US president Donald Trump met with oil and gas executives at the White House yesterday, Axios reported.

Among the attendees was Chevron CEO Mike Wirth. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were also at the meeting.

A White House official told the media outlet: ‘The president meets with energy executives frequently to get their feedback on domestic and international energy markets.’

They added that domestic production, progress in Venezuela, oil futures, natural gas and shipping were all discussed.

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You can find the latest stories on the conflict in the Middle East on the Daily Mail homepage.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US is considering reducing the number of its troops in Germany, amid a row with the country’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war.

‘The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,’ Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The United States had more than 35,000 troops in Germany in 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service, although the number is now believed to be higher, with German media saying it’s nearer 50,000.

During both of his terms in office, Trump has made many threats to slash US troop numbers in Germany and other European allies as part of his criticism of the NATO alliance.

Officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are banned from Canada, the country’s government said on Wednesday after Iranian football federation officials arrived at Toronto airport and decided to immediately return home, citing their treatment by immigration officials.

Donald Trump said today that Vladimir Putin had offered to assist in the war with Iran during a telephone call, specifically in relation to enriched uranium.

‘He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment. He can help us get it.’

A woman holds up pictures of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, left, and his father, the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims’ Imam, and supporting the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Girls sing a song as they clench their fists next to the portraits of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in a state-organised rally celebrating the birthday of Imam Reza, the 8th Shiite Muslims’ Imam, and showing their support to the supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 29, 2026

A woman holds a poster depicting Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026

People chant during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026

A man holds a flag with a picture of late leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by airstrikes last year and faced less intense attacks in this year’s US-Israeli war, the head of the UN nuclear agency told The Associated Press.

Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Tuesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has satellite images showing the effects of the latest US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and that ‘we continue to get information.’

IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched a 12-day war that saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear sites.

The UN nuclear watchdog believes a large percentage of Iran’s highly enriched uranium ‘was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and it has been there ever since,’ Grossi said.

‘We haven’t been able to inspect or to reject that the material is there and that the seals – the IAEA seals – remain there,’ he said. ‘I hope we’ll be able to do that, so what I tell you is our best estimate.’

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing questioning on Wednesday from lawmakers for the first time since President Donald Trump’s administration launched the war against Iran, which Democrats have contested as a costly conflict of choice waged without congressional approval.

The chief financial official for the Pentagon told lawmakers that the estimated cost of the war with Iran is $25 billion so far.

During the hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said that most of the expense has been on munitions, but the military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement.

An explosion erupts following strikes near Azadi Tower close to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026

Donald Trump has claimed King Charles ‘would have probably helped’ the US with its military operations in Iran.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday, the US president said: ‘The King is fantastic. We spent a lot of time together. We talked a lot. We talked about this also. He loves his country, and he’s a great King. And he’s a great friend.

‘I think if he were doing that, if that were up to him, he would have probably helped us with Iran.’

Iran’s national rial currency dropped to a record low on Wednesday.

Experts warn that the rial’s slide is likely to further fuel inflation in a country where many imported goods, from food and medicine to electronics and raw materials, are affected by the dollar rate.

The blockade has cut into a key source of government revenue and hard currency by stopping or intercepting oil shipments. Iran’s leaders are betting that an economy built to be self-reliant under decades of international sanctions can endure the pain.

An attack on a police patrol in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan killed three officers on Wednesday, the Fars news agency reported.

The official IRNA news agency said that one officer was killed and three were injured when ‘armed individuals opened fire on a police patrol’ in Zahedan.

State TV later said one of the injured officers died of his wounds, while several hours later, Fars reported a third officer had died.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the site of frequent clashes between security forces and insurgents or smugglers.