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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened Monday to attack Oman, a longtime U.S. ally, if the country interferes with American efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, as a 60-day window for reaching a peace agreement with Iran expired without a clear resolution to the ongoing conflict.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Trey Yingst, published Monday. It marked the second time this year Trump has directed such a threat at Oman. At a Cabinet meeting in May, the president said, “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow ’em up.”

The renewed threat came as the 60-day deadline for the United States and Iran to reach a deal toward ending their conflict passed Monday without any concrete agreement announced. Trump said he remains unconcerned about the lack of a timeline. “They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” Trump said of Iran. “I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry.”

Trump also told Fox News that his administration has established a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a claim the IRGC firmly denied Monday. A spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guards told Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency that Trump’s assertion was a “lie” and “nothing more than fantasies stemming from the delusions and nightmares brought on by defeat and desperation in the war.” The spokesperson added that diplomacy does not fall within the IRGC’s remit and said that, “as far as we are aware, and based on statements by Foreign Ministry officials, there are currently no talks with the Americans even at that level, given Washington’s broken promises and its long record of repeatedly violating its commitments.”

Trump reiterated Monday that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon remains his administration’s central objective in the conflict, a stance that has at times put him at odds with advisers who have emphasized keeping global oil prices low as a competing priority. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed modestly Monday, rising 0.38% to $88.85 a barrel following the expiration of the negotiating window.

Trump’s threat against Oman is not an isolated incident within his broader approach to foreign policy. According to a CNN analysis, the president has launched military strikes in seven countries during his second term alone — Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen — and has threatened or left open the possibility of strikes against at least seven others, including Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, Panama and now Oman. CNN had previously calculated in May that Trump had either attacked or threatened roughly one out of every 13 countries in the world, with Oman ranking among the earliest targets of that pattern. Analysts have noted that many of Trump’s specific threats have not ultimately been carried out, even in instances when the targeted country did not meet his stated demands.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said talks between Tehran and Oman regarding the future status of the Strait of Hormuz remain complex but ongoing. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that several unspecified “actors trying to exert influence on this process” had contributed to delays in reaching an agreement.

Trump’s comments regarding the Strait of Hormuz followed remarks he made Friday, in which he said he intends to declare the waterway a U.S. territory once the conflict with Iran concludes, which he predicted would happen “pretty soon.” Maritime law experts have pushed back on the feasibility of such a declaration. Jason Chuah, a professor of maritime law at City, University of London, told CNN that “under US law, claiming territory by a Presidential declaration or decree is not enough. There are important constitutional requirements that must be cleared first,” adding that “under international law, annexation is contrary to the United Nations Charter. Territories including bodies of water can only be taken through agreement or cession.” Simon Baughen, a professor of shipping law at Swansea University, said any legitimate path toward such a claim would require Iran’s direct consent. “Under international law, this could only be done if Iran agreed to cede its territorial waters in the strait to the US,” Baughen said. “I think this is a very unlikely scenario.”

Elsewhere in the region, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, met Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for more than four hours in an effort to revive the administration’s stalled Gaza ceasefire plan. According to a senior Israeli official, Netanyahu told Kushner that Israel would not withdraw any forces from Gaza or allow reconstruction to begin until Hamas fully disarms. The two also agreed that an American general would oversee the decommissioning of Hamas weaponry as a first step toward demilitarizing the territory, the official said.

Hamas has said it will not disarm unless the process is sequenced alongside an end to near-daily Israeli attacks on Gaza and a corresponding withdrawal of Israeli forces from more than half of the territory they currently occupy. According to a separate Israeli source, Netanyahu told Kushner that making progress on the administration’s 15-point ceasefire plan — which Israel had previously rejected — would be “problematic” given upcoming Israeli elections at the end of October. Netanyahu also insisted Israel would not alter its ongoing policy of targeted killings against Hamas commanders, the source said.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now serves on Trump’s Board of Peace and Gaza Executive Board, also participated in Monday’s talks alongside Board of Peace director Nickolay Mladenov. According to Netanyahu’s office, the group agreed to establish working groups focused on disarmament as well as sanitation, clean water and public health issues in Gaza.

Adding to the volatile regional backdrop, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said Monday it had launched ballistic missiles at a Saudi military vessel and four escort ships in the Red Sea near the Yemeni port city of Mokha. The claim could not be independently verified, and Saudi authorities had not immediately responded. The reported attack follows a weekend of escalation after the Houthis declared a blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, prompting Mokha’s port to suspend operations following earlier missile strikes Friday.

Separately, Iran’s army has offered a bounty of 5 billion tomans, or roughly $30,000, for anyone who kills or captures a U.S. soldier and turns them over to Iranian authorities, according to the country’s semi-official Mehr news agency, underscoring the continued hostility accompanying the expired negotiating deadline even as diplomatic channels, disputed or otherwise, remain nominally open between Washington and Tehran.

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

The anonymous imageboard 4chan experienced a confirmed outage Monday afternoon, with independent monitoring services detecting service disruptions from multiple global locations as user complaints surged on outage-tracking platforms.

Downdetector posted on its official account on the social platform X that “user reports indicate problems with 4chan since 12:20 PM EDT,” tagging the post with the hashtag #4chanDown and directing users to its outage-tracking page for additional updates. The post had drawn more than 2,000 views within a relatively short window after being published.

Unlike some reported outages that show conflicting or inconclusive readings across different monitoring services, Monday’s disruption to 4chan received clear confirmation from at least one independent tracking tool. UptimeRobot, which continuously monitors 4chan’s website from infrastructure located in multiple regions around the world, reported that its most recent automated check, conducted at 16:31 GMT — roughly 12:31 p.m. EDT — detected unusual response times or error codes affecting the site. The service explicitly confirmed the disruption was not isolated to individual users. “It’s not just you. UptimeRobot has confirmed that 4chan is down from multiple global monitoring locations, so the issue is likely affecting other users as well,” the service stated on its status page for the site.

Other outage-tracking resources presented a more mixed picture of 4chan’s operational status around the same time. StatusGator, a separate monitoring service, indicated 4chan was “currently operational” based on its own assessment, while simultaneously noting that it had logged 136 user-submitted outage reports over the preceding 24-hour period, a notably higher volume of complaints than many of the other services and platforms typically track for a single day. StatusGator’s tracking listed common user-reported issues including full service outages, connectivity problems, error messages, unresponsive servers and login difficulties, along with reports specifically describing “access issues leading to 403 errors and loading problems.”

4chan, founded in 2003, remains one of the internet’s most prominent and controversial anonymous imageboards, hosting a wide range of user-generated discussion boards covering topics from niche hobbyist communities to broader internet culture, alongside content that has frequently drawn scrutiny for its unmoderated and sometimes extreme nature. The platform continues to attract a substantial user base despite its long-running reputation for hosting explicit and controversial material, and disruptions to the site’s availability typically generate significant attention across social media platforms given its outsized influence on broader internet meme culture and online discourse trends.

Monday’s outage report follows a history of more serious security incidents affecting 4chan in recent years. In April 2025, the site experienced a significant and confirmed security breach, during which unconfirmed reports circulated online claiming the site had been hacked. According to reporting from Wired at the time, a previously banned discussion board briefly reappeared on the live site, and portions of 4chan were defaced with a message reading, “U GOT HACKED XD.” Reuters reported that some of the circulating posts claimed the alleged hacker had exposed identifying details belonging to the site’s moderators, a development that would have significantly undermined the anonymity the platform has long promised both to its ordinary users and to the volunteer staff who moderate its various boards.

Ian Gray, analysis and research director at the cybersecurity firm Flashpoint, told Wired at the time that any genuine leak of that nature carried serious implications given the platform’s core anonymity-based structure. “The content leaked, if genuine, would remove some of the anonymity from 4chan administrators, moderators, and janitors,” Gray said, adding that the site’s billing as an anonymous platform may have given some users a false sense of security over the years. “Some users may have registered their email addresses years ago when they were less aware or concerned about their operational security,” Gray said. TechCrunch separately reported that screenshots circulating online at the time appeared to show elements of the site’s back-end infrastructure, source code and internal tools used to manage user bans, though the full scope and authenticity of the leaked material was not definitively confirmed in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Following that 2025 incident, technology outlets published guidance aimed at helping users determine whether any future reported 4chan disruption reflected a genuine, site-wide outage or a more localized, individual connectivity issue. According to guidance from HighSpeedInternet.com, users experiencing trouble accessing the platform have generally been advised to first refresh the page to rule out temporary loading errors, then clear browser cache and cookies to eliminate potentially corrupted stored files, and finally disable any browser extensions that could be interfering with how the site loads, before concluding that a broader outage affecting all users is underway.

Given the confirmed detection of service disruption from UptimeRobot’s independent, multi-location monitoring alongside the substantial volume of user complaints logged by other tracking services, Monday’s reported issues appear more likely to reflect a genuine, at least partially widespread technical disruption rather than an isolated or purely localized problem, though the precise cause, scope and duration of the outage had not been officially confirmed or explained by 4chan’s operators as of this report.

4chan does not maintain a prominent, continuously updated public status page comparable to those used by larger, more conventionally structured technology companies, a characteristic that has historically made it more difficult for users and outside observers to obtain timely, authoritative confirmation of the platform’s operational status during periods of reported disruption. As a result, users and outside monitoring services have typically relied on a combination of independent automated checks, crowdsourced outage reports and social media discussion to piece together the scope of any given disruption affecting the site.

As of this report, 4chan’s operators had not issued any public statement addressing the specific disruption reported by users beginning around 12:20 p.m. EDT Monday, and it remained unclear whether the issue stemmed from a routine technical failure, a surge in traffic, or a more serious incident along the lines of the confirmed security breach the platform experienced in April 2025. Downdetector’s tracking page for 4chan continued to collect user reports as the situation developed throughout the afternoon.

A newly surfaced design database entry suggests Samsung may be preparing a significant overhaul of its flagship smartphone camera design, with sketches pointing toward a shift from the company’s longstanding vertical camera bar to a horizontal camera module for the upcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra and Galaxy S27 Pro.

The design sketches were identified in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s international design database and reported by tech leaker Sammyguru, adding fresh detail to months of rumors surrounding a potential camera redesign for Samsung’s 2027 flagship lineup. The sketches depict a classic Samsung phone silhouette featuring rounded corners and flat edges, but with the rear camera module reoriented into a flat, horizontal bar housing three individual camera sensors, rather than the vertical arrangement featured on the current Galaxy S26 Ultra.

If accurate, the change would mark a notable visual departure for Samsung’s top-tier smartphone line, which has relied on a vertical camera arrangement in recent generations. A horizontal camera bar would more closely resemble the design language currently used by Google’s Pixel 11 Pro and Apple’s iPhone Air, though Samsung itself previously employed a similar horizontal camera layout on the Galaxy S10, suggesting any such shift would represent something of a return to an earlier design approach rather than an entirely unprecedented move for the company.

According to reporting on the leak, supply chain sources indicated as recently as early July that Samsung had not yet finalized a decision on whether to proceed with the redesign, leaving open the possibility that the company’s plans could still change before the phone’s eventual launch. Prominent Samsung leaker Ice Universe, who has separately shared speculative renderings of the potential new design, indicated he would not object to Samsung pursuing such a change for the Galaxy S27 camera system, according to commentary accompanying the leaked images.

Industry analysts and leakers tracking the rumored redesign have pointed to several practical advantages a horizontal camera module could offer Samsung’s flagship devices. A horizontal camera arrangement would eliminate the wobble commonly experienced when using a smartphone with a raised vertical camera bump on a flat surface, allowing for more stable use while typing or writing with the phone resting on a table. The redesign could also free up additional space on the rear of the device for compatibility with Qi2 magnetic charging accessories, potentially enabling case-free magnetic attachment similar to functionality already available on Google’s Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro devices.

Beyond the practical benefits, the design change could also serve a broader marketing purpose for Samsung, offering what industry observers have characterized as a visual refresh for a camera system that has seen relatively modest external design changes across recent Galaxy S generations, even as the company has continued to make incremental internal hardware improvements. The Galaxy S27 series is expected to introduce several camera innovations beyond the potential design change itself, including a new main camera sensor, according to prior reporting on the device’s development.

The Galaxy S27 Ultra leak arrives amid a broader wave of reporting on Samsung’s 2027 flagship plans. Samsung has reportedly confirmed a triple rear camera system for the Galaxy S27 Ultra, while the Galaxy S27 Pro is said to offer a differentiated camera configuration from its more premium sibling. Separate reporting has also pointed to potentially higher device pricing across the lineup, along with expected battery capacity increases for both the Galaxy S27 Pro and Galaxy S27 Ultra models. Samsung is additionally said to be preparing an expanded “4+4” flagship strategy for 2027 that would bring a total of eight Galaxy flagship devices to market across the year, according to prior leaks covering the company’s broader product roadmap.

Chip configuration details have also emerged as part of the broader Galaxy S27 leak cycle. According to earlier reporting, two of the Galaxy S27 flagship models are expected to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, while the remaining two are expected to run on Samsung’s own Exynos chipsets, continuing the company’s practice of splitting processor sourcing across different global markets and device tiers. Separately, some reports have suggested the more compact Galaxy S27 Pro model may not receive the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen chipset available to its larger counterparts, potentially creating a more pronounced performance distinction between models within the lineup than in previous generations.

Samsung has also reportedly taken more aggressive internal steps to limit leaks ahead of the Galaxy S27 launch, according to prior coverage of the device’s development cycle, an effort that has nonetheless not prevented a steady stream of design, specification and pricing details from surfacing well ahead of any official announcement.

Alongside the camera redesign speculation, Samsung has continued rolling out software previews tied to the Galaxy S27 launch cycle. Early screenshots of a test version of One UI 9.5, Samsung’s next major software update, have begun circulating, suggesting the company plans to introduce a broader user interface redesign alongside the Galaxy S27’s hardware launch, according to separate reporting on the software’s early development builds.

As with most smartphone leaks surfacing well ahead of an official product announcement, the design sketches identified in the WIPO database represent one data point among many in an evolving and sometimes contradictory stream of Galaxy S27 rumors, rather than a confirmed final design. Design patent filings and international trademark database submissions do not always correspond directly to a manufacturer’s final shipping product, and companies frequently file multiple design variations during a device’s development process without committing to any single configuration until much closer to launch.

Samsung has not publicly confirmed any specific details regarding the Galaxy S27 Ultra’s camera design, pricing or broader specifications, and the company is not expected to formally unveil the device until its typical early-year Galaxy Unpacked launch event, which for prior Galaxy S generations has generally taken place in the first quarter of the year. Until an official announcement, leaks and design database filings such as the one identified this week are likely to remain the primary source of public information regarding Samsung’s next flagship camera design, with additional details expected to continue emerging in the coming months as the device’s launch date approaches.

By Dr. Carlyle Thayer, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the UNSW’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences

In a case of propaganda gone wrong, on the same day in June, two separate media outlets in the Solomon Islands published the exact same op-ed, verbatim. Strangely, each published the same piece under a different by-line.

Stranger still, both authors seem not to exist, and each piece conveniently regurgitates the same clunky Chinese narratives on why Pacific island states, Palau in particular, should abandon Taiwan.

This is a classic case of sock puppetry gone wrong: a smoking gun laying bare Beijing’s attempts at cognitive warfare.

The propaganda disaster class is indicative of the all-encompassing, cross-domain threat China now poses. From the unsuspecting op-ed seeking to saturate search engines and influence the subconscious, to a far more blatant and aggressive military build-up, the danger posed by China now comes from all angles.

Indeed, Beijing is by most measures a military colossus, adding some 100 nuclear warheads to its arsenal each year, with defence spending nearly eight times that of Australia’s.

In this respect, it is hard to disagree with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s assessment that China, at least in its long-term plan, is seeking to disrupt regional stability and assume hegemony. Of course, Beijing rejects this notion, lamenting Albanese’s ‘hyped falsehoods‘ and insisting that its defensive might is owed to unique national characteristics.

China’s behaviour suggests otherwise. The People’s Liberation Army fired a ballistic missile into the Pacific just as Albanese was meeting his Fijian counterpart and Beijing continues to pursue the attainment of a blue-water navy capable of striking Australia and New Zealand.

The question for Canberra is not whether to respond to this pressure – it has little choice in the matter if it intends to help maintain security in the region. The greater debate is what form that response should take, and, crucially, with which partners.

Australia recognises that part of the answer must be diplomatic.

Over the years, Canberra has enriched its already strong relationship with Japan, underpinned by congruent strategic interests and values most notably expressed in mutual support for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP).

FOIP, of which Japan was the initial architect, looks to ensure peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific by upholding the rule of law and safeguarding the region from coercion.

Both Japan and Australia have reaffirmed their enduring support for the vision. In May, Prime Ministers Takaichi and Albanese met to mark 50 years of bilateral relations between the two nations. The summit concluded with an agreement to expand cooperation in the defence, energy and critical minerals sectors, a step Tokyo had been keen to take as part of broader efforts to help realise FOIP.

Their diplomatic efforts translated into further practical success at the Shangri-La Dialogue. Following a sideline meeting of defence ministers, Japan, the United States and Australia agreed to establish TRISHIP, an information-sharing framework aimed at countering airborne and missile threats across the region.

But Australia’s diplomatic outreach has reaped dividends beyond Japan. Following a meeting between Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation was signed, deepening the practical partnership. Albanese has certainly been racking up the air miles, visiting Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands since January.

Diplomatic outreach is critical. It not only produces the practical agreements that bolster defence and deterrence but also demonstrates to China that the region is home to a coalition of partners unwilling to succumb to unilateral coercion.

But diplomacy alone will not give Beijing pause. The prevention of China’s regional hegemony will ultimately require greater investment in individual countries’ military domains.

Fortunately, key partners are stepping up in this sector too.

Canberra has committed an additional AUD $14 billion in defence spending over the next four years. Takaichi too has invested heavily in defence, with Japan’s budget now exceeding AUD $79 billion (¥9 trillion) this year for the first time in the nation’s history.

Takaichi has also expedited the revision of three strategic documents, and in April overhauled the country’s longstanding restrictions on lethal weapons exports. The latter move will bolster the military capabilities of like-minded partners and enable deeper interoperability between them.

Canberra’s response to the announcement is a case in point. Quick to capitalise, the Navy purchased 11 Mogami-class frigates from Japan. With progress on the delivery of the first vessel reportedly on track, Australia will receive a ship boasting a high degree of automation alongside advanced combat capabilities.

This investment in hard power and enriched interoperability is precisely what is required, on top of diplomatic efforts, if China’s ambitions are to be held at bay.

Of course, Japan is not Australia’s only partner in this effort, but the relationship offers a blueprint. As individual actors, and in concert, these are two democratic nations tackling China on the soft and hard power fronts.