President Trump said Wednesday he is considering reducing the number of U.S. forces in Germany amidGermany amid a spat with Germany’s chancellor and the NATO alliance over Iran. 

“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troopstroops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” he wrote on Truth Social. 

The president has grown increasingly frustrated with the U.S.’s allies in Europe, which have sought to keep their distance from the U.S.-Iran war. He has threatened to leave NATO, calling the alliance a “paper tiger” for not entering the war. A 2023 law prevents the president from withdrawing the U.S. from NATO without approval from Congress.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz appeared to draw MrMr Trump’s ire after he criticisedcriticised the U.S.’s handling of the war earlier this week, saying “the Americans clearly have no strategy” on Iran and suggesting the U.S. is being “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators.

On Tuesday, MrMr Trump wrote on social media that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”nuclear weapon” and “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” 

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance pushed back on a report in The Atlantic that he questioned if the Pentagon was misrepresenting the U.S.’s missile stockpiles.

Vance said the story “ascribed the views to me and things that I had allegedly said that I am just 100% certain that I have never said”.said”.

He added: “Nobody who actually knows what I think, nobody who’s close to me,me, was speaking to that reporter, because if they did, then it would have been a totally different story.”

Vance acknowledged that “of course, I’m concerned about, you know, our readiness”readiness” but said it’s his job to be concerned about such things. 

“It’s, of course, my job to ask these questions,” he said. “It’s, of course, my job to make sure that we’re on top of every issue.” 

The Strait of Hormuz has remained almost entirely closed to ship traffic since Iran dropped mines across it in March. Until the explosives are cleared, the blockedd’s energy that normally passes through the strait could remain at a standstill. This process could take months, experts say, as the U.S. does not possess the necessary homegrown tools to open the strait. 

Ukraine, on the other hand, has more recent experience in demining operations than any other country. Since 2022, Russia has dropped thousands of mines across the Black Sea, presaging Iran’s Hormuz blockade by using underwater explosives to deter vessels from docking in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

Initially, Ukraine relied on human divers to clear the explosives, but over four years it has developed innovative solutions like the TLK-150 — an 8-foot-long, roughly 50-pound underwater drone that’s been mapping out the minefields that lie below the Black Sea’s surface.

Read more here.

U.S. forces have redirected 41 vessels as part of theirtheir blockade of Iranian ports, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday. 

“Right now there are 41 tankers with 69 million barrels of oil that the Iranian regime can’t sell,” CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement. “That’s an estimated $6 billion-plus from which Iran’s leadership cannot financially benefit.”

The blockade has been in place since April 13. 

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying strike group are expected to start heading home from the Middle East in the coming days, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News.

The group has been deployed since last June butJune but has gone to other parts of the world in addition to the Middle East.

The Washington Post was first to report on the Ford’s return home.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Trump against “damaging consequences” of a new military action in Iran, a Kremlin aide told reporters Wednesday after the two leaders spoke by phone.

Putin “highlighted the inevitable and extremely damaging consequences not only for Iran and its neighbours,neighbours, but also for the entire international community, should the U.S. and Israel resort to military action once again,” said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

President Trump told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help remove Iran’s enriched uranium from the country.

“He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment ifenrichment if he can help us get it,” MrMr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after he spoke with Putin earlier Wednesday. “I said, ‘I’d much rather have you be involved with ending the war with Ukraine.'”

President Trump told reporters he supports the United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave OPEC.

“I think it’s great,” MrMr Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office.

“That’s a good thing, I think, for ultimately it’s a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down;down; they have it all,” the president said.

President Trump said the wars in Iran and Ukraine could end on a “similar timetable”.timetable”.

After MrMr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about both wars, he was asked what war he thought would end first.

“I don’t know, maybe they’re on a similar timetable,” the president said.

President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Iran earlier Wednesday.

“I talked about Ukraine, and I talked a little bit about Iran,” MrMr Trump said. “I talked about a few different subjects, mostly about Ukraine, and we had an excellent conversation.”

DefenceDefence Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked by Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan on Wednesday, “How many more months, just by order of magnitude, do you think that you’re going to need to be able to conclude operations successfully?”

Houlahan continued, “And how many more billions of dollars do you think this body will ask you for?” 

Hegseth said the U.S. military would never reveal to an adversary how long it would be committed to the mission.

Hegseth was also questioned over the costs of war for Americans, with Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, asking, “Doasking, “Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over the next year because of the Iran war?”

“I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” Hegseth said.

Khanna accused Hegseth and the Trump administration of not fulfilling the president’s campaign promises to lower the cost of living for Americans. He argued that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cause American households to pay thousands more dollars for gas and food.

“I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad for them because you betrayed them,” Khanna said.

The Iran war has cost an estimated $25 billion so far, a Pentagon official told Congress during a hearing Wednesday.

Most of the expense has been on munitions, but the military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement, Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.

“We will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,” Hurst added.

Hurst is appearing alongside DefenceDefence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine on the DefenceDefence Department’s $1.5 trillion budget request. 

Read more here.

Asked Wednesday for confirmation that the Trump administration is considering extending the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and vessels for months, despite higher costs for U.S. citizens brought by the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, the White House did not deny the possibility andpossibility and insisted the blockade has given the U.S. “maximum leverage over the regime”.regime”.

“Thanks to the successful blockade of Iranian ports, the United States has maximum leverage over the regime, and the presidentpresident will only accept a deal that protects the national security of our country,” DeputyDeputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.

A White House official said Tuesday that MrMr Trump, during meetings with energy executives to get their feedback on domestic and international energy markets, discussed steps that could be taken to continue the blockade for months if needed. They also discussed how American consumers could mitigate the impacts of the squeeze on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has only let a few oil tankers transit the strait recently, and it has seized two ships that it accused of violating its restrictions on the strategic waterway.

The U.S. military says it has forced at least 39 ships to turn around after they tried to enter or exit Iranian ports in breach of its blockade, meanwhile. 

Iran has refused to engage in direct peace negotiations with the U.S. while the American blockade of its ports remains in place. 

As Iran chokes commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is costing the European Union almost 500 million euros ($600 million) every day, raising prices at the pump and fears of a jet fuel shortage within weeks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Wednesday.

EU countries must funnel their energy aid chiefly to vulnerable households and industries or risk wasting billions of euros as the Iran war hits oil and gas prices, von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France.

She said the world’s biggest trading bloc must draw on the lessons of the 2022 fuel crisis – when Russia used its energy might against European countries to undermine their support for Ukraine – to avoid further hurting their economies.

More than 350 billion euros “were spent on untargeted measures and this had a huge impact on member states’states’ finances,” she said. “So let us not make the same mistake again, and let’s focus our support where it matters most.”

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said at a House hearing Wednesday that he wants to emulate Gen. George C. Marshall, who served during World War II and later helped Europe recover from the conflict.

“His commitment to civilian control and aa nonpartisan military remains a constant standard in something I borrow from often,” Caine said in his opening statement. “I strive daily to emulate his candour,candour, delivering the facts to our leaders and telling them always what they need to hear, not always what they want to hear.”

Caine spoke before the House Armed Services Committee alongside defence secretarydefence secretary Pete Hegseth. They are discussing the Pentagon’s proposed budget and facing questions about the Iran war.

A House hearing with defence secretarydefence secretary Pete Hegseth started Wednesday morning with a packed hearing room and many other people crowded into the hallway outside.

“Let the public in,” several people chanted outside as lawmakers found their seats. They also yelled at Hegseth as he passed them in the hallway.

The hearing is officially to discuss the Pentagon’s proposed budget, but it is also the first time Hegseth publicly answers questions on the Iran war on Capitol Hill. 

Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen.Staff Gen. Dan Caine isCaine is seated beside the defencedefence secretary.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth needs to provide an explanation of what the Trump administration’s goals are in the Middle East.

“Where is the administration going? What is the plan to achieve our objectives? We’ve seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that his relationship with President Trump remained “as good as ever”,ever”, but that he had “had doubts from the very beginning about what was started there with the war in Iran.”

“We are suffering considerably in Germany and in Europe from the consequences of, for example, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Merz said. “In that regard, I urge that this conflict be resolved.”

MrMr Trump had attacked Merz onMerz on Tuesday on his Truth Social platform, saying, “Thesaying, “The Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.nuclear weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” 

MrMr Trump was responding to Merz’s comments the previous day, when the German leader said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticisedcriticised what he called Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.

Lebanon “must end appeasement” and stop negotiating with Israel, a Hezbollah member of the country’s parliament said in remarks reported Wednesday. 

Citing the ongoing Israeli strikes and ground invasion in southern Lebanon, Hassan Fadlallah said Lebanese authorities “must immediately abandon their appeasement options”,options”, the independent Al-Markazia news outlet reported.  

Lebanon and Israel signed a ceasefire deal in mid-April that was later extended to end the fighting between the Israeli military and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, but both sides have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations.

The Lebanese health ministry said Tuesday that more than 2,530 people had been killed since Israel launched major military operations against Hezbollah on March 2, in response to the group firing rockets and drones at Israel in solidarity with Iran. 

Earlier Wednesday, Lebanese health officials said an Israeli strike killed three rescue workers, a day after the health ministry said 14 people were killed in strikes on Sunday, including two children and two women.

In Israel, the war with Iran and Lebanon has killed at least 40 people, according to the independent Institute for National Security Studies. 

If the U.S. maintains its blockade of Iran’s ports and Iranian vessels, it will draw “practical and unprecedented military action” in response, Iran’s state-run Press TV network said Wednesday, citing an unnamed “high-ranking security source”.source”. 

The network said Iranian leaders’ “patience has limits” and if the blockade – whichblockade – which the U.S. military says has forced 39 vessels attempting to access Iranian ports to turn around – continues,around – continues, “a punishing response is necessary.” 

The report said if Washington maintains its blockade around the Strait of Hormuz, “the official warned that the enemy should soon expect a different kind of response”,response”, without offering any further details.

A senior Iranian lawmaker earlier renewed a lingering threat by Tehran to ask the Islamic Republic’s allies in Yemen, the well-armed Houthi rebel movement, to target shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb StraitStrait if the blockade isn’t lifted.

The Bab el-Mandeb is, just like the gridlocked Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global energy supplies in the Middle East, and the Houthis have attacked ships in the region previously.

A U.N.-backed report said Wednesday that more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon were expected to face acute hunger due to the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, and Lebanon’s agriculture ministry announced the figure in a joint statement.

Some “1.24 million people — nearly one in four of the population analysedanalysed — are expected to face food insecurity” at crisis levels or worse between April and August 2026, they said.

They were referring to analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a U.N.-backed group that monitors hunger and malnutrition.

This marks a “significant deterioration” from before the war erupted in March, “when an estimated 874,000 people, roughly 17 per centper cent of the population, were experiencing acute food insecurity”, the statement said.

“The deterioration is due to conflict, displacement and economic pressures,” it added. 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif told members of his cabinet on Wednesday that the country’s efforts to broker an agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end the war,war, currently stuck in a costly stalemate,stalemate, “are still ongoing”.ongoing”.

“Due to the war, our journey of economic development has come to a halt; petroleum prices are soaring to the skies; mountains of problems stand before us, but we will emerge successfully from this difficult time,” predicted Sharif, who, along with a couple other senior Pakistani figures, has acted as the main route of communication between Washington and Tehran.

Sharif said, according to a statement posted on social media by his office, that Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar “also remained engaged” with their counterparts from the U.S. and Iran.

“Due to our immense efforts, the ceasefire has been extended, which is still ongoing,” he noted, referring to President Trump’s announcement of an indefinite extension, which the American leader said was to allow Iran more time to present a peace proposal.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by airstrikes last year and faced less intense attacks in this year’s U.S.-Israeli war, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency told The Associated Press.

Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has satellite images showing the effects of the latest US-IsraeliUS-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and that “we continue to get information.”

IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched a 12-day war that saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear sites.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog believes a large percentage of Iran’s highly enriched uranium “was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and it has been there ever since”,since”, Grossi said.

We haven’t been able to confirm the material’s presence or the IAEA seals’ integrity, he said. “I hope we’ll be able to do that, so what I tell you is our best estimate.”

Images from an Airbus satellite show a truck loaded with 18 blue containers going into a tunnel at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center on June 9, 2025, just before the start of the June war. Those containers, believed to contain highly enriched uranium, likely remain there.

The IAEA also wants to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordo, where there is also some nuclear material, the IAEA director-general added. 

Oil prices continued rising Wednesday, with the price of a barrel of the internationalthe international benchmark Brent Crude edging close to $115 in early morning trading.

Oil accounts for 51% of the cost of a gallon of gas, making it the biggest factor in determining prices at the pump. The average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. hit $4.18 on Tuesday, according to AAA, the highest level since the Iran WarWar began.

Gasoline prices increased again Wednesday to $4.23 a gallon, up $1.25 a gallon since the U.S. and Israel launched their first attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. 

The latest increase follows a brief period of relief, when prices eased after hitting a recent high of $4.17 on April 9 as the U.S. and Iran appeared to be making progress toward a deal to end the war. The countries agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 8, which President Trump has since extended, but negotiations have lost momentum in recent days, making a quick resolution to the war less likely and sending oil prices higher. 

“The Strait [of Hormuz] is not reopened — there’s no cohesive plan for reopening it — and now negotiations have been basically stopped,” Patrick De Haan, a petroleum expert at GasBuddy,GasBuddy, said Tuesday. “So oil’s been slowly recapturing some of what it gave up after the ceasefire was announced.”

The Iranian currency, the rial, plummeted to a record low against the dollar Wednesday, according to currency-tracking websites consulted by the AFP news agency, as a U.S. naval blockade of the country’s ports and vessels continued.

On the black market, the rial was trading at around 1.80 million rials to the dollar, the Bonbast and AlanChand websites reported. When the war erupted two months ago, one dollar was traded at about 1.70 million rials.

Iran officially has several fixed exchange rates, but the two websites are generally used as benchmarks for unofficial rates.

President Trump has suggested that economic pressure from the ongoing blockade should force Iran to accept a deal to end the war on his terms.

On Wednesday, MrMr Trump posted on Truth SocialSocial that the Iranian regime needs to “get smart soon”,soon”, accompanied by an AI photo of himself holding a rifle in front of multiple explosions and the caption: “NO MORE MR NICEMR NICE GUY!”

Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested more than 4,000 since the beginning of the Middle East war, the United Nations said, criticisingcriticising the Islamic Republic’s “harsh and brutal” treatment of its people.

Since the U.S.-Israeli strikes sparked the war in late February, “at least nine people have been executed in connection with the January 2026 protests, 10 for alleged membership in opposition groups, and two on espionage charges,” the U.N.’s rights office said.

Alaaeddin Boroujerdi, Deputy Head of the National Security Committee, warned Tuesday that Iran could retaliate in kind for the U.S. military blockade of its ports, which has seen interdictions and the seizure of some vessels. He claimed its forces could “easily respond to any such action by seizing one of the ships present in the region and, in effect, bringing it to Iran’s shores”.shores”.

“We have not yet revealed our new cards,” he said, renewing a threat to another strategic Middle Eastern shipping lane.

“In fact, the importance of Bab el-Mandeb may be no less than that of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, referring to another crucial chokepoint for energy supplies in the region that Tehran has threatened previously to ask its Houthi rebel allies in Yemen to block with attacks on commercial vessels.

Iran’s “Yemeni allies are waiting to block it and deliver another blow to America, its economy, and its illegitimate interests worldwide,” Boroujerdi said. 

Already, Iranian forces have seized two commercial ships that theythey accused of violating theirtheir restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz.

“We still hold the upper hand,” the parliamentarian said.

Alaaeddin Boroujerdi, Deputy Head of the National Security Committee in the Iranian Parliament, said Wednesday that Iran “will never relinquish its control over the Strait of Hormuz”.Hormuz”.

In remarks broadcast by Iranian state media, Boroujerdi claimed Iran still had sufficient missile stockpiles to sustain several years of war, adding that the U.S. and other Western countries had “come to believe in the capabilities of the Islamic Republic”.Republic”.

He said Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was managing negotiations with the U.S., which have been carried out only indirectly, via Pakistani mediators, since a first round of unsuccessful direct talks in early April.

Since then,then, Iran has maintained an effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies, only permitting a select few vessels to transit the waterway with coordination – andcoordination – and reportedly for large fees. The U.S., in response, has imposed a military blockade of all Iranian ports and vessels linked to the country.

Boroujerdi dismissed those U.S. actions as ineffective, calling the blockade “a passive and worthless move” and claiming the U.S. would “not dare act” against some vessels “because they belong to other countries, such as China and others that the United States does not dare confront”.confront”.

The Pentagon said that, as of Tuesday, it had forced 39 vessels attempting to enter or depart from Iranian ports to turn around since the blockade began. 

President Trump warned Iran to “get smart soon”,soon”, posting a brief message on his Truth Social platform early Wednesday morning, along with an AI-generated image of himself holding a rifle in front of explosions, with the caption: “NO MORE MR NICEMR NICE GUY!” 

Iran is struggling to get organised. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” the president said.

MrMr Trump has voiced optimism that the ongoing U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports and vessels will bring sufficient economic pressure on the Islamic Republic to force it to agree to a deal. He has abandoned previous deadlines for Tehran to agree to a deal, however, and most recently extended an ongoing ceasefire indefinitely, saying it was to give the regime time to present a coherent peace offer. 

A proposal tabled by Iran earlier this week, which sources told CBS News would have involved a mutual dropping of restrictions on shipping via the Strait of Hormuz, was tacitly rejected by the Trump administration, probably because it would have delayed negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.programme.

MrMr Trump has not issued a new deadline for Iran to make a deal, but the administration has left the threat of renewed attacks on the table amid one of the most significant U.S. military deployments to the Middle East in decades.

DefenceDefence Secretary Pete Hegseth will face questioning from lawmakers Wednesday for the first time since the Trump administration launched the war against Iran, which Democrats have contested as a costly conflict of choice waged without congressional approval.

The hearing before the House Armed Services Committee is being held to discuss the administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defencedefence spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, are expected to stress the need for more drones, missile defencedefence systems and warships.

Democrats are likely to pivot to the ballooning costs of the Iran war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions, and the bombing of a school that killed children. Some lawmakers also may question how prepared the military was to shoot down swarms of Iranian drones, some of which penetrated U.S. defencesdefences and killed or injured American troops. 

At the start of Tuesday’s White House state dinner, President Trump said King Charles agrees with the U.S.’ position that Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon.

“Charles agrees with me even more than I do. We’re never gonna let that opponent have a nuclear weapon. They know that, and they’ve known it right now very powerfully,” MrMr Trump said after alluding to the conflict in the Middle East, without mentioning Iran by name.

The king and Queen Camilla are in the U.S. to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

At the dinner, MrMr Trump also lauded the nation’s relationship with the U.K., saying the two countries share a “nobility of spirit and heroic soul”.

Stocks mostly advanced in Asia on Wednesday despite losses on Wall Street during the previous day’s trading. Oil prices gained on uncertainties over when the war in Iran will end and after the United Arab Emirates said it would leave OPEC, a blow to the powerful oil cartel.

U.S. futures edged higher Wednesday.

In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.8% to 6,690.90 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.5% to 26,050.90. The Shanghai Composite index traded 0.7% higher at 4,107.51. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3%, to 8,687.00.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.6%, and India’s Sensex gained 1.4%.

Early Wednesday, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.1% to $112.47. Brent, to be delivered in July, was also up 1.1% to $105.50. Brent oil was around $70 per barrel before the war began in late February.

Benchmark U.S. crude gained 1% to $100.94 a barrel.

Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Sir Christian Turner, said in February, before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war with Iran, that to him it seemed the “only country” with a “special relationship” with the U.S. was “probably Israel”.

Turner made the remarks to a group of British high school-age students visiting the U.S. The Financial Times obtained a recording of the comments and reported it on Tuesday.

Turner said he didn’t like the term “special relationship”, coined by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the wake of World War II, to describe the U.S.-U.K. bond, calling it “quite nostalgic” and “backwards-looking”, according to the FT.

“I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States,” he said, “and that is probably Israel.”

CBS News has not reviewed the audio of his remarks, but the British government has confirmed their authenticity.

Read more here.