🇮🇷❌🇺🇸 — WATCH: Iran’s IRGC released footage of the overnight ballistic missile launches towards U.S. bases in the region.

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — Russia and Ukraine have carried out an exchange of fallen soldiers’ bodies, with 501 bodies transferred to Ukraine and 31 returned to Russia.

🇲🇽⚡️ — Sicarios of the CJNG-affiliated Dos Aguas armed group used a drone to bomb the position of the R5 cartel in an unknown location of the Michoacán state of Mexico.

🇮🇷🇾🇪❌🇺🇸 — NEW: Iran has asked the Houthis (Ansarallah) to be ready to block Red Sea oil shipping routes if the US attacks the Iranian power network, according to Reuters.

➡️ The Houthis got the request recently. However, it is unclear how it was transmitted or if it was related to President Trump's recent warning against Iranian energy facilities.

🇲🇲⚡️ — More than 500 people are feared dead after two boats carrying members of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority reportedly capsized in the Bay of Bengal, according to AP.

➡️ The boats departed Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, including refugees from camps in Bangladesh.

➡️ One vessel carrying around 250 people lost contact shortly after departure, while another carrying about 280 people is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8.

🇺🇦⚡️ — Ukrainian President Zelensky on Fedorov:

During wartime, the president should not be making choices in such a situation. I would very much like to see unity.

The parties haven't found it, and the problem is not only with the parties, but also with me.

I am not absolving myself of responsibility.

Fedorov will remain in my team, but the exact role he will hold will be announced later.

🇺🇦⚡️ — Ukrainian President Zelensky:

I understand, I hear, and I respond to what society is saying.

We are fighting for freedom and democracy. People have the right to do what they want.

If they wanted to come out and protest, then they were right to do so.

🇬🇧⚡️ — A government watchdog has found that MI5 provided “false evidence” based on “lies” to three courts while defending a violent neo-Nazi informant known as Agent X, BBC reports.

The report by Sir John Goldring found serious failures within MI5, including a senior officer who repeatedly lied and another who misled colleagues, allowing a false account about the agency’s secrecy policy to continue. The findings confirm earlier BBC reporting that MI5 misled courts about whether it had revealed the informant’s status.

Agent X, a neo-Nazi extremist, used his role as an MI5 informant to abuse his partner, including attacking her with a machete. MI5 had argued in court that it had followed its “neither confirm nor deny” policy, but the investigation found that the policy had been breached and that evidence showing this was ignored.

The report concluded there were “serious and systemic failures” in MI5’s handling of the case. MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum acknowledged the failures and apologized, while the findings could lead to contempt of court proceedings or a criminal investigation.

🇮🇶🇦🇪🌞⚡️ — UAE-based DanaGas announced earlier today that it decided to suspend all operations at its Khor Mor giant gas field in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, citing "credible threats" and escalating regional tensions.

🇺🇸⚡️ — President Trump is expected to announce “really big news” on election security in a primetime speech, but some Republicans are concerned he may revisit his disputed claims about the 2020 election, POLITICO reports.

➡️ A former Trump administration official said some Republicans are “scared” about what additional claims Trump may add beyond the prepared remarks.

➡️ Trump’s supporters, however, believe the speech could energize the Republican base and help advance the SAVE America Act.

🇮🇱🇺🇸⚡️ — Israel has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen U.S. support for the Iran war and improve its international image, WSJ reports.

➡️ Israel also allocated $45 million for a lobbying contract with former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.

🇺🇸⚡️ — A CNN investigation found that President Trump promoted more than 20 companies on Truth Social just days after purchasing shares in them, in some cases announcing government actions that could benefit businesses in which he had recently invested.

🇺🇦⚡️ — During a briefing, outgoing Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said he identified 11 major problems related to the management of the Ukrainian military during his first months of service:

1. Ukraine's Armed Forces are fighting at the tactical level, although increasingly at the operational level too. Still, fundamentally, "we are still fighting tactically."

2. The corps system has not yet fully taken shape. "We have corps that are successful, that advance every month and do not lose territory. And we have corps where the commander is replaced every month. There are corps that have developed their own school of thought and philosophy, and there are corps where we do not even know how many brigades they have or what is happening inside them. Everything depends on organization, but there are corps that do not distribute all their resources internally."

3. Brigades and corps have been fragmented. "There are brigades that cannot even determine how many battalions they have. A battalion is pulled out of one brigade and thrown into another. It is impossible to build a management system under conditions like these.

4. No one is held accountable for anything. "Responsibility is always pushed down the chain. Someone else is always made to carry the blame; there is always talk of an investigation and of 'finding out who is guilty."

5. Supplies are not routed through the corps. Fedorov said the supply problem is "fundamental": "Over the past five months, we have bought more drones than in the whole of last year, but most units have not felt the impact, because everything is distributed manually: if you are loyal, you get something; if you are not, you don't... That is why we launched this system. It was four months of hell, because it took us four months to agree on a simple project for baseline drone provision to brigades."

6. Constant replacement of commanders.

7. Isolation and toxic treatment of those who deliver results. "If you succeed, you become a star, and then you hit a dead end. [General Mykhailo] Drapatyi received his third reprimand; goodbye. Sorry, Drapatyi, I think after this speech there will be a fourth reprimand for you. I wouldn't want that to happen, but we have no choice left but to talk about it.

8. It is impossible to carry out any systemic project. "Because you constantly run into the same questions: 'But why?' and 'But how?'"

9. Human capital is being worn down without proper analysis. Fedorov said they had carried out "a great deal of work," including analyzing losses. "But decisions about who should be supported, who should not, who should be reinforced and who should not are not based on data. They are based on loyalty."

10. The blocking of initiatives and the "bureaucratic crossfire." "In six months at the Defense Ministry, we have not been able to change the organizational structure because the General Staff refuses to approve it: the name is supposedly wrong, something else is not right, or there is allegedly no need to bring in new people."

11. Constant dishonesty. "This applies to me too: claims that I ordered the investigation into Skelia, that I launched a media campaign, that I did this or that."

🇧🇷⚡️ — WATCH: Member of the infamous Brazilian criminal organization Comando Vermelho used a drone to attack a vehicle belonging to a rival faction in Rio de Janeiro, causing damage to the vehicle and injuring the nearby gang and bystanders.

🇺🇸⚡️ — Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

Here in the United States, the share of left-wing terrorist attacks and plots has risen to levels not seen in decades.