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Trump weighing options for expanding military operations in Iran

By CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has been receiving options for expanding the military operation in Iran, according to two people familiar with the matter, including during a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday that centered on ways to intensify efforts to loosen Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has publicly said he intends to strike Iran harder over the coming week, including threats on civilian infrastructure and potentially energy targets. Behind the scenes, he has been discussing various scenarios for future military action with senior officials, hoping to identify ways to pressure Iran into submitting to US demands after existing efforts have failed to bring Tehran to heel.

Over the past five days, the US has carried out daily strikes on Iranian positions along the Strait of Hormuz, including Wednesday on tiny Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, which has acted as a base for the Iranian military.

Officials said the strikes are intended to degrade Iran’s ability to prevent commercial vessels from transiting the waterway. But destroying targets like missile launchers and radars could also lay the groundwork for the larger US military operations Trump has been mulling, officials said.

According to the two officials, Trump is now weighing an operation to take Kharg Island, the critical Iranian export hub, and to bomb underground complexes at Pickaxe Mountain, believed to be connected to Iran’s nuclear program.

He affirmed his interest in both targets during interviews this week, though he suggested a ground operation to take Kharg may fall to another country.

“We have other people that will do the ground campaign for us,” he said on Fox News, without explaining further.

Trump has previously offered public and private indications he’s ready to escalate, only to back off. But he has grown frustrated that Iran is not capitulating on his nuclear red lines and continues to restrict traffic through the strait.

The president has oscillated between casting doubt on Iran’s willingness to negotiate a deal and claiming Tehran was prepared to return to the bargaining table.

“They want to settle so badly. They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he said Wednesday at a defense industry event in Pennsylvania.

A week ago, Trump offered a different viewpoint, claiming it was a “waste of time” to continue talking to Iran.

Speaking in a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance — the administration’s lead negotiator with Iran — said the war will not be won through military force alone.

“You can bomb them, you can take away their radar, you can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it’s just too easy to fire at ships in the straits,” he said. “So you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.”

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Your internet use may be making you crabby

By CNN
Are you feeling crabby or stressed? Or are you not keeping up with your responsibilities at work, school or in your relationships? The reason could be that you’re spending too much time online, according to research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.People who use the internet problematically are more stressed, have worse moods and are more likely to neglect other parts of their lives, according to the study of 900 German adults. Problematic internet use is when people use apps excessively, causing distress or impairment.“Stress and a negative mood leads to a higher temptation” to use the iInternet, said Andreas Oelker, a doctoral student at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany and lead author of the study. Using the internet problematically could then make things worse.The ongoing research sheds light on a problem that isn’t classified as a disorder but possibly should be, said Silke Müller, a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany and co-author of the study. One limitation of the study is it only tracked adults, so we don’t know if the same thing happens to kids, Müller said.We know what makes us happyThe findings make sense because we know spending too much time on screens makes people unhappy, for many reasons.When we’re scrolling, we’re often not moving our bodies, which is essential for our health and happiness. Looking at screens up close for long periods is also very stimulating, which may leave us exhausted. On screens, we often switch between many different tasks — such as responding to multiple text chains and emails while scrolling social media — and that is also exhausting.We also know people are less nice to one another online than they are face to face. People because they don’t have to own up to their behavior, which can lead to online interactions that make us stressed. And people often feel less than after comparing their lives to the curated, filtered images other people post on social media.What’s more, friendships are essential for our health and wellbeing, but they tend to be best cultivated in person, not online.What are your triggers?The results suggest problematic iInternet use is similar to eating disorders, addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parin Kamdar, a Princeton, New Jersey-based licensed clinical psychologist, said in an email.That makes the problem difficult to treat because “these urges often function at a subconscious, habitual level,” so you may already be scrolling the iInternet before you’re even aware of what’s happening, Kamdar said.It helps to try to recognize your triggers, she said. Do you turn to your screen after a stressful interaction with your boss or partner? When you’re exhausted or overwhelmed?“Once a person can reliably identify the presence of the urge, they are in a much stronger position to confront the temptation,” Kamdar said.When you’re tempted, try this insteadWhen you feel the temptation to go online to cope, try to wait 5 minutes before doing so, Kamdar said. During that time, try exercising, listening to music or relaxing. Then , add another 5 minutes to your waiting period each time you’re tempted, she said.Another thing I’ve found really helps is planning blocks of screen-free time. This summer, my husband and I are taking our kids to “family summer camp,” a week at a camp in rural Minnesota where we’ll go out on a lake, ride horses and do other activities together that aren’t conducive to simultaneously scrolling.You don’t need a budget to do something like this in shorter stints. Try disconnecting your router on a weekend afternoon and play board games with your family.I always feel happier when I do these kinds of things. When I talk to parents, students and educators about how to manage their screen time, those who say they’ve overcome the temptation to be on their screens incessantly also tell me they’re happier. They’re more present in their surroundings. And they have more time for the things that make people truly happy: getting outdoors, moving our bodies, connecting with family and friends face to face and helping other people.“Although the urge may never disappear entirely, its intensity and influence diminish,” Kamdar said. “Rather than dominating attention and dictating behavior, it becomes just another thought that can be acknowledged and allowed to pass.”Therapy can help with this process, Kamdar said.Some people turn to the iInternet to cope with stress and negative feelings, but that could only make things worse. It’s better to find healthier ways to cope. Unplugging could allow you to plug in more to the things that make us truly happy.Editor’s note: Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and advises parents, students and teachers on how to manage screen time. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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