🇺🇸⚡️ — President Trump announced the “de minimis” system has been abolished:

BIG WIN today at the U.S. Court of International Trade on one of the most DESPICABLE loopholes in American Trade Policy — The so-called “de minimis” exemption.

For years, Foreign Shippers could send packages worth up to $800 into our Country, DUTY FREE, NO TARIFF, far less scrutiny. It became a giant loophole for TARIFF Cheats — and a Pipeline exploited by Fentanyl Traffickers, Counterfeiters, and other Criminals shipping dangerous and illegal products into America. The numbers were staggering.

In 2024 alone, de minimis cost America an estimated 10.8 BILLION DOLLRS in foregone TARIFF Revenue, and an astonishing share of narcotics and counterfeit seizures came through the de minimis channel. So, we CLOSED IT. With the stroke of my mighty pen — NO AUTOPEN!!! — we ended this ridiculous giveaway, and made Foreign Goods play by the rules. The Importers sued. Today, THEY LOST. The Court ruled that the President had the Legal Authority to rescind this so-called “privilege.”

America is now SAFER, our Workers are better protected, and BILLIONS in TARIFF Revenue that used to slip through this loophole can instead help pay for our Great Military, Tax Relief, NO TAX ON TIPS, and NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY. AMERICA FIRST TRADE — AND AMERICA FIRST LAW ENFORCEMENT!

🇮🇷🇦🇪⚡️ — UAE's state-owned energy group Abu Dhabi National Oil Company reports two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz today.

Earlier, two anti-ship cruise missiles were launched from Sirik, Iranian territory along the Strait of Hormuz around an hour apart from each other. These anti-ship missiles likely targeted ADNOC tankers.

🇮🇱🇺🇸⚡️ — Man: What is the future of Jews? In Boston, USA?

Netanyahu: Everybody is welcome to come here (Israel). Anybody who wants can come here.

🇺🇸⚡️ — Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reports President Trump today signed a memorandum ordering the U.S. Navy to revert from electromagnetic catapults to steam catapults to launch fighter jets on Ford-class aircraft carriers, starting with the USS Doris Miller; the fourth Ford-class carrier to be built.

The electromagnetic catapult system is fundamental to the Ford-class's design, and the change back to steam catapults will cost billions of dollars and likely require substantial design changes for future Ford-class carriers.

🇮🇷🇾🇪⚔️🇺🇸 U.S. military has lost roughly 25% of its Reaper drones

The Washington Post says "the U.S. military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones during the war with Iran, or roughly 25 percent of its fleet".

This means the U.S. had 180 MQ-9 Reaper MALE UCAVs at the beginning of the conflict, slightly more than the 165 figure provided by The War Zone in June and the 45 MQ-9 Reapers shot down by Iran and the Houthis is slightly more than the 38 visually confirmed shot down Reapers.

Presumably, the difference in the number of MQ-9 Reapers destroyed comes from an unknown number of MALE UCAVs destroyed by Iranian missile attacks on Jordanian and Emirati airbases.

The U.S. has now at most 120 MQ-9 Reaper MALE UCAVs available to fight Iran and the Houthis if hostilities are to resume.

🔗 https://archive.ph/oqxS4

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Trump regime changed Iran but not in the way he wanted

Mojtaba Khamenei Is Planning for a Long War

Several months into his tenure as supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei is beginning to put his own stamp on Iran’s military and national security establishment. In a sweeping series of appointments, he has effectively recreated Iran’s senior command, reorganizing the institutions responsible for managing both war and diplomacy.

The emerging command structure points toward a broader shift in how Tehran intends to manage the next phase of the conflict: more centralized military command; a greater emphasis on offensive operations and imposing more severe costs to strengthen deterrence; and tighter integration of military, economic, diplomatic, and domestic-security policy.

Yet this does not necessarily mean abandoning negotiations. Rather, the appointments suggest that Tehran is trying to pair diplomacy with a harder conception of deterrence, centered on preserving and strengthening its ability to damage its adversaries so that negotiations produce a durable settlement rather than another pause before renewed conflict.

The clearest expression of that approach may be Khamenei’s choice of Mohsen Rezaei to lead the Supreme National Security Council, the institution charged with coordinating Iran’s military, diplomatic, economic, and security policies. Rezaei is often described simply as a veteran hard-liner or former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But that understates his significance.

Rezaei has long stood out as a strategic thinker and institution-builder within Iran’s military establishment. During his 16 years commanding the IRGC, he helped transform it into a sprawling military organization, developing its ground, air and naval forces; the Quds Force, responsible for operations abroad; and Khatam al-Anbiya, the central headquarters for coordinating major military operations. His role thus extended beyond helping to direct the Iran-Iraq War to building institutions and capabilities that would shape how Iran wielded military power for decades to come. But his wartime record also reveals the harder edge of that strategic outlook, particularly when it came to determining when Iran had achieved enough to end a conflict on acceptable terms.

The rest of Khamenei’s appointments reinforce this picture. Ali Abdollahi, the new chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, has been tasked with completing the integration of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters into the General Staff, a reorganization that would further centralize wartime command and coordination. His mandate emphasizes preparedness for “conventional, modern, cognitive, and hybrid threats.”

Ahmad Vahidi, meanwhile, has been formally confirmed as IRGC commander and promoted to major general after assuming the post following Mohammed Pakpour’s assassination. Khamenei instructed him to pursue “maximum deterrence” while maintaining readiness for “powerful offensive operations against the enemy.” Iranian commentators have highlighted the latter phrase as an unusually explicit articulation of offensive operations as part of the IRGC commander’s mandate.

Hossein Taeb—the controversial former head of the IRGC’s intelligence arm, closely associated with the repression of dissent— was made the head of the Basij. Taeb has been instructed to strengthen its “public intelligence network,” exploit new technologies, and deepen neighborhood-level organization.

The dominant view in Tehran now holds that this restraint had the opposite effect, reinforcing perceptions in Washington and Israel that Iran was weak and vulnerable, its responses predictable, and the costs of attacking it manageable. The lesson drawn from the wars since June 2025 is therefore not simply that Iran needs greater military capabilities, but also that it must demonstrate the willingness to use them in ways that impose sufficiently severe military and economic costs to discourage its adversaries from escalating again.

🔗 https://archive.ph/IIOgR

🇨🇳 🇷🇺 🇯🇵 China and Russia issued a joint statement on the same day as Putin’s visit to the Northern Territories, declaring that they “firmly oppose” any attempts to deny or revise the outcome of World War II.

The statement, jointly issued by Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao and Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev, said that preserving the “results of the victory in World War II” was of great importance to both countries. It also accused unspecified forces of attempting to distort those results and revive “fascism and militarism.”

While the statement did not explicitly mention Putin’s visit, its language echoed Moscow’s justification for its claim to the Russian occupation and came as Japan summoned Nozdrev to formally protest the visit.

📎 Arin Yumi

🇹🇷🤝🇪🇬 Türkiye and Egypt agreed on the need for stronger measures to address Israel's violations in Gaza

Fidan, speaking at a news conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in El Alamein, described Egypt as Türkiye’s “natural partner” and voiced hope that the growing relationship between Ankara and Cairo would soon evolve into a formal partnership.

“Our region has lost too much time to wars, occupations and internal conflicts. We have a significant gap to close,” Fidan said, stressing the need for closer regional cooperation.

Fidan said Ankara and Cairo were working closely on Gaza and had agreed that stronger measures were needed regarding the situation in the Palestinian enclave.

Noting that Israel's failure to fulfill its commitments under the terms of the Gaza peace deal may push Ankara and Cairo and other mediators to take radical steps, Fidan said both countries expect the U.S. to apply necessary pressure on Tel Aviv.

"Otherwise, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt will have to take radical steps on this issue. This is a responsibility we owe to our nation, our people, and the Palestinians," Fidan said.

🔗 https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/turkiye-egypt-urge-stronger-measures-for-gaza-vow-to-boost-cooperation