, only a handful of tankers have transited recently, with many vessels delaying voyages or turning back because of the military threat and soaring insurance costs. Oil prices are again rising in response. VP Vance hinted last week that Trump didn’t have confidence the MOU would hold but wanted to see how many ships could get through while it lasted to replenish stockpiles in the West. This tranche of oil that got through will refill some of the empty storage containers in Europe and California, but it won’t be enough to build reserves back up. If Trump were smart about this instead of being so bull-headed, he would have allowed Iran to restrict transit on the Omani side, which directed all shipping to Iran’s preferred southern route. They claimed to be doing mine clearing, which probably was just an excuse. Iran attacked 3 ships, and Trump responded by giving up the ceasefire completely. Accommodating Iran, at least during the MOU period would have been a good compromise which would have allowed the West to build more reserves during the 60-day period. Iran still clearly wants to control the oil through the strait, and earn some revenue off of it, to pay for some of the damage the US and Israel have caused. Even though Trump doesn’t want that to happen, he should have given a little in order to keep the ceasefire going. To receive a free, one-time sample of the Brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a sample on the left
Iran reiterated its rejection of negotiations with the US unless Washington meets conditions including resolving transit issues through the Strait of Hormuz and normalizing the Islamic Republic's oil exports.
China successfully landed the first-stage booster of a Long March 10B rocket on a floating barge during an orbital launch test earlier Friday, marking the first major step in reusable launch technology, albeit roughly a decade behind Elon Musk's SpaceX.
China has abruptly banned helium exports, a key component in semiconductors, which adds yet another serious constraint to a global market already reeling from the loss of production in Qatar.
What's already abundantly clear but verboten to say as it would pop the bubble of AI valuations and triumphalism is that AI is unaffordable once the direct and indirect subsidies are withdrawn. Nothing that consumes this much electricity and requires such an immense scale of costly processing and memory capacity can be low-cost, never mind free.
The Pentagon released its fourth new batch of UFO files on July 10, including a transcript from a conference that included scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.
critics arguing that names like Muhammad's dominance reflect communities that have not fully integrated and, in some cases, parallel issues seen in grooming gang scandals where perpetrators often shared similar names and backgrounds.
Cuba suffered its second nationwide blackout in a matter of days late Friday, another sign that the communist-controlled island is sliding deeper into economic collapse amid tightening US sanctions and renewed pressure from the Trump administration. Havana blames US "gunboat diplomacy" and the financial sanctions for its economic demise, but the roots of the crisis are decades of communist rule, chronic underinvestment, widespread economic mismanagement and a crumbling power grid.
"We didn't ask for anyone's approval to enter Lebanon, and we don't need approval to stay in Lebanon," Katz said in a statement, according to The Washington Examiner. "It is our right and duty to defend the residents of the Galilee and Israeli citizens from the threats of the jihadist terror group Hezbollah, which aims to destroy the State of Israel."
In a video interview today with The Defender, a former police detective involved in the investigations of roughly 250 sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, cases said coroners didn’t include vaccination history in their reports, even when police reports included the information. “Jennifer” and her husband were detectives in the police department of a major U.S. city with a population of over 300,000 from roughly 2003 to 2010.
a federal appeals court refused to block a ruling ordering the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. In its second rejection of the administration’s request, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Trump’s lawyers had failed to prove that removing his name would damage fundraising efforts at the iconic performing arts venue, which has faced declining ticket sales and widespread artist cancellations since Trump initiated a MAGA takeover last year
The Patriot air defense system has been in high demand throughout the Russia–Ukraine war, and other recent global conflicts.
U.S. Central Command said its airstrikes hit over 80 Iranian targets in response to attacks on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said Iran wants to make a deal but expressed skepticism that the country would honor it.
Several commercial ships were attacked in or near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
The court allowed the leader of right-wing party National Rally to run in next year’s presidential race, but with an ankle tag.
Oil rises as Treasury revokes June 21 Iran oil waiver Hormuz Threat Level Raised To "Severe" Three maritime incidents reported on Hormuz in last 24 hours Another unidentified vessel hit by a Drone IRGC forces hit a Saudi Tanker IRGC forces hit a Qatari LNG tanker
The drone swarm attack came a day after Ukraine's special forces hit two other shadow-fleet tankers in the same area. Ukraine said it was targeting Russia's naval supply chain to induce fuel shortages and a broader push to isolate Crimea. The peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 and serves as a staging ground for Moscow’s war effort.
Zelensky described that "it matters far less whose territory is larger" and that "we have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive." Russia is in the meantime close to achieving its goal of pacifying the four eastern annexed territories. The remarks are clearly timed to appeal to Ukraine's 'successes' against Russia during the same week the major annual NATO summit kicks off in Turkey, with President Trump and other world leaders expected.
"A security buffer zone on the Russian-Ukrainian border is conditioned by the aggressive nature of the Kiev regime and the Russian military is engaged in this process systematically reaching the appropriate progress," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” one of their spoxes declared on Instagram in 2024.
Paul Pelosi, the 86-year-old husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), faces misdemeanor charges for a hit-and-run after allegedly striking a parked car in Napa, California on Friday.
Before the war was over, five would be captured, 12 would lose their homes, and 17 would lose their fortunes. None renounced the cause of their own free will.
He denounced the country as based on “stolen land and stolen labor.” He lashed out at the Declaration of Independence:
Over a dozen people were killed, with heavy damage against residential structures observed. The death toll could rise, but "In total, 14 people have died and 117 have been injured in Kyiv," the office of the attorney general said on Monday morning. Rescue crews have been retrieving bodies from under rubble throughout Monday.
As with all of these truck crashes, there is no reporting mechanism either on the crash reports or CMV inspections that document the immigration status or even the type of CDL that was in the driver's possession at the time of the crash. So when this crash first occurred, there was no discussion of the truck driver's immigration status. Several experienced industry professionals began asking the same question that's been asked recently in light of all the crashes being caused by the surge of illegal aliens who were able to be fast-tracked into the trucking industry. Only then did his immigration status come into question and later confirmed.
Freedom has become conditional. Equal justice under law has become selective. Constitutional rights have become political bargaining chips. Government now claims the authority to decide which religious beliefs deserve accommodation and which may be excluded—a clear violation of the First Amendment’s warning against both establishing a religion and favoring or disfavoring one religion over another.
khanna's 'billionaire wealth tax,' which is not a tax but an asset seizure in which he tallies everything you own, then demands a percentage *on top* of what you're taxed — every single year — is already targeting anyone worth $50 million or more. this ends with your 401k.
Iran's ambassador to China stated on Saturday that the Islamic Republic would impose service fees on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, but that China and other "friendly" countries would be granted "special considerations."
Among the report’s most significant findings was that Secret Service members did not receive 102 radio transmissions “that local law enforcement officers in a separate communications room received concerning an increasingly intense search for a suspicious person. Instead, we found that the Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks. As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”
Iran enters the post-war negotiations with the United States convinced that the balance has shifted. Tehran does not see itself as a defeated state seeking relief, but as a power that endured a US-Israeli assault, preserved its strategic depth, and now intends to convert survival into political gains. Nowhere is this more visible than in the Strait of Hormuz.