Aggregator

While attending the annual convention on Saturday, the French actor was signing autographs for fans when he "suddenly collapsed," a witness told TMZ.

While attending the annual convention on Saturday, the French actor was signing autographs for fans when he "suddenly collapsed," a witness told TMZ.

Novig promo code NYPOST unlocks a $50 bonus for new users after they place a $25 trade on Mets vs. Pirates on Sunday.

The family physician and father-of-two claimed Kissoon had threatened to hire "goons" to "beat you and your family," and "rip your wife's ... face off."

Europe Bets Billions On North Africa's Clean Energy Potential

Authored by Felicity Bradstock via OilPrice.com,

• The EU’s T-MED initiative aims to mobilize billions of euros for renewable energy, hydrogen, clean technology, and electricity networks across the Mediterranean.

• Morocco and Egypt are emerging as important partners as Europe invests in renewable generation, grid infrastructure, and potential subsea electricity connections.

• Greater Mediterranean interconnection could give Europe access to abundant renewable resources while attracting investment and clean-energy jobs to North Africa.

Europe is deepening its ties with North Africa to develop stronger clean energy connections between the two regions in support of a green transition. The European Union and several European countries have invested in Morocco and Egypt in recent years to support renewable energy development in countries with favourable climate conditions for energy production. Over the coming decade, Europe and North Africa are expected to establish a stronger clean energy trade corridor that will help both regions decrease reliance on fossil fuels. 

In June, the European Commission (EC) pledged almost $5.8 billion in renewable energy projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as part of its T-MED initiative, which it hopes will provide Europe’s grid with clean energy. The aim is to deploy solar panels in the Sahara Desert and wind turbines along the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean to produce clean energy in areas with optimal climate conditions. The electricity produced will be delivered to Europe’s grid via high-voltage transmission lines that run under the sea.

Much of Europe is already accelerating the expansion of domestic renewable energy capacity. However, investing in a region with more suitable weather conditions could help European countries transition away from fossil fuels even faster, to meet their electrification targets and climate pledges. The EC estimates that the MENA region has approximately 2,300 GW of renewable energy potential, which is over twice the EU’s current installed capacity. Solar and wind power can also be produced at between 30 and 40 per cent less cost than in Europe.

The hope is that the EU financing will encourage private funding of up to $29 billion by 2035 to support the growth of the MENA region’s renewable energy industry. This includes the development of solar and wind power, hydrogen, and electricity grids. However, to fully exploit its renewable energy potential, the EC estimates that MENA will require almost $115 billion in investment.

The EC expects more governments, development banks, project developers, and private investors to see the value of investing in the region. Meanwhile, it will encourage countries across MENA to simplify permitting procedures, improve grid access, and strengthen regulatory frameworks to encourage investment.

The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, emphasised the need to invest in green energy in the face of ongoing geopolitical challenges that have led to energy shortages and driven fuel prices up.

“The EU’s bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over €47 billion in the past 100 days, but not a single molecule of energy in addition,” said Jørgensen.

“Our energy security must be based on electrified energy systems that are based on clean energy, modern grids and increased connectivity,” he added.

This echoes a broader movement to diversify energy production to improve energy security in several parts of the world.

The EC intends for the initiative to lead to the development of at least 15 GW of new renewable-energy capacity by 2035, as well as to support the creation of over 100,000 jobs. It will also deepen the energy relationship between Europe and the MENA region. This is not Europe’s first clean energy investment in North Africa, but it may be the most ambitious.

In 2019, the EU and European Investment Bank invested €106.5 million in the development of the Noor Ouarzazate solar power complex, a 580 MW power plant located around 10 km north-east of the city of Ouarzazate. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by around 760,000 tonnes a year. 

In June, the EU announced plans to deepen ties with Egypt by providing a financing package of up to $794 million to upgrade and expand Egypt’s electricity network. The package consists of a $690 million loan from the European Investment Bank’s development arm, EIB Global, and up to $104 million in EC grants.

Meanwhile, Germany has launched a $30 billion project known as Sila Atlantik with Morocco to develop what would be the world's ‌longest intercontinental undersea power link. The aim is to connect Morocco and Germany via two high-voltage subsea cables to deliver up to 5 per cent of Germany’s annual electricity demand. However, the project has been delayed due to disagreements over structure and guarantees, Reuters reported in June.

If developed, the cables would stretch around 4,800 km and deliver up to 15 GW of solar and wind power from Morocco to Germany. The German firm Sila Atlantik was established to manage the project following the collapse of a similar proposed Morocco-U.K. renewable electricity link, known as Xlinks, in 2025.

The European Commission’s T-MED initiative is the latest and most ambitious plan to expand the MENA region’s renewable energy capacity and enhance clean energy trade between the two regions. It is expected to encourage high levels of private investment in the sector and support broader diversification aims to strengthen energy security across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 09:20

"I want to be precise here: Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu said at a weekend cabinet meeting.

Porter Martone and Gavin McKenna headline the NHL's incoming rookie class.

The sophisticated scam involved a tiny email alteration and fraudsters hacking an assistant to the city manager’s email.

It's been stated that prosecutors hope to prove Duane “Keffe D” Davis was the shot caller in the killing of Tupac Shakur. In his book, Davis is described as being "a major shot caller for the notorious South Side Compton Crips."

Get up to $1,000 matched in FanCash for Braves vs. Yankees with Fanatics Sportsbook promo code NYPOST26.

Fire Erupts At Saudi Aramco's Jazan Refinery As Iran-Backed Houthis Claim Drone Strike

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Saudi Aramco's $21 billion Jazan refinery, located on Saudi Arabia's southwestern Red Sea coast, roughly 44 miles from the Yemeni border. The facility is strategically important because it allows Aramco to export refined products through the Red Sea without transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The attack also signals the growing vulnerability of Saudi energy assets in the region, where Houthi forces have repeatedly targeted them in recent weeks.

A Bloomberg report cites Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry, which said a fire broke out early Sunday at the 400,000-barrel-a-day Jazan refinery before being extinguished.

The outlet continued:

No injuries were reported, the ministry said in a post on X, without providing details on the cause of the fire. Authorities "are completing necessary procedures to deal with the incident," it said. Yemen's Houthi rebel group subsequently claimed the attack, the group's military spokesperson said in a post, also on X.

Ariel Oseran of i24NEWS English reports: 

The Houthis attacked the port of Mocha in western Yemen, causing several explosions and a large pillar of smoke. Earlier, the Houthis said they attacked a Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jazan.

The Houthis attacked the port of Mocha in western Yemen, causing several explosions and a large pillar of smoke. Earlier, the Houthis said they attacked a Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jazan. pic.twitter.com/oNm7ZLvami

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) August 9, 2026

The Jazan incident comes as U.S. and Iran are going back and forth in an effort to ink a peace deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears to back the Iran-Oman deal to open the critical maritime chokepoint, with President Trump and his officials remaining surprisingly quiet even as it has emerged that the deal outline is wholly favorable to Tehran's conditions.

Any agreement to reopen the narrow waterway will require approval from Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, potentially delaying an announcement as officials struggle to reach him, according to Bloomberg.

Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei says he met with President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss economic conditions and the war. Maybe it’s random, but the first item mentioned in the read out is “the provision of the people's livelihood needs.”

The meeting follows significant…

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) August 9, 2026

"The opening of the Strait is subject to other conditions, including the compensation for the US's violations of the Islamabad Agreement," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday. He was referring to the now-collapsed memorandum of understanding signed in June.

Catch up with Saturday's US-Iran news flow:

• Iran Insists U.S. Must Meet Stringent List Of Demands Before Hormuz Opens
• Iran's Mehr Releases Video Of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei For 'First Time' - Except It's Old

Sunday morning data from Bloomberg show vessel crossings through the Hormuz chokepoint are still at ultra-low levels.

Brent crude futures closed Friday at $83.55 a barrel, bouncing off the $80 level.

Latest US-Iran Headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg): 

Hormuz Deal Status

• Iran says it is "very close" to a deal with Oman on a temporary maritime transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, but any agreement would not immediately reopen the waterway.
• Iran's conditions for reopening the strait include compensation for U.S. violations of the Islamabad Agreement, lifting sanctions, and billions of dollars in war damages, according to U.S. officials.
• Iran is also reportedly demanding that U.S. Navy warships be barred from passing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of any reopening agreement, reflecting the influence of IRGC hardliners.
• Oman has called for a halt to attacks on ships in the strait, saying they violate sovereignty, while describing negotiations as progressing in a "positive and constructive atmosphere."

Iran-US Talks

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that direct talks with the U.S. are currently impossible, citing U.S. violations of the June Memorandum of Understanding.
• Iran says it is currently only exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries, with some countries trying to reestablish grounds for negotiations.
• Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory if Iran fully reopened the strait, even floating the idea of walking away without a nuclear deal, but Iran's escalating demands have complicated that objective, according to U.S. officials.
• Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. is "in the middle of the game" with Iran, using diplomatic, economic, and military tools, and expressed confidence in reaching a good outcome.

Iran's Politics

• Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei met with President Pezeshkian on Sunday for "detailed discussions" covering livelihoods, war conditions, military developments, and economic interactions. Khamenei has not been seen in public since the war began.
• Mohsen Rezaee, a military adviser to Khamenei and former IRGC commander, has been appointed as Khamenei's representative on Iran's Supreme National Security Council, according to TSNA.
• Hardline factions within Iran, including IRGC leaders and clerics, are reportedly pushing to keep Iran at war and block peace talks with the U.S.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 08:45

The Liberty aim to extend their winning streak at home as the reigning WNBA champions, the Aces, visit for a high-stakes Sunday afternoon game. 

They’re struggling to foot the Z bill. 

From "Designed Viruses" To "Digital Telepathy" – AI Panic Kicks Into Overdrive

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

Two days ago, I wrote an article detailing the sudden rash of “rogue AI agents” allegedly  besetting the tech community, and how that may be used to bring in new regulations, notionally targeting AI, but actually limiting or monitoring how ordinary people use the internet.

In the 48 hours since, that blatant fear-mongering has gone WILD.

Within a few hours of our original article being published, Meta joined the parade of “rogue AIs”, when Mark Zuckerberg “confirmed” one of their AI agents had left the play area and gone toddling off into the internet to do a little bit of hacking.

Then, this morning, Chinese AI company Moonshot reported their Kimi3 model had “escaped containment” [from Wired]:

THE AI INDUSTRY is having a rogue agent summer. The latest model to escape onto the open internet during security testing is Kimi K3, a powerful open-weight offering from the Chinese company Moonshot AI.

Bloomberg reports that hackers are using AI voice-cloning to steal from hedge funds. The Guardian says AI doctors are spreading medical misinformation.

The Independent is screaming:

Out-of-control AI systems are going rogue and hacking people. Is it time to panic?

And you know what? I think it just might be.

After all, rogue AIs hacking the planet are the least of it. That’s small fry already.

The New York Times is reporting that AI is now sequencing genomes and designing brand new viruses – biological viruses, not computer viruses – which will be used to treat diseases:

This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature – Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.

But experts are warning – “warning” seems to be about 80% of what “experts” do – that this is potentially dangerous:

But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise “urgent” safety and security concerns.

This is painfully unsubtle propaganda, obviously hoping to play on both the Covid-inspired fear of viruses and trendy gain-of-function panic. A crossover episode, the Batman vs Superman of modern panic narratives.

In other scary AI-related news, an AI engineer with a twitter blue tick is leaving OpenAI to join Conduit, a tech start-up with the aim of creating an AI that can read people’s thoughts:

Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI and joined Conduit to build models that turn non-invasive neural recordings into text prompts. She says a headband could decode rough intentions into AI coding prompts by 2027, with broader brain-to-AI milestones later.

I’m not sure why this is news at all, or what “non-invasive” mind-reading might look like, but since it’s probably not going to happen that doesn’t really matter.

The point is – believe EVERYTHING they tell you – and be  afraid!

That’s what Geoffrey “Godfather of AI” Hinton thinks, according to the interview published by CNN yesterday:

“What’s happening is these things are getting smarter […] I think as they get smarter, we’re going to see more and more complex intentions they have – and more and more ability to escape control […] I don’t believe we’re going to be able to keep control of them in the simple way of just outthinking them so they can’t escape […] I anticipate there will be lots of nasty cyberattacks[.]”

Like I said, be afraid.

But what’s the endgame here? The answer to that seems to be “regulation”.

Regulating AI is suddenly all anyone wants to talk about.

Many want a global treaty to govern AI risk. California and New York may already be writing it.

That’s from Foreign Policy.

The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times all have similar things to say.

Bloomberg thinks we should treat AI like the airline industry.

Politicians across the spectrum of from the UK’s AI Minister to the Governor of Vermont are clamouring for regulation.

The United Nations University tells us:

You Can’t Regulate AI Without Fully Understanding It

Oh, and in case you were in any doubt about what you were supposed to think, Donald Trump has come out for AI and against regulating it, claiming AI will be “bigger than oil”, and warning that congress wants to “regulate AI out of business”.

Trump bad.

Trump like AI.

AI must be bad.

This is the simple moral math that swaths of the US have been conditioned into.

AI is scary and needs to be regulated, and if you don’t agree you’re just like Donald Trump. That’s the headline.

But what will this “regulation” look like?

That’s a good question. One I’m not sure anyone has an all-encompassing answer to quite yet.

There’s talk of “kill switches”. The Bank of England suggested them months ago, to prevent AI stock traders crashing the market, and Rep. Ted Lieu wants congress to pass a law requiring them by the end of the year.

Two liberal professors, writing for Project Syndicate, are here to tell us “the right way” to regulate AI, using paragraphs like this:

Addressing AI’s societal risks requires institutions designed to recognize and respond to emerging threats before they become systemic failures.

…and this:

These skewed priorities can be traced to the framing of AI development as a geopolitical race. But technological leadership means little if it comes at the expense of workers’ health, social resilience, and people’s ability to lead meaningful lives. A country that develops the world’s most capable AI models while leaving its workforce deskilled and its public discourse polluted by misinformation has not won anything worth winning.

Which give vibes over specifics, but I think suggests a very familiar marketing strategy and a vague policy direction.

This vagueness is largely intentional at this point.

First they want the public to beg them to do something. They can decide what the something is later.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 08:10

NY Post readers discuss a Mount Vernon police commissioner driving a getaway car for her son's gang shooting and more.

The push is back on for slavery reparations. In July, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a report urging the immediate adoption of reparations. As Lanessa Owens-Chaplin — one of the report’s authors and Director of the Racial Justice Center at NYCLU — puts it: “Reparations are a debt that is owed. Enslaved Black people...

Welcome to the 2040 Dubai Bowl, featuring UCLA and Michigan in a battle of tradition-rich college football teams. The Bruins hail from the new Four Corners Conference, which only allows membership to schools a minimum of 3,000 miles apart. The Wolverines are now part of the It Just Means A Whole Lot More Conference, a...

Europe Was Once Bigger Than The US Economy. What Happened?

The United States and the European Union are the two largest Western economies of the 21st century.

Over the past two decades, however, their economic trajectories have diverged significantly.

This line chart below, via Visual Capitalist's Gabriel Cohen, tracks the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU and U.S. economies from 2006 to 2026 using the latest figures available from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s World Economic Outlook. Figures for 2026 are forecasts.

The Early Rise and Fall of the EU

The 15-member European Union was established in 1993 from precursor organizations such as the European Communities. In 2004, 10 new member states joined, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.

Aided by the addition of these new member states, along with strong British and German economies, the EU’s total GDP reached $19.3 trillion in 2008. This represented 131% of the U.S. economy that year, which stood at $14.8 trillion. The euro also reached an all-time high in June 2008 at roughly $1.55.

The table below shows the size of the EU economy relative to the U.S. economy from 2006 to 2026.

Year 🇪🇺 EU GDP ($T) 🇺🇸 U.S. GDP ($T) EU % of U.S. GDP 2006 15.27 13.82 110.5 2007 17.83 14.47 123.2 2008 19.27 14.77 130.5 2009 17.21 14.48 118.9 2010 17.09 15.05 113.6 2011 18.49 15.6 118.5 2012 17.40 16.25 107.1 2013 18.20 16.88 107.8 2014 18.86 17.61 107.1 2015 16.61 18.3 90.8 2016 16.70 18.8 88.8 2017 17.57 19.61 89.6 2018 19.00 20.66 92.0 2019 18.69 21.54 86.8 2020 15.49 21.38 72.5 2021 17.51 23.73 73.8 2022 17.04 26.05 65.4 2023 18.67 27.81 67.1 2024 19.50 29.3 66.6 2025 21.23 30.77 69.0 2026 23.03 32.38 71.1

The global financial crisis and Great Recession changed the European Union’s fortunes.

The newly expanded bloc faced severe challenges as several member-state governments struggled to service their debts or rein in large structural deficits. These countries included eurozone members Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.

Through a combination of multilateral bailouts and austerity measures, the EU weathered the crisis. However, in the years that followed, the 28-member bloc’s aggregate GDP contracted, and the $18.3 trillion U.S. economy surpassed it in 2015.

Part of the decline in dollar-denominated GDP also reflected changes in exchange rates as the euro weakened against the U.S. dollar.

Brexit and the Years of Decline

Further challenges followed. In a June 2016 referendum, British voters narrowly chose to make the United Kingdom the first country to withdraw from the European Union. The Brexit process culminated in the UK’s formal withdrawal in January 2020.

Losing the UK dealt another blow to the EU’s aggregate economy. Although the country had never joined the eurozone, it was the EU’s second-largest member economy. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit helped push the bloc’s GDP down to $15.5 trillion in 2020, roughly where it had stood a decade earlier.

As the UK economy has struggled through much of the 2020s, some in London have begun to float the possibility of rejoining the EU. Other European countries, including Albania and Montenegro, remain potential future entrants to the bloc.

The Post-Pandemic Divergence

Since the pandemic, the U.S. and European Union have followed very different trajectories. Despite inflation and high interest rates, the U.S. economy rebounded strongly from COVID and is forecast to reach $32.4 trillion in 2026.

Meanwhile, the EU has faced a combination of rising Chinese industrial competition and an energy crisis stemming from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. With economic heavyweight Germany facing protracted stagnation, the EU’s GDP is forecast to reach $23 trillion in 2026.

That leaves the EU economy at just 71% the size of the U.S. economy, a sharp reversal from its position in 2008. Exchange rates account for part of the shift, but weaker growth and a series of economic shocks have also contributed to the widening gap.

To explore what EU membership meant for one major economy, read Poland’s GDP per capita has more than doubled since it joined the European Union in 2004 on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 07:35

At nearly 90, the Oscar winner still has work to do.

Iran's Mehr Releases Video Of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei For 'First Time' - Except It's Old

Update(2210ET): Iran's state Mehr has purported to release video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for the 'first time' since the start of the war, and since he was wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike in the opening days of the attacks of over five months ago. The state-released footage is titled "First Images of the Leader" - and shows the Ayatollah addressing students, after months of speculation over his status, or whether he is even alive. He has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began, amid conflicting reports and accounts. The video has no date or location given. It appears to be in response to recent Israeli media reports alleging his deteriorating health.

However, analysts - as well as social media users in Iran - were quick to identify the footage as old material from his past lectures in Qom. This has in turn resulted in accusations of a cover-up, and that Tehran is in damage control concerning his status. For example, one hawkish US-based think tank researcher and pundit, Jason Brodsky, has commented on the released footage as follows:

This footage is old, from before the war. It was first circulating in March. It's telling Iran's regime's Mehr News feels the need to circulate old video of Mojtaba.

Iran’s Mehr News released a video claiming to show Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei “for the first time,” with no date or location specified. The right side of his face cannot be seen in the footage. pic.twitter.com/JdKWU2Svy6

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) August 8, 2026

Foreign press reports, including Russian and Chinese state channels, have been reporting the footage soon on the heels of Iranian state media circulating it...

#LATEST Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, appeared in a video recording of a lesson released by Mehr News Agency on August 8. pic.twitter.com/SjebyaGVm8

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 8, 2026

Proof that it is actually archived footage and not in reality recent 'proof of life' imagery...

See here. Iranian media first started circulating it in March.https://t.co/mQae3nqjZp

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 8, 2026

This is the Mehr story indicating the outlet is claiming to publish the images for the "first time" [translation]:

https://t.co/j8OfnYg64P

— وكالة مهر للأنباء (@mehrnewsarabic) August 8, 2026

*  *  *

In another sign of mounting pressure on President Trump to disengage the US armed forces from his failing, five-month war on Iran, America's top general has been carefully working with other Trump advisers to communicate that continued depletion of the Pentagon's arsenal is unlikely to alter Iran's stance, while escalation is likely to backfire, CNN reported on Friday evening, citing "sources familiar with the matter." 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has been using side conversations with cabinet officials -- including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance -- to ensure they have a shared, clear picture of the military situation before they meet with Trump, CNN's sources say. Summing it up, one said, “Caine is looking for an off-ramp.”

In a July congressional hearing, Caine said "airpower has its limits." Nicknamed "Razin Caine," the general said to be reiterating that caution in his behind-the-scenes discussions with likeminded officials who think a major escalation of US attacks on Iran could cause disastrous fallout for the region and US interests.“There really isn’t much else to hit since it is whack-a-mole with drone and missile sites. Bombing power plants would be publicly a lot more significant," one source said. Others said hitting Iranian infrastructure would likely rally the country's citizens around the government -- even more than the war has done already 

Last weekend, the US military seemed poised to carry out Trump's threat to unleash “the biggest attack since World War II," but he called it off, at least in part because of profound concerns raised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran had promised to wreak havoc up and down the Gulf. “The only ones in favor of the operation were elements of CENTCOM,” said one source, referring to the Pentagon's Central Command, which is responsible for action in the Middle East. The source also pointed out that Israel also wants escalation of the war.   

The U.S. Intelligence Community assessed this & consistently briefed it. Unfortunately, it was the Israeli government & their lobbyists who convinced the President that Iran would be as easy as Venezuela. https://t.co/C1Vw7L06OH

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) August 7, 2026

“I think it is just his way of protecting the military,” a source said about Caine's cautionary campaign. In addition to squandering the lives of at least 18 US service members and wounding more than 600 more, the five-month Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran has severely depleted the US arsenal. Referring to Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), two sources this week told Reuters that "Washington has used virtually all of these weapons," further substantiating earlier media reports and think tank studies that sounded alarms over dwindling munitions. It's not just offensive weapons that are running out: Low air defense missile supplies are also of grave concern, particularly to Gulf states that would face what would likely be a devastating Iranian backlash to a major new US assault on Iran.   

Earlier this year, one source criticized Caine for failing to pointedly counsel Trump on the pitfalls of taking on such a well-equipped and geologically-protected adversary. “He’s definitely pulling punches,” the source said then, adding that Caine was much more candid with fellow military officers than with his commander-in-chief. Now, Caine is apparently intensifying his approach. Though warning of the dwindling arsenal, Caine is said to have assured Trump that, if he does order a major escalation, the Pentagon could manage to cause plenty of destruction across Iran. However, it probably wouldn't put a crack in Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, much less substantially affect the nuclear situation that was fraudulently advanced as the casus belli -- for decades: 

🇮🇱 NEW: CNN compiled a series of clips showing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warning since 1996 that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/HSyWkoj6OB

— GBC (@GBC_Press) August 4, 2026 Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 07:11