U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants, saying the “New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!” in a Truth Social post.

Trump did not elaborate on what needed to be “done,” but said the U.S. “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.”

Hours later, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reportedly claimed that a U.S. F-35 fighter jet was shot down over central Iran. Images of the jet were posted on Telegram, with one photo that appeared to show the words “U.S. Air Forces in Europe” on what appeared to be the tail section of a plane.

The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, and Iranian authorities did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Trump’s latest threat came a day after a nationwide address in which he said the U.S. military would hit Iran “extremely hard” for the next two or three weeks. He added that the U.S. would “bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

Hours after his speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck a defiant tone on X, saying that “there was no oil or gas being pumped in the Middle East back then,” referring to Trump’s stone age remarks.

“Are POTUS and Americans who put him in office sure that they want to turn back the clock?” Araghchi said.

Iran has effectively shut tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil route, after the U.S. and Israel attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to send Iran back to the “stone age” as the war entered its second month and the U.S. military build-up in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.

Despite reports of overtures from the U.S., including ceasefires and a 15-point peace plan to end the war, Iran has publicly contradicted multiple reports about negotiations with the Trump administration on numerous occasions.

Tehran had described the 15-point proposal as “extremely maximalist and unreasonable,” according to an Al Jazeera report on March 25, citing a high-ranking diplomatic source.

Trump said Wednesday that Iran’s “New Regime President” had asked Washington for a ceasefire, a claim that Tehran has denied. Trump has not specified who the “President” is.

“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!,” he wrote.

Attacks on power plants could constitute a war crime and violate international law, legal experts said.

In a letter dated Thursday and signed by over 100 law experts, the group said international law prohibits attacks on “objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes.”

Trump had also earlier said that he could target water desalination plants in Iran.

The Gulf Cooperation Council on Thursday called on the United Nations Security Council to take “all necessary measures to ensure the immediate cessation of Iranian aggressions against the Council states.”

The six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have come under attack from Iranian missiles and drones as the war entered its second month.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said that its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by drones early on Friday.

Jassim Albudaiwi, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said that while the bloc does not seek war, Iran had “exceeded all red lines” and described Tehran’s attacks as “treacherous.”

Bahrain, the current rotating president of the Security Council, has led an effort to pass a U.N. resolution to ​authorize “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

But the proposal reportedly stalled after veto-wielding Security Council members China, Russia and France objected to the draft resolution, which would have authorized military action against Iran.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last week pushed back when asked whether stagflation posed a threat to the U.S. economy. His successor may face a tougher challenge, as Wall Street forecasters raise their expectations of recession, brought on in part by the Iran war and potential for higher prices.

In recent days, economists have pulled up their risk assessments of a U.S. contraction amid heightened uncertainty over geopolitical risk and a labor market that for the past year has shown strains over the past year.

Moody’s Analytics’ model has raised its recession outlook for the next 12 months to 48.6%. Goldman Sachs boosted its estimate to 30%. Wilmington Trust has the odds at 45%, while EY Parthenon has it at 40%, with the caveat that “those odds could rapidly rise in the event of a more prolonged or severe Middle East conflict.”

In normal times, the risk for a recession in any given 12-months span is around 20%. So while the current predictions are hardly certainties, they signify elevated risk.

The situation poses a tough challenge for policymakers who are being asked to balance threats to the labor market against sticky inflation.

“I’m concerned recession risks are uncomfortably high and on the rise,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Recession is a real threat here.”

Talk of an economic contraction has accelerated as the war with Iran has dragged on.

An oil shock has preceded virtually every recession the U.S. has seen since the Great Depression, save for the Covid pandemic. Prices at the pump have risen by $1.02 a gallon over the past month, an increase of 35%, according to AAA.

While economists still debate the pass-through impact from higher energy, the trend has held.

“The negative consequences of higher oil prices happen first and fast,” Zandi said. “If oil prices stay kind of where they are through Memorial Day, certainly through the end of the second quarter, that’ll push us into recession.”

Like his fellow forecasters, Zandi said his “baseline” expectation is that the warring sides find a diplomatic off-ramp, oil flows again through the Strait of Hormuz and the economy can avoid a worst-case scenario.

To be sure, economists as a lot are negative and subject to the old trope about predicting nine of the last five recessions. Markets also have been wrong about where the economy is headed. A portion of the yield curve — or the spread between various Treasury maturities — most closely watched by the Fed has sent repeated false recession signals for much of the past 3½ years.

But the threat of a prolonged war, pressure on a consumer who drives more than two-thirds of all growth, and a labor market that created virtually no jobs in 2025 collectively raises the risk that the expansion could falter.

“That path through is increasingly narrow, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to see the other side,” Zandi said.

Consumers also are pessimistic. Consumer site NerdWallet said its March survey showed 65% of respondents expect a recession in the next 12 months, up 6 percentage points from the month before.

Beyond energy prices, economists say the labor market is a key pressure point.

The U.S. economy created just 116,000 jobs for all of 2025 and lost 92,000 in February. While the unemployment rate has held steady at 4.4%, that’s largely been because of a dearth of firing rather than a burst in hiring.

Indeed, stocks have had a rough ride during the war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen more than 5% during the hostilities — important because consumer spending and sentiment have been supported by higher-income households benefiting most from rising equity prices.

Gross domestic product is on track to grow at a 2% pace in the first quarter, according to the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker of rolling data. However, that’s coming off an increase of just 0.7% in the fourth quarter, the product in part of the government shutdown. Economists had expected that the drain on growth in Q4 would translate to a boost in Q1, but the effects of that appear to be modest.

Still, if global leaders can find an end to the war soon, the economy again is expected to skirt the gloomiest predictions. Stimulus from the One Big Beautiful Bill in 2025 is projected to goose growth, with lower regulations and a boost in tax returns that could help consumers cope with elevated prices. A sustained rise in production also is a factor in the economy’s favor.

“There is support underneath,” said North, the Allianz economist. “That makes me real hesitant to use the ‘R’ word. But certainly, I think we’re seeing a slowdown this year.”

Gold, silver and platinum resumed their recent sell-off this week, falling sharply as investors continue to retreat from precious metals as a safe haven trade amid the ongoing war in Iran.

The price of spot gold was seen 7.8% lower shortly after 7:30 a.m. in London (3:30 a.m. ET) on Monday, at $4,126.36.80.

Gold futures were down almost 10% at $4119.10, the lowest level seen so far in 2026.

The precious yellow metal lost almost 10% last week in its worst showing since September 2011. Spot gold has now lost around 25% since hitting a record high of $5,594.92/oz at the end of January.

Spot silver, meanwhile, was down 8.3% at $62.24, a year-to-date low and almost half of its $117 level on Feb. 28, when the Iran war began. Silver futures were trading 11.7% lower on Monday at $61.66.

The sell-off extended to other precious metals, with platinum futures plummeting 10.6% to $1,760.90, while palladium dropped 6.7% to $1,347.50.

The retreat from gold — which is traditionally seen as a key safe haven asset in times of market turmoil — chimes with the ongoing risk-off sentiment in markets as the Iran conflict fuels concerns over inflation and rising energy prices.

The prospect of higher interest rates as a result of the war could boost government bonds among investors, at the expense of non-yielding precious metals, market strategists told CNBC recently.

However, euro zone government bond yields were once again moving higher in early trading on Monday as the conflict’s latest escalation left few hiding places for investors.

Israel’s Defense Forces said Wednesday that Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib had been killed in a “targeted strike” in Tehran, marking the third assassination of a high-ranking official in just two days.

“Khatib played a significant role during the recent protests throughout Iran, including the arrest & killing of protestors and led terrorist activities against Israelis & Americans around the world,” the IDF said in a post on social media.

“Similarly, he operated against Iranian citizens during the Mahsa Amini protests (2022–2023),” they added.

Iran has not yet commented on reports of Khatib’s death.

It comes after Israel said Tuesday that Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani and the commander of Iran’s Basij forces, Gholamreza Soleimani, had both been killed. Iran’s official judiciary news agency later confirmed the killing of Soleimani, the Associated Press reported.

According to AP, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council released a statement confirming Larijani was killed “along with his son Morteza Larijani and the head of his office, Alireza Bayat, as well as several guards.”

The IDF said Khatib was appointed to his position in 2021 by Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in strikes aimed at high-ranking Iranian officials at the beginning of the war on Feb. 28.

Iran has since retaliated by attacking its Gulf neighbors and targeting ships trying to pass through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran entered its 19th day on Wednesday, with Israel launching a series of strikes on Lebanon’s capital of Beirut as it continues its offensive against Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Iran and its allied military groups have launched a series of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, amplifying fears of a sprawling regional crisis.

This report is from this week’s CNBC’s UK Exchange newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

It was no surprise, when equity markets first reacted to news of the strikes on Iran, that the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell by less than all of its major continental European peers.

Accordingly, when QatarEnergy suspended LNG production at the Ras Laffan and Mesaieed industrial cities on Monday, U.K. natural gas futures rose by more than 40%.

UK PM Keir Starmer suffers major blow after his party comes third in key vote. The result in Gorton and Denton, in Greater Manchester, is likely to intensify speculation about Starmer’s position,

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Tuesday that interest rate cuts aren’t appropriate until there’s more evidence that inflation is on its way down.

With recent indicators showing that inflation well off its highs but still above the Fed’s 2% target, Goolsbee noted that policymakers “have been burned by assuming transitory inflation” in the past and shouldn’t make the same mistake again.

“I feel that front-loading too many rate cuts is not prudent in that circumstance,” he said in remarks before the National Association for Business Economics at its annual gathering in Washington, D.C. “People express that prices are one of their most pressing concerns. Let’s pay attention. Before we cut rates more to stimulate the economy, let’s be sure inflation is heading back to 2%.”

The most recent inflation data, for December, showed core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, running at 3%, as measured by the consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s primary forecasting gauge. That was up 0.2 percentage point from November and came somewhat due to tariffs, which are viewed as temporary, but also from underlying pressures in the service sector and areas not directly impacted by the duties.

Specifically, Goolsbee said stubbornly high housing inflation isn’t tariff driven, emphasizing the need for the Fed to be “vigilant.”

Goolsbee noted that a 3% inflation rate “is not good enough — and it’s not what we promised when the Federal Reserve committed to the 2% target. Stalling out at 3% is not a safe place to be for a myriad of reasons we know all too well.” He has said previously that he thinks the Fed will be able to cut later in the year.

The remarks come with markets expecting the Federal Open Market Committee, of which Goolsbee is a voter this year, to stay on hold until at least June and probably July. Futures traders are placing about a 50-50 chance of a cut in June and about a 71% probability of a July cut, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge. The Fed enacted three quarter-percentage-point cuts in the latter part of 2025.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who has been an advocate for lower rates, took a more measured approach Monday while also speaking to the NABE conference.

Though Waller said he thinks policymakers should “look through” tariff impacts, he said recent data show the labor market may be in better shape than previously indicated, mitigating the need for further cuts. If the jobs picture continues to improve, that would further lessen the case for cuts, though he said he isn’t convinced that the January nonfarm payrolls data wasn’t “more noise than signal.”

Tuesday will be an active day Fed speakers, with Governor Lisa Cook also due to present to the NABE later in the morning.