Summary
Saudi Aramco attacked again: Houthi drone strikes on a Saudi refinery sent oil prices higher.
Hormuz stalemate & standoff: US says it can sustain the Iranian port blockade indefinitely.
Iran digs in: Tehran appears prepared for a prolonged war of attrition.
Hard-liners rise: Iran reshuffled senior security leadership toward a more aggressive posture.
Diplomacy dead-end: Iran says the U.S. has miscalculated, while talks remain deadlocked.
What foreign country has full access to US critical infrastructure???!!!
Cyberattack Cripples California City's 911 System, Forces Emergency Shutdown
A Northern California city of roughly 30,000 residents was forced to shut down its entire computer network Friday after a cyberattack knocked out its 911 system, the latest sign of how vulnerable American municipalities remain to digital assaults.
Suisun City, located about 45 miles from San Francisco, declared a state of emergency Saturday after malicious software infiltrated its network shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, the California Post reported.
“Officials shut down the entire network to stop the threat from spreading and protect evidence for a federal investigation,” the outlet reported.
City officials scrambled to prevent the outage from endangering residents, rerouting 911 calls through the Solano County dispatch center. Police and fire personnel remained active and able to respond to calls for service despite the loss of the city’s own systems.
The breach reached well beyond emergency dispatch.
City services including building permits and other municipal records were rendered inaccessible, and residents were unable to pay bills online while the network remained offline.
The Suisun City Council voted unanimously to pull the plug on the network and declare a state of emergency during a special meeting Saturday morning, an extraordinary step that underscores the severity of the threat local officials believed they were facing.
The incident lands amid heightened concern over foreign cyber threats to American infrastructure since the outbreak of the Iran war.
U.S. authorities issued an “urgent warning” in April that hackers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were actively working to disrupt critical American computer networks, a threat national security officials have long cautioned could extend to local governments with limited cybersecurity resources.
It remains unclear whether the Suisun City attack is connected to Iran-backed hacking operations.
Investigators are still working to determine how the malicious software breached the network and who is responsible, according to news reports.
City officials have not said when full network functionality is expected to be restored.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/cyberattack-cripples-california-citys-911-system-forces-emergency-shutdown
Diesel Crack Spread Explodes To Record As Wall Street Warns Of Refined-Products "Perfect Storm"
Wall Street Warns About "Perfect Storm" Diesel Crunch:
Goldman's Daan Struyven Shows Global Diesel Exports Crashing
Citi's Anthony Yuen Warns: Global Diesel Inventories "Below 5YR Minimum"
BofA's Francisco Blanch Warns: "Diesel's Perfect Summer Storm" Unfolding
Jefferies' Sam Burwell Warns: Hormuz Shock "Manifesting Itself In Cracks, Not Crude"
Brent crude remains hostage to daily geopolitical developments in the Gulf region more than five months into the conflict, with muted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz (read the latest US-Iran wrap) constraining tanker flows and driving refined-product markets to new, dire extremes as they become the focal point of the energy crisis.
Brent briefly fell below $80 a barrel last week as prospects improved for an Iran-Oman deal to reopen the maritime chokepoint, before rebounding toward $90 as negotiations stalled this week.
Hormuz traffic has stabilized at about 10 crossings a day, down from 30 to 40 before the latest escalation. Liquids flows are averaging roughly 4 million barrels a day, well below public estimates of 9 million, according to HSBC analysts.
We earlier cited Jefferies analyst Sam Burwell, who warned clients:
"What this all shows is that global oil-market tightness is manifesting itself in cracks, not crude, at least for now. Wide cracks suggest refining runs should remain strong, however, which is positive for crude.
By lunchtime Thursday, the front-month US diesel crack spread (HOCL1 on the Terminal) had exceeded the $97 level reached in mid-March, when the US-Iran conflict was just three weeks old, and was closing in on $100. That signals extreme tightness in diesel.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/hormuz-shock-manifesting-itself-cracks-not-crude-jefferies-says
‘Monstrous consequences’ if Japan sticks to Kuril Islands claim – Medvedev
The Kuril Islands will forever remain Russian land, with Japan looking for trouble by continuing to stick to its claim over the archipelago, former Russian President Dmitry Medvdev has said.
The Kuril archipelago came under Soviet control at the end of World War II following Japan’s defeat and was subsequently incorporated into the USSR. Tokyo, however, continues to claim the four southernmost islands – Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets – which it calls its “Northern Territories.” The dispute has been the main obstacle to Moscow and Tokyo signing a formal peace treaty in the eight decades since the conflict.
On Thursday, Tokyo lodged a strong protest over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first-ever visit to the Kurils, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi calling the trip “absolutely unacceptable” and saying it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people.”
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also issued a statement, insisting that the islands “are an inherent part of Japan’s territory both historically and under international law.”
The Japanese Foreign Ministry also summoned the Russian ambassador to the country, Nikolay Nozdrev, over Putin’s trip, Kyodo News reported.
In post on X later in the day, Medvedev said that “Takaichi can prattle on all she likes about the Kuril Islands being ‘historically Japanese,’ but this chatter won’t change a thing. They were, are, and will remain Russian land.”
“Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion,” the official, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned without elaborating.
Putin traveled to Iturup, the largest of the Kuril Islands, on Thursday morning, touring a local fish processing plant, a medical center, and a school. He is only the second sitting Russian president to visit the Kurils after Medvedev made the trip in 2010.
Putin addressed the dispute on Wednesday while attending the final stage of Russian Pacific Fleet exercises off Sakhalin. He blamed Tokyo for the broader deterioration in relations between the two countries.
https://www.rt.com/news/644202-kurils-japan-putin-medvedev/
Massive Blast Rocks Italian Munitions Plant At Heart Of Europe's Ammo Supply Chain
A massive explosion has been reported at a major Italian manufacturer of medium- and large-caliber ammunition, formerly known as Simmel Difesa. The plant operates in Colleferro and Anagni, near Rome.
Local Italian outlet Sky TG24 reports:
Fire and explosion at Colleferro, in the facility of the former Simmel Difesa, currently owned by KNDS Ammo Italy. The company, located in the Quarto Chilometro area, along via Latina, between Colleferro and Artena, produces medium- and large-caliber ammunition for land and naval defense, as well as solid fuels for aerospace launch vehicles.
The incident is said to have occurred in the powder pressing department. A loud boom was distinctly heard by residents in the area, triggering the alarm.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/massive-blast-rocks-italian-munitions-plant-heart-europes-ammo-supply-chain
US orders Israel to keep its word on Lebanon – Axios
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has vowed to defy Washington and maintain its occupation of Lebanese territory
The US State Department reportedly ordered Israel to stick to its word and pull its troops out of Lebanon after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his forces were “here to stay” in the south of the country.
Under a US-brokered framework signed on June 26, Israel agreed to leave the territory it currently occupies in Southern Lebanon in exchange for the Lebanese government disarming Hezbollah and establishing its own military as the sole armed group in Lebanon. During a visit to the occupied territory on Wednesday, Katz declared that “the IDF is here to stay in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.”
“The United States expects all parties to act in accordance with the framework agreement they have agreed upon, and Israel has clearly stated that it has no territorial aspirations in Lebanon,” a State Department official told Barak Ravid – an Axios reporter whom Israeli politicians and security officials regularly leak to – on Wednesday.
“A permanent Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon is inconsistent with the commitments given in the framework agreement and does not align with the long-term peace and security of both countries,” the official added.
Israel currently occupies roughly 600 square kilometers of southern Lebanon, including some territory north of the Litani River. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have demolished dozens of villages, and the occupation has resulted in the forced expulsion of more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians.
“I have instructed the IDF to take all necessary steps to prepare for a long-term stay in the field,” Katz said on Wednesday. “As the Prime Minister and I have clearly stated, we are not withdrawing from this security zone… under no circumstances will we withdraw.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that Israel could permanently annex certain areas of southern Lebanon. In an interview with Fox News last month, Netanyahu claimed that some Christian villages in Lebanon “have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we protect them against the Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them.”
Netanyahu did not name any of the villages, and more than a dozen local Christian leaders in southern Lebanon issued a statement calling his remarks “completely fabricated” and “unrelated to reality.”
Israel’s war on, and occupation of, Lebanon has directly interfered with US-Iran peace talks. The July 17 memorandum of understanding agreed by Washington and Tehran reportedly called for the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” a clause that Israel has not heeded.
https://www.rt.com/news/644210-us-israel-leave-lebanon/
Jordan Schachtel
@JordanSchachtel
Palantir is an exceptional American company. Benjamin Netanyahu is a great statesman of our time. Data centers are the heart of American technological infrastructure. Flock cameras are essential to city policing. Covid was a scam turned global hysteria, not a lab leak. Elon Musk is the most important innovator alive. Nuclear is the only path to abundant clean energy. School choice is the civil rights issue of our time. America first is not isolationism. AI will serve as a net benefit for human flourishing.
I'll take my seat now.
https://x.com/JordanSchachtel/status/2079753785191137403
Israel holding nearly 370 Palestinian children behind bars – rights groups
The number of minors held without charge or trial has nearly doubled in just over a year, according to Israeli prison data
Nearly 370 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli prisons, many without having been convicted of a crime, RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij has reported, citing Palestinian and Israeli rights organizations.
The number of minors held under administrative detention – which allows imprisonment without charge or trial – has almost doubled in just over a year, according to the latest figures from Israel’s prison service.
Israel says around 90% of the detained minors are being held for security-related reasons but have not been convicted, according to an RT report. Prison terms generally range from two to three years, although some minors have received sentences of between ten and 20 years.
Israeli police also report that around 100 minors are detained each month for entering Israel without a permit.
The detentions have come amid mounting allegations of mistreatment inside Israeli prisons. Former detainees and rights organizations have reported abuse, torture, starvation, physical and psychological harm, sexual violence and denial of medical treatment.
Israel is also holding the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians who died in its custody, according to a recent report cited by RT.
The situation in the West Bank has received comparatively little international attention amid the war in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have caused widespread destruction and displacement.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has put the Palestinian death toll since October 2023 at 73,386, with another 174,250 people wounded. Israel launched its military campaign following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Meanwhile, arrests and raids have continued across the West Bank, leaving a growing number of Palestinian minors in Israeli custody.
Watch the full report by RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij below.
Nearly 370 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli prisons, many without having been convicted of a crime, RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij has reported, citing Palestinian and Israeli rights organizations.
The number of minors held under administrative detention – which allows imprisonment without charge or trial – has almost doubled in just over a year, according to the latest figures from Israel’s prison service.
Israel says around 90% of the detained minors are being held for security-related reasons but have not been convicted, according to an RT report. Prison terms generally range from two to three years, although some minors have received sentences of between ten and 20 years.
Israeli police also report that around 100 minors are detained each month for entering Israel without a permit.
The detentions have come amid mounting allegations of mistreatment inside Israeli prisons. Former detainees and rights organizations have reported abuse, torture, starvation, physical and psychological harm, sexual violence and denial of medical treatment.
Israel is also holding the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians who died in its custody, according to a recent report cited by RT.
The situation in the West Bank has received comparatively little international attention amid the war in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have caused widespread destruction and displacement.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has put the Palestinian death toll since October 2023 at 73,386, with another 174,250 people wounded. Israel launched its military campaign following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Meanwhile, arrests and raids have continued across the West Bank, leaving a growing number of Palestinian minors in Israeli custody.
https://www.rt.com/news/644187-israel-holds-nearly-370-palestinian-children/
CCP Intelligence Official Buys Building Steps From White House
A senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence official is the new owner of a historic building overlooking the White House Complex, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
Located approximately 650 feet northeast of the White House grounds, the 100-year-old Securities Building on 15th Street was purchased on July 21, 2026 for $8.4 million by the Philip Qiu and Family Foundation, filings show. The building’s new owner, Philip Qiu, has held numerous positions within Chinese intelligence and state security arms, according to university records and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.
Qiu did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“The CCP is like a kind, but firm parent,” Qiu said in 2021, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement from a Chinese intel arm. “It has guided our people out of hardship, led China’s sons and daughters to build a new country and is steering us toward great national rejuvenation.”
Qiu’s ownership of The Securities Building poses an urgent national security threat and must be investigated by federal authorities, multiple intelligence experts told the DCNF.
“This property allows access for big splashy intel ops as well as for more classic ops — like a listening post or Stingray-like systems to collect phone calls, text messages, and digital exhaust,” Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA operations officer, told the DCNF. “That’s all great for collecting targeting information to later ‘bump’ or recruit targets out in the world, who otherwise work inside a key U.S. government building.”
“But what’s especially alarming are emerging ops that properties like this allow — like hidden drone swarms or shipping container missiles,” said Wright, who hosts The Wright Report podcast. “This kind of property is where the next 9/11 will come from. It’s coming.”
‘Special Forces Training’
Qiu, whose Chinese name is Qiu Feili, has held at least four Chinese government positions, beginning with a “career as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Team in Shanghai,” a 2024 University of New Haven (UNH) Instagram post states.
Shanghai’s criminal investigation team is a unit within Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau (PSB), which functions as a local subordinate of “China’s FBI,” the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government reports.
While it is unclear how long Qiu worked in the Shanghai PSB, he had already received combat training by October 2011, when he enrolled in a Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) master’s program, according to DCNF translations of SJTU announcements.
SJTU photos show students carrying rifles and wearing camouflage fatigues during a team-building wargame at the program’s outset.
“Classmate Qiu Feili, who has undergone special forces training, served as a commander in the Red-Blue Battle, and not only directed his troops to successfully capture enemy positions, but also killed one-third of the opposing forces with 42 shots, achieving the best individual sniper record,” according to a DCNF translation of SJTU’s announcement concerning the training exercise.
Qiu has continued to support and cooperate with China’s security apparatus in recent years including through his role as honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Immigration Department Staff Association, with which he organized events introducing Hong Kong students to the Shanghai SWAT team in 2023 and 2024, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements and accompanying photos.
more
https://dailycaller.com/2026/08/13/exclusive-ccp-intel-official-building-purchase-steps-from-white-house/
Government Spy Hubs Are Surveilling Anti-Flock Camera Activists
The Counter Terrorism Apparatus Comes For Anti-Surveillance Activists
Government spy hubs across America are surveilling activists seeking to remove Flock surveillance cameras from their cities and towns according to documents obtained by Deeper States. These intelligence products show dozens of state fusion centers and their counterparts in the FBI and DHS circulating memos warning that peaceful protesters organizing to stop AI powered surveillance cameras in their backyard are a national security threat.
Alongside the grassroots movement to stop data centers in communities across the country, Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader systems have stirred similar outpourings of civic outrage. At town halls and city council meetings, citizens from all walks of life have demanded local legislators ban flock cameras from being used in their localities. These efforts have found success with over 100 cities canceling their Flock contracts.
Anti-surveillance sentiment has coalesced with the activist organization DeFlock, which maps the tens of thousands of flock cameras pockmarking the country and offers resources to activists who oppose the widespread adaptation of automated license plate readers.
According to Deflock’s mission statement, “ALPRs [automated license plate readers] are a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Your driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It’s typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide (secretly). Once the data is out of your community, you have no control over how it’s used or what rules apply”.
The organization also points to intentional misuse of Flock systems for stalking and the potential for misidentification of suspects leading to false arrests as further cause for concern. Last year, flock CEO Garett Langley described Deflock activists as a “terroristic organization”, a description he was forced to walk back this week after widespread outrage at the resurfaced comments.
“My comments were a mistake and I apologize,” Langley told Forbes. “There are groups today that have real valid criticisms of the business, and I think what’s changed for us is, as we’ve listened to them and heard them out, what we’re trying to do is find this balance. We believe in a world where we can have safety and privacy.”
Despite Langley’s retreat, intelligence agencies are approaching Deflock’s constitutionally protected speech and organizing with the same tools and language they apply to terrorism. One report obtained by Deeper States and generated by the Wisconsin State Wide Intelligence Center shows intelligence components surveilling organizers of Deflock “days of action” in Alaska and Wisconsin.
The report instructs law enforcement to Increase patrols around ALPR during the known upcoming DeFlock events, monitor connectivity to ALPRs, review past cases involving damage to any ALPR “or similar modus operandi” and to advise patrol officers to report unusual inquiries about ALPRs and all vandalism, disruption, or sabotage to “your respective fusion center.”
https://danboguslaw.substack.com/p/exclusive-government-spy-hubs-are
jeets flown in like the rest of the west
Texas Districts See Huge Surge in H-1B Visa Filings.
A new study has revealed a significant rise in H-1B visa filings in suburban Texas districts, raising potential concerns about wage suppression and job competition.
H-1B visa filings surged in eight suburban districts in Texas between fiscal years 2019 and 2025, according to federal labor data.
According to a new analysis by LayoffHedge, which tracks corporate layoffs, all eight of the fastest-growing districts for H-1B demand are in Texas. The Third Congressional District, which is represented by Representative Keith Self (R-TX), saw the largest increase in filings, with a 242 percent increase over the six-year period. The study reviewed 6.9 million federal Labor Condition Applications (LCAs), a required step in the H-1B visa process. The rise in H-1B filings in these districts bucks the trend of a nationwide decline. The survey also revealed that ten of the 20 fastest-growing districts in the United States are in Texas. An H-1B visa is a temporary work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specific occupations, although H-1B migrants often convert their status to a more permanent one. The program has faced significant scrutiny, both as a source of cheap foreign labor that undercuts American workers and as a source of visa fraud.
🎯 IMPACT: Representative Brandon Gill (R-TX), whose 26th District saw a 217 percent rise in filings, remarked that the H-1B program is “an abomination that is suppressing American wages, taking American jobs, and culturally erasing American communities. It should be abolished.”
📺 FLASHBACK: Earlier in the year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) launched an investigation into H-1B visa fraud. “Any criminal who attempts to scam the H-1B visa program and use ‘ghost offices’ or other fraudulent ploys should be prepared to face the full force of the law,” Paxton declared at the time. Paxton is the Republican candidate in the state’s upcoming Senate race, where he will face off against Democrat nominee James Talarico.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2026/08/13/texas-districts-see-huge-surge-in-h-1b-visa-filings/
New Database Documents Over 100 Cases of Cops Abusing Flock Surveillance Cameras
Police have used Flock cameras to stalk their exes, track abortion patients, and spy on protesters—among other abuses.
A new database launched Wednesday that details more than 100 cases of alleged abuse by law enforcement officers using Flock Safety’s nationwide camera network is adding fresh urgency to the growing backlash against automated license plate readers.
The database, published by the Institute for Justice (IJ)—a libertarian nonprofit public interest law firm based in Arlington, Virginia—documents “romantic stalking, wrongful stops and detentions, non-law enforcement use, and other types of misconduct.”
“Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) were sold to American communities as a targeted tool for catching car thieves and finding missing people,” IJ said in an introduction to the database. “What they actually purchased has grown into something far broader and more frightening: an AI-powered network of cameras that photograph and log the movement of every driver who passes, whether or not they are suspected of any crime.”
“Companies like Flock Safety have now blanketed thousands of communities with ALPRs, quietly assembling powerful mass surveillance systems that can reconstruct where people have been, when, and how often, all without a warrant,” the institute continued. “This dragnet surveillance threatens the freedoms the Fourth Amendment was adopted to protect. These concerns aren’t just abstractions: Every day, innocent people are harmed by officials’ abuse and misuse of these ALPRs.”
“When the government can track the everyday movements of ordinary people—to their jobs, their churches, their doctors, their protests—it holds a kind of power over private life that the Constitution does not allow,” IJ added.
Among the cases highlighted in the database are those of a Florida sheriff’s deputy who allegedly used an ALPR to track and pull over a woman after seeing her at a television shoot, a Texas deputy who reportedly searched tens of thousands of Flock cameras while trying to locate a woman who had allegedly obtained a medication abortion, and a Georgia police chief who reportedly tracked his former girlfriend and her teenage daughter hundreds of times.
The database’s authors warn that even those 100-plus cases may represent only a fraction of the actual misconduct. Officers often provide vague explanations when searching ALPR databases, making systematic detection of abuse difficult. In one case in Norfolk, Virginia, for example, IJ found that three generic search terms accounted for nearly one-third of roughly 230,000 searches over two years. One officer repeatedly entered “la la la la” as a justification without apparently attracting scrutiny.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/police-abusing-flock-cameras
https://ij.org/the-ij-database-of-alpr-abuse/
https://www.antiwar.com/