🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 CENTCOM released footage of last night's U.S. airstrikes against Iran, claiming to have hit "coastal defense systems" and "cruise missile storage and launch sites" but the only footage they could provide was that of a truck being destroyed.

@CIG_telegram

🇮🇷🚫🚢 A review of commercial vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz from July 13th to July 14th shows 35 verified crossings virtually all going through Iran's lane.

From UKMTO and other media reports we know that several tankers coordinated by the U.S. tried to cross the Strait using the southern Omani lane with their AIS turned off, one is partially sunken after being hit by Iranian projectiles and a few others are disabled.

Its unclear how many vessels successfully transited the Strait using the southern lane, but regardless, the number is too low for the Strait to be considered "free and open".

🔗 MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic)

🇺🇸🤝🇮🇶 All remaining U.S. troops deployed in Iraq will leave the country by September 30th ending a 23 year old mission

U.S. president Donald Trump presented this decision as a sign that the Iraqi state has "become strong enough to stand on its own" and is no longer vulnerable to Iranian influence.

Iraqi prime-minister, Ali al-Zaidi, echoed this vision, declaring that the Iran-backed Shia militias who refused to disarm last month would no longer have an excuse (the U.S. military presence) to remain as separate entities from Iraq's security apparatus.

Trump said the U.S. partnership with Iraq would shift away from military cooperation toward investment and energy development, while al-Zaidi said: "The 30th of September, the U.S. forces would be out of Iraq. While U.S. companies will be inside Iraq."

"We don't think we need the military there anymore," Trump said. "We're there to help them. We're there to protect them if need be. But we don't think that's going to be necessary."

He argued Iraq's security environment had fundamentally changed because Iran had been "very much destabilized" and its military was now "just a tiny fraction" of what it had been four months ago.

About 2,500 U.S. troops remained in Iraq prior to the beginning of the drawdown in September 2025, down from a peak of about 170,000 during 2007 at the height of the Iraq war. Nearly all U.S. forces departed in 2011 before about 5,000 returned in 2014 to fight ISIS.

U.S. troops in Iraq were the most exposed out of all U.S. garrisons to Iranian and Iraqi Shiite attacks during the 3rd Gulf War.

🔗 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-reveals-when-us-military-leave-iraq-after-23-year-mission

🇺🇸⚡️ — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pursued sweeping efforts to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy, including proposing $5 billion for research into a "vaccine-autism link" and privately considering eliminating the entire federal childhood immunization schedule, Reuters reports.

Kennedy ultimately reduced the recommended schedule by removing vaccines for six of 17 diseases, though a federal judge later blocked the changes. He has also ended some mRNA vaccine programs and altered CDC language on vaccines and autism.

Officials said Kennedy relied heavily on longtime allies Stefanie Spear and vaccine litigator Aaron Siri, often sidelining established government experts.

🇦🇷 Argentina is preparing to scrap restrictions on foreigners buying rural land, with President Javier Milei arguing the reforms will attract investment, create jobs and accelerate economic growth.

Israelis have been caught multiple times in the past years setting fire to forests in Patagonia in what appears to be a deliberate land clearing attempt in preparation for the building of future settlements.

In November 2025, Javier Milei and Benjamin Netanyahu opened direct flights between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv, a sign of the good relations between the two leaders and their respective countries, as part of the Isaac Accords, the Latin American version of the Abraham Accords, meant to increase Israel's diplomatic outreach and reduce its international isolation in the wake of the Gaza Genocide.

The direct flights came as a result of most EU countries announcing they would enforce the ICC war crime related arrest warrants on Israeli politicians who wanted to access Argentina without the risk of being detained when changing flights at a European airport.

Argentina is home to a 300k strong Jewish community, the largest Jewish community in Latin America. In recent years there has been a massive influx of Israeli "tourists" to Patagonia which coincided with the worst wildfires the region has seen in its entire history. Local Argentinians blamed the Israeli "tourists" for the wildfires. The wildfires of January 2026 destroyed 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) of land. Argentine authorities arrested an Israeli citizen in relation to the wildfires.

In the late 19th century, there was a plan by Zionist leaders to establish a Jewish state in Patagonia as an alternative to Theodore Herzl's plan to colonize Palestine. The plan was created by Jewish-German banker, Maurice de Hirsch who founded the Jewish Colonization Association and was the biggest sponsor of Jewish emigration to Argentina. This colonization attempt came to be known in Argentina as "Plan Andinia" and is labelled by the ADL as an "antisemitic conspiracy theory".

While the Jewish state in Patagonia never came to fruition, without Maurice de Hirsch's activism, Argentina would not have had its Jewish community

🔗 Europa.com (@europa)

🇨🇳⚔️🇯🇵🇺🇸 China Is Ready to Get Tough

Beijing’s diplomatic retaliation has limits—but fewer than before.

In recent years, although China has vigorously promoted the idea of a community with a shared future for mankind and global governance, it has become increasingly unforgiving toward countries it believes have offended it. The latest example is Beijing’s announcement last month that it would prohibit exports of dual-use items to 10 U.S. companies, in retaliation for Washington’s inclusion of several leading Chinese companies on its newly expanded list of military-linked enterprises.

In the past, the core task of Chinese diplomacy was to secure external space for domestic development. Today, Chinese diplomacy seeks to use the strength accumulated at home to transform the country’s external environment.

Until the last couple of years, when Beijing believed that countries—mostly Western powers—infringed on its interests, its usual response was to issue strong protests, lodge solemn representations, and reserve the right to take further measures.

Of late, though, China has been more willing to bare its fangs. It no longer limits itself to verbal protests without taking action. This has been especially true toward the United States: If you sanction my companies, I sanction yours; if you restrict my access to technology, I restrict your access to rare earths.

Beijing can easily reconcile this with what it sees as its moral high ground in international relations. In its own rhetorical phrasing, China does not proactively stir up trouble, but it will never passively take a beating; it seeks to stop war through struggle.

In recent years, China’s responses to the United States have included diplomatic countermeasures and export controls; the Unreliable Entity List and controls on critical minerals; and sanctions on defense contractors as well as on U.S. members of Congress, think tanks, and related institutions. The scope of sanctions and restrictions the United States has faced from China is unprecedented.

Beijing has also acted with increasing decisiveness toward smaller powers. Take Japan. Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested last November that Japan might come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of an invasion, Beijing has viewed Japan as having offended China’s core interests. It first lodged diplomatic protests and then imposed travel restrictions. After Takaichi refused to retract her remarks or apologize, Beijing continued to escalate its countermeasures. It has imposed nearly comprehensive sanctions, frozen official exchanges with Japan, and shown no regard for diplomatic niceties.

https://archive.fo/20260714192313/https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/14/china-diplomacy-retaliation-sanctions/