Tuesday, August 11, 2026 – New traffic plan for Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump claims the Strait of Hormuz is open and under full U.S. control. Wall Street Journal: U.S. fires on ship in the Gulf of Oman. Iran accuses U.S. of “compulsive addiction to sanctions” after Treasury threat. Trump demands “compensation” from Iran, cites USS Cole attack carried out by Al-Qaeda. Four crew members killed in Bab Al-Mandab. Saudi Arabia’s Jizan refinery closed until end of month. Israel continues its assault on the occupied West Bank with 504 attacks in one week. Israeli government greenlights “Green Rafah”. Israel is keeping the bodies of Palestinians to use as bargaining chips. Former UN official says body must “clean house.” Israel strikes ambulance, wounds two, and sets fire to fields in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire. Primaries in six states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Carolina. Trump administration prepares executive order to overhaul childhood vaccine schedule. State Department says it revoked more than 175,000 visas under Trump. Rep. Ilhan Omar demands answers after ICE agent found outside her town hall with mismatched plates. Google co-founder has spent more than $100 million fighting California billionaire tax proposal. Private intelligence firms selling surveillance dossiers on AI, data center critics. Pentagon official says U.S. “digging in” to Asia. Over 11,000 more people displaced in Sudan over two days, UN’s International Organization for Migration says. 7.4 magnitude earthquake kills at least 111 in western Colombia. Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad, brother to death in absentia. Libya declares maximum emergency after third drone strike hits largest functioning refinery. Turkish parliament passes limited amnesty bill for Kurdish militants. Returning Kurds attacked in Syria. Iraq forms new military command to secure southern border after militia attacks on Saudi Arabia. Russia’s top court bars antiwar Yabloko party from parliamentary elections. Seven Uzbek citizens killed in drone attack on Russia’s Tatarstan region.

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Iran

• New traffic plan for Hormuz: Iran and Oman agreed on a basic traffic plan for a safe shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday, stressing that the route remains closed as long as the U.S. continues its attacks and maintains its blockade. Technical points are still under discussion.
  • Regarding the issue of charging ships for transiting the Strait, spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that Iran would “naturally” assess charges for the “services” it renders, though no decision was announced on the matter.
  • Talks with the U.S. are still not happening. “We are not having negotiations with the United States,” Baghaei insisted. “Exchanging messages is natural and occurs through intermediaries,” but Tehran’s immediate focus, he maintained, remains the negotiations with Oman.
  • Qatar backed up Iran’s reports of an impending deal. Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday that negotiations between Oman and Iran on the future of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had reached an “advanced stage” and were at a “critical juncture.”
  • Al-Ansari said Qatar’s focus, as a mediator to the U.S.-Iran talks, is the opening of the waterway “at the earliest opportunity.”

• Trump claims the Strait is open and under full U.S. control: U.S. President Donald Trump claimed in the Oval Office on Monday that the U.S. had swept the entire Strait of Hormuz of mines, and that it was “open” and “100%” under U.S. control.
• WSJ: U.S. fires on ship in the Gulf of Oman: U.S. forces fired on a Panama-flagged vessel early Tuesday after it reportedly attempted to bypass Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to the Wall Street Journal. Maritime security firm Vanguard separately reported that the Panama-flagged container ship Vela Nova was struck by a missile fired from a helicopter while traveling westbound through the Gulf of Oman, about 71 nautical miles off Pakistan, sparking a fire that was later extinguished. All 17 crew members were accounted for, with no immediate reports of casualties.
• Iran accuses U.S. of “compulsive addiction to sanctions” after Treasury threat: Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, criticized renewed U.S. sanctions threats on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke of “suffocating” Iran through economic pressure.
  • In a post on X, Baghaei charged Washington of a “compulsive addiction to sanctions,” arguing that the U.S. turns to sanctions whenever it is “incapable of pursuing diplomacy” and escalates them when they fail to produce results. “This is no longer ‘policy’—it is ‘habit,’” he wrote, warning that U.S. officials risk undermining their “remaining chances” of finding a way out of the current crisis.
• Trump demands “compensation” from Iran, cites USS Cole attack carried out by Al-Qaeda: Responding to Iran’s demand for compensation for damage inflicted during the U.S.-Israeli war that began on February 28, Trump said Monday that Washington would likewise demand “compensation” from Tehran for U.S. soldiers and Iranian protesters he says Iran has killed, including the families of those killed in the USS Cole attack, which was carried out by Al-Qaeda.
  • “Now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, also citing “thousands” killed in combat.
  • Trump added that Iran “should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza.”
  • Trump claimed that 52,000 protesters had been killed in Iran over the past five months, raising his previous figure of 32,000 and far exceeding the roughly 7,000 deaths verified by HRANA and 5,000 verified by a UN special rapporteur.
• Khamenei shuffles military leadership: Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued decrees formally appointing six senior commanders across Iran’s armed forces, the IRGC, and the Basij, consolidating a wartime command structure that had operated on an interim basis for months, according to Al Jazeera and The National.
  • Khamenei named Ahmad Vahidi the IRGC commander-in-chief. His predecessor was killed on February 28. He tapped Hossein Taeb to head the Basij, a paramilitary volunteer force operating under Iran’s IRGC.

Yemen

• Four crew members killed in Bab Al-Mandab: Four crew members were killed in a suspected Ansarallah attack on the Egyptian-owned cargo vessel Tihamah in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Ansarallah has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
• Saudi’s Jizan refinery closed until end of month: Saudi Aramco postponed the reopening of its Jizan refinery to August 30, after a second Ansarallah attack hit the facility, Reuters reported.
  • Jizan, which produces 400,000 barrels of petroleum per day, particularly gasoline and diesel, has been struck twice since late July. It was anticipated to restart production on August 15 before a strike on Sunday.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 24 hours, one Palestinian was killed after succumbing to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and one was 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 73,387 killed, with 174,257 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,259 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,146, while 807 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
• Israel continues its assault on the occupied West Bank with 504 attacks in one week: Israeli forces and settlers continue to escalate attacks on the occupied West Bank, with 504 reported attacks in the past week alone, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.
  • Hebron: Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of an elementary school and several homes in Masafer Yatta on Tuesday, WAFA reported. In the Bedouin community of Yatta, Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian house and filled in a water well.
  • Ramallah: An Israeli attack on the village of Al-Mughayyir wounded six Palestinians on Tuesday, two of whom were women and three of whom were children, with Israeli forces firing tear gas on the village inhabitants as they plowed their fields, according to WAFA.
  • Jenin: Israeli authorities summarily demolished 12 warehouses in Anza on Tuesday, WAFA reported. On Monday, an Israeli military court sentenced Ata Rmeilat-Abu Rmeileh, a 67-year-old Fatah official from Jenin, to 42 months in prison and fined him more than $1,650, after detaining him without charge for nearly 3 years and with his health deteriorating.
  • Nablus: Israeli forces injured six Palestinians during an incursion into Burqa on Tuesday morning, two of whom were children. In Tal, Israeli forces conducted a raid on Monday before demolishing the home of Farouq Ramadan, a Palestinian who, while being attacked late last month, grabbed a settler’s gun before being shot dead by Israeli settlers.
  • East Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Governorate announced on Tuesday plans by Israeli authorities to build 650 new settlement units on 27 dunums of land in East Jerusalem near Umm Tuba.
• Israeli government greenlights “Green Rafah”: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz quietly approved infrastructure work for “Green Rafah,” a residential zone on the Israeli-controlled side of Gaza’s Yellow Line, Israeli Army Radio reported on Monday.
  • Netanyahu’s office has advertised “Green Rafah” as a pilot project backed by the UAE and has said it would offer temporary housing to Palestinians “free” of Hamas’ influence. Palestinian workers at the site will be subject to intense Shin Bet scrutiny, and strict rules have been announced for residences at the site.
  • Drop Site previously reported on plans for a “residential” zone for Palestinians in Rafah that would contain and control its residents through biometric surveillance, checkpoints, monitoring of purchases, and more. Read here.

• Israel is holding the bodies of 1,700 Palestinians to use as bargaining chips: Israel is holding the remains of approximately 1,700 Palestinians for possible use in future exchanges, Haaretz reported, citing two security sources, despite no Israelis being held captive by Palestinian resistance groups.
  • Shin Bet chief David Zini and the Israeli military reportedly support retaining the bodies in case Israelis are captured or disappear in the future.
  • Many of the bodies are held in freezers in military facilities. At least 13 of the bodies are of Palestinian citizens of Israel, the paper noted.
• Former UN official says body must “clean house”: Former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber said on Monday that the UN must “clean house” after a Drop Site investigation revealed senior UNICEF official Yahav Lichner repeatedly shared confidential UN information with Israeli officials during his time at the UN Population Fund in 2014 and 2015.
  • Lichner later served as a senior aide to Sigrid Kaag while she coordinated Gaza aid. Kaag subsequently led the UN presence in Palestine and now sits on the executive board of the U.S.-Israeli “Board of Peace.”
  • Lichner was reportedly placed on administrative leave following the publication of Drop Site’s investigation.
• MSF doctor discusses malnutrition in Gaza: James Smith, a doctor for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières) working in Gaza, described the “slow and cumulative effect of…manufactured deprivation” in the Strip to the UK’s Channel 4 on Monday, as Israel continues to restrict the entry of life essentials into Gaza. “Every month still, approximately 3,000 children are being admitted into acute malnutrition programs,” Smith noted. His full interview is available here.
• VIDEO: The family of 13-year-old girl killed in Khan Younis: Drop Site contributor Mohamed Ahmed spoke with relatives of Saba Al-Hashash, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Khan Younis on Saturday. “Last Thursday was the anniversary of her sister’s death, and today the second sister was martyred,” one told Ahmed. Al-Hashash’s mother said her daughter was shot as she went to recite the Quran. “Everyone in the mosque was a child, no older than 15, along with their teacher,” she told Drop Site. “Why target children? Don’t they know where they’re shooting?” Watch Ahmed’s video reports here and here.

Lebanon

• Israel strikes ambulance, wounds two, and sets fire to fields in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire:
  • Israeli forces set fire to fields and orchards in Sarda and Wazzani in the Marjayoun district on Tuesday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.
  • In Nabatieh, Israeli drones dropped explosive and incendiary materials around the General Security center, the Imam Ali Mosque and the vicinity of the Lebanese army barracks in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, igniting fires that were later extinguished by Civil Defense and local firefighting teams.
  • A separate Israeli drone strike in Nabatieh wounded two people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The ministry said Israel struck the area a second time after an ambulance crew from the Al-Rissala Association arrived to assist the wounded, damaging the ambulance.

U.S. News

• Primaries in six states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Carolina:
  • Progressive Francesca Hong, a chef and state lawmaker, faces Milwaukee County executive David Crowley in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is the frontrunner in the race, despite party efforts to back several of her opponents, including former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who dropped out two weeks before the election, and current Lt. Gov Sara Rodriguez, who dropped out earlier.
  • In Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig are vying for the Democratic nomination to replace outgoing Sen. Tina Smith. Craig, whose career-long support from AIPAC has complicated her more recent votes for resolutions blocking weapons funding to Israel, holds a narrow lead over Flanagan—who has received the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders—according to the latest poll.
    • Editor’s note: This has been corrected to amend an earlier version which said Sanders endorsed Craig instead of Flanagan.
  • In the race to replace Craig, progressives Matt Little, a former state senator, and Kaela Berg face Matt Klein, a pro-Israel physician who has received over $2.5 million from 314 Action, which supports scientists and doctors running for public office and sometimes operates as an AIPAC cut-out. Drop Site’s Julian Andreone and Ryan Grim wrote about this race here.
  • Ten Republicans in South Carolina are running to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, including his sister Darline Graham, who Gov. Henry McMaster appointed to complete her deceased brother’s term, and who received Trump’s endorsement in the primary. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman are also seeking the nomination, along with former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch. A majority in the primary is needed to avoid a late August runoff. Lynch, who previously challenged Graham, is running as the only candidate to reject AIPAC money.
• Trump administration prepares executive order to overhaul childhood vaccine schedule: The Trump administration is preparing an executive order, obtained by The Washington Post and dubbed “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations,” that would divide vaccines into three categories and push for children’s immunizations to be administered at separate medical visits rather than in combined doses. The order is expected to be signed as soon as Monday.
  • In the draft, vaccines against 11 diseases, including measles, polio, and whooping cough, would remain recommended for all children, while others such as hepatitis A and B, meningococcal disease, influenza, and coronavirus would move to a “shared decision-making” category between parents and doctors.
  • The order also calls for developing alternative vaccine adjuvants to aluminum, which some FDA officials have said is not feasible on a practical timeline.
  • The move follows a January administration effort to reduce recommended childhood vaccines that a federal judge blocked in March, and dovetails with Trump’s reported concerns about the debunked links between vaccines and autism.
• State Department says it revoked more than 175,000 visas under Trump: The State Department said Monday it has revoked more than 175,000 visas from foreign nationals during Trump’s second term.
  • Most of the visas were rescinded as a result of criminal allegations against their holders, though several visas were rescinded from people accused of celebrating the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and others were revoked from people accused of ties to the Cuban and Iranian governments.
• Rep. Ilhan Omar demands answers after ICE agent found outside her town hall with mismatched plates: Rep. Ilhan Omar sent a letter Friday to a DHS field office after local police discovered an ICE agent sitting outside her Richfield, Minnesota town hall in a car with mismatched license plates, HuffPo reported on Monday, a practice that DHS had claimed was discontinued and which violates state law.
  • The Homeland Security Investigations employee said she was conducting an undercover drug operation before a supervisor call led her to leave the scene.
  • Omar wrote that the incident “raises serious and uncomfortable questions” and “emphasizes many Americans’ growing concern that the Trump administration uses ICE to surveil political opponents.”
• Google co-founder has spent more than $100 million fighting California billionaire tax proposal: Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated an additional $20 million to Build a Better California, bringing his total spending against the state’s proposed billionaire tax to more than $100 million, Tech Crunch reported, as he seeks to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment.
  • California’s Prop 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of roughly 200 billionaires in the state to help fund healthcare programs.
  • Other tech figures including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel have taken steps to avoid the assessment, though Jensen Huang, the co-founder of Nvidia, has said he would be “perfectly fine” paying the tax, which voters will decide on in November.
• Private intelligence firms selling surveillance dossiers on AI, data center critics: Private intelligence firms including RANE Network, Kroll, and Liferaft are marketing dossiers and monitoring services on critics of artificial intelligence and data centers, framing grassroots opposition to server farms and AI expansion in counterterrorism-style language, according to documents obtained by The American Prospect.
  • RANE offered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a tailored assessment of “anti-technology sector sentiment” in March 2025 and later held a webinar warning of threats from protesters including creatives, environmentalists, laid-off workers, and civil liberties advocates.
  • The commercial offerings coincide with “anti-tech extremism” memos from federal agencies.
  • Read the full report from The American Prospect here.

• Pentagon official says U.S. “digging in” to Asia: Elbridge Colby, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, said in a speech in Manila Monday that the United States is not disengaging from Asia but rather “digging in” to maintain a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.
  • Colby said maintaining a balance of power favorable to the U.S. in the region required a “posture of deterrence by denial” in the area from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, and down to Borneo.
  • He also pointed to what he characterized as a growing U.S. military commitment in the region, though he called on U.S. “allies and partners” to increase their defense spending. “We are looking for partners, not protectorates,” he said.

Other International News

• Over 11,000 more people displaced in Sudan over two days, IOM says: More than 11,000 people were displaced from villages in Sirba locality, in Sudan’s West Darfur near the border with Chad, over two days of escalating fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Monday. Most of those displaced crossed into Chad, while others sought refuge around El Geneina, West Darfur’s capital.

• 7.4 magnitude earthquake kills at least 111 in western Colombia: A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia Monday, killing at least 111 people and damaging roughly 1,600 buildings, including 61 that completely collapsed, according to the Associated Press.
  • The earthquake’s epicenter was in the Choco region, with destruction reported in the cities of Cali, Pereira, Quibdo, and Manizales.
  • Colombia’s Geological Service called it the country’s strongest quake recorded this century.
  • The U.S. State Department announced $15.5 million in emergency aid Monday night, with Mexico, El Salvador, and Chile also offering assistance. The disaster follows two earthquakes that devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, killing more than 6,300 people.
• Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad, brother to death in absentia: A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher, a former commander in the country’s military, to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Syria’s 14-year civil war.
  • Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan, delivering the verdict at Damascus’s Fourth Criminal Court in a session aired live on state TV, said Assad “used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” marking the first sentences against Assad or his inner circle since his family’s five-decade rule ended 20 months ago.
  • The brothers fled to Russia after the government’s fall in December 2024 and received asylum there.
• Libya declares maximum emergency after third drone strike hits largest functioning refinery: Libya’s National Oil Corporation declared a “maximum state of emergency” around the Zawiya refinery, west of Tripoli, after three drone attacks in roughly 48 hours, Anadolu reported. The state oil company warned it could declare force majeure and shut down operations if the attacks continue.
  • Monday’s strike hit a tank containing an estimated 4.5 million liters of gasoline, igniting a massive fire before the tank collapsed, according to Reuters.
  • An early Saturday strike punctured a naphtha tank, causing a contained chemical leak. Another drone struck the complex’s desalination plant, damaging its main pipeline and a storage tank.
  • Libya’s Ambulance and Emergency Service said Tuesday there were no “serious injuries” from the fire, with most patients treated for smoke inhalation.
  • No group has claimed responsibility for the attack with the 120,000-barrel-per-day facility repeatedly being caught in fighting between rival armed factions amid the instability that has gripped Libya since the NATO-backed overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
• Turkish parliament passes limited amnesty bill for PKK militants: Turkish lawmakers voted 468-88 on Monday to pass a “terror-free Turkey” law offering limited amnesty to Kurdish PKK fighters who lay down their weapons, the country’s first legislative step toward ending decades of conflict.
  • The bill comes 18 months after jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his followers to disarm, and was backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP party and the pro-Kurdish DEM party.
  • It suspends prosecutions and sentences for five to 10 years and is expected to lead to the release of about 3,500 PKK-linked detainees in an initial phase, though it excludes those involved in “serious crimes .“
  • The law makes no mention of Ocalan’s own case. The PKK warned in a Sunday statement that excluding Ocalan would leave many provisions of the bill a “dead letter.”
• Returning Kurds attacked in Syria: The return of displaced Syrian Kurds to their northeastern hometown of Ras al-Ain was suspended Monday after a first group of roughly 2,500 returnees was attacked by “armed groups,” The New Arab reported.
  • A security official in Hasakeh province said several attackers were arrested and trips were “temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure” until safety could be ensured.
  • The attack sparked protests in nearby Qamishli, where demonstrators attempted to breach security headquarters.
  • Nearly 100,000 people from the Ras al-Ain area have applied to return home since Turkish-backed forces seized the territory from Kurdish control in 2019.
• Iraq forms new military command to secure southern border after militia attacks on Saudi Arabia: Iraq has established the Al-Badiya Operations Command to strengthen security in its southern desert border region following attacks by Iran-aligned militias against Saudi Arabia, Iraqi sources told The New Arab on Monday. The move is aimed at preventing Iraqi territory from being used for cross-border strikes or drawing retaliation onto Iraqi soil.
  • Military sources said Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered the command after Iraqi intelligence reports identified security gaps that pro-Iranian armed groups exploited to transport drones and launchers through Iraq’s Al-Muthanna desert.
  • Saudi Arabia struck targets in Iraq it said were linked to attacks on its oil facilities in late July.
• Russia’s top court bars antiwar Yabloko party from parliamentary elections: Russia’s Supreme Court ruled Monday to bar Yabloko, the only officially registered party opposing Moscow’s war in Ukraine, from next month’s parliamentary elections. The pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina had filed suit alleging Yabloko received undeclared campaign support, including from Western sources.
  • Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov called the case an “unconstitutional attack on freedom of thought” and said the party would appeal, as about 100 supporters gathered outside the courthouse.
  • The party has been backed by exiled opposition figures including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of assassinated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It was polling at just 3% earlier this year, short of the 5% threshold needed to win seats.
• Seven Uzbek citizens killed in drone attack on Russia’s Tatarstan region: Seven Uzbek citizens were among those killed in a drone attack in Russia’s Tatarstan region Monday, the Uzbek consulate in Kazan said. The Ukrainian attacks in the region killed 13 people on Monday.
  • Between two and three million Uzbek citizens work in Russia, with Uzbekistan’s economy partly reliant on remittances from migrant workers.

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