ANOTHER MEGA QUAKE
ALERT 8/14/26
NEW: Indian startup uses dogs and AI to detect cancer with 90% sensitivity
READ: https://t.co/XR6HsTpkkF
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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NEW: President Donald Trump and Elon Musk communicate roughly once a month, discussing artificial intelligence, China, and global affairs, WSJ reports
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Pentagon chief says US naval blockade of Iran can last indefinitely
READ: https://t.co/tIhrlgRmgJ
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BREAKING: UK government has issued a ban on the sale of disposable barbeques as they pose a “significant risk to the public” during current heatwave conditions - advice
@insiderpaper
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France’s top constitutional authority on Friday struck down a ban on social media access for children under 15, dealing a blow to the legislation championed by President Emmanuel Macron.
READ: https://t.co/XwdyfbYvWt
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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BREAKING 🚨 Strong 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes off Indonesia: USGS
@insiderpaper
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NOW - Trump says deployments to Iran have gone on “not nearly long enough,” responding to a question about the USS George Washington heading to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.
@disclosetv
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NEW - France’s top court on blocks the proposed social media ban a for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of expression.
Read here: https://www.disclose.tv/id/g7x1n1jifk/
@disclosetv
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🇮🇷🇴🇲⚡- An Iranian one-way drone struck a tanker that was exiting the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. UKMTO reports the vessel suffered minor damage.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- Iranian outlets report the downing of a U.S. MQ-9 drone over Iran’s southern Hormozgan Province.
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🇫🇷⚡️- In a shocking statement, the French Constitutional Council decided to block the law banning social medias for users under 15 in France. The law is therefore banned despite being voted by most of the French parliament’s groups, including the right-wing National Rally.
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🇫🇷⚡️- “[The law] constitutes an attack on freedom of expression that is not appropriate, necessary, and proportionate to the objective pursued.” - French Constitutional Council.
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🇫🇷⚡️- Emmanuel Macron is reportedly displeased by the surprising ruling of the Council and has ordered French PM Lecornu to rewrite the law to pass it by spring 2027.
This new policy of banning social medias for users under a certain age was a cornerstone of Macron’s recent internal policy. Many groups and personalities raised the alarm on the law proposal as the law would have paved the way for systematic ID checks upon creating social media accounts.
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🇾🇪⚡- Ansarullah missile and drone attack on Mocha, southwest Presidential Leadership Council controlled Yemen.
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🇾🇪🇸🇦⚡- Ansarullah drone strikes against ARAMCO’s oil facility in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia.
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🇺🇸🇸🇴⚡️- A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to end TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for Somalia after it was previously blocked.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- With the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran set to expire on Monday, one senior White House official talking to Politico described the situation between the two countries as “static.”
The official added, “It doesn’t matter how close or how far we are. What matters is if Iran wants to come to the table and agree to a deal. Right now, they haven’t done that.”
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BREAKING: Iran has reportedly struck two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz using underwater drones, marking the first known use of this tactic against commercial vessels in the strategic waterway.
@GeneralMCNews
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BREAKING: Bill Gates is warning that global water shortages could trigger the deadliest humanitarian crisis in history, with billions of lives potentially at risk.
@GeneralMCNews
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🇺🇸🇺🇸🌪❗️ — URGENT: A rare Hurricane Warning has been issued for Hawaii’s Big Island after Tropical Storm Lala unexpectedly shifted its projected path farther north.
▶️The storm is also becoming stronger, with sustained winds now reaching around 50 mph.
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🇺🇸🇺🇸🌪❗️ — WATCH: Scenes from Tropical Storm Lala as it moves across the central Pacific toward Hawaii.
▶️The storm is expected to become stronger and could approach hurricane strength before reaching Hawaii’s Big Island on Saturday.
▶️Lala currently has sustained winds of around 40 mph (65 km/h) and is traveling west at roughly 10 mph.
▶️The Big Island faces the greatest risk, with heavy rain, powerful winds, dangerous waves, flooding and possible mudslides.
▶️Some locations could receive 5–10 inches of rain, while isolated areas may see as much as 20 inches. Other Hawaiian islands are also closely watching Lala’s path.
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🇾🇪❌🇸🇦🇾🇪❗️ — Houthi terrorists have launched multiple drones and ballistic missiles against Saudi and Saudi-backed targets in the last hours.
▶️ At least 6 missiles struck the al-Mokha port, in PLC-controlled Yemen, killing an unconfirmed number of Saudi-backed forces and damaging arms shipments.
▶️ The Houthis also claimed to have struck an ARAMCO refinery in Najran.
▶️ Pro-Iranian media claim another Houthi strike on the ARAMCO Jazan refinery. This would amount to the fifth Houthi strike on that facility.
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BREAKING:
Jason Arday has been found dead in his apartment in London
Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday has been found dead in London days after resigning amid plagiarism allegations regarding his PhD thesis.
Police confirmed the 41-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene in Battersea, treating the incident as unexpected but not suspicious. Arday had become Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023 before recent reports questioned his academic work and previous charity fundraising claims.
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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi:
In the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, an “end to the war” was declared, and there is no ceasefire that would need to be extended.
What had been agreed upon was a 60-day period for negotiations toward a final agreement, which the United States violated, leading to the resumption of hostilities.
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— 🇺🇸/🇮🇱/🇮🇷 NEW: Captured American and Israeli drones are showcased in one of the underground bases of the IRGC Aerospace Force
Iranian engineers have already begun to reverse engineer the equipment, especially the advanced optics and surveillance parts.
@Middle_East_Spectator
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—❗️🇸🇦/🇾🇪 NEW: The fire is still rising at Mokha Port, after 4 ballistic missiles struck it
@Middle_East_Spectator
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— 🇸🇦/🇾🇪 NEW: Since the buildup of Saudi-backed forces near Mokha and Marib started about a month ago, Saudi-backed forces have suffered 350+ deaths, a thousand injured, and lost dozens of armored vehicles, tanks, trucks, and cargo ships full of equipment, before their offensive against the Houthis could even begin
@Middle_East_Spectator
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—❗️🇸🇦/🇾🇪 NEW: The Yemeni missile strike on Mokha Port earlier destroyed two Saudi logistics ships carrying weapons and equipment
@Middle_East_Spectator
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— 🇺🇸/🇮🇷 NEW: Images posted by sailors show the small portions and poor quality of daily rations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has been deployed for more than 250 days against Iran
Earlier today, President Trump was asked by reporters whether the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln had lasted too long. Trump responded by stating: ‘No, it hasn’t been nearly long enough yet.’
@Middle_East_Spectator
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — President Trump on Iran:
We’re capable of destroying the whole place. We don’t wanna do that.
We have got economic sanctions against them like nobody’s ever had before.
If they hit, we would hit back 100 times harder.
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🇸🇦🛢 Saudi oil exports are collapsing as a result of Houthi/Ansarallah attacks on oil refineries and ships.
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🇺🇸 CENTCOM denies the numerous media reports about the precarious living conditions U.S. sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have to deal with.
CENTCOM claims morale is high and not low, denying the claims of several attempted suicides but confirmed that one sailor did indeed jump overboard but that he was quickly rescued.
CENTCOM has been caught lying multiple times throughout the war with Iran regarding their target bank, denying the loss of American aircraft and more.
@CIG_telegram
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🇫🇷 Eight far-left activists have been placed under formal investigation in France on suspicion of plotting an explosive attack against police.
The six men and two women, aged 19 to 28, trained with explosives in Paris tunnels before a protest against the Lyon–Turin railway project.
📎 Europa
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🏛 🇺🇸 ⚖️ The White House’s request to the Supreme Court this morning included lots of new photos, renderings and other info on the ballroom
WH lawyer claims it’s 65% complete and it’s too late for any court to stop it.
One new addition: Trump’s ballroom would apparently have gold seals
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🇺🇸 🚫 🇨🇳 Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on drones and their components in an effort to make US companies, law enforcement and state and local governments less reliant on Chinese drone technology.
The Proclamation imposes a 100% ad valorem tariff on drones of a certain size or with certain capabilities that are particularly sensitive for national security purposes, docking stations of these drones, and certain critical components of these drones. This drone category includes drones with a maximum takeoff weight of more than 25 kilograms and drones with thermal imaging capabilities.
The Proclamation imposes a 25% ad valorem tariff on certain drones that are smaller in size and lack certain capabilities that particularly implicate national security, and on other drone components.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-bolsters-national-security-and-strengthens-u-s-supply-chains-by-imposing-tariffs-on-drones-and-their-parts-and-components/
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📊 🇺🇸 💵 Finance bros and business majors, previously shown to be the most Republican, are also the most heterosexual.
Liberal arts majors are not only the least heterosexual, but some of the most politically liberal.
📎 AF Post
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🔥 🇬🇧 👨🚒 Several wildfires continue to burn across southern Wales with smoke plumes clearly visible on today’s satellite imagery.
The UK has now set an all time record on how many wildfires we’ve seen this year.
📎 Met4Cast
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🇹🇼 🇨🇳 🇮🇩 Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercise continued this week. The exercise included several new drills focused on realism, civil preparedness, incorporating new technologies, and countering scenarios rehearsed by the PLA.
Other Key Takeaway:
The PRC’s Guangdong MSA announced new measures to control maritime traffic in the Taiwan Strait, citing typhoon conditions. The PRC is seeking to expand its jurisdiction over Taiwanese and international waters and test whether foreign vessels comply with PRC commands in disputed waters. The PRC’s efforts were supported by PRC state media who framed a PRC-Indonesia combined naval exercise east of Taiwan as a demonstration of PRC jurisdiction over Taiwan’s eastern EEZ.
https://understandingwar.org/research/china-taiwan/china-taiwan-update-august-14-2026/
📎 ISW
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🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️ — The U.S. is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must choose between American and Chinese AI frameworks, warning that countries joining Beijing’s initiative could be excluded from the U.S.-led Pax Silica coalition, Reuters reports.
A draft State Department letter to 35 countries warns that membership represents a commitment and “cannot be held alongside membership in duplicative initiatives whose expectations conflict with our own,” urging governments to “choose deliberately” on AI.
The U.S. hopes forcing partners to choose sides will restrict China’s access to critical resources and technology.
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🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️ — Secretary of State Marco Rubio:
The recent release of over 130 political prisoners in Venezuela is a crucial step for the nation’s reconciliation process.
Since January 3rd, 1,046 Venezuelans have been released.
As we continue to advance the three-phase plan, the United States continues to closely monitor the Venezuelan-led process of in-person talks with the interim authorities.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — NEW: The USS Abraham Lincoln’s supply problems began after Iran heavily damaged the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain (NSA Bahrain) at the start of the war, knocking out a logistics hub the Navy had relied on for decades, NYT reports.
With other Gulf ports also vulnerable to Iranian attacks, the Pentagon shifted its main regional supply hub to Diego Garcia, roughly 3,540 km (2,200 miles) from U.S. carrier groups operating in the Gulf of Oman. The much longer supply route contributed to shortages and logistical problems aboard carriers supporting operations against Iran.
The Lincoln has now spent nearly nine months at sea without a liberty port, amid reports of shortages of basic supplies and worsening crew morale and mental health. Bahrain and Fujairah, normally used for carrier port calls, remain within range of Iranian missiles.
Iran itself targeted Diego Garcia with two medium-range ballistic missiles on March 20 after it became the new logistics hub; one fell short in the Indian Ocean and another was intercepted by a U.S. Navy warship.
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ABANDONED RUSSIAN TANKER LEAKING OIL OFF OMAN COAST, THREATENING ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER - CBS ...
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The US job market is losing workers at an alarming pace:
The US labor force participation rate fell -0.1 percentage point in July, to 61.4%, the lowest since May 2020.
This metric measures the proportion of working-age Americans either employed or actively looking for work.
Excluding the 2020 pandemic, this is the lowest reading since March 1976.
The decrease also marks the 7th monthly decline over the last 8 months, bringing the cumulative drop to -1.1 percentage points.
This comes as -264,000 people left the labor force in July, following June’s -720,000 decline, the 2nd-largest monthly decline since 2020.
Since November, the US labor force has shrunk by more than -2.4 million workers.
The US job market is much weaker under the surface than the headline data suggests.
(@TheKobeissiLetter)
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Serious consumer delinquencies remain historically elevated in the US:
Student loan serious delinquencies rose +0.3 percentage points in Q2 2026, to 10.6%, the highest since Q1 2020.
This marks the 3rd consecutive quarterly increase, totaling +1.2 percentage points.
Credit card 90+ day delinquencies now stand at 12.9%, the 2nd-highest level since Q1 2011.
By comparison, credit card delinquencies peaked at 13.7% in Q2 2010, in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Meanwhile, auto loan 90+ day delinquencies now stand at 5.5%, the 2nd-highest on record, surpassing the Q4 2010 high by 0.2 percentage points.
US consumers are struggling to keep up with their debt payments.
(@TheKobeissiLetter)