Four Fingers News — Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Day 158. The largest movement in Iraq this week was peaceful and on foot. Millions walked to Karbala for Arbaeen, the fortieth day after Ashura and the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Husayn was killed in 680 AD after refusing allegiance to the Umayyad caliph Yazid. His stand became a defining Shiite story of sacrifice, justice and resistance to unjust rule. Along the road, mawākib—volunteer stations—gave pilgrims food, water, shelter and medical care.
Arbaeen isn’t a military deadline, and pilgrims aren’t proxies. But the story of Karbala remains part of the political vocabulary of Iran and its allied factions.
Iran’s foreign minister joined the walk. Kataib Hezbollah marked the day by rejecting disarmament. Mourners in Tehran called for retaliation for Khamenei. No faction has announced a post-Arbaeen response against Saudi Arabia.
Arbaeen ends forty days of mourning. It doesn’t settle what gets done in its name.
President Trump said the renewed round is Tehran’s “last chance” to end the five-month war at the table and predicted the Strait of Hormuz reopens soon; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal to reopen the waterway “is in sight.” Iran’s foreign ministry denied any direct negotiations with Washington, saying the only track is Oman-mediated talks on easing passage through the strait, shut since Jul 8. Hours earlier a cargo vessel reported it was struck by a projectile near Hormuz off Oman’s coast; WTI crude climbed toward $81.
The Dow closed Monday at a record 53,178 and the S&P 500 ended at 7,600 as a strong earnings run rolled on, with the Nasdaq up 2.1%. Palantir jumped about 14% after hours on what CEO Alex Karp called an “otherworldly” quarter, and Caterpillar rose 9% premarket Tuesday after quarterly revenue topped $20 billion for the first time.
June job openings post Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern, seen easing to about 7.44 million from 7.59 million. The read opens a week that ends with Friday’s July payrolls — forecasters see roughly 83,000 hires and 4.3% unemployment — as the Fed weighs whether a September hike is still needed.
The three fires around Spokane, now the Spokane Complex, have burned past 8,000 acres at 0% containment, with more than 700 structures lost and about 65,000 people under evacuation orders. Crews downgraded some evacuation levels Monday as cooler, calmer weather moved in and is expected to help them gain ground.
Seattle held onto All-Star outfielder Randy Arozarena at Monday’s 3 p.m. deadline and added outfielder Taylor Ward from Baltimore for three pitching prospects, after sending Luis Castillo to the White Sox last week. The moves deepen an outfield rather than signal a sell-off.
Trump’s shortened ultimatum — a ceasefire by Friday or 100% secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil — draws closer with Moscow signaling no change and its strikes continuing. The Senate bill meant to arm the threat remains stalled over the scope of the president’s tariff powers.
A US-led Board of Peace roadmap gives Hamas 90 days to surrender heavy weapons and tunnel maps as Israel withdraws in stages. Israel has not publicly accepted it, and Hamas ties full disarmament to a Palestinian state its government rejects; strikes have continued, with the toll since the October ceasefire past 1,250 killed.
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