As it happened: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to exit White House role

Iran’s foreign minister has slammed France’s “hypocrisy” after signing a memo which condemned Iranian executions.

France was one of 32 countries, including Australia, that “condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing executions of protesters and use of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi singled out France for criticism in a post on X.

“Countries like France should stop lecturing the world about ‘human rights’ and international law. The hypocrisy is blatant and embarrassing,” he claimed.

“Your backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza—and aggression against Iran—has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you had.”

US intelligence officials reportedly had “low confidence” in claims that Donald Trump’s life was in danger leading up to the US president switching planes at the last minute.

The Washington Post, citing multiple officials, reported the threats were seen as “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence”.

As a result of the threats, shortly after walking onto Air Force One in Ankara, Türkiye, last month, the president walked straight onto a catering truck, which then took him to another plane.

“Analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and relayed that scepticism to Trump administration officials,” the Washington Post wrote.

The original plane still took off, carrying journalists and other White House staff - but not the president.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has added a new wrinkle to the escalating demands for compensation in the war, now claiming all foreign nations who benefit from marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz are responsible for repairing “decades” of environmental damage.

Baqaei posted a video - certified by CNN - showing an oil slick washing up on the beaches of Qeshm Island.

“This pollution drifted toward the coast from the Persian Gulf, and preliminary evidence indicates a foreign bulk carrier as the source,” he wrote on X.

“Contamination has been documented at three coastal sites and across portions of the sea surface.”

He said Iran had suffered trillions of dollars worth of environmental damage over decades.

“Who bears responsibility for compensating these damages? Is it the nations that consume the inexpensive energy exported from our region, the shipping insurers, or the aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theatre for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry?” he wrote.

“Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.”

Former Israeli intelligence expert on Iran Danny Citrinowicz says Trump’s insistence on maintaining a political façade of victory is hampering US efforts to end the war in its interests.

Citrinowicz, who is now with the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies, posted on X in response to Trump’s overnight boast that the US controlled the Strait of Hormuz.

“Unfortunately, the determination to demonstrate that the United States is ‘winning’ at all costs is creating a virtual reality that prevents both the administration and the president from making decisions based on the actual situation on the ground,” Citrinowicz said.

“This risks locking the administration into the wrong strategy, one that could ultimately lead either to a direct confrontation with Iran or to a situation in which Washington is eventually forced to make concessions from a weaker position.”

He pointed out flatly that the US “does not control the Strait of Hormuz” and Iran, despite the damage to its military and economy, retained the ability to disrupt traffic through the strait, as well as target US allies and interests in the region.

“Iran’s economy is in serious trouble, but it is not collapsing. More importantly, the regime is likely to escalate before it capitulates,” he wrote.

“The insistence on projecting victory at all costs therefore makes it harder to develop a realistic exit strategy, one that actually serves the administration’s interests rather than its political narrative.”

US embassies in the Middle East are facing an indefinite lean period, with staff numbers on the ground to stay reduced as the war with Iran drags on.

Sources told CNN plans were still being finalised for a reduced staffing period but it appeared the State Department did not plan to return to full operations, leaving staff and families in limbo.

The State Department said in a response it did not discuss internal deliberations.

Non-emergency staff and family members were ordered to leave the embassies in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates after Iran began striking US facilities following the opening of the war.

The embassies in Lebanon and Israel were the only two to receive such orders ahead of the war.

Oman’s embassy advises non-essential staff and family to leave, but it is not a command.

The International Energy Agency has warned that the world is burning through its oil reserves at an alarming rate, as the Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of returning to normality.

Oil reserves fell by 2.2 million barrels a day last month, with global stocks coming in at less than 7.9 billion barrels for the first time since April 2025, the agency’s latest market report says.

The IEA said global reserves were rapidly depleting.

“Although the market is projected to return to surplus towards the end of this year, risks remain substantial and the urgency of reopening the Strait has increased,” the report said.

However, demand for oil globally is also falling, with a prediction it will drop by 1.6 billion a day by the end of the year.

A Pulitzer-winning photographer who was on the “decoy” Air Force One that flew out from Turkey after Trump was secretly transferred to another flight says it’s just part of the job.

New York Times photographer Doug Mills told CNN it was nonetheless “disturbing” in hindsight.

“Obviously, we were a decoy,” he said.

“It’s alarming, but yes, this is what we sign up for.”

Mills is no stranger to the dangers of the job. He took famed photos of Trump following the attempted assassination of the then-candidate in Pennsylvania.

He said Trump faced more threats than any other president he’d covered, and that it was not a secret that security had greatly expanded.

“All of us who are covering the president realise that going in. We see the extra measures,” he said.

“It’s a much larger footprint now than it ever has been before, security-wise.”

Comments from Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz that the IDF will not withdraw from parts of occupied Lebanon have sparked ire among US officials.

Katz had earlier said publicly that “under no circumstances” would Israel abandon all of its current occupation of southern Lebanon.

A US State Department official told Associated Press that all parties to the ceasefire agreement, including Israel, were expected to act in accordance with the agreed-upon framework.

A permanent Israeli military occupation in southern Lebanon “is not consistent with the commitments made in the framework or the long-term peace and security of both states”, the anonymous official said.

Katz’s comments came on the heels of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting the recent Board of Peace proposal for a halt to the occupation of Gaza.

The Iran war shows no sign of ending, but another major US military deployment in the Middle East is on track to end in just weeks.

Officials have confirmed the US military is on track to pull the remainder of its forces out of Iraq by the end of September, the Associated Press has reported.

The decision predates the Iran war, with an agreement between the US and Iraq reached in 2024.

The US has had a military presence in the country since the 2003 invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, though it has been scaled down drastically in recent years.

Those troops still in Iraq had led operations against Islamic State.

Most US military personnel left Iraq in 2025, but those still stationed in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region have been targeted by Iran and Iran-linked militias since the US-Israel attacks on Iran in late February.

Most recently, Sergeant Michael Swinton was killed during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq.