From Drop Site:

• Dead or Detained? Families in Gaza Search for Their Loved Ones
• A Young Populist Heats Up the Texas Agricultural Commissioner Race
• Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill Debates Ro Khanna on Israel

U.S. resumes naval blockade of Iran and launches new strikes. Iran responds, hits U.S. bases in the Gulf. President Donald Trump ditches calls for a 20% Hormuz fee. Trump threatens strikes on additional Iranian infrastructure. Iran says there will be “energy for everyone or no one.” More than 200 vessels ask Iran for permission to transit the Strait. U.S. announces new sanctions against Iranian businessman. Iran depriving U.S. of alternate route, WSJ reports. Israel destroys buildings and roads in southern Lebanon during “ceasefire.” Israel continues to hit Gaza. Israeli settlers injure three in the occupied West Bank. Uganda planning deployment to Gaza. House to vote on U.S. aid to Israel. UAE gains expanded U.S. AI chip access after aiding strikes on Iran. Man killed during ICE chase in Florida. Trump orders ICE to reverse pause on vehicle stops. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signs first statewide data center moratorium. Senate Democrats block $1.15 trillion defense authorization bill. South Korean company facing U.S. trade probe paid Trump $2 million. Mahmoud Khalil sues federal government over “public-private conspiracy” to suppress anti-Israel speech. AOC comes out in favor of Israel arms embargo. Ansarallah leader threatens siege of Saudi Arabia. Cuba’s power grid collapses for third time this month. Mexico files criminal complaints over ICE deaths. Two Nepali ministers jailed over immigration scam. Fifty migrants missing after boat capsizes in the Mediterranean. Nine dead from clashes in Pakistan’s Kashmir. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces submits response to truce proposal. Russia to divert exports away from Sea of Azov. Russia says foreign troops in postwar Ukraine would be military targets. Trump meets Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House.

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Iran and Ceasefire

• U.S. resumes naval blockade of Iran and launches new strikes: U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday afternoon that American forces had resumed their naval blockade of vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas. An hour earlier, the U.S. launched another round of strikes on Iran, four days after it began its current, ceasefire-shattering round of strikes.
  • Tuesday’s U.S. strikes targeted civilian infrastructure in the country, including a wheat warehouse in Hoveyzeh and a mineral-water factory in Dehloran, according to Iranian state media.
  • CENTCOM announced on Tuesday evening that it had completed a seven-hour wave of strikes on Iran, reporting that it hit dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and along Iran’s southern coast.
  • U.S. strikes hit the city of Bushehr on Wednesday, according to the region’s governor, hitting four locations without causing casualties.
  • Another strike on a barracks in the city of Iranshahr reportedly killed 7 people, mostly soldiers, and wounded 15 others, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.
  • U.S. strikes continued on Wednesday morning, with one strike hitting the Iranian port city of Chabahar. CENTCOM announced a conclusion to a “90-minute” wave of strikes at 3:00 p.m., Tehran local time.
  • U.S. strikes have killed more than 30 civilians and wounded 260 others since last week, an Iranian government spokesperson reported.
• Iran responds, hits U.S. bases in the Gulf: Iran launched several strikes on U.S. bases in the region in response to Washington’s continued attacks.
  • One attack set fire to and destroyed a U.S. military logistics and support center at Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah port, Iran’s military claimed, which supports a vital industrial and refining area south of Kuwait City. Footage of the site showed what appears to be an Iranian drone striking a burning warehouse. The IRGC also claimed it hit several other military targets in Kuwait, including a satellite communications center, a missile- and air-defense radar, a Patriot air-defense complex, and HIMARS launch platforms.
  • Neither the U.S. nor the Kuwaiti governments have confirmed any damage, though Kuwait claimed it had intercepted one ballistic missile, five cruise missiles, and 33 hostile drones from Iran on Tuesday evening.
  • Iran also struck and damaged a Kuwaiti naval vessel, wounding four Kuwaiti soldiers, according to the Kuwaiti government, which added that the wounded were in stable condition.
  • Another Iranian strike hit the U.S. military base at Al-Azraq in Jordan on Tuesday, the IRGC claimed in a statement.
  • Sirens were also heard on Wednesday morning in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fleet headquarters and which the IRGC said it struck on Tuesday.
  • Separately, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said on Tuesday that Iran had attacked seven commercial ships in the past week, in attacks which he claimed killed or wounded nearly a dozen civilian crew members.
  • On Wednesday morning, a cargo ship sank in the Gulf, though the cause of the incident remains unclear. All 23 of its crew members were rescued, according to Al Jazeera.
  • An unidentified drone also crashed into Iraq’s Grand Faw Port, though it reportedly did not interrupt the port’s operations.
• Trump ditches calls for a 20% Hormuz fee: In a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would no longer be pursuing a 20% fee for all ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and that he would “replace” the non-existent fee with “Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making with the United States.”
  • In the post, Trump claimed, despite the ongoing hostilities and Iranian claims to the contrary, that the “Strait is open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran.”
  • Iranian state media reported Wednesday that the Strait has become “impassable” for commercial shipping, with at least two vessels stopped by the IRGC after warning shots were fired over the past 24 hours.

• Trump threatens strikes on additional Iranian infrastructure: In an interview with Fox News’ Trey Yingst on Tuesday, Trump said he would strike Iran’s power plants and bridges unless Iran’s leadership “gets to the table and negotiates” by next week.
  • The threats follow U.S. strikes on a mineral water factory and a wheat warehouse in Iran, reported on Tuesday.
  • He asserted again that the Strait of Hormuz is “open if people want to go through it,” though he implied otherwise by speculating on “great alternatives,” “including Texas, including Alaska.”
  • Trump also told Yingst that a ground invasion of Iran’s Kharg Island, the vital hub for about 90 percent of the country’s oil exports, is “unlikely” for now, though he might reconsider this “if we degrade them far enough and deep enough back.”
• IRGC says there will be “energy for everyone or no one”: In response to the resumption of the U.S. blockade, the IRGC threatened on Wednesday to prevent all oil exports from the Gulf, saying in a statement, “the export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one.”
• More than 200 vessels ask Iran for permission to transit the Strait, PGSA says: More than 200 non-Iranian vessels sought passage permits and insurance coverage from Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority during the three weeks after the Islamabad MOU was signed and before the latest U.S. attacks, the authority claimed.
  • According to the Authority, 79% of requests were approved with insurance issued, 14% remained in progress, and the average permitting process took 50 hours. Tankers accounted for the largest share at 41%, followed by bulk carriers at 27% and container ships at 18%.
  • Requests were also nearly evenly divided between vessels exiting the Persian Gulf, 53%, and those entering, 47%. Among outbound requests, 21% were headed to China, 20% to India, and 29% elsewhere in Asia.

• U.S. announces new sanctions against Iranian businessman: The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it was issuing a new set of sanctions targeting the businesses of Iranian oil magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.
  • Treasury described Shamkhani’s “network” as critical to Iran’s oil-exporting capacity and said that his businesses now include container shipping and commodities trading concerns, which range from Dubai and Singapore to the Caspian Sea.
  • It also said Shamkhani’s business was integral to the export of Iranian oil to Russia.
  • The sanctions designated financiers, shipping executives, and companies across the UAE, India, Denmark, and Italy. With the action, the Department estimated it had sanctioned more than 200 people or entities with ties to Shamkhani.
  • In a separate move, Treasury said it sanctioned crypto wallets linked to Iran’s Central Bank, freezing more than $130 million in assets.

• Iran depriving U.S. of alternate route, WSJ reports: Iran’s attacks on tankers are choking off a U.S.-led workaround that kept oil moving through a southern route in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to reignite one of the worst energy shocks in decades, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
  • Two of the three supertankers struck Tuesday were part of a “shuttle run” fleet ferrying crude from Gulf terminals to ports outside the strait, including Fujairah, where it was transferred to ships bound for global markets.
  • The system had been moving about 3.5 million barrels a day, roughly a third of crude exports through Hormuz, according to the Journal.
  • A strike which killed a sailor on Tuesday has reportedly rattled crews, and some captains are now refusing to transit the Strait.
  • The number of ships transiting the Strait on Tuesday slightly increased on Tuesday, with 21 monitored transits recorded, according to the maritime tracking firm Kpler. The firm noted, however, a “deteriorated” security outlook in the region, with “56 confirmed incidents and 17 seafarer fatalities.”
• Iran executes man for role in winter protests: Iran announced the execution of Mohammad Amini Dehaghani, “a collaborator with the enemy,” on Tuesday, after he was found guilty of throwing a Molotov cocktail outside of a government building in Dehagan in January, ISNA reported.
• Israel imprisons soldier on charges of spying for Iran: A military court sentenced an Israeli soldier to fifteen years in prison on Wednesday for acting as an Iranian spy, the Times of Israel reported without identifying the man, who it claimed exchanged photographs with Iranian agents over Telegram for payment during the 2025 U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Lebanon

• Israel destroys buildings and roads in southern Lebanon during “ceasefire”:
  • The Israeli military carried out an “explosion operation” on Wednesday in the town of Kounine, in Bint Jbeil district, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
  • Earlier on Wednesday, Israel detonated buildings in the eastern neighborhood of Khiam, the town of Qantara in the Marjayoun district, and in Beit Yahoun.
  • Israel also fired on people inspecting an orchard near Majdal Zoun, the NNA reported, and bulldozed a road linking Bint Jbeil to the border town of Maroun al-Ras.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, 13 Palestinians were killed, one due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and 18 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,246 killed, with 173,727 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,123 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,616, while 800 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
• Israel continues to hit Gaza:
  • An Israeli strike on Deir Al-Balah early Wednesday morning killed four members of the same family, including a 6-year-old girl, according to WAFA.
  • An Israeli strike on a shelter in Gaza City on Wednesday injured two Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
  • Israel shelled areas near the Al-Bureij refugee camp and the Shujaiyya neighborhood in Gaza City, continued demolition operations in Qizan Al-Najjar, and dropped bombs in the Bani Suheila roundabout near Khan Younis, with heavy tank fire reported in the city’s east.
• Israeli settlers injure three in the occupied West Bank: Israeli settlers injured three Palestinians in an attack on the town of Yatta on Wednesday, WAFA reported, with the Palestinians sustaining fractures, cuts, and bruises.
• Uganda planning deployment to Gaza: Uganda is preparing to deploy troops to Gaza at the request of U.S. President Trump, the state-owned newspaper New Vision reported Monday.
  • According to the paper, Trump asked President Yoweri Museveni, through his “Board of Peace” plan, to contribute forces to the International Stabilization Force in Gaza. Museveni reportedly agreed.
  • An initial deployment of about 500 Ugandan troops is expected to establish a logistics base on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom crossing before any move into Gaza, New Vision reported.
• Israel approves new settlement near Jenin: Israel’s security cabinet has approved the establishment of a new settlement in the south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media via WAFA. The proposal brings the total number of settlements approved by the government during the past four years to 103, following the approval of 34 new settlements across the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley in March. Smotrich had previously announced the allocation of 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) for the settlement project, describing the latest approval as “historic” and saying it was intended to strengthen Israeli control over the occupied West Bank.
• Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill debates Rep. Ro Khanna on Israel: On this week’s stream, Rep. Ro Khanna describes being detained by Israeli settlers backed by the Israeli army earlier this month—and talks about his meetings with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Khanna and Drop Site co-founder Jeremy Scahill debate Palestinian armed resistance, the Iron Dome, and Congress’s role. Their full exchange is available here.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• House to vote on U.S. aid to Israel: The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on an amendment to a State Department funding bill that would prevent any of its allocated funds from going to Israel.
  • The measure, introduced by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has been a source of “frenzied internal discussion” among Democratic representatives, according to Axios.
  • House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told colleagues he would vote against the bill in a closed-door caucus on Tuesday, calling the measure “overly broad.” In a letter to his congressional colleagues explaining his decision, Jeffries said that “American policy in the Middle East must change,” but that the U.S. commitment to Israel “must remain ironclad” and any future agreement should preserve Israel’s “qualitative military edge.”
  • Jeffries’ decision to oppose the amendment comes weeks after AIPAC’s PAC sent a record $149,300 earmarked contribution to his joint fundraising committee, Sludge reported on Tuesday, the largest earmarked disbursement AIPAC’s PAC has ever made, and nearly 30 times the standard $5,000-per-election limit for a multicandidate PAC giving directly to one candidate.
  • A May 2026 New York Times/Siena poll found that 74 percent of Democrats opposed providing more economic and military support to Israel, while only 20 percent supported doing so.
• UAE gains expanded U.S. AI chip access after aiding strikes on Iran: The United Arab Emirates has gained expanded access to U.S. artificial-intelligence chips after aiding American operations against Iran with airstrikes, missile interceptions, and efforts to keep oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
  • Under a rule change announced by the Trump administration on Friday, the UAE’s main AI company, G42, will be allowed to buy AI chips freely from American companies like Nvidia for at least nine months. The shift also removes licensing requirements for U.S. firms such as Microsoft and OpenAI that would prevent them from building data centers in the Emirates.
  • Emirati officials have lobbied the U.S. on AI access for months, according to WSJ.
  • Officials have also attempted to curry favor with Trump’s family, with the country’s national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, investing $500 million in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial venture.
• Man killed during ICE chase in Florida: A 28-year-old man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on Tuesday morning while fleeing federal immigration agents in St. Augustine, Florida.
  • ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents approached the man’s vehicle at a gas station, causing him and four others to attempt an escape. While crossing State Road 16, he was hit by an oncoming truck and died at the scene.
  • A statement from DHS later reported that the man was a Mexican national. It is the third death connected to an ICE encounter in roughly a week, following two fatal shootings by federal agents, one in Maine and another in Texas.
• Trump orders ICE to reverse pause on vehicle stops: On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered a halt to most vehicle stops nationwide, following two killings by ICE officers in the past week in Houston and Biddeford, Maine.
  • By Tuesday evening Border Czar Tom Homan was insisting the pause would only be temporary, calling it a “short pause.”
  • President Donald Trump directed the agency to reverse course in a Wednesday morning Truth Social Post, saying that his administration “CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” and asserting that such a change would not “happen on my watch.”
• Gov. Hochul signs first statewide data center moratorium: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday pausing environmental permits for one year on large data centers using 50 or more megawatts of power, the first statewide ban of its kind in the country.
  • Hochul said the pause gives the legislature time to craft new laws protecting the electrical grid, environment, and communities, and she also called on lawmakers to repeal sales tax exemptions for data centers.
  • The order won’t affect projects that already have permits. The market intelligence company Cleanview lists 25 proposed data centers in New York State, including a controversial project near Ithaca.
• Senate Democrats block $1.15 trillion defense authorization bill: Senate Democrats defeated a motion to advance the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday in a 50-46 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance.
  • Four senators—John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)—missed the vote.
  • Democratic Party leadership cited the resumed war with Iran, for which President Donald Trump has failed to seek congressional authorization, as the key reason for their opposition.
  • The bill, which cleared committee 18-9 in June, would provide $1.1 trillion to the Defense Department and include a 3.6% pay raise for troops, and also includes a controversial “intelligence sharing” provision, which would effectively integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
• South Korean company facing U.S. trade probe paid Trump $2 million: Base Group, the lead investor in South Korean aluminum exporter Korea Aluminium, made a $2 million payment last year to President Donald Trump’s holding company, according to Trump’s annual financial disclosure released in late June, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
  • The disclosure describes the payment as a “nonrefundable development fee” tied to a still-unannounced golf course project, and both Base Group and the Trump family said it is unrelated to Korea Aluminium’s dispute with the Commerce Department, which has curbed the company’s U.S. exports over findings that it circumvented duties on Chinese aluminum.
  • The payment is part of at least $125 million Trump’s company collected last year from foreign sources across more than a dozen countries.
• New report finds 412 crowd-control weapon “misuse” incidents at U.S. immigration protests: Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley released a report on Monday documenting 412 verified incidents of law enforcement misusing crowd-control weapons at anti-immigration protests nationwide between June 2025 and May 2026, resulting in at least 203 confirmed injuries, including blindings, traumatic brain injuries, and fractures. The true number of incidents, the report argues, is likely far greater.
  • More than 90% of the documented incidents occurred in five metro areas—Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Newark and Portland—with federal agencies responsible for 64% of cases.
  • Researchers found incident counts rose sharply in each city following the arrival of former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who led aggressive enforcement surges before retiring in March.

• Mahmoud Khalil sues federal government over “public-private conspiracy” to suppress anti-Israel speech: Mahmoud Khalil, whose March 2025 arrest while he was a graduate student at Columbia made him the face of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protest, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, saying administration officials and pro-Israel groups conspired to strip him of his constitutional rights, the AP reported.
  • The lawsuit alleges that the federal government worked with pro-Israel organizations and conservative groups to “nearly automatically” target student activists identified by these groups, a “public-private partnership” in violation of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act.
  • The suit names the Heritage Foundation as the alleged architect of the policy, along with pro-Israel groups Canary Mission and Betar.
• AOC comes out in favor of Israel arms embargo: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Drop Site’s Julian Andreone that she now supports a total arms embargo on Israel.
  • Ocasio-Cortez had previously said she would oppose both offensive and defensive weapons aid to Israel.
  • She clarified that her stance now extends to military aid and arms sales, and that she would vote against any bill requiring her to approve the transfer of weapons to Israel.
• U.S. has refunded $81 billion in illegal tariffs: The U.S. government has already refunded $81 billion in tariffs so far this fiscal year, up from $5 billion during the same period last year, according to budget figures released Monday.
  • The refunds follow a February decision by the Supreme Court, which struck down a sizable portion of the tariffs Trump had ordered and ordered the government to repay companies for the tariffs it had already levied on them.
  • A Treasury Department official said the spike stemmed almost entirely from the ruling, with most refunds issued in May and June.
  • The administration’s temporary 10% global tariff expires July 24, though the White House is preparing new duties of 10% to 12.5% on major partners including the U.K., Japan, India, Taiwan, and China.

Other International News

• Ansarallah leader threatens siege of Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s Ansarallah movement, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the group would lay siege to Saudi Arabia in retaliation for Saudi attacks earlier this week.
  • He attacked Saudi Arabia’s “willingness to attack Sanaa Airport to prevent flights from arriving or departing,” claiming that this aggression licenses the movement to “strike their airports and to impose” a reciprocal siege on the country.
  • His remarks come after a coalition led by Saudi Arabia struck a runway at Sanaa’s airport. The strikes coincided with the arrival of a flight carrying an Ansarallah delegation returning from the deceased Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral. That delegation included Al-Bukhaiti.
  • Ansarallah responded by launching strikes at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport.
  • No casualties were reported in either incident.
  • Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, commented on the attacks Wednesday, saying that claims that Ansarallah is acting on behalf of Iran were “completely baseless,” and that the movement makes “its decisions independently and in accordance with what they consider to be the interests of the Yemeni people.”
• Cuba’s power grid collapses for third time this month: Cuba’s national power grid collapsed again on Tuesday, plunging nearly 10 million people into darkness. It is the country’s third nationwide blackout in eight days and the fifth since the Trump administration imposed its oil blockade in late January.
  • The U.S. blockade has cut off Cuba’s supplies of foreign fuel, crippling its aging power plants.
  • Public transportation has largely halted, tens of thousands of surgeries have been canceled, and routine outages now leave some communities without electricity for more than 20 hours a day.
• Mexico files criminal complaints over ICE deaths: Mexico has begun filing criminal complaints with state prosecutors in the U.S. in response to the deaths of its citizens in ICE detention and during immigration enforcement operations, according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry on Tuesday, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that her government could not “turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died.”
  • At least 14 Mexican nationals have died in ICE custody, and several others, including Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, have died during arrests.
  • The government has also sent cease-and-desist letters to ICE detention centers where its nationals have died, Reuters reported.
  • The foreign ministry also contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, asking the office of the Commissioner to gather additional information about the deaths of Mexican nationals in the U.S.
• Two Nepali ministers jailed over immigration scam: A Nepali court sent two former government ministers to jail on Tuesday, convicting them of forging documents to allow Nepali nationals to be resettled in the U.S. as Bhutanese refugees, Reuters reported.
  • Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, a former deputy prime minister and energy minister, was sentenced to four years for fraud and “involvement in organized crime,” and Bal Krishna Khand, the country’s former home minister, was sentenced two years for acting as Rayamajhi’s accomplice.
  • Over 100,000 ethnic Nepalis have fled from Bhutan since the 1990s after the Bhutanese government stripped thousands of ethnic Nepalis of their citizenship, and the majority of these refugees have been resettled in third countries, including the U.S. and Canada.
  • Fourteen others, including at least one who worked in Khand’s Home Ministry, were sentenced to up to 4 years in jail in connection with the scam.
• Fifty migrants missing after boat capsizes in the Mediterranean: At least 50 migrants were feared lost at sea after their boat capsized off the eastern coast of Libya on Tuesday, security sources told Reuters, noting that 10 migrants on the ship had survived.
  • The majority of the immigrants hail from countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • On Monday, rescue teams off the coast of Tobruk, rescued 24 migrants and recovered the bodies of four others. A similar incident near the city in June killed 26 people.
• Nine dead from clashes in Pakistan’s Kashmir: Clashes between Pakistani security forces and supporters of the Joint Action Committee, a proscribed protest group, killed seven protesters and two police officers Tuesday in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Reuters reports.
  • The violence comes a day before a march protesting regional elections planned for later this month. The event is planned in Rawalakot, a district capital in Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir.
  • Locals are protesting seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees who live in other parts of Pakistan, an arrangement they claim dilutes their representation in the regional assembly.
  • At least 30 people have died in protest-related violence in Pakistani Kashmir since June.
• RSF submits response to truce proposal: Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group submitted its response on Tuesday to a series of peace proposals introduced by U.S. Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos, accepting a political settlement under its outlined conditions but refusing to withdraw from territories it has captured, according to Sudan Tribune.
  • Boulos’ plan, introduced in June, calls for a 90-day humanitarian truce, a transitional political process, a comprehensive ceasefire, and the start of the country’s reconstruction.
  • The RSF’s response includes a set of conditions related to security arrangements, the reconstitution of state institutions, the administration of justice during a transitional period, and details concerning the path to a transitional government.
  • Sudan’s Army submitted its response on July 12 and has rejected a “gradual settlement” akin to what the RSF has introduced in its counterproposal.
• Russia to divert exports away from Azov: Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that it was preparing to use “alternative shipping routes” and to redirect cargo “to other modes of transport” after Ukraine attacked several Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight, AFP reported.
  • A Ukrainian military commander claimed Tuesday’s attacks hit 11 Russian vessels, including five tankers, five dry cargo vessels and a tugboat, bringing the total number of vessels hit in the past nine days to 116.
  • Ukraine also launched strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, hitting refineries in the Caucasian province of Krasnodar and the southern province of Bashkortostan.
  • Russia claimed it hit Kyiv for the second consecutive day and damaged port infrastructure in Odesa, where the Ukrainian navy reported damage to a civilian vessel.
• Russia says foreign troops in postwar Ukraine would be military targets: At a press conference Russian officials said that any multinational force deployed to Ukraine after a peace agreement would be treated as an unacceptable foreign intervention and a legitimate target for Russian forces. The warning came after Western members of the “coalition of the willing” reaffirmed plans to send a Multinational Force for Ukraine following a ceasefire and announced exercises intended to demonstrate its readiness. “This would amount, de facto, to foreign intervention and an escalation of threats to Russia’s security,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said. “We would regard such units as legitimate military targets.”
• Trump meets Iraqi PM al-Zaidi at the White House: Ali al-Zaidi, Iraq’s newly elected Prime Minister, met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, with both leaders vowing to deepen their economic ties and to boost Iraqi oil output, according to Al Jazeera.
  • At the meeting, Trump called al-Zaidi “a fantastic champion” and promised that both countries would soon “be taking out a lot of oil.”
  • Both leaders said that the remaining U.S. presence in Iraq would completely withdraw by September 30, the same day on which al-Zaidi has said armed factions within the country will disarm.
  • After the meeting, Zaidi also demanded that Iraq be given its “fair share” by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), citing “$400 billion” in damages from its war against the Islamic State, which Iraq declared over in 2017.

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