Are US and Israel aligned on Iran war? Deciphering Trump's post after gas field attacks

Paul Adams

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US President Donald Trump has issued a typically strongly worded statement in the wake of attacks on a major gas field shared by Iran and Qatar on Wednesday. Israel hit Iran's South Pars - part of the world's largest natural gas field – and Tehran retaliated by striking an energy complex in Qatar. The attacks led to a spike in energy prices, and fuelled Trump's wrath.

On his Truth Social media platform, Trump threatened Iran again and said he didn't know about Israel's plans for the attack. So what does the language used by the US president tell us about the course of the war and the extent to which the US and Israel are aligned on its strategy and goals?

What Trump May Do if He Loses in Iran

Suzanne Nossel

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U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t like to lose. And as his chances of pulling off a win in the war on Iran look increasingly slim, the world may soon face the prospect of a volatile president confronting a foreign-policy dilemma that is utterly out of his control. To be sure, Trump may yet pull off a feat that is lauded by geopolitical analysts as advancing U.S. interests and justifying the human, economic, and political costs of the war. But as Trump finds himself in an increasingly tight corner, it’s time to anticipate how he might react to the specter of failure in Iran—and prepare for the possibility that his response could make the conflict even more dangerous.

The challenges of the Iran war seem to mount by the day. While the U.S. military, working together with the Israel Defense Forces, has been largely successful in destroying Iran’s air defense, naval, and ballistics capabilities, the country’s political system and sources of economic leverage have proved far less tractable. There is also the matter of Iran’s remaining fissile material and nuclear capabilities—not to mention the risk that Tehran emerges from the conflict determined that it can only properly defend itself with nukes. Hopes of either a mostly seamless Venezuela-style transition to a pliable leader or a widespread people’s revolution have faded.

Quantum pioneers win Turing Award for encryption breakthrough

Paulin Kola

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A US physicist and a Canadian computer scientist have won this year's Turing Award for their invention of a form of seemingly unbreakable encryption. Charles H Bennett and Gilles Brassard's work, which dates back to 1984, is known as quantum cryptography and has "redefined secure communication and computing", the award's body said.

Scientists believe their work will be central to electronic communications in a world that depends heavily on data-sharing, but which for years has been trying to develop more powerful quantum computers. The Turing Award, named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, is known as the "Nobel Prize of computing". It comes with a $1m (£800,000) prize.

Six strategic risks the Trump administration should evaluate in the Iran war

Nate Freier 

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WASHINGTON—War is a serious endeavor. And, make no mistake, Operation Epic Fury is a war. Its current scale and the scope of its desired outcomes render the suggestion that it is anything less than war implausible.

Epic Fury features the largest concentration of US military power in the region since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Though subject to different official narratives, the conflict seems focused on eliminating—or inspiring an end to—Iran’s current regime, neutralizing the coercive structures that enable it, and destroying Iran’s capability to threaten US interests. Epic Fury’s conduct, ongoing impacts, and strategic outcomes are globally significant. And finally, the Iranian regime seems to perceive Epic Fury as an existential threat and is fighting as though this is the case. This all adds up to a real war, and US officials should not consider it anything less.

Chinese narratives around Anthropic highlight contradictions for the US

Kenton Thibaut

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TAIPEI—The dispute between the US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic and the Department of Defense has garnered much attention in the Western press in the past few weeks. It has also been the subject of lively commentary in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). For one, there is no shortage of schadenfreude being directed toward Anthropic in PRC outlets: The company has been vocal in highlighting China’s abuses of its technology and restricting Chinese firms from using its models under the auspices of preventing Chinese entities from advancing capabilities that might threaten US national security.

Given this, Chinese outlets noted with glee that Anthropic, which “has long been one of Silicon Valley’s most vocal proponents of peddling the ‘China AI threat narrative’ to Washington,” later faced US government restrictions on national security grounds. One Chinese outlet argued that this revealed the “chaos at the heart of US tech governance.” Perhaps the most uncomfortable PRC media critique of the Pentagon’s move against Anthropic is one that has long been lodged at PRC-based companies: that the trustworthiness of US AI systems is undermined when the government can compel access to them without restraint.

Why It’s Now or Never for Putin

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Spring is arriving, a season pregnant with hope and life. But in Ukraine, it has become a harbinger of death and destruction. As battlefield conditions improve, commanders in Moscow and Kyiv prepare for more months of brutal warfare.

The signs are that Russian forces are readying a new offensive in eastern Donetsk, where Ukraine still holds around a fifth of the territory that the Kremlin covets but has so far been unable to seize.

External factors are aligning in Moscow’s favor, creating the Kremlin’s most advantageous moment in years. Russian President Vladimir Putin looks poised to press his military advantage.

Sinking of Iran warship: 5 questions on US strike and whether Southeast Asia should be concerned

Aqil Haziq Mahmud

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KUALA LUMPUR: The United States' sinking of a "prize" Iran warship off the coast of Sri Lanka suggests tankers carrying sanctioned Iranian oil that sail through busy Southeast Asian waters may not be safe either, analysts say.

While Iranian warships do not make frequent visits to the region, actors looking to disrupt Iran's income sources could target and destroy this "shadow fleet" of tankers instead, potentially creating environmental disasters and tension with coastal states in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the experts add.

For instance, the US could target commercial tankers in a military operation if Washington declares they are not being used for commercial purposes but are believed to be serving Iran’s military aims instead.

The missile strike that changed the war

Paul Nuki

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The Israeli fighter jets moved into Iranian airspace at around midday on Wednesday.

Moments later, the F-35I Adir jets, supported by F-15I Ra’am and F-16I Sufa aircraft, reportedly released one or more Rampage supersonic air-to-surface missiles – long-range, precision-guided projectiles designed to deliver a large explosive payload.

Thousands of missiles have been fired by Israeli jets since the war started on Feb 28, but this assault was different – and it has changed the course of the war.

US intelligence elevates AI as a top global threat in new report

PATRICK TUCKER

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In its 2026 Worldwide Threat Assessment, released on Wednesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence calls AI a “defining technology for the 21st century,” notes that it is being used in combat, and identifies China as “the most capable competitor” to the United States. The assessment, released on Wednesday as intelligence leaders testified to lawmakers, offers a rare window into how they interpret the global threat landscape.

The new version of the annual report treats AI far more prominently than in 2024 and 2025. It gives AI a larger role in the report—but one that resists easy categorization. Unlike enduring threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups, AI is treated less as a discrete actor or capability and more as a cross-cutting force shaping each of them.

Ukraine’s Saab 340 Airborne Early Warning Radar Plane Spotted Operating Over The Country

Thomas Newdick

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Footage has emerged that purportedly shows a Saab 340 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft operating over Ukraine. If legitimate, this would be the first time that the radar plane has been seen in Ukrainian service, as far as we know, and would mark an important new capability for Ukraine, and one that we have discussed in depth in the past.

The video in question appears to have been first posted to a Russian Telegram account and clearly shows one of the aircraft, with its distinctive ‘balance beam’ radar fairing on the upper fuselage, in level flight during the daytime. The date and location of the video cannot be confirmed. It should also be noted that we cannot verify the footage itself, but there is nothing to immediately suggest it may have been doctored.

Why are Middle Eastern governments lobbying against a US attack on Iran?

Galip Dalay

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Not long ago, most leaders in the Middle East were frustrated with the US for not taking a firmer stance towards Iran. Many regional elites were furious with the Obama administration for pursuing diplomacy with Tehran, adopting an accommodating stance, and prioritizing a nuclear deal, which culminated in the short-lived JCPOA.

The reason was clear: Iran was widely viewed as a major threat to regional stability.

Between 2003 and 2023 its influence had grown across the region. In the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion, Iraq came increasingly under Tehran’s influence, alongside Iran’s long-standing alliance with Syria (under the now deposed Assad regime), and its considerable clout in Lebanon wielded through Hezbollah. Conflict in Yemen saw Iran’s influence in the country deepening through its alliance with the Houthis. Iran, therefore, had created a powerful network of state and non-state allies across the region, commonly referred to as the ‘Axis of Resistance’.

BRICS Meets Reality in the Middle East War

C. Raja Mohan 

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Two weeks into the war in the Persian Gulf, BRICS has issued no joint statement on the conflict. This has disappointed many BRICS enthusiasts in both the East and the West who imagined the grouping as a credible counterweight to U.S. power and a harbinger of a multipolar order. Yet the failure should not surprise anyone. It was foretold in the very structure of the grouping.

As a collective, BRICS has done little even for Russia during its yearslong confrontation with what Moscow calls the “collective West.” Now the problem has become sharper. When the United States and Israel launched a massive military attack on Iran—another BRICS member—the forum struggled to articulate a common response. Some members are working closely with Washington’s military operations; others, such as India, have developed strong partnerships with Israel.

Which Jobs are at Risk From AI? Evaluating Karpathy’s Exposure Dashboard

TG Srinivasan

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Andrej Karpathy’s AI Exposure Dashboard provides an occupational scoring metric using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook to assess the vulnerability of various professions to artificial intelligence (AI). This note evaluates the dashboard’s heuristic approach against findings from the formal labour economics literature. The dashboard’s results are found to directionally align with established task-based exposure models, indicating high exposure for cognitive, computer-mediated occupations and low exposure for physically embodied work. However, as an exploratory metric, the tool remains subject to significant economic limitations, notably the omission of demand elasticity, within-occupation task heterogeneity, and general equilibrium adjustments.

Recent advancements in generative AI have prompted widespread efforts to quantify occupational exposure. Karpathy’s AI Exposure Dashboard functions as a transparent exploratory occupation-scoring exercise rather than a structural forecast of job loss. Evaluating 342 BLS occupations that represent over 143.06 million US jobs, the metric identifies 38.1% of occupations and 34.3% of total employment as highly exposed to AI (defined as a score of 7 or above on a 10-point scale).

Iran war shows how AI speeds up military ‘kill chains’

Craig Jones

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The US-Israel war on Iran has been described as “the first AI war”. But recent deployments of artificial intelligence are, in fact, the latest in a long history of technological developments that prize a need for speed in the military “kill chain”.

“Sixty seconds – that’s all it took,” claimed a former Israeli Mossad agent of the strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28 2026, the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran.

The speed and scale of war have been significantly enhanced by use of AI systems. But this need for speed brings serious risks for civilians and military combatants alike.

Northeast India Turns Mercenary Corridor In Myanmar Civil War

Subir Bhaumik

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Bertil Lintner’s ” Great Game East ” seems to be unfolding in right earnest on the mountainous borderlands where South Asia links up to the Southeast.

Western mercenaries, possibly supported by US intelligence, are smuggling weapons and sneaking in to train and arm multiple local insurgent groups fighting Myanmar’s China-backed military junta. It has the trappings of the Big Power rivalry involving an aggressive US and a rising China , with both backing rivals in a nagging civil war between Myanmar’s military junta and the country’s many ethnic rebel armies.

Neighbouring countries like India, Bangladesh and Thailand are getting dragged into another forever conflict, which can only unsettle their vulnerable frontier regions.

Seven Foreigners Nabbed

Designating The Muslim Brotherhood: A Game Changer In The Fight Against Terrorism?

Prof. Rohan Gunaratna

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The contemporary wave of Political Islam was influenced and shaped by the Muslim Brotherhood. The foundational ideology of Al Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS) and other Islamist terrorist groups is inspired, influenced and sourced from the Muslim Brotherhood. Both at its place of birth and nucleus, Egypt has proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood. Nonetheless, the politico-religious movement has spread, surged and sparked violence both in battlefields and off-the-battlefield.

The Muslim Brotherhood promotes exclusivism, extremism, violence and terrorism. An insidious threat, the Muslim Brotherhood can adapt to the operating environment functioning both clandestinely and openly. The most notorious branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is Hamas, the Palestinian group that led the massacre of 1,200 and abduction of 254 Israelis and foreigners on October 7, 2023. (1)

Antelope Reef Could Now Be the Largest Island in the South China Sea

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Media reporting in early 2026 has highlighted new Chinese dredging and landfill activity at Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands. This is the first significant artificial island-building Beijing has undertaken in the South China Sea since 2017. But the more consequential—and underreported—development may be the projected size of the artificial island. If construction proceeds at the pace seen in satellite imagery, Antelope Reef is set to become China’s largest feature in the Paracels and potentially in the entire South China Sea, equaling or even surpassing the size of Mischief Reef in the Spratlys.

Antelope Reef lies within the Crescent island group in the southwestern part of the Paracels. It is located approximately 162 nautical miles from Sanya Port in China’s Hainan province and 216 nautical miles from Da Nang, Vietnam. Previously one of China’s smallest outposts in the Paracels, Beijing began major dredging at Antelope in October 2025, and in recent weeks has begun preliminary construction on some areas of the reef.

US, Allies Move to Shore up Taiwan Defense

Jens Kastner

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In late February, the Philippine, US and Japanese militaries for the first time moved their joint “Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activities (MMCA)” military exercises from the South China Sea to the Bashi Channel that separates the Philippines from Taiwan, a shift that serves as a key focal point of strategy for the US and its allies to restrain China’s maritime expansion and deter a potential Taiwan invasion.

The drills’ geographical focus is Mavulis Island, a 2.2 sq. km uninhabited outcrop 142 km from Taiwan and 200 km from the northernmost tip of Luzon. The island is garrisoned by Philippine troops who have constructed a shelter for local fishermen, a water desalination plant, a helipad, lighthouse, and a hilltop flagpole.

How Does Saudi Arabia See the War with Iran?

Michael Ratney

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For Saudi Arabia, the Iran war in its scale, intensity, and potential impact is as unsettling as it is unprecedented. The Saudi leadership finds itself simultaneously trying to protect and prioritize its own economic and societal transformation, to navigate its relationship with an impulsive and unpredictable U.S. president, and to manage the geographic reality of living a drone’s flight away from a country that is likely to remain its principal antagonist for the foreseeable future. Not surprisingly, Saudi views of this war are complicated.

The question of how Saudi Arabia views this war has drawn considerable speculation, misunderstanding, and wishful thinking. The Saudi government communicates principally through official statements, and to the frustration of international journalists, unauthorized leaks are rare. Media reports citing unnamed and ambiguously defined sources with claims about Saudi intentions or their communications with President Donald Trump should be read cautiously. And so, to understand actual Saudi thinking, the best place to start is with what their government is saying publicly.

The Iran War is Causing Energy Chaos in Asia

Joshua Kurlantzick

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The Iran war has clearly upended energy markets around the world. Oil futures closed at $95 yesterday, even as some countries have released reserves in an attempt to prevent the oil price from going even higher. As Agence France Presse (AFP) has reported, strikes on the massive Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia, Ras Laffan gas processing base in Qatar, and the complex housing the Ruwais refinery in the United Arab Emirates, combined with Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, has resulted in a drop of Gulf countries’ oil production by 10 million barrels per day, as compared to March 2025. AFP further reported that the amount of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to less than 10 percent of pre-war levels.

The impact can be felt everywhere, but in Asia – where nearly every country is highly dependent on Middle Eastern oil – the war has caused outright energy panic, with governments scrambling to respond and having few short-term answers. After all, Asia is the most exposed to the effects of the war on oil prices, since it is the region that relies most heavily on oil and gas shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. The level of consumer panic, in particular, is so great in some Asian states that it could soon lead to not only major economic shocks but even violence over limited energy supplies.

How the Iran War Ignited a Geoeconomic Firestorm

Edward Fishman

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The economic consequences of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran are coming into sharper focus as the conflict enters its third week. As the fallout expands beyond the Middle East and ripples through the global economy, markets and supply chains are being increasingly reshaped by the drones and missiles buzzing over the Gulf—and the United States has few options to de-escalate the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz, which is critical to the oil and gas industry, is at the center of this disruption. But it’s not just energy markets that depend on the strait. Fertilizer and high-tech supply chains are also negatively affected, widening the crisis further. If the war develops into a protracted conflict, these issues could become lasting structural shocks to the world economy.

Defending the skies of the Arab Gulf states

Albert Vidal Ribe

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Since the beginning of the current war in Iran on 28 February, the Arab Gulf states have used hundreds of missile interceptors to counter Iranian missiles and one-way attack uninhabited aerial vehicles (OWA UAVs). They have already consumed a significant portion of their stockpiles of long-range interceptors. These air-defence systems have protected the Arab Gulf states while the United States and Israel prioritised the destruction of Iran’s ballistic-missile launchers and effectively eliminated most of Iran’s launch capabilities, which led to a sharp drop in the rate of Iranian ballistic-missile fire after the first few days of hostilities.

Though Iran’s UAV attacks have also decreased in intensity, drones continue to enter the skies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states by the dozen. Compared with ballistic missiles, these are cheaper systems and easier to launch, and Iran possesses a much larger stockpile of them. In the absence of a durable diplomatic settlement to the conflict – which is unlikely, at least in the short term – Iran is likely to rely on UAVs as a major part of its harassment strategy.

Why a weakened Iran is insisting on prolonging the war

Mostafa Salem

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Iranians attend a joint funeral held for security chief Ali Larijani, paramilitary commander Gholam Soleimani and 84 sailors from the Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena on Wednesday in Tehran. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Even as Iran confronts the gravest threat to its regime yet, it is signaling a willingness to prolong its conflict with the United States and Israel in a bid to finally reshape the region in its favor.

Iran’s regime has endured devastating losses over the past few weeks, with near daily US-Israeli strikes eliminating entire tiers of its leadership and military command structure. The Iranian population, already worn down by years of economic hardship, sanctions and mismanagement, now faces the added burdens of wartime shortages, infrastructure damage and an increasingly militarized domestic environment.

The Stunning Failure of Iranian Deterrence

Nicole Grajewski and Ankit Panda

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Although it was the United States and Israel that instigated attacks on Iran on February 28, leaders in Tehran deserve some of the blame for failing to effectively deter their adversaries. As the deceased commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, once put it, maintaining deterrence is like riding a bicycle: “You have to keep pedaling all the time, or else the bicycle will fall.” Over the past three years, Iran started to lose its balance; now it has tipped over.

US Air Force special operations seeks kamikaze drones

Michael Peck

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The U.S. Air Force wants small one-way attack drones for its special operations forces, according to an Air Force Request for Information. “Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Special Tactics (ST) units currently lack a purpose-built First-Person View (FPV) unmanned capability,” warned the RFI, which is due April 17. “This deficit restricts the force’s ability to employ FPV systems in specialized mission sets and limits the development of standardized Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) essential for modern, high-intensity conflict.”

The service is looking for a drone with a range of at least 10 kilometers, and ideally more than 20 kilometers. It would be armed with a fragmentation warhead of 1.5 to 3 kilograms. Flight time should be 15 to 30 minutes. Guidance would be via GPS, and include the ability to function in GPS-denied environments.

Drone Warfare and the Future of Korean Armor

Ju Hyung Kim

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In 2025, a NATO exercise in Estonia revealed the structural vulnerability that modern mechanized forces can no longer afford to ignore. During the Hedgehog 2025 exercise, a Ukrainian team of roughly ten people acting as the opposing force, using frontline drone tactics, simulated massive destruction—what exercise participants described as two battalions’ worth of armored vehicles—in a single day. The significance of the result does not rest on the number of simulated kills itself, but on what made such an outcome possible: namely, sustained aerial reconnaissance, swift integration of sensor-to-shooter systems, and the absence of effective countermeasures by maneuvering armored units.

For the Korean Peninsula, such a lesson should not be treated as a European anomaly, but as an immediate planning concern. North Korean personnel who have been sent to Europe in order to either participate in or observe combat are unlikely to return without operational insights. Even limited exposure to drone intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), AI-assisted targeting cues, loitering munitions, and cloud-enabled battle management systems could accelerate Pyongyang’s adaptation cycle. If these lessons are properly absorbed and applied by North Koreans, South Korea’s tank-centric defense concept could face a level of vulnerability that has not been experienced since the Cold War. In particular, the risk would drastically amplify in a dual contingency scenario that involves Taiwan. These lessons apply not only to the Republic of Korea Army, but also to US Army armored and mechanized formations deployed in South Korea and elsewhere.

Europe Cannot Be a Military Power

Hugo Bromley

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Since the end of World War II, the countries of western Europe have relied on the United States for their security. Thus safeguarded, these countries were left free to pursue economic integration while maintaining their democratic systems of government. Responsibility was bifurcated, with Washington handling the continent’s security, and Brussels taking on an ever-greater economic role. This division of responsibility is now uncertain. U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded the purchase of Greenland, attacked European leaders, and interfered in European countries’ domestic politics. 

More recently, he has warned that, if NATO allies do not assist in the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, “it will be very bad for the future of NATO.” Trump’s antagonism has spurred leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron to call for “strategic autonomy” from Washington. Analysts writing in Foreign Affairs—including Erik Jones and Matthias Matthijs—have suggested that the European Union must take on a greater role in European security. They argue that this should come as part of a wider push to become a “global power” capable of counterbalancing the Trump administration’s policies.

Deepfakes Are Already Shaping Opinions Around Conflicts

Daniel Byman

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The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is just over 2 weeks old, and already the world is awash in deepfakes. The New York Times reports that a “torrent of fake videos and images generated by artificial intelligence have overrun social networks during the first weeks of the war in Iran.” Deepfakes on X, Facebook, and other platforms, especially TikTok, have garnered millions of views. The fake videos include massive explosions in Tel Aviv, successful missile attacks on U.S. warships, Israelis bemoaning their losses, and other images purporting to show how Iran is delivering pain to its enemies. Many of the videos have a Hollywood feel to them, with massive explosions and sonic booms. Other videos are more muted, such as one showing girls playing just before the U.S. attack that accidentally struck the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, killing at least 175 people, most of them children. The attack was real, but the video was fake.

According to a recent report by Cyabra, a company that tracks influence campaigns, Iran is behind the deepfake effort. Iran’s efforts are designed to sway audiences at home and abroad, convincing those populations that Iran is striking back while undermining the legitimacy of the U.S. and Israeli operations. The best response involves a coordinated effort between governments and private companies, working together to detect, debunk, and remove deepfakes. Even then, however, deepfakes are likely to spread widely and shape broader perceptions of the war.

Choppy waters in the Strait of Hormuz

Nick Childs

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President Donald Trump is not hiding his frustration that some of the United States’ European allies have been reluctant to heed his call for them to send ships and other forces to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He reserved particular criticism for the United Kingdom. European leaders in turn have made it clear they do not want to be drawn directly into the current conflict. The UK prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has said that allies are seeking ‘a viable plan’. But what that would look like is far from clear. And recent experiences of trying to put together maritime-security operations in this region, notably to counter the Ansarullah (Houthi) anti-shipping campaign in and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, have highlighted the difficulties involved.

A chokepoint like no other

The latest events have been a salutary reminder that not all strategic maritime chokepoints are equal. The Strait of Hormuz may be one of the most critical.

When the Houthis threatened shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from November 2023, the dire economic consequences that were forecast did not materialise, in part because shippers could reroute around the Cape of Good Hope. There was also sufficient shipping capacity to cope, and markets adapted. The Strait of Hormuz is different. It accounts for 20% of all internationally traded oil, 34% of seaborne oil-trade flows and 30% of liquefied natural gas exports. It is also the only maritime route in and out of the Gulf.

Telegram Outages Spike in Kremlin’s Push for Digital Control

Kassie Corelli

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The Russian government widened restrictions on Telegram in February and March, beginning with slowed speeds. By mid-March, widespread Telegram outages have left the platform intermittently inaccessible across much of the country, suggesting a phased move toward a potential full block.

Over the past year and a half, the Russian government has steadily sought to gain control over the internet, restricting foreign messaging apps and turning off the mobile internet to shut down or restrict internet use in the event of public unrest, as occurred during recent protests in Iran.

The Kremlin’s restrictions on Telegram met with unexpected opposition from Russian war correspondents, deputies, and other government officials. This pushback demonstrates that the security services’ attempts to cut the population off from communications can also damage regime interests.

Are US and Israel aligned on Iran war? Deciphering Trump's post after gas field attacks

Paul Adams

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US President Donald Trump has issued a typically strongly worded statement in the wake of attacks on a major gas field shared by Iran and Qatar on Wednesday. Israel hit Iran's South Pars - part of the world's largest natural gas field – and Tehran retaliated by striking an energy complex in Qatar. The attacks led to a spike in energy prices, and fuelled Trump's wrath.

On his Truth Social media platform, Trump threatened Iran again and said he didn't know about Israel's plans for the attack. So what does the language used by the US president tell us about the course of the war and the extent to which the US and Israel are aligned on its strategy and goals?

With the Pentagon’s FY27 budget request forthcoming, it’s unclear if it will hit $1.5 trillion

Ashley Roque and Valerie Insinna

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WASHINGTON — It’s “pencils down” on options for a $1.5 trillion defense spending request for fiscal 2027, but the Trump administration is still fleshing out just what vehicles it will use to ask for those dollars, according to Jules Hurst who is performing the duties of the Pentagon’s comptroller.

“We’re in the final stages” of cementing the budget, Hurst told Breaking Defense at the McAleese Defense Programs conference Tuesday. “We’ll keep the FY27 budget intact, and then if there’s a supplemental, it would be separate from the budget.”

The budget’s “going to procure many more aircraft during the FYDP [Future Years Defense Program], more ships, tens of thousands of critical munitions,” he added. “It’s going to make sure that we stay dominant in space … and allow us to make the big investments needed in drone dominance,” he said earlier on stage.

Department Leader Says Nuclear Triad Must Be Upgraded to Meet Dual Threat

C. Todd Lopez

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"U.S. strategy is at a critical inflection point," said Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary of war for nuclear deterrence, chemical and biological defense policy and programs, while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee.

China's strategic nuclear "breakout," Kadlec said — an unprecedented, major increase in bolstering their nuclear capability — means that the U.S. nuclear arsenal must deter both China and Russia.

Compounding that problem, he said, are the budgetary, industrial and programmatic strains of modernizing all three legs of the nuclear triad at once — land, sea and air. An additional factor is that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia expired in February. That treaty limited the number of strategic warheads for both the U.S. and Russia.

Drones over base where Rubio, Hegseth live raise security concerns

Isaac Arnsdorf

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Unidentified drones over Fort McNair, where Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth live, triggered heightened security and White House discussions over possible relocation. The incidents come amid broader alerts tied to possible Iranian retaliation, including lockdowns at other U.S. bases and a global warning for American diplomatic posts and personnel.

Fort McNair houses the National Defense University and some of the Pentagon’s most senior military officials. The base has not traditionally housed political leaders, but a growing number of Trump officials, including outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, have moved onto area bases, citing security concerns.

How America’s War on Iran Backfired

Nate Swanson

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Seventeen years ago, while serving as an Iran desk officer in the U.S. State Department, I asked a more veteran colleague about the latest inflammatory statement by Mahmood Ahmadinejad, then the Iranian president. My colleague responded: “Stop paying attention to Ahmadinejad. Only focus on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He makes the important decisions.” He added: “But don’t worry. Change is coming. Khamenei”—who was then 69 and widely believed to have cancer—“could die at any moment.”

Khamenei did not die. Not until two weeks ago, when U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did what nature had not and ended the supreme leader’s 36-year stewardship of the Islamic Republic. Khamenei left a damning legacy. Since his ascension in 1989, the Iranian rial has lost almost all of its value against the dollar. Although rich in natural resources, Iran consistently experiences electricity and water shortages. Over the past year, food prices surged more than 70 percent.