US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth added that the US established a “red, white, and blue dome” over the Strait of Hormuz as a “gift from the US to the world.”

WASHINGTON, MAY 5: United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said in a Tuesday press conference at the Pentagon that Iran’s recent attacks would not restart the war, saying the attacks remain “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.”

Caine added that US operations remain at “low-level kinetics at this time.”

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also spoke, saying that the US established a “red, white, and blue dome” over the Strait of Hormuz as a “gift from the US to the world.”

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US forces are “providing 24/7 overwatch for peaceful commercial vessels, except Iran’s,” said Hegseth.

Hegseth noted that six ships had tried to break the US blockade since the start of Operation Project Freedom on Monday, all of which were “turned around.”

The statement contrasted with statements by the US military on Monday, which said it destroyed six Iranian vessels.

Hegseth added that Operation Project Freedom is a temporary operation separate from both Economic Fury and Epic Fury.

Hegseth: Project Freedom ‘temporary in duration’
“Project Freedom is defensive in nature, focused in scope and temporary in duration, with one mission, protecting innocent commercial shipping from Iranian aggression,” said Hegseth. “American forces won’t need to enter Iranian waters or airspace. It’s not necessary. We’re not looking for a fight.”

Hegseth emphasized that Iran has been “harassing ships” in the Hormuz “for too long.”

“America is using its strength to lift up others,” Hegseth continued. “Iran is trying to subjugate others.”

Hegseth further said that Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz and that “hundreds of ships are lining up” to pass through the waterway.

Reiterating that the mission is “temporary,” Hegseth demanded that the world “step up,” adding that “the world needs this waterway a lot more than we do.”

“At an appropriate place and time, we will hand responsibility back to you,” he said.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump urged South Korea to join the American effort in the Hormuz after a Korean cargo ship came under fire by Iranian forces.

News Desk

ABU DHABI: Iran launched missiles and drones targeting the UAE, with a drone strike causing a fire at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (a key oil storage and export hub outside the Strait of Hormuz). UAE air defenses intercepted most of the threats (reports cite around 15 missiles and 4 drones), but the Fujairah attack injured three Indian nationals.

UAE officials strongly condemned the strikes as “treacherous aggression” violating sovereignty and international law. Anwar Gargash, UAE Presidential Adviser, explicitly called Iran the “aggressor party” responsible for escalating the crisis in the Arabian Gulf and a “source of danger and threat to its security and stability.” Multiple countries (including Canada, India, and others) echoed condemnations.

This fits a pattern of Iranian actions against Gulf infrastructure, especially amid broader conflicts involving the Strait of Hormuz and fragile ceasefires.Saudi Arabia’s PositionSaudi Arabia strongly condemned the Iranian attacks on UAE civilian/economic sites and an ADNOC-linked vessel. The Saudi Foreign Ministry expressed full solidarity with the UAE and called on Iran to stop such actions and respect international law and good neighborliness. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to reaffirm support.

Separately, Saudi Arabia has expressed support for Pakistan’s mediation efforts in regional (including US-Iran) tensions, emphasizing dialogue and restraint to prevent further instability. Pakistan has positioned itself as a facilitator between various parties.

The IMF issued three scenarios for global GDP amid uncertainty over the war in the Middle East: the main “reference forecast,” a middle “adverse scenario,” and a much worse “severe scenario.”

WASHINGTON, MAY 5: The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday warned that inflation was already picking up and the global economy could face a “much worse outcome” if the war in the Middle East drags on into 2027 and oil prices hit around $125 per barrel.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the continuation of the war meant that the global lender’s “reference scenario,” assuming a short-lived conflict, which forecast a minor growth slowdown to 3.1% and a minor increase in prices to 4.4%, was no longer possible.

“This scenario, with every day that passes, is further and further behind in the rear-view mirror,” Georgieva said.

The continuation of the war, a forecast of oil prices at or above $100 per barrel, and rising inflationary pressures meant the IMF’s “adverse scenario” was already in effect, she said.

Long-term inflation expectations remained anchored, and financial conditions were not tightening, but that could change if the war continued, she told a conference hosted by the Milken Institute.

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz near Bandar Abbas, Iran, May 4, 2026. (credit: Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA/WANA
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz near Bandar Abbas, Iran, May 4, 2026. (credit: Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)
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“Now, if this continues into 2027 and we have oil prices of $125 more or less, then we have to expect a much worse outcome,” she said. “Then we are going to see inflation climbing up, and then inevitably, inflation expectations would start de-anchoring.”

Three possible scenarios for global GDP growth path
The IMF last month issued ​three scenarios for the ‌global GDP growth path in 2026 and 2027 amid massive ​uncertainty over the ​war in the Middle East: the main “reference forecast,” a middle “adverse scenario,” and the much worse “severe scenario.”

The adverse scenario forecasts global growth slowing to 2.5% in 2026 and headline inflation of 5.4%. The severe scenario forecast growth of just 2% and headline inflation of 5.8%.

Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth, speaking on the same panel, said that physical shortages in oil supply would begin appearing around the world because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global crude supply passed before the war.

Economies will begin shrinking, first in Asia, as demand adjusts to meet supply while the strait remains closed because of the US-Israeli war with Iran, Wirth said.

Georgieva said the IMF was carefully tracking the slow-moving impact of the conflict on supply chains, with fertilizer already 30% to 40% more expensive, which would drive food prices up between 3% and 6%. Other industries could also be affected.

‘It is really serious’
“What I want to stress is that it is really serious,” she said, expressing concern that many policymakers were still acting as if the crisis would end in a couple of months and were putting in place measures to cut the impact on consumers and business, which was keeping demand for oil high.

“Don’t throw gasoline on fire,” she said. “Everybody in this room knows that if your supply shrinks, your demand has to follow.”

AUTHOR: S Shujahat Ali, Civil Services of Pakistan, Fulbright Scholar

If opportunity cost is the unseen tax on CSS aspirants, then poor measurement is its silent accomplice which confuses noise for signal.

Consider this: should a score of 80 in a regional language carry the same weight as 60 in Economics or Applied Mathematics? The answer, intuitively, is no. These subjects differ not only in difficulty but also in grading standards, evaluator subjectivity, and intellectual demands. Yet the current CSS rules of different optional subjects carrying same weights regardless of qualitative difficulties of those subjects, producing a statistical illusion of fairness while masking structural inequities.

This problem is not unique to Pakistan. India’s Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) faced a similar crisis. Optional subjects led to “score inflation arbitrage,” where candidates strategically chose high-scoring disciplines rather than those aligned with aptitude or future administrative utility. Over time, UPSC reduced the weight of optional subjects and introduced normalization techniques to ensure comparability across candidates. The lesson is clear: when evaluation systems ignore subject heterogeneity, they reward gaming behavior over genuine competence.

CSS today suffers from this very distortion. High-scoring subjects become crowded, low-scoring ones become traps, and the system inadvertently incentivizes tactical selection over intellectual authenticity or academic rigor. A more rational approach would involve either eliminating optional subjects altogether or statistically normalizing scores across disciplines. At the very least, optional subject scores should act as tie-breakers rather than primary determinants when candidates perform similarly in compulsory papers.

The second flaw is redundancy. What statisticians would call multicollinearity. There is substantial overlap between compulsory and optional subjects, and even within compulsory papers themselves. For instance, International Relations and Current Affairs, or Indo-Pak History and Pakistan Affairs. More critically, the viva voce often becomes a mere oral repetition of written content. Candidates are asked to reproduce facts, opinions, and arguments they have already demonstrated on paper. This is not assessment; it is duplication.

In predictive analytics, redundant variables add noise without improving explanatory power. Similarly, in CSS, overlapping evaluations consume time and cognitive energy without meaningfully enhancing candidate differentiation. Worse, they skew preparation strategies toward memorization and rehearsed articulation rather than original thinking.

Internationally, modern civil service systems are moving in the opposite direction. For instance, the UK’s Civil Service Fast Stream emphasizes situational judgment tests, group exercises, and behavioral interviews. These are designed not to test what candidates know, but how they think, communicate, and lead under uncertainty.

In essence, the goal is not to make the exam easier, but to make it smarter and efficient. Normalize what is inherently incomparable. Eliminate what is redundant. And redesign evaluation to reflect the actual demands of public service.

Because a system that mistakes repetition for rigor will inevitably select for conformity not competence.

WASHINGTON, MAY 4: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if US vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz during an interview with FOX News on Monday.

“We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” Trump said. “We have the best equipment. We have stuff all over the world. We have these bases all over the world. They’re all stocked up with equipment. We can use all of that stuff, and we will, if we need it.”

Trump’s comments came just after several missiles were launched from Iran at the UAE, and the head of CENTCOM, Admiral Brad Cooper, said the US had destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones fired by Tehran.

Cooper said he “strongly advised” Iranian forces to remain clear of U.S. military assets as it launches the operation. He said a U.S. blockade of Iran, which prevents ships from going to Iran or departing Iranian territory, also remains in effect and is exceeding expectations.