🇺🇸 Former Sec. John: "Netanyahu came to Bush, Obama and Biden and asked them to strike Iran. All of them said No. Only Trump said Yes because Netanyahu probably has something on him." 🔥
🇺🇸 Rubio at 5:00 PM — “No president has ever done this. Trump got Iran to the table on nukes. They might even give them up. Historic.”
🇺🇸 Obama at 6:00 PM — “Already did it 12 years ago without firing missiles. Removed 96% of their enriched uranium. Didn’t need to kill a bunch of people or close the Strait of Hormuz like your boss.” 🔥👏
🇺🇸Trump: "Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States."
🇮🇷Araghchi: "Trump initially wanted to take Iran, then our Kharg Island. He failed so badly at both. Now he is dreaming about the Strait of Hormuz. That man is a joke." 🤣🔥
🇻🇪🇬🇧 Venezuela's new post-Maduro government is going after $4 billion worth of gold sitting in the Bank of England
And honestly, who could blame them? The reserves were frozen amid the political chaos surrounding Maduro's contested rule, leaving a fortune collecting dust in London.
Getting it back isn't straightforward though. Legal battles and diplomatic tangles stand between Caracas and those bars, but recovering them could genuinely jumpstart Venezuela's battered economy.
🇺🇸🇹🇷 Erdogan's still waiting on Trump to deliver on F-35s
He's been saying "promise" for over a month now, and this new comment to Al Jazeera is just him keeping the pressure on publicly.
Trace it back: Turkey was booted from the F-35 program in 2019 after buying Russian S-400 defense systems, sanctioned under CAATSA. At July's NATO summit in Ankara, Erdogan said Trump personally promised five jets.
Trump's own language stayed much softer the whole time. "Certainly something we will consider," then "I hadn't made up my mind, but I'm inclined to say yes."
Here's the actual snag: even if Trump wants to sell, a 2020 law requires the U.S. to certify Turkey no longer has the S-400 before any sale can happen.
Turkey hasn't given it up; reports say they're now trying to get Russia's blessing to offload it elsewhere, which would be its own diplomatic mess.
So Erdogan's "promise" and Trump's "considering" were never quite the same sentence.
Probably Erdogan's just hoping to turn a 'maybe' into a commitment by saying it enough times.
🇺🇸🇨🇳 The White House says 40+ countries are helping China dodge U.S. tariffs, including Canada, Japan, Mexico and the EU.
The trick is simple: reroute Chinese goods through a third country, slap on a new label, and suddenly it's not "made in China" anymore.
We're talking around $60 billion in trade and tens of billions in lost tariff revenue for the U.S.
Washington's answer is tighter rules on where products actually come from, plus a new AI customs system called "Detective Border" built to sniff out shady shipping routes and fake origins.
Basically an algorithm hunting for laundered Chinese exports.
🇮🇷🇫🇷 Iran says it caught two French diplomats running a secret spy operation on its soil.
The Intelligence Ministry claims security forces stumbled on the pair at a covert meeting while making arrests in a separate security case.
The bigger accusation: seized documents allegedly show a French effort to identify people, set up secret contacts and build a network inside and outside Iran.
Tehran even says some of the paperwork carried the signature of a former French ambassador.
The diplomats were handed back to French representatives, but Iran wants Paris to explain itself and is demanding accountability.
France hasn't backed any of this, so treat the whole thing as Iran's version for now.
🇺🇸 Trump wants the Navy’s newest Ford-class carriers redesigned because he doesn’t like how they look.
He’s been complaining for years that the command tower (the “island”) sits too far back and should be dragged toward the middle so the ships look more like those classic World War II carriers he prefers.
Small problem: the Navy moved the island farther toward the rear on purpose.
It frees up flight-deck space so jets can launch faster and makes landings safer by cutting turbulence. All of that gets tossed for the aesthetic vibe.
And this isn’t a simple paint job.
Shifting that tower changes the ship’s weight and buoyancy. Officials have made clear it would cost a fortune and further tangle an already delayed, over-budget program.
Each Ford carrier already runs about $13–15 billion, and the lead ship took roughly a decade to build.
Now the design is under review in part because Trump thinks the boat doesn’t look retro enough.
🇺🇸🇮🇳 Marco Rubio congratulated India on Independence Day and called the U.S. partnership stronger than ever under Trump and Modi.
He pointed out ties in defense, energy, critical minerals, AI, space, commerce; and the list keeps growing.
He also credits the personal bond between the 2 leaders and the deep people to people ties.
Relations started distant after 1947. India stayed non-aligned while the U.S. leaned toward Pakistan during the Cold War, and the 1974 nuclear test froze things for years.
The real shift began in the 2000s with the civil nuclear deal and has steadily deepened through defense pacts, the Quad, and shared concerns over China.
It’s closer now than at any point in the last several decades, though both sides still guard their strategic autonomy.
🇺🇸🇸🇦 Gulf states are getting fed up with the U.S., and some are already looking elsewhere for security.
“Trump started this war, and we are paying the price.”
That’s how one Gulf official summed up the mood toward the U.S. right now.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan just signed a mutual defense agreement that one senior European official called “a signal to the U.S.”
The message is pretty simple: they still rely heavily on Washington for weapons, intelligence and security, but they no longer want the U.S. to be their only option.
The irony is they’re angry at Washington for starting the war, angry at Tehran for keeping it going, and still dependent on the U.S. to help protect them from it.
For now, nobody is replacing the U.S. in the Gulf. But countries there are clearly starting to hedge their bets.