attacks

Palestinians near Bethlehem describe daily settler attacks as violence rises across the West Bank. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh reports that with elections looming, Israel’s right-wing government has an incentive to keep settlers happy, with their votes crucial to its re-election.

New Israeli air and artillery attacks have hit Lebanon after soldiers were killed for the first time since a fragile ceasefire began in June.

The latest military assault comes despite Lebanese-Israeli talks in Rome, part of a US-brokered peace process.

So, where do things stand now?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Maha Yahya – Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut

Jennifer Gavito – Former US Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

Rami Khouri – Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut

US President Donald Trump attacked Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, repeatedly calling him a ‘hater of Jews’ and ‘a hater of Israel.’ El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, overcoming millions in campaign spending from pro-Israel lobbying groups.

The Houthi rebels of Yemen say they are widening the scope of their attacks on Saudi shipping to the northern Red Sea to prevent transits through the Suez Canal. The expansion of Houthi kinetic activities there comes amid mixed messages about efforts to open up the Strait of Hormuz, largely closed by Iran after it was hit by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

The Iranian-backed Houthis already struck Saudi ships in the southern part of that body of water and refineries along the northern portion after imposing a blockade on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, leading several oil tankers in the Red Sea to avoid that route in favor of the Suez Canal. The expansion of the Houthi campaign against Saudi shipping began with an attack off the port of Yanbu on the NCC Wafa, a Saudi oil tanker, the rebel group claimed today.

“By God’s grace, the Yemeni Armed Forces succeeded in striking the Saudi oil vessel Wafa in the northern Red Sea off the area of Yanbu, using a number of ballistic missiles — and the hit was precise, by God’s grace,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed on X. “In tightening the naval blockade on the Saudi enemy at Bab al-Mandeb in the southern Red Sea, the Saudi enemy has moved to reroute its oil vessels toward the northern Red Sea. The Yemeni Armed Forces therefore affirm that their operations will continue and escalate in targeting Saudi oil vessels in the northern Red Sea, to close off every route and prevent passage, in order to cement the ‘blockade for blockade’ equation.”

There was no immediate statement issued by the Saudis and TWZ cannot independently verify the Houthis’ claims.

As we have frequently detailed, a Houthi blockade of the BAM threatens to add far greater pressure on oil exports from the Middle East, already drastically affected by the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. The kingdom has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day through pipelines to its Yanbu port on the Red Sea in an effort to minimize the energy shortages due to the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. As we have noted, the Suez Canal is an important artery in addition to the BAM for ships carrying Saudi energy supplies, though this route drastically increases the cost of exports to Asia given the need to travel around Africa. While tankers carrying Saudi oil through the BAM have been greatly reduced, they are still making their way through the Suez Canal. But that could change if the Houthis start making that route perilous too, which would put a tighter energy squeeze on the west, including Europe, as well as the rest of the globe. They could also continue to attack Saudi oil terminals on the Red Sea, making shipping a moot point if the transfer stations are not operational.

The closing of the BAM to Saudi oil traffic, and now threats to the transit route north to the canal, also raise the specter of the U.S. having to get as involved as it did during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September, which could pull resources away from Iranian-focused operations. It’s possible Egypt would have a major problem with such actions too, as it would impact the Canal’s revenue and freedom of movement. This could widen the conflict.

Meanwhile, there are mixed signals about whether the Strait of Hormuz will be fully reopened to traffic and under what conditions.

“The U.S., Iran and Oman are closing in on an interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with the U.S. aiming for a Wednesday announcement,” Axios reported on Wednesday, citing two regional sources and a U.S. official. “According to two regional sources, the deal under discussion sets up a 60-day temporary arrangement between Oman and Iran in the Hormuz strait, which could be extended.”

All inbound traffic of ships through the strait and into the Gulf would go in a northern lane through Iranian waters, the publication noted. All outbound traffic through the strait and into the Arabian Sea would go in a southern lane through Omani waters, in coordination with Iran. In addition, there would be no tolls or fees charged during this interim two-month period and the parties would work to clear the median lane of the Strait of mines within 30 days.

“After the median lane is cleared, it would be used for inbound and outbound traffic under the terms of a permanent arrangement to be negotiated between Oman and Iran,” the outlet added.

The deal described by Axios largely mirrors the Iran-Oman negotiations we reported on yesterday, with the main differences being the involvement of the U.S. and no imposition of fees. As we noted, both Iran and the U.S. are currently following a bifurcated traffic pattern, with the U.S. Navy recommending transits close to the Omani coastline and Iran pushing shipping toward its shores. The middle of the Strait has been deemed too hazardous because of the threat primarily from mines.

Speaking to Fox News Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran have been ongoing but that Tehran faces severe consequences if it fails to open up the Strait.

“If they back out again, they are going to get hit really hard,” Trump proclaimed.

The president has insisted that Iran must fully open the vital chokepoint or face new and more intense attacks that would include power plants, other civilian infrastructure and even strikes on leadership.

There are indications from Iran, however, that any deal to open the Strait is between Iran and Oman and that it might not result in a quick resolution.

The official Iranian Press TV stated on X “that any potential bilateral agreement between Tehran and Muscat regarding maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will not automatically lead to the immediate re-opening of the strategic waterway.”

Reuters on Wednesday concurred that any deal to open the Strait may not be as imminent as Trump has claimed.

“A proposed deal between Iran and Oman would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz,” the outlet wrote, citing a senior Iranian source and two regional officials. “Despite the apparent step towards yielding to Iranian demands, the sources pushed back against assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump that ‌a deal reopening the strait was imminent, saying important details still had to be agreed.”

Regardless of negotiations, U.S. Central Command stated on X that the Strait of Hormuz southern route along the coast of Oman remains open and that over the past three months, “U.S. forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in successfully transiting the strait despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, and these transits continue today.”

Between Houthi actions in the Red Sea region and the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, commercial traffic in both areas continues to be greatly reduced, though transits through the BAM are spiking upwards, according to MarineTraffic.

The latest “data highlights how headline volumes can obscure underlying maritime risk. Strait of Hormuz crossings fell from 10 to eight on 4 August, with seven vessels exiting the Middle East Gulf and only one entering,” MarineTraffic stated on X. “Five of the eight movements used the Iranian Unilateral Scheme, while no Hormuz Traffic Separation Scheme crossings were recorded.”

Meanwhile, “Bab el-Mandeb traffic rose from 25 to 34, including 18 vessels entering the Red Sea and 16 exiting,” MarineTraffic added. “Yet four dark transits, two sanctioned crossings and six shadow fleet movements indicate that visibility, routing concentration and compliance exposure remain central concerns.”

Amid all this, oil prices have actually fallen, with Brent Crude now trading at slightly over $79 a barrel, down from nearly $85 per barrel yesterday. Still, there are many reasons Trump is pushing a rekindled effort to find a diplomatic off-ramp to a conflict that has killed 18 American troops, wounded hundreds more, drained U.S. weapons stocks and roiled international relations and global financial markets. In addition to the global economic pressures this conflict has created, it is unpopular among the American electorate and crucial mid-term elections will take place in November. Even Fox News, generally supportive of Trump, has released polling data that shows a “majority of voters oppose U.S. military action, and nearly two thirds think the conflict will last at least a year.”

The latest Fox News survey “finds 56% oppose U.S. military action against Iran, including 40% who “strongly” oppose.”

How much these factors will play a role in Trump’s decision-making should become clearer over the next hours and days.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, Lebanon – Every year on August 4 since 2020, families of the victims of a massive explosion at Beirut port gather outside the site of what was one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in modern history.

They continue to press Lebanese authorities for justice and accountability for the explosion of ammonium nitrate that was unsafely stored with highly inflammable materials.

Yet there has been none, despite a change in leadership that promised to support an independent judiciary into the blast that killed more than 200 people.

This year I couldn’t attend the commemorations because I was covering another tragedy – only the latest to devastate Lebanon.

I was in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, a small town in southern Lebanon that lies in ruins after weeks of Israeli air attacks, shelling and at times deliberate demolitions of people’s homes amid fighting with the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Residents are trying to start again – but they can’t.

Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since October 2023, with different levels of intensity, but the former has twice escalated the conflict – first in September 2024 and then in early March this year, after the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

People in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh had not recovered from the first escalation before they found themselves escaping bombing and displaced yet again.

The majority of houses in the town are so badly damaged they are uninhabitable.

I watched a man in his 80s cry as he showed me the mountain of concrete that used to be his home. “I feel humiliated,” he said. “I have no choice but to collect the scrap metal from my destroyed home to sell in order to be able to survive.”

In 2019, Lebanon’s economy, local currency and the banking sector all but collapsed, leaving people unable to access their savings. And little if anything has been done by the political class to carry out required financial reforms to bring in much-needed international funds.

The reconstruction bill for the latest escalation is in the billions of dollars. Officials do not have an exact figure but say it could climb to $20bn.

It might be a conservative estimate. I have been visiting villages across southern Lebanon since the reduction in violence a few weeks ago. The devastation is unprecedented. Basic services are no longer available. In some areas, there are no telecommunication networks.

And then there are the dozens of villages that we cannot access because they are occupied by the Israeli military.

There, homes continue to be demolished, water facilities destroyed, and agricultural land and olive groves torched. The deliberate destruction continues regardless of what is supposed to be a ceasefire, a framework agreement with Lebanon and condemnations by Lebanese officials who took the controversial and divisive decision to engage in direct talks with Israel.

Reconstruction as a card

When hostilities escalated in March this year, reconstruction from the previous round of fighting in 2024 had not even begun. Then, the World Bank estimated losses at $11bn – money the nearly bankrupt Lebanese government did not have.

Then, like now, there was no offer to help by international donors. Reconstruction aid was and continues to be used as leverage to force the disarmament of Hezbollah.

It was not just the lack of funds.

During the 15 months following a November 2024 ceasefire and the latest escalation, the Israeli military maintained pressure by systematically targeting all recovery and rebuilding efforts in southern Lebanon.

They bombed heavy machinery and construction equipment, destroyed factories and prefabricated house units, and attacked workers clearing rubble to prevent displaced residents from returning. Nearly 100,000 people were already displaced before this year’s war that forced more than a million people from their homes.

More destruction

On the sixth anniversary of the port blast, Lebanon has had to face more destruction.

I remember writing the same words last year, on the fifth anniversary. Like in 2025, this year’s destruction came from outside the country – from Israel. Areas where Hezbollah has influence remain covered in rubble following Israel’s attacks.

Yet again, there is a need to rebuild. Yet again, many Lebanese have to pick up the pieces of their lives on their own.

While they try, they live in fear. In the front-line town of al-Mansouri, we met the head of the municipality, Haidar Mudayhi, who told us not to approach the hills around the town’s centre.

“The Israelis drop stun grenades every time someone tries to reach those areas … every day there is machinegun fire around the village … the other day there were air strikes in the hills … there is no stability,” he said.

It is a story we hear time and time again in villages north of the occupation zone.

The relative calm is fragile. No agreement exists that guarantees Israel and Hezbollah will not go to war again.

Israel acts as if there is no ceasefire, while the signed agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which the United States has called “historic”, does not include a commitment or a timeline for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

Spain has condemned the “selfish, polarising and unlawful” reaction of some EU countries to the influx of about 60,000 migrants from Morocco to Ceuta.

Officials say almost all those who reached the enclave on 30 July have returned, while Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Saturday that the death toll had risen to at least 67.

It comes after Italy temporarily suspended the EU’s border-free Schengen arrangement with Spain, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the scenes “shocking”.

Finland and Denmark backed Italy’s move, while Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš urged a temporary suspension of Spain’s Schengen membership.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he had “serious concerns” about some European governments.

He said the Spanish government had fully restored control over the border and prevented any “unauthorised onward movement towards continental Europe” in less than 48 hours.

While most had shown “support and solidarity”, Sanchez said other European governments had chosen to attack Spain, “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest”, and pointed out that Ceuta was not part of the Schengen area.

“The European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction,” he said.

The Spanish leader called for an urgent meeting with EU interior ministers to “reaffirm that the security of our external borders is a shared responsibility of all Member States”.

Meanwhile, 22 of the EU’s 27 countries also called for emergency talks in an open letter, citing “serious concerns” regarding the developments in Ceuta.

The nations “welcome that Spain and Morocco are cooperating closely to ensure the swift return of migrants”, but said a video conference of EU interior ministers would help reach agreement on mobilising EU instruments and support for Spain to restore “effective control” of the border and prevent further uncontrolled crossings.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he had spoken to Sanchez and the UK was “providing what help we can”.

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least two Palestinians and wounded at least 10 others, hours after Hamas agreed to a draft peace deal drawn up by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The agreement would have Hamas disarm in phases, matched by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli forces struck near Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon. The military said it used 700 tonnes of explosives to destroy parts of a Hezbollah tunnel network. Israel agreed in June to a phased withdrawal from Lebanon, and have the Lebanese military handle disarming Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes hit multiple areas across Gaza overnight, including tents sheltering displaced families in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. In Gaza City, an attack on a residential apartment injured many Palestinians, most of them children, according to eyewitnesses.

Southern Lebanon’s Mansouri village is divided by Israel’s Yellow Line, a military boundary separating 6% of Lebanese territory it occupies from the rest of the country. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr spoke to residents who say they’re living with fear.

Roughly six weeks before the first midterm ballots are mailed out, the U.S. Postal Service is emerging as a pivotal player in an election season that will determine control of Congress.

President Trump is seeking greater control over mail balloting through an executive order while a change to how the agency processes mail is leading to criticism that it’s failing to deliver ballots on time.

Democratic officials have raised concerns over the past week about how quickly the Postal Service will process ballots after tens of thousands of them in California and hundreds in Wisconsin arrived at local election offices too late to be counted in elections earlier this year. The top election offices in Kansas and Michigan are urging voters who want to cast their ballots early to avoid the mail and instead drop them off in person.

The Postal Service replied to those concerns by saying it remains “committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process.”

“We provide a secure, efficient, and effective way for citizens to participate when policymakers decide to use mail as part of their elections,” it said in a statement Tuesday.

Trump’s order puts more focus on mail ballots

The Postal Service faced similar questions about mail delivery in 2024, but the scrutiny this year is heightened because of an executive order Trump issued in March that seeks to create a national voter list to guide the Postal Service in deciding who gets a mail ballot.

The order has sparked multiple lawsuits and federal court orders, leading to a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the administration is asking the justices to allow it to impose its restrictions on mail balloting.

Trump has lied for years about voter fraud to try to explain away his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, and mail balloting is a favorite target, even though he has used the method himself. During a recent stop in Michigan, he falsely characterized mail balloting as “inherently corrupt” and added, “Hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots.”

A 2025 report from the research group Brookings identified about four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast.

Despite Trump’s attacks, the method remains popular with voters of both major parties. In 2024, nearly 30% of U.S. voters cast their ballots by mail, according to federal data. In Michigan, where competitive U.S. House and Senate races could help determine the balance of power in Congress, the state said it has sent out more than 2 million absentee ballots for the state’s Aug. 4 primary.

“We want to keep vote by mail. We want to protect it. We want to expand it,” said Jonathan Smith, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which launched a campaign in April promoting it and is opposed to turning the Postal Service into an election administrator. “Why? Because it works.”

Legal battles intensify over Trump’s order

The Postal Service proposed a rule in June in line with Trump’s executive order that would create a national list of eligible voters, based on databases kept by other federal agencies. Only those on the list would be eligible to receive mail ballots.

Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts. A federal judge there blocked Trump’s order last month, and an appeals court upheld that ruling, prompting Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court. But the appeals court for the District of Columbia refused Tuesday to block the order in a separate case, calling a legal challenge premature.

Democratic senators and governors have written to the Postal Service urging it to abandon efforts to implement Trump’s order.

“Donald Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to meddle in our upcoming elections,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a statement to The Associated Press. “At best, this new push will exacerbate already severe delays for mail-in voters and at worst, it will stop eligible Americans from casting their ballots.”

In a letter to Democratic senators earlier this month, the heads of the Postal Service said they were abiding by the court rulings that had halted the executive order. But Smith, of the postal workers union, told the AP on Tuesday that USPS information technology staffers who are union members are working on a planned portal for the list of eligible voters “behind the scenes.”

The Postal Service declined to respond to Smith’s statements and said it could not comment about whether it’s moving forward with work related to Trump’s order because of the litigation.

The postal workers’ union opposes the plan for a portal, a national list of eligible voters and using that list to determine who can receive a mail ballot. Smith said it shouldn’t be postal workers’ responsibility “to decide who can vote and who can’t vote.”

A plan to consolidate mail processing centers upsets officials

The Postal Service has been under financial stress for years and has been consolidating mail processing into fewer regional centers. Mail travels an average of 139 miles to reach one and sometimes 500 miles, according to a recent Brookings report.

In January, a group of mostly Democratic senators said it was concerned about a decision to end twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. The result is that mail arriving after the only daily dispatch would go out the next day.

California officials said the change was a factor in the state rejecting more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary, with 63% of them arriving too late despite a seven-day grace period. Officials worried that some ballots were postmarked at processing facilities the day after they were dropped off at a post office, possibly invalidating them. Wisconsin officials also said hundreds of ballots from an election in April arrived late.

The Postal Service said postmarks generally are being applied with automated equipment at processing centers, “in the same manner and to the same extent as before.” It said someone who wants to make sure their ballot envelope gets a timely postmark can get a free one applied by a postal worker.

A report on the 2024 election by the USPS Office of Inspector General said the Postal Service handled more than 59 million pieces of ballot mail from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15 that year and that 97.3% arrived on time.

Some state election officials advise voters to avoid the mail

The Michigan secretary of state’s office is advising voters to hand-deliver ballots to their local clerk’s office or a drop box.

“We’ve seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they’re always concerning, and that’s why we’ve put out that guidance,” said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie.

The Postal Service said its Michigan centers are not seeing processing delays.

In Kansas, concerns about late ballot deliveries in the state’s 2024 primary election prompted a quip on the social platform X from Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican: “The Pony Express is more efficient at this point.” Asked his view now, spokesperson Whitney Tempel said Schwab still believes “keeping your ballot out of the hands of the federal government is best.”

Jamie Shew, a Democrat elected to oversee elections in Douglas County, home to the main University of Kansas campus, said his office is trying to change voters’ perceptions.

“I think voters are used to, you can drop it off on Friday and we’re going to receive it by Election Day,” Shew said Tuesday. “That’s just not the reality.”

California’s state budget includes $10 million for social media campaigns and other efforts to discourage last-minute ballot mailings.

And the Postal Service said it hasn’t changed its own longstanding advice for voters: They should get their ballots in the mail at least a week before their state’s deadline for receiving them.

Hanna writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Michael Casey in Boston, and Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.

The United States military says it intercepted ballistic missiles fired by Iran across the Middle East.

In a statement on X on Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched multiple ballistic missiles in an “attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East”.

All the missiles were intercepted, and “US forces remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness”, the statement added.

Five missile interceptions were reported over Jordan, according to the Jordan News Agency.

The IRGC said its air force targeted a US airbase and Central Command centre in Jordan, “with several ballistic missiles”.

“As long as threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue and illegal and vicious actions by American forces against our interests continue, the resistance will continue,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran’s IRIB broadcaster.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said the latest escalation seemed like a “pre-emptive attack, not a reactionary measure”, from the Iranians.

US President Donald Trump had called off a two-week US bombing campaign on Iran on July 24, claiming after that “good talks” were under way with Iran.

“After 13 consecutive days of constant bombing, in the tit-for-tat US-Iran bombings, these latest attacks will most definitely have an impact on the mediation efforts”, Al Jazeera’s Serdar said.

Trump has threatened to ⁠restart strikes if negotiations stagnate, while Iran has denied seeking to resume talks with Washington.

‘Sending a message’

The Iranian attacks targeting US bases came as Trump was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been pushing for war on Iran, in the White House.

“This is Iran sending a message to Trump that they need to be involved in all discussions,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said from Washington, DC.

“It was reported in Israel that Netanyahu was very keen to raise the question of Pickaxe Mountain. The Israelis said there has been building work going ahead there; they believe the Iranians are putting together another nuclear facility”, he said.

Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera that Tehran is “trying to retake the initiative and the momentum with these latest attacks”.

“Iran has expressed scepticism that the US engages in these pauses between attacks to prepare for another phase of violence, so Tehran likely thinks the US is doing just that with this latest pause”, he said.

US oil futures jumped more than 4 percent to more than $82 a barrel, while Brent crude futures went to more than $88 a barrel after the US military confirmed the Iranian attack.

Oil prices were dropping earlier on Tuesday as Washington’s suspension of strikes on Iran continued, with traders closely monitoring reports of renewed talks.

Hormuz tensions continue

The Strait of Hormuz and its shipping traffic have been major talking points for Trump, who has decried Iran’s blocking of some vessels.

Iran asserts that it is within its rights to control shipping through the strait.

On Wednesday, the IRGC said it “struck and stopped” three oil tankers in Hormuz, according to Tasnim news agency.

It said the tankers “continued to move along an unsafe and illegal route, ignoring our warnings”,

Oman has presented Iran with a proposal to jointly manage traffic in the strait, but Iran has rejected it.

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television that Tehran rejected splitting transit routes equally.

Instead, he said, Tehran proposed managing shipping on its side of the strait, while Muscat would manage part but not all of the opposite lane.

July 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States paused attacks on Iran at Iranian leaders’ request but said he would order “strong military action” if negotiations fail.

However, there were mixed messages on what those talks entailed Monday. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said there were no new negotiations with the United States, CNN reported, though there are discussions with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States halted attacks on Iran three days ago after 13 consecutive days of nightly bombing.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran,” Trump told Axios during an interview Monday. “If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action.”

The president said in that interview that he isn’t willing to give much time to diplomacy, and that “either it goes fast or not at all.”

The Guardian reported that Trump later told reporters on Air Force One that, “They want to meet, and we’re meeting. Without what we did, they wouldn’t even be talking to us. … They would not have requested the meeting if we were doing poorly. The only reason they want to meet is because we’ve been hitting them very hard.”

Later yet, at a rally in Michigan, Trump said there are “very friendly negotiations” going on.

Oman’s Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi held calls with his counterparts from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt in a diplomatic push.

Al-Busaidi said in a statement that the talks between Iran and Oman “focused on ways to enhance the prospects for reaching practical, fair and sustainable arrangement for maritime navigation … throughthe Strait of Hormuz,” Axios reported.

Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Tehran “would never allow the United States to determine the timing of war and peace.”

“Mediators may convey messages from the American side to us regarding current developments in the region,” he said, the Guardian reported. “But at present we are not engaged in any negotiations with the United States.”

Baghaei said the talks with Oman were “useful and constructive” but that they have nothing to do with the United States.

President Donald Trump has paused attacks on Iran for the second night in a row to give diplomacy more time, the US ambassador to the UN said.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, ambassador Mike Waltz said the president was “giving talks some space, he’s giving it a little bit of room”.

An Iranian army spokesperson said on Sunday that Tehran had halted “retaliatory” attacks in the region in response.

The pause follows nearly two weeks of daily US strikes and tit-for-tat attacks, effectively unravelling the ceasefire struck in June.

Asked whether Trump had decided against escalation for now, Waltz told NBC: “I wouldn’t go that far at all. The president is keeping all options on the table.”

Waltz also rejected reports in the New York Times, external that administration officials had warned expanding hostilities could dangerously drain a diminished stockpile of air defence munitions.

“The US military… has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said.

As of Sunday evening, Trump had not spoken publicly on the latest developments, but earlier posted computer-generated images on his Truth Social account that depicted US military planes bombing Iranian ships and Kharg island.

Meanwhile, Iran and Oman held several rounds of technical talks in Tehran on Friday and Saturday to discuss management of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.

Disputes over control of the strait reignited US-Iran tensions earlier this month and it remains a major block to permanently ending the war.

Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in June to halt military operations and reopen the strait, as well as to reach an agreement to end the war over the following 60 days.

But after Iranian forces attacked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on 13 July, the US resumed airstrikes on the country and reinstated its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Iran retaliated with attacks on US military facilities and bases across the Middle East, killing four American soldiers. The US strikes have since killed dozens of people, according to Iran’s health ministry.

In the UK, new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said he would meet his US counterpart Pete Hegseth in the coming week to discuss the strait, which is one of the world’s key transport routes for oil, liquid natural gas and other essential commodities.

“When it comes to securing maritime freedom and free commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, that’s where we are absolutely aligned,” Streeting told the BBC.

Earlier this week, oil prices hit $100 a barrel for the first time since May, as the renewed fighting stoked fears over global energy supplies.

As the war nears its fifth month, it remains largely unpopular in the US, with a new poll from CBS/YouGov suggesting 57% of Americans are frustrated about the conflict and only 19% optimistic.

Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in February, official figures show, with the vast majority coming from Iran and Lebanon.

President Trump is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Tuesday.

Kyiv says Russian strikes killed six, including a child at a supermarket, as Moscow says Ukrainian strikes killed four.

Russian forces have killed at least six people in Ukraine, according to officials, after launching ballistic missile attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and strikes on other regions, including a supermarket in the northern city of Chernihiv.

The attacks on Sunday came as Russian officials said that Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine had also come under fire, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the occupied city of Horlivka.

Ukraine’s air ⁠force said Russia had launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight. Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv cities were all hit.

In northern Chernihiv, officials said a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people, including a nine-year-old girl, and wounding 25 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a “deeply cynical drone strike on an ordinary supermarket”.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, the local mayor said.

“This is deliberate Russian terror with absolutely no military justification,” Zelenskyy said.

Separately, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said a glide bomb attack killed one person and wounded six in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, which has been under heavy bombardment in recent months.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one blaze had broken out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multistorey apartment block in a central district after the overnight missile attack. Three people were wounded in the capital, and images released by the state emergency services showed vehicles in flames.

In Sloviansk, one of several targets of Russia’s slow advance through eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the national oil and gas company Naftogaz said two of its employees died in a Russian attack while trying to help residents affected by an earlier strike.

In Horlivka, a city in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region, Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said four civilians had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike. Prikhodko later said a Ukrainian drone hit an emergency vehicle, injuring three medics and another resident.

At least 12 people, including two children, were also hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border, Russian authorities reported.

The attacks came a day after Moscow said a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-occupied town on the Azov Sea killed 12 people.

Both Moscow and Kyiv ‌deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. But civilian casualty rates have climbed sharply in 2026 in both Russia and Ukraine, according to the United Nations.

Analysts say this is because of the growing use of short-range drones, glide bombs, and intensified strikes on infrastructure in both Russia and Ukraine.

UN officials say 1,396 civilians have been killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026. In Russia, 250 civilians have been killed and 1,596 injured.

United States-led talks on ending fighting have stalled. The Kremlin occupies swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine and has repeatedly said it intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force.

The US has paused its two-week bombing campaign against Iran, prompting Tehran to suspend its regional retaliatory attacks.

July 26 (UPI) — Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned Argentina’s ambassador after inflammatory remarks delivered by Argentinian President Javier Milei about Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over the weekend.

Argentinian diplomat Julio Bitelli must go to Brasilia on Sunday or early Monday to meet with Brazilian leaders in wake of Milei’s harsh attacks on Lula during the national convention of Brazil’s Liberal Party, or PL, in São Paulo on Saturday, diplomatic sources told the O Globo newspaper.

Milei used his speech to denounce what he called the “tragedy of socialism” in Latin America, singling out the Lula and Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court for intense criticism while praising PL presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro.

The Argentine leader hailed Bolsonaro as the only candidate who can stop Lula, saying that “there is no one else capable of stopping Lula” and his effect on the country or confronting criminal and drug trafficking organizations.

“Do not allow your future to be stolen. We are counting on you, Flavio, to stop this socialist garbage,” said Milei.

The Argentinian leader also slammed de Moraes for prohibiting him from visiting former president Jair Bolsonaro in a Brasilia prison where the ex-president is serving a 27-year prison sentence for leading a 2022 coup attempt against Lula.

“I was not allowed to visit my unjustly imprisoned friend,” said Milei, a declared ally of the Bolsonaro family.

Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the imprisoned former president, launched his formal bid challenging Lula at the PL convention, declaring, “This the beginning of the toughest battles of our life. A fight between good and evil.”

Reactions to Milei’s attacks reverberated throughout Brazil in Sunday.

Workers’ Party president Edinho Silva said the Argentine leader had crossed a line with the attacks.

“No public authority in Brazil is above criticism, as long as it is made in the appropriate manner and at the right time,” he said in a social media post. “However, it is unacceptable for a foreign head of state to come to our country and address its constitutional powers in disrespectful terms.”

It is no surprise that the current president of Argentina “behaves in this way,” he added. “After all, there are not a few recent situations in which he has shown himself not up to the office he holds.”

Brazilian Supreme Court President Luiz Edson Fachin, meanwhile, similarly pushed back, reaffirming the autonomy of the country’s judiciary.

Iran’s supreme leader calls for ‘absolute, unconditional termination’ of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon amid reports of renewed diplomacy.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that peace between Tehran and the United States is contingent on Israel stopping its attacks on Lebanon.

Khamenei made the statement in a post on X on Sunday.

Iran “has designated the preservation of Lebanon’s territorial integrity, and the absolute, unconditional termination of the Zionist regime’s aggression as the primary condition for any agreement to ending the imposed war against the aggressive US,” he wrote.

Khamenei also voiced his support for the Lebanese group Hezbollah, its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and the people of southern Lebanon – the focal point of Israel’s attacks – in a series of posts.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the defense of these oppressed yet powerful mujahideen [of Hezbollah] to be its strategic mandate,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei’s intervention comes amid reports of a halt to attacks and renewed diplomacy between Tehran and Washington.

Iran has insisted on an end to Israeli strikes on Lebanon a precondition for ending the war, enshrining that demand in the first clause of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in June.

That agreement has since collapsed amid a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz.

Lebanon was drawn into the conflict in March after Hezbollah launched strikes on northern Israel, citing both the killing of then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the war’s first day, February 28, and Israel’s near-daily bombardment of Lebanese territory – attacks it says violated a ceasefire that had ended an earlier round of hostilities in 2024.

On June 26, following the signing of the US-Iran MoU, Lebanon and Israel signed a US-mediated framework agreement stipulating a phased Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory, but without a timetable for the withdrawal.

Instead, it said Israel will withdraw from occupied territories once Hezbollah is disarmed.

Iran and Hezbollah, which was not a party to the talks, have rejected the deal.

While the first phase is Israel’s withdrawal from three “pilot zones”, the Lebanese army said on Sunday that Israeli forces are obstructing the process, including by refusing to withdraw from designated territories.

As of Sunday, Israel was still bulldozing, shelling and conducting combing operations with machineguns across large areas of southern Lebanese territory it is occupying.

At least 4,329 people have been killed, while 37 Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have died in the latest round of violence in Lebanon.

Israel violated a previous ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel more than 10,000 times, according to UN peacekeepers.

Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of the former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He was selected as supreme leader after the US and Israel’s assassination of his father.

Khamenei’s statement on Lebanon comes as war spreads into Yemen, with reports of an exchange of attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

July 26 (UPI) — After nearly two weeks of nightly bombing, the United States and Iran entered their second day of no new attacks Sunday, U.S. defense officials said.

Pentagon officials told CNN that U.S. attacks on Iran were “on a hold” after 13 consecutive nights of bombing the country. U.S. allies in the war on Iran have also reported no new strikes out of Tehran.

Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia confirmed the pause by his country in a statement carried by The Guardian.

“These [U.S.] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks,” he said. “Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations.”

U.S. officials told The New York Times that President Donald Trump had delayed his plans to escalate fighting if talks didn’t continue. They said he was motivated by dwindling stockpiles of missile interceptors.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have portrayed the U.S. pause on strategic fatigue, CNN reported.

Amid the lull in violence, Iran’s foreign ministry said there had been some movement in negotiations regarding the control of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran had essentially closed the strait to traffic after the United States and Israel began its strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

The action put strain on the world’s energy markets because about one-fifth of the world’s oil transits the strait. The resulting spike on oil and gas prices has put strain on the Trump administration to end the war.

Sumaya Yaghi returns to what’s left of her destroyed home in southern Lebanon after Israeli troops withdrew from her ‘pilot zone’ village under a US-backed agreement.

July 24 (UPI) — The United States and Iran traded attacks Thursday night and Friday morning, as President Donald Trump announced that damage inflicted by Iran on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz would be paid with U.S.-held Iranian assets.

U.S. Central Command said its latest wave of attacks, which were completed at 9 p.m. EDT Thursday, lasted for about two hours, 15 minutes, during which its forces hit Iranian military command centers, drone storage facilities, communications networks, coastal surveillance sites and maritime capabilities.

State-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported explosions early Friday local time across the country, with strikes in Ahvaz, Bandar Abbas, Omidiyeh, Qeshm and Andimeshk. Officials in Bandar Abbas reported that two people were injured.

Explosions were also reported by the IRIB in southern Khorramabad.

The Iranian Army announced retaliatory drone strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan and Bahrain.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said sirens were sounding. It urged residents to remain calm and seek shelter.

The United States has been hitting Iran for nearly a fortnight as it seeks to regain freedom of navigation of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy route that Iranian forces have tried to seize amid the war by attacking commercial tankers that try to transit it.

Maritime traffic freely flowed through the Hormuz until the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February. Iran responded with its maritime blockade of the chokepoint, causing gas prices to spike and threatening nations with an energy crisis.

Mid-June, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to lay foundations to end the war, but fighting resumed earlier this month over a dispute over what the agreement meant for control of the strait. Iran says the agreement recognizes its authority over Hormuz transit. Washington says Tehran committed to freedom of navigation.

CENTCOM said Thursday, as it has after the completion of each new wave of attacks, that it was seeking to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack vessels transiting the Hormuz.

“The international waterway remains open for transit despite recent attacks from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the statement said.

“Commercial vessels continue to free navigate the strait with U.S. military support.”

Late Thursday, President Donald Trump announced online that damage ships incur while traveling the Strait of Hormuz would be paid by for with the hundreds of millions of dollars in Iranian assets that the United States has frozen via sanctions.

“These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do,” he said in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi lashed out in response online, warning the international community that “Seizing another nation’s assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent.”

“Those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalize confiscation, no one’s assets are safe,” he said in a statement.

“Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful.”

The United States has continued to attack Iran for a 13th consecutive night on Thursday and explosions were reported in multiple Iranian cities on Friday morning.

In addition to the ongoing attacks, shipping disruptions continue to intensify. Ship tracking data revealed that just one tanker successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, marking the lowest level since May 7.

However, shipping data from London Stock Exchange Group shows that two Chinese supertankers carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia successfully exited the Bab al-Mandeb strait on Friday. This is despite the naval blockade Yemen’s Houthis announced against Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Here is a recap of what happened on Thursday night and Friday.

Where did the US attack Iran?

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that at 01:00 GMT on Friday, it concluded its latest round of strikes against Iran.

CENTCOM said it targeted Iranian military command centres, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites and maritime capabilities.

On Friday, Iranian media reported explosions or attacks across multiple Iranian cities. State broadcaster IRIB reported that explosions were reported in Khondab, Khorramabad, Konarak and Jask. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that two people have been injured following an early morning drone attack on Khorramabad, citing the deputy governor of the western Lorestan province.

Iran’s Mehr news agency reported on Friday that US missile strikes hit the cities of Andimeshk and Omidiyeh in the Khuzestan province. There were no casualties or injuries.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Assidi reported from the Iranian capital, Tehran, that explosions were heard on Qeshm island, located in the Strait of Hormuz, on Friday.

Attacks on the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas have injured two people, Iranian media reported on Friday.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Friday that four people were killed and five others were injured in a US missile attack near the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

Where did Iran strike in the Gulf?

Bahrain: In a statement carried by Iran’s Mehr news agency, the Iranian army said it used drones to target fuel storage tanks, equipment warehouses and troop living quarters at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.

Jordan: The military added that aircraft hangars, maintenance facilities and accommodation sites at the Muwaffaq Salti/Al-Azraq base in Jordan were also hit, warning that any actions against Iran’s interests would undermine regional security and economic stability.

What have leaders on either side said?

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric against Tehran. He told the US news website Axios that he may launch the largest strikes on Iran yet, after Tehran carried out another wave of retaliatory attacks on US allies in the Gulf, including hitting a telecommunications tower in Kuwait.

Trump said he was “considering a massive attack” that would be “bigger than ever before”.

“I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” Trump said.

Separately, Trump threatened, on his Truth Social platform, that if Iran attacked ships, the US would use Tehran’s frozen assets to pay for repairs.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Friday that using frozen state assets to pay for future claims sets a dangerous global precedent.

“Seizing another nation’s assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent,” Araghchi wrote on X.

He cautioned that “those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalise confiscation, no one’s assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful”.