July 23, 2026

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 6:50 am ET: “The price of oil surged to $98 a barrel on Thursday morning, as Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen claimed strikes on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, and neither the United States nor Iran showed any letup in their fighting. The Houthis strikes were the first since the Yemeni militia announced a blockade this week on Saudi ships. It threatened to broaden the conflict by creating a second choke point on global shipping, in addition to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed.... U.S. Central Command, which coordinates military operations in the Middle East, said it had launched another wave of strikes overnight to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping, targeting Iranian drone and missile storage sites and air defenses. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Thursday that it had launched attacks on U.S. military targets in Kuwait ... in response to American attacks on similar infrastructure in Iran.”

Adela Suliman of NBC News: “A third American service member believed to have been killed by an Iranian attack on an air base in Jordan has been identified by the United States military as Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad of New York. The 28-year-old 'is believed to have been killed in action on July 17, 2026, during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan,' the Pentagon said in a statement. 'The incident is under investigation.' After the attack, U.S. Central Command said that two service members were killed and another was missing. The following day, it said that troops found unidentified remains and that an examination process to verify them had begun.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Mary Bruce, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is comparing the death toll from the war in Iran to several past wars in what appears to be an attempt to downplay the rising number of fatalities. Via posts on his social media platform, Trump displayed the number of fatalities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Korea -- multi-year conflicts that cost thousands of American lives -- alongside statistics from the Iran war, a four-month conflict in which 18 Americans have been killed. He added a chart to a second post.... Trump has consistently referred to the ongoing fighting in Iran as a "military conflict" rather than a war, including in the charts he posted. His comments come just days after four more service members were killed in Iranian attacks -- the first American fatalities since a fragile ceasefire deal collapsed two weeks ago."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday witnessed the return of four young Army soldiers recently killed overseas, telling reporters beforehand that each had died supportive of the deadly war he was waging with Iran. 'All of them said very strongly, “We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,’” Mr. Trump said as he traveled to Dover Air Force Base to attend the dignified transfer. 'They won’t have a nuclear weapon. So we’re going to honor them.' Later, Mr. Trump took one soldier’s grieving family to his political rally in Georgia. The president did not say how he knew the fallen soldiers’ views, but he decided to speak for them.... The families of the service members who were killed have not talked about their support for the war....

“The president is adamant that Americans support the Iran war. 'A poll just came out: Americans don’t want high gasoline prices, but they’re not against the war — that just came out loud and clear,' Mr. Trump said earlier on Wednesday before he traveled to the transfer. He did not specify the poll he was talking about. In reality, pollsters for months have been tracking growing frustration over the war, including within the Republican Party. According to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last week, only 29 percent of Americans support the conflict. That poll also showed that most Americans do not believe their economic outlook will improve.” (Also linked yesterday.) An Independent story is here.

Sean James of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump declared the USA has no need for the Strait of Hormuz — but he still wants to pummel Iran to prove it can never control the vital oil passage anyway. The president said during a Wednesday rally in Georgia the strait isn’t a big deal for America because the U.S. already controls a huge huge chunk of the oil market. Trump said it was thanks in large part to the operation that plucked Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from his bed at the start of the year.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Winner of FIFA Peace Prize Plans 8th War. John Hudson & Rachel Chason of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is weighing military action in the West African country of Mali to target an al-Qaeda-affiliated group known as JNIM, said current and former U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations. If approved, it would add an eighth nation to the list of countries where ... Donald Trump has ordered strikes since the start of his second term — a chapter of his presidency that he initially said would be dedicated to ending global strife and redirecting U.S. resources to Americans.” MB: It's true we're running right low on armaments, but the JNIM may not have the best fighting machines either, so maybe we can throw rocks. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Saudi Deal: 99.9% Stupid. David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: Donald “Trump went to war with Iran in part to force compliance with two longstanding American demands: Tehran must stop enriching nuclear fuel for at least two decades, and it must allow international inspectors to go anywhere and see anything to verify the country is not producing a bomb. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump took the reverse approach to Saudi Arabia, its close ally in the region. To seal a deal for Westinghouse and other American companies to seize a big piece of the business in building two nuclear reactors on Saudi territory — and more to come — it opened the door to allowing the kingdom to begin enriching its own nuclear fuel after two years. And it gave in to the kingdom’s demand that it not have to abide by an inspection agreement that applies to more than 140 other countries....

“Now Mr. Trump will have to make the case to Congress, and to allies throughout the Middle East, that in loosening the nuclear standards for one close ally, he is not ushering in a new age of proliferation, especially in a region of the world already on fire. If the daily missile exchanges with Iran finally give way to resumed negotiations, there is no question Iran will seize on the concessions made to Riyadh and insist on the same.” ~~~

~~~ Felicia Schwartz, et al., of Politico: “Some lawmakers in both parties are warning that the newly inked U.S. nuclear agreement deal with Saudi Arabia could ignite a Middle East arms race at a particularly dangerous moment — when the Iran war is already provoking conflict across the region.... Even the potential of future nuclear enrichment by Saudi Arabia could swiftly shift the balance in the region and beyond, said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).... Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern that it could further derail the U.S.’ push to get Iran to commit to zero enrichment of uranium.” ~~~

~~~ "Trump’s Nuclear Deal With Saudi Arabia Looks More Like a Favor." Jon Wolfsthal in the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: "... [Donald] Trump's reported concessions to Saudi Arabia raise legitimate concerns and unless addressed could lead to a Middle East filled with nuclear weapons programs. This would undermine decades of U.S.work to prevent the spread of the most destructive weapons humanity has ever created.... [The deal] raises concerns that Saudi Arabia is using its close financial ties to the Trump family to manipulate U.S. cooperation to pursue a nuclear weapon option, especially if Iran continues to be a nuclear threshold state.... The Biden administration held preliminary discussions with Riyadh about [an] ... agreement, but with a set of very stringent provisions that are not included in the new deal.... There are good reasons to be concerned that the administration has neither the motivation nor the expertise to ensure that any complex nuclear negotiation advances U.S. interests in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons." ~~~

~~~ Just a Reminder. Judd Legum, et al., of Popular Information: "The  [Saudi nuclear] deal comes after the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. Since 2021, Kushner..., [Donald] Trump’s son-in-law, has collected over $110 million from the Saudi government in management fees. In March, Kushner was seeking billions more from the Saudis. (After Kushner’s fundraising was exposed, his efforts were purportedly put on hold.) Kushner also has a close personal relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).... In 2021, when the PIF committee originally recommended rejecting Kushner’s proposal due to the high price and Kushner’s inexperience, MBS overruled the recommendation. 

"As he continues to collect fees from the Saudi government, Kushner has resumed his role as a top foreign policy aide to Trump. He has played a key role in virtually every significant foreign policy negotiation since Trump returned to the White House.... Nearly all major media coverage of the US-Saudi nuclear agreement ignored Kushner’s financial conflicts — including articles by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, AP, and CNN."

The Venezuelan Job. Will Neal of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "Donald Trump is facing intense scrutiny over the billions his administration has raked in from Venezuela that now appear to have vanished into thin air. Analysis by the Financial Times suggests the White House has brought in $13 billion from Venezuelan oil sales so far after capturing despot Nicolas Maduro in January and installing vice president Delcy Rodriguez in his place.... An executive order said any oil funds would remain Venezuelan property, and be held in U.S. accounts in a 'custodial capacity.' But Trump has said the U.S. is 'making a lot of money' from Venezuelan oil, and the U.S. Department of Energy has said the funds 'will be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people.'... Trump's invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning, with billions of dollars in Venezuelan oil revenue being controlled by the Trump administration without transparency or safeguards,' Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, 51, told the FT. He joins a growing chorus of lawmakers publicly demanding to know where the Trump administration has spent or otherwise stashed the money." (Also linked yesterday.)

Laura Barrón-López &David Rohde of MS NOW: “In his primetime address on July 16, [Donald] Trump said the U.S. 'must take urgent action' to protect voting infrastructure against foreign actors. But shortly after taking office last year, Trump gutted a key agency designed to protect America’s elections from exactly that. It’s called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — an office created during Trump’s first term. CISA is one of the main federal partners for states on election security, sharing intelligence on potential threats to voting infrastructure and providing quick regional support. After Trump returned to office..., Elon Musk’s DOGE fired more than 100 workers, including election security advisers. More than 600 others were placed on administrative leave, were reassigned or took buyouts. Now the Trump administration is telling states they will only receive resources if they hand over voter rolls to be screened through a new federal database that a judge recently deemed unlawful in its current form.... Experts and a federal judge are concerned [the database] has a high error rate that could disenfranchise voters.” (Also linked yesterday.)

The Grift Family Trump. Maureen Farrell of the New York Times: “Dating back to the first Trump administration, members of the Trump family have faced criticism for mixing business with politics. But what sets apart the latest moves by Donald Trump Jr. is how he and [and his business partner Omeed] Malik, through 1789 Capital, are cashing in on the policies of the current administration openly and without apology. Many of the companies that 1789 has invested in have large government contracts while others, like Polymarket, have benefited directly from new Trump policies or rollbacks of existing laws. The firm bought shares in some of the most coveted private companies before many went public, including SpaceX, Anduril, Cerebras and Reflection AI, often by leveraging their political and business connections to secure a stake or to help boost the companies’ sales. Just two years ago, 1789 managed a few hundred million dollars. It now oversees more than $3 billion. Its main investment fund generated returns of roughly 200 percent as of June 30, according to a person familiar with the firm’s performance.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

What a Coincidence! Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: “The Justice Department has been lavishing nine-figure policy wins on Alaska — and openly touting what a 'huge' time it’s been for the state — as attorney general nominee Todd Blanche is scrambling to lock down support for his confirmation from its senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski. A July 7 settlement over the federal government’s unfinished work on the port of Alaska resulted in a $180 million payout to Anchorage — an announcement Blanche, who is currently the acting attorney general, made personally during a two-day visit. The Justice Department shared news around the same time it had dropped Biden-era lawsuits related to Alaska’s energy production. Then on Tuesday, the administration inked a $400 million settlement with a group that administers health care programs for American Indians and Alaska natives. 'The wins keep coming for the American people in Alaska,' Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward declared last week, after announcing yet another win for the state: a $6.1 million award to tribal governments to combat violent crime.”

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “ Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is denying he privately told senators he 'made a mistake' by setting up his department’s $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund to give payouts to Jan. 6 rioters, even as two Democratic senators say he told them directly he regretted setting up the slush fund.... Asked Wednesday about Blanche denying he made those comments..., [Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)] just chuckled. 'I verified it with several of my staffers who were present,' said Durbin. 'I stand by it.' He speculated that Blanche is publicly disputing that he called Trump’s fund 'a mistake' because 'that’s not proper MAGA talk.' Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), also a member of the judiciary panel, said Blanche said the same thing to him, too, when they met privately last week.”

We're Back to “The Cruelty Is the Point.” Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is aggressively deploying a potent tool to pressure undocumented immigrants into self-deporting — civil fines that can total as much as $1.8 million. More than 100,000 people have received letters from the Homeland Security Department informing them that they owe $998 for each day that they have stayed in the United States after an immigration judge has ruled they have no legal right to remain in the country. Fines for failing to heed a 'removal' order have been permitted since the passage of immigration legislation in 1996. Until President Trump, however, no commander in chief had imposed such penalties. The effort to do so in his first term ran into logistical obstacles and never gained traction.... The Homeland Security Department said that between Jan. 20, 2025, and mid-July of this year, ICE had issued more than 103,000 fines to noncitizens who remained in the United States past a deportation order, seeking a combined total of more than $84 billion.” The article cites some horror stories.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Local prosecutors were warned ... Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Minnesota would prove fatal, according to a new report. An agent from the Homeland Security Investigations division told local prosecutors and other officials that Border Patrol agents should not be conducting immigration raids in a city, reported CNN chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper. 'Someone’s going to get killed,' that DHS official said. That official and others from DHS told local officials that Border Patrol typically guarded the southern border and thought of themselves as a last line of defense, and they were used to getting away with a lot, so they feared things would get ugly, according to Tapper.... "The deaths of Renee Good on Wednesday, January 7, and Alex Pretti on Saturday, January 24, at the hands of federal immigration agents, followed soon after,' [Tapper wrote]." The CNN report is subscriber-firewalled. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josephine Walker of Axios: "Almost a quarter of workers in the U.S. — 23 million adults — are experiencing 'job lock,' staying in roles they don't want to avoid losing health insurance benefits, according to a new Gallup analysis....Women and people who have chronic health conditions feel the burden most because health care costs limit their career mobility, wage growth and life satisfaction.... Almost half (48%) of respondents who described health care as a 'major financial burden' are staying put in unwanted jobs."

Christopher Flavelle & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s science adviser told lawmakers on Wednesday that the Trump administration intended to drastically overhaul the country’s approach to scientific research, including by shifting research funding away from universities toward individual researchers and private companies. At a House hearing, Michael Kratsios echoed points he laid out in a report released Tuesday, titled 'Science: A New Golden Age.' He said the administration would prioritize artificial intelligence, robotics and nuclear energy while reducing the government’s focus on what he called 'life sciences.'... Democrats countered that the Trump administration had harmed scientific research by firing staff members at federal science agencies, seeking deep cuts to research programs, canceling or freezing grants, punishing universities that Mr. Trump is unhappy with, and pushing some of the best researchers in the United States to relocate to other countries.” MB: Trump makes a lot of money off companies associated with AI, both through investments & via hefty donations to his various PACs & other political entities (like the "library" ripoff).

Connor O'Brien of Politico: “The House narrowly passed its marquee $1.15 trillion defense policy bill largely along party lines Wednesday amid a bitter partisan divide over ... Donald Trump’s conduct of the war against Iran and his push for a massive Pentagon spending boost. Just six Democrats supported the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which House Republicans muscled through in a tight 216-212 vote. Those Democratic votes proved decisive, helping Republicans overcome seven defections from their own ranks to pass the bill. The vote is a win for Trump.... It’s also a win for Speaker Mike Johnson, who overcame GOP unrest by steering the bill to the right on the House floor.... The final bill includes a variety of conservative provisions aimed at solidifying GOP support — including renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War, blocking coverage for gender-affirming care and making it easier for troops to carry their personal firearms on military bases. Republican leaders also attached their election overhaul backed by Trump, known as the SAVE America Act, at the behest of hard-line members who previously blocked the defense bill.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Justice Department on Wednesday to investigate whether Jack Smith, the former special counsel, perjured himself when he testified about his inquiry of ... [Donald] Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.... Mr. Jordan claimed that Mr. Smith 'seemingly made willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact' when questioned last December under oath about his efforts to obtain phone records of 44 lawmakers who communicated with Mr. Trump and his team. The criminal referral could provide a catalyst for a prosecution of Mr. Smith — in many ways the top target of the president’s campaign of retribution.... Mr. Smith’s legal team accused Republicans of intentionally taking his answers out of context to provide an excuse to investigate him.” A UPI report is here. ~~~

Frankenstein Monster Escapes Lab, Attacks “Hugging Face.” Dana Nickel, et al., of Politico: “An alarming cybersecurity incident involving OpenAI’s newest and most advanced artificial intelligence technology has lawmakers hurrying to advance legislation that they say is needed to prevent AI from spinning dangerously outside human control. OpenAI on Tuesday admitted that its most powerful AI model available to the public and another that hasn’t yet been released were able to escape a controlled laboratory test, plot a course to the open internet and hack into a popular AI developer platform known as Hugging Face, marking the first documented case of a fully autonomous AI cyberattack. The unprecedented breach showed what the fast-advancing technology is capable of without meaningful safeguards in place, and has energized a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers who believe Congress needs to impose stricter rules on advanced frontier models.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm not sure which aspect of this story is more unbelievable: (1) "a fully autonomous AI cyberattack" or (2) "lawmakers hurrying to advance legislation."

Heather Cox Richardson on fascism. Before making her own observations, Richardson cites a good portion of the remarks Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) made Tuesday on the House floor re: Republicans' "diversionary tactic" of calling Democrats "communists," in a reprise of the McCarthy Red Scare:

Adam Satariano & Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: “In a decision likely to intensify trans-Atlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday hit Google with a $1 billion fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine.... [Donald] Trump has previously threatened to retaliate against the European Union for what he views as the unfair targeting of American technology companies. The Google decision comes when he is weighing a new batch of tariffs on the European Union and other major trading partners. In explaining Thursday’s fine of 890 million euros, regulators in Brussels said Google had used its position as the world’s largest search engine to unfairly boost its services in areas like shopping, travel, games and language translation. Google displayed its own services more prominently at the top of search results, while relegating competing services further down the page, according to regulators.”

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Arizona House Race. Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Dr. Amish Shah, a moderate Democrat, won a House primary in a battleground Arizona district on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, defeating a centrist candidate supported by House Democrats’ campaign arm. Dr. Shah, an emergency physician and former state lawmaker who proselytizes about the power of door-knocking, will face Jay Feely, the Republican nominee and a former journeyman N.F.L. kicker, in the general election. Dr. Shah and Mr. Feely, whom ... [Donald] Trump backed in the primary, have some shared history: In 2008, Dr. Shah was a sideline physician for the New York Jets and Mr. Feely was the team’s kicker. The two are racing to replace Representative David Schweikert, a Republican who decided to give up his seat to run for governor. The contest is expected to be one of the most expensive House races in the country....” The link appears to be a gift link.