MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst makes one thing perfectly clear about the challenge facing the franchise as it moves forward without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“No one’s sitting here today and saying that we’re a better team today after trading Giannis,” Horst said in a Zoom session with reporters Wednesday, two days after the official announcement that the Bucks had dealt the two-time MVP to the Miami Heat. “He’s one of the greatest players to ever play, greatest player in the franchise history.”
But he maintained that making this move was in the best interest of both the Bucks and Antetokounmpo, who had one year remaining on his contract and had said repeatedly he wanted to play on a team committed to competing for championships.
The Bucks are coming off a 32-50 season that snapped a string of nine straight playoff appearances, as injuries limited Antetokounmpo to a career-low 36 games. They haven’t advanced beyond the Eastern Conference semifinals since Antetokounmpo led them to a title in 2021.
Horst said the Bucks didn’t feel forced into making a move because of Antetokounmpo’s contract status. He added that the Bucks remained uncertain regarding their plans for Antetokounmpo when they hired new coach Taylor Jenkins.
“We truly believed we’ve found an opportunity which is unique,” Horst said. “We might be right. We might be wrong. But an opportunity where this is what’s best for him and what he wants to pursue going forward, and this is what’s best for us and what we want to pursue going forward. And that’s why we made the decision. But it wasn’t a ‘have to’ (situation).”
While this trade likely gives Antetokounmpo a better chance of winning a second title in the near future, the Bucks believe they can benefit from starting a new chapter.
The move represents a major change from the Bucks’ offseason approach last year, when they waived Damian Lillard under the NBA’s stretch provision and signed former Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner in a risky attempt to extend their window as a possible contender.
“We went through an offseason last year and we believed that we had an opportunity to maximize something together,” Horst said. “We went through a trade deadline where we assessed whether or not that was still the case. And we went into an offseason this year where we took the same approach. This time around, our assessment was the ultimate opportunity we had with Miami was what was best for the Bucks organization now and going forward, and best for Giannis.”
The package they acquired in the trade that sent Antetokounmpo and veteran forward Bobby Portis to Miami will play a big part in the Bucks’ revamp. They added 2025 All-Star Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, the draft rights to rookie Nate Ament and multiple other draft picks.
Those four former Heat players range in age from 20-26.
As all these young players start working with Milwaukee’s new coach, Horst understands patience will be paramount as the Bucks will need time to learn who they are and how they want to play.
“We’re going to focus on those things each and every day, so that’s the lens that we look through more than winning and losing out of the gate,” Horst said. “So finding the right north star, having the right approach in staying focused and true to that and the patience to do it I think is the way we’re going to get there. But it’s a different era for us, so we’ll learn as we go.”
Horst said there’s a sense of excitement in this new path because he’s excited about learning and trying to solve the problems that naturally will arrive. But he also acknowledged how difficult it was to bid farewell to Antetokounmpo because of how much the 10-time All-Star had meant to the franchise and the community.
The two had been together in Milwaukee for Antetokounmpo’s entire NBA career. Horst was Milwaukee’s director of basketball operations when Antetokounmpo was drafted in 2013 and got promoted to general manager in 2017.
“Giannis will be back in Fiserv (Forum) soon and he’ll be back in Fiserv multiple times,” Horst said. “And I really hope — not hope, I know — that each and every time the standing ovation, the love, the respect, the admiration that he gets from this city and this fan base and this franchise will be felt and will be appropriate for everything he’s meant to all of us.”
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FILE - Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst speaks at a press conference before an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jan. 24, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned that the U.S. is preparing for another night of strikes on Iran, just hours after he said the ceasefire was over because of Iranian attacks.
The remarks capped Trump’s appearance at a two-day NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where the U.S. president surprised his counterparts by launching retaliatory strikes on Iran early Wednesday. He also renewed his past threats to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including electric plants and desalination plants, and to seize the oil-production hub of Kharg Island.
At the summit, Trump also said the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot air defense systems to counter Russian missile attacks — a huge coup for Ukraine, which sorely needs the technology for a war now in its fifth year. The U.S. will also, Trump announced, lift sanctions on Turkey that have barred its access to F-35 jets and lift Syria’s terrorism designation.
Here is the latest:
Iranian state media are reporting explosions, including in the port city of Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, and in Sirik, another southern coastal city.
The U.S. military has announced that they have launched another round of strikes against Iran “to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz” in a post on social media.
The strikes come just a day after the U.S. military hit a variety of military sites and port facilities following Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman and just hours after Trump threatened to unleash more military action.
The social media post said that “the United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
Trump told reporters at a NATO meeting on Wednesday that the U.S. would “probably hit them hard again tonight” but later added that the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action.
“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” Trump said, though he also suggested the U.S. military might “just finish the job.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is encouraging Trump to follow through on additional security assistance for Ukraine and the tightening of sanctions on Russia.
The lawmakers issued a joint statement after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.
The group said that some 35,000 Russian soldiers are being killed or wounded each month for no territorial gain and the Russian economy is slowing.
“It is abundantly clear that Russia is not winning this war,” the lawmakers said.
The U.S. lawmakers say Russian President Vladimir Putin is negotiating for time, not peace.
“Putin is at his weakest position in years and real sustained pressure can finally bring this war to a close,” the lawmakers said in their joint statement.
Three Democratic and three Republican lawmakers issued the joint statement.
In a statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump has told lawmakers that the U.S. will soon remove Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of a yearlong normalization process with the country’s new government.
“Lifting sanctions on Syria will unlock international trade and investment, give Syria a chance to rebuild, and open up a new chapter for the Syrian people,” Rubio said. “A stable, unified Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors benefits not only the region, but the entire world.”
In June 2025, Trump signed an executive order ending several economic sanctions before revoking the terrorism designation a few weeks later for President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took over after the ouster of former leader Bashar Assad in December 2024.
Trump and Erdogan have discussed possible cooperation in the defense industry, the Turkish president said, pointing specifically to the shipbuilding sector.
Erdogan said the two talked about projects including building frigates and submarines, adding that the vessels could be built in Turkish shipyards.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave NATO leaders pistols as gifts at their summit in Ankara.
Starmer told reporters that each weapon was engraved with the recipient’s name and came with a box of ammunition.
The guns came with a note from Erdogan waiving export controls. But the British prime minister left his in Turkey to be decommissioned, because it would be illegal to import it into the U.K.
Erdogan insisted that Trump has a “positive approach” toward the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey.
In his press conference at the end of the two-day summit, the Turkish leader said: “Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise.”
Erdogan dismissed objections from Israel and Greece concerning the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.
Speaking at a closing news conference at the end of the two‑day summit he hosted, the Turkish president said opposition raised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis “have no place in my world.”
Trump had announced during a meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased Russian missile defense systems in 2019. The move led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Wednesday, however, Trump suggested he hadn’t made up his mind concerning the F-35s.
Erdogan, meanwhile, also renewed Turkey’s long-standing offer to mediate between Ukraine and Russia for an end to the war.
The secretary-general is alarmed by the renewed military confrontations in the gulf,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres, told reporters Wednesday. “These incidents risk derailing the diplomatic progress achieved between Iran and the United States.”
He reiterated “the obligation of all parties to fully comply with international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” shortly after Trump repeated his previous threats to target Iran’s electric and desalination plants.
E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Donald Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed her after she publicly revealed the attack, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order that says the money can be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has grown since the verdict.
Carroll’s lawyers had requested the disbursement after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2023 civil verdict.
Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.
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The retaliatory strikes against Iran were conducted by Air Force and Navy fighter jets in the region and lasted about four hours, a U.S. official confirmed Wednesday.
The strikes Tuesday evening hit around eight times more targets than the previous round of retaliatory strikes that were conducted at the end of June — an escalation that was prompted by Iran’s ongoing strikes on merchant shipping in the region.
The official also noted that the Navy’s massive flotilla of warships was not involved in last night’s strikes. The force of 19 ships stationed around the waters of Iran is massive. It includes two aircraft carriers — the USS Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush — as well as an amphibious assault ship carrying over 1,000 Marines, 14 destroyers, a cruiser, and an expeditionary sea base vessel.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing sensitive military operation.
Trump flew to Turkey on his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar.
But he announced in a social media post earlier Wednesday that the plane he had proudly shown off would instead visit Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom so military members could “tour the Aircraft.”
Trump said he would be flying home in an older plane used as Air Force One “for old time’s sake.”
When asked Wednesday if security concerns played a role in the switch, Trump didn’t directly answer but said he was “No. 1 on the list for killing” by Iran.
The U.S. Air Force referred inquiries to the White House.
Images of the jet captured since its unveiling show it is not equipped with some of the same missile-detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets.
“I don’t think it’s going to start again; I think it’s going to go very quickly,” Trump said when asked whether the war was restarting.
He repeated an earlier threat, saying the U.S. “might” strike Iran again tonight, but he insisted it wouldn’t lengthen the war significantly.
“Anything that happens is going to happen very fast,” he said. “We’re not looking for long-term.”
The president played down the risks that an intensifying war with Iran could drive up oil prices, claiming that the world has an “oil glut.”
“This will end very quickly,” Trump said. “We have an oil glut right now, because we got all those boats out of the strait, and it’s going to drop, and I predicted everything.”
Trump spoke as U.S. oil futures topped $75 a barrel in Wednesday afternoon trading, a daily increase of more than 6%.
The International Energy Agency said this week that oil supplies could exceed demand if there is a durable ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that keeps the Strait of Hormuz open. It said any surplus would be driven by a 1.1 million-barrel-a-day drop in global oil demand this year.
“We can play games, but I’m not sure I want to make a deal,” the president said. “Just finish the job.”
Trump has said that the tentative ceasefire with Iran may now be off and is threatening a new round of attacks.
His comments about finishing the job came in response to a question about Trump having previously said that Iran’s leaders were rational and acceptable to deal with, only to now suggest they are “crazy.”
The president said he had a change of heart over Iranian leaders because “I got to know them.” He also suggested that leaders who have emerged in Iran after the war began are no longer looking out for the Iranian people.
Trump said that all of Iran’s anti-aircraft weapons are “gone” but suggested Tehran still can down aircraft, adding immediately: “That doesn’t mean they’re not going to get a plane at some point.”
He then said, “Everything’s gone,” and remarked on how many of Iran’s leaders were taken out.
“You know what? I may be gone too, because I’m their No. 1 target,” Trump said.
Even before the Iran war, federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump for years. The Justice Department in 2024 announced that an Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.
Trump claimed that he’s “No. 1 on TikTok.” He did not specify which metric he used to make that determination, but it’s not true based on follower counts.
As of Wednesday, the Senegalese-Italian influencer Khabane Lame, known for his silent comedy videos, was the most followed user on the platform with 162.3 million followers.
Trump has 16.7 million followers — that doesn’t even put him in the top 50.
During his news conference, Trump said that “all I do is talk about communism” on TikTok and in recent public comments.
The president has spent weeks criticizing progressive Democratic primary winners as communists. But he added a new insult this time, implying that none of those candidates are attractive.
“I don’t see any looker,” Trump said. “I don’t see anyone with the look.”
By way of elaboration, he added, “I guess you need something. They don’t have it and I think they’ll fade fast.”
In reference to more moderate politicians in Europe, Trump said, “These are not social democrats” but instead, “These are communists that are running and they don’t want God.”
The president said “there was tremendous love in that room” that the press didn’t get to witness, including what he said was respect and love for the country.
He told reporters that he didn’t want to say it was for him “because you’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s so conceited. He’s such a conceited person.’”
But he then said that the other leaders like the job he’s doing and “grown people” in the room said, “Sir, we love you.”
Trump then mused on whether what he heard was just flattery, saying: “Maybe they’re trying to get to me. And in a way they did.”
Despite repeated criticism that NATO has done too little to help the United States, Trump was effusive about the warmth he felt as leaders met on Wednesday.
Trump said there was “tremendous love in that room” along with “tremendous unity.”
He described his allies as “very smart people — they have a lot of good in their heart, not evil, good.”
It was a remarkable turn after Trump had renewed his criticisms against European allies.
The president has arrived to give remarks on stage, capping his appearance at the two-day summit. It comes about three hours after his address was initially scheduled.
The German chancellor said it was clearly Iran that violated the ceasefire agreement. He said the U.S. military had struck back on Trump’s orders and “that is justified.”
But he added that “in the end, there must be an agreement with Iran that ends the nuclear program permanently and reopens the Strait of Hormuz permanently.”
Sitting across from al-Sharaa, Trump gave a cautious response when asked about his earlier suggestion that Syria should lead the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“They could help, we’ll find out,” Trump said. “I think we’re making a lot of progress.”
Al-Sharaa wasn’t asked about it at their one-on-one meeting.
Trump raised the idea at the G7 summit last month, saying he thought Syria would do a better job than Israel. Days later, he again criticized Israel’s handling of the situation and said he was “close to giving it to Syria.”
Al-Sharaa has previously said he has no interest in taking on that role.
Al-Sharaa thanked Trump for “the historic decision to lift the sanctions,” saying “the entire Syrian people thank President Trump.”
Trump met al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2025 months after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Since then, his administration has steadily eased U.S. sanctions on Syria.
Ahead of meeting Trump Wednesday, al-Sharaa met with a U.S. congressional delegation that was also in Ankara for the NATO summit, according to Syrian state media.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his expectations of the summit were more than fulfilled.
He said he’s “returning to Germany with the feeling that we made a big contribution to NATO staying together, to it becoming stronger, to it becoming more European.”
Merz said there was “a new feeling of European responsibility in the room.”
The U.S. president said oil prices were rising Wednesday after military attacks intensified with Iran in a troubling sign for peace talks.
“Any time we hit them, it goes up a little bit — $2,” Trump told reporters. “As oil goes, so goes everything else.”
The president has taken conflicting stances on the energy price bump caused by the Iran war, saying it wasn’t a consideration for ending the war and then touting price declines after an interim deal was announced in June.
But Trump’s math was somewhat off. U.S. oil futures were trading Wednesday morning at roughly $75 a barrel, an increase of about $5.
During his sit-down with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Trump was asked if he would remove Syria from the State Department’s state sponsors of terrorism list, which brings a range of sanctions.
“I think I will, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” Trump said. “He’s done a great job,” Trump added, referring to al-Sharaa.
Trump spoke warmly about al-Sharaa, calling him a strong and respected leader who brought together a country that was “a real mess, very disjointed.”
Syria has been on the list since 1979. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for removing Syria from the list, citing improvements after the 2024 ouster of Bashar Assad.
Asked about Trump’s renewed trade threats, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the bilateral relationship with the U.S. “positive” and said Spain had fulfilled its defense spending obligations for 2026.
Sánchez added that he and Trump briefly spoke at the summit in Turkey and shared “nothing but kind words and friendliness.”
“We spoke about football, about the World Cup in the United States,” Sánchez told reporters. “It was an informal chat.”
The Spanish leader downplayed Trump’s threats to cut off trade with Spain, saying his government had taken the comments with “a certain normalcy,” reiterating that the European Union handles trade policy on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, including Spain.
“When one looks beyond these statements, what becomes apparent is that the relationship between the United States and Spain — across social, cultural, economic and political spheres — is very, very positive,” Sánchez said.
Health Minister Mónica García was the first Spanish government official to comment publicly in response to Trump’s renewed trade threats against Spain over its defense spending.
On X, García wrote: “Trump calls Spain a ‘terrible partner’ because it accepts neither blackmail nor threats. Because we are a sovereign, democratic country that defends multilateralism and peace. What is terrible is to confuse diplomacy with bullying.”
Asked about his efforts to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said he’d like to see the leaders of both countries sit down together.
Trump said he’s talked about it with Putin, who he said was open to a meeting but wanted to host in Moscow. Trump said he rejected the idea on behalf of Zelenskyy.
Sitting across from Zelenskyy, Trump asked directly if he would meet in Moscow. The Ukrainian president answered with a quip.
“It’s difficult, there are a lot of Ukrainian drones there,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”
As Trump was heaping praise on Zelenskyy and his country’s efforts in the war with Russia, he commended Ukraine’s use of drones to counter attacks and suggested the U.S. might buy the technology.
It’s a shift for Trump, who had previously been dismissive of Ukraine’s use of the low-cost but effective unmanned aircraft in the war and suggested the U.S. technology and tactics were superior.
Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. makes great drones, but it might buy from Ukraine because “they have an ability to make a lot of them” and called it “amazing.”
“It’s an amazing ability, very cheap,” he said.
“You’re very talented people,” he said to Zelenskyy. “So uh, yeah, I think we’re going to make that deal. You know, if we made that deal, we’d have great protection.”
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks as she arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to reporters upon arrival for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever, right, speaks as he arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks with the media as he arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, right, speaks with the media as Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, left, arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks as he arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson speaks as he arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, and Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda speak with the media as they arrive for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir speaks as she arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks out from his car window as he arrives for the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (Metin Aktaş, Pool Photo via AP)
Members of the Historical Honor Guard stand before the welcoming ceremony for President Donald Trump at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Front row from left, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew G. Whitaker attend the formal welcome for President Donald Trump at the NATO summit at the Bestepe Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
US President Donald Trump and American officials meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish officials at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July, 7, 2026. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
President Donald Trump, right, speaks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he arrives for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (Doğukan Keskinkılıç, Pool Photo via AP)
