Dan Williams and Arsalan Shahla

(Bloomberg) — The US and Israel began striking targets across Iran, with President Donald Trump urging Iranians to overthrow the government in a conflict that threatens to spiral across the oil-rich Middle East.

“The hour for your freedom is at hand,” Trump said, addressing Iranians in a video posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “When we’re finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

The military campaign could be a defining moment for Trump, risking a drawn-out regional war that leads to a surge in energy prices and American casualties ahead of mid-term elections this year. Iran quickly responded by firing missiles on Israel and US bases around the region, and countries in the Persian Gulf closed their airspace.

Israel’s military said the campaign would target “dozens of military targets,” and Iran media reported strikes on defensive and civilian sites, including more than 50 people dead in a strike on a school in Hormozgan, in the south of the country. Several large explosions were reported in the capital, Tehran.

Iran answered with a wave of missile and drone attacks at Israel and countries hosting the US military. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said all US bases and interests in the region would be targeted, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. Bahrain said an American base in that country had come under attack, and Qatar and the UAE said they intercepted missiles in their airspace. Blasts were heard in Dubai.

The response outweighed Iran’s retaliation to Israeli airstrikes in June — both in scale and speed — as Tehran treats the conflict as an existential threat. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held calls with counterparts in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq, according to a ministry statement, urging them to prevent the US and Israel from using their territory to attack the Islamic Republic.

The prospect of a weeks-long, regional war is a nightmare scenario for US allies in the Gulf such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They pushed hard for Iran and the US to agree a diplomatic solution to their impasse over Tehran’s nuclear activities, fearing the chaos and flight shutdowns now unfolding could hit their economies and deter tourists as well as foreign investment.

Amid the possibility of US strikes in the energy-rich region, oil prices rose last week. Brent crude increased as much as 3.2% to $73 per barrel in London on Friday, the highest intraday price since July, after gaining almost 20% in the year to date on US-Iran tensions. Oil markets are closed for the weekend.

Trump said the military operation began after Iran refused to renounce nuclear weapons, which Tehran has repeatedly said it isn’t pursuing. He’s expected to address the nation about Iran later Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The US aims to destroy the Islamic Republic’s missile inventory and industry as well as its navy, the president said. The Associated Press said at least one strike took place near the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iranian officials and their military capabilities are the focus of the campaign, declining to comment on whether Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian are targets.

The official cited a sharp acceleration in Iran’s missile production and fortification of nuclear sites as a reason for the renewed attack.

“A short time ago, the US military began major combat operations in Iran,” Trump said. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

“My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to US personnel in the region,” the US leader added. “Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now, we’re doing this for the future.”

The operation is expected to continue for several days, Reuters said, citing a US official it didn’t identify.

The attacks came two days after delegations from Iran and the US met in Switzerland for a third round of negotiations on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.

What We Know About Iran’s Nuclear Program: QuickTake

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told CBS television on Friday night there was a “breakthrough” in the negotiations, citing Iran’s agreement not to stockpile highly enriched uranium. While Iran also sounded upbeat about the trajectory of the talks, Trump responded by saying that he wasn’t happy with how they were unfolding.

The US has in recent weeks amassed its largest military buildup in decades in the Middle East, with Trump indicating more ambitious goals than the limited strikes he ordered against Iran’s atomic installations in June of last year.

In addition to demanding that Iran give up its nuclear program, he vowed to support protesters who have faced a deadly crackdown from Iranian authorities in recent months.

US officials also called on Tehran to curtail its support for proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah, as well as its missile program, which they describe as a critical threat to Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a state of emergency as he announced Saturday’s strikes, and said the country expected to come under retaliatory drone and missile attacks. Sirens sounded throughout Israel, according to the military.

OPEC+ will consider the option of a larger oil supply increase when key members meet on Sunday, after the Israel strikes, according to a delegate. The group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia was expected to resume modest production increases from April after a three-month supply freeze, several delegates said earlier this week.

Trump on Friday downplayed concerns about the likelihood of oil prices spiking if he attacks Iran, saying, “I’m concerned about people’s lives. I’m concerned about long-term health for this country.”

–With assistance from John Harney, Michael Gunn, Galit Altstein, Eltaf Najafizada and Dana Khraiche.

(Updates with Iran foreign minister comment in sixth paragraph.)

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By David Welch

Bloomberg

General Motors Co. cut hundreds of jobs on Friday, just days after raising its profit guidance for the year in a move that sent the shares soaring.

The automaker laid off more than 200 salaried staff, mostly at its Tech Center in Warren. The message was delivered around 7 a.m., when the company called some of the affected employees to a Slack channel to say that the firings were due to “business conditions” and not their performance, according to people familiar with the meeting who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

GM has been streamlining the company to boost profits at a time when automakers are trying to cope with President Donald Trump’s changing policies. Tariffs have added costs that automakers mostly have not offset with higher prices, and they are reining in investments for electric vehicles that are selling slowly as the government eliminates incentives.

Earlier this week, GM reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter, sending its stock to the best one-day gain in more than five years. The carmaker boosted its profit forecast for the year, helped in part by policy changes that are supporting sales of high-margin, gas-powered SUVs and trucks.

Trump on Friday pointed to the performance of GM and Ford Motor Co. as indications that his tariff policies are working, saying in a social media post that the two automakers are “UP BIG.”

GM’s shares rose 2.4% as of 10:07 a.m. in New York.

Duplicate jobs

When deciding on positions to cut, the company looked through its white collar ranks to find duplicate jobs and ways to work more efficiently, said one of the people familiar with the matter.

In a statement to Bloomberg, a GM spokesman attributed the cuts to changes within its design engineering ranks, that resulted in the elimination of computer-aided design staff.

“We’re restructuring our design engineering team to strengthen our core architectural design engineering capabilities,” the company said via email. “As a result, a number of CAD execution roles have been eliminated. We recognize the efforts and accomplishments of the impacted team members, and we thank them for their contributions.”