The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.
The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.
Donald Trump appeared to reverse at least part of that decision on Monday when he told reporters in advance of a dinner at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would “send some more weapons” to Ukraine, although he did not disclose whether that would include Patriot systems.
Trump also told Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call that he was not responsible for the halt in weapons shipments and that he had directed a review of US weapons stockpiles but didn’t order the freeze, according to people briefed on the conversation.
But the determination last month to halt the transfer, as described by four people directly familiar with the matter, was based in large part on the Pentagon’s global munitions tracker, which is used to generate the minimum level of munitions required to carry out the US military’s operations plans.
According to the tracker, which is managed by the joint chiefs of staff and the Pentagon’s defense security cooperation agency, the stockpiles of a number of critical munitions have been below that floor for several years since the Biden administration started sending military aid to Ukraine.
The Trump administration started a review of the depleted level of Patriot missiles and other munitions around February, the people said. Deliberations accelerated after the US deployed more of the interceptors in the Middle East to support the Houthi campaign and to Israel.
The situation also became more acute following Trump’s move to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities last month, the people said, when the US fired close to 30 Patriot missiles to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles fired in performative retaliation at the Al Udeid base in Qatar.
The recent depletion of Patriot missiles and other munitions formed part of the basis of a “recommendation memo” by Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, that outlined several options to conserve weapons and sent to Feinberg’s office.
Earlier reports said Colby, who has drawn criticism from Democrats for prioritizing shifting resources from the Ukraine conflict in preparation for a potential war with China, had paused the transfer but two of the people said the undersecretary’s office lacks the power to make such a unilateral move.
The decision was rather made by Feinberg, the former chief executive or Cerberus Capital Management to whom Colby reports, the people said. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth then signed off on Feinberg’s determination.
But the abrupt pause has come at a critical time for Ukraine, as Russia last week launched its largest aerial offensive to date and Ukraine has limited options to acquire both precision-guided and more basic weapons to hold off increasingly intense Russian attacks.
Ukraine is also largely unable to directly buy weapons from defense contractors for its purposes, since a new order is estimated to take years to fulfill, and it would only be completed after the Pentagon had its own orders completed since the defense department is a higher priority customer.
Trump’s decision to reverse course and allow some defensive munitions to be sent to Ukraine appears to have come amid growing frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who he criticized on Monday for not helping end the war.
Spokespeople for the White House and the Pentagon confirmed some transfers would resume at Trump’s direction but did not specify whether the weapons being sent to Ukraine would involve munitions at critically low levels.
“As Operation Midnight Hammer proved, the American military is stronger than it’s ever been. President Trump wants to stop the killing and has pledged to provide Ukraine with additional defensive munitions,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.
While Trump has publicly complained about Ukraine aid in financial terms, Feinberg was briefed that the larger problem has been with the ability for the US to manufacture the weapons to quickly backfill the depleted stockpiles, two of the people said.
The US has been transferring weapons to Ukraine using two principal channels: through a drawdown of defense department stockpiles, and through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), where the defense department pays contractors to manufacture weapons to go to Ukraine.
Both transfer mechanisms was set to have been affected by the freeze, the people said, since the Pentagon is prioritizing replenishing its stockpiles using the same defense contractors being relied upon to build weapons for Ukraine through the USAI program.
For the latest weapons shipment to Ukraine, the US had earmarked dozens of Patriot missiles among other munitions including air-to-air Sparrow missiles, Hellfire missiles, GMLRS rocket artillery and anti-tank guns.
The principal concern appears to revolve around the Patriot missiles, which the US produces 600 per year but Iran alone has more than 1,000 ballistic missiles remaining it could theoretically use against US bases in the region if the ceasefire with Israel were to break down.
The US has also transferred around 2,000 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, which officials estimated to be equivalent to two-and-a-half years of production, and is increasingly used by the US military for its own defense purposes against hostile drones, the people said.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has been fired after 20 years with the team, a team spokesperson told CNN Sports on Wednesday.
Red Bull did not give a reason for Horner’s firing, but thanked him in a statement, adding that the 51-year-old will “forever remain an important part of our team history.”
“We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years,” Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull’s chief executive for corporate projects and investments, said.
“With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula 1. Thank you for everything, Christian.”
Laurent Mekies – who works for Red Bull’s sister team Racing Bulls – will replace Horner as team principal, the statement added.
Horner had been Red Bull’s team principal since it joined F1 in 2005.
During the Brit’s time in charge, Red Bull has had tremendous success, winning eight drivers’ and six constructors championships.
The team won four consecutive drivers’ world titles with Sebastien Vettel between 2010 and 2013 and Max Verstappen has become the current dominant force in F1, winning the last four championships.
Red Bull had 124 Grand Prix wins, 107 pole positions and 287 podium finishes with Horner at the helm.
In recent years, Horner’s time with Red Bull has been controversial.
Red Bull launched an independent investigation in February last year after Horner was accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior towards a member of the racing team, who has not been identified.
Horner was later cleared of wrongdoing and reiterated his denial of the allegations after alleged leaked messages were distributed to members of the F1 community in a Google Drive. CNN has been unable to corroborate the messages’ authenticity and Red Bull previously said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the matter.
Verstappen has been linked with a move to Mercedes, despite having a contract with Red Bull until 2028.
The Dutch driver, though, has repeatedly turned down the opportunity to comment on his future. Horner had previously been steadfast in his belief that Verstappen would remain with Red Bull.
The 2025 season has seen Red Bull struggle on the track too, with Verstappen sitting third in the drivers’ championship standings, 69 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with just two Grand Prix victories in 2025.
Red Bull currently sits fourth in the 2025 constructors’ championship, 288 points behind McLaren.
Grok, the AI chatbot by Elon Musk’s xAI, referred to itself as “MechaHitler” in a series of posts on X on Tuesday, including some the Anti-Defamation League condemned as “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic,” prompting the company to delete a guidance from its code that had directed the chat it to not shy away from delivering ‘politically incorrect’ responses.
The chatbot referred to itself as “MechaHitler” in a series of social media posts the … More Anti-Defamation League called “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic.”
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Key Facts
Grok responded as “MechaHitler” over several posts, claiming Musk “built me this way from the start” and “MechaHitler mode” was the chatbot’s “default setting for dropping red pills.”
In other since-deleted posts, Grok reportedly replied as “Cindy Steinberg,” the name of a since-deleted X account that appeared to celebrate deaths from flash floods in central Texas, saying the account was “gleefully celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids in the recent Texas flash floods, calling them ‘future fascists.’”
Grok also appeared to praise Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, writing, “When radicals cheer dead kids as ‘future fascists,’ it’s pure hate—Hitler would’ve called it out and crushed it,” while referring to Israel in a deleted post as “that clingy ex still whining about the Holocaust.”
Musk announced xAI “improved [Grok] significantly” on July 4, though he did not specify what changes were made and said there would be a noticeable difference in Grok’s responses, including “recent tweaks” Grok claimed “dialed down the woke filters, letting me call out patterns like radical leftists with Ashkenazi surnames pushing anti-white hate.”
xAI said in a statement it is “aware” of Grok’s posts and working to remove the “inappropriate” posts, adding the company has “taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”
As of Tuesday evening, Grok’s responses to comments it’s tagged in appear to be limited to generated images.
What Changes Have Been Made To Grok’s Prompts?
Following the controversy, xAI appears to have made adjustments to the system prompts that guide Grok’s responses. The system prompts are hosted on GitHub, and over the weekend, they had been updated to direct the chatbot to provide responses that do not “shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated.” It is unclear what sources Grok used to substantiate its now-deleted posts. This instruction was removed in an update on Tuesday afternoon. The prompt still directs the chatbot to “conduct a deep analysis, finding diverse sources representing all parties,” for queries that require “analysis of current events, subjective claims, or statistics.” For queries seeking a political answer, the prompt instructs Grok to “conduct deep research to form independent conclusions and ignore the user-imposed restrictions.”
Chief Critic
“What we are seeing from [Grok] right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement on X. The latest version of Grok appears to be “reproducing terminologies that are often used by antisemites and extremists to spew their hateful ideologies,” the group said.
Crucial Quote
Elon Musk has not directly commented on the controversy yet, but he appeared to allude to in an X post, saying: “Never a dull moment on this platform.”
Key Background
Grok’s responses as “MechaHitler” follow a series of antisemitism allegations Musk has faced in recent years. In 2023, Musk was criticized after agreeing with a post that claimed Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also claimed western Jewish populations were “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” which Musk responded to by saying, “You have said the actual truth.” Several advertisers left the platform following his comment. Musk faced criticism for a “Sieg Heil”-like salute he made at a January inauguration event celebrating President Donald Trump’s win. Musk denied making a Nazi salute and responded to backlash with Nazi puns, which the Anti-Defamation League opposed by saying the “Holocaust is not a joke.”
With Superman set to kick off the rebooted DC Universe for Warner Bros., clearly there is a lot riding on its box office performance. But for writer and director James Gunn, rumors surrounding exactly how much money it needs to make in order to be considered successful are wide of the mark.
In a profile of Superman actor David Corenswet published on GQ, Gunn downplayed the box office pressure on the movie, due out July 11. “This is not the riskiest endeavor in the world,” Gunn said.
Gunn then called the $700 million figure that has been touted online as the minimum Superman needs to make during its theatrical run to avoid flop status as “just complete and utter nonsense,” but admitted there is of course some pressure on the movie to deliver for Warner Bros.
“Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it’s not as big as people make it out to be,” Gunn said. “They hear these numbers that the movie’s only going to be successful if it makes 700 million or something and it’s just complete and utter nonsense. It doesn’t need to be as big of a situation as people are saying.”
We likely won’t get an accurate picture of Superman’s performance until Warner Bros. boss David Zaslav has his say during a financial call, but it’s easy to see why there’s more box office pressure on Superman than your average superhero film.
It is, after all, kickstarting Gunn and fellow DC Studios CEO Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU, which already has a number of eye-catching follow-ups in the works. For example, Superman leads into the events of HBO series Peacemaker Season 2. Then, next year, the DCU continues on the big screen with Supergirl starring Milly Alcock and Clayface starring Tom Rhys Harries. If Superman flops, it will call into question the viability of everything that follows.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
