In a significant escalation, the United States resumed its military operations against Iran on Tuesday. This decisive action follows a string of attacks by Tehran on commercial ships navigating the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Amid a worsening ceasefire, US Central Command publicized the commencement of these new strikes, highlighting the fragile nature of the current peace between the two nations.

‘Our forces have initiated a series of potent strikes on Iran designed to impose severe consequences for their attacks on commercial shipping manned by innocent civilians in a key international waterway,’ the statement read, reflecting the gravity of the situation.

The escalation is a direct response to Iranian assaults on three merchant vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. These acts of aggression from Iran, deemed unwarranted and hazardous, mark a blatant breach of the ceasefire agreement.

A US official disclosed to CNN that these actions are meant as ‘punishment,’ emphasizing that the military response ‘won’t be over for a bit,’ suggesting ongoing operations are in the works.

Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign ministry accused the United States of violating the two countries’ memorandum of understanding and said they have repeatedly violated parts of it. 

They said the decision showed ‘bad faith’ and was proof that the Trump administration can’t be trusted and will take ‘any measures’ to defend themselves in a statement obtained by Al Jazeera. 

It comes after three tankers were struck by projectiles Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said, and the United States revoked a license that had authorized the sale of Iranian oil as part of an interim deal to end the fighting between the US and Iran. 

The new assaults in the fuel-shipping waterway were the most in a single day since late April, according to the UN International Maritime Organization. 

The fresh attacks threatened to choke off the flow of traffic in the strait just as countries hoped to restore normal shipping practices and ease the global economic strain of the war.

Hours later, the US revoked the 60-day license issued last month by the Treasury Department that waived sanctions on Iranian oil.

A US official said the license was revoked because Iran’s actions in the strait were unacceptable and needed to be met with consequences.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One tanker was traveling off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault. 

The other two ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, and both continued on their way, the UK maritime agency said.

Tehran, which has repeatedly declared that only its approved route through the strait is safe, is suspected of attacking other ships that have used another route close to the Omani shore.

Location details provided by the UK agency showed that all three attacks occurred off the coast of Oman or the neighboring United Arab Emirates, making it likely that the ships were using the route near Oman.

The US is eager to press ahead with negotiations with Iran aimed at fully reopening the strait, rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and reaching a permanent end to the war launched February 28. An interim deal has been strained.

Previous attacks in the strait have sparked retaliatory strikes by the U.S. Iran then attacked Gulf Arab states.

In peacetime, a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the channel.

The license issued by the U.S. authorized the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil through August 21. 

US Vice President JD Vance said at the time that lengthy talks with senior Iranian officials in Switzerland created a ‘good foundation for a successful final deal’ to end the war.

US sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil had been in place since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

After the US and Israel launched the war, and after the closure of the strait, the US had authorized the temporary sale of Iranian oil at least twice as an incentive toward a deal.

Meanwhile, talks between Iran and the US appeared to be on hold until after the burial of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of the war.

This is a developing story. 

A man who was living in the U.S. illegally was fatally shot by law enforcement in Houston after reportedly attempting to ram Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with a vehicle. This incident was confirmed by the agency on Tuesday.

According to an ICE spokesperson, the officers aimed to stop Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, at approximately 6:50 a.m., during a traffic-related operation, as relayed to News Media.

In an effort to evade capture, Araujo allegedly used his vehicle aggressively, attempting to run down an ICE officer, prompting the officer to discharge his firearm in what was described as self-defense.

After being hit, Araujo was rushed to a hospital but did not survive his injuries. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

On July 1, an ICE agent opened fire on an illegal immigrant who also tried ramming a vehicle into authorities, ICE said.

The officers were trying to take Clemente Lara-Hernandez, a Mexican national, into custody when he allegedly tried running into an officer and drove the wrong way on a one-way street before crashing into a civilian vehicle.

An ICE officer fired a shot, but no one appeared to be injured. Lara-Hernandez remains at large.

“Our ICE law enforcement officers are facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,300% increase in vehicular attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest the worst of the worst,” ICE said at the time of the shooting.

Despite swirling conjecture that Mitch McConnell is ‘brain dead’ after a recent hospital admission, reports indicate that the Senate Minority Leader is alert and engaging in discussions on various pressing matters, ranging from Iran to a political controversy involving a Senate hopeful from Maine.

GOP political strategist Scott Jennings took to X on Tuesday, sharing, ‘I connected with my longtime friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He remains hospitalized but is on the mend.’

‘Our conversation, which lasted nearly 20 minutes, spanned topics such as Iran, Ukraine, the brewing trouble in Maine, my recent visit to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a touch of Senate history. I expressed our eagerness to have him back in action soon.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune also had a ‘lengthy and substantive’ phone call with McConnell on topics including national security on Monday, NOTUS reported.  

The 84-year-old was admitted to the hospital on June 14 after an urgent medical situation at his Washington, DC, residence. Emergency responders arrived in response to a report of an unconscious individual suspected of suffering cardiac arrest, with CPR being administered at the scene.

While McConnell’s name wasn’t disclosed in the emergency call, his staff has not specified the cause of his hospitalization, stating only that he is receiving ‘excellent care.’

The speculation surrounding McConnell has intensified in recent days because his aides have refused to release new information regarding his condition or whether he will return to work as the GOP fights to maintain its razor-thin majority.

Trump conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer claimed that an unnamed White House source told her that McConnell is in a ‘vegetative state’ or ‘brain dead’ and is ‘not coming back’ to work.

DC outlet The Hill even accidentally published an obituary-style look back at the senator’s political career, which was swiftly deleted. 

Independent journalist Desiréee Townsend claimed that she had confirmed Loomer’s allegations.

‘I have heard the same thing from my sources for days,’ she wrote. ‘At this point, I am at the hospital for when they eventually decide to cut him off of life support and move his body.’

As online chatter continued to grow about the Senator’s health condition, MAGA activists like Breitbart editor Matthew Boyle wrote on X, ‘McConnell’s staff should produce proof of the senator’s condition one way or another right now.’

The popular right-wing influencer, Catturd, demanded his aides post a video of the Kentucky senator from his hospital bed to prove he’s alive: ‘Why won’t they do it?’

‘Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,’ McConnell’s spokesman told the Daily Mail.

‘The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.’

McConnell’s eldest daughter, Porter, 48, has deleted her X account amid the swirling speculation over her father’s health.

She is an outspoken critic of her father’s conservative politics and a longtime progressive advocate.

It remains unclear exactly when or why she deactivated the account, and there’s no confirmation the move is connected to McConnell’s hospitalization.

If he were to leave office, or prove unable to resume his duties by August 3, Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear would be required to call a special election to fill the seat.

McConnell has already stated that he does not plan to run for reelection in the upcoming midterm elections.

His absence amid these health struggles places the GOP’s narrow Senate majority in a delicate balance.

Last month, Democrats were briefly able to pass a resolution limiting Trump’s war powers in Iran while McConnell was unable to attend the vote.

Other Republican senators have mostly refused to comment on McConnell’s health condition and have directed concerns to his office.

Utah Senator Mike Lee said on Tuesday that lawmakers are being kept in the dark: ‘Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition.’

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A man from Talladega, Alabama, will spend the next decade behind bars after being sentenced for a drug-related offense, U.S. Attorney Phillip Williams Jr. revealed on Tuesday.

Twenty-seven-year-old Isaiah Merritt received a 120-month prison sentence following his guilty plea for possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, an admission he made in February.

Members of the U.S. Marshals Service were keeping a watchful eye on the activities in Talladega on April 16, 2024, as part of their mission to locate Merritt. This search followed his 2018 conviction by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama for methamphetamine distribution intentions, which had previously earned him 65 months of prison time plus an additional 120 months of supervised release.

Merritt managed to escape while finishing his sentence at a halfway house. His actions led to an indictment and conviction for escaping custody, resulting in a November 2022 sentence of 16 months in prison, accompanied by 36 months of supervised release.

Due to his failure to keep in touch with his probation officer and document his whereabouts, warrants for Merritt’s arrest were promptly issued.

Cuba’s foreign minister leveled a serious charge against the United States on Tuesday, accusing it of committing an “act of war” through its restrictive policies on fuel shipments to the island. This bold statement elicited a strong rebuttal from U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, who pinned the blame on Cuba’s communist regime for the country’s ongoing issues with blackouts, repression, and economic turmoil.

This heated exchange took place at the U.N. General Assembly, merely a day after a significant failure of Cuba’s national electrical grid. This incident left nearly 10 million residents without electricity, marking the third complete blackout this year and the eighth occurrence since October 2025, as reported by Reuters.

By Tuesday morning, Cuban authorities had managed to restore power in some central areas and parts of Havana. However, according to Reuters, many regions were still without service or were experiencing unstable power supply.

Addressing the assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the Trump administration of waging a “multidimensional, non-conventional war” against Cuba. He claimed this conflict had intensified, becoming even more “cruel and ruthless” over the preceding seven months.

Rodríguez described U.S. efforts to restrict fuel deliveries as the imposition of “an energy collapse, equivalent to a naval blockade, which is an act of war,” according to a UNTV transcript.

Waltz rejected the claim that the United States had established a naval blockade around Cuba.

“There is no ring of Navy warships, U.S. Navy warships sitting around this island blocking trade or humanitarian aid going into Cuba,” Waltz said. “It’s fake. It’s false. It’s a lie. Period.”

Waltz argued that the real embargo was the one Cuba’s government imposed on its own citizens.

“There’s a lot of talk today of an embargo. And indeed there is one,” he said. “It’s the embargo the Cuban regime mercilessly imposes on its own people decade after decade after decade.”

He called on Havana to “change your ways” and “turn the lights back on for your people,” while accusing Cuba’s leaders of ensuring that government compounds and propaganda operations had power even as families worried about spoiled food, hospitals losing electricity and phones running out of charge.

Waltz noted that Tuesday’s meeting came days before the fifth anniversary of the July 11, 2021, demonstrations, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets amid shortages of food, medicine and electricity and demanded greater freedom.

As Waltz spoke, a member of the Cuban delegation pounded on the table, prompting the ambassador to respond.

“This is not Havana. This is the United States of America. This is the United Nations,” Waltz said. “And we will speak, we will be heard, and we will not be silenced like your own people. So, pound away.”

Waltz displayed photographs and read the names of several jailed Cuban artists, musicians and activists, including Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo Pérez and Duannis Dabel León Taboada.

“They’re not armed. They’re not violent,” Waltz said. “They carry flowers, and write poems and write music. And for that, the regime beats them, detains them and tries to break them.”

Waltz also said GAESA, Cuba’s military-run conglomerate, controls approximately half of the country’s economy and holds $18 billion in assets.

Reuters has reported that estimates of GAESA’s economic reach range from approximately 40% to 70%, while Cuban officials dispute the U.S. government’s $18 billion figure.

Waltz said that despite Cuba’s blockade claims, humanitarian assistance had recently arrived from countries including China, Russia, Mexico, Canada and Spain, as well as from the European Union and the United Nations.

He also said the United States had provided more than $100 million in aid this year and approximately $500 million annually in commodities.

“The answer is simple: because blaming the United States is the only economic plan Havana has left,” Waltz said of Cuba’s decision to bring the issue before the General Assembly.

Before the wider debate, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform Jeffrey Bartos objected to reopening the agenda item and called for a vote on whether the proceedings should go forward.

Bartos said the three-hour meeting would cost approximately $84,000, money he argued could instead provide food, emergency medical supplies and solar lanterns to Cuban families.

“Right now, Cuba is in darkness — again,” Bartos said. “I urge the Cuban regime: turn the lights back on for your people.”

Members of the Cuban delegation also interrupted Bartos several times by pounding on the table. Bartos at one point paused and responded, “Keep banging away. It’s very effective,” before continuing his remarks.

Bartos accused Havana of seeking “another propaganda clip” rather than solutions and pointed to what he said were more than 800 political prisoners held by the government.

Independent organizations have produced varying estimates. Human Rights Watch said in April that more than 700 people remained imprisoned for political reasons, while Prisoners Defenders reported more than 1,200 political prisoners in Cuba in the spring of 2026. Cuba denies holding anyone for political reasons.

“That is the real Cuban embargo,” Bartos said. “It is the embargo the regime imposes on its own people: on speech, on faith, on enterprise, on dissent, on political rights and hope — and now, quite literally, on light.”

Rodríguez accused the U.S. delegation of offering “worn-out lies” and attempting to prevent the General Assembly from debating the effects of American policy.

Cuba’s electricity crisis has been driven by severe fuel shortages and an aging, poorly maintained power system that has struggled to meet demand. The Cuban government primarily blames U.S. restrictions, while Washington attributes the island’s broader economic crisis to communist economic policies, corruption and repression.