US, Gulf look to Ukraine for help against Iran attacks
The Pentagon is reportedly looking to buy Ukraine’s cheap drone interceptors to ward off Iranian strikes.
The Pentagon is reportedly looking to buy Ukraine’s cheap drone interceptors to ward off Iranian strikes.
Nvidia has stopped making its H200 chips intended for the Chinese market, the Financial Times reported.
US President Donald Trump said he wanted a role in picking Iran’s next leader, further muddying Washington’s war motives.
On Thursday, President Trump announced that Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin is his nominee to replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary. A hardcore MAGA acolyte, Mullin is known for blind, raging loyalty to President Trump and the movement. Here are five extreme moments that demonstrate that: 1. Mullin tried to get into fistfight with union leader in Senate hearing.In 2023, Mullin questioned Teamsters head Sean O’Brien over his negative tweets about him, in which he called the senator a “clown” and a “fraud.” “Sir, this is a time, this is a place, if you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults and finish it here,” Mullin said.“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” responded International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”“You stand your butt up, big guy,” retorted O’Brien.Senator Bernie Sanders was eventually able to de-escalate the situation. “You’re a United States senator, sit down,” boomed Sanders. “This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress.” Mullin later posted a picture of himself cleaning his guns on X. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin @SenMullin just stood up and tried to fight labor leader Sean O'Brien @TeamsterSOB at a Senate Help Committee hearing after reading his tweet where O'Brien says he'd take him "any time, any place." pic.twitter.com/8oiPSNZJV8— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 14, 20232. He admitted to giving President Trump “cover” from Epstein files scrutiny. Last summer, Mullin and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego each put forth a resolution on the Epstein files that they claimed was transparent. While Gallego called for the Justice Department to release all files in full without caveat, Mullin called on the department to release “all credible information” related specifically to Epstein’s sealed legal proceedings. “I’m sure this would be handled just like any other thing [the Democrats] have tried to go after like the baseless impeachments. Or the bases—baseless special counsels. Or the unbelievable amount of charges they tried to file against the president,” Mullin said while objecting to Gallego’s resolution. “I’m sure this would be handled the exact same way. What we’re simply wanting to do here, is give [Trump] cover.”Mullin blocking Gallego resolution calling for release of the Epstein files: What we’re simply trying to do is give [Trump] cover pic.twitter.com/QzxffE821Z— Acyn (@Acyn) July 24, 20253. He called the the mayor of Washington, D.C., a very racist man (she’s a woman).During an interview on Fox News last summer, Mullin criticized D.C.’s “very racist mayor” for making Donald Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the nation’s capital about race.“And people may get eyebrows when I raise that, but he is the one that brings in race into the conversation, so he’s the one that’s pointing the fingers at it, and when you point one finger you got three pointing back at ya,” Mullin said. “But for him to say that, and flat-out lie to the American people, he knows exactly what’s happening.”D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is a Black woman, and never said that the takeover was about race. 4. Mullin called the U.S. operation in Iran a “war”—then took it back and called it a “misspoke.”“This is war, and we’re taking out the threat,” he said earlier this week, when asked if more top Iranian officials were at risk from future strikes after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. “And if you’re part of the threat, then you’re a target,” Mullin said.“You’ll concede this is war?” a reporter clarified. “We haven’t declared war,” Mullin said, directly contradicting the first three words he said seconds ago. “That was a misspoke.”Sen. Markwayne Mullin said he "misspoke" when he called the United States operation in Iran a "war."While speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Mullin, R-Okla., said, "This is war, and we’re taking out the threat," when asked if measures are being taken not to… pic.twitter.com/h9pdi7necl— PBS News (@NewsHour) March 5, 20265. Mullin confused who the U.S. president is twice.Mullin called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the president twice while trying to wax poetic about war on Fox News. “War is ugly, it smells bad, and if anybody’s ever been there and been able to smell the war that’s happened around you and taste it and fill it in your nostrils and hear it, it’s something that you’ll never forget, and it’s ugly,” he said. Mullin has never been to war. “And fortunately, you have President Hegseth—or I say President Hegseth—Secretary Hegseth, that has got a great relationship with President Trump, and President Hegseth’s been there. He’s done that.”
The U.S. Navy’s attack on an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, on Wednesday was the first time an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship since World War II. But the Dena may not have been armed because it was returning from an international exercise in the Indian Ocean, and the U.S. Navy likely knew it because it was taking part in the same exercise. Both the United States and Iran were taking part in the MILAN 2026 exercise, organized by the Indian Navy, on February 15–26, with the U.S. sending a maritime patrol aircraft and Iran sending the Dena. Iranian sailors from the ship paraded on land before India’s president.Contingent from #IRISDena marching in Vishakhapatnam during #Milan-2026 naval exercise on 19th February. IRIS Dena sunk this morning near #Galle, Srilanka by USA submarine, fourth such kill after WW2. War reaches in #IndianOcean . #IranIsraelWar #IranWar #IndianNavy pic.twitter.com/skDCJlbaAp— Krishna Mohan Mishra (@kmmishratv) March 4, 2026The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. Normally, the Dena carries various missiles and guns, including anti-ship missiles. Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed. Former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal accused the attack of being “premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise.” “The US has ignored India’s sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India’s invitation,” Sibal said in a post on X. The Iranian ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, condemned the attack and said the ship was unarmed. “We will respond to this assassination very strongly. This ship was unarmed and in a regular maneuver at sea. I think that the United States and the Zionist regime want to disturb and destroy all the international law and international norms,” Fathali said. At least 87 sailors were killed in the torpedo attack in international waters in the Indian Ocean, and the Sri Lankan navy responded to the Dena’s distress call and rescued 32 survivors, but 61 members of the crew are still missing. The U.S. didn’t respond to the call, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth crowed about the attack to reporters on Wednesday. “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth said, calling it a “quiet death.” As a result of the attack, an Iranian supply tanker that was also near Sri Lanka, the IRIS Bushehr, has taken refuge in the island country. The sinking of the Dena seems to be part of Hegseth’s new policy of ignoring “stupid rules of engagement” and “punching them while they’re down,” and it raises questions of what the Trump administration would say if a country like Iran attacked an American ship it knew was unarmed.
Recent developments announced by the White House suggest the war will “widen,” one expert says.
Amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, Pakistan's recent assertiveness against the Taliban also serves as a message to the West.