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Moldova's pro-Western parliament has elected investor Vasile Tofan as prime minister

As the war with Iran escalates, Donald Trump’s patience is at its end — and he will be looking for a scapegoat sooner rather than later, MS NOW's analysts said Tuesday.According to “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire, that will likely be Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has given the president a wealth of reasons to dismiss him dating back to his Senate confirmation hearings.During a segment on reports that there are more military casualties in the war than have been publicly announced by the Pentagon, Lemire said all the bad news out of Iran is weighing on the president — and there is no way he will take the blame.“Secretary Hegseth, you know, he still, I am told, is liked by the president,“ Lemire told co-host Joe Scarborough before adding, “He does not have that many fans in the administration otherwise, that's been the case from the very beginning, from even the transition when he wasn't very truthful with the vetting teams about some of the issues in his past.“But at least, right now, Trump is still on board. But I am told that if this continues to bog down, whether it's a low-level conflict or a high-intensity resumption of war for months, Trump will eventually look for a fall guy, and it's hard to imagine it being anyone other than Pete Hegseth.” - YouTube youtu.be

One is a tech-savvy entrepreneur with no military experience who became Ukraine’s youngest defense minister six months ago, leading it to successes in defending against Russia’s 4-year-old invasion

The cost of President Donald Trump's war with Iran, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been blowing through armament stockpiles despite warnings, has the Pentagon close to running out of money, according to a report Tuesday.The Pentagon is hemorrhaging funds at an alarming rate. Critical defense budget lines are set to evaporate within weeks as the escalating conflict with Iran consumes resources at unprecedented speed, lawmakers and Pentagon officials told the Washington Post.The financial crisis is already forcing the military to make devastating choices. Training exercises and maintenance programs essential to military readiness are being slashed or eliminated entirely, according to the report which also noted that equipment maintenance budgets are being "cannibalized" to cover operational shortfalls.Hegseth has publicly dismissed concerns about depleting munitions supplies, claiming during a CBS interview last month that U.S. stockpiles remain "great, and they're only getting stronger." His public bravado starkly contrasts with private Pentagon assessments."In private, Pentagon officials have expressed far greater anxiety, according to current and former officials, arguing that the military desperately needs more money to restock munitions needed to deter U.S. adversaries like Russia and China," the Post reported.The collapsed Iran ceasefire threatens to worsen the crisis. After four U.S. service members died during intensive combat operations, the conflict appears set to escalate with no end in sight.The White House has requested $67 billion in emergency funding from Congress, but lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to proceed. The House is recessing for a month Thursday, pushing any fiscal resolution weeks away at minimum.The Navy and Air Force are particularly stressed. Both services have deployed extensive assets to the Middle East, and portions of their 2026 budgets covering operations are projected to run dry by month's end.

A former Republican strategist said Monday that Stephen Miller, one of President Donald Trump's top aides, has gambled on stifling free speech and using fear to maintain power — but there's a chance it won't work.In a Substack video, Steve Schmidt called out the White House deputy chief of staff, whom he referred to as "the architect of fear." Schmidt referred to Miller as the "most psychotic and unhinged advisor, a man with the blood of many on his hands, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good, including all of these people who lost their lives under the weight of his viciousness and his insanity."The co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project made it clear that he views Miller as "an empty little Nazi" and "Little Goebbels of Santa Monica." He also identified how Miller doesn't have unchecked political power."We have the right to speech, and we have the right to faith, and we have the right to dissent, and we have the right to oppose this whack job with the full weight of our convictions," Schmidt argued.Schmidt pointed to Trump's confusion on stage after Spain's FIFA World Cup win as an example of how "he's not capable psychologically of stepping away from power" — and that Miller is part of the problem."There are people around Donald Trump who encourage this, who stoke it, who provoke it," Schmidt added. "They believe that they're going to benefit from it. I think it's the worst bet ever made because for those who have placed it, my opposite wager is on their ruination because the survival of the American Republic depends on it. What these people have done and threatened, the thousands they have abused, the money they have stolen, the crimes they have committed cannot be gotten away with." "If they are gotten away with, then that will mean Trump has won. If Trump wins, then the Republic dies. It's as simple as that. And the choice has always been as simple as that: America or Trump," he added.

Conservative commentator and journalist Saagar Enjeti sounded the alarm Monday over the United States’ dwindling supply of crude oil reserves, which, should the U.S. war against Iran continue, could bring about “literal shortages” in a matter of weeks, he warned.The U.S.-Iran ceasefire collapsed earlier this month, and both sides have exchanged fire over the past week, with analysts increasingly doubtful a diplomatic resolution is still possible. As a result, the cost of oil surged this past week by more than 15%, and, according to the financial data company Barchart, the U.S. supply of crude oil has reached a 45-year low with just “43 days” of supply remaining.“You need that slack to have confidence in the market that it'll be there when you order what you have – when all that gets taken away, and if it runs to zero, that's when stuff gets absolutely bonkers,” Enjeti said Monday on his political video podcast “Breaking Points.” “It would be basically no confidence in the market – that's when export bans might come into play, literal shortages. This is the reason the Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists in the first place, and to now be at the lowest level since 1983, you just have no runway!”Exacerbating fears of economic turmoil further, the Yemeni military organization the Houthis announced a new maritime blockade Monday on Saudi Arabia, putting at risk “the flow of millions of barrels” of oil. And China, which significantly reduced its oil imports after the United States first attacked Iran in February, is expected to “resume buying soon as it draws down its stockpiles.”“There are two main reasons why gas is still not at catastrophic levels, although as of this morning, gas is right back to $4 a gallon nationally. One was Saudi Arabia: approximately 4.5 million barrels per day were coming out of the Bab Al Mandeb strait. That's roughly 3-4% of the world's oil supply, which the Houthis now say they will blockade,” Enjeti said.“And then secondary is China: Chinese imports are beginning to rebound sharply. China was importing roughly 12 million barrels per day right before the war began. That plummeted below 6 million barrels per day after the outbreak of the war. A resumption means it will put significant pressure on the global oil market.”Enjeti continued, “So, if you have two primary shocks that are already coming into a shocked system – the five-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz – things can get catastrophic very quickly.”

The consequences of President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran took a dire turn Monday after the Houthis, a Yemeni political and military organization, announced a new maritime blockade on the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia — a move that could put “at risk the flow of millions of barrels” of oil, according to Bloomberg.“The literal nightmare scenario,” warned conservative journalist and commentator Saagar Enjeti Monday in a social media post on X to his more than 517,000 followers.The maritime blockade was instituted, the Houthis said in a statement, in response to Saudi Arabian attacks on Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a, and will be implemented immediately.According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia has diverted close to three-quarters of its oil exports through the port of Yanbu, which rests in the Red Sea, since the disruption to trade through the Strait of Hormuz. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen share coastlines along the Red Sea, with the Houthis well positioned to enforce the embargo and disrupt Saudi Arabia’s energy exports.“The announcement adds to a slew of risks facing global oil supplies. Maritime traffic through the Hormuz Strait, where about a fifth of the world’s oil flowed, remains near standstill amid tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iran,” Bloomberg’s report reads.“Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Houthis have been on the rise since last week when Riyadh attacked the airport in Sana’a. Houthis then attacked a southern Saudi airport, the worst flare-up between them since a ceasefire in 2022.”Amid the recent attacks in the U.S. war against Iran, oil prices have resurged, with the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States reaching $4 again after it rose more than 15% in a single week, the first time the national cost for a gallon of gasoline eclipsed $4 since June 17.The literal nightmare scenario https://t.co/oVMd4IMKvU— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) July 20, 2026

Youth-led group calls on education minister to quit in one of India’s largest anti-government rallies in yearsTens of thousands of protesters have defied police orders and descended on Delhi to demand the resignation of India’s education minister in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.A huge crowd, largely made up of students and gen Z-ers, filled the streets in the heart of India’s capital from early Monday morning shouting anti-government slogans. Hundreds had already camped out overnight. Continue reading...