US-Iran Clash Escalates as Russia Hits Moldova Border

Tensions between the United States and Iran boiled over in the Gulf of Oman, where American forces sank one Iranian oil tanker and struck four others after Iran twice targeted a US warship. Tehran answered with a missile strike on a US base in Jordan, and traders took notice: Brent crude is now edging toward $100 a barrel as the standoff threatens to spill into wider regional conflict. The war in Ukraine also escalated sharply overnight. Russian drones hit the Starokazache border crossing in Odesa region, right on the frontier with Moldova, killing and wounding civilians and halting cross-border traffic. The strike underscored how close the fighting has crept to Ukraine's western neighbors even as Kyiv's diplomats work to keep support flowing from Europe. Elsewhere along the front, daily losses continued. A Russian drone hit a civilian car in the Izyum area of Kharkiv region, wounding those inside, part of a familiar pattern of strikes on vehicles near the front line. In Dnipro, strikes set fire to a construction-materials warehouse and a private house; rescuers pulled three people from a basement, two of them hospitalized, while a 15-year-old boy escaped unhurt. Ukraine's General Staff meanwhile reported Russia's cumulative losses have passed 1.5 million personnel, plus more than 12,300 tanks, 25,000 armored vehicles and nearly 49,400 artillery systems destroyed since the invasion began.