- Friday July 17th, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
Strait of Hormuz Transits Drop as US, Iran Escalate Attacks Across Gulf
Just three commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on
Thursday, the fewest daily transits since May, shipping data showed,
with most ships halting or making U-turns after recent Iranian attacks
on vessels and the resumption of a U.S. blockade on Iran-related
shipping.
The re-escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran has once again
largely stopped traffic through Hormuz, the world's most important
shipping route for oil and gas, driving up global energy prices.
Miraan, a sanctioned product tanker carrying fuel oil, and Norita, a
small vessel carrying liquefied petroleum gas, exited the strait on
Thursday via the Iranian route but stopped at the Gulf of Oman, where
the U.S. blockade is, Kpler data showed as of 0513 GMT on Friday.
US hammers bridges around key Iran port of Bandar Abbas on sixth straight night of airstrikes
US forces sought to cut off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas early
Friday, striking road and rail bridges as the Trump administration
stepped up efforts to ease Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
The airstrikes also dramatically toppled a surveillance tower in Iran’s
southernmost city of Chabahar, located on a key trade route for
landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) called the structure “part of a maritime
surveillance network along Iran’s Gulf of Oman coastline used for
decades by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to track and
target commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
At least eight killed in Iranian strikes on U.S. ally
Iran killed at least eight people in attacks on America's Kurdish allies in Iraq, the region's president reported.
Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, condemned the strikes.
"Targeting the region and the resumption of violence are a serious
escalation and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty," he said in a
statement.
Leaked Iran report finds record public anger as regime focuses on holding power
'If anything, this research understates the depth of Iranians’ rage,' analyst says
A confidential report prepared for Iran’s presidency is raising a
consequential question for Washington and its allies: Do extraordinary
levels of public anger and support for systemic change justify
reassessing whether the Islamic Republic may be more vulnerable to
regime change than previously believed?
The classified document, titled "What Iran Wants," reportedly found
that only 9% of respondents supported maintaining the status quo, with
53% calling for fundamental or structural reforms and more than 19%
favoring changing the political system outright.
Taken together, nearly three-quarters of those surveyed reportedly
supported either deep structural reform or replacement of the existing
system — findings that could strengthen arguments that Iran’s political
crisis has moved beyond dissatisfaction with individual leaders or
policies.
Iran fired on US bases across Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan — and now claims it destroyed American radars in Oman too
While the United States has intensified its airstrikes against Iran,
centering its attacks in the south along the coastal region, and other
deep strikes, it also fired Hellfire missiles on an empty tanker that
was headed for Kharg Island, after it attempted to run the US Navy’s
blockade.
Iran responded on Thursday with several attacks using missiles and
drones targeting Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, which host US bases.
Iraq’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, reported that there was an overnight drone attack on the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The attack, which was intercepted, came as al-Zaidi pledged during a
trip to the Washington to disarm non-state armed groups, which Iran’s
proxy militias have refused to obey.
Trump releases declassified election intelligence, says it reveals 'shocking vulnerabilities'
Trump releases trove of information
related to ballot counting vulnerabilities, China interference,
Michigan voter-registration investigation and noncitizens on voter rolls
President Donald Trump addressed the nation Thursday evening on "free
and fair" elections, announcing the declassification of critical
intelligence that reveals, as he said, "shocking vulnerabilities"
related to "hacking, exploitation and foreign interference."
"This vital information is for many years been covered up and hidden
from you," Trump said. "The American people are beautiful, our great
American people. But that all changes right now."
Trump did not claim China changed votes or altered election results.
Instead, he argued Beijing engaged in an influence campaign aimed at
shaping U.S. public perceptions.
Documents were posted to the White House website during the president's speech.
Tsunami threat issued for Mexico, Guatemala after magnitude 7.3 earthquake along the Pacific Ring of Fire
A tsunami threat was issued for Mexico and Guatemala within 186 miles of the earthquake's epicenter.
A major earthquake struck off the coast of Mexico, near the Guatemala
border on Friday morning, causing a tsunami threat to be issued for the
coasts of both countries.
The earthquake happened at 7:48 a.m. Pacific time, and was originally
reported as a magnitude 7.4 before being recalculated as a magnitude
7.3.
It was reported at a depth of 6.2 miles, and happened about 30 miles
southwest of Aquiles Serdán, Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological
Survey.
The
US military just emptied a third of its deepest missile magazine into
Iran — and the Pentagon’s own wargames say the next war empties it in
days
The U.S. Military’s Tomahawk Crisis: How Many Are Left, What the Iran
War Used, and What a China War Would Take: As of July 17, 2026, the
United States has fired well over 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles at
Iran, the largest expenditure of the weapon in history, and with the
ceasefire declared dead on July 8, the meter is running again. Roughly
2,000 to 3,000 missiles are estimated to remain, against a production
line that has built about 90 a year. The sharper question is the one
the war has forced into the open: whether the magazine that just
emptied into Iran could sustain the conflict it exists to deter,
against China or Russia. The honest answer, drawn from the Pentagon’s
own wargames, is unsettling.
Nearly five months into America’s war with Iran, one of the conflict’s
most consequential numbers has nothing to do with targets destroyed. It
is the count of Tomahawk cruise missiles expended, because that count
has collided with three facts the defense establishment has known for
years and hoped not to test at once: the inventory is finite and
smaller than most people assume, the production line is a trickle, and
the wars planners most worry about, in the Western Pacific, would
demand these weapons at rates the stockpile cannot meet. With the
ceasefire declared over on July 8 and CENTCOM striking dozens of
coastal air-defense, naval, and logistics targets in the days since,
the expenditure is climbing again. Here is the full picture as of July
17: what is left, what has been used, and what the next war would take.
Sen. Fetterman says he’ll leave the Democratic Party if it 'officially' becomes 'anti-Israel'
Sen. John Fetterman said he would leave the Democratic Party if it “officially” becomes “the anti-Israel party.”
For the first time this week, the Pennsylvania Democrat laid out a
specific condition that would cause him to quit his party as his
relationship with fellow Democrats has soured deeply.
“If they put that in our platform — no aid for Israel, and officially
become the anti-Israel party, then yeah, that’s a red line for me,”
Fetterman told NBC News on Thursday. “Democrats, we’ve always should
support Israel. That’s our special ally, you know? In the only
democracy in the entire region, that’s Israel. So I’m always proud to
stand with Israel.”
He added that it would be a problem for him “if the Democratic Party
officially says ‘Israel is the problem, Israel doesn’t deserve to
exist, and I’m never going to support aid, and I’m not going to call
out Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran as terrorists, and they are the
problem in the region.’”
FAA Chief Seeks $10 Billion for Air Traffic Control Systems
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration says the agency needs
another $10 billion from Congress to reform the antiquated U.S. air
traffic control system as policymakers prepare for traffic to double
in the next two decades.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency is moving rapidly to
deploy the first $12.5 billion approved by Congress after years of
neglect.
"We're behind 20 years. The system is extremely safe, but it comes
at the price of inefficiency and inconvenience," Bedford said in an
interview. "Americans tolerate this hugely inefficient system ... And
as long as it's safe, I think that sort of saps the will to fix
it."
Markwayne Mullin to announce election security crackdown after The Post reveals DHS IDs 275K noncitizens registered to vote
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday is to announce
new election security crackdowns after The Post a day earlier revealed
the feds found at least 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in US
federal elections.
Mullin will address the Trump administration’s “efforts to secure
American elections” during an 11 a.m. news conference following the
president’s Thursday primetime speech on vulnerabilities with US voting.
“Only Americans should be electing American leaders,” Mullin said in a post to X announcing the briefing.
In the speech, Trump confirmed The Post’s reporting of the 278,000
illegal voter registrations — noting the full total could be far larger.
Marco Rubio: America will no longer ignore the threat of left-wing violence
By Marco Rubio
Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened the Ministerial on the Resurgence
of Political Terrorism at the State Department yesterday, warning
far-left extremism and violence are on the rise. Here is an excerpt of
his remarks:
For far too long our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot — a
blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left.
Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious
threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous
fascist conspiracy. It’s treated this way by many in the press, by many
in academia and our universities, and by many of our legacy
institutions. You will no doubt see the dogma rear its head in the
coverage of this very conference.
In spite of the clear and the undeniable reality, in spite of the
objective numbers and statistics, in spite of the fact that in this
room today there are representatives from across the political
spectrum, we will hear this organized — that this kind of organized
violence and terror will be dismissed. It will be dismissed as a
partisan fiction.
