Today: US continues strikes in Iran, and Ukraine will get a license for Patriot missiles

Today as it Happened on Wednesday, July 8, 2026: The U.S. launched additional strikes against Iran Wednesday, continuing a wave of back-and-forth attacks this week that have rattled the Gulf region and threatened the U.S. ceasefire with Iran. U.S. Central Command said it aimed to "further degrade [Iranian] ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz." "The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway," Central Command said. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the United States would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture its own Patriot missile interceptors — the system that, more than any other, has kept Russian ballistic missiles from finding their targets in Ukrainian cities across more than four years of war. "We're going to give a license to you to make Patriots," Trump said. "That's pretty cool, right? This way, he can't complain that we're not giving them enough. I say, make them yourself." And attorneys spent much of the third day of the preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk arguing about which evidence the public should be able to see. In the midst of hours of debate between the prosecution and the defense, the court heard from a representative for the victim, who pushed for the proceedings to be open. Attorney Jeffrey Neiman, who said he represented the Kirk family, said they wanted all evidence admitted in court to be made public. ------------------------------------- Follow Scripps News on other platforms— Join our newsletter at https://bit.ly/2q1tepr Follow us on Facebook:   / scrippsnews   Follow us on X: https://x.com/scrippsnews Follow us on Instagram:   / scrippsnews   Follow us on TikTok:   / scrippsnews