Authored by Bradley Thayer via American Greatness,

Americans long knew that their elections were in embarrassingly poor shape, but President Donald Trump’s address this month revealed just how extensive the problems had become. The Trump administration’s investigation revealed foreign interference and deep-state, treasonous subterfuge.

The documents he declassified demonstrated five major problems.

• First, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) hacked voter data, gaining access to the data of 220 million Americans.

• Second, the U.S. intelligence community deliberately downplayed the PRC’s penetration of the American electoral system to deceive Trump. The intelligence community knew that the PRC had a sophisticated strategy from 2018 to defeat Trump’s reelection in 2020. This strategy included employing the PRC’s business contacts within the United States and paying American journalists to write negative stories about Trump. The Presidential Daily Brief was manipulated to keep Trump from knowing about the PRC’s influence.

• Third, the U.S. government knew that voting machines were vulnerable and could compromise U.S. election infrastructure.

• Fourth, when evidence of fraud was found, it was covered up, slow-walked, or downplayed, as in Michigan, where the Biden administration ignored voter fraud.

• Fifth, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) review of data from a small number of states found about 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls. The next day, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed in remarks that about 400,000 dead people were also on the voter rolls, and the numbers are believed to be much higher because Democratic states would not share their voter data.

These actions are unprecedented because we are in precarious times. If not repaired, this could destroy the social contract between the citizenry and the government.

Trump identified the American electoral system as being almost broken. But that is neither an accident nor the result of a natural evolution. It is by design. From the perpetrators’ perspective, it is a remarkable achievement. American elections were once the envy of the world. Americans voted on one day, and the results were known that night. America had a high-trust society and sense of civic duty that was inherent in Americans’ understanding of their country and American identity, including a citizen’s duty to his country. Now American elections are far from the envy of the world and resemble those in unstable and corrupt countries.

It is appropriate to pause for a moment and ask how that happened.

The answer lies in another, related major theme of Trump’s: his identification of communism as the greatest threat that America has ever faced and his determination that America will never be a communist country. Communists outside the United States, principally the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and communists in the United States are working together to demolish America. Destroying American elections is one of the most important tools they have to destroy America because it obliterates the social contract between the citizenry and the government. Once the social contract is broken in the minds of most Americans, fundamental political change is possible.

The problem with elections is a symptom of the deeper problem of how domestic and international communists are working together in America.

This is political warfare designed to impose communism, executed at home and abroad, using the strategy that has worked since the Bolsheviks came to power: the tried-and-true communist strategy of the united front. The communists are advancing a revolution in the United States to change its polity from a constitutional republic to communism.

At a fundamental level, these are not discrete actors; they are coordinating in what should be considered a modern Communist International, or Comintern. The CCP and other countries work with individuals and major organizations like ActBlue, Tides, Neville Roy Singham and his scores of organizations, George and Alexander Soros and their dozens of organizations, Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, their associated think tanks, political action committees, law firms, and the Democratic Party itself.

Destroying election integrity is only one mechanism they are using. Another is their funding and facilitation of mass immigration in Western states. Terrorism is another. Communist terror has domestic and international dimensions, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent emphasized on July 16, 2026, at a ministerial on the resurgence of political terrorism, particularly from the political left. Their remarks helped to frame and inform Americans about the contemporary threat from communists and their terror networks at home and abroad.

Communist efforts are found in other countries as well, such as South Korea, where CCP influence is endemic in A-WEB (the Association of World Election Bodies, currently composed of 118 election management bodies), which is headquartered there, as well as in South Korea’s National Election Commission. In South Korea, U.S. citizen Morse Tan, who served in the first Trump administration as U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, exposed fraud in the June 3, 2025, South Korean presidential election as part of an international election-monitoring team, of which the present author was a member. As of this writing, Tan is under a travel ban and must remain in South Korea well into August. This is in connection with a criminal defamation investigation regarding Tan’s comments about South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, made in Washington and thus protected by the First Amendment. De facto, Tan is a political prisoner of the Lee government, held because he exposed the truth about the CCP’s malign influence in South Korean politics, including its elections.

Trump stated that Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, should be united to evict communist China from U.S. elections. Decades ago, that would have been possible. But today’s Democrats are neo-Bolsheviks. Before coming to power, the Bolsheviks had a slogan: “The worse, the better.” They worked to make the conditions in Russia worse, not better. They sought to destabilize, undermine, and weaken Russia to further the revolution. That logic of “The worse, the better” is relevant for today’s neo-Bolsheviks. They are laboring to destroy America and execute their revolution. Americans should recall that during Trump’s February 2026 State of the Union address, the Democrats would not stand to celebrate American heroes. They do not want to celebrate America; they want to terminate it and replace it with a communist polity in America. That is why Trump has called it the greatest threat that Americans have faced in their history and why it is completely foreign to American identity.

Trump identified election interference as a major mechanism to advance neo-Bolshevik tyranny in the United States. It is not the only mechanism, but election vulnerabilities, along with immigration, are the most immediate problems for Americans to address. America faces a communist revolution. It is time to recognize that the threat from communism is existential, and it is targeting American institutions, identity, and the American people themselves. You may not be interested in communism, but it is interested in you.

Summary

• Oil soars on reports of Iran targeting US Jordan base; Iraqi militants attack KSA for 2nd day.
• Hormuz indirect talks continue amid reports of a possible resurrected MoU deal.
• Shipping remains stalled with virtually no tanker traffic through Hormuz.
• Iran insists Hormuz stays closed unless its terms are accepted.
• Houthis escalate attacks, prompting more ships to avoid the Red Sea.

*  *  *

Fresh Unilateral Strikes on Jordan Base; Iraqi Militants Again Target KSA 

Iranian state media in the overnight hours (local) are reporting fresh apparent Iranian missile attacks in Jordan. A “US base in Jordan was possibly targeted” after reports of explosions there, Fars and IRIB report. Tehran officials have insisted they have not requested US talks following the prior nearly two straight weeks of fighting, though a ‘pause’ took effect last Friday when President Trump ordered a halt to US airstrikes. The day was filled with headline hype of a potential ‘resurrected’ MoU deal. Once again these ‘deal is close’ headlines prove misleading and premature. CENTCOM is confirming on the heels of the Iranian media reporting:

• Senior American official: Iran launched missiles toward an American base in Jordan (Axios)
• CENTCOM: IRGC forces launch multiple ballistic missiles from Iran and all Iranian missiles were effectively intercepted

Adding to the uncertainty and jitters of already sensitive global oil, Iraqi militants on Tuesday fired projectiles on Saudi Arabia for a second day, also amid the ongoing missile threat from Yemeni Houthis. According to the Associated Press:

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq for a second day, while Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed to have forced a Saudi oil tanker to turn around as part of their self-styled blockade of the kingdom.

The attacks underscored lingering tensions despite a period of calm between the United States and Iran, neither of which has announced attacks for days following weeks of escalation over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said in a statement that air defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones that had attempted to target petroleum facilities in the nation’s eastern region. It said the attacks were “once again launched from Iraqi territory and carried out by Iran-affiliated terrorist militias.”

Oil climbing on the headlines of the rare pro-Tehran aggression during a ‘pause’:

WTI OIL JUMPS 5% AS US INTERCEPTS IRANIAN ATTACK ON ITS TROOPS

Below: unconfirmed initial image circulating…

Preliminary: footage of a direct hit on Muwaffaq Al Salti air base in Jordan. pic.twitter.com/NGi3R0DLkG

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 28, 2026

Shipping Latest: Bab El Mandeb & Hormuz

Iran has reaffirmed that if Oman does not agree to its terms for the Strait of Hormuz, the the vital oil transit waterway will remain closed, per Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister. This also as things are again heating up in the Red Sea region, with the Houthis late Tuesday announcing they’ve once again targeted a Saudi oil tanker for violating the blockade. Reuters reports:

Yemen’s Houthis claim to have fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker, accusing the vessel of violating what they describe as their maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and ignoring warning calls.

The Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, claims the vessel was forced to turn back.

According to separate reporting, China is holding direct negotiations with Yemen’s Houthis to ensure safe passage for its ships through the southern Red Sea.

Iran says it hasn’t sought US talks in past 16-17 days, reports Irib News

And a US CENTCOM update on its latest figures: it says that as of Tuesday the US military has redirected 18 commercial vessels, disabled two, and boarded another two to “ensure full compliance of the US blockade against Iran.” The latest from Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump at the White House:

Channel 12 on a senior Israeli official: Netanyahu confirmed to Trump that additional strikes on rehabilitated Iranian nuclear facilities are unavoidable

More vessels reportedly turning away from planned routes after Houthi threats:

Three product tankers loaded at Saudi Arabian Red Sea ports and bound for Asia-Pacific and east Africa have turned north towards the Suez Canal, as Houthi-related threats to shipping prompt charterers to reassess passage through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

The tankers appear to…

— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) July 28, 2026

Fox Reports Mediators ‘Close’ to Resurrecting MoU

Here we go again… despite no evident change in war posturing on either side, and despite shipping traffic still largely at a complete standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, Fox News is out with claims that the failed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) could be ‘resurrected’… bringing us back to the ‘deal is close’ constant headlines of earlier this summer (though of course the sides were never in reality close – and simply returned to a wider bombing campaign)…

“Mediators of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East believe the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal that would resurrect the failed memorandum of understanding, according to The Times of Israel,” Fox writes, based on the earlier Israeli media article. Negotiators from Pakistan, Egypt and Qatar have been haggling over an Oman-proposed Strait of Hormuz management plan. It will involve fee-collection and is backed by the Gulf states, supposedly. The timing of all of this interesting given Trump is currently hosting Netanyahu at the White House. More from Fox:

Iran and Oman — both of which are situated on the Strait of Hormuz — have reportedly signed off on the proposal advanced by the mediators.

The two sources said the White House was waiting to make a decision until after President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Meanwhile…

JMIC: DATA INDICATES ZERO TANKERS IN EITHER DIRECTION OF HORMUZ

Still, the return to deal ‘optimism’ has pushed oil prices down further – which is perhaps the entire point of US officials anonymously hyping that a deal is ‘close’ once again.

And S&P futures briefly reached High of Day on the headline…

Oman’s Hormuz Management Proposal

US-Iran attacks have remained paused, and oil prices have extended their declines, as President Trump has claimed Tehran and Washington are now having “very friendly talks” while at the same time suggesting negotiations might not be prolonged.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump told Axios, as we highlighted previously. But possibly the most promising development in terms of an off-ramp is that Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

This would reportedly include including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​according to sources who spoke to Reuters Tuesday. The report notes that “The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”

However, this also to some degree represents the stalemated situation going back to square one, given the United States has consistently and vehemently opposed any fees being collected that would go to Iran. An immediate response from Tehran on the proposal has not been forthcoming, and talks could drag on for days related to the Oman plan. Already Tehran is adding some strict conditions regarding frozen or seized Iranian assets abroad, per Bloomberg citing state media:

“Any company or country that receives funds from Iranian assets will not be allowed to pass through the strait,” semi-official Tasnim news agency cites a spokesman for Iran’s central military command as saying in response to recent US proposal.

Reuters provides more detail in the following: “The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.”

“The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions,” the report adds.

‘Glimmer of Hope’ Amid Indirect Hormuz Talks

The Wall Street Journal has said this represents a “glimmer of hope” as fighting has halted since last Friday:

A U.S. official and mediators said Iran and Oman were still far apart on some issues, including whether to charge fees for transit. But both sides said there was progress, marking the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since President Trump ordered a new round of military strikes on Iran more than two weeks ago in response to Tehran firing on commercial vessels in the strait. 

…The goal of the Iran-Oman talks is to agree on which route vessels can take through the 22-mile-wide strait. Conflict erupted earlier this month after the U.S. began guiding ships through the strait by hugging the Omani coast, while Iran wants vessels to cross through its territory. 

In the meantime President Trump had laid out Monday while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One his view that there’s “plenty of time” to deal with Iran and that “we are talking right now..” He laid out that while “there’s a good chance that something could happen,” it remains that If not, “we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Trump has on Tuesday reiterated to Fox News that Iran understands it will never have a nuclear, and reaffirmed that the two sides are talking.

.@POTUS on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain: “We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on [it]… I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal. If we don’t make a… pic.twitter.com/PMdXaBkDvu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 28, 2026

Jazan Oil Refinery Shut Down for Repairs After Strikes

Over in Saudi Arabia, where missile and drone attacks out of Yemen (and possibly Iraq) over past days have damaged Aramco facilities, one regional media source says that “Saudi Aramco has shut down its Jazan oil refinery after a Houthi missile and drone attack damaged key facilities at the site, according to reports.”

“The refinery, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude per day, suffered damage to its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) complex and tank farm area. Repairs are expected to be completed and operations to resume by Aug. 15, according to a note from consultancy IIR,” Turkiye Today adds.

Satellite imagery also shows alleged damage to gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, most recently to be hit targeted likely by the Houthis:

🔥 Satellite imagery shows damage to multiple gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq (Buqayq) refinery. White and black cooling covers are also visible over two storage tanks to prevent spread.

Explore and Compare: https://t.co/TrYreAAiGB#SaudiArabia #Gas #Oil pic.twitter.com/qxwdaNKaBc

— Soar (@SoarAtlas) July 28, 2026

However, there still no official Saudi confirmation of Abqaiq being struck, but only that it was targeted:

🇸🇦 Contrary to social media reports, no Aramco or SPA statement has confirmed that Abqaiq was hit, quantified damage or alerted of a production halt.

Official Saudi report from the Saudi Press Association (SPA) only said drones “attempted to target oil facilities in Eastern… https://t.co/8wTv1uD6oF

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 28, 2026

As for the possibility of where things go from here, amid potential escalation which could see the Houthis further target Saudi oil complexes, President Trump had also warned in the aforementioned Fox interview that the US will “take out” Pickaxe Mountain if it doesn’t reach a deal with Iran.

He noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the US to stay involved in the Iran war, and the two leaders will meet Tuesday in the late morning hours at the White House.

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge in Florida said Monday that social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in a Miami jail for at least two more weeks as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom, where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking.

On July 27, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should be released during an extradition process that could last for months—or remain behind bars.

The brothers, who have been in custody since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest, were not required to appear on Monday and were not present when the judge continued their detention.

Joseph McBride, an attorney for the brothers, has said they will fight extradition and that they maintain their innocence. He described the attempt to extradite the brothers as politically motivated.

McBride told reporters after their initial court appearance on July 20 that the brothers did not do anything wrong.

“They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit,” he said.

McBride said Monday that he wants the U.S. government to provide the materials British authorities submitted to secure their arrests.

“They don’t have anything but the accusations,” McBride said after the hearing. “It’s just their word against our word right now.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Lopez said the UK has until mid-September to submit its supporting materials to the State Department.

‘Why Am I Here?’

In remarks to the New York Post on Monday, McBride said he meets with Andrew Tate as many as six times a week and jots down the influencer’s thoughts so they can later be posted on social media.

McBride described the arrangement, which allows Tate to continue reaching his millions of online followers from jail, as the “Pony Express.”

“There’s a way to be like, ‘What would you like said to the world?’” McBride said. “It’s not very hard.”

In one July 27 post, Tate complained about being held in a special housing unit, an isolated section of the jail typically used either to protect inmates or punish misconduct.

“This is punitive housing for people who murder their cellmates,” Tate wrote. “No commissary, no phone calls, no yard time.”

Describing himself as an “innocent until proven guilty extradition detainee,” Tate noted that he is a U.S. citizen wanted by a foreign government and questioned the reason for his detention.

“Why am I here?” he wrote.

In another post, Tate called the case “politically motivated” and described it as punishment for “empowering men” and giving them “the spirit to say enough is enough.”

He also thanked supporters who gathered outside the jail with signs, telling them that although the messages were difficult to read from his cell, he could “feel every word.”

British Charges

British prosecutors have said Andrew Tate, 39, faces more than two dozen counts, including rape, assault, and arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation. The allegations also include offenses involving indecent images of a child and “extreme pornography.”

Tristan Tate, 38, faces additional charges that include two counts of rape, three counts of sex trafficking, and one count of sexual assault.

The alleged offenses occurred between 2010 and 2017. Prosecutors said the latest charges involve four additional accusers and were filed after authorities received evidence from police in Bedfordshire, southeastern England.

The brothers were already charged in Britain with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking, and controlling prostitution for gain in connection with three other accusers and alleged conduct between 2012 and 2015.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service has requested their extradition while emphasizing that the defendants retain the right to a fair trial.

Andrew and Tristan Tate, who hold dual U.S. and British citizenship, have millions of followers online. Their content focuses heavily on masculinity, wealth, and relationships, while their critics have accused them of promoting misogyny.

The Tates moved to Romania in 2016 and were arrested there in 2022 on allegations that they participated in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied wrongdoing, and the case has stalled amid legal and procedural problems, although it has not been closed.

Romanian authorities lifted the brothers’ travel restrictions in February 2025, allowing them to fly to Florida on a private jet.

Defense attorney Jackie Perczek said their conduct since then shows they are not a flight risk, noting that they continued traveling back to Romania while the criminal proceedings there remained unresolved.

“For three years they have not fled,” Perczek said. “They’ve traveled the world, and every month they return to Romania.”

The Department of Energy is putting $60 million behind an effort to use AI to accelerate nearly every stage of nuclear deployment, from reactor design and licensing to manufacturing, construction, fuel fabrication, and operations.

The three-year initiative, named Project Prometheus, is the first major Phase II project selected under DOE’s Genesis Mission. Led by Idaho National Laboratory, it brings together four national laboratories, universities, major tech companies, and more than 20 nuclear industry partners.

Participants include NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Oklo, TerraPower, X-energy, GE Vernova, Westinghouse, Aalo Atomics, Antares, Valar Atomics, and Deployable Energy.

The goal is to create a secure digital thread connecting engineering models, regulatory requirements, manufacturing specifications, construction records, and operating data. DOE wants AI tools to help prepare traceable licensing documents, organize decades of legacy nuclear records, accelerate safety analyses, improve manufacturing workflows, and support reactor monitoring while keeping humans responsible for final decisions.

Prometheus is targeting a 50% reduction in reactor deployment timelines and long-term operating costs. The project has also attracted more than $200 million in industry cost sharing and another $30 million in private capital and technical contributions.

Most attention has focused on using nuclear reactors to power AI, such as NANO Nuclear’s agreement with Supermicro and Riot Platforms’ proposed collaboration with Terrestrial Energy.

Oklo, NVIDIA, and Los Alamos National Laboratory are also working together on AI-enabled nuclear fuel research, plutonium-bearing fuels, and grid studies for nuclear-powered AI facilities. That agreement directly supports the broader Genesis Mission.

We’ve covered the increasingly ridiculous AI financing “circle jerk”, where tech companies invest in AI developers that then turn around and commit to buying chips, cloud capacity, or data center services from those same backers. Amazon, for example, plans to invest billions in Anthropic while Anthropic commits to spending more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services infrastructure.

It is an impressive growth engine, provided nobody asks where the money is actually coming from…

None of that kills the nuclear case, though. The resurgence of demand for nuclear energy was originally pushed by green energy goals and was further elevated by the increasing demands for national energy security. With neither of these demand signals waning as the AI bubble stands ready to pop at any moment, nuclear will likely continue to see support from governments across the globe in the years ahead.
 

After years of pro-Hamas protests and riots, including efforts by radical-left revolutionaries to blockade highways, bridges, and other economic chokepoints, as well as unrest across Ivy League campuses, investigators are finally examining the financial infrastructure behind the Marxist movement that increasingly appears less about Palestine and more about toppling the US empire.

At the center of the investigation is a left-wing nonprofit that may have served as a bridge, connecting major progressive foundations and revolutionary-left activist networks to organizations linked to foreign terrorist groups.

This revelation appeared in a bombshell new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and was first reported publicly by the New York Post.

NCRI claims that millions of dollars raised by the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) flowed through opaque funding channels to organizations with documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Notably, the PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist Palestinian militant and political organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. The U.S. has designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997 and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist since 2001.

Last summer, a rioter was seen wearing Hamas and PFLP paraphernalia as he stood in front of a burning Waymo in Los Angeles, California.

The US Treasury sanctioned Samidoun in 2024, designating it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for allegedly serving as an international fundraiser and front organization for the PFLP. 

So why is Zohran Mamdani’s intern, France Hamed… 

Zohran Mamdani’s intern, France Hamed, has been on our radar every since she heartlessly ripped down posters of Jewish hostages on camera.

That wasn’t a one-off. Hunter College-CUNY grad Hamed is a true Israel-hater. Here she is at a rally holding a poster for an actual terror… pic.twitter.com/JqO2IBlqC3

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) September 28, 2025

NCRI identifies MECA as the possible connective node linking revolutionary-left activist groups with major progressive donors. The Berkeley-based children’s charity has become one of the most frequently promoted fundraising vehicles across the nonprofit left.

“The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is a Berkeley, California–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks, it has emerged as a critical U.S. charitable fundraising vehicle promoted across the pro-Palestinian activist ecosystem, including organizations within the Neville Roy Singham network, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and a range of progressive philanthropic institutions. As MECA’s public profile and fundraising accelerated, so too did questions regarding the destinations of its foreign grantmaking,” NCRI wrote in the report.

MECA reported about $35 million in foreign grants between fiscal 2017 and 2025. NCRI traced $13.5 million in institutional donations, with roughly 67% routed through donor-advised funds and giving platforms that conceal the original donors. The ten largest funding sources accounted for 70% of traced contributions.

“Between FY2017 and FY2025, MECA’s tax filings report approximately $35 million in foreign grant disbursements. This report identifies a persistent pattern of funding organizations with documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the United States designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997. It further documents personnel overlap between MECA and organizations affiliated with the PFLP, as well as longstanding organizational and coalition relationships suggesting these connections are structural rather than incidental. The structure may partially shield the extent of collaboration with the PFLP from activist networks in the United States who both raise money for MECA and ideologically support the PFLP,” NCRI said.

Foreign disbursements surged to $10.7 million in fiscal 2024, about 4.5 times the previous year. Meanwhile, more than 70% of foreign-grant entries were labeled only as “community projects,” preventing outsiders from identifying the recipients or specific purposes. NCRI said the decline in disclosure began in 2020, years before the Gaza war.

The report identified six longtime MECA partners assessed as having PFLP affiliations. Those organizations gradually disappeared from MECA’s public grant descriptions as scrutiny of their alleged ties intensified. Named funders included Open Society Foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tides-linked entities and organizations associated with Neville Roy Singham.

Path of funding from anonymous donors to MECA.

NCRI: A conceptual model of paths from entities and individuals soliciting funds for MECA to groups affiliated with the PFLP and on to militant and terrorist groups such as Fatah and PFLP.

“The convergence of these findings raises concerns about whether donors in the United States may be unknowingly donating to a group that ultimately benefits a foreign terrorist organization,” NCRI stated.

MECA’s operations overlap with the PFLP through personnel and civil society groups, according to NCRI. 

The strongest link is the “red-green alliance” between communist and Islamist activist networks.

The ShutItDown4Palestine campaign brought together organizations linked to China-based Marxist Neville Roy Singham with Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus network associated with American Muslims for Palestine.

NCRI’s bombshell findings come nearly two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared war on the radical left while standing in front of delegations from 65 nations.

The State Department later released a report detailing far-left subversion networks routed through Cuba that have been sowing chaos in America.

The American people are getting a clear picture of what only appears to explain why segments of America’s left have become increasingly revolutionary, embracing anti-American rhetoric and an explicitly anti-capitalist agenda, as well as seeking the destruction of America’s current form.

Read the report here. 

Summary

• Hormuz indirect talks continue amid reports of a possible resurrected MoU deal.
• Shipping remains stalled with virtually no tanker traffic through Hormuz.
• Iran insists Hormuz stays closed unless its terms are accepted.
• Houthis escalate attacks, prompting more ships to avoid the Red Sea.

Shipping Latest: Bab El Mandeb & Hormuz

Iran has reaffirmed that if Oman does not agree to its terms for the Strait of Hormuz, the the vital oil transit waterway will remain closed, per Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister. This also as things are again heating up in the Red Sea region, with the Houthis late Tuesday announcing they’ve once again targeted a Saudi oil tanker for violating the blockade. Reuters reports:

Yemen’s Houthis claim to have fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker, accusing the vessel of violating what they describe as their maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and ignoring warning calls.

The Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, claims the vessel was forced to turn back.

According to separate reporting, China is holding direct negotiations with Yemen’s Houthis to ensure safe passage for its ships through the southern Red Sea.

Iran says it hasn’t sought US talks in past 16-17 days, reports Irib News

And a US CENTCOM update on its latest figures: it says that as of Tuesday the US military has redirected 18 commercial vessels, disabled two, and boarded another two to “ensure full compliance of the US blockade against Iran.” The latest from Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump at the White House:

Channel 12 on a senior Israeli official: Netanyahu confirmed to Trump that additional strikes on rehabilitated Iranian nuclear facilities are unavoidable

More vessels reportedly turning away from planned routes after Houthi threats:

Three product tankers loaded at Saudi Arabian Red Sea ports and bound for Asia-Pacific and east Africa have turned north towards the Suez Canal, as Houthi-related threats to shipping prompt charterers to reassess passage through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

The tankers appear to…

— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) July 28, 2026

Fox Reports Mediators ‘Close’ to Resurrecting MoU

Here we go again… despite no evident change in war posturing on either side, and despite shipping traffic still largely at a complete standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, Fox News is out with claims that the failed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) could be ‘resurrected’… bringing us back to the ‘deal is close’ constant headlines of earlier this summer (though of course the sides were never in reality close – and simply returned to a wider bombing campaign)…

“Mediators of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East believe the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal that would resurrect the failed memorandum of understanding, according to The Times of Israel,” Fox writes, based on the earlier Israeli media article. Negotiators from Pakistan, Egypt and Qatar have been haggling over an Oman-proposed Strait of Hormuz management plan. It will involve fee-collection and is backed by the Gulf states, supposedly. The timing of all of this interesting given Trump is currently hosting Netanyahu at the White House. More from Fox:

Iran and Oman — both of which are situated on the Strait of Hormuz — have reportedly signed off on the proposal advanced by the mediators.

The two sources said the White House was waiting to make a decision until after President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Meanwhile…

JMIC: DATA INDICATES ZERO TANKERS IN EITHER DIRECTION OF HORMUZ

Still, the return to deal ‘optimism’ has pushed oil prices down further – which is perhaps the entire point of US officials anonymously hyping that a deal is ‘close’ once again.

And S&P futures briefly reached High of Day on the headline…

Oman’s Hormuz Management Proposal

US-Iran attacks have remained paused, and oil prices have extended their declines, as President Trump has claimed Tehran and Washington are now having “very friendly talks” while at the same time suggesting negotiations might not be prolonged.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump told Axios, as we highlighted previously. But possibly the most promising development in terms of an off-ramp is that Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

This would reportedly include including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​according to sources who spoke to Reuters Tuesday. The report notes that “The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”

However, this also to some degree represents the stalemated situation going back to square one, given the United States has consistently and vehemently opposed any fees being collected that would go to Iran. An immediate response from Tehran on the proposal has not been forthcoming, and talks could drag on for days related to the Oman plan. Already Tehran is adding some strict conditions regarding frozen or seized Iranian assets abroad, per Bloomberg citing state media:

“Any company or country that receives funds from Iranian assets will not be allowed to pass through the strait,” semi-official Tasnim news agency cites a spokesman for Iran’s central military command as saying in response to recent US proposal.

Reuters provides more detail in the following: “The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.”

“The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions,” the report adds.

‘Glimmer of Hope’ Amid Indirect Hormuz Talks

The Wall Street Journal has said this represents a “glimmer of hope” as fighting has halted since last Friday:

A U.S. official and mediators said Iran and Oman were still far apart on some issues, including whether to charge fees for transit. But both sides said there was progress, marking the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since President Trump ordered a new round of military strikes on Iran more than two weeks ago in response to Tehran firing on commercial vessels in the strait. 

…The goal of the Iran-Oman talks is to agree on which route vessels can take through the 22-mile-wide strait. Conflict erupted earlier this month after the U.S. began guiding ships through the strait by hugging the Omani coast, while Iran wants vessels to cross through its territory. 

In the meantime President Trump had laid out Monday while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One his view that there’s “plenty of time” to deal with Iran and that “we are talking right now..” He laid out that while “there’s a good chance that something could happen,” it remains that If not, “we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Trump has on Tuesday reiterated to Fox News that Iran understands it will never have a nuclear, and reaffirmed that the two sides are talking.

.@POTUS on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain: “We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on [it]… I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal. If we don’t make a… pic.twitter.com/PMdXaBkDvu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 28, 2026

Jazan Oil Refinery Shut Down for Repairs After Strikes

Over in Saudi Arabia, where missile and drone attacks out of Yemen (and possibly Iraq) over past days have damaged Aramco facilities, one regional media source says that “Saudi Aramco has shut down its Jazan oil refinery after a Houthi missile and drone attack damaged key facilities at the site, according to reports.”

“The refinery, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude per day, suffered damage to its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) complex and tank farm area. Repairs are expected to be completed and operations to resume by Aug. 15, according to a note from consultancy IIR,” Turkiye Today adds.

Satellite imagery also shows alleged damage to gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, most recently to be hit targeted likely by the Houthis:

🔥 Satellite imagery shows damage to multiple gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq (Buqayq) refinery. White and black cooling covers are also visible over two storage tanks to prevent spread.

Explore and Compare: https://t.co/TrYreAAiGB#SaudiArabia #Gas #Oil pic.twitter.com/qxwdaNKaBc

— Soar (@SoarAtlas) July 28, 2026

However, there still no official Saudi confirmation of Abqaiq being struck, but only that it was targeted:

🇸🇦 Contrary to social media reports, no Aramco or SPA statement has confirmed that Abqaiq was hit, quantified damage or alerted of a production halt.

Official Saudi report from the Saudi Press Association (SPA) only said drones “attempted to target oil facilities in Eastern… https://t.co/8wTv1uD6oF

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 28, 2026

As for the possibility of where things go from here, amid potential escalation which could see the Houthis further target Saudi oil complexes, President Trump had also warned in the aforementioned Fox interview that the US will “take out” Pickaxe Mountain if it doesn’t reach a deal with Iran.

He noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the US to stay involved in the Iran war, and the two leaders will meet Tuesday in the late morning hours at the White House.

By Ethan Howland of UtilityDive

The PJM Interconnection has until the end of September to agree to governance and stakeholder reforms or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will impose them, the agency’s chairman, Laura Swett, said Thursday.

“PJM is facing a grave legitimacy crisis,” Swett said at a technical conference FERC held on the grid operator’s governance issues. “Some transmission owners are openly discussing leaving the RTO altogether. Put plainly, market participants have lost confidence in PJM’s decision-making abilities.”

With PJM failing to attract significant new generation in its last two capacity auctions, the grid operator is ready for major changes in the way it operates, according to its new President and CEO David Mills, who officially took over the role in May after several months as interim leader.

“We are fully committed to rise to the challenge,” including capacity market reform, Mills said.

Potential reforms discussed at the meeting include increased board independence, a formal role for states at PJM, and giving states the right to file proposals at FERC — called “filing rights” — while also expanding PJM’s filing rights.

After taking post-conference comments, FERC intends to hold a dispute resolution forum in September with PJM stakeholders to develop a governance reform package, according to Swett. If an agreement isn’t reached by the end of that month, FERC will impose its own reforms on PJM, she said.

Capacity market exposes governance weaknesses

The technical conference comes about two years after capacity prices spiked in PJM as rising demand from data centers outpaced any increase in power supplies on PJM’s system, which spans 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. That price spike led to rate increases of 20% or more for some utilities and sparked intense interest from governors and policymakers.

PJM’s struggles in responding to the rapid shift in its supply-demand balance intensified governance problems that had been festering for years, Jodi Moskowitz, PSEG’s vice president regulatory — law, deputy general counsel and RTO strategy officer, said at the meeting.

Two problems highlighted at the meeting were the ability of PJM members to effectively fire the grid operator’s board members as well as its stakeholder process, which can be long and end without concrete results.

PJM uses a sector-weighted voting system in its stakeholder process, with a two-thirds majority of a sector-weighted vote required for a measure to pass. Under the system, members are divided into five categories — electric distributor, end-use customer, generation owner, other supplier and transmission owner.

One effect of the voting system is that two sectors can join up to block a measure they don’t like, which has happened repeatedly, especially on contentious issues, the RTO Governance Research Network said in comments filed at FERC.

During the meeting, representatives for American Electric Power and others said stakeholders should have an advisory role, like the one used by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator. Under that process, PJM’s board would get input from stakeholders, but final decisions would rest with the board.

Currently PJM members run the grid operator’s stakeholder process, which can lead to priorities getting offtrack, according to Asim Haque, PJM executive vice president, governmental and member services.

PJM’s failure to use authorities that it has and its failure to engage with states reflects the organization’s culture, according to FERC Commissioner David LaCerte.

“This is a cultural quagmire that they’ve developed by eroding the board in the past and creating this fear of [board members] being terminated to where they’re not using their authorities,” LaCerte said “They’re not engaging with the states because they don’t want to get out of line with what the stakeholders want.”

The solution appears to be making the stakeholder process advisory, LaCerte said.

“I don’t think we can do business as usual,” Haque said.

Markets rarely hand you a clean morality play. On Monday night, a federal judge entered one, clocking in no less than 78 pages, in the public docket. And for anyone who has played one of America’s chart-topping “skill gaming” apps – a group that certainly includes many readers of this site – this may be for you.

A federal trial has now established that at Papaya Gaming, the private Tel Aviv-based publisher of Solitaire Cash and Bingo Cash, the “humans” across the table were actually quite often programmed bots.

The winner in all of this is Firy, Inc. (of the eponymous FIRY ticker), the operator that played the SPAC game to a $3.5 billion valuation in 2020, roundtripping 96% to a $130 million market cap with an estimated 20% of its float sold short.

Needless to say, at a market cap of a paltry $130 million, the market had written the whole thing off, pricing FIRY below the $185 million of cash on its latest, March 31st balance sheet, never mind the platform or anything else left on either side of the ledger.

But all that changes now. FIRY led the lawsuit against Papaya and is the beneficiary of a $719 million award handed down overnight, well over 5 times its market cap. This is the judge’s ruling after a $420 million jury award and Papaya’s failed attempts to get the case tossed out.

What Papaya did, in the court’s own words (from Monday’s Opinion)

• “In January 2021, for example, Papaya used bots in about 90% of its cash tournaments” (Op. at 8.)
• From 2021 to 2024, “bots accounted for over 13 million of the participants on Papaya’s platform, compared to about 11 million human players.” (Op. at 7.)
• “Papaya only paid customers roughly $2 billion of the $6.7 billion that it advertised had been awarded in prizes.” (Op. at 8.)
• “When a bot ‘won’ one of these tournaments, Papaya kept all entry fees.” (Op. at 28.)

Liquidity bots, tailored bots, and losing before you played Papaya ran two kinds of fakes.

• “Liquidity bots were used to create immediately accessible tournaments of various sizes, including up to 20 or more ‘players’.” “[A] 20-player tournament might have one human player and nineteen bots.” (Op. at 7.) Their job was to make a game exist instantly, at any hour of the night.
• The second kind decided outcomes: “bots were used to give a player a designated win or loss. For instance, a player who had a losing streak could be given a ‘win’ to motivate them to keep playing in more tournaments.” (Id.) These “tailored bots” operated “in over 630 million Papaya tournaments, or in roughly one-quarter of the 2.6 billion tournaments that Papaya hosted during the years 2021 to 2024,” and “[m]ore than 6.1 million of those human beings played in at least one tournament where tailored bots were designed to give them a loss.” (Id.)

Think about that: millions of Americans paid to lose games that were over before they started.

The Fifth Amendment and the apology

Perhaps predictably, Papaya’s executives pled the Fifth Amendment during the case and the court did not let them un-
ring that bell at the last minute.

• “Papaya’s executives invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at their depositions. About a year later, on the eve of trial, those same executives sought to withdraw their invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege.” (Op. at 13.)

Later on, Papaya’s own trial lawyers conceded to the jury: “Papaya has taken responsibility for its actions. It stopped
giving those customer complaint responses. It stopped using bots.” (Op. at 11 n.2.) Please clap. 

The $719 Million Blow

On April 23, a unanimous jury found Papaya liable for false advertising and awarded $420 million in damages – what the winning law firm King & Spalding calls the largest false-advertising award in U.S. history.

Yesterday’s opinion granted a $719 million disgorgement of Papaya’s profits – higher than the $420 million jury verdict – and did not mince words: “Papaya’s fraudulent conduct was extraordinary.” (Op. at 37.) Papaya “entered the U.S. market through a massive deception” (Op. at 71) — a “willful, bad faith violation of the law.” (Op. at 76.)

FIRY ends up the big loser and the big winner

FIRY launched the first real-money skill-gaming platform back in 2012 (Op. at 4) and rode the SPAC wave public at a $3.5 billion valuation in December 2020. The court traced what happened next: “Skillz’s revenue had fallen by 60% in just two years, tumbling from $384 million in 2021 to $152 million, while Papaya’s revenue skyrocketed from $163 million to $461 million over the same period.” (Op. at 10.) In June the company rebranded itself FIRY… because five years of a tortured stock price will do that to you.

Now What?

The cheater owes $719 million and the honest player collects. Good over evil, with interest.

The 20% of the float that was short into Monday’s opinion bet on the wrong hand. On the April jury verdict alone, FIRY closed up 238% amid multiple volatility halts. And that was before the judge denied a new trial and raised the number above what the jury awarded ($420 million to $719 million).

To appeal, Papaya must produce an appeal bond on the order of $800 million in real money — no bots accepted. Will the private credit bubble extend to writing that paper for a private Israeli company whose only product a federal jury and a federal judge have both found was fraudulently marketed? Is there an AI angle here? Asking for a friend in Tel Aviv.

Next Up: Voodoo

Monday was not the first time this has happened. In 2024, FIRY took AviaGames – publisher of Pocket7Games – to a California jury and won $42.9 million for patent infringement, two years before its latest win against Papaya (“Skillz Wins $42.9M IP Trial Against Rival Accused Of Bot Fraud”).

Now in 2026, FIRY takes a win against Papaya.

Then there is the one more case not yet discussed: FIRY’s July 2024 lawsuit against Voodoo, the French owner of Blitz Win Cash, over what it alleges is the same bot playbook. While Voodoo fights these claims and nothing has been decided, one would imagine the Papaya verdict is being analyzed today in Paris.

By Emma Penrod of UtilityDive,

Pacific Gas and Electric now counts 12.7 GW in its data center pipeline, of which 490 MW of projects have executed interconnection agreements and another 3.9 GW are in final engineering, company officials said Thursday during a second-quarter earnings call.

The company’s data center pipeline has fluctuated over the past year, from 7.3 GW at the end of 2025 to 5.4 GW in the first quarter of 2026 as projects dropped out. The company’s most recent investor presentation Thursday retroactively revised down its queue from last quarter to 5.1 GW, citing changes to its methodology.

Executives attributed the changes to stricter vetting of potential projects and expressed confidence that their efforts to attract the right kind of customer are paying off.

PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe said she expects to serve 1.8 GW of new data center load by 2030.

“As we continue to build our pipeline, we’re focusing not on size, but on quality,” Poppe told analysts on Thursday’s call. “We remain very focused on pricing this load correctly — attractive to data center customers, but still rate-reducing for our other customers. … Done right, these efforts can help build a high-confidence pipeline that lowers electric bills, drives economic growth and keeps California at the forefront of technology and innovation.”

Although PG&E attracted interest from some larger data center projects this past quarter, Poppe said smaller data centers with electric demand under a gigawatt constitute the bulk of the company’s queue to date.

By the numbers — PG&E Q2’26

• 22.7 GW: Data center pipeline, with 3.9 GW in final engineering
• $1.25B: Amount PG&E expects to receive from the California Wildfire Fund for the 2021 Dixie Fire.
• $16.6B: Revenue requested in the utility’s 2027 General Rate Case, for which evidentiary hearings are underway
• $73B: Five-year capital plan

Meanwhile, the 2026 wildfire season remains relatively quiet, with Poppe noting that 2026 is — so far — the company’s fourth consecutive year without a major fire. She said the company has managed to avert 13 potential ignitions this year thanks to its monitoring and mitigation efforts.

However, the company continues to face significant costs and liabilities related to previous wildfires. Earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed a settlement agreement that would impose a $22 million penalty on the utility for the 2022 Mosquito Fire in Placer County.

Pending public comment and approval, the settlement would end the CPUC’s investigation into the utility’s role in the fire. PG&E faces at total of $400 million in liabilities for the Mosquito Fire, plus $2.25 billion related to the 2021 Dixie Fire. It expects to receive $1.25 billion from the state Wildfire Fund for the Dixie Fire and has already received $128 million from the fund for the 2019 Kincade Fire. It does not expect reimbursement from the fund for the Mosquito Fire, according to company filings.

The utility expects California lawmakers to pass reforms to shore up the state Wildfire Fund later this year. Though S&P recently upgraded PG&E’s credit rating, legislative reform remains critical to the company’s strategy for achieving investment-grade ratings, PG&E executive vice president and CFO Carolyn Burke said on Thursday.

“There’s no case for no action,” Poppe later added. “In other words, if the legislature does not act or if they act and don’t actually solve the problem, then we’re going to have to take action.”

Poppe and Burke declined to answer analysts’ questions about the details of that potential action, but indicated that all aspects of the company’s $73 billion financing and capital plan would be on the table.

Under its current plan, the company will spend about $58 billion on transmission and distribution lines and $3 billion on power generation, according to the company’s earnings presentation. A 2027 General Rate Case currently underway seeks more than $16 billion in revenue.

Poppe said the interim rate request — opposed by some intervenors — was intended to reduce rate shock for customers. She said it would have no bearing on the company’s financing plan.

Update(11:35ET): Here we go again… despite no evident change in war posturing on either side, and despite shipping traffic still largely at a complete standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, Fox News is out with claims that the failed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) could be ‘resurrected’… bringing us back to the ‘deal is close’ constant headlines of earlier this summer (though of course the sides were never in reality close – and simply returned to a wider bombing campaign)…

“Mediators of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East believe the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal that would resurrect the failed memorandum of understanding, according to The Times of Israel,” Fox writes, based on the earlier Israeli media article. Negotiators from Pakistan, Egypt and Qatar have been haggling over an Oman-proposed Strait of Hormuz management plan. It will involve fee-collection and is backed by the Gulf states, supposedly. The timing of all of this interesting given Trump is currently hosting Netanyahu at the White House. More from Fox:

Iran and Oman — both of which are situated on the Strait of Hormuz — have reportedly signed off on the proposal advanced by the mediators.

The two sources said the White House was waiting to make a decision until after President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Meanwhile…

JMIC: DATA INDICATES ZERO TANKERS IN EITHER DIRECTION OF HORMUZ

Still, the return to deal ‘optimism’ has pushed oil prices down further – which is perhaps the entire point of US officials anonymously hyping that a deal is ‘close’ once again.

And S&P futures briefly reached High of Day on the headline…

*  *  *

US-Iran attacks have remained paused, and oil prices have extended their declines, as President Trump has claimed Tehran and Washington are now having “very friendly talks” while at the same time suggesting negotiations might not be prolonged.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump told Axios, as we highlighted previously. But possibly the most promising development in terms of an off-ramp is that Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz.

This would reportedly include including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​according to sources who spoke to Reuters Tuesday. The report notes that “The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”

However, this also to some degree represents the stalemated situation going back to square one, given the United States has consistently and vehemently opposed any fees being collected that would go to Iran. An immediate response from Tehran on the proposal has not been forthcoming, and talks could drag on for days related to the Oman plan. Already Tehran is adding some strict conditions regarding frozen or seized Iranian assets abroad, per Bloomberg citing state media:

“Any company or country that receives funds from Iranian assets will not be allowed to pass through the strait,” semi-official Tasnim news agency cites a spokesman for Iran’s central military command as saying in response to recent US proposal.

Reuters provides more detail in the following: “The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.”

“The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions,” the report adds.

The Wall Street Journal has said this represents a “glimmer of hope” as fighting has halted since last Friday:

A U.S. official and mediators said Iran and Oman were still far apart on some issues, including whether to charge fees for transit. But both sides said there was progress, marking the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since President Trump ordered a new round of military strikes on Iran more than two weeks ago in response to Tehran firing on commercial vessels in the strait. 

…The goal of the Iran-Oman talks is to agree on which route vessels can take through the 22-mile-wide strait. Conflict erupted earlier this month after the U.S. began guiding ships through the strait by hugging the Omani coast, while Iran wants vessels to cross through its territory. 

In the meantime President Trump had laid out Monday while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One his view that there’s “plenty of time” to deal with Iran and that “we are talking right now..” He laid out that while “there’s a good chance that something could happen,” it remains that If not, “we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Trump has on Tuesday reiterated to Fox News that Iran understands it will never have a nuclear, and reaffirmed that the two sides are talking.

.@POTUS on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain: “We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on [it]… I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal. If we don’t make a… pic.twitter.com/PMdXaBkDvu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 28, 2026

Over in Saudi Arabia, where missile and drone attacks out of Yemen (and possibly Iraq) over past days have damaged Aramco facilities, one regional media source says that “Saudi Aramco has shut down its Jazan oil refinery after a Houthi missile and drone attack damaged key facilities at the site, according to reports.”

“The refinery, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude per day, suffered damage to its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) complex and tank farm area. Repairs are expected to be completed and operations to resume by Aug. 15, according to a note from consultancy IIR,” Turkiye Today adds.

Satellite imagery also shows alleged damage to gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, most recently to be hit targeted likely by the Houthis:

🔥 Satellite imagery shows damage to multiple gas storage tanks at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq (Buqayq) refinery. White and black cooling covers are also visible over two storage tanks to prevent spread.

Explore and Compare: https://t.co/TrYreAAiGB#SaudiArabia #Gas #Oil pic.twitter.com/qxwdaNKaBc

— Soar (@SoarAtlas) July 28, 2026

However, there still no official Saudi confirmation of Abqaiq being struck, but only that it was targeted:

🇸🇦 Contrary to social media reports, no Aramco or SPA statement has confirmed that Abqaiq was hit, quantified damage or alerted of a production halt.

Official Saudi report from the Saudi Press Association (SPA) only said drones “attempted to target oil facilities in Eastern… https://t.co/8wTv1uD6oF

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 28, 2026

As for the possibility of where things go from here, amid potential escalation which could see the Houthis further target Saudi oil complexes, President Trump had also warned in the aforementioned Fox interview that the US will “take out” Pickaxe Mountain if it doesn’t reach a deal with Iran.

He noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the US to stay involved in the Iran war, and the two leaders will meet Tuesday in the late morning hours at the White House.