The Latest: US says it's carrying out more strikes after Iran’s attacks in Strait of Hormuz

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The U.S. carried out another round of strikes on Iran late Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump said that recent Iranian attacks on ships in Strait of Hormuz signaled the end of the ceasefire.

The strikes come a day after the U.S. military hit a variety of military sites and port facilities following Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman. Iranian state media reported explosions including in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the strait and in Sirik, another southern coastal city.

Earlier at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump renewed past threats to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure including electric plants and desalination plants and to seize the oil-production hub of Kharg Island.

The U.S. will also, Trump announced, lift sanctions on Turkey that have barred its access to F-35 jets and lift Syria’s terrorism designation.

Here is the latest:

Amid speculation he only attended this week’s gathering as a favor to his ally Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president was asked if this was his last time at a NATO summit.

“No,” he responded, before adding that NATO had made a lot of concessions.

“The meeting today settled a lot of things,” Trump said.

The president also praised Spain after long criticizing that country for not committing to spend 5% of its gross domestic product on its military to be consistent with other NATO members.

Trump said Spain “came back all the way today. Spain was very generous.” He said the country “honored a request of lots of payment,” but without giving further details.

“I haven’t made that final determination,” the president said when asked about oscillating on how many troops the U.S. plans to keep in Europe.

“A lot’s gonna depend on Greenland,” Trump added, and on making what he called “a very good deal on Greenland.” He didn’t elaborate.

The Pentagon is still waiting for clarity after Trump recently suggested that he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland — weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe following a dispute with German officials over the Iran war.

Trump has long caused consternation among U.S. allies by suggesting that Washington should control Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark.

Trump did not suggest before or during the NATO summit that wrapped up Wednesday that Greenland might help determine troop levels in Europe.

Asked if he was aware of any credible threats by Iran against Air Force One, the president brushed off the question.

“I have a threat all the time. I’m No. 1 on their list,” he said, repeating earlier comments that he’s one of Iran’s top assassination targets. He said the newer plane was sent ahead to a military base in the United Kingdom so service members there could see it.

Reporters traveling with Trump told him they were asked to keep their window blinds closed during the flight from Turkey to the U.K. aboard the older Air Force One.

Trump replied that it was probably due to the “sleazebags over here” in an apparent reference to Iran, which borders Turkey. He said he was not asked to close the blinds in his compartment.

Trump spoke to reporters aboard the Qatari-gifted Air Force One after it left the U.K. for the United States.

Trading was shaky worldwide after The president raised doubts about the truce.

The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.1% after Trump said the ceasefire was “over,” but the index then trimmed its loss to 0.3% after he said recent fighting did not mean a return to full-scale war. They’re his latest mixed messages on what will happen with the war, which threatens to worsen inflation for the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 576 points, or 1.1%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% after erasing an early loss.

The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 5.2% to $78.02 and briefly topped $80.

That’s still below its peak from earlier in the war, when the price for the most actively traded contract reached nearly $120. But the jump is unsettling because oil prices had just dropped back to prewar levels.

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Trump says he believes the ceasefire with Iran is over. He says he’s not sure he wants a deal anymore and the U.S. should “finish the job.” But he also insists that continued attacks do not mean a return to war or long-term action.

The confusion and uncertainty in his 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 Hormuz and bend to U.S. demands on its nuclear program — something Trump has tried before.

Whether it is 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 — which could spell problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections if gas prices stay high.

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After landing at a military base in the U.K. following the NATO summit in Turkey, the president posted several videos on his social media site showing what he said were explosions in Iran.

He also issued another warning to Tehran: “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!”

Iranian state media reported that explosions also were heard in Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex.

A day earlier state television said eight members of the army’s air and naval forces were killed in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.

Iranian state media are reporting explosions, including in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, and in Sirik, another southern coastal city.

The U.S. military has announced that they have launched another round of strikes against Iran “to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz” in a post on social media.

The strikes come just a day after the U.S. military hit a variety of military sites and port facilities following Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman and just hours after Trump threatened to unleash more military action.

The social media post said that “the United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”

Trump told reporters at a NATO meeting on Wednesday that the U.S. would “probably hit them hard again tonight” but later added that the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action.

“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” Trump said, though he also suggested the U.S. military might “just finish the job.”

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is encouraging Trump to follow through on additional security assistance for Ukraine and the tightening of sanctions on Russia.

The lawmakers issued a joint statement after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.

The group said that some 35,000 Russian soldiers are being killed or wounded each month for no territorial gain and the Russian economy is slowing.

“It is abundantly clear that Russia is not winning this war,” the lawmakers said.

The U.S. lawmakers say Russian President Vladimir Putin is negotiating for time, not peace.

“Putin is at his weakest position in years and real sustained pressure can finally bring this war to a close,” the lawmakers said in their joint statement.

Three Democratic and three Republican lawmakers issued the joint statement.

In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump has told lawmakers that the U.S. will soon remove Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a yearlong normalization process with the country’s new government.

“Lifting sanctions on Syria will unlock international trade and investment, give Syria a chance to rebuild, and open up a new chapter for the Syrian people,” Rubio said. “A stable, unified Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors benefits not only the region, but the entire world.”

In June 2025, Trump signed an executive order ending several economic sanctions before revoking the terrorism designation a few weeks later for President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took over after the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad in December 2024.

Trump and Erdogan have discussed possible cooperation in the defense industry, the Turkish president said, pointing specifically to the shipbuilding sector.

Erdogan said the two talked about projects including building frigates and submarines, adding that the vessels could be built in Turkish shipyards.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave NATO leaders pistols as gifts at their summit in Ankara.

Starmer told reporters that each weapon was engraved with the recipient’s name and came with a box of ammunition.

The guns came with a note from Erdogan waiving export controls. But the British prime minister left his in Turkey to be decommissioned, because it would be illegal to import it into the U.K.

Erdogan insisted that Trump has a “positive approach” toward the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey.

In his news conference at the end of the two-day summit, the Turkish leader said: “Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise.”

Erdogan dismissed objections from Israel and Greece concerning the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.

Speaking at a closing news conference at the end of the two‑day summit he hosted, the Turkish president said opposition raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis “have no place in my world.”

Trump had announced during a meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased Russian missile defense systems in 2019. The move led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program.

On Wednesday, however, Trump suggested he hadn’t made up his mind concerning the F-35s.

Erdogan, meanwhile, also renewed Turkey’s long-standing offer to mediate between Ukraine and Russia for an end to the war.

The secretary-general is alarmed by the renewed military confrontations in the gulf,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for António Guterres, told reporters Wednesday. “These incidents risk derailing the diplomatic progress achieved between Iran and the United States.”

He reiterated “the obligation of all parties to fully comply with international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” shortly after Trump repeated his previous threats to target Iran’s electric and desalination plants.

E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Donald Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed her after she publicly revealed the attack, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order that says the money can be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has grown since the verdict.

Carroll’s lawyers had requested the disbursement after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2023 civil verdict.

Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.

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The retaliatory strikes against Iran were conducted by Air Force and Navy fighter jets in the region and lasted about four hours, a U.S. official confirmed Wednesday.

The strikes Tuesday evening hit around eight times more targets than the previous round of retaliatory strikes that were conducted at the end of June — an escalation that was prompted by Iran’s ongoing strikes on merchant shipping in the region.

The official also noted that the Navy’s massive flotilla of warships was not involved in last night’s strikes. The force of 19 ships stationed around the waters of Iran is massive. It includes two aircraft carriers — the USS Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush — as well as an amphibious assault ship carrying over 1,000 Marines, 14 destroyers, a cruiser, and an expeditionary sea base vessel.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing sensitive military operation.

— Konstantin Toropin

Trump flew to Turkey on his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar.

But he announced in a social media post earlier Wednesday that the plane he had proudly shown off would instead visit Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom so military members could “tour the Aircraft.”

Trump said he would be flying home in an older plane used as Air Force One “for old time’s sake.”

When asked Wednesday if security concerns played a role in the switch, Trump didn’t directly answer but said he was “No. 1 on the list for killing” by Iran.

The U.S. Air Force referred inquiries to the White House.

Images of the jet captured since its unveiling show it is not equipped with some of the same missile-detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets.

“I don’t think it’s going to start again; I think it’s going to go very quickly,” Trump said when asked whether the war was restarting.

He repeated an earlier threat, saying the U.S. “might” strike Iran again tonight, but he insisted it wouldn’t lengthen the war significantly.

“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” he said. “We’re not looking for long-term.”

The president played down the risks that an intensifying war with Iran could drive up oil prices, claiming that the world has an “oil glut.”

“This will end very quickly,” Trump said. “We have an oil glut right now, because we got all those boats out of the strait, and it’s going to drop, and I predicted everything.”

Trump spoke as U.S. oil futures topped $75 a barrel in Wednesday afternoon trading, a daily increase of more than 6%.

The International Energy Agency said this week that oil supplies could exceed demand if there is a durable ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that keeps the Strait of Hormuz open. It said any surplus would be driven by a 1.1 million-barrel-a-day drop in global oil demand this year.

“We can play games, but I’m not sure I want to make a deal,” the president said. “Just finish the job.”

Trump has said that the tentative ceasefire with Iran may now be off and is threatening a new round of attacks.

His comments about finishing the job came in response to a question about Trump having previously said that Iran’s leaders were rational and acceptable to deal with, only to now suggest they are “crazy.”

The president said he had a change of heart over Iranian leaders because “I got to know them.” He also suggested that leaders who have emerged in Iran after the war began are no longer looking out for the Iranian people.

Trump said that all of Iran’s anti-aircraft weapons are “gone” but suggested Tehran still can down aircraft, adding immediately: “That doesn’t mean they’re not going to get a plane at some point.”

He then said, “Everything’s gone,” and remarked on how many of Iran’s leaders were taken out.

“You know what? I may be gone too, because I’m their No. 1 target,” Trump said.

Even before the Iran war, federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump for years. The Justice Department in 2024 announced that an Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.

Trump claimed that he’s “No. 1 on TikTok.” He did not specify which metric he used to make that determination, but it’s not true based on follower counts.

As of Wednesday, the Senegalese-Italian influencer Khabane Lame, known for his silent comedy videos, was the most followed user on the platform with 162.3 million followers.

Trump has 16.7 million followers — that doesn’t even put him in the top 50.

During his news conference, Trump said that “all I do is talk about communism” on TikTok and in recent public comments.

The president has spent weeks criticizing progressive Democratic primary winners as communists. But he added a new insult this time, implying that none of those candidates are attractive.

“I don’t see any looker,” Trump said. “I don’t see anyone with the look.”

By way of elaboration, he added, “I guess you need something. They don’t have it and I think they’ll fade fast.”

In reference to more moderate politicians in Europe, Trump said, “These are not social democrats” but instead, “These are communists that are running and they don’t want God.”

The president said “there was tremendous love in that room” that the press didn’t get to witness, including what he said was respect and love for the country.

He told reporters that he didn’t want to say it was for him “because you’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s so conceited. He’s such a conceited person.’”

But he then said that the other leaders like the job he’s doing and “grown people” in the room said, “Sir, we love you.”

Trump then mused on whether what he heard was just flattery, saying: “Maybe they’re trying to get to me. And in a way they did.”

Despite repeated criticism that NATO has done too little to help the United States, Trump was effusive about the warmth he felt as leaders met on Wednesday.

Trump said there was “tremendous love in that room” along with “tremendous unity.”

He described his allies as “very smart people — they have a lot of good in their heart, not evil, good.”

It was a remarkable turn after Trump had renewed his criticisms against European allies.

The president has arrived to give remarks on stage, capping his appearance at the two-day summit. It comes about three hours after his address was initially scheduled.

The German chancellor said it was clearly Iran that violated the ceasefire agreement. He said the U.S. military had struck back on Trump’s orders and “that is justified.”

But he added that “in the end, there must be an agreement with Iran that ends the nuclear program permanently and reopens the Strait of Hormuz permanently.”

Sitting across from al-Sharaa, Trump gave a cautious response when asked about his earlier suggestion that Syria should lead the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“They could help, we’ll find out,” Trump said. “I think we’re making a lot of progress.”

Al-Sharaa wasn’t asked about it at their one-on-one meeting.

Trump raised the idea at the G7 summit last month, saying he thought Syria would do a better job than Israel. Days later, he again criticized Israel’s handling of the situation and said he was “close to giving it to Syria.”

Al-Sharaa has previously said he has no interest in taking on that role.

Al-Sharaa thanked Trump for “the historic decision to lift the sanctions,” saying “the entire Syrian people thank President Trump.”

Trump met al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2025 months after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Since then, his administration has steadily eased U.S. sanctions on Syria.

Ahead of meeting Trump Wednesday, al-Sharaa met with a U.S. congressional delegation that was also in Ankara for the NATO summit, according to Syrian state media.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his expectations of the summit were more than fulfilled.

He said he’s “returning to Germany with the feeling that we made a big contribution to NATO staying together, to it becoming stronger, to it becoming more European.”

Merz said there was “a new feeling of European responsibility in the room.”

The U.S. president said oil prices were rising Wednesday after military attacks intensified with Iran in a troubling sign for peace talks.

“Any time we hit them, it goes up a little bit — $2,” Trump told reporters. “As oil goes, so goes everything else.”

The president has taken conflicting stances on the energy price bump caused by the Iran war, saying it wasn’t a consideration for ending the war and then touting price declines after an interim deal was announced in June.

But Trump’s math was somewhat off. U.S. oil futures were trading Wednesday morning at roughly $75 a barrel, an increase of about $5.