President Donald Trump said his administration was preparing what he called the harshest economic campaign ever launched against a country, targeting Iran, with details due 24 August. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the threat as a rerun of past US pressure campaigns that all failed, and said it was a diversion from America's own debt and interest costs. China, Iran's largest trading partner, said it opposed sanctions with no UN Security Council authorisation.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, brought together defence officials from allied states this week to discuss how they could help keep the Strait of Hormuz open, without launching a NATO operation. France and Britain are leading a separate effort to assemble around a dozen countries for mine clearance and naval escorts once shipping through the strait can resume. The conflict between Iran, the US and Israel has kept the waterway closed for months.
The UN says more than 200,000 people have been newly displaced across Sudan's Kordofan region since late 2025, as drone strikes on El Obeid's power infrastructure have cut electricity needed for water pumps, hospitals and phone lines. Since the war began in 2023, El Obeid's population has swollen from 750,000 to an estimated 3.4 million as families flee the fighting. "The warning signs are impossible to ignore," said Amy Pope, director general of the UN migration agency IOM.
