Israel-Iran conflict LIVE: Trump likens strikes on Iran to US bombing Hiroshima

Iran executes 3 more prisoners it accused of spying for Israel

Iran executed three more prisoners on Wednesday over allegedly spying for Israel, its state-run IRNA news agency reported, the latest hangings connected to its war with Israel.

The hangings happened in Urmia Prison in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, which is the country's most northwest province.

IRNA cited Iran's judiciary for the news, saying the men had been accused of bringing “assassination equipment” into the country.

Iran has carried out several hangings during its war with Israel, sparking fears from activists that it could conduct a wave of executions after the conflict ended.

Iran identified the three men executed as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and Iraqi national Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul. Amnesty International had previously raised concerns that the men could be executed.

Wednesday's execution bring the total number of hangings for espionage around the war up to six since June 16. Activists fear more people will be executed, particularly after Iran's theocracy issued a Sunday deadline for people to turn themselves in over spying.

Donald Trump claims he stopped the war between Iran and Israel

US strikes degraded Iran's capacity to build nuclear weapon: American envoy tells UNSC

The US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities "effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran's capacity to produce a nuclear weapon," acting US envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea, told the United Nations Security Council, according to a Reuters report.

US stocks approach their all-time high as oil prices tumble

US stocks rose toward their all-time high on Tuesday after oil prices eased further on hopes that Israel's war with Iran will not damage the global flow of crude.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 per cent, following up on big gains for stocks across Europe and Asia, after President Donald Trump said late Monday that Israel and Iran had agreed to a "complete and total ceasefire." The main measure of Wall Street's health is back within 0.8 per cent of its record set in February after falling roughly 20 per cent below during the spring.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 507 points, or 1.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.4 per cent.

The strongest action was again in the oil market, where a barrel of benchmark US crude fell 6 per cent to settle at USD64.37. Brent crude, the international standard, had a similar drop.

The fear throughout the Israel-Iran conflict has been that it could squeeze the world's supply of oil, which would pump up prices for gasoline and hurt the global economy. Iran is a major producer of crude, and it could also try to block the Strait of Hormuz off its coast, through which 20 per cent of the world's daily oil needs passes on ships.

Oil prices began falling sharply on Monday after Iran launched what appeared to be a limited retaliatory strike to the United States' entry into the war, one that did not target the production or movement of oil. They kept falling even after attacks continued past a deadline to stop hostilities early Tuesday. Trump later said that the ceasefire was "in effect." Oil prices have dropped so much in the last two days that they're below where they were before the fighting began nearly two weeks ago.

With the global oil market well supplied and the OPEC+ alliance of producing countries steadily increasing production, oil prices could be headed even lower as long as the ceasefire holds and a lasting peace solution can be found, said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.

Early US intelligence report suggests US strikes only set back Iran's nuclear programme by months

A new US intelligence report found that Iran's nuclear programme has been set back only a few months after a US strike and was not "completely and fully obliterated" as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment.

The intelligence report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran's nuclear facilities. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the people, the report found that while the Saturday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, they were not totally destroyed.

The assessment found that at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium was moved out of multiple sites before the US strikes and survived, according to the people, and it also found that Iran's centrifuges are largely intact.

At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, so that will take time to fix, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, according to one of the people. The person also said that previous assessments had warned of this outcome at Fordo.

The White House strongly pushed back on the assessment, calling it "flat-out wrong." "The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration." Trump has said in comments and posts on social media in recent days, including Tuesday, that the strikes left the sites in Iran "totally destroyed" and that Iran will never rebuild its nuclear facilities.

Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Tuesday that, "For dozens of years I promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons and indeed ... we brought to ruin Iran's nuclear programme." He said the US joining Israel was "historic" and thanked Trump.

The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries.

The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. 

House shelves effort to impeach Trump over Iran strikes

The US House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to set aside an effort to impeach President Donald Trump on a sole charge of abuse of power after he launched military strikes on Iran without first seeking authorisation from Congress The sudden action forced by a lone Democrat, Rep Al Green of Texas, brought little debate and split his party. Most Democrats joined the Republican majority to table the measure, for now. But dozens of Democrats backed Green's effort. The tally was 344-79.

"I take no delight in what I'm doing," Green said ahead of the vote.

"I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America," he said. "I do this because I understand that the Constitution is going to be meaningful or it's going to be meaningless."

The effort, while not the first rumbling of action to impeach Trump since he started his second term at the White House in January, shows the unease many Democrats have with his administration, particularly after the sudden attack on Iran's nuclear sites, a risky incursion into Middle East affairs.

‘Fake news’: Trump asserts Iran nuke sites ‘completely destroyed’ in US strikes

“FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!” he posted on Truth Social.