French Carrier Traverses Suez Canal For Belated Possible Hormuz Mission 

Italian Diplomatic Sources Deny Talks With Iran To Open Hormuz Update(1140ET): Italy denies talks with Iran, but still nothing official on a public level from government ministers: No negotiations are under way with Iran to guarantee safe passage through the Hormuz Strait for Italian ships or oil tankers, an Italian Foreign Ministry source has told Reuters, denying a report in The Financial Times. “In their diplomatic contacts, Italian leaders want to favour the conditions for a general military de-escalation, but there is no under-the-table negotiation aimed at preserving only some merchant ships...

Navy Abandons USS Boise Overhaul After 11 Years And $800 Million Spent The U.S. Navy has finally thrown in the towel on the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Boise (SSN-764). After more than eleven years pierside and roughly $800 million poured into a repair effort that never really started, the service announced that the 34-year-old boat will be inactivated rather than returned to the fleet. The decision comes as the Navy shifts focus to Virginia- and Columbia-class construction, yet one has to wonder why those same priorities could not have been...

Earlier this week, Israel announced that they’d begun their ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Early fighting was reported around the city of Khiam. That just continues to worsen, according to reports, and is starting to spread to other areas of the border region. In addition to Khiam, locals in the border village of Ayta al-Shaab […]