CMR is the leading provider of funding and management support for small to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs 

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

How will we deal with private property in Europe in the future?

A highly complex debate follows from this question, one that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen interpreted in her own very particular way on Friday. In a speech to French business leaders at the MEDEF’s La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France in Paris, the former defense minister talked about using EU citizens’ bank deposits to get the ailing eurozone, the European economy, back on its feet.

An unmistakable message: In the view of the EU’s chief Eurocrat, private property as a protective wall shielding citizens from an overreaching state has served its purpose as a pillar of civilization.

Central planning, subsidy madness – this is Brussels under the magnifying glass.

Certainly: In the face of towering government debt and capital flight from the old continent, in whose wake thousands of patents and tens of thousands of highly qualified professionals are being swept away, citizens’ wealth is bound to awaken political appetites. A ruthless expropriation or the decreed redirection of cash, as the finest bureaucratic German puts it, is supposed to solve the problems Brussels itself has caused through its stubborn climate policy, its overregulation and its continuing insanity of interventionism.

Von der Leyen was explicit before the business leaders: Europe has savings, she said, but unfortunately those savings are sitting on the sidelines. Ten trillion euros are sitting as cash savings in the hands of private households in bank accounts, lectures von der Leyen in the manner of a classic central planner who can no longer take her eyes off citizens’ wealth. The European economy must now put this capital to work for its companies, the chief bureaucrat decreed.

None of this merely sounds like Erich Honecker. Von der Leyen is increasingly turning into a socialist sister in spirit to this disastrous regime.

Von der Leyen is following the path of the German chancellor. Friedrich Merz, too, discovered the cash holdings of Germans as political capital for himself more than a year ago – thoroughly socialist, indeed almost dictatorial, the chancellor also pointed to the possibilities opened up by what he called an activation of this money.

Ursula von der Leyen and Friedrich Merz reveal not merely an ethical and ideological abyss; they are contemplating dictatorial control over the private wealth of citizens who are still sovereign.

Almost tragically comical is the economic ignorance of these two political protagonists of an EU that is now openly turning toward an illiberal ideology.

Bank deposits are by no means useless cash. From the perspective of the banking sector, customer deposits are a central source of refinancing and liquidity, embedded in the money and credit cycle and enabling the provision of loans. Bank credit in the modern monetary system does not simply arise from passing on existing deposits. Commercial banks create new bank money through lending, although this process cannot simply be understood as a mechanical “leveraging” of existing deposits. Customer deposits thus fulfill numerous functions, from private liquidity planning and cash holdings to the financing and management of banking processes.

Such a massive intervention in the highly complex and fragile liquidity and credit structure of the banking sector would not merely be a barbaric act of socialism – it would be a frontal assault on the functionality of the banking system as such.

Nevertheless, the EU will resort to massive interventions – financially, after all, they have run into a wall.

Starting in 2028, repayment of the €800 billion Eurobond “NextGenerationEU” will come due. Von der Leyen’s speech before business leaders was ostensibly directed at the private sector, but in reality it concerned the financing of the European debt club, which is now moving toward tapping every financial source that can help keep the Ponzi scheme of European credit alive – the activation of cash appears to be one of those sources.

France is caught in a debt spiral, with new borrowing amounting to 5.7% of GDP this year and a parliamentary deadlock that rules out any form of fiscal consolidation.

Germany, too, will post new borrowing of more than 5 percent next year if the municipal deficit, the special funds and the social insurance funds are included – making common financing through Eurobonds, the consolidation of the mountain of debt under the roof of the European Commission and under the active liquidity assistance of the ECB increasingly likely.

And here the circle closes.

While capital is leaving the old continent through every remaining, every still-open channel, the financial needs of the EU’s ideological grand experiment and its nation-states are growing beyond measure.

The green subsidy machine alone destroys billions year after year. The final push over the economic cliff, however, will come from Europe’s rediscovered appetite for militarism. Military Keynesianism is not, however, an economic alternative to the free market. It is merely another fiscal grave that the political leadership is digging in its panic in these months.

The following final chapter is essentially known: Brussels will opt for massive capital controls.

The framework for this is already taking shape: In two years, the digital euro is to be introduced, initially as a pilot phase and, almost certainly at a later stage, as a monetary standard that will allow Brussels to exercise complete control over transfers abroad.

A ban on foreign bank accounts for EU citizens is also on the table and is being introduced step by step, just like the digital ID and the harsh regulation of the crypto sector. Slowly but steadily, the gates are closing.

Basically, this is how it always works in socialism: One day, the central planners will run out of other people’s money. Only then does the grinding machinery of repression by the powerful central authority begin.

* * * 

About the author:  Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

At 10:12pm local time on Saturday, a 92-foot rocket built by Munich startup Isar Aerospace lifted off from a windswept island above the Arctic Circle and reached orbit,  where it deployed five small satellites into a roughly 500-km orbit on what was only its second flight, making it the first commercial European company to deliver payloads to orbit and the first successful commercial orbital launch from continental Europe. 

Readers may recall how the first attempt went. As we noted in March 2025, Spectrum's maiden flight lasted about 30 seconds before the rocket flipped over and dropped into the sea in a fireball. The post-mortem, per NASASpaceflight: a vent valve popped open at T+25 seconds during the pitch-over maneuver, the vehicle lost attitude control, and the flight termination system cut all nine engines at T+30. Isar went back to the drawing board, rewrote the software, and widened the vehicle's margins.

?? LAUNCH!
Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket has lifted off on its second flight from Andøya Spaceport in Norway.

Europe’s commercial space industry is moving fast.

Another rocket. Another step toward independent access to space. pic.twitter.com/uivGRp7Gsu

— Cosmos Europa (@CosmosEuropa) September 6, 2026

According o European Spaceflight, the 2026 campaign was not a smooth affair: January, scrubbed for a pressurization valve. March, delayed by weather, then scrubbed when an unauthorized boat wandered into the maritime exclusion zone. April, a leak in a composite pressure vessel. June, "off-nominal behaviour" in the fluid systems. September 4, called off hours after the road closures went into effect. September 5, orbit.

On Sunday their Spectrum rocket finally reached orbit. 

That was awesome to see live! pic.twitter.com/YT39A7rhfO

— fiveten (@fiveten_at) September 5, 2026

CEO Daniel Metzler said in a statement that Europe now has sovereign access to space, and that vehicle launches remain "the largest bottleneck for the global space industry."

Welcome To The Big Leagues

In response to the launch, Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Oslo all rushed out excited statements on Saturday night - which come after a series of dismal European 'failures to launch' (both literal and figurative).

Between 2022 and 2024, Europe lost access to Russian Soyuz after the Ukraine invasion, grounded the medium-lift capable Vega-C after a December 2022 failure, retired Ariane 5, and watched Ariane 6 slip four years past its planned 2020 debut. The upshot: Galileo, the navigation constellation Europe built specifically so it wouldn't have to depend on America's GPS, went up on a Falcon 9 in April 2024 under a €180 million contract with SpaceX, alongside ESA's Euclid telescope, the EarthCARE climate satellite and the Hera asteroid mission. European officials "studiously avoided" mentioning which rocket had carried them.

In 2025, Europe managed seven orbital launches: four Ariane 6 and three Vega-C, all from French Guiana. The United States did 193. China did 93. SpaceX alone flew 165 Falcon 9 missions, roughly one every 2.2 days, with individual boosters now on their 32nd flight.

My pictures of the launch taken from Grøtavær, 31 km from pad at Andøya! pic.twitter.com/4OajwBKTIM

— Knottjogg (@knottjogg) September 5, 2026

ESA's answer was the European Launcher Challenge: rather than build yet another agency rocket, pay commercial upstarts to prove they can reach orbit by the end of 2027, then buy launches from the survivors through 2030. Member states were so keen that at last November's ministerial in Bremen they more than doubled the €420 million ESA had asked for, subscribing €902 million inside a record €22.07 billion three-year budget. Isar signed its €197.8 million contract on August 27, nine days before clearing the first milestone more than a year ahead of the deadline. Rocket Factory Augsburg (€186.9 million) and Spain's PLD Space (€158.9 million) got the other two contracts; ArianeGroup's own MaiaSpace was conspicuously left waiting, and Britain's Orbex went into administration in February, leaving the UK's contribution unassigned.

Timing... 

The launch landed four days before Emmanuel Macron opens his international space summit in Paris on Wednesday, a two-day affair whose stated theme is European sovereignty in space, and which SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space and Starcloud pulled out of last Thursday after a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy official told U.S. companies on a private call, per Politico, that attending "could look like tacit support for EU policy positions."

The policies in question: the EU Space Act, which would require any operator serving EU users to obtain prior authorization and appoint an EU legal representative, and a Franco-German push to carve out more satellite spectrum for European operators, including the €10-billion-plus IRIS² constellation. That is to say, for someone other than Starlink.

The French research ministry said it was "difficult not to link" the cancellations to the reports of pressure; an Élysée official shrugged that it was the absentees' loss. Chinese delegations are expected to fill the empty chairs. And in a detail that undercuts the drama somewhat, the same American companies are due back in Paris a week later for World Space Business Week, where they will presumably be happy to sell to the Europeans they declined to meet.

So: Washington leans on its rocket companies to boycott a summit about Europe not depending on American rocket companies, and 96 hours before it opens, a German rocket reaches orbit from Norway. You could not script it.

Funding Fuels Flight

In the 17 months between fireball and orbit, Isar says its demand flipped from almost entirely civil to roughly 60% defense, with the manifest now booked through 2028. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius toured the Ottobrunn factory in July to reiterate the €35 billion Germany intends to pour into space over the coming years, calling it "an indispensable security domain that cannot be replaced." Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited the Andøya pad in March and on Saturday called the launch "the beginning of a new era." EU defense and space commissioner Andrius Kubilius chimed in from Brussels along the same lines. Norway's trade minister cast it as a matter of Norwegian and European security; Oslo has already contracted Spectrum to launch two Arctic Ocean surveillance satellites by 2028.

The NATO Innovation Fund made Isar its first-ever investment in a launch provider in 2024. State-owned KfW Capital co-invested in June's €270 million Series D, which valued the company at roughly €2 billion and took total funding to about €870 million alongside Lakestar, HV Capital, UVC Partners, Molten Ventures, Island Green Capital, Airbus Ventures, Porsche SE and Eldridge. And on the day NATO leaders gathered in Ankara in July, Isar signed a 10-year, roughly $112 million deal for a dedicated pad at Spaceport Nova Scotia, pitched explicitly as sovereign access for Canada, with first launches targeted for 2028.

Chief commercial officer Stella Guillen told CNBC on Monday that the industry is "desperate" for launch capacity and that Isar's pipeline now exceeds €10 billion ($11.6 billion). CNBC noted the company did not immediately clarify how much of that is actually under contract. Metzler, for his part, told reporters an IPO is not being considered.

Spectrum lifts up to 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit (700 kg to sun-synchronous), roughly a twentieth of a Falcon 9, and it is fully expendable; Isar has signaled reusability only for later versions. Its long-advertised target of about €10,000 per kilogram sits above the $5,000 to $7,000 per kilogram SpaceX charges on Transporter rideshares, though those prices have been climbing and the slots are getting scarcer as Kuiper, Chinese constellations and military customers eat the manifest. Isar's pitch is that governments will pay a premium for a dedicated ride to a specific orbit on a rocket built and launched inside NATO territory. Saturday's payloads, for what it's worth, were DLR competition winners flying on ESA's dime, not paying customers.

Picture of your launch from Tromsø... pic.twitter.com/dEVymGWzYB

— Stefan Christensen (@stefanchrist) September 5, 2026

Right now, Spectrum vehicles 3 through 7 are in production, and the new 40,000 m² factory at Parsdorf is meant to eventually turn out 40 rockets a year, a figure that would put a company that has flown twice at roughly a quarter of SpaceX's 2025 cadence.

The mainstream media is turning on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and more and more of his population may be doing the same, at a moment of multiple high level corruption cases running straight through the presidential office.

To review, this was the second straight summer that controversial decisions by Zelensky sparked rare war time protests in Ukraine. In summer of 2025, Zelensky moved to weaken and de-legitimize two key national anti-corruption bodies. After, he came under immense pressure, also from Europe, and was forced to reverse course.

Then in July of this year, he dismised his popular young defense minister amid a major military reshuffling, which appears to be ongoing. Mykhailo Fedorov had been just six months on the job, and Ukrainians were by and large pleased with his strategy and direction in the war.

A sort of internal civil war had been raging between top military command and defense ministry ranks. Zelensky's intervention and final reshuffle remains highly controversial and unpopular.

Days ago, the 'esteemed' and very establishment journal, Foreign Policy ran a surprise headline strongly suggesting a popular swing among the citizenry against his rule, which has been extended amid canceled elections and martial law: 

Ukraine’s Mood Swing: Public sentiment is turning against Zelensky amid corruption concerns and weariness with his rule.

"For most of his presidency and especially since Russia launched its full-scale war, Ukrainian voters have rallied around Volodymyr Zelensky as a pillar of national resilience and unity," the FP report introduces of the 'good ole days'. "That’s for good reason: He has been an effective wartime leader and helped mobilize the democratic world on Ukraine’s behalf.

"But now, after more than seven years in office, four and a half years of war with Russia, and a series of scandals involving his leadership team and close friends, Zelensky appears to have lost the nation’s political support," it then adds. "Indeed, polling published in early August points to a major mood swing among Ukrainians, suggesting that many of them have lost faith in Zelensky and would vote him out of office at the earliest opportunity."

Following on this, the NY Times on Sunday detailed how Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement in military procurement activities. This was in 2024 alone, the paper found, based on confidential documents and audits.

The NYT characterized the waste and fraud as a "persistent phenomenon" led by seven large military contractors in Ukraine, all of which kept landing new large contracts despite ongoing fraud investigations into them.

One section of the Times report reads as follows:

But even as the officials noticed that weapons were arriving faulty, government audits obtained by The New York Times show, Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency continued to award Mr. Shyman’s factory new contracts.

The case reflects a persistent phenomenon of the war in Ukraine. Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier deals or the arrest of chief executives for corruption, according to the government audits obtained by The Times, court records and Ukrainian news accounts.

The devastating report concludes that in Ukraine, wrongdoing is continually 'rewarded' with new opportunities and contracts, at a moment hundreds of billions in European and US aid continues to get doled out.

You don't see THIS everyday...

Recent polling points to a major mood swing among Ukrainians, suggesting that many have lost faith in Zelensky and would vote him out of office at the earliest opportunity. https://t.co/vXbR8ysjxD

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) September 6, 2026

President Trump has long criticized certain elements of Zelensky's extended rule, even calling him out for resisting calls to hold new national elections, but more recently began to hail 'results' against Russia on the military front, given the persisting long-range drone program which has wreaked havoc on Russian energy infrastructure. 

But as the mainstream continues to 'turn' on Zelensky (and possibly the military too), and given more and more instances of a population 'mood swing' - how long does he have? The clock is ticking.

via Remix News,

Germany's political establishment is still absorbing the shock of Sunday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 43.8 percent and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz crashed to 17.2 percent.

Merz called the result the CDU's "heaviest defeat" in decades and said it could not simply be treated as business as usual.

"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades," Merz told reporters in Berlin after CDU leadership meetings. "We are all deeply shocked...We did not expect it to be like this."

"That does something to us. Including me personally... All of this will, of course, have to have consequences," he continued.

??????BREAKING: Merz just said he is "deeply shocked" by the AfD's landslide victory.

"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades."

"That does something to us. Including me personally... All of this will, of course,... pic.twitter.com/L4cycKdH6h

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 7, 2026

It remains unclear what those "consequences" will be exactly, as Merz did not clarify. However, he did point to two upcoming elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which will be held in the next two weeks. If the CDU faces further routs, there may be pressure for Merz to step down.

He accepted the democratic verdict but insisted the outcome had changed the political landscape "not only in Saxony-Anhalt, but throughout Germany." When nearly 60 percent of voters backed parties that question the country's democratic institutions, he said, "that is an election result with which we can not just treat as business as usual."

Merz said he was searching for explanations, including in his own record: "What fear is there in the population that we may have underestimated?"

Merz has plans to hold talks in the coming days with SPD leaders on how the coalition could continue on its present course. "Giving up is not an option," he added.

Meanwhile, the AfD federal co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla pledged support for an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt. Weidel called it a "dream result" and argued Merz had become "a great burden." She predicted the CDU/CSU would never again win a federal election and said the AfD's goal was to widen the gap to at least 40 percent by the next national vote. Chrupalla called the outcome "absolutely historic."

Merz's coalition partner, Bärbel Bas of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), used her own press conference to argue that the government's language on work and welfare had itself fueled public anxiety.

Outgoing Minister-President Sven Schulze was blunt: the CDU no longer held a government mandate and would sit in opposition. He ruled out CDU defectors joining any AfD-led arrangement and predicted the BSW would help put an AfD in power.

AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund described the result as "a very clear government mandate" and said he could be "perhaps the next minister-president."

As Remix News reported, the AfD has a real opportunity to lead Saxony-Anhalt, but a number of scenarios could play out, including a coalition with BSW or even a snap election.

Read more here...

Britain’s highest taxpayers have been drifting offshore since the non-dom regime was scrapped in April 2025 and inheritance tax was extended to worldwide assets.

This shift is already visible on the Sunday Times lists: six of the 2026 Tax List’s top 100 (including Revolut’s Nik Storonsky) had left in the previous year, the compiler noted that one in nine names on that list were no longer UK-resident, and the companion Rich List dropped dozens of foreign billionaires while recording a sharp rise in British nationals now based in Dubai, Switzerland and Monaco.

But, the latest news is likely the most disturbing to the increasingly socialist government as the UK's 3rd largest taxpayer - hedge fund founder Chris Rokos - is set to leave.

 The star trader paid a stunning £330 million ($447 million) in taxes last year...

That's one hell of a hole for Burnham and his buddies to fill.

As Bloomberg reports, Rokos is the latest in a string of high-profile financiers and business leaders that have opted to leave.

Since winning the general election in 2024, Labour has targeted wealth with taxes on non-domiciled residents, inheritance on family farms and businesses, private equity and private school fees.

At her last budget, former chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced a tax on homes worth more than £2 million.

With a net worth of about $4 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Rokos is among the UK’s most prominent figures in finance.

The Rokos Capital Management founder is switching his residency to Greece, people with knowledge of the arrangement said.

Rokos will also open an office in Athens as part of the move, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

Greece offers a 15-year high-net-worth investor regime.

Italy operates a similar 15-year system, but after recent increases, it has set the flat tax at €300,000 on foreign-sourced income.

Greece has also sought to lure fund managers and private equity executives, adopting new tax rules this summer designed to prevent double taxation.

If the highest taxpayers keep leaving - as Rokos’s reported move to Greece underlines - Labour’s bet that abolishing non-doms and tightening inheritance tax would raise more money starts to look fragile, because a thin slice of people already supplies a large share of income-tax receipts.

The government then faces an awkward choice: accept a smaller tax base and tighter budgets, or raise rates on the mobile and immobile alike and risk accelerating the outflow it is trying to tax.

At a moment US officials have been boasting of more and more oil tankers making it through the Strait of Hormuz under US naval protection and support, Iran has previewed a new 'restricted zone' in the Gulf, which it says will be announced in the coming days.

The announcement is expected to include maps of the new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, likely to begin from where the US blockade of Iran starts and extending into areas of the Gulf, according to Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Sunday.

"The maps of a new international corridor which lies in Iranian and Omani waters and in which Iran will have management have been agreed and should be signed in the coming days," national security council official Mohsen Rezaei said.

"We will only commit to the Strait of Hormuz being open when they (the Americans) stop the sabotage, threats and attacks on Iran," he added. Per a Monday Bloomberg note:

Oil advances, with Brent futures trading above $97 a barrel, after US attacks on Iranian tankers and Tehran’s threat of a new restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz. European natural gas prices surge. Meanwhile, Ukraine is resigned to Russia’s war dragging on through another tough winter.

Also, in a latest Monday warning, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has put US energy firms on notice, saying they could be targeted if Iranian tankers continue to be attacked (following precisely a rare US airstrike on an Iranian civilian tanker).

According to Ghalibaf's words on X: "It's simple: the oil and gas production chain here is sprawling, accessible, and exposed. American oil and gas companies across these waters and facilities share that exposure. Strike our assets and you get struck. We’ve already proven it. Ask the bases that are no longer viable."

Brent reaches high since July 23

The top Iranian negotiator also said in a weekend speech, "The Americans must have understood that the era of proportionate responses has come to an end," adding that "any aggression against Iran's interests and security will receive a faster, more intense and more painful response.”

Across the Gulf, the UAE is voicing its frustration, vowing to establish alternative energy routes:

The United Arab ?Emirates is building alternative routes for its energy exports and trade to ensure they are not "held ?hostage" by the ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran, UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said on Monday.

"Our energy exports will not be held hostage, nor will our trade and economic activity," Gargash ?said before the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, not helping rising energy prices is fresh reporting out of Saudi Arabia of key oil facilities hit, likely by more Houthi attacks from neighboring Yemen.

"Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities in the Saudi Arabian city of Jizan have been attacked only a month after a separate strike temporarily knocked out some production at its refinery," Financial Times reports. "The company’s oil infrastructure was hit on Monday and the damage was being assessed, said two people with knowledge of the matter."

Tehran continues to see itself as having the ability to leverage economic blowback against Washington...

It’s simple: the oil and gas production chain here is sprawling, accessible, and exposed. American oil and gas companies across these waters and facilities share that exposure. Strike our assets and you get struck. We’ve already proven it. Ask the bases that are no longer viable. https://t.co/XiHAf6KzqV pic.twitter.com/0wBf40K4D3

— ???????? ??????? | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) September 7, 2026

Jizan provides a convenient targeting opportunity for the Houthis given its closeness to the Yemeni border as a significant Saudi industrial city. The Iran-linked group has not immediately claimed responsibility for any fresh attacks on the kingdom, however.

Bloomberg reports Monday, "The latest attack didn’t cause major damage, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. The 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery remains shut following a strike in July, one of them said."

The Houthis have sought to impose a blockade on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports since July - and this has been coupled by sporadic major drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil sites. Ansar Allah is no doubt working in tandem with Tehran keep up the pressure on global energy markets.

Weekend & Overnight Developments

• US launched strikes against three Iranian crude oil tankers on Saturday, which destroyed one, in retaliation for the IRGC targeting US Navy warships with ballistic missiles.
• Iran’s navy said it targeted three oil tankers that were travelling through unauthorised routes in the Strait of Hormuz and three additional US vessels in other areas.
• US President Trump said on Friday that they do intermittent strikes in Iran and that the Iran issue is a military conflict, while he added that they may hit Pickaxe Mountain very soon. Trump warned that if anything goes badly with Iran, they may hit them hard and have essentially taken over Iran. He also claimed there have been no shootings for days and there are no mines in the Strait.
• US Energy Secretary Wright said a nuclear deal with Iran may not be achievable in the near term and military action may be needed to address threats from Iran, according to ABC News.
• Iran's top security official Rezaei said Iran and Oman will sign agreed Strait of Hormuz passage maps in the coming days and that Iran will commit to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open when the US neither threatens Iran nor attacks it. Rezaei also stated that they will announce in the coming days and weeks a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz that starts from the US Navy's blockade line and extends through the strait into the Persian Gulf, and any ship identified entering this zone with the intention of passing through the strait will be added to the sanctions list. Furthermore, he said that Iran tested an Iranian anti-ship missile above a US warship for the first time and claimed the missile created 'hell' for the Americans 'and they fled'.
• Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ghalibaf warned that Iran’s response to any attack against its interests and security would be faster, heavier and more painful.
• Iran's Foreign Ministry said the US-led war is disrupting global oil trade and costs, while it added that US aggression is causing instability in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Israeli military announced that it struck southern Lebanon after Hezbollah launched drones towards Israeli soldiers in the security zone. Israel's army also issued an evacuation warning to residents of a building in Deir Zahrani, southern Lebanon.
• Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich said PM Netanyahu ordered the evacuation of certain settlement outposts in the West Bank. It was separately reported that Israel conducted an airstrike on eastern Gaza City with four missiles.
• Joint statement by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt Foreign Ministers strongly condemned statements made by Israel's National Security Minister Ben-Gvir and Defence Minister Katz regarding the displacement of Palestinians.
• Yemeni armed forces said they thwarted an attempt by Houthis to infiltrate the Dabab front, while they announced that warplanes struck Houthi positions in Balhaf and south of Hodeidah.