President Trump on Thursday whipsawed between threatening new, major attacks against Iran and touting significant progress in negotiations to end the war, the latest frantic episode in the conflict that’s gone on for more than 100 days.
Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” and eventually take over its oil export hub Kharg Island in a Truth Social post at 8:22 a.m. EDT on Thursday, about five hours before calling them off.
“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved,” Trump said in a post at 1:28 p.m. EDT.
Trump’s team has been focused on striking an agreement with Iran to allow commercial and oil ships free and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and to restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
He said the U.S. naval blockade against Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz “will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”
Trump’s team has been focused on striking an agreement with Iran to allow commercial and oil ships free and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and to restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
He said the U.S. naval blockade against Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz “will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”
The numbers “8647” appeared in large scale on the grass of the National Mall on Thursday, June 11, only days before President Donald Trump’s birthday, prompting an investigation from the U.S. Park Police.
Eight-year-old Jad Suleiman was walking home from school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday when the Israeli airstrike hit. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his neck, killing him instantly. Outside Shifa hospital, his body lay on a stretcher wrapped in a loose white sheet. Dressed in jeans and a blue and red checkered shirt, the smallness of his body was accentuated by his oversized backpack, still on his limp shoulders.
A campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank is being driven not by rogue extremists, but by the Israeli state, according to a major new report. 
Israel has emptied four facilities within the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex that served as offices for the Islamic Waqf, in what a monitoring group has described as an escalating campaign against the Jordanian-backed body.
Ukraine is increasing defense and security spending by UAH 1.56 trillion ($34.6 billion), bringing total 2026 security and defense expenditures to a record UAH 4.4 trillion ($97.6 billion), Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
Soaring gasoline prices, triggered by the U.S. war with Iran, have pushed inflation to its highest level in more than three years.
I still remember my citizenship ceremony from 2011. There was a festive spirit among the dozens of us who were about to become the newest Americans, a kind of joy offset only by the anxiety of having to turn in our green cards first. For years, I jealously guarded that little card, which was not only not green but also something I was repeatedly told by authorities to carry with me at all times. They had to pry it from my fingers that day.
