A defiant force in Iran

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Its commanders have been assassinated, its air defenses destroyed and its ranks penetrated by Israeli intelligence.

Yet somehow, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has emerged from the 12-day war with Israel with more power than before.

The IRGC was quick to market its partial victories in the June conflict, like causing billions of dollars of damage with missile attacks on Israeli cities or downing enemy drones.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran with senior members of the military. Photographer: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

That's reinforced its reputation as the Iranian force most capable of resisting foreign attacks, a boon amid an uptick in nationalist sentiment among many who resent the Israeli operation even if they don't support their own government.

Meanwhile, it's embedding itself deeper into the top echelons of the state, with its members and veterans claiming key seats on the new National Defense Council that's expected to help ensure command and control in any future skirmish.

Since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the IRGC has transformed from a "people's army" established to counterbalance the conventional military to a sprawling organization with operations spanning from support for regional militias like Hamas and Hezbollah to hospitals, universities and even a role building the Tehran metro.

In the process, it's made fortunes and drawn accusations of corruption, becoming an indispensable economic partner for a government in desperate need of investment in sanctioned industries like energy.

That engineering expertise is the legacy of another formative conflict, the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, after which Iran turned to the IRGC to rebuild roads, dams, railways and ports.

Now it's likely to find those services in demand once again as Iran repairs the damage from Israeli and US airstrikes and seeks to fortify itself against a potential next round.

The IRGC's network abroad — including proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza — has been critically weakened, possibly making it more likely it will look to develop a nuclear deterrent.

The deeper its entrenchment, the harder it will be for the US and Israel to dislodge. — Patrick Sykes

An image of General Qassem Soleimani during a protest in Tehran in 2020. He was killed by an American drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump. Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg

Global Must Reads

Trump called Vladimir Putin and urged the Russian leader to make plans for a summit with Volodymyr Zelenskiy after meeting the Ukrainian president and European leaders at the White House yesterday. The proposal represented the latest turn in the US leader's push to broker an end to a conflict that has lasted more than three years. US and EU officials, meanwhile, will immediately work on providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees for the meeting, sources say.

WATCH: Zelenskiy and Trump in the Oval Office.

Hamas said it has agreed to a deal proposed by Qatar and Egypt to pause its war with Israel in Gaza, fueling optimism that a breakthrough in negotiations could be close. The proposal would see the US-designated terrorist organization release half of the hostages it still holds from the October 2023 attack that triggered the conflict in return for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the "rapid expansion" of his country's nuclear-weapons program, escalating tensions with the US and South Korea as the allies conduct joint military drills that Pyongyang views as a prelude to war. Kim's comments are the latest in a series of remarks rejecting peace overtures from South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung.

Kim in Pyongyang on Aug. 14. Source: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP Photo

The Trump administration is in talks to take a stake of about 10% in Intel, sources say, a move that could see the US become the beleaguered chipmaker's largest shareholder by converting some or all of the company's federal grants into equity. Intel also has attracted investment from SoftBank, which announced plans to buy $2 billion of the chipmaker's shares.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro wanted to expand the state's role in health care. Instead he's crushing a once-robust system that had been among the most effective in Latin America. Read Andrea Jaramillo's feature on the crisis that has long-term health implications for Latin America's third-most populous country.

The African Union has thrown its weight behind a campaign to adopt a world map that more accurately reflects the continent's relative size than the one currently adorning most geography-class walls.

The Equal Earth projection retains the relative sizes of land masses.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's chief rival, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, has regained a parliamentary seat after cruising to an easy victory in a special election yesterday.

The US will send three Aegis guided-missile destroyers along with 4,000 sailors and Marines to waters off Venezuela in the next 36 hours to address what Washington sees as the threat from drug cartels, Reuters cited sources as saying.

Chile's communist presidential candidate, Jeannette Jara, pledged to gradually raise the minimum wage and increase lithium production in a blueprint for government published yesterday, backing down from the more radical proposals she unveiled earlier this year.

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Chart of the Day

Oil refiners in China have stepped up purchases of Russia's flagship crude, seizing an opportunity to take discounted cargoes relinquished by India as Washington ramps up trade tariffs against New Delhi. While China is the largest importer of Russian oil, it tends to take deliveries from the nation's Far East. Yet so far in August, shipments of Urals — which loads from Baltic and Black Sea ports — were almost double the year-to-date average, according to Kpler. In contrast, exports to India declined.

And Finally

In 2022, Saudi Arabia unveiled one of its most ambitious endeavors to date: a sprawling ski resort in the heart of the Middle Eastern desert featuring slopes atop luxury hotels, a lake hanging over a mountain cliff and a crystal skyscraper. The project, part of the planned megacity of Neom, is among the most difficult tests yet of the kingdom's ability to pull off Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's grand ambitions and meet commitments for influential international events.

An artist's impression from an October 2022 Neom press release that highlighted plans for Trojena, its sprawling futuristic ski resort in the desert. Source: Neom