Trump White House rejects hearing about Iran's resilience

• For the 2nd consecutive day, the US has not launched any attack on Iran. Iranian government sources assess the silence of the past couple days as a prelude to the intensification of attacks on Iran.
• The Islander: Trump’s overnight “pause” on the Iran bombing run is not diplomacy. It’s the sound of the Empire of Chaos hitting the industrial brick wall at full throttle, then pretending it chose to downshift for a photo op via Omani intermediaries in Tehran. Axios can recycle the same sources all weekend about an “offramp” and a possible weekend deal to reopen Hormuz, but the real arithmetic is written in the empty canisters of PAC-3 and THAAD interceptors already expended. Between the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury and the latest two week night and day campaign, the US has fired circa 1,500 Patriot interceptors — more than half the pre-war reported stockpile of 2,300. Lockheed’s production line, even after the exorbitant emergency contracts, is still crawling at 620 missiles a year, shared with every desperate basket case "ally" from Ukraine to the Gulf.

• Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary, Zolqadr: Every column of smoke rising in the region signifies that a US military, security, or financial facility has been struck. The continuous and precise strikes of our fighters are the lashes of the risen Iranian nation’s fury, descending upon the back of the system of domination. God willing, they will continue until the enemy completely surrenders and vengeance is taken for the blood of the innocent children of Minab, Lamerd, and others.
• Iran published high-res satellite images of the complete destruction of a US ammunition depot at the King Faisal Air Base, after Iranian missiles struck the base, in Jordan. 

• The US officials, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic, said the US cannot sustain the rate at which it expended precision munitions early in the campaign against Iran. Rumors are spreading across the administration that the Pentagon is concealing a shortage of interceptor missiles, which are needed to resume the war. There are also suggestions that the White House does not want to know about the scale of the shortfall. Sharing “bad news, or realistic news, doesn’t seem to end well for anybody”, an insider told The Telegraph. Another said a “culture of silence” was causing problems for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary.

• Iran has quickly rebuilt infrastructure damaged during the US and Israeli bombing campaign over recent months, from missile bases nestled deep inside mountains to bridges, ports and production facilities, according to Israeli and Western officials and a review of satellite imagery. 

• The Kheibar Shekan missile is the workhorse of Tehran’s arsenal—a cheap, mobile, accurate weapon with a range of at least 900 miles. And recently, Iran has been using it in complex attacks, proving itself to be an adaptable adversary for the US. Since the fighting picked back up this month, Iran has been firing the Kheibar Shekan at American bases, US officials said. It is using a combination of different flight paths, maneuvers and speeds to try to confuse US defenses, they say. 

• Yemen bombed ARAMCO: Yemen’s AnsarAllah struck the ARAMCO refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia in retaliation for their attacks against Al Hodeidah port. Sirens were also additionally activated at Yanbu where the east-west pipeline goes through but there’s no visuals of any attack there at this moment. The air defenses at Saudi Arabia could not protect the Yemeni missiles. Not even with the Patriot PAC-3 air defense battery deployed at Jazan by the Greeks.

• A group of Mexican environmental activists held a peaceful protest in the Gulf of Mexico, calling on authorities to investigate the environmental impact of SpaceX’s Starship test flights. The demonstration was organized after a recent Starship test in which the Super Heavy booster broke apart during its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The activists argue that repeated incidents will affect Mexico’s marine ecosystem and are urging the government to take action. The protesters carried banners reading “Mexico Is Not SpaceX’s Space Dumpster” and called for greater protection of the Gulf and Mexico’s coastal waters. The protest follows similar demonstrations held over the past year by the same environmental group. 

• Germany and France have conducted their first concrete exercises to test cooperation on potential French nuclear weapons deployments. On Friday the Franco-German Defence and Security Council held a meeting at Nörvenich Air Base, south-west of Cologne. The occasion was used for joint exercises in which two Mirage fighter jets from France’s nuclear forces and two German Eurofighters performed coordinated flight operations, including aerial refueling. The deployment of German military personnel as observers on a French nuclear maneuver is planned for this autumn. The underlying military doctrine, called by the French ‘forward deterrence’ (‘dissuasion avancée’), was introduced by President Emmanuel Macron and publicly unveiled on 2 March.

• Sovereignista: Brazil denied visa requests for two Trump administration officials who planned to travel there to question the integrity of the country’s electoral system, according to two Brazilian officials cited by Reuters. The signal is clear,  Washington still treats Latin American sovereignty as negotiable when domestic politics can be exported abroad. Brazil’s move suggests a hard limit on outside pressure and a growing refusal to indulge US political interference dressed up as official engagement. This may be a new trend in the Latin Americas. We have Nicaragua changing its election laws (we don’t know to what yet) to ensure that the type of empire election meddling cannot happen.

• 70% of Germans don’t trust their own army to defend the country: A new YouGov poll drops a hard truth: seven out of ten Germans have no confidence the Bundeswehr could actually protect the nation if attacked. Germany is rapidly losing industrial jobs and competitiveness, Federation of German Industries (BDI) chief Tanja Goenner has warned, describing the situation as “critical.” Most honest analysts link the decline to the permanent loss of cheap Russian gas following Ukraine-related sanctions. For decades, Germany relied on Russia for more than half of its natural gas, but the self-imposed embargo forced it to replace those supplies with more expensive LNG imports and pipeline gas from the US and European neighbors, locking in significantly higher energy costs.