What we covered
• Maritime threats: Yemen has accused Iran-backed Houthis of killing six people in a “double-tap” strike on a commercial vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Elsewhere, a UK maritime monitor reported an incident involving a container ship and military forces in the Gulf of Oman, while the US military said it had fired Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged vessel sailing toward an Iranian port.
• Strait of Hormuz: US officials have warned that the continued shutdown of the Strait could lead to higher oil and gas prices. Global oil prices rose today as the US and Iran set stringent conditions on each other for the reopening of the critical waterway. Shipping data does not back up US President Donald Trump’s claim that the strait is “open.”
• Trump’s secret move: Trump covertly flew out of Turkey last month on a smaller aircraft after feigning his departure on Air Force One, part of an elaborate ruse prompted by an Iranian threat.
Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.
Rubio, Bessent among those who remained on larger AF1 that was used as a decoy
At least two Cabinet secretaries were aboard the larger Air Force One plane that departed Turkey last month without President Donald Trump aboard, according to a US official, after Trump furtively switched jets on the tarmac.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had been accompanying Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara, stayed behind on the blue and white Boeing 747 along with other White House staffers, military personnel and members of the press, most of whom were unaware of Trump’s whereabouts.
The plane was believed to be the target of an Iranian threat deemed credible enough to force Trump’s secret swap, and was used as a sort-of decoy, departing Turkey without the president on board.
It’s not yet clear which staffers joined Trump aboard the smaller plane that ferried him to a military base in Britain.
Read more here.
Trump says Secret Service and military advice prompted elaborate plane-switch ruse
President Donald Trump said tonight that he followed instructions from the US Secret Service and military when he secretly switched aircraft in Turkey last month, using a catering truck to keep himself hidden from public view.
Trump said he was not given many details of what necessitated the clandestine maneuvering. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” he said.
Asked why it was considered too dangerous for him to fly on Air Force One but not for members of the press, Trump said any plane he is on is more likely to be targeted.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk … Because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for,” he said.
The president said he was not surprised when the Secret Service asked him to secretly switch planes.
Asked whether he was concerned about the possibility of a shoulder-fired missile attack during his departure from Turkey, Trump said he was generally unbothered: “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude? Whatever.”
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported that Trump’s plane switch was prompted by an Iranian plot to target Trump with a shoulder-fired missile as he departed the NATO Summit.
Trump insists US controls Strait of Hormuz
President Donald Trump insisted tonight that the United States still has control over the Strait of Hormuz and threatened that Iran would “get blown away” if the country tried to “do something.”
Trump has previously said the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” claiming that the US Navy has swept the waterway for mines and is in control of it, but shipping data doesn’t back that up, CNN reported Monday.
Both the US and Iran have yet to arrive at a deal to reopen the critical waterway. But Trump on Monday applied a new condition on talks, saying that he would now require compensation from the country for past misdeeds.
US military disables cargo vessel sailing toward Iranian port by firing hellfire missiles
The US military disabled a Panama-flagged cargo vessel sailing toward an Iranian port on Tuesday by firing two hellfire missiles into its engine room, US Central Command announced in a social media post.
The M/V Vela Nova “attempted to transit the Gulf of Oman and violate the US blockade against Iran,” the CENTCOM post said. The crew “ignored repeated warnings from American forces,” leading to a US Navy MH-60 helicopter firing the missiles and disabling the ship’s steering gear.
“The ship is no longer transiting to Iran in violation of the US blockade, which remains in full effect,” the CENTCOM post said.
The US military’s blockade of ships sailing to and from Iranian ports was reimposed in July after the collapse of the tentative ceasefire between the US and Iran. CENTCOM said in its post on Tuesday that it has since redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled three non-compliant vessels, and boarded two.
The incident would appear to match a report from earlier on Tuesday by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center, which monitors maritime security in that region. That report said a container ship in the Gulf of Oman had been targeted by military forces, but didn’t specify the nationality of the forces involved nor name the ship.
CNN’s Issy Ronald contributed to this report.
Yemen says Iran-backed Houthis kill six in a "double-tap" strike on a ship
The Yemeni government has accused Iran-backed Houthis of killing four crew members and two rescue workers in a “double-tap” strike against a commercial vessel sailing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, a serious escalation and a sign that the deadly conflict in Iran is spilling over across the region.
The Ministry of Transport of the internationally recognized Yemeni government said the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Tihamah, a small cargo ship transporting food.
A fire caused by the strikes damaged the ship and killed four crew members – three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian, the ministry said, adding that four other crew members and a rescue worker were injured.
The ministry accused the Houthis of targeting the vessel once again after the search and rescue operation got under way, in what it said was an effort to “endanger the lives of all onboard, including the rescue teams.”
The Yemeni Coast Guard said later that, according to preliminary information, two rescue workers, as well as the four crew members, were killed during the attack.
There was some confusion over the ownership of the vessel that was struck, with initial reports from Yemeni officials and the marine intelligence group Marisks reporting that an unidentified Saudi-owned ship was struck in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
However, according to MarineTraffic, Tihamah is sailing under the Tanzanian flag and is owned by companies registered in Egypt and Yemen.
The Houthis claimed responsibility, saying it was carrying military equipment, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported Tuesday. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claim.
Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV released several photographs and a short video purportedly showing the vessel. The name Tihamah was visible in two of the photographs.
The group warned last month they would target any Saudi shipping seeking to transit the strait, in response to a long-standing Saudi blockade against the group, which controls much of northern Yemen.
The Joint Maritime Information Center, which is overseen by the US Navy, said an unidentified general cargo ship was struck by a projectile while stationary in Yemeni territorial waters in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Its report on Tuesday did not identify the vessel or say who was responsible for the attack.
US officials warn of higher oil and gas prices due to Strait of Hormuz shutdown
A day after President Donald Trump claimed the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” officials inside his administration are ramping up their forecasts for oil and gasoline prices as “constraints” block the flow of energy through that critical waterway.
The Energy Department’s forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration (EIA), now expects energy transits through the Strait of Hormuz to remain limited through August.
The EIA raised its 2026 for Brent, the global oil benchmark, to an average of $87 a barrel on Tuesday. That’s up from a forecast of $82 a month ago for Brent, and close to current levels.
Officials now expect retail gas prices to average $3.78 a gallon this year, up from its prior call of $3.64 a gallon. Gas prices were just $2.98 a gallon nationally before the war started, according to AAA.
Forecasters also increased their estimates for oil and gasoline prices for 2027.
The EIA blamed “constraints on transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that the forecast “assumes those constraints persist through August.”
This pressure on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway which typically allows a fifth of world oil to flow through, also caused the EIA to increase its projection of how much oil production in the Middle East will be offline in the coming months.
The forecast is a stark contrast to Trump’s own comments.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that the strait is “open now” and that only the United States Navy has control over the waterway.
Only eight vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, compared with the average of 120 before the war, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler.
First deaths reported in Red Sea since Houthi blockade as maritime tensions mount. Catch up
Three crew members have been reported dead in the Red Sea, as tensions boil in waterways connected to the war with Iran.
At the same time, the US and Iran have raised the bar to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping traffic remains low.
Read key lines from today’s top news so far:
- First Red Sea deaths reported: A Saudi-owned commercial vessel was reportedly struck by a missile while transiting the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, according to shipping sources and Yemeni officials — killing three crew members, marine intelligence group Marisks said, based on initial reports. The deaths include two Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian national. If confirmed, the deaths would mark the first reported fatalities in the Red Sea since the Iran-backed Houthis declared a blockade on the strait on July 20.
- In the Gulf of Oman: An incident involving a container ship and an unknown military force in the Gulf of Oman has been reported by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The incident occurred near the point where the Gulf of Oman widens into the Indian Ocean, just off the southern Iranian and Pakistani coastline.
- Doubts over Strait of Hormuz: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” claiming that the US Navy has swept the waterway for mines and is in control of it — but shipping data doesn’t back that up. Vessel tracker MarineTraffic showed seven large vessels crossing the strait on Tuesday lunchtime local time. It can take a vessel several hours to cross the strait, so it is unlikely that number will increase significantly later today. Before the war, an average of 120 vessels crossed the crucial waterway every day.
- Lebanon seeks to ease negotiation concerns: Meanwhile, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun is working to allay concerns over the negotiations between his country and Israel, following a seventh round of heated talks in Rome. The talks ended without any apparent progress on expanding the number of “pilot zones” in Lebanon, but the president reaffirmed his commitment to a negotiated solution.
Lebanon’s president seeks to allay concerns over negotiations with Israel
Lebanon’s president has sought to allay concerns over the negotiations between his country and Israel, following a seventh round of heated talks in Rome.
President Joseph Aoun said in a post on X that negotiators and he will not allow Israel to remain “on a single inch of our land, nor a single soldier of its army to stay on our soil,” re-stating Beirut’s central demand in the negotiations.
The seventh round of talks, held last week in Rome, ended without any apparent progress on expanding the number of “pilot zones” in Lebanon – small pockets of territory from which Israel withdraws its troops and hands over control to the Lebanese armed forces, on the understanding that the area will be kept free of Hezbollah militants.
An Israeli source told CNN on Monday that no date had been set for the next round of talks, but Lebanon’s president, in his post on X, re-stated his commitment to a negotiated solution.
“We always hear slogans saying that what is taken by force will only be recovered by force, but the facts on the ground have proven the falsehood of this saying,” he said.
Saudi vessel reported struck by missile in Red Sea
A Saudi-owned commercial vessel has reportedly been struck by a missile while transiting the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, according to shipping sources and Yemeni officials.
“Initial reports indicate three crew fatalities – two Pakistani and one Indonesian nationals,” said marine intelligence group Marisks.
The vessel’s identity remains unconfirmed.
The Houthis warned last month they would target any Saudi shipping seeking to transit the strait, in response to a long-standing Saudi blockade against the group, which controls much of northern Yemen.
If confirmed, this latest attack “represents a serious further escalation against Saudi-linked shipping and reinforces the significantly elevated threat to vessels with Saudi ownership, management, cargo or port-call affiliations transiting Bab al-Mandeb,” Marisks said.
Traffic through the strait has been relatively steady since the Houthis announced their blockade on July 20 at about 30 vessels a day. But some Saudi-owned and operated tankers have opted for the long voyage around Africa instead of transiting the Bab al-Mandeb.
Iran races to repair gas refineries as energy deficit looms
Iran will restore 95 million cubic meters per day of lost gas production capacity by repairing gas-processing facilities damaged in the Persian Gulf port city of Asaluyeh, according to the country’s oil ministry news agency, Shana.
Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said that some gas processing facilities in Asaluyeh had been damaged, resulting in the loss of 95 million cubic meters per day of production capacity. He said reconstruction of four damaged facilities was being “accelerated.”
“Debris removal, the first stage of the work, has been completed, while an implementation framework has been established and contractors have begun operations,” Paknejad said.
However, Paknejad warned that some of the capacity would remain unavailable during the winter, stressing the need to manage gas supply and consumption to prevent disruptions.
Asaluyeh, in the Bushehr province, came under attack earlier this year, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. CNN reported that an Israeli source said Israel had attacked the facility.
Iran is already facing an energy deficit, having lost around 230 million cubic meters per day of natural gas production capacity since the start of the war with the United States and Israel, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said in July, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
Incident involving container ship and military forces in Gulf of Oman reported by UKMTO
An incident involving a container ship and military forces in the Gulf of Oman has been reported by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center, which monitors maritime security in that region.
The incident occurred near the point where the Gulf of Oman widens into the Indian Ocean, just off the southern Iranian and Pakistani coastline, according to the UKMTO, a Royal-Navy affiliated body.
The UKMTO’s statement did not specify the nationality of the armed forces involved in the incident.
Since US forces reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports on July 13, they have redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two to ensure compliance, CENTCOM said on Sunday.
The UKMTO has issued three other similar advisories since July 13, reporting an incident involving a vessel and “military forces.” The organization publicly releases minimal information detailing incidents in the region, refraining from specifying the vessels involved.
Trump says Hormuz is “open," but shipping data doesn't yet back that up
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that the Strait of Hormuz is “open,” claiming that the US Navy has swept the waterway for mines and is in control of it, but shipping data doesn’t yet back that up.
Vessel tracker MarineTraffic showed seven large vessels – two oil tankers, one gas tankers, three bulk carriers and one cargo ship – crossing the strait on Tuesday lunchtime local time, all entering the Persian Gulf.
It can take a vessel several hours to cross the strait, past shipping data shows, so it is unlikely that number will increase significantly later today.
Just eight vessels crossed the crucial waterway yesterday, five sticking to the Iranian route and three following an undetected route, maritime intelligence firm Kpler said.
That doesn’t yet back up Trump’s claim that the strait is “open now.”
“Look, the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Before the war, an average of 120 vessels crossed the crucial waterway, through which one-fifth of global oil supplies used to travel, every day.
Oil prices rise as the US and Iran raise the bar to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Global oil prices rose on Tuesday as the United States and Iran set stringent conditions on each other for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 2% just after 5.30 a.m. ET to trade at $89 a barrel. WTI, the US benchmark, rose 2.3% to $84 a barrel around the same time.
Brent prices have been volatile in recent weeks, but are sharply up overall since early July, when they fell to levels last seen before the war on optimism that peace talks were progressing.
The latest rises come as the prospect of a deal between Iran and Oman to reopen the strait – through which 20% of the world’s oil transited pre-war – grows more distant.
On Saturday, Tehran said the United States must meet several conditions before it would reopen the waterway, including lifting its naval blockade on Iranian ports and paying damages to Iran.
President Donald Trump has likewise raised the bar for a reopening, saying on Monday that the US required compensation from Iran for its misdeeds, including for the killing of people during unspecified past conflicts.
Iran reshapes military leadership, Trump issues new condition on war talks. Here's the latest
President Donald Trump applied a new condition to talks with Iran on Monday, saying he would require compensation from the country for past misdeeds after Tehran said US compensation was required to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said an agreement with Oman to manage the waterway would not be enough to reopen it unless the US meets the list of conditions. The back-and-forth suggested the two sides were no closer to reaching an agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Instead, the fresh requirements appeared to diminish prospects for a quick deal, despite optimism last week an agreement was near.
At this juncture, catch up on recent headlines on what’s happening in the region:
- In announcing six senior appointments, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reshaped the country’s military leadership, which included naming Ali Abdollahi as armed forces chief of staff, Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ali Azmaei as IRGC Navy commander. Remember, Khamenei has not been seen in public since becoming leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a late February 2026 strike.
- The US imposed the eighth round of sanctions on Iran this year. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said it will not buckle under the sanctions that only undermine the chances of a diplomatic resolution to the war.
- Trump told reporters the US has swept the Strait of Hormuz for mines and the US Navy has full control of the waterway. However, shipping traffic through the strategic waterway has remained “subdued” over the past week and “weakened further into the weekend,” maritime intelligence firm Kpler said Monday.
CNN’s Christina Macfarlane spoke with Dina Esfandiary, Middle East Lead at Bloomberg Economics, about the latest US-Iran developments:
• Another Trump team peace initiative in the Middle East appears to have hit the rocks as well. After several rounds of talks between Israel and Lebanon, which began in April, an Israeli official tells CNN there are no dates in the diary for further meetings.
• An Iranian photojournalist has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly acting in the interests of Israel and the US after authorities searched her home and seized electronic devices, according to a US-based human rights group.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Eyad Kourdi, Alejandra Jaramillo, Aida Karimi, Andrew Carey, Dana Karni, Kevin Liptak and Billy Stockwell contributed to this post.
How US blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz works
Tehran has demanded the US lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports before it reopens the Strait of Hormuz, among several conditions
Currently, the US blockade order applies to all Iranian ports, both inside and outside the strait — but what does a blockade entail?
A blockade is a tool of economic warfare as much as it is kinetic warfare.
The Newport Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare defines a blockade as “the capture of contraband, and the capture or destruction of enemy property found at sea.”
To be legal, the imposition of a blockade must follow certain rules, including:
- It must be declared and notified, meaning warnings must go out to ships that it might affect.
- It must be effective, meaning the US must have the ships and aircraft to enforce it.
- It must be impartial, affecting the vessels of any nation.
- It cannot be targeted solely at civilian populations, but harm to civilians is acceptable.
- It must not block access to neutral ports and may not block a strait, like Hormuz, which Trump has said is open to international shipping unrelated to Iran.
Washington Post: Trump secretly switched planes in Turkey under threat of Iranian attack
President Trump secretly slipped off Air Force One and onto an airport catering truck, which shuttled him to a smaller military plane following a NATO summit in Turkey last month, according to the Washington Post, amid an Iranian assassination threat.
Watch CNN’s Kaitlan Collins interview with Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe.
Trump applies new condition on Iran talks: compensation from Tehran
President Donald Trump applied a new condition on talks with Iran, saying he would now require compensation from the country for past misdeeds after Tehran over the weekend said US compensation would be required to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The back-and-forth suggested the two sides were no closer to reaching an agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, the fresh requirements appeared to diminish prospects for a quick deal, despite optimism last week an agreement was near.
“But it is an interesting idea,” he went on, “because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous.”
The president said payouts should also go to “the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.”
Over the weekend, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a highly influential figure in the Revolutionary Guards, reeled off a maximalist set of demands for reopening the strait. It included US compensation for damage caused during both this year’s war and the June 2025 conflict, which was fought principally by Israel.
