The Pentagon May Become an Oil Stakeholder — And That Changes Its Mission

The US and Iran are shooting at each other again — the first open exchange of fire since July — and this round reached beyond the Gulf. US military officials say American forces defended against missiles launched at Jordan, a country hosting nearly 4,000 US troops. That detail matters more than the day's headlines about stocks and oil: the fight is widening geographically at the exact moment Iran's chain of command is a black box.

A new US missile marketed as 'pinpoint' is now at the center of a dispute over dead civilians in the Iranian city of Lamerd — and the two sides can't even agree on whether the strike happened. Iranian officials say 21 people were killed, including 7 children. US Central Command says it didn't attack the city at all. In a war with no functioning ceasefire, the fight over what's true is becoming as consequential as the fighting itself.

If you couldn't send an email or join a Teams call today, you just experienced something bigger than an inconvenience: a live demonstration of how much of American work now depends on one company's authentication system staying online. Thousands of users across the US — Virginia, Texas, Alabama, New York, Michigan — reported being unable to send or receive email as Microsoft investigates problems with Exchange Online, including authentication errors that lock people out entirely.

The federal government's cyber defense agency just told every federal department: patch your print management software now, because attackers are already breaking in through it. If your kid's school, your office, or your local print shop runs PaperCut — and thousands do — the same door is open there, and nobody is issuing them a directive.

The most important thing about the current tariff wave isn't the rates — it's the legal machinery underneath them. By building trade barriers on Section 301, a law that requires active review rather than quiet continuation, the Trump administration has ensured that no future president can simply inherit trade policy and leave it alone. Every administration, indefinitely, will have to publicly re-decide these tariffs — which means American trade rules are now permanently on the ballot.