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US May Deploy Hypersonic Missiles Against Iran As Centcom Set To Brief Trump On New Military Options

US Central Command has asked to send the Army’s long-delayed Dark Eagle hypersonic missile to the Middle East for possible use against Iran, seeking a longer-range system to hit ballistic-missile launchers deep inside the country Bloomberg reports. 

If approved, this would mark the first time the US will have deployed its hypersonic missile, which is running far behind schedule and hasn’t been declared fully operational even as Russia and China have deployed their own versions. And since Trump isn't shy when it comes demonstrating force, it is unlikely that the request will be denied. 

The military's Request for Forces submission reportedly justifies the move by saying Iran has moved its launchers out of range of the Precision Strike Missile, a weapon that can hit targets at more than 300 miles. If approved, the deployment would also send a signal to Russia and China that the US is finally able to match a capability that they’ve long since mastered. 

Dark Eagle, also known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, has a reported range of more than 1,725 miles, although its exact capabilities are secret. It is designed to glide to its target at more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver to avoid interception. The missile was designed to fight Chinese or Russian advanced air defenses. The problem is that each Lockheed Martin missile costs about $15 million, and there are no more than eight missiles, so any assault using hypersonics would be rather brief. Also, since each battery will cost about $2.7 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office, they will make attractive targets for Iran's own hypersonics. 

The US already transferred most of its supplies of the stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missile, also designed for a fight with a near-peer adversary, to the Iran fight. About 1,100 of the missiles have been fired so far in the conflict.

The US has said it has local air superiority, meaning that in some parts of Iran its aircraft can operate without facing much of a threat. But dozens of MQ-9 aircraft, plus several crewed fighters, have been downed, showing that other parts of Iran’s airspace remain dangerous.

The Bloomberg report comes as Axios rehashed an earlier report, according to which President Trump will receive a briefing on new plans for potential military action in Iran on Thursday from CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper. The briefing signals that "Trump is seriously considering resuming major combat operations either to try to break the logjam in negotiations or to deliver a final blow before ending the war."

The report goes on to note that CENTCOM has prepared a plan for a "short and powerful" wave of strikes on Iran - likely including infrastructure targets - in hopes of breaking the negotiating deadlock. The hope would be that Iran would then return to the negotiating table showing more flexibility on the nuclear issue.

Another plan expected to be shared with Trump is focused on taking over part of the Strait of Hormuz to reopen it to commercial shipping. Such an operation could include ground forces.

A third option that has been discussed in the past and might come up in the briefing is a special forces operation to secure Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 06:44

Oil prices surged to their highest level since the beginning of the US-Iran war early Thursday before retreating on the strength of fresh reports that President Trump could soon resume attacking the Islamic Republic.

German Chancellor Claims Relationship With Trump Is Good, Despite Comments About Iran

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on April 29 said that he is on good terms with U.S. President Donald Trump, despite Merz’s recent remarks about the Iran war and Trump’s criticism of the German chancellor.

“From my perspective, my personal relationship with the ​U.S. President remains good,” Merz told reporters.

“I simply had doubts from the ⁠start about what was begun with the war in Iran. That is ​why I have made that clear.”

On April 27, the German chancellor said that the United States had been “humiliated” by Tehran after U.S. officials agreed to travel to Pakistan for peace talks.

“The Iranians are obviously very skilled ⁠at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad ​and then leave again without any result,” Merz said during a talk to students in Marsberg, Germany.

“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible,” he added.

Trump canceled the visit scheduled for April 25 by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan, citing a lack of progress in negotiations.

The U.S. president also criticized Merz in a Truth Social post on April 28, saying that the German chancellor “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about! If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage. I am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago. No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!”

Merz has said that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon.

Germany’s Economic Concerns

The German chancellor also on April 29 articulated his worries over the economic impact of the Iran war.

“In Germany and Europe we are ​suffering from the consequences, such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” said Merz.

“This has a direct impact on our energy supply and a huge impact on our economic performance,” ​he said, adding that Berlin and Washington were in communication with each other.

Last week, Germany’s economy ministry cut its growth forecasts ​in half for 2026, with Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche saying economic recovery will be “slowed down by external geopolitical shocks.”

Germany ‘Stepping Up’

Trump ⁠has criticized NATO allies for not sending naval support to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which carries the traffic of about a fifth of the world’s oil. The strategic waterways has remained virtually shut since early March, causing disruption to energy supplies and market insecurity.

The U.S. president earlier this month said that the defense alliance could face a “very serious examining” for not supporting the United States during the Iran war to keep the Strait open.

“I’m very disappointed in NATO,” Trump told reporters on April 12 as he arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “They weren’t there for us. We pay trillions of dollars to NATO, and they weren’t there for us.”

Since then, the Department of War (DOW) said that it was working closely with European allies, notably Berlin, to get NATO allies to step up with their defense strategies and responsibilities.

In a series of posts on X, Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby said that Germany was now “taking a leading role” in this.

“After years of disarmament, Berlin is stepping up,” Colby said. “The DOW is already working closely with European allies, especially Germany, to accelerate this transition to NATO 3.0.”

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz shake hands as they meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on March 3, 2026. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Colby cited Germany’s new military strategy document, quoting General Carsten Breuer, who wrote in the document’s foreword: “The Military Strategy reflects the idea that, as the largest economy in Europe ... Germany must and will assume a leading role within NATO—also at the military level.

“It represents a paradigm shift and underpins our ambition to play an active and substantial role.”

The strategy also says that Germany will take on “additional burdens,” including “targeted strategic responsibility for Europe at the conventional level.”

“This increases Germany’s strategic weight for our Allies, particularly for the United States.”

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 06:30

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Vance Reportedly Questions Pentagon's Rosy Assessment Of Iran War

Vice President JD Vance is reportedly questioning assessments from the Department of War about the effectiveness of the US military campaign against Iran.

According to two senior White House officials cited by The Atlantic, Vance has expressed skepticism about recent Pentagon estimates on the depletion of US munitions since the launch of Operation Epic Fury. A report released last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found the Pentagon used roughly half of its stockpiles of advanced interceptors and standoff munitions in the first five weeks of the conflict, which we reported here. But the Pentagon has consistently downplayed and rejected such negative assessments.

via Reuters

That report found that the US military tore through nearly half its Patriot interceptor inventory while heavily draining multiple other critical missile stockpiles.

The Atlantic article presents a Vance team which carefully seeks to avoid conflict with Trump and his top cabinet officials, by backing the Pentagon's rosy picture of the war in public, while privately pushing back within internal deliberations:

Two senior administration officials told us that the vice president has queried the accuracy of the information the Pentagon has provided about the war. He has also expressed his concerns about the availability of certain missile systems in discussions with President Trump, several people familiar with the situation told us. The consequences of a dramatic drawdown in munitions reserves are potentially dire: U.S. forces would need to draw from these same stockpiles to defend Taiwan against China, South Korea against North Korea, and Europe against Russia.

Vance is concerned that the heavy use of weapons against Iran is degrading America's readiness in the scenario it had to fight wars in Europe and East Asia. Already, the US has had to transfer major anti-air defense systems from the territories of key allies in Asia to the Middle East - and there's little doubt Beijing quietly welcomes this scramble which takes pressure off and dwindles the US defense build-up related to the Taiwan situation.

There have been widespread reports that the White House is being presented with assessments which overemphasize the 'good news' related to the Iran campaign, and not vital information which would provide a more accurate picture. The Atlantic continues:

Pentagon leaders’ positive portrayals present an incomplete picture at best, people familiar with intelligence assessments told us. According to those internal estimates, Iran retains two-thirds of its air force, the bulk of its missile-launching capability, and most of its small, fast boats, which can lay mines and harass traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. At least in terms of resuming stalled maritime commerce, “those are the real threat,” one person told us.

And here is more on Vance's objections, presented in the report:

Officials and outside advisers told us that the use of key weapons—including interceptors that defend against Iranian missiles, and offensive weapons such as Tomahawk and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff missiles—has produced a serious shortage that erodes America’s ability to fight future wars, despite an effort to quickly manufacture replacements. Vance has raised concern about munitions shortages in meetings with the president and other national-security officials. 

But while Vance apparently privately disputes Hegseth’s assessments, he has not directly challenged the Pentagon. A White House official said he "asks a lot of probing questions about our strategic planning, as do all of the members of the president’s national-security team."

One additional bombshell line from The Atlantic report comes in the following:

Both Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and General Dan Caine, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have publicly said that U.S. weapons stockpiles are robust, and portrayed the damage to Iranian forces after eight weeks of fighting as drastic. Vance’s advisers, who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity, told us that the vice president has presented his concerns as his own rather than accusing Hegseth or Caine of misleading the president.

Trump has previously admitted to reporters that Vance was "maybe less enthusiastic" about a conflict which could grow increasingly unpopular among American voters, especially as gas and food prices continue to go up amid the Hormuz Strait standoff.

Still, Vance has recently hyped the nuclear threat out of Iran, strangely floating the idea of a nuclear suicide bomber - though this left experts and analysts wondering how he imagines this would be possible. It has been compared to former National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice under Bush and her "mushroom clouds" moment related to Iraq. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," she had said, in an infamous moment of peak post-9/11 fearmongering.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 05:45

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Watch: Migrants Are Literally Clambering Up Embassy Walls In Spain

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Spain is sliding deeper into migrant-fueled disorder. Crowds of illegals have now stormed the Gambian embassy in Madrid, climbing over each other, scaling walls and fences to grab paperwork after socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government opened the floodgates with legal status for half a million of them.

Registry offices across the country are overwhelmed, social services are on the brink, and the chaos is exactly what critics warned would happen.

This latest outbreak comes just days after the regularization process kicked off. Thousands lined up for hours—or camped overnight—at more than 400 locations in regions like Catalonia, Andalucia, and Asturias. Many are still waiting for their documents to be stamped. But the rush turned frantic at the Gambian embassy on Tuesday when dozens of migrants, unable to secure needed vulnerability certificates, scaled the walls after learning all appointments were already booked.

🇪🇸🇬🇲 | Gambian immigrants storm their embassy in Madrid due to the collapse in the issuance of documents for Sanchez’s extraordinary regularization in Spain.

Inmigración de calidad 👌 pic.twitter.com/QTDbkqj27f

— BowTiedMara (@BowTiedMara) April 29, 2026

Panic set in. Police had to intervene to restore order. No arrests were made, and authorities are now keeping a close eye on the area for more attempts. The scenes, captured on video and shared widely on X, show the raw desperation the policy has unleashed.

As we detailed in our earlier reports, this is no surprise. Spain’s services were already crumbling under the weight of military-aged male migrants overwhelming registry offices.

Thousands have swarmed consulates in cities like Madrid, Bilbao, and Almería after the amnesty was first announced. Now the embassy walls are the new frontline.

Municipal unions in Seville warned last week of “extraordinary pressure” and overcrowding that is “lowering service quality and creating high tension among staff and the public in the Andalusian city.” They are pleading for more staff, better security, and compensation for workers facing the mess.

In Madrid, the pressure is even more glaring. Jose Fernandez, municipal delegate for Social Policies, told 20minutos: “We’ve gone from 1,500 daily requests at social services centres to 5,500. I think a hasty decision was made, perhaps even intended to create a collapse.” He added the process launched “without consulting the relevant authorities” and said, “I believe the best course of action would be to withdraw this decree and implement it through consensus.”

More absolutely mental scenes from Spain… https://t.co/U3iH1jEc0o

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) April 23, 2026

Spain’s 50 million population now includes around 10 million foreign-born residents. There are still roughly 840,000 undocumented migrants, mostly from Latin America. The government claims the amnesty will harness economic benefits for an ageing country. Sánchez himself wrote in an open letter: “Spain is ageing… Without more people working and contributing to the economy, our prosperity slows, and our public services suffer.”

He doubled down at a progressive summit in Barcelona, telling critics: “Spain is the daughter of migration and will not become the mother of xenophobia.”

🚨 The man who destroyed Spain, Pedro Sánchez smugly defends fast-tracking HALF A MILLION migrants:

“We are the children of migration in Spain… we will not be the parents of xenophobia… we are proud to be on the right side of history.”

Classic globalist treason — cheering the… pic.twitter.com/p0EsXL6CM6

— Don Keith (@RealDonKeith) April 18, 2026

But the right-wing opposition sees it differently. Vox spokesman Pepa Millán said the plan “attacks our identity” and vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court. Vox leader Santiago Abascal has called it an accelerating “invasion.” The Popular Party’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of Madrid, threatened her own court challenge.

The economic picture tells its own story. Spain’s unemployment has dipped below 10 percent for the first time since 2008, but about 90 percent of new jobs go to immigrants while income per person has barely grown. The country adds 140,000 new households each year but builds only around 80,000 new homes—fueling a housing crisis that hits native Spaniards hardest.

This is the same pattern playing out across Europe: leftist governments signal weakness, migrants pour in, systems buckle, and citizens foot the bill. Sánchez’s progressive agenda may dress it up as “justice” and economic necessity, but the pictures from Madrid’s streets and embassy walls show the reality—uncontrolled inflows reward law-breaking and strain every public service.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 05:00

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"I'm so utterly sorry for everything that's transpired."

What Does The End Of OPEC Mean For The Iran War And Global Energy Prices?

Did the UAE just trigger a once in a century shift in global energy markets?  The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday said it was quitting OPEC by May 1st after 60 years as a member, dealing a blow to the cartel ​as the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations and Iran.

The exit of the UAE, one of the group's biggest producers with 15% of total exports, weakens ‌OPEC's control over global oil supplies and widens a rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia.  Furthermore, the dissolution of OPEC greatly hinders Iran's ability to wield oil exports as economic leverage in the future.  

The name of the game for OPEC is zero competition and artificial supply scarcity.  OPEC was formed in the 1960s as a trade consortium of oil producers but it became an economic weapon in the 1970s to maintain pressure on the US and any other nations providing aid to Israel.  This led to a stranglehold on 40% of the global oil supply and an initial explosion in gas inflation.  Prices quadrupling at the pump, feeding into a decade long stagflation event.

Restricted exports became the status quo, and higher prices the norm in the decades since (with brief moments of relief).  Iran, by extension, has long benefited from this bottleneck as an OPEC member.  But the world of energy just changed dramatically. 

An independent UAE no longer constrained by OPEC limits now has the ability to increase production from 3 million barrels a day to over 5 million barrels per day.  The introduction of renewed competition is likely to inspire higher production rates in Saudi Arabia as well.    

In his first public comments since the announcement, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei told Reuters in ​a telephone interview that the decision was taken after examining the country's energy strategies. He said the UAE had not discussed the issue with any other country. "This ​is a policy decision, it has been done after a careful look at current and future policies related to level of production," ⁠Mazrouei said.

He also said the world would demand more energy, implying the UAE would be positioned to meet that need.  Meaning, the UAE is attempting to strategically jump ahead of the competition in a bid to flood markets with oil as the situation in the Hormuz winds down.  Saudi Arabia has also stated intentions to boost production into 2027.  

This suggests that the post-Iran war era will be a supply side bonanza with far lower energy prices over the course of the next two years.  It could be a complete upending of the last 50 years of throttled markets.  

The UAE is well positioned to weather the crisis in in the Hormuz with its Habshan–Fujairah (ADCOP) pipeline, which bypasses the Hormuz entirely and moves around 2 million barrels per day.  The advantage allows them to lead the export pack when the war ends.  

An inevitable ramp up in competitive production in the Gulf as well as fading opposition to increased drilling and refinement in the US will lead to long term energy security for the west.  However, the short term view is less rosy.  In the best case scenario, with the Hormuz reopened within the next two months, shipping through the strait will still need to recover until the end of 2026.  

Gas prices would fall to around $3.50 per gallon by the end of the year, with prices dropping below $3 per gallon in 2027.  Beyond 2027, the drop in prices will be significant; the breakup of OPEC's largest contributing members is an unprecedented market event with world changing ramifications.

The Iran war is a primary contributor to this shift, but in order to gain any benefits the Hormuz will have to reopen sooner rather than later.  The greater strategic picture is the end of Iran's oil leverage, which the regime will seek to resist as much as possible. 

Recent reports of a "tank top" and Iran's dwindling storage capacity make negotiations a priority for the regime, otherwise, the loss of oil wells caused by shutdowns and pressure damage could ruin their ability to export for years to come.  It would seem that the UAE and other Gulf exporters are positioning for this eventuality.    

Tyler Durden Thu, 04/30/2026 - 04:15

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