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U.S. Navy Acting Secretary Hung Cao was said to have made a “stunning admission” regarding the deeply unpopular U.S. war against Iran in an interview that was previewed Thursday.Journalist Ryan Morgan of the conservative outlet The Epoch Times revealed Thursday that he had interviewed Cao, and previewed some of Cao’s remarks in a social media post on X.“In an exclusive interview, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told me that Iranian forces ‘blew the hell out of Bahrain,’” Morgan wrote.“While open-source analyses have long indicated that the U.S. Fifth Fleet Headquarters at Naval Support Activity Bahrain sustained extensive damage in the early days of the Iran conflict, Cao's comment represents a direct and high-level acknowledgment of the matter.”Past reporting has confirmed that the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain — a relatively small island country near Qatar and Saudi Arabia that sits in the Persian Gulf — was “repeatedly targeted” with Iranian strikes in the early days of the conflict. U.S. military officials, however, have claimed that no Americans were killed and that the damage did not “significantly impact operations,” according to The Wall Street Journal.Cao’s admission, however, appears to suggest the strikes may have been more damaging than the U.S. military had previously admitted, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin suggested.“This is a pretty stunning admission by the Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whose nomination is hung up in Congress, about how Iranian forces ‘blew the hell out of (US Navy’s 5th Fleet base in) Bahrain,’” Griffin wrote in a social media post on X. “Haven’t heard a senior US official admit this on the record until now.”As previously noted by the Journal, the damage to the U.S. base in Bahrain was so significant that some “structures that were attacked may not be rebuilt.”“Pentagon officials have frustrated lawmakers by declining to discuss the cost of the U.S. damage with Congress,” the Journal previously reported. “In response to a request for comment, the Pentagon pointed to remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill. Pressed for an estimate at a May congressional hearing, Hegseth replied: ‘What is the cost of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon?’”This is a pretty stunning admission by the Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whose nomination is hung up in Congress, about how Iranian forces “blew the hell out of (US Navy’s 5th Fleet base in) Bahrain.” Haven’t heard a senior US official admit this on the record until now. See… https://t.co/NMaxkhVOrh— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) September 10, 2026

Family of late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV reject committee’s choice of cousin and TV presenter as new monarchA traditional Ugandan kingdom has become engulfed in a bitter succession dispute after the family of a king who recently died rejected the selection of a television news anchor as his successor.King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne in the kingdom of Tooro in 1995 at the age of three, died on 27 August in the US, where he was receiving cancer treatment. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump's deeply unpopular war against Iran took a drastic turn Thursday, one that could send energy prices skyrocketing and sparked immediate alarm from analysts and critics alike.According to multiple news outlets, Yemen’s Houthis captured the Yemeni town of Mocha near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, and are inching closer toward controlling the entirety of Yemen’s west coast along the Red Sea, a critical shipping waterway. With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reaching its lowest levels since May earlier this week, analysts fear record-high U.S. energy prices could soon climb even further.“This is very bad for Trump's war with Iran because the Iran-backed Houthi rebels can now more easily threaten ships in the Red Sea and potentially choke off more Saudi oil exports,” noted Tommy Vietor, a prominent podcast host and former Obama administration official. “It could also restart the catastrophic Saudi-Houthi war. Bad bad bad.”Joe Kent, a former senior intelligence official in the Trump administration who resigned over the U.S. war against Iran in March, called the development “very significant,” and further warned that the Trump administration’s “policies and interventions abroad” would ultimately “get more people killed” as Trump’s “senseless war” sparks mass “radicalization” the world over.The Bulwark’s Catherine Rampell sarcastically quipped that the new development would be “great for gas prices,” and Faraz Chaudhry, a Pakistani opinion writer, warned that the development would see crude oil prices — which sit at around $101 a barrel as of Thursday — “go up to $150.”Polish terrorism researcher Paweł Wójcik called the Houthis’ latest move an outright “disaster,” and Hasan Piker, the prominent progressive streamer and political activist, hammered Trump for what he characterized as the president’s handling of the conflict.“[The Houthis are] moving to establish primacy over the bab al mandeb strait as the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] expands its targets to us naval assets in the strait of hormuz. they’re lobbing more [medium-range ballistic missiles] at jordan every time a tanker is struck,” Piker wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 1.7 million followers.“Meanwhile trump is so desperate he’s lying [about] bribing americans w 5k stimmies. we have to learn the right lesson from this bloody nose. we must end american militarism, treat other nations w respect and engage in diplomacy.”The Houthis’ rapid advance is just the beginning of the blowback effects we are now going to face as a result of our counterproductive policies in the Middle East & because of this senseless war in Iran.The Houthi’s ability to capture key terrain and strategic ports along the… https://t.co/icr4JiUCBZ— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) September 10, 2026

Former President George W. Bush appeared to take a jab by praising the general who is pushing President Donald Trump to end his war in Iran, five miles from the crucial Republican midterm convention he did not attend.Bush made the remark Wednesday during an onstage appearance at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, where former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice interviewed him for the center's "Engage" series.About five miles away, the Republican Party was opening its first-ever midterm convention at the American Airlines Center, a two-day event billed as a celebration of Trump's America First agenda, Axios reported. Trump and Vice President JD Vance were the only confirmed speakers, and Bush was not expected to be among them.In his opening remarks, Bush thanked the center's staff before turning to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was in the audience."Thank God you are where you are, and we appreciate it," Bush said.The war with Iran was nearly six months old, and Trump's top general had spent weeks telling other administration officials privately that the United States needed a way out of a conflict the president chose to enter, CNN reported in August.Caine made clear to other senior Trump advisers that the military options for escalating the war could backfire, and that bombing alone was unlikely to achieve the president's stated goals, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN."Caine is looking for an off ramp," one of the sources said bluntly.He raised the same concerns with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vance, and coordinated with them before meetings with the president so they could lay out the limits of the options on the table, two of the sources told CNN."I think it is just his way of protecting the military," one of the sources said of those conversations.Caine had made a version of the argument in public, telling lawmakers at a hearing that "airpower has its limits," according to CNN.Senior military commanders believe American munitions stockpiles are "dangerously low," and Caine raised the shortage with Trump in at least two meetings where escalation was discussed, CNN reported.Before the war began, Trump had invoked Caine by name in a post claiming his top military adviser believed the conflict "will be something easily won," according to CNN.In the same White House meeting where he raised the stockpile problem, Caine told Trump that the military could "absolutely wreck" Iran if the president decided to go ahead, one source told CNN."He's definitely pulling punches," a source familiar with Caine's interactions with Trump told CNN, comparing those White House conversations with what the general says privately to military leaders."He is out of his depth on this one," another source familiar with Caine's handling of the war told CNN.Caine's spokesman, Joseph Holstead, declined to discuss the chairman's private conversations with the president or other senior officials and rejected what he called anonymous, agenda-driven descriptions of them, CNN reported."General Caine is an incredible asset to President Trump's national security team, and the overwhelming success of Operations Epic Fury, Midnight Hammer, and Absolute Resolve speaks for itself," a White House official told CNN.Privately, Caine has told people he wants to restore trust in his post and in the military more broadly "even as Trump has politicized both," according to CNN.Bush did not mention Trump, the war, or Caine's role in it. Video of the moment circulated Thursday morning after the account Headquarters posted it on X. The account wrote that Bush "appears to shade Trump by praising the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine," and paired the line with a clip of the exchange.Bush has criticized the direction of American politics before without naming Trump, Axios reported, most pointedly in a 2017 speech at his presidential center."Bigotry seems emboldened," Bush said in that address. "Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication."Bush did not name Trump in that speech either, and he has generally said little publicly about him.He declined to endorse a candidate in the 2024 election, Axios reported. Trump, for his part, once said it would have been "wonderful" if then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had moved to impeach Bush over the Iraq war.The absence from this week's convention underscores the split between the Trump-era Republican Party and the Bush-era version of it, Axios reported. A person familiar with the convention planning, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Bush was not expected to appear.Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft said Trump and Vance were the only speakers confirmed at that point and declined to say whether Bush had been invited, Axios reported. Bush's office did not respond to the outlet's question about an invitation.Bush had already made other plans for the week. KERA reported that he had previously scheduled events marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.Dallas has been Bush's home base since the early 1990s. His presidential library sits on the Southern Methodist University campus, and a stretch of highway in the city is named for him, Axios reported.The convention hall sits a 4.9-mile drive from the center, about 17 minutes in traffic.Rice, who conducted Wednesday's interview, is the person Bush has said he wrote in for president in 2020, according to Axios.

A year after the first batch of Jeffrey Epstein investigative files was released, law enforcement agencies in at least five countries say the Justice Department still has not responded to their formal requests for help.Officials in Poland, Norway, Latvia, the United Kingdom and Germany told the Washington Post that requests for mutual legal assistance — the formal process that allows foreign investigators to obtain evidence, information and testimony from the U.S. — have gone unanswered.No charges have resulted from the files' release in the United States, but the documents exposed Epstein's relationships with influential figures worldwide, including President Donald Trump, and the revelations have prompted international investigations of the late sex offender's networks.The Justice Department disputed any suggestion it is stonewalling. "The Department of Justice has not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein," a DOJ spokesperson told the Telegraph last month, adding that the department "remains committed to cooperating with all jurisdictions pursuing potential crimes."However, officials from those five European nations say their requests to the Trump administration have been met with silence.Poland's National Prosecutor's Office said the Justice Department has not responded to an April request.In Norway, state prosecutor Marianne Bender said her office remains in communication with DOJ officials but "they have not at this time approved the request." Latvia's state police said they have sent "several requests" and "no responses have yet been received." Britain's formal request followed informal talks that DOJ had already failed to advance, according to the Times of London, and German federal police say they remain in contact with the FBI without resolution.The stakes are highest in Norway, where three prominent figures — former diplomats Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, and former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland — face corruption charges connected to their relationships with Epstein. All deny wrongdoing. Rød-Larsen's attorney said Norwegian prosecutors have specifically sought additional records from DOJ and investigative steps involving the International Peace Institute in New York, where his client previously served as president. Bender called the lack of a U.S. response "very unfortunate for the Norwegian investigation."The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, which processes such requests, has faced documented operational problems for years.A 2021 inspector general report found it plagued by high staff turnover, outdated technology and oversized caseloads, and a former DOJ attorney who worked in the office said such requests are "inherently complex," particularly when they involve voluminous records or contested redactions.Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers continue pressing DOJ for more transparency domestically, saying Epstein-related documents remain missing or unnecessarily redacted, even after Congress voted overwhelmingly last November to compel their release.

Andrew Frederick’s body was found in property he was staying at in Grenada in JanuaryThe family of a British father who was found dead in the Caribbean in January is urging authorities in Grenada to work with UK police to uncover the truth about his death.Andrew Frederick’s body was found in the property he was staying at in Grenada on 4 January. An autopsy, performed in the same week by a privately hired pathologist, concluded that the 47-year-old’s death was a homicide. Continue reading...

Three men are on trial over the death of brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend, US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad, in EnsenadaThe father of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico two years ago testified in court on Tuesday that his life had been turned into hell, as the high-profile trial continued into its second day.Three men are charged in the killing of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, who were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast in April 2024. Continue reading...

India’s statistical system once commanded respect, and its data on economic and social indicators was considered rigorous – that appears to have eroded• Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThere isn’t much that we Indians agree on these days. GDP numbers are no exception. Last week, India released glowing GDP numbers for the latest quarter – 7.8% growth – higher than the forecast 7%. It sparked a furore.Subhash Garg, a former finance secretary under Narendra Modi’s government and now a critic, reframed what Modi called a “herculean feat” as mere smoke and mirrors. According to Garg, the government revised last year’s current-price GDP downwards to inflate this year’s number – he believes the real growth is only 2.6%. Continue reading...