Source: Associated Press
“The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, hitting around a northwestern city believed to be home to underground missile bases. Iran responded by launching an attack targeting Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait. … As the strikes began, a vessel caught fire early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.” (07/20/26)
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-20-2026-8b37952906cbec6351fdcc47a0fa6297
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“You won’t find archomania listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but you should. While it often manifests in the same ways as other manias (kleptomania, an irresistible urge to steal; oniomani, a compulsion to shop; etc.), archomania is a distinct disorder. Its symptoms include a compulsive urge to rule others, distress at the prospect of not being allowed to rule others, and a narcissistic belief in one’s unique qualifications to exercise such power. The colloquial term for an archomaniac is: Politician. Gerontocracy is just the result of coddling and empowering archomaniacs. Their hair grays, their gaits slow, their minds wander … but the compulsion remains, as does the grip on power seized back when muscles were stronger and hands less arthritic.” (07/19/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20766
Source: Unattended Baggage
“This is fine.” (07/18/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-348-this-is-fine
Source: WRAL News
“Ukraine fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on the Russian capital, the city’s mayor said Monday. The blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes that make a settlement to end Moscow’s more than 4-year-old all-out invasion appear a distant possibility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold ‘key talks’ on Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis after last week’s government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military’s old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war. Zelenskyy needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister and keeping faith with 60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief won’t derail the fight against Russia. Days of street protests in favor of Fedorov and against Syrskyi followed Zelenskyy’s decision.” (07/20/26)
https://www.wral.com/news/ap/f42ba-ukraine-fires-400-drones-toward-moscow-as-zelenskyy-grapples-with-protests/
Source: The American Conservative
by Bruce Fein
“The American Empire is the safest country in history. Among other things, we sport more than the 5,000 nuclear warheads shielded from outside inspection; a multitrillion-dollar military-industrial-security complex; nonstop surveillance of the entire population; special forces in 70–80 countries; NATO and defense pacts with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines; a de facto alliance with Israel; and pioneering AI to optimize the lethality of weapons. Nobody goes to bed in the United States fearing an invasion or military attack. Yet we are poised to hike Pentagon spending to $1.5 trillion annually, excluding the VA budget, which approaches $500 billion. … Since the American Empire confronts zero existential threats, we summon them into being to justify a national security state that crushes liberty and the march of the mind while exalting force of arms. Thus, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has decreed that ‘antifa’—i.e., antifascism—is a global, terrorist threat.” (07/18/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/americas-manufactured-menaces/
Source: The Hill
“Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester and new leader of the Labour Party, is taking the final steps on Monday to succeed Keir Starmer and become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade. The affable Burnham returned to Parliament in June by winning a risky special election and was sworn in as a member on July 12, hours after the unpopular Starmer announced his resignation to end a tenure of just two years in office. Starmer will travel the mile from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to formally tell King Charles III that he is resigning. Soon after, the 56-year-old Burnham will go to the palace and Charles will ask him to form a government. That is when he will officially become prime minister, a moment known as ‘kissing hands.'” (07/20/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-the-latest-andy-burnham-becomes-seventh-british-prime-minister-in-a-decade/
Source: Reason
by Niko Vorobyov
“Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against ‘narcoterrorists,’ treating drug smuggling as an ‘armed attack’ and blurring the line between criminal enforcement and war. His administration has described foreign drug cartels and other criminal gangs as ‘non-state armed groups’ or ‘unlawful combatants,’ a term introduced during the Bush era to deny suspected terrorists protections afforded under the Geneva Conventions. In August of last year, Trump signed a secret directive authorizing military strikes on narco-terrorists. By September, U.S. forces were bombing alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. In December, the administration followed with an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction …. The narco-terrorist label keeps expanding. In May, the State Department added the PCC and Red Command to its terrorism blacklist, designating them as foreign terrorist organizations. But what has that accomplished for drug control?”
https://reason.com/2026/07/19/calling-cartels-narcoterrorists-turns-drug-enforcement-into-war-making/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Hundreds of protesters have rallied in Houston in the US state of Texas to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man [murdered] by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent this month. … Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was [murdered] by an ICE agent on July 7 while he was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston. The protests came amid mounting scrutiny of United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. … After the shooting in Houston, ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had used his vehicle to try to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defence. But witnesses contradicted ICE’s version of events, and a statement issued on Thursday by the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas made no mention of any collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle nor did it explicitly state that the officer feared for his life.” (07/20/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/protests-in-houston-continue-after-ice-killing-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“[I]f Europeans spend more on defense, it doesn’t necessarily mean the United States will cut back its mammoth defense budget. Instead, Trump has outrageously proposed ballooning it by more than 50 percent. In light of this reality, his browbeating of allies on defense spending may seem to relieve allies’ snookering of the United States, but it doesn’t help the United States address its gaping budget deficits and spiraling national debt. A better alternative would be for Trump to announce a gradual U.S. withdrawal from NATO over a two-year period. The European Union now has a GDP about 8.5 times that of its principal rival—a Russia that has been severely weakened by the bloody, drawn-out quagmire against the surprisingly resilient Ukraine. There has never been a better time to pull the plug on a Cold-War-era alliance.” (07/17/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/17/trump-withdraw-nato/
Source: euronews [UK]
“Péter Magyar, the prime minister, has invited Judit Polgár, the most successful female chess player the world has ever seen, to become Hungary’s president. … On Saturday evening, President Tamás Sulyok announced that he would sign the 17th amendment to the Fundamental Law. His mandate will end on the day after the law is promulgated, meaning that from midnight on Sunday he is no longer Hungary’s president. For one month, the office will be held by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ágnes Forsthoffer.” (07/20/26)
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/20/hungarys-pm-peter-magyar-it-would-be-great-honour-if-judit-polgar-accepted-the-presidency
