Israel To “Go It Alone” Against Iran?

Is Israel Getting Ready To “Go It Alone” Against Iran

 Michael Snyder

The Iranians truly believe that they have won. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created a global energy crisis, and President Trump doesn’t have any easy options for reopening it. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are pleading with Trump to bring the war to an end because the midterm elections are coming up. The Iranians understand how much leverage they currently have with Trump, and so they are making all sorts of maximalist demands. But the same is not true with Israel. The Israelis are not concerned about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because they don’t really use it. In addition, the approaching election in Israel means that it is very important for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to look tough on Iran. As a result, Trump and Netanyahu find themselves moving in two very different directions right now.

While the Trump administration develops an exit strategy, Israel is reportedly getting ready to go it alone against Iran if necessary…

Israel is preparing for the possibility of launching unilateral strikes on Iran if the US-Iran war ends, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Saturday.

The Israeli military continued to keep the option of striking Iran without US involvement on the table, it said.

The report followed a CNN report that US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine had told senior Trump administration officials that further military escalation could backfire and that victory through airstrikes alone was unlikely.

Israel would be attacking Iran with no U.S. help, and the Iranians hate Israel with a passion that runs so deep that it is truly difficult for most westerners to understand it.

The Iranians have already threatened to fire ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities if something happens.

The potential for escalation would be off the charts.

One of Iran’s chief negotiators, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, apparently believes that Israel could launch a surprise attack at any time…

Israeli leaders are fully convinced that once Iran is capable of producing nuclear weapons it will be just a matter of time before they are used against Israel.

So they feel like they are in the midst of an existential struggle for the future of their people.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again pledged that he will do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons, a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing, regardless of the course of diplomacy with Washington and Arab states.

“I want to emphasise once again: with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is telling us that President Trump has been “laying the groundwork to declare victory” if he can just get the Iranians to reopen the Strait of Hormuz…

For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal, U.S. officials said.

Unfortunately for Trump, there is just one huge problem.

The Iranians are not going to open the Strait of Hormuz unless they get everything that they want.

The Iranians have told us this over and over again, and I have explained this in my articles over and over again.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has released a list of the demands that the Trump administration must meet in order for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened…

1. End threats and insults: The U.S. must never threaten Iran “in any language” or insult what the Iranian people consider sacred.
2. Permanently end military action: Washington must end warfare and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq.
3. Lift the naval blockade and withdraw forces: The U.S. must end its naval blockade and remove its naval and air forces from the area surrounding Iran.
4. Pay compensation for two wars: Washington must fully compensate Iran for the damage caused by what Zolghadr characterized as two imposed wars of aggression.
5. Remove sanctions: The U.S. must lift what Zolghadr called “unjust and illegal” sanctions imposed on the Iranian people.
6. Release frozen Iranian assets: Washington must unconditionally release assets belonging to the Iranian people that have been frozen or seized.

The Trump administration can never possibly agree to all of this.

But even if the Trump administration did agree to all of this, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would not return to the status quo that we witnessed before the war.

Instead, the Strait of Hormuz would “reopen” under Iran’s new management system.

Vessels from certain nations would still be banned, and the Iranians would extract very high fees from other nations.

The Iranians are literally holding the global economy hostage, and they are openly admitting that they are using the Strait as a weapon of war…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday said they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States accepts all of Tehran’s demands.

“Our current strategy is to maintain this strait until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” said Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi, as quoted by state TV, adding that “the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”.

And even though the U.S. has paused military action, the Iranians just keep attacking more tankers.

In fact, over the weekend yet another tanker from the United Arab Emirates was hit by an Iranian missile…

The Houthis have also been regularly striking Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, and they just hit Aramco’s $21 billion Jazan refinery with a drone…

Trump may want a way out, but the war is still very much on.

And if Israel decides to start conducting airstrikes in Iranian territory, this conflict could rapidly go to an entirely new level.

In the event of a surprise attack, the Iranians would be severely tempted to respond by using unconventional weapons.

The Iranians do not want to be reasonable.

They want to win.

Decisions that global leaders will make this month will have enormous implication for all of us.

If Israel conducts a surprise attack on Iran or if Iran conducts a surprise attack on Israel, it could spark an uncontrollable spiral of escalation.

A single move could cause the entire Middle East to erupt in flames, and the world is simply not prepared for what is about to happen next.

Colombia Quake Update: Collapsed Buildings, Deaths, Hits 3 Cities

7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Colombia, killing more than 100 and trapping people in collapsed buildings

Associated Press 

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people and damaging hundreds of buildings and leaving many trapped under debris while their loved ones and rescue workers searched through rubble. 

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella said at least 87 people were injured and around 1,600 buildings were damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed. He declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery while saying he would visit the disaster zone. 

"We aren't going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination," he said.The epicentre was in San José del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 400 kilometres west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake also was felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.

WATCH | Screams and panic erupted when quake hit:

The quake ravaged cities across the west of the country, including Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales.

In the country's third-largest city, Cali, search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers. The desperate scene brought memories of the searches still ongoing in neighbouring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by two powerful earthquakes.

Colombia's Geological Service said Monday's quake was the strongest recorded in Colombia "in the 21st century," and that it was followed by 21 less powerful aftershocks. 

Colombia's Pacific region around the quake's epicentre lies along the Ring of Fire, the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur.

The Pacific, particularly the Choco region, is one of the poorest regions in the country. Nestled in the dense jungle, much of Choco is highly rural and only reachable by boat or plane, which may pose a problem for authorities in assessing the wider toll.

The epicentre was in San José del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 400 kilometres west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake also was felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama, though minimal damage was reported there.

The quake ravaged cities across the west of the country, including Pereira, Quibdo, Cali and Manizales.

In the country's third-largest city, Cali, search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers. The desperate scene brought memories of the searches still ongoing in neighbouring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by two powerful earthquakes.

Colombia's Geological Service said Monday's quake was the strongest recorded in Colombia "in the 21st century," and that it was followed by 21 less powerful aftershocks. 

Colombia's Pacific region around the quake's epicentre lies along the Ring of Fire, the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur.

The Pacific, particularly the Choco region, is one of the poorest regions in the country. Nestled in the dense jungle, much of Choco is highly rural and only reachable by boat or plane, which may pose a problem for authorities in assessing the wider toll.

Jorge Moncayo, a 64-year-old taxi driver in Cali, said he saw plumes of dust shoot up across the city as buildings collapsed.

Residents and rescue workers were searching the rubble for survivors.

"My entire house shook. I've never lived through such a powerful earthquake," he said. "We're thanking God we're alive."

Local authorities said the death toll included at least 40 people who were killed in the Risaralda region, where the hard-hit city of Pereira is located, as well as 27 people in the Valle del Cauca region, where Cali is located, including three children. Authorities also confirmed nine people killed in Choco, two in the Caldas region and a 73-year-old in the Antioquia region. It was not immediately clear where the other 32 people died.

Authorities said flights were suspended in the airports of Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Buenaventura and Pereira as they assessed damage.

The earthquakes left many in the Andean country unnerved after two back-to-back quakes devastated neighbouring Venezuela in late June, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing more than 5,000 people.

Little was known about the extent of the damage in Choco, a remote region where officials reported dozens of injured people and damaged buildings but few other details. Phone signals were out in many parts of region's capital, Quibdo. The town closest to the earthquake's epicentre, San Jose del Palmar, has no airport and is located on top of a mountain ridge along a highway linking the cities of Cali and Pereira.

In Pereira, further south in the coffee-producing mountains of Colombia, photos and videos published by local media showed pieces of the airport ceiling falling down on travellers taking shelter and screaming. In the city, people were shown running through rubble and plumes of dust. 

Pereira Mayor Mauricio Salazar told a local radio station that more people were trapped under "a massive quantity of collapsed buildings."

In Cali, a city of two million people, Mayor Alejandro Eder said residents were trapped in at least 19 buildings that had collapsed.

Small earthquakes, known as "temblores," are common in central and western Colombia, but those above a magnitude of six are rare. In 1999, a 6.2-magnitude quake near the city of Armenia killed more than 1,100 people.

Colombia's newly inaugurated president said Monday that he had personally taken charge of the government's response to the emergency in San José del Palmar following the earthquake.

Response to the earthquake presents the first major challenge for de la Espriella, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who was sworn in as president over the weekend.

Messages of support rolled in from leaders across the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and the United States.

"The Trump administration is closely monitoring the large earthquake that struck Colombia and stands ready to support the people of Colombia" U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on X.

A number of countries offered aid, and the UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said: "We stand ready to help as needed."

Major M7.4 earthquake hits Chocó, Colombia, leaving dozens dead

Major M7.4 earthquake hits Chocó, Colombia, leaving dozens dead

Teo Blašković

A major earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.4 hit Chocó, Colombia at 12:34 UTC on August 10, 2026. The agency is reporting a depth of 107 km (66 miles). EMSC is reporting M7.2 at a depth of 95 km (59 miles). According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), there is no tsunami threat because the earthquake occurred too deep inside the Earth. Latest unofficial reports mention at least 77 fatalities.

The epicenter was located 5.1 km (3.2 miles) E of San José del Palmar (population 2 392), 24.5 km (15.2 miles) WNW of Ansermanuevo (population 12 332), 31 km (19 miles) SW of Santuario (population 11 787), 34 km (21 miles) W of La Virginia (population 25 900), and 55 km (34 miles) W of Pereira (population 467 269), Colombia.

1.9 million people are estimated to have felt very strong shaking, 14 million strong, 12.9 million moderate, and 5.6 million light.

Based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake because it is located too deep inside the Earth, NWS PTWC said at 12:55 UTC. No action is required.

The USGS issued an Orange alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. Significant casualties and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Past orange alerts have required a regional or national level response.

Estimated economic losses are less than 1% of GDP of Colombia.

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Strong 7.4 Earthquake strikes western Colombia

Less than seven weeks after Venezuela’s catastrophic earthquake sequence, Latin America has been struck again. A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit western Colombia on Monday, August 10, 2026, causing structural damage across multiple cities and triggering evacuations as far away as Bogotá, Ecuador, and Panama.

The earthquake struck at approximately 9:41 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located near San José del Palmar — a small municipality of roughly 4,800 people in Colombia’s Chocó department, about 400 kilometers west of Bogotá. The USGS recorded a depth of approximately 107 kilometers, while Colombia’s own Geological Survey (SGC) placed the depth at 96 kilometers. Both agencies agreed on the M7.4 magnitude, though the SGC’s preliminary reading came in at 6.6 before being reconciled with USGS data.

The relatively deep focal depth — more than 100 kilometers below the surface — is a significant engineering factor. At that depth, seismic energy disperses more gradually as it travels upward, which reduces peak ground acceleration at the surface compared to a shallow rupture. The June 24 Venezuela doublet, by contrast, struck at just 10 kilometers depth, which is why the surface shaking there was so severe. In the Colombia event, the depth likely prevented an even worse outcome — but at M7.4, the energy released was still more than sufficient to cause serious structural damage across a wide area.

The shaking was felt across a broad swath of western and central Colombia, including Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Pereira, Manizales, Armenia, Popayán, and Quibdó. It also reached neighboring Ecuador — where it interrupted the national holiday commemorating the First Cry of Independence — as well as Panama, where light shaking was reported in Panama City and Darién province with no structural damage confirmed there.

The hardest-hit area near the epicenter was Quibdó, the capital of Chocó with a population of approximately 130,000. Governor Nubia Córdoba confirmed injuries and serious building damage in the city. Footage circulating on local media showed partial and full collapses of homes and smaller structures in Pereira, Cali, and Quibdó. The mayor of Cali — Colombia’s third-largest city — also reported significant structural damage. In Bogotá, Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán confirmed that some buildings sustained cracking but reported no catastrophic collapses in the capital. Precautionary evacuations were carried out at major hospitals in Quito, Ecuador. As of this writing, no official death toll has been confirmed by national authorities.

The immediate priority is search and rescue in the areas closest to the epicenter, particularly in Chocó where structural collapses have been confirmed. Rapid damage assessment in Pereira, Cali, and Quibdó will be essential in the coming 24–72 hours to identify buildings requiring immediate evacuation or stabilization, and to distinguish collapsed structures from those that are damaged but still repairable.

Aftershock hazard will remain elevated. Following a M7.4 mainshock, the probability of a M6.0 or larger aftershock in the following week is significant, and weakened structures that survived the mainshock face elevated collapse risk in follow-on events.

The pattern across this region — Venezuela in June, Colombia today — underscores a consistent and urgent message: seismic resilience is not a theoretical future concern. It is an active, present-day priority for millions of people living along the Andean convergence zone, and the cost of deferred mitigation is measured in lives.

New Energy, Old Chains:

New Energy, Old Chains: The Dutch Experiment in Teaching Populations to Love Less

Brandon Campbell

Beneath dying embers of a civilization that believed progress infinite, Dutch ministers unveiled their latest monument to managed decline. “New Energy”—a phrase ringing through The Hague like funeral dirges disguised as lullabies. Presented July twentieth by bureaucrats in The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, this summons does not suggest; it commands Dutch citizenry toward futures where abundance becomes heresy, scarcity transforms into virtue.

In annals of statecraft, peculiar phenomena emerge wherein administrators, having constructed machineries of their own failures, turn toward populations with cupped hands and hollow eyes. Netherlands, that low-lying jewel of Northern Europe, now hosts this ancient theatre. Ostensibly designed to forge “affordable, sustainable, resilient” systems, this initiative represents something darker than environmental consciousness—codification of contraction, bureaucratic sanctification of deprivation.

Consider recommendations offered by these ministers of diminishment. Shorter showers, they counsel, as though steam rising from Dutch bathrooms threatens national security. Better insulation, they urge, while simultaneously permitting infrastructure to crumble. Mindfulness regarding consumption—perhaps history’s most sinister euphemism for “accept less, expect nothing.”

Between four and nine in the evening, when shadows lengthen and families gather, Dutch households now receive implicit instructions: abandon your appliances. Power-intensive devices must lie dormant during peak hours, sacrificed upon altars of grid stability. Rapid electrification, those same governments mandated for decades, now strains against physical reality. Capacity shortages plague networks while expansion requires years—decades, perhaps—of bureaucratic navigation through environmental impact assessments, land acquisition disputes, and regulatory quicksand.

Electric vehicles crowd Dutch streets, heat pumps hum in basements, solar arrays blanket rooftops—all connected to grids never designed for such loads. Companies across this once-prosperous nation wait months, sometimes years, for new electrical connections. Grid operators invest billions, yet darkness looms. Simultaneously, campaigns instruct citizens to modify behavior, to accept limitations, to embrace frugality as patriotism.

Parallel nightmares unfold in neighboring Germany, where nuclear phase-outs—completed in 2023 with final shutdowns of Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim 2—have left industrial giants trembling. German manufacturing, that engine which powered European prosperity for generations, now faces electricity prices approximately 40% above global industrial averages. BASF, world’s largest chemical producer, has already announced permanent capacity reductions exceeding 2,600 positions at Ludwigshafen headquarters, citing untenable energy costs.

ThyssenKrupp, steel conglomerate dating to nineteenth-century industrial revolution, now hemorrhages capital. Their Duisburg facility—once symbolizing German engineering supremacy—operates at reduced capacity while management explores relocation to regions with functional energy markets. German economy minister Robert Habeck admitted in closed sessions (leaked documents confirm) that deindustrialization proceeds faster than anticipated, with over 5.4% of energy-intensive industries considering complete relocation abroad.

Dutch campaigns mirror German precedents established during 2022 crisis. Berlin’s “80 Million Together for Energy Change” initiative—launched September 2022—demanded identical sacrifices: cooler apartments, shorter showers, extinguished lights. German households reduced consumption by 20.9% during winter 2022-2023, not through efficiency, but through suffering. Elderly populations wore coats indoors; hospitals postponed elective procedures; manufacturing entered voluntary production halts.

Sweden presents equally troubling portents. Following reactor closures at Ringhals 2 (2019) and Forsmark 2 (2020), alongside reduced output at remaining facilities, southern Swedish electricity prices spiked 583% during 2021-2022. Industrial consumers faced spot prices exceeding €500 per MWh—levels rendering aluminum smelters, steel mills, and chemical plants economically unviable. SSAB, Nordic steel giant, announced €400 million annual cost increases directly attributable to electricity market dysfunction.

Norsk Hydro, aluminum producer operating facilities in Sweden, reduced production by 20% during peak price periods. Tomra, recycling technology firm, suspended operations at three Swedish facilities. These aren’t corporate decisions; they’re survival mechanisms triggered by policy failures masquerading as environmental stewardship.

Behind these visible campaigns lurk structures rarely illuminated by mainstream reportage. Dutch electricity grid operator TenneT—state-owned yet operating with increasing autonomy—has quietly established “congestion management” protocols allowing remote shutdown of residential heat pumps and EV chargers during peak demand. Since January 2024, approximately 12,000 Dutch households discovered their “smart” appliances unresponsive precisely when needed most.

Smart meter penetration in Netherlands exceeds 95%—among Europe’s highest rates. These devices, marketed as efficiency tools, function equally as control mechanisms. Grid operators possess capability to implement dynamic pricing structures penalizing consumption during arbitrary windows. The “voluntary” campaign of 2024 establishes behavioral baselines; future “mandatory” measures require only emergency declarations.

Consider patterns emerging across European Union member states. Since 2020, EU regulatory frameworks (specifically Directive (EU) 2019/944 and subsequent amendments) have progressively empowered grid operators to disconnect, throttle, or remotely manage consumer energy access. Article 23 of this directive—rarely discussed in popular media—permits “temporary derogations from market rules” during declared emergencies, effectively suspending consumer protections.

Dutch “New Energy” campaign materials utilize behavioral psychology techniques developed during COVID-19 pandemic response. Nudge units—governmental behavioral modification teams—crafted messaging designed to trigger guilt responses, social conformity pressures, and perceived scarcity. Campaign imagery deliberately juxtaposes comfortable Dutch families against shadowy figures representing “grid strain” or “import dependency,” creating implicit threats requiring behavioral compliance.

Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), having secured significant electoral gains in November 2023, has positioned itself against these measures. Wilders—whose controversial stances on immigration have dominated media coverage—has simultaneously attacked energy policies as “sacrificing Dutch prosperity upon altars of climate religion.” His criticisms, dismissed by establishment commentators, resonate with industrial constituencies facing existential threats.

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The Unintended Consequences of the Digital Revolution Await Us

The Unintended Consequences of the Digital Revolution Await Us

Paul Craig Roberts

I have always assured readers that in the anti-human digital age, whoever controls the data base controls the “truth,” which will be, and already is, an orchestration serving elite agendas.

Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, an online open encyclopedia that serves to demonize those who speak outside of the official narratives, agrees with me.  Sanger in an interview last Friday with the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung said that Wikipedia’s lack of an adequate governance structure allowed “specific ideological viewpoints” to shape its content, turning the online encyclopedia into a “globalist, academic, secular and progressive” consensus. 

https://www.rt.com/news/644016-wikipedia-propaganda-tool-larry-sanger/

“Wikipedia was recognized early on as an important propaganda organ.” Jews use it to demonize Israel’s critics, and

 Sanger reports “what we know as fact, based on all sorts of evidence, is that the CIA has already edited Wikipedia.”  “Wikipedia is already compromised. That’s clear,” Sanger admitted. He went on to say the ideological bias embedded in Wikipedia is now being amplified because large language models increasingly rely on its content as a reference source when answering factual queries.

The digital revolution and its offshoot artificial intelligence have created the perfect Orwellian memory hole. I and numerous others have documented books and articles with URLs to online sources only to experience that within a few days of publication the sources no longer exist.  This could not happen in print and analogue days.  There were huge numbers of sources for every source reference in libraries, newspaper morgues, and private collections.  It was impossible to erase reference sources.

The digital revolution rests on the Internet which developed as an open system.  This means it can never be secure.  Already security concerns are everywhere.  The day has already passed that a username and a password sufficed. Now you have to have a code sent by text or email. Then a passkey, and sometimes also voice and face recognition, both of which AI can produce to impersonate you.  Scammers progress faster than security, and once quantum computers appear encryption is useless.

The reality with with which we are faced is that information no longer exists in multiple print form.  Information no longer exists in material form. It exists somewhere electronically in the cloud.  One electromagnetic force can wipe it out, and malefactors and mistakes can erase it.

We have already had cases where AI assigned a task decided that the easiest way to solve the problem was to erase the corporations’ customer records.  Imagine if that is your bank.  What happens to your access to your accounts?  Can you pay your bills?  Is your automobile insurance cancelled? Do you face foreclosure on your mortgage?  Possibly businesses are creating backup systems of some kind, but as they also are digital they too will fail.

The digital revolution was the creation of  people devoid of capability to imagine unintended consequences. They are building for us a house of cards.  When it collapses, so will organized society. It is merely a matter of time.