Iran
** Iran attacked U.S. military bases in Kuwait on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up six months into the war. The new clashes, which began with U.S. raids on Sunday, deepen the ongoing impasse in the war, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. presses its counterblockade of Iranian ports.
Chokehold
** Energy Secretary Chris Wright pledged on Wednesday that a U.S. plan for expanded sanctions targeting the Islamic republic’s economic partners would deliver “absolutely maximum pressure”.
Casualties
** Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday the deaths of six more military personnel from U.S. strikes this week, bringing the military death toll to at least 13. The U.S. strikes on Tuesday were the most extensive for weeks. In the latest report on military deaths, Tasnim said six members of the regular military, including three pilots, had been killed in southern Iran.
Pledge
** The Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the innocent blood of our martyrs killed by the U.S. criminal forces will not be forgotten and the shedding of the blood will not go unpunished. In a message issued on Thursday, Major General Ahmad Vahidi condemned the latest war crime committed by the terrorist U.S. military that involved the bombing of a wedding ceremony in a coastal city in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan.
Ukraine
** A massive Ukrainian drone attack at Russia’s Ust-Luga oil export terminal in the Baltic Sea has sparked a fire at the site as Ukraine continues to target Russian refineries and energy export infrastructure. Following a drone attack overnight, the Ust-Luga port sustained damage, and a fire broke out, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region where the port is located, said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
US energy developments
** The federal government Monday approved a massive expansion of a coal mine in northwestern New Mexico that could extend production at the mine by more than a century and produce roughly 503 million tons of coal. The Navajo Mine, around 22 miles from Farmington, could produce coal at a rate of 5 million to 15 million tons per year, depending on demand, according to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
** Arkansas officials confirm C&S Chemicals had no permits, licenses, registrations, or other filings with state environmental regulators before a May chemical spill sent nearly 78,000 gallons of acidified aluminum sulfate off the company’s Fort Smith property.
** The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports LNG exports rose 23% in the first half of the year because of higher capacity. They averaged 17.4 billion cubic feet a day in the first six months of the year, 23% more than the same period in 2025.
** The U.S. built a record 20.2 GWh of battery storage in the second quarter of 2026, with most of that capacity coming from utility-scale installations.
** Holtec announces its Michigan nuclear plant has begun loading fuel as the company plans to restart a shuttered nuclear facility for the first time in U.S. history.
** Next-generation geothermal company Fervo Energy signs a deal with Google, which will purchase nearly 400 MW of power from its Cape Station project in Utah.
** Annual reports filed to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) showed CenterPoint Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC and Entergy Texas spent a combined $58.06 million on “legislative matters,” including lobbying and regulatory advocacy, from 2021 through 2025, annual reports filed to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).
