Kaiser Permanente wrongly fired an employee who declined to receive a COVID-19 vaccine because she gave proper notice to the company of her religious objection to COVID-19 vaccination, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Mimi Weiss, who worked for Kaiser Permanente’s The Permanente Medical Group for 20 years before being fired, “plausibly alleged that she provided notice of her religious conflict with the mandate in her initial request for a religious exemption,” Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest wrote on July 24 for a unanimous panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Weiss was working fully remotely, or off-site, in August 2021 as a senior managerial consultant when Kaiser Permanente imposed a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Weiss, a Christian Jew, within weeks filed for a religious exemption, and Kaiser Permanente initially approved the request.
In September 2021, though, Kaiser Permanente said employees had submitted religious accommodation requests with identical language. Expressing concern that some of the requests were not legitimate, the company asked employees to file fresh requests using their own words. Officials then asked Weiss new questions, including, “What else besides the COVID-19 vaccine do you refuse to put in your body as a result of your religious belief?”
Weiss said she would not provide private information. Kaiser Permanente placed her on unpaid leave. Then it fired her for not complying with the mandate, prompting a lawsuit by Weiss.
A federal judge in 2024 ruled against her, concluding that Weiss had not provided Kaiser Permanente with sufficient notice of the conflict between receiving a vaccine and her beliefs.
The Ninth Circuit ruling overturns that decision, pointing to a previous opinion in which the appeals court said that to provide notice, an employee must only give “enough information about [her] religious needs to permit the employer to understand the existence of a conflict,” and that requiring any more details “would permit an employer to delve into the religious practices of an employee in order to determine whether religion mandates the employee’s adherence.”
Applying that framework to the current case means that Weiss did give adequate notice, the panel said, because she identified herself as a Christian Jew, listed specific doctrines that she said barred her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and outlined her belief that she should not “introduce foreign substances” into her “body temple” that would “change how [her] Creator designed it.”
In a split 2-1 decision, the panel also said that Weiss has shown sufficient evidence to bring forth allegations that Kaiser Permanente violated her right to privacy.
Kaiser Permanente did not return a request for comment by publication time.
“I never imagined my faith would end up costing me my job,” Weiss said in a statement.
“I wasn’t asking Kaiser for special treatment, just the freedom to live according to my conscience. After 20 years of service, I didn’t think that was too much to ask.
“I’m grateful the court recognized that religious employees should not have to give up their beliefs or their privacy to keep their jobs.”
When and why did the word “gender” displace the word “sex?” “Gender” refers to a person’s socially constructed identity of being male, female, or some other category, while “sex” refers to physical characteristics of male or female, such as chromosomes. Gender is a matter of a person’s self-perception; sex is a circumstance of birth.
When did sex get pushed to the curb by gender? In his book The Man Who Invented Gender, Terry Goldie claims that the sexologist John Money of Johns Hopkins Medical Center (Baltimore) first used the word “gender” in its modern meaning in 1955. Money pioneered the word to describe his famous John/Joan experiment that was conducted on a young boy named Bruce who’d lost his penis in an accident. To ‘prove’ Money’s theory that sexual identity was learned and not biological, Bruce’s parents raised him as a girl, complete with a surgically constructed vagina. The experiment failed. Bruce ultimately insisted on living as male, but he did not recover from the ordeal Money imposed on him, which he called torture. Bruce committed suicide in his 30s.
By then, however, Money had declared for decades that John/Joan was a complete success; discussions of “gender identity” abounded in ’60s medical journals and academia. By the ’70s and ’80s, feminists brought the term to the streets, with “gender” describing a person’s self-defined sociocultural identity and “sex” meaning biology. Then, the word wedged its way into government. In 1993, for instance, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) replaced “sex” with “gender” in its literature. In 2011, “sex” returned to the FDA to mean biology while “gender” meant “a person’s self-representation.” The term went global. Also in 1993, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW) vaguely defined this aggression as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women.”
Genderspeak became the language of elites, social justice activists, and the government, while average people still spoke of “sex”. But more than elitism lies behind the difference in words. By swapping in their own terms, elitists – especially professional feminists – grabbed the narrative on sexuality and politicized it to dismiss anyone who disagrees. Since the average male generally still uses biology to define his sexuality, he is an opponent; the average male is a living, breathing disagreement.
The ideology of gender faces an obstacle, however. If people can argue effectively against gender, then the narrative is difficult to manage. Those who dissent must be intimidated into silence or otherwise marginalized. The main strategy is to condemn dissenters as hate-filled. If some people cannot be silenced, then their words or opinions can become hate crimes punishable by law. George Orwell’s novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four is about a dystopian society of social control, which is maintained largely through restricting language. Since words are the foundation of thought, this means people cannot form thoughts, let alone articulate them. The villain of Nineteen-Eighty-Four proclaims, “The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought.” He concludes, “The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”
Men’s health researcher James L. Nuzzo highlights an attempt to perfect the language. “In recent years, use of the phrase ‘gender-based violence’ (or ‘gendered violence’) in the titles and abstracts of papers indexed in PubMed has increased noticeably. Between 2019 and 2025, the phrase ‘gender-based violence’ (or ‘gendered violence’) appeared in the titles or abstracts of 2,784 articles indexed in PubMed.” [Chart available here.]
A typical definition of gender-related violence or gendered violence is “any form of physical or non-physical violence or abuse against a person or group of people because of biased or harmful beliefs about gender. It can include things that happen online and that use digital technology.” This definition is typical because it includes non-physical violence (discrimination) and abuse (words) that are motivated by non-specific “biased or harmful beliefs about gender.” Nineteen-Eighty-Four would refer to such non-physical violence as “crimethink,” with thought itself being an assault.
Just as “sex” is displaced by “gender,” well-researched and comparatively clear terms such as “domestic violence” are displaced by less-defined ones such as “gender-related violence.” This achieves several goals. For one thing, the confusing definition becomes elastic. Almost any word or act can be stretched to qualify as “gender-related violence,” especially since virtually everything in the politicized feminist universe is gender-related.
But the most important purpose of swapping in the word “gender” is to introduce a subtle but powerful bias that controls the narrative; it creates Genderspeak.
The concept of gender comes directly from the twin ideologies of Social Constructionism and Gender Feminism. Social Constructionism tells us that male and female are learned forms of behavior (gender) rather than biology (sex).
To this, Gender Feminism adds an ideological layer. Male and female are patriarchal learned behaviors; they are social concepts derived from white male capitalistic culture. Thus, approaching violence in a correctly gendered way means rejecting white male capitalism – the economic system that is said to vest power and wealth in the hands of white men at the expense of everyone else. To embrace gender is to reject white male culture and capitalism, with ‘the free market’ usually viewed as a synonym.
Genderspeak is similar to Orwell’s Newspeak. Both are ambiguous speech that embeds ideology into the language so that every word perpetuates correcthink – officially approved thought. In Orwell’s dystopian world, Newspeak serves the ideological goals of Ingsoc – an abbreviation for English Socialism. It gradually replaces Oldspeak and becomes pivotal in defining politics and culture.
Genderspeak has the same ideological goal. If you embed gender ideology into words, then you control how people think and how culture develops.
The process goes something like this:
Embed new ideologically-driven language when possible. For example, substitute the term “gendered violence” for the more research-driven term “domestic violence.”
Eliminate “wrong” words. In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, salvageable literature was rewritten in Newspeak so that authors either disappeared or were reinterpreted to serve Ingsoc. Today, school texts are commonly reviewed to eliminate wrong words. ‘Improper’ ones like “Founding Fathers” are changed to proper ones like “Framers.”
Change the meaning of words. In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, the word “free” is used only in the simple form of ‘my sweater is free of lint.’ The concept of freedom does not exist. The current usage of “diversity” in Genderspeak is similar. It is a diversity that tolerates no deviation. Its conclusions are or can be mandated by law.
Introduce doublethink. Doublethink is when someone accepts two contradictory ideas as being true. A modern example is students who attend “sensitivity training,” which includes publicly ridiculing and humiliating whites and males because of their race and sex. This is sensitivity?
Last of all, decry anyone who objects as a hater and oppressor; punish them.
Precise wording provides the incredible benefit of letting people know what they are talking about. It is time to reclaim the richness of precise English…verb by verb, adjective by adjective. Words should not be propaganda that blocks thought; disagreement is no crime. And sex is reality, while gender is not. The concept and the word “gender” should be abandoned by people who respect either accuracy or truth.
‘Pray For Kospi’: SK Hynix Earnings Miss, Sending Stock Reeling
Things are not going to be fun in South Korea tonight…
Good news first…
SK Hynix’s net income surged a bigger-than-expected 1,242% (though admittedly on one-time investment gains) with the ginat chipmaker bragging that it won multiyear contracts with around 10 customers.
Ok, now the bad news…
SK Hynix’s quarterly profit rose a smaller-than expected 557%.
The key supplier of Nvidia reported operating profit of 60.5 trillion won ($42 billion) in the June quarter, well below analysts’ average projection for 64.2 trillion won.
Revenue came to 79.3 trillion won, significantly below the consensus 83.9 trillion won.
All further raising fears that the hyperbolic nature of the AI-driven boom that has suspended reality from the cyclical chipmakers, may be starting to decelerate…
“When you’re the dominant supplier of the high-bandwidth memory that powers Nvidia’s chips, the AI boom lands directly on your bottom line,” said Josh Gilbert, Etoro’s lead analyst for APAC and the Middle East.
“That means the market is unlikely to focus on the headline numbers alone. The bigger question is whether margins and guidance can justify its recent performance.”
Add to that the recent fears of rising competition from China and it is no surprise that SKHY (the US ADRs) is trading down 16% in the after-hours (before Korean trading has begun)…
Following yesterday’s major drop in Kospi, we have three simple words..
Detroit Gets Drafted: Ford And GM Head Back To The Battlefield
One of the defining themes of the Trump administration’s second term has been rebuilding America’s industrial base—not just by bringing manufacturing back to U.S. soil, but by restoring domestic capacity in industries considered critical to national security.
Defense production sits squarely at the center of that effort, with Washington increasingly looking to private industry to expand military manufacturing. The latest example is the Pentagon’s push to enlist Detroit’s automakers in building the Army’s next generation of tactical vehicles.
In that vein, Ford is stepping back into military vehicle manufacturing in a meaningful way, entering the competition to develop the U.S. Army’s next tactical transport vehicle—its largest defense opportunity in decades, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Army has selected Ford, General Motors, and specialty vehicle builder BC Customs to produce prototype trucks as part of a program expected to field around 600 vehicles. The new platform is designed to do more than move soldiers across difficult terrain: it will also provide onboard electrical power for drones, communications gear, and other battlefield technology.
WSJ writes that Ford’s prototypes will be based on its Super Duty pickup platform, while GM is continuing development of a heavier-duty Silverado-derived vehicle already being evaluated by the military.
The effort reflects the Pentagon’s broader push to tap the manufacturing expertise of U.S. automakers as it rebuilds defense capacity amid rising geopolitical tensions. Ford has signaled it sees opportunities beyond military vehicles, including supplying critical components and strengthening domestic supply chains, while GM has expanded aggressively into defense with programs ranging from tactical vehicles to munitions manufacturing.
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.
Fragile Iran ‘Pause’ Shattered As US Base In Jordan Comes Under Attack, Oil Soars
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 insistsHormuz 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
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.
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.
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.
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.”
DOE’s Prometheus Bets $60 Million That AI Can Help Nuclear Get Out Of Its Own Way
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.
Bombshell Report Exposes Lefty NGOs Funding A Children’s Charity Tied To Terror Network
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
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 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.
Houthis Fire On Saudi Vessel, More Ships Make U-Turns, After ‘MoU Revival’ Hype Returns
Summary
Hormuz indirect talks continue amid reports of a possible resurrected MoU deal.
Shipping remains stalled with virtually no tanker traffic through Hormuz.
Iran insistsHormuz 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.
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.
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.
