“US Israel Iran War”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. mission to protect commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz would be temporary and other nations would soon have to take responsibility, emphasizing Tuesday that the fragile ceasefire with Iran remained in place despite attacks on U.S. ships a day earlier.

Speaking at a briefing alongside Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hegseth said the United States had established a powerful “red, white and blue dome” over the strait as a “direct gift” to other nations to allow commercial ships to pass through.

“This operation is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury,” he said, using the Trump administration’s name for the war with Iran.

"And I can't confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don't." Pete Hegseth

"Kamikaze dolphins. It's like sharks with laser beams. Right." General Kaine

What a time to be alive! pic.twitter.com/YEyE0rNakS

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) May 5, 2026

President Donald Trump says the US has struck seven Iranian “fast boats” in the Strait of Hormuz, as Washington seeks to guide stranded ships out of the Gulf through the largely closed waterway.

The UAE and South Korea both reported strikes on ships in the vital channel on Monday. The UAE also said a fire broke out at the oil port of Fujairah after an Iranian attack.

Shipping company Maersk told the BBC that one of its US-flagged vessels had successfully exited the strait with US military protection – under what Trump has called “Project Freedom”.

BREAKING: US NAVY just CRUSHED Iran’s "Mosquito Fleet" and unlocked the STRAIT OF HORMUZ 🚢💥

America flexed its MUSCLE without a single boot on the ground… we saved the world's ENERGY and didn't even call our "allies" for help (You're WELCOME, Europe! 🇺🇸)

Project Freedom is… pic.twitter.com/8lzK4XGkMh

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) May 5, 2026

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military on Monday denied claims that Iran struck a Navy vessel as U.S. forces now offer to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began. Tehran over the past two months has attacked some vessels and blocked others that don’t receive its authorization.

The U.S. military’s Central Command also said two American-flagged merchant ships have “successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz” and that that Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf are helping to restore commercial shipping traffic.

U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers are currently operating in the Arabian Gulf after transiting the Strait of Hormuz in support of Project Freedom. American forces are actively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping. As a first step, 2 U.S.-flagged merchant… pic.twitter.com/SVDxDhK72I

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 4, 2026

President Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will assist in freeing ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, which has been closed during the conflict with Iran.

“Countries from all over the World, almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern dispute going on so visibly, and violently, for all to see, have asked the United States if we could help free up their Ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with — They are merely neutral and innocent bystanders!” the president said in a Truth Social post on Sunday evening.

When President Donald Trump triggered the current war against Iran more than 60 days ago, the assumption mostly promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the junior partner in the enterprise, was that the whole thing would be wrapped up within weeks by Tehran implicitly admitting defeat, as it did in an earlier episode known as the 12-day War.

That was why the force deployed and the war plans provided for a short and sharp campaign with boots on the ground not considered even as a theoretical necessity.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — At her studio in Iran’s capital, Amen Khademi prepared a fashion shoot for a jacket she designed with Persian-inspired motifs. But even as she applied lipstick to the model, she was distracted, worrying if her business would survive after four months without its main link to customers — the internet.

Iran’s 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. That is devastating an online economy that had long defied government restrictions and international sanctions. From fashion to fitness, to advertising and retailers, many have seen their incomes evaporate.

They can’t blame this on Trump … yet.

“If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it’s successful and it’s worth it,” says Sahand.

The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology – which is illegal in Iran – into the country.

Sahand, whose name we have changed, fears for family members and other contacts inside the country. “If I was identified by the Iranian regime, they might make those I’m in touch with in Iran pay the price,” he says.

The US has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions if they pay Iran for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

An alert on Friday by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) warned US persons and companies were generally banned from paying Iranian government entities, and non-US persons may risk exposure to sanctions if they pay.

“Maritime industry participants involved with vessels calling at Iranian ports face significant sanctions risk under multiple sanctions authorities targeting Iran’s shipping sector and ports”, OFAC said.

Foreigners who commit evil belong in the depths of the water, apparently. That’s according to Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, who is badly wounded, living like a rat underground and reduced to handwriting his words of wisdom, or having them handwritten for him.

Did nobody point out that when his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted on X that an American warship was less dangerous than “the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea”, it heralded his death 11 days later?

The economic toll of more than two months of war is visible in Iran, as a U.S. naval blockade and the effective halt of the Islamic Republic’s maritime trade triggers mounting pressure across the economy. The sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial is the clearest sign so far of a broader economic breakdown now unfolding.

On April 29, 2026, the U.S. dollar surged 12 percent against Iran’s national money in a single day to nearly 1.8 million rials, marking one of the steepest daily declines in the currency’s history. The rial had already lost 4 percent of its value between April 20—one week after the U.S. blockade began—and April 28, but the subsequent collapse suggests the currency crisis may be entering a more accelerated phase.

No one since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 has read the Iranian regime better than US President Donald J. Trump. Despite the criticism from commentators, the opposition party, social media voices, and members of the foreign policy establishment, no political leader has understood Tehran’s methods more clearly, or acted against them with greater decisiveness. Many negotiated with Iran’s regime. Many hoped it would change. Trump recognized a central truth that others have either ignored or refused to confront: the Iranian regime survives by deception, delay, and the constant purchase of time.

The war between the US and Iran is “likely” to restart, a senior Iranian official predicted on the heels of comments by President Trump that the US might be “better off” without an agreement.

A “renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” said Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a high-level officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Shortly before the call to prayer, the guards will lead Matin Mohammadi out and into the light one last time. He’ll be jolted awake by the clanging of his cell’s iron door, as he is most mornings, taken into the prison courtyard and hanged.

It’s the fear that occupies the 17-year-old’s mind when he goes to sleep in Ghezel Hesar prison just west of Tehran, waking each morning to mark another day survived but still on borrowed time.

Iran has passed a new proposal to Pakistani mediators in the latest effort to end the war with the US, but Donald Trump said he was not “satisfied” by it.

“Right now, we have talks going on, they’re not getting there,” he told reporters, adding that his options remained “either blast them away or make a deal”.

Trump did not elaborate on what he saw as the latest proposal’s shortcomings, but said: “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.”

President Trump could be preparing a final blow against the Iranian regime, with just 24 hours left before the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day clock expires Friday night.

The president told reporters Thursday that, despite the regime’s aggressive posturing, it is privately begging a deal behind closed doors.

If the regime instead chooses to continue fighting, the president has been briefed by Central Command on the potential use of a new type of weapon, as well as final military plans the U.S. could pursue to bring the conflict to a definite end.