The operation, which began in June and is ongoing, came as fighting between the U.S. and Iran flared anew.

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The vice-president says he’s ‘extremely skeptical’ of Iran reports when asked whether US was responsible for deaths

The US vice-president, JD Vance, said “sometimes things happen” when asked on Thursday whether an American strike was responsible for killing four people, including a child, at a wedding celebration in southern Iran this week.

The strike hit Kuhestak, a town in Sirik county on the strait of Hormuz. The toll was reported not by the Iranian government but by the Iranian Red Crescent, a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement that operates independently of Tehran and is generally treated by international monitors as a credible source on casualty figures.

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© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

© Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Isolated by war, they nevertheless are taking part in an exhibition at The Brick, paired with local artists who interpreted and realized their work.

President said Howard Lutnick had Venezuela operation on his mind when he was discussing Iran war on CNBC

Donald Trump has claimed his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, erroneously stated that no Americans had been killed in the war with Iran because he was thinking about a previous US operation, in Venezuela.

The claim, at odds with the Pentagon’s count of 18 US service members dead in the US-Israel war on Iran, sparked a swift backlash as Trump struggles to end the conflict after six months.

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© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

© Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

The trillions in tax cuts going to the rich and corporations could have instead been used to address the affordability crisis

Dear reader, I recognize that your eyes might glaze over at any mention of the nation’s $40tn federal debt. But your reaction to this mind-boggling number shouldn’t be ennui; it should be outrage and dismay.

Outrage is in order because the nation’s debt has climbed to more than $40tn under Donald Trump, even though back in 2016, when the debt was less than half what it is today, candidate Trump insisted that he’d totally eliminate the debt within eight years. That was yet another example of the Demagogue-in-Chief’s willingness to say anything, no matter how insincere or untrue, to woo voters.

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© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/EPA

© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/EPA

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Republican oversight chair James Comer has also weighed in on Leon Black not sitting for a deposition about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The billionaire financier, who has denied wrongdoing, filed suit against the oversight committee Thursday alleging the subpoenas were improper.

“It’s a shame Leon Black is hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people. Our investigation is examining how the federal government for decades failed survivors of Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes and how Mr. Epstein sought to curry favor with influential individuals to avoid scrutiny,” Comer said in a statement. “Mr. Black’s testimony is crucial to our investigation as he was one of Mr. Epstein’s fee paying clients and has several nondisclosure agreements.”

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© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: M Scott Brauer/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

As the Trump administration refuses to end its war in Iran, it is steering into the storm, not out of it

Russia hasn’t yet killed large numbers of Europeans outside Ukraine, but it’s getting closer. The night of 4-5 August, an airport bus driver discovered an armed drone lying near the tarmac of the Leipzig-Halle airport, which is a central hub of Europe’s logistical support to Ukraine’s war effort. A cargo jet, meanwhile, may have struck a second drone shortly after takeoff, forcing an abrupt landing, and investigators found a third drone laden with military explosives nearby.

In 2024, incendiary devices hidden in parcels ignited in DHL cargo at the same airport. Had these detonated in the air, a major air catastrophe and large-scale civilian casualties would have ensued, probably resulting in a broader war.

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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

The bomb that hit the residential area was American, according to a weapons expert and a visual analysis by The Times. It killed five people and wounded 67 others, the Iranian authorities said.

We talk to Jonathan Swan about how foreign leaders use leverage, strength and personal dynamics to manage the president.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The United States seems increasingly bogged down in Iran after six months of conflict, despite President Trump’s declarations of military dominance.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The United States seems increasingly bogged down in Iran after six months of conflict, despite President Trump’s declarations of military dominance.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

US Central Command has released footage that purportedly shows missile and drone strikes being fired at Iranian military targets. Footage of some of the aftermath of the US attacks was shared on social media, showing shrapnel damage on a home in Sirik, southern Iran, where a wedding celebration was taking place. Since publication of this video, Iranian state media has revised the death toll to four people. Iran retaliated shortly afterwards, with video shared by Iranian media said to show missiles being fired towards Jordan.

A US Central Command spokesperson said the US was aware of reports of civilian casualties, but that the 'US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps]'

• Iran accuses US of ‘war crime’ after missile blast kills five people at wedding

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© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

The US president’s need to assert dominance is igniting patriotism abroad and a backlash at home

What do bullies do when someone stands up to their bullying and punches them in the face? They look for someone weaker to bully who won’t punch back.

Presumably that’s why Donald Trump has now taken on Canada, after Iran punched back so hard in the cage match the US president began more than six months ago as to leave him humiliated and baffled.

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© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

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As tensions flare in the mideast with American military forces resuming strikes on Iran, Donald Trump has taken to social media to discuss his ballroom project.

“We have hundreds of happy construction workers in D.C. busily doing their job building the finest Ballroom/Military complex anywhere in the World,” Trump said in a truth social post Wednesday morning. “There is nothing like it, and never will be! It was a long, hard, fight in the Court System, but the winner is, as always under ‘TRUMP,’ the U.S.A.”

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

The American military said its barrage was retaliation against recent attacks on U.S. forces and marine traffic. Iranian officials said a wedding was hit and civilians killed.

© Iranian Red Crescent Society, via Reuters

As the war sputters on, an internal report from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s refusal to grant access to its inspectors was an urgent concern.

© Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Amid a crew morale crisis, the military has replaced the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East with another aircraft carrier. Our Pentagon reporter John Ismay, a Navy veteran, explains how the challenges to supply ships in the area will most likely remain the same.

The Russian president promised continued retaliation against the Ukrainians and “full solidarity” with Iran.

© Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Attacks on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and reprisals against US bases in Middle East quash hopes that flare-up last weekend was limited in nature

The US has launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets, prompting counter strikes by Tehran targeting American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, and fuelling concerns about a ⁠wider renewal of hostilities.

The US Marine Corps base Camp Titin in Jordan was targeted for an “intense ballistic missile attack”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said early on Wednesday, according to Iranian news outlet Tasnim.

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© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

© Photograph: Amirhosein Khorgooi/AP

Iranian officials said the strikes caused significant damage, including killing four people and injuring several dozens at a wedding. Iran said it retaliated by firing on U.S. bases in the region.

© Reuters

The latest measures have forced the cancellation of English proficiency and graduate exams, isolating many Iranians most eager to foster ties with the world.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

[L'article Les États-Unis et l’Iran ont repris leurs frappes après un mois d’accalmie a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

The U.S. military said its attacks against Iran were in response to a threat to the Strait of Hormuz.

© Reuters

Today, we hand the mic over to reporters covering diplomacy, the White House, the Middle East and more.

© Reuters

Response seeks to discredit Washington Post story that four generals and admirals advised against prolonging Iran war

Pete Hegseth regularly receives formal objections from senior commanders and proceeds anyway, the Pentagon’s top spokesman has said, as he tried to discredit a Washington Post report that four generals and admirals had advised against prolonging the war in Iran.

“Of course, we demand candid military advice,” Sean Parnell wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Non-concurs are standard. The Secretary sees them constantly. That’s how you run a real military.”

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© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

The roughly 30-square-mile island serves as a foothold for Iran’s military to advance its control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

© Reuters

A two-day conference of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan shows the limits of U.S. economic warfare.

© Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

The renewed attacks were the latest sign that the war that began six months ago appears far from over.

© Reuters

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• US supreme court allows Trump to keep building $400m White House ballroom

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Chris Hippensteel

We’re watching today as Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, and Kevin Warsh, the chair of the Federal Reserve, deliver their opening remarks at the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.

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© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The Treasury Department accused Banque Misr’s branches in the United Arab Emirates of helping Iran. The Emirati central bank promised an examination.

© Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

The country’s longest war came to an end exactly five years ago. Today it offers lessons for policymakers seeking to avoid an endless war in Iran.

© Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

The government is struggling to meet a shortfall in fuel and is wary that higher prices at the pump could stir unrest.

© Vahid Salemi/Associated Press

As with its approach to Hormuz, the US has mistaken applying pressure for an actual strategy. But Tehran has chips of its own to play

Donald Trump has found a new way to promise victory over Iran. After months of war have failed to force Iran’s capitulation or collapse, his administration has unveiled what the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, calls Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to cut it off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they continue doing business with Tehran.

There is no question that Iran is vulnerable. Its economy has been battered by years of sanctions, war and a months-long US naval blockade. Iranian officials acknowledge that oil exports and access to foreign currency have been severely constrained. Ordinary Iranians are already enduring high inflation, currency depreciation and worsening living standards. Further economic strangulation will inflict significant additional hardship.

Sina Toossi is a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, where his work focuses on US-Iran relations, US policy toward the Middle East and nuclear issues

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© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

There’s little optimism about treasury secretary’s ability to handle Trump’s tariffs, Iran sanctions and colossal US debt

History remembers Gen Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during the second world war, for his role in the D-day invasion of Normandy. Whether Scott Bessent will achieve similar posterity as the face of the “economic D-day” in Iran remains to be seen.

The US treasury secretary, already trying to manage a $40tn national debt pile, this week took charge of Donald Trump’s effort to reverse-engineer his war of choice. Whereas the US would typically take on an adversary with diplomacy, sanctions and military force, in that order, the US president started with a six-month bombing campaign and now hopes that economic isolation can finish the job.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Israel’s strike on a Syrian base to pre-empt the feared deployment of Turkish forces was part of a growing competition in the Middle East and beyond.

© Ugur Yildirim/Dia Photo, via Associated Press

The war has deteriorated over the past six months into Mr. Trump’s own version of a “forever war,” with no clear goals and no end in sight.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The war has deteriorated over the past six months into Mr. Trump’s own version of a “forever war,” with no clear goals and no end in sight.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Iranians have become increasingly desperate, as they grapple with an economic crisis made worse by the conflict and grow increasingly skeptical about President Trump’s motives.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Terrified of being seen as a loser, Donald Trump is nonsensically lashing out – even against our old friend Canada

I’m still grieving Dolly Parton. I never met her and always wanted to. She was almost exactly my age and my height and had values I deeply admired. Her death leaves a hole in the firmament.

Which brings me to the person whose values are as far from Dolly Parton’s as any human could possibly be and still claim to be human. I’m referring, of course, to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

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© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Trump’s replacement of a military war with a heightened economic one is not expected to alter Iran’s strategy, while further impoverishing its people.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Iranians have become increasingly desperate, as they grapple with an economic crisis made worse by the conflict and grow increasingly skeptical about President Trump’s motives.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Trump’s replacement of a military war with a heightened economic one is not expected to alter Iran’s strategy, while further impoverishing its people.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Exclusive: Experts and former officials say accounts are running dry, and funding a war with no clear endgame is the main challenge

Donald Trump’s war on Iran has driven the US military into a severe financial crisis, with the US navy forced to transfer money from its payroll and other sources to cover the costs of combat, according to documents seen by the Guardian, and interviews with navy officials, contractors and defense analysts.

The US-Israeli operation, which has depleted US munitions stockpiles and prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes that have wrecked strategic bases across the Middle East, is piling pressure on budgets across the military.

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© Photograph: US Navy/Getty Images

© Photograph: US Navy/Getty Images

© Photograph: US Navy/Getty Images

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has been a key mediator in the conflict, even as his country has blamed Tehran for hundreds of missile and drone attacks.

© Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

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On Wednesday, Trump officially signed a proclamation on Wednesday that suspends higher tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef imports for 90 days. This comes after backlash to the proposal – designed to lower grocery costs for Americans in the run-up to the November midterms.

Several Republicans – in states with sizable cattle farming industries – have criticized the policy, saying it is a short term solution that will stymie ranchers’ ability to rebuild their herds.

Four leading livestock and agricultural organizations also wrote a letter to the president on Wednesday urging him to reverse course.

“Flooding the market with discounted foreign beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd, strengthen food security, or lower grocery bills in a lasting way,” the groups wrote.

Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington, before traveling to Houston, Texas where he’ll headline a Republican National Commitee (RNC) fundraiser, and help boost Ken Paxton — the state’s attorney general and Republican nominee for Senate.

A reminder that Paxton beat long serving Senator John Cornyn in the GOP primary earlier this year after receiving Trump’s endorsement. Paxton is set to face Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico in November.

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© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President denies visit was to gain support for Iran sanctions or due to fears that Putin plans to ‘test Nato resolve’

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Donald Trump has downplayed a visit to Moscow by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, as “semi-routine” after he turned up in the Russian capital unannounced, triggering a wave of speculation about the reasons for his trip.

Ratcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland.

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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

The conflict with Iran is uniquely salient to the Virginia Beach voters deciding which party will win a critical House contest.

© Kristen Zeis for The New York Times

They should ask the question Reagan asked at the end of his debate against Jimmy Carter: ‘Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?’

The midterm elections are already upon us, and every Democrat and independent running against a Republican should ask voters the question Ronald Reagan asked on 28 October 1980, at the end of his televised debate against Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off now than you were before this presidency?”

Unless you’re very, very rich, the answer is obviously: “No, I’m worse off.”

Energy bills have increased three times faster than the rate of inflation while Trump has been president. The national average monthly utility bill reached $280 in early 2026, a 12% increase since the end of 2024, just before the second Trump administration took office.

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© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

Everyone can see that the Iran war has been a strategic disaster for the US, while a failing president pretends he is winning

Now is the twilight of Donald Trump’s supremacy. The US is still the richest and most heavily armed nation on Earth. That status is secure. The current president, contemptuous of law and indulged in lawlessness by a supine Congress, enjoys even greater power than the constitution allows.

With those advantages it takes a special talent for incompetence to look as thwarted and impotent as Trump does with more than two years of his second term still to run.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Bank Melli, Iran’s largest lender, already faces sanctions that severely limit its ability to operate abroad. Every foreign branch must be shut down, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times