USS Abraham Lincoln scheduled to dock in San Diego after harrowing stretch at sea

Deployment for nearly a year was marked by reports of supply shortages, and deteriorating morale and mental health among crew

The USS Abraham Lincoln, the US aircraft carrier that has been deployed for nearly a year and has spent months supporting US military operations against Iran, is scheduled to dock in San Diego on Thursday afternoon.

It marks the end of a deployment that has been described as “one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era” and that became marked by a record-stretch at sea, repeated deployment extensions, and reports of supply shortages, and deteriorating morale and mental health among some crew members.

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Iran’s oil minister resigns as country’s economic crisis worsens

Departure comes amid large drop in oil receipts, rampant inflation and shrinking economy

Iran’s oil minister has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars’ worth of export receipts to the state.

Mohsen Paknejad’s departure comes as Iran grapples with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%. An overall drop in oil receipts has led to a massive shortfall in foreign exchange earnings and one of the biggest drops in the value of the rial since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

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Crude oil exports from strait of Hormuz largely return to pre-war levels

Alternative ways being used to move fuel out of Gulf region, but flows of refined products such as diesel still constrained

Exports of crude from the strait of Hormuz have largely returned to levels seen before the outbreak of the Iran war, as oil producers and the shipping industry have found alternative ways of transporting crucial fuel out of the Middle East.

Pipeline exports and ship-to-ship transfers are among the methods being used, according to analysts tracking the situation, while the US military continues to escort some vessels. However, flows of refined products such as diesel remain constrained, pushing prices higher.

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Iranian singer’s 74 lashes for performing without a hijab ‘a form of torture’, say rights groups

Iranian court upholds sentence against 29-year-old star Parastoo Ahmadi and other musicians in crackdown on women flouting hijab law

An Iranian court’s decision to uphold a sentence of 74 lashes against the popular singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without a hijab has sparked outrage among rights groups, who described it as “a form of torture”.

In June, Ahmadi, 29, and eight members of her production team, including musicians, were sentenced by a court in the city of Qom over a concert that was streamed online in 2024, which went viral and racked up millions of views. The court said the group had violated the country’s “legal and cultural norms” and called the performance “obscene and vulgar”.

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Questions remain over Iran’s link to alleged RAF Fairford bomb plot

Tehran has been trying to step up attacks on targets in the west but its track record has been mixed

Investigators may be some way from determining exactly what led five men with three vans to a village just outside RAF Fairford in the small hours of Sunday – but the fact they have all been released on bail without immediate charge suggests they are not deemed to pose a serious and violent threat.

In a moment where wider geopolitical tensions mean external threats are perceived to be close, the question of whether Iran had a hand in the alleged plot remains open. Nonetheless, the bailing of the men is a mercifully lower-key development in an investigation that appeared of the utmost gravity.

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UN ambassador Waltz says Iran was not negotiating ‘in good faith’ to end war

Waltz says Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to end war because they ‘were asking for everything up front’

The Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations said the US rejected Iran’s proposal to end the ongoing war there because Iranian negotiators “were asking for everything up front”.

Echoing comments by Donald Trump on Saturday, the president’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that Iran had asked for relief “from billions and billions of sanctions that are going into place” as part of an economic blockade on Iran. The blockade is aimed at putting pressure on Iran to stop its attacks ‌on vessels in the strait of Hormuz.

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Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz

US president is said to expect renewed strikes after the midterms

Donald Trump has said he has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week and resume nuclear talks in return for the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

“They made a proposal but I reject it,” the US president told reporters at the White House.

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Trump faces tough choices as Iran dangles deal to reopen Hormuz before US midterms

Iran’s seven-day timetable would restart nuclear talks, but will the US be willing to deliver on terms that include reining in Israel in Lebanon?

Iran’s seven-day timetable to reopen the strait of Hormuz and start talks on its nuclear programme has been pitched as a deal that could rapidly extricate Donald Trump from a political crisis but requires the US president to make difficult concessions.

In the five days left before the proposed reopening of the strait, which is expected to relieve pressure on global energy markets, Trump would need to lift Iranian asset freezes, permit Iran to export its oil and, probably most difficult of all, order Benjamin Netanyahu to end Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, thus achieving the “ceasefire on all fronts”.

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Iran awaiting response from Trump on proposal to open strait of Hormuz in six days

Country says US must lift sanctions on its oil exports and end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon

Iran said it has told Donald Trump it is willing to open the strait of Hormuz in six days, and to start talks on its nuclear program the day after, so long as the US lifts sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in return, ends the war on all fronts – including in Lebanon – and releases some of Iran’s frozen assets.

The proposal is designed to accelerate the steps first laid down in the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June, particularly by helping the talks on Iran’s nuclear program start much more quickly than previously agreed.

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Family of Iranian twins sentenced to death and decades in jail ask UN for help

Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were charged with ‘waging war against God’ after joining protests against Tehran regime

The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help.

A formal “submission of information” relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family’s behalf.

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Iran’s president hits out at ‘bully’ Trump in UN speech but signals willingness to talk

Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran is ready for dialogue and diplomacy ‘but without the language of force’

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, turned the tables on Donald Trump, describing the US as the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East while insisting that Iran had always shown a commitment to the negotiating table.

In a defiant speech to the UN general assembly in New York, his first since the US and Israel launched an all-out war on Iran, Pezeshkian repeatedly vowed that Tehran would never bend the knee to the US.

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Iran denies dropping preconditions amid ‘very productive’ three-hour UN talks in New York

Trump says further talks possible as barrel of Brent crude falls to below $100 for first time in two weeks

Iran has pushed back on claims that it dropped former preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz in surprise talks held in New York under the mediation of Qatar between Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Trump said the three-hour talks held in a room at the UN headquarters had gone very well and been very productive. He suggested further talks were possible imminently, which led to the price of a barrel of Brent crude to fall to below $100 (£75) for the first time in two weeks. Witkoff said the talks had been “encouraging, constructive and successful”.

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Iran and US have held talks on sidelines of UN summit, says Donald Trump

Senior Iranian official indicates willingness to reopen strait of Hormuz if US takes steps to ease pressure on Tehran

Iranian officials held three hours of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Donald Trump disclosed on Tuesday.

He said there would a further meeting in the very near future.

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Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for him

US president may have upstaged the ghost of Soviet leader Khrushchev by musing destruction of fellow member state

Donald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.

Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had “a big decision to make” over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.

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‘The fault lines in our world are widening’, António Guterres warns as world leaders gather for UN General Assembly – live updates

The UN secretary-general said the world must work together to solve problems in final major assembly address as secretary general

Tehran appears to have relaxed its preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz, saying it is prepared to do so within seven days so long as the US takes reciprocal steps to ease the pressure on Iran.

Previously Iran had set seven onerous pre-conditions for lifting the blockade including “an end to war on all fronts” and a commitment by the US to cease all aggressive actions against Iran including sanctions.

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Middle East braces for more violence as Iran claims US is planning to renew bombing campaign

Tensions grow as Trump tells Fox News he is considering ‘wiping Iran out’ after attacks on Riyadh by Houthi rebels

Governments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East.

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Iranian actor Laleh Marzban faces severe threats after Venice film festival speech

Marzban, who won a best actress award for her portrayal of a woman held hostage by her father in Falling House, has received condemnations from authorities after dedicating her prize to ‘the women of Iran’

An Iranian actress who won the best newcomer award at the Venice film festival has come under severe attack from the country’s authorities and state media after highlighting the plight of women in Iran in her acceptance speech.

Laleh Marzban last Saturday won the best actress award in the Orizzonti sidebar competition for emerging talent, for her role in Mohsen Gharaei’s Falling House, a film revolving around three generations of women who are incarcerated in their own home by the family’s father.

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More Republicans are turning on Iran war as midterms come into view

Three more GOP members voted for war powers resolution to force withdrawal from the conflict as election looms

As the US war with Iran drags on, the ranks of Republicans signaling the conflict is a liability for their party continues to grow.

When the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening considered its sixth war powers resolution intended to force Donald Trump to withdraw troops from the conflict, three Republicans who had not supported the previous efforts broke with their party to vote this one to passage. Earlier that day, a Republican who had lost his primary after repeatedly clashing with Trump proposed impeaching the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, alleging a variety of constitutional transgressions including prosecuting the war against Iran without congressional authorization.

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US opts not to back Saudi Arabia in Yemen after meeting Houthi leaders

Iran-backed militants have offered Trump administration assurances over safety of Red Sea shipping

Officials from the US met Houthi leaders over the weekend at the country’s embassy in Muscat, Oman, it has been confirmed, leading to the US decision not to intervene to help Saudi Arabia drive back a Houthi advance inside Yemen.

The Iran-backed militant group reassured the US that the ceasefire agreement between the two sides struck in 2025 still held and the movement had no intention of attacking US shipping in the Red Sea. Only Saudi-linked shipping was regarded as a target owing to its blockade of Yemen, the Houthis confirmed.

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Iranian security forces coordinated killing, torture and sexual abuse of protesters, says Amnesty

Leaked documents and testimony reveal extent of regime’s crackdown in 2022 and how it paved the way for more brutal killings of protesters this year

Iranian security forces “coordinated” the killing, torture and sexual abuse of hundreds of people who took part in the women-led nationwide protests in September 2022, according to leaked state documents and interviews.

Tens of thousands of people, including children, took to the streets of towns and cities across Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, after her arrest by the “morality” police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.

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