July 27, 2026

Good morning! Today is Monday, July 27th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. A U.S.–Iran pause enters a second night as depleted munitions, drone strikes on Erbil, and a mined tanker in the Strait of Hormuz push gas prices to $4.11 a gallon. The abrupt firing of Ukraine's defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov punctures the narrative that Kiev is turning the tide, exposing battlefield setbacks, entrenched corruption, and Zelensky's habit of sidelining rivals. and now for the details. We begin overseas, where the United States and Iran have paused their mutual strikes for a second consecutive night, as the Iran War enters its 149th day. A Pentagon official told CNN that operations against Iran are, quote, "on hold." Iran's army spokesman, Mohammad Akraminia, confirmed to Agence France-Presse that Tehran has also halted its retaliatory operations. As Harrison Berger reports for The American Conservative, CNN, citing anonymous sources, says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine and Vice President J.D. Vance warned President Trump on Friday that depleted U.S. munitions stockpiles make further offensive escalation risky. The pause also came just hours after U.S. forces in Erbil, Iraq, were targeted by drone attacks that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed destroyed, quote, "almost all" American military infrastructure in the city. The Iranian army spokesman warned in a video Sunday that the war would expand if Washington and Israel press ahead with further attacks. Meanwhile, an oil tanker exploded Sunday morning after colliding with a mine in the Strait of Hormuz. Omani negotiators have reportedly spent the weekend in Tehran seeking an agreement on the management of the strait. Tanker traffic through Hormuz has collapsed, with data firm Kpler reporting only two tankers crossed the strait on Friday. The consequences are being felt at home. AAA reports the average price of a gallon of regular gas now stands at $4.11. Turning to Ukraine, where the sudden firing of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, just six months after his appointment in January, is raising fresh questions about the true state of the war. Writing for The American Conservative, Ted Snider and Nicolai Petro argue that the dismissal punctures the popular narrative that Ukraine, through drone innovation, has turned the tide against Russia. The facts on the ground, they say, do not bear this out. While Ukrainian drone strikes deep into Russia have caused problems for Moscow, they have not altered the calculus on the battlefront in eastern Ukraine. Russia has not suffered a monthly net loss of territory since the fall of 2023, and its grinding offensive in the Donbas continues. Snider and Petro report that Fedorov, the face of high-tech drone warfare, had blamed the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, for escalating battlefield losses. Syrskyi and other senior generals were unimpressed by Fedorov's drone strategy, favoring more traditional tactics, including casualty-heavy assaults. President Zelensky admitted the dispute had become untenable and sacked Fedorov, only to yield to a public backlash a week later and fire Syrskyi as well. The authors note that Fedorov had also stepped on powerful toes by terminating lucrative contracts with well-connected defense firms, uncovering billions in overspending. But perhaps his gravest sin, in Zelensky's eyes, was that his popularity as a reformer was beginning to make him look like a political threat. Snider and Petro place the firing in a pattern of sidelining potential rivals, from former commander Zaluzhnyi to intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov. The upshot, they conclude, is a challenge to the hopeful narrative about Ukraine's prospects, both in this war and in whatever comes next. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.