The CIA doubted the veracity of a purported threat from Iran to the President’s life during the July NATO summit in Ankara, according to an article published in the Washington Post Wednesday. The information on that threat, which led Trump to secretly leave Air Force One via a catering cart to fly home on a second plane, came from Israel’s spy services (as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week). According to new reporting from the Post, America’s intelligence community did not agree with the Israeli assessment, with one U.S. intelligence official describing the assassination threat as “Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed [by the CIA] as low confidence.”
The Pentagon has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones—about 25 percent of its total fleet—during the Iran war, the Washington Post reported separately Thursday citing U.S. officials, estimating the losses amounted to over $1.3 billion.
The spokesperson for Iran’s central military headquarters denied U.S. claims of normal maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and said that “no commercial ship or oil tanker has had and will have the possibility of safe transit through this strait without the permission and supervision” from Iran’s armed forces, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported Thursday. The statement came after Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, adding “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel “will under no circumstances” withdraw its troops from territory the IDF currently occupies in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday made similar comments in a post on X.
A report published Wednesday by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on August 12 predicted that oil demand will fall by 1.6 million barrels a day in 2026. Continued disruptions from the Iran War, the report said, are undermining efforts to boost global oil supply, which the IEA said is 6.3 million barrels a day lower than this time last year.
The price of Brent Crude oil was $86.60 per barrel on Thursday morning. AAA recorded the national average price of regular gas at $4.07 per gallon.
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