Tehran activates air defenses as US continues strikes

Air defenses were activated around Tehran early on Wednesday as U.S. launched its 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran.

Reporting from the Iranian capital, a China Media Group (CMG) crew captured footage of Tehran's air defense systems being continuously activated in the wee hours of Wednesday.

According to Iran's Nour News, the air defenses were in response to hostile targets entering the capital's airspace.

Multiple Iranian provinces came under U.S. attacks early Wednesday, including Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Ilam and East Azerbaijan. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X Tuesday that the strikes were "designed to continue degrading Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."

In a statement released early Wednesday, the Iranian Army said it launched a large number of suicide drones against ammunition depots and logistics facilities of the command center of the U.S. army's ground forces at Camp Doha in western Kuwait, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

According to an earlier statement carried by Tasnim, the Iranian Army said its suicide drones struck accommodation and welfare buildings and an equipment warehouse used by the U.S. military at the al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan, and subsequently targeted large equipment warehouses and aircraft maintenance hangars at the Shaikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.

Iran's main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned early Wednesday that if the United States attacks Iran's nuclear and other sensitive sites, Tehran will consider it as an expansion of the war in the region and launch a "powerful attack" against the interests of the United States, its allies and supporters, Iranian state media reported.

The warning was in response to a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said Tuesday the United States would strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility "pretty soon", referring to a fortified underground facility in the Isfahan Province that Tehran declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2020 as the future site of an advanced centrifuge assembly plant.

Tehran activates air defenses as US continues strikes

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a phased tariff plan on generic drugs on Tuesday, which he said will promote the return of generic drug production to the United States.

In a post on social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that starting August 1 of this year, the U.S. will continue to exempt all imported generic drugs from tariffs for the next two years.

In the third year, a 100-percent import tariff will apply to generic drugs.

Starting in the fourth year, the import tariff on generic drugs will surge to 200 percent.

Trump said that this move aims to encourage the return of generic drug production to his country and to penalize companies that fail to build factories and facilities in the U.S. within the specified time frame.

U.S. policies regarding patented drugs, brand-name drugs, and innovative drugs will remain unchanged.

According to media reports, generic drug companies find it difficult to absorb the costs of high tariffs due to their low profit margins and reliance on global manufacturing networks.

Once implemented, these measures are expected to deal a severe blow to major generic drug exporting countries such as India.

Trump unveils phased tariff plan on generic drugs