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Live updates: US launches new strikes on Iran after Trump says ceasefire is over
Edited By
LUENA RODRIGUEZ-FEO VILEIRA, BERNARD MCGHEE and AISHA I. JEFFERSON
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
Here’s what we’re following:
- The U.S.launched new airstrikes against Iran early Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump said recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuzsignaled the end of the ceasefire and threatened to escalate the conflict if they didn’t stop. Iran responded by targeting U.S.-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the U.S. of striking near its sole nuclear power plant.
- Back-and-forth attacks, including on Wednesday, have repeatedly threatened the ceasefire,but Thursday’s appeared bigger all around. And Trump’s mixed messaging — approving back-to-back military strikes while insisting they don’t mean a return to full-scale war — is fuelinguncertainty about what comes next.
- Whether it’s a negotiation tactic or a signal of further escalation, mediators arescrambling to save the interim deal. The inflamed tensions could also spell trouble for Republicans in November’s midterm elections if gas prices stay high.
Crowds throng the coffin of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ahead of burial
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thousands of mourners dressed in black flooded into the Iranian city of Mashhad on Thursday for the last day of a funeral for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The procession would conclude at the Imam Reza shrine, where Khamenei would be buried
Iran’s foreign minister speaks to regional leaders about the escalating tensions with the US
By FATMA KHALED
Abbas Araghchi said on his Telegram channel on Thursday that he spoke with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Oman. He also spoke with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has been one of the main mediators in the war
Araghchi repeated Iran’s assertion that the U.S. has violated the interim peace deal reached last month. The U.S. says Iran violated the deal by firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz
The diplomatic outreach suggested efforts may be underway to reduce tensions
Tarps go up as part of Trump’s restoration project to the front of the White House
By WILL WEISSERT
Crews have draped tarps over the towering stone columns on the north side of the White House, where work is underway to scrape away decades of paint. It is the latest in dozens of projects Trump has led to remake the White House to his own tastes
Crews have draped tarps over the towering stone columns on the north side of the White House, where work is underway to scrape away decades of paint
The new tarps on the building’s façade are partially see-through. They feature images of columns designed to cover the actual ornate stone columns beneath
Scaffolding went up several days ago for work on the columns. It is the latest in dozens of projects Trump has led to remake the White House to his own tastes – including a massive ballroom and helipad on the South Lawn
The White House hasn’t provided details on what is being done to the columns or how much it will cost. But Trump said on Monday: “We’ve taken about 150 years of paint off of the columns” and added that, “If you don’t strip the paint off, it gets worse and worse and worse.”
Ships are still going through the Strait of Hormuz but the situation remains volatile
By MAE ANDERSON
Bridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst for maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, said in a news briefing that ships were still passing through the strait as of Wednesday, but Lloyd’s is still reviewing the numbers since some passages are “dark,” when ships stop broadcasting signals that show their location
“The situation does remain really volatile,” she said
Lloyd’s List Intelligence said preliminary data shows there were at least 576 transits in June, up from 233 in May, but down from 3,131 in June 2025
Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA
Non-Iranian traffic in June included 264 outbound vessels and 137 inbound ships
Outbound ships included bulkers, crude oil tankers and product tankers. Inbound ships included crude oil tankers, product tankers, bulk carriers and gas carriers
In June, there was an even split between “dark” transits and online transits that broadcast their locations
Germany reaches a deal with the US to buy long-range Tomahawk missiles, Merz says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the agreement on the long-range cruise missiles, which are used to strike targets deep inside enemy territory, was reached this week on the sidelines of the NATO summitin Turkey’s capital, Ankara
“This will close an important strategic gap in our defense, and at the same time, we will work to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe,” Merz told parliament after returning from the two-day summit
The deal struck with the Trump administration amounts to broader export of American know-how to some of its major allies in Europe, whose security posture has been upended by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
Former Olympian pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool damage case after Trump alleged vandalism
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
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Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, second from left, listens as his attorney Norman Eisen, right, speaks after he pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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People rally in support of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, before he arrives arrives at D.C. Superior Court, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, second from left, listens as his attorney Norman Eisen, right, speaks after he pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, second from left, listens as his attorney Norman Eisen, right, speaks after he pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
2 of 2 |
People rally in support of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, before he arrives arrives at D.C. Superior Court, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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People rally in support of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, before he arrives arrives at D.C. Superior Court, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington. /Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
The former Olympic canoe racer pleaded not guilty Thursday to deliberately damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a politically charged case that his defense attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided as an abuse of prosecutorial power
David Hearn, who competed in three Summer Olympics, entered the plea during his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court. Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, was indicted last Thursday on a single felony count of property destruction
Trump ordered a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary this month, but the project has been plagued with problems. Workers have used chemicals to curtail an algae bloom. Trump has said the pool likely would need to be drained again for liner repairs after chunks of blue coating were seen floating at the surface
Trump has claimed without substantiation that vandals dumped fertilizer into the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter
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JUST IN: Former Olympian pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool damage case after Trump alleged vandalism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ukraine says its Patriot production will take months
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
During Wednesday’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said the U.S. will meet a longstanding request from Ukraine and give it a license to make the Patriot air defense systems. He also praised Zelenskyy for doing “an amazing job” — a sharp change in tone from past criticisms of the Ukrainian leader
But setting up domestic production of the mobile, surface-to-air systems will take many months, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister
FILE – Ukrainian Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets fly over a Patriot Air and Missile Defense System in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on Aug. 4, 2024. /Efrem Lukatsky, File)
A production license would typically come with technical process documentation, training for specialists, supplier contacts and foreign consultants to help launch manufacturing, Beskrestnov wrote on the Telegram messaging app
The main obstacle would be time, rather than Ukraine’s technical or organizational capacity, he added
Eswatini receives 11 people deported from the US as part of migration crackdown
By NOKUKHANYA MUSI
The southern African kingdom of Eswatini has accepted a fourth group of people deported from the United States under a bilateral agreement to host third-country nationals, with 11 people arriving this week, the government said Thursday
Acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said the group, predominantly from African countries, would remain in the kingdom temporarily while their rights were protected
“The government reaffirms that, during their temporary stay in the Kingdom, the fundamental rights of the third-country nationals will be respected and protected in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Kingdom’s international obligations,” Mdluli said in a statement
Under a series of often-secret agreements that are part of a broad U.S. crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say
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Global markets are mixed and oil prices rise as Iran and US launch new attacks
By CHAN HO-HIM, MATT OTT
After ringing the opening bell from the White House, United States President Donald Trump is seen on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, Monday, July 6, 2026. /Seth Wenig)
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1% before the opening bell Thursday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%. Nasdaq futures were up 0.5%
Oil prices inched up again Thursday, with Brent crude, the international standard, rising 64 cents to to $78.66 per barrel. It briefly topped $80 on Wednesday. Before the Iran war began, Brent oil was trading at around $72 a barrel. Earlier optimism over an interim peace deal recently brought it back to prewar levels
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 54 cents to $74.06 a barrel
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New attacks raise questions about what comes next in the Iran war
By WILL WEISSERT, FARNOUSH AMIRI, SAMY MAGDY
President Donald Trump says he believes the ceasefire with Iran is over. He says he’s not sure he wants a deal anymore and says the U.S. should “finish the job.” But he also insists continued attacks don’t mean a return to war or long-term action
The confusion and uncertainty in Trump’s mixed messaging and his approval of back-to-back military strikes leave major questions about what comes next in the conflict, just weeks after difficult diplomacy to reach even an initial deal between the longtime adversaries
The whipsawing rhetoric could be a strategy to increase the pressure on Tehran to stop attacking ships transporting oil and natural gas in the Strait of Hormuzand bend to U.S. demands on its nuclear program — something Trump has tried before
Whether it’s a negotiation tactic or a signal of an escalation in fighting, mediators are scrambling to save the interim deal and the actions risk further inflaming tensions
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