UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan voiced full support for Bahrain after authorities said they had uncovered and dismantled a group allegedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the ideology of Velayat-e Faqih.
Abdullah condemned the alleged network and backed measures taken by Bahraini security services, praising what he described as their vigilance in uncovering the group.
He also reiterated the UAE’s rejection of “all forms of terrorism and organizations linked to external agendas,” adding that Bahrain’s security was “an integral part” of the security of the UAE and the wider Arab states of the region.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Saturday that Ukraine has committed multiple violations of the Victory Day ceasefire.
In a statement, the department said that Ukraine targeted military and civilian infrastructure. It claimed that the Ukrainian army carried out 1,173 attacks on Russian troops in combat zones, and a total of 8,970 violations.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide Yury Ushakov said during the Victory Day celebration at the Kremlin that the truce will not be extended.
The United Kingdom's Defence Ministry announced on Saturday that it has redeployed HMS Dragon from Cyprus to the Middle East for a potential role in an upcoming international effort to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
"We can confirm that HMS Dragon will deploy to the Middle East to pre-position ahead of any future multinational mission to protect international shipping when conditions allow them to transit the Strait of Hormuz," the ministry's spokesperson said in a statement to the press. "The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow."
Previously, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that the UK and France plan to lead an international mission that will be tasked with securing safe trade transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
Russia offered Iran thousands of advanced drones built to bypass electronic jamming systems, along with training for attacks on US troops in the Middle East, according to a confidential intelligence document obtained and reviewed byThe Economist.
Already the two countries have deepened their defense ties in the context of the years-long Ukraine war, with Tehran providing tens of thousands of Shahed suicide drones, but this fresh allegation points to potential increasing Russian involvement against the United States in the Persian Gulf region.
Moscow has been previously accused of supplying the Iranians with targeting intelligence related to Operation Epic Fury, and some analysts have said this could explain how Iranian ballistic missiles and drones were able in many cases to score precision hits on US radar and military outposts in the region, as far away as Jordan for example.
The Economist report accuses Russian intelligence of preparing a plan to offer Tehran what are essentially 'un-jammable drones', describing that teh GRU military intelligence agency drafted a 10-page proposal offering Iran 5,000 short-range fiber-optic drones, as well as an undisclosed number of longer-range satellite-guided drones, and a full drone operator training program.
The document is said the be full of diagrams and maps of strategic Iranian coastal zones and islands near the Strait of Hormuz, which is precisely where sporadic fighting between US and Iranian forces is taking place currently.
Neither Tehran nor Moscow has publicly acknowledged any such plan or document, and they are not expected to comment. But to some degree the 'planning' seems consistent with what Russia has learned amid the 'drone wars' over Ukraine.
Unlike conventional drones controlled by radio signals, fiber-optic drones operate through trailing cables, making them extremely difficult, if not impossible, to jam electronically - but also highly responsive and maneuverable. Hezbollah in Lebanon is said to be increasingly reliant on tethered drones for attacks on IDF convoys in South Lebanon as well as northern Israel.
As for the Iran war context, the GRU assessed that US amphibious forces and landing craft would be especially vulnerable to drone swarm attacks because of their slow speed, according to The Economist.
The Kremlin has broadly sought to bat down such reports alleging a deepened Russian military or intelligence role in helping Iran amid its war with the US and Israel. Also, most every country has intelligence 'plans' on the shelves as 'options' - but it doesn't mean any follow through actually results, or that decisions were even close to being made.
It should also be noted that The Economist in particular is among the more establishment and national security state-friendly magazines and news sources.
Some pundits have accused the publication of tending to always reflect a CIA and military-industrial complex mainstream perspective on global events and 'official enemies'.
A fire broke out Friday afternoon at PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery outside New Orleans, according to the facility.
Reuters cited people familiar with the incident who said the 190,000-barrel-per-day Chalmette refinery suffered an explosion on Friday afternoon. The explosion can be traced to a reformer heater used to convert refining byproducts into octane-boosting components added to unfinished gasoline to make premium and mid-grade fuel blends.
The 190,000-barrel-per-day refinery is one of the major Gulf Coast refineries because it produces gasoline, distillates, and specialty chemicals, so any sustained outage can impact regional fuel balances, especially gasoline and diesel supply.
"Fence-line monitoring confirms no off-site impacts," according to the message from the refinery. "Everyone working in the area is safe and accounted for."
Videos of the incident:
Bloomberg noted that the refinery completed a month-long maintenance program on several units at the end of April.
GasBuddy head analyst Patrick De Haan wrote on X, "Not only are the molecules in the refinery itself under tremendous pressure, but refineries themselves are under tremendous pressure with huge implications as crack spreads soar. Too early to tell what happened here, but certainly doesn't look good."
There has been a notable uptick in the number of "refinery fire" news stories, according to Bloomberg data, whether those stories are in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or the U.S.
With crude-product supplies tightening worldwide and the Hormuz chokepoint still heavily disrupted, any refinery taken offline is an ominous sign for fuel markets.
Refinery fires are starting to look like "Food Factory Fires" from several years ago.
Implemented as part of a broader initiative to make more targeted and efficient use of inspection resources, the pilot program will use artificial intelligence to enable shorter, focused screenings to complement standard FDA inspections.
The FDA is piloting one-day inspections of simpler and lower-risk facilities to expand and strengthen its oversight.
Risk-based criteria such as the type of product, prior inspection outcomes and operational characteristics will inform facility selection. The FDA is using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify low-risk sites suitable for one-day inspections, Commissioner Marty Makary said at a Food and Drug Law Institute event attended by Bloomberg Law.
Conducting shorter, targeted assessments allows for broader surveillance coverage, enabling the FDA to “assess more facilities and gather critical insights without compromising regulatory rigor,” Makary explained in a statement. For the industry, the assessments “can provide timely feedback while minimizing operational disruption, particularly for lower-risk establishments,” he added.
Facilities involved with biologics, medical products and clinical research programs are eligible for one-day inspections. The FDA plans to run the pilot through its 2026 financial year, performing more assessments across inspectorates and developing metrics such as inspection duration and escalation rates to assess effectiveness.
The FDA will feed evidence collected during one-day inspections into its risk models. By evaluating more facilities, the agency said it could detect recurring compliance themes, develop facility-specific risk scores and find discrepancies between registered and actual operations to inform improvements to its oversight efforts.
While the FDA only disclosed the pilot on Wednesday, officials began performing one-day inspections last month and had completed 46 visits by the time the agency announced the program. Most one-day inspections confirmed the compliance of the facility, leading officials to conclude that no action was needed.
However, in some cases, inspectors made significant observations. When that happened, the inspectors extended their assessments to conduct multi-day evaluations. The switch from one-day visits to more traditional assessments shows the flexibility of the program, the FDA said.
Full FDA inspections of drug manufacturing facilities entail evaluating at least four of the six systems defined by the agency, namely quality, facilities and equipment, materials, production, packaging and labeling, and laboratory control systems. Inspectors must assess at least two systems in abbreviated site assessments.
How long the assessments take depends on what the inspectors find. Inspections that result in warning letters can span weeks, such as when FDA officials spent from June 23 to July 14 at a Catalent facility that Novo Nordisk acquired.
With initial patients coming back for their second dose of Gilead’s twice-yearly PrEP injection, the pharma thinks the shot will hit $1 billion in sales this year, serving as “a cornerstone in Gilead’s revenue growth story.”
Gilead has set a high revenue bar for its twice-yearly PrEP injection Yeztugo, predicting that the drug will hit $1 billion in sales this year as access to and confidence in the prophylactic improve.
“Yeztugo continues to show an unprecedented launch trajectory for a new long-acting PrEP product,” Chief Commercial Officer Johanna Mercier told investors during the company’s Q1 earnings call on Thursday afternoon. The PrEP product made $166 million in the quarter, up 72% from its $96 million revenue in the previous quarter.
Yeztugo was approved in June 2025 and launched shortly after. While this timing precludes a year-on-year comparison of its sales, Gilead is now seeing patients return for their second yearly shots, and the feedback has been good so far.
“HCPs [healthcare professionals] are starting the second injection and thinking it’s a lot easier, access is easier,” she told investors on the call, noting that “approximately 95% of individuals” are covered in the U.S., allowing them to access Yeztugo with $0 co-pay.
Aside from accessibility, Mercier noted that “the confidence in the injection and the experience for the people getting the injection is also better.”
“We’re in a really good situation,” she continued. Yeztugo is now the leading long-acting injectable in the switch market—capturing those who transfer from one type of PrEP to Yeztugo—but Gilead is also seeing “higher-than-expected” uptake among patients naive to HIV prophylaxis, Mercier said on the call.
These trends, along with what Mercier called Yeztugo’s “incredibly strong performance,” drove the pharma’s confidence in raising its 2026 sales target for the product to $1 billion. Gilead had previously forecasted roughly $800 million for Yeztugo’s revenue this year, while investors were expecting around $900 million, according to BMO Capital Markets.
“Yeztugo growth/guidance raise validate our expectation that the product will be a cornerstone in Gilead’s revenue growth story,” the analysts told investors in a note on Thursday evening.
Aside from Yeztugo, analysts on Gilead’s call also expressed interest in the upcoming potential approval for anito-cel, the pharma’s CAR T therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The drug is currently under FDA review, with a target action date of Dec. 23.
On Thursday, Gilead said that the pharma is focused on laying the groundwork for a potential launch early next year, but that the team is also looking ahead to what could come after.
“We’re really excited about the potential for anito-cel going into earlier lines, whether it’s newly diagnosed multiple myeloma or even in smoldering where patients aren’t technically diagnosed with the disease,” Cindy Perettie, executive vice president of Kite, said on the call, adding that the company is currently working on program designs for these settings. “We think it’s going to be a really important option for patients in earlier lines.”
In the first quarter, Gilead clocked total revenues of $7 billion, a 4% year-on-year growth. HIV remained the pharma’s bread-and-butter, with sales hitting $5.03 billion worldwide. Biktarvy, the HIV-1 antiretroviral pill, brought in $3.36 billion and reigned as Gilead’s top-selling product.
