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News of the meeting, the leaders’ first in five months, came after U.S. forces conducted the 13th consecutive night of attacks on Iran. Iran launched drone strikes at U.S. targets in the Gulf.

The United States and Iran continued to trade attacks across the Middle East as the office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Friday that he would meet with President Trump in Washington next Tuesday.

The announcement of the meeting comes at a crucial moment. Tehran was said to have rejected a cease-fire proposal, raising questions about whether Mr. Trump would further escalate the conflict. The leaders’ meeting would be their first since February, when Mr. Netanyahu made the case for a joint offensive against Iran that began weeks later and has now ground on for nearly five months. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said he also planned to attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel.

Overnight, American forces targeted Iranian military assets and facilities for the 13th consecutive day, including drone storage sites, to reduce the threat to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said. The attacks began at 2:15 a.m. local time and ended just over two hours later, according to the command, which oversees operations in the Middle East.

The Iranian military said it had launched drone attacks against U.S. military targets at bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps issued a warning for residents of countries that host American forces to keep at least 500 meters from any building suspected of housing U.S. personnel.

The resurgence in fighting has sent the price of oil above $100 for the first time since May. A threat by the Iranian-allied Houthi militants in Yemen to expand the fight to the Red Sea and target Saudi ships has injected further uncertainty into global energy markets.

The Houthis claimed on Wednesday to have struck two Saudi tankers, the first attacks since the group announced a blockade of Saudi ships this week. The Saudi authorities confirmed a strike on one tanker. This has stoked fears that, like the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea shipping route might also be blocked.

Mr. Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that from now on, he would make Iran pay for any damage to ships and cargo in the Strait of Hormuz using Iranian funds under U.S. control.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, later said — without mentioning Mr. Trump — that such a move would set an “incendiary precedent.”

American intelligence agencies believe that Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is far more interested than his father and predecessor in pursuing a nuclear weapon, according to officials briefed on the assessments.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s father, who was killed at the start of the war in an Israeli attack aided by U.S. intelligence, had sworn off developing a nuclear weapon. While American officials long asserted that Iran wanted to be capable of building a nuclear weapon, many believed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hesitancy was genuine.

His successor has never publicly called for Iran to build a nuclear weapon. But U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Mojtaba Khamenei and the harder-line government that emerged after the United States and Israel killed many of Iran’s previous leaders have ambitions to develop advanced nuclear weaponry.

The current government has already worked to assert greater control over the Strait of Hormuz and proved a difficult negotiating partner. If the U.S.-Israeli war has made Tehran more, rather than less, likely to pursue a nuclear weapon, it would amount to one more grave consequence of the killing of the supreme leader and the steps toward regime change the Trump administration initially pursued.

American officials caution that most of the intelligence on Mojtaba Khamenei’s views comes from before the war. He was badly injured in the first part of the war, and American officials said he has limited his communications and public appearances because of his injuries and also because he does not want to be targeted in an airstrike.

The officials assess that he remains in charge of the government but does not have the absolute authority and influence of his father, who ruled for more than 36 years.

The assessment comes as President Trump is weighing whether to intensify the military campaign against Iran. A determination that the supreme leader is potentially open to pursuing a bomb would provide additional justification for an escalation.

While U.S. officials insist Tehran has not made any moves to restart its nuclear program, Iran has taken some steps to preserve its nuclear assets after the U.S. strikes on key facilities last year or during pauses in fighting during the current war.

Iran has moved at least some centrifuges, according to American officials, to a heavily fortified underground complex in central Iran that the United States refers to as Pickaxe Mountain. The Wall Street Journal first reported this week that Israeli intelligence had tracked the movement of the centrifuges.

While such a move could be a first step toward rebuilding enrichment capability, U.S. officials said they believe that for now Iran is more interested in preserving some of its equipment by trying to move it outside the range of American bombs.

In June 2025, Mr. Trump ordered the U.S. military to conduct strikes on three key nuclear facilities. B-2 stealth bombers dropped the largest conventional bombs in the Air Force inventory on two of the sites, Fordo and Natanz. A third site, at Isfahan, was hit with Tomahawk missiles.

Mr. Trump immediately claimed that the military operation had obliterated the facilities, but initial intelligence assessments were far more measured, suggesting the program had only been set back by months.

Iran’s nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain was not targeted in the attacks last summer. And the facilities there are a far more difficult target for the U.S. military. The underground facilities are buried deep below a mountain, out of the range of the most powerful conventional U.S. bombs, according to multiple American officials.

After assessing the damage at the Fordo nuclear facility, the Iranians learned just how deep the U.S. weapons could penetrate, and are confident that Pickaxe’s even deeper underground halls are safe from conventional aerial attack.

But Iranians remain worried that U.S. forces could mount a commando raid against Pickaxe, potentially using ground forces to enter the site and destroy it from within. U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that Iran has moved ground forces to Pickaxe to deter any ground raid.

Mr. Trump this week threatened to attack the facility, calling it “a possible target for a nice big fat shot right in their front door.”

He also said the United States saw no activity there, a reference, officials said, to the fact that Iran has not restarted nuclear enrichment or other work, despite moving equipment there.

American officials declined to discuss the planning for any attack on the site, and said Mr. Trump has been presented a broad range of options and an array of potential targets. It was foolish, several officials said, to predict what targets Mr. Trump might approve.

Whatever missteps the United States has made in its war with Iran, the damage to the Iranian nuclear facilities, particularly in its strikes last year, succeeded in at least freezing progress on the nuclear program.

The intelligence agencies assessed that the damage would have set back the program by only six months, had the Iranians immediately moved to repair centrifuges or restart enrichment work at other sites. But, American officials said, the Iranians did not immediately dig out all of the facilities or restart enrichment at other locations.

Still, the building blocks of a bomb, most notably Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, remain intact and accessible to Tehran.

Ali Khamenei had issued a religious order, or fatwa, prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons by Iran, a stance publicly announced to the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005.

The fatwa had its limits. While it prevented Iran from using a nuclear bomb, it did not block the government from developing its overall program or taking steps toward weaponization. Even after the fatwa was in place, harder-line elements in the Iranian government wanted to be able to quickly develop a nuclear weapon.

But based on public statements and intercepted conversations before the war, American intelligence officials assessed that Mojtaba Khamenei did not share his father’s hesitancy and was interested in pursuing an advanced nuclear weapon.

At the end of the Biden administration, U.S. officials said Iran was looking at ways to develop a cruder nuclear weapon, potentially like the Hiroshima-style bombs, that would be difficult to deliver but would provide something of a deterrent.

The new supreme leader, according to U.S. officials, sees less utility in that type of weapon but appears to support developing the kind of thermonuclear warhead that could eventually be miniaturized and placed on a long-range missile.

In his public statements, Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed to preserve Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but has not spoken directly of a need to obtain a weapon. He distanced himself from an agreement the United States and Iran signed in June that said Iran would not pursue a nuclear weapon. Ayatollah Khamenei said he had allowed the agreement, but did not agree with it as a “matter of principle.”

Rosemary Kelanic, the director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a think tank skeptical of American military intervention, said the war and the announcement this week that the United States may help Saudi Arabia build enrichment facilities make it “significantly more likely” that Iran pursues a nuclear weapon.

“Iran now has a much greater incentive to weaponize to deter future U.S. or Israeli attempts at collapsing the regime or the Iranian state, which means that the war is counterproductive to its own ostensible goals of preventing Iranian proliferation,” she said.

Iranian officials who previously argued in internal debates that only a nuclear weapon could prevent an Israeli or American attack believe their position has been strengthened, U.S. officials have said.

iPhone 18 Pro is just a couple months away, and while most iPhone 17 Pro owners won’t upgrade so soon, for those considering a new iPhone there are three main features likely to motivate them.

#1: Maxed out battery life

Better battery life is often at the top of iPhone users’ feature wishlists. Who doesn’t want an iPhone that lasts longer between charges?

Last year’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max brought big improvements in this area, but rumors indicate Apple will push battery life even further this year.

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are expected to benefit from efficiency gains in multiple areas: an LTPO+ display, 2nm process for the A20 Pro chip, and possibly an Apple-designed C2 cellular modem.

Beyond these improvements, recent leaks point to even larger physical batteries in this year’s Pro models. iPhone 18 Pro Max in particular could get especially notable gains.

#2: Big camera improvements

Mark Gurman says that iPhone 18 Pro will bring “the biggest leap in camera hardware” in years.

Rumors indicate the Main and Telephoto cameras will be Apple’s primary focus, with a new variable aperture feature coming to the former and a larger aperture for the latter.

Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital also recently said that iPhone 18 Pro’s camera plateau will be 2mm thicker than last year due to an “enlarged main camera module.” This is another hint at big changes coming.

It would be nice to have more specific details at this point, but all signs point to Apple preparing some especially noteworthy camera upgrades.

#3: Revised design

John Ternus faces critical decisions on iPhone pricing and US manufacturing – FT | Render of a possible design for the iPhone 18 Pro

For most people considering a year-over-year iPhone upgrade, design matters. If the new iPhone looks basically identical to your current model, the idea of upgrading is automatically less compelling.

While Apple isn’t expected to overhaul iPhone 17 Pro’s look and feel, it does reportedly have three design updates coming for iPhone 18 Pro:

Current rumors point to Dark Cherry, Light Blue, and Silver color options—possibly Black/Space Gray too.

iPhone 18 Pro’s Dynamic Island is expected to shrink about 35% compared to the previous design, for a modern look and more useable screen space.

Finally, last year’s polarizing two-tone rear color scheme should give way to a more uniform look on iPhone 18 Pro.

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