The whole planet is asking the same question: Will CENTCOM dare to go to war against China?

This is not a wild hypothetical anymore.

According to MarineTraffic data, the Chinese-owned Rich Starry tanker, sailing under the Malawi flag, linked to Shanghai Xianrun, and departing from Sharjah in the UAE carrying roughly 250,000 barrels of metanol, crossed the Strait of Hormuz this Tuesday, displaying the message "China Owner & Crew."

So the Rich Starry was the first tanker to transit and exit the Strait of Hormuz, on the way to China, since the Trump blockade-to-unblock-the-Strait is in effect.

In an unusually non-understated manner, what Beijing is signaling is that a desperate Trump Administration won't be able to play Pirates of the Caribbean - remixed as Pirates of Hormuz - on China.

CENTCOM did mention that the blockade is against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports. The Rich Starry came from Sharjah - so technically it was not targetable. The real test of the blockade will be when a Chinese tanker, for instance, leaves from Bandar Abbas.

The IRGC tollbooth meawnhile, is oblivious to CENTCOM's designs. It is being tweaked virtually in real time - now evolved into a detailed 5-tier vetting system applying to every ship coming from whatever port. All vessels that have been able to cross lately - from China, India, Pakistan and a few other friendly nations - have used the same narrow sea lanes in Iranian territorial waters, bordering the islands of Qeshm and Larak.

Everyone - apart from special cases - needs to pay the $1 per barrel toll, in bitcoin or yuan. That's cleared in less than 5 seconds. Then the tanker receives a VHF password.

Any ship with insurance, flag-state registration and Western port access won't pass. These compliant ships are already heading to American ports.

The fascinating angle concerns the vast Iranian shadow fleet: not insured; may use any flag; no need to access any Western ports; already sanctioned to death; hence completely alien to the American system enforced by the blockade. Blockade or not, several tankers continue loading at Iranian terminals.

There are around 160 million barrels of oil already floating outside the Strait of Hormuz: that means Iran can continue to supply its customers in Asia, especially China, at least until the middle of July, assuming the figure of 1.8 million barrels a day imported by China.

In Mary Shelley's famous work, Dr. Frankenstein is asked, "Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?"

This week, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D. Calif.), the leading Democratic candidate for California governor, may wish he could ask that of former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). After sexual assault allegations were raised by former staff members, Pelosi, Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), and even his close friend (and former campaign chair) Sen. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.) have withdrawn their endorsements.

The fact, however, is that (regardless of the merits of these latest allegations), Swalwell was always a notorious figure in Washington who was constructed by Pelosi and others to serve their interests.

As Pelosi and his other allies now seek to destroy him, they cannot escape their hand in his creation.

In a long-awaited release that sent ripples through Washington on Monday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has declassified closed-door 2019 transcripts from briefings with then-Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson. The documents, withheld from the public for over seven years, reveal critical details about the anonymous "whistleblower" whose complaint about President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky triggered Trump's first impeachment - details that directly contradict the narrative of a neutral, non-partisan civil servant acting in good faith.

The revelations come via investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, who broke the story on X with direct screenshots from the transcripts and statements from key officials involved in the declassification.

Against the backdrop of the war with Iran, a deteriorating economic situation, and a growing political crisis in the United States, an increasingly pressing question is emerging: will the administration of Donald Trump be able to retain power in the face of a potential defeat in the midterm elections?

With all that is going on in the world and its impact, especially on the US economy, it begs the question, "How will Trump and team manage to 'cancel or rig' the US midterm elections?" As things look now, with the job market contracting, with workers hours reduced and pay cuts, only a fool would vote Republican. However, Democrats are not any better; both sides of the house are owned by the Zionists! There's no difference between them on that front — as shown by their talking points and their dismal pro-Israeli voting records.

The motivations of many are not so obvious, and few are taking the time to dig deeper. The US Treasury Department has declared the US insolvent, which means that it is broke and only digging itself deeper in debt. That is the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department's own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, which were recently released to near-total media silence.

A broad international coalition of academics, former officials, diplomats, and public figures from multiple countries has released an open letter, voicing support for the terms set out by Iran for bringing about a conclusive end to aggression against the country.

The letter, titled "A Declaration to the Conscience of Humanity," that was released on Saturday, was presented as a collective appeal signed by more than 170 individuals from 30 countries. Those included the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, China, India, Iran, and several other nations across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

The document came more than 40 days after the United States and the Israeli regime began their latest round of unprovoked aggression against the country, targeting its military and civilian infrastructure alike with numerous deadly and destructive strikes.

We've been covering the shift in American politics on Israel for years. Donald Trump's disastrously failed war on Iran has accelerated it.

For years, conventional wisdom held that support for Israel was a third rail in U.S. politics. Phil Weiss has written a library of analysis and coverage on that here at Mondoweiss over the past 20 years. Uncritical support for Israel was toxic for politicians to touch, impossible to oppose, and self-reinforcing across both parties through the combined pressure of donor money, media consensus, and institutional loyalty. That consensus is broken forever. It didn't break because of a sudden moral awakening in Washington. That will never happen, on virtually any issue. If you need any more proof of that, just look at the way the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein are being treated, or refer to the fact that even massacres of schoolchildren haven't moved Congress to do something about guns in the country. The consensus across the political elite on Israel broke because Israel's conduct in Gaza, Lebanon, and now in its open effort to torpedo an end to the war with Iran, has become a liability that American politicians can no longer ignore.

Michael Arria, our U.S. correspondent, documented this week how military aid to Israel has finally become a true litmus test in Democratic Party primaries. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced she will vote against all military aid to Israel, including weapons classified as "defensive," a position she had previously hedged. Even J Street, the organization meant to offer a counter to AIPAC's extremism but locked in perpetual confusion about its identity, is even now opposing U.S. support for the Iron Dome missile defense system. AIPAC, once considered the most powerful of all the many lobby groups, is now a liability in Democratic races, losing key primaries and watching candidates run against it by name. A recent NBC News poll shows just 13 percent of Democrats view Israel positively. These numbers are not marginal; they represent a fundamental and permanent realignment of the Democratic base. Politicians, candidates, and political institutions are paying attention.

Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat in Hungary's parliamentary election after 16 years in power, calling Peter Magyar to congratulate Tisza on its victory. With 52% to 39% of the vote and a record 77.8% turnout, the highest in Hungarian electoral history.

And Brussels is delighted. Which is precisely why you should be paying attention to how this happened, not just that it happened.

Let's be clear about what the European Union spent years telling us. Orbán was a dictator. A puppet of Putin, which is ludicrous. An authoritarian who had captured the courts, the media and the institutions. A man who could never be removed through a fair democratic process because he had rigged the system beyond repair. Then he lost a free election. By thirteen points.

So which is it, was Hungary an authoritarian state, or a functional democracy that just voted out its government? You cannot claim both when convenient and discard the one that doesn't serve the narrative.

What you can do, and what nobody in the West's client media will do tonight, is look honestly at the infrastructure assembled around this result. Years of EU-directed NGO funding flowing into Hungary's civil society. Client media bankrolled through Brussels aligned networks. A Zelensky — Brussels' own armed puppet thug who stood at a press conference in March and told the world he would give Orbán's personal address to the Ukrainian Armed Forces so they could "speak to him in their own language." An open threat against a sitting elected leader of a European Union member state, so brazen that even the European Commission was forced to condemn it.

Peter Magyar's decisive win will reshape Hungary's relations with both East and West.

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar has pulled off a stunning victory in the country's parliamentary election, with his Tisza party beating Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz by more than 16 points. The result is set to dramatically change Hungary's relations with the EU, Russia, and Ukraine.

Just over an hour after polls closed on Sunday, Orban called Magyar to congratulate him on his win.

With 92% of the ballots counted on Sunday night, Tisza was leading with 53.72% of the vote, ahead of Fidesz with 37.67% - a result in line with opposition-friendly pre-election polls.

Magyar campaigned on ending corruption, funding public services, and restoring ties with the EU. Orban promised to continue his program of tax breaks for citizens and levies on corporations, all while pledging to keep Hungary out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His campaign cast Magyar as a tool of the EU, who would cut off Hungary's access to cheap Russian energy and back Brussels' escalatory policies toward Moscow.

A record 77.8% of eligible Hungarians voted, the highest turnout in any election in Hungarian history. Thanks to this unprecedented level of participation, "the democratic mandate of the next National Assembly will be stronger than ever before," Gergely Gulyas, the Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters.

"What the result means for the fate of our country and the nation, and what its deeper or higher meaning is, we do not know now, time will decide," Orban told supporters in Budapest. "No matter how it turns out, we, as opposition, will serve our country and the Hungarian nation."

If you were writing this for a Hollywood script, it would be rejected for being unrealistic.

Trump's latest scheme to 'unblock the Strait of Hormuz' is almost certainly not going to work, but more importantly, what is the likelihood that hostilities will recommence between the US and Iran? Also, what really happened during that so-called 'rescue mission' south of Isfahan last week?

And should we have sympathy for Trump? He seems to be at the mercy of forces he can neither placate nor out-maneuver...


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Iran and the United States have ended the third round of Pakistan-mediated ceasefire talks in Islamabad, with the two sides engaging in fresh exchange of written texts aimed at reaching a framework on the topics in discussion.

Sources have confirmed that Iranian Parliament Speaker and delegation head Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Deputy Head of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Bagheri-Kani participated in the third round.

After two previous rounds, the latest round appeared to be a final attempt to secure agreement on Iran's 10-point proposal to end unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic, knowledgeable sources told Press TV.

Prior to the third round, the two sides had similarly exchanged written texts towards arriving at the framework and ensuring that there was no room for ambiguity in the draft proposals.

The Iranian delegation participated in the talks following a decision by the United States to release frozen Iranian assets and force the Israeli regime to end its aggression on Lebanon. This was one of Iran's demands in its 10-point plan, which Tehran had previously presented to Washington through intermediaries as part of its response to a US proposal for a ceasefire.

According to the statement issued by Iran's top security body on Wednesday, the United States agreed to:

A 10-point proposal that calls for no new aggression against Iran, continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of uranium enrichment, removal of all primary and secondary sanctions, termination of all anti-Iran UN Security Council resolutions as well as IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, payment of compensation to Iran, withdrawal of US combat forces from the region and cessation of war on all fronts, including against the Islamic Resistance of Lebanon (Hezbollah).

US President Donald Trump called the plan "a workable basis on which to negotiate."