MMN Editor

The chip company came up short on its bottom line.

Secret Service Agent Arrested In Hazing Incident

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

Secret Service agent Marquez Pinder was arrested and charged Sunday with five felony counts in a near-fatal fraternity hazing incident that occurred this spring, according to court documents.

RealClearPolitics first reported in June that the agent was put on administrative leave while local authorities in Miami investigated him in connection with an April hazing incident that caused severe damage to a fraternity pledge’s kidneys. The victim is a law student at the University of Miami and was undergoing an initiation process to become a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, a prominent historically black fraternity.

Pinder, 29, who was booked in a Miami jail Sunday, faces felony charges of hazing, attempted manslaughter, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Part of the hazing included paddling, which was allegedly so severe that the pledge’s kidneys and skin were harmed, and he was rushed to the hospital.

Pinder’s arrest marks the fifth known time this year that a Secret Service agent or Uniformed Division officer has run afoul of law enforcement.

Last week, RCP reported that senior Secret Service agent Kenneth Premo, 50, who currently serves as a polygrapher, was arrested on July 6 and charged with a driving while impaired, assault on a law enforcement officer, and sexual battery in Virginia.
In May, Secret Service Uniformed Division officer John Spillman was arrested in Miami after police responded to a complaint and found him naked and masturbating in a hallway.
In March, Secret Service Uniformed Division officer Tristan Hale was arrested and faced charges for sending sexually explicit messages, images, and videos to a Lancaster County girl. Pennsylvania State Police charged Hale, 28, of Virginia with possession of child sexual abuse material, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of a minor, and disseminating sexual materials to a minor.
A Secret Service agent on the vice president’s detail had his home raided by the FBI late last year in a wide-ranging tax fraud probe first reported by RCP.
In addition, a Secret Service agent serving on Vice President JD Vance’s detail is under internal investigation for either purchasing or trying to sell drugs to an undercover police officer, according to multiple sources.
On New Year’s Eve, a new Secret Service agent recruit shot and killed his 16-year-old half-brother and may have been responsible for another bullet grazing a woman’s face on New Year’s Eve. The suspect has claimed self-defense while Florida police continue to investigate.
Many current and retired agents have argued that the agency’s ongoing DEI issues and lowering of hiring standards, as well as manpower shortages in recent years, have weakened the agency’s ability to prevent or respond properly to multiple assassination attempts against Donald Trump, and provide security for the president’s cabinet and dozens of other protectees.

Last week, the Secret Service placed an agent on administrative leave who was suspected of leaking complaints about manpower issues on Vice President JD Vance’s detail.

Michael Townsend, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami Field Office, where Pinder is assigned, said the agency “takes seriously any criminal misconduct allegations involving one of our employees.”

“We are fully cooperating with the investigation,” Townsend said in a statement. “The Secret Service remains committed to accountability, professionalism, and integrity, and any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process,” he added.

The Secret Service safely protected a heavily fortified rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Friday. Agency leadership instituted several new security measures and checkpoints never before used for that particular event, along with a scaled-back guest list of 700 compared to the usual 3,000 attendees.

The dinner, which President Trump also attended, was rescheduled after the original event ended abruptly early in the evening when would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen shot past a security checkpoint and a magnetometer that was being dismantled at the dinner. Besides Trump, guests at that dinner included several Cabinet members and dignitaries, including Erika Kirk, who fled the dinner in tears while other guests hid under tables and an elite group of trained Secret Service agents pointed guns at the ground, searching for any additional suspects.

Secret Service agent Victor Gonzales, who was honored at Friday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner, shot at Allen five times but missed. Allen tripped before he was apprehended by the Secret Service 45 yards from the stairs leading to the ballroom where the dinner was being held.

Gonzales was hit in his protective vest by buckshot from Allen’s gun, according to the Secret Service. The White House Correspondents Association on Friday presented Gonzales an award for exceptional service to its members and guests.

Shortly after the original WHCA’s jarring episode, Secret Service officers shot and hit a soldier visiting Washington D.C. with his family while agents were trying to stop another man firing at them outside a White House checkpoint.

Army Private Benjamin Del Real, 25, is on leave from the military and says he plans to sue the Secret Service. He was hit in the abdomen and critically wounded during the May incident. He’s still recovering after two surgeries. The Secret Service has yet to publicly admit to shooting Del Real.

While he was recuperating at Walter Reed National Medical Center, Del Real told NBC News that a high-ranking Secret Service official visited him in the hospital to see how he was doing. Del Real’s attorney, Joseph Murphy, said he has respect for the Secret Service. Yet, he said, the agency has “dropped the ball here over the last few years in terms of protecting many dignitaries, including the president at the correspondents’ dinner.”

“It seems to happen more frequently than it ever has in the past, and it’s time to take a serious look at what’s going on inside the Secret Service,” Murphy added.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn sent Secret Service Director Sean Curran a letter demanding a full, immediate audit of the Secret Service following the string of embarrassing incidents, including the Allen incident at the White House Correspondents’ dinner.

Citing RealClearPolitics’ reporting, the Tennessee Republican demanded an immediate audit of every employee on the agency’s payroll, demanding that the agency “root out the rot.” In her letter to Curran, Sen. Blackburn said, “It is blatantly clear that the Secret Service needs to be cleaned up.”

“Unless you root out the rot, our nation will suffer the consequences,” Blackburn warned.

Law enforcement experts, including Fox News contributor Paul Mauro, who served 24 years with the New York City Police Department, have questioned why the Secret Service didn’t provide more details sooner about the May exchange of fire near the National Mall and the suspect’s injuries. Federal prosecutors charged 45-year-old Michael Marx of Midland, Texas, with assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, among other crimes.

“A press conference over this recent mysterious shooting in D.C. wouldn’t be a bad idea either,” Mauro remarked in an X.com post. “USSS involved in more shooting incidents than NYPD these days. And that’s … new.”

Former veteran Secret Service agent Rich Staropoli said the string of arrests for serious criminal charges shows that the agents “who are supposed to be elite investigators have shown an inability to police themselves – allowing things to fester until outside police or intel entities get involved and bring incidents into the public forum.”

“The place needs a house-cleaning at all levels,” he said. “This agency will do better with people who truly are worthy of trust and confidence even if it means dumping half the personnel.”

Staropoli places a lot of the blame on previous Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden and was forced to resign after the Butler assassination attempt on Trump.

“[Cheatle] followed the same DEI policies that the Biden crime family pushed – she bought into it as much as she bought into her own ability to actually do the job,” he said.

The alumni and other senior fraternity members performing the paddling in the Florida hazing incident allegedly involving Pinder are referred to as NUPEs, which stands for “Negro Under Pressure Excelling,” an acronym that Kappa Alpha Psi, a prominent historically black fraternity, has popularized. According to sources familiar with the fraternity scene the term refers to how diamonds are formed under pressure. Kappa Alpha Psi has championed the acronym as praise for black scholars, artists, and leaders who have responded to highly pressurized or historically restrictive environments by achieving “excellence” or success in their various fields.

Kappa Alpha Psi officially prohibits all forms of hazing. Nonetheless, several chapters have faced disciplinary action and suspensions from universities nationwide following allegations of physical and psychological abuse over the last 30 years.

In 2001 a Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University band member was beaten so severely his kidneys shut down, resulting in a $1.8 million lawsuit. In 2013, a Stevenson University student who became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi at Coppin State University-Powell claimed he was caned, paddled, and beaten so badly he needed days of hospital care, filing a $4 million lawsuit. A University of Mississippi chapter was suspended through 2025 after a student alleged repeated hazing incidents from spring 2019 through spring 2020.

Neither the Secret Service nor Kappa Alpha Psi’s national headquarters responded to a request for comment.

The hazing incident underscores the continuing problems of college hazing. Earlier this year, three fraternity members at Northern Arizona University were charged in connection with the death of an 18-year-old student during a rush event. This month, Ohio State University revoked a fraternity chapter’s status when a student was hospitalized after a hazing incident.

In 2019 Florida State University student Andrew Coffey died during an episode of fraternity-related drinking. Pinder was charged under a Florida law passed after Coffey’s death that makes hazing a felony if it results in serious injury or death.

“Among some, fraternity hazing might be seen as a tradition creating a sense of belonging and brotherhood, but since 2001, hazing in Florida has killed Chad Meredith, Robert Champion and Andrew Coffey while seriously injuring others,” Fernandez Rundle said in a written statement. “This case, with the victims requiring hospitalization, provide[s] clear-cut examples of hazing’s danger. In Florida, hazing is abuse, and it is a crime,” she said. “Its victims too often lie in their graves and in hospital beds.”

Pinder’s attorney, Justin Beckham, told the New York Times that his client was “grossly overcharged.”

Also facing charges in the Miami hazing case are two other men whom authorities allege helped carry out the beatings. They are identified as Jared Lamar James, 26, and Elijah Delano Dyous, 29.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/29/2026 – 20:10

Now, Harry has 13 million issues to solve
The lawsuit became a real problem for the celebrity claimants.
First, the privacy lawsuit loss was a big confidence blow for Prince Harry, especially with the judge saying such tough words against the claimants’ manufactured answers.
But that was not the end of the troubles.
Now, Prince Harry and his celebrity co-claimants may have to pay $13.3 million in interim legal costs to the Daily Mail’s publisher.

Prince Harry and co may have to foot legal bill of millions over doomed phone hacking claims against the Mail https://t.co/agHJYfPFkP
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) July 29, 2026

Markets are good at pricing barrels. They are terrible at pricing the machinery that turns barrels into something you can actually burn.That gap is where the next fuel shock gets built.For five months, nearly every headline about Middle East oil has been a headline about crude. The Strait of Hormuz, tanker counts, and Brent ticking up or down on whether the shooting stops.Crude is the number that moves fastest and gets quoted most. It is also, right now, the number telling you the least.Your grocery bill does not run on crude. It runs on diesel. Your flight does not run on crude either. It runs on jet fuel.Both come out of refineries, and a refinery is a physical plant with power systems and storage tanks that a missile can take offline in an afternoon.That distinction stopped being an academic one over the weekend, and it happened on the Red Sea coast.Saudi Aramco (2222.SR) shut its 400,000 barrel per day Jazan refinery on July 27 after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi militants on Saturday, a note from consultancy IIR seen by Reuters showed, according to the BOE Report.Why a damaged refinery hurts more than a lost barrel of crudeCrude oil is fungible and storable. A tanker can sit at anchor for months, and a barrel from Texas will substitute for a barrel from the Gulf without anyone at the pump noticing.Refined fuel does not work that way. Diesel has to move from a refinery to a truck stop on a schedule, and the world lost a large chunk of its spare refining capacity years ago.That is why the fuel market and the crude market have spent this month telling opposite stories.Refining margins for gasoline and diesel jumped to record highs in July after the Middle East re-escalation, Russia’s ban on diesel exports, and falling global fuel inventories, according to OilPrice.com.Related: OPEC, Saudi Arabia share a signal on where oil is headedEuropean diesel margins topped $60 a barrel, and the prompt NYMEX 3-2-1 crack spread, a standard measure of U.S. refinery profitability, hit a record $64.58 a barrel on July 8, per Reuters data cited by the same outlet.Refiners such as Valero Energy (VLO) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) have been the quiet winners of that split, while integrated majors including Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) sold off on July 27’s peace headlines.What the Houthi strike did to Aramco’s Jazan refineryThe attack damaged the plant’s Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex, which supplies the power and steam the refinery runs on, along with the tank farm area, according to the BOE Report. Aramco has tentatively targeted Aug. 15 for repairs and a restart.Jazan sits on the Red Sea coast roughly 70 kilometers, or about 43 miles, from the Yemeni border, and its terminal ships refined products to world markets without passing through the Strait of Hormuz, reported Türkiye Today.That geography made it one of the few Saudi assets still working normally while Hormuz stayed shut. It also made it reachable.What struck me when I looked at the export mix is that this was not a crude story at all. Jazan is a products plant, and the products it was shipping are the exact ones the market cannot spare.Here is what the outage removes, and what it removes it from:Jazan can process 400,000 barrels of crude a day and is targeted to restart by August 15, according to a consultancy IIR note reported by BOE Report.The refinery exported more than 200,000 barrels a day on average over the past three months, and diesel and gasoil made up more than half of June’s exports of roughly 170,000 barrels a day, according to Kpler data cited by Zawya.Russia, normally the world’s second-largest diesel exporter, shipped just 234,000 barrels a day of diesel and gasoil from July 1 to July 10, according to Kpler data reported by Hydrocarbon Processing.U.S. retail diesel averaged $5.313 a gallon in the week ended July 27, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.Read those together and the scale becomes uncomfortable. Jazan’s lost export volume is roughly the size of everything Russia managed to ship in the first 10 days of this month.

Aramco halted its 400,000 bpd Jazan refinery after a Houthi attack.ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / Getty Images

What record diesel prices cost you at the checkoutI ran the numbers on the spread, and it is the cleanest signal in the whole energy complex right now.Regular gasoline averaged $4.096 a gallon in the week ended July 27 while diesel averaged $5.313, per EIA data. That is a gap of $1.22, which puts diesel almost 30% above gasoline.Diesel is also within about 50 cents of its all-time high of $5.816, set on June 19, 2022, according to AAA.More Energy Stocks:Louis Navellier reveals best tech, energy stocks to buy nowJim Cramer makes bold buy call on one booming energy stockMorgan Stanley strongly resets GE Vernova stock targetYou do not buy diesel. You buy everything diesel carried. Freight surcharges reach your grocery bill with a lag of weeks, not days, and they do not reverse when crude has a bad afternoon.Jet fuel works the same way on your travel budget. Fertilizer and farm equipment run on distillate too, a channel my colleagues traced in TheStreet’s coverage of war-driven food prices.Crude, meanwhile, is going the other way. Brent fell 3.9% to $84.91 a barrel on July 28 and West Texas Intermediate dropped 3.3% to $79.87 as Iran held talks with Saudi Arabia and Oman about the Strait of Hormuz, reported CNBC.Where fuel prices head from hereThe restart date is the number to watch, and it is the softest number in the story. August 15 is a target from a consultancy note, not a company commitment, and Aramco did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.Two weeks of downtime at a plant this size is absorbable. Two months is a different market.The EIA still expects Brent to average $74 a barrel in the third quarter and retail gasoline to average $3.80 a gallon, down from more than $4.20 in the second quarter, according to its Short-Term Energy Outlook. The same forecast warns that low gasoline inventories will keep crack spreads elevated, which is the polite way of saying refiners will keep most of any crude discount for themselves.Goldman Sachs has kept its Brent forecast at $80 for the fourth quarter while flagging that the risks around it now skew higher, as TheStreet reported on July 24.So watch the crack spreads rather than the crude screen. A falling barrel with a widening crack spread means the savings are getting captured upstream of you.And if refineries have become easier targets than tankers, Jazan will not be the last one. That is the assumption worth stress-testing in your portfolio this month.Related: Aramco CEO sends stark message on Strait of Hormuz and oil

The bearish case for SpaceX has recently been the everyday norm. It is no longer coming from just one corner of Wall Street. I’ve now heard concerns from traders, longtime investors, and market veterans, and the list keeps growing.I’ve previously covered the former Nasdaq CEO’s lockup warning, Doug Kass’s short thesis, and the fact that Michael Burry studied the trade and walked away. Now Jim Cramer, who remains bullish on Elon Musk and the long-term SpaceX story, is telling investors to pump the brakes.This comes after prior coverage in mid-June when Cramer mentioned SpaceX was unable to maintain its meme status. He was right at that time. That’s why SpaceX has been bleeding.If you’re looking to buy SpaceX, maybe buy a little, but I’m begging you, if you want to go big, to at least wait for the first wave of the lockup on insider selling to expire next Thursday and let it drag the share price lower before you pull the trigger.Cramer said that on Mad Money, Tuesday, July 28. It’s not a bear call. That’s a timing call. Timing is key in this market, and Cramer thinks you need to be patient here. We find doing nothing the most difficult task of all, yet it’s the most important ingredient for success in the market. Given what’s on the calendar in early August, I think it is worth taking seriously.Also Read: SpaceX Latest News and StoriesWhy the August 6 lockup expiration changes everything for SPCXSpaceX (SPCX) debuted at $135 on June 12, opened at $150, and surged to an all-time high of $225.64 by June 16, reaching a $3 trillion valuation that briefly surpassed both Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT). Since then, the stock has fallen approximately 50% from that peak, trading around $112 as of this writing. The market cap has dropped from $3 trillion to $1.53 trillion. That’s a wipeout of roughly $1.5 trillion.In fact, it’s a figure above the entire market value of Tesla (TSLA), currently at $1.12 trillion.More SpaceX:SpaceX IPO gives Elon Musk a net worth number that stuns Wall StreetOppenheimer issues bold SpaceX stock price targetSpaceX lands $30 billion Google deal a week before its IPONow comes the next pressure point. On Aug. 6, up to 911.5 million shares became eligible for sale — roughly 20% of restricted holdings for eligible employees and early investors — more than doubling SpaceX’s public float, according to TheStreet. Additional tranches of about 7% of locked shares are set to unlock every two to three weeks through late October 2026, with another 28% becoming sellable after the company’s third-quarter report, according to The Motley Fool.Related: SpaceX stock sends investors a signal they need to seeCramer put the basic economics plainly. “Generally speaking, more supply results in lower prices,” he said.CEO Elon Musk’s stake remains restricted under a separate long-term lockup running until June 2027. But the employee and early investor selling that begins Aug. 6 is significant enough on its own to move the stock, especially in a name already carrying short interest above 30% of the float.What SpaceX’s financials actually show heading into earningsSpaceX is scheduled to report its first quarterly results as a public company on Aug. 4, and I think it’s important to highlight where the company stands at the moment. Revenue is estimated at $6.8 billion and a loss of $0.22 per share, according to Stockwits’ report.The underlying numbers as we head to the Q2 report are not comfortable to read. In Q1 2026, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.3 billion on revenue of $4.7 billion, according to TheStreet’s reporting. Related: HSBC sends troubling SpaceX stock predictionFor the full year 2025, the company reported $18.7 billion in revenue and a net loss of $4.9 billion. Accumulated total losses since founding in 2002 stand at $41.3 billion, according to the company’s prospectus.The only profitable division remains Starlink, which generated approximately $4.4 billion in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in 2025. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) business lost $6.4 billion. The rocket business also runs at a loss.Cramer said he’ll be watching for Starship updates and continued Starlink’s subscriber growth alongside the AI revenue numbers. But even a strong earnings print may not be enough.”Even if they report a great quarter on Tuesday,” Cramer said, “I don’t know if it can withstand the lockup expiration on Thursday.”

SPCX stock has fallen approximately 50% from its all-time high of $225.64 reached June 16, 2026.SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveils the company’s new manned spacecraft, The Dragon V2, designed to carry astronauts into space during a news conference

Why waiting might be the smartest trade of allThe setup here is genuinely unusual. You have a company with a legitimately compelling long-term story of satellite internet, hypersonic launch, and AI infrastructure trading more than 50% below its all-time high just weeks after its IPO. Doesn’t that sound like a golden buying opportunity? It honestly does. But on paper.But the combination of a massive lockup expiration, 90-day cancellable AI contracts, deepening quarterly losses, and short interest above 30% of the float creates a near-term risk profile that doesn’t match the long-term narrative.Cramer’s advice isn’t to avoid SpaceX forever. It’s to let the supply hit the market, let the earnings land first, and buy from the people who need to sell rather than handing them a perfect exit. That’s patience. And right now, patience looks like the more disciplined trade.Related: SpaceX’s huge stock dive batters Elon Musk’s wealth

Three firefighters died while fighting wildfires in parts of Greece as extreme heat continues to cause deadly problems throughout southern Europe.

US Launches New Airstrikes On Iran After Trump Warned “They’re Going To Get A Beating”

Summary

New US attack wave on Iran begins in overnight hours.
Tehran denies seeking talks, insists on Hormuz terms.
Oil climbs as attacks on Saudi energy sites continue.
Conflict widens with joint US-Saudi strikes in Iraq which killed at least 20.

Will the U.S. invade Iran before 2027?
Yes 25% · No 76%View full market & trade on Polymarket *  *  *

New US Strikes on Iran Begin in Night Hours

The United States has begun a new round of airstrikes in Iran in the night time and early morning hours (local), according to a senior US official to Axios. The extent of the bombings, or whether they will be sustained, remains unclear:

Trump “is in an escalatory mood” but is still contemplating “the depth of that response.”, A senior administration official says – WSJ

Trump is apparently making good on his earlier Wednesday threat:

President Trump has told Fox News that he is “going to beat the fucking shit” out of Iran in response to their attack on US forces in Jordan overnight. Speaking to Trey Yingst, he added “we’ll be hitting them hard, they’re going to get a beating.”

There was heavy US refueler activity in regional skies just ahead of the strikes’ commencement – as well as unconfirmed reports of explosions at Riyadh’s international airport, but the cause has remained subject to speculation.

But with each attack on Iran, its forces tend to respond in kind against Gulf countries hosting US assets and bases. It is going to be a long night for the region, especially while bracing for the IRGC’s inevitable response.

>Before NOTAMs
>After NOTAMs
Large areas have been cleared in northeast, northwest and possibly southern Saudi, opening up corridors at all altitudes. While commercial traffic is filtered through a single narrow corridor. pic.twitter.com/9ZjYkjmars
— barry with the NED (@bonzerbarry) July 29, 2026
US is quite clearly stuck, in search of a strategy…

I think there’s going to be a ground attack soon. What lunacy.
— Brandon Weichert (@WeTheBrandon) July 29, 2026
Details of Trump-Netanyahu Meeting at Oval Finally Emerging

After on Tuesday President Trump hosted both Zelensky and Netanyahu in the Oval Office there were no big press conferences or readouts given. But on Wednesday some key statements have begun to emerge concerning what was discussed, but at this point only offered via the Israeli side…

To be expected, Iran and the nuclear question dominated the discussions, according to i24’s Ariel Oseran, with Israeli officials describing a White House focused on three possible paths forward. “Trump is weighing three options: a nuclear deal, maintaining and intensifying the economic blockade, or renewed military strikes,” one official said, adding, “We didn’t tell Trump Israel’s preference is a strike. Our preference is the outcome. The decision is ultimately his.”

…talk about stating the obvious. But Israeli still maintains that the situation is at tipping point inside Iran, which according to more independent ‘realist’ analysts seems highly dubious.

Israeli officials argued that Tehran is under mounting internal strain. “Iran is under severe economic pressure” due to fuel and diesel shortages, roughly 90% inflation, and “the beginning of public protests.” They added, “We discussed increasing pressure on Iran, both economically and kinetically.”

On Iran’s leadership, officials said, “We know for certain Mujtaba is alive, but since Operation Rising Lion no one has seen him.” Regarding Iran’s military capabilities, they claimed, “Iran now has only 1,500–1,600 missiles left after we destroyed much of its production capability.”

Expletives fly and Trump talks ‘tough’ – but this whole gambit has been a bombing campaign in search of a strategy…

“We’re going to beat the fuc*ing sh*t out of them,” President Trump told Fox News after Iran launched a surprise attack against U.S. forces. “We’ll be hitting them hard.”
The President says U.S. strikes overnight against Iran-backed militias in Iraq were coordinated with the… pic.twitter.com/AeLbEGFCFi
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) July 29, 2026
Addressing the nuclear program, Israeli officials (somewhat surprisingly) assessed, “We currently do not assess that uranium enrichment is taking place at Pickaxe Mountain, and we have good intelligence on Iran’s nuclear material.” They also asserted, “Eliminating 29 nuclear scientists was our insistence. It removed a critical mass of knowledge from Iran’s nuclear program.” This comes just after Trump vowed to wipeout the highly fortified facility, which would be a tall order given that it’s essentially under a mountain.

Looking ahead, they warned, “If Iran tries to rebuild its nuclear program, we will strike the ‘metastases’ as well.” Israeli officials also said they remain skeptical of diplomacy, telling reporters, “We told President Trump we have serious doubts about reaching a nuclear deal with Iran.”

As of yet, the White House has not offered a detailed readout of the Netanyahu discussion from the US point of view, however. Regional reports say some IRGC advisors were killed in the fresh US-Saudi operation in Iraq.

Iran Again Denies Trump Claims it is Urging US Talks

The few days of calm that persisted over last weekend since Friday are already a thing of the past, as tit-for-tat serious attacks between the US and Iran return, and now involving the Saudis and proxy militants in Iraq.

The fresh flare-up started as we reported when in the overnight and early hours of Wednesday (local) Iran launched several missiles on a US base in Jordan, with the Jordanian armed forces saying they intercepted five projectiles. Iran is framing this as new action due to US military activities enforcing the blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.

For many hours prior to that new Iranian assault, which was accompanied by launches out of Iraq on Saudi energy sites, international headlines claimed that mediators were getting close to restoring the defunct Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

As if to confirm that those headlines were nowhere close to reality, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi has recalled President Trump’s words claiming that Tehran was “dying for a negotiation”; but, said Gharibabadi, “We have sent no request for negotiation with the US during the past 16–17 days.”
Aftermath of strikes on the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan from days ago, via AFP

The Iranians have continued to insist that its own terms for strait management will be the end result of this war. “If the Strait of Hormuz returns to its previous state, our success in this war is not complete,” the Iranian diplomat said. He said this will include Iran’s right to charge fees to allow ships safe passage.

Trump: “We’ll Be Hitting Iran Hard” (Fox)

As for the renewed battle, President Trump has newly warned in a statement to Fox News that “we’ll be hitting Iran hard” in response to the new attacks on American targets in Jordan.

The new expanded nature and scope of the war has seen Saudi Arabia jump directly in against Iran-backed Shia paramilitary groups in Iraq, as well as the Shia Houthis of Yemen.

Oil continues to climb on the escalation headlines…

Rare Major Saudi-US Joint Strikes on Iraqi Militias

Rare and major joint US-Saudi strikes on Iraq have killed at least 20 militants, and wounded 32 more, according to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), as cited in Al Jazeera:

In an earlier statement, the PMF – which is an umbrella group for Iraqi militias backed, trained and loyal to Iran, said the attacks represent a “highly dangerous escalation” and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and official security institutions.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a self-proclaimed resistance armed group backed by Iran, denied any role in the attacks on Saudi Arabia. It said Saudi claims were “fabrications” and that “any foolish Saudi action will be met with a harsh response”.

CENTCOM acknowledged that operation as a response to this weeks attacks on Saudi infrastructure, marking the first major US military action in the Middle East since last Friday when Trump first declared a pause after the 13 prior straight days of fighting. Trump had noted in the Fox comments that the Saudi and US attacks were coordinated with Iraq.

Ironically this comes at a time the Iraqi government has sought to appease Washington by overseeing a voluntary disarming program of its Shia factions. It has remained an open question to what degree this will actually be carried out.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry issued a statement saying the offensive was “in response ⁠to recent drone attacks” on the kingdom. During those attacks, the Saudi military “intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to target petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and Riyadh regions…. launched from Iraqi territory and carried out by Iran-aligned terrorist militias.” It added that “The Kingdom emphasizes that it does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression it faces.”

Meanwhile Trump continues to talk about taking out Iran’s highly fortified Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility:

⭕️ Trump Says Netanyahu Wants Him to “Stay Involved” in Iran Campaign
During an interview on Fox & Friends on July 28, Trump expressed frustration that the media had leaked Netanyahu’s plans to brief him on intelligence regarding an underground Iranian nuclear facility at… pic.twitter.com/bL2uGfFjbI
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 29, 2026
Tehran has has responded by condemning the “clear aggression against the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.” Iran said the new US-Saudi joint action was “in line with the aspirations of the United States and the Zionist regime to expand the scope of war,” according to the Foreign Ministry.

Iran has pledged its support to its allies in Iraq: “While expressing condolences for the martyrdom of a group of honorable Iraqi people during these aggressive attacks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes the full support and solidarity of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the government and people of Iraq, and holds the warmongering US regime and its accomplices in the region responsible for the dangerous consequences of these criminal, inhumane, and provocative actions,” it added.

War Persists Through November Midterms?

Below, University of Chicago political scientist and foreign policy realist author Robert Pape that the war will stumble along and likely expand even through the midterms…

“The victory rhetoric [from Trump] doesn’t match escalation reality,” he said. “It is out of sync.”

While Pape stopped short of predicting a yearslong conflict, he said meaningful policy changes are unlikely before the political landscape shifts after the midterm elections.

“I think it will actually be after the midterms,” he said. “Between now and January, this is not going to be over.”

Overnight developments 

via Newsquawk…

US CENTCOM said US and Saudi forces strike Iran-backed terrorist sites in Iraq.
Iranian state TV cites an unnamed military source stating that Iran denies any link to projectiles fired from other countries at targets in Saudi Arabia.
Chinese Foreign Ministry denies reported that Iran will received Chinese-made man-portable air defence systems in the coming weeks.
Iran official said Oman proposal for Hormuz Strait joint regional management is to fail.
Iran will get Chinese shoulder launched missile systems in weeks, according to Reuters.
US President Trump said in a tele-rally that Iran wants to make a deal so badly, adds we’ll get Iran to sign on the dotted line and we’ll get the war over with.
US CENTCOM said at 17.45EDT, IRGC forces launch multiple ballistic missiles from Iran and all Iranian missiles were effectively intercepted.
US official said Iran launched missiles at a US base in Jordan, but noted missiles were intercepted, according to Axios.
Iran considered retaliatory strike on Ukrainian seaport, although a flurry of diplomacy has eased tensions, according to NYT citing officials.
US official said Iran is over reaching with demands that Oman, US and the international community are rightly rejecting on Strait of Hormuz. Deal being discussed is a coordination deal, there are no tolls and no fees.
Iraq PM’s planned visit to Saudi Arabia tomorrow has been cancelled, Iraqi government source tells Al-Araby.
A senior Iranian official said Tehran has rejected Oman’s proposal for regional joint management of the Strait of Hormuz as unworkable, reported suggest.
Iraqi sources said US and Saudi Arabia targeted a mosque and water purification plant in Baghdad.
IRGC noted that 3 tankers were hit and seized in the Hormuz Strait, adds US interference in the region will not go unanswered.
Explosions were heard in south Baghdad, while reported noted US and Saudi strike in Kirkuk and Salah Al-Din.
Israeli PM Netanyahu said meeting with Trump is one of the best we’ve had.
IRGC confirmed that they fired ballistic missiles at the US Air Base and US Military Central Command Center in Jordan.
US President Trump posted that he had a very good meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu and many important subjects were discussed.
Explosions reported in Al-Suwayrah, Wasit province South of Baghdad.
Source circulates ‘footage of a direct hit on Muwaffaq Al Salti Air Base in Jordan’.
IRIB reported explosions in Jordanian airspace and that US base in Jordan was possibly targeted.
Iranian media sources report explosions in US base in Jordan due to Iranian missile attack.
Three Japanese-linked vessels have exited the Strait of Hormuz via Iran’s designated route, Kyodo reported.
An Israeli military source said Defence Minister Katz disclosed operational details about the takeoff of US fighter jets from Israel to carry out strikes on Iran, Al Hadath reported.
Several loud explosions are being reported in Jordan, according to Nour News.
Sources said Yemen’s Houthis are considering imposing fees on commercial ships transiting the southern Red Sea.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/29/2026 – 19:50

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for Anthony Fauci to be held in contempt, prosecuted for perjury and sent to jail after the former White House COVID-19 adviser pled his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times during a Senate hearing Wednesday.”Years from now they’ll look back and say, ‘What collective madness overtook this country?’” Cruz told Fox News Digital.”I think Anthony Fauci has had contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades,” he said. “His diary shows that he deliberately lied to the American people over and over and over again.”FAUCI PLEADS FIFTH WITH ‘ZERO LEGAL JUSTIFICATION’ AS CRITICS ERUPT AND DEMAND CONTEMPT CHARGESCruz’s comments come after Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul announced that he will seek contempt charges against Fauci after he dodged self-incrimination by refusing to answer any questions throughout the entirety of the hearing.”Dr. Fauci ought to think about what it says about the end of his career, that what he will be remembered for the most is pleading the fifth more than 100 times,” Cruz said.”He’s been the most damaging bureaucrat in the history of America.”RAND PAUL SEEKS CONTEMPT CHARGES AFTER FAUCI INVOKES FIFTH AMENDMENT MORE THAN 100 TIMESCruz and Fauci have had a longstanding feud, similar to his relationships with other GOP senators like Paul, over Fauci’s handling of the outbreak and claims he was dishonest about the origins of COVID-19 to both Congress and the American people.”In his diary, he wrote early on that it was clear that the COVID virus did not come from the wet market in Wuhan and then he turned around and said exactly the opposite thing on national television,” Cruz said.The released private diaries expose that Fauci considered possibilities about how the virus originated that he later downplayed to the public. He wrote that scientists considered the possibility of a deliberately inserted laboratory origin worthy of further expert review, while his later statements suggested the opposite to the public.LEGACY MEDIA IGNORES MASSIVE ANTHONY FAUCI DOCUMENT RELEASE ALLEGING HE MISLED CONGRESS ON COVID ORIGINSThe Texas senator also accused Fauci of pushing for lockdown of schools — which Fauci wrote in his diary that he convinced both New York and California government officials to lock down their state’s school systems. This was, again, contradictory from what he said publicly, where he claimed multiple times in interviews and testified to the House Oversight Committee that he “did not close the schools.””In his diary, he brags about convincing Democrats in New York and California to shut schools down and yet he goes on TV and says, ‘Oh, I wasn’t for shutdowns,’” Cruz said.”The school shutdowns, which Fauci bragged that he was responsible for, may well be the single most destructive public policy step we’ve seen in decades. That learning loss will stick with those kids the rest of their lives when they’re 90 years old.”He continued, “They will still be suffering the consequences of Anthony Fauci’s corrupt and dishonest shutdowns.””The fact that he knew he was lying to the American people — he should be held in contempt, he should be prosecuted for perjury and he should go to jail.”

California Democrats Attempt To Sabotage Voter ID Initiative

In November, California voters will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 39. The measure, officially the Voter Identification, Citizenship Verification, and Registered Voter List Administration Initiative, would require Californians to show identification when they vote and force state officials to clean up the voter rolls and verify that the people on them are eligible citizens.

All signs suggest it will pass. A poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found in May that 71% of Californians support requiring proof of citizenship for first-time voter registration, and 54% want it required before every election. However, Attorney General Rob Bonta is trying to make sure it doesn’t pass.

His latest move came on July 21, just months before the November election, when Bonta rewrote the official ballot title for Prop 39, replacing the language he himself approved last year with a new title that proponents say is engineered to make voters reject it.

The original ballot title for the bill, approved by Bonta last year, read:

ESTABLISHES ADDITIONAL VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. This measure would amend the California Constitution to further require that voters present government-issued identification at the polls or the last four digits of a government-issued identification number when voting by mail; the State provide voter identification cards on request; and elections officials annually report percentage of each county’s voters whose citizenship they have verified.

That language sat on every petition that more than 1.3 million voters signed over a year of circulation to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Bonta’s revised version reads:

PROHIBITS CITIZENS FROM VOTING UNLESS THEY PRESENT GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Invalidates mail ballots that do not have last four digits of designated government-issued identification number written on envelope. Prohibits in-person voting without presenting government-issued identification.

Carl DeMaio, the Republican state assemblyman who chairs Reform California and serves as one of Prop 39’s official proponents, called the rewrite a “blatant attempt to rig the November election.”

“California politicians know that a supermajority of California voters support Prop 39’s bipartisan solution for Voter ID – so now they are corruptly trying to rig the election by putting a biased and dishonest title on this common-sense measure,” DeMaio said.

He also pointed out what he called the tell in Bonta’s timing. “When Rob Bonta didn’t think we could get the signatures on Prop 39, he provided a relatively fair ballot title – but now that the citizens have forced Prop 39 on the ballot, he decides at the last minute to corruptly try to rig the election against Prop 39 by changing the ballot title to a biased and dishonest one,” DeMaio said.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, speaks Monday, March 2, 2026, outside the Riverside County Registrar of Voters at a news conference by backers of a voter ID measure for the November 2026 ballot. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

On Friday, DeMaio announced he is filing a lawsuit against Bonta “to force him to restore a FAIR ballot title to our Prop 39 Voter ID Initiative!” He concedes the effort is a long shot, since politician-appointed judges have blessed this sort of title manipulation for years.

Bonta’s office rejects the accusation, calling the change routine and legally required. A spokesperson said the office is reviewing the lawsuit and takes seriously “our duty to prepare a title and summary and ballot label,” adding, “we are confident the court will agree we have faithfully executed that duty here.” The office notes that California elections code expressly allows a measure’s ballot title to differ from its circulating title, and that this year all nine voter-proposed initiatives that qualified had their titles changed, not only Prop 39.

Word Games

In 2018, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is now running for governor, rebranded Proposition 6, the Gas Tax Repeal Initiative, as “Eliminates Recently Enacted Road Repair and Transportation Funding.” Support collapsed from 65% to 45%, the repeal failed, and Californians now pay the highest gas prices in the country. The lesson Sacramento learned from that episode, critics say, was that word games work, and there is no penalty for playing them.

DeMaio still expects Prop 39 to pass in November. “We expected corrupt politicians like Rob Bonta to try to deprive voters of a fair election on Prop 39 – but this biased and dishonest ballot title takes election rigging to a whole new level even for California,” he said. “These corrupt politicians are showing every voter why we need to enact Prop 39 to implement a bipartisan solution to Voter ID.”

Despite his confidence, the California Democrats have shown they are willing to ignore the will of the people. When California voters passed Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure, by an overwhelming margin in 2024, the Democrat-controlled legislature refused to fund it, effectively sidelining the will of the voters.

Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/29/2026 – 19:45

Frozen pizzas have been a staple of freezers for decades, a useful option for a late-night snack or a contingency plan when you mess up the better dinner you were trying to cook.And, for 50 years, one of the biggest players in the game has been Red Baron.Now, the pizza brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary by dumping just about anything you can think of on top of a pie.REDS FANS GO BERSERK AFTER CATCHER TYLER STEPHENSON’S ABS CHALLENGE WINS THEM FREE PIZZAThat’s right, they’re giving lucky winners the chance to go to town on a pizza with 50 toppings.Baron von Richthofen himself could never have imagined when he was shot down during the Fourth Battle of Ypres that this would be his legacy…You can enter to win one on the company’s website, but I don’t even think I could name fifty pizza toppings. If someone locked me in a room and said I couldn’t come out until I did, I’d probably get about 25 before I started panicking.KFC PLANS TO TEST A NEW PROTOTYPE CALLED OPEN HOUSEI’d get to arugula, and then I’d be like, “Sh–; someone has to have put rhubarb on pizza, right? RIGHT?!”A lot is happening on that pie, maybe too much.I don’t usually go too far beyond sausage, pepper, and onion on my bespoke pies, and I’m not averse to keeping it au naturel and going plain.But I’m open to experimentation on the pizza front and would be open to popping this into the ol’ General Electric oven and seeing what it’s all about.Hell, I went on a cruise earlier this year, and they had grape and gorgonzola pizza. I thought that broke some laws (good thing we were in international waters at the time), and it turned out to be one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had.Certainly not a daily driver like a nice Hot-N-Ready or a pie from the mom & pop joint down the street. But if you want to put the top down and let your hair blow in the wind, that’s when you bust out a flashy pizza like a grape and gorgonzola or, in this case, everything they had on hand at the Red Baron plant.