US renews blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran attacks sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. Plus, legendary director John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage • Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning.
US renews blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran attacks sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. Plus, legendary director John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning. The US has fired on an oil tanker attempting to reach Kharg Island in the strait of Hormuz as part of its blockade on Iranian ports. The US targeted coastal defences and missile sites, as well as targets farther north, with state media reporting strikes for the first time on the country’s capital, Tehran.The US also said it had disabled the unladen oil tanker, firing Hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack after it ignored multiple warnings.What other developments have happened in the region? Donald Trump said Iran had released a US citizen detained since 2024, identified as Dena Karari, a dual US-Iranian citizen. Meanwhile, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, told the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that Israel was determined to keep its forces in “security zones” in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.What did the man’s family say? Arenas-Silva’s sister and immigrants’ rights groups in Georgia said in a press statement that ICE did not provide him with necessary medications during his time in detention for an unnamed condition, despite his family’s pleas that he take the medications during his arrest last week.How is the crisis becoming more international? Mexico has formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of immigrants who have died in ICE custody or during raids, the Mexican government has said. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican immigrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations. Continue reading...
