The U.S. early Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump said recent Iranian attacks on ships in the signaled the end of the ceasefire and threatened to escalate the conflict if they didn鈥檛 stop.
Iran responded by targeting U.S.-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the U.S. of striking near its sole nuclear power plant.
Back-and-forth attacks, including on Wednesday, have , but Thursday鈥檚 appeared bigger all around. And Trump鈥檚 mixed messaging 鈥� approving back-to-back military strikes while insisting they don鈥檛 mean a return to full-scale war 鈥� is fueling uncertainty about what comes next.
Here’s the latest:
Germany reaches a deal with the US to buy long-range Tomahawk missiles, Merz says
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the agreement on the long-range cruise missiles, which are used to strike targets deep inside enemy territory, was reached this week on the sidelines of the in Turkey鈥檚 capital, Ankara.
鈥淭his will close an important strategic gap in our defense, and at the same time, we will work to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe,鈥� Merz told parliament after returning from the two-day summit.
The deal struck with the Trump administration amounts to broader export of American know-how to some of its major allies in Europe, whose security posture has been upended by Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool damage case after Trump alleged vandalism
The former Olympic canoe racer pleaded not guilty Thursday to deliberately damaging the recently renovated , a politically charged case that his defense attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided as an abuse of prosecutorial power.
David Hearn, who competed in three Summer Olympics, entered the plea during his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court. Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, on a single felony count of property destruction.
Trump ordered a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation鈥檚 250th anniversary this month, but the project has been plagued with problems. Workers have used chemicals to curtail an algae bloom. Trump has said the pool likely would need to be drained again for after chunks of blue coating were seen floating at the surface.
Trump has that vandals dumped fertilizer into the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter.
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Ukraine says its Patriot production will take months
During Wednesday鈥檚 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of in Turkey, Trump said the U.S. will meet a longstanding request from Ukraine and give it a license to make the He also praised Zelenskyy for doing 鈥渁n amazing job鈥� 鈥� a sharp change in tone from past criticisms of the Ukrainian leader.
But setting up domestic production of the mobile, surface-to-air systems will take many months, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine鈥檚 defense minister.
A production license would typically come with technical process documentation, training for specialists, supplier contacts and foreign consultants to help launch manufacturing, Beskrestnov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The main obstacle would be time, rather than Ukraine鈥檚 technical or organizational capacity, he added.
Eswatini receives 11 people deported from the US as part of migration crackdown
The southern African kingdom of has accepted a fourth group of people deported from the United States under a bilateral agreement to host third-country nationals, with 11 people arriving this week, the government said Thursday.
Acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said the group, predominantly from African countries, would remain in the kingdom temporarily while their rights were protected.
鈥淭he government reaffirms that, during their temporary stay in the Kingdom, the fundamental rights of the third-country nationals will be respected and protected in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Kingdom鈥檚 international obligations,鈥� Mdluli said in a statement.
Under a series of often-secret agreements that are part of a broad U.S. crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, advocates say.
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Global markets are mixed and oil prices rise as Iran and US launch new attacks
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1% before the opening bell Thursday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%. Nasdaq futures were up 0.5%.
Oil prices inched up again Thursday, with Brent crude, the international standard, rising 64 cents to to $78.66 per barrel. It briefly topped $80 on Wednesday. Before the Iran war began, Brent oil was trading at around $72 a barrel. Earlier optimism over an interim peace deal recently brought it back to prewar levels.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 54 cents to $74.06 a barrel.
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New attacks raise questions about what comes next in the Iran war
President says he believes the is over. He says he鈥檚 not sure he wants a deal anymore and says the U.S. should 鈥渇inish the job.鈥� But he also insists don鈥檛 mean a return to war or long-term action.
The confusion and uncertainty in Trump鈥檚 and his 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 and bend to U.S. demands on its 鈥� something Trump has tried before.
Whether it鈥檚 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.
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