US reportedly struck 4 Iranian oil tankers attempting to traverse the Strait
Qatari LNG Tanker entered the Strait for first time since start of war
US continues to await a formal response from Tehran on a proposal aimed at ending the war
The odds of a permanent peace deal by the end of May have faded notably (now just 25%)...
US Reportedly Struck 4 Iranian Oil Tankers Entering The StraitMultiple accounts across social media are reporting that four tankers were apparently struck or disabled by the U.S. forces near Iran’s Jask area.
@EGYOSINT notes that satellite imagery shows one tanker on fire and extensive oil spills, including leaks from two tankers, with another spill detected about 7.4 kilometers from the anchorage site.
@Merrux confirmed that US forces hit an Iranian oil tanker near the port city of Bandar Jask last night.
The vessel is currently on fire. It remains unclear if other tankers were also hit, though smoke is rising from them. The tanker is visibly ablaze, there has been no response from Iran.
Presumably these are just more "love taps" and do not represent any threat to the so-called 'ceasefire'.
Iran Keeps US Waiting On Formal Response To Peace ProposalA state of relative calm prevailed around the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, after days of sporadic flareups, as the Trump administration continues to await a formal response from Tehran on a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Hormuz chokepoint, following last week's clashes between Iranian and U.S. naval forces in the world's most critical waterway.
As Times of Israel reports, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Washington expected a response within hours and President Donald Trump later said it would likely be submitted “tonight.”
But a day later, there was no sign of movement from Iran on the proposal, which would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including the Iranian nuclear program.
With US President Donald Trump due to begin a long-awaited visit to China next week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the conflict, which has thrown energy markets into turmoil and posed a growing threat to the world economy.
As Tehran kept Washington waiting for its response after saying Friday it was not paying attention to “deadlines,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of the US leadership in a call with his Turkish counterpart.
“The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency.
While there were no official signs of a breakthrough in negotiations as of early Saturday morning, new ship data from the Hormuz area may suggest that positive developments are ahead.
Qatari LNG Tanker Enters The Strait In First Since WarBloomberg reporter Stephen Stapczynski wrote on X that an LNG tanker from Qatar is "attempting" to transit the Hormuz.
"If successful, this would be the first time Qatar has exported LNG out of the region since the Iran war began in late-Feb," Stapczynski noted, adding, "The tanker says it is destined for Pakistan."
BREAKING: Qatar is attempting to send an LNG shipment through the Strait of Hormuz 🇶🇦⚠️
If successful, this would be the first time Qatar has exported LNG out of the region since the Iran war began in late-Feb
The tanker says it is destined for Pakistan pic.twitter.com/JBHMq2RWpi
The tanker is fully loaded with LNG and is currently transiting the Hormuz chokepoint. We must point out that the ship did not sail through the Hormuz Island route. There is no word on whether Iran charged the vessel a transit fee, but Tehran allows ships from "friendly" nations, primarily China, India, and the UAE, to pass.
On Friday, UBS energy analyst Anna Kishmariya told clients that shipping flows through the Hormuz chokepoint remain very restricted and that the global oil market is getting tighter.
There is certainly urgency among the Trump administration and other nations to unfreeze Hormuz, as oil market insiders see a roughly one-month countdown to global energy chaos if the waterway remains blocked through this month.
Latest overnight headlines, courtesy of Bloomberg:
Ceasefire and Diplomatic Efforts
• The US is waiting for Iran's response to Trump's latest proposal to end the war, which suggests Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports over the next month
• Tehran's response to the US proposal is "under review," according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei
• Trump has changed his approach to prioritize reopening the Strait of Hormuz at all costs while leaving nuclear and ballistic missile negotiations for later
Recent Military Clashes
• The US struck Iranian military targets on Thursday after Iran fired multiple missiles, drones and small boats at three US Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz, with no US assets hit
• US forces targeted missile and drone launch sites and other military assets in Iran that were responsible for attacking the US warships
• The US "disabled" two unladen Iranian-flagged oil tankers, according to US officials
• Iran seized the tanker Ocean Koi in the Gulf of Oman, which appeared to be carrying Iranian oil
Hormuz
• The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to commercial shipping since Tuesday following the US-Iran clashes
• A Qatari LNG tanker, Al Kharaitiyat, is attempting to transit the strait, which would mark Qatar's first export from the region since the war began
• Saudi Aramco and UAE's Adnoc have managed to move some crude cargoes through the strait despite Iran's effective closure of the waterway
Impacts
• The world has burned through oil inventories at record speed as the Iran war throttles flows from the Persian Gulf, eating into buffers that protect against supply shocks
• Chinese energy imports fell sharply in April, with crude cargoes dropping about 20% year-on-year to 38.47 million tons and gas falling about 13% to 8.42 million tons
• Global food prices climbed to their highest level in more than three years as the Iran war disrupted supply chains, with the UN food-commodity index gaining 1.6% in April
• Iran's record internet blackout is taking a heavy toll on private businesses, with warnings it could lead to mass layoffs and closures
International Response
• The US imposed sanctions on three Chinese firms for providing satellite imagery to Iran, enabling its military strikes on American forces in the Middle East
• The UK will deploy HMS Dragon warship to the Middle East as part of planning for a European-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once there's a stable ceasefire
• Iran is ramping up trade with China via rail to bypass the US blockade, with cargo trains from Xi'an to Tehran increasing from one per week to one every three or four days
Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 13:30The Iranian government has for the first time officially weighed in on the health of new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured in the opening strikes of Trump's Operation Epic Fury, which killed the younger Khamenei's father and wife.
"A government official claimed Khamenei, who hasn't been seen in public since that attack, is now in good health," The Wall Street Journal writes Saturday.
via AFPHe hasn't been seen in public since the war began, and even official statements have been read aloud on state media broadcasts. There have since been conflict reports. However, according to the latest:
Yet the chief of protocol for the supreme leader’s office, Mozaher Hosseini, said on Friday that Khamenei is in “complete health,” stressing that he has only been “marginally injured” on his foot and lower back and hit by “a small piece of shrapnel had hit him behind the ear.”
“The enemy is spreading all kinds of rumors and false claims. They want to see him and find him, but people should be patient and not rush. He will speak to you when the time is right,” Hosseini told a crowd in Tehran.
Prior international reports suggested he was being treated for severe burns and that he could undergo surgery, and resorts to communicating commands to lower officials via low-tech means, including written and hand delivered messages, in order to avoid Israeli or US intelligence intercepting signals related to his whereabouts.
Regional and Gulf media have also summarized of the latest official Iranian description of the Ayatollah's health, that "there were no indications of a serious deterioration in his condition."
And, "According to Iranian media reports, the official stated that medical examinations confirmed Mojtaba Khamenei’s condition was completely stable. He added that the injury did not require complex surgery. Furthermore, he is undergoing only routine medical monitoring to ensure his well-being."
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed on Thursday that he for the first time recently held a meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei, at an undisclosed location, and that the encounter was a long and productive one. State media said it was two-and-a-half hours.
US intelligence assesses that Iran’s new supreme leader is playing a critical role in shaping war strategy alongside senior Iranian officials, according to multiple sources. https://t.co/Ejyo5tGipb pic.twitter.com/c4nfMMR25r
— CNN (@CNN) May 9, 2026"What stood out more than any other topic in the meeting was the way of dealing, the type of outlook, and the humble and deeply friendly manner of conduct by the leader of the revolution," Pezeshkian described. He characterized the new Ayatollah's approach as "a model based on taking responsibility, being close to the people, and truly listening to issues and problems."
Western officials and intelligence have all the while been seeking to assess just who is ultimately in charge of running the country. There have been reports of a growing split between the IRGC military apparatus and the Islamic Republic's civilian leadership. However, none of these reports are confirmable, but it's largely only guesswork by those far outside the country.
Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 13:25Authored by James Howard Kunstler,
The California Death Trip“History records no pity for parties that choose purity over competence, vengeance over vision, pathology over pragmatism. The long night is not coming. It is here. . . . ”
- LHGrey on X
The Pacific Palisades fire ignited on January 7, 2025, in the very last days of the “Joe Biden” fake presidency.
6,837 total buildings destroyed plus about 1,000 damaged.
The Altadena fire across town in Eaton Canyon was arguably worse: 9,418 buildings destroyed.
A Year After the LA Fires
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana at the time to attend the inauguration of president John Dramani Mahama, part of a small U.S. presidential delegation sent by the “Biden” administration.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Brian Williams, overseer of the Police and Fire Departments, was on administrative leave at the time due to an alleged bomb threat against City Hall that he reportedly made in September / October 2024. The FBI raided his house that December, and in 2025 he copped a plea deal (guilty) to making threats involving fire and explosives. So, he was out of action during the fires.
There you have the rectified essence of how the Democratic Party operates in America’s biggest state.
Is it not astonishing that Karen Bass is running for reelection? How could she possibly be forgiven?
A large number of people employed in the movie business got burned out of their homes in the fires, and then city and state regulatory nonsense prevented them from rebuilding — on top of insurance company hocus-pocus that left families financially wrecked.
Is it a surprise that the city’s flagship industry is dying now (film production down 32-percent on a five-year average)?
What is LA without Hollywood?
And yet the show-biz celebs are still coming out to pimp for Democratic Party politicians. This is the kind of thing that forces you to conclude that an epic madness burns as hotly through the minds of Californians as the fires that ripped through the canyons in 2025. I know from personal experience as a college theater major that actors can be exceptionally stupid, but that can’t wholly account for what we’re seeing.
Wednesday’s primary debates had these villains on florid display. Because LA’s ranked-choice mayoral primary race styles itself “non-partisan,” candidate Spencer Pratt (a registered Republican) was on-hand for the debate. When the subject of LA’s cataclysmic homelessness came up, drug addicts living (if you can call it that) in wretched, filthy encampments all over the public space of the city, Mayor Bass bragged that she’d significantly reduced the problem, which is obviously and mendaciously untrue. LA City Council member Nithya Raman, who labels herself “progressive,” bragged on putting the homeless into shelters (i.e., motel rooms at $100-K per person per year.)
Spencer Pratt attempted to inject a little reality into the discussion about putting the homeless into homes: “No matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl. The DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] statistic says 93-percent of this is a drug addiction problem. These people do not want a bed — they want fentanyl or super meth.”
Pratt is currently running third in the polls. In ranked-choice voting, the top two winners in the primary will face off in the November election. Currently Bass is polling in the lead and Nithya Raman is running second. If the numbers stay that way, the winner in November could finish Los Angeles off. Blade Runner, here we come.
But there’s still a chance that Spencer Pratt might place well in the June 2 primary just as Golden Tempo shot from dead last to win the Kentucky Derby last week.
The seductions of the Marxist race hustle have worn a little thin, even for Angelenos. Karen Bass looks increasingly ridiculous grinning about her abject failures, which Mr. Pratt lays out relentlessly in plain talk. His reality-testing seems to be getting some minds right, gaining real traction. Nithya Raman has the charisma of a mung bean.
The gubernatorial debate was equally edifying, especially the spectacle of Democratic Candidates Katie Porter’s and billionaire Tom Steyer’s rousing lack of self-awareness. Ms. Porter, renowned for dumping a pot of steaming mashed potatoes over her ex-husband’s head, and for her crotchety way with the (friendly) news media and her own staff, made the astounding statement that “the public servants we have are focused on doing their job, which is not cooperating with the federal immigration authorities.” That’s their job? Hmmmm. Mr. Steyer went further and said he would arrest ICE agents going about their business. You think . . .? (I would think that a Governor Steyer would find himself arrested by the feds for attempting such a stunt.)
The governor’s race is also a rank-choice contest. So, Republican Steve Hilton was on-hand to break the reality-optional spell that shrouded the stage like a poisonous miasma. After several Democrats made a show of deploring the grotesque homeless druggie encampments from Nob Hill to MacArthur Park, Mr. Hilton said “[They] talk as if we’re in some parallel universe where Democrats haven’t been running the state for the last sixteen years.” He shares the lead in the polls in the large field at 18-percent with Xavier Becerra, who was “Joe Biden’s” Secretary of Health and Human Services, meaning, he presided over the vaxx mandates and lockdowns of the Covid operation.
California is ground zero for the death dance of the Democratic Party. Symptoms are popping up all over the country, of course. Just this week, the FBI raided the headquarters of Virginia State Senator pro tempore L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) — and also raided the marijuana shop she co-owns next door to her HQ. The SCOTUS decision on Congressional redistricting has thrown many states’ Democratic Party outposts into a fugue of terror as they stand to lose as many as a dozen seats in Congress. DOJ prosecutions are underway against prominent Democrats in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Many of their heroes could go to prison. Panic has set in. The Democratic Party as we know it these days is not long for this world.
Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 13:20Authored by Jacob Burg & Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours - the ALFstein files),
Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizeable” object close to the moon with a “fairly bright light source” that they described as a “possible laser,” in a newly released post-mission crew debriefing from NASA.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command reported a UAP that resembled a football-shaped body near Japan in 2024. The image was released on May 8, 2026. Department of WarThat document, along with videos and images of unknown objects in airspace from nearly all corners of the globe, was included in newly released files from the Pentagon related to the U.S. government’s investigations into unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The first tranche of files was released on May 8.
“As for my promise to you, the Department of War has released the first tranche of the UFO/UAP files to the Public for their review and study,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media Friday morning.
“With these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”
While the Pentagon had been increasingly declassifying various UFO and UAP files throughout the past decade, Trump threw the topic back into public focus when he suggested in February that a document release could be coming soon.
The first batch of released files includes FBI interviews and internal communications, State Department cables, NASA crew transcripts, and videos of potential UFOs.
Here are five highlights from a partial review of the new file release.
Moon SightingsThe newly released documents reveal that NASA astronauts encountered a series of unexplained phenomena during multiple Apollo missions.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported witnessing a “fairly bright light source” which he described as a “possible laser” while in lunar orbit, according to a previously confidential crew debriefing of Apollo 11 taken on July 31, 1969.
The Apollo 12 flight crew observed two separate incidents of an “unidentified phenomenon” in November 1969.
Apollo 12 astronaut Alan L. Bean described observing particles of light “sailing off in space,” that looked as if they were “escaping the Moon.” Charles “Pete” Conrad made a separate observation of seeing floating debris outside the lunar module.
Apollo 17 astronauts reported three different unexplained events on three separate days of their 1972 mission.
Harrison “Jack” Schmitt said he observed a flash on the lunar surface north of the Grimaldi crater. He described it as a “thin streak of light.”
Schmitt experienced another unexplained event with Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, as they observed “very bright particles or fragments” drifting and “tumbling” near the spacecraft.
“There’s a whole bunce (sic) of big ones on my window down there—just bright,” Schmitt said. “It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”
In a separate incident on the same Apollo 17 mission, Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan said he experienced an intense, “imposing” light flashing between his eyes like it was a train headlight.
Amid those sightings, the astronauts took a photo of what appeared to be three dots in a triangular formation in the sky above the moon. NASA noted that while the image has been released previously, “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.”
A NASA file photo from the Apollo 17 Mission, taken in December 1972, shows an unidentified anomalous phenomenon in the sky above the moon. Courtesy of the Pentagon ‘Eight-Pointed Star’The Epoch Times reviewed all the videos included in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release. Potentially the most striking video came from U.S. Central Command in 2013, which shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.”
The object appears to be hovering in the one-minute forty-six-second video.
A newly released video of a potential UAP by the Pentagon shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.” Screenshot by The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the PentagonU.S. Central Command reported another potential UFO that was filmed from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2022. The report described the object as a “possible missile” quickly moving across the field of view.
In a third video, another U.S. military infrared sensor films two bright objects that seemingly track across the sky in formation. The objects appear with high contrast against the sky’s backdrop.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a video from 2024 to the Pentagon that was also filmed with an infrared sensor, tracking a potential UFO through an area containing multiple windmills.
FBI Probes Multi-Witness SightingThe file dump included multiple heavily redacted FBI interview reports from a multi-witness sighting at an unknown U.S. testing facility in September 2023.
In one report, a woman describes a strange series of events that occurred one morning when she and several government contractors were working on a special project under restricted airspace.
While trying to enter a remote-controlled gate at the undisclosed U.S. testing facility, the gate “opened just a little and then closed on three separate tries” before finally opening on the fourth attempt.
The report said the gate had zero operational issues before or after the incident occurred.
As the woman’s vehicle drove through the gate entrance, she “looked up and saw a cigar-shaped object with an extremely bright light” anywhere between 500 and 3000 feet above the nearest treeline.
She described it as “metallic bronze in color” and the length of two to three Black Hawk helicopters “lined up nose to tail.” The woman and another unnamed contractor watched the object for five to 10 seconds before it disappeared, leaving no contrails.
The FBI included a composite sketch of the reported object.
An FBI composite sketch of a UAP reported by multiple witnesses over an undisclosed U.S. testing facility in September 2023. Screenshot by The Epoch Times/Courtesy of the PentagonThese were not the only witnesses. The FBI interviewed a drone pilot operating near the same testing facility who also claimed to see the object, and other redacted witnesses driving towards the facility that day who saw it as well.
‘Cobalt Ray’ TelegramOne of the seemingly strangest documents seen thus far by The Epoch Times in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release is an internal FBI memo from 1967, sent from the Bureau’s legal attaché in Mexico City to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Marked as “classified SECRET,” the memo reproduces a telegram sent to Mexico’s Federal Security Police by a W.R. Hanawalt, who reportedly sent it from Harlingen, Texas, in December 1966.
Hanawalt tells of a strange technological object that he describes as a “laser ray, or cobalt ray” that is “self-enshrouding” and “similar in use to a cocoon around a silk worm.” He says the ray can enclose a person’s entire nervous system, allowing the operator to produce “visions of flying objects.”
“Breathing and heartbeat can be absolutely manipulated—your lie detector tests can be positively controlled without your knowledge,” Hanawalt writes, adding that the ray can manipulate a person’s five senses.
“They have infiltrated almost every business level,” he says, referring to those who operate the alleged technology.
“I have stated the possibility of premeditated murder from the standpoint of the operator, his vehicle and add to this the same conditions for the other vehicles involved. These are manipulated by the ‘rotten apples’ in the barrel of any Federal security arm, who are untouchable because of betrayal of Federal top secrets they have sworn to defend,” Hanawalt adds.
Other than the “SECRET” stamps on the document and barely legible handwritten notes, the only notation from the FBI is that the Bureau had no information in its files on Hanawalt.
‘Bright Light of Enormous Intensity’The trove of files also included multiple State Department cables and documents.
In one cable, dated Jan. 31, 1994, an object was reportedly seen over Kazakhstan by Tajik air pilots, who described it as a “bright light of enormous intensity” that approached them from over the horizon.
“They watched the object for some forty minutes as it maneuvered in circles, corkscrews, and made 90-degree turns at rapid rates of speed and under very high [G-forces],” the cable said. “After some time, the object adopted a horizontal high-speed course and disappeared over the horizon.”
The captain took photos of the object with a pocket Olympus camera. Those photos were not included with the report.
In another State Department cable dated Jan. 28, 1985, a “high-altitude, high-speed aircraft” was observed over Papua New Guinea by the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby.
Local residents reportedly became frightened by unidentified aerial objects flying overhead. The reports described “fast-moving objects with lights, contrails, and noise.”
A pilot reported seeing an aircraft on radar “flying south to north at high altitude and high speed.”
The State Department told Papua New Guinea’s National Intelligence Organization that it knew of no overflights of U.S. military B-52s, or U.S. aircraft in the area on the night of the reported incidents.
Tyler Durden Sat, 05/09/2026 - 12:50