The Latest: Trump says Iran will be hit hard for next 2 or 3 weeks

President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks and bring the country “back to the Stone Ages,” even as he touted the success of U.S. operations and argued that all of Washington’s objectives have so far been met or exceeded.

Trump said Iran would continue to face a barrage of attacks in the short term.

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Trump didn’t say anything about negotiations with Iran or bring up the April 6 deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport. He has threatened to attack Iran's energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened.

Trump also did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring. He did not mention the possibility of sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, or NATO, the trans-Atlantic alliance he has railed against for not helping the U.S. secure the waterway.

Oil rose more than 4% and Asian stocks fell after the comments. Oil prices were sharply higher following Trump’s remarks. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 4.9% to $106.16 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 4% to $104.15 a barrel.

U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war continues to push fuel prices higher worldwide. Analysts say those high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses’ transportation and packaging costs pile up.

Here is the latest:

A New York-based think tank said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech suggests he “is willing to leave the Strait of Hormuz off the table, leaving other nations to deal with the consequences.”

“Trump’s message was that the United States can sustain its own economic and energy ecosystem, while countries dependent on regional exports will either have to buy from the United States or manage the Strait themselves,” the Soufan Center wrote.

“While Trump explicitly thanked U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf for their cooperation and allyship, an expedited U.S. withdrawal without securing the Strait will leave many of these countries, whose economies are dependent on energy exports, in the lurch.”

Fuel prices in Thailand soared again on Thursday after the government further cut subsidies, sending diesel price to over 44 baht ($1.35) per liter, about 12% increase.

The surge was the second time in a week, after a majority of fuel prices rose by 6 baht ($0.18) per liter last Thursday.

Democrats are criticizing Trump’s primetime address to the American people on the war in Iran as “incoherent” and as doing little to answer “the most basic questions the American people,” according to statements from two Democratic lawmakers released on Wednesday.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., noted that Trump owed Americans more answers about a conflict that has driven up prices on gas “alongside rising prices for diesel, fertilizer, aluminum, and other essentials, with consequences that will continue to ripple through the economy for a long time to come” in his statement.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., released a statement that said the “speech was grounded in a reality that only exists in Donald Trump’s mind.”

Murphy went on to add that “no one in America, after listening to that speech, knows whether we are escalating or deescalating.”

Oil rose more than 4% and Asian stocks fell after U.S. President Donald Trump said in his first national address since the Iran war began that the U.S. will keep hitting Iran very hard.

Trump also said the United States will “finish the job” in Iran and that military operations could wrap up soon.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.4% to 53,004.81 in early Asia trading on Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.4% to 5,292.36. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8% to 25,082.59.

U.S. futures were down more than 0.7%.

Oil prices were sharply higher following Trump’s remarks. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 5% to $106.22 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 4.2% to $104.36 a barrel.

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A man with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon sits on a bed at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A girl plays badminton during the annual public picnic day, known as Sizdeh Bedar, an ancient tradition, marking the 13th and last day of Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, holidays, at Mellat park in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

President Donald Trump arrives from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Members of civic groups hold signs against the U.S. and Israel attacks on Iran near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A family who fled Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon warm themselves by a bonfire next to tents used as shelters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People stand near a damaged van beside scattered debris following an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 22, 2026--

Blair Health, a clinical infrastructure company that enables generalist healthcare providers to deliver specialist-level care, has raised CAD $4.24 million in pre-seed financing, marking the company's first institutional round and bringing total capital raised to date to CAD $4.5 million. The oversubscribed round was co-led by Business Development Bank of Canada's (BDC) Thrive Venture Fund, Accelia Capital, and Ogaei, with participation from Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) through its Life Sciences Innovation Fund (LSIF), and angel investors.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260922407114/en/

Blair will use the funding to accelerate engineering and product development, expand its commercial presence across Canada and into the U.S., and invest in the clinical operations, provider network, team and infrastructure required to scale the business. This includes growing its employer channel in Canada, collaborating with public-sector health systems, and expanding its U.S. employer business.

“The fundamental problem in healthcare today is that the traditional model for delivering specialist care doesn’t scale,” said Madge Rumman, co-founder and CEO of Blair Health. “We’ve spent the last year proving that specialist knowledge can be encoded into technology without removing the clinician from care, and that the same architecture can be applied across specialties. The clinical infrastructure we are building enables specialist expertise to reach far more patients, particularly in areas of medicine where backlogs are greatest and subspecialists are scarce.”

A clinical model built to scale access to specialist care

Blair's clinical infrastructure is built with medical subspecialists, encoding their assessment logic, guideline-informed treatment protocols, escalation triggers, and follow-up pathways into software. That infrastructure enables Blair's in-house nurse practitioners and family physicians to deliver specialist-level care, with subspecialists providing oversight and support for complex cases. It is also why patients can see a provider within days instead of waiting months or years for an appointment.

Blair is also built around what happens between appointments. Patients track their symptoms over time, and those trends feed back into the care plan so treatment is adjusted based on evidence. Each patient receives guidance personalized to their own assessments and clinical diagnoses, and can message their provider between visits.

“Expanding access to specialized care is a significant opportunity to improve outcomes for women while building innovative healthcare businesses,” said Roxanne Turcotte, SVP, Inclusive and Government Funds, BDC. “This investment reflects our fund's commitment to backing women-led companies with strong growth potential and BDC's mandate to help Canadian innovators scale and create lasting economic impact.”

From clinical validation to national scale

Blair proved its model in menopause, one of the largest specialist backlogs in Canadian healthcare, where women can wait up to two years for an appointment. The menopause pathway was built with Blair co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lindsay Shirreff, one of the few fellowship-trained menopause subspecialists practising in Canada, and was clinically validated against Blair's own clinical data set ahead of commercial launch in May 2025.

“The menopause pathway performs at 98.7% clinical accuracy, and we can train a provider to deliver it in under four hours,” adds Dr. Shirreff.

Blair also established that the architecture behind its clinical model extends across specialties. Working with leading specialists, the company has built new verticals in urology and pelvic health, led by urologist Dr. Sarah Peltz, and in clinical nutrition and weight management, led by Dr. Pooja Singhal, a board-certified gastroenterologist and obesity medicine physician. Each new vertical runs on the same technology stack.

Blair launched direct-to-consumer in May 2025 and has since grown to more than 2,300 users in Canada. Between 55 and 65 percent of steady-state visits are follow-ups, which reflects a longitudinal care model rather than one-off consultations.

Blair is available to women in every Canadian province, with French-language provider matching, and in six U.S. states, with more to come.

Employer pilots converting into annual workplace benefit contracts

In the U.S., employers are absorbing healthcare costs that rise every year without producing answers. Women cycle through appointments, referrals, and tests and still leave without a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and the employer pays for every step. When offered as a workplace benefit, Blair gives employees direct access to specialist-level assessment and treatment, so plan spend goes toward resolving a condition.

Blair piloted its employer offering in Canada with leading organizations across professional services, hospitality, and financial services, and those pilots have converted into recurring annual contracts. The employer channel went from close to zero a year ago to roughly half of Blair's revenue in the first half of 2026.

Fairmont Royal York introduced Blair to colleagues through an onsite education session before moving to a paid pilot. “Even employers with strong health and wellness programs can have gaps when it comes to supporting women’s health needs across different stages of life,” said Ian McLaren, Health & Wellness Manager at Fairmont Royal York. “Working with Blair Health has shown us how important it is to give colleagues timely access to specialist care and resources that meet those needs. When employees feel their health is understood and supported, it can have a meaningful impact on their wellbeing, confidence and how they experience work.”

“Women's health remains one of the largest underserved opportunities in healthcare, and Blair Health is tackling this gap with a fundamentally different approach,” said Catherine Poulin-Filion, Partner at Accelia Capital. “What stood out to us was the team's ability to rethink how care can be delivered rather than simply digitizing an existing model. Blair has paired a significant market need with a strong clinical foundation and a clear vision for building a new category of healthcare company.”

About Blair Health

Blair Health is a clinical infrastructure company building technology that scales specialist medical knowledge. Its proprietary clinical models encode specialist-designed assessments, clinical pathways, treatment protocols, guardrails and escalation rules into software that enables generalist healthcare providers to deliver specialist-level care with continuous clinical oversight. Blair currently provides specialist-designed care across menopause and perimenopause, urology and pelvic health, and clinical nutrition and weight management, across Canada and in a growing number of U.S. states. For more information, visit Blair Health online.

Blair was co-founded in December 2024 by Madge Rumman, Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Lindsay Shirreff, Chief Medical Officer