by Zeeshan Aleem | Jul 22, 2026 | Opinion, White House, World
The resumption of hostilities between the United States and Iran has caused an uptick in U.S. casualties. Last week, CENTCOM confirmed the deaths of three more U.S. service members killed in action, and the total number of troops killed during the war currently stands at 18. Meanwhile nearly 100 troops have been injured over the past two weeks as Iran escalates attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East.
President Donald Trump continues to try to cast the war as an operation of total U.S. domination against a defanged regime, but Iran is striking back, with American lives at stake, making justifications for continuing the unpopular war even harder for Trump. And with the president signaling an openness to escalating the conflict even further in the coming weeks, the human toll is likely to increase. (Iranian casualties are far worse, with at least 1,700 Iranian civilians killed, according to estimates from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.)
It will be nearly impossible for the Trump administration to ward off the reality that casualties make wars less popular.
Already lacking in meaningful transparency, the Trump administration appears to be growing more cagey about releasing information about casualties. But efforts to delay or obscure the information are unlikely to prevent the inevitable — the war will become even more widely despised as more people die.
CNN reported on Monday that the Pentagon has been “slow to disclose injuries to U.S. troops during the ongoing war with Iran, avoiding publicly confirming the fallout from Iranian attacks and mostly reserving totals to a military website that lags events by several days or even weeks.” And its mode
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jul 19, 2026 | Opinion, White House, World
I visited Russia with friends for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and it was one of the great trips of my life.
Entering the country was a breeze. Between chasing matches in three cities, we drifted about with no particular agenda other than entertaining ourselves. We wandered through parks, drank vodka, admired the beautiful architecture, temporarily picked up smoking cigarettes, looked at art and partied day and night. Russia is not known for a warm public culture, but it was easy in such a festive atmosphere to make local friends — some of whom I stayed in touch with long after that summer. The experience went so smoothly, and I felt so good about the experience, that between returning to the States and the end of the World Cup, I somehow found myself rooting for Russia’s team (alongside others) as it progressed, even suspiciously so, in the tournament. When I think back on the trip, I remember the rich Russian culture that rarely gets covered in the Western press.
A political scientist might describe my fond memories of my Russia World Cup trip as a perfect example of the efficacy of sportswashing — that is, governments staging sports events to launder their reputation and divert attention from their misdeeds. The World Cup brightened my perspective on Russia: A well-run tournament, organic social connections and pleasant vibes improved my feelings toward the country. I spent little time thinking about Russia’s vicious ruler or authoritarian repression, and my stories about the fun surrounding the games I saw likely encouraged others to consider traveling there, or at least to think of the country a bit
by Julia Jester | Jul 17, 2026 | News, White House, World, World News
Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted delegations from 66 countries Thursday for a summit on what the Trump administration describes as a resurgence of far-left political terrorism.
“Our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot — a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” Rubio said in his opening remarks, criticizing what he called a double standard in dismissing acts of violence and terrorism as “legitimate forms of political expression, so long as they served a left-wing cause.”
“This is a distinctive and unique evil,” he said of radical leftism, citing the domestic assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and murder of Charlie Kirk. “It has always been driven by a hatred, above all else, a hatred for civilization itself.”
Rubio argued far-left extremist and Antifa networks pose a transnational threat.
“They coordinate, they communicate, they travel, they train, and they act, sharing the same infrastructure, sharing the same enemies, sharing the same mission,” he said. “We will either cooperate across our borders, or the terrorists will continue to exploit the gaps between them.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel and Education Secretary Linda McMahon also represented the Trump administration at the ministerial.
Throughout his remarks, Miller characterized all leftists — not just far-left extremists — as evil and a threat to Western civilization.
“The leftist is fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy,” Miller said. “The leftist looks at what is beautiful and what is good and what is natural and is filled with envy and hatred. The leftist looks at a perfect family with the perfect life and the
by Rep. Ro Khanna | Jul 17, 2026 | Opinion, World
Last weekend, as I stood in the ruins of Khirbet Zanuta, a Palestinian Bedouin village demolished by settler attacks, a car carrying armed men pulled up and blocked the road.
After roughly 20 minutes, Israeli soldiers arrived. I assumed they came to help me and my aide pass. Instead, they moved one of their vehicles to block the road. I was with my aide Cam Kasky and seven others, including a driver, a New York Times photographer and security. We were held there for about 90 minutes, as the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post and many other media outlets have confirmed.
I was released because I am a member of Congress, and David Brownstein, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, heroically intervened. Palestinians do not get to make calls for such help.
Photos taken by Rep. Ro Khanna’s staff showing armed Israeli settlers blocking the only road out of Khirbet Zanuta on July 8, 2026. Courtesy Rep. Khanna’s staff
For three days last week I traveled through the West Bank and listened to Palestinians describe their lives. No one decided in advance what I would be allowed to see. I witnessed the indignities Palestinians endure, the contempt they are treated with every day and the violence of Israeli settlers. I’m sharing my experiences both to help people understand the horrors Palestinians are living through and to give context to my vote for a House amendment on Israeli aid that was defeated Wednesday.
In Bethlehem, the wall runs over 400 miles, most of it well inside the West Bank rather than along any border. It cuts through Palestinian villages and
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jul 14, 2026 | Opinion, White House, World
After the U.S. military detained then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined a three-part plan for Venezuela: stabilization, recovery, and transition to democracy. But what the U.S. is doing to Venezuela counts as nothing but colonization.
An astonishing report by The New York Times, based on interviews with more than a dozen officials and people close to governments in Washington and Caracas, details the imperial overhaul of Venezuela’s government and economy after Trump’s ouster of Maduro. The U.S. isn’t just setting up an economically advantageous policy regime to access Venezuela’s oil, but is now directly controlling much of Venezuela’s state revenue. “The U.S. Treasury receives the revenue from most of Venezuela’s exports, then disburses it to Venezuela through the country’s banking system, a relationship akin to parents handing out allowances to children,” the Times reports. “Mr. Rubio and his team set the conditions on what that money can be spent on, and by whom.”
The U.S. is systematically stripping Venezuela’s government of its right to self-determination.arco
That’s just one of many remarkable new structures and rules that Rubio has installed to give him immense control over Venezuelan affairs. According to the Times, Rubio is administering the application of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and determining who in the country can do business with the world without getting hit by penalties. He’s helping set up U.S. access to Venezuela’s oil resources, while boxing out European companies. He’s constantly issuing edicts by text message directly to Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, who has turned to him for sign-off on major political appointments, including the minister of defense. When Venezuela issued
by The Associated Press | Jul 12, 2026 | News, World
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said it considers the Strait of Hormuz closed once again after a vessel using an “unauthorized route” was struck by a warning shot in the critical waterway, further jeopardizing the already tenuous ceasefire agreement with the United States.
U.S. Central Command said a short time later that its forces began a third round of strikes against Iran.
“The United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” the military said.
A Cyprus-flagged container ship struck by Iran suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.
Senior U.S. officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month’s deal to end the war will be unable to progress without the strait being secure — and had even said they expected Iran to offer public statements to that effect.
Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps stated in an online post on Saturday that Iran launched warning shots at a “violating ship.” Iran further reported that the strait would now remain closed until further notice.
Those announcements followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.
Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.
Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried
