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Six stories, one very bad week for de-escalation, and a Navy carrier that just wants a beer.
Grab your coffee, because today’s rundown moves from missiles over Jordan to a Massachusetts Senate primary to a provocateur discovering what “tough on immigration” feels like from the inside.
Iran fired missiles and drones at U.S. bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait on Wednesday, and Tehran says it was payback for a U.S. strike that killed five people near a wedding in southern Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it hit the American commander’s headquarters at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base and said U.S. personnel were killed, though that claim is unverified. Jordan says 13 Iranian ballistic missiles entered its airspace, with 10 intercepted and three landing in remote areas. The war that started over Iran’s nuclear program in February has increasingly narrowed to a fight over the Strait of Hormuz, and this attack just proved that narrowing doesn’t mean shrinking—Iran can still reach American installations across four countries whenever it wants to make a point. Source: UPI
The USS Abraham Lincoln finally pulled into port in Thailand after an astonishing 286 days at sea, giving roughly 5,000 sailors their first real break after supporting the Iran war. The ship looked the part, with rust patches visible along the hull, and the captain deflected President Trump’s comment that the deployment “wasn’t nearly long enough” with admirable restraint. Many of those sailors are now headed for nearby Pattaya, a beach town famous for nightlife, and Thai officials are bracing for both an economic windfall and a logistical challenge. For families like that of 25-year-old sailor Jada, whose mother flew from New Jersey just to be there, this port call is less about liberty and more about finally hearing a familiar voice in person after nine months of hardship. Source: Associated Press
Sen. Ed Markey demolished Rep. Seth Moulton in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, and the result says more about ideology than age. Moulton, a 47-year-old Iraq War veteran, ran on generational change and warned that Markey’s five decades in Washington left him disconnected from issues like artificial intelligence. Markey, 80, countered with a robust progressive record—co-authoring the Green New Deal and drawing support from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—and comments from Moulton about transgender athletes didn’t help his case with the party’s base. Massachusetts voters delivered a clear lesson: being younger doesn’t automatically mean being more progressive, and being older doesn’t automatically mean being out of step. Source: The Atlantic
The Iran war has scrambled global oil routes, and Syria thinks that scramble is its ticket back into the global economy. With the Strait of Hormuz choked by wartime restrictions, thousands of tanker trucks are already hauling Iraqi oil across Syria every day, and the Trump administration is backing a proposed $5.7 billion pipeline that could carry two million barrels a day from Basra to the Syrian coast. The catch is that this pipeline would run through territory still dealing with ISIS remnants, Iran-backed militias and unexploded mines—but for a country that spent over a decade as an international pariah, “we’re at the crossroads of the Middle East” is a pitch worth making. Source: The Washington Post (free)
Fifty-seven immigrants have now died in government detention since President Trump’s second term began, and a recent policy change means that number may be an undercount. The latest death, a 51-year-old Chinese immigrant who died less than a day after entering ICE custody, adds to a list that includes people who suffered medical emergencies in detention, were released, and died shortly afterward—deaths that no longer count in the official tally since the administration dropped a Biden-era 30-day reporting requirement in June. DHS says its responsibility ends when someone leaves custody, but for families of people like Prisciliano Trejo, who fell into a coma in ICE custody before being released and dying days later, the distinction feels more like an accounting trick than a policy. Source: NPR
Milo Yiannopoulos spent years cheering aggressive immigration enforcement, and then ICE detained him and deported him to the United Kingdom. The far-right provocateur told Piers Morgan he’s now “very ashamed” of ever supporting Trump, describing his own detention as humiliating, disorienting and physically degrading—including being denied a phone call and medical access. Yiannopoulos says he had a pending Green Card application and no reason to overstay his visa intentionally, and he took the opportunity to blast fellow provocateur Laura Loomer, who claims she reported him. It’s the kind of political irony that requires no exaggeration: the man who applauded the machine got chewed up by it. Source: Mediaite
From missiles over Jordan to a provocateur’s overdue reality check, today’s stories all circle the same theme—actions have a funny way of finding their way back around, whether it’s a wedding strike, a nine-month deployment, or a crackdown cheered a little too loudly.
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