NEWS

The Iran conflict and disruption to the Strait of Hormuz are forcing major oil importing countries to rethink how they source crude. Countries that once relied heavily on nearby Middle Eastern suppliers are increasingly turning to producers in the Americas and Africa, accepting longer voyages and higher shipping costs in exchange for greater energy security.

Japan Diversifies Its Oil Supplies

Japan is among the clearest examples of this shift. Before the conflict, more than 90% of its crude came from the Middle East, benefiting from short and relatively inexpensive shipping routes.

Since Gulf exports were disrupted, Japanese imports from the United States have surged. Between March and June, Japan imported more than 4.5 million metric tons of US crude, compared with less than 1 million tons during the same period in 2025.

The alternative comes with a cost. US crude takes roughly nine days longer to reach Japan, increasing freight expenses and requiring refiners to adjust their delivery schedules.

Asia Looks Beyond the Middle East

Japan is not alone. South Korea and India are also increasing purchases from suppliers in the Americas and Africa as Middle Eastern shipments decline.

China, the world’s largest crude importer, has relied heavily on strategic reserves to cushion the impact of the conflict. As those reserves are drawn down, Chinese buyers could return to international markets and intensify competition for crude from alternative producers.

The Americas Emerge as Major Suppliers

The disruption has created a major opportunity for oil exporters outside the Middle East.

US crude exports reached a record 61.6 million metric tons in the second quarter of 2026, up 43% from a year earlier. Brazil, Argentina and Guyana have also recorded strong export growth.

Brazilian shipments to India, for example, were three times higher in the first half of 2026 than during the same period in 2025.

Longer Routes, Higher Costs

The new trade patterns are considerably less efficient.

A tanker travelling from major Gulf terminals to India’s western coast can take only three to five days. A shipment from Brazil to the same destination can take around 25 days.

Longer journeys mean higher tanker demand, greater freight costs and more complicated logistics. Yet importers are increasingly willing to absorb those costs because dependence on a single vulnerable supply corridor carries its own risks.

Avoiding Strategic Chokepoints

The shift is also about reducing exposure to vulnerable maritime routes.

The Strait of Hormuz remains a major risk, while geopolitical tensions have reduced traffic through the Suez Canal. Drought has also constrained the Panama Canal.

As a result, importers are increasingly valuing suppliers whose shipping routes can bypass these chokepoints.

A New Global Energy Map

The emerging pattern is creating a more geographically dispersed oil market.

Middle Eastern producers will remain crucial because of their enormous reserves, low production costs and established infrastructure. But Asian buyers are unlikely to forget the disruption caused by the Hormuz crisis.

Regular purchases from new suppliers can therefore become a form of insurance, even after Gulf exports recover.

Analysis

The most important change is that energy security is beginning to outweigh pure economic efficiency.

For decades, Asian refiners benefited from buying Middle Eastern crude because geography made it cheaper and faster. The Iran conflict has exposed the vulnerability of that model. A short shipping route is of limited value if a single geopolitical crisis can disrupt it.

The result could be a lasting diversification of global oil trade. Importers are unlikely to completely abandon Middle Eastern crude, but they may maintain larger relationships with US, Latin American and African suppliers to create alternative sources of supply.

This means the cost of energy security will increasingly be reflected in the global oil market. Longer voyages, higher freight rates and more complex supply chains may become the price importers are willing to pay for resilience.

The broader shift is therefore from an oil market designed primarily around efficiency to one increasingly designed around redundancy and geopolitical risk.

With information from Reuters.

Spain has found no evidence that Moroccan authorities planned or orchestrated the massive migrant surge into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told parliament. His comments come amid conflicting accounts over whether the unprecedented border crossing was a spontaneous migration event or a coordinated operation designed to overwhelm Spanish border controls.

A Massive Border Surge

More than 70,000 migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco during the July 30 to 31 crisis, overwhelming local authorities and creating a major humanitarian and political challenge for Spain.

The scale of the movement has raised questions about how such a large number of people were able to reach the Spanish enclave within such a short period.

Sánchez Rejects Moroccan Involvement

Sánchez told lawmakers that neither Spain’s diplomatic services, the European Commission nor international organisations had provided evidence showing that Morocco had planned or carried out the incident.

However, he acknowledged that Moroccan security forces allowed crossings to continue during a critical 10 hour period on July 30, when arrivals reached their peak.

Sánchez said Spain had not yet determined whether this reflected deliberate inaction or an inability to control the situation.

Police Report Raises Questions

The government’s position has been complicated by a police report that reportedly described the influx as a planned and phased operation rather than a spontaneous movement.

According to reports on the document, Moroccan security forces were initially deployed in smaller numbers near the Tarajal crossing and did not make a serious effort to disperse the crowds. Some uniformed officers were also allegedly seen directing people towards the crossing.

However, the report did not identify individual officers or provide independently verified evidence that Moroccan authorities had ordered the operation.

Morocco Denies Enabling the Crossing

Moroccan authorities have rejected accusations that they deliberately facilitated the mass movement into Ceuta.

The controversy has nevertheless put renewed pressure on Spain’s relationship with Morocco, a crucial partner in controlling migration across the western Mediterranean.

Conflicting Accounts in Spain

The allegations have also created a political problem for Sánchez’s government.

Spanish authorities have previously attributed the surge largely to misinformation circulating online and the activities of smuggling networks. Reports suggesting possible Moroccan involvement therefore challenge part of Madrid’s explanation for how the crisis developed.

Spain’s police leadership has also pushed back against claims that an official police report conclusively blamed Morocco for orchestrating the incident.

Why Morocco Matters to Spain

Morocco plays a central role in Spain’s efforts to manage migration from North Africa. Any deterioration in bilateral cooperation could make it harder for Madrid to control future crossings and could turn migration into a wider diplomatic dispute.

Ceuta and Melilla are particularly sensitive because they are Spanish territories located on the North African coast and represent the European Union’s land borders with Africa.

Analysis

The central issue is no longer simply whether thousands of migrants crossed into Ceuta, but who enabled the conditions that made the surge possible.

Sánchez’s position protects Spain’s strategically important relationship with Morocco and avoids directly accusing Rabat without conclusive evidence. At the same time, the reported police findings create a credibility problem for Madrid because they suggest that Moroccan security forces may have played some role in allowing or directing the movement, even if they do not establish government-level planning.

The distinction between deliberate orchestration, passive border enforcement and inability to control the crowd is therefore crucial. Evidence of Moroccan officials physically facilitating crossings would not necessarily prove that the Moroccan state ordered the operation.

For Spain, the episode also exposes the vulnerability of Ceuta’s border to sudden mass movements and information campaigns. For Morocco, the accusations carry diplomatic costs because migration cooperation is an important component of its relationship with Spain and the wider EU.

The immediate challenge for Madrid is to establish what happened without turning an unresolved border investigation into a diplomatic confrontation with Rabat.

With information from Reuters.

Moscow challenges Norway’s seizure of vessel, the Professor Molchanov, calling it an act of piracy.

Norway has seized a Russian ship in ⁠the Arctic to ⁠enforce a compensation claim by Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz, linked to Russian asset seizures in Crimea.

Norway seized the ship on Wednesday, after Moscow failed to pay Naftogaz $4.22bn plus interest and legal costs to compensate for ⁠assets it seized in ⁠Crimea after a tribunal ruling at The Hague in 2023.

In a post on X, Naftogaz said the seizure made up “part of global efforts to enforce the arbitral award obtained by Naftogaz against the Russian Federation in connection with the unlawful expropriation of their assets in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014”.

The vessel, the Professor Molchanov, was taken off the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard after a 24-hour standoff with the Norwegian Coast Guard, according ⁠to Covington, the US law firm representing Naftogaz.⁠

Russian state news agency TASS quoted a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson as calling the Norwegian action “piracy”.

Alexei Chekunkov, Russia’s ⁠minister for the development of the Russian ⁠Far East and Arctic, ⁠said Moscow would challenge the ruling.

Chekunkov called Norway’s seizure of the Professor Molchanov “another ‌example of Western countries’ legal nihilism and lawlessness,” according to the ‌Interfax ‌news agency.

Naftogaz has been pursuing legal action against Russia since 2016 to seek compensation for the expropriation of its property in Crimea.

“Russia cannot evade responsibility simply by refusing to comply with an international arbitral award,” said Naftogaz Acting CEO Sergii Fedorenko.

“We will continue to pursue Russian assets around the world until the compensation ‌awarded ‌to Naftogaz and other Naftogaz Group companies is paid,” the Ukrainian company said.

Covington, the law firm, said it had been tracking the Professor Molchanov, a Russian-owned vessel that is used for commercial cruises, for months.

The ship was being used for commercial expedition cruises, including to Svalbard, according to the company.

Naftogaz said the passengers on board are being handled by Norwegian authorities.

Families in Nepal held symbolic funerals for relatives who remain missing, hoping to free their souls after they were presumed dead.

In Hindu tradition, cremation is a vital final rite, and for some families, performing the ceremony without the bodies of their loved ones has brought a measure of spiritual release.

Authorities in Nepal have meanwhile been burying recovered bodies in temporary graves until they can be identified. DNA samples are being preserved, distinguishing facial features photographed and other identifying details recorded to help match the remains with missing people and eventually return them to their families.

The August 26 flash flood has been one of the deadliest disasters to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years.

More than 1,200 people were killed and about 4,750 remain missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region, after a huge wave of mud and debris destroyed towns, roads, bridges and several hydropower dams.

Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

READ: Next up, a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem 

Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.

Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.

“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

UN expert: Saudi crown prince behind hack on Amazon CEO 

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”

US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Carlos Queiroz quit the job after leading Ghana to the World Cup Round of 32 but has returned for an interim period.

Carlos Queiroz has been reappointed Ghana coach for an indeterminate period, two months after stepping down in the wake of the country’s FIFA World Cup campaign.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) said on Wednesday the 73-year-old Portuguese coach would “embark on a new coaching mandate, commencing with the upcoming international window”.

“The GFA believes Queiroz’s extensive international experience, technical expertise, and knowledge of the Black Stars position him strongly to lead the team into this next chapter,” the association said in a statement.

The experienced former Iran, Portugal, Colombia and Egypt coach guided the Black Stars to the round of 32 at the World Cup despite having only a couple of months to prepare them for the tournament.

Ghana were left without a coach 72 days before the World Cup kickoff ‌‌after parting company with Otto Addo following friendly defeats by Austria and Germany in March.

Ghana are scheduled to play home and away group matches against Ivory Coast in qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations during the next international window, which runs from September 21 to October 6.

Queiroz led Portugal to the round of 16 at the 2010 ⁠⁠⁠⁠World Cup and later coached Iran in the last three ⁠⁠⁠⁠editions of the tournament, ⁠⁠⁠⁠recording three wins in 13 matches.

Born in Mozambique, the former goalkeeper has also held coaching positions with Egypt, Japan, ‌‌‌‌Colombia and South Africa, and previously led Portugal in the early 1990s.

Mérida, September 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar International Airport, located in Maiquetía, La Guaira State, officially resumed commercial flight operations on Tuesday through newly constructed temporary terminals.

Air connections resumed more than two months after a powerful double earthquake struck central and coastal Venezuela on June 24, causing severe structural damage to the Simón Bolívar Airport, including fractured runways.

The initial phase of renewed operations relies on four modular, temporary terminals erected in the airport’s external parking areas. Spanning more than 10,000 square meters, the temporary structures house fully functional services for ticketing, baggage drop and retrieval, security checkpoints and migration control.

Venezuelan authorities have also set up shuttle buses to take passengers from the modular gates to the aircraft on the tarmac. They have also issued operational guidelines for passengers and organized a security deployment in the airport grounds and surrounding areas.

Before official operations began, national aviation authorities executed four operational simulations to test passenger circulation routes, security protocols, luggage handling, and overall system readiness.

During an official inspection, Minister of Transportation Francisco Garcés outlined the operational milestones, technical parameters, and long-term recovery timeline for the nation’s main aviation hub.

“There is full operationality from these temporary terminals, with capacity to accommodate 720 departing and 496 arriving passengers in the international area, and 480 and 472, respectively, in the domestic sector,” Garcés stated during a media briefing. “We have made a strong effort to maintain rigorous international standards for user comfort and safety, completing this complex logistical solution in record time.”

Garcés explained that the current facilities restore approximately 25 percent of the airport’s pre-earthquake operational capacity, with projections of expanding to 40 percent within the next two months and 60 percent by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, engineering teams continue comprehensive structural repairs on the main permanent terminals, with full reconstruction scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.

On September 1, the opening day of the temporary facilities featured eight scheduled flights split equally between domestic and international routes, with the inaugural flight departing to Valera, Trujillo State.

Air carriers currently operating or scheduling their immediate return to Maiquetía include national lines Conviasa, Laser Airlines, Estelar, Avior and Venezolana, alongside international operators such as American Airlines, Iberia, and Copa Airlines.

Throughout the two-month shutdown following the June 24 seismic events, national and international air transit was diverted through smaller, regional airports across the country, including Barcelona (Anzoátegui State), Valencia (Carabobo State), and Maracaibo (Zulia State).

Alongside the reopening of Venezuela’s main air hub, the acting Delcy Rodríguez government has continued to address housing rehabilitation and structural reconstruction in damaged urban centers.

In La Guaira State, Rodríguez oversaw the formal handover of 210 fully repaired apartments in the Ana Victoria community. The rehabilitation works under the Plan Venezuela Renace allowed displaced families to return to their homes after two months in temporary shelters.

Additional structural works in La Guaira include “tetra-houses” in Catia La Mar and public infrastructure reconstruction near the El Trébol highway interchange.

Concurrently, Rodríguez announced the delivery of direct financial assistance and low-interest loans to 104 condominium boards and 1,216 individual housing units in the Chacao and Altamira areas of Eastern Caracas.

“We have begun an inspection process; I know it may take some time, but it is important because we are in a phase of changing the seismic resistance standards for construction,” she said.

Disbursed through joint public and private banking channels, individual loans can be up to US $5,000, while funding for common area repairs can reach $20,000.

These funds enable residents and homeowner associations to address structural issues on buildings categorized under yellow and red risk tags, ensuring compliance with updated seismic resistance construction standards.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Ukrainian F-16 pilots are facing such a severe shortage of air-to-air missiles that some daytime sorties have seen them rely solely on the fighters’ internal guns to engage Russian aerial threats, according to a journalist who recently spoke with a senior Ukrainian Air Force commander. Meanwhile, the lack of air-to-air missiles means that the available weapons stocks are now being rationed.

The disclosure provides a remarkable glimpse into the day-to-day reality of Ukraine’s F-16 operations. While the aircraft may be available, the pilots may be ready, and Russian drones and cruise missiles may be approaching, there may simply not be enough missiles on hand to arm the jets.

According to Newsmax journalist Shelby Wilder, the Ukrainian Air Force can find itself monitoring missile shipments as they cross the country’s border, with personnel counting not just the hours but the minutes until those weapons reach the aircraft. The concern is whether the missiles will arrive in time for the next major Russian aerial attack.

EXCLUSIVE: Ukraine F-16 Pilots Rationing Missiles as Russian Attacks Intensify | NEWSMAX2

The Ukrainian commander, who identified himself by the callsign “Phantom” and as commander of the country’s 107th Wing, confirmed the underlying problem when asked directly whether Ukraine was severely short of missiles for its F-16s.

“Yes, that’s true. Any aircraft without weapons is … useless,” Phantom said.

That blunt assessment is particularly striking given what Ukraine is asking its F-16s to do, and the relentless nature of Russian bombardments against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

The fighters have become an important part of Ukraine’s layered air defense network, hunting Russian drones and cruise missiles while also providing a potential counter to Russian combat aircraft, and conducting air-to-ground sorties. Ukraine has operated the F-16 since the summer of 2024.

“We are focusing on defending our skies against Russian unmanned drones to protect our infrastructure inside the country,” Phantom said. “Our target priority is cruise missiles.”

Destroying as many incoming threats as possible before they reach Ukrainian cities and infrastructure requires missiles, with the F-16 primarily armed with the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and the shorter-range AIM-9 Sidewinder.

According to the new disclosure, those missiles have become a commodity whose availability can determine how a sortie is flown.

The F-16 carries an M61A1 Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon, but using the gun against an aerial target is fundamentally different from engaging it with a missile, and comes with its own risks, as we have explored before. This tactic is especially hazardous when going after small targets and especially slow ones, and it becomes even more dangerous at night.

Ukraine has already demonstrated that its F-16s can use their guns in combat. In May 2025, the Ukrainian Air Force said an F-16 pilot had destroyed three aerial targets and was engaging a fourth with the aircraft cannon before an emergency forced him to eject.

One air-to-air weapon not mentioned by Phoenix is the laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rocket, now apparently also part of the arsenal. These rockets would offer the Ukrainian Air Force an extremely valuable, lower-cost option for engaging drones and subsonic cruise missiles. 

Regardless, Phantom specifically called for additional air-to-air missiles, as well as interceptors for ground-based Patriot batteries.

“We require more means of protection, such as Patriot missiles and air-to-air missiles, AIM-9s or AIM-120s to our fleet,” he said.

Phantom’s message is that simply delivering more aircraft is not enough. Ukraine needs a sustainable weapons pipeline to keep those aircraft combat-effective.

This is increasingly becoming a wider problem across Ukraine’s air defense network. Patriot interceptors have been heavily consumed, with relatively few replacement missiles now trickling in, leaving Ukraine with limited ability to defend against ballistic missiles in particular. The strain is now spilling into the lower tiers, including the air-to-air missiles carried by F-16s. Ukraine’s continued consumption of interceptors is a major driver, but it is competing with the enormous demand generated by ongoing wars in the Middle East and a broader surge in demand for advanced air defense weapons around the world. With production struggling to keep pace, scarce interceptors are effectively being rationed across an increasingly crowded global battlefield.

“At least we need to try to increase the production, or at least to allow Ukraine to localize the production in Ukraine or other European countries,” he said.

That proposal reflects the fundamental vulnerability of a relatively small fleet operating in a high-intensity air war. Every missile fired at a Russian cruise missile or drone is one less available for the next engagement. A finite inventory therefore has to cover both routine air-defense missions and the possibility of much larger Russian attacks. At the same time, both the AIM-9 and especially the AIM-120 are used for Ukrainian ground-based air defenses too. The AMRAAM, in particular, is the effector for the NASAMS, which protects Kyiv, and other key objectives against cruise missiles and drones.

The problem becomes even more acute because Ukraine cannot know precisely when the next major Russian strike will arrive.

That is why, according to Wilder’s account, the arrival of missile shipments is being followed with extraordinary urgency.

At the same time, Phantom welcomed the major technological leap that the F-16 represents over the Soviet-designed MiG-29s and Su-27s that formed the backbone of Ukraine’s fighter force.

“The F-16s in comparison with the legacy aircraft like MiG-29 or Su-27? This is kind of like a new technology,” Phantom said.

But sophisticated aircraft are only as useful as the weapons available to them.

Ukrainian F-16s have reportedly destroyed huge numbers of Russian drones and cruise missiles, and in July a Ukrainian F-16 was publicly identified by the U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman as having shot down a Russian fighter.

⚡️ CONFIRMED!
On July 8, 2026, a Russian Su-35 multi-role fighter was shot down on the eastern sector!

🇺🇦 Glory to Ukraine!
✊ Together to victory! pic.twitter.com/r8S9fgQaC5

— Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) July 8, 2026

Phantom also asked Ukraine’s Western partners to think beyond individual weapons transfers and toward production capacity.

He also urged the United States and European countries to do more to prevent Russia from acquiring components used in its own missile production through third countries.

“We need to make as much as we can to stop providing the parts, most technological parts to Russians, bypassing the direct sales, of course, through the third party,” he said.

Phantom argued that Russia continues to obtain sophisticated components through intermediaries and even ostensibly civilian products.

“It would not be a surprise that Russians [are] using the washing machine that they’re buying from the third party to use those smart details for building missiles,” he said.

His recommendation is tighter sanctions and enforcement designed to cut off Russia’s access to those components.

“Important is to sanction to stop Russia from being able to have access to those parts,” he said.

That, combined with missile shortages, could become an even bigger problem when Russia conducts another major aerial campaign against Ukraine, particularly as Moscow traditionally intensifies attacks against the country’s energy infrastructure during the winter months.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

United States President Donald Trump has threatened more attacks on Iran, warning that Washington could hit Iran “anytime we want”, as the death toll from the latest US strikes climbed to 18, with at least 108 others wounded.

Trump’s threat on Wednesday came after the US and Iran exchanged their biggest barrage since July. The US military struck cities and areas along Iran’s southern coast, near the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, including a wedding party in the city of Kuhestak.

Iran retaliated with attacks on US bases across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, “We hit them very hard last night” and that the strikes “took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz”.

“It was a very heavy attack last night. And we’re prepared to do another one. And anytime we want,” he said.

Iranian officials said at least 18 people were killed in the US strikes.

The victims included two children, according to Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Iran’s health minister. One of them was a four-year-old who was killed in the strike on the wedding party in Kuhestak in Sirik county.

At least four people were killed in that strike.

Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the Kuhestak attack as a “war crime” and hit back at US claims that it does not target civilians.

“The reality is so horrifying that even American propaganda has never dared make the claim [the US military] is making today. Sirik is not a story. The civilians are real. The victims are real”, Baghaei wrote on X.

Iranian media said the funeral for the four Kuhestak victims will be held on Thursday.

‘Uncomfortable strategic position’

The six-month war has led to a spike in oil prices, roiled the global economy and posed increasing political problems for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections in the US.

Only 31 percent of Americans approve of the war, while some 63 percent disapprove, according to a poll by the Reuters news agency and the Ipsos polling firm in August. Voters are particularly unhappy about high gas prices. Since the fighting resumed this weekend, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to about $95, up more than 30 percent from the start of the war.

Trump’s approval rating has also fallen from 40 percent to 33 percent since the conflict began, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

On Wednesday, Trump said he did not think the renewed military campaign ⁠would last long. He also reiterated his position that the upcoming elections were not a factor in his Iran strategy.

“Number one, I’m not running. My party is running, and I’m going to help my party,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “But I think my party respects the fact that we’re not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tariq Khan, a retired Pakistani lieutenant-general and former commander of the Pakistan Army’s Frontier Corps, said the US “now finds itself in an increasingly uncomfortable strategic position in the Iran war”.

“The US has not succeeded in restoring the maritime environment that existed before the war, and is now expending military resources to deal with a problem the war itself helped create,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait was a free-flowing international waterway carrying roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil before the war. Tehran shut the waterway in response to the US and Israeli strikes on February 18 that began the war. Despite repeated US claims that the strait remains open, only a handful of vessels now pass through each day, and Iran continues to target ships attempting the crossing.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers had struck mines and were disabled while attempting an unauthorised transit. Separately, Saudi shipping firm Bahri reported that two Filipino sailors were killed in an attack on their vessel earlier in the week.

Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), which Tehran set up to police the Strait of Hormuz, added 11 more ships to its blacklist for alleged “noncompliance” this week, on top of the 45 blacklisted last week. The PGSA said the vessels will face fines, seizures or confiscation unless they submit required documentation to Iran before attempting to cross the strait.

Strait of Hormuz

At the same time, the US has intensified an economic isolation campaign against Iran, threatening to slap countries that ‌trade with Tehran with massive sanctions, while also maintaining its own blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump on Wednesday continued to insist that Washington was in control of the strait, saying US forces were helping bring “lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil”.

“We are, for the most part, doing it without trouble. Every once in a while they shoot a drone, and we knock it down. We have control, very strong control,” he said.

On Tuesday, he had claimed the US Navy was helping escort some 30 ships out of the strait every day. Before the war, some 130 ships transited the waterway daily.

Khan, the former Pakistani general, said Iran understands it cannot defeat the US conventionally and is seeking to make the war costly for Trump.

“If Trump escalates, Iran can portray America as being drawn deeper into another Middle Eastern war; if he restrains himself, Tehran can claim that American military superiority cannot compel Iran to surrender,” he said.

“Iran does not need a battlefield victory; it needs to remain standing, keep the economic disruption alive, and make the war politically costly for the US. Tehran has to make American victory increasingly unaffordable – militarily, economically and electorally.”

The ruling follows a 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court that found Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship was illegal.

A United States federal judge in Maryland has blocked President Donald Trump’s latest effort to roll back birthright citizenship, after the Supreme Court ruled that his last attempt violated the Constitution.

District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday against Trump’s new executive order, which was issued on August 6.

The new order took aim at what Trump has called “birth tourism”, the practice of intentionally giving birth on foreign soil.

It sought to deny citizenship to children of foreign nationals in certain groups, including those accused of engaging in a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship or classified as an “alien enemy”.

Boardman, however, said the order was unconstitutional for the same reason Trump’s previous effort failed. She cited the Supreme Court’s June decision in the case Barbara v Trump.

The order “is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth”, she wrote.

“This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them.”

In the Barbara case, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that birthright citizenship was protected under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Birthright citizenship confers automatic citizenship on anyone born in the US, outside of a handful of narrow exceptions, such as the children of diplomats or invading armies.

The constitutional basis for birthright citizenship has been upheld in several Supreme Court cases over the years, most notably in US v Wong Kim Ark, the case of an American man born to Chinese parents.

But Trump campaigned for a second term as president on the pledge to crack down on immigration into the country.

One of his promises was to reform the concept of birthright citizenship. Trump and his allies have argued that children of temporary or undocumented immigrants do not qualify for the right, as they are not under the “jurisdiction” of the US.

Since the Supreme Court defeat in June, Trump and his allies have continued to probe for ways to challenge the constitutional protections for birthright citizenship.

Wednesday’s legal challenge was brought by immigrant rights advocates and families, including groups like the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

They had previously won an injunction from Boardman last year, blocking the Trump administration from enforcing his initial executive order about birthright citizenship.

Last week, Boardman instructed the plaintiffs to revise their complaint to specifically address the second executive order, rather than relying on the same material used for the first.

But she signalled scepticism at the time about the constitutionality of Trump’s latest attempt, calling it “unprecedented”.

“The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth’,” she wrote in Wednesday’s decision.

After a gruelling five-week murder trial, Lindsay Clancy’s fate rests with 12 anonymous jurors. And they cannot make up their minds.

The jury of nine women and three men have told the judge, two days in a row, that they cannot reach a unanimous decision. Despite the judge’s continued urging that jurors keep at it, the struggle has raised the prospect of a mistrial in Clancy’s case.

“It is desired that the case be decided,” Judge William Sullivan told the panel on Wednesday afternoon, after members sent him a second note saying they are undecided after five days.

He read a mandatory, formal set of instructions and sent them back – some with frustrated expressions on their faces.

The 36-year-old former nurse does not dispute that she killed her two sons and daughter in 2023 in the basement of their family home in Massachusetts. But her lawyer argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time, and therefore could not distinguish right from wrong.

The prosecution claimed Clancy made a calculated, intentional decision to kill them and knew right from wrong in that moment. She is charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

Under US law, the jury must unanimously reach a conclusion “beyond a reasonable doubt”. If they cannot, the judge can call a mistrial, which ends the trial with no verdict.

This jury has several outcomes to choose from. Potential verdicts include not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter.

Multiple new cases have been filed against OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT played a role in the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.

OpenAI is facing another wave of lawsuits in the wake of the February mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge in Canada’s province of British Columbia, which left eight people dead.

On Wednesday, 30 new complaints were reportedly filed in a United States federal court in California, including teachers and students who were witnesses and survivors at the school where most of the shooting took place, joining seven initial lawsuits filed in April.

The lawsuits accuse the San Francisco, California-based artificial intelligence giant and its CEO, Sam Altman, of negligence, as well as aiding and abetting a mass shooting.

The suits, brought by lawyer Jay Edelson, allege that the company knew about the intentions of the 18-year-old shooter who, in her interactions with OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT, had described scenarios involving gun violence, but that the leadership did not report their concerns to law enforcement, echoing earlier lawsuits on the matter.

In April, Altman penned a letter to the community apologising that the company did not alert law enforcement about the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar.

“While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered,” Altman wrote in the letter.

Authorities say that Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother before going to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and opening fire. Five children and one educator were killed at the school. More than 25 others were wounded before Van Rootselaar died from what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

One of the new cases filed was on behalf of a 13-year-old identified as A C, who played dead after watching the shooter kill their classmates and the teacher. Another new case was brought by a grade seven teacher named Deidre Rushlow, who hid under her desk with her students during the rampage.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families. It’s a constant and sobering reminder of the important and incredibly difficult work that many people in my team do each and every day,” Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s head of strategy, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.

“We’ve been approaching this litigation with respect for both the legal process and the families and victims of this tragedy, and we’ll continue to engage in good faith with that process.”

Edelson did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Growing legal pressure

In July, British Columbia’s Attorney General Niki Sharma announced that the province would also pursue “all legal avenues to hold OpenAI and its decision-makers accountable” for the shooting.

The company has faced a growing slate of suits, apart from the ones from British Columbia, alleging that its product played a role in incidents that led to users harming others and themselves.

A recent lawsuit in Florida alleges that the company “actively assisted and encouraged the mass shooting” at Florida State University in April 2025.

There are other complaints filed on behalf of victims across the US and Canada alleging that the victims took their own lives after being pushed by ChatGPT to do so, including a case in Quebec earlier this year.

The drizzle cleared up as stars arrived at the Guildhall, with Vinnie Jones, Kaya Scodelario, Joely Richardson and Ray Winstone all in attendance.

When asked about the reports regarding Meghan, Jones said he’s heard “only what you have”.

But he joked: “We’ve got a lot of pretty women in this. So I’m not sure there’s room for any more.”

“Way above my pay grade,” Scodelario said, while Bonneville commented he had “no idea” if there was any truth to the rumours.

Jama, meanwhile, said as a newcomer herself to the cast, she had no tips to share with Meghan.

“Oh my God, she’s a seasoned actor. I have no advice for her. She knows what she’s doing,” added Jama.

Ritchie, who also attended the premiere, did not speak to the press. But writer and executive producer Matthew Read told BBC News they were looking forward to “bringing up more energy and surprises in series two and further on in the series”.

Not a no then, I asked.

“I just don’t think it’s right to speculate at this stage, so I wouldn’t like to say yes or no,” he added.

In a statement, the Army Cadet League of Canada, a civilian organisation that supports the programme, said it strongly condemns “any online harassment, or mockery of cadets’ achievements”.

“Directing derogatory commentary toward youth who are actively working to better themselves and serve their communities is unacceptable,” the organisation said.

Speaking to broadcaster CBC, Canada’s top military commander, General Jennie Carignan, said they are in contact with the cadets involved and any response they may have.

“We are consulting with them on how they want to go about doing this,” she said.

Other officials weighed in, including Scott Anderson, a Conservative member of parliament for the Canadian city of Vernon and a former military reservist, who in a post directed at Hegseth accused him not living up to the “responsibility and decorum” that comes with his title.

“You have chosen to set both aside and insult two female Canadian non-combatants, and to intentionally shame them before millions. You should be ashamed,” he said.

“Our economies, our continental defence and our cultures are irretrievably intertwined and yet we are two distinct nations. Canadians and Americans should have no problem with each other, but I have a problem with you,” Anderson added.

A number of pundits and some Canadians accused the defence secretary of “body-shaming” with his post.

Trade talks broke down between Canada and the US last month, with both sides accusing the other of last-minute demands that torpedoed a tentative agreement.

The US immediately imposed 50% tariffs on some $20bn (C$28bn) of Canadian imports, and Canada plans to bring in matching countermeasures next week.

Both sides have traded insults, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford calling Trump a “loser”, the US president seeking to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, and transportation secretary Sean Duffy accusing Canada of being a country that “doesn’t have a military”.

Still, the two counties have long been defence partners and allies, including when Canada backed the US in the war in Afghanistan.

Canada has also significantly ramped up defence spending in recent months after years of lagging behind Nato targets.

Hegseth, a veteran, is himself under pressure at home following a string of recent high-profile military leaders leaving the Pentagon and questions about the US handling of the Iran war.

He has also long focused on the appearance and physical fitness of US troops and on what he calls the “warrior ethos”.

As spades went into the ground to signal the start of construction of the new Building 47 at Lockheed Martin’s Munitions Production Center in Troy, Alabama, it marked a significant development in accelerating production of the company’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor, better known as THAAD. The expansion of factory space in Troy is a key element of the company’s $8-9-billion commitment to expand its munitions production footprint across the United States.

The Department of War’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy is part of a long-term plan that signals clear demand for critical munitions and it enables industry to confidently invest in facilities and workforce development, along with supply chain expansion and advanced manufacturing capabilities. In addition to enlarging the facility in Troy, Lockheed Martin is also growing its plant in Camden, Arkansas, which is another site that’s vital for building more munitions at a faster pace.

“My job is to interface and collaborate with the Department of War in achieving the call to action to produce these critical munitions, not only at speed but also at scale, multiplying the current production rates by two, three, or even four times the current rates,” Dan Nimblett, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for Munitions Acceleration Integration told TWZ on the ground in Troy during the groundbreaking event.

“Fundamentally what’s occurred changes how acquisition works [with] long term demand agreements. These long term procurement agreements enable Lockheed Martin and our supply base to make the necessary investments with confidence of the future demand. This allows us to make the investments not only in our people and our facilities, but in the technology necessary to build [these munitions] at a scale and a speed that’s relevant to the threat today,” explained Nimblett.

Lockheed Martin was the first company in the U.S. defense industry to announce a framework agreement with the DoW for munitions acceleration of high-demand missiles – initially tripling production capacity of the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor, followed by a second agreement to quadruple the production capacity of advanced THAAD interceptors. These two defensive missiles are cornerstones of a layered air and missile defense system, and both have been integrated together via Joint All-Domain Operations, including with the U.S. Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).

In response to the DoW’s call to action, the company has already invested more than $2 billion in its production facilities and in the related tooling, its key suppliers, and its workforce in order to accelerate production rates.

Lockheed Martin plans to effectively double the factory footprint in Troy and dramatically increase the workforce. “We’re going to increase that [workforce] by drawing in college students, high school students, veterans, everybody’s welcome,” explains Jason Reynolds, vice president and general manager for integrated air and missile defense. “When they come to Lockheed Martin, they receive training, they get opportunity, and because these programs are on a ramp and in production in such high demand, this is where you come to start your career and you [can] work here for a long time.”

Lockheed Martin currently employs around 1,100 workers at its Camden site, but this is also growing. The Camden training center is seen as being critical in providing the swift increase in skilled operators needed to support this acceleration. “We work closely with the state of Arkansas as well on looking at what else we can do in the community and the infrastructure in that community to support people moving, hopefully into Camden as we ramp up,” says Reynolds.

“People here [in Troy] really know their work matters. It’s meaningful for both the community as well as for our national defense. So, we’re really proud of our employees and we’re on a growth trajectory. We’re hiring and we want as many qualified people to come join our team as possible.”

The Camden site is also accelerating its work on the long-range Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which is also set to quadruple production over the next few years. Reynolds added that building missiles faster using automation and advanced manufacturing technologies, plus increasing the production line capacity, are some of the vital means for success.

“PAC-3 MSE and THAAD are the most capable air defense interceptors on the planet. They’re in extreme demand [and] we’re doing everything possible,” says Reynolds. “With PAC-3, we have been doubling that production over the last four years and now, like I said, we’re going to triple it. We’re working very carefully with our suppliers, with the U.S. government and with our partners and allies all around the world to get all the parts in and get them into factories like you see behind us today to assemble them and get them out to the warfighter as quickly as possible.”

Another way Lockheed Martin is accelerating the delivery of advanced air defense capabilities is the through the introduction this summer of the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector, or PAC-3 ACE. This new missile leverages the PAC-3 fire-control system and provides for full integration with the Patriot weapon suite.

The main differentiator of PAC-3 ACE is that it would be produced at less than half the unit cost of MSE and first flight could occur within 18 months. A core part of the rapid fielding strategy is an international, joint-development model. Lockheed Martin is partnering with both American and European industry, sharing production lines, supply chains and expertise.

Lockheed Martin says PAC-3  ACE provides a “cost-effective, multi-threat solution.” The interceptor is engineered to engage a broad spectrum of air-breathing threats, cruise missiles, and both short and medium-range ballistic missiles. By offering a low-cost “kill” per-engagement, it is designed to address the current climate that demands deeper ammunition reserves without compromising on performance.

Inside A Growing Lockheed Martin Site That Is Key To Its Munitions Production Ramp

The keys to munitions acceleration

This year, Lockheed Martin has made significant progress in a series of production acceleration projects for munitions programs under its Missiles and Fire Control division. “I was supposed to retire last year. I’m here because this is the most exciting time in the 30 years I’ve been in this industry,” says Dan Nimblett. “These long-term agreements provide us the certainty to enable us to make these investments.”

“What recent conflicts have demonstrated is that Lockheed Martin and the American defense industrial base never lost the technological edge. The technology and the capability has always been there – we have the best systems in the world. We’ve proven that through real world performance.”

Nimblett explained that Lockheed Martin’s supply chain is following suit, and that they are all now investing in similar ways to ensure they meet the demand signals. “We’re evaluating how we produce and increase additive manufacturing and robotics. We’re also looking at how we develop, which I think is a fundamental part of getting capability into the warfighters’ hands at a speed and scale that’s relevant to the threat.”

Having received Milestone C approval from the U.S. Army in July 2025, PrSM manufacturing has relied on a high level of automation. PrSM was engineered from the start for automated, robot-driven production – automating tasks once done by hand – and that early-stage streamlining is paying dividends as Lockheed Martin seeks to accelerate output.

“We have a lot of robotics built into our munitions production,” explains Gaylia Campbell, vice president, Tactical Missiles. “A lot of times we use robotics to help increase the safety of the assembly, like an explosive charge that has to be integrated into a munition, and we have a robotic arm that places that and tests the placement. We also robotically paint and coat [PrSM]. So, we have a lot of robotics already in Camden and that’s really going to help us with this ramp-up in production – the fact that so much of it is [already] automated.”

Campbell emphasizes that PrSM entered production with a mindset of acceleration. “We got PrSM through preliminary and critical design reviews, and into first flight in times roughly half of what it would normally have taken us. We’ve been amazingly successful on all these flights. Those early [test] flights went off one after the other during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when there were a lot of challenges for all of us in our daily lives, and yet we were able to continue to fly and prove the operational performance.”

Lockheed Martin is reshaping the munitions supply chain with an unprecedented slate of manufacturing initiatives that pull together new facilities, strategic partnerships, and workforce development. The company is also expanding a number of its other production facilities, such as a $60-million investment in its complex in Archbald, Pennsylvania, that will add 700 jobs in support of high‑priority programs including PrSM, THAAD, PAC‑3, and Apache sensors. In Orlando, Florida, three legacy paint bays have been merged into a high‑performance shop that can retool a work cell in hours rather than weeks, while Ocala’s new Progressive Work Smart Assembly Line has cut seeker and mission control unit build times by roughly 50 percent.

A partnership with General Motors will bring high‑rate commercial manufacturing expertise into Lockheed Martin’s production processes, and the new Rapid Fielding Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, is tasked to reduce traditional manufacturing development timelines. What once took years of design, testing and tooling is aimed to be prototyped, fabricated and validated in a matter of months.

Echoing endorsement of the DoW’s initiative, Campbell underscores that knowing what the demand signal will be is a critical differentiator when it comes to production ramp-up. “We can plan for some of those really critical rare earth minerals that we need, the batteries for example in our munitions, we need certain rare earth minerals for that. We need to know the total demand signal and that means we can negotiate with the suppliers and guarantee that we have access. That can really help us accelerate.”

To support the wider munitions efforts Lockheed Martin is also investing in solid rocket motor development and production, as well as lower-tier parts that go into solid rocket motors. “We’re working with different suppliers to develop new sources of supply for solid rocket motors,” says Campbell. “We’re investigating heavily right now in designing and prototyping several motors that we plan to test and take to production, and that really will develop a whole new supply chain and will really be critical for all munitions production.”

Having a five-year contract instead of annual contracts allows the manufacturer to have far more buying power to secure sub-components for a far better price point. “I can go and invest. Invest in more capacity, invest in my supplier’s capacity,” explains Campbell.

“Production is all about velocity. Keeping the line moving and not having to stop because we don’t have a part. Being able to order bigger quantities of things up front is really huge when it comes to acceleration.”

Contact the author: Jamie.Hunter@teamrecurrent.io

George Orwell’s dystopian foresight could easily find new expressions in the ongoing Israeli wars of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon. Much like “war is peace”, the Biden administration and the European Union have contributed to creating phrases such as “aggression is self-defence,” “murder is collateral damage”, “safe areas are death traps” and “humanitarian aid is a starvation diet.”

After enduring a full year of Israeli terror, extreme torment and military occupation, fear never conquered Gazans. Despite the complete Israeli blockade – abetted with the help of the Egyptian regime – and the stark imbalance in military power, Gaza’s collective resistance, by all means necessary, remained steadfast and resilient.

Notwithstanding the above, Benjamin Netanyahu has not succeeded in achieving any of his declared objectives. For instance, less than seven per cent of the freed Israeli captives were recovered by force. Perhaps because the Israeli prime minister’s undeclared Zionist objectives, such as land grabs in the West Bank under the shadow of the Gaza genocide, took precedence over pursuing a proven venue for the release of Israeli prisoners.

Netanyahu’s war success can be only measured by Israel’s scale of vengeance, as the toll of the murdered and injured has reached 150,000. Gaza has been turned into a living hell. A war that pervasively and systematically diminished Gaza’s economic capacity, following an 18-year blockade that crippled the economy and forced upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency.

Yet, Israel failed to bring any part of Gaza into submission. As a result, several Israeli generals, led by former national security adviser Israeli Maj-General Giora Eiland, contrived a new approach, the “General’s Plan”, to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza.

The General’s Plan is not exclusively a military strategy but rather an orchestrated noncombatant action, euphemistically termed to mask its true intention: genocide and ethnic cleansing through starvation. It calls first for the complete isolation of northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip. Second: compartmentalise northern Gaza into separate quarters and declare each section a war zone, forcing civilians to leave or become legitimate military targets.

The initial phase, which began in early October, blocked aid trucks from reaching the north and then segregated the Jabalia camp from its surroundings. In other words, genocide by attrition, one quarter at a time, in a slow motion.

READ: Israel is playing even more dirty to force people out of Jabalia

As part of the General’s Starvation Plan, Israel bombed the only UN distribution center in Jabalia camp on Monday, murdering ten civilians queuing to receive food aid. Since last October, around 400,000 civilians remain in northern Gaza out of the original 1.2 million. Many refuse to evacuate despite the unbearable conditions. They know from historical experience that evacuation is an Israeli alias for ethnic cleansing. Once they leave, they may never return, as happened in 1948. They also saw what happened to those who evacuated, many were killed as they “moved south”, while others were murdered in the Israeli death traps, otherwise known as designated “safe areas.”

The Biden administration has been whitewashing Israeli use of starvation as a method of warfare since 9 October, 2023 when the Israeli minister of war declared “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” However, on Tuesday, a little over a year after the minister’s declaration, the American secretaries of state and defence sent Israeli officials a letter giving them another grace period of 30 days to allow food aid into north Gaza or risk a restriction of US military assistance to Israel.

The new warning feels like a classic case of a déjà vu. In April 2024, the Biden administration issued a similar warning to Israel ahead of a report that was being prepared by American officials examining Israel’s violation of the Leahy Law, particularly subsection 6201(a). The law stipulates that the US should not provide assistance to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”

Following that warning, US government agencies and officials concluded that Israel was blocking American humanitarian aid to Gaza. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) notified the State Department of Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments” of American aid to Gaza residents. In addition, the State Department’s refugee bureau issued a similar opinion stating that “facts on the ground indicate US humanitarian assistance is being restricted.”

Even after those palpable reports from the two US agencies, the Israeli Sayanim and American Secretary of State, told Congress on 10 May that Israel does not restrict “the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.

Empowered by Washington, the General’s Starvation Plan aims to block the delivery of medical aid, food, fuel and water to the besieged quarter, currently Jabalia camp where more than 20,000 people live. This is part of what appears to be a gradual genocide, while creating the illusion of allowing aid trucks into the northern area, as the US ambassador informed the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

The entry of aid trucks does not guarantee the delivery of food to the starving population. It means that Israel retains complete control over what section is fed and who is left to starve. It also confirms that American officials continue to be Israel’s willing enablers to carry on with its General’s Starvation Plan in a systematic and phased mini-genocide.

READ: UN: 345,000 Palestinians in Gaza face ‘catastrophic’ hunger levels this winter

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Premier League breaks its own record as four of its 11 most expensive signings have arrived in this transfer window.

The English Premier League displayed its financial power once again by smashing the summer transfer window record for the amount spent by its clubs on new players.

It had only set the previous record last year.

The spree continued deep into the final hours of the window, which shut on Tuesday, with several big-money deals completed before the 11pm (22:00 GMT) deadline for signings by English clubs.

Approximately 38 percent of the Premier League deals were made between the clubs from within that competition, up from 30 percent last year’s summer transfer window.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at major takeaways from the 2026-27 transfer window:

How much did Premier League clubs spend for the 2026-27 season?

A total of 3.46 billion pounds ($4.67bn) was dished out by England’s top-flight clubs, with 475 million pounds ($640.1m) being spent on deadline day itself, up from 391 million pounds ($526.7m) on the same day last year.

During the last summer transfer window, the combined spending of the league’s 20 clubs breached the 3 billion pounds ($4.05bn) barrier for the first time, while this year’s figure dwarfed the 1.13 billion pounds ($1.52bn) spent five years ago.

What were the most expensive Premier League and La Liga signings?

Manchester City topped the list when they spent 125 million pounds ($168.7m) on signing Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea.

He’s the first player to be transferred twice for figures upwards of 100 million pounds ($134.7m), and his deal equalled the amount spent on Aleksander Isak when he moved from Newcastle United to Liverpool during the last summer transfer window.

Liverpool paid a close second 123 million pounds ($166m) to sign France forward Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain.

Chelsea followed with 117 million pounds ($158m) spent on bringing England international Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa to Stamford Bridge, while Manchester City dished out 116 million pounds ($156.6m) for midfielder Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest.

Which clubs spent the most money on summer transfers?

Manchester City’s signing of Fernandez capped the whopping 458 million pounds ($618.2m) spent as new manager Enzo Maresca assembled his first squad, which includes Moroccan midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi for 86 million pounds ($116.2m).

It was a new Premier League record that surpassed the 415 million pounds (560.3m) paid by Liverpool last year.

Chelsea also spent heavily, shelling out 349 million pounds ($471.1m) to back new boss Xabi Alonso.

Tottenham splashed out 303 million pounds ($409m) as they rebuild after two successive seasons close to being relegated.

Promoted trio Ipswich, Coventry City and Hull City spent more than a combined 400 million pounds ($539.9m) to prepare themselves for life in the top flight.

Sunderland landed highly rated Belgian winger Malick Fofana, 21, from Olympique Lyonnais in a reported 30 million pounds ($40.5m) deal after beating Crystal Palace to his signature.

Tottenham Hotspur also broke their club transfer record to sign Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United in a deal that could reach 100 million pounds ($134.9m).

Why did Julian Alvarez, Folarin Balogun and Lamine Camara fail to join a new club?

Some deals failed to go through on deadline day.

British media reported that Everton’s move for Folarin Balogun collapsed after the US striker decided against proceeding with the transfer, while Senegal midfielder Lamine Camara remained at Monaco after his reported 47.1 million pounds ($63.5m) move to Chelsea fell through.

Julian Alvarez’s dream of playing for Barcelona never materialised after Atletico held onto him despite strong interest from Barcelona and Arsenal.

Atletico chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin made his feelings quite clear about ⁠⁠Barcelona last week and ⁠⁠said Alvarez would never be sold to them.

“There has not been, and there will not be any negotiation with them [Barcelona] regarding Alvarez’s transfer,” Atletico’s board of directors said in the statement.

“Atletico de Madrid is open to standard transfer market negotiations when conducted in a professional, ethical and respectful manner,” the statement added.