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🚨🇮🇷🇮🇱🇶🇦🇸🇦 Israel crossed Iran's energy red line by striking the South Pars gas field, and now both sides are torching each other's energy infrastructure across the Gulf. Iran fired back at Israel's Haifa refinery, Qatar's Ras Laffan (the world's largest LNG plant), plus refineries in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Israel went after facilities that produce 730 million cubic meters of gas daily. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively dead. Traffic dropped 96% in the first 18 days of war, from thousands of transits to just 98. Saudi Arabia is now desperately pumping oil west through pipelines to Yanbu on the Red Sea to bypass the strait. If Iran hits Yanbu, analysts say 5-6 million barrels a day disappear from global markets and oil could hit $150. Brent crude has already jumped from the $70s to $115 since the war started. Every major energy facility that gets hit pushes prices higher. This is now a global energy crisis that's about to slam inflation and interest rates worldwide. Source: Wall Street Journal

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S can't replace its own destroyed radars because Iran just choked off the minerals needed to build them. West Point just published an analysis showing sulphur trade through the Strait of Hormuz is nearly dead, and sulphur is what you need to extract copper and cobalt from ore. Those metals go into everything from microprocessors to jet engines to the explosives in missiles. It'll take over 30,000 kg of copper just to replace the two major radars Iran destroyed in Bahrain and Qatar. At least 9 radars have been targeted across the region. The damage status of each is still unknown. The cost could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the meantime, sulphur prices have spiked 165% year over year. This is huge because only 6% of US defense contractors have transparent supply chains, so military planners are just now realizing they can't actually manufacture their way out of this war. A West Point analyst warns it could cost double or more than before the war to replace destroyed weapons, assuming markets can even provide enough minerals at all. Source: Guardian, ABC News

🚨🇮🇷🇺🇸 IRAN WAR UPDATE: Day 18 🇮🇷 A cruise missile struck a building inside the Bushehr nuclear power plant, reportedly narrowly missing the reactor core. 🇺🇸 Trump distanced the U.S. from Israel’s strike on South Pars, saying Washington “knew nothing about this particular attack.” 🇶🇦 Iran launched ballistic missiles at Ras Laffan Industrial City, causing damage to the massive LNG hub. 🇮🇱 Footage showed an Iranian ballistic missile over southern Israel breaking apart mid-air, releasing a cluster warhead. 🇶🇦 Ras Laffan was struck again, with fires reported at the world’s largest LNG facility. 🇺🇸 The U.S. Senate blocked Democrats’ War Powers Resolution 47–53, allowing Trump’s Operation Epic Fury to continue. 🇸🇦 Iranian missiles struck Riyadh as fighter jets scrambled, with explosions reported during an Arab foreign ministers’ emergency summit. 🇺🇸 Sec. Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Caine scheduled a joint press conference at 8 AM EST to update Operation Epic Fury.

Democrats: “lol if we ever come to power again we are going to flood the country with another 100 million illegals and throw you all in prison.” Senate GOP: “Ermmm guys… We can’t break with our precious norms and procedures and pass voter ID…”

WSJ: Tesla Finally Has Its First Semi-Truck and It’s Already a Hit With Truckers. "Truckers who drove it in pilot tests say they loved features including a centered driving position, faster charging and longer range for about $100,000 less than other battery-electric trucks. Angel Rodriguez, a 56-year-old truck driver for Hight Logistics in Long Beach, Calif., recently swapped out a 13-gear diesel truck for a Tesla Semi, which is automatic, for a one-month pilot test. “It’s just easier on your body. It’s less stressful because you’re not really having to engage the clutch and the stick shift.” Big F Transport employs five mechanics to service more than 40 diesel-powered rigs and a fleet of trailer chassis in Wilmington, Calif. “If we go all EV we will only need one [mechanic] to service chassis,” said Geovanny Melendez, the carrier’s VP of operations, who went to see the Semi earlier this month at a ride-and-drive event near the Port of Long Beach. Jennie Abarca, co-founder and CEO of King Fio Trucking in Long Beach, Calif., once worked as a truck dispatcher and her husband is a truck driver, so she knows all too well the toll a diesel engine takes on people’s lungs and hearing. She eventually wants to swap out King Fio’s 27 diesel trucks to create an all-electric fleet. King Fio already has 11 battery-electric trucks from Volvo and Nikola. But the company limits those trucks to shorter trips to and from local ports because they only have a range of about 225 miles. The Semi, by contrast, can travel 500 miles on a single charge, according to Tesla. For King Fio that means two or three round-trips a day from Long Beach to warehouses in the nearby Inland Empire or a single round-trip to Las Vegas. She has 20 Semis on order. “The Teslas change everything,” Abarca said. “It opens up a whole different type of delivery that I can make.”