🇮🇷 Nobody in Tehran will say it outright, but the fight over Mojtaba Khamenei's name is really a fight over whether there's anyone left to lead.
One report says the supreme leader threatened to let President Pezeshkian resign if he tries again. Pezeshkian's office calls it a lie.
Another report claims their only meeting happened inside a car with tinted windows. A few minutes, no handshake, voices only. Pezeshkian later reportedly wondered if it was even really him.
Pezeshkian's own public account: 2,5 hours, face to face, cordial. Take your pick.
An exiled Iranian journalist doesn't think there's "a functioning person by that name who is capable of thinking, making decisions or speaking." Dead, or barely alive, that's his read.
An IRGC researcher calls it simpler than that: a power vacuum. No video, no audio, no proof of life since February. So every faction just uses his name as a weapon against the others.
"There's only so many times you can use someone's name without any proof they actually exist."
At some point, a supreme leader nobody's ever seen stops being a leader at all and ends up being a useful story.
“Manufacturing is BOOMING! Factory activity just hit its fastest pace in more than FOUR YEARS… New orders have expanded for SEVEN straight months. American Manufacturing is BACK!
The Stock Market is at an ALL TIME HIGH…
American Exports are on FIRE. U.S. Goods Exports have now topped 200 BILLION DOLLARS for the fifth consecutive month…
This is the GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA, and we’re just getting started.”
The numbers back it up. Strong factory growth, rising orders, and robust exports.
Trump says the results of his policies are showing. America is producing again.
🇺🇸🇮🇷 Trump said Iran and other Middle East countries "asked" him to hold off this weekend's strikes. That's not the full story.
CNN reports the U.S. has burned through nearly 80% of its THAAD interceptors and roughly half its Patriots since this war started in February. Senior commanders are calling the stockpile "dangerously low."
This isn't new pressure. The Pentagon's been warning Trump for weeks. Gen. Dan Caine reportedly told him directly: the military could run a bigger campaign, but it would burn through the interceptors meant to protect U.S. troops and allies across the region.
A CSIS think tank report backs it up with numbers: Patriot interceptors down to fewer than 830, from 2,330 before the war. THAAD down to fewer than 280.
Rebuilding that stockpile takes years, not months.
So when Trump posted that Iran "begged" for a pause, Tehran's state media didn't even bother arguing the diplomacy... they went straight for the ammo story, gleefully repeating CNN's own reporting on the shortage as the real reason.
Diplomacy and depleted stockpiles aren't mutually exclusive here. But only one of those explanations makes Washington look like it's negotiating from strength.
Which version actually explains why the attack got called off, the deal, or the calculation?
🇮🇷🇴🇲 Iran wants to turn the world's most important oil chokepoint into a tollbooth, and the U.S. and Gulf states just said no.
Tehran first welcomed Oman's plan to jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz, then showed up with a wish list. It now wants the right to charge shipping fees on every vessel passing through, possibly split with Oman.
And that's just the start of the wish list: guarantees against fresh attacks, an end to the U.S. naval blockade on its ports, and while they're at it, relief from oil sanctions too.
Regional officials say the U.S. and Gulf governments flatly rejected the fee grab. What they want back is a guarantee that Iran and its proxies won't threaten their territory.
The real fight is over who gets to write the rules for a strait that carries roughly 20% of the world's oil, and whether passing through it now comes with a price tag.
🇺🇸 Trump at 5:00 PM: "You will find out soon what I have decided as punishment for the Canada wildfires."
🇨🇦 Carney at 6:00 PM: "We are ready. We don't care about your illegal punishment. We're ready to double our non-U.S. exports. We'll defend our workers and farmers." 🔥
Canada didn't blink. It made it clear it was prepared to move beyond Washington if necessary.
Many Canadians are now praising Mark Carney's firm stance.
🚨 NEW: Donald Trump has directed contractors to redo weeks of work on his planned White House helipad, frustrated with its appearance and questioning whether the slope of the White House lawn needs to be changed
🚨 NOW: President Trump has endorsed Stacy Garrity for GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA to unseat Josh Shapiro (D) this November
Garrity is the current PA State Treasurer
FLIP PENNSYLVANIA RED! 🔥
"It was my Great Honor to welcome Highly Respected and very popular Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Stacy Garrity, into the Oval Office. Stacy is running to be the next Governor of the GREAT Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She has my Complete and Total Endorsement. She will do a fantastic job!"
🇸🇦🇾🇪 Saudi hit the brakes hard on the Houthi fight.
After the Yemeni group blocked their ports and hit oil facilities, everyone expected bigger retaliation.
Instead Saudi paused the airstrikes after only two days and quietly restarted talks through Oman.
They’re walking a tightrope. Their economy already shrank almost 5% last quarter because of the wider Iran war and oil export chaos.
Another full scale campaign against the Houthis would wreck what’s left of their Red Sea shipping routes and suck them deeper into a regional mess they’ve spent years trying to stay out of.
The Houthis know this, and that’s why they’re pushing for money and open access as the price of calm.
The U.S. is also telling Saudi to keep it cool, nobody wants Bab el-Mandeb closed on top of Hormuz.
Saudi is betting that limited pressure plus quiet diplomacy can contain the fire without burning their own house down.
It’s a high stakes gamble, and the whole energy market is watching to see if it holds.