LEAD ANALYSIS +

Washington and Jerusalem Coordinate Iran Strike Package Targeting Energy Infrastructure This Weekend

U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News and multiple outlets Friday that Washington — with Israeli participation — is preparing strikes described internally as 'one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date' against Iranian energy infrastructure, potentially launching as soon as August 2. The targeting doctrine is the signal: hitting refineries and export terminals rather than enrichment facilities is an economic coercion strategy, not a nonproliferation one — two different strategic grammars with entirely different Iranian deterrence calculus. UKMTO separately confirmed twin tanker incidents off Oman on Saturday, with one vessel struck by an unknown projectile 11 nautical miles northeast of Oman's Lima, confirming the Hormuz theater remains operationally live while diplomatic channels absorb the escalation. Our Pickaxe Mountain enrichment site prediction — flagged 10 days ago — closes its 14-day window on August 5, four days from now. Full causal chain analysis in this week's briefing.

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SIGNAL BOARD

6 KEY WATCHES STATUS 24H Δ

1 Geopolitical Flashpoints Washington confirmed Iran strike plans targeting energy infrastructure as soon as August 2, per CBS News and multiple U.S. officials briefed on the operation. SURGING +319.4%

2 Defense & Security South Korea's DAPA signed the formal KDDX destroyer contract with Hanwha Ocean on July 31, targeting first-in-class delivery to the ROK Navy by 2032. SURGING +354.8%

3 Technology & AI Google disabled its AI image-generation feature in Google Earth after just one day following user-reported policy violations, marking a rare immediate product rollback. SURGING +388.6%

4 Economics & Markets UKMTO confirmed twin tanker incidents off Oman Saturday, including one vessel struck by an unknown projectile 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima — Hormuz interdiction is live. SURGING +343.5%

5 Domestic Politics Amazon disclosed it received $600 million in Trump tariff refunds following a Supreme Court ruling on tariff illegality and pledged to return 'some' to customers. SURGING +244.4%

6 Foreign Policy China's PLA conducted joint naval and air drills near Scarborough Shoal on Saturday, days after Beijing condemned the Philippines' Palawan seabed rights bid as 'illegal.' SURGING +247.3%

MARKET PULSE

6 INDICATORS VALUE 24H Δ 7D TREND

1 S&P 500 7,489.7 +1.1%

2 BRENT $90.12 -6.9%

3 VIX 15.99 -13.9%

4 10Y TREASURY 4.75% +7bps

5 GAS (RBOB) $3.22 -5.1%

6 USD INDEX 120.7 as of Jul 24 — stale, 8 days old

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