Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at escalating U.S. and Iranian strikes, a leadership contest for Britain’s Labour Party, and Australia selling uranium to India.

U.S. and Iranian forces intensified their strikes on Thursday, as both sides exchanged fire for a third consecutive day. With Washington and Tehran expanding the scope and scale of their attacks, experts have suggested that the Middle East may be on the brink of returning to all-out war.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at escalating U.S. and Iranian strikes, a leadership contest for Britain’s Labour Party, and Australia selling uranium to India.

U.S. and Iranian forces intensified their strikes on Thursday, as both sides exchanged fire for a third consecutive day. With Washington and Tehran expanding the scope and scale of their attacks, experts have suggested that the Middle East may be on the brink of returning to all-out war.

On Tuesday, Iran targeted several oil and gas tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that appeared to be trying to use a route that circumvented Iranian waters. Within hours, the U.S. military launched retaliatory strikes, and on Wednesday, President Donald Trump declared that the U.S.-Iran cease-fire was effectively “over.”

“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “If it happens again, it will get much worse!” That day, Trump also suggested that he could order bombings on critical civilian infrastructure—such as bridges, electric plants, and desalination facilities—and he threatened to “take over Kharg Island,” a vital hub for Iran’s crude industry.

Since hostilities reignited two days ago, U.S. forces have struck more than 170 targets in Iran, the U.S. military said on Thursday, “including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline” as well as small boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to video footage verified by the New York Times on Thursday as well as statements from Iranian officials, a railway bridge near the city of Agh Qala, more than 700 miles from the Strait of Hormuz, was also hit. The railway connects the capital of Tehran........

© Foreign Policy