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  • Bitcoin Recovers Following Plunge as US, Israel Begin Bombing Iran

    Bitcoin Recovers Following Plunge as US, Israel Begin Bombing Iran

    The price of Bitcoin rapidly fell overnight as the United States and Israel began joint “major combat operations” in Iran, bombing numerous military targets in what officials said were attempts to end the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as take out key military leaders.

    But while Bitcoin plunged from a price of $65,572 to $63,176 in about an hour overnight following word of the strikes, the leading cryptocurrency has mostly recovered that ground in the hours since.

    It’s currently trading for $65,051, according to data from CoinGecko, still showing an approximately 0.8% loss on the day and 5.2% fall over the last seven days.

    Major altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, and Solana also fell sharply following the overnight attacks, but have similarly made up most of that ground as of this writing, showing daily losses of less than 2% each.

    Crypto liquidations surged overnight amid the rapid market plunge, with CoinGlass showing about $490 million worth of positions liquidated over the past 24 hours, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum longs. Overall, Bitcoin positions make up $196 million worth of the liquidations, with Ethereum following at $132 million.

    At its overnight low, Bitcoin was approximately 50% down from its all-time high mark above $126,000 set last October. The leading cryptocurrency has fallen sharply over the last month, about 23% during that span. Bitcoin started the year at a price around $87,000.

    Crypto prices have historically been impacted by geopolitical turmoil, and this time around is no different. For example, the price of Bitcoin and other assets fell sharply after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

    The overnight strikes led Iran to launch retaliatory attacks against U.S. military assets across the Middle East, while Iran reckons with the fallout from the bombings. News agencies have reported mass civilian casualties in Iran, including a reported 85 deaths after a girls school was struck in the Minah province.

    Users on Myriad—a prediction market operated by Decrypt‘s parent company, Dastan—increasingly believe that the Iranian regime will collapse before October, currently penciling in a 51% chance of that happening. Those odds rose 20% over the last day.

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  • Paramount Says It Will Release 15 Warner Bros. Movies a Year in Theaters, Reaffirms 45-Day Theatrical Window

    Paramount Says It Will Release 15 Warner Bros. Movies a Year in Theaters, Reaffirms 45-Day Theatrical Window

    David Ellison reaffirmed his pledge to release 30 films theatrically once Paramount merges with Warner Bros. Discovery.

    “As we have said consistently, we are committed to delivering a broad pipeline of high quality storytelling, including 15 theatrical films per year per studio, for a total of at least 30 films annually,” Ellison told analysts during a conference call on Monday.

    “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters,” he added.

    Ellison argued the company has “already demonstrated our ability to increase output,” noting that Paramount will release at least 15 films in 2026. That’s up from eight films in 2025. Warner Bros. also fell short of the mark that Ellison set for the studio, releasing 11 films last year.

    Ellison praised the year that Warner Bros. had in 2025, calling it “a powerhouse slate,” while crediting such hits as “Superman” and “Minecraft” with “propelling” the company to $4 billion in box office revenue. He did not namecheck “Sinners” or “One Battle After Another,” two films from Warners that have dominated the awards season.

    Netflix, which previously had a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery until Paramount blew its offer out of the water with its $110 billion pact, faced opposition from theater owners who worried the streamer would undermine their business and release fewer films in cinemas. The company’s chief Ted Sarandos tried to assuage their concerns, maintaining that Netflix would honor its commitments, but many exhibitors doubted his sincerity.

    Ellison framed his commitment to theatrical in personal terms, noting that as head of the production company Skydance, he had seen firsthand the power of a traditional big screen release.

    “When you look at the theatrical space, which is something we deeply, deeply believe in, large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said. “I personally learned this lesson in 2022. We basically had the largest theatrical box office film with ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ which became a cultural phenomenon, grossing $1.5 billion.”

    “At the same time,” Ellison added, “we released ‘The Adam Project’ that summer on Netflix, which, at the time of its release, was the most successful film in Netflix… [it] previewed incredibly well with audiences but did have a different cultural resonance.”

    How a theatrical release can propel a film into the cultural conversation influenced Ellison’s thinking when it came to overseeing Paramount and — if the deal is consummated — Warner Bros. Pictures.

    “We said from Day 1 when we acquired Paramount that we weren’t going to be in the business of making movies directly for streaming,” Ellison said.

    Ellison’s team hasn’t always been as enamored with the theatrical experience. Jeff Shell, who serves as Paramount’s president, pushed to reduce the theatrical window (the term for the amount of time a film plays exclusively in cinemas) from several months to 17 days when he served as head of NBCUniversal during the pandemic. But Ellison said the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. will honor a 45-day theatrical window before their films debut on home entertainment platforms.

    Despite Ellison’s promises, there is skepticism about his ability to find and develop enough films to, in his words, “pierce the zeitgeist,” particularly given the more than $78 billion in debt that the combined companies will shoulder.

    “If any studio could release more than 15 wide releases per year — a little more than one per month — and be successful, they would,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, recently told Variety. “In the course of one year, there aren’t more than 15 broad-appeal stories that a studio can develop, produce, market and distribute effectively around the world; 30 wide releases is extremely unrealistic.”

  • Apple introduces the $599 iPhone 17e with MagSafe and twice the storage

    Apple introduces the $599 iPhone 17e with MagSafe and twice the storage

    Apple has just announced the addition of the iPhone 17e to its smartphone lineup. This model is kitted with the same A19 chip that powers the base iPhone 17, and it will support the Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools. As the rumors suggested, the iPhone 17e will indeed be priced at $599, same as last year’s iPhone 16e. The base model will come with 256GB of storage, and also be available in a new pink color.

    The iPhone 16e was missing a few elements that are now being added to the 17e, most notably MagSafe charging at Qi2 speeds. This means it can charge wirelessly at 15W compared to the 7.5W.

    Apple also gave the iPhone 17e its C1X cellular modem, which it said is “up to 2x faster than C1 in iPhone 16e.” This year’s entry-level iPhone also has Ceramic Shield 2 on its 6.1-inch Super Retina display, which Apple says offers “3x better scratch resistance than the previous generation and reduced glare.”

    Most of the other specs appear similar to the iPhone 16e, including the 48-megapixel Fusion camera that uses one single hardware sensor to provide two dedicated camera pipelines. It’s not yet clear whether there are specific changes here, but to use Apple’s words in its press release, “[The Fusion camera] also enables an optical-quality 2x Telephoto — like having two cameras in one.”

    The iPhone 17e is rated IP68 for dust and water resistance, and will also support Emergency SOS, Roadside Assistance, Messages and Find My via satellite. From the outside, the device looks very similar to its predecessor, with the same shape, notch and buttons as before. We’ll of course have to wait for a review unit and more information to know for sure, but Apple continues to state that the iPhone 17e delivers “all-day battery life,” though adding this time it’s aided by the C1X modem “and the advanced power management of iOS 26.”

    Apple unveiled most of its iPhone 17 roster back in September, but its budget models usually are introduced a few months later. We’re also still waiting on the official news of what’s colloquially being calling the iPhone Fold, which is rumored to arrive in the back half of this year.

    The iPhone 17e will be available for pre-order on March 4, and will start arriving in stores on March 11.

  • The Samsung Wallet can now hold your house keys

    The Samsung Wallet can now hold your house keys

    Samsung’s newest feature turns your phone into your house keys. The company has created the Digital Home Key, a feature inside of the Samsung Wallet that should let you unlock any compatible smart door with your phone. The Samsung Wallet already offered digital car keys.

    “As we continue to evolve Samsung Wallet, delivering trusted mobile experiences remains at the core of our innovation,” Woncheol Chai, EVP and head of Digital Wallet Team, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. “Through close collaboration with our partners and in alignment with the Aliro standard, Digital Home Key brings the same level of security and ease Samsung Galaxy users expect from Samsung Wallet to their homes.”

    Created by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), Samsung calls Aliro an “industry-standardized communication protocol.” The Digital Home Key will also get support from smart lock brands like Nuki and Schlage. It’s also designed to meet EAL6+ security certification.

    According to Samsung, you’ll also need biometrics or a PIN to use the Digital Home Key. You should be able to remotely manage or remove the tool through Samsung Find if you lose your phone.

    Samsung is rolling out the Digital Home Key in select regions starting this month. It plans to expand its range as compatible smart lock brands become available in more locations.

  • Iranian crypto outflows jump 700% minutes after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, Elliptic says

    Iranian crypto outflows jump 700% minutes after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, Elliptic says

    Crypto outflows from Iran’s largest exchange jumped 700% within minutes of the first U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said in a Monday blog post.

    Elliptic said transaction volumes leaving Nobitex spiked almost immediately after the strikes, suggesting a rush to move funds offshore. Initial blockchain tracing indicates the crypto was sent to overseas exchanges that have historically received significant inflows from Iran.

    The activity “potentially represents capital flight from Iran that bypasses the traditional banking system,” according to Dr. Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s co-founder and chief scientist.

    Over the weekend, coordinated U.S. and Israeli airstrikes struck multiple targets in Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and escalating a wider Middle East conflict. The attacks stoked market volatility as investors priced in potential disruptions to oil supplies through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, sending global crude prices sharply higher and triggering broad sell-offs in equities and safe-haven buying across assets.

    Nobitex allows users to convert Iranian rials into crypto and withdraw funds to external wallets, offering a route around traditional banking channels.

    The exchange processed $7.2 billion in crypto transactions in 2025 and claims more than 11 million users, making it central to Iran’s digital asset ecosystem, Robinson said.

    Elliptic has previously linked the exchange to IRGC-aligned financial activity and reported in January that Iran’s central bank appeared to use Nobitex in efforts to support the weakening rial.

    Iran’s crypto ecosystem

    Previous reports have detailed Iran’s growing use of cryptocurrencies as a hedge against a weakening rial and as a potential workaround to international sanctions, with U.S. authorities probing whether digital-asset platforms have enabled state-linked actors to move funds and access hard currency outside the traditional banking system. Blockchain research cited in those reports estimates that Iran-linked crypto activity has reached into the billions of dollars annually, spanning retail users as well as, according to officials, sanctioned entities.

    Robinson also flagged additional surges in Iranian crypto outflows earlier this year. The largest came on Jan. 9, following widespread anti-regime demonstrations and a subsequent government-imposed internet blackout.

    Two additional surges followed U.S. sanctions announcements targeting Iranian actors, the report said, suggesting crypto may be used to mitigate the impact of sanctions.

    Bitcoin $BTC$65,525.47 and major altcoins dropped sharply in the immediate aftermath of the strikes, with $BTC briefly falling below $64,000 before recovering to the mid-$60,000s, underscoring crypto’s sensitivity to geopolitical tensions. Ether (ETH) and other tokens also declined, though several remained above pre-strike levels, pointing to a relatively swift rebound after the initial sell-off.

    The world’s largest cryptocurrency was over 2% lower at publication time, trading around $65,500. Ether, the second-largest crypto by market cap, was 3.8% lower at around $1,930.

    Read more: Iran crisis puts the regime’s $7.8 billion crypto shadow economy in spotlight

  • CoinDesk 20 performance update: NEAR Protocol (NEAR) jumps 12.4% over weekend

    CoinDesk 20 performance update: NEAR Protocol (NEAR) jumps 12.4% over weekend

    CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

    The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1907.12, up 0.3% (+5.99) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday.

    Eight of the 20 assets are trading higher.

    Leaders: NEAR (+12.4%) and SOL (+2.1%).

    Laggards: DOT (-7.3%) and BCH (-4.5%).

    The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

  • David Ellison Talks Warners Deal: “This Is Not About Consolidation, This Is About Reinventing the Business”

    David Ellison Talks Warners Deal: “This Is Not About Consolidation, This Is About Reinventing the Business”

    David Ellison wants to forge a modern media and entertainment empire, and Warner Bros. Discovery will become its centerpiece.

    The CEO of Paramount on Monday spoke for the first time about the $110 billion mega-deal, which will see the smaller company, backed by tens of billions from his father Larry Ellison and tens of billions in debt from a consortium of lenders, swallow the larger one.

    The result will be a behemoth, with two major film studios (Paramount and Warner Bros.) a jumble of TV studios, two major streaming services in HBO Max and Paramount+, and a stable of TV channels that will include CBS, TNT, CNN, MTV, Nickelodeon, HGTV and many more that will make it a formidable player in the declining but lucrative pay-TV business. It will be a major sports player, and will combine two TV news giants in CNN and CBS.

    Ellison outlined the deal as being about the future of the entertainment business:

    “By uniting our iconic studios complimentary streaming platforms with a global footprint, our cable and linear networks, and our world-class IP, we have the opportunity to help shape the future and build a next generation media and entertainment company. This has been our goal since day one,” Ellison said Monday. “This is not about consolidation, it’s about reinventing the business. We want to expand our reach and enhance our ability to create the world’s most compelling stories and experiences. And we’re incredibly excited about this transaction, and it will accelerate that ambition.”

    Hollywood has been wary of the deal (just as it was wary of Netflix’s deal) out of concern for jobs and production. Ellison sought to assuage at least some of those concerns Monday, reiterating that the company was not planning to pull back on film or TV production. And of particular note to the TV business, he promised continued support for HBO, telling analysts that “HBO should stay HBO” and praising Casey Bloys and his team:

    “HBO is a crown jewel in this business, having brought to life some of the most powerful stories told over generations,” Ellison said. “Under our ownership, it will continue to have the resources and independence to do what it does best. At the same time, we believe in licensing our content to other platforms and producing third party content in our television studios, and we are committed to growing our studios and the popular shows they create.”

    That being said, Ellison confirmed that once the deal closes, the plan is to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into one major streaming platform.

    And he committed to 45 day theatrical windows, before sending films premium video on demand (PVOD), echoing commitments made by Netflix. Ellison, of course, is a fan of big theatrical films.

    “Franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period,” Ellison said Monday. “We really believe that movies should be seen in theaters, and we still believe it’s what that’s one of the most significant places that you can really create long term resident intellectual property.

    “Television is a completely different business in that regard,” he added. “You can obviously pierce the zeitgeist, and put huge hits up on the direct-to-consumer platforms. But when it comes to the DTC business, engagement is absolutely key to obviously, success there. So you have to look at what drives engagement.”

    But there will be financial impacts, and those remain a source of indigestion for the town. The company will have approximately $79 billion of net debt, Paramount chief strategy officer Andy Gordon told analysts on the call, and the company is targeting $6 billion in cost savings and 3X leverage within three years of closing.

    That will mean lots of jobs lost, though they took effort to say that the majority of the savings will not come from labor, and “we have no intention to pull back on on production,” as Ellison said.

    While the company may rationalize its real estate, Ellison and Gordon reiterated that they have no plans to sell any assets (no, not even cable channels) to try and deleverage.

    “Like at Paramount, believe in the assets we’re buying,” Gordon said.

    And it was hard to ignore one other thing missing from Monday’s Wall Street call: Jeff Shell, Paramount’s president, who is being investigated by an outside law firm in connection to a claim brought by a whistleblower who alleges that Shell shared confidential information with him related to the company’s UFC deal. The call was instead led by Ellison, Gordon, and Paramount’s CFO.

  • ‘Scary Movie 6’ Trailer Arrives Ahead of ‘Scream 7’

    ‘Scary Movie 6’ Trailer Arrives Ahead of ‘Scream 7’

    The first trailer for the sixth Scary Movie has been released, and its getting some perfect placement in cinemas: It’s playing ahead of Scream 7.

    The trailer (below) for the Wayans brothers’ project includes many familiar faces from the previous films, with Anna Faris and Regina Hall — who starred in the first four installments — returning alongside Marlon and Shawn Wayans.

    While the project has been widely called Scary Movie 6, the official title revealed today is simply Scary Movie. This makes sense as the new film is the first Scary Movie in 13 years, which also gives the latest entry plenty of fresh territory to mock. The trailer teases spoofs of Get Out, the Terrifier films, Megan, Wednesday, and, of course, the Scream franchise — which inspired the first film (along with the original I Know What You Did Last Summer). This might be the first time a film opens in theaters attached to a trailer for a another movie mocking its franchise.

    The trailer also seems to suggest the film will poke fun of politics and “woke” culture, with one character correcting another on their pronouns while being stabbed, and a tagline promising “every line will be crossed.”

    Scary Movie is directed by Michael Tiddes and written by Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans, along with Rick Alvarez.

    The film co-stars Jon Abrahams, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan, Damon Wayans Jr., Anthony Anderson and Chris Elliott.

    The first Scary Movie dropped in 2000 and was directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Several sequels quickly followed. After a seven year break, the release of the widely derided Scary Movie 5 effectively killed the franchise for more than a decade (while Scary Movie 3 is widely considered the franchise’s best).

    Scary Movie opens in theaters June 12.

  • Will the US-Israeli attacks impact Iran’s participation in World Cup 2026?

    Will the US-Israeli attacks impact Iran’s participation in World Cup 2026?

    United States and Israeli attacks on Iran have cast doubt over the Iranian football team’s participation in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

    Iran has responded to the attacks, which began on Saturday, by striking Israeli and US military bases in the Middle East with missiles and drones.

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    As of Monday morning, at least 555 people had been killed across Iran and 10 in Israel. Three US soldiers had been killed in action while 38 people had been killed in other nations across the region.

    The World Cup will be cohosted by Canada, Mexico and the US – where Iran is scheduled to play all its group games. But if there is no letup in the conflict, the tournament’s logistics and Iran’s role in it have come under question.

    Here’s what we know so far:

    When is the FIFA World Cup, and what’s Iran’s schedule in the tournament?

    The World Cup will begin on June 11 in Mexico while Canada and the US will host their first match the following day. The final will be played on July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York.

    Iran is in Group G of the tournament with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand and is scheduled to play all of its games on the US West Coast.

    Here’s Team Melli’s group-stage schedule:

    • June 15: Iran vs New Zealand at 9pm (05:00 GMT on June 16) at Los Angeles Stadium
    • June 21: Belgium vs Iran at 3pm (23:00 GMT) at Los Angeles Stadium
    • June 26: Egypt vs Iran at 11pm (07:00 GMT on June 27) at Seattle Stadium

    Will Iran play in the FIFA World Cup?

    While Iran has not officially pulled out of the tournament, a top Iranian football official has admitted the team’s participation has been thrown into question.

    “What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Mehdi Taj, president of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI), told local sports portal Varzesh3 on Sunday.

    “It’s not possible to say exactly, but there will certainly be a response,” Taj added when asked whether the FFIRI or the Iranian government would reconsider the country’s participation in the tournament.

    “This will surely be studied by the country’s high-ranking sports officials, and there will be a decision on what’s going to happen.”

    FIFA Secretary-General Mattias Grafstrom has said the world football governing body is monitoring the conflict and the situation emerging from it.

    “I read the news [about Iran] this morning the same way you did,” Grafstrom said at the International Football Association Board’s annual general meeting in Wales on Saturday, according to a report by ESPN.

    “We had a meeting today, and it is premature to comment in detail, but we will monitor developments around all issues around the world.”

    With the tournament a little more than three months away, FIFA said it will “continue to communicate with the host governments”.

    Will the Iranian team and fans be allowed in the US for the World Cup?

    While Iran’s games are scheduled at venues on the US West Coast, which is home to a sizeable Iranian community, Team Melli’s fans hoping to travel to the tournament from Iran and support their team will find it difficult.

    Iran was among the 12 countries that were included in US President Donald Trump’s travel ban imposed in June.

    The ban was met with criticism from Iran, which called it “racist” and a sign of deep-rooted hostility towards Iranians and Muslims.

    What happens if Iran does not participate in the World Cup?

    There is no precedent for a team withdrawing from the FIFA World Cup, which is deemed the biggest sporting event in the world.

    Teams that have been sanctioned and banned by global and regional football bodies have been excluded from the tournament with Russia’s ban the most recent.

    Should Iran pull out of the tournament, it would likely be replaced by another nation to ensure the smooth operation of the tournament.

    Because Iran is part of the Asian Football Confederation and qualified for one of the region’s berths for the World Cup, the replacement would likely come from Asia although organisers have not confirmed whether that would be the case.

    Based on their position at the end of the qualifying process, the United Arab Emirates could be the nation next in line. However, if Iraq, who are aiming to qualify via an intercontinental playoff, fail to book a place, they could pip the UAE as Iran’s replacement.

    What’s Iran’s record at the FIFA World Cup?

    Iran are currently ranked 20th in the world and second in Asia.

    They have appeared in the World Cup on seven occasions with consecutive appearances in the past three editions but have failed to move past the group stage.

  • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination will likely backfire. Here is why

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination will likely backfire. Here is why

    A favourite tactic of war is to try to decapitate the enemy leadership. While such strategies might work in certain contexts, in the Middle East, they have proven to be a disastrous choice.

    For sure, the assassination of an enemy leader might give a quick boost of popularity amid war. Certainly, United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are basking in the limelight of their perceived “success” in assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

    But killing an 86-year-old man who had already been planning his succession due to his ill health is not that much of a feat considering the overwhelming firepower that the US and Israel together possess. More importantly, eliminating him does not necessarily mean that what follows would be a leadership or a regime that would accommodate Israeli and US interests.

    That is because leadership assassinations do not lead to peaceful outcomes in the Middle East. They can open the door for much more radical successors or for chaos that leads to violence and upheaval.

    A brief glance at recent history shows that whenever Israel and the US have tried the idea of leadership “decapitation” in various conflicts in the region, the results have been disastrous. In the case of Iraq, its leader Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces and handed over to allied Iraqi forces who executed him. This ended a regime that was openly antagonistic to Israel, but it also opened the doors for pro-Iranian forces to take power.

    As a result, in the following two decades, Iraq served as a launching pad for Iran’s regional proxy strategy, which saw it build a powerful network of nonstate actors that threatened US and Israeli interests.

    The security vacuum created by the US invasion triggered various insurgencies, the most devastating of which was the rise of ISIL (ISIS), which swept through the Middle East, killing thousands of innocent people, including US citizens, and triggering a massive refugee wave towards US and Israeli allies in Europe.

    Another case in point is Hamas. Since the early 2000s, Israel has repeatedly tried to assassinate its leaders. In 2004, it succeeded in killing its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and then his successor Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was considered a moderate. A few assassinations later, Yahya Sinwar was elected head of Hamas in Gaza and went on to plan the October 7, 2023, attack.

    Hezbollah has a similar history. Its late leader Hassan Nasrallah, who successfully led the expansion of the group to a formidable nonstate power, ascended to its leadership after Israel assassinated his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi.

    Two and half years of war and mass killing of leadership may now have devastated both armed groups, but Israel has failed to assassinate the idea behind them: resistance to occupation. The current lull in fighting may be the quiet before another storm.

    In the Iranian case, it is highly unlikely that whoever replaces Khamenei would be as open to negotiations as he was. The statements by the Omani interlocutors during the talks in Muscat and Geneva pointed to major concessions on the nuclear issue that Iran under Khamenei was prepared to make. It is unlikely that his replacement would have the political space to follow suit.

    If Israel and the US continue their campaign and really push for state collapse in Iran, what comes out of that ensuing chaos could be anyone’s guess. But if we are to go by recent experiences in Iraq and Libya, a security vacuum in Iran would have devastating consequences for US allies in the region and in Europe.

    That raises the pertinent question of what Israel and the US stand to gain from their “decapitation” strategy in Iran.

    For Netanyahu, the assassination of Khamenei is a major success. Facing crucial elections that could mean the possible end of his political life and maybe his imprisonment over four corruption charges, the short-term gain in popularity and votes is worth it. Israeli leaders do little thinking and planning on the mid- to long term and do not have to bear the consequences of military adventurism abroad. After all, Israeli society is very much in favour of it.

    But for Trump, the gains are not as apparent. He gets to brag about killing an 86-year-old ailing leader of a faraway country to a public that has no appetite for war. At a time of a continuing cost-of-living crisis in the US, he is spending billions of taxpayer dollars to fight a war against a country that posed no imminent threat, a war that many Americans are increasingly identifying as “Israel’s war”.

    Instead of projecting power, Trump risks showing weakness and being seen as a US president fooled into starting a costly war to ensure the political survival of the prime minister of a foreign country.

    It is clear for now that the US president has drawn a line at putting US boots on the ground. At some point, he will have to end the bombardment campaign and pull US troops. He will leave behind a disaster that US allies in the region will have to bear the brunt of. US regional alliances are sure to suffer. Domestic audiences are sure to ask questions.

    This will be yet another US military adventure in the region that will cost US taxpayers’ money, US soldiers’ lives and foreign policy clout and offer no return. The hope is that Washington may finally learn its lesson that assassinations and decapitation strategies don’t work.

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.