[FoxNews] Border Protection officers detected anomalies during an X-ray inspection of a rebar-laden trailer crossing from Mexico
Federal authorities uncovered more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine hidden beneath the floorboards of a commercial truck entering the U.S. from Mexico, marking one of the largest drug busts in Southern California this year.
The Department of Justice said the half-ton of cocaine was discovered inside the floorboards of a commercial truck and flatbed trailer at the Calexico Port of Entry connecting California and Mexico. Authorities estimate the cocaine has a street value exceeding $20 million.
The seizure marks the second-largest cocaine bust in the Southern District of California this year, according to federal prosecutors.
The only larger cocaine seizure in the Southern District of California this year came in May, when authorities uncovered more than a ton of cocaine worth an estimated $45 million linked to an alleged cross-border drug tunnel.
Officials said the trailer was carrying 269 bundles of rebar when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, working alongside Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration, detected anomalies during an X-ray inspection.
After a narcotics detection dog alerted officers the trailer, they unloaded the rebar and removed the wooden floorboards, where they discovered 366 packages of cocaine weighing more than 1,000 pounds, or approximately 454 kilograms, prosecutors said.
Lopez pleaded not guilty during his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. A detention hearing is scheduled for Aug. 3.
The Sudanese Armed Forces' (SAF) recent capture of Bara and the northern highway between el Obeid and Khartoum could cause an uptick in retaliatory Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) human rights abuses against civilians in central Sudan. There have been signs throughout 2026 that the… https://t.co/5F1AvqFrHQpic.twitter.com/4zduhmqc38
The Sudanese Armed Forces' (SAF) recent capture of Bara and the northern highway between el Obeid and Khartoum could cause an uptick in retaliatory Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) human rights abuses against civilians in central Sudan.
There have been signs throughout 2026 that the RSF's plunder-driven patronage system is under strain, and now having lost access to localities north of el Obeid and resources unlikely to be imminently replenished from el Obeid itself, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) gave commanders permission to launch their own offensives on July 28.
The command effectively unleashes poorly disciplined RSF fighters, who have systematically committed sexual violence and other mass atrocities against civilians to punish communities viewed to be pro-SAF and get their share of loot throughout the war, especially in the face of battlefield setbacks.
Green on green — may it continue until they wipe each other out.
Scores killed as JAS, ISWAP Clash escalates in Lake Chad Islands
By: Zagazola Makama
Fresh intelligence has revealed a renewed outbreak of violent clashes between rival terrorist factions, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) and the Islamic State West Africa… pic.twitter.com/rPIQLNYz85
Scores killed as JAS, ISWAP Clash escalates in Lake Chad Islands
By Zagazola Makama
Fresh intelligence has revealed a renewed outbreak of violent clashes between rival terrorist factions, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS)
…one spelling of the long form name of Boko Haram…
and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), in parts of the Lake Chad Islands, pointing to the persistent internal conflict that continues to shape the insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East.
According to intelligence sources, the fighting occurred around Mangari and Tumbun Allura, where the two factions engaged in a fierce confrontation over control of strategic locations within the Lake Chad basin.
Preliminary reports indicate that JAS fighters gained the upper hand during the initial stages of the battle, reportedly killing dozens of ISWAP fighters and seizing two boats belonging to the rival group before withdrawing to their stronghold at Kurnawa.
Security sources said the clashes form part of the longstanding rivalry between the two extremist groups, both of which have repeatedly engaged each other in violent confrontations over territorial control, access to logistics routes, recruitment networks and influence across the Lake Chad Islands.
The reported seizure of the boats is considered significant, as watercraft remain a critical means of transportation for fighters, weapons, food supplies and other logistics across the difficult terrain of the Lake Chad waterways.
Zagazola sources warned that the confrontation could trigger wider security implications for communities and military formations operating around the Lake Chad axis.
Troops deployed in Mallam Fatori, Baga, Cross Kauwa, Kukawa and other locations surrounding the lake have been placed on heightened alert amid concerns that fleeing ISWAP fighters could disperse into surrounding areas.
Security assessments also suggest there is an increased likelihood of terrorists attempting nuisance attacks, improvised explosive device (IED) ambushes, or isolated assaults as surviving fighters seek to evade pressure or re-establish operational momentum.
Niger 🇳🇪| Un affrontement inévitable et de grande ampleur se prépare au Sahel entre les 2 groupes terroristes rivaux : le JNIM, affilié à Al-Qaïda, et l’État Islamique au Sahel (EIS ou ISSP). ⚠️Le Niger pourrait devenir l'épicentre de ce combat existentiel.
iger 🇳🇪| An inevitable and large-scale clash is brewing in the Sahel between the two rival terrorist groups: the JNIM, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS or ISSP).
⚠️Niger could become the epicenter of this existential battle.
🔷 On July 13, the JNIM claimed the elimination of Sadou Samahouna (📸below) in an undetermined area along the border between Niger🇳🇪 and Burkina Faso🇧🇫.
This EIS commander was considered a traitor by the JNIM after his defection from the organization in February 2026 with hundreds of men. The JNIM feared an EIS attack on its rear base in Niger, while the terrorist group was fully focused on the battle of Anefis 🇲🇱 alongside the FLA.
🔹The EIS, moreover, regularly criticizes this alliance with the Azawad separatists in its daily Al-Naba, a symbol of the ideological differences between the two groups that influence their conquest strategies.
🔶 On July 21, a bloody clash between two groups from the EIS and JNIM was reported in the Tombouctou region, near Gossi in Mali (📸below).
🔶On July 26, the JNIM claimed an ambush in the Sambera area, in the Dosso region of Niger. Until now, the JNIM has largely dominated this sub-region, which includes the WAP complex (transborder parks of Pendjari, W, and Arly), but the EIS is gradually extending its influence along the Niger River and in these border areas with Benin🇧🇯.
➡️ In open war since 2019, the two terrorist groups are thus confronting each other in 5 countries: Nigeria🇳🇬 in Kebbi State, northern Benin🇧🇯, Mali 🇲🇱, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, and Niger🇳🇪.
➡️The two groups sharing the same potential vital space and the same recruitment pools, a massive clash in the coming months in Niger🇳🇪 in the Dosso region appears imminent, with critical strategic consequences:
1⃣ A loss of dominance by the JNIM against the EIS in Niger would weaken its regional hegemony and create direct threats to its positions in Mali and Burkina Faso.
2⃣ The EIS's takeover of the Dosso region in Niger would facilitate the dream of territorial junction with ISWAP in Nigeria, but would likely provoke a U.S.🇺🇸 military operation.
3⃣ A defeat for the JNIM in the Dosso region and then in southern Burkina Faso would open new prospects for the EIS, which has the stated goal of accessing coastal countries (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire), unlike the JNIM, which prefers to establish territorial control around the tri-border area.
⚠️ Paradoxically, the JNIM thus serves as a sort of bulwark against the expansion of the EIS.
Slowly but surely, the Houthis appear to be using drones to probe multiple front lines, signaling that they are prepared to respond if anti-Houthi ground forces begin mobilizing.
Yesterday, a drone operated by an Iranian-backed group was shot down by fighters from the 6th… pic.twitter.com/rQe9sXxT9v
Slowly but surely, the Houthis appear to be using drones to probe multiple front lines, signaling that they are prepared to respond if anti-Houthi ground forces begin mobilizing.
Yesterday, a drone operated by an Iranian-backed group was shot down by fighters from the 6th Support and Reinforcement Brigade in the Tur Al Baha axis.
[IsraelTimes] London cops say 19-year-old was recruited by sanctioned Swedish organized crime group known as the Foxtrot Network, which has targeted Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe
A Norwegian teenager was convicted in a London court on Wednesday of traveling to Britannia to carry out a contract killing on behalf of an international crime gang linked to Iran.
Prosecutors said Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, agreed to shoot an unknown person for 25,000 euros ($28,000) in March last year. But two days after arriving in the UK, he was arrested at a hotel in Huddersfield in northern England with two guns and ammunition.
A jury at Central London Criminal Court found Natland guilty of conspiracy to murder after deliberating for more than 17 hours.
Natland, who was working part-time at a pizza restaurant at the time of his arrest, was recruited by a Swedish organized crime group known as the Foxtrot Network, which has links to the Iranian government, counterterrorism officers from London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.
"Although the target of the murder plot has never been identified, (counterterror) London officers uncovered a significant amount of evidence demonstrating that Natland was fully aware he was being asked to kill someone in the UK," the statement said.
Natland was hired by a 17-year-old known as "Generalen." A court in Norway last year convicted the teenager of attempting to "contribute to murder" and sentenced him to 14 years in jug. A 16-year-old is awaiting trial in Norway for his role in the conspiracy.
The UK government last year announced sanctions against Foxtrot Network and its leader "due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... on behalf of the Iranian regime." The sanctions include an asset freeze that bars UK businesses from handling funds or other economic assets controlled by the organization.
[Zeit] In Bavaria, security authorities have taken two suspected former members of ISIS into custody. They are alleged to have fought for the terrorist group for months.
Two suspected former members of the extremist group Islamic State (IS) have been arrested in Bavaria. The 28-year-old Iraqi and the 46-year-old Syrian are accused of membership in a terrorist organization in separate proceedings, the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office announced. Both suspects have been remanded in custody.
Officers from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and the police arrested the Iraqi national last week in Traunreut, Upper Bavaria. The suspect from Syria was taken into custody this week in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate. Both are suspected of identifying with IS ideology and of having joined the terrorist group in the spring of 2016.
[WGBH] I met Christa Schmidt over dinner with the Daas family, refugees from Palmyra, Syria, who are now living in Traunreut, Germany.
The Daases have been in Traunreut for almost six months, but the 76-year-old German tutor is the only German person in town whom they feel a personal connection with. With short-cropped gray hair, bright blue eyes and a slim build, Schmidt twinkles with the energy of a much younger woman.
Since 2015, when refugees started arriving in large numbers to Bavaria, Schmidt has been volunteering to help. The government provides housing and a little financial support when refugees first arrive but it relies on volunteers like Schmidt to help them learn German and begin to navigate daily life.
I came to Traunreut to find out how the Daas family was adjusting to life in Germany. But I also wanted to see the refugee experience in Traunreut through the eyes of the locals who have taken in hundreds of newcomers since 2014 as part of Germany’s efforts to absorb over 1 million migrants.
Germany uses a proportional quota system to distribute refugees to every state and county in the country. Bavaria, the largest state, is responsible for 15 percent of the total. Traunreut is in Traunstein county. With a population of 21,000, Traunreut has taken in 600 refugees, the most of any city in the county.
If the Daas family is cautiously optimistic that everything is going to work out for them eventually in Bavaria, I didn’t get the same impression from Traunreut residents.
Today, Schmidt is driving a 20-something Syrian refugee named Ali to the county capital of Traunstein to help with some paperwork he needs to be able to start looking for a house of his own. The housing situation for refugees is “desperate,” Schmidt tells me. Even Germans have a hard time finding a place in Bavaria — for refugees it’s almost impossible.
As Schmidt and Ali hunt for the office they need, I learn more about the refugee housing crisis in Bavaria from government spokesman Roman Schneider. First, he tells me how proud the government is about having placed 1,785 refugees in temporary housing around the county. Peering into a spreadsheet on his computer, he tells me they are living in 120 facilities across 35 towns and villages.
“Even in the real challenging years — 2014 and 2015 — we never had to put refugees into gyms or into bad facilities,” Schneider says.
The real trouble begins after refugees have been accepted for asylum. At that point, they are supposed to leave refugee housing and use their housing stipend to find their own place on the open market. But with a vacancy rate of only 2 percent, Bavaria has one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. Landlords can charge rents far out of reach of what refugees can afford.
“So refugees don’t get houses here, or they only get them with difficulty,” Schneider says. “We’re pushing investors to build houses, and the government is considering building low-income housing, as well. But it’s a very complicated situation.”
But being able to afford the rent isn’t the only challenge.
“I think most people would say something like, ‘All right, they’re here now, what can we do? Let’s the make the best out of it.’”
Earlier, at the refugee housing complex where the Daas family is living, I met Heidi Plank — a Bavarian native and volunteer who goes with refugees on their apartment searches.
“There is a lot of envy,” she says. “People are saying the refugees are getting all the apartments, and our poor people from the social sector are not.”
So even if refugees can pay, Plank says that landlords are increasingly hesitant to rent to them. Some have been influenced by the media and are afraid.
“The people in the countryside watch TV and see what happens in Paris and Cologne and other big cities,” Plank says. “And they might say, 'Well, we don’t like those people.’”
Oliver Koglot is one of the people raising alarms. Koglot helped organize two anti-immigrant rallies in Traunreut last year with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
I meet Koglot outside the Traunreut City Hall where both rallies took place. He says German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy has allowed in too many Muslims into Germany, and he doesn’t believe they will integrate.
“For me, the solution is to end the wars,” Koglot says, “and give people a chance to go home to rebuild their countries instead of trying to integrate them here, which won’t work for the vast majority.”
Ironically, Koglot is a migrant himself.
In fact, 90 percent of Traunreut’s residents are ethnic German refugees or migrants who came from Eastern Europe in several waves beginning in World War II. Koglot came from Romania in 1981 when he was 6. I wonder aloud if that makes him more empathetic to the situation of the refugees coming in now.
“No,” he says. “The opposite is true.”
Koglot feels resentment toward today’s refugees, in part because he feels they get into the country too easily, especially compared to the lengthy process his parents had to go through to immigrate.
“To come from Romania to Germany, where really my parents signed the papers, they had to pay 5,000 marks,” he says. “They had to wait eight years before they signed. They were only allowed to bring one box with them. It was really complicated. Not just: Go through, and that’s it,” like today’s refugees.
Koglot already spoke German when he arrived from Romania. Even so, he wasn’t Bavarian and felt very much like an outsider.
“In Traunreut, I felt not like 100 percent German,” he says. “I felt like I must learn the language better, like I’m not from here.”
The key to integration for Koglot and the other German immigrants was learning good German, then finding a job.
“The typical process of integrating was by speaking German and working,” he says.
Christa Schmidt, the German tutor who is so warm with the refugees, also has a migrant past. Her family came to Traunreut in a horse-drawn wagon after World War II when Stalin expelled Germans from Romania.
“My mother told me a lot of stories,” she says. “At the end of the war, they had to come here walking beside a wagon with only one horse. It was a very hard time.”
But unlike Koglot, Schmidt’s family’s experiences make her more empathetic with today’s refugees.
Schmidt likes working with refugees but she is concerned about their future. Her students have little experience studying language and she doesn’t expect most will ever learn German well, which means they won’t be able to get into the workforce. Plus, the housing challenge seems almost insurmountable in the long term.
But I’m still surprised at how few refugees she predicts will succeed. “If there are 5 or 6 percent that integrate,” Schmidt says, “I think we are lucky.”
When I asked the same question to Roman Schneider, the upbeat government spokesperson who is proud of the county’s response to the refugee crisis, he also had a dim view, but not quite as dim as Schmidt’s. He estimated 10 to 15 percent of refugees would successfully integrate.
So that’s the underlying tension I sense in Traunreut and Bavaria: In spite of some anti-immigrant sentiment in the local population, there is also a lot of goodwill. Citizens like Schmidt are volunteering, and the government has a can-do attitude. But even those same players who say, “We’re helping, we’re helping,” doubt integration can actually work for very many.
Paywalled
[MilitantWire] The latest capture of an Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)
…in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. They tried to infiltrate India too, but India cracked down hard…
regional leader is a significant achievement, but it indicates larger questions needed to be asked about the province’s global role in Islamic State (IS).
On June 17, 2026, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) announced the arrest of Ahmet Kazancı. He was captured in Balochistan while crossing into Iran on his way back to Turkey.
Kazancı, also known as Abu Ubeyde and Abu İbrahim, was the apparent successor of Özgür Altun (a.k.a., Abu Yasir al-Turki or, online, “Khurasan.Lion”). Altun, previously ISKP media chief and Turkish logistics handler, was arrested in Pakistan in May 2025. Notably, Kazancı reportedly claims to have communicated with Altun exclusively over Telegram. This highlights the vulnerability of segments of ISKP leadership networks.
[IsraelTimes] Army says Al-Muttaqin Mosque was among Hamas sites struck this week, but offers no evidence of arms there; Indonesian activists file complaint against PM for flotilla ‘abuses’
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday struck a mosque in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... City, saying Wednesday that it was one of several Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... weapons depots in the central and northern Gaza Strip that it destroyed this week.
Footage from Gaza City on Tuesday showed fire and a huge plume of smoke rising above tents housing displaced Gazooks during a strike on the al-Muttaqin Mosque.
The army said the site was used for weapons storage, adding that it was "another example of terror organizations using civilian infrastructure for terror purposes."
The IDF said the weapons were intended to be used in attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and Israeli civilians, and the sites were struck "to remove the threat."
The military did not share any photos or videos showing that the mosque was used for weapons storage.
Footage showed dozens of Paleostinians evacuating the area before the mosque was hit, as well as the moment it was struck, indicating prior warning from the IDF.
"Is this a ceasefire? Every day there are attacks, every hour, every breath. There are attacks everywhere. They threaten and strike, whether it’s civilian vehicles or anything else they bomb," Shehadeh Badawi, an eyewitness, told AFP in the aftermath of the strike.
Amir Abu al-Amrain, the director general of the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in the Gaza Strip, said Israeli forces had "completely destroyed" the mosque in the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... . He claimed Israel offered "false pretexts — such as the alleged presence of military sites — to justify these crimes," and called for urgent intervention to protect mosques and places of worship.
Israel has long accused Hamas of fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques. In previous cases, it has oftem provided evidence to that effect.
Activists ask Jakarta to prosecute Netanyahu for crimes against humanity
Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit. Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed... nine Indonesians who were among global activists detained aboard an anti-Israel Gaza activist flotilla in May filed a complaint against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday alleging that he committed crimes against humanity, their lawyer told AFP.
The men were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla intercepted by Israel and detained along with more than 400 other activists, some for days.
The group asked Indonesia’s attorney general to investigate Israel for offenses including piracy at sea and crimes against humanity, said lawyer Kafin Muhammad.
"We are asking the attorney general of the Republic of Indonesia to conduct an investigation into crimes allegedly committed by Zionist Israel," he told AFP.
The complaint includes testimony from the volunteers about abuses they claim to have suffered during their detention by Israeli authorities, he added.
A front man for the Attorney General’s office did not reply to an AFP request for comment.
Israel’s treatment of the flotilla activists sparked an international outcry after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video of the volunteers, who were made to kneel with their hands tied behind their backs.
Israel and Indonesia do not have formal diplomatic relations.
[FOX] "The Department of Commerce today announced the signing of 7 letters of intent to provide $874 million in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act," a Wednesday press release noted.
"These incentives will support innovative domestic technologies to dramatically increase the performance of the world’s fastest computers, secure domestic supply chains, and strengthen U.S. leadership in the compute supply chain."
Posted by: Skidmark ||
07/30/2026 00:43 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Long post, but IF accurate, the Iranian nuclear weapons program took a major setback. The very condensed version is that the IRGC killed 40+ nuclear scientists and other people important to the nuclear weapons program.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
