The federal agency that processes green cards, U.S. citizenship requests, and work permits this week called on people to report potential cases of immigration fraud through a newly created portal.
In an Aug. 4 post on X, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wrote that anyone who suspects “immigration fraud, criminal activity, or actions by aliens that threaten national security or public safety” can report it to the agency, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Reports should involve aliens suspected of fraud, unlawful acts, threats, violence, terrorism-related activity, or other conduct connected to immigration,” the agency said.
On Wednesday, it called on anyone who notices or suspects non-U.S. citizens are “committing immigration fraud of any kind, making false claims of U.S. citizenship, or advocating violence or terrorism against America” to report tips.
It then directed the public to a website, titled “Protect America Together,” which allows the public to submit details of suspected fraudulent activity. That can include noncitizens using fake or altered documents, as well as identity, marriage, visa, employment, and asylum fraud.
Tipsters can also submit reports of suspected fraud and abuse within the H-1B visa program, which has been used by companies to employ Big Tech workers for decades, and within the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program.
“Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, including registering or voting in a federal election” can also be reported using the website, it said.
Other activities that can be reported include noncitizens “supporting terrorist ideologies or providing material support to terrorist organization,” “advocating for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government,” “expressing hatred for American values,” working with groups or individuals who are seeking to disrupt public safety or national security, or “engaging in activities that violate the principles of the Constitution or show disloyalty to the United States.”
A spokesperson for DHS told The Epoch Times on Wednesday evening that the website is a new push from USCIS.
“A single tip can help protect the United States from immigration fraud that exploits the American people and undermines America’s legal immigration system,” the spokesperson said.
Immigrants await their turn for green card and citizenship interviews at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Queens office in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City on May 30, 2013. John Moore/Getty Images
When submitting details to the web portal, USCIS directs tipsters to include as many details as they can, including a name, date of birth, or address.
It also directs users to provide information about themselves, including their names, emails, and phone numbers. The reporting form allows for either businesses and companies or individuals to be reported.
According to the agency, users will soon be able to upload screenshots as they report tips to USCIS.
Since President Donald Trump took office last year, his administration has made mass deportations and enforcing laws against illegal immigration a priority. His administration has also moved to tighten legal immigration rules and suspend certain temporary deportation protection programs for certain countries.
The administration has also moved to denaturalize U.S. citizens such as those who were convicted of crimes including sexual abuse of a child, healthcare fraud, and immigration fraud, among other charges.
USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
DeepSeek Resumes $74BN Mega-Raise – Then Warns It’s Jacking-Up Prices
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is looking to raise roughly 50 billion yuan at a valuation of 500 billion yuan (US$74 billion) – while the company warned developers a day later that it’s raising prices. The resumed funding round, first reported by Chinese business outlet Caijing (via The Standard), is expected to be signed by the end of the month, with the process kept deliberately quiet; some participating institutions reportedly haven’t even been formally told the deal is back on. The pricing notice, posted Thursday to DeepSeek’s developer platform, warns that API rates will rise across the board and that the increase is expected to be “significant.”
The round restarts barely two weeks after it was shelved, and roughly six weeks after DeepSeek’s first-ever external raise in June, which pulled in some $7.4 billion from Tencent, CATL, Beijing’s National AI Industry Investment Fund, NetEase, JD.com, Monolith Management and IDG Capital at a valuation north of $50 billion (corporate filings later implied a figure closer to $52 billion). The new target is a steep markup on a deal that closed weeks ago, and the prospective investor list reportedly blends returning backers with new money that couldn’t get into round one.
As we noted last month, the round stalled because a transcript of founder Liang Wenfeng’s May 20 closed-door meeting with investors leaked onto GitHub and went viral – a document in which Liang admitted China still trails the US in AI (a gap of compute and capital, not talent, per Liang), conceded DeepSeek remains heavily dependent on Nvidia hardware, described Huawei’s substitutes as falling well short, and acknowledged the company could get its hands on processors he called “noncompliant.”
Liang – reportedly furious over the leak – simply froze the deal.
Meanwhile, questions about how DeepSeek is obtaining restricted silicon go back to the very beginning – with federal investigators probing whether Singapore-based third parties funneled blacklisted Nvidia chips to the lab as far back as early 2025, and by that April the House Select Committee on the CCP had formally concluded that DeepSeek’s model appeared to run on tens of thousands of export-restricted Nvidia chips, branding the company a tool for “subverting” US export controls. Congress alleged it and now the founder has all but confirmed it, on (leaked) record telling investors the workaround exists – even as the company lays groundwork for a Shanghai STAR Market IPO it reportedly hopes to file this year. Should be a fun prospectus to read.
Liang was able to hit the pause button so easily because DeepSeek’s first round routed nearly every investor’s money into a limited partnership Liang personally controls, complete with a five-year lock-up and zero voting rights. The lone exception was the state AI fund, which bought direct equity and kept its vote. Liang holds roughly 84% of the company and near-total voting control – meaning Tencent and CATL wired in billions for the privilege of watching, while Beijing holds the only outside seat at the table.
In the leaked transcript, he told investors that GPUs are the single best use of the company’s capital, that he would happily convert the entire war chest into Nvidia hardware if supply allowed, and that spending 20 billion yuan a year on processors would count as a triumph for his purchasing team. He also told them the money doesn’t go as far as it looks: even 50 billion yuan, he said, wouldn’t train a model at the scale of the largest U.S. systems, which he estimated would take roughly 50,000 Nvidia GB300s or 200,000 Huawei Ascend 950s – before the experiments that precede any final training run. Beyond the hardware, the company plans to double headcount and push into data centers and AI agents, and Reuters reports it is quietly hiring chip designers to develop in-house inference silicon – an attempt to engineer its way out of the very dependence Liang lamented.
Price Hike
Which brings us to the other shoe – the company’s announcement that API rates will rise across the board in a “significant” way – the company’s second hike in under a month, following a “peak/off-peak” scheme TechNode reported in mid-July, which doubled rates during Chinese business hours.
No new rate card or effective date has been published – but this is the lab whose $0.14-per-million-token pricing dragged ByteDance, Tencent, and lately even the US majors into a price war. Demand has reportedly overwhelmed its infrastructure, and bargain-basement tokens are a hard pitch to pre-IPO investors. The catch: DeepSeek’s weights are open, so any datacenter on earth can serve the same models. If they raise prices too far, customers may balk.
DoorDash has cleared a major federal hurdle in its push to put drones, not just drivers, in charge of getting dinner to your door.
The San Francisco-based delivery company announced July 29 that it received Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 air carrier certification, the same category of authorization commercial airlines must hold to legally transport other people’s property for pay. The certificate makes DoorDash the eighth drone operator to earn the designation and clears the way for its new in-house operation, DoorDash Air, to begin building a commercial drone delivery network in the United States.
The achievement did not come easily. Federal regulators put DoorDash through a five-phase review examining its aircraft, maintenance procedures and safety program before signing off. That kind of vetting is worth noting at a time when many Americans question whether Washington bureaucracies move too slowly to keep pace with private-sector innovation
DoorDash says the drone will be designed and built in the United States, with most of its components sourced domestically as well. Building the aircraft at home, rather than relying on foreign-made hardware, keeps DoorDash in step with a growing national push to reduce reliance on Chinese technology in critical infrastructure.
The company says the drones fix a real inefficiency. More than 20 percent of DoorDash orders in 2025 traveled between three and five miles, and those trips took nearly a quarter longer than shorter deliveries, largely because drivers prefer clusters of short trips near busy restaurants over a single long haul. DoorDash estimates its existing drone pilots completed deliveries in about 25 minutes on average and saw order volume climb roughly 30 percent in some locations. Those figures come from the company itself and have not been independently verified.
Human Dashers are not going anywhere. DoorDash says drivers will keep handling the overwhelming majority of deliveries, since a drone cannot climb an apartment stairwell or haul a large catering order. The company’s Autonomous Delivery Platform will instead assign each order to whichever method, a Dasher, a delivery robot or a drone, makes the most sense.
Federal certification does not mean drones will appear over American neighborhoods anytime soon. DoorDash still needs airspace authorization and likely additional waivers for flights beyond a pilot’s direct line of sight, and it has not announced its first markets or a launch date. Local zoning boards, noise concerns and community pushback could shape where the company is ultimately allowed to operate, regardless of what Washington has approved.
Still, DoorDash’s milestone reflects a private company willing to invest in American manufacturing and clear federal hurdles rather than wait for government to hand it a shortcut.
Japan Marks Hiroshima Anniversary Without Naming US, While Shaming Russia
Russia is not happy with Japan’s statements regarding the anniversary of the US military’s dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of WWII. Thursday marks the 81st anniversary of the bombing which obliterated the densely-populated industrial city.
The Kremlin is accusing Japanese officials of intentionally dropping any mention of just who dropped the nuke which ultimately killed some 140,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians.
The city’s mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony held at the center of where the blast happened issued strong condemnation of nuclear weapons generally, but failed to identify that it was the United States behind it.
Tokyo and Washington have in recent years deepened their security ties, with an eye on China, and so Japanese leaders have long sought to avoid offending their powerful patron and ally.
Astoundingly, not only did Mayor Matsui fail to mention the US and the B-29 Superfortress ‘Enola Gay’ bomber that actually dropped the bomb, a simple historical reality, but he went out of his way to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine in his Thursday speech.
The speech focused on the “inhumanity of nuclear weapons” and how “use of force to pursue one’s own prosperity” must be condemned and abolished, but then he gratuitously invoked Russia while giving the stories of survivors who have since suffered debilitating illnesses:
Another woman, exposed to the bomb at age 3, suffered through the years from a series of illnesses, then leukemia at age 55. Having been diagnosed with A-bomb disease, she lived in constant fear. Where would it strike next?
A man who was 9, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has claimed the lives of many civilians, begs us to overcome our internal conflicts and embrace each other’s perspectives to build a world without violent conflict. He urges our youth, in particular, to begin by thinking deeply about their daily lives.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was in attendance at the ceremony, a first since entering office, and she too failed to identify the US as the country which dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese people. She merely called for “realistic and practical” efforts toward a world without nuclear weapons. Top officials from dozens of countries were present, including from Russia, the US, and Iran.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quick to highlight the glaring omission in statements to the press later the same day.
On the atomic bombing’s anniversary, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that Hiroshima’s Mayor failed to specify the United States as responsible for the city’s destruction through the atomic bomb that killed civilians. pic.twitter.com/wdyN6ecIoP
“On the anniversary of the atomic bombing, Hiroshima’s mayor once again failed to mention the country responsible for the suffering of his city — the United States. Instead, he used the occasion to attack Russia over Ukraine,” Zakharova said.
“Thecrooked mirror of Western narratives distorts not only the reflection but also the consciousness of those who look into it,” she stressed.
She went to point out that the mayor “repeats this false mantra year after year, zombifying the Japanese with Russophobic incantations” – and noted thatRussia has always remembered the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and appropriately presents the tragedy as an example of “unacceptable cruelty” by American forces.
“Amid the suffering caused by Japanese aggression in the Far East, our people never forgot the victims of those two cities,” she concluded.
Russia’s TASS is busy highlighting the fact that the UN Chief, who addressed the ceremony too, also failed to so much as mention the United States:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once again did not mention that the United States was the country that carried out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in his message marking its 81st anniversary.
UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu traditionally read out the message.
The report went on: “In previous years, Guterres also never directly named the United States as the country that carried out the atomic bombings in similar messages commemorating the anniversaries of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
Bus-Bomb Plot By Marxist ‘Mad Max’ Foiled Ahead Of Trump-Backed Colombian President’s Inauguration
Less than a week after Colombian authorities blamed a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group for detonating a truck bomb outside police headquarters in the border city of Cúcuta, injuring 11 officers, security forces intercepted a bus carrying a massive bomb.
The local outlet Blu Radio reported that an intelligence operation by the National Police thwarted a “terrorist attack” when authorities intercepted a bus carrying 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in Santander de Quilichao, about 30 miles from Cali.
President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-backed conservative who has pledged to restore law and order and wage war against far-left terror groups, will be sworn in before foreign leaders and senior U.S. officials on Friday.
The report noted that the bus bomb was orchestrated by the far-left, Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to “attack” the military during inauguration celebrations.
The major Colombian news outlet continued:
According to preliminary information, the vehicle had been modified to be used as a bus bomb and, according to the investigation, its objective was to attack military and police installations in Cali during the events related to the inauguration of President-elect Abelardo De La Espriella.
Authorities attribute the planning of the attack to the ‘Jaime Martínez’ Front, a structure of the Central General Staff of the FARC dissidents under the command of alias ‘Iván Mordisco’ and point to alias ‘Max Max’, identified as the main explosives expert of that organization, as responsible for preparing the vehicle.
Military intelligence also maintains that the action was ordered by alias ‘Iván Mordisco’ himself, with the purpose of generating a high-impact event during the inauguration day.
El Tigre’s rise to power comes amid a once-in-a-generation political shift from left-wing regimes controlling the Americas to a majority of right-wing governments closely aligned with the Trump administration. The State Department has pursued this strategy to secure the West, ensure countries align with the U.S. rather than China or Russia, and promote open and free markets over failed socialist ones.
Americas Political Map: Presidential Shift From Left To Right
Country-by-country presidential shift tracker
“For the first time in 15–20 years, the overwhelming majority of the countries in the Western Hemisphere are now led by pro-American leaders and governments since @POTUS was elected president,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last week with President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
It is important to note that the Trump administration has declared war on far-left groups throughout the Western Hemisphere – even those that run amok on U.S. soil.
Colombia’s far left, using violence to project power, should serve as a wake-up call to Americans that the far left in the U.S., including the DSA and Antifa, share one stated goal:
“The most important thing we can do is take that (American) empire down from within”
DSA leader Frances Gill makes it clear that their goal is to destroy America. pic.twitter.com/NBDyyEdvvE
DSA leaders make it official: “It’s a requirement now” for endorsed candidates to support their radical program to dismantle the U.S. government. pic.twitter.com/BZ7Oo666AT
Achieving this will not be “mostly peaceful.” With riots, intimidation, and attempted political assassinations already part of the threat landscape, the big question is how much far-left political violence Americans will tolerate before demanding a more forceful government response to combat revolutionary Marxist movements intent on destabilizing the nation from within.
Global Diesel Crunch Deepens As Record US Distillate Exports Race To Supply-Starved Europe
US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia’s energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America.
To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, “The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot.”
Dart warned, “I’d say on the oil side, as I mentioned before, diesel, I think is the oil product that is most vulnerable right now, not just because you have your seasonal demand strength ahead just in the winter, but on the supply side. And to your point in the beginning, it’s not just that you run war, it’s what’s happening to the Russian refineries as well. And Russia is usually a pretty big exporter of diesel. And now they have restricted it.”
Last month, Goldman analyst Daan Struyven warned that “Diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze.”
As global supplies dwindle, US energy exporters on the Gulf of America emerged as the winners, shipping a record 1.9 million barrels to overseas customers last week.
Shipments have exceeded 1.5 million barrels a day for five consecutive weeks, with recent cargoes heading to northwestern European ports – the epicenter of a global diesel shortage caused by Gulf area refinery disruptions through Hormuz and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining capacity.
The trade-off from surging diesel exports is that US distillate stockpiles have fallen to their lowest seasonal level since 1996, raising the risk of a tighter domestic market heading into the fall demand surge.
Let’s not forget that Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser warned that even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened today, it could take up to 18 months to replenish global inventories.
All told, America is once again rescuing Europe from a deepening energy crunch – first LNG – this time diesel. You’re welcome.
New Mexico is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over unredacted Epstein files, accusing the federal agency of stonewalling the state’s own investigation into alleged crimes at deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.
The legal action, filed Aug. 5, intensifies a politically charged fight over the DOJ’s Epstein files, which have been accumulating since investigations into Epstein began in the mid-2000s.
New Mexico reopened its investigation in February and is seeking access to files relating to who worked at and visited Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, and may have participated in or witnessed crimes.
The DOJ said it has handed over some of the files but is prevented by law from releasing others due to privacy protections.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times of its reasons for opposing the lawsuit.
The 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to Epstein and his alleged sex trafficking network. The department was allowed to make redactions to safeguard the privacy of alleged victims or to shield ongoing investigations.
“Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority for the Department, and neither Touhy requests nor a desire to cooperate outweighs that privacy,“ the spokesperson said. ”DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”
According to the complaint, the federal government has acknowledged that “Epstein and his criminal network subjected over 1,000 survivors to egregious and predatory conduct, including vulnerable young girls in New Mexico.”
New Mexico initially made informal requests to the DOJ for unredacted files. The federal agency had promised cooperation, including information sharing on alleged survivors and crimes, and told the state to formally file Touhy requests, used for accessing official information, testimony, or documents from a federal entity for use in a legal proceeding in which the U.S. government is not a party.
The complaint said the DOJ rejected the Touhy requests earlier this year. By failing to cooperate, DOJ officials are harming “victims and [undermining] the public interest” by holding up the state’s investigation of the conduct of Epstein and his co-conspirators at Zorro Ranch, it argued.
In 1993, Epstein bought Zorro Ranch and visited the state many times before he died in 2019.
According to state prosecutors, the Epstein files contain more than 13,000 references to the ranch, along with 5,000 references to locations in the state where victims were allegedly trafficked, assaulted, and groomed.
New Mexico alleges the DOJ has failed to properly handle its Touhy requests and violated the Administrative Procedure Act governing administrative law procedures, citing the agency’s refusal to honor its 2019 agreement in which federal prosecutors promised to cooperate with the state after it put its Epstein probe on hold.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez has “marched through every bureaucratic hoop USDOJ has demanded, only to have years of promised federal cooperation turned into bureaucratic defiance,” the complaint said.
In a call with reporters, Torrez said of the state’s investigation, “We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before we charge someone.” He said the probe faces considerable obstacles, noting the decades since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the change of ownership of the ranch in 2023, and jurisdictional issues.
New Mexico’s lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the nation’s capital.
By Bas van Geffen, Senior Macro Strategist at Rabobank
Brent prices held steady just below the $80-level, as Iran said it reached an agreement with Oman on a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s not the Iran-US deal that Trump had been eyeing, but this agreement raises the prospect of more energy flows resuming through the critical waterway.
However, Iran has also said that the deal does not work until the US stops blocking traffic. We are yet to hear when the US lifts its blockade on Iranian ships – if Trump does not revert to threats of air strikes instead. The course of events once again underlines Iran’s relatively strong negotiating position.
Days after the Japanese Ministry of Finance –and the US Treasury– intervened in FX markets to prop up the yen, the cabinet approved a plan to cut the sales tax on food for two years. On top of that, the government is planning handouts to lower-income households. High costs of living are weighing on PM Takaichi’s popularity. So, she wants to lessen the price pressure on households, but these tax measures may shift those pressures elsewhere.
The tax cut costs JPY 4 trillion (around 0.6% of GDP) in lost revenues annually, and the government did not specify how it would fund this shortfall. The prime minister tried to reassure investors that the measures are temporary, and Finance Minister Katayama pledged to refrain from financing this tax cut through Japan’s deficit.
The unfunded tax plan has drawn criticism from both the opposition and people within the ruling LDP, as well as market participants – although today’s 30-year bond auction showed little sign of concern or investor fatigue. Having said that, the real litmus test may be the currency.
Over the past couple of days, the yen has been gradually depreciating again after the joint US-Japan intervention briefly pushed USD/JPY below 156 on Friday. The FX market is probably watching for signs of new interventions, or signs of more structural support for the currency.
Yet, these tax cuts do not lead to investments that could structurally improve Japan’s economic growth – which could have lent JPY some of the necessary support. But, paradoxically, the cost of effective growth-enhancing policies would probably eclipse the budgetary implications of Takaichi’s food tax cuts.
Former prime minister, and advisor to the current PM, Kishida warns of this as well. He advocates a JPY 370 trillion long-term growth strategy, which he believes could largely be funded by Japan’s large amounts of private financial assets: “If we limit our thinking to the government’s own fiscal resources, then that’s the end of it.” He argues the government should merely function as a catalyst for these investments, rather than pony up all the funds.
If the government manages to convince Japanese households, companies, and pension funds, the plans could see Japan clash with allies. These funds are currently invested elsewhere, and the structure of the recent JPY intervention suggests that Washington does not like the idea that Japan could start selling its Treasury holdings. The US Treasury sold euros, rather than dollars, for yens, and it also suggested Japan make use of the Fed’s FIMA (repo) accounts, instead of selling dollar assets outright.
Besides that, the growth strategy itself could also lead to conflicts: Kishida suggests the Japanese economy could benefit from investments in semiconductor and AI industries. Even if these sectors continue to grow in the coming decade, that strategy competes directly with the direction of, say, US, EU, and Chinese policies targeting homegrown chips and AI.
Elsewhere, Fed Chair Warsh is reportedly still in close contact with Trump. The US president discussed the economic implications of various matters, such as the Iran war or AI. It is an unusually close connection between the White House and the Eccles Building compared to their predecessors.
The Wall Street Journal’s sources suggest that these informal calls were mainly Trump seeking council from the Fed chair. Whether that’s true or not, it confirms what our US strategist has been saying: the FOMC will probably be more aligned with the White House going forward.
The Dutch government has endorsed Klaas Knot’s candidacy for ECB president. The Spanish government had already put forward his former colleague De Cos. So, with two candidates in the running, the race to find Lagarde’s replacement is now officially on.
Deal Details: US-Israeli vessels Banned from Hormuz (Fars)
Iranian state media (Fars) has issued details of the Iran-Omani draft plan for transit rules through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The country’s parliament is said to currently be reviewing it, while Tehran still insists that the US has been sidelined, saying that the Oman-Iran contacts are bilateral.
As cited in Bloomberg from state media, key proposals include:
Ban vessels linked to the U.S., Israel, and other hostile states
Block military and civilian cargo tied to Israel
Restrict ships linked to actions against the “Axis of Resistance”
Deny passage to parties owing compensation to Iran
Impose fines of up to 20% of cargo value for violations
The first note about banning US-linked vessels could alone serve to restart the war. The White House has appeared to genuinely be searching for an exit strategy, but this may be too hard a pill to swallow, if accurate.
Fars has spelled out that “The passage of vessels belonging to the US, the Israelis, and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.” Below are is the fuller outline of the proposed plan as featured by Fars [machine translation]:
The passage of vessels belonging to the United States, Israelis and other hostile countries through the Strait of Hormuz will be prohibited.
Ships related to Israel, whether military or civilian, will not have the right to transit through this area.
Vessels or cargoes that play a role in actions against the Resistance Front will also be subject to the ban.
Countries and individuals that have caused damage to Iran will not receive permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf until compensation is paid.
Heavy fines, including up to 20% of the value of the goods, will be imposed on violators. The cargo is anticipated.
The government will be required, in cooperation with the armed forces, to assume responsibilities such as guiding navigation, monitoring vessel traffic, and protecting the security and environment of the Persian Gulf.
This plan is still in the expert review stage, and the parliament has asked experts to submit their suggestions for completing it.
Oil spikes on the headlines of a very clearly ‘Iran-favorable’ ‘deal’ – which Washington is unlikely to simply accept.
Does this portend a return to active conflict?
Yemeni ‘Blockade for Blockade’ Could Threaten Delicate Hormuz Negotiations
Yesterday witnessed at least the eighth Saudi oil tanker attacked by the Houthis since the maritime blockade began on July 22, which is being followed by reports the Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran could be preparing for all-out war with Saudi Arabia.
The group struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday and coupled the action with a threat to intensify attacks in order to close “all access routes” to Saudi oil shipments. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree confirmed that ballistic missiles were launched at a Saudi tanker called Wafa near the Saudi port city of Yanbu.
A second oil tanker identified as Daisy was subsequently hit in the Gulf of Aden with a ballistic missile and “forced to turn back” – the spokesman said in a social media post. The Houthis are dubbing it a “blockade for blockade” strategy.
But it seems the Saudis aren’t ready to take this laying down, even if the ratcheting Red Sea region conflict threatens fragile Oman-sponsored talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as on Thursday its proxy the Yemeni Armed Forces – representing the official government whose seat is in Aden in the south – announcedpreparations for a large new military operation.
This as Al Arabiya reports a fresh outbreak of ground fighting, in a renewal and intensification of the civil war that goes back to at least 2015 (and has an international proxy war aspect to it). The Arab publication says that a Houthi attack killed 45 government forces in Hadramawt and Marib in Yemen, areas which also happen to be home to the vast majority of the country’s oil and gas fields.
Separately Al Jazeera describes of the same event:
The Yemeni Emergency Forces of the internationally-recognised government, have said that there have been material and human losses following attacks on its camps.
Several causalities have been reported after a suspected Houthi rocket and drone attack targeted bases hosting the forces in Marib and Hadramaut.
So now it seems that even if a grand Hormuz deal to reopen energy transit can be pulled off with some level of sticking power, there will have to be a separate ceasefire to contain the Yemen and Bab al-Mandab Strait crisis.
To some degree, the Houthi closure of the Red Sea to Saudi shipping represents a good cop, bad cop approach to the United States and its Gulf allies. It is a way for Tehran to still maintain some serious tangential leverage over global energy, even as ships in Hormuz could finally get moving again.
The Houthis launched ballistic missile and drone strikes on Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in Marib Governorate, targeting several military sites.
According to preliminary reports, at least 45 personnel were killed and dozens wounded, with Saudi-aligned media confirming the attacks… pic.twitter.com/uThIgebcfe
As a reminder, the Houthis have been part of what Iran sees as the “axis of resistance” going back to when the Shia rebel group first seized power in September 2014:
Saudi Arabia is now being squeezed from three directions in the widening U.S.-Iran war — Iraq to its northeast, Yemen to its southwest, and Iran to its east. (On July 18, Tehran struck Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, its first direct hit on Saudi soil in nearly four months.)
To understand why this matters beyond the price of oil, it helps to picture the crises as a set of nesting dolls.
The innermost doll is Yemen’s own civil war: a decade-old fight between the Houthis (officially known as Ansar Allah), who rule the populous north from Sana’a, and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, formally led by a body called the Presidential Leadership Council. The roots of this war trace to the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, which toppled Yemen’s long-serving president and left a power vacuum the Houthis moved to fill, seizing Sana’a in 2014. Saudi Arabia and a coalition of partners intervened in 2015 with the explicit aim of reversing that takeover and restoring the internationally recognized government, and the war has continued in one form or another ever since.
The middle doll is Saudi Arabia’s broader rivalry with Iran, a contest for regional leadership that has run since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Tehran’s new theocratic government began exporting a revolutionary, Shia-inflected challenge to the Gulf’s Sunni monarchies.
In the meantime, Al Jazeera is reporting Thursday that the Saudi-backed government shot down a drone operated by the Houthis over the city of Marib.
The country’s official SABA news agency said the Houthi targeting of Marib “embodies their escalatory approach and their insistence on continuing their terrorist acts” and that “the air defenses engaged the drone as soon as it entered the city’s airspace and successfully shot it down.”
Over in the Persian Gulf region, Iran officials have said a deal with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalized” which entry and exit routes and protocols having been established. Iran continues to say that Washington has nothing to do with this, and warns against US military interference.
The White House seems to be quite serious about ensuring an offramp from the conflict this time, as the bombs have fallen silent for several days now…
🇺🇸 US Vice President JD Vance said diplomatic negotiations with Iran are “going to be messy” and will “take some time,” in an interview on Fox News, a more cautious tone than President Donald Trump, who claimed earlier this week that “a lot of progress” had been made.
But lots of unknowns and variables remain, as some international reports suggest a final deal could be signed as early as the close of Thursday, or at least by week’s end. Al Jazeera notes: “For Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US must abide by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed with Iran in mid-June, although that would not be enough on its own, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in comments carried by Iran’s IRNA news agency.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has newly warned that “We’re ready to retaliate, but finding a diplomatic solution is the best way to avoid wider escalation and destruction across the region.“
Perhaps its indicative of general Iran war fatigue, but the US appears poised to agree to a deal that recognizes Iran’s claim to control over the Strait of Hormuz–an unthinkable concession even a few weeks ago–and I’m seeing very little discussion of it among the commentariat.
“Threat Against American Interests”: US Halts Michoacán Avocado Inspections, Putting Critical Supplies At Risk
The US suspended avocado inspections in Mexico’s Michoacán state after the US Embassy cited a “threat against American interests.” Because Michoacán is Mexico’s largest avocado-producing region and a top supplier to the US market, any prolonged suspension risks disrupting imports and driving supermarket prices sharply higher.
Michoacán Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said on social media that the temporary halt to inspections was intended to safeguard workers following recent arrests linked to extortion, according to AP News.
Michoacán supplies about 75% to 80% of Mexico’s avocados, while Mexico accounted for more than 80% of US avocado imports in 2025, valued at over $3 billion.
Supplies from Peru, California, and Mexico’s Jalisco state could limit shortages and price increases if the suspension is brief, Rabobank analyst David Magana said.
Wholesale prices for first-quality Michoacán Hass avocados sold at Mexico City’s Central de Abasto have nearly doubled in recent months, signaling tightening conditions in Mexico’s domestic supply chain even before the latest inspection disruption.
“These alternative sources should help mitigate supply shortages and limit upward pressure on prices, particularly if the suspension is temporary,” Magana noted.
AP said that the western state of Michoacán is home to four narcoterrorist cartels that make money through drug trafficking, extortion, and even the avocado industry.
The duration of the disruption will determine the extent of upward pressure on US wholesale avocado prices and how quickly those increases filter through to supermarket shelves.
