Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed responds to a visibly upset Iranian-American student at the University of Michigan, telling him that U.S. military interventions, sanctions, and regime-change wars often advance corporate interests and harm civilians, rather than promote democracy and freedom.

🚨 At least 21 Palestinians, including 12 children, were killed and 14 others injured after a residential building damaged by Israeli attacks and sheltering displaced families collapsed overnight in Gaza City, the Strip’s Health Ministry told Drop Site.

🇵🇸 All of Ed Sheeran’s scheduled supporting acts have quit his Loop tour after Macklemore was removed for declaring “Free Palestine” and condemning Israel’s genocide during two MetLife Stadium shows. ➤ Finneas, the Grammy-winning American singer and producer best known as Billie Eilish’s brother and collaborator, withdrew from six South American dates: “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. I stand with Palestine and its people.” ➤ Dublin singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe said Irish people know “genocide, forced famine and violent occupation.” He accused billionaires of silencing opposition to Israel’s genocide and “the savage murder of children.” ➤ Danish pop band Lukas Graham, known for the hit “7 Years,” said: “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation. Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak.” ➤ Beoga, the Northern Irish folk band that collaborated with Sheeran on “Galway Girl,” served as his touring band and helped found Irish Artists for Palestine, said playing venues that silence advocacy for a free Palestine was “simply not an option.” The group accused “the Zionist lobby” of trying to silence artists. Sheeran says he is “not complicit,” as promoters and stadiums made the decision to remove Macklemore. Macklemore noted that billionaire Robert Kraft rallied venue owners to threaten the tour with cancellation if he remained.

🇵🇸 Israeli forces have abducted Dr. Nizar Kayed, the 70-year-old deputy mayor of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who identified Kayed as a friend. Kayed has spoken out against Israel’s planned land seizures around the town’s archaeological site, warning that Palestinians were being stripped of water resources, roads, and antiquities. “It is part of settlement expansion,” he told Reuters in June.

💵 “When the president finds a country he hates and wants to bring down, Iran, he isolates them from the global economy. When the president finds people he loves and wants to support, the U.S. manufacturing sector, he isolates them from the global economy.” Economist Justin Wolfers tells Drop Site’s Ryan Grim that Trump is using the same weapon, economic isolation, while making opposite promises: sanctions will leave Iranians “poor and hungry,” but tariffs will somehow make Americans rich. “That’s literally incoherent on its face,” he says. Watch the full interview on YouTube at the link below. @ryangrim | @JustinWolfers

⚡️ NEW from @DropSiteNews: Oil Expert Separates Truth From Fiction on Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Claims @Rory_Johnston tells @8Sarmad that tanker trackers using different methodologies broadly agree just 4–6 million barrels a day are exiting the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s claim that 10 million barrels/day are getting through, Johnston says, is closer to “fiction” than “exaggeration.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Kamala Harris’ 2024 Presidential campaign: “And yet… why are we here? Are we here to just act like white men have acted everytime before?” “The struggle means to me not just that we would get the boot of our necks, but that we would destroy the boot, that this would not happen to other people.”

🔴 The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir renewed an order barring families from visiting Palestinian prisoners, warning that their complete isolation enables torture, starvation and “slow killing” away from outside scrutiny. The renewal came shortly after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the continued ban on International Committee of the Red Cross visits unlawful. The group said authorities have nevertheless continued blocking both Red Cross and family visits, allowing prison abuses to continue without oversight or accountability. 🎥 Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a new video filmed inside an Israeli prison cell, taunting Palestinians.

⚡️NEW | Israel’s abuse of imprisoned Palestinian doctors is frightening families away from legal appeals, lawyer visits, and public campaigns, a Drop Site News investigation published with Egab finds. Full report from Ismail Nofal in Gaza is linked below. Key details in the thread 🧵⬇️

⚡️NEW from @DropSiteNews: Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working. Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence. Story by @nick_clevelands

🇵🇷 “For 128 years of U.S. rule, Puerto Rico has been a colony” Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York’s 13th District, marked the 128th anniversary of the July 25, 1898 U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico by calling for an end to American colonial rule and declaring her support for the island’s independence. U.S. troops landed at Guánica during the Spanish-American War, and Spain ceded the island under the Treaty of Paris without any input from Puerto Ricans. In 1900 the Foraker Act established that Puerto Rico “belongs to the United States, but is not the United States, nor a part of the United States,” a formula that has defined its status ever since. Congress imposed U.S. citizenship in 1917, months before Puerto Ricans were drafted into World War I, yet residents still cannot vote for president and have no voting representation in Congress. Avila Chevalier pointed to widespread poverty, recurring blackouts, the federal response to Hurricane Maria and the unelected fiscal oversight board known as La Junta, which was imposed by Congress in 2016 to restructure the island’s debt and holds power over its budget above the elected government. “I also support independence for the Puerto Rican people,” she said. “Because after 128 years, it’s the least the people on the island deserve.” 🎥 @DarializaforNY (via Instagram)

💢 Iran releases satellite imagery of Gulf strikes Iranian state media published high-resolution satellite imagery it says documents missile and drone strikes on U.S. targets across the Gulf and beyond. Open-source monitors verified some of the images: 🔹 Bahrain 🇧🇭 : Imagery shows the power substation at a Batelco data center struck, though the data center itself remained intact, Egypt’s Intel Observer said. Iran claims the site is a U.S. military command-and-control and AI processing hub. 🔹 Jordan 🇯🇴 : Imagery shows an aircraft hangar destroyed at Muwaffaq al-Salti Air Base, likely sheltering U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, the monitor said. 🔹 Iraq 🇮🇶 : Separate Sentinel-2 imagery from July 19 shows a Patriot air-defense site targeted at the U.S. base in Erbil, with burn marks near helicopter parking, MenchOsint reported. 🔹 Kuwait 🇰🇼 : MenchOsint geolocated a U.S. ATACMS launch site near the Iraqi border where a launcher was hit by an Iranian Shahed-136 drone on July 17, with Sentinel-2 imagery revealing burn marks and secondary explosions. Qatar 🇶🇦 : Iran presented imagery of a damaged warehouse at Al Udeid Air Base as a recent hit on a CENTCOM logistics depot. Egypt’s Intel Observer said the damage actually dates to Iranian strikes in early March and is visible in older Sentinel-2 imagery

💢 REPORT: A new Drop Site News investigation reveals that a little-known nonprofit launched with Israeli government support is building a nationwide network of state lawmakers to share pro-Israel model legislation. Documents obtained under Florida’s Sunshine Law show the State Legislator Israel Caucus (SLIC) aims to serve as a repository for bills on issues including “Judea and Samaria” and other Israel-related policies. The group’s founder says about 75 lawmakers from 35 states have joined and acknowledged that Israel funded its launch event in Washington. The investigation also examines the organization’s ties to Israeli officials, meetings with Sen. John Fetterman and Trump administration official Leo Terrell, and broader questions about foreign influence and transparency under U.S. law. 🔗 Read the new investigation from @matthew_petti for Drop Site News below ⬇️

🔺 Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned Washington after two days of renewed US strikes: “America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free. Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit.” “The Strait of Hormuz will only open with ‘Iranian arrangements,’ not American threats,” he added. Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s two lead negotiators, spoke as the MOU neared collapse: after Iranian strikes on three tankers that defied its designated routes, the US hit more than 80 targets, revoked Iran’s oil sanctions waiver, a move Tehran calls a “blatant violation” of the deal, and struck again Wednesday as Iran targeted US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.

💢 REPORT | The U.S. has launched another round of strikes on Iran on Wednesday after President Trump declared the ceasefire “over,” accusing Tehran of attacking commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. According to U.S. Central Command, the strikes targeted sites intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability to threaten shipping through the strait. Iranian media reported explosions or strikes in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Bushehr, Chabahar and Konarak, while other reports also identified Abu Musa Island and Lavan Island as targets. The escalation follows Tuesday’s exchange of attacks, in which the U.S. struck Iranian air defenses, radar systems and more than 60 IRGC naval boats after three merchant vessels were hit in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran then launched missiles and drones at U.S. military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. Trump also renewed threats to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including power and desalination plants, while saying the U.S. could “probably hit them hard again tonight,” referring to Iranian sites generally. Negotiations are officially continuing, but Trump said he believes they are “wasting their time.”

⚡️ NEW from Drop Site: The Crimson Thread: The Israeli Military Barrier Cutting Off Palestine’s Breadbasket The first 22 kilometers of a planned 500-kilometer Israeli military barrier are cutting off Palestinians from a large swathe of some of the most fertile agricultural land in the occupied West Bank. Story by @maysamustafa

🚨NEW: Drop Site journalist Ryan Grim has authenticated behind-the-scenes messages showing Politico omitted an important detail from its reporting on how the night began that led to the rape allegations against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Before publication, a Politico reporter told the Platner campaign that Jenny Racicot, on the night in question, had been “texting [Platner] about needing her glute massaged.” The reporter added, “That detail didn’t make our story.” Racicot told Jake Tapper during her CNN interview that Platner had “taken something that I said as an invitation” before she subsequently texted him not to come over. Tapper did not follow up to ask what the content of the message was, and did not respond to a request for comment from Drop Site. Politico, in a statement to Drop Site, did not dispute that the outlet was aware of the “glute masssage” text, and said that it would update its reporting if further information arose. According to a spokesperson: “This story is based on extensive reporting and interviews and reflects our editorial standards. In interviews with us and in accounts she gave to other outlets, Jenny Racicot said that she told Graham Platner not to come to her home and that he nevertheless showed up there uninvited. POLITICO gave Platner and his campaign ample opportunity to respond to our reporting and to provide any information or documentation they believed contradicted it. If presented with information that materially challenges our reporting, we will report it.” Platner is expected to drop out today. 🎥 @ryangrim | @esaagar via Breaking Points

🚨 NEW: Israel has responded to a High Court petition over the detention of Gaza physician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, saying he has been examined several times since being transferred to the underground Rakefet detention facility. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said the state failed to explain why the examinations were necessary, what they found, or respond to allegations from his lawyer that he suffered severe injuries and repeated loss of consciousness. PHRI said the response raises new questions about Abu Safiya’s condition. Israel also asked the court to dismiss, without a hearing, PHRI’s petition seeking the release of 14 Gaza doctors, including Dr. Abu Safiya, held without charge. PHRI said the response fails to address their continued detention.