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At least 16 US military bases damaged, some rendered unusable, across Persian Gulf during war with Iran, CNN report says. Iran caused extensive damage to a large portion of US bases in the Persian Gulf using missiles and drones, according to a CNN investigation. The report states that Iran struck at least 16 US military bases across eight Gulf countries, representing the majority of US bases in the area. Several of the bases were reportedly hit so severely that they were rendered inoperable. A US source familiar with the matter told CNN, "I have never seen anything like this at...

The White House is arguing to lawmakers that President Donald Trump does not need to disengage troops from the conflict with Iran in order to comply with the War Powers Act because an extended ceasefire has effectively ended military hostilities. The Trump administration faced a Friday deadline under the 1973 law that is designed to end military operations after 60 days unless Congress has formally blessed the mission. The White House essentially states that the 60-day clock no longer applies, in letters sent Friday to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate President Pro Tempore Charles E. Grassley and obtained by CQ...

In late February, the Israeli Knesset passed the NGO Funding Transparency Bill by 40 to 34. It had been a long journey for the bill, which despite, its neutered, state was still a declaration of war by the conservative Likud Party against the shadow NGO empire that was the Soros way. While the bill was no longer able to empower the lifting of tax exempt status for foreign funded NGOs and it only addressed foreign funding of NGOs by government entities, it was a major step for foreign funding transparency. The Soros empire had been built on non-transparency, on hidden...

The war between the US and Iran is “likely” to restart, a senior Iranian official predicted on the heels of comments by President Trump that the US might be “better off” without an agreement. A “renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” said Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a high-level officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran’s leadership, which has been decimated by US strikes, wants to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the US blockade before reestablishing nuclear talks, according to details of its latest counterproposal, which was presented to intermediaries in Pakistan. Trump told reporters...

For decades, Iran survived by staying just below the threshold of direct confrontation. It relied on shadow oil shipments, asymmetric attacks, and strategic disruption. That formula worked against sanctions. It is now colliding with something it was never built to handle: a sustained, enforced blockade.And markets are only beginning to understand what that means.How a Shipping War Turned Into Economic ContainmentThe escalation did not begin with the blockade. It began with Iran attempting to weaponize uncertainty.Early in the conflict, Tehran targeted commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, effectively freezing traffic through one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints....

We’re approaching 60 days of the so-called Iran war, and we’re still getting these loud voices that Donald Trump has failed, that the war’s not going well. It’s completely nonempirical. It’s antithetical to the evidence. Here we are at 60 days, and Iran is losing about $500 million in input per day. It’s running out of storage space in a week or two for its daily output of oil, at which point they either have to stop pumping or they’re going to have—if they don’t stop pumping—their wells will collapse. They either have to stop pumping, or they have to...

14 Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers killed in unexploded ordnance blast. Fourteen Iranian engineering soldiers from the sabotage battalions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Ansar al-Mahdi) were killed in an unexploded ordnance explosion in the Zanjan area, according to official Iranian media. The incident involved members of specialized engineering units within the Revolutionary Guards.

IDF strikes village of Haboush near Nabatieh following evacuation warning. The IDF is conducting a series of strikes on the village of Haboush near Nabatieh, following an evacuation warning issued earlier by the Idf spokesperson in Arabic. Lebanese sources report the IDF is attempting to establish a "red" kill zone around Nabatieh, extending beyond the security zone marked by the yellow line—an area approximately 8-10 km from Israel's northern border spanning from eastern to western Lebanon.

The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval… While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea... Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting....

The head of the U.N.’s nuclear agency said Tuesday that Russia remains open to removing highly enriched uranium, a critical component of nuclear weapon development, from Iran. Rafael Grossi stressed the importance of ensuring Iran loses this supply or that its enrichment is diluted during an interview with The Associated Press… On Wednesday, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to help with “enrichment” during a phone call between the two leaders, presumably in reference to this proposed enriched uranium removal process. “He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment — if he can help us get...

[...] So the two no-longer-quite-so-superpowers of the Cold War are both fighting proxy wars: Since Lindsey Graham backdoored his way into the "Maidan Revolution" in 2012, America has been using Ukraine to get at the Russians. And yet America is now totally stunned that Russia is happy to use Iran to get at the Americans: witness Putin giving the Iranian foreign minister, on this week's visit to Moscow, the King Charles treatment. Meanwhile, China sits off to one side, staying focused on its overriding goal of ensuring the end of what it regards as an aberrent half-millennium of Euro-American domination....

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are seeking to remove Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from his position, Iran International reported. According to the report, which quoted two sources familiar with the matter, Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf believe that Araghchi is following instructions from Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Ahmad Vahidi on matters relating to nuclear talks - without informing Pezeshkian. Thus, in the opinions of Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf, Araghchi is no longer acting as a cabinet minister as much as he is acting as an aide to Vahidi, who is reportedly the most powerful figure in the IRGC....

Americans are staring at $4+ gas and asking a simple question that should have a simple answer. If the United States is the largest oil producer on Earth, why does it still feel like an oil-importing country every time prices spike? That question matters far beyond the gas station. It cuts straight into inflation, consumer behavior, Fed policy, and where capital flows next. What looks like a pricing anomaly is actually a structural reality that investors ignore at their own risk.This Was Supposed to Be the Easy PartGasoline prices have climbed to an average of roughly $4.26 per gallon, the...

The missiles and bombs may have stopped, at least for the moment, but the war between the US and Iran continues. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the US sanctions remain in place, and the fundamental issues separating the combatants remain unresolved. The bilateral negotiations have gone nowhere, and the two sides remain far apart. This stalemate has puzzled observers since it’s not hard to see the outlines of a deal. For Iran, the minimum acceptable goal is regime survival. For the US, it is the end of the Iranian nuclear program, which poses an existential threat to America’s regional...

President Trump has reportedly told his aides to prepare for a prolonged US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical waterway for global energy flows. On Wednesday, the president told Axios he is maintaining the blockade until Iran agrees to a deal over its nuclear program. The pressure campaign carries mounting costs beyond Iran. While the near-total cessation of flows through the key waterway is cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Tehran, it’s also choking key corners of the global market. By extending the blockade, Trump is wagering that Iran’s export-dependent economy will...

SNIP Summary: Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran following a Monday Situation Room meeting, rejecting both a resumption of bombing and acceptance of Iran's current proposal The blockade is aimed at forcing Tehran to dismantle its entire nuclear programme, with Trump demanding at minimum a 20-year suspension of enrichment Iran's three-step proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while deferring nuclear talks was rejected as evidence of bad faith The Strait of Hormuz is seeing its lowest transit levels since the conflict began, driving up energy costs and weighing on Trump's poll numbers ahead...

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has promised that the US will not remain in the Strait of Hormuz. In a written message, Khamenei wrote, "Today, two months after the beginning of the campaign of aggression by global bullies in the region and America’s disgraceful failure, a new chapter is beginning in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz." "Iran, through its management of Hormuz, will ensure the security of the Gulf region and eliminate the possibility of exploitation by enemies. The new laws and management of the Strait will bring stability and prosperity to all the peoples of the...

Palestinian officials accused the IDF of weaponizing trained rats to invade Gaza and attack Palestinian children in a series of reports last week, marking the latest in a series of animal-related conspiracy theories directed against Israel. According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), Jamal Obeid, a member of the Supreme Leadership Body of Fatah in Gaza, accused Israel of introducing rats into previously uninfested areas of the Gaza Strip, calling it “a visible fact.” “There are rodents in some areas of the Gaza Strip... that were not known here in the Strip,” PMW quoted him as saying, based on Facebook posts...

Donald Trump has told Iran to 'get their act together' over America's demands to stop its nuclear programme and to 'get smart soon.' US President shared an AI-generated image of himself wielding a large gun while surrounded by explosions with the caption: 'No more Mr. Nice Guy!' It was accompanied with a warning to the mullah regime. Trump said: 'Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!' The price of Brent Crude - the international benchmark for oil - has risen to $115 per barrel as talks to...

Brent crude over $119 as Trump sticks with blockade A late update: Oil is now approaching its highest level since the Iran war began. Brent crude has risen over $119 a barrel, up 7% today, after president Donald Trump told Axios he will not lift a naval blockade of Iran’s ports until he secures a deal with Tehran to address the country’s nuclear program. ...