Lebanese media reported on the 15th that an enemy drone struck a car in Taibnit village in Lebanon, wounding occupants. Taibnit and other localities were also hit by enemy shelling.

The New York Times cites two Iranian officials saying Tehran waited until after local midnight to finalise a U.S.-Iran agreement to avoid the timing coinciding with President Trump’s birthday on the 14th (U.S. Eastern Time). The 7.5-hour time difference allowed each side to claim the agreement was completed on its preferred date; Trump had said the deal would be reached on Sunday, while Iran said it would be reached a day later.

Sparta Commodities research head Neil Crosby expects shipping in the Persian Gulf to recover this week as the Strait of Hormuz is due to reopen on Friday, but full clearance of the backlog will take longer — hundreds of vessels remain trapped and mine‑clearing operations will be slow. Crosby called expectations of a full restoration of transit volumes within one to two weeks overly optimistic. Unresolved transit-fee arrangements and pending insurer guidance are adding route-choice uncertainty, and some owners are reluctant to ballast empty to the Arabian Gulf.