Badlands Brief

Iraqi Purge and Iranian Conspiracy

The Badlands Brief is your daily drop of Badlands’ takes on the narratives dominating the info war. Read on, and join the conversation in the comments section.

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Trump and Iran Resume Military Strikes, Then Agree to Halt Them and Negotiate (Again)

The United States and Iran have agreed to halt further military strikes and are expected to meet this week in Doha, Qatar, to address disputes surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, according to senior U.S. officials cited by Axios. Axios reported that both sides agreed to suspend “kinetic activity” and continue technical discussions as part of efforts to stabilize the situation.

The planned talks come after several days of renewed hostilities that followed an earlier memorandum of understanding intended to end the conflict. The Guardian reported that differing interpretations of the agreement, particularly regarding the Strait of Hormuz, appear to have contributed to the latest escalation. The publication also reported that a residential building in Muharraq, Bahrain, was struck by an Iranian drone, citing Bahrain’s Interior Ministry.

The renewed violence has affected global energy markets. Reuters reported that oil prices rose on June 29 after reciprocal U.S. and Iranian strikes slowed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters also reported that attacks on vessels resumed after Thursday, including an incident involving a Qatar-linked oil tanker, underscoring concerns about the security of one of the world’s most important energy transit routes.

The latest diplomatic effort is aimed at preventing further escalation while addressing maritime security and commercial shipping concerns in the Gulf region. Axios reported that both governments intend to continue discussions despite the recent flare-up in hostilities.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: There is much more to this story than meets the eye; And much more than has been reported.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Remember the infamous Evergreen ship (“Ever Given”) that got stuck in the Suez Canal back in 2021? It blocked the Canal for weeks, causing a supply chain nightmare not unlike what we have seen with the Strait of Hormuz.

The company that owned that ship is called Evergreen Maritime Organization, otherwise known as Evergreen Group, based out of Taiwan—another proxy of the Deep State.

The whole purported "collapse" of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) began when a tanker called the Ever Lovely transited the Strait of Hormuz. Instead of using the Iran-designated shipping routes—which all other ships had been using without problem and without paying a toll (a 60-day pause in collecting these fees, per the MOU)—the Ever Lovely took a "UN-backed route" that was outside of the normal ship traffic pattern.

It is important to note that the International Maritime Organization worked closely with the United States, Iran, and the Gulf States to create this two-lane traffic pattern. All parties agreed that these would be the sole routes used during the 60-day window stipulated in the MOU.

The Ever Lovely did not use these routes, instead charting a course along the Omani coast (shown in red above), along with five other tankers. When the Iranian authorities ordered the ships to turn around and use the designated routes, the other five ships complied. The Ever Lovely's AIS tracker stopped transmitting, indicating that it may have been intentionally turned off. Hence why the Iranians likely took this as an intentional act to undermine the MOU.

The reports are that “an object” struck the Ever Lovely, and it is assumed that it was some kind of drone. Iran has yet to claim responsibility.

A second ship, the Kiku, was reportedly struck by Iran on Saturday after it attempted to bypass the agreed-upon traffic lanes.

The Kiku is owned by Evalend Shipping, which is controlled by a Greek shipping magnate named Kriton Lentoudis. Evalend was a commercial counterparty to another company called VS Tankers FZE, formerly AISSOT, leasing them many of their ships. Remember this for the take below regarding Iraq.

I explain the details in my second take below, but I believe that the Kiku and her owners are part of a network that has been laundering money and oil out of Iran through Iraq and the UAE—which would match Executive Orders and sanctions issued by the Trump administration going back to 2018. (I don’t think it is a coincidence that dozens of officials and bankers in Iraq with ties to Iran were just arrested in a corruption sweep.)

Now let’s look at another interesting angle of this new “escalation” between the US and Iran.

Last week, Marco Rubio flew to the UAE to meet with officials from the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Con Inc and its proxies reported the trip as a noble attempt by Rubio to “clean up” the mess created by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner with their “disastrous” peace deal.

During my show on Tuesday, I noted that it was very odd that President Trump’s three most important Arab allies—Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman—were visibly absent from the meeting. It was a signal to me that this meeting may have been convened by the Deep State.

The consternation from the NeoCons over this peace deal, coupled with their fawning over Rubio’s UAE trip led me to be suspicious of the whole thing. Now we learn that Iran has attacked targets specifically in Kuwait and Bahrain—the two countries that were ostensibly colluding to subvert President Trump.

To me, it’s looking more and more like Iran is acting as an enforcer for President Trump, lashing out and attacking his enemies who seek to derail his plan for peace. It’s a callback to the Doha Agreement that he signed with the Taliban in 2020, where the Taliban vowed to hunt down terrorists on Trump’s behalf, and followed through on that promise.

Interestingly enough, the next meeting between the US and Iran is scheduled to take place in Doha.

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Ukraine Preparing Increased Pressure and “Influence” Campaign on Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has approved a 40-day “influence operation” by Ukraine’s Security Service aimed at pressuring Russia to end the war. In a statement cited by Ukrainian authorities, Zelenskyy said the effort would include long-range and medium-range sanctions plans as well as an assessment of results achieved by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine’s security services had demonstrated strong performance in supporting frontline operations through the use of drones over recent months. He highlighted the work of the Security Service’s special operations units in actions against Russian forces.

The announcement comes as Ukraine continues drone strikes against targets inside Russia, including energy and refinery infrastructure, according to the report. The article also cited Ukrainian official Mykhailo Fedorov, who said in June that Russian logistics were being disrupted and that Crimea was being increasingly isolated.

Burning Bright: Donald Trump's expert (and discombobulating) navigation of the Iranian Knot has sucked much of the geopolitical oxygen out of the room in 2026, but that little thing in Ukraine is still going on, for all intents and purposes.

Now, how much of the 'war' or 'special military operation' in the Donbas is kinetic or psychological is certainly up for debate, and this audience knows my leaning on that front, but we can still learn a lot from statements of intent offered by either side.

Lately, reports indicate that Ukraine has been stepping up its campaign against the Russian Federation, and while the headlines keep focusing on alleged drone warfare and effective strikes occurring deeper inside Russian territory, new reports out of the Ukraine side this weekend mentioned such escalation as part of a broader 'influence operation.'

Now, the surface level reading of that term is simply that Ukraine is attempting to turn up the kinetic pressure on Russia by targeting its energy sites, strategic nodes and yes, its civilian population in a way the Russian side has largely avoided up to now.

But my mind goes in a different direction.

What if Our Boy Z is subtly disclosing the fact that the War in the Donbas is itself exactly that ... an 'influence operation,' and one ultimately designed to accomplish the goals set out in Vladimir Putin's special military operation?

Namely, to unify the Donbas with the Russian Federation it never should have been separated from, and to do so by ratcheting the geopolitical tension so much that the big dog, Donald Trump enters the game board with gusto and helps Putin accomplish what neither can alone: the codification of peace.

The Arc of the Peacemakers was always going to culminate and climax in the arrival (or appearance) of a Polycrisis.

One that only they can solve.

Let's see what happens.

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Centrist Democrats Freaking Out Over Rise of Communists in Their Party

Moderate Democrats are expressing concern after a series of progressive primary victories, particularly in New York City, where left-leaning candidates won several Democratic contests and defeated two incumbent House members. Party strategists affiliated with centrist organizations said the results could signal a broader ideological shift within the Democratic Party and complicate efforts to compete in closely contested general-election races.

The debate comes amid a string of progressive primary successes across multiple states. Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is backed by Bernie Sanders, said voters are increasingly receptive to progressive candidates. Establishment-aligned Democrats have responded by increasing support for rival candidates in key races, including Michigan’s Senate contest.

In Wisconsin, some Democratic leaders have moved to consolidate support behind Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez as concerns grow about the momentum of state Rep. Francesca Hong in the gubernatorial primary. Moderate Democratic groups have argued that candidates in competitive districts should distance themselves from positions that Republicans could use in general-election attacks.

Progressive figures, meanwhile, contend that recent election results demonstrate voter demand for a different political approach and have criticized efforts to marginalize the party’s left wing. Following the New York primaries, some progressive winners called for cooperation across ideological factions ahead of the general election.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democratic enthusiasm is coming from both centrist and progressive constituencies and argued that the party remains united in its effort to win elections and regain congressional majorities.

Ashe in America: As far as I can tell, this narrative deployment about the brewing Democrat civil war is a Politico exclusive. All the articles exploring this topic, all the so-called disputes originate from the outlet.

That being said, it resonates on the local for me. I’ve been talking about DSA rising this entire election cycle. I’m for it, for the record. I’m looking at the primary elections as an indicator for where we are with elections. Our Colorado primary is tomorrow. It’s all very exciting.

If the DSA is able to take a wrecking ball to the left wing of the uniparty, we should let them. The uniparty is prolonging the pain of our great divide, and Republicans can’t do anything about its left wing.

But the DSA can. If that happens, America First is fighting the DSA, on the battlefield of ideas.

And we win that fight all day long.

Accelerate.

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New Chinese Open Source AI Models Continue to Pressure US Industry

A Chinese artificial-intelligence company, Zhipu AI, has released an open-weight model known as GLM-5.2 that, according to reporting cited in the article, can match leading U.S. AI systems in some software-security bug-finding tasks. The model is available for download and local deployment, allowing users to run it on their own hardware.

Benchmark discussions involving cybersecurity company Semgrep reported by The Wall Street Journal state that researchers found GLM-5.2 could match the bug-finding capabilities of the model referred to as Mythos when provided additional instructions.

Goldman Sachs executive Rich Privorotsky said that GLM-5.2 appears highly competitive on software-engineering benchmarks and demonstrates that the performance gap between open and closed AI models continues to narrow.

Zhou Hongyi, chief executive of 360 Security Technology, said his company released a bug-finding tool called Tulongfeng that it claims is comparable to Mythos in identifying software vulnerabilities.

OpenAI plans to limit access to GPT-5.6 after security concerns were raised by Trump administration officials and following a recent executive order addressing AI security and oversight.

Burning Bright: This is one of the more fascinating trends beneath a trend I've had my eye on ever since the DeepSeek deployment back in January 2025.

While the framing of panic pieces such as this one is all about Chinese models threatening comparable US technology, and while the Trump Administration is leaning into this engineered hysteria (for a reason,) the real signal comes when viewing it all through the Net Effects refrain.

If AI behemoths like OpenAI and Anthropic are being threatened by open-source software, does it increase or decrease the chances for centralization in an industry (which is really an emergent technological step change) we can ill afford to do exactly that?

So then, when China threatens the viability of US AI models, are they actually threatening their viability ... or their closed-source nature?

I believe the AI Arms Race between the US and China is going to result in the rapid decentralization of the entire technology, helping to ensure that how the AI age ramps and develops in society becomes a shared project for all humans rather than a nationalized or localized one.

In the meantime, expect Donald Trump to amplify the 'threats' Chinese models pose to American AI ... thereby granting him the shielding to accelerate our investment into what could be one of the prime accelerants of the Golden Age, no matter what the original hoarders of the technology had planned in its stead.

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Baghdad’s Green Zone Locked Down Amidst Anti-Corruption Sweep

Iraqi authorities carried out a series of arrests as part of a corruption investigation linked to former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili, according to reporting by Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency cited by ZeroHedge. Several political figures were reported arrested in connection with the probe.

Security forces locked down Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified district that houses key Iraqi government institutions and foreign embassies, and conducted raids inside the area. Video footage referenced in the report showed tanks and other heavily armed vehicles deployed during the operation.

According to AP reporting summarized in the article, a security report obtained by the news agency said seven people were arrested, including five members of parliament whose immunity had been revoked. AP further reported that some of those detained were linked to the political bloc of former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

The reported arrests were described as part of a wider anti-corruption investigation stemming from the case involving former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili.

GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: In my earlier take, I mentioned the Kiku—the second ship that was attacked by Iran this past Saturday.

The Kiku is owned by Evalend Shipping, which is controlled by a Greek shipping magnate named Kriton Lentoudis. Evalend was a commercial counterparty to another company called VS Tankers FZE, formerly AISSOT, leasing them many of their ships.

Last year, the US Treasury identified a network run by Salim Ahmed Said, which included VS Tankers FZE. Said was blending Iranian and Iraqi oil, then selling it to western buyers through either Iraq or UAE.

This map is from the Treasury’s sanctioning document.

This is a callback to the sanctions President Trump imposed on Iranian central bankers in 2018, where he accused them of laundering US cash through Iraqi and UAE banks. (Those bankers were arrested by the Iranian government and sentenced to ten years in prison.)

The following text is from sanctions issued last year by Scott Bessent:

“Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said (Said) runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020. Said’s companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities. Said’s companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions. This allows the oil to be sold on the legitimate market and helps Iran evade international sanctions on its oil exports.

Said has bribed many members of key Iraqi government bodies, including parliament. He has reportedly paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to these officials in exchange for forged vouchers allowing him to sell Iranian oil as if it originated from Iraq.”

There was all this whining about how Iraq’s new government was going to cuddle up to Iran and cut off the west. While it does appear that the new Iraqi Prime Minister has a far better relationship with Iranian contacts than past Iraqi governments, the fact that the Iraqi government is now rounding up former officials with ties to Iran is quite telling.

This is absolutely Trump and the Sovereign Alliance taking down the Deep State. My guess is that these clowns were installed by the Bush-era NeoCons.

Accelerate.

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