THE LATEST | CANADANew York Times: A Kuwaiti oil tanker laden with oil erupted in flames after it was attacked early Tuesday while anchored off the coast of Dubai, the Kuwaiti authorities said. The attack, which the Kuwaitis blamed on Iran, came a day after President Trump injected new uncertainty into global energy markets by threatening again to begin obliterating Iranian targets if Tehran’s new leaders did not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz…
Iranian strike on Kuwaiti power and water plant stokes infrastructure fears
Iran has struck an electricity and water desalination plant in Kuwait in the latest escalation of tit-for-tat attacks across the Gulf, raising concerns about the likelihood of further strikes targeting critical civilian infrastructure on either side of the waterway…
Trump again threatens to blow up Iran’s energy facilities
President Donald Trump said the US may blow up and obliterate Iran’s electric plants and oil wells if a deal to end the war is not reached and the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened. Asked about Trump’s threat, the White House said the US military will follow the law...
Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz
In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said…
A New U.S. Missile Hit a Sports Hall in Iran. Here’s What We Know About It.
A new Army weapon emerged from relative obscurity after one struck a sports hall and school in southern Iran early in the U.S.-Israeli war, according to weapons experts and a visual analysis by The New York Times…
Pete Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defence fund before Iran attack
A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, the people said, shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran…
Trump could ask Gulf states to contribute to war costs, says White House
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked by a reporter on Monday whether countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would “step up” to pay for “the vast majority of the cost of the war”, which the reporter claimed they did during the first Gulf war in 1990-91.
“Well, I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,” Leavitt said. “I won’t get ahead of him on that, but certainly, it’s an idea that I know that he has, and something that I think you’ll hear more from him on…
Iran War Chokes Off Helium Supply Critical for AI
The Iran war isn’t just affecting energy supplies. It is also cutting deeply into supplies of the invisible gas that is essential for cooling artificial-intelligence chip-making tools and keeping MRI scanners humming.
The global supply of helium—the natural-gas byproduct better known for keeping party balloons aloft—is being squeezed by a halt in natural-gas exports from Qatar, the source of about a third of the world’s total…
Iran could emerge from the war stronger and more dangerous
Iran has charged a reported $2mn each to allow ships safe passage through the strait. In normal times, about 140 ships a day make the journey. So a crude calculation suggests that, if Iran succeeds in setting up a toll booth on the strait, it could add billions of dollars a month to the state coffers…
Trump says U.S. negotiating with Iranian leaders, despite Iran’s denials
Iran denied virtually all of Trump’s assertions. There have been no “direct” talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday in Tehran, only messages sent through intermediaries. He described U.S. demands, which include an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment program, the surrender of more than 900 pounds of highly enriched material and strict limits on ballistic missiles, as “very excessive, unrealistic and irrational.”…
As Trump touts ‘reasonable’ Iranian negotiators, there’s uncertainty about their decision-making power
It’s not entirely clear to American officials whether the regime figures receiving their messages — which have been passed along by Pakistan and Turkey — have the ultimate authority to sign-off on any peace agreement, let alone implement one, US and Gulf officials said…
Insurers give Emirates ‘outrageously’ cheap war insurance cover
Emirates is paying far less for “war risk” cover than rival airlines, according to multiple insurers with direct knowledge of its policy.
One insurance executive said the airline’s additional premium of about $100,000 a week, agreed since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran, looked “outrageously” low given the heightened risk of transit to and from the Middle East. The four-week conflict has caused thousands of flights to be cancelled in the region…
Insurance That Covered Terror, Not War, Leaves Companies Rushing for Cover
Standard commercial policies, such as property, cyber and business-interruption insurance, typically don’t include war-related damage. That means companies now have to pay increasingly steep rates to get protection against threats such as missile strikes.
As the war enters its second month, there is a lot at stake for insurers and regular businesses across the Middle East: Losses for buildings, infrastructure and ships could run into the billions of dollars if the conflict drags on.
Companies are rushing to take out new war coverage…
Destruction of vital US radar aircraft could hamper ability to spot Iran threats, analysts say
The loss of the AWACS is “a serious blow to (US) surveillance capabilities,” said CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel who has flown on the aircraft.
“It can potentially impact (US) ability to control combat aircraft and vector them to their targets or protect them from engagements of hostile aircraft and missile systems,” he said…
Israel targets Iran’s leaders with lethal expertise using new AI platform
The officials cited a proliferation of sources and surveillance capabilities inside Iran — regime insiders recruited to spy for Israel as well as cyber-penetrations of thousands of targets including street cameras, payment platforms and internet choke points that Iran installed to imposecommunications blackouts on its citizens. These and other streams of data are being scoured by what Israeli officials described as a new, classified artificial intelligence platform programmed to extract clues to leaders’ lives and movements…
America Downs Cheap Drones With Million-Dollar Missiles. A Fix Is In the Works.
The U.S. is shooting down cheap Iranian drones with missiles that can cost upward of a million dollars. Jason Cornelius is making a missile in Texas that he says will cost $10,000…
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