Python doesn't have variables in the C sense. It has pointers to objects (aka "names"), and the "=" is a pointer assignment operator.

So:

  i = 23  # Create an int(23) object and store its address in i
  i = "foo"  # Create a str("foo") object and store its address in i

> Python's strong typing mostly boils down to some operator rejecting mixed types.

Well... yeah. Turns out that plus duck typing is very nearly all most people want out of a type system. I went from Python to Rust and found nearly no difference in how they handle types, except Rust does it at compile time. Judging from the number of people I've seen make the same migration, that seems to be common. And yet no reasonable person makes claims that Rust is weakly typed, even when IMO it's basically Python but enforced at compile time.