Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at renewed strikes between U.S. and Iranian forces, the winners and losers of the NATO leaders’ summit, and the United States threatening to cut off trade with Spain.

The U.S.-Iran cease-fire appears to be effectively dead.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at renewed strikes between U.S. and Iranian forces, the winners and losers of the NATO leaders’ summit, and the United States threatening to cut off trade with Spain.

The U.S.-Iran cease-fire appears to be effectively dead.

Just 21 days after U.S. and Iranian officials signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that halted active fighting, removed the U.S. naval blockade on Iran, and laid the groundwork for future nuclear talks, U.S. President Donald Trump told NATO leaders on Wednesday that the truce deal is done.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump said, calling the Iranian regime “cuckoo.” Although the U.S. president said that peace talks would continue, he remained skeptical about their probability of success. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Iranian forces damaged several oil and gas tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz; these vessels appeared to be trying to use a route that avoided Iranian waters. Within hours, the U.S. military responded with more than 80 strikes on Iranian air defense systems, command and control centers, coastal radar sites, and anti-ship missile capabilities, among other targets.

The United States hit Iran “very hard last night,” Trump said on Wednesday, and will “probably hit them hard again tonight.” Hours later, the U.S. military announced that it had begun “conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Trump also suggested on Wednesday that the United States could reimpose its naval blockade on Iran; more than 20 U.S. Navy warships are on patrol in the Middle East, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. president warned that U.S. troops are “not attacking at the highest level” yet but that he could order them to bomb critical civilian infrastructure, such as bridges, electric plants, and desalination facilities. And he threatened........

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