US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday there is no "time frame" for ending the US-Israeli war against Iran, which was launched three weeks ago.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged the U.S. would "massively blow up the entirety" of the world's largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again.

Trump made his threat on social media Wednesday night against Iran's South Pars natural gas field after Iranian missiles hit Qatar. The Iranian attack was in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the South Pars field earlier Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump angrily suggested Wednesday that he could leave U.S. allies to secure the Hormuz strait on their own since they have refused to fight alongside U.S. forces against Iran in the crucial shipping lane.

Saying the United States doesn't need the strait -- a major global oil shipping pathway -- Trump wrote on his Truth Social site that he could "let the Countries that use it" find a solution.

Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned what it said was a "missile strike" on Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog announced earlier was hit by a projectile.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose call for assistance from allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic has largely been rebuffed, said Tuesday that U.S. forces "no longer need" military help in the Iran war.

"Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries' assistance -- WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea," Trump posted on his Truth Social network, adding: "WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!"

Cuba scrambled Tuesday to restore power after a nationwide blackout that hit the communist-run island just as U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed he will "take" it over.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war in Iran.

Kent said on social media Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in London on Tuesday for talks with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the British government said, as European countries look to keep international attention on Russia's invasion of Ukraine while the unfolding Iran war engages world leaders.

Starmer's office said NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will also join the meeting at 10 Downing St. to discuss peacemaking efforts in Ukraine and "the need to maintain sanctions pressure on Russia."

Rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul on Tuesday after an overnight airstrike killed more than 400 people, according to officials, in a dramatic escalation of a conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan that is now in its third week.

Pakistan rejected Afghanistan's accusation that it targeted the hospital, insisting its strikes, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, were aimed at military facilities. It dismissed Afghanistan's claims of hundreds of casualties as propaganda.

Through lectures, scoldings and outright threats, President Donald Trump and his aides are ratcheting up the pressure on journalists to cover the war in the Middle East the way the administration wants.

The Republican president has fumed on social media about stories he doesn't like and berated a reporter on Air Force One. The government's top media regulator has warned that broadcasters risk losing their licenses if they don't stay away from "fake news." Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have questioned the patriotism of news outlets because of their reporting.