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THE STRAIT
The US launched its third consecutive night of strikes against Iran at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time Monday. CENTCOM said forces were targeting Iranian coastal surveillance systems, drone capabilities, and missile infrastructure. Iran struck two commercial tankers — on the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz, the route the US Navy had declared open and safe. One crew member was killed.
That last detail matters. The southern route was the one remaining transit corridor. The US military had told mariners to use it. Iran struck ships using it anyway. Either Tehran is enforcing its claim that it controls all Strait traffic, or the ceasefire breakdown has rendered even the safer route unreliable. Either reading is alarming.
For the first time in this conflict, the US military used one-way attack sea drones against Iranian targets. Jordan’s military intercepted four Iranian missiles fired from Iranian territory early Tuesday morning. Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels exchanged fresh strikes, ending a de facto truce that had held for weeks. The war that was supposed to end on June 17 has now spread to at least six Gulf states and has resumed fighting on a front that had gone quiet.
Trump, speaking on Fox News Monday, said the MOU was “a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it.” He did not acknowledge that critics — and the historical record — would note his own administration withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement in 2018, an act that Iran and most of the world’s governments cited as the original breach of faith.
The US naval blockade of Iranian ports takes effect at 4 p.m. today. The blockade covers all ships going to or from Iranian ports. Brent crude settled at $83.30 on Monday, the biggest single-day percentage gain in more than six years. This morning it is at $86.83. The Strait of Hormuz handles approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. The southern route through it is no longer safe.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: CNBC’s analysis piece noted that international legal experts and energy analysts are skeptical that Trump’s proposed 20% cargo toll on Strait transit is legally or practically viable, since the Strait is governed by the principle of innocent passage under international maritime law and no country has the legal authority to charge fees for its use. The rest of the world’s energy press is reading the toll proposal not as a serious policy but as an improvised attempt to monetize the military commitment. The more significant frame internationally is the southern route attack: Iran struck ships on the route the US Navy declared safe, directly refuting the US military’s claim that the waterway was navigable. That contradiction is what Gulf state media and international shipping industry publications are leading with this morning.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: Iran struck commercial ships on the route the US military said was open and safe. One crew member is dead. The US has launched three consecutive nights of strikes on Iran. Jordan intercepted Iranian missiles this morning. The Houthi-Saudi truce has ended. Brent is at $86.83. The blockade takes effect this afternoon.
Sources: CNN live blog July 14 (US — CENTCOM “third consecutive night” statement verbatim confirmed, 4:45 p.m. ET confirmed, coastal surveillance systems confirmed, Jordan four missiles confirmed, July 14); NPR (US — southern route attack confirmed, one crew member killed confirmed, Houthi-Saudi truce ended confirmed, Brent $83.30 settled Monday confirmed, “biggest single-day gain in six years” confirmed, Strait handles one-fifth world oil confirmed, July 13); CNBC (US — one-way attack sea drones first use confirmed, toll legal constraints confirmed, Oman legal limits confirmed, analysts toll “may be unworkable” confirmed, Iran “playing Trump at his own game” confirmed, July 13); CNN live blog July 13 (US — Trump “done deal/they always break it” quote verbatim confirmed, blockade effective 4 p.m. Tuesday confirmed, CENTCOM July 13)
JOAN SEBASTIAN GUERRERO
His name was Joan Sebastian Guerrero. He was 26 years old. He was from Colombia. He was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. He lived in Biddeford, Maine, with his partner and their three-year-old daughter. Monday morning he got up and went to work.
At 7:17 a.m., ICE agents were conducting surveillance outside a Biddeford address, the last known location of a man with a final order of removal. A vehicle left the residence. The agents attempted a traffic stop. An ICE officer fired his weapon. Joan Sebastian Guerrero was struck. He died.
He was not the person ICE was looking for.
That confirmation came from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin himself, in a second phone call to Sen. Angus King, after an initial call in which Mullin had said the man killed was the target. “NOT the target of the warrant,” King’s office confirmed in writing. DHS broke nearly twelve hours of silence with a statement saying only that the officer had fired “fearing for public safety” as the driver attempted to flee. DHS did not explain what public safety threat the officer perceived. No body cameras were worn by any of the agents involved. In Biddeford, Maine, in July 2026, a man headed to work was shot and killed by federal immigration agents who were looking for someone else, and there is no video of what happened.
Witnesses at the scene said they heard Guerrero tell the agents “I tried to stop.” His three-year-old daughter was present, in her pajamas, crying at the crime scene tape. His neighbor told CNN he was “a good person.”
Maine Governor Janet Mills was direct. “This development makes this tragedy even more disturbing and infuriating, and it underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country. This has to end.”
In April 2026, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine voted to give ICE $70 billion in new funding. The vote passed 50-48. Democrats had sought to attach reforms: body camera requirements, judicial warrant requirements before agents enter homes, oversight of detention facilities. The negotiations failed. The bill passed without those provisions. Collins voted for it. Collins issued a statement Monday saying “the shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened.” King said, “I am concerned that they should have been having body cameras two years ago when all this started.”
The Bangor Daily News reports this is at least the 11th fatal shooting involving an ICE or Border Patrol agent since President Trump took office. The Mexican Senate condemned the pattern Monday, noting that of the 17 Mexican citizens who have died during Trump’s second term, 14 were in ICE custody and three died in operations carried out by the agency. Mexico’s Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco confirmed those figures. The Colombia Embassy in Washington is working to confirm Guerrero’s nationality and provide consular assistance.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The Mexican Senate’s floor condemnation Monday — 17 deaths of Mexican citizens under Trump’s immigration enforcement, 14 in custody, three in operations — is a formal legislative act by a neighboring government that is receiving almost no coverage in American media. Mexico is not sending a diplomatic note. Its legislature is going on record. That is a different category of response. The Colombia Embassy’s formal consular statement confirms that Colombia is also treating this as an international incident. Joan Sebastian Guerrero’s death is being processed by two governments as a bilateral matter. American media is covering it as a domestic law enforcement story.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: ICE killed a man in Maine Monday who was not their target. He was authorized to work here. His three-year-old daughter was at the scene. No body cameras. The senator who voted against requiring them is calling for an investigation. This is at least the 11th fatal ICE or Border Patrol shooting since inauguration day. Mexico’s Senate condemned 17 deaths of Mexican citizens on Monday. The Colombian Embassy is monitoring the case. No ICE or Border Patrol agent has been criminally charged in any of these shootings.
Sources: CNN live blog (US — Guerrero named confirmed, 26 years old/Colombia confirmed, partner/daughter confirmed, “NOT the target” King correction confirmed, DHS “fearing for public safety” statement verbatim confirmed, neighbor “good person” confirmed, Mexico Senate/FM Velasco figures confirmed, July 13); NBC News (US — authorized to work confirmed, Social Security number confirmed, daughter pajamas crime scene confirmed, King “two years ago” quote verbatim confirmed, Collins statement confirmed, July 13); Portland Press Herald live updates (US — “I tried to stop” witness account confirmed, Mills “reckless and haphazard” quote verbatim confirmed, July 13); Bangor Daily News (US — 11th fatal shooting ICE/Border Patrol confirmed, July 13); Maine Beacon (US, centre-left — Collins April vote confirmed, 50-48 confirmed, no body cameras/no judicial warrants/no oversight confirmed, July 2026); Maine Public (US — Colombia Embassy consular statement confirmed, July 13)
THE BILL
Buried in the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act — the must-pass annual bill that funds the entire US military — is a provision that would give Israel a level of integration with the American military that no other country in the world currently has. Not the UK. Not Canada. Not any NATO ally.
Section 1217 of the Senate version (Section 219 in the House version) establishes the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative. It directs the Secretary of Defense to appoint a senior executive agent within the Pentagon whose entire job is to weave Israeli defense technology into official US weapons programs — into missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous weapons, directed energy weapons, biotechnology, and the supply chains and factories that produce all of it.
The provision does not give Israel a formal veto over US military decisions. What it does is structurally more consequential. Once Israeli technology is embedded throughout US weapons systems, intelligence pipelines, and defense industrial supply chains, any future president who wishes to change course faces a practical problem: the integration is everywhere. You cannot pull a thread from a fabric you have become.
The House version goes further: it explicitly forbids any future president from limiting intelligence collaboration with Israel on the basis of human rights concerns. That is not integration. That is a constraint on presidential authority written into statute, permanently removing one of the few available mechanisms for accountability over a foreign government’s conduct.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote a letter to Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman in June, describing the initiative as “my plan.” Sen. Bernie Sanders said it was equivalent to “burying a provision in the defense bill that would give Israel more military integration than any NATO ally.” Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said that “if Section 219 is signed into law, the American people should see it as Congress fully capitulating our nation’s autonomy to foreign influence.”
Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna introduced a bipartisan amendment to strip the provision. The House Rules Committee blocked it from being made “in order,” preventing the amendment from receiving a debate or a recorded vote before the House passed the broader bill. Rep. Adam Smith, one of the two members who originally introduced the provision, said afterward he would have voted to remove it if it had come to the floor. The man who wrote it into the bill was willing to vote it out. The Rules Committee ensured he never got the chance.
The bill is now in conference committee, where House and Senate versions must be reconciled before it reaches the president’s desk. Conference is where provisions quietly die. It is also where they quietly survive. The provision is still in the bill.
🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Human Rights Watch published an analysis in June noting that “Israeli forces’ widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity, and its ongoing acts of genocide in Gaza should give the United States pause about closer military association. Instead, Section 219 proposes to deepen entanglement, in a way that makes the risks of complicity ongoing.” HRW also flagged that the data fusion component — absorbing Israeli intelligence feeds into US targeting systems — means the US would be incorporating data that may have been collected under mass surveillance programs that have documented civil liberties concerns. The international human rights community is reading this provision as the formalization of complicity: if Israeli intelligence is permanently woven into US systems, and those systems help target Palestinians, the legal and moral lines between US and Israeli military action become structurally blurred.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: A provision buried in the annual defense bill would give Israel deeper military integration with the United States than any NATO ally receives. It forbids future presidents from limiting intelligence sharing with Israel over human rights concerns. Netanyahu called it his plan. A bipartisan amendment to remove it was blocked from getting a vote. The bill is still moving through Congress. Most Americans don’t know it exists.
Sources: Wikipedia / United States-Israel FUTURES Act (secondary — Section 219/1217 established confirmed, executive agent confirmed, domains confirmed, Netanyahu letter confirmed, Sanders “no NATO ally” quote confirmed, Adam Smith withdrawal confirmed, $750 million/$65M increase confirmed, July 2026); Military.com (US — Massie-Khanna amendment blocked confirmed, Rules Committee decision confirmed, no debate/no recorded vote confirmed, Massie “fully capitulating” quote verbatim confirmed, July 2026); Human Rights Watch (international — data fusion confirmed, mass surveillance concerns confirmed, “deepen US complicity” framing confirmed, war crimes concern confirmed, June 2026); Common Dreams (US, progressive — House version forbids limiting intelligence sharing over human rights confirmed, June 2026); A New Policy (US nonpartisan tracker — Section 1217 Senate text confirmed, State/Commerce coordination clause dropped confirmed, conference committee status confirmed, May 2026)
ALSO DEVELOPING
UN condemns Hamas obstruction of Gaza aid: The UN’s Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, issued a formal statement Monday condemning interference with humanitarian operations in Gaza by de facto authorities. Armed personnel affiliated with Hamas forcibly entered a food distribution point in Jabalia, forcing humanitarian workers to halt operations. The same forces entered a WFP warehouse and assaulted two truck drivers delivering humanitarian supplies. Alakbarov said the incidents were “not isolated” and reflected “an increasingly dangerous pattern of intimidation, violence and obstruction.” This statement and last week’s OCHA documentation of Israeli checkpoint obstruction of a baby’s medical emergency together form the full UN-documented picture of what is obstructing humanitarian operations in Gaza: both sides. Source: OCHA primary statement, July 13 (ochaopt.org).
WAR DAY 137 | NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION
🇮🇷 Iran: 3,485+ killed (tracker base of 3,468 as of June 10 per Al Jazeera live tracker, plus at least 17 confirmed killed in US strikes July 9-10 per Iran Health Ministry — floor estimate; strikes July 11-14 casualties not yet confirmed at publication time)
🇱🇧 Lebanon: 4,321 killed (Al Jazeera live blog, updated July 8)
🇮🇱 Israel: 35+ killed (tracker frozen June 10)
🌍 Gulf states/Iraq: 131 killed — tracker frozen June 10; does not reflect ongoing Iranian strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, UAE, and Oman
🇺🇸 US military: 13 killed, 381 injured (Al Jazeera live tracker, last updated June 10 — does not reflect ongoing strikes)
🛢️ Brent crude: $86.83/barrel (OilPrice.com — up $3.53 from yesterday’s close; naval blockade and southern route attacks driving prices higher)
⛽ US national gas average: $3.86/gallon (AAA — down a penny; pump prices lagging crude)
Sourcing note: All war casualty figures sourced to the Al Jazeera live tracker, last updated June 10, 2026, except Lebanon, updated July 8. Iran Health Ministry confirmed at least 17 additional killed in US strikes July 9-10 — not yet reflected in tracker. Strikes July 11-14 casualties not yet confirmed at publication time. Gulf states/Iraq tracker does not reflect ongoing Iranian strikes across the Gulf this week. All figures are floor estimates. Methodology differs between sources; figures are not directly comparable.
“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789
