Trump threatens Iran’s bridges and power plants over Hormuz; U.S. and Saudi agree to nuclear deal; RSF drone kills 21 in North Darfur

Drop Site Daily: July 22, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 22, 2026. Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images.

Wednesday, July 22, 2026 – Renewed U.S. campaign against Iran enters its 12th day. Iran launches wave of retaliatory attacks. President Donald Trump threatens to bomb a civilian target for every attack on shipping in Hormuz. Trump says U.S. will strike Pickaxe Mountain “pretty soon” despite no evidence of nuclear enrichment. Kuwaitis are rationing electricity. U.S. Department of Energy claims that its petroleum reserve can run far lower than previously estimated. International Energy Agency warns of tightening fuel markets. Pakistan requests $10 billion fund for role in Iran negotiations. Iran executes man convicted of links to “anti-revolutionary terrorist group.” Israeli forces continue incursions and airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework. Lebanese PM hails Israeli withdrawal as beginning, Parliamentary Speaker says it “barely qualifies.” Trump promises to “help” Lebanon in meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, offers no concrete policy. Israel continues to bombard Gaza. Gaza sees rise in miscarriages, Health Ministry warns of cancer drug shortages. Israeli arrests, attacks and seizure of land in West Bank, Jerusalem. Israeli government officials march to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. Israel confirms it is walling off the half of Gaza it controls. U.S. House of Representatives passes funding bill. U.S. Trade Representative signals new tariff wave. Studies find Presidential Aids Program cuts sharply reduced HIV prevention, treatment. Trump administration freezes over $1B in Medicaid funds to California, Minnesota. Van passengers dispute ICE account of fatal Houston shooting. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani backs down on threat to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. War Secretary Pete Hegseth estimates cost of Iran war at $37.5 billion during tense congressional testimony. Appeals court overturns release order for Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi. Yemen’s Ansarallah says it forced 6 ships to reroute as part of blockade. Saudi Arabia and U.S. reportedly agree to nuclear deal. Indian opposition leader detained, released during “Cockroach” protests. RSF drone strike kills at least 21 civilians at Sudan water source. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fires his military chief amid protests. Cuba condemns new U.S. State Department report, warns of military aggression. U.S. sends first humanitarian flight to Cuba under new $100 million aid package. At least 143 dead or missing after migrant boat disaster off Mauritania. Global hunger falls to 645 million in 2025, but Africa remains hardest hit, UN report finds. HRW report accuses U.S.-Ecuador military campaign of torturing, attacking civilians.

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Iran

• Renewed U.S. campaign against Iran enters its 12th day: The U.S. launched strikes on Iran for the 11th consecutive night on Tuesday, with CENTCOM claiming its strikes targeted “military command centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage sites, and logistics infrastructure.”
  • Explosions were heard overnight in the cities of Omidiyeh, Mahshahr, and Behbahan, all in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the southern coastal cities Sirik, Bandar Abbas, and Bushehr, the western cities Kabudarahang and Kangavar, and the southeastern cities Chabahar and Konarak.
  • Explosions were also reported in Baneh, in Iran’s Kurdistan, for the first time, according to Al Jazeera.
  • A U.S. airstrike reportedly hit a military base in Tabriz, a populous northeastern city of historic importance.
  • U.S. attacks also struck Iran’s Bushehr province, home to the country’s only nuclear power plant, with officials reporting a missile strike on an electrical substation near the facility that temporarily cut power to a nearby village but caused no reported casualties.
  • CENTCOM also claimed it had redirected 8 commercial vessels and disabled 1 as of July 21 as part of its naval blockade on Iran.
• Iran launches wave of retaliatory attacks: The Iranian military reported that it had carried out several attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday in response to the ongoing U.S. bombing campaign.
  • Iran’s army said it had launched a large-scale drone attack on U.S. forces at the Al-Doha camp in western Kuwait, aimed at disabling its logistics infrastructure, damaging its U.S. Army command center, and incapacitating its ammunition depots.
  • The IRGC also reported attacks Wednesday morning on the King Faisal base in Jordan, claiming to have damaged F-15 warplanes, MQ-9 drones, as well as two helicopters. Iran conducted a separate strike on Wednesday on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Afraq, Jordan, according to the Mehr news agency.
  • Iranian drones hit Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base on Wednesday, targeting “large equipment warehouses and sheds” and the “heavy aircraft maintenance and repair sheds,” according to an army statement.
  • The IRGC claimed on Tuesday that it had taken tactical radar systems at the Ali Al-Salem and Bubiyan Island bases in Kuwait “out of operation,” as part of its “ongoing efforts to clear the region of radar systems.”
  • The IRGC also struck Erbil in northern Iraq, where it said its strikes hit the headquarters of an anti-Iranian Kurdish opposition group. Flights at the city’s airport were suspended, according to the Iraqi News Agency.

• Trump threatens to bomb a civilian target for every attack on shipping in Hormuz: President Donald Trump said the U.S. would bomb one Iranian bridge or power plant for every attack by Iran on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the policy would apply to strikes carried out with “missiles, rockets, drones, or any other device or weapon.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the targets could include infrastructure “located next to, or in, the capital city of Tehran.”
• Trump says U.S. will strike Pickaxe Mountain “pretty soon” despite no evidence of nuclear enrichment: Addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he possessed no evidence that Iran had begun enrichment at a facility underneath Kolang Kouh (commonly referred to as “Pickaxe Mountain”), but added that the U.S. would be “hitting that area probably pretty soon.”
  • In response, Iran’s Central Military Command warned that any U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear or other sensitive sites would mark a major expansion of the war and trigger “powerful attacks” on U.S. interests, allies, and supporters across the region.
  • “Washington’s obsessive focus on Kolang Kouh where no nuclear activity is taking place is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage,” Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a post on X Wednesday.
• Trump addresses further aspects of the war: At the same meeting, Trump added several comments about the course and outlook of the U.S. war against Iran.
  • Trump told reporters that the U.S. had “no interest” in meeting with its Iranian counterparts unless the talks promised to be “meaningful,” even though he claimed that, “privately,” the Iranians “desperately want to meet” as a consequence of what he characterized as recent American military success.
  • Trump indicated that he had no timetable for the conflict’s end, and threatened further escalation, saying that the Iranians “haven’t seen anything yet” and suggesting that America had been “nice” to Iran in its most recent campaign.
  • Trump told reporters he thought Iran was “probably” attempting to influence the upcoming midterm elections by closing the Strait, but that this had no “impact” on him, and that he believed Americans were “very impressed” by the current situation in the Gulf.

• Kuwaitis rationing electricity: Kuwaitis are rationing electricity as repeated Iranian strikes hit the country’s power and water infrastructure, Al-Monitor reported on Tuesday.
  • Iranian attacks have struck several facilities over four consecutive days, sparking fires and raising fears of outages during the country’s extreme summer heat, when temperatures often exceed 50°C (122F), and air conditioning drives demand for power.
  • The country’s desalination plants, which have also sustained damage in strikes, are integrated into the country’s power generation infrastructure, which threatens Kuwaiti access to freshwater as well.
  • Authorities have urged residents to cut consumption, and officials say public compliance has already helped keep electricity use below projected levels and stabilize the grid.

• U.S. DOE claims that petroleum reserve can run far lower than previously estimated: A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy told MarketWatch on Tuesday that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s “true operational minimum” is roughly 70 million barrels, well under the 250 to 300 million barrels the oil industry has generally treated as the practical limit.
  • The SPR, which has drained to its lowest level in 40 years, has roughly 246 barrels remaining for emergencies, the DOE claimed. It has shed more than 104 million barrels since the beginning of the U.S. war on Iran.
• International Energy Agency warns of tightening fuel markets: Fatih Birol, the Director of the International Energy Agency Director, said Tuesday that emergency releases of oil stock and alternative export routes are still cushioning oil markets, but warned there is “no room for complacency” as threats to the Bab al-Mandeb strait compound the disruption at Hormuz.
  • Birol called for a full and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, saying it remains “essential” to avoid further deterioration in global energy security.

• Pakistan requests $10 billion fund for role in Iran negotiations: Pakistan has asked the U.S. for a $10 billion “Bilateral Exchange Stabilization Support Facility,” a financial backstop with a maturity of up to five years, according toReuters, as a reward for its role brokering talks between the U.S. and Iran.
  • The fund would be aimed at relieving pressure on Pakistan’s currency reserves and reducing its dependency on foreign financing, according to Reuters.
  • The request came as Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington on Tuesday.
• Iran executes man convicted of links to “anti-revolutionary terrorist group”: Iran executed a man accused of belonging to an “anti-revolutionary terrorist group” and carrying out “operational acts benefitting the U.S. and Israel,” according to Iran’s Fars news agency. The man, identified as Mehdi Khanki, was arrested in Karaj after security forces said they found an arsenal in his home, including handguns, homemade grenades, shoulder-fired explosive tubes and high-destruction bombs.

Lebanon

• Israeli forces continue incursions and airstrikes in southern Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework: Israeli forces continued military operations across southern Lebanon on Wednesday despite the U.S.-brokered framework agreement signed on June 26 and the Lebanese Army’s deployment into an area within the “pilot zones” a day earlier.
  • Israeli forces pushed into the Dbayeh area on the outskirts of Shaqra, reaching the historic Dbayeh Castle, where they searched homes, raised an Israeli flag over the archaeological site, and conducted raids, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
  • Another Israeli force entered the village of Srebbine, opening fire.
  • An Israeli drone strike also hit Nabatieh Al-Fawqa.
  • In Marjayoun district, Israeli soldiers advanced to the outskirts of Burj Al-Muluk, raided and searched a resident’s home, questioned him, confiscated his passport, and later withdrew.
• Lebanese PM hails Israeli withdrawal as beginning, Speaker says it “barely qualifies”: Following the deployment of the Lebanese army into Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh according to the “pilot zones” operations under the agreement with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited the area, raising the Lebanese flag in the town square, and calling the Israeli pullback “the beginning of the Israeli withdrawal from our land.”
  • Salam said in a post on X that the government remains committed to achieving a complete Israeli withdrawal, adding that the return of displaced residents to the south was “the truest expression of Lebanon’s unity and sovereignty.”
  • Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, however, said Tuesday that the real test was “results on the ground.” He said the withdrawal from Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh “barely qualifies as a withdrawal,” arguing the village had not been fully occupied. “The criminal demolitions of homes, civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure continue, as do attacks on residents on the outskirts of occupied villages,” he said, adding that “the measure of success” would be securing a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawals.

• Trump promises to “help” Lebanon in meeting with Aoun, offers no concrete policy: President Donald Trump met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday, pledging vague support while claiming Israel is “in the process” of withdrawing from southern Lebanon.
  • Trump also renewed his suggestion that Syria intervene militarily to help disarm Hezbollah, and said he would be open to speaking directly with Hezbollah if Aoun wanted him to. Aoun avoided mentioning continued Israeli violations and instead praised the U.S.-brokered framework conditioning Israeli withdrawal on Hezbollah’s disarmament.
  • Trump announced Tuesday that U.S. carriers can resume direct flights to Lebanon, ending a suspension in place since 1985 when Washington banned Middle East Airlines following a Hezbollah hijacking of two TWA planes at Beirut’s airport.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded: Over the past 24 hours, 12 Palestinians were killed, one due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and 12 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 73,305 killed, with 173,918 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,180 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,810, while 802 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
• Israel continues to bombard Gaza: Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least 12 people on Monday.
  • An Israeli strike on Gaza City Tuesday killed four Palestinians and wounded several others. The strike hit the entrance of the Muslim Young Women’s Association in the city.
  • Israeli forces killed two in a Tuesday strike on a civilian vehicle at the entrance to Al-Zahra, north of Nuseirat refugee camp.
  • Israeli forces also shot and wounded two Palestinians, including a young girl, in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis.
• Gaza sees rise in miscarriages, Health Ministry warns of cancer drug shortages: Gaza recorded 3,958 miscarriages among pregnant women in the first half of 2026, according to Bassam Zaqout, director of Medical Relief in the Strip.
  • Zaqout attributed the unprecedented rise to pregnant women being forced to travel over rough roads in unsafe transport, these same women facing constant terror from Israeli bombardment, being forced to sleep on the ground, and the lack of hot water and hygiene supplies in the Strip.
  • Separately on Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned that an unprecedented shortage of cancer drugs has forced the suspension of chemotherapy protocols for breast, colorectal, gastrointestinal, head and neck cancers, sarcomas, and other tumors.
  • Some life-saving drugs have been completely depleted, the ministry said, amid continued Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies into Gaza.
  • Of Gaza’s 11,000 cancer patients, 4,000 have referrals for treatment abroad but remain waiting for Israeli approval to leave.

• Israeli arrests, attacks and seizure of land in West Bank, Jerusalem:
  • Israeli forces arrested at least 25 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. Those detained included five women, as well as 15 workers from Gaza who were arrested in Qalqilya after Israeli forces raided the barracks where they were staying and beat them.
  • The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments said on Tuesday that Israeli settlers had carried out 45 attacks on mosques across the occupied West Bank since the start of 2026. Israeli settlers set five of these mosques on fire, and partially demolished or damaged five others.
  • Israeli authorities also issued a military order on Tuesday seizing 5,283 dunams (about 1,317 acres) of land belonging to the town of Jaba’, north of occupied Jerusalem, under the pretext of “military purposes,” according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Jerusalem Governorate said the land would be used to build a settler road.
• Israeli government officials march to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians: Nearly half of Israel’s government joined a settler march on Tuesday to the Gaza fence calling for new Jewish settlements in the Strip, +972 Magazine reported. Police and soldiers reportedly allowed thousands of Israelis to approach the fence, handed out water, and even transported some back in military vehicles.
  • “There will be no more Arabs in Gaza, period,” settler leader Daniella Weiss told the crowd.

• Freed Palestinian prisoner dies after release from Israeli prison: Ahmed Samir Odeh, a 23-year-old native of Huwara recently released from Israeli detention, died on Tuesday according to reports from Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, which held Israel fully responsible for his death.
  • Odeh was most recently arrested in February 2026. He was repeatedly beaten in prison, and had spent more than a year and a half in administrative detention without charge or trial prior to his arrest.

• Israel confirms it is walling off the half of Gaza it controls: The Israeli military built more than 23 kilometers (14 miles) of earthen barriers cutting through Gaza, physically dividing the roughly 50% of the territory it occupies from the crowded coastal strip where Palestinians have been forced to live, according to Planet Labs satellite imagery reported by The Associated Press.
  • The findings confirm and extend reporting Drop Site News first published in January, when analysis by Forensic Architecture revealed Israel had begun turning the so-called “yellow line” into a physical barrier of raised berms. Drop Site reported in May that the berms had grown into a mostly unbroken wall, often running west of the line and deeper into Palestinian land.
  • Presented with the images, Israel’s military confirmed to the AP for the first time that it has built the barrier, and said it established a “security zone” around the line. One southern section splitting the ruins of Rafah from the Mawasi tent camps grew from 500 meters to 2.4 kilometers in the first two weeks of July alone.

• Netherlands to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements starting September 22: The Dutch government gave final approval Tuesday to a decree banning the import, purchase, and sale of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, joining Belgium, Spain, and Ireland in restricting trade with settlements, Al Jazeera reported.
  • Research from the Global Echo group found the Netherlands accounts for a third of agricultural exports from the settlements and nearly half of those bound for the EU, with the new measure also barring Dutch brokering of such trade and covering products from the occupied Golan Heights.

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com

U.S. News

• Arizona primary results:
  • Rep. Greg Stanton defeated progressive organizer Kai Newkirk in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Arizona’s 4th Congressional District. Newkirk had criticized Stanton over his support from AIPAC and his vote for a Trump-backed law that increases DHS detention powers. Stanton will face Republican Zuhdi Jasser in November.
  • Rep. Andy Biggs won the Republican gubernatorial primary, setting him up to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who ran unopposed. Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chair endorsed by President Donald Trump, beat out Rep. David Schweikert and two businessmen. Cook Political Report updated the race to “lean Democrat” this month, after it was previously rated a “toss up.”
• House passes funding bill: The House passed a government funding bill Tuesday night, 220-205, that would extend federal operations through Dec. 4, ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. The bill was shepherded by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who managed to ensure its passage with a very narrow Republican majority.
  • Democrats played no part in drafting the bill, which does not alter or omit ICE or DHS funding, one of their key demands in the months-long funding fight.
  • The measure now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune has proposed several short-term plans to fund the government in anticipation of the August recess. The chamber’s appropriators are tasked with navigating the “anomalies” that could pause funding to vital government agencies.
• USTR signals new tariff wave: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC’S “Squawk Box” on Tuesday that “we expect to see some action soon” on new tariffs, as the Trump administration works to rebuild its protectionist trade agenda using Section 301 authority after the Supreme Court struck down its broader IEEPA-based tariff regime in February.
  • Greer said the Section 301 tariffs his office proposed in June, which could total as much as 12.5%, would cover “about 99% of our trade” across 60 economies including China, the EU and India.
  • Trump’s temporary Section 122 tariffs lapse on Friday.
• Studies find PEPFAR cuts sharply reduced HIV prevention, treatment: New survey results set to be presented at an international AIDS conference in Rio de Janeiro found that Trump administration cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) led three-quarters of surveyed organizations to stop serving those at highest HIV risk, The New York Times reported, with the additional result that at least 1,700 service sites were closed and more than 16,000 aid workers had been laid off.
  • A separate study found the program supported treatment for about 77,000 fewer children in 2025, a 14% decline.
  • Nearly half of all children with AIDS do not have access to treatment, according to UNAIDS.
• Trump administration freezes over $1B in Medicaid funds to California, Minnesota: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said Tuesday it is deferring about $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota, Axios reported.
  • CMS claims that its financial reviews revealed “unsupported claims” for in-home care and other services in the states. Minnesota state officials called the change “unprecedented and punitive,” noting their full collaboration with CMS’ inquiry.
  • CMS announced in May that it would defer $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds to California, in what CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz claimed was the agency’s biggest ever deferral.
• Van passengers dispute ICE account of fatal Houston shooting Court statements filed Monday by passengers in the van of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Mexican man fatally shot July 7 by an ICE agent in Houston, contradict the agency’s claim that Salgado Araujo tried to run over an officer, saying instead that ICE vehicles rammed the van from behind and the side and that agents fired after it had come to a full stop, the Texas Tribune reported.
  • “At no moment were the agents in front of the vehicle,” one passenger said.
  • A federal judge in Houston has ordered DHS to not deport one passenger, whose account contradicts that of the agency, to a detention facility outside the region without the court’s permission.
• Mamdani backs down on threat to arrest Netanyahu: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video statement on Tuesday saying that, even though he believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is a war criminal,” he had concluded that New York City does not “have the independent legal authority” to enforce the ICC’s outstanding warrant against him.
  • In the statement, Mamdani called on the federal government to execute that warrant and said Netanyahu was “not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”
• Hegseth estimates cost of Iran war at $37.5 billion during tense congressional testimony: War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations committee Tuesday in a hearing over an $87.6 billion emergency funding request for the Iran war.
  • Hegseth estimated the war had cost Americans at least $37.5 billion since it began on February 28.
  • When asked by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to defend a funding request to defeat an enemy that Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. has defeated, Hegseth said there was “no doubt” that Iran possessed “capabilities,” but that they were at the “worst place they’ve ever been.”
• Appeals court overturns release order for Palestinian activist Mahdawi: A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lower court should not have ordered Columbia University activist Mohsen Mahdawi’s release from immigration detention, finding the case should have been resolved in immigration court, though the ruling does not order his immediate re-arrest.
  • The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Mahdawi, said there is no legal basis to deport or re-detain him during his appeal.
  • Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident, was arrested at what he believed to be an interview as part of his application for U.S. citizenship
• Blinken endorses Lawrence opponent in Michigan: President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who oversaw unconditional U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, has endorsed former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink in the three-way Democratic primary for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.
  • The race notably includes progressive challenger Will Lawrence, who is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

Other International News

• Yemen’s Ansarallah says it forced 6 ships to reroute: Yemen’s Ansarallah movement says its newly declared naval blockade of Saudi Arabia has already disrupted the country’s shipping industry, forcing six vessels in the Red Sea to reroute on Tuesday, according to the SABA news agency, which is affiliated with the group.
  • Three Ansarallah officials separately told The Associated Press that shipping companies were warned Monday to avoid the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the 20-mile-wide gateway to the Red Sea at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula through which roughly 12% of global trade passes.
  • The maritime intelligence firm Kpler reported that it had identified two tankers departing from Saudi Arabia carrying crude oil that had abruptly reversed course in the Red Sea, and Windward said 5 tankers were reversed on Tuesday, 4 from the Bab al-Mandab and one from the Gulf of Aden, including Saudi tankers carrying crude, gasoline, and naphtha.
• Saudi Arabia and U.S. reportedly agree to nuclear deal: The Trump administration plans to formally sign and announce a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that could eventually let the kingdom enrich its own uranium, multiple news outlets reported.
  • The administration plans to justify the deal by pointing to its economic benefits to the U.S., The New York Times reported, with Trump officials estimating that billions of dollars might flow into major American firms like Westinghouse.
  • The agreement is not expected to include inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the AP reported.
  • Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while declining to confirm whether or not a deal would be announced, minimized concerns about proliferation. “Suffice it to say, the U.S. is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation,” he said.
  • Any agreement would require Congressional approval.

• Indian opposition leader detained, released during
  “Cockroach” protests: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was briefly detained Tuesday during a sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, part of growing protests over the education system led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest movement.
  • Protesters, many of whom are students who have used social media to drive their movement’s success, are demanding the resignation of Modi and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over a medical school exam leak that forced more than two million students to retake tests and has been linked to at least 12 student suicides.
  • A Monday protest march by the group on India’s parliament saw police use tear gas and batons to suppress the protesters. Police allege that 118 officers were injured in the clashes that resulted, alongside 60 “others.”
• RSF drone strike kills at least 21 civilians at Sudan water source: At least 21 civilians were killed and 30 injured on Tuesday when a drone believed to belong to the Rapid Support Forces struck a water hub in the Tina locality of North Darfur, according to Sudan Tribune.
  • The strike comes amid escalating RSF assaults on Tina, the last army stronghold in the region.
  • Clashes in the area have forced thousands of residents, many of them the ethnic Zaghawa the RSF is accused of targeting, to flee into neighboring Chad.
• Zelenskyy fires Ukraine military chief amid protests: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii on Tuesday and appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi to replace him, following six days of Kyiv protests sparked by the earlier removal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had clashed with Syrskii over efforts to reform the military.
  • Zelenskyy also met with Fedorov on Tuesday to offer him “a respected position in the government that would unify the country’s technology sector,” according to the AP.
  • Separately on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission reported that 1,396 civilians had been killed and 7,978 had been wounded in Ukraine during the first half of 2026, a 37 percent increase over the same period last year.
• Cuba condemns new U.S. State Department report, warns of military aggression: Cuba’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday rejecting a State Department report accusing Havana of decades of subversion inside the United States, calling it “a mediocre propaganda pamphlet” meant to “manufacture consensus for eventual military aggression” and to justify “collective punishment and genocide against the Cuban people.”
  • The 100-page report, “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” alleges that Cuban intelligence has infiltrated “the highest reaches of the U.S. government” and names left-wing groups including the Democratic Socialists of America and Code Pink as vehicles of Cuban influence.
  • Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said no evidence had ever been produced to justify its designation as State Sponsor of Terrorism by the U.S., and noted the hypocrisy of Washington’s claims of subversion, given its long-running and open campaign to undermine Cuba’s government.
• U.S. sends first humanitarian flight to Cuba under new $100 million aid package: The State Department said Tuesday it sent a humanitarian flight to Cuba carrying food and hygiene kits for up to 700 families, delivered by Catholic Relief Services as the first installment of a $100 million assistance commitment Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in May.
  • The aid, distributed through Catholic Church representatives on the island to bypass what Washington calls “regime diversion,” arrives as the U.S. continues its crippling sanctions on Cuba and blocks most shipments of oil to the island nation.
• At least 143 dead or missing after migrant boat disaster off Mauritania: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Tuesday that at least 143 refugees and migrants are dead or missing from a boat carrying 160 people.

• A spokesperson for the UNHCR said two child survivors, who are presently recovering in a hospital, lost all their family members in the journey.

• Global hunger falls to 645 million in 2025, but Africa remains hardest hit, UN report finds: An estimated 645 million people faced hunger worldwide in 2025, down 14 million from 2024, marking a third consecutive year of improvement, according to the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report published on Tuesday.
  • Africa continues to have the highest incidence of hunger, with 309 million undernourished people, nearly half the global total, the report found.
  • A separate FAO/World Food Programme report, also published this year, revealed that about 1.4 million people face catastrophic hunger, with Gaza reporting the highest number at roughly 640,700 people, or 32 percent of its population.
• HRW report accuses U.S.-Ecuador military campaign of torturing, attacking civilians: Human Rights Watch released a report on Tuesday in which it accused U.S. and Ecuadorian soldiers of abusing and torturing Ecuadorian citizens during recent operations in the country, purportedly to curb violence and target drug trafficking in the region.
  • According to the report, Ecuadorian soldiers “arbitrarily detained and tortured” four dairy farm workers during joint U.S.-Ecuador operations near the Colombia border in early March, burning and bombing their properties despite finding no evidence the sites were camps for an armed group, contrary to the claims of Ecuador’s government. “They poured water on me and then shocked me, and I passed out,” one victim said.
  • The report also described attacks on fishermen in the Pacific, including an attack which left eight crew members missing. Read Drop Site contributor Camila Lourdes Galarza’s report on the attack here.
• Maduro, U.S. prosecutors propose June 2027 start date for trial: Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president kidnapped by U.S. special forces in January, joined prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department to jointly propose a June 2027 start date for his criminal trial on drug trafficking charges in a Tuesday court filing, ahead of a Wednesday hearing in Manhattan.
• FCC moves to ban imports of advanced Chinese drones: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposed rules Tuesday to block imports of drones with swarming capabilities and infrared thermal-imaging sensors, mainly targeting Chinese manufacturers like DJI and Autel Robotics, while extending exemptions for non-Chinese-made components until January 2028.
  • FCC officials said the measures aim to “secure the drone supply chain” and prevent foreign states from accessing sensitive data.
  • The move builds on the agency’s 2022 ban on Chinese telecom and surveillance equipment from Huawei and ZTE.

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