The White House lashed out Thursday against “leakers” who say American forces are running short on munitions. President Trump, hoping to maintain pressure in talks with Iran, vowed to prosecute individuals who told the media that the U.S. military had exhausted nearly all of its highly accurate long-range missiles during the five-month war.

“The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed,” the president said, adding that “defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”

An analysis published July 27 by the Center for Strategic & International Studies stated that Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile interceptor stockpiles have dropped by two-thirds and by half, respectively, since the start of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran in late February.

The “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement” was signed Friday in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is meant to strengthen the “collective deterrence against any act of aggression” and states that an attack on one country would be considered an attack on them all, according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

While the full text has not been released, the Saudi government confirmed it includes provisions for increased “defense cooperation” among the three nations, adding that the agreement reflects the “joint strategic interests” of the Islamic nations.

It remains to be seen whether the development will truly enhance cooperation among the three nations against Iran. It also remains to be seen how it may impact the possible U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal that Mr. Trump has said is contingent upon the Saudis formalizing relations with Israel and recognizing it as a country.

Taiwan’s annual military drills are focusing heavily on the resilience of its civilian population, as the predicted “window” for a Communist Chinese invasion of the democratic island closes.

The annual Han Kuang defense exercises kicked off Wednesday in dramatic fashion, with video footage of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, in helmet and flak vest, being escorted out of his residence, boarding an armored vehicle and being conveyed through Taipei’s streets.

Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from the region that the Taiwanese military drills, which run through Aug. 14, are accelerating in urgency as the “Davidson window” closes: In 2021, U.S. Navy Adm. Philip Davidson warned that Chinese forces would be ready to capture Taiwan between 2021 and 2027.

One of the most “sacred duties of the director of the CIA is to tell the president and Cabinet officials what they need to know, even when it’s not what they want to hear,” writes Daniel N. Hoffman, a retired clandestine services officer and chief of station with the agency.

“That means Director John Ratcliffe must be prepared to report to President Trump that there is no evidence Iran has any intention ever of entering into good faith negotiations with the U.S. on its nuclear program,” Mr. Hoffman, a contributor to Threat Status, writes in his column for The Washington Times.

“War against the U.S., whether direct or through its proxy terrorists, has been the oxygen for Iran’s hardline terrorist regime since the 1979 revolution,” he writes. “Iran’s resilience derives from the regime’s practically infinite tolerance for inflicting pain on its own population.”

The world is currently “in the middle ground between machine learning and actual artificial intelligence, which would require that AI becomes self-aware and pursues its own goals,” writes Jed Babbin, arguing that “those goals could easily include world domination and, as in the ‘Terminator’ movies, the goal of ending the human race.

“We are far beyond Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ which first appeared in 1942,” writes Mr. Babbin, a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Times. “Mr. Asimov prescribed a set of ethical rules to govern artificial beings: the First Law (no harm to humans), the Second Law (obedience to humans) and the Third Law (self-protection).

“We are, therefore, faced with a moral and ethical dilemma. Are we to limit our AI research to comply with Mr. Asimov’s ‘laws’ or are we to risk AI’s control of our lives?” he writes. “It appears that we will not even try to answer that question and thus go blindly into the future, whatever it may hold.”

• Aug. 9-12 — DoDIIS Worldwide Conference 2026, Defense Intelligence Agency

• Aug. 11-13 — Space & Missile Defense Symposium, Huntsville, Alabama

• Aug. 17 — Beyond Pyongyang: Regional Development, Modernization and Inequality in North Korea, Stimson Center

• Aug. 18 — The Hormuz Implications for Energy Policymaking: Japan and South Korea, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Aug. 25-26 — Counter UAS Summit, Institute for Defense and Government Advancement

• Aug. 27 — 2026 Navy Summit, Potomac Officers Club