LAPD officer records other officers being racist.

Gets charged with felony eavesdropping.

New "but at what cost" just dropped in this morning's Economist Espresso.

A sweeping protection campaign launched in 2021, which includes a ban on fishing [in the Yangtze river], appears to be working. Fish biomass, the estimated total weight of all the fish in the river, has more than trebled in recent years after seven decades of decline. Meanwhile, a much greater share of fish are reaching reproductive maturity, a milestone which bodes well for future stocks. The recovery will allow China to cast itself as a champion of biodiversity. It is likely to gloss over the human cost: some 230,000 fishermen have lost their jobs.

I love this idea that China can merely "cast itself" as a champion of biodiversity, despite the entire article being about how China is indeed doing things that one would expect if they were a champion of biodiversity. It's like saying, "This woman ran into a burning building and saved four children from the flames, allowing her to cast herself as a hero." Insane journalistic ramblings.

Hundreds of Jordanian political, legal, and public figures have signed an open letter demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Jordan They call the American presence a security, political, and economic risk pulling the country into a war it wants no part of. Most Jordanian outlets refuse to publish the letter, and organizers warn signatories could be jailed. – New York Times

Iraq arrested Kiev regime linked militants that carried out attacks inside the country:

The Iraqi authorities have busted several militant cells linked to Ukraine that were involved in multiple attacks within the country, according to National Security Adviser Qasim al-Aboudi.

“We arrested a limited number of groups that carried out attacks inside Iraqi territory and targeted several facilities. During questioning, they confessed to working for Ukraine,” al-Aboudi said.

https://www.rt.com/news/643582-ukraine-militants-iraq-attacks/

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shared his thoughts on the US and China:

"Thanks to Donald Trump. He is a more open politician, perhaps even excessively open. Now we understand what US policy toward other countries is really about. Do you now understand what they wanted from us? Oil, money… If there is no oil, they bomb. He openly says that he has no real interest in Venezuela itself, only in its oil. I understood this long ago, but I could not say it publicly," Lukashenko said during a meeting in Brest.

As an example of a wise and pragmatic model of national development, Lukashenko pointed to China, noting that, unlike the post-Soviet states, it had continued to strengthen the Communist Party and its system of governance. The Belarusian president placed particular emphasis on the role of Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that he had successfully combined the experience of the past with the demands of the present to achieve tangible results.

"The Chinese acted with remarkable wisdom. We need to study their experience because it produces results," Belarusian presidential press service quoted Lukashenko as saying.

https://tass.com/world/2167359

Hungary is shutting down its only nuclear power plant because the Danube is so low that the river-cooled power plant can no longer operate its pumps to cool itself. Blocks are being shut down rapidly, with all remaining pumpable water reserved for cooling the shut down blocks and operating the maybe 1-2 blocks that can still run, but they're also either down by now or due to shut down soon.

This is on the Danube, one of the biggest rivers of europe.

The power plant is responsible for about 40-50% of Hungary's electricity supply. The grid is stable so far, because they've spun up every god damned alternative thing we have, even the ones in very bad shape. I guess it's gas? I dont know if we still have coal power plants. Possibly.

If the lower Danube dies, it's fucking lights out for most of its basin.

edit: i'm watching some videos by people concerned about and deep into the hydrology of the carpathian basin and its desertification and soil loss and they're basically saying that we've been actively and industrially murdering the land since sometime in the 1700s.

Chip stocks (everything from ASML to SK Hynix and Micron) have already wiped out almost $1 trillion in stock market value today.

A smaller reason for that is that they are overvalued, the big reason is that China has reportedly started mass production of its own DUV (immersion ​deep ultraviolet lithography) machines. AMSL could be making hundreds of billions of $$$ by selling their own EUV machines to China this entire time. But the US told them no and China was forced to start developing their own. Now AMSL has lost a lot of money and is about to lose market share. It was a huge lose-lose decision. Quite funny.

China begins making homegrown DUV chipmaking tools, The Information reports

[edit] Reportedly CXMT is on the priority list to get the new DUV machines as early as next month. Now we have two hopes for lower memory prices by this time next year - either the AI bubble implodes or CXMT goes brrrrrr

A little Strait of Hormuz shipping update:

All vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz over the past three days have used the corridor designated by Tehran, with no ship using a US-promoted route near Oman’s coast, according to data by maritime intelligence firm Marisks.

The group announced on Monday that 78 vessels, including 20 Iranian-flagged, have been observed crossing the Strait of Hormuz since Saturday, CNN reported.

It said all 58 non-Iranian vessels transiting the strategic waterway used the Iranian-designated corridor, while none were recorded using the southern route promoted by the US military as an alternative shipping lane.

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/07/27/773185/Iran-US-Hormuz-Oman

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-population/

About 52 million people lived in Ukraine in 1991. Back in May, Denys Uliutin, Ukraine’s Minister of Social Policy, said the country now only has about 22 to 25 million residents.

Things are going great! Ukraine will obviously win!

Regarding the recent migrant wave sent by Morocco to Spain :

Last month I wrote a comment pointing out the US participation in the opening up of a corruption case against the former PSOE leader and ex-president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and explained how this points to election interference against the socialdemocrats in Spain by NATO due to Spain's recent positively surprising attitudes in terms of international politics.

Since then, and despite FIFA's best efforts in the final, Spain won the world football cup, which has been a huge morale boost for the country and likely ameliorated tensions in national politics, relevant when we have elections next year. Possibly for this reason, the NATO block has decided an emergency measure against Pedro Sánchez's popularity: firing a migrant wave against Spain's borders.

I will start by condemning the deplorable actions of all border guards on both countries, bunch of murderous pigs and bloodthirsty reactionaries. Shame on the EU for paying up Morocco to brutalize migrants as a way of preventing them from reaching Spain, and shame on Morocco for carrying out this role. My heart goes to the many migrants murdered both in this wave and all migrants routinely being abused and murdered by the state apparatus of said countries.

However it's also important to understand that, as I discussed over a month ago already, the NATO block won't simply close their arms and wait, they need to make it clear that the lukewarmest social-democracy isn't sufficient, it needs full support to all ongoing genocidal actions of the empire, which the right wing in the PP and Vox are more than happy to oblige to.

When you discuss this topic with libs, make them see the obvious and blatant election interference in Spain by the US and Israel (surprise! not Le Ebil Ruzzians or eco-authoritarian China). NATO stands against democracy, will attempt to eliminate any even minuscully progressive movement through whatever means it wants. Be very explicit of the mchanisms through which this is obvious election interference, and ask whether similar but much harsher tactics are deployed in Venezuela or Cuba. Frame this as what it Is: blatant election interference

Iranians using a downed us LUCAS drone as a wakeboard in the Persian Gulf.

NYT - President Trump said today that Israel would have been “terminated” but for his administration’s war against Iran and strikes on its nuclear program. “You know who wouldn’t survive without us? Israel,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to an event in Michigan. “If I didn’t get involved, and I didn’t blow up those nuclear — essentially, soon to be nuclear — weapons to dust, Israel would have been terminated months ago.”

Trump also indicated to reporters that he was unmoved by Israel’s opposition to the idea of selling F-35 jets to Turkey. “Nobody tells me what we should be selling,” he said when asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel’s stated concerns, adding that “Turkey’s been a tremendous ally.”

‘Exasperated’ Trump battles with White House officials ‘over Iran strategy’

An unnamed ally of the president has told NBC News: "The president is exasperated. I don't think he believed it was going to be this difficult to get the Iranians to agree to a deal.

"After all this time, there is no unity," the official said. "We have had a series of tactical victories but are facing a strategic defeat without clear policy guidance or a decision about where this is going."

The source told NBC that Trump had "erupted" during a meeting with his top national security team last week and had even yelled expletives at those present.

Pretty crazy leaked photo from one of these sessions:

https://xcancel.com/MenchOsint/status/2082496676640530700

A US-owned LNG carrier was hit by a Drone in the Egyptian port of Damietta in the Mediterranean Sea. Possibly the "ENERGOS WINTER" operated by "WILHELMSEN SHIP MGMT LTD-USA" that have left the port following the reported attack, and is now anchored off the coast.

the crank map... it's growing...

Saudis to launch sea and possible ground invasion of Yemen

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-are-attacking-saudi-arabia-iraq-sources-say-2026-07-30

/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/30/saudi-forces-planning-major-offensive-against-houthis-central-yemen

A lot of warnings, panic and evacuation orders. The US is even saying that US citizens in Egypt should be prepared to evacuate. But, not much is happening on the ground, except the US evacuating the bases close to Iran they've already started evacuating a week ago.

[edit] A couple more people are saying their sources in the US & Israeli government are telling them that an attack today is very likely. Meanwhile, Trump is just posting memes about himself on Truth Social.

[edit2] It seems like the US reached out to Iran yesterday and today through a bunch of intermediaries, this makes it more likely that Trump was just issuing threats that were supposed to get Iran to sign some sort of deal again. I'm now leaning towards a TACO.

[edit3] What is this, he again posted the insane alien AI photo?

Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali commented on the Western imperialists' information warfare:

He noted that for Russia and Iran, hybrid and information warfare are the biggest challenges they now face.

"The enemy, having lost hope of achieving success through purely military or economic attacks, is resorting to cyber tools and psychological operations - a dangerous arsenal that includes fake news, manipulation of public opinion, and the disruption of critical services," Jalali said at the opening of the Positive Hack Camp.

https://tass.com/world/2165995

Trump says US and Tehran having 'good talks' as drones hit Iran's neighbours

Saudi Arabia takes the cuck-chair

Washington abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of air strikes on Iran on Saturday in Trump's latest strategic U-turn in the five-month-old conflict.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday that Iran would halt its own attacks as long as Trump's self-imposed ceasefire continued

Separately, Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted the East-West Pipeline carrying oil to Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea port of Yanbu in retaliation for Saudi drone incursions.

Trump's decision to suspend U.S. attacks reflected advice from his military that the bombing had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a U.S. official and several U.S. media reports.

The U.S. official told Reuters military commanders had advised the president they were running out of targets ​and that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ​General Dan Caine, had expressed concern over the ⁠depletion of air munitions.

Trump dismissed suggestions that the U.S. faced munitions shortages, saying the military was rapidly rebuilding inventories depleted by shipments to Ukraine. He said he would like more of "the more sophisticated stuff."

It remains unclear what leverage Washington can exert to break Iran's grip on the strait.

https://archive.ph/1pytZ

US nears full withdrawal from Iraq as bases in Kurdistan region face attacks from Iran, proxies

Patriot air defense systems that detect and shoot down incoming missiles, drones and other airborne enemy equipment have already been removed, sources told Al-Monitor.

NYT: Visuals Suggest U.S. Dropped 2,000-Pound Bomb on Home in Iran, Killing 3 (Direct NYT link; archive sites are down right now, sorry)

The United States struck a family home on Iran’s Qeshm Island overnight on Thursday with a large-scale bomb, according to an analysis of videos, photos and satellite imagery by weapons experts and The New York Times. Iranian officials said the strike had killed a husband and wife and their 2-year-old son. The couple’s two other children were pulled from the rubble alive, they said.

The size of the crater and munition fragments appear to show the weapon used was a 2,000-pound bomb called a Mark-84, one of the largest conventional bombs used by the U.S. military. The location and time of the strikes are consistent with where and when the United States was operating. The evidence raises questions about what the United States was targeting and why such a large munition was used.

The strike hit a densely populated neighborhood on the island, which sits in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran, and appears to have been part of a flurry of attacks the United States said it had launched to retaliate against earlier strikes by Iran on a base used by American forces in Jordan.

The Times found no indication of a military site near the family’s home or any reports of military casualties from the strike, which the Iranian authorities typically announce.

https://xcancel.com/bonzerbarry/status/2083229124756115961

Trump: Iran is doing very poorly, just in case you read incorrect stories, they're doing very very poorly-they're having a hard time. Their missiles have been largely-they have some left, they have some, but they have far fewer than they had four or five months ago. Their manufacturing capacity is... almost gone. The drone capacity is almost gone, they have very few. But they have some. We're in there 5 months, I know people like to say-because we're doing a much bigger job, a much more important job than we originally anticipated. We're in for 5 months and we have obliterated their military capacity. Again they've got some left, but soon they won't have some left.

Reporter: You said that they do have some capabilities left, should Americans be prepared for these back and forth attacks until Iran is simply unable to strike back?

Trump: They'll get weaker, they'll get weaker, they'll get stronger maybe...now, but they'll get weaker, and then they peter out-uhhhhh yeah sure, I think so.

https://xcancel.com/Midnight_Dasher/status/2083236752655876415

Special Uhhhhhh They'll Peter Out I Think Operation. The SUTPOITO

Operation They'll Get Stronger Maybe

Pictured: Blue check Germans* getting mad that Soviet deep battle doctrine is still clowning on Nazis nearly a century later.

Choke on dialectical materialism, nerds.

* The continental Europeans, not the colonial fascists of the Levant

F-35B stealth fighter crashed in California, US Marine Corps says

must have put too many plates on the radar mount. Ego lifting is dangerous folks

Insanely funny.

Yemen's Houthis are considering imposing fees on all commercial ships from any country sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with China's shipping fleet to be fully exempted from the fee system, per Reuters.

Iran has repeatedly warned that countries allowing their territory to be used for U.S. military operations against it could "face consequences."

On Thursday, Iranian state media reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi urged Bulgaria to reconsider its approval of U.S. military aircraft at Bezmer air base.

During a phone call with his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Araqchi said Sofia's approval of a U.S. request to station military aircraft amounted to facilitating aggression ​against Iran. He said the move was contrary ⁠to the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries.

Bulgaria's parliament ​last week approved the temporary deployment of up to eight U.S. KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 personnel at Bezmer air base despite Iranian objections. Sofia has said no offensive weapons would be deployed and that the move did not make Bulgaria a party to military operations.

Araqchi also held a separate phone call with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, during which he stressed the need to prevent foreign military bases in Cyprus from being used against Iran.

Cyprus hosts two British sovereign military bases, including RAF Akrotiri.

The base was struck by an Iranian drone in early March, a few days after Israel and the U.S. initiated strikes on Iran.

I hate war and so on, but NATO countries should really see consequences, like [redacted]

Again I hate war, I wish no violence, only peace all over the world

Finally a fresh photo of the Saudi Jizan refinery that was hit two days ago.

BREAKING | Mutiny erupts at Sde Teiman as dozens of Israeli soldiers abandon facility

• According to Maariv, dozens of soldiers from the Tzabar Battalion of the Givati Brigade laid down their weapons and left Sde Teiman Base and torture facility after a dispute with their battalion commander over new disciplinary measures and the removal of longstanding battalion traditions.

• The mass walkout has rendered the battalion combat ineffective, with military officials describing the incident as highly unusual.

• Ynet reported that the soldiers left the base without authorization after protesting their commanders' decision to remove signs and symbols they had displayed, and were filmed leaving while chanting an obscene slogan directed at their officers. Videos of the incident quickly circulated online.

• The inhumane Sde Teiman detention camp is an Israeli military base in the Negev (Al-Naqab) desert known for the severe physical abuse, medical neglect, and documented incidents of sexual assault andremoved against Palestinian detainees.

https://x.com/DoWCTO/status/2082213006398628302/photo/3

Computer, zoom and enhance.

lmfao

EDIT: LMAO I didn't check the chat history

"FIFA free kick wall rules"

Some more info is emerging about possible damage at the Saudi big boy refinery (crude stabilization facility). ARAMCO is a public company but they haven't issued any statements about it.

New satellite imagery suggests damage at Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, the world’s largest crude processing plant, is more extensive than first reported, the latest of several independent analyses pointing to serious damage at the site.

OSINT analyst Ali (@MerruX) said fresh Copernicus imagery shows burn scars and damage across multiple areas of the plant, beyond the crude-processing tanks identified earlier, and assessed it will likely be offline “for a while.”

His read follows earlier imagery analyses by accounts including Egypt’s Intel Observer and Soar, which reported burn scars and destroyed processing units at Abqaiq. High-resolution satellite imagery analyzed by organizations like the Associated Press, Planet Labs, and the European Union’s Sentinel-2 reveals clear burn scars surrounding degassing pressure vessels and active flaring at the plant.

Looks like a lot of us are getting (heat) domed in the next ~7 days.

Twitter banned Tasnim News about 1-2 hours ago, one of the news agencies in Iran doing coverage on the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasnim_News_Agency

https://nitter.net/tasnimnews_en

https://nitter.net/tasnimnews_fa

hosting US troops in your country is actively dangerous to your populace https://archive.ph/Xqens

Brief alert issued after suspected white phosphorus leak at US base

A brief evacuation alert was issued Tuesday in the regional city of Pyeongtaek, home to the US Forces Korea, following a report of a minor white phosphorus leak at the US base that officials say posed a low risk.

https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chinas-tycoons-made-fortunes-offshore-now-the-party-is-over-7f5289ad

https://archive.is/2PEKb

China’s Tycoons Made Fortunes Offshore. Now the Party Is Over.

Beijing is reordering its rules for the superrich to get more control over how they invest overseas

SINGAPORE—For decades, founders and investors in China’s technology firms used tax-haven shell companies to list overseas and keep billions of dollars in offshore centers. The loophole allowed China’s superrich to bypass strict capital controls and avoid government oversight of their wealth. Now, the party is ending. In a series of new rules and laws, China is reordering the wealth landscape, seeking to better control how money leaves the country, with effects rippling beyond its borders.

US planning massive bombardments of Iran energy targets per CBS

U.S., Israel preparing to bombard energy-related targets in Iran, sources say

[edit] Axios now says that the final order has not been given yet. This leads me to believe that the final order has been given and strikes start tonight.

[edit2] CNN also claims no final call has been made

I hope that Iran is planning to attack the airports as soon as they see a larger than usual number of aicraft taking off.

Reports of fire at important oil complexes all over the place in Saudi Arabia. From Yanbu (small fire two days ago) to more recent reports of fire in Abqaiq, Jazan and Hawiyah. It is possible that a bunch of these fires are emergency flaring because of disruptions in the movement of oil (for example through a pipeline), so some of these could be on purpose. Still, the main SoH bypass is under a lot of pressure.

Satellite imagery from today shows large fires, a heavy smoke plume, and visible burn scars at Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq facility, the kingdom's largest crude processing plant.

Saudi Arabia says its air defenses intercepted several drones launched from Iraqi territory by Iran-backed militias, while the Houthis separately claimed responsibility for hitting multiple crude processing and transport facilities.

X link, Xcancel

[edit] Internet sleuths are saying that pressure tanks at the Abqaiq refinery have visible signs of damage.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning issued a statement in support of Cuba:

"The US needs to immediately stop threatening the use of force against Cuba, and stop any form of unilateral sanctions and blockade against Cuba," Mao told reporters.

China will continue firmly supporting Cuba in defending its national sovereignty and opposing external interference, the Chinese diplomat added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20260731/us-must-stop-threatening-cuba-with-use-of-force---chinese-foreign-ministry-1124523089.html

Everything is AI

I don't know if this belongs here but I ran into something interesting today with Telesur (Venezuela's news outlet)

This article about DSA meeting Maduro seems to have been purged: https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Maduro-Meets-with-Democratic-Socialists-of-America-20210702-0022.html

It can be viewed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210703015817/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Maduro-Meets-with-Democratic-Socialists-of-America-20210702-0022.html

Speculation about the reason for purging? Perhaps at the behest of the US, perhaps part of a broader purge of english language news about Maduro? It's curious behaviour.

I linked this one late in the thread yesterday, but it seems important so I'm linking it again in this one.

US begins Trickle truthing the actual casualty numbers from Iran conflict.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/26/pentagon-iran-war-troop-deaths-casualty-report

Likely final statement on Pengshui landslide:

• 51 Fatalities, 10 missing. A total of 11 people were removed from the rubble after the collapse.
• 10,000 tons of rock have been removed, down to the previous ground levels before the landslide.
• The post-2000s civil servant that people were thirsting over has been confirmed to have died.
• Recovery efforts have also been happening in the water below the landslide site as well as downstream, there have been a significant number of underwater dives already and in the past week.
• Further survivors are unlikely.

In terms of public sentiment, I haven't seen a ton of positivity towards rescue workers on XHS- mostly just neutral hope for the survival of people affected. The civil servant (people on XHS refer to him as a "grid worker" but I'm not clear on the distinction) has been the main source of pride, as he (and his female counterpart who survived) were both evacuating people up until they were hit by the landslide.

I don't know what the correct way to express gratitude for the rescue workers is as someone half a world away, but I would like to thank everyone involved in the rescue efforts.

The Russian military recently struck a US-owned drone factory in Kiev:

A July 24 Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital hit a drone factory belonging to Terminal Autonomy – a Delaware-HQ’ed maker of low-cost UAV and AI navigation systems.

The attack deprived Ukraine’s military of a key long-range strike drone capability in the form of AQ-400 Scythe (32kg payload, 750km range) and AQ-100 Bayonet (4kg, 60km) drones.

More importantly, it sent Zelensky’s NATO “partners” an unmistakable message: if they set up shop in Ukraine, their manufacturing facilities will be targeted.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20260731/russian-strike-on-us-drone-factory-in-kiev-makes-clear--natos-overseas-mic-footprint-is-fair-game-1124523202.html

U.S. general warns Pentagon he lacks sufficient forces to protect Israel - WaPo

A shortage of Navy destroyers, used to defend against Iranian ballistic missile attacks, will force the head of U.S. European Command to prioritize the U.S. homeland instead, officials said.

---

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/01/general-warns-pentagon-he-lacks-sufficient-forces-protect-israel/

A bunch of Russian strikes on Ukraine, mainly Kyiv. The US is attacking Iran. Explosions and maybe fire at the Riyadh International Airport in Saudi Arabia. The only shift in the wars over the last four months seems to be that USIS and Saudi Arabia managed to get Yemen involved in the war and that the US had to shift their operations further away from Iran.

Oh, and US bond yields are starting to look not good. If this continues for a while, the huge debt being held by (gestures wildly with his hands) everyone will crush the US (& the world) economy.