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1 Iran Conflict: Iran Attacks Ships In Strait Of Hormuz
Iran attacked at least three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday and seized two others, just hours after President Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy said it boarded and seized two container ships for alleged maritime violations and transferred them to Iranian shores. A third vessel, the Greek-owned cargo ship Epaminondas, was struck by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from an Iranian gunboat. The White House said Trump does not view the seizures as a ceasefire violation because the vessels were "international ships." Trump has said there is "no time frame" on the conflict and no "firm deadline" for Iran to submit a peace proposal. A third U.S. carrier strike group, the USS George H.W. Bush, along with additional destroyers, an amphibious assault ship with about 2,500 Marines, and a dock landing ship are currently en route to the region.
2 Navy Secretary John Phelan Is Out As Head Of US Navy
The Pentagon announced yesterday that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been ousted from the Trump administration, effective immediately. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the departure in a social media post, thanking Phelan "on behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War" but offering no explanation. Phelan, who was sworn in as the 79th Secretary of the Navy in March 2025, leaves as the U.S. Navy is in the middle of enforcing a high-stakes blockade of Iranian ports during the ongoing war, one of the most consequential naval operations in decades. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Virginia in 2024, will serve as acting secretary. Phelan had no military background or prior civilian defense experience before being nominated; he was a major Trump campaign donor and founded the private investment firm Rugger Management.
3 Trump Says Iran Won’t Execute 8 Women After He Demanded Their Release
President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women after he pleaded Tuesday for their freedom — calling it “very good news” in a social media post. “I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed. Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The announcement came hours after Trump extended a two-week cease-fire with Iran as US negotiators await Tehran’s reply to the latest American offer to end the nearly two-month conflict. Iran’s judiciary denied that the eight women were ever set for execution, claiming that “Trump was misled once again by fake news” and that “some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”