News Roundup – 21st August 2026

ICE is collaborating with the Iranian regime on which Iranians exiles and refugees in USA are to be deported. Presumably, those wanted by the regime get sent back to Iranian jails. And those spying for the regime get to stay in USA.

The Phoenicians are so giddy with Kim Jong Un throwing a lifeline to Russia, by turning over his soldiers and arsenal to them that President Trump announced that he expects to hold a new, face-to-face summit with Kim Jong Un later this year. He even ordered his defense officials to slash the annual military exercises with South Korea from 11 days down to 5. He publicly branded the joint drills as “hostile” and “financially wasteful.” Maybe they will also present Kim Jong Un with one of those Nobel prize trinkets as well.

There is a possibility that the Strait of Hormuz will be administered as US Territory, although the Phoenicians are reluctant to pry it away from Iran. During a political rally in mid-August 2026, President Trump declared that once Iran is fully defeated in the ongoing conflict, he intends to formally designate the Strait of Hormuz a US territory. Trump escalated this claim by posting an AI-generated map on Truth Social that explicitly circled and labeled the strategic waterway as “New U.S. Territory”.

The fact that all of Iran’s Neighbors seem to be tacitly OK with this proposed arrangement speaks volumes about what kind of neighbor Iran really is.

While Pakistan, nudged by USA, has been bombing and warring with the Taliban, some savvy Indian officials, seeing opportunity, have begun a rapprochement with the Taliban, which will bring all sorts of economic and strategic benefits to India. The Trump administration on the other hand, is growing very uneasy and resentful, so uneasy that the worried Taliban approached them to reconsider opening ties but the Trump administration will not consider (unless they severe ties with India).