The Navy's Payroll Raid

Weekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Good news on Sundays. All sources labeled.THE KUHESTAK STRIKEThe United States and Iran traded their heaviest exchange of fire in more than a month on Tuesday, and the fighting has not slowed since. US Central Command said it struck Iranian military sites across at least nine locations. Named sites included Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Chabahar, Jask, Sirik, Konarak, Asaluyeh, Ahvaz, and Lavan Island. Iranian officials said 11 people were killed in the initial wave. Khuzestan’s deputy governor, Valiollah Hayati, told Iran’s state news agency IRNA that strikes hit three other locations in the province. He said a further seven people were killed and eight wounded there.One of those strikes hit a wedding in the town of Kuhestak, in Sirik County. The province’s deputy governor initially told Iranian state television that five people were killed. By Wednesday, IRNA and state TV had settled on a different count. Four were dead, two women and two children aged 4 and 16, with at least 68 wounded. No explanation was given for the change. The Hormozgan governor’s office named the four victims. They were four-year-old Amir Ali Karimi, sixteen-year-old Mohammad Malahi, and two women in their forties, Kolsoum Malahi and Zarkhatoun Taheri. Weapons experts examining fragments from the site told Al Jazeera the munition was likely a variant of the AGM-84K SLAM-ER, a Boeing-made precision cruise missile. Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows a direct hit on the building where the wedding was taking place. The strike tore a roughly 5-foot crater through the floor. Multiple witnesses at the scene, speaking to state media, described a purely civilian gathering with no military structure nearby. Iran’s Red Crescent Society has formally written to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeking legal action over the strike.Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a formal statement Tuesday evening calling the strike a “barbaric war crime” and “a gross violation” of international law. CENTCOM’s own position shifted over the following day. On Tuesday evening, spokesperson Tim Hawkins said only that CENTCOM was aware of the reports. By Wednesday, he had moved further, telling reporters the reports “originated from Iranian state media” and were now under review. He added, “The US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC.” That is still not a denial that Kuhestak was hit, but it is a shift from dismissing the claim’s source to saying the claim is now under review. Per ROTWR’s sourcing standard, neither Iran’s account nor CENTCOM’s gets treated as settled without independent verification. Neither has fully cleared that bar yet. What is independently documented is the physical evidence: a destroyed building, a named local government casualty list, and geolocated munition fragments.Iran retaliated within hours, striking US-linked positions in four countries. The IRGC said it hit Jordan’s Camp Titin with an “intense ballistic missile attack.” It separately reported a combined missile-and-drone strike on US facilities in Erbil, in northern Iraq, claiming it destroyed a repair center and set fuel tanks alight. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify that specific claim. Bahrain activated air raid sirens after Iran claimed a strike on the Isa Air Base. Kuwait’s military said its air defenses confronted incoming Iranian drones.The weapon Iranian state broadcaster IRIB credited with much of this week’s retaliation is the Kheibar Shekan, a solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile Iran calls “Castle Breaker.” Unveiled in 2022, it has a range of roughly 1,450 kilometers. It can be launched within minutes because its fuel is preloaded, unlike older liquid-fueled missiles that require hours of preparation. Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed Wednesday that two oil tankers caught fire after striking sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. That claim has not been corroborated by the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre, the body that normally confirms such incidents first. It fits a pattern of past Iranian mine claims that were never independently verified, and it is not being treated as confirmed here.Trump escalated his own rhetoric on social media. He described the US strikes as “large and powerful.” He warned that continued Iranian retaliation would be “hit again at a much harder and higher level.” He referenced a separate, larger operation “waiting in the wings” that he said would leave Iran with “very little left.” Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said the US was prepared to strike Iran “anytime we want.” Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said his country was prepared to respond “with great force” to any Iranian attack during the upcoming Jewish High Holidays. The Gulf Cooperation Council’s secretary-general, Jassem al-Budaiwi, condemned Iran’s strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan as “a blatant violation of the autonomy of states.”Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, his first visit to the country in a decade. Both Cairo and Beijing face the threat of new US sanctions over their financial links to Iran. Xi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for a “comprehensive agreement” to end the war. In remarks carried by Chinese state media, Xi told el-Sisi that Middle Eastern countries should “oppose external interference” and remain “masters of their own affairs.” That is a statement about the limits of American influence six months into a war Washington cannot yet end. The two countries also signed an agreement expanding their joint industrial zone at the Suez Canal, adding to roughly $4 billion in existing investment. China is a major buyer of Iranian oil. It calls itself a neutral party pushing for a lasting ceasefire, even as it deepens its own regional footprint.🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Al Jazeera’s coverage of Kuhestak treated the CENTCOM statement as newsworthy for what it did not say, not for what it did. Regional reporting has repeatedly noted that CENTCOM’s public language has shifted over the course of this war. It has moved from flat denial toward more careful phrases that dispute the source of a claim without directly disputing the event itself. That shift has not been widely discussed in American coverage, which still tends to report CENTCOM statements as though they resolve the underlying factual question. On Xi’s visit, Chinese state media framed the trip as evidence that Middle Eastern nations no longer need to choose between Washington and Beijing. It cast China as a stabilizing alternative rather than a rival power. Egyptian coverage was more measured, describing the visit primarily in economic terms tied to the Suez Canal zone. That is a reminder that Cairo’s interest in China is transactional first and geopolitical second.🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: A wedding is dead center in the middle of a war your government describes in terms of shipping lanes and military targets. CENTCOM has not denied it happened. Iran retaliated against American positions in four countries within hours. Your president responded by publicly threatening to leave “very little” of another nation. A US ally facing American sanctions pressure just spent two days hosting the president of China and signing new economic agreements. The war is not just failing to end. It is actively pushing a partner further away. Sources: Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Kuhestak casualty figures, munitions analysis, ICC referral); ABC News (US — Iran’s Foreign Ministry statement, Tuesday-to-Wednesday shift in Hawkins’s statements); Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Kheibar Shekan specifications, Erbil and Bahrain claims); Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Xi-Sisi talks, Suez Canal agreement, Xi quote); Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — initial casualty count, Khuzestan deaths); Gulf News (Katz quote, GCC statement); Reuters via Yahoo (Xi’s Egypt visit, US sanctions context)JOHNSON’S IRAN REMARKHouse Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that lying is “apparently part of” some Iranians’ religion, while defending the Trump administration’s escalating war. Asked about the conflict, Johnson said Iran “cannot be trusted” in negotiations. “They’ll sit at a negotiation table and say something,” he said. “They’ll walk away and do the opposite.” Lying is explicitly forbidden under Islamic teaching. Johnson’s office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.Johnson made the remarks as public support for the war continues to erode. A University of Massachusetts poll released Monday found 54 percent of Americans disapprove of US military action against Iran. Johnson argued that allied nations, not just the US, bear responsibility for stabilizing the region. He said NATO allies and Arab states in the region “have a bigger stake” than Americans do in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: The second-most powerful elected official in the country just attributed dishonesty to an entire religion, on the record. He did it while defending a war most Americans no longer support. Nobody in his office has walked it back. Sources: Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Johnson quotes, poll figures, office non-response)THE NAVY’S PAYROLL PROBLEMA Pentagon memo reviewed by The Guardian says the Navy’s payroll accounts have developed shortfalls. The department has been drawing on them to cover the cost of the Iran war. A Navy official described the mechanics of it. Payroll money, the official said, was “robbed to pay for overseas contingencies” and is being backfilled with unspent funds from elsewhere to keep paychecks whole. Nobody has missed a paycheck. The Navy says it is currently meeting its obligations on time, and money is being moved fast enough to stay ahead of what it owes.The underlying numbers are not in dispute. The Navy’s fiscal year 2026 budget, close to $300 billion, was written before the war began. It never accounted for six months of strikes, a naval blockade, and the rate at which munitions are being consumed. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle says the Navy needs an additional $6 billion to $8 billion beyond that budget. He said that amount would make the Navy “whole and solvent.” Of a $67 billion emergency funding request currently sitting before Congress, $18.2 billion is earmarked simply to replace missiles that have already been fired. Sen. Susan Collins told a July 21 hearing that some military services face what she called “near-term solvency challenges.” Retired naval officer Harlan Ullman, a member of the National Commission for the Future of the Navy, put it more bluntly. “The piggy bank is broken,” he said.Congress has not acted on the emergency request. The House has entered a month-long recess, making action before the fiscal year ends unlikely. American Enterprise Institute defense analyst Todd Harrison said the Navy’s financial strain is an open secret inside the Pentagon. Officials, he said, are choosing not to discuss it publicly. “I suspect that is a deliberate decision of the civilian leaders in the Pentagon,” he said. He believes the silence is political, since the war has become an increasing liability. The fiscal year ends September 30. A new one begins October 1, resetting the accounting, but not the underlying shortfall, unless Congress moves before then.🌍 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: This story has received sustained coverage from outlets across the Gulf and broader Middle East. Several have framed it as evidence that the war’s financial toll on the United States is beginning to outpace what Washington planned for, or is willing to admit publicly. That framing has had little pickup in domestic American coverage, which has largely treated the story as a Pentagon budget dispute rather than a direct consequence of six months of war.🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: The country that is funding a war on the other side of the world is doing it, in part, by quietly redirecting money meant for sailors’ paychecks. Nobody has been shorted yet. The Pentagon’s own numbers show a gap measured in billions of dollars. Congress has gone on recess without addressing it, and the clock on this fiscal year is now down to weeks. Sources: Military.com (US — Navy spokesperson statement, budget figures, Hegseth comments); Al Mayadeen (Navy official quote on backfilling mechanism); Eastern Herald ($18.2bn missile replacement figure, September 30 deadline, House recess); We Got This Covered (Ullman quote, Collins quote, Harrison quote)THE WAYNESBORO SHOOTINGA 19-year-old man forced his way into Westwood Hills Elementary School in Waynesboro, Virginia, at around 9:12 a.m. Wednesday. Officers responded within three minutes of the initial call, Waynesboro Police Chief David Shaw said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. The suspect, identified as Anthony I. Ignatiadis-Isabelle of Waynesboro, was found dead in the school library from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Shaw said students were not believed to be in the library at the time. Ignatiadis-Isabelle was not a student at any Waynesboro school. Authorities have not said whether he knew the school’s staff member he shot, or had any other connection to the school.One adult staff member suffered a gunshot wound and was treated and released from a local hospital. No children were harmed. Waynesboro City Councilman Jim Wood represents the district that includes the school. He told reporters at the scene earlier in the day that the incident appeared to be “a one-on-one incident.” Shaw’s later press conference did not confirm that characterization, and police have not said publicly whether the two knew each other.All students were reunited with families at a nearby church by early afternoon. Other Waynesboro schools were briefly placed on lockdown as a precaution before it was lifted. Westwood Hills will remain closed Thursday, and additional law enforcement will be present at Waynesboro schools for the remainder of the week. Superintendent Jeffrey Cassell thanked the responding agencies and the community. “Our safety and security protocols and procedures worked,” he said. “Every student and staff member is safe and returned home to their families,” he added, asking the community to hug their families that evening. Gov. Abigail Spanberger said she was monitoring the situation and thanked first responders.🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: A 19-year-old with no known connection to the school forced his way in. He shot a staff member before killing himself. Fast action by staff and police, not luck, is why this did not become a mass-casualty event. One adult is hurt, and no children were harmed, but why he targeted this school, and this person inside it, has not been answered. Sources: Scripps News (US — press conference details, timeline, Cassell quotes); WRIC ABC 8News (US — suspect identification, library detail, non-student confirmation); Dominion Post via AP (US — Chief Shaw’s statement, staff member’s condition)THE MASSACHUSETTS PRIMARYMassachusetts held its primary elections Tuesday, and the marquee result was not close. Sen. Ed Markey, 80, defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, 47, for the Democratic Senate nomination by a margin of 64.9 percent to 35.1 percent, according to the Associated Press. Moulton had built his campaign explicitly around Markey’s age. He called for generational change in a year that has already cost several older Democratic incumbents their seats in primaries nationwide. Markey’s win runs against that trend. He was outspent nearly two to one. Moulton and allied groups spent $7.1 million on advertising to Markey’s $3.9 million, and Markey still won by nearly 30 points.Markey leaned on the same progressive coalition that has backed him for years, campaigning with endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley. It is the second time he has beaten back a younger challenger running on a generational-change message; he defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III on similar terrain in 2020. Markey will face Republican John Deaton in November, a rematch of sorts after Deaton lost a 2024 Senate bid to Warren. Massachusetts has not elected a Republican senator since 2010.Moulton’s decision to give up his House seat to run for Senate created a rare open primary in the state’s 6th Congressional District. Dan Koh won that race over a crowded six-candidate field. In Suffolk County, incumbent District Attorney Kevin Hayden won a three-way Democratic primary with 49.9 percent of the vote. He defeated challenger Linda Champion and former District Attorney Rachael Rollins. Rollins previously left the DA’s office to become US Attorney for Massachusetts. She resigned from that position in 2023 after a Justice Department investigation found she had attempted to improperly influence the 2022 primary that first put Hayden in office. She ran this year seeking to reclaim her old seat and lost again. In Norfolk County, Djuna Perkins won a seven-way Democratic primary for district attorney, finishing with roughly 29 percent of the vote. Her closest competitor, former federal prosecutor Adam Deitch, conceded early Wednesday morning after trailing by fewer than 3,000 votes. Perkins ran on a reform platform following public scrutiny of outgoing DA Michael Morrissey’s handling of the Karen Read and Sandra Birchmore cases. Rep. Stephen Lynch fended off a progressive primary challenge in the 8th District. Michael Minogue won the Republican gubernatorial primary over Brian Shortsleeve, 75.8 percent to 24.2 percent. He will face incumbent Gov. Maura Healey, who ran unopposed, in November.🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: The one Senate primary Democratic strategists were watching most closely just delivered a clear result. Being 80 years old and heavily outspent was not enough to lose, when the alternative was a more moderate challenger running against the party’s progressive wing. Whether that result tells Democrats anything useful about November, or just about Massachusetts, is the question the rest of the midterm cycle will answer. Sources: NBC News (US — vote margin, spending figures, endorsements); WBUR (US — 6th District, 8th District, Norfolk DA results); WGBH (US — Suffolk DA results, Rollins background); CBS Boston (US — Republican gubernatorial primary results)NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION🇮🇷 Iran: 3,658 killed 🇱🇧 Lebanon: 4,346 killed, 12,301 wounded 🇮🇱 Israel: 1,200+ killed, ~5,400 wounded (includes 472 killed, 3,004 wounded in Gaza) 🇺🇸 US military: 18 killed, 687 wounded 🇵🇸 Gaza: 1,303 killed, 4,336 wounded since the October 10, 2025 "ceasefire" 🇵🇸 West Bank: 316 killed (incl. 73 children), 5,641 wounded (incl. 915 children), since January 2025 🛢️ Brent crude: $95.27/barrel (OilPrice.com) ⛽ US gas: $4.12/gallon (AAA)Sources: HRANA (Iran, 3,636 frozen base since April 7, plus 22 newly reported deaths from Tuesday-Wednesday's exchange per IRNA and Iranian state media), Lebanon MOPH, INSS (Israel), DCAS (US, disputed), OCHA (Gaza and West Bank), OilPrice.com, AAA. Lebanon, Israel, US military, Gaza, and West Bank figures carried forward from last night's edition.“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789 Get full access to The Rest of the World Report at www.restoftheworldreport.com/subscribe