Live updates: Oil prices soar past $100 per barrel; Iran celebrates new supreme leader

Trump, asked about earlier remarks today in which he called Iran an “excursion,” said it will be over "very soon."

Asked by a reporter if he thought it would be over this week or in the following days, Trump said, "No, but soon. Very soon."

Asked moments later how he squared that with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks that the campaign was just getting started, Trump said that “both” could be true.

“Well, I think you could say both,” Trump said. “It’s the beginning of building a new country."

“We could call it a tremendous success right now. And we leave here. I could call it, or we could go further, and we’re going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out the first in the first two days. When you think about it, it’s incredible,” Trump said.

Trump told reporters at the GOP policy conference in Florida that the U.S. "took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil" in Iran.

"And I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion," he said, adding that the U.S. military has knocked out 46 navy ships in Iran.

NBC News has not independently confirmed that number.

Trump took a more somber tone in discussing American casualties and this weekend's dignified transfer of six U.S. service members killed in the Iran conflict.

"The hardest thing to do is to go to Dover," Delaware, he said, because that is where "the warriors, the great young people that have died in war," return home.

Home Affairs Minister Tony ⁠Burke said Australia has provided humanitarian visas ⁠to five players from the ​Iranian women's ⁠soccer team who confirmed to authorities yesterday that they wanted to stay in Australia.

Police have moved the players from the team’s hotel to a safe location. He said the women asked him to say they are athletes who want to be safe and are not political activists.

Burke told ⁠reporters ​that other members of ⁠the team were also welcome ‌to stay in Australia if they wanted. 

The U.S. and South Korea began a major military exercise today as their militaries discuss moving some U.S. Patriot missile defense systems from South Korea for use in the war with Iran.

Thousands of troops are taking part in the annual Freedom Shield exercise, which runs through March 19. The drills, which the U.S. and South Korea say are defensive in nature, are a source of friction with nuclear-armed North Korea, which views them as a rehearsal for invasion.

Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, declined to comment last week on local media reports that the Patriot missile interceptors were being redeployed in the Middle East. “However, I can say that close consultations between Korea and the United States regarding U.S. Forces Korea are ongoing and will continue in the future,” he told reporters.

U.S. Forces Korea also declined to comment on the reports, citing security reasons, Reuters said.

The war with Iran is progressing faster than expected, Trump told CBS News today.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force,” he said in a phone interview, adding that the U.S. is “very far” ahead of his initial four- to five-week estimated time frame.

Trump also said he is “thinking about” taking over the Strait of Hormuz, which provides passage to one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and is a key route for other types of commodities, like aluminum, sugar and fertilizer.

Trump has said in recent days that Iran would have had a nuclear weapon in two weeks had the U.S. not launched the aerial attack, but according to NBC News' reporting, what U.S. officials have said publicly and what the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog has said, that is not true.

Before U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in June, Iran was days away from having enough fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons, according to U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency. 

However, Iran was not two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. 

That would require designing, manufacturing and testing a nuclear warhead that could fit on the tip of a ballistic missile. Experts estimate such an effort would take months or even a year to achieve. U.S. intelligence agencies have maintained that Iran has not decided to revive its weapons program, which was halted in 2003.

Satellite imagery by Vantor shows tunnel entrances at the Isfahan missile complex in Iran before reported airstrikes Feb. 27, above, and visible damage after, captured yesterday.

Satellite image ©2026 Vantor

Trump will provide an update on the war with Iran at 5:30 p.m. ET. He is also expected to take questions.

Trump today left open the prospect of acquiring Iranian oil as the U.S. proceeds with a war officials have said is aimed at depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon and defanging it so it no longer poses a threat to the U.S. or Middle East neighbors.

Trump told NBC News that he did not want to discuss whether he would like the U.S. to seize Iranian oil, but he added: “Certainly people have talked about it.”

He mentioned Venezuela, where the U.S. launched a raid in January that captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to secure and tap Venezuela’s oil reserves. In his State of the Union speech last month, Trump said the U.S. has already gotten more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.

Read the full story here.

Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu via Getty Images

Mourners gathered at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on the southern outskirts of Tehran today for a funeral service for victims killed in the U.S.-Israeli attacks.

Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

After he urged Australia to help members of the Iranian national women's soccer team today, Trump announced that five of the players have been granted asylum.

"I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way," Trump said on Truth Social.

"Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return," Trump said. "In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!"

The team had been in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup. The Guardian reported that a number of players had escaped their government minders after their match and were in police protective custody.

After a seventh service member was confirmed killed in the war with Iran, Trump is still weighing whether to send ground troops into the Middle East.

Administration officials, including Trump himself, have repeated that casualties will happen as a part of the war.

Democrats in office continue to question the administration's objectives overseas. Meanwhile, Republicans are cheering on the war effort.

02:28

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mocked the U.S. mission in Iran and skyrocketing oil prices, promising that Iran is "fully prepared."

"We know the U.S. is plotting against our oil and nuclear sites in hopes of containing huge inflationary shock," Araghchi wrote on X.

The foreign minister called the U.S. operation, coined Operation Epic Fury by the Trump administration, "Operation Epic Mistake." After suggesting that the mission had backfired, Araghchi said, "And we, too, have many surprises in store."

Finance ministers from leading industrialized nations met this morning to discuss the impact of the Iran conflict on energy exports and considered the release of strategic reserves to cut oil prices. But ministers have not reached a consensus yet.

"We’re not there yet," French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters in Brussels after the G7 video conference concluded. "What we’ve agreed upon is to use any necessary tools, if need be, to stabilize the market, including the potential release of necessary stockpiles."

The International Energy Agency executive director was also in the meeting to provide an update on global oil markets, which he emphasized have deteriorated.

"In addition to the challenges of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a substantial amount of oil production has been curtailed. This is creating significant and growing risks for the market," the IEA director said in a statement.

Australia would be making a “terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the Iranian women’s soccer team to go back to Iran, President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social this morning.

The team was playing in the Women’s Asian Cup in Australia and was due to return home after losing their last group match. Their silence during the national anthem before an opening loss to South Korea last Monday was viewed by some as an act of resistance and others as a show of mourning.

Trump said if the players return to Iran, “they will most likely be killed.”

He added: “Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump said, referring to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Amid concerns for the safety of the team upon return to Iran, the Australian Associated Press reported late Sunday that dozens of protesters chanting “Let them go” slowed down the team bus as it departed the stadium after the match. Video appearing online early Monday showed protesters chanting “Save our girls” as Australian police and security cleared the way for the team bus to leave the stadium.

Atefeh Imani of Iran waves to fans in the stands during the team's match against the Philippines yesterday. Albert Perez / Getty Images

The Guardian newspaper reported earlier today that five members of the team have been taken into the protection of police in Australia after refusing to return to their home country.

NBC News reached out to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs for comment. 

At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation was launched on Feb. 28, according to the nonprofit humanitarian group Iranian Red Crescent Society.

It was unclear if the overall death toll included Iranian military casualties.

Mourners carry the coffin of Mehdi Hosseini, who was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran today. Vahid Salemi / AP

The Pentagon identified the seventh U.S. service member killed in Iran as Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky.

Pennington died of his wounds on Sunday, from injuries he sustained during an attack a week earlier at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington.  Dept. of Defense

In a brief phone interview, the president told the Israeli outlet Times of Israel that a decision on ending the war with Iran will be a "mutual" one between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I think it’s mutual… a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account," he said. Trump said that Iran was "going to destroy Israel" if the U.S. and Israel had not attacked.

He also offered his first public reaction to the naming of Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, saying, “We’ll see what happens”

The S&P 500 dropped 1.4%, the Nasdaq composite slid 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid nearly 700 points at the opening bell in New York, as oil continues trading sharply higher.

As of 9:50 a.m. ET, U.S. oil was trading up by 10% to around $100 per barrel after soaring to nearly $120 per barrel overnight.

The price of U.S. crude oil has now risen more than 60% over the last month and more than 45% over the course of the last five days.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange this morning.  Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Read more here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a State Department ceremony this morning that Iran was "trying to hold the world hostage."

He also reiterated the U.S.' military missions, saying they were to "destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles — both by destroying their missiles and their launchers — destroy the factories that make these missiles and destroy their navy."

Rubio said that the "military is getting the job done."

"Every single day, this regime in Iran has less missiles, has less launchers, their factories work less and their navy is being eviscerated, and the world is going to be a safer and a better place when this mission is accomplished," he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers remarks at the State Department today. Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv has received 11 requests from countries neighboring Iran, European states and the U.S. for security support, including in countering Iran-designed drones. 

“There is clear interest in Ukraine’s experience in protecting lives, relevant interceptors, electronic warfare systems, and training,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Ukraine is ready to respond positively to requests from those who help us protect the lives of Ukrainians and the independence of Ukraine. Some requests have already been met with concrete decisions and specific support.”

Over four years of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has built significant expertise in drone-intercepting technology as it continues to counter nearly daily attacks on its cities and towns. But Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is already in dire need of air defense missiles to protect its skies, and there was a real concern about a possible shortage of these munitions for Ukraine now that they are being used by the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf to deflect aerial attacks from Iran.

A man places a drone on an obstacle course at the Killhouse Academy drone training center last week in Kyiv. Chris McGrath / Getty Images

He has previously suggested a possible weapons exchange with countries in the Middle East.

Kyiv will determine which additional requests it can respond to positively, Zelenskyy added in the post, without reducing its ability to defend itself.

Gas prices are sitting at around $3.48 per gallon on average, having shot up amid the war in Iran from prices that were below $3 last week.

And overnight, the price of oil jumped to $100 a barrel, worse than many expected.

Plenty of the world's oil producers in the region are unable to get barrels of oil out due to a bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing them to slow production as their facilities fill up.

Markets slide as oil prices rise amid the Iran conflict

06:22

Beijing has “noted” the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader, its Foreign Ministry said.

“This is a decision made by the Iranian side in accordance with its own constitution,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters in a briefing earlier today.

China “opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs under any pretext,” Guo said, responding to a question about Trump saying the new supreme leader “is not going to last long” if Iranian leaders do not get his approval. Guo added that Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected.

Beijing has urged the U.S., Israel and Iran to recommit to the negotiation process over Tehran’s nuclear program, and has criticized the U.S. actions in Iran. 

A ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace and was neutralized by NATO air defenses in the eastern Mediterranean, the country’s Defense Ministry said, in a second such incident since the breakout of the Iran war.

“Some debris from the munition fell onto vacant land in Gaziantep,” the ministry said in a statement released earlier today, referring to an area in south-central Turkey. “There have been no casualties or injuries,” it added. 

Turkey places great importance on good neighbourly relations and regional stability, the ministry said, but warned that necessary measures will be taken “decisively and without hesitation,” adding that it was in “everyone’s interest to heed Turkey's warnings in this regard.”

The incident marks the second Iranian ballistic missile that has targeted NATO member Turkey since the U.S.-Israeli military operation in Iran. The first missile intercept took place last week, intensifying concerns that the conflict in the Middle East was increasingly expanding to Europe. Iran denied firing a missile toward the territory of Turkey at the time.

The State Department earlier today ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave the consulate in Adana in the south of Turkey, which has suspended all consular services, due to what it said were “safety risks.” Americans in southeast Turkey are strongly encouraged to depart now, the advisory said. 

Tehran unleashed a heavy barrage of missile and drone attacks directed at oil facilities across the region, in what Arab officials tell NBC News is a strategy to drive up oil prices to create pressure for a ceasefire.

It comes after an intense wave of Israeli strikes on oil depots in Iran over the weekend, blanketing Tehran in smoke, fumes and noxious gases.

Israel has meanwhile threatened to assassinate Iran’s new supreme leader and Arab officials tell NBC News that Mojtaba Khamenei now has “an X on his back,” marked like his father for assassination.

Iran names new supreme leader amid escalating violence

02:29

A rally is underway in central Tehran in support of new Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. People were pictured carrying flags and posters of the country's new leader, the second son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 Atta Kenare / AFP - Getty Images

 Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images

AFP via Getty Images

 Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images

 Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images

Six key Democratic senators released a joint statement last night saying they are “horrified” over the strike on a school in southern Iran that officials say killed scores of children last month.

A woman grieves over a coffin during a funeral for the victims of the Minab school strike in southern Iran, on Tuesday. Amirhossein Khorgooei / Reuters

“Independent analysis credibly suggests the strike may have been conducted by U.S. forces, which if true, would make it one of the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of American military action in the Middle East,” Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Patty Murray, D-Wash., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Coons, D-Del., said in the statement, which was published on Schatz’s website.

“American servicemembers are governed by strict regulations that are intended to promote the utmost professionalism, so this incident and any like it must be fully and impartially reviewed,” the senators said. They called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “provide clear answers to the American public and Congress about how and why this tragedy unfolded.”

Hegseth said last week the U.S. was still “investigating” the incident.

It comes after new video appeared to show the moment a missile hit a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compound where the school in Minab was struck. The video published by Iran's semi-official Mehr News was first geolocated by online research group Bellingcat, which found that the missile appeared to be a U.S. Tomahawk.

Two experts have told NBC News they reached the same assessment.

Iran’s internet blackout has now exceeded more than 200 hours and is entering its 10th day, according to cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks. 

It said that the country reached its 10th day with “connectivity at 1% of ordinary levels after the 216th hour," according to an X post.

“As regional hostilities intensify, some 90 million Iranians are silenced and cut off from the global internet under a state-imposed shutdown,” it added.

The Israeli military said it has begun "a wide-scale wave of strikes" across Tehran, Isfahan and southern Iran.

It comes just ahead of the ceremony celebrating the newly-selected Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in Tehran and across the country.

Satellite images of tunnel entrances at Isfahan missile complex in Iran on Feb. 27 and yesterday after airstrikes.  Vantor

01:11

Iranians took to the streets in celebration after Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader, was named as his successor.

Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as the Islamic Republic's third leader just over a week following his father’s death in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Norwegian police are searching for a suspect seen on surveillance footage following an explosion during the weekend at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, investigators said this morning.

The blast early yesterday damaged one of the entrances to the embassy, sending thick smoke into the street but causing no injuries, in what police said may have been linked to the crisis in the Middle East.

“The investigation so far has shown that this was an improvised explosive device (IED),” the Oslo police said in a statement.

Norway’s government has promised a thorough investigation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory letter to new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, affirming “solidarity with our Iranian friends” and “unwavering support” for Tehran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in February. Vyacheslav Prokofyev / AFP via Getty Images

“At a time when Iran is confronting armed aggression, your work in this high office will undoubtedly require great courage and dedication,” Putin wrote, according to the text of the letter shared on the Kremlin’s website. “I am confident that you will honorably continue the work of your father and unite the Iranian people in the face of severe challenges.”

Russia has been and will remain a reliable partner of the Islamic Republic, Putin added, as he wished Khamenei “success in addressing the difficult tasks” before him.

The Kremlin has condemned the killing of Khamenei’s father in the U.S.-Israeli strikes earlier this month and has expressed support for Iran. NBC News reported last week that Russia was providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East. Trump, when asked by a reporter about Russian intelligence assistance to Iran, said the question was “stupid.”

Two people have been killed in central Israel following missile fire from Iran, the country's volunteer emergency services have said.

United Hatzalah said two people, whom it described as foreign workers, were killed in Yehud, a city in central Israel. It came not long after the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran toward Israel.

The country's Magen David Adom emergency service reported earlier that two men were found at a construction site in central Israel, one with injuries and one pronounced dead at the scene.

The deaths bring the total number of civilians who have died in Israel to 13, including one person who died of a heart attack due to sirens.

Civil defense forces carry away the body of a victim of an Iranian projectile today in Yehud, Israel. Ilia Yefimovich / AFP - Getty Images

Two Indians have died while working on merchant vessels amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and one other is still missing, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said today. 

“We have sadly already lost two Indian mariners and one remains missing,” Jaishankar said. 

He also defended a decision to let an Iranian vessel, IRIS LAVAN, dock in southwest India’s coastal Kerala state Wednesday, the same day that the U.S. sank another Iranian navy vessel off neighboring Sri Lanka. 

“We believe that this was the right thing to do and the Iranian foreign minister has expressed his country’s thanks for this humane gesture."

Iranians were told this morning that a large gathering to “renew allegiance” to the newly-selected supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will be taking place in Tehran and across the country today.

Iran's newly-selected supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in 2024. KHAMENEI.IR / AFP via Getty Images

A blanket mass text message seen by NBC News was sent to say that the gathering will take place at 3 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) at Enqelab Square in the center of the capital, but also in the main squares of cities across the country.

“The event will be held with the presence of the people,” the text message read.

It’s not clear if Mojtaba Khamenei will attend the gathering, after Israel vowed to target any declared successor to his father.

The European Union’s oil and gas supply coordination groups will meet Thursday, a European Commission spokesperson said earlier today, as oil prices surge to above $100 per barrel.

The groups will monitor the energy impact of the conflict in the Middle East, and E.U. countries’ latest assessments of their oil supplies. E.U. countries are required to hold oil stocks covering 90 days’ worth of consumption.

Having shifted away from Russian energy since its invasion of Ukraine, Europe now relies more heavily on imports from the Gulf region.

It comes as major Middle Eastern oil producers have cut supply because they cannot safely send shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to refiners worldwide. The strait, a key artery accounting for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply, has largely been blocked by Iran and the vessel traffic in and out of it has nearly halted following the outbreak of war.

A new video geolocated by NBC News appears to show the moment a missile hit a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compound where a school in Minab was struck and scores of children were reported killed.

The video published by Iran's semi-official Mehr News was first geolocated by online research group Bellingcat, which said that the missile appeared to be a U.S. Tomahawk.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of the arms intelligence firm Armament Research Services, agreed, telling NBC News the video “appears to show a Tomahawk missile.” He added: “Given the belligerents, this would indicate a U.S. strike.”

Video appears to show a missile strike near an Iranian school

00:37

The U.S. is the only participant in the war known to have Tomahawk missiles, Bellingcat noted in its reporting.

President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend that Iran was likely responsible for the school strike, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the U.S. was still “investigating” the incident.

The Trump administration’s preliminary findings show it is increasingly likely that a U.S. munition was used in the strikes, a U.S. official and a person familiar with the investigation told NBC News. The U.S. is still looking into whether the strikes were the result of bad intelligence or poor targeting, the sources said.

A synagogue in the eastern Belgian city of Liege was damaged following an explosion, local broadcaster VRT has reported, citing the city’s law enforcement. 

The explosion broke the windows of the synagogue and took place at approximately 4 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET yesterday), VRT said, while adding that no injuries were reported.

Liege Mayor Willy Demeyer called the incident an “extremely violent act of antisemitism” in comments made to French-language public broadcaster, RTBF, according to Reuters.

A special counterterrorism team is investigating the incident. It was not clear whether there was any link to the war in the Middle East.

Bahrain’s state oil company has declared force majeure after an attack set its refinery ablaze.

Photos show thick smoke rising from the direction of the refinery after the government earlier said dozens were injured and damage was sustained in the area as a result of an Iranian drone attack.

Reuters

The state-run Bahrain News Agency carried the announcement of the force majeure, a legal maneuver that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances.

It said the company’s operations “have been affected by the ongoing regional conflict in the Middle East and the recent attack on its refinery complex.” It insisted local demand could be met.

Iran’s soccer team lost its last group match at the Women’s Asian Cup yesterday and had to contemplate returning home to a country embroiled in war.

Iran's soccer team before the AFC Women's Asian Cup Australia 2026 match against the Philippines yesterday.  AFP via Getty Images

The Iranian women’s squad arrived in Australia for the continental championship last month, before the war that began with the U.S. and Israel’s Feb. 28 strikes on Iran. Teams ousted during the group stage usually leave within days, but organizers have not announced details for the departure of the Iran delegation.

Their silence during the anthem before an opening loss to South Korea last Monday was viewed by some as an act of resistance and others as a show of mourning. The team hasn’t clarified, but the players sang the anthem and saluted during the anthem ahead of their 4-0 loss to Australia last Thursday and a 2-0 loss to the Philippines yesterday.

Read the full story here.

Asian markets nosedived after the war in Iran sent the price of oil surging past $100 per barrel for the first time since July 2022.

Leading the losses was South Korea’s benchmark Kospi, which closed down almost 6%. Earlier, trading was briefly suspended in the second “circuit breaker” since last week, when the index fell 10.6% for its biggest weekly loss since March 2020.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished 5.2% lower, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 pared earlier losses to close down 2.85% and Chinese markets had smaller losses. U.S. futures are down as much as 1.8%, signaling that U.S. stocks will continue to fall when markets reopen.

Trump said yesterday that a short-term rise in oil prices was “a very small price to pay” for ending the nuclear threat from Iran. “Only fools would think differently!” he said in a social media post.

Israel says its military hit targets in central Iran, including its command centers and several missile launch sites. 

“As part of the strikes, the IDF struck a rocket engine production facility and several long-range ballistic missiles launch sites that were prepared for launch toward the State of Israel,” read the statement posted on Telegram.

It added that the Israeli air force “completed an additional wave of strikes on infrastructure across Iran belonging to the Iranian regime.”

After a year of tariff threats, insults and diplomatic clashes with European allies, Trump is left to wage a war in Iran with only Israel by his side.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said last week after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to allow the U.S. to use British bases as part of its initial strikes, only later allowing the use of its bases for “defensive” actions.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; President Donald Trump; Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.  Getty Images

A day later, after Spain barred U.S. military planes from using its jointly operated bases in Andalusia, Trump said the U.S. would seek to “cut off all trade with Spain,” a member of the European Union’s single market.

But the United States’ various requests for European support appear to show some desire for a mutually beneficial relationship with Europe, which at times has appeared uncertain since Trump’s return to office.

Read the full story here.

The price of oil continued its recent surge, hitting $100 per barrel for the first time since July 2022 and then soaring higher as the ripple effects from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continued to hit global markets.

U.S. crude oil futures rose more than 25%, to nearly $115 per barrel, while Brent, the international benchmark, jumped more than 20%, to $110 per barrel.

In addition to oil’s rise, S&P 500 futures plunged 2.3%, Dow futures plummeted more than 1,000 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures slid 2.7%, indicating U.S. stocks were poised to continue last week’s descent.

Oil’s remarkable jump came despite a record 35% rise last week. In addition to surging oil prices, U.S. retail gas prices also soared to a national average of more than $3.45 per gallon.

Read the full story here.

A statement from the Assembly of Experts — the panel of Shia clerics responsible under Iranian law for choosing the country’s top leader — said Mojtaba Khamenei had been selected as the third leader of the Islamic Republic, according to reports from IRIB state TV and the Fars, Tasnim and ISNA news agencies.

03:02

President Donald Trump told Axios last week that the choice would be “unacceptable” and suggested he wanted to handpick a new supreme leader, a process overseen by Iran’s clerics.

The Israel Defense Forces warned yesterday that any successor to Ali Khamenei would be considered a target.

Read the full story here.