Donald Trump has continued his contradictory messaging over the Iran war, telling a rally in Kentucky that the war is \u201cwon\u201d but \u201cwe don\u2019t want to leave early, do we?\u201d.<\/p>\n
With Trump and his fellow Republicans under pressure, according to polls, due to a stuttering economy, immigration crackdowns and the Iran conflict, the president noted this year\u2019s midterm elections \u201care going to be very, very important\u201d.<\/p>\n
His comments came as US energy secretary Chris Wright said the US will release 172m barrels of oil<\/a> from its strategic petroleum reserve in a bid to reduce oil prices that have soared due to supply shocks from the US-Israeli war with Iran.<\/p>\n Wright said the release is part of a broader release of 400m barrels of oil agreed to by the 32-country International Energy Agency earlier in the day. He said the release will begin next week and will take approximately 120 days to deliver.<\/p>\n But oil prices continued to rise amid strikes on tankers in the Middle East<\/a>, as Americans feel the pinch. Gas prices have surged from a nationwide average of $2.94 per gallon a month ago to $3.58 as of Wednesday, according to AAA.<\/p>\n Catch up with the day\u2019s biggest stories here:<\/p>\n Trump tells Kentucky rally Iran\u2019s military and nuclear capabilities degraded<\/p>\n Donald Trump<\/a> told hundreds of supporters assembled inside a packaging plant in northern Kentucky on Wednesday that Iran\u2019s military and nuclear capabilities had been significantly degraded.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir drones are down 85%, we\u2019re blowing up their factories,\u201d he told an ecstatic audience in Hebron.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t know what the hell hit them,\u201d said Trump.<\/p>\n While not offering further details on when the 10-day-old conflict may end, the president seemed to suggest that might not be soon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go back every two years. We\u2019re going to finish the job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n Trump pressures Republican Senate leader over strict voter ID bill<\/p>\n Donald Trump<\/a> hit back at Republican Senate majority leader John Thune over the latter\u2019s refusal to alter rules to force a vote on the Save America Act, a sprawling bill that would upend elections for American voters amid the midterms. Trump delivered a blunt message for Thune to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday: \u201cHe\u2019s got to be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments came after Trump put on a full-court press over the bill, saying he would not sign any other legislation until the Save America Act came to his desk to sign.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n US responsible for deadly missile strike on Iran school, inquiry says<\/p>\n A preliminary US military<\/a> investigation has reportedly determined that Washington was responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school in February that killed scores of children.<\/p>\n According to the New York Times<\/a>, quoting unnamed US officials and others familiar with the initial findings, the investigation has concluded that the strike on 28 February on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military planners.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n Foreign hacker breached FBI servers holding Epstein files in 2023<\/p>\n A foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI\u2019s investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> during a break-in at the bureau\u2019s New York field office three years ago, according to \u200ba source familiar with the matter and recently published justice department documents reviewed by Reuters.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Unethical\u2019 vaccine trial in Africa is \u2018prototype\u2019 for US studies, experts fear<\/p>\n New details are leading experts to fear that an \u201cunethical\u201d vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau is the \u201cprototype\u201d for studies under Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a>, secretary of the US department of health and human services and longtime vaccine critic. At the center of US vaccine policy is an unlikely set of Danish researchers whose work on the health effects of vaccines has been called into question.<\/p>\n Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n What else happened today:<\/p>\n