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Notable takeaways from today
• Testifying on the Hill: The war with Iran has cost $37.5 billion so far, according to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but the bill is likely much higher, experts have told CNN. He and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine testified before Congress to seek additional funding for the war.
• More attacks: US Central Command said on X it has completed the 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran late Tuesday.
• Trump’s warning: President Donald Trump said the US will probably soon hit the area of Pickaxe Mountain — a fortified underground facility believed to be connected to Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran said any attack on its nuclear facilities would be treated as an expansion of the war in the region.
• Widening conflict: Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan said they intercepted aerial attacks today. Meanwhile, Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have warned Saudi vessels to refrain from using the Red Sea.
Iran "not serious about talks," Rubio says
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran is “not serious about talks” during his opening remarks at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday in Manila, Philippines.
“The US is always committed to diplomacy,” Rubio said. “We are open minded and always willing to engage, negotiate and settle differences.”
Rubio warned of creating a “dangerous precedent” in allowing Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz, which he said, “they do not have, under any existing legal mechanism,” the right to control the transit of traffic through the international waterway.
The “fundamental principle of freedom of navigation” is at stake, Rubio said.
“If that is threatened, then I think the global economy is threatened, and the rules which have underpinned 150 years of international trade and commerce are also threatened,” he said.
Air defenses activated in Tehran, Iran says counterassault underway
Air defenses were activated in the Iranian capital Tehran early Wednesday, several state media reported.
There were not any immediate reports from state media of damage in the capital.
Areas in the western and southern parts of the country appear to have been hit in the latest wave of US strikes, according to Iranian reports.
There were airstrikes on Kabudarahang, a city about 150 miles west of Tehran, state broadcaster IRIB reported, quoting the deputy governor of central Hamedan province.
Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran, was also struck, and there were also strikes reported in Chavar and Abdanan in the western Ilam province, IRIB said, citing local authorities.
Another state news agency, IRNA, reported that areas near the cities of Behbahan and Omidiyeh, in western Iran’s Khuzestan province, were targeted.
Explosions were also reportedly heard in the cities of Mahshahr and Sirik, near the Strait of Hormuz, and Bushehr, on the Persian Gulf. The port cities of Konarak and Chabahar, in the southwest also came under attack, IRNA said.
Counterassault underway: Iran’s revolutionary guards said its latest wave of attacks “to punish the US” was underway, after beginning in the early hours of the Wednesday morning local time.
Kuwait said its air defense were engaging hostile drone attacks earlier on Wednesday.
Yasha Saebi contributed reporting.
This post has been updated with additional information.
US military completes latest wave of strikes against Iran
The US military completed the 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran at 8:15 p.m. ET, US Central Command announced tonight in a post to social media.
“CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.
CENTCOM did not provide additional details on the number of targets it struck Tuesday.
The statement added that Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the strait in the last three months, and since early May, CENTCOM has “helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.”
Some context: Daily shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has regularly dropped into the single digits since US-Iranian negotiations collapsed, according to reports from Marine Traffic. Before the US-Iran conflict an average of 130 ships passed through daily.
Senators react to today’s testimony on the Hill about more defense funding
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday about the Trump administration’s request for additional defense funding.
Here’s what some senators had to say about the testimony:
- Republican Sen. John Kennedy told reporters that Congress and the American public need “some straighter answers” from the Pentagon. “We need to come up with a way to explain to the American people why we went in and how we’re going to get out, and in doing so, how we’re going to undermine Iran’s ability to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.
- Sen. Dick Durbin — the No. 2 Senate Democrat — was among Democrats who said Hegseth and Caine did not justify the cost of the war. “They can’t explain how this money is going to be spent,” he said.
- Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said he was “not at all” surprised by the $37.5 billion figure that Hegseth said the Iran war has cost. “In fact, I suspect it’s higher,” he told CNN. “There’s been a lot of damage to critical military facilities, a lot of loss of very expensive, high-end radar systems and aircraft, and so forth, and a lot of expensive munitions fired so far.”
- Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen accused the administration of changing its rationale for the conflict over the last few months, and insisted it had fallen short of each of these possible goals. “The bottom line here is this administration doesn’t know what it’s doing. This is why they keep changing their rationale week to week,” he said.
- GOP Sen. John Hoeven, meanwhile, said of the billions spent on the war, “Look, this is something we have to do.” He told CNN, “At the end of the day, you know, Iran having a nuclear weapon is an existential threat.”
US identifies soldier believed to be killed in action in Jordan
The Pentagon today identified a US soldier who it believes was killed in action in Jordan.
“Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, is believed to have been killed in action on July 17, 2026, during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan,” the Defense Department said in a news release. The soldier was previously listed as missing by US Central Command.
Rampersad was assigned to 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air & Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany, the Pentagon said.
The US military announced over the weekend it had located the unidentified remains of a missing service member in Jordan. The remains have yet to be conclusively identified.
The incident is under investigation, the Pentagon said.
GOP lawmaker describes emotional toll of dignified transfer of US military personnel
Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska knows first-hand how emotional it is to see fallen American service members return to the United States.
He was there at Dover Air Force base for the dignified transfer of seven people who were killed during the war with Iran a few months ago, he said. Now, President Donald Trump is expected to attend the dignified transfer of several more military personal tomorrow.
Hear how Flood describes what that moment is like:
US military begins 11th consecutive night of strikes against Iran
The US military has launched an 11th night of strikes against Iran, US Central Command said Tuesday evening.
“CENTCOM forces began striking military targets in Iran at 7 p.m. ET today for the 11th consecutive night,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.
The US military said that “the strikes are designed to continue degrading Iranian military capabilities” used to attack vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military did not detail which parts of Iran it was targeting, but Iranian media have reported strikes in southwest of the country.
The deputy governor of Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province said the areas near the cities of Behbahan and Omidiyeh came under attack, according state broadcaster IRIB.
Explosions were also heard in southeastern coastal city of Chabahar according to IRIB. The broadcaster also reported that the outskirts of Tabriz – in the northwest of the country –– came under attack.
This post has been updated with additional information.
Houthi blockade threat raises risk of dual energy chokepoint crisis, Kpler says
A threat by the Iranian backed Houthis to blockade Saudi-linked shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has raised the prospect of the Middle East’s two key energy chokepoints coming under pressure at the same time, shipping analytics firm Kpler warned Tuesday.
A “simultaneous and prolonged disruption of Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz could affect maritime routes carrying approximately one-quarter of global oil supply,” the firm said in a written analysis.
The firm said Bab el-Mandeb – which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean – remains open, but traffic is already running far below pre-crisis levels while conditions in Hormuz have “deteriorated sharply.”
According to Kpler, crossings through Bab el-Mandeb averaged about 41 vessels a day between July 15 and July 20, “43% below the 2023 peak of 72/day.”
Saudi crude loadings through the strait fell 34% in two weeks, dropping from 29.58 million barrels in the week of June 29 to 19.50 million barrels in the week of July 13, the analysis said.
Kpler said the Houthi threat is especially significant because Saudi Arabia has increasingly used the Red Sea route as a fallback for exports after disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
Kpler examined several possible scenarios, ranging from limited self-diversion by cautious operators to a full blockade. Under “selective targeting,” it said, “compliant commercial traffic could fall 40–50% within weeks, pushing crossings toward 20–25/day.” Under a full blockade, Bab el-Mandeb “could follow Hormuz and fall below 15 vessels/day within days,” the analysis said.
In a separate note published Tuesday, Kpler said two tankers carrying Saudi crude reversed course in the Red Sea after the Houthi declaration.
Hegseth and Caine testify about the US war with Iran. Here’s what happened today
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine testified before a key Senate panel for the first time since the US-Iran conflict re-escalated this month.
They were seeking tens of billions of additional dollars to fund the war.
Here’s what to know:
- On funding: Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the war has cost the United States $37.5 billion – but the bill is likely much higher, experts previously told CNN. Some of the cost accounts for expenses, such as meals for troops, through the end of the fiscal year, he said.
- Strait strategy: He testified that a US military effort to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz continued “covertly” after it was announced in May, and that it had helped guide up to 500 million barrels of oil through the strategic waterway with the US retaining control despite Iranian attacks.
- Russia and China’s involvement: Hegseth said that China and Russia are “at different levels” enabling some of Iran’s activity. “[T]here are many ways that we deter that … and the depth and extent of it ought to remain classified,” he said.
- Iranian nuclear targets: When questioned about the US military’s ability to strike the suspected Iranian nuclear facility beneath Pickaxe Mountain, Hegseth demurred and said that “a lot of our capabilities are classified.” US President Donald Trump said today that the US will be hitting the target “pretty soon.”
- Human toll: Chairman Caine told lawmakers he would provide Trump with the “appropriate options and risks that he can choose from” when it comes to how to proceed with the war and said the human toll is always a factor.
- A testy response: In a testy back and forth, Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters sharply criticized Hegseth’s leadership, calling him a failure and raised concerns about the administration’s war strategy.
- Questioned on justification: In another tense exchange, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pressed Hegseth on the justification for the war. The New York lawmaker accused Hegseth of misleading the public about destroying Iran’s missile launch capabilities, and Hegseth accused the senator of “trying to make campaign commercials.”
Protesters interrupted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee as the Pentagon asks for more money to fund the war in Iran.
And in other news:
- A warning from Iran: Iran’s military warned that any US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities or other sensitive sites would be treated as an expansion of the war in the region, according to a statement carried by state-run media.
- Iran toll: Trump compared the number of US service members killed during the Iran war to those killed in previous conflicts, seeming to argue that the cost of his unpopular war — in time and American lives — pales in comparison to the other conflicts.
CNN’s Sean Lyngaas, Elise Hammond, Davis Winkie, Tal Shalev, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to reporting.
"You, sir, are the failure": Democratic senator slams Hegseth and Iran strategy
In a testy back and forth, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership during a Tuesday hearing, called him a “failure” and raised concerns about the Trump administration’s strategy thus far in the war with Iran.
Peters questioned Hegseth’s request for nearly $70 billion in additional funding for the Pentagon, and said the ask was being made “despite your failure to win this war.”
Hegseth fired back, arguing that Peters was insulting service members.
“I think your characterization of this incredible effort as a failure is reckless and I think it’s irresponsible, and I think it smears the sacrifice of the troops that are out there making on behalf of the American people to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.
Peters replied that he was describing the leaders of the military, not the troops themselves. “Their leaders have failed them,” he said, because there is a “lack of a winning strategy.”
Hegseth and Sen. Gillibrand clash over justification for Iran war
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Trump administration’s justification for the Iran war, with the New York Democrat challenging the Pentagon chief over past claims about Iran’s nuclear program.
“The words you have used in the past don’t add up,” Gillibrand said during a Tuesday hearing. “You said that we had ‘obliterated’ Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons … yet eight months later in April 2026, the president launched an active war claiming Iran was within two weeks of having a weapon.”
Hegseth retorted that the nuclear sites targeted in Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 “were obliterated, but the Iranians foolishly continued to attempt to pursue nuclear capabilities.”
During their back-and-forth, Gillibrand accused Hegseth of misleading the public about destroying Iran’s missile launch capabilities, and Hegseth accused the senator of “trying to make campaign commercials.”
Gen. Caine says he makes sure Trump considers risk of fatalities for war plans
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vowed to provide President Donald Trump with the “appropriate options and risks that he can choose from” when it comes to how to proceed with the Iran war and said the human toll is always a factor.
“That is: Are we willing to go to Dover, as we will tomorrow, to bring back the fallen?” he said, referring to the Delaware base where fallen service members are brought back to the US.
President Donald Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow for the dignified transfer of service members who were killed in the Iran war in recent days.
Funding questions: Asked by Republican Sen. Mike Rounds whether he believes the supplemental funding the Department of Defense is asking for will be enough to finish the conflict, Caine said he could not answer.
“Because I’m not quite sure how this is going to play out yet, it would be unwise for me to comment on what a future cost may or may not be, depending on what they choose,” Caine said, referring to Iran.
Iran warns US threat to attack nuclear sites would expand regional war
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned that any US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities or other sensitive sites would be treated as an expansion of the war in the region, according to a statement carried by state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) early Wednesday local time.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US will be “hitting” Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “pretty soon.”
The fortified underground complex is located about a mile south of Natanz in central Iran and was declared to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency in 2020 as a future facility to assemble the centrifuges that make nuclear fuel.
“The criminal United States has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and other sensitive sites,” the military headquarters statement said, according to IRIB.
The headquarters, Iran’s primary joint operational command coordinating all branches of the armed forces, said that if the US military “proceeds to such a stage, we will regard it as an expansion of the war in the region.”
In such a scenario, it warned, “all US interests, as well as those of its allies and supporters, will become targets of powerful attacks by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Hegseth sidesteps question about bombing Iran's Pickaxe Mountain
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demurred Tuesday when questioned about the US military’s ability to strike the suspected Iranian nuclear facility beneath Pickaxe Mountain, a subject that has gained attention based on reports that Iran may have moved centrifuges and uranium into the complex.
The Pickaxe Mountain site is near Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility in the country’s rugged interior. Analysts and intelligence agencies believe the site to be even deeper underground than the facilities struck by the US during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has highlighted Pickaxe Mountain as a potential bombing target. “We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump said Tuesday.
Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved part of its enriched uranium stockpile and advanced enrichment centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain, according to an Israeli source familiar with the matter. Finding and removing Iran’s nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium remains one of the top goals for the US and Israel.
Nonproliferation expert Andrea Stricker told CNN that Trump “should act to disable Pickaxe Mountain and prevent Iran from finishing the site, reconstituting an enrichment or nuclear weapons option, and having access to thousands of centrifuges that represent the remnants of its nuclear program.”
Some experts are skeptical of the impact that US strikes could have on the deeply buried site.
James Acton, who co-leads the Carnegie Endowment’s nuclear policy work, posted on X that he doubts the US can do much more than collapse access tunnels at the Pickaxe Mountain facility.
“That isn’t a game changer,” Acton said.
Trump compares US troop deaths in Iran war to previous conflicts
President Donald Trump on Tuesday compared the number of US service members killed during the Iran war to those killed in previous conflicts, seeming to argue that the cost of his unpopular war — in time and American lives — pales in comparison to those other conflicts.
In a Truth Social post, which came as his Defense Secretary was testifying before Congress and the day before Trump is set to attend another dignified transfer for the fallen, he listed out six US military operations, how long they lasted and how many service members died in each.
He notably listed the “Venezuela War,” referring to the brief operation to capture then-leader Nicolás Maduro, but did not use the term “war” for Iran, instead labeling it the “Iran Military Conflict.”
The president did not provide citations for the figures, but they largely align with Defense Department data — although the Defense Casualty Analysis System does not recognize Venezuela as a war.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine are appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday afternoon as Pentagon leaders seek additional funding for the Iran war.
China and Russia both helping Iran in the war, Hegseth says
China and Russia are “at different levels” enabling some of Iran’s activity during the US-Iran war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Tuesday.
“[T]here are many ways that we deter that … and the depth and extent of it ought to remain classified,” Hegseth said before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“But there are ways in which both of those countries are …. at different levels, enabling some of the things Iran is doing,” Hegseth said in response to a question from Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican.
China was preparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran, CNN reported in April, citing sources familiar with US intelligence. Russia was helping Iran with advanced drone tactics from its war in Ukraine to hit US and Gulf nation targets in the Middle East, CNN reported in March, citing a Western intelligence official.
When asked the same question by Hoeven — if China and Russia were helping Iran in the war — Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he didn’t want to address the question in an unclassified setting.
Estimated cost of Iran war so far is $37.5 billion, Hegseth says
The war with Iran has cost the United States $37.5 billion, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but the bill is likely much higher, experts previously told CNN.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin asked the secretary during a budget hearing whether he anticipates that cost will go up now that the ceasefire between the US and Iran is effectively over.
Hegseth replied that some of the $37.5 billion accounts for expenses, such as meals for troops, through the end of the fiscal year.
Some context: Analysts estimated in March that the war against Iran is costing American taxpayers more than $890 million a day, based on known military operations and congressional cost estimates. The spending covers air and naval operations, ground forces, weapons systems and missile interceptions, with the early phase of the conflict proving the most expensive.
In May, Pentagon comptroller Jules “Jay” Hurst III put the estimated cost at $29 billion.
Last month, preliminary numbers from an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated the conflict has cost the Department of Defense about $40 billion. But that number does not incorporate operational costs that were already factored into the department’s more than $1 trillion fiscal year 2026 budget, Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS, told CNN.
Hegseth says US "in control" of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz despite Iranian attacks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that a US military effort to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz continued “covertly” after it was announced in May, and that it had helped guide up to 500 million barrels of oil through the strategic waterway with the US retaining control despite Iranian attacks.
The US military has “been in control of moving traffic” in the strait “for quite some time,” Hegseth asserted, though ship traffic has dropped sharply according to public tracking as the US and Iran have engaged in tit-for-tat strikes over the last 10 days. Oil prices have jumped over that time.
“We pushed almost, I believe, between 400 and 500 million barrels of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom,” Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee, referring to an initiative overseen by US Central Command to guide commercial vessels through the strait. Iran has used the strait as leverage throughout the war to exert pressure on the US and has periodically fired on ships that have not sought permission to pass.
Hegseth indicated that Iran did retain the capability to shoot at commercial ships in the strait.
“Iran’s not charging tolls, and they’re shooting at ships right now,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Paty Murray, a Washington Democrat who is the ranking member of the committee.
Trump directs his administration to allow direct US commercial flights to Lebanon
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is directing his administration to allow all US airline carriers to operate direct flights to Lebanon following his White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
“After meeting with the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, who has done a remarkable job working to transform his Country, I am hereby directing my Administration to allow all U.S. airline carriers to fly directly to Lebanon so that Americans can easily visit this beautiful land,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“Hopefully, other Countries will do the same. Enjoy!” Trump added.
Earlier Tuesday, before the bilateral meeting, Trump said he and Aoun would discuss “concrete plans” for the United States to help Lebanon oust Hezbollah.
Asked about Trump lifting the ban, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said in a statement to CNN: “The FAA looks forward to working with airlines and our interagency partners to implement the President’s directive and support the safe return of flights to Lebanon.”
