A $2M missile vs. a $2,000 drone.

As American warships rack up kills against Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea, Pentagon officials are increasingly alarmed not just at the threat to U.S. naval forces and international shipping — but at the growing cost of keeping them safe.

U.S. Navy destroyers have shot down 38 drones and multiple missiles in the Red Sea over the past two months. On Saturday alone, the destroyer USS Carney intercepted 14 one-way attack drones.

The cost of using expensive naval missiles — which can run up to $2.1 million a shot — to destroy unsophisticated Houthi drones — estimated at a few thousand dollars each — is a growing concern.

Source: POLITICO

Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump “cannot run for president next year in the state”, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.

Trump campaign called the decision anti-democratic and vowed to appeal.  

It is the first ever use of Section 3 of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment to disqualify a presidential candidate.

Israel is offering to pause the fighting in Gaza for at least one week as part of a new deal to get Hamas to release more than three dozen hostages the terror group is holding, Axios reports.

A pause of at least a week in the fighting in exchange for the release of about 40 hostages.

An unspecified number of Palestinians would also be released under the deal.

Malaysia blocks Israeli-based shipping company ZIM from docking at any Malaysian port.

The US and its allies are considering possible military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, Bloomberg reports.

Planning is underway for actions intended to cripple the Houthis’ ability to target commercial ships by hitting the militant group at the source.

Sources underscored that the US still wants diplomacy to work and hasn’t decided to go ahead.

Gaza is being wiped off the face of the earth by Israel.

U.S. Military Returns to the Jungle, Training for a Very Different Threat, NYT reports.

Far from the deserts of the Middle East, the U.S. Army is instructing troops in Hawaii on the skills needed for a potential clash with China.

Russian-speaking IDF soldiers in Gaza.

Israeli woman Stella Sambrano appeals to Turkish President Erdogan for the release of her grandchild (Jonatan) held by Hamas in Gaza:

I was born in Istanbul. We love Erdogan very much. We love Türkiye and Istanbul very much. As a grandmother, I beg him to bring the children back. Please, help us. We know he's merciful.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim:

We have banned all Israeli-flagged ships from entering our territorial waters and Israeli-bound ships from docking in our ports.

This action is a concrete response to Israel's crimes against the people of Gaza in defiance of all human values.

IDF destroyed 56 buildings at once in Shejaiya, eastern Gaza this morning with explosives.

Washington Post removed a seperate "War in Ukraine" section from its website.

German Journalist Julian Röpcke:

My contacts within Ukrainian Army tell me: It's not just that there's a lack of 155 and 152mm artillery shells - nothing works anymore.

The Western self-propelled howitzers are not made for a real, long war, but only for short missions.

Ukrainian defense industry produced about 50,000 FPV drones and plans to produce thousands of medium- and long-range strike drones.

Ukraine will produce a million FPV drones next year.

In the event that the Ukrainian industry maintains the production rate at the level of 50K units per month, in 2024 it will be able to produce 600K drones.

IDF has been heavily bombing Rafah, southern Gaza today.

Footage of the operational evacuation of wounded/killed Israeli soldiers by IDF CH-53 helicopter directly from the battlefield in Gaza.

Hamas's almost complete lack of air defense allows the IDF to carry out such maneuvers directly near the contact line.

New Hamas clash footage from Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Breaking Baykar UAV family's record for staying in the air with 32 hours of flight, Turkish Bayraktar TB3 UCAV covered a distance of 5,700 kilometers in a single sortie during its 13th flight test.

UN calls for investigation into executions of unarmed Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Latest Gaza toll:

20,057 killed.
53,320 injured.

‘Not seen since Vietnam’: Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza.

Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away, analysis by CNN and artificial intelligence company Synthetaic suggests.

Satellite imagery from those early days of the war reveals more than 500 impact craters over 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter, consistent with those left behind by 2,000-pound bombs.

Those are four times heavier than the largest bombs the United States dropped on ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, during the war against the extremist group there.