Category Archives: Trump administration

Iran strikes tankers under US escort in Hormuz strait as Trump gathers cabinet to discuss war

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Energy prices have soared again since fighting between US and Iran resumed two weeks ago as conflict spreads across Middle East

Iran has said it struck two tankers trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz under the escort of the US military as Donald Trump gathered his cabinet to discuss the stalling war and rising prices as midterm elections in the US loom.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday that the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions”. The military body said the ships had tried to pass through the strait via an “undeclared route” and under US aerial escort.

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Trump says ‘complete disarmament’ of Hamas agreed in Gaza but Israel yet to accept

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US president hails breakthrough but Israeli far-right minister says ‘only solution’ is ‘encouraging emigration and destroying Hamas’

Donald Trump has declared a breakthrough in negotiations over the disarmament of Hamas in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, issues that have so far stalled the implementation of last October’s ceasefire, but Israel has yet to respond officially to the plan and government officials have voiced scepticism over the deal.

Announcing the agreement in a social media post on Thursday night, Trump said it involved the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza and was “a monumental step toward ending the fighting”.

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A quarter of young Africans believe USAID cuts could be positive, survey finds

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Losing funds should force leaders to confront their own challenges, they said, while many voiced concerns over increasing foreign influence

A quarter of young Africans believe aid cuts by the US could have a positive impact, saying that losing foreign money will force leaders to confront and solve their own challenges, according to a new survey.

In Ghana and Nigeria, almost half (41% and 40% respectively) of young people aged 18 to 24 were optimistic, with Liberia not far behind (37%). A further one in 10 (11%) young people were uncertain about the impact, according to the African Youth Survey, which interviewed almost 5,000 people across 16 of the continent’s 54 recognised countries.

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US hits dozens of targets in Iran overnight as peace efforts under threat

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Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing

The US struck Iran overnight and Tehran retaliated at US allies in the region, reigniting the low-intensity, tit-for-tat war as mediators struggled to pull the two countries back to the negotiating table.

The US carried out overnight strikes on Iran – the first in more than five days – hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops.

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Trump’s pick for US attorney general Todd Blanche in jeopardy as vote postponed

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Republican John Cornyn says he will not back nomination without written confirmation $1.8bn slush fund is dead

Todd Blanche’s hopes of becoming US attorney general seemed to be in jeopardy on Wednesday after the Department of Justice did not provide written assurances to a key Republican senator that a $1.8bn slush fund was dead.

The US Senate judiciary committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday on whether to advance Blanche’s nomination.

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‘Each day feels like the last’: Haitians with TPS on edge as confusion clouds US work status

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US employers and Haitian immigrants live in constant uncertainty as status of work permits remains in limbo

For more than a month, Bobby Kuchinsky arrived at his Florida restaurant each morning worried about whether he still had enough staff or if this might be the last shift for some of his Haitian workers, who have spent more than a decade as cooks, busboys and oyster shuckers.

On Tuesday, he suspended six of them after they lost authorization to work in the US.

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US joins forces with Saudis to strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

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Oil price spikes after flare-up of fighting and claimed Iranian attacks on three tankers in strait of Hormuz

The US military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The strikes on Wednesday killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.

In what Washington cast ⁠as “an attempted surprise ⁠attack” by Tehran, Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Iran’s target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying.

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‘Not standard’ for Taylor Farms to ask White House to delay cyclospora recall, ex-FDA head says

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Scott Gottlieb responds to report that company contacted the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement

Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that it was “not standard operating procedure” for Taylor Farms to ask the White House to intervene as the company prepared to announce a recall tied to a massive cyclospora outbreak.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Gottlieb was asked about a report from the Wall Street Journal that Taylor Farms contacted the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement while federal investigators were preparing to publicly link the company to the multi-state outbreak.

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Trump ‘border czar’ says ICE officer in Maine killing should not have cleared vetting

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Tom Homan comments on officer’s eligibility to serve after reports that agent’s two ex-wives had accused him of abuse

Tom Homan, the Trump administration “border czar”, on Sunday said he did not believe the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer at the center of a recent fatal shooting in Maine “should have ever cleared vetting”.

Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union, Homan was asked by host Dana Bash about the officer’s eligibility to serve following reports that two of his ex-wives had accused him of abuse.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Katy Perry ‘deeply appalled’ over White House using her song in Iran war video

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Singer rebukes Trump administration after it uses her song Firework over footage of missile striking Iranian naval ship

Pop star Katy Perry has condemned the Trump White House after it used her hit song Firework in a TikTok video showing US military strikes on Iranian targets, saying she never approved the use of her music.

The White House video, which featured Firework playing over footage of a missile striking an Iranian naval ship, has amassed more than 6 million views. The post was captioned: “Iran has been warned.”

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More than 1 million children lost access to food benefits after Trump bill passed

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Analysis finds more than 4 million Americans lost Snap benefits, or food stamps, from July 2025 to March 2026

More than a million children across the US have lost access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) food benefits since Congress approved the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

The analysis found that more than 4 millions Americans were removed from Snap from July 2025 to March 2026, marking a significant decline in participation in the federal food assistance program.

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Former top US food safety official says US mismanagement of cyclospora is approaching ‘a catastrophic level’

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Frank Yiannas, formerly of the FDA, calls for an independent review of federal response to illness causing explosive diarrhea

Donald Trump’s former top food safety official has accused the administration of a near “catastrophic” mismanagement of the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in the US.

There should be an independent review of the federal government’s response to the rash of illnesses caused by the spread of a parasite found on raw produce, according to Frank Yiannas, who was deputy commissioner for food policy at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) across the presidencies of both Trump and Joe Biden from 2018 to 2023.

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Trump administration admits canceling clean energy grants to Democratic states

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Court fillings show grants denied to states if they didn’t back Trump’s re-election, but administration claims it’s a ‘misrepresentation’

The Trump administration has admitted scrapping more than $7.5bn in federal grants for clean energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

US federal officials appeared to acknowledge in court documents last week that they had terminated the funding last October “based solely” on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris.

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Canadian government urged to block Thomson Reuters data deal with US ICE

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US agency is to pay Canadian media company US$125m for use of investigative database to detect ‘immigration fraud’

A Canadian federal opposition party leader has called on Mark Carney’s government to block the latest data-sharing deal between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Canadian media company Thomson Reuters.

Avi Lewis, the federal leader of the New Democratic party (NDP), demanded on Tuesday that Ottawa address the contract and further restrict Canadian corporations from doing business with ICE, after Canada’s National Observer news website reported on the deal.

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Trump administration drive to seize election powers sparking ‘chaos’ despite pushback

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US courts, state officials and Democrats warn that moves are endangering voting rights and the rule of law

The Trump administration continues to expand its authoritarian and radical drive to revamp voting rules and seize state election powers, though it faces growing resistance from US courts, state officials and Democrats, who warn the moves are sparking “chaos” and endangering voting rights and the rule of law.

Donald Trump’s unprecedented drive to change election rules, which states legally set, is fueled by his obsession with his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, which he falsely attributes to voting fraud, coupled with his fear that Democrats will “find a reason to impeach me” if they take control of the House in November’s midterms elections, say former election officials and legal experts.

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Secret Service agent on Vance’s detail under investigation

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Agent came under suspicion after allegedly providing info in MS Now report about vice-president’s helicopter trip

A Secret Service agent assigned to JD Vance’s protective detail is “the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security”, according to the Secret Service chief of communications.

The agent came under suspicion after allegedly providing information that appeared in an MS Now report about the vice-president’s planned Marine Corps helicopter trip with his son to a golf lesson, a source told CNN.

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Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on Red Sea tankers as US launches 12th night of strikes on Iran – Middle East crisis live

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US military says it is degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten ships in strait of Hormuz; Houthis say tankers violated their blockade; US signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia

More on Yemen’s Houthis claiming strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea:

The master of one tanker reported being struck by an unknown projectile about 70 nautical miles south-west of Al Shuqaiq, causing a fire that the crew was fighting, the British naval security monitor UKMTO said.

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Iran’s foreign minister describes moment of attack that killed Khamenei

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Abbas Araghchi says he has kept on the move since being pulled from rubble after strike on first day of war

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has described how he was pulled from the rubble of a leadership compound after the US-Israeli airstrike that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war, and has survived since by constantly moving around the capital, Tehran, by car.

In an interview with the Iranian journalist Javad Mogouyi, Araghchi confirmed Israel and the US had accurate intelligence on the location of Khamenei and other officials, enabling them to target Iran’s senior leadership.

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Trump’s HIV funding cuts having ‘severe and devastating’ impact around the world

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The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief has saved 26m lives globally, but slashing of funds and dismantling of USAID have forced clinics to shut in dozens of countries

No part of the United States’ anti-HIV programme has escaped unscathed from Donald Trump’s funding cuts, despite pledges from the administration to protect care that saved lives around the world, a new report has found.

Funding cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) have caused “severe and devastating” disruption globally, with thousands of staff laid off and many clinics closed, according to research being presented next week at the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It warns that changes in US policy risk reversing progress in the fight against HIV/Aids.

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Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ sentenced to life in prison in US federal court

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Case against Ismael Zambada García, who helped co-found and lead the violent Sinaloa cartel, unfolded in New York

The Mexican drug kingpin, Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, was sentenced in a US federal court on Monday to life in prison, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted ⁠to shipping vast amounts of cocaine and other substances as leader of the violent Sinaloa cartel.

Zambada is 76 and one of the most high-profile Mexican ⁠drug traffickers to be sentenced in a US court since his fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán ​was sentenced to life in prison in ‌2019. The case unfolded in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

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