Andy Burnham is expected to become Labour leader on Friday, 17 July, and prime minister on Monday, 20 July, the day after the World Cup final.

Source: The Times

Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor:

I would rate the Turkish military as certainly among the top five in the world. And remember that it's a mistake to look exclusively at technology and firepower.

You have to look at the human material. The Turk is a very tough soldier. You talk about the Koreans, whether North or South—the Korean is a very tough soldier. You start stacking these different peoples up next to each other and look back at their history over hundreds of years.

You're dealing with different kinds of people, and some make excellent soldiers. Not everybody does. That's one of the reasons many people like me were happy to see the draft go away, because you were bringing in too many people who were never going to be good soldiers anyway.

It was better to have people who wanted to be soldiers. And the Turks have a song they sing at every funeral for a Turkish soldier: "Every Turk is a soldier."

Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor on Türkiye:

The two powers that are going to emerge from this war and will dominate the Middle East for decades to come, maybe longer. One is Iran. There's no question about that. And the other is Türkiye.

I tried to tell them on more than one occasion, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Your existential threat is not Iran... You've got a real problem further north and to the east, and that's called the Turks.

This is a resolutely martial people. People of great courage who are innately inclined to fight. These are natural soldiers. You do not want to go war with Turks.

In Iran, you're dealing with someone who is rational... They will coexist with you. You can talk to them and do business. But if you provoke the Turks, it's a fight to the finish.

If you don't think they're ready to go, you're making a very, very serious mistake.

Who dominated the Arabian Peninsula, who dominated the Levant, who dominated all the way to Egypt and into North Africa for centuries? We know who.

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee:

We want to maintain the security of the Strait of Hormuz.

We want to protect the environment of the Strait of Hormuz.

We must establish an insurance mechanism so that incidents occur—ships that encounter problems are covered to reduce their risk.

And when we provide all of this, these costs cannot come out of the pockets of the Iranian people.

These costs must be collected from those who are transporting oil through this strait.

Source: NewsNation

Russian Hardliners Demand Putin Escalate War After Ukraine Strikes Moscow

Following deep Ukrainian drone strikes, Russian nationalist voices are demanding extreme retaliatory measures, including tactical nuclear weapons.

READ MORE

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

Ukraine has certainly won in the Black Sea. Russia certainly doesn't have air domination over Ukraine. It can send missiles and drones, but it cannot fly freely over Ukraine.

The ground war is stuck, and Ukraine seems to have gained fire control over a strategic highway from Donbas to Crimea, also over Crimea, and is conducting successful deep strikes against Russian refineries, which is affecting the Russian army's capacity to operate.

So, you know, wars are never linear. They go through phases, but it looks like the phase of Russia having the initiative has ended.

Source: CBS News

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

The US is not helping Ukraine financially. We are buying, with European money, US equipment for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian defense industry are run thanks to financing from the European Union.

Literally today, the President of the Commission said roughly €3 billion has been sent from Brussels to Kyiv, and there will be more for drone production—another €7 billion—which should make Putin recalculate.

Source: CBS News

DETAILS: Israel and Lebanon signed a US-mediated framework deal.

— Israel to hand over some occupied southern Lebanese territory to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

— Described as "performance-based" — a roadmap, not a full peace treaty.

— Two pilot zones (one north, one south of the Litani River) to come under exclusive LAF control — barring Hezbollah and all non-state actors.

— Israel keeps a ~10 km security buffer inside southern Lebanon for now.

Hezbollah was not a party to the talks and has dismissed the initiative.

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

Putin should be asking himself, "Can I sustain this level of losses to the Russian economy and, obviously, to the Russian army for another two years?"

And if I were him, I would call it quits. But the trouble with dictators is that they always want a deal when it's past time, when it's too late.

Source: CBS News

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

We have F-16s, we have F-35s, we have Abrams, we have HIMARS, and, you know, we have an army that will fight.

If Putin wants a fight, if Ukraine is not good enough for him, we'll do what we've always done.

Source: CBS News

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski:

As long as Ukraine is successfully resisting, Russia doesn't have the forces to attack NATO successfully.

But Putin said something a couple of days ago, saying Russia will respond if she herself is attacked from other countries.

We, of course, have no such plans. So I wouldn't exclude the Russians doing some kind of false flag operation against Russian territory in order to have a pretext for hitting one of the NATO countries.

We need to communicate to Putin that we know what he's up to, that we will not be taken in, and that this would be completely unacceptable. We would defend every inch of NATO territory.

Source: CBS News

Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski on Poland-Ukraine tensions:

This was an ethnic cleansing with elements of genocide. 100,000 people were killed, but we think that reconciliation first of all has to be based on truth about the past.

But reconciliation is not necessarily between friends. You know, reconciliation's aim is not to repeat the horrible events of the past. That is, in fact, the basic deal of the European Union.

The European Union started as a community of coal and steel between Germany and France only a few years after the bloodiest war in history.

So it's not about people falling into each other's arms. It's about deciding not to repeat the bad stuff and to find a better common future.

And it's in that spirit that I hope we'll be able to handle the relationship with Ukraine.

Source: CBS News

Trump:

We remain "one nation under God."

We will never let that phrase be stolen from us. People are trying to steal it.

That phrase will never be stolen.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick:

No president in our history has stood more for God than this President.

He has been unashamed to speak the word of Jesus.

Dr. Phil:

What stuck out for me is how many Americans showed up saying that they were persecuted in health care, military, education — different walks of life — for living their faith and standing up for their faith.

Reporter: You said that Iran violated the ceasefire. Will they face any consequences?

Trump: You'll find out.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter to her Lebanese counterpart:

I also want to thank Her Excellency, Ambassador Hamadeh, for being a very tough negotiator.

You and your team set an example for patriotism to your country.

You fight like a lioness, Ms. Ambassador.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter:

In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in.

Iran's IRIB:

Explosion heard near Taheruyeh, Sirik. Cause remains unknown.

BREAKING: The U.S. military conducted strikes in the area of the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: Barak Ravid

NEW: CENTCOM says it launched strikes on Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar facilities today, retaliating for Iran's June 25 drone attack on the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely as it exited the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast.

CENTCOM called the attack a clear violation of the ceasefire and a threat to freedom of navigation.

U.S. forces are continuing safe-passage coordination for commercial vessels and say they remain vigilant to ensure full compliance with the agreement.