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President Donald Trump's sudden change of policy on reopening the Strait of Hormuz has angered Gulf allies and changed how they view the United States amid the Iran war, an expert said on Thursday. Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief of Foreign Policy Magazine, told MS NOW that Trump's decision followed Saudi Arabia's move to suspend the U.S. military's ability to use its bases and airspaces for the ongoing military operation. The key Gulf ally's decision was a response to "Project Freedom," which Trump announced on his Truth Social platform over the weekend — without discussion among the regional allies. The backlash has had real ramifications, Agrawal argued."It is embarrassing," Agrawal said. "I mean, not only this, but you could go further back and say it's embarrassing that the United States went into this war without the backing of any of these countries in the region. None of the Gulf countries wanted this war to take place, even though they are the ones that have been in literally in the line of fire right from day one, and not only in the line of fire, because they just happen to be there, but specifically because they are home to U.S. bases. And that, in a sense, puts a target on their backs. And so Iran is attacking countries for their allegiance and alliances with the United States. And I think if you step back and look at the broader repercussions that are emerging from this, the countries in the region trust the United States less the fractures within the Gulf countries that Inzamam [Rashid] was referring to are growing." Agrawal suggested more fractures could be brewing as a result."The UAE and Saudi Arabia are increasingly not seeing eye to eye," Agrawal added. "The UAE recently pulled out of OPEC, the oil exporters' cartel. And then when you broaden that out further, Pakistan, of course, in South Asia, India, other countries that are deeply affected by this crisis, Katie, we're now looking at a world in which each of these countries are looking to strike side deals with each other, trying to work around a system and rules that they see as no longer really working with no real broker that they trust, with no broader system umbrella like the United Nations that actually functions. This is the disorder that many of us have been predicting for quite a while, and a lot of it stems from a United States that is increasingly acting like a rogue superpower."

Right-wing influencers were spreading conspiracy theories about the rat-borne illness that has left three luxury cruise ship passengers dead, according to reports on Thursday. Experts from the World Health Organization have said that the hantavirus outbreak on MV Hondius is being transmitted human-to-human and that MAGA social media accounts are now suggesting the virus was purposefully introduced to the passengers, The Daily Beast reported. The ship has been stranded off Cape Verde throughout the week but is now back to sailing with the plan to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands starting on Monday. Eight confirmed cases have been connected to the cruise, prompting medical evacuations in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. MAGA followers were sharing their unfounded claims."HOLY S---. Twenty-three hantavirus cruise passengers returned home to ‘all corners’ of the World even America with one person already sick, per NYP. THEY ARE GOING TO TRY AND DO IT AGAIN. BUCKLE UP…” the MAGAVoice wrote on X. The account has 1.3 million followers and later shared this post: "Strange how viruses only occur when President Trump is in office and during Elections…"DC Draino, an account run by MAGA influencer and lawyer Rogan O’Handley with more than 2.3 million followers, expressed doubt about the WHO's updates."People on X giving better pandemic advice than everyone at WHO combined," DC Draino wrote on X.Right-wing commentator 01Hour wrote this on X: "If an outbreak happens on a ship. Leave it on the ship. Bring the doctors on the ship with equipment and make it a floating ICU. Did they learn nothing?"

President Donald Trump's decision to send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to meet with Pope Leo shows Trump may be interested in pitting his Cabinet members against each other, according to a report on Thursday. The president's "mission impossible" for Rubio has raised questions about loyalties in the Trump administration — not necessarily healing strained ties with the Vatican, reported David Gardner for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack."As serious as it is to watch Donald Trump destroy the dignity of his office, it is amusing to watch him play with his Cabinet with the same vicious glee he once treated celebrities on The Apprentice," according to The Swamp. The move was questionable, especially after one of his top aides had urged Trump to pay attention to MAGA voters' top domestic concerns. "Why else would he send Marco Rubio to the Vatican one week after Susie Wiles begged Trumpers to stay in the country and focus on persuading MAGA voters that all is well and America really is first?" The Swamp reported.Rubio's visit followed weeks of feuding between the commander-in-chief and global leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Trump has thrown a slew of attacks at Pope Leo, and even said he prefers his older brother, a Florida resident. "I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Trump's decision to send Rubio reportedly signals another potential ploy — and where the president's ally stands in the administration. "Rubio feels like the grown-up in the administration," according to The Swamp. "He stood in for Karoline Leavitt with aplomb last week and has managed to side-step Trump’s more insane behavior better than suck-ups like Pete Hegseth, Howard Lutnick, and even Scott Bessent. The president has clearly sided with his one-time presidential nomination rival over the more ardently opportunistic JD Vance.""But the Vatican mission may suggest that, with the Iran War back on the shelf, Trump has decided to amuse himself by playing with his would-be successors," The Swamp reported. "Expect a Truth Social post any minute, blowing up any efforts Rubio may be making this morning to persuade the pope that the U.S. embarked on a 'just war.'"

A bombshell CIA memo distributed to administration policymakers the week revealed that Iran is in a far stronger military and economic position than President Trump has publicly claimed — directly contradicting the president's rosy assessments about the state of the war.According to a Washington Post report, the leaked classified intelligence assessment found that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing severe economic hardship — significantly longer than the White House has suggested.More critically, the Post is reporting, the CIA determined that Tehran retains substantial ballistic missile capabilities despite weeks of intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment. Iran has maintained approximately 75 percent of its prewar inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its prewar stockpiles of missiles, according to a U.S. official familiar with the assessment.The intelligence community found evidence that the Iranian regime has been able to recover and reopen almost all of its underground storage facilities, repair some damaged missiles, and even assemble new missiles that were nearly complete when the war began, the report notes.The CIA's more sobering assessment stands in sharp contrast to Trump's public statements. On Wednesday, Trump claimed Iran's missile capabilities had been devastated, telling reporters: "Their missiles are mostly decimated, they have probably 18, 19 percent, but not a lot by comparison to what they had."The president's claim that Iran retains only 18-19 percent of its original missile inventory directly contradicts the intelligence community's findings that Tehran maintains around 70-75 percent.One U.S. official who spoke to the Post suggested the CIA estimate may even be optimistic about Iran's vulnerability. "The leadership has gotten more radical, determined and increasingly confident they can outlast U.S. political will and sustain domestic repression to check any resistance" inside Iran."Comparatively, you see similar regimes lasting years under sustained embargoes and airpower-only wars," the official told the Post and suggested that Iran could endure prolonged economic hardship far longer than the administration has publicly indicated.Three current and one former U.S. official confirmed the intelligence assessment's outlines to the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Mamata Banerjee says Narendra Modi’s party ‘forcefully captured’ election that ended her party’s 15 years in powerA political showdown is taking place in the Indian state of West Bengal as the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, India’s most powerful female politician, has refused to resign after she lost elections to the prime minister’s party this week.Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won an overwhelming victory on Monday in state elections in West Bengal, where Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) have been in power for 15 years. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump suggested a possible deal might be on the table to end the war in Iran.The 79-year-old president sent out a Truth Social post Wednesday morning following a flurry of developments this week, such as the start and quick end to Project Freedom, an effort to ensure safe passage for commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and reports that the White House believes it's close to an agreement with Iran."Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," Trump posted. "If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported that Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are negotiating on a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding with several Iranian officials."Among other provisions, the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, the U.S. agreeing to lift its sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian funds, and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the Strait of Hormuz," Axios reported."Many of the terms laid out in the memo would be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which the hot war has stopped but nothing is truly resolved," the report added.

Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul admitted he was startled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the war with Iran over at a time when hostilities continued and no agreement is in place in particular with regard to future nuclear capabilities.Speaking with the hosts of “Morning Joe,” McFaul noted Rubio’s remark that “The Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. I'm not going to, you know - we're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What the president would prefer is a deal.”“I’ve got to tell you, honestly, I was completely shocked by what Secretary Rubio said yesterday,” he admitted. “When I saw it on some feed, I couldn't believe it that he was brought — and whether he works at the White House or State Department, it's kind of confusing, right? But there he was, alone, not with the president, by the way, declaring the end of the war that they launched without achieving any of those objectives that Joe [Scarborough] outlined from the centerpiece; none of them, and especially on the nuclear weapons deal. That they've got nothing but a commitment to negotiate in the future. After a one-page memorandum, a memorandum of understanding.”“This is a an epic defeat,” he stated. “In fact, I'm going to make a prediction: I think it's so epic that they're going to reverse it, because they're going to look at this and say, we cannot defend this. And the president's going to change his mind again.” - YouTube youtu.be

An offhand comment about the war in Iran by Vice President JD Vance during a speech in Iowa on Tuesday set off a chorus of harsh criticism on MS NOW on Wednesday morning.The vice president spoke at a manufacturing facility during a rally to boost the candidacy of Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R) and, while downplaying the economic devastation being visited on US consumers by the war, he awkwardly admitted, "We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices. I'm aware of that. As the president of the United States has said, we got a little blip in the Middle East. We gotta take care of some business on the foreign policy side."The panel on “Morning Joe” was quick to pounce on Vance’s dismissive comments.Co-host Willie Gest, speaking with conservative columnist David French, prompted his guest with, “We had two days ago the president of the United States calling this a ‘mini war. ‘Yesterday you had Vice President Vance calling this a blip. I think everyone who's lost a family member in this war, or who's now paying $4.50 a gallon on national average, or much more in many states, would consider it much more than a blip. They're trying to sort of minimize and diminish the war and in many ways, wish it away.”“You know, it's very clear at this point that it looks like Trump was essentially sold a bill of goods that he thought, and he keeps using the Venezuela comparison, we've heard it that he thought what he was getting was going to be a short and glorious and victorious military operation and he hadn't thought this through," French noted.Co-host Joe Scarborough turned the conversation back to Vance’s remark.“Over 100 school children being killed the first day of the war is a blip, up to maybe 10,000, 15,000 Iranians being killed, JD Vance is calling a blip,” he recited. “You have JD Vance calling a blip entire communities in Lebanon being wiped off the face of the earth. I mean, how would JD Vance feel if his community that he grew up in didn't have a building left standing? That's what's happening in Lebanon, all across Lebanon, because of this, quote, ‘blip.’”“That's what's happening in Iran because of this blip,” he added. “And as you say, people across the world are paying for this day in and day out with an economy that's getting worse. And of course, I guess only people like me worry about spending money and the national debt, but this war has already cost us $250 billion at minimum.”“If this is what JD Vance calls a, quote, ‘blip,’ well, then JD Vance is not a serious person. He's not a compassionate person. He's certainly — the lack of humanity calling this something that caused this much suffering a blip speaks volumes.” - YouTube youtu.be