Here's the latest
• Strait of Hormuz: Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is becoming more pressing as global oil stockpiles are rapidly dwindling, the International Energy Agency warned. The UAE said two of its tankers were attacked while transiting the strait Thursday.
• Environmental concerns: Tehran demanded compensation for pollution in the Persian Gulf after video geolocated by CNN showed oil washing up on a beach around Qeshm Island. Separately, an oil spill from a tanker stranded off the coast of Oman now covers about 500 square miles, Greenpeace said, raising fears of a major ecological disaster in the Arabian Sea.
• US carrier concerns: The US is sending another carrier group to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, a US official said. This comes as families of USS Abraham Lincoln sailors raised concerns about deteriorating living conditions and worsening mental health during the ship’s record-breaking deployment amid the war with Iran.
UAE says two of its vessels attacked in Strait of Hormuz
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening.
The state-owned energy and petrochemical group said no injuries were reported and the situation was under control.
In a statement published on the UAE’s state news agency WAM, the company emphasized the importance of protecting seafarers and safeguarding freedom of navigation and maritime security.
ADNOC did not provide further details about who was behind the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.
Iranian province puts steep petrol price hike on hold
An Iranian province in the country’s southeast has halted plans to sharply raise petrol prices, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Kerman district’s deputy mayor, Ali Asghar Zakeri-Harandi, said yesterday that gasoline would be sold at refinery rates of 872,000 Iranian rials (0.47$) per liter at 204 fuel stations across the province, before the increase was scrapped early this morning.
Kerman’s governor, Mohammad Ali Talebi, said gasoline prices and distribution would instead remain unchanged and residents would have the option to top up an additional 40 liters on their fuel cards capped at the existing rate of 50,000 rials (0.027$) per liter. Higher refinery prices would only apply to those without fuel cards.
The proposed price would have represented an enormous jump from the current fuel card rate. Filling a typical 50-liter tank at the proposed refinery price would set drivers back 43.6 million rials ($23) – more than a quarter of Iran’s monthly minimum wage of about 166 million rials and more than 17 times the existing fuel-card price.
US President Donald Trump has made clear that inflicting economic pain on Iran is part of Washington’s strategy. The rate of inflation for food has soared by nearly 130% over the past 12 months, and people are having to buy food and medicine in instalments, according to reports from Iranian media.
Iran’s fuel cards: Motorists who own only one private vehicle can use government-issued smart cards to buy subsidised petrol, with each vehicle receiving a set monthly quota at cheaper rates. The first 60 liters is priced at 15,000 rials, the next 50 liters at 30,000 and anything more will cost 50,000 rials per liter.
USS George Washington headed to Middle East to replace USS Abraham Lincoln
The USS George Washington carrier group, which finished a port visit in Vietnam on August 5, is currently headed to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, a US official told CNN.
The official said that the swap had been previously planned. It was not immediately clear when the Washington would arrive.
The Lincoln has been the subject of growing concerns about the wellbeing of its crew, with Democratic lawmakers demanding answers from the Pentagon.
CNN first reported on Thursday that a sailor had gone overboard last month, but was quickly rescued and medically evaluated. The circumstances under which the sailor went overboard were not immediately clear nor whether the sailor returned to duty or was evacuated from the ship.
News outlets Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times reported this week that there had been multiple attempts by crew members to jump overboard, citing interviews with sailors and families of those on board who described the impacts of its lengthy deployment.
Since the Lincoln left its home port of San Diego last November, the aircraft carrier has been deployed for more than 250 days after being redirected to the Middle East to support US operations in the war with Iran, now entering its sixth month.
Oil prices fall despite Strait of Hormuz stalemate and stockpile concerns. Catch up here
Oil prices are falling despite few signs of progress toward ending the Iran war, and as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely constrained.
Earlier today, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was around 2% lower at $87.20 a barrel. WTI, the US benchmark, was down by a similar margin to $81.45 a barrel.
Experts say China’s reliance on stockpiles and increased US oil production are among the factors for the decline.
Still, the risk of higher oil prices remains. Initiatives to reopen the strategic waterway are becoming more urgent as the International Energy Agency warns global oil stockpiles are rapidly declining.
If you’re just joining us, here’s what else you should know:
- Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Washington to “be careful” today, after President Donald Trump insisted the US has full control of the Strait of Hormuz. “Worse than fake news is fake intelligence,” Araghchi posted on X.
- Shipping data doesn’t back Trump’s claims of US control as vessel traffic through the critical waterway remains stalled.
- An oil spill off the coast of Oman now covers an estimated 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers), the environmental organization Greenpeace told CNN. The spill has spread to mainland Oman, roughly 200 kilometers from a stranded tanker in the Arabian Sea, according to Omani authorities.
- Tehran is demanding compensation for pollution in waters in the Persian Gulf and surrounding areas. Video geolocated by CNN showed oil washing up on a beach around Qeshm Island, near the strait.
- Meanwhile, some Iranian news agencies have reposted memes of Trump mocking reports of an intricate plan by US officials to get Trump out of Turkey and thwart the growing threat of assassination by Tehran. Iran’s official state-run Mizan news agency described the plot as a “cowardly escape” that had become “a topic of discussion for foreign cyberspace users.”
CNN’s Sana Noor Haq, Aida Karimi, Sarah El Sirgany, Hanna Ziady and Kathleen Magramo contributed to this report.
Iranian media shares memes mocking Trump’s secret flight from Turkey
A Lego figurine of US President Donald Trump inside a shawarma truck.
An AI photo of the president surrounded by McDonald’s fries.
A photoshopped image of Trump hunkered down inside an EasyJet trolley.
These are some of the memes reposted by Iranian news agencies this past week, mocking reports of an intricate plan led by US officials to get Trump out of Turkey and thwart the growing threat of assassination by Tehran. Last month, the US president clandestinely left the NATO summit in Ankara on an alternate military plane, which he boarded while hidden inside a catering truck, a US official previously told CNN.
On Wednesday, Iran’s official state-run Mizan news agency described the plot as a “cowardly escape” that had become “a topic of discussion for foreign cyberspace users.”
That same day, Iranian website Rajanews declared that, “Reports about Trump’s secret withdrawal from Turkey and his displacement with a food truck have launched a wave of user jokes on cyberspace.”
In another instance, Tehran’s embassy in South Africa posted screengrabs from a scene in the superhero film ‘Spider-Man’, showing the character Peter Parker putting on glasses so as to see clearly – beside two images of the president. The first photo showed Trump punching his fist in the air after an assassination attempt on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania in July, 2024. In the second altered image, Trump can be seen squeezed inside an airplane food cart.
The caption on the X post reads, “Brave American hero, or a coward hiding in a catering truck?”
Huge oil spill off the coast of Oman now covers hundreds of square miles
An oil spill off the coast of Oman now covers an estimated 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers), the environmental organization Greenpeace told CNN.
The spill has spread to mainland Oman, roughly 200 kilometers from the stranded tanker in the Arabian Sea, according to Omani authorities.
Greenpeace campaigner Hanen Keskes said their analysis of satellite images showed fragmented spots, meaning the spill is in multiple areas rather than one continuous mass.
The Omani government is yet to confirm the size of the impacted areas. Its environment authority did not respond to CNN questions.
Ambrey, a UK security company, says its team will soon be on at the scene of the spill as part of an international response comprising vessels and aircrafts “with over 100 tons of equipment” but rescue efforts are being hampered by monsoon season.
The tanker, Caroline Bezengi, was carrying around 800,000 barrels of oil when it reportedly came under attack. The sanctioned vessel is believed to be part of the shadow fleet of oil tankers used by Russia.
Following an unidentified “incident” on June 6 outside Oman’s territorial waters the tanker ran aground off the Qibliyyah Island on June 21, Omani authorities said.
While some security observers reported an explosion onboard the ship, the nature of the incident hasn’t been determined. The ship had left one conflict zone - Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, where Ukraine has targeted Russian shipping - before traveling near Yemen, where the Houthis have attacked shipping as part of the Iran-US conflict.
Oil prices fall despite Hormuz stalemate. Here's what to know.
Oil prices are falling, despite few signs of a breakthrough in ending the war, and as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely constrained.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is around 2% lower at $87.20 a barrel. WTI, the US benchmark, fell by a similar margin to $81.45 a barrel.
The declines, which tracked a broader pullback in commodity prices, come even as Iran and the United States appeared to harden their positions, with both countries claiming control of Hormuz. Traffic in the waterway is still well below pre-war levels of around 130-140 transits a day, but flows may be higher than official numbers suggest.
“Unofficial numbers suggest that the traffic may be higher given ship to ship transfer and ships going dark while passing through the strait,” Mohit Kumar, chief economist at investment bank Jefferies wrote in a note Thursday.
Several other factors are also helping soften the blow from a historic oil supply shock, he noted. China has reduced its oil imports, with other countries also relying on stockpiles, while the United States has increased oil production and Gulf producers have found alternative export routes via pipelines. “The supply demand picture doesn’t look that bad, despite the strait closure,” Kumar said.
Still, risks remain skewed to the upside. The International Energy Agency warned yesterday that the world faces a shortfall of 1.8 million barrels a day this quarter, more than double projections from a month ago, with global oil stocks falling rapidly.
“The market can’t keep pulling down inventories forever. Sooner or later, the cupboard runs bare,” Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, wrote in a note. “It will be a challenging fall if the Strait of Hormuz remains contested.”
Trump says US is "low-keying" negotiations with Iran. What does that mean?
After Iran intensified its demands over the weekend before it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump didn’t threaten new strikes but instead indicated that he planned to choke Iran economically. “We are low-keying it,” he told Axios over the weekend. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
This broke with Trump’s usual rhetorical pattern in talking about Iran, in which the president generally declares that a conclusive deal with Iran is imminent, threatens to annihilate Iran if it doesn’t comply, then calls the attacks off at the last minute — only to do it all over again.
What, precisely, does it mean to “low-key” the events of a war? It’s not the first time the president has employed this peculiar turn of phrase, transforming a word typically used as an adjective or adverb into a verb. In early April, as Israel’s continued bombing of southern Lebanon threatened negotiations with Iran, Trump used it to describe a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it,” he told NBC News at the time. “I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key.”
Read the full story here.
Iranian foreign minister slams “fake news” after Trump claims US control of Hormuz
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Washington to “be careful” on Thursday, after President Donald Trump insisted the US has full control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Worse than fake news is fake intelligence,” Araghchi posted on X. “The U.S. has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: The war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
On Wednesday, Trump stated, “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz.” “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, “A WALL OF STEEL,” he posted on Truth Social. “There is nothing Iran can do about it.
“They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing,” added Trump.
Other senior officials in Tehran have also doubled down, with Hossein Taeb – a hardline militia figure and close ally of the Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – saying that, “The US started another war in the Strait of Hormuz but has failed,” despite “Washington’s view that Iran lacked effective naval and air forces,” according to the semi-official Iranian agency, Fars News.
Remember: Tehran and Washington have tried to leverage the Strait of Hormuz as a bargaining chip in scuppered peace talks – with both parties repeatedly claiming sovereignty over the waterway. That diplomatic impasse has effectively stalled shipping in the strait, through which about one fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war.
It's morning in the Middle East. Here's the latest
Pressure is mounting to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that global oil stockpiles are dwindling rapidly.
President Donald Trump is insisting that the United States still has control over the Strait of Hormuz, but shipping data doesn’t back that up as vessel traffic through the critical waterway remains stalled.
Both the US and Iran have yet to reach a deal to reopen the strait.
Here’s what to know:
- Oil spill: Tehran is demanding compensation for pollution in waters in the Persian Gulf and surrounding areas. Video geolocated by CNN showed oil washing up on a beach around Qeshm Island, near the strait.
- War strategy: Iran could “prolong” the war with the US until Trump is out of office, a top adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in an interview with PBS.
- Trump’s plane swap drama: A threat from a shoulder-fired missile spurred the furtive plan to sneak Trump out of Turkey on an alternate jet following the NATO summit last month, according to a source. Several close personal aides joined the president on the smaller aircraft flying out of Turkey, the source said.
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Hanna Ziady, Catherine Nicholls and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
Trump keeps saying the US controls the Strait of Hormuz. Does it?
Nearly half a year into the US-Iran war, global oil stockpiles are rapidly diminishing as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively stalled and the two powers at the center of the hostilities argue about who controls the critical waterway.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that the strait – through which oil flows from countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq to the rest of the world – is under US control.
“They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it, and at some point, maybe they’ll do something, and then they get blown away,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “Right now, we’re in a very good position.” And earlier Wednesday, he claimed the US Navy had swept the strait for mines.
But Iran says it won’t reopen the strait fully until the US meets its conditions.
The reality is far more complicated than Trump’s proclamation of control, experts say – with ships fearing for their safety amid attacks on vessels in the strait, and the ever-looming threat of US-Iran strikes resuming.
Read the full story here.
Tehran demands compensation for oil spill damaging its waters
Tehran is demanding compensation for pollution in waters in the Persian Gulf and surrounding areas over recent decades, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said.
On Wednesday, a thick oil slick washed up on a beach around Iran’s Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz, according to video geolocated by CNN.
“Who bears responsibility for compensating these damages? Is it the nations that consume the inexpensive energy exported from our region, the shipping insurers, or the aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theater for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry?” he added.
Separately, Oman’s Environment Authority is warning that an oil spill from a sanctioned tanker carrying Russian crude has now reached some beaches in Ras Madrakah in the southeast of the country.
CNN has previously reported on the potentially devastating environmental impacts of oil spills around the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.
CNN’s June Jeong and Ivana Kottasová contributed to this report.
Oil spill from shadow fleet tanker has reached Oman's coast
As conflict in the Middle East continues to simmer, Oman is facing a new threat related to oil: its Environment Authority is warning that an oil spill from a sanctioned tanker carrying Russian crude has now reached some beaches in Ras Madrakah in the southeast of the country.
Oman said it deployed specialized teams to monitor the spill and attempt to limit its spread and potential effects. But they’ll try to do this while also facing threats from the war and the shipping blockade just hundreds of miles away in the Strait of Hormuz.
The agency said in a statement that a coastal strip of as much as 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) in length is impacted around Ras Madrakah, and that the spill is expected to reach the southern beaches of Masirah Island in the coming hours.
The island is home to rich coastal ecosystems and serves as a nesting place for several species of sea turtles. Environmental agencies have warned the spill could amount to a disaster if it continues to widen.
According to Reuters, the tanker Caroline Bezengi was carrying estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil when it ran aground on June 30. The vessel has been sanctioned by multiple countries as part of the crackdown on the shadow fleet of tankers used by Russia to circumvent sanctions and transport and sell oil around the world.
What to know about the Strait of Hormuz, as International Energy Agency urges reopening
The Strait of Hormuz has been a crucial bargaining chip throughout the US-Israeli war with Iran. It’s been effectively closed by Tehran since the fighting began in late February, despite US President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that it is open and in Washington’s control.
The International Energy Agency warned Wednesday that the reopening of the vital waterway is becoming more pressing, as the world burns through its oil stockpiles at a rapid pace. US officials are also forecasting higher oil and gas prices as traffic through the strait remains low.
Here’s what to know about the vital waterway:
- The Strait of Hormuz passes between Iran and Oman.
- It serves as the main route for shipping crude from oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait to the rest of the world.
- Iran controls the strait’s northern side.
- About 20 million barrels of oil, or about one-fifth of daily global production, used to flow through the strait every day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, which calls the channel a “critical oil chokepoint.”
- According to the EIA, “very few alternative options exist to move oil out of the strait if it is closed.” The strait also carries about one-fifth of global trade in liquefied natural gas.
Energy analysts have warned that oil and natural gas prices are likely to remain elevated until the strait is passable, even as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates seek to expand other routes to get their crude to market.
EU and allies condemn Iran over executions of protesters
A group of 32 nations — including 29 European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand — issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning Iran’s use of the death penalty against protesters.
“The people of Iran must be free to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear,” according to the joint statement shared from the German Foreign Office.
Executions and death sentences have continued at a high rate in the country since the US-Israeli war with Iran.
At least 56 people were executed on national security-related charges since March 19, including 27 people linked to widespread anti-regime protests earlier this year, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said last week. Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian human rights group, said the execution toll since the start of 2026 stands at 916 — with 15 in August so far alone.
Back in April, the European External Action Service, the European Union’s diplomatic service that carries out the EU’s security and foreign policy, described the rate of executions as “appalling” and urged Iranian authorities to release those arrested for protesting.
