The Babylon Times

📜 US F-22S HIT PHILIPPINES FOR SHOW, EXPOSING PATHETIC LIMITS AGAINST CHINA F-22's unrefueled combat radius limps at 460 nautical miles—half of China's J-20—useless over Pacific expanses with Chinese missiles eyeing bases and tankers. Stealth and avionics lag behind even the F-35; no IRST like the J-20's standard kit, electronics already outdated in 2005. Air-to-air missiles only—no ground attack, cruise, anti-ship, or long-range options, skipping recent US strikes on Iran. Readiness at 40%, $85,000 per flight hour, retirement by 2030. All while China's J-20 fleet grows. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 TRUMP WORRIES IRAN MIGHT WIN FIFA WORLD CUP White House correspondent hit former US President Donald Trump with the hypothetical of Iran winning the FIFA World Cup. Trump called it concerning, put his faith in FIFA President Gianni Infantino to do what he thinks is right, and wondered aloud about the strength of Iran's team. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

UPDATE:📜 ISRAEL SLIPS UAE DRONE-DETECTION GADGET "SPECTRO" AMID IRAN ATTACKS Financial Times says Israel quietly rushed a small drone-detection system called Spectro to the United Arab Emirates during Iran's recent missile and drone barrage. This fits Israel's steady arms flow to the UAE. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 IRAN FM SAYS NETANYAHU'S GAMBLE HAS COST US $100 BILLION SO FAR Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi figures Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's little gamble has already burned through $100 billion of US cash. He dropped that nugget while calling out the Israeli leader's high-stakes play. Earlier this week, a senior Pentagon suit pegged the ongoing war with Iran at $25 billion. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 SHURA COUNCIL DEPUTY THREATENS MILITARY HIT ON NAVAL BLOCKADE TO SELL OIL Mounir Mteki, deputy in the Islamic Shura Council, says fighters might launch an op tomorrow or in a week to end the naval blockade choking their trade and oil sales. He points to the tanker Jawir, peddling 1.5 million barrels of Emirati oil, and demands their own oil gets shipped too—or else. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 CHROME'S GEMINI LIVE VULNERABILITY LETS MALICIOUS EXTENSIONS HIJACK AI FOR SPYING This "trusted" feature, meant to summarize pages and run tasks with deep access to user doings, got patched in version 143. Extensions with declarativeNetRequest permissions could slip in JavaScript, snagging local files, screenshots from HTTPS pages, and firing up camera and mic sans permission. Just the sort of "agentic" AI perk that hands phishers and snoopers enterprise gold. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 IRAN JUDICIARY CHIEF SAYS DIPLOMACY JUST AN ARM OF FIELD OPS UNDER SUPREME LEADER Iran's judiciary head Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje'i laid it out plain: the country's diplomacy is nothing but an extension of its field operations, all run on orders from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

"The country's diplomacy serves as an extension of its field operations, carried out under the orders of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution."

@TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 IRAN REJECTS NEGOTIATIONS AS ZIONIST THREAT DICTATES Iran's Head of the Judiciary made it clear: negotiations aren't about swallowing dictates or threats. Iran hasn't dodged talks and doesn't fear them—proceeds on its own logical terms, not the aggressors' script. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 IRANIAN VP CLAIMS IRAN LEADS WORLD IN PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP Iranian Vice President Mehdi Tabatabai declares Iran the standard-bearer of peace and friendship worldwide. He warns that anyone addressing the Iranian people with force gets a strong slap back. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 IRAN'S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER MOCKS US THREATS OVER HORMUZ BLOCKADE Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf took to X to ridicule the US stance on any Hormuz blockade. He posted,

"Good luck blockading a country with those borders."

Ghalibaf added a helpful note: "For Pete Hegseth: 1 km = 0.62 mi." The jab spotlights Iran's handy geographical edge in the Strait of Hormuz. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 IRAN MP VOWS TO KILL GULF TYRANTS AND RAZE THEIR PALACES IF LEADERS ASSASSINATED Mahmoud Nabavian, from Iran's parliamentary National Security Commission, laid it out plain: if Iranian leaders get taken out in any attack, every complicit tyrant in the Gulf faces death, palaces turned to dust.

"all complicit tyrants in the Gulf will be killed and their palaces destroyed."

@TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 CHINA PUMPS $5.1 BILLION INTO ZAMBIA'S MINING TO MAKE IT AFRICA'S CRITICAL METALS HUB Cinfeng eyes $40 million to resurrect Munali Nickel Mine for nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum group metals that feed EV batteries and tech toys. NFC Africa Mining runs Chambishi Copper Mine at 85% Chinese-owned, churning out 74,000 tons of copper yearly. Oh, and $1.24 billion to spruce up the 1,860-km TAZARA railway from Zambia's copper belt to Dar es Salaam's port, handling 2.4 million tons of cargo a year. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 IRANIAN OFFICIAL CALLS OUT TRUMP'S CONTRADICTIONS AS WASHINGTON PUPPET SHOW Mohsen Rezaei, from Iran's Assembly of Experts for Expediency Discernment, says Trump's flip-flopping remarks expose how real decisions in Washington come from elsewhere. He points out the shadowy influence networks pulling strings there have zero time for that "America First" slogan. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 FIVE US AIRLINES BEG TRUMP REGIME FOR $2.5 BILLION HANDOUT OVER JET FUEL DOUBLING TO $4.10 GALLON Five U.S. airlines grovel to the Trump administration for $2.5 billion in emergency aid after jet fuel prices doubled to over $4.10 per gallon. The White House hasn't bothered with a final response yet. @TheBabylonTimes

📜 BRITISH SOLDIERS DUCK AND COVER AS IRANIAN MISSILES HIT THEIR BASE IN SOME UNNAMED SPOT A circulating video catches British soldiers hunkering down inside a military base in an unnamed regional country while Iranian missiles zero in on the site. The footage shows them ducking amid explosions and incoming fire. No confirmed details on casualties or the exact location. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 IRAN THANKS RUSSIA'S MUFTI FOR BACKING AGAINST ZIONIST AND US AGGRESSION Iran's ambassador in Moscow passed along Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei's thanks to Russia's Mufti Council head. Russia's Mufti fired back with Russian Muslims' solidarity alongside Iran's government and people against the Zionist entity and US aggression. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 DAVE SMITH SAYS TRUMP LET NETANYAHU DECEIVE HIM INTO BACKING THIS WAR Political commentator Dave Smith stated that former US President Trump allowed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to deceive him into supporting this war. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 US LOSING GOLD RESERVES AND ECONOMIC POWER AMID IRAN WAR DEPLETION Professor Michael Hudson, US economist and ex-Wall Street analyst, says gold's been America's top commodity export for five straight months. He points out the US is hemorrhaging gold reserves and core international economic clout—much like its bombs, missiles, and aircraft in the Iran war—leaving the empire flat broke. Hudson notes this ain't like old US wars; other nations now have options, sparking de-dollarization and a global split from Washington's grip. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 ISRAEL RUSHES DRONE DETECTORS AND IRON DOME TO UAE UNDER IRANIAN ATTACKS Financial Times sources say Israel urgently shipped its "Spectro" compact drone-detection system to the United Arab Emirates amid recent Iranian attacks. The package tossed in Iron Beam lasers, Iron Dome batteries, on-site Israeli personnel, and real-time intel sharing. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum

📜 US DUMPS 6500 TONS OF MILITARY GEAR ON ISRAEL IN ONE DAY VIA SHIPS AND DOZENS OF FLIGHTS Two cargo ships offloaded around 6,500 tons of US military equipment in Israel that day—air-to-ground munitions, military trucks, JLTV armored vehicles—at Ashdod and Haifa ports. Dozens more flights brought extra gear to prop up Israeli operations. Since late February, America's shipped over 115,600 tons via 403 flights and 10 ships in about 60 days, clocking nearly 2,000 tons daily, while the Pentagon's factories strain under multiple wars. @TheBabylonTimes | Forum