US & IRAN NOT TALKING
ALERT 8/12/26
Monday’s powerful earthquake in Colombia marked the 10th time this year that a magnitude 7.0 or stronger quake struck worldwide.
@insiderpaper
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Secret mission in Turkey to protect President Trump:
Shortly before Air Force One left Ankara following last month’s NATO summit, President Trump was secretly moved to another aircraft using an airport catering truck.
According to CBS, the decoy operation followed intelligence warning of a credible plot by Iran or its proxies to fire a missile at Trump’s plane
Follow @insiderpaper for more updates
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Economic losses from natural catastrophes worldwide are estimated to have reached $100 billion in the first half of this year, reinsurance group Swiss Re said Tuesday, a sharp decline from the period last year.
READ: https://insiderpaper.com/economic-losses-from-natural-disasters-fall-to-100-billion-in-first-half-of-2026-swiss-re/
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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BREAKING - Ebola death toll in DR Congo outbreak rises to more than 2,000: health authorities bit.ly/4fQZguh
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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Ten earthquakes measuring magnitude 7.0 or greater have been recorded worldwide in 2026 through Aug. 10, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, with major seismic events stretching from Southeast Asia and the Pacific to Latin America.
READ: https://insiderpaper.com/10-magnitude-7-earthquakes-2026/
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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BREAKING: Casualties reported after ship struck by ‘unknown projectile’ in Red Sea, UK maritime agency says
READ: https://t.co/ZWtZchW5MT
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BREAKING: U.S. forces fired on a Panama-flagged ship that attempted to run the American blockade of Iranian ports early Tuesday
@insiderpaper
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🐣 🇺🇸 🕯Democrats clapped and cheered as Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy signed a bill legalizing abortion up to birth.
📎 AF Post
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🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸✔️ — BREAKING: Trump endorsed, Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, has advanced to the Republican runoff for South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat.
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🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸✔️ — Trump endorsed, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has won Wisconsin’s GOP gubernatorial primary, securing the Republican nomination for governor.
▶️He will now advance to the November general election.
🌹Additionally, socialist Francesca Hong is projected to face Tiffany in the November general election.
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Trump Smuggled from Turkey in Catering Truck to Evade Iran
The Washington Post reveals President Trump was secretly moved from Turkey inside a catering truck to a military plane while reporters flew on a decoy aircraft—part of an operation to protect him from Iranian threats after the U.S. resumed strikes.
https://www.c14news.com/article/1488148/
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Mojtaba Installs Six New Hardliners to Lead Iran’s Next War
Despite growing rumors over Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s health, Tehran claims he has just appointed six regime hardliners to lead Iran’s next war—an ominous message to Israel and the United States that the regime is escalating, not backing down.
https://www.c14news.com/article/1488745/
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🚨🇱🇾 Dozens of drone strikes hammer Sudan as its civil war escalates.
📹Almasrar
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BREAKING: Trump announces Robert Gilman, a former US Marine held in Russia, has been released and ‘is coming home’
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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BREAKING - Colombia quake death toll rises to 240: local authorities
READ: https://t.co/ipkEdMuy5a
Follow @InsiderPaper for more news
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BREAKING 🚨 US helicopter fired on ship that tried to break Iran port blockade, US military says
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REUTERS: U.S. JUDGE BLOCKS U.S. POSTAL SERVICE FROM RESTRICTING MAIL-IN VOTING PURSUANT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ORDER - DOCKET
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NEW - Google’s Gemini AI assistant surpasses one billion users — it’s Google’s fastest growing product
READ: https://insiderpaper.com/googles-gemini-ai-assistant-surpasses-one-billion-users/
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🇺🇸❌⚽️ President Trump warns FIFA against replacing its president, Gianni Infantino, claiming that without Infantino at the helm, FIFA would “never be profitable again”.
@CIG_telegram
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🛢 Strait of Hormuz oil flows remain constrained.
Klpler’s confirmed data for the past week show just 15 west-to-east liquid tanker transits carrying 16.2 million barrels from August 4–10, a little over 2 million barrels a day.
Confirmed volume fell from 8.57 million barrels on August 4 to 52,000 on August 9 and zero on August 10.
A separate implied-flow estimate that tracks vessels appearing east of the US blocked line puts the latest daily flow at 8.2 million barrels, lifting the seven-day average to 5.6 million bpd, including 5.4 million from non-Iranian sources. Both measures remain below the prewar level of more than 20 million bpd.
🔗 DropSite
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🛢 15 Saudi oil tankers are returning to the Persian Gulf to pick up more oil after completing their voyages to East Asia.
Iranian-KSA relations are about to be tested as they will likely attempt to enter the Persian Gulf with American help using the southern/Omani lane.
@CIG_telegram
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🇺🇸🇸🇾🇮🇱⚡- The United States, Syria, and the IAEA have reached an agreement to remove the remaining yellowcake uranium from Syria’s former al-Kibar nuclear site. The facility was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in 2007, and its entrances were attacked again in December 2024 to prevent the new Syrian government from accessing the site.
The leftover nuclear material will be removed under IAEA supervision in a deal brokered by Washington to reduce the risk of an Israel-Syria confrontation that could potentially draw in Turkey.
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🇸🇦🛢 New damage is now visible at the Jazan Oil Refinery in southern Saudi Arabia following the Houthi drone strike on August 5.
New Sentinel-2L satellite imagery reveals that another large oil storage tank was hit and set ablaze during the latest attack.
🔗 Egypt’s Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT)
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— 🇮🇷 NEW: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is increasingly involved in key decisionmaking in Iran, growing into the position of his martyred father
He has consolidated his authority by meeting with various high-ranking officials in recent days, including President Pezeshkian and others that have not been disclosed.
His physical state has been described as ‘excellent’ (despite rumors) and those who have met him say he is involved, diligent, and assertive when necessary.
@Middle_East_Spectator
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🇦🇪🤝🇮🇷 The Emirati Boeing 737-700 Business Jet (BBJ) left Tehran after spending roughly one hour on the ground and returned to Abu Dhabi.
The UAE likely left a bag of cash and then left.
@CIG_telegram
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🇾🇪⚡- Large-scale Ansarullah drone attack across much of eastern Yemen.
Hostile drones have been spotted over Seiyun and the Wadi Dawan area of the Hadhramaut region. Drones are also operating over the al-Jawf desert (likely to target tribal positions), Shabwah, Ma’rib, and Bayhan al-Qisab.
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🇩🇬 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 Drone Sightings Are Happening At Diego Garcia, America’s Remote Strategic Island Outpost
The sightings highlight concerns about drone attacks from the sea, especially at a time of extreme hostility between Iran and the U.S.
Drones of an unknown origin were reportedly sighted over the remote joint U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia installation located deep in the Indian Ocean. As we have frequently reported, this island base has long been a highly strategic operating location for the U.S. military. Beyond its large airfield that has been an epicenter of bomber operations over the decades, it plays many roles for the Pentagon. These include hosting Space Force operations, serving as a key port for U.S. Navy vessels, including nuclear submarines, and its lagoon provides shelter for a Sealift Command Prepositioning Ship Squadron.
The installation was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles during the Epic Fury operation, but the threat posed by drones is even more plausible for the island outpost, especially at this extremely tense time as the standoff between the U.S. and Iran grinds on.
The issue of reported drones over Diego Garcia highlights a plausible threat of sea-launched drones that TWZ has been drawing attention to for years now. It also again raises concerns about the danger to critical infrastructure and aircraft parked in the open at Diego Garcia and many other U.S. installations. This is another issue TWZ has been highlighting for years.
“We are aware of reported sightings of drones (UAS) over Diego Garcia,” the U.K. Defense Ministry (MoD) told us Monday morning. “We are unable to provide any details about a situation which may affect the security or operation of the joint U.K.-U.S. base on Diego Garcia.”
“The U.S. and U.K. Commanding Officers on Diego Garcia consider and implement appropriate measures to ensure the security and safety of the base and the safety of the personnel on the island,” MoD added.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/drone-sightings-are-happening-at-diego-garcia-americas-remote-strategic-island-outpost
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📝 🇮🇷 🇺🇸 In the later stages of the war the Iranians used drone swarms deployed near American aircraft to feed intelligence on their movements to teams on the ground firing surface-to-air missiles which successfully shot down an F-15. The tactic appeared to have been learnt from observation of the Ukraine war:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/us/politics/iran-military-base-attacks-us-munitions.html
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🏹 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 CENTCOM fired 50x PAC-3s in a single day during the week of deadly ballistic missile strikes from Iran last month.
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BREAKING: NVIDIA announces partnerships with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to support over $500 billion in third-party capital for the expansion of AI infrastructure.
@GeneralMCNews
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BREAKING: AI data centers are facing scrutiny over water use, with new findings indicating their “true” consumption may be far higher than reported, especially in drought-hit regions across the West.
@GeneralMCNews
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BREAKING: Flock Safety’s camera network now exceeds 120,000 cameras across 49 states, as ongoing concerns grow over mass surveillance, privacy, and limited oversight.
@GeneralMCNews
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BREAKING: President Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile-defense system is moving forward as the Pentagon launches a new digital hub connecting the U.S. government with private tech companies.
@GeneralMCNews
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BREAKING: FBI Director Kash Patel is expanding U.S. law-enforcement cooperation with Russia and China, despite growing tensions with both countries.
@GeneralMCNews
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🇾🇪🇸🇦🇵🇰⚡- Ansarullah struck a Saudi-managed commercial vessel in the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, killing three crew members, two of which were Pakistani.
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🇺🇸🇦🇪🇷🇺⚡- The U.S. has sold two Russian ghost tankers it had seized in January to UAE’s Global Marketing Systems, GMS. GMS will dismantle and scrap the two Russian vessels, ERA and LILEO, at its scrapyards in India.
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🇺🇸🇸🇾🇮🇱⚡- The United States, Syria, and the IAEA have reached an agreement to remove the remaining yellowcake uranium from Syria’s former al-Kibar nuclear site. The facility was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in 2007, and its entrances were attacked again in December 2024 to prevent the new Syrian government from accessing the site.
The leftover nuclear material will be removed under IAEA supervision in a deal brokered by Washington to reduce the risk of an Israel-Syria confrontation that could potentially draw in Turkey.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- A Panama-flagged Iranian shadow vessel was fired upon by a U.S. military helicopter in the Gulf of Oman after attempting to breach the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and ignoring repeated warnings. No casualties were reported.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- Mediators Qatar and Pakistan have both stated talks between Washington and Tehran are at an advanced stage and a deal is near.
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🇱🇾⚡- For the third time in less than 24 hours, unidentified one-way drones have struck the Zawiya oil refinery, west of Tripoli, northwest Libya.
Much of the Zawiya area is controlled by the local and anti-Dbeibeh al-Far militia, which recently clashed with GNU’s al-Silaa (103rd) Battalion.
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🇮🇷🇮🇱⚡- Former Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen revealed that Israeli intelligence operatives had visited Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility on multiple occasions to gain a detailed understanding of the site.
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🇩🇪⚡- Drone sightings over Hannover International Airport causing a temporary suspension of air traffic at the German airport.
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🇩🇪🇺🇦⚡- ZEIT reports that video footage shows the first drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport striking the wing of the parked Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft at Leipzig Airport before failing to detonate and falling to the ground.
Investigators are treating the incident as a “deliberate attack” rather than a “warning or intimidation attempt.”
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🇩🇪🇺🇦🇱🇹⚡- Investigators discovered an antenna near Leipzig/Halle Airport that was used to boost control signals and guide the explosive-laden drone towards the parked Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft.
The drone was equipped with an extended-life battery and was operated via a cellular network, allowing it to be controlled remotely from virtually anywhere in the world.
DNA samples on the drone trace it back to Lithuania.
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— 🇮🇷/🇸🇦/🇦🇪/🇶🇦/🇰🇼/🇧🇭/🇴🇲 The Wall Street Journal: ‘Gulf states have accepted a new normal in the Strait of Hormuz; Iran is in control’
@Middle_East_Spectator
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—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Major General Mohsen Rezaei:
‘Iran’s message is clear:
The Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the U.S. ends the war and blockade, releases Iran’s frozen assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon and Gaza. Until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed.’
@Middle_East_Spectator
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Explosions heard in Sirik, Iran; likely launches towards Strait of Hormuz.
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IRANIAN GENERAL MOHAMMAD REZA NAQDI:
EVEN IF THIS WAR LASTS FOR YEARS, UNTIL THE LAST DAY, IRAN’S ROCKETS WILL BE LAUNCHED.
IF THERE COMES A DAY WHEN IRAN HAS NO MORE MISSILES LEFT, THAT’S WHEN WE WILL BE EVEN MORE DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA.
AMERICA HAS THOUSANDS OF ECONOMIC INTERESTS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND ALL OF THEM CAN BE EASILY DESTROYED. ...
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🇩🇪 Quietly, in 2026, markets came to realise that Europe’s plans to rearm - like just about everything in Europe - were completely unserious.
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🇺🇸🇺🇸🌹🚫 — Democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who wants to end thanksgiving and abolish prisons, has narrowly lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, 39.4% to 39.8%.
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Kyiv Pauses Black Sea Tanker Attacks Following Direct Appeal from JD Vance
Kyiv has suspended drone strikes against Black Sea oil shipping near Novorossiysk after JD Vance warned Zelensky that the raids damaged American corporate interests.
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Senior Iranian source to Reuters:
There are no discussions over extending the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.
From Iran’s perspective, there is no ceasefire start date, therefore there is nothing to extend.
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🇦🇪🤝🇮🇷 For the 2nd day in a row, the same Emirati Boeing 737-700 Business Jet (BBJ) which visited Tehran yesterday, landed again at the Karaj Airport outside of Tehran.
Just like yesterday, the plane sat on the ground for a little over an hour until it departed back to the UAE.
@CIG_telegram
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🇺🇸🕊🇮🇷 Trump is shifting to a do-nothing strategy on Iran, betting that economic sanctions and a naval blockade will force Tehran to negotiate after military threats and limited strikes failed to end the war, according to The Atlantic.
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🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 Senior Iranian source tells Reuters there are no discussions to extend a ceasefire with the U.S., saying that there is no ceasefire start date and therefore nothing to extend.
The source accused Washington of violating the MoU 48 hours after it was reached and said talks now focus on the U.S. returning to the memorandum and defining a timeframe for its commitments.
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BREAKING: President Trump is weighing a cut to capital gains taxes ahead of midterm elections, per Bloomberg.
There has not been a major cut to capital gains tax rates in the US since 2003.
BREAKING: President Trump’s capital gains tax cut discussions include “indexing” capital gains for inflation BEFORE taxes are calculated.
This would mean that taxes would be applied on gains adjusted for inflation.
For example, if you purchased a stock for $100,000 and sold it 5 years later for $200,000.
Under the current system, you would owe capital gains taxes on the full $100,000 gain.
But, if cumulative inflation over those 5 years was 20%, your inflation-adjusted cost basis would rise to $120,000.
This means you would only owe capital gains taxes on the $80,000 REAL gain, rather than the $100,000 nominal gain.
Trump has also suggested exemptions for sales of homes worth $2 million or less from capital gains taxes.
We expect more details soon.
(@TheKobeissiLetter)
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BREAKING: Gold future surge above $4,500/oz for the first time since June 5th.
This puts gold futures up +14% since July 17.
The gold market knows exactly what is coming next. https://t.co/voCvj67Klu
(@TheKobeissiLetter)
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Oil is at about 83 for WTI