Existential War

Plus: fixing Rikers Island, the Democrats' Maine scramble, India's affirmative action, and more...

Back at it: "Iran said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz was an inviolable 'red line,' warning that if ​U.S. President Donald Trump carried out his threat to attack Iran's infrastructure, it would strike all infrastructure across the Gulf region," reports Reuters. Renewed fighting is now in its sixth day, and the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports has been reinstated following the dissolution of the truce, which was signed in mid-June.

"We are in an essential and existential war with ​America," said Tehran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The saber-rattling continued on both sides, as Trump warned earlier in the week that the U.S. military would hit Iranian power plants and bridges as early as next week unless ‌Tehran comes to the negotiating table. An Iranian army spokesman said that if Trump made good on his threat, the military would strike "all remaining infrastructure" across the region—meaning U.S. bases, seemingly—with greater intensity than before.

Iran said it had already targeted American bases in Kuwait and Jordan: "Our neighbours should know that providing a base to the Americans and allowing them to fire on Iranian soil ​is unacceptable and will not go unanswered." This is, of course, in keeping with what the regime has said before; it's not clear that this time will, in fact, be different. But the situation does look to be escalating, and it's not clear what the path out looks like.

Your testosterone is under review: "The Pentagon plans to screen troops for testosterone deficiency as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues his revamp of the country's military," reports The Wall Street Journal. "Hegseth said on Wednesday that servicemembers aged 30 and older would be tested every year during their annual health assessments. He said if treatment is recommended, troops can decide if they want to receive testosterone replacement therapy."

The Trump administration released word of this in the most memey, extremely online way possible:

The High-T Department of War. pic.twitter.com/hlAUq3j2cD

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) July 15, 2026

"By addressing these health markers early we're keeping you on the leading edge of lethality," said Hegseth. I'd argue efficacy is what we're going for, not sheer lethality, but then again this is mostly marketing.

"The Trump administration has pushed to widen access to TRT [Testosterone Replacement Therapy] and encourage its use," reports The Washington Post. "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promoted testosterone as an antiaging tool. Testosterone use has surged in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among young men, as online platforms have made it easier for people to obtain prescription medication."

I'll level with you: I don't feel I know enough about the science—or the military, or how testosterone levels are affected by deployment, or possible harms—to be able to comment on this one way or the other. (Kind of a low-T response from me, I'll admit.) I'd be interested in readers' thoughts, especially those who have served. In the meantime, beware the mainstream media coverage on this that says "the Trump administration is taking cues from the manosphere." The "manosphere" is sometimes right! And the public health establishment is not without error.

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Scenes from New York: "The official in charge of fixing New York City's troubled jails submitted a plan to a federal judge on Tuesday to improve conditions at Rikers Island, calling for changes to investigations and discipline, as well as to some infrastructure," reports The New York Times. "The official, Nicholas Deml, was appointed in January by a federal judge overseeing the city's jails to take control of the system, effectively replacing the mayor as the person to make major decisions on safety. The 33-page plan produced by Mr. Deml's team outlined more than a dozen steps the city's Department of Correction would begin taking as soon as September. The federal judge, Laura Taylor Swain, would have to approve Mr. Deml's plan before it is put into action."

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QUICK HITS

• "Without Lindsey Graham and Graham Platner, both parties face a late-summer scramble," writes Henry Olsen for The Washington Post. I don't envy the position Maine's Democratic Party has been put in.
• Interesting Odd Lots episode, though of course take New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's justifications with a grain of salt, as she is clearly trying to sell the data-center moratorium policy to skeptics:

As Hochul frames it. She likes AI. She uses AI. And says she believes AI will be an important driver of growth in the future.

She says the moratorium will not turn into a ban, and that the goal is to use this period to figure about the best structure of datacenter agreements. https://t.co/7Ybn2528Gk

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) July 15, 2026

• "If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandle it—especially the communications of it," Vice President J.D. Vance said on Joe Rogan's show. "We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files."
• "India's long-running debate about affirmative action has a new point of comparison: China," argues Sadanand Dhume at The Wall Street Journal. "As Indians argue about expanding caste quotas in government jobs and public higher education, opponents of affirmative action want their country to learn from its northern neighbor. They compare India's quota-ridden system—DEI on steroids—with China's brutal meritocracy, which has produced economic and technological results that many Indians envy."
• Algorithmic changes for those who observe:

We're rolling out a small tweak to boost visibility of your posts to your mutuals (people who you follow back).

We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) July 13, 2026

• Charli has deep thoughts:

truly believe anti marketing will become a thing soon… still marketing but it's just a different approach, more intimate, personal, private, one on one. less about the projection of scale. i'm into it xx

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 13, 2026