🇦🇪🇸🇦🇮🇷🇺🇸⚡️ — The UAE has quit OPEC and is drifting further apart from Saudi Arabia, exposing a deepening rift between the two key U.S. allies as the Iran war reshapes regional dynamics, Axios reports.

➡️ The split reflects growing disagreements over the regional conflict, economic strategy, and leadership rivalries.

➡️ The fallout is also affecting major investments and alliances. Multibillion-dollar projects—such as data centers—are now in doubt after Iranian strikes highlighted security risks.

➡️ The UAE is strengthening ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, while Saudi Arabia is leaning more toward partners like Turkey and Pakistan.

➡️ The Trump administration has avoided taking sides, raising concerns among officials that Washington’s two most important Arab partners could emerge from the war more divided and adversarial than before.

The Trump administration was slow to grasp how serious the rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia had become — and chose not to get involved as it deepened, U.S. and regional sources told Axios.

🇮🇷❌🇺🇸 — Tasnim reports that The Iranian navy says they fired cruise missiles and drones near US Navy vessels after they ignored warnings to not enter the Strait of Hormuz

🇺🇸🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 — 6 IRGC Navy small boats were destroyed and sank this morning by US Navy while trying to attack commercial ships, according to US CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper

🇮🇱❌🇱🇧 — Israel is carrying out widespread destruction in southern Lebanon, leveling border towns such as Bint Jbeil, under the so-called “Gaza model," NYT writes.

➡️ Satellite imagery shows dozens of villages heavily damaged or reduced to rubble since fighting with Hezbollah resumed in March.

➡️ Entire neighborhoods—including homes, schools, hospitals, and utilities—have been destroyed, with some areas turned into what observers describe as “moonscapes.”

➡️ Israeli attacks have killed more than 2,600 people in Lebanon and displaced over one million.

➡️ Israel says the campaign targets Hezbollah infrastructure embedded in civilian areas and is conducted in line with international law. Meanwhile, legal experts and human rights groups argue that widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure without clear military necessity constitutes war crimes.

➡️ For displaced residents, entire communities have been erased, leaving uncertainty about when—or if—they can return.