Technologies

Nintendo Switch Online: Sega Genesis Library Adds 4 Classic Games

Alien Storm, Columns, Golden Axe 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 join the subscription service’s library.

If you pick up the original model Nintendo Switch, the little Switch Lite or the fancy Switch OLED, you’ll have heaps of stellar games to choose from. However, if you want online multiplayer gaming and access to a library of retro Nintendo 64, SNES, NES and Sega Genesis titles, you’ll want to sign up for Nintendo’s Switch Online subscription service and check out its Expansion Pack tier for some nostalgic joy.

The Genesis retro library added Alien Storm, Columns, Golden Axe 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 on Thursday.

The September Nintendo Direct livestream revealed that beloved 1997 shooter GoldenEye 007 will join the N64 lineup “soon,” but it’s unclear when it’ll arrive. Mario Party 3, Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, 1080 Snowboarding and Excitebike 64 are all coming in 2023.

The higher tier is pricey but also gives you access to Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ paid expansion and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course tracks at no extra cost, along with the N64 and Genesis libraries.

The SNES and NES libraries also expanded recently, with Fighter’s History, Kirby’s Avalanche and Daiva Story 6: Imperial of Nirsartia joining the list of classics. These are available in a standard membership, so you don’t need the Expansion Pack tier to play them.

The service lets you race against faraway friends in Mario Kart 8, battle distant rivals in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and trade with fellow trainers in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It also includes support for cloud backup of game data, access to the Nintendo Switch phone app and a few exclusive offers. Let’s take a look at the whole lot.

How much does Nintendo Switch Online cost?

The basic plan will set you back $4 ( 3.49, AU$6) for a month, $8 for three months or $20 for a year. You could also opt for the $35 family plan, which is designed for households with a bunch of people who want their own accounts. It lets up to eight people play online, use cloud saves and access the SNES and NES libraries and other basic features for a year.

See at Nintendo

You also have another option: a Nintendo Switch Online plus Expansion Pack subscription. This gives you access to a larger library of classic games, from the N64 and Genesis, along with the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Happy Home Paradise DLC expansion.

The Expansion Pack is considerably more expensive than a basic subscription. An individual membership costs $50 for a year, while a family plan subscription costs $80. There are no options for paying monthly or for three months, so you have to commit for a year.

Does the Nintendo Switch Online family plan have restrictions?

The family plan lets you create a group of up to eight Nintendo accounts across multiple Switch systems and gives each person unrestricted access to Switch Online’s features. The person who sets up the account pays the subscription fee and is designated as the administrator and parent or guardian, giving them the ability to add or remove people to and from the plan.

The administrator account doesn’t get control over the other people’s accounts and you can leave whenever you want. You’ll just revert to a single-account subscription if it’s still active, or you’ll need to sign up for a new subscription if not.

It’s possible for the administrator to set other accounts in the plan as “supervised,” letting them restrict eShop purchases and viewing, as well as reviewing sign-in history.

The Expansion Pack tier doesn’t add any restrictions for subscribers on family plans, so it’ll work the same way as it does on the basic tier.

Online play

The most basic perk of Nintendo Switch Online is online multiplayer gaming. If you want to visit a friend’s island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons or battle your buddies in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you’ll need a subscription. However, one major multiplayer game will work without a subscription: Fortnite is playable online even if you don’t have an active online subscription.

Classic Nintendo games

Subscribing to Switch’s online service lets you access a library of old N64, SNES, NES and Genesis games, like a Netflix for Nintendo games. These are all found within the system-specific apps, which you can download from the eShop. This service will also be the only way to access digital versions of classic Nintendo games once the Wii U and 3DS eShops close in 2023.

Much like the NES Classic and SNES Classic retro consoles, you can switch between visual filters in the apps’ menus — a 4:3 mode, pixel perfect and a fuzzy scan-line-filled CRT mode for the true retro experience.

Less retro is the cheeky rewind feature. If you want to try something again, you can press and hold ZL and ZR to jump back a few frames, and it’ll be like your mistake never happened. This feature isn’t available on N64 games, but you can create suspend points so you can save your game at any time.

Nintendo has also included online multiplayer in games that were previously local-only. It’s also added online modes into some games that don’t have typical multiplayer options. You can pass the second player controller to a friend over the internet, so you can take turns. You can also try SP versions of some games, which add special features.

You’ll also lose access to your classic game libraries if your console is disconnected from the internet for more than a week. The console needs to check in with the service every seven days to make sure you’re still subscribed.

Which N64 games are available on Nintendo Switch Online?

If you pay for the more expensive Expansion Pack subscription, you’ll be able to play a bunch of N64 classics (and with more on the way):

1080 Snowboarding (coming in 2023).
Banjo-Kazooie.
Dr. Mario 64.
Excitebike 64 (coming in 2023).
F-Zero X.
GoldenEye (coming “soon”).
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
Mario Golf.
Mario Kart 64.
Mario Party.
Mario Party 2.
Mario Party 3 (coming in 2023).
Mario Tennis.
Paper Mario.
Pilotwings 64.
Pokemon Puzzle League.
Pokemon Snap.
Pokemon Stadium (coming in 2023).
Pokemon Stadium 2 (coming in 2023).
Sin and Punishment.
Star Fox 64.
Super Mario 64.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Wave Race 64.
WinBack: Covert Operations.
Yoshi’s Story.

It typically reveals upcoming Switch Online additions in trailers about a week before they’re added to the library. We’ll update this page when the trailers drop.

Which Sega Genesis games are on the service?

Also included in the Expansion Pack will be a selection of games from the Sega Genesis (or the much cooler Mega Drive if you’re outside North America):

Alien Soldier.
Alien Storm.
Altered Beast.
Castlevania: Bloodlines.
Columns.
Comix Zone.
Contra: Hard Corps.
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine.
Dynamite Headdy.
Ecco the Dolphin.
Golden Axe.
Golden Axe 2.
Gunstar Heroes.
Light Crusader.
Mega Man: The Wily Wars.
Musha.
Phantasy Star IV.
Ristar.
Shining Force.
Shining Force II.
Shinobi 3.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic The Hedgehog Spinball.
Space Harrier II.
Streets of Rage 2.
Strider.
Super Fantasy Zone.
Sword of Vermillion.
Target Earth.
Thunder Force 2.
ToeJam & Earl.
Virtua Fighter 2.
Zero Wing.

More Genesis games will be added in the future, Nintendo noted, but it hasn’t hinted at what they’ll be.

What about the SNES games?

The SNES library is included in a standard Switch Online membership. You don’t need the Expansion Pack tier to play these:

Bombuzal.
Breath of Fire.
Breath of Fire 2.
Brawl Brothers.
Caveman Ninja (aka Joe & Mac).
Claymates.
Demon’s Crest.
Donkey Kong Country.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble.
Doomsday Warrior.
EarthBound.
Fighter’s History.
F-Zero.
Jelly Boy.
Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics.
Kirby’s Avalanche.
Kirby’s Dream Course.
Kirby’s Dream Land 3.
Kirby Super Star.
Magical Drop 2.
Mario’s Super Picross.
Natsume Championship Wrestling.
Operation Logic Bomb.
Panel de Pon.
Pilotwings.
Pop’n TwinBee.
Prehistorik Man.
Psycho Dream.
Spanky’s Quest.
Star Fox.
Star Fox 2.
Stunt Race FX.
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000.
Super E.D.F. Earth Defense Force.
Super Ghouls’n Ghosts.
Super Mario All-Stars.
Super Mario World.
Super Mario Kart.
Super Metroid.
Super Punch-Out.
Super Puyo Puyo 2.
Super Soccer.
Super Tennis.
Super Valis IV.
The Ignition Factor.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
The Peace Keepers.
Tuff E Nuff.
Wild Guns.
Yoshi’s Island.

And the NES games?

Like the SNES games, the NES library is included in the standard subscription. Some have modified SP versions, which let you jump to the last level, start with a bunch of power ups or otherwise tweak the experience:

Adventures of Lolo.
Balloon Fight.
Baseball.
Blaster Master (SP).
City Connection.
Clu Clu Land.
Crystalis.
Daiva Story 6: Imperial of Nirsartia.
Donkey Kong.
Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong 3.
Double Dragon.
Double Dragon 2: The Revenge.
Dr. Mario (SP).
EarthBound Beginnings (aka Mother).
Eliminator Boat Duel.
Excitebike.
Fire ‘n Ice (aka Solomon’s Key 2).
Ghosts’n Goblins (SP).
Gradius (SP).
Ice Climber.
Ice Hockey.
Journey to Silius.
Kid Icarus (SP).
Kirby’s Adventure (SP).
Kung-Fu Heroes.
Mario Bros.
Metroid (SP).
Mighty Bomb Jack (SP).
NES Open Tournament Golf.
Nightshade.
Ninja Gaiden (SP).
Ninja JaJaMaru-kun.
Pro Wrestling.
Punch-Out.
River City Ransom.
Rygar.
S.C.A.T: Special Cybernetic Attack Team.
Shadow of the Ninja.
Soccer.
Solomon’s Key.
Star Soldier (SP).
StarTropics.
Super Dodge Ball.
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (SP).
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
The Immortal.
The Legend of Zelda (SP).
Tecmo Bowl.
Tennis.
TwinBee (SP).
Vice: Project Doom.
Volleyball.
Vs. Excitebike.
Wario’s Woods.
Wrecking Crew.
Yoshi.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (SP).

What other classic games are coming?

A possible April 18 leak suggests that Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games are hitting Nintendo Switch Online soon. The list of games tested for the service includes The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, Metroid Fusion and many others. Take this with a grain of salt for now though.

Can I play the Japanese versions?

You can access more classic games via the Japanese eShop, at no extra cost. Here are the steps for this:

1. Create a second Nintendo Account and set Japan as the region. You’ll have to use a different email address than the one linked to your regular account.

2. Create a new profile on your Switch and link it to your Japanese account.

3. Download “Family Computer — Nintendo Switch Online” and “Super Famicom — Nintendo Switch Online” apps from the Japanese store. Don’t worry about the language barrier; you’ll spot the English “Nintendo Switch Online” option.

These apps are similar to the NES and SNES ones, in Japanese. They also contain that country’s versions of games and a few that aren’t available in the West.

Japanese SNES (Super Famicom) exclusives

Dead Dance (Tuff E Nuff).
Doomsday Warrior.
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
Kirby’s Super Star Stacker.
Shin Megami Tensei.
Shin Megami Tensei 2.
Shin Megami Tensei If…
Sugoi Hebereke.

Japanese NES (Famicom) exclusives

Adventures of Lolo 2.
Atlantis no Nazo.
Clu Clu Land: Welcome to New Cluclu Land.
Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai.
Famicom Wars.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (SP).
Joy Mech Fight.
Route 16 Turbo.
Smash Ping Pong.
Tsuppari Oozumou.
Yie Ar Kung-Fu.

There are also some SP versions that are exclusive to Japan and some regional differences in games, beyond the language.

Your main Nintendo Account’s subscription will give you access to the apps from the Japanese store, so you won’t need to pay for a separate subscription. If you can overcome the language barrier — all the text will be in Japanese — it’s worth giving these games a try.

How does cloud save data work on Nintendo Switch Online?

For subscribers, game data will automatically be backed up to Nintendo servers if you have an internet connection. If you sign in to your account on a new console, you’ll be able to download that data and pick up right where you left off. It’s an easy, simple way to protect the time you’ve invested in Nintendo Switch games.

Certain titles aren’t compatible with this feature, to prevent cheating. On the surface, that seems to make sense — players can’t hack their Pokemon Sword and Shield data to get all the starters — but it means that competitive multiplayer games with a single-player component aren’t protected. If you lose your Switch and want to pick up where you left off in Splatoon 2’s single-player campaign, you’ll be out of luck.

If you cancel, you have six months to resubscribe before your cloud data is potentially deleted, Nintendo told IGN. That’s the same amount of time Sony gives PlayStation Plus users.

How do I get the retro N64, Genesis, SNES and NES controllers for Switch?

For those who want to feel legit old-school when playing the console’s retro library, you need the controller to match. Subscribers can preorder wireless, Switch-compatible Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis controllers from Nintendo for $50 apiece. These expensive controllers are currently sold out, and restocks have been few and far between.

The N64 controller has built-in rumble, so you won’t need an unwieldy Rumble Pak add-on like gamers in the ’90s did.

For the other retro games, SNES and NES controllers are available for subscribers as well. It’s $30 for a single SNES pad or $60 for a pair of NES pads.

Does Nintendo Switch Online include any other perks?

Subscribers will get access to free content, discounts, in-game items or the ability to play a Switch game for free during a set period. The current trial game is Pokemon fighter Pokken Tournament DX, which you can download and play at no extra charge until Aug. 24.

During its Feb. 9 Nintendo Direct livestream, the company revealed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass. It’ll add remastered versions of tracks from older games in the series in six separate waves through the end of 2023, meaning the racer will get 48 extra tracks. You can purchase the pass for $25, or it’ll be included if you subscribe to the Expansion Pack tier. However, you’ll lose access if you unsubscribe.

Similarly, Expansion Pack tier subscribers can access the paid Animal Crossing: New Horizons downloadable expansion Happy Home Paradise and Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion at no additional cost. When you want to download the expansions, you can find them on the Switch’s eShop or through the Switch Online tab on the console’s home screen.

It’s also offered free original games, like Tetris 99, which came out in February 2019. A physical version has since become available for $30, in a bundle with a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

There’s also the Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers promotion, which lets you download two qualifying Switch games for a set price of $100, instead of paying $120 to buy them separately.

If you subscribe for a year, you’ll get in-game items for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Kirby Clash.

Voice chat and the Nintendo Switch app

Online multiplayer is great, but without the ability to talk to other players, it’s a weirdly solitary social experience. That’s why voice chat is so important. Unfortunately, Nintendo’s solution to voice chat is a little strange.

Most game consoles allow you to plug a headset into the console’s USB port or audio input jack and talk to players directly through the game. But most Nintendo Switch games that support voice chat require the user to piggyback off a phone, using the free Nintendo Switch Online app, available on Android and iOS.

To chat with other players in Splatoon 2, you’ll need to download the app on your phone, invite your friends to a Skype-like VoIP chat in the game, then fire up the app and, finally, connect to your match. You’ll be talking with your team on your phone while playing the game on your console.

An update made it a little better, in certain games. If you start a multiplayer session in the Switch’s NES library, the phone app will automatically detect your play session and connect you to your friend. Some games will even let you chat with other players who aren’t on your friends list: Mario Kart 8 will tell you that other users are in voice chat, prompting you to open the app.

If you want to have a traditional console experience, you’ll need to buy a complicated audio splitter to literally tether your Switch to your phone. It isn’t a user-friendly experience, which is why some games sidestepped it. You can chat in Fortnite by plugging a headset into the console and playing.

The app also lets you access special features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 2.

How popular is Nintendo Switch Online?

The service had 32 million subscribers (PDF) as of September last year, Nintendo said in a management briefing at the time. That was a jump of around 6 million from the number at the same time the previous year (PDF).

Can I try out Nintendo Switch Online for free?

If you want to sample the goods before shelling out any money, Nintendo is offering a one-week free trial. The seven-day trial offers almost all the benefits of the core service, but it won’t let you access special offers, like those retro NES and SNES controllers.

If you don’t like the service, however, you’ll have to manually disable auto-renewal to avoid being charged a $4 monthly fee at the end of your trial.

You need a Nintendo account to sign up

If you’ve been playing Nintendo Switch for a while, you probably already have this sorted. Just in case, let’s break it down. Your Switch has individual profiles for each user. The company also has a Nintendo account to manage your profile and purchase-history on its website, console devices and phone apps. To use Nintendo Switch Online, you’ll need both and they’ll have to be linked.

Just make sure you link your profile to the right account. Any Switch profile linked to a Nintendo account will be permanently locked in.

How do I sign up?

Prepaid subscription cards are available at select retailers, but the easiest way to buy the service is simply to try to play a multiplayer game on your Switch. It’ll take you directly to the eShop to complete the sign-up process.

Technologies

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emerges as Trump’s top ally in AI safety debate

Jensen Huang’s position as the leader of the world’s most valuable company, has earned him Trump’s ear on the most important topics in AI.

With the debate about regulating artificial intelligence raging in Washington this week, President Donald Trump picked up the phone to call his top ally on the subject: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

“The robots are not going to be taking over the world,” Trump told Huang, who’d put the president on speaker while on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday. Trump repeated a point he’d made on social media: that mounting AI and data center concerns are a “hoax.”

While other tech leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have cozied up to Trump during his second term, experts told CNBC that Huang is exercising outsized influence in the White House. He’s slated to attend Trump’s high-profile state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to confidentiality.

Nvidia has been powering the AI boom since before the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, supplying the graphics processing units used by OpenAI, Anthropic and others to train their models and run large workloads. Revenue surged to $215 billion in the latest fiscal year, up from $17 billion in 2021.

Huang’s position as the leader of the world’s most valuable company and the chipmaker at the heart of the AI boom has earned him the president’s ear on the most important AI topics.

“Trump just likes winners, and Jensen’s very good at speaking his language,” Samuel Hammond, director of AI policy at the think tank Foundation for American Innovation, said in an interview.

An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment, and White House representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Whether joining Trump for a candlelit dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, or closing a keynote by thanking guests for “making America great again,” Huang has learned how to appeal to the president. Trump and Huang have appeared together at least six times in public since the start of the second term, including trips to Saudi Arabia and the U.K., and a recent trip to China via Air Force One.

Huang is pushing for U.S. AI to move faster while some of Nvidia’s most important customers — namely OpenAI and Anthropic — are ramping up pressure on governments to regulate the technology as fears spread about its potential dangers.

An Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, said he quit his job earlier this month because he feared top AI labs are “gambling with our lives.” Coxon’s resignation set off a firestorm on social media, prompting calls for increased oversight from more than 20 members of Congress.

Concerns were already swirling after OpenAI disclosed a significant security incident in July, when two of its models escaped containment, accessed the open internet, and breached the online AI repository Hugging Face to get a better score on a benchmark test.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei cited that episode in a bombshell essay a week ago, urging AI developers to slow how quickly they improve their most advanced AI models. Amodei encouraged companies to cooperate directly with the U.S. government, and reiterated his desire for “well-considered regulation of AI.”

Amodei’s “pacing” proposal was endorsed by other industry leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis, who agreed on the need for a slowdown and additional oversight.

‘Did no harm’

Huang took a different position.

In public appearances over the past week, the Nvidia CEO brushed off concerns about AI’s risks. He said that predictions of doom aren’t grounded in science, and that model developers are responsible for securing their products before releasing them.

The solution to safety concerns, Huang said in Scotland on Thursday, is “good old-fashioned engineering.”

“There were incidents, and those incidents, thankfully, did no harm,” Huang said.

Huang’s position is largely shared publicly by David Sacks, a venture capitalist who previously served as Trump’s AI and crypto czar. Sacks co-hosts the “All-In” Podcast, which produced Monday’s event that featured the Trump-Huang call.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on the same day as the summit.

Before the recent uproar over safety, Nvidia focused its Washington outreach on export controls.

Last year, Nvidia was pushing to sell its AI chips to restricted countries, including China, drawing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers.

Some members of Congress, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have cautioned that selling Nvidia hardware to China could threaten U.S. national security and narrow America’s lead in AI.

In December, Huang’s strategy paid off. Trump announced that Nvidia was granted permission to ship its H200 chip to Chinese customers, and that the U.S. would collect a 25% fee in exchange.

The H200 announcement drew intense pushback from both sides of the aisle. Huang declined an invitation from Warren to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in June. The following month, a top U.S. trade official confirmed that H200 sales to China were underway.

Profit motive

Nvidia and Huang argued that banning Nvidia exports to China would be against American interests, in part because such a move would spur the world’s second-largest economy and computing market to develop its own cutting-edge AI chips. The H200 is no longer Nvidia’s most powerful chip, as it has shipped two generations of its newer Blackwell processors in the U.S.

But Nvidia’s fate wasn’t entirely up to U.S. lawmakers, as China’s regulators mostly blocked imports of the H200 chips.

Nvidia’s clear profit motive leads some experts to say it takes the concerns expressed by model developers more seriously than those of the chipmaker, because the labs are the ones responsible for the actual AI technology.

“Nvidia is the most aggressive in terms of, let’s just make money,” said Andrew Yoon, a researcher at CivAI, a nonprofit warning about the dangers of AI. “At every turn, they are really trying to just make sure whatever happens is good for Nvidia’s bottom line.”

Nvidia’s ambitions in China will loom large during the state dinner on Thursday, when Trump, Huang and Xi will all be in the same room. The White House is also planning a meeting with major AI executives to coincide with the event, according to CNN. Other industry executives, including Altman, are expected to attend.

But Huang’s presence carries extra weight. During a House hearing on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked if Trump understands the threat AI presents.

“I would just say the president is completely aligned with Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia,” Bessent said.

WATCH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says safety is an engineering problem

Technologies

Iranian President Pezeshkian to travel to New York for UN summit as Trump threatens consequences of no agreement

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is set to attend the UN General Assembly in New York as diplomatic hopes rise, even as U.S. President Donald Trump warns of severe consequences if no deal is reached.

President Masoud Pezeshkian is set to lead an Iranian delegation at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, as fresh optimism emerges for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict.

According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Pezeshkian will deliver a speech before the assembly, outlining Iran’s stance on “international developments,” with special attention to its conflict with the U.S. and Israel.

He is also expected to meet with several world leaders on the margins of the gathering, which runs from Sept. 22 to 26, and Sept. 28.

The Iranian delegation’s participation at the UN has sparked renewed optimism for a diplomatic path out of the war, boosting market sentiment on Monday — equities climbed, oil prices softened, and global bond yields dropped sharply.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump — who has indicated willingness to meet Pezeshkian during the assembly — has warned that Iran’s economy would be devastated or its leadership eliminated if Tehran fails to reach an agreement.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump said the only choices available were “wiping Iran out,” or allowing its economy to “rot,” unless a deal is reached.

Meanwhile, Iran’s military said its intelligence pointed to a new, large-scale strike being orchestrated by the U.S. and its allies, cautioning of “painful” retaliation throughout the Middle East. Any regional nations supporting such an attack would be considered participants in the conflict, it added.

“If the U.S. commits any error against the Islamic Republic of Iran, all its positions and interests in the region will face sustained, effective and painful strikes,” the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters of Iran stated, per Tasnim.

Houthi-Saudi conflict complicates diplomacy hopes

The U.S. State Department issued a security alert over the weekend, warning of potential unforeseen escalation in the Middle East and urging Americans to stay vigilant and prepare for possible flight cancellations and airspace closures.

The alerts followed claims by Iran-backed Houthi militants of missile and drone strikes on Riyadh on Saturday, which triggered the first air-raid warning in the Saudi capital since hostilities intensified in July.

Saudi officials reported that a ballistic missile was intercepted and destroyed, with no casualties or damage. The Houthis also tried to strike civilians and infrastructure across multiple areas of the kingdom, according to Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Maliki, who posted on X on Saturday that those attempts were repelled by the country’s air defenses.

Despite widening hostilities, oil prices have retreated in recent days as traders anticipate a recovery in energy shipments from oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Oil prices will stay elevated despite U.S. advances in moving oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a team of analysts at Eurasia Group noted in a Saturday report. Any increase in oil flows would be insufficient to close the overall market deficit, they said, projecting Brent prices to trade in a higher range of $90-110 per barrel for the remainder of this year.

“Iran’s leadership will stick with resistance, even as they quarrel internally,” the consultancy firm stated, noting that Tehran aims to use military proxies and tanker attacks to maintain a chokehold on shipping flows and pressure Washington into concessions.

Tehran has maintained it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until Washington honors its commitments under the June memorandum, which called for lifting the naval blockade of Iranian ports, easing sanctions, unfreezing Iranian assets, and ending U.S. military threats.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday that Iran must continue both fighting and negotiating to push back its adversaries, and only pursue diplomacy when it holds the advantage on the battlefield.

Technologies

Oil prices drop below $100 per barrel as Trump shows willingness to engage with Iran

Oil prices fell below $100 per barrel as Trump expressed openness to diplomacy with Iran, amid ongoing regional tensions and attacks.

On Monday, crude oil prices saw a sharp decline, trading below $100 per barrel, after President Donald Trump reportedly opted against bombing Yemen for the time being and signaled openness to diplomacy with Iran. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures decreased by 5.4% to $94.85 per barrel by 10:48 a.m. ET. Brent crude, the international benchmark, experienced a fall of 4.1% to $99.61 per barrel. Oil prices have declined for four consecutive sessions as the market retreats from the recent rally. Trump informed Fox News that he might be willing to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during this week’s UN General Assembly. Additionally, the U.S. president has chosen not to bomb Iran-allied Houthi militants at present, despite appeals from Saudi Arabia, according to Trump administration officials who spoke to The New York Times. In the meantime, crude exports from the Middle East have remained resilient following Saudi Arabia’s shutdown of its crucial East-West pipeline due to attacks, as stated by JPMorgan analysts in a note dated Sept. 18. Total oil flows averaged 17 million barrels per day over the past 10 days, which is 6 million bpd below the 2025 average, they reported. Exports through the Strait of Hormuz have steadily increased, with flows from the broader Middle East reaching approximately 80% of pre-war levels, according to Ryan McKay, director of commodity strategy at TD Securities. McKay stated in a Monday note that without a major escalation, Iran may have lost significant leverage in the Strait. However, the security situation in the region continues to be volatile and susceptible to sudden escalation. McKay noted that the oil market is struggling with multiple near-term drivers that are engaged in a tug of war for prices. The Houthis announced that they launched missiles at Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and targeted Aramco facilities at the Yanbu crude export terminal on the Red Sea over the weekend. At least two tankers have been attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz in the past day, based on incident reports from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre. Trump also told Fox that he is in a ‘deciding mode’ and that ‘very big things’ will happen soon concerning the Iran war. He described the options as ‘wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal,’ as reported by Fox. Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that it will expand the ‘geography of the conflict’ if the U.S. launches renewed strikes against the Islamic Republic, according to the state media outlet Tasnim.