U.S. preparing new Iran strikes as Trump says “We’ve done an amazing job”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the war in Iran is increasingly contributing to global instability.

“What began as a regional conflict is increasingly becoming a driver of global instability,” Guterres told U.N. reporters Friday.

Guterres said energy markets have been upended, food and fertilizer prices have surged, “supply chains are buckling,” and “around the world we see families struggling to put food on the table.”

“The only good news in recent days is the announcement by the U.S. president of an agreement for Hamas to relinquish their weapons and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza,” he said.

“Let me be clear: The fighting must stop on all fronts in the region,” he said.

CBS/AFP

Iraq has ordered its air defenses and intelligence activities be bolstered, a government spokesperson said Friday, after U.S.-Saudi strikes on pro-Iran militants accused of launching attacks in the region.

Spokesman Sabah al-Numan said Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi “issued strict and immediate orders … to raise alertness and readiness to the maximum across all camps and bases, particularly at the official bases of the armed forces and the Hashed al-Shaabi.”

Rebuilding and modernizing air-defense capabilities is a “top priority,” Numan said, adding this includes accelerating plans to equip and arm modern radar, early detection and air-defense systems.

On Wednesday, deadly U.S.-Saudi strikes hit bases belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi — an armed Iraqi alliance that has been integrated into the armed forces but also includes powerful pro-Iran groups known for acting unilaterally.

Malicious cyber activity affected technology at water systems in at least seven states this week, including Minnesota, forcing some utilities to switch to manual operations as state and federal authorities dig into who is behind the attack, CBS News has learned. 

Investigators are probing to determine whether the activity is the work of Iranian hackers, according to U.S. officials and sources familiar with the incident. Sources cautioned that since they had not definitively attributed the attack, their assessment could change as additional technical evidence is collected. They are also probing whether the actor could have attempted to appear Iran-based as a way of stirring the pot amid the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran. 

The FBI reported incidents in “at least seven states” but didn’t identify them.

Even as the investigation continues, President Trump said Friday that he doesn’t think Iran is to blame. Instead, he pointed the finger at Minnesota and its Democratic governor, Tim Walz, who is no stranger to criticism from the president.

“I think that Minnesota is behind it,” Mr. Trump said during a televised Cabinet meeting at Camp David. “You know who’s behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I think the governor’s behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together.”

Read more here.

President Trump indicated during a Cabinet meeting Friday he’s not certain he’ll be able to make a deal with Iran due to their dishonesty.

“I’m losing faith in them, because they do lie and they do misrepresent,” Mr. Trump said, then going on to describe Iran stepping up the war with an attack overnight Thursday. “The other day, the five missiles [Iran] shot, we knocked them down, we were in the midst of a negotiation. I’m waiting for Steve [Witkoff] to call me, ‘How was the negotiation going?’ and instead I got a call from Pete [Hegseth] that they just shot five missiles at one of our bases in Jordan.”

Mr. Trump praised Witkoff, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance for their efforts in negotiating but said of Iran, “They break their word so often.”

“As an example, we will talk about nuclear and we will be in there talking about nuclear for seven hours. … Then they will go out and I will say, ‘They discussed nuclear,’ and they will say, ‘We never discussed nuclear,'” the president said of Iran. “And I will say, ‘Why did they say that?’ All they do is make me angry, you know? They just make me angry.”

President Trump said the U.S. will be hitting Iran “very hard” until they change their tune. 

“We’ll be hitting them,” Mr. Trump said during his Cabinet meeting at Camp David. “We’ll be hitting them very hard. And you know at some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.'”

When asked if he had rejected an idea to “go big” on attacks in Iran, the president quickly interjected, “We are going big. We have already gone big. What is big?”

President Trump opened a Cabinet meeting on Friday saying the U.S. has done an “amazing job” with the war in Iran, going back to the refrain that wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Korea were longer.

“We’ve done an amazing job here. We’re in there for five months,” Mr. Trump said. “And if you look at Vietnam, they were in there for 20 years. You look at Afghanistan, they were in there for many years. You look at any one of the wars, Korea, any one of them. They’re in there for many years. We’re in for five months, and we have obliterated their military capacity. Again, they’ve got some left, but soon they won’t have some left.”

The president largely focused on the economy and immigration in his opening remarks, but repeatedly piled on Iran despite the American public’s frustration with the lagging war.

“Iran is doing very poorly. Just in case you read incorrect stories, they’re doing very, very poorly,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re having a hard time. They’ve been very dishonest. They’ve been very dishonorable to deal with. But that makes no difference. They’re doing very, very poorly.”

No Chinese citizens were affected by an Iranian attack that hit a Chinese company building in Kuwait on Thursday, according to the country’s foreign ministry.

In a statement carried by the Xinhua state news agency, a spokesperson said “according to verified information, no Chinese citizens were affected” by the strike that killed one worker, whose nationality remains unknown.

China has urged Kuwait to take measures to safeguard its citizens, the statement added.

Israeli forces carried out a series of powerful detonations overnight near the UNESCO-listed Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, Lebanese state media reported Friday, with Israel saying it destroyed tunnels used by Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

“Israeli forces triggered very powerful explosions around midnight,” specifically “in the area of the Beaufort fortress,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said, adding the huge blasts resounded over a large area, shattering glass in nearby villages.

The Crusader-era castle, located in an area occupied by Israel, was added last week to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger.

In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army had destroyed “terror tunnels in the Beaufort area” using approximately 700 tons of explosives.

They said the explosions came after a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” between Lebanon and Israel by Hezbollah.

The group has not claimed any attacks since a ceasefire came into force on June 20.

Lebanon’s culture ministry said the explosions struck “the area opposite the fortress,” warning that “the vibrations from the explosions may have caused damage” in the castle’s vicinity.

The Israeli army said that “the tunnel network served as a central command centre” for Hezbollah and consisted of “several underground levels that were built over the course of two decades.”

CBS/AFP

American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The attacks between the U.S. and Iran resulted in huge profits for some of the biggest publicly traded oil companies as they sold their goods for higher prices. Exxon Mobil on Friday reported doubling its second-quarter profits to $14.53 billion, up 105% from the same time a year ago. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42% from the same time last year.

Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion, up 385% from the same quarter last year, and reported $70.06 billion in revenue, up 56% from the same time last year.

“There are constituencies around the world who are having a very good crisis, and the oil producers are one of them,” said Patrick Galey, fossil fuels lead at Global Witness.

Iran has announced transit through the Strait of Hormuz is “not possible” because of “aggressive actions” from the United States.

“Due to the continued aggressive actions of the United States military forces in the region, transit through the Strait of Hormuz is not possible,” Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which was created during the war to oversee management of the strategic waterway, said in a statement Friday.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier Friday that it had hit two tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under an “aerial escort” of the U.S. military.

The IRGC said the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and stopped, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous locations.”

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday it had redirected 24 commercial vessels since restarting a blockade on Iranian ports earlier this month, up from 20 vessels a day earlier.

There will be “no IDF withdrawal whatsoever” from the current “yellow line” without Hamas truly disarming, an Israeli political source has told CBS News. 

“Regarding various reports from this morning concerning diplomatic progress in the Gaza Strip, Israel has reiterated that there will be no IDF withdrawal whatsoever from the current ‘yellow line’ without the genuine disarmament of Hamas,” the Israeli political source said Friday.

A new Google feature rolled out on Thursday allows any user to digitally alter Google Earth imagery, further complicating verification efforts of claims about military gains in the U.S.-Iran war.

A CBS News analysis found that the company’s Nano Banana 2 AI image generation editor could create false images of destruction of U.S. military equipment at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, the subject of multiple recent Iranian attacks – including one that killed three U.S. soldiers.

Google said it could be used for history teachers wishing to recreate ruined cities, or planners who want to see how their real estate plans would look over real-life cities. But CBS News was able to prompt it to take a real satellite image of the base in Jordan and edit it to create a realistic satellite image of damaged aircraft and burn marks around the runway.

On Thursday, Google said it takes misinformation seriously, and that every one of these images “includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated.”

When CBS News ran the altered satellite imagery through Google Lens, it did say the image was AI-generated, but after cropping the image and running it through Google Lens a second time, the results not only failed to detect AI manipulation, but said the satellite imagery showed destruction of military aircraft at an airfield in Shiraz, Iran.

CBS News has asked Google for comment on the findings.

Iran has repeatedly released unsourced satellite imagery purporting to show damage to U.S. military bases and equipment in the region, including on Friday when it published imagery it said showed destroyed F-35 fighter jets at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

Egypt is investigating the source of Wednesday’s drone attack on its Mediterranean port of Damietta, its prime minister said Friday.

In a press conference, Mostafa Madbouly said the attack happened at 2:20 p.m. local time when a fire broke out aboard two adjacent vessels, including one of Egypt’s floating regasification units (FSRU) that receives liquefied natural gas (LNG) and converts it back into natural gas for the national grid.

Madbouly said the FSRU was moored next to an LNG storage vessel that Egypt maintains as a strategic reserve capable of supplying the national gas network when needed.

“Had the situation not been managed properly, the consequences would have been catastrophic,” he added, saying an explosion aboard the vessel could have destroyed large parts of the port  and surrounding facilities.

Madbouly said military, police and security agencies conducted a comprehensive forensic investigation and that specialist teams boarded the vessel to examine what he described as the remains of the drone involved in the attack.

“Up to this moment, no party has officially claimed responsibility for the incident,” he added. “There are speculations and opinions, but the state does not rely on speculation or unverified claims.”

A joint security task force is continuing to analyze the incident to determine the origin of the attack and assess Egypt’s response, he added.

On Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister hinted in a post on social media that the attack was an Israeli “false flag” operation, without giving any evidence.

A British-Azerbaijani dual citizen was arrested in Cyprus as part of a U.K. probe and is facing extradition after allegedly spying for Iran on a British air force base, London police said Friday.

Rashad Sultanov, 44, was arrested on July 17 as part of a Counter Terrorism Policing London investigation into incidents at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus between May 11 and June 22, 2025.

“He allegedly conducted hostile surveillance on the base, a prohibited place, and is alleged to have then shared information with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a foreign intelligence service,” U.K. authorities said in a statement.

Sultanov was first arrested by Cypriot police in June 2025 on spying and terror charges and has been in custody since, Britain’s Counter Terror police confirmed to AFP.

He was again arrested this month as part of an investigation under the U.K.’s National Security Act, which is the country’s counter-espionage and foreign interference legislation.

“The British investigation will now take precedence and the plan is for him to be extradited back to the U.K.,” police said.

Cypriot police did not provide extensive details about the man when he was first arrested last year after being spotted near the air force base near the southern coastal city of Limassol.

U.K. bases have become a flashpoint in the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, with London allowing Washington to use Akrotiri for “defensive” operations against Tehran.

Earlier this year in March, an Iranian-made drone hit the runway of the site in southern Cyprus.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that it had hit two tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under an “aerial escort” of the U.S. military.

The IRGC said the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and stopped, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous locations.”

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday it had redirected 24 commercial vessels since restarting a blockade on Iranian ports earlier this month, up from 20 vessels a day earlier.

Iranian state media said Friday that the bodies of five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in joint U.S.-Saudi strikes in Iraq earlier  this week had been returned.

The United States and Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom.

The strikes targeted positions belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi armed coalition that includes several powerful pro-Iran groups, killing at least 20 militants, including the five Iranians.

The IRGC’s Quds Force oversees Iran’s operations abroad, and Guard members killed outside Iran are often affiliated with the unit.

Back in 2020, the U.S. killed the Quds Force’s commander, Qasem Soleimani, in an airstrike in Baghdad, along with Hashed al-Shaabi’s deputy leader.

Iran’s military said Friday it launched drone strikes targeting U.S. military facilities in Kuwait.

It said in a statement that it targeted “fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait.”

There was no immediate comment from U.S. Central Command, but Kuwait’s defense ministry said that it had “detected hostile drones inside Kuwaiti airspace since dawn today” and “successfully intercepted and destroyed them.” 

Their statement said Iran had “targeted a number of vital and military facilities,” without specifying where, and said that “falling debris” from the intercepted drones had caused some “material damage” but no casualties.

The Iranian army said the strikes came “in response to the recent aggression by the terrorist U.S. military against our country and its brutal attack on a residential home on Qeshm Island.” Local media reported on Thursday that three members of a family were killed in U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait, which  normally carries around 20% of global oil shipments, has been effectively closed by Iran since the start of the war on Feb. 28.

The U.S. has carried out repeated strikes on Iran’s southern coastal provinces as it seeks to weaken Tehran’s control over the waterway.

CBS/AFP

President Trump said Thursday evening that the militant group Hamas, an Iran-backed proxy, has reached an agreement with his international “Board of Peace” on the next steps in a peace deal for Gaza  that includes Hamas’ disarmament in the Gaza Strip.

In a Truth Social post, the president called it a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” and a “monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”

The exact timetable for disarmament isn’t clear.

Hamas communicated through mediators that it agreed to the final text of the plan, including decommissioning their weapons, U.S. and Board of Peace officials told reporters Thursday.

Read more here. 

A vote in the Senate to limit President Trump’s war powers has failed again, and will likely be the last one before a recess begins Aug. 10. 

The resolution, brought by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, lost 49-50. Three Republicans voted in favor of limiting Mr. Trump’s power to continue the war — Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Rand Paul — while one Democrat voted against it, John Fetterman. Republican Mitch McConnell, who remains in a rehabilitation facility, is the one senator who did not vote.

The resolution, if passed, would have “direct[ed] the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.”

The vote came exactly one week after the last Democratic effort failed.