The Math Is In: Why the US Has Already Lost Two Wars /Lt Col Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 13, 2026
RT | August 16, 2026
The US is looking to Russia’s air defense technology as it develops a new generation of mobile radars following losses suffered during the war with Iran, Military Watch has reported. New THAAD radars are reportedly set to gain a mobile sensor platform function similar to those built into Russia’s S-300 and S-400 systems from the outset.
According to a report published earlier this week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) destroyed more than $3 billion worth of American air defense radars during the first week of the war on the Islamic Republic launched by Israel and the US in late February.
The losses reportedly included lower-value radars such as the AN/TPS-59, valued at around $70 million, as well as an AN/FPS-132 radar and two AN/TPY-2 X-band mobile radar systems from the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, each valued at more than $1 billion. The destruction of the radars dealt a major blow to the situational awareness of US forces and their allies, the military-focused magazine noted.
The reported approach would potentially move away from the traditional Western concept of a self-contained air defense battery, according to the report. Instead, radars would serve as nodes in broader networks, allowing a mobile sensor to detect a target and relay data to remote launchers while remaining physically separate from the interceptors, the magazine noted.
The concept is reportedly in line with Russia’s networked air defense architecture and with the US Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), which is designed to connect different sensors and weapons.
According to Military Watch, the destruction of the radars reportedly forced the US and Israel to rely more heavily on ship-based sensors and an AN/TPY-2 radar stationed in Turkey.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian strikes had caused up to $13 billion in damage to US military assets and facilities in the Middle East. Since the start of the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, Tehran has carried out more than 2,000 air, missile, and drone strikes, damaging at least 20 sites in eight countries used by the US military. Iran has also damaged or destroyed more than 42 US military aircraft, several while parked at air bases.
By Robert Inlakesh – Al Mayadeen – August 16, 2026
The Yemeni Armed Forces’ campaign to liberate their nation and end the Saudi-led blockade could be one of the most important events for the Arab world in decades. Not only will it have major implications for the ongoing regional war, but it also has the potential to dramatically reshape the region.
In July, the collapse of the Yemen-Saudi ceasefire agreement, which had been in place since 2022, was triggered by a strategic mistake committed by Riyadh. While Iran sought to break the inhuman blockade on Yemen through landing civilian airliners in the nation’s capital, Saudi Arabia’s air force rushed to bombard Sanaa International Airport. The Saudis may not have known it, but their irrational actions strung them up in a strategically placed trap.
Not only had the Sanaa government been coordinating a general mobilization, but its Armed Forces decided to directly retaliate by striking vital Saudi oil infrastructure and imposing a counter-blockade on their opponents to the north. The Yemeni Armed Forces then decided to take it a step further, committing round-the-clock ballistic missile and drone strikes that inflicted hundreds of casualties on Saudi-proxy forces inside Yemen and even advanced to liberate more of their nation’s territory.
Saudi Arabia is now unable to transit the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and its ability to export oil has been severed, representing a serious economic blow. Riyadh is now facing an unprecedented predicament, as Ansar Allah imposes an equation whereby Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace are met with direct strikes on oil infrastructure.
The reason why this all matters so much is that since 2015, the so-called “International Community” has rallied behind Saudi Arabia and its GCC allies. The global media have also participated in the facade, pretending as if some rebel group that they call “the Houthis” were fighting against an “internationally recognized government.” Why they kept up their lies is simple: without full control over their nation and its resources, the Sanaa government was simply not as valuable a partner as the Arab Gulf States, so everyone played along.
Nobody cared to point out that “the Houthis” is not an accurate name for Ansar Allah, that they aren’t simply a group of “rebels” but run a government that rules over the largest portion of the Yemeni population, or that two-thirds of the nation’s Armed Forces sided with them. Neither will they tell you that the so-called “Yemen Presidential Leadership Council” was created in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and that its undemocratically selected leader lives in Saudi Arabia.
In fact, the idea that the Saudi-proxy forces in Yemen are the legitimate representatives of the nation and are somehow a sovereign government is even more outlandish than when most of the Western world randomly decided that Juan Guaidó was the “internationally recognised” President of Venezuela.
But none of this will even end up mattering if Ansar Allah succeeds in uniting Yemen and reaching an agreement to liberate its territory from its US-Israeli-backed aggressors. The reason why the Arab regimes, alongside the US-UK-EU-Israeli alliance, have fought against the government in Sanaa is that they all fear the consequences of their success.
Yemen will be the only Arab nation that will not only oppose US imperialism and support the regional resistance, but will also actively fight the Israelis and work to combat the “Greater Israel Project.” The only Arab government that dared to open fire on the Israelis or impose a blockade on them, in support of Gaza, was the Sanaa government in Yemen. All the others that fought for Gaza were non-state actors.
A strong and united Yemen, with access to its resources and the ability to continue developing its military capabilities, will without a doubt be the biggest threat to US-Israeli hegemony in the Arab World. Yet, it will also spell another equation: it could well serve as an example to populations throughout the region, as to what is possible if the people fight for their liberation. No prospect frightens the Arab regimes more than this.
The impact Yemen can have on global trade, oil markets, regional power equations and ultimately the Palestinian cause for national liberation, all have the Zionist allied powers shaking in their boots. For so long, the Yemeni issue has been ignored, but that could soon dramatically change.
Sputnik – 16.08.2026
US Central Command appears to have failed geography again, posting a map of the Middle East in which the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are shown as Israeli territory.
The map accompanied a post on X about the CENTCOM commander’s 10-day trip to a region torn by the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
In the image, the Palestinian enclave and the West Bank are not separated from Israel by the border lines used elsewhere on the map.
The omission is striking, as Gaza and the West Bank remain central to the Palestinian question and the wider regional crisis.
Israel continues its [genocidal] war on Gaza and Lebanon with full US support.
By Kevin Barrett | August 16, 2026
Trump wants to make a deal with Iran. That’s why he murdered the current Supreme Leader’s father, along with 168 schoolgirls at Minab and hundreds of other civilians.
Trump’s attempts to make a deal with Iran include: threats of total annihilation, claims that he has already won, obscene Easter outbursts (“Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah!” ), unilaterally declaring possession of the “Strait of Trump,” and vacillating between outraged tirades about how Iran will never have a nuclear weapon and deprecations of the “nuclear dust” that is so far underground it isn’t very important, anyway.
Does Trump think his arrogant scorn for the men and women he’s sent off on a deadly fool’s errand will somehow enhance his negotiating position? Does he imagine that telling the crew members of the USS Abraham Lincoln that after eight months at sea with extremely poor logistical support, “they haven’t been out there nearly long enough” will somehow win concessions from Iran’s Supreme Leader?
Is there some method to Trump’s apparent madness—some multidimensional-chess-style negotiating strategy? To find out, we turn to Trump’s magnum opus, The Art of the Deal. According the real author, Tony Schwartz, Trump didn’t write a single word of that book, and probably didn’t even read much of it. Schwartz says Trump spent a couple of hours with his (Schwartz’s) book, made a few minor marks, and falsely claimed authorship.
Schwartz says Trump’s attention span is so microscopic that it was impossible to do meaningful interviews. So he shadowed Trump for 18 months, embellished and mythologized Trump’s activities and purported methods, and wound up “putting lipstick on a pig.”
AI is mostly a curse, but it’s useful for pulling up the main points of a book one would never dream of buying or reading. According to AI summaries The Art of the Deal advocates various dealmaking strategies that may or may not relate to Trump’s attempts to come to terms with Iran, including:
*“Think big.” Trump says he plans to steal all of Iran’s oil and unilaterally incorporate the Strait of Hormuz into the United States, renaming it “The Strait of Trump.” I guess that counts as thinking big—in the same way the asylum inmate who insists he’s Napoleon is thinking big.
*“Go with your gut feeling, don’t listen to the experts.” When Netanyahu and his Mossad chief visited Trump and advocated attacking Iran, and all of Trump’s advisors except Hegseth were against it, Trump went with his gut feeling… which was, we surmise, that if he didn’t do what Netanyahu ordered, video evidence of Trump raping underage girls might be made public.
*“Always deal from a position of strength.” Trump has been so hilariously unconvincing in his pretensions to be dealing from a position of strength— “we’ve wiped out their entire military,” “we have total control over the Strait,” “our regime change succeeded,” “we’ve completely obliterated their nuclear sites,” “their economy has completely collapsed”—that he has indeed developed a very strong position… as a comedian specializing in self-parody.
*“Maximize your options.” Trump’s supposed strategy of never getting locked into a single deal or path, but instead developing all sorts of fallback options, obviously isn’t working as intended: Trump has exactly ZERO options except surrender. So he parodies the “maximize your options” strategy by being wildly inconsistent and incoherent, saying one thing one minute and its opposite five minutes later. Today, we’re going to invade and occupy them and steal their oil; tomorrow, we’re going to nuke them back to the Stone Age; and the day after tomorrow, we’ll just walk away because, contrary to appearances, we’ve already won. In other words, “maximize your options” has become “maximize your bullshit.”
*“Get the word out.” AI summaries say The Art of the Deal advocates “using publicity and sensational storytelling strategically to capture attention and influence public perception.” Trump is certainly succeeding at grabbing public attention through publicity and sensational storytelling about his misbegotten war on Iran. Unfortunately for him, he is grabbing negative public attention by making a complete ass of himself. “Strategic” doesn’t describe his attention-grabbing incoherence, rage, and obscenity—nor his capturing the world’s imagination, and making it collapse in unbelieving laughter, by sneaking out of Air Force One in a food cart while sending staff and journalists into the sky as bait for purported Iranian missiles. A stunningly brilliant publicity stunt, that… for Iran.
*“Deliver the goods: Back up bold claims with real results.” This, of course, is where Trump most obviously falls flat. The gaping abyss between what comes out of Trump’s unhinged mouth and discernible reality is so vast that one can only marvel at the sheer chutzpah that enables him to emit such preposterously vacuous noises.
In reality, it is Iran’s leadership that is giving a master class in the art of the deal.
*Iran is thinking big. Iran is not just trying to win by surviving, as the North Koreans and North Vietnamese and Taliban did. Instead, it is envisaging a radically different future in which the US fully withdraws from West Asia, concedes Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, returns Iran’s stolen money that it has been holding for 47 years, ends all sanctions, concedes Iran’s full NPT-enshrined rights to civilian nuclear activity, and pressures “Israel” into permanently ending its genocidal war against its neighbors including Lebanon and Palestine.
*Iran is not listening to the Western establishment “experts.” Instead, Iran relies on its own expertise and know-how. That’s why the Western experts, who thought the US 100-to-1 military spending advantage was insurmountable, got a rude awakening. Iranian leaders have long understood that an impregnable missile-and-drone force could beat a much larger traditional army and navy, and they’ve been planning for that contingency for decades. What’s more, instead of the “gut feelings” that Trump advocates, Iran listens to the inner voice of faith, cultivating and seeking Divine guidance and inspiration.
*Iran is dealing from a position of strength. As John Mearsheimer and other experts noted, Iran essentially won the war within the first 72 hours. That victory has gotten more crushing with every passing day. The US has exhausted its munitions, while Iran just keeps manufacturing more new rockets and drones than it fires. Iran’s assets are protected, buried deep underground, often beneath mountains, while US assets are vulnerable. Iran’s long range rockets and drones would enable it to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed even if the US somehow managed to occupy the whole Iranian shoreline of the Persian Gulf, a feat that might require as many as a million troops and casualties in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. Iran can match any attack on its civilian infrastructure with equal or greater attacks on the infrastructure of US allies. And Iran’s population is united behind its leadership and demands an even more militant stance than the leadership is pursuing, whereas the American people never supported “Trump’s Excellent Iran Adventure” even before its calamitous failure was obvious.
*Iran has all kinds of options. Iran can tighten the squeeze on the global economy to whatever degree it chooses, by calibrating the amount of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz (and, through its AnsarUllah allies, the Bab al-Mandab) and deciding who passes and who doesn’t. It can offer carrots and sticks to regional and global powers. It can get help from Russia and China to whatever degree necessary. It can use land routes, Pakistan-shore routes, and Caspian Sea routes to evade Trump’s highly permeable “wall of steel” blockade. It doesn’t need nukes since it’s got Hormuz, and can therefore use its nuclear capability as leverage, relinquishing any prospective nuclear weapons program in return for concessions. But barring such a deal, thanks to its highly-enriched uranium, it could, if attacked with a nuclear weapon, rapidly build its own nuclear weapons and retaliate (or buy some from North Korea or Pakistan, as Pépé Escobar says they already have).
*Iran is getting the word out with sensational storytelling. Iran can’t take credit for Trump’s catering truck escapade, but they are taking advantage of it with their trademarked LEGO videos that have captured the imagination of the world. Iran has successfully (and accurately) cast itself as the “lovable underdog” handing an obnoxious bully (Trump) his just desserts.
*“Iran is delivering the goods, backing up its bold claims with real results. Unlike Trump, Iran hypes its real accomplishments: Trump claims the Strait is under his control and open for business; Iran slams a drone into one of the very few ships dumb enough to take Trump’s word. Trump claims Iran’s military is “totally obliterated”; Iran points to satellite photos showing that it is the US bases in the region that have been totally obliterated. Trump claims a downed airman has been heroically rescued; Iran releases photos and eyewitness reports showing that what really happened was a botched US attempt to snatch Iran’s uranium that left shot-up US aircraft carcasses strewn across the desert landscape.
Has Mojtaba Khamenei been reading The Art of the Deal? I doubt it. Tony Schwartz’s ideas, which he temporarily credited to Trump, are all-too-obvious distillations of conventional wisdom…tired old bromides, really, that anyone with some time on their hands could easily come up with, even if they weren’t shadowing Donald Trump. We all know it’s best to deal from strength. We all know that “thinking big” (within reason) can sometimes work. We all know that listening to our gut intuition (or better yet, flashes of Divine guidance) is a good idea, and that the experts are sometimes wrong. We all know it’s better to have options than no options. We all know, if we’ve taken any good literature classes, that storytelling rules the world. And we all know that people who back up their bold claims with real results tend to be more successful than those who endlessly bullshit… people like Donald Trump, America’s Bullshitter-in-Chief.
Iran is led by people who have undergone the most rigorous academic training—in philosophy and theology—on Earth. They read and write serious books. And when they are forced to wage defensive war, they bring that brainpower to bear.
The USA is led by an airheaded narcissist who once pretended to write a book, but probably has never actually read a serious book in his life. If Trump really did keep a book of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside, as his ex-wife Ivanka claims, it probably served as a talisman rather than material for serious reading.
Mojtaba Khamenei is driving a hard bargain. He knows he has Trump, his father’s murderer, over a barrel.
It seems that Iran is teaching some hard lessons to the purported author of The Art of the Deal.
The HighWire with Del Bigtree | August 13, 2026
The FDA has approved Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, but questions are mounting about how it evaluated safety and efficacy, including the lack of a true placebo-controlled trial.
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 14, 2026
Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – August 13, 2026
By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | August 15, 2026
No-one has ever accused President Donald Trump of being anti-Israel. Trump has supported Israeli extremism far more than any other US president. In 2017 he moved the US embassy to Occupied Jerusalem, an extreme violation of US policy, international consensus, and international law. He strong-armed regional nations to establish “normal” relations with genocidal Israel, against the wishes of more than 95% of their populations. And he has waged relentless war on Iran on behalf of Israel, setting the stage for the current countdown to global economic catastrophe.
But all of that isn’t enough for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who fancies himself Trump’s boss. On August 9, Netanyahu arrogantly rejected Trump’s 15-point Gaza peace plan, thumbing his nose at Trump himself and the Board of Peace that Trump chairs.
Since the Trump-brokered “ceasefire” of October 10, 2025, Israel has killed 1,258 people in Gaza. Trump has remained silent. But now, the stakes are higher. To end his disastrous war on Iran, Trump needs to comply with the first term of the Memorandum of Understanding that he signed, mandating “permanent termination of military operations on all fronts” by both parties and their allies.
In other words, Israel must cease firing at Palestinians and Lebanese people, or Iran will continue to throttle global supply chains via the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab. If the Americans want to stop the bleeding, they must force Israel to withdraw from Gaza and South Lebanon and stop attacking Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.
To prevent economic Armageddon, Trump needs to compel Israel to withdraw from Gaza in accordance with his 15-point plan. That plan is laid out in stages, with Israeli withdrawal and Hamas disarmament happening simultaneously and in parallel. Hamas will relinquish its heavy equipment and weapons during Israel’s withdrawal, but it is not required to give up the small guns it needs to ensure that its people are not exterminated by ISIS terrorists in the pay of Israel.
Hamas accepted Trump’s peace agreement even though it had to give up its only leverage, its Israeli hostages. But Israel refuses to implement the deal. It continues committing genocide, deliberately slaughtering hundreds of women and children while destroying infrastructure and preventing humanitarian aid from entering.
Before August 9, Israel had pretended to accept Trump’s deal, while muttering curses under its breath. But now it is openly refusing. Israel is telling Trump, and the world economy, to go get stuffed. Retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, explains: “Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come.”
Trump’s Board of Peace Roadmap document states: “Israel shall fully complete, without delay, all remaining commitments.” The Board’s original language, which is still in effect, required Israel’s “full withdrawal” from Gaza, but last week it changed the wording to mere “withdrawal” under pressure from Netanyahu.
But small changes in wording won’t alter the underlying reality. Israel needs to get out of Gaza—and stop killing Palestinian and Lebanese people—or Iran will strangle the world’s economy, maximizing damage to the US and its allies.
Given the stakes, Netanyahu’s willingness to raise his middle finger at the US president is bizarre. Israel is a small country. It is immensely vulnerable to American economic, diplomatic, and military pressure. American taxpayers have been keeping it afloat ever since it metastasized in 1948. It is universally reviled in West Asia, and despised by ever-growing majorities everywhere else.
Netanyahu’s paradise for pedophiles and dog rapists wouldn’t last five days without American taxpayer support. Yet it is prepared to destroy the world economy, and with it the Trump Administration, so it can continue committing genocide and waging wars of aggression.
Trump should exit the Iran war smoothly and painlessly by transferring the pain to Israel. What Iran wants is a new regional order that will prevent further aggression against it. Trump could achieve that, and avoid the humiliation of a complete US withdrawal from the region, by making Israel, not the US, the loser of the war Israel started. How? Simple. Just put all of America’s economic, diplomatic, and (if necessary) military power behind a draconian ultimatum to Tel Aviv: “Withdraw to your pre-1967 borders within the next two weeks, declare those as your permanent borders, and disavow the Greater Israel Project, or face complete obliteration.” A roundup of the Israeli agents who currently infest America’s media and financial sectors, authorized by an executive order declaring Israel’s occupation of the US a national emergency, would drive the point home.
Can Trump force Netanyahu to toe the line? Or will the Israeli prime minister show that he is America’s real boss?
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Press TV – August 15, 2026
The United States has been forced to relocate much of its naval logistics operations to a remote base in the Indian Ocean following heavy attacks by Iran on its key military installation in Bahrain, according to reports.
The reports and analyses, published on Saturday by The New York Times and Defense Security Asia, indicated that the Pentagon had moved its primary naval logistics hub to Diego Garcia, an island in the central Indian Ocean shared between the US and the United Kingdom and under British command.
The reports showed that Iran’s missile and drone strikes, which began in late February after the launch of a joint US-Israeli aggression on the country, had severely damaged the Fifth Fleet command, which hosts US Naval Support Activity Bahrain.
This development means that the US Navy must now rely on a 2,200-mile logistics chain, instead of a short sustainment network in the Persian Gulf, to supply the massive aircraft carriers deployed near Iranian waters for carrying out attacks on the country.
This comes amid reports of shortages aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a carrier with 5,000 sailors and US Marines that is approaching nine months on deployment.
Those reports have indicated acute problems with food, hygiene, mail, plumbing, and laundry aboard the carrier, leading to unrest and even attempted suicides among the service members deployed on the ship.
“…reported shortages aboard USS Abraham Lincoln demonstrate how destroying shore infrastructure can progressively degrade combat endurance without directly striking a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,” Defense Security Asia said in its report.
The US is planning to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln with the USS George Washington in the region, although experts warn that the deployment could further expose the vulnerabilities of the US Navy during the ongoing confrontation with Iran.
The report by The New York Times said that Iran’s devastating attacks on the Fifth Fleet facilities in Bahrain have been the main reason behind the difficulties reported by US warships in the region.
“The loss of the hub in Bahrain has contributed to a host of reported problems on carriers supporting operations against Iran,” it said.
Both reports acknowledged that another regional logistics hub capable of supporting US aircraft carriers, located in the Emirati port of Fujairah, is well within the reach of Iranian missile and drone attacks.
They also said that the base in Diego Garcia could itself become a target of Iranian attacks, pointing to the firing of Iranian medium-range missiles at the base in March, just after Britain authorized the conditional use of the base by the US.
The reports come as many in the US and around the world, including families of the sailors aboard US aircraft carriers and lawmakers, continue to question the purpose of the prolonged deployment of US Navy assets near Iran, arguing that the war of aggression on the country has resulted in no tangible achievement for the US nearly six months after it began.
By Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Shaiel – X – August 7, 2026
An incredible expose by Ronen Bergman shows how Israel invents quotes from Iranian officials in order to manufacture “evidence” that Iran is building nuclear weapons. This event took place on August 5th, when it was reported globally that Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the IRGC had admitted that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. The only problem? It wasn’t true:
This is a well oiled machine of disinformation emanating from Netanyahu and his circle designed to create a false narrative which will destroy negotiations with Iran and renew the war. Similar frauds have been perpetrated in the past like the Jewish Chronicle/Bild affair, when a made up journalist planted stories in the press to justify blowing up a hostage deal with Hamas. But this time he is dragging the entire world into endless war and not just Israel.
Sputnik – 15.08.2026
MOSCOW – The Russian Foreign Ministry has requested clarification from the United States and Turkiye over information released by the US Congress regarding plans to supply weapons to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Saturday.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has requested clarifications from Washington and Ankara in connection with information released by the US Congress,” Zakharova said.
The US and Turkiye still have time to soberly assess the situation regarding plans to supply weapons to Ukraine, she said.
According to documents released by the US Congress, the arsenal is substantial, namely: 12 multiple rocket launchers and over 2,500 unguided cluster munitions for them, 47,000 cluster artillery shells of 203mm caliber, and 70 ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, Zakharova added.
Pumping new weapons would not seriously affect the course of the special military operation but causes serious damage to bilateral relations with the US and Turkiye, she said.
Attempts to use peacekeeping rhetoric while simultaneously supplying weapons to Ukraine are undermining mutual trust, especially given Turkiye’s assurances that it avoids “lethal” supplies.
Zakharova noted that the timing of the transfer of a large-scale shipment of lethal cargo to recipients in Ukraine is unclear.
“It’s worth noting that the circumstances and conditions of such a large-scale ‘transfer’ of lethal materials remain extremely contradictory. It’s unclear who initiated the re-export, how, and when the plan is to transfer the large-scale lethal cargo to recipients in Kiev,” Zakharova said.
It is also unclear what motivated the United States and Turkey to “open Pandora’s box” and prolong the Kiev regime’s agony, she said, adding that this was particularly striking given that both countries claim a special role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis and have declared a political and diplomatic settlement their priority.
“However, multifaceted damage from such supplies is inevitable. It is not only about the casualties and destruction that the authorities in Kiev are seeking to escalate, but also about serious harm to our bilateral relations with Washington and Ankara,” Zakharova said.
Zakharova highlighted that the supply of additional weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces will not affect the course of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
“Flooding Zelensky’s junta with ever more weapons will not be able to significantly affect the course of the special military operation in accordance with a just Russian scenario,” Zakharova said in a comment published on the ministry’s website.
The comment came amid reports of possible US-Turkish plans to supply Ukraine with a large batch of US-made weapons, including multiple-launch rocket systems, cluster munitions and ATACMS operational-tactical missiles.
By Jill Erzen | The Defender | August 14, 2026
Moderna’s own clinical trial data raise serious questions about whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should have approved the company’s new mRNA flu vaccine, medical commentator John Campbell, Ph.D., said.
In a recent video, Campbell argued that the study shows only a small reduction in flu cases while reporting substantially higher rates of adverse reactions among people who received the shot.
The FDA approved Moderna’s mFlusiva this month for adults ages 50-64, with accelerated approval for adults 65 and older. It is the first mRNA flu vaccine licensed in the U.S.
Moderna said it expects the vaccine to be available for the 2026-27 respiratory virus season.
Campbell also questioned why the approval came just one year after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a coordinated federal wind-down of mRNA vaccine development.
“One quick year later, FDA approves Moderna flu vaccines,” Campbell said. “I don’t understand the way the U.S. work[s], but it would appear that HHS isn’t in charge.”
Efficacy of mRNA flu vaccine is ‘not very impressive’
Moderna’s Phase 3 trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, enrolled 40,703 participants, with roughly half receiving the experimental mRNA vaccine and the other half receiving a standard flu vaccine. Participants were followed for a median of 181 days.
Laboratory-confirmed flu occurred in 2.0% of participants who received the mRNA vaccine, compared with 2.8% of those who received the standard vaccine. Moderna described those results as showing a relative vaccine efficacy of 26.6%.
“Not very impressive, to be quite honest,” Campbell said.
He noted that the study showed a risk reduction of less than 1%.
“If you’re going from a 2.0% absolute to a 2.8% absolute,” Campbell said, “I would say that’s not a 26.6% relative risk improvement — although it is statistically. But it’s a 0.8% absolute risk reduction.”
“So, do you want to take a new influenza mRNA vaccine to give you a 0.8% reduced chance of getting influenza in absolute terms? Your choice,” he said.
‘Completely unacceptable increase in the adverse reactions’
Campbell said the study showed substantially higher rates of nearly every reported adverse reaction among mRNA vaccine recipients compared with those who received the standard flu vaccine.
Injection-site pain was reported by 65.8% of mRNA vaccine recipients, compared with 29.8% of those who received the standard vaccine. Fatigue occurred in 45.1% versus 20.3%, headache in 37.8% versus 18.0%, and muscle pain in 35.4% versus 11.6%.
Campbell said the disparity extended across nearly every category of reported reactions.
“Injection site pain, way more … in the mRNA group. Redness more in the mRNA group. Swelling more in the mRNA group,” he said. “Six times more fevers in the mRNA group compared to the traditional vaccine group. … Joint pain, way more common … nausea and vomiting, more common … and chills, again, way more common in the mRNA group.”
“A completely unacceptable increase in the adverse reactions there,” he added.
mRNA flu vaccine group showed ‘6.4 times more’ potentially serious reactions
Campbell then turned to the study’s more serious adverse reactions.
Serious adverse events were reported in 2.2% of participants who received the mRNA vaccine, according to the study.
The trial also tracked Grade 3 solicited adverse reactions, which are more severe reactions that can interfere with normal activities or require medical attention. Grade 3 reactions occurred in 6.4% of mRNA recipients — “More than 1 in 20,” Campbell said — versus 1.0% of those who received the standard flu vaccine.
He compared the difference with the vaccine’s reported risk reduction in flu cases.
“So 6.4 times more adverse events, Grade 3, potentially more serious adverse events, in the mRNA group for a 0.8% absolute risk reduction according to their own figures,” Campbell said. “I really wonder why [the FDA] approved this.”
The trial also reported adverse events of special interest among mRNA vaccine recipients, including thrombocytopenia, a condition involving low platelet counts, and cardiomyopathy, which has been linked to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
“Looks like a bit of a no-brainer to me,” Campbell said of the mRNA flu vaccine. “I certainly wouldn’t be having it on those figures.”
‘Are you going to be queuing up? I’m not’
Campbell said his review focused on Moderna’s published trial data but noted that the study does not address broader concerns about mRNA technology.
“We could talk for ages about the lipid nanoparticles and other complications,” he said. “I’m just keeping this to what’s in the paper.”
He said lipid nanoparticles distribute throughout the body, allowing cells in different organs to produce the vaccine antigen. He argued that those cells could then become targets of the immune system.
Previously published studies have linked COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to myocarditis and pericarditis, seizures and cancers.
“Given that information, are you going to be queuing up?” Campbell asked. “I’m not.”
‘They’re not really very safe and not particularly effective’
Campbell’s concerns about the mRNA flu vaccine also led him to question U.S. health policy.
In August 2025, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority would terminate funding for 22 mRNA vaccines in development.
At the time, HHS said it had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted.”
The department said the funding was being terminated because “the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.”
Campbell said the FDA’s approval of Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine appears to conflict with that policy.
“And yet a year later, here we have it approved,” he said. “Who’s in charge here? Is it not the HHS that’s in charge?”
HHS said in 2025 that it was “shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.” The agency also emphasized that it supports “safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them.”
Campbell challenged that claim as well.
“We’ve seen that they’re not really very safe and not particularly effective,” he said, adding, “Who wants them?”
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