[RE]

NEWSWEEK.COM • 2026-07-18

State Department Issues Worldwide Travel Warning as Iran Conflict Escalates

The diplomatic warning reflects growing anxiety that hostilities are rapidly expanding beyond Iran's borders, threatening to draw neighboring countries deeper into the theater of war.

At least this article reports that the Ceaseless Fire agreement has collapsed, rather than saying it "looks shaky" or some other nonsense.  Slightly more realistic journalism. 🙄

Far as overseas travel goes, definitely not a good time to be planning a Cruise to hit the Casinos in Dubai. lol.  Wouldn't recommend being an Amerikan Tourista in London or Paris either.

Far as Assymetric Warfare goes, this would be about the time I'd start to expect some type of Cyber Attack or perhaps an actual physical bombing of some energy infrastructure target here on Home Soil by Iranian Black Ops.  They've got to have some agents and/or sleeper cells over here.  If not over here, maybe hit an Amerikan Embassy somewhere in Europe.

Piracy also seems to be revving up around Yemen and the Ukraine War is spreading out into Poland and the Baltic states.  More action in the South China Sea as well with the FSoA Coast Guard (!) buzzing the waters around the Phillipines.  IOW, the Oil Resource Wars are evolving from Regional Conflict toward a genuine World War.  So far the Chinese have managed to stay out of the Party directly, but the way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if they move on Taiwan sometime soon.

SpaceX has lost half it's value, and even Big Blue (IBM) took a big hit last week, so the AI Bubble is looking very shaky.  We're getting closer to tipping over the edge.

RE

[K-Dog]

WSJ.COM • 2026-07-18

Israel’s $50 Million Experiment to Change U.S. Public Opinion

The Israeli government is trying to shore up its U.S. reputation with help from influencers, Trump insiders and millions of AI-driven texts.

Millions of similar texts have flooded American cellphones in recent months. They are written with artificial intelligence, pushed by a longtime Trump adviser's firm—and paid for by the Israeli government.