Trump on defense production:

We have the best equipment, but we have to make them faster.

BIG: Trump is leaning toward expanding US military operations in Iran — including ground troops and bombing a covert nuclear site.

According to the WSJ, Trump held a Situation Room meeting Tuesday to discuss three escalatory options:

1- Seizing Kharg Island (Iran's main oil export hub) using US troops.

2- Bombing Pickaxe Mountain — a deeply fortified tunnel complex linked to nuclear work that the US hasn't yet targeted.

3- Expanding airstrikes to include energy sites.

Trump hasn't made a final decision.

On Pickaxe Mountain: The tunnels sit 300–475 feet deep in granite — potentially beyond the reach of US bunker-busters.

BIG: Ukraine killed the chief engineer of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in a drone strike on his vehicle near Enerhodar.

Rosatom confirmed Oleksandr Yakovlev and his driver were killed.

Rosatom chief Likhachev called it "a deliberate act of terrorism by the Kyiv regime" and said Russia's political leadership has been informed.

Yakovlev stayed after the 2022 occupation, worked under Rosatom, and took Russian citizenship.

This follows a pattern.

Ukrainian intelligence killed ZNPP's security chief in a car bomb in 2024 and claimed responsibility.

NEW: Ukraine test-fired a domestically built ballistic missile on July 14, the same day the government was dismissed.

Outgoing Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov confirmed the test while summarizing his tenure.

He said the project was developed under the Ministry of Defence's responsibility, with the technical requirements fundamentally revised — accuracy maximized and cost reduced by 30%.

Fedorov did not name the missile.

Militarnyi speculates it may be the Sapsan operational-tactical missile complex, which reportedly entered serial production in 2025, rather than the privately developed FP-7 or FP-9 ballistic missiles from Fire Point.

Ukraine's Defence Procurement Agency has signed long-term contracts with domestic cruise and ballistic missile manufacturers — with deliveries expected to begin partially this year and the rest in 2027.

Trump:

We did a great job in COVID. We never got credit for it.

Every country was ripped apart by that disaster. China got hit very, very hard.

Trump:

Iran will be defeated very soon.

Wreckage of US FLM-136 LUCAS kamikaze drone recovered near Iran's Bandar Abbas port.

The LUCAS is essentially the American equivalent of Iran's Shahed-136 drone, a low-cost, one-way attack drone.

Trump:

They said "affordability," that is a fake word that they use.

China exported over 1 million vehicles in a single month for the first time, 1.07 million in June 2026, up 73% year-over-year.

The milestone cements China's position as the world's top auto exporter since surpassing Japan in 2023.

The surge is driven by new energy vehicles — EVs and plug-in hybrids — backed by massive state subsidies, battery supply chain dominance, and rapid technological advances under "Made in China 2025."

Monthly exports have grown from 390,000 in March 2023 to over a million in just three years.

Trump:

We have wars. We blow up something, and everybody said, "What was the purpose of that?" Nobody could answer.

We don't do that anymore.

Dua Lipa has publicly backed ongoing protests in Albania against a €1.6 billion luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

She praised protesters as "inspiring" and criticized the Albanian government for weakening environmental protections without public consultation.

Demonstrators argue the project threatens protected nature reserves, while the government says it will bring major investment and jobs.

Source: The Guardian

Turkish President Erdogan:

From Gaza to Lebanon, from Somalia to Syria, from Arakan to Sudan — wherever there is an oppressed person, wherever there is someone with tears in their eyes and a bowed head, we will continue to spread our wings over them.

I ask our youth to always keep this in mind: just as it was 10 years ago, today the world's eyes are upon us.

Today, Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli, Sarajevo are watching us. The innocent children of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem are watching us.

From the Middle East to the Balkans, from the Caucasus to Africa — the oppressed and the wronged look to Türkiye with great hope.

JD Vance:

I think that unless you go down that pathway of allowing young Americans to own something, socialism is the inevitable outcome.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience

JD Vance:

There could be two separate things going on. There could be extraterrestrials—outside of Earth, space aliens—and there could also be angels and demons.

These could be two totally separate things.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience

JD Vance:

If I'm a human being and I meet a malicious ghost, maybe I think it's a demon.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience

JD Vance:

The fundamental challenge of AI is it's going to unleash a lot of wealth creation, but if that wealth creation all goes to some segment of people, you're going to have communism.

That is the choice before us. It's a lot of wealth being created—that's good, by the way. I like wealth being created.

But if you don't ensure that there's some broader prosperity from that wealth creation, we've run this experiment before, and it leads to communism.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience

BIG: Nancy Pelosi announces she will vote YES on an amendment to cut $3.3 billion in US military aid to Israel — a historic break from one of Congress's most reliable Israel supporters.

Rep. Thomas Massie's amendment would strip all Foreign Military Financing for Israel from the FY2027 appropriations bill.

Pelosi's statement:

While this amendment is ill-conceived, I vote yes for the message that it sends.

She cited the need for US policy to change, calling on the Netanyahu government to end "a perpetual cycle of war."

The amendment is expected to fail — but it forces every member on the record.

JD Vance on Iran:

We're not just going to bomb and bomb and bomb.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience

JD Vance exposes Israel:

Israel is losing the public opinion battle in the United States of America. It is a simple and obvious fact.

Donald Trump has said that publicly. It's a simple and obvious fact.

Source: Joe Rogan Experience