Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on August 10, 2026. Photo by Ali Saeedi/Getty Images.

Friday, August 14, 2026 – Two ships attacked in Strait of Hormuz, UAE blames Iran. U.S. sends new carrier to Middle East. Traffic through Hormuz seems to grind to a halt. U.S. threatens economic punishment for Iran that has “never been seen” as War Secretary Pete Hegseth vows indefinite blockade. U.S. has lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, roughly 25% of fleet, in Iran war. Drones intercepted over Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraqi state oil company says UAE firm is buying its crude. Ansarallah says it struck Saudi Aramco facility. Iran rejects U.S. claims that flights to Yemen carry military personnel or equipment. Israel attacks fishermen off Gaza coast. Israel continues its assault on the occupied West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz orders transfer of West Bank enforcement powers; Palestinian commission says move advances annexation. Israel blockade on oil and spare parts from entering Gaza endangers thousands, MSF says. Gaza cancer patients dying at 2-3 times prewar rate, Reuters reports. Jared Kushner to visit Israel next week. Israel continues military activity in Lebanon despite “ceasefire.” Israel demolished a 60-apartment complex in Lebanon, official says. Human Rights Watch urges UN to keep international force in southern Lebanon beyond 2026. Flock Safety announces mandatory audit changes amid mounting scrutiny over misuse. DHS documents show broad surveillance of left-leaning groups during Minnesota immigration crackdown. Border czar Tom Homan defends ICE plan to equip officers with electric shock gloves. Trump signs proclamations imposing drone tariffs, allowing limited foreign warship construction. Vice President JD Vance asks Department of Justice to investigate hospitals over transgender care. DOJ finds California prisons systematically fail to protect women from guard sexual abuse. Federal judge dismisses Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard. Progressive Florida slate rally moves to church after venue tried to bar Rep. Rashida Tlaib. CIA behind Ecuadorian fishing attacks, WaPo reports. Russia rejects Black Sea ceasefire proposal. UN warns that 650,000 refugees in South Sudan could lose food aid. Chadian president pardons jailed opposition leaders. Hundreds across Canada target Elbit suppliers in “people’s arms embargo.”

Iran

• Two ships attacked in Hormuz, UAE blames Iran: The UAE accused Iran of attacking two vessels affiliated with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company on Thursday, while the ships were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. No injuries were reported as a result of the attack.

  • The UAE Foreign Ministry called the attack a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2817 and an “act of piracy” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. It demanded that Iran halt its attacks and “completely and unconditionally” reopen the Strait

• U.S. sends new carrier to Middle East: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington headed to the Middle East on Thursday to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed in the region for more than 250 days, according to an announcement from the Navy.

  • The George Washington strike group departed Vietnam on August 12, the Navy said.

  • The Lincoln’s deployment had been expected to end in May but was extended as the U.S. war on Iran continued.

  • The news comes after reports this week that multiple sailors had attempted to jump overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln amid grueling deployment conditions for the ship’s 5,000-person crew.

• Traffic through Hormuz seems to grind to a halt: West-to-east tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed after a brief burst of outbound flows, according to data published by Kpler on Thursday.

  • From August 7 through 13, 19 tankers carried 16.7 million barrels out of the Gulf. Nearly all of that moved during the first four days with 16 tankers carrying 16.3 million barrels.

  • From August 11 through 13, just three Iran-linked tankers crossed, carrying only 0.4 million barrels combined.

• U.S. threatens economic punishment for Iran that has “never been seen” as Hegseth vows indefinite blockade: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to impose measures on Iran that have “never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” during a Thursday interview on Newsmax.

  • Bessent described the plan as a “combination of economic isolation” and “the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz” of Iranian ports.

  • Separately, U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. can maintain its naval blockade of Iranian ports “indefinitely” on Thursday, as the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz drags on.

  • Hegseth told reporters in Panama that the U.S. could “rotate ships in and out” to keep up the embargo. “We’ll hold it as long as we need to,” he said.

• U.S. has lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, roughly 25% of fleet, in Iran war: The U.S. military has lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones during its war with Iran, representing about a quarter of the pre-war fleet and a potential taxpayer cost exceeding $1.3 billion, according to three officials cited by The Washington Post on Friday.

  • The losses add to a broader depletion of U.S. munitions, including more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and over 1,000 Patriot and THAAD missiles fired in the campaign’s first month.

  • The Trump administration is seeking a $67 billion supplemental budget from the U.S. Senate to restock the arsenal.

  • Iranian forces intercepted and destroyed an MQ9-Reaper drone over Hormozgan province on Friday, according to Iranian state TV.

• Drones intercepted over Iraqi Kurdistan: Iraqi air defense systems intercepted drones over the northern Kurdish province of Erbil early Thursday, Iraqi security sources told Al Jazeera.

  • Local media footage showed the remnants of the drones falling onto a residential area near Erbil International Airport. No casualties were reported.

  • It was not immediately clear where the drones were launched from or what their intended target was. Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, hosts U.S. forces and has been struck repeatedly by Iran.

• Iraqi state oil company says UAE firm is buying its crude: Iraq’s state oil marketing company SOMO confirmed Wednesday that Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC is among the firms buying its crude and now helping transport Iraqi crude through the Strait of Hormuz, following a Bloomberg report that ADNOC’s trading arm offered Iraq to use its “dark-transit” shuttle system.

  • Under the arrangement, tankers make short crossings with their tracking systems switched off, then transfer the crude to other vessels outside the Persian Gulf. The strategy has helped maintain exports through the blockaded Strait.

Yemen

• Ansarallah says it struck Saudi Aramco facility: Yemen’s Ansarallah movement announced operations against Saudi Arabia and around the Bab Al-Mandab on Thursday as fighting continued in the city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen, with a military source telling the Yemeni outlet Saba that two drones struck an Aramco facility in Jizan. This follows two previous attacks claimed by Ansarallah on the same facility in late July and August.

  • The source said the operation answered Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace and sovereignty in Saada and Hajjah and warned of further retaliation.

  • Saba separately reported that Ansarallah targeted the Bab Al-Mandab area with two missiles. Details were not immediately available.

  • In Taiz, a shell fired by Saudi-backed forces struck the wholesale fish market in Salah district, causing extensive property damage. No casualties were reported.

• Iran rejects U.S. claims that flights to Yemen carry military personnel or equipment: Iran rejected U.S. allegations that Iranian commercial flights to Sana’a are transporting military personnel or equipment in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216, calling the claims “completely baseless” and unsupported by evidence, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.

  • In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Security Council president, the Iranian envoy claimed recent Iranian flights to Yemen were “humanitarian in nature” and accused Washington of trying to “distort the facts” and divert attention from its own military actions and support for the blockade of Yemen.