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- US strikes Iran in response to attack on cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz
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Get you up to speed: U.S. strikes targets in Iran after Iranian drone attack on cargo ship, posing challenge to ceasefire
The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz and on Qeshm Island following Iran’s drone attack on a commercial vessel. The strikes, described as a “powerful response” by U.S. Central Command, hit multiple targets including missile and drone storage facilities and radar sites.
U.S. Central Command confirmed that the strikes were conducted by six land-based aircraft targeting four locations in Iran, specifically missile and drone storage facilities as well as radar sites. The strikes occurred after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, further complicating ongoing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.
The U.S. military conducted strikes on Iranian targets in response to a drone attack on a commercial vessel, which U.S. Central Command termed a “powerful response” to Iran’s “dangerous behaviour.” Vice President JD Vance underscored that the U.S. would respond to violence, stating, “Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it,” signalling that diplomacy remains contingent on Iran’s adherence to the terms.
What remains unclear — It is unclear how the renewed U.S. strikes on Iran will affect ongoing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.
U.S. military strikes Iranian targets following drone attack on cargo ship
Washington — The U.S. military says it hit Iranian targets on Friday over Iran’s drone attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first American strikes on Iran since the two countries agreed to extend an already rickety ceasefire last week.
The strikes targeted Iranian missile and drone storage facilities and radar sites, U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to social media, calling it a “powerful response” to Iran’s “dangerous behavior.”
“The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said.
A U.S. official told WTX US News that American aircraft hit multiple targets along the Strait of Hormuz and on Iran’s Qeshm Island. The strikes hit four targets and were carried out by six land-based U.S. aircraft, the official said. The strikes are now over.
One day earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a Singapore-flagged cargo ship, a U.S. official confirmed to WTX US News on Thursday. The ship’s bridge was damaged, but no casualties or environmental impact were reported, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre, which said the vessel was off the coast of Oman.
President Trump called the attack a “foolish violation” of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, which was extended for 60 days in a memorandum of understanding between the two countries last week. Asked by reporters Friday if Iran would face any consequences, Mr. Trump responded: “You’ll find out.”
The Iranian drone attack — and the U.S. response — could mark a setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to most shipping traffic for months. Shortly after the vessel was struck, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization paused an effort to evacuate hundreds of ships and thousands of mariners who were stranded in the Persian Gulf. The organization said the ship “did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework.”
The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding says Iran must arrange for safe, toll-free passage through the Strait of Hormuz “using its best efforts” for 60 days. In the week after Mr. Trump signed the deal, the number of ships that sailed through the strait every day surged, while oil prices plummeted to near pre-war levels.
Still, disagreements over the strait have lingered. The U.S. favors a route through the southern portion of the Strait of Hormuz, hugging the coastline of Oman, while Iran has said ships still need to seek its permission and use a northern route closer to the Iranian coast. Iran also hasn’t ruled out collecting tolls on commercial ships after the 60-day period ends, an idea the U.S. and its allies in the region have called unacceptable.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said Thursday: “Any passage through routes outside the framework designated by PGSA will not be covered by safe passage guarantees and will not be entitled to insurance coverage or related liabilities.”
It’s also not clear what impact the renewed U.S. strikes on Iran will have on talks between the two countries, which are set to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program for the next two months. The two sides first struck a ceasefire in early April, and while that arrangement was repeatedly tested by tit-for-tat strikes, U.S. forces did not reopen the large-scale bombing campaign against Iran that ran for more than a month.
Vice President JD Vance, who is helping lead talks with Iran, wrote on social media Friday: “Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how the [memorandum of understanding] is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.”
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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