Trump says Israel, Lebanon ceasefire extended by three weeks

Trump says Israel will be 'surgical' in responding to a Hezbollah attack

Bart Jansen

Trump said Israel would have to defend itself if Hezbollah attacks them, and that negotiations to end the war in Iran would require Tehran to stop funding the terror group.

“Israel is going to have to defend itself if they’re shot at – and they will,” Trump said. “I would never say that they can’t. It would be nice if they didn’t have to bother with that.

“They’re going to do it carefully and they’ll be surgical as opposed to beyond surgical,” Trump added.

Trump also said cutting off Iran’s funding for Hezbollah is a requirement for peace with Tehran.

Iran's soccer players welcome at World Cup but not IRGC: Rubio

Bart Jansen

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iranian soccer players are welcome to play in the World Cup games scheduled for June and July in the United States but that they can’t bring members of the military with them.

“Nothing from the U.S. has told them they can’t come,” Rubio told reporters in the Oval Office with Trump. “The problem with Iran is not their athletes.”

The threat is that members of the military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would join athletes in the attending the games, which the United States won’t allow, Rubio said.

“What they can’t do is bring a bunch of IRGC terrorists into our country and pretend that they’re journalists and athletic trainers," Rubio said.

Trump says 'great chance' for peace between Israel and Lebanon

Bart Jansen

Trump said there is a “great chance” for peace between Israel and Lebanon this year.

“I think it has a great chance,” Trump said. “They’re friends about the same things and enemies about the same things.”

Trump said the leaders of Israel and Lebanon are expected to meet for the first time in Washington to participate in negotiations during the next three weeks.

“We’ll do it in the Oval Office,” Trump said.

3rd US aircraft carrier arrives in Middle East

Terry Collins

A third U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in the broader Middle East for possible use in the ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The USS George H.W. Bush arrived in the Indian Ocean on April 23, according to the U.S. Central Command. The carrier now joins the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea and the USS Abraham Lincoln in the northern Arabian Sea.

The carrier's arrival comes amid President Donald Trump'sextended ceasefire on the war after U.S.-Iranian peace talks in Pakistan broke down. Each country has blamed the other for the stalemate. Meanwhile, the carriers are available if Trump decides to resume attacks on Iran.

The president said in an April 23 Truth Social post that "a Deal will only be made when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World."

Trump says he won't use a nuclear weapon on Iran

Bart Jansen

In response to a reporter's question in the Oval Office, Trump said he would not use a nuclear weapon against Iran.

“Why would I need it?" Trump asked. "Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve totally in a very conventional way decimated them without it?”

"No I wouldn’t use it," Trump added. "A nuclear weapon should never be used by anyone."

Trump says Americans should expect higher gas prices ‘for a little while’

Zac Anderson

Trump said he doesn’t want to “rush” himself into negotiating a peace deal with Iran and that gas prices could stay elevated in the short term.

The president told reporters during a White House event that Americans should expect higher gas prices “for a little while.” Trump had pushed Iran to agree to a deal, threatening to attack the country’s infrastructure, but backed off and agreed to extend a two-week ceasefire while he awaits a response from Tehran.

“They’re in turmoil, so we thought we’d give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved,” Trump said while declining to put a “timetable” on reaching a deal to end a war that has disrupted the global energy market.

White House to host Israel, Lebanon talks

Rebecca Morin and Francesca Chambers

The White House will now host negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to end fighting between the two nations amid the ongoing Middle East war. 

An official said ambassador-level talks, which were set to take place at the State Department, will now be at the White House. Trump will greet the representatives upon their arrival, the White House said.

The two nations, following a previous meeting, agreed to a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that operates out of Lebanon. The temporary ceasefire expires Sunday, April 26. 

Iowa soldier who survived Iranian drone attack recounts story

Kyle Werner

All Lt. Col. Tim Halbur remembers is waking up to smoke surrounding him after the March 1 attack in Kuwait that killed six soldiers and injured nine more.

Halbur, 44, of Ankeny, was one of four Iowans injured in the Iranian drone attack at the Shuaiba Port, just one day after the Iran war began.

"When I woke up, it was just so dark — all the smoke and the soot and everything," Halbur said in a phone interview with the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. He spoke to the Register on Tuesday from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he is being treated.

The blast fractured his right ulna in four places, leaving him with shrapnel wounds. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Halbur and the names of others injured in the attack were identified for the first time in public from the Iowa House floor on April 7. They are all soldiers of the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, a supply and logistics unit based in the Fort Des Moines Joint Reserve Complex in Des Moines.

Read more.

Trump orders Navy to 'shoot and kill any boat' putting mines in Strait of Hormuz

Bart Jansen

Trump said he ordered the Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” putting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, as he blockades all shipping with Iran while trying to allow ships from other countries to pass safely through the key waterway.

“There is to be no hesitation,” Trump said on social mediaon Thursday. “Additionally, our mine “sweepers” are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!”

Trump said the U.S. military sank 159 ships from Iran’s navy. But smaller vessels have continued to harass shipping – including three ships fired upon on Wednesday – in the strait where one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas traveled before the war.

Oil tops $100 again, 'higher food prices coming'

Andrea Riquier

Brent crude oil, the global standard, traded near $101.50 a barrel on Thursday morning, after spiking as high as $103 overnight.

Gas prices were also a tick higher: a gallon of unleaded averaged $4.014 nationwide, GasBuddy’s tracker showed. That’s down a bit from last week, but still substantially higher than 2025 averages.

As tensions in the Middle East rise and fall and the Strait of Hormuz opens and then closes and then maybe opens again, the energy supply situation remains acute,” said James Rossiter,head of global macro strategy at TD Securities, in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Higher energy prices have now started to inflate the price of goods and services throughout the economy, Rossiter added. “Second-round effects will follow in due course, with airline prices already moving upward, and higher food prices coming.”

Lebanon ceasefire talks set to resume

Francesca Chambers

Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to end the fighting there were set to resume on Thursday in Washington. At a previous meeting, the nations agreed to a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that operates out of Lebanon. It expires Sunday, April 26.

The timing of the meeting was unknown and was not listed on the State Department's public schedule. A State Department official said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would join the talks.

Navy intercepts tanker carrying Iranian oil

Bart Jansen

The Pentagon announced on social media it intercepted a sanctioned tanker, the M/T Majestic X, carrying oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean overnight Thursday.

“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors.”

The military was previously criticized internationally for sinking an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean in March, the first such incident with a torpedo since World War II.

Iran claims first toll paid from shipping in Strait of Hormuz

Bart Jansen

Iran claimed the first toll has been paid for ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and demonstrated its control of the key waterway by having state television show commandos storming a cargo ship during a hiatus in peace talks with the United States.

The video broadcast overnight Thursday showed masked troops pulling up in a gray speedboat to the MSC Francesca, one of three container ships fired upon the day before. The troops climbed a rope ladder to a door in the hull and jumped through, brandishing rifles.

Iran has accused the Francesca and another ship, Epaminondas, of trying to cross the strait without permits.

The vice speaker of parliament, Hamidreza Hajibabaei, said the first toll that Iran collected from ships using the strait had been transferred to the central bank's account. But he didn’t say who paid or how much.

US blockade has prevented 31 vessels from leaving or arriving at Iran's ports

Bart Jansen

The Pentagon’s Central Command, which is overseeing the war against Iran, announced it has directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port during the naval blockade to prevent any commerce with Tehran.

Most of the ships that have been turned around have been oil tankers, the command said on social media.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that the blockade was strangling Iran’s economy. But Iran retaliated by firing on three ships from other countries and seizing two of them.

What Navy records show about new pick to lead US naval forces

Michael Loria

Hung Cao, who will replace Phelan as acting secretary of the Navy, is a decorated veteran and former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia.

According to service records obtained by USA TODAY while Cao was running for Senate, he was awarded a Bronze Star and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bronze Star is awarded to sailors who distinguish themselves by "heroic or meritorious achievement or service."

His Navy record did not show a Purple Heart award, the commendation given to troops who have suffered wounds from "direct or indirect result of enemy action" that required medical attention, despite Cao making repeated references on the campaign trail to becoming disabled after he was "blown up" in combat and saying he has scars from his military service.

Nor did Cao’s record indicate that he received the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon, which requires that a sailor "must have rendered satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in ground or surface combat engagement." 

Cao at the time declined to answer specific questions about his military service. He has not claimed to have been awarded a Purple Heart or the Navy's Combat Action Ribbon. 

The Navy designated him a "special operations explosive ordnance disposal/dive officer." He retired as a captain in 2021.

Contributing by Elizabeth Beyer and Tom Vanden Brook

Navy chief is out 'effective immediately,' Pentagon says

Michael Loria

U.S. Navy Secretary John C. Phelan, a businessman who was President Trump’s pick to oversee the branch, "is departing the administration, effective immediately," the Pentagon said Wednesday afternoon.

Phelan had never served in the military and was chosen for the post after being a Trump campaign donor. His resignation comes as Trump promises he won’t call off the U.S. naval blockade of Iran.

"On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. "We wish him well in his future endeavors."