First Thing: US attacks tanker in continuing Iran conflict as Tehran releases US citizen

A US navy handout photo showing exercises in the Middle East. Photograph: US NAVY/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A US navy handout photo showing exercises in the Middle East. Photograph: US NAVY/AFP/Getty Images First Thing: US attacks tanker in continuing Iran conflict as Tehran releases US citizen US renews blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran attacks sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. Plus, legendary director John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage Good morning. The US has fired on an oil tanker attempting to reach Kharg Island in the strait of Hormuz as part of its blockade on Iranian ports, as Tehran came under attack for the first time in the latest round of strikes. The US targeted coastal defences and missile sites, as well as targets farther north, with state media reporting strikes on the country’s capital, Tehran. The US also said it had disabled the unladen oil tanker, firing Hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack after it ignored multiple warnings. Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait. The escalating wave of attacks come days after the ceasefire between the two sides appeared to have entirely collapsed, with fears of a return ⁠to full-scale war. What other development have happened in the region? Donald Trump said Iran has released a US citizen detained since 2024, identified as Dena Karari, a dual US-Iranian citizen. Meanwhile, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, told US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that Israel was determined to keep its forces in “security zones” in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. Venezuelan man becomes 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year View image in fullscreen Detained immigrants play soccer behind a barbed wire fence in Georgia. Photograph: Reade Levinson/Reuters Another person has died in federal immigration custody this week in Georgia, officials announced on Wednesday. His is the 22nd death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this year . Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man, died on Monday morning while being transferred between detention facilities in Georgia. He was found “unresponsive” in a transport bus. ICE said the suspected cause of death was cardiac arrest. What did the man’s family say? Arenas-Silva’s sister and immigrants’ rights groups in Georgia said in a press statement that ICE did not provide him with necessary medications during his time in detention for an unnamed condition he was dealing with, despite his family’s pleas that he take the medications during his arrest last week. How is the crisis becoming more international? Mexico has formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of immigrants who have died in ICE custody or during raids, the Mexican government has said . Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican immigrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations. JD Vance admits errors over Epstein files re