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Marcelo Bielsa is widely revered as a pioneer of coaching, but his unconventional methods risk ruining Uruguay’s World Cup chances before the tournament has even begun, with rumours of dressing room unrest.

Nicknamed “El Loco”, which means madman, the 70-year-old’s bold, attacking approach has proved an inspiration to a younger generation of coaches, including Pep Guardiola and USA boss Mauricio Pochettino.

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Yet, his famously demanding standards have often caused friction during a nomadic coaching career, and his stint in Uruguay has been no exception.

The Argentinian’s arrival initially generated huge excitement, which was fuelled by landmark victories over Brazil and Argentina in qualifying.

But they needed that flying start just to make it through after winning just three of their final 12 qualifiers.

The tipping point for many in the squad came at the Copa America in 2024.

Uruguay finished a creditable third, eliminating Brazil along the way, but Bielsa’s intensity during the monthlong tournament did not endear him to his players.

Luis Suarez hit out at Bielsa’s methods after retiring from international football months later, claiming he had reduced former Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez to tears at half-time of a 2-0 win over Argentina, such was the force of his criticism.

Bielsa accepted that after the former Barcelona striker’s backlash, his “authority was affected” with the rest of the dressing room.

Results have also regressed, with Bielsa stating he was “ashamed” by a 5-1 friendly defeat by the USA in November.

Now, as his third World Cup with a third different nation approaches, the question is whether Bielsa can win back the faith of his players for a country so used to punching above its weight on the world stage.

And there are doubts as to how his high-energy style will fare in the gruelling conditions of Miami and Guadalajara, where Uruguay will face Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde and Spain in Group F.

Pochettino hails Bielsa as a ‘genius’

Bielsa made his name winning three league titles in Argentina with Newell’s Old Boys, where the stadium now bears his name, and Velez Sarsfield.

“For me, he’s a person I will always admire,” said Pochettino, whom Bielsa recruited for Newell’s as a 13-year-old.

“He’s a genius. A person with charisma and a personality very different from us, normal coaches, and that’s what makes him special.”

Bielsa’s sides in Bilbao with Athletic Club, where he reached the Europa League and Copa del Rey finals in 2011-12, and Marseille, where he led Ligue 1 at the halfway stage in 2014-15, were also admired but ended up empty-handed as their energy ran out.

In Leeds, murals still bear Bielsa’s face, four years on from his departure, after he led a sleeping giant of English football back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years in 2020.

His time there ended in familiar fashion with an exhausted squad that was relegated to the second tier the season after he departed.

Yet, the esteem with which he is held for his daring tactical approach endures.

“To be loved is this biggest title, bigger than the Champions League or Premier League or whatever,” said Guardiola, who went to visit Bielsa in Argentina before setting out as a coach at Barcelona.

“To be loved is the most important thing, and I think Marcelo has that more than any other manager in the world.”

Bielsa, who oversaw Argentina’s group-stage elimination in 2002 and Chile’s round-of-16 loss to hosts Brazil in 2014, has already hinted ‌that he may not remain as manager ⁠of Uruguay beyond ⁠July, saying his job with the team ends with the World Cup.

“Our job ends with the World Cup,” ⁠Bielsa said at an event organised by the Uruguayan Football Association last Friday.

Although he did not elaborate on his remarks, local media reported ⁠that the Argentinian will not continue once his current contract expires at the end of the June 11-July 19 tournament.

“It is a miracle in any ‌professional’s sporting career to take part in the World Cup,” he said. “I will be forever grateful to Uruguay for allowing me to enjoy a competition like the World Cup.”

Brazil’s record scorer, Neymar, has not played since 2023, but injury now appears to threaten his World Cup comeback.

Brazil’s World ‌Cup preparations were jolted as Neymar missed the national team’s ⁠first training session ⁠to undergo medical tests, leaving his place in the squad hanging in the balance.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) confirmed the 34-year-old forward, who is recovering ⁠from an injury to his right calf, did not take part in the closed session at their facilities in Granja Comary and was referred to a private ⁠clinic in Teresopolis for imaging tests.

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In a statement, the CBF said “no further information will be released until the Brazilian national team’s medical staff have completed their assessments,” but Neymar’s absence quickly became the dominant storyline on the second day of Brazil’s training camp for ‌the 2026 World Cup.

Brazil will hold three further sessions at Granja Comary before Sunday’s friendly against Panama at the Maracana.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti is already without three players for that fixture. Defenders Gabriel Magalhaes and Marquinhos, along with forward Gabriel Martinelli, are involved in Saturday’s Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.

Neymar’s recall last week generated widespread excitement because he had not featured in Ancelotti’s plans ⁠during the Italian’s year in charge.

Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with ⁠79 goals in 128 appearances, Neymar has not played for his country since 2023. His return to the fold came amid scrutiny over his fitness and form following years of injury trouble and an ⁠underwhelming spell back at Santos.

The timing could hardly be more delicate. After facing Panama, Brazil meet Egypt in Cleveland in ⁠their final friendly before opening their World Cup campaign ⁠against African champions Morocco on June 13 in New Jersey. Brazil and Morocco have been drawn in Group C alongside Haiti and Scotland.

Ancelotti has already made clear that reputation ‌alone would not secure Neymar’s place.

He said earlier this month that Neymar would receive no special treatment and that his place in the squad would strictly be based on fitness and ‌form, ‌not sentiment.

For now, Brazil wait on the medical verdict – and on whether their most recognisable name will be fit to take centre stage next month.

IRGC says it targeted a base used by US forces after US attacks on site near Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it struck a base used by United States forces in response to US attacks on an Iranian target near the Strait of Hormuz, as a fragile ceasefire comes under growing strain and negotiations to end the war drag on.

“Following this morning’s aggression by the invading US military against a location on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport using aerial projectiles, the American air base that served as the source of the attack was targeted at 4:50 am (0120 GMT),” the IRGC said on Thursday, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

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The IRGC did not provide details on the location of the base, though Kuwait’s military said its air defences were responding to an “enemy” attack on Thursday.

The IRGC said it targeted the base in response to what it described as an early morning US attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported.

An unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency that the US military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port ⁠city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official who requested anonymity said on Thursday.

Reporting from Iran’s capital Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said despite the latest strikes, “neither the US nor Iran is saying the ceasefire has collapsed.

“This is the third time since the ceasefire’s announcement that they have directly engaged militarily,” he noted.

Strait is ‘international waters’

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that his administration was making headway in negotiations to end the war, but rejected a report that he was close to a ⁠compromise deal with Tehran.

He dismissed an Iranian state TV report that it had obtained an unofficial draft of an agreement to restore commercial shipping through the strait to pre-war levels within a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the US has decades-long military and ⁠economic ties.

“Nobody’s going to control (the strait),” Trump said. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them ⁠up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”

Trump added that he was not yet satisfied on a potential deal with Iran, and the US was not discussing easing sanctions on the country.

Oil prices, having fallen more than 5 percent on Wednesday, rebounded after reports of the escalation in hostilities. US crude futures gained more than 3 percent, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.

Trump in ‘very difficult position’

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said Trump’s “rhetoric” would not force Iran to back away from its demands to enrich uranium, wield authority over the strait and see sanctions against it lifted.

“It is obvious Trump, seeking a way out of ⁠this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi said on Wednesday in a post on X.

The Iranian TV report of a framework deal said the US would also lift its blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw ⁠military forces from Iran’s vicinity.

Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, says the main fight between the US and Iran is now on the economic front, with the duel blockades currently in place in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Trump is in a very difficult position. He has inadvertently given Iran a very powerful weapon by closing the Strait of Hormuz, and he’s not willing to risk US ships to try to open it,” Bandow told Al Jazeera.

“It’s going to be hard for him not to make a deal that’s to the satisfaction of Iran,” he added.

The latest outbreak of a rare strain of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda has prompted several governments to take action in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 10 confirmed deaths and 220 suspected deaths from the lethal Bundibugyo (BVD) strain of Ebola in DRC since mid-May. A further 900 suspected cases have been recorded since Kinshasa declared the outbreak on May 15. In Uganda, five cases and one death have been confirmed.

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The United Nations’ health agency raised its risk assessment from high to very high at the national level for DRC last week, but continues to assess the risk as low at the global level.

Nevertheless, several countries have announced travel bans and temporary border measures to contain the spread of the new strain.

Which countries are implementing restrictions to contain the virus?

This week, the Congolese Ministry of Transport and Communications suspended all flights to and from Bunia in eastern DRC in an attempt to contain the Ebola outbreak. The Bunia health zone is one of 11 Congolese health zones affected by the Ebola outbreak. Some exceptions, such as humanitarian, medical and emergency flights, may be allowed with special approval from aviation and health authorities.

Uganda has also introduced restrictions on travel to and from the DRC. All direct flights have been suspended while bus and boat border crossings have been halted for four weeks. Weekly markets in border districts have been put on hold. Freight traffic, essential goods and food supplies, however, are still permitted to cross.

Beyond the immediate affected region, Canada and the Bahamas said they would temporarily ban residents of the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan from entering.

Residents from those countries will be unable to travel to Canada for 90 days from Wednesday, the government said. Canadian citizens, permanent residents and other foreign nationals who have been in affected areas in recent weeks must quarantine for 21 days from May 30, even if they do not show symptoms, Canada’s public health agency said.

The Bahamian government said entry restrictions would take immediate effect and remain in place for a period of 30 days, subject to review by the Caribbean country’s health ministry.

Last week, the US banned all non-citizens who had travelled to the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days from entering the country. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended the ban to green card holders who have been in those countries in the previous 21 days.

US citizens who have travelled to affected countries have been told to return to the US via selected airports equipped with enhanced screening. These are Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights to the US departing after May 21, 2026; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after May 22; and George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after May 26.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Trump administration is expected to deploy US public ⁠health officers to ⁠Kenya to staff a potential quarantine facility, intended for Americans who have been exposed to or are at high ⁠risk of testing positive for the virus in the region, as well as for those who have already tested positive.

No Ebola cases have been recorded in Canada, the Bahamas or the US.

Will these measures stop the spread of the virus?

The Bundibugyo strain is a rare, highly fatal species of the Ebola virus, which causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever. It spreads through close physical contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected or deceased person, as well as via contaminated objects. Therefore, all measures limiting contact provide an effective way of containing infections.

At the national level in the DRC and Uganda, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus this week said the response included contact tracing, establishing treatment centres, and infection prevention and control.

However, “the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic”. “We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,” he said.

“But we know this virus, and we know how to stop it,” Tedros added. “We have stopped every previous Ebola outbreak, and we will stop this one, too.”

Is air travel safe?

The United Nations has called on airlines and governments to stick strictly to protocols established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) during the COVID-19 global pandemic. These include using electronic health declarations and contactless border processes, it said on Tuesday.

The ICAO said that, for now, international flights are safe. It urged countries not to close borders or impose restrictions on travel or trade and to focus on exit screening for departing passengers, rather than entry screening for arrivals.

“Exit screening can be implemented in affected countries for all persons at international airports for unexplained illness associated with fever and consistent with other symptoms of potential BVD,” the ICAO said in a statement.

Michele Spagnuolo allegedly used insider information to profit from bets on people on Google’s most-searched list.

A Google software engineer has been charged with fraud by US authorities after allegedly using insider information to win more than $1.2m in bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket.

Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, is accused of using confidential information to wager on the results of Google’s annual most-searched list, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday.

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US prosecutors accuse Spagnuolo of using an account named “AlphaRaccoon” to make trades on various markets linked to the results of Google’s 2025 Year in Search.

The total sum of the bets was approximately $2.75m, according to the complaint, filed in federal court in New York.

Among the bets, Spagnuolo successfully predicted that indie pop musician d4vd would top the list for the most-searched for person last year, hours after accessing confidential data at Google, according to prosecutors.

Spagnuolo, 36, faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted,” Clayton added.

Bets on Maduro’s capture

Google said in a statement that it is working with law enforcement and that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policy.

Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson.

A Polymarket spokesperson said the company had worked closely with the US Attorney’s Office on the investigation and that the firm “is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States”.

“We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement,” the spokesperson added.

Last month, a US soldier was charged with using classified military information to place bets on Polymarket regarding the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Prosecutors accuse Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of cashing in on the US operation against Maduro, to the tune of more than $400,000.

Former US First Lady Jill Biden has weighed in on her husband’s disastrous performance at the first 2024 presidential debate, a moment that ultimately marked the beginning of the end for his re-election campaign.

In an interview preview published online on Wednesday, the television programme CBS Sunday Morning pressed the former first lady for her response to that moment.

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“ Were you horrified as you saw it unfold?” host Rita Braver asked Jill Biden.

“ I wasn’t horrified,” she responded. “I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never.”

Braver then asked Jill Biden what she thought happened on June 27, 2024, when her husband, then-incumbent Joe Biden, took the debate stage opposite his Republican rival Donald Trump.

“I don’t know what happened,” Jill Biden said. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke’, and it scared me to death.”

A turning point for Biden

Both Joe and Jill Biden have largely stayed out of the spotlight since the 2024 election, which saw Trump be re-elected for a second, if nonconsecutive, term as president.

Critics have largely pointed to the debate performance as tanking Joe Biden’s campaign for a second term and fuelling rumours about his declining health.

The incumbent Democrat was 81 years old at the time. The following year, he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer.

Though Biden had debated Trump twice before, during the 2020 presidential election, his 2024 appearance was widely panned.

On stage, Biden appeared to walk stiffly and struggled to maintain his train of thought. At one point, he trailed off, only to suddenly announce, “We finally beat Medicare.”

The televised debate prompted conversations over the advanced age of both candidates, and whether Biden was fit to continue leading. Members of Biden’s own party called on him to suspend his re-election campaign, which he ultimately did on July 21, 2024, less than four months before the vote.

His vice president at the time, Kamala Harris, won the Democratic nomination, but her brief campaign ended in a loss to Trump.

Since then, Trump has sought to portray Biden as not in control of his own administration. In part, that has served as a rationale for Trump’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s executive actions.

Trump has, for instance, claimed that executive orders and clemency decisions Biden issued were invalid because the Democrat or his staff used an autopen, a signature-producing device Trump himself has employed while in office.

Trump also ordered the Justice Department to investigate whether government officials attempted to conceal any health conditions Biden might have had while in office, including by using the autopen.

The New York Times reported in March that the Justice Department ultimately lacked evidence to bring a case against Biden and his aides.

And Biden himself has waved aside any accusations that he was in cognitive decline while in office.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said in a statement last year. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

Biden sues Justice Department

Trump and his Republican allies have continued to probe the matter of Biden’s health and his mental acuity as president.

Their efforts have been fuelled by a special counsel report issued by Robert Hur, who was tasked with conducting an independent investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.

Hur declined to file charges, but he explained that his decision was motivated, in part, by Biden’s advanced age.

The report described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited”, and Hur doubted whether a jury would believe that Biden retained any classified documents “willfully”.

“At the time of any trial or sentencing, Mr. Biden would be well into his eighties, an age when relatively few people are prosecuted,” Hur wrote, adding: “On balance, his record of service also supports a decision to forgo criminal charges.”

To come to some of his conclusions, Hur cited audio recordings and transcripts of Biden and the ghostwriter on his memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.

The records came largely from 2016 and 2017, before Biden was elected president in 2020. He was out of office at the time.

But Trump’s allies have sought to release the records to the public, framing them as proof that Biden was unfit for public service well before his 2021 inauguration.

The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, is among the groups petitioning for their publication.

On Tuesday, Biden sued the Justice Department to bar the release of the files, citing his right to privacy. The lawsuit explains that Biden told his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, sensitive details of his personal life, including the death of his son, Beau.

“When the U.S. Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular responsibility to protect it from disclosure,” the lawsuit says.

Trump responded to Biden’s lawsuit this week by calling the Democrat a “crooked politician” in a social media post.

The Republican leader has also faced questions about his mental health. Should he serve a full term, Trump will be 82 years old at the conclusion of his presidency, a few months older than Biden was when he left office.

The Trump administration has sought to pressure international officials who scrutinise reported abuses by Israeli forces.

The United States government has returned UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese to a list of sanctioned individuals after a judge had granted a temporary injunction against the designation.

On Wednesday, an update appeared on the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website, indicating that Albanese had been added to the agency’s list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), without offering further details.

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Albanese serves as the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, and her criticism of Israeli policies has made her a target under US President Donald Trump.

In July 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese, accusing her of “lawfare” and “biased and malicious activities” against Israel.

He also cited her recommendation that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, which it ultimately did in November 2024.

The announcement was one in a series of actions the Trump administration has taken against critics it sees as hostile to US and Israeli interests.

The sanctions barred Albanese from entering the US and froze her assets in the country. They also prevented any US-based entity from doing business with her.

Albanese, an Italian citizen, has close ties to the US: Her daughter is a US citizen, and the family maintains a residence in the country.

In February, members of Albanese’s family filed a lawsuit on her behalf, stating that the sanctions had disrupted her life, even preventing her from accessing her bank account.

The lawsuit also accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate those who speak out against Israeli rights abuses.

Albanese has been vocal in her assessment that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a view echoed by leading human rights experts around the world. More than 75,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on the Strip.

Albanese is not alone in facing economic penalties for her work. Since taking office for a second term, Trump is estimated to have issued sanctions against nine ICC judges, as well as prosecutors for the court.

The judges and prosecutors were reportedly involved in probes into abuses by US and Israeli forces.

Legal experts have condemned the sanctions as an assault on international law and an effort to shield the US and its allies from scrutiny.

On May 13, US District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of former President George W Bush, ruled in favour of the Albanese family’s lawsuit, granting a temporary injunction against the sanctions.

Leon found that the Trump administration had used the penalties to curtail Albanese’s constitutionally protected speech. He also stated that Albanese could not be blamed for the ICC’s actions.

“It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions,” Leon wrote. “They are nothing more than her opinion.”

As a result of the ruling, Albanese was removed from the sanctions list this month.

But the Trump administration appealed Leon’s order. It also said it would restore her to the sanctions list as soon as it was able, though it is unclear what prompted Wednesday’s change.

The sentencing of Kenneth Iwamasa concludes the prosecution of five people in connection with the Friends star’s death.

The former personal assistant to actor Matthew Perry has been sentenced to 41 months in prison in connection with the television star’s death from a fatal dose of the hallucinogenic drug ketamine.

On Wednesday, Judge Sherilyn Garnett issued the sentence against Kenneth Iwamasa in a Los Angeles courtroom.

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Iwamasa had testified, as part of a plea agreement, that he injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s request on October 28, 2023, before leaving to run errands. He had no medical training.

When Iwamasa returned, he found Perry’s lifeless body floating in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. Perry was 54 years old at the time.

“I am so sorry to all of you,” Iwamasa told the court. “I’m just so sorry to have done illegal acts I will forever regret. I will take that to my grave.”

The sentencing of Iwamasa concludes the prosecution of five people alleged to have facilitated the actor’s death by helping him access the drug without proper medical supervision.

Perry, best known as the character Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, had been struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction for years.

Prosecutors say he had grown increasingly dependent on ketamine, which is sometimes used to help treat depression. They described Iwamasa as Perry’s “enabler and supplier”, continuing to give him injections despite troubling incidents.

Iwamasa allegedly gave Perry more than 25 shots of the drug in the days leading to his death, including three on the day he died.

Court papers state that the Friends star had asked the 61-year-old Iwamasa to “shoot me up with a big one” in his final moments.

An autopsy report found that Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine”.

Perry’s stepfather Keith Morrison addressed the court on Wednesday to denounce Iwamasa’s actions.

“You kept injecting him with more,” Morrison said. “You could have called somebody.”

Prosecutors also successfully convicted four other people involved in Perry’s overdose death. Among them was certified drug counsellor Erik Fleming, who was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month for acting as a middleman to help supply Perry with controlled substances.

Two doctors who allegedly profited from his addiction were also convicted and sentenced in December: Mark Chavez and Salvador Plasencia.

Chavez will serve eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Plasencia — who reportedly said of Perry, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” — received a two-and-a-half-year sentence in federal prison.

A British American woman named Jasveen Sangha, who sold drugs to wealthy customers from her Los Angeles apartment, was given a lengthy sentence of 15 years in prison in a decision last month.

Markets betting a deal will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and soothe the deep global economic uncertainty cast by the closure of the vital oil & gas route.

The United States stock market has been hovering near record highs and oil prices have plunged amid new hope that a ceasefire deal between the US and Iran is close.

The rally came on Wednesday as negotiations continued between Washington and Tehran, with markets betting that a deal would reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, easing oil and gas supply concerns and soothing the deep uncertainty afflicting the global economy.

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Oil prices declined sharply after Iran’s state broadcaster said it had obtained a preliminary document outlining a framework for a potential deal.

The price of US crude fell 5.5 percent to settle at $88.68, while Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, decreased to $92 after prices traded above $100 last week.

The report suggested that Iran would allow traffic through the strait at pre-war levels within 30 days. It added that the US would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Prices remained subdued even after the White House dismissed the report as a “complete fabrication”.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent and added to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 243 points, or 0.5 percent, with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 percent higher.

Wednesday is far from the first time markets have rallied amid reports of a possible end to the war, only to slump once more as negotiations fail to deliver a resolution.

However, the strength of the current surge reflects statements over the past week that suggest the two parties may be closer than ever to reaching a deal.

President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that US officials were not yet satisfied with the agreement, “but we will be”.

“I think they’re starting to give us the things that they have to give us,” he said. “And if they do, that’s great, and if they won’t, then the man on my left will have to finish them off,” he said, pointing at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Sticking points

It remains unclear whether the two parties have come to an understanding on the major sticking points, including the fate of about 440 kilogrammes (970lbs) of highly enriched uranium; Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which the US has long insisted it wants to see dismantled in its entirety; Tehran’s ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups in the region.

It is also not clear whether a halt in hostilities in Lebanon would be part of a deal. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that any agreement would have to include that. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week ordered the Israeli military to step up its attacks against Hezbollah.

There are also questions on whether Washington would agree to lift its sanctions against Iran and release millions in frozen assets.

The US president warns that Oman, a US ally, ‘will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up’.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened to use military force against Oman if it collaborates with Iran to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump to weigh in on the idea of Oman and Iran overseeing trade on the strategic waterway, which handles more than 20 percent of the world’s global oil traffic.

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“ Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait?” the reporter asked.

Trump replied with a seemingly offhand threat. “Nobody is going to control it. It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

While there was initial speculation that Trump might have misspoken and said “Oman” instead of “Iran”, the US State Department later shared the comment on social media, with a transcript of the quote that referred to the Arab country.

Oman, which is known for its neutrality, has not said it wants to join Iran in controlling Hormuz. The US and Oman are close allies with a relationship that stretches more than 200 years.

The two countries have multiple cooperation treaties, including security partnerships, a free trade agreement and a science and technology deal.

Oman previously acted as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran as they sought a resolution to the war that began on February 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.

Trump’s apparent threat on Wednesday highlights his increasing reliance on military force in his foreign policy, a strategy sometimes called “gunboat diplomacy”.

But critics were quick to slam the threat as reckless. Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director at the US-based rights group DAWN, likened the US president’s comments to those of a “mafia boss”.

“The UN Charter prohibits the threat of force against any state, and that prohibition binds the United States exactly as it binds everyone else,” Jarrar told Al Jazeera.

“Threatening to ‘blow up’ an Arab country because its waters happen to sit along an oil route Washington wants reopened is the same lawless logic that produced this war in February, and it is the clearest possible signal that any ceasefire this administration brokers will hold only until the next time the president loses his temper at a cabinet meeting.”

Trump’s threat came after Iran’s state television reported on the framework of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries.

The memo draft would reportedly have given Iran and Oman joint control to manage the strait. The Trump administration, however, has called the report “a complete fabrication”.

Hormuz — a major shipping lane for global energy products and agricultural fertiliser — has operated as a free international passageway for decades. But after the US and Israel started bombing Iran in February, Tehran closed the strait and began to assert sovereignty over it.

Parts of the waterway go through Iranian and Omani territorial waters.

During Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Trump also reiterated his call for Arab countries — including Saudi Arabia and Qatar — to establish formal relations with Israel as part of any future US-Iran ceasefire agreement.

Previously, during his first term in office, Trump had helped mediate the so-called Abraham Accords to encourage Arab countries to forge official ties with Israel.

That normalisation push has reemerged in recent days as a top priority for Trump. He has threatened to pull back from negotiations if more Arab countries do not sign on.

“ I think they owe that to us, to be honest,” Trump said at one point during Wednesday’s roundtable.

He later added, “I’m not sure we should make the deal if they don’t sign, if you want to know the truth.”

The White House did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.