The Rest of the World Report | July 16, 2026 — Evening Edition

Iran just declared the Strait of Hormuz off-limits to America, period, and there's no real workaround if it stays closed. Your vice president told a foreign ally's influence operation to go to hell, then floated Epstein-Mossad theories with the weight of his office behind them. And in Houston, the case built to smear a dead man just collapsed.Iran called Hormuz a "red line." The alternatives everyone keeps citing can't replace it, and Iran has already proven it can hit them too. JD Vance says Israel ran a paid campaign to sabotage the ceasefire deal he personally negotiated, though he believes the war itself would have happened anyway. Then he revived Epstein-Mossad conspiracy theories on the record. The FBI suggested a dead man had drugs in his van. The local prosecutors who actually reviewed the evidence say he didn't. Nine days later, still nobody outside the federal government knows the shooter's name in Houston. In Maine, we only know the name because his ex-wife wouldn't lie for him."Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1789 Get full access to The Rest of the World Report at www.restoftheworldreport.com/subscribe