Ships are anchored close to the shoreline in Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Wednesday. Bandar Abbas is a port metropolis and the capital of Hormozgan province, alongside the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.
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Getty Photographs
The U.S. navy on Thursday stated it seized one other tanker transporting oil from Iran within the Indian Ocean, a day after Iran took management of two business ships within the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump stated in a brand new social media submit he ordered the Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” laying mines within the Strait of Hormuz. He additionally stated the U.S. is ramping up minesweeping within the strait.
This comes after Trump on Tuesday stated he was extending the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, hours earlier than it was set to run out. He informed Fox Information on Wednesday there was “no time pressure” both on the truce or setting a brand new date for talks to finish the struggle.
Iran dismissed Trump’s ceasefire extension as meaningless, saying the continued U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports is a violation of the deal and it’ll not return to negotiations till the blockade is lifted. The U.S. Central Command stated it has directed 31 vessels to alter course since imposing its blockade earlier this month.
Brent crude oil, the worldwide commonplace, was once more buying and selling at over $100 a barrel Thursday because the deadlock continued to disrupt delivery via the strait, a chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil and pure gasoline.
Hours after Trump’s announcement, Iran attacked three business vessels within the slim waterway and seized two of them, additional tightening its grip on one of many world’s most vital delivery lanes.
Lebanon, in the meantime, is about to pursue an extension of its U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel throughout a second spherical of talks in Washington on Thursday. The talks come a day after Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed at the least 5 folks, together with a Lebanese journalist.
The most recent regional turmoil coincided with a shakeup on the Pentagon, the place U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan was dismissed following months of pressure with senior Pentagon officers, together with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A person reads a newspaper with a entrance web page article referring to anticipated US-Iran peace talks, at a stall in Islamabad on April 22, 2026.
Asif Hassan/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Asif Hassan/AFP through Getty Photographs
Listed here are the newest developments on Day 55 of the Center East struggle:
Israel-Lebanon talks | Navy Secretary dismissed
Second spherical of Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington
Israel and Lebanon are set to carry a second spherical of ambassador-level talks in Washington on Thursday, as each side discover extending the delicate 10-day ceasefire that took impact final week.
The talks observe the primary high-level contact between the 2 nations in many years and are available as Lebanon seeks to cease the combating between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Lebanon can be attempting to safe the withdrawal of Israeli troops nonetheless occupying components of the nation’s south, the place Israel needs to determine a “buffer zone” to maintain Hezbollah from launching strikes into northern Israel.
A girl mourns subsequent to a press ballistic helmet as kin and mates collect on the home of Amal Khalil, a veteran correspondent for the day by day newspaper Al-Akhbar who was killed in a reported Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, within the village of Bisariyeh on April 23, 2026.
Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP through Getty Photographs
The Israeli authorities has referred to as on the Lebanese authorities to do extra to strain Hezbollah into disarming.
Salman Harb, a Hezbollah spokesperson, informed NPR that the group maintained its “right to resist” if Israel refused to withdraw from Lebanon.
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed at the least 5 folks, together with Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil. Lebanese officers stated Khalil and one other journalist took shelter in a home after a close-by automobile was focused, however the constructing was then struck as effectively. Medics stated they have been in a position to rescue a wounded journalist accompanying her. They then got here underneath fireplace and have been compelled to retreat earlier than they may save Khalil, who later died underneath the rubble. The Israeli navy stated it was responding to an “imminent threat” and was reviewing the incident.
Lebanon Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of focusing on journalists.
“Israel’s targeting of media workers in the south while they carry out their professional duties is no longer isolated incidents, but has become an established approach that we condemn and reject, as do all international laws and conventions,” Salam wrote in a submit on social media.
At the least eight journalists have been killed by Israel in Lebanon because the begin of the battle, based on the Committee to Challenge Journalists.
U.S. Navy secretary dismissed
The most recent regional turmoil coincides with one other shakeup on the Pentagon, the place Navy Secretary John Phelan was dismissed on Wednesday.
John Phelan, 79th U.S. Secretary of the Navy speaks onstage throughout the Reindustrialize Convention 2025 on July 16, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan.
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The Pentagon stated solely that Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately,” and stated that Undersecretary Hung Cao would function performing Navy secretary.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who heads the Senate Armed Companies Committee, referred to as Phelan’s dismissal “another example of the instability and dysfunction that have come to define the Department of Defense under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth.”
Phelan, a billionaire investor with no naval expertise, was the service’s high civilian official who oversaw the Navy’s price range, personnel and energy to construct extra ships. He was not, nonetheless, accountable for day-to-day operations happening within the Center East.
Phelan’s departure places him on a listing of over 30 Pentagon officers who’ve been ousted since Hegseth’s arrival on the Pentagon, a lot of them generals and admirals.
Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, Kat Lonsdorf and Jawad Rizkallah in Beirut, Lebanon, Rebecca Rosman in London and Greg Myre Washington contributed reporting to this story.
