Col Douglas Macgregor: War to the Last Missile in Iran
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive
By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | July 7, 2026
Laura Loomer, the unhinged Zionist commentator with the Trump White House’s ear, continues her attempt to use lawfare to silence reporters and commentators opposed to the American/Zionist war on Iran.
Anti-War journalist Max Blumenthal, the editor of The Grayzone, is currently on the ground reporting on the funeral for slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
For daring to report on this important historical moment, the unhinged Zionist commentator, Laura Loomer called for Blumenthal- an American citizen- to lose his citizenship and be raided by the FBI for the crime of doing journalism.
On X, Loomer disturbingly wrote :
Max Blumenthal You’re a shill for Islam and communism and I hope you’re raided in a heavily armed raid by the FBI at 5 am and that SecRubio strips you of your passport for aiding the Iranian regime as they chant Death to America.
I hope SecScottBessent investigates how you paid for your trip to Iran, or if it was given to you by Iran and IRGC supporters so you are charged and prosecuted for possible sanctions violations.
Loomer tagged the FBI, Marco Rubio, and Scott Bessent in the post, in an obvious attempt to get a bogus lawfare investigation launched against Max Blumenthal because he gave a voice to the millions of Iranians who came out in defiance of the U.S/Israeli war of aggression.
This is far from the first time Loomer has attempted to get the Trump White House to crack down on critics of the war in Iran.
Previously, Loomer spearheaded a campaign to get the co-founder of the anti-war, realist think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi, deported from the country for his opposition to the war in Iran.
Loomer, on X, made similar threats against Parsi, saying he “should be deported next” and directly telling him that “your days in our country are numbered”.
On X, Loomer wrote :
Secretary Rubio
Just so you know, Trita Parsi is also a Green Card holder.
He holds citizenship in Iran and Sweden.
Trita Parsi is a mouthpiece for the Iranian Regime and has used NIAC and the Quincy Institute to push out pro-Iranian regime talking points.
He should be deported next.
He is truly a threat to US National Security.
After the Israel lobby successfully primaried the anti-war Kentucky representative Thomas Massie, Loomer posted a picture with him next to Trita Parsi and wrote:
Hey Trita Parsi ,
Your boy Thomas Massie is about to be removed from Congress, and then…you’re probably going to be deported back to Iran.
Tick tock.
Your days in our country are numbered.
Loomer’s disturbing threats were following by an article from the Zionist propaganda blog, The Free Press, which falsely claimed that “In the eyes of some inside the Trump administration, Parsi isn’t just another Washington pundit eager to share his point of view. The State Department has launched an investigation of Parsi and could try to deport him, according to U.S. officials and documents reviewed by The Free Press.”
The State Department later clarified that “The State Department has no plans to revoke the green card of Mr. Parsi at this time”, but Trita Parsi said he believed that “some elements within the State Department wanted to start one and thought external pressure could help move things forward” following the threats from Loomer.
Before her attempt to deport Trita Parsi, Laura Loomer successfully got two Iranian women opposed to the U.S/Israeli war on Iran detained by ICE over false claims that they were related to the late Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
Loomer boasted on social media , “Following my report and follow up with the US State Department in which I exposed the fact that Qasem Soleimani’s Niece Hamideh Soleimani Afshar has been living in the United States (Los Angeles, California) where she posts pro-Iranian regime and pro-IRGC content on her social media while she lives a life of luxury, the US State Department and SecRubio have just revoked her green card and she has been picked up by ICE. She has been arrested and will be deported back to Iran.”
ICE also detained her daughter, Sarina Hosseiny.
But as journalists Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain revealed , the two women had no connection to Qasem Soleimani.
They documented:
A review of personal documentation undercuts the allegation of a personal connection to Soleimani. Birth certificates from Iran, collected by the family, lay out a documented family tree spanning multiple generations with no connection to Qassem Soleimani, or even to relatives of the late general. Drop Site also reviewed other personal identification documents, including passports, family photographs, and work documentation from both Iran and the U.S. that strongly contradict the allegations that the two women were connected to the late Iranian military commander, or living lavishly from any connection to the Iranian government.
In order for Qasem Soleimani to be Hamideh’s uncle, based on her last name, he would need to be the brother of Hamideh’s father, Ali Soleimani-Afshar, who was born in Tehran in 1947. Yet according to the documents, Soleimani-Afshar had no brothers at all and his father died in the early 50s. Gen. Soleimani was born years later—in 1957—in a small village in the southern province of Kerman. Ali Soleimani-Afshar’s parents died in his childhood. Historical passport documents also show that Soleimani-Afshar’s family origins go back generations to the city of Yazd in central Iran, a province away from the roots of Gen. Soleimani.
The late general is also known to have two brothers, Sohrab and Hossein, who have previously given interviews about their upbringing in rural Kerman that identify themselves as his only brothers and make no mention of a connection to Ali Soleimani-Afshar.
Qassem Soleimani’s own family in Iran issued numerous strident denials that they had any relation to the late general. Soleimani’s youngest daughter, Zeinab Soleimani, a well-known political figure inside Iran, said in Iranian media that the State Department’s allegations were ‘false’ and that ‘the individuals arrested in the United States have no connection whatsoever to our family.’ Another daughter, Narjes Soleimani, went further in a separate statement, adding that, ‘To this day, no member of the Soleimani family, nor any relative of General Soleimani, has resided in the United States
Emboldened after having the state department use her false claims to detain and deport critics of the Iran war, Loomer is now trying to use her connections to the U.S. state department to have critics of the Iran war- even U.S. citizens like Max Blumenthal- stripped of their citizenship.
By Jose Nino | Occidental Review | July 7, 2026
The hawks who pushed the United States into its most expensive military operation in decades are already planning the next one. Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin, two of the most listened-to Jewish voices in conservative media, have made clear in the immediate aftermath of the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that they view the current peace not as a resolution but as an intermission, one they intend to use to rebuild the political and military conditions for a return to war.
Ben Shapiro published a Daily Wire piece titled “Why Trump Signed The Agreement With Iran,” explaining the MOU while making clear his deep reservations. In the same Fox News appearance hours after the text was released, he simultaneously called the war “the signal act of political bravery, perhaps, of my lifetime” and labeled the Memorandum of Understanding “a disaster that does not achieve any of the actual signal goals that were set by the administration at the beginning.” Shapiro laid out five specific objectives he said the administration had named —ending all nuclear enrichment, dismantling ballistic missiles, ending support for so-called terrorist proxies, permanently reopening the Strait of Hormuz toll-free, and conditioning sanctions relief on Iranian compliance—and argued the MOU met none of them. Despite his public condemnation of the deal, he nonetheless stopped short of urging Trump to reject it, thus revealing something more significant than mere disagreement. It exposed a proposed recalibration among hawkish commentators who now appear to be laying the groundwork for a resumption of hostilities after the November midterm elections.
While commentators debated the terms of the deal, the war itself had already delivered its verdict in blood. The war they championed exacted a staggering price. Operation Epic Fury, which began on February 28, 2026, killed between 7,144 and 9,676 people across multiple countries while wounding approximately 46,965 more. Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs confirmed 3,468 Iranian deaths while independent monitors documented higher figures. Among the dead were 240 women and 212 children. One American strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Hormozgan province on February 28 killed approximately 175 to 180 people—the majority of them schoolchildren—a strike investigated by the New York Times, BBC Verify, Reuters, NPR, and CBC all of which concluded the United States was likely responsible. Over 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon according to its Health Ministry.
The economic devastation proved equally severe. The Pentagon reported spending $29 billion by May 12, though this figure excluded damage to American military bases from Iranian retaliation and the costs of munitions expended. By June, the Pentagon sought an additional $87.6 billion supplemental from Congress to cover the full costs of the campaign. Harvard economist Linda Bilmes projected that total costs could reach $1 trillion when accounting for long-term ripple effects including veteran care, replenishment of depleted weapons stockpiles, and regional economic disruption. Iran estimated its losses at $270 billion and demanded compensation as a condition of broader peace negotiations. CSIS independently assessed the total U.S. military campaign cost at approximately $34 to $42 billion—a figure that excluded base damage, munitions replacement costs, and long-term obligations.
This catastrophic toll apparently failed to satisfy those who pushed hardest for the conflict. Mark Levin emerged as the most explicit voice calling for a strategic pause followed by renewed military action. On June 18, the same day CNN reported that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was actively using pro-Israel media figures to influence the deal, Levin posted on X/Twitter his prescription for the path forward. “Time for a change in strategy. We should consider slow walking the enemy, building up our munitions, our oil reserves, get the price of gasoline down, get through the midterms, then knock them out. Instead of rushing to a deal, building up their oil industry, transferring billions to them, etc.”
Levin had advocated for military action against Iran long before the war began. He reportedly lobbied Trump directly at a private White House lunch in early June, falsely warning that Iran was “days away from a nuclear weapon”—a claim the U.S. intelligence community did not support. On his show in May he had argued that “The mass-murdering death cult that is the Iranian regime is not going to commit suicide” and that “they cannot” abide by any deal “because as a matter of religious and political ideology and doctrine, they will not in the end bend to the demands of the great Satan.”
Shapiro adopted a position less explicit but functionally identical. After the MOU was signed at Versailles on June 18, he declared the agreement a disaster and hoped that Trump would return to bombing Iran after November’s midterms. He had previously called the war “the single bravest foreign policy move of my lifetime,” telling Lara Trump on Fox News that what Trump was doing in Iran “has the potential to be a true game changer for America’s role in the world,
The broader hawk faction echoed the same framework for restarting the conflict. Hugh Hewitt called the MOU “halftime” and predicted a return to war after the election. Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade added that “After the midterms, the gloves come off.” Media Matters described this as the hawks’ new “cope” strategy—a way to avoid criticizing Trump directly while keeping the door open for future military escalation.
These commentators built their case for war over several years. Shapiro praised Trump’s 2020 killing of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani as “utterly righteous,” calling Soleimani “one of the worst human beings on the planet,” and he consistently argued that Iran required direct confrontation rather than the appeasement he accused the Obama administration of pursuing. When Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June 2025, Shapiro published a syndicated column declaring that “two lies die: the lie that only negotiations can end the threat of a rogue state seeking nuclear weapons, and the lie that every conflict must necessarily become Iraq.” Levin appeared on Hannity right before the 2026 conflict to argue that “If this Islamic Nazi terrorist mass killing regime gets a nuclear weapon, will they use it? The answer is yes” and that “We don’t need to put up with their crap. It’s time to put it to an end.”
Despite the memorandum of understanding being signed on June 17, the conflict remains far from resolved. The deal lifted the U.S. naval blockade, reopened the Strait of Hormuz, created a 60-day window to negotiate permanent terms, and proposed a $300 billion reconstruction fund. Critics noted that despite the war’s enormous costs, Iran’s government remained intact, its ballistic missile program is still functional, and its support for regional resistance organizations like Hezbollah is still unwavering. The statements from Shapiro and Levin give the game away. They have already begun conditioning their audiences for a second round of bellicosity against the Islamic Republic.
For the likes of Shapiro and Levin, conservatism is merely a skinsuit they don, carefully tailored to win trust and influence within the American Right. But the substance beneath it has nothing to do with American national interests. Every war they cheer, every deal they oppose, every argument they make is calibrated toward using American blood and treasure as a battering ram for the interests of World Jewry. The consequences for the United States, the American people, and the families who bear the cost of their wars are simply not part of their calculation. It is time to stop mistaking their fluency in conservative language for loyalty to this country.
Glenn Diesen | July 7, 2026
Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a former advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team. Prof. Marandi discusses the continued attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, the US efforts to renegotiate the MoU, the possibility of improved ties between Iran, the Arab States, and Turkey.
Follow Prof. Glenn Diesen:
Support the research by Prof. Glenn Diesen:
By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | July 7, 2026
If there is anything positive about the war criminal Bibi Netanyahu, it is that his propaganda is remarkably transparent and easily debunked. For instance:
I’m sure Bibi is aware of Team Jorge, even if many Americans are not. Netanyahu hopes you’re unaware of the Team Jorge units of Israeli contractors engaged in malicious cyber activities, such as hacking, sabotage, and bot farm-run social media disinformation campaigns, with the intent of manipulating election outcomes.
It was outed in 2023 following an operation by journalists from France and Israel coordinated by Forbidden Stories. “The Israeli disinformation company ‘Team Jorge’ claims to control 39 000 ‘avatars’ online, without the platforms being able to detect them,” Le Monde reported.
“A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation,” The Guardian reported in 2023.
The unit is run by Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative who now works privately using the pseudonym “Jorge”, and appears to have been working under the radar in elections in various countries for more than two decades.
Hanan, who was covertly recorded, told journalists his black op service was available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns, and private companies “that wanted to secretly manipulate public opinion.” A software package, Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims,
controls a vast army of thousands of fake social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube. Some avatars even have Amazon accounts with credit cards, bitcoin wallets and Airbnb accounts.
Hasbara, Israel’s “public diplomacy,” is well known. The term was created in the early days of Zionism and translates as “explanation” in Hebrew. It is described as a multifaceted effort to explain actions, “whether or not they are justified,” by the Zionist state. “Hasbara links information warfare to the strategic efforts of the state to bolster the unity of the home front,” according to Middle East Policy.
[and] ensure the support of allies; disrupt efforts to organize hostile coalitions; determine the way issues are defined by the media, the intelligentsia, and social networks; establish the parameters of politically correct discourse; delegitimize both critics and their arguments; and shape the common understanding and interpretation of the results of international negotiations.
Bibi is worried about the public relations fallout from his genocide campaign in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, and psychotic behavior ordering the murder of religious leaders, negotiators, and children from explosives hidden in pagers, to name but a few. In response to Israel’s manifest crimes against humanity, countries are denouncing and beginning to sanction the Zionist state and its ministers.
Team Jorge and the wider Hasbara network is doing all it can, short of murdering critics of Israel, to undermine and cancel the outrage and activism growing against Zionism and the settler state. Social media is rife with Zionist “avatars” and fake accounts, many no doubt generated by AI, to counter arguments that Israel is a genocidal monster that needs to be tamed.
A 35-page memo, most of it blacked out, and the part they left visible is the part that should worry you.
By Cindy Harper – Reclaim The Net – July 7, 2026
The Canadian government drew up a plan to take individual citizens to court over what they post online. That plan sat inside a 35-page internal memo from the Department of Industry, most of it blacked out before the public could see it.
Blacklock’s Reporter pried the document loose through an Access to Information request. Dated March 31 and titled “Misinformation And Disinformation Strategy,” it belongs to the department run by Minister Mélanie Joly, known as ISED. The memo weighs “legal action” against people who post what the government calls “false and misleading information” on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
What kind of legal action? The redactions hide that. What survives the black ink is the logic. “This strategy seeks to uphold the integrity of and public trust in government information,” the memo says. The department is appointing itself guardian of its own reputation, with lawsuits as one available tool.
Here is who would decide. ISED itself would judge whether a post is “factually incorrect, misleading or out of context.” The same department that dislikes a post gets to rule on whether the post is true. No court makes that call first and no independent reviewer checks the work. The government writes the definition of misinformation and then enforces it against the people it defines.

The memo describes any punishment as “proportionate and subject to senior level approval.” That language reassures no one. Proportion gets measured by the same officials pushing the complaint, and senior approval means a manager signs off, not a judge.
Officials already watch. Managers “already monitor the department’s official social media channels and media outlets on a daily basis for comments and recurring inaccuracies,” the memo says. The strategy would push that surveillance from reaction toward “prevention and early detection,” catching disfavored speech earlier in its life.
The chilling effect writes itself. A citizen who knows a federal department is reading posts, grading them for accuracy, and holding a lawsuit in reserve thinks twice before typing. The threat does the work a courtroom never has to.
The government’s own files admit the problem. Its research found Canadians feel capable of spotting fake news and do not want Ottawa “declaring what is true or not.” The memo concedes that answering misinformation can amplify it, and that going after individuals risks “further backlash.” The department understood the public would object and mapped the plan anyway.
Compare the tune from four years back. This same Liberal government declared that “the rights and freedoms that individuals have offline must also be protected online.” That promise reads differently next to a memo about suing people for their posts.
Ottawa has not explained how the monitoring runs, how often lawsuits were floated, or what a post must do to land on the department’s radar. The memo sets no threshold. It names no outside check. It leaves a federal department free to decide which citizens spoke falsely and what the price should be.
A government sure of its facts answers speech with more speech. This one drafted a plan to answer speech with lawyers.
Al Mayadeen | July 7, 2026
The United Nations’ special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has sharply denounced the BBC after the broadcaster aired Israeli regime claims against detained Palestinian paediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya without challenge.
Reacting to a Monday segment in which BBC News relayed Israeli allegations that Abu Safiya was held over “suspected involvement in Hamas activities,” Albanese called the coverage “scandalous”, pointing to 18 months of arbitrary detention without charge, evidence, or trial and to torture documented by his lawyer, with injuries visible on his body.
She accused the network of amplifying unsubstantiated Israeli accusations against a detained doctor rather than reporting on his condition, describing it as characteristic of BBC journalism “in the time of genocide.”
Karishma Patel, who resigned from the BBC last October over its Gaza coverage, echoed the criticism, saying the broadcaster must stop repeating Israeli claims without flagging the absence of supporting evidence given how precarious Abu Safiya’s life remains.
Edinburgh University’s Nicola Perugini went further, arguing that the segment presented the Israeli military’s framing that razing hospitals and abusing doctors is justified because medical facilities supposedly shielded fighters, without any pushback from the reporter reading it.
Abu Safiya’s deteriorating condition
Abu Safiya, former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been detained since Israeli occupation forces stormed the facility on December 27, 2024, forcing it out of operation despite it being the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza at the time, a raid that came after his son Ibrahim was killed in a strike on the hospital grounds.
More than 555 days into his detention, rights groups confirm that his situation is critical. Amnesty International issued an urgent appeal on July 5, warning that his life is in grave danger and noting that he has been held in solitary confinement since June 3 and denied adequate care for chronic conditions.
Detention upheld despite no charges
“Israel’s” Supreme Court upheld his latest detention order on June 16, extending his imprisonment under the “unlawful combatant” designation until at least October.
A July 2 visit by his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, documented fresh bruising around his head, eyes, and neck, difficulty breathing, and episodes of lost consciousness; Abu Safiya reportedly told Odeh he believes prison authorities intend to kill him.
His son Elyas said in a video message that his father can barely speak and that his face has been disfigured.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel called it among the most disturbing testimonies it has received since the war began.
Abu Safiya is one of at least 737 Palestinian medical workers detained since October 2023, a period in which more than 1,722 health workers have been martyred and nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals damaged or destroyed.
A pattern of bias
The episode fits a broader record of scrutiny facing the BBC over its coverage of the genocide in Gaza. A Centre for Media Monitoring study reviewing over 35,000 pieces of BBC content found Israeli deaths received 33 times more coverage per fatality than Palestinian deaths, with the word “massacre” applied 18 times more often to Israeli casualties and “murder” used 220 times for Israelis against a single instance for Palestinians.
More than 100 BBC staff signed a letter last year accusing the corporation of functioning as a government “mouthpiece”, citing insufficient scrutiny of Israeli statements and content they said resembled military public relations.
The broadcaster also shelved the documentary “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack” after initially approving it, a decision critics called emblematic of editorial self-censorship under political pressure, part of what commentators have termed the BBC’s deepening credibility crisis over its Gaza coverage.

MEMO | July 7, 2026
Hamas’s decision to dissolve the Government Emergency Committee in the Gaza Strip and transfer civilian administration to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza marks a significant strategic shift. To interpret it as capitulation or defeat is to misunderstand the current stage of the Palestinian national liberation struggle.
The movement has reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the ceasefire agreement and fulfilling its responsibilities until Gaza’s civilian administration is fully transferred.
The decision should be understood as a tactical repositioning aimed at preserving three strategic objectives: Hamas’s political survival, the reconstruction of Palestinian national unity and the continuation of resistance.
The first is to preserve Hamas as a political, social and military force deeply rooted in Palestinian society.
For almost two decades, the movement has carried the dual burden of governing and resisting, administering a population subjected to blockade, repeated wars and the systematic destruction of the material conditions necessary for life.
After the most devastating war in contemporary Palestinian history, the occupation failed to achieve one of its principal declared objectives: eliminating Hamas.
Leaving Gaza’s day-to-day administration allows the movement to reduce its institutional exposure, reorganise its structures and concentrate on its historical reason for existence: the Palestinian national liberation struggle.
The second objective is to contribute to rebuilding Palestinian national unity.
The political and geographical fragmentation between Gaza and the West Bank, together with internal Palestinian divisions, has long constituted one of the occupation’s greatest strategic advantages.
By transferring civilian administration to a Palestinian national body, Hamas signals that governmental control over Gaza is subordinate to the broader objective of rebuilding national unity.
Gaza does not belong to Hamas. It belongs to the Palestinian people.
The new administration, however, cannot become an instrument of foreign tutelage or a mechanism for excluding political forces with genuine roots in Palestinian society.
The central challenge remains rebuilding a representative Palestinian leadership capable of speaking for Palestinians in the occupied territories, refugee camps and the diaspora.
The third objective is to preserve the continuity of resistance.
Governing and resisting are different political functions. A national liberation movement may participate in elections, administer territories, negotiate ceasefires and accept transitional governments. It may also withdraw from administrative structures when remaining within them threatens higher strategic objectives.
To confuse tactical flexibility with strategic abandonment is to misunderstand the history of anti-colonial struggles.
For years, “Israel” claimed that Hamas’s presence in government justified the blockade, military aggression and collective punishment imposed on Gaza.
Now that the movement has completed the procedures necessary to transfer civilian administration, the occupation is seeking to obstruct the implementation of the agreement, prevent the National Committee from assuming its responsibilities and create an administrative vacuum capable of prolonging Palestinian suffering.
The contradiction is revealing. The objective was never simply to remove Hamas from government, but to deprive the Palestinian people of their capacity to resist.
By demanding that mediators and guarantor states pressure “Israel” to comply with the agreement and allow the National Committee to begin its work, Hamas is also confronting these actors with their responsibilities.
The establishment of the new administration could restore essential public services, strengthen Palestinian resilience and begin confronting the humanitarian catastrophe produced by the war.
Hamas’s decision therefore puts the occupation’s own narrative to the test.
If the war was necessary because Hamas governed Gaza, then the movement’s departure from government should pave the way for the withdrawal of occupying forces, the opening of border crossings, reconstruction and an end to military aggression.
If new conditions continue to be imposed, the political reality will become impossible to conceal: the problem was never simply who governed Gaza, but the existence of a people who refuse submission, displacement and disappearance.
Hamas may leave ministries, dissolve committees and transfer civilian administration. But leaving government does not mean abandoning resistance.
Governing Gaza was a historical circumstance. The liberation of Palestine remains the strategic objective.
MEMO | July 7, 2026
A report published by the French newspaper Le Monde says satellite image analysis indicates the gradual construction of a military base in the city of Berbera in the self-declared region of Somaliland.
According to the report, the project is being supported by the United Arab Emirates and is intended to serve the interests of the United States and Israel.
Le Monde said satellite images reviewed by the newspaper showed continued expansion of Berbera Airport since October 2025, including infrastructure development. The newspaper said the work suggests a new military facility is being built at a strategically important location near the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
The report said Berbera has attracted growing interest from regional and international powers because of its location on the Gulf of Aden, close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important maritime routes.
It linked the reported developments to increasing competition for influence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, amid regional security tensions and efforts to protect international shipping lanes.
According to the newspaper, the report included no official comment from the UAE, the United States or Israel. There has also been no official response from the authorities in Somaliland or the Somali federal government to the claims.
Berbera occupies a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which a significant share of global trade and energy supplies passes between Asia and Europe. Its location has made the area a focus of military and economic competition among regional and international powers.
The UAE has invested in Berbera Port for several years through DP World, which is responsible for developing and operating the port. The UAE previously used facilities in Berbera for logistical and military purposes during its operations in Yemen before announcing a reduction in its military presence there.
The Cradle | July 7, 2026
A Saudi-flagged crude oil vessel and a Qatari tanker were damaged on 7 July after being struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, multiple reports have confirmed.
Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Al-Rekayyat was “struck overnight and its engine room set on fire,” maritime sources told Reuters, adding that “a Saudi crude oil tanker has also been damaged.”
“Mayday … This is vessel Al-Rekayyat, LNG vessel Al-Rekayyat. We are being hit by drone on port side, top of engine room. Status: engine room fire and full of smoke. Unable to assess further damage,” the ship’s captain said in a recorded radio call heard by Reuters.
The ship was disabled and called for help, but the crew was unharmed, according to the report.
Iranian state television reported that an LNG ship was hit off the coast of Oman after “ignoring warnings.” Responsibility has yet to be officially claimed by Tehran.
According to Reuters, the Saudi oil tanker Wedyan was damaged in the same area – near Oman’s coast, close to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Wedyan vessel’s last position was inside the Persian Gulf on 3 July. Riyadh has not commented.
“Iran’s military fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” US officials told Axios.
Nevertheless, the US government has not officially commented on the incident.
The latest escalation near the strategic waterway comes after Iranian officials responded to new threats from US President Donald Trump.
“Negotiations on final deal will not commence if threats continue. Honor your signature,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Tuesday, coinciding with a massive funeral for the country’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
A day earlier, Trump threatened to “finish the job” and “knock down” bridges and energy sites across Iran.
In recent days, Iran has doubled down on its right to jointly manage the strait with Oman. The waterway is effectively under Iranian control.
Last month, a shipping corridor connecting the US and Oman via the Strait of Hormuz was launched, prompting Tehran to call it a breach of Clause 5 of the MoU.
Tehran has since announced that it has reached a deal with Oman on the management of the strait.
Since the MoU was signed, the illegal US blockade has largely ceased, and the Strait of Hormuz has been partially reopened by Iran.
However, Washington has continued to violate the MoU through multiple attacks on Iran, and a failure to rein in Israel’s brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and occupation in Lebanon.

Press TV – July 7, 2026
Ahead of her trial on charges of “apology for terrorism,” French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan says French authorities have subjected her to sweeping surveillance measures and political pressure in an effort to silence her criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Hassan, a vocal pro-Palestinian lawmaker, appeared in court on Tuesday over the French offense of “apology for terrorism,” a legal provision that criminalises certain forms of expression deemed to support or glorify acts of terrorism.
“This is a political case,” Hassan said in an interview ahead of her court date. “It’s a way of putting the Palestinian cause on trial.”
Hassan added that the prosecution is part of a broader campaign targeting her for speaking out in support of Palestine.
The European Parliament member said she has faced intense judicial and political pressure in recent months.
She described disproportionate investigative measures, including the lifting of her parliamentary immunity, retroactive surveillance, and the dissemination of false information following her detention in April.
On April 2, Hassan was taken into police custody after posting on X a quote by Kozo Okamoto, a former member of the now-defunct Japanese Red Army.
The quote read: “As long as there is oppression, resistance will not only be a right, but a duty.”
Hassan said that while in police custody in April, she was subjected to particularly intrusive questioning about her identity, origins and religion, despite those issues having “no connection whatsoever to the alleged facts.”
“This way of proceeding is part of a political climate in which Palestinians, or people perceived as such, are too often regarded as suspects before they are regarded as citizens,” she said.
“This reflex, fuelled by Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, constructs the dangerous figure of the ‘enemy within’,” she added.
In a press release issued ahead of the trial, Hassan’s team said the quote she shared on X was “referring to a principle that lies at the heart of international law: the right of peoples to resist colonization and the occupation of their territory by a foreign army.”
According to the statement, Hassan later deleted the post to avoid any possible misunderstanding.
The post was reported to the prosecutor’s office by far-right National Rally MP Matthias Renault, the French interior minister, the European Jewish Organisation (OJE), and the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra).
The prosecution was initiated by the public prosecutor’s office, which operates under the authority of the executive branch.
Hassan said the “judicial harassment” she has faced demonstrates “how far some are willing to go to silence voices that denounce the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
The trial marks the latest legal challenge brought against Hassan over her criticism of Israel’s occupation and its genocide in Gaza. Over the past two years, 16 legal proceedings have been initiated against her, 13 of which have already been dismissed without further action.
Sputnik – 07.07.2026
Total economic losses for EU countries due to the refusal to buy Russian energy could amount to approximately 3 trillion euros ($3.4 trillion), the Russian Permanent Mission to the EU said.
“The total losses for European countries from the refusal to buy Russian energy, according to some estimates, amount to approximately 3 trillion euros,” the mission told a Russian newspaper.
European companies and ordinary citizens have fully felt the consequences of Brussels’ policy of severing ties with Russia, it said. This has manifested itself in the form of sharp price hikes, high energy prices, declining living standards, and the closure and relocation of industrial enterprises outside the EU.
Russia has repeatedly stressed that the country would cope with the sanctions pressure that the West had begun to exert on Russia several years ago and continued to escalate. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that the policy of containing and weakening Russia was a long-term Western strategy, and that sanctions had dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy.
Al Mayadeen | July 7, 2026
A Paris appeals court upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction over the misuse of European Parliament funds, while reducing her electoral ban enough to keep open a possible path to France’s 2027 presidential election.
The ruling confirmed Le Pen’s guilt in a case centered on the diversion of European Parliament money intended for parliamentary assistants. Prosecutors said the funds were instead used to pay staff working for her National Rally party in France between 2004 and 2016. Le Pen has denied wrongdoing.
Although the court maintained the conviction, it shortened her ban from holding elected office. The sentence was reduced to 45 months, with 30 months suspended, leaving an active ban of 15 months. Since the restriction began with the lower court’s March 2025 ruling, it is set to expire before the first round of France’s presidential election, scheduled for April 18, 2027.
That decision means Le Pen is not automatically excluded from the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, who cannot seek a third consecutive term. But the same ruling imposed a separate sentence of house arrest, leaving her possible campaign clouded by practical and political obstacles.
House arrest complicates campaign
Le Pen was sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, with the remaining year to be served under house arrest with electronic monitoring. She was also fined €100,000.
The house arrest sentence now stands as the main obstacle to her candidacy. Before the verdict, Le Pen had said she would not run for the presidency if she had to campaign while wearing an ankle monitor, arguing that such restrictions would make it impossible to travel freely, attend rallies, and conduct a proper national campaign.
The appeals ruling therefore leaves Le Pen in a politically complicated position. Legally, her path to the 2027 election remains open. Practically, however, her ability to campaign could be limited by the conditions attached to her sentence.
Party faces strategic decision
Le Pen left the court without speaking to reporters after the verdict. She is expected to clarify her position later on Tuesday.
The decision also places the National Rally before a major strategic choice. If Le Pen decides not to run, party president Jordan Bardella, her 30-year-old protégé, is widely seen as the most likely figure to replace her as the far-right bloc’s presidential candidate.
For now, the ruling has not ended Le Pen’s presidential ambitions. Instead, it has shifted the central question from whether she is legally allowed to run to whether she is willing to campaign for the presidency while under house arrest.