Iran-US war latest: Trump claims Tehran is ‘in state of collapse’ and they want Strait of Hormuz open

The King has issued an appeal to Donald Trump to end the war in Iran as he attempted to heal the rift between the US president and Sir Keir Starmer.

King Charles III referred to his “immense pride” at serving in the Royal Navy and stressed the importance of the UK- US alliance as well as NATO in the historic address to a joint session of the US Congress this afternoon.

The monarch said: “The challenges we face are too great for any one Nation to bear alone.

“But in this unpredictable environment, our Alliance cannot rest on past achievements, or assume that foundational principles simply endure. Renewal today starts with security.”

He added: “From the depths of the Atlantic to the disastrously melting ice-caps of the Arctic, the commitment and expertise of the United States Armed Forces and its allies lie at the heart of NATO, pledged to each other’s defence, protecting our citizens and interests, keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries,” the King said.

Vice President JD Vance has “repeatedly questioned” whether the Pentagon is giving President Donald Trump accurate information about the Iran war, according to a report.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine have both characterized the U.S. military’s performance in the eight-week-old conflict in glowing terms, insisting that American weapons stockpiles remain high and that damage to Iran’s air force, navy and defensive infrastructure has been severe.

However, The Atlantic reports that Vance has privately questioned the reality of those claims, asking whether the rosy portrayal of the war being presented to Trump is really the truth, citing advisers to the vice president.

He has also reportedly expressed concerns about the availability of particular missile systems in discussions with the president, fearful that a shortage of munitions reserves would have consequences for potential future run-ins with China, North Korea, or Russia.

Joe Sommerlad brings our full report:

Lebanon is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe as Israel once again intensifies its attacks on the country’s south.

The Israeli military has ordered more than a dozen villages to evacuate, with a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah now in tatters.

Now, a chef for the World Central Kitchen warns The Independent that aid agencies are struggling to meet the needs of desperate and displaced people.

“So this is the this is the situation right now,” said Aline Kamakian, a chef for the World Central Kitchen in Beirut. “We continue like this, we have a humanitarian catastrophe. We are at the edge of a catastrophe.

She added: “Central Kitchen gives 25,000 hot meals every day, and it’s not even 1 per cent of the need.

“There is the World Food Programme, there are a lot of NGOs here, but all of us, we’re not able to feed everyone, all of us together. The need is beyond us.”

China is poised to resume exporting jet fuel, gasoline and diesel with the country’s large state oil companies having applied for export permits to ship fuel in May, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing trading sources.

Beijing wished to supply mostly jet fuel to Asian countries that are now running dangerously low, FT said, citing a person with knowledge of China’s export intentions.

Iran’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned by the Foreign Office over “unacceptable and inflammatory comments” posted by the embassy on social media.

Seyed Ali Mousavi was called in by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer over an online message reportedly recruiting expats to become martyrs.

The Foreign Office said the minister condemned the “completely unacceptable actions”.

The intervention followed reports in Metro about a message on the embassy’s Telegram channel calling for expats to “sacrifice their lives for the homeland”.

The message called on their country’s diaspora in the UK to “lay down our lives” to “defend Iranian land”, the newspaper reported.

It concluded: “Let us all, one and all, give our lives in battle. Rather than surrender our country to the enemy.”

Energy prices are expected to surge by 24 per cent in 2026 if the most acute disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East end in May, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

This would mean prices hitting their highest level since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

Commodity prices could rise even further if hostilities in the region escalated and supply disruptions lasted longer than expected, the global development bank said in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook.

The bank said its baseline scenario assumed that shipping volumes through the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway would gradually return to near pre-war levels by October, but said the risks were “markedly tilted” toward higher prices.

The bank’s baseline projects a 16 per cent increase in overall commodity prices in 2026, given soaring energy and fertilizer prices and record-high prices for several key metals.

Oil prices continued to rise on Tuesday as efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war stalled and the Strait of Hormuz remained largely shut, keeping energy supplies, fertilizer and other commodities from the key Middle East producing region out of the reach of global buyers.