US military says it intercepted and responded to ‘unprovoked’ Iranian attack, stressing that it doesn’t seek escalation.

Iran-US tensions escalate near Strait of Hormuz after reported tanker attack

The Iranian military has said it retaliated against United States Navy ships after US forces targeted an oil tanker in Iran’s territorial waters, a major escalation that puts further strain on the fragile truce between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters added on Thursday that the US also violated the ceasefire by carrying out air strikes on civilian areas, including Qeshm Island, “in cooperation with some regional countries”, without identifying them.

“The American aggressor, terrorist and bandit army, violating the ceasefire, targeted an Iranian oil tanker,” the statement said.

The statement also claimed that the Iranian response caused “significant damage” to US ships.

“The criminal and aggressor America and its supporting countries should know that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as powerfully as in the past, will give a crushing response to any aggression without the slightest hesitation,” the Iranian military said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said Iranian forces used “various types of ballistic and antiship cruise missiles and destructive drones with high-explosive warheads” in response to the US violations of the truce.

But the Central Command (CENTCOM) of the US military said it “intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks” and responded with “self-defence strikes”.

CENTCOM added that it “does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces”.

The clashes represent the first military Iranian response to the US blockade of the country’s ports. Over the past weeks, the US military has seized several Iranian vessels and ordered dozens more to turn around.

The naval siege has been the spearhead of Trump’s pressure campaign against Iran since the ceasefire came into effect last month.

Several Iranian state-affiliated news outlets reported that blasts were heard at the ports of Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas and the southern coastal city of Minab.

Iran’s semiofficial news agency Tasnim also cited a senior source as saying that three US Navy destroyers came under Iranian fire and fled towards the Gulf of Oman.

The skirmishes come amid reports that Washington and Tehran are in advanced talks to end the war.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump ordered an operation to break Iran’s blockade on Hormuz, leading to heightened tensions that pushed the ceasefire to the brink.

On Monday, the US said it shot down seven small Iranian drones, and Iran renewed its drone and missile attacks against the United Arab Emirates.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/7/explosions-heard-in-iran-as-state-media-reports-clashes-with-us-navy?traffic_source=rss

Republicans pass new map ahead of midterms after US Supreme Court weakened Voting Rights Act restrictions.

Tennessee’s Republican-dominated state legislature and governor have approved a new congressional map ahead of the US midterms, carving up the state’s only Black majority district.

The approval on Thursday culminated the latest push in states across the country to redistrict ahead of the US midterms in November, which will determine which party controls the US House of Representatives and Senate.

While redistricting typically happens following the US census every ten years, several state legislatures have sought to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade to create more districts that favour their party.

The spree began with US President Donald Trump calling on the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas to redraw its map to create five more Republican-favoured US House Districts. Republican and Democratic-controlled legislatures in Missouri, California, Utah, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas have since followed suit.

The campaign was kicked into overdrive when the US Supreme Court ruled last week that a provision of the landmark 1973 Voting Rights Act, which prevented diluting the voting power of minorities, was unconstitutional.

Under the ruling, challengers must now prove that a map had been drawn to intentionally disenfranchise minority voters, a bar that voting rights groups charge is nearly impossible to clear.

The new Tennessee map splits the state’s only Democrat-held House district, which centres on the majority-Black city of Memphis. Black voters in the US have historically leaned heavily towards the Democratic Party.

Opposing legislators said the new map was intentionally drawn to ensure Black voting power was diluted throughout Tennessee’s nine congressional districts.

“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J Trump,” state Representative Justin Pearson, a Democrat, said.

Protesters held banners that denounced the redistricting as a “Jim Crow” effort, referring to the racist laws that mandated segregation in many southern states and cities in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Republican House Speaker, Cameron Sexton, maintained the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.

Republican state Senator John Stevens said legislators in states across the country regularly draw congressional maps to benefit their parties, a process known as gerrymandering.

“This bill represents Tennessee’s attempt to maximise our partisan advantage,” he said.

It is not clear if more states would redraw their congressional maps ahead of the midterm elections.

Louisiana has paused its House primaries in light of the Supreme Court ruling as it pursues redistricting. Alabama is also seeking to redraw its map ahead of the November election.

Republicans have so far netted more seats than Democrats in the redistricting flurry.

That is expected to make the fight for control of the US House of Representatives tighter, though election predictors still assess that most of the 435 US House districts across the country currently lean Democratic, spelling an uphill battle for Republicans.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/7/tennessee-approves-new-congressional-map-in-latest-redistricting-flurry?traffic_source=rss

Days before the cruise ship affected by a hantavirus outbreak is set to dock in southern Tenerife in the Canary Islands, locals are expressing a mix of concern and calm. According to Oceanwide Expeditions, there are currently no symptomatic individuals on board the ship.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/5/7/tenerife-resort-town-awaits-hantavirus-hit-cruise-ship?traffic_source=rss