🇺🇸 - The US has seized 5 vessels since the beginning of the blockade of Venezuela to protect American assets from international pirates operating ghost vessels.

That includes 6.15 million barrels of oil, worth over $300 million.

3 tankers were Russian.
1 tanker was Iranian.
1 tanker was Chinese.

🇸🇾⚡- BREAKING: The Syrian government has closed all Euphrates river crossings with the SDF "until further notice."

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇻🇪⚡️- "Once again, our joint interagency forces sent a clear message this morning: “there is no safe haven for criminals.”

In a pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford and apprehended Motor/Tanker Olina in the Caribbean Sea without incident.

Apprehensions like this are backed by the full power of the U.S. Navy’s Amphibious Ready Group, including the ready and lethal platforms of the USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio, and USS Fort Lauderdale.

The Department of War’s Operation Southern Spear is unwavering in its mission to defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere." - U.S. Southern Command

🇸🇾⚡- The Syrian government has issued six evacuation orders for the Sheikh Maqsoud district, SDF-controlled northern Aleppo city.

🇮🇷⚡- Iran's state media IRIB publishes footage of violent armed clashes between Iranian security forces and Kurdish separatists in Kermanshah last night.

🇦🇿🇮🇷⚡- Azerbaijan's AZAL Airlines becomes third airlines to cancel all flights to Iran.

🇮🇷⚡- Iranian outlet Tasnim News Agency reports that multiple security personnel were killed last night during the nationwide 'protests'. They include the public prosecutor of Esfarayen, North Khorasan province, 6 Basij in Hamedan city, and "multiple" officers in Tehran.

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️- A U.S. State department aircraft has arrived at Caracas International Airport.

🇮🇷⚡- Some domestic internet ('whitelist internet') is back online in Iran. Applications such as Eitaa and Snapp are working, as well as a few selected universities are reconnected.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- "Early this week, U.S. intelligence assessed that the protests lacked sufficient energy to challenge the stability of the regime. But that view is being reassessed in light of recent events.

"The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them," - A senior US official told Axios.

🇺🇸🇬🇱🇩🇰⚡️- Greenland is considering bypassing Denmark and directly enter negotiations with the United States.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- "Mr. President [Donald Trump], this is an urgent and immediate call for your attention, support, and action. Last night you saw the millions of brave Iranians in the streets facing down live bullets. Today, they are facing not just bullets but a total communications blackout. No Internet. No landlines.

Ali Khamenei, fearing the end of his criminal regime at the hands of the people and with the help of your powerful promise to support the protesters, has threatened the people on the streets with a brutal crack down. And he wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes.

I have called the people to the streets to fight for their freedom and to overwhelm the security forces with sheer numbers. Last night they did that. Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime’s thugs at bay. But time is of the essence. The people will be on the streets again in an hour. I am asking you to help.

You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word. Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran," - Reza Pahlavi.

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡- "US Department of State officials traveled to Caracas today for the first time since Maduro’s ouster. It would mark an initial step towards reopening the US Embassy in Venezuela.

Officials say reopening would depend on security conditions and the state of the embassy building," - CNN.

🇸🇦🇧🇭🇦🇪⚡- BREAKING: Saudi Arabia begins withdrawing troops from Bahrain!

An unprecedented and dramatic escalatory move against the UAE.

🇸🇦🇧🇭🇦🇪⚡- "The withdrawal of Saudi forces stationed in Bahrain [UAE-ally] represents a security bombshell, a development which shifts the Saudi-Emirati conflict from the Yemeni and African arenas to the very heart of the Gulf system," - The Dark Box, French-based Middle East Think Tank.

🇸🇦🇧🇭🇦🇪⚡- "The Saudi move was a strategic response to intelligence information indicating persistent Emirati efforts to turn Manama [Bahrain] into a 'platform' to serve regional agendas that directly conflict with the supreme interests of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh considered an unprecedented transgression of red lines in its security depth," - Yemeni Press Agency.

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡- "Venezuela's new President Delcy Rodríguez has requested permission to travel to Washington next Tuesday, including a possible visit to the White House," - ABC Internacional.

🇺🇸⚡️- New cell phone footage obtained by Alpha News shows the Minneapolis ICE shooting from a closer perspective.

🇮🇷⚡- Reports of violent, large-scale protests across Iran, even greater in size compared to yesterday.

Riot police have used tear gas and live ammunition in multiple different cities, Hezbollah-affiliate al-Mayadeen says.

⚡️🇮🇷🇺🇸🇮🇱 Kan News reports that Intelligence communities in Israel and other nations are monitoring protests in Iran to assess if they are approaching a critical point that could threaten the government's stability.

The assessment notes it remains unclear whether the demonstrations will succeed in mobilising masses large enough to destabilise a government employing severe measures, including death penalty threats.

Analysts in Israel and the US have not declared how the situation will resolve, acknowledging the complexity of predicting popular uprisings.

The report references past intelligence miscalculations, such as the failure to predict the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the sudden collapse of the Assad government in Syria.

@wfwitness

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡- The State Department delegation is being escorted to the US embassy in Caracas. The embassy has not been in use since 2019.

The United States won.