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Iran attacked Bahrain and Kuwait after US strikes, and threatened a ‘complete halt’ to talksUS and Iran trade strikes as both sides accuse the other of endangering ceasefireWe will soon be closing this liveblog, but you’ll be able to stay up-to-date with our ongoing coverage of the Middle East here.Here is a summary of today’s events:Iran launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to US airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.US president Donald Trump accused Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement in a post of social media and said the US may be “forced to militarily complete the job”. Iran also accused the US of violating the ceasefire agreement.JD Vance continued to reiterate the administration’s triumphant line on the war with Iran hours before the latest round of strikes were exchanged. “America wins either way,” he said.Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi was in Baghdad for a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart. He called for a security framework to be established with the Gulf nations after it struck US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation to US strikes.The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRCG has said on state-run SNN TV that it will respond with more force if there are any more blow-for-blow attacks from the US.Countries including Jordan, the UAE and Italy all condemned Iran’s attacks. Continue reading...

A senior U.S. defense official has explained why the American military keeps returning to bomb the same Iranian targets it has already struck repeatedly since the conflict began in late February, according to Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.In a post on social media, Griffin said she pressed the official on why the U.S. has had to go back and restrike sites that have been hit multiple times since February 28, when the war began. The answer, she reported, was that Iran has rebuilt its air defense and missile systems along the Strait of Hormuz in the months since the U.S. bombing campaign wound down on April 7.That reconstitution, the source told Griffin, is why the military is now having to strike areas like Qeshm Island and Sirik that it had already targeted in the past."In the time since the cease fire on 7 April, Iran has reconstituted — thus the targets around the Strait of Hormuz," the official told Griffin.The official acknowledged the scale of the damage already inflicted on Iranian positions while making clear that Tehran has adapted."There is a LOT that is damaged… a LOT… but they moved things around," the source said.Griffin noted that roughly 10 weeks had passed since the April ceasefire was announced — a window during which, by the official's account, Iran was able to rebuild enough capability to draw fresh U.S. strikes.The reporting offers a window into the cyclical nature of the campaign, in which previously degraded Iranian systems are repaired and repositioned, prompting renewed American attacks. The post was amplified by conservative commentator Erick Erickson.I asked a senior defense official why the US has had to go back and restrike these sites that have been hit multiple times since February 28 when the war began. I was told Iran has reconstituted its air defense and missile systems along the Strait of Hormuz since the US bombing…— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) June 27, 2026

A British columnist's phone call with Trump was so "strange" that he began looking for a way to end it.Financial Times columnist Ed Luce recounted the interaction during an episode of The Mona Charen Show. Luce said that, at the request of his editor, he called Trump around the start of the Iran war."I wondered about the usefulness of this," Luce said about the call, which he described as "very strange." The call even reminded him of "Alice in Wonderland," Luce said.Luce said that he had called Trump before, saying, "He's perfectly friendly. He answers my questions, and sometimes talks for quite a long time."In this phone call, Trump "started repeating himself" after 15 minutes, Luce said. "I contrived to end the call, which I never expected. I said, 'Mr. President, I know you're really busy.'"Luce said Trump started to ask him questions about the Iran war, like, "Should I take the oil? Should I take Kharg Island?""The response I gave was, 'I'm not qualified to answer that, Mr. President,' and I tried finding out, 'Is this an option you're considering?'" Luce said. "But it became very clear to me, and everyone else really, by about between the 7th and 10th of March, very early on into Operation Epic Fury, that he was looking for an offramp."However, the show's host, conservative writer Mona Charen, added that "people who are members of his golf club" say that Trump often asks for advice from random people."He would just bump into people on the links, and he would say to any random golfer, 'So what should I do about North Korea and the nukes?'" Charen said. "It's just mindboggling."

President Donald Trump issued a stark threat against Iran on Saturday night, warning that the country could cease to exist if it continues attacking, as he announced a new round of U.S. strikes targeting Iranian military sites.In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said American aircraft had hit Iranian missile and drone storage locations along with coastal radar sites, accusing Tehran of breaching the ceasefire yet again."United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!" Trump wrote, adding an exasperated, "It is very possible that they will never learn!"The president then escalated to an explicit warning about the conflict's potential trajectory."There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started," Trump wrote. "If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!"The post came amid a rapidly deteriorating ceasefire, with U.S. and Iranian forces exchanging fire following attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz.In a separate post minutes earlier, Trump amplified a quote from adviser Stephen Miller attacking Democrats, linking to a Fox News video.

Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmesChild malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country.The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal. Continue reading...

Iran has discussed plans with its neighbors to extract billions from the global economy by setting up permanent tolls in the Strait of Hormuz—a direct result of President Trump's disastrous war that handed Tehran unprecedented leverage over the world's most critical oil artery.According to the Wall Street Journal reporting, Iranian officials are boasting to Middle Eastern neighbors that a lucrative new revenue stream is imminent. The Islamic Republic estimated that charging for "security, safety, and environmental services" in the strait could generate $40 billion annually for "participating states."The scheme would represent a dramatic reversal of pre-war conditions. Iran has positioned itself to control and monetize the "global shipping chokepoint" it effectively seized when the war began, causing worldwide pain.To gain regional buy-in, Tehran pitched the toll arrangement throughout the Middle East and to Beijing, proposing that Persian Gulf neighbors share in the revenue, with the Journal noting the model "mirrors" Turkey's system in the Dardanelles, where ships pay a tax known as the gold franc for passage."Everyone needs to know that management of the strait will never return to the way it was before," declared Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, during a visit to Oman on Tuesday to discuss the arrangements, the Journal reported.According to the report, "The number of ships crossing the strait on Wednesday reached its highest since the war began, with around 70 crossings, according to ship trackers, whose estimates vary. On average, before the war, 130 oil tankers went through the neck of the Persian Gulf each day."Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to push back during a Middle East trip this week, insisting that tolls or fees represent an unacceptable precedent that would "spread like a contagion and cause chaos.""No country on earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal," Rubio said in Bahrain, claiming Persian Gulf countries have rejected the toll idea.However, the Journal reported Rubio's objections may prove toothless, noting, "The 60-day deal to end the fighting and reopen the waterway puts Iran in charge of demining it and insists on toll-free passage for ships in that time. But the document also gives Iran, which doesn’t recognize maritime law governing the strait, a say in the future management of the shipping chokepoint."

In her dissent from one of the Thursday Supreme Court decisions on immigrant rights, Justice Elena Kagan made sure Donald Trump’s litany of racist remarks would be a forever part of the court’s historical record.The liberal justice used her dissent in a case where the conservative majority gave the president the legal authority to strip Temporary Protected Status from over 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, among others, to call out the president for his flagrant racism.On MS NOW, legal analyst Lisa Rubin read directly from Kagan’s blunt dissent, telling the panel, “Justice Kagan in her dissent doesn't just summarize the statements from the president and from Kristi Noem, who was then the head of Homeland Security, but makes them plain, and I want to read to you from her dissent because she gathers them up.”Looking at her laptop, she read, “’Haitians are eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live in Springfield.’ And ‘Haitians are also,’ and this is the quote, ‘eating other things too that they're not supposed to be.’ And Haitians in the United States, quote, ‘Probably have AIDS’. And Haiti, is quote, 'A whole country which is,’ quote, ‘filthy, dirty and disgusting,’ end quote.”She continued, “And, Haitian immigration is, quote, ‘Like a death wish for our country.’ And Haitians, along with some others, are quote, ‘Poisoning the blood,' end quote, of our country. And finally, this is a statement from the president that ‘we only take people from s-hole countries like Haiti and Somalia. Why can't we have some people from Norway and Sweden?’”“And then she [Kagan] goes back to something that was talked about at oral argument when she asked one of the lawyers for the Haitians, ‘So it's not Haiti particularly, it's all these countries have people of color, as opposed to Denmark and Scandinavia, you know Scandinavia generally, and whatever,’ and the lawyer says, ‘I certainly think that the record supports the idea that the president in particular, has focused in on Haitians, but it's broader than that. Haitians are our plaintiffs.’ But the relevant comparison, the relevant group here is all TPS countries all of which are non-white — and that makes its way into Justice Kagan's dissent," Rubin pointed out.“The majority briefly replies that those remarks are not 'overtly racial,' but it is hard to know what that means,” Kagan wrote, before adding, “Haitians are Black. (Norwegians and Swedes not so much.) The references—of filth, disease, and primitiveness—are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes. It is hard to imagine the statements being made today of any white community.” - YouTube youtu.be

MAGA followers rebuffed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on Thursday after he spoke out against the Trump administration following a Supreme Court ruling that ended temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians.Lawler wrote in a post on X that he thinks the situation in Haiti is a "humanitarian and political disaster and continues to warrant an extension.""While I have never disputed the ability of the President to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), I strongly disagree with ending Haitian TPS at this time," Lawler wrote, adding that the immediate ending of this status would "create a crisis in our hospitals, nursing homes."Conservative social media users and MAGA supporters made their dissatisfaction with Lawler known."Two things can be true at the same time. We can sympathize with those who have to leave our great country but also understand that applying the skills and education they received here back in Haiti is the only hope of ever saving that nation," Julie Kelly, a MAGA-aligned political commentator and writer with more than 909,000 followers, wrote on X."I've said it before and I'll say it again. The worst GOP Congressman. He hurts our team more than a Democrat in his seat would. Vote him out-- yes, even in the general," Jeremy Carl, senior fellow at conservative think tank the Claremont Institute, wrote on X."They’ve been on this 'temporary' status for nearly 20 years," Real Political Data, a conservative political commentary account with more than 58,000 followers, wrote on X."Exile this guy to Haiti," conservative writer Paul Kersey wrote on X.I've said it before and I'll say it again.The worst GOP Congressman. He hurts our team more than a Democrat in his seat would.Vote him out-- yes, even in the general. https://t.co/AUkPwOxgqs— Jeremy Carl (@realJeremyCarl) June 25, 2026