Trump administration says hostilities in Iran ‘terminated’ ahead of war powers deadline

US president faced a 60-day deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it

A US-Iran ceasefire that began in early April has “terminated” hostilities between the two sides for the purposes of an approaching congressional war powers deadline, a senior official of the Trump administration said on Thursday.

Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

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Fema employees who criticized Trump cuts reinstated after months on leave

Workers wrote ‘Katrina declaration’, warning that funding cuts made US dangerously unprepared for natural disasters

Fourteen employees with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency returned to work this week, after spending eight months on administrative leave for signing a public letter criticising the Trump administration.

The so-called “Katrina declaration”, sent last August to members of Congress and a federal council formed to help determine Fema’s future, was written as a rebuke from the workers about the dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.

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‘Don’t fall!’: foil boarders describe hair-raising shark chase caught on video off California coast

Foil boarders were pursued by shark – likely a great white – off Santa Barbara before it lost interest and swam away

Ron Takeda and Tavis Boise were a few miles off the coast of Santa Barbara when they noticed the large mass trailing behind them.

“Tavis, is it a dolphin?” asked Takeda as he stood on his foil board, a specialized form of surfing, propelling himself through the waves. Boise, who was filming their run, recognized the question as an ominous sign – the veteran surfers are familiar enough with dolphins that Takeda should have recognized one immediately.

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Oscar belonging to co-director of Putin film missing after TSA makes him ship it

Agents would not allow Pavel Talankin to carry statuette for Mr Nobody Against Putin on to flight from New York

The Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, star and co-director of the Academy award-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, has disappeared after officials at New York’s John F Kennedy airport confiscated it before he boarded a flight, claiming it could be used as a weapon.

Talankin, whose documentation of Russia’s propaganda machine in grade schools won international acclaim, told Deadline that he had brought the statuette on several flights without incident. But when he arrived at JFK’s terminal 1 on Wednesday morning, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents said he could not take the 8.5lb trophy on board because it posed a security risk.

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‘A new chapter’: first commercial flight from US since 2019 lands in Venezuela

Four months after US capture of Nicolás Maduro, officials hail repairing of ties as airliner touches down in Caracas

US and Venezuelan officials have hailed a new era in diplomatic relations as the first direct commercial flight between the two countries in more than seven years landed in Caracas.

Nearly four months ago, US special forces attack helicopters and planes swept into the skies over Venezuela’s capital after Donald Trump ordered the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro.

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Trump withdraws nomination of Casey Means for US surgeon general

US president said he was instead nominating radiologist and Fox News contributor Dr Nicole Saphier for the post

Donald Trump on Thursday pulled his nominee to become the US surgeon general, Casey Means, and replaced her.

The US president said that Means will continue to fight for the so-called Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement spearheaded by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. He stated this was despite opposition from Bill Cassidy, the Republican US senator of Louisiana, to Means’s nomination.

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Man charged with attempting to assassinate Trump to remain in custody

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly stormed the White House correspondents’ association dinner

The man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump by rushing the black-tie press gala in Washington DC at the weekend where the US president was a guest, agreed on Thursday to remain in custody while his federal criminal case moves forward.

The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was not planning immediately to contest prosecutors’ arguments that he was a danger to the community and should remain in jail, his attorney, Tezira Abe, said during a federal court hearing in the capital.

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Iran supreme leader issues defiant statement on strait of Hormuz

Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes

Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.

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World’s largest aircraft carrier to return to US after record deployment

USS Gerald R Ford to sail home after 10-month spell including role in Maduro capture and Middle East war

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will be heading home following a record-setting deployment of more than 300 days that included participating in the war against Iran and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, two US officials said Wednesday.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements. The Washington Post reported the development earlier.

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Florida approves US House map meant to boost Republicans in midterms

Vote comes on same day the US supreme court rolls back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act

The Florida legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Donald Trump launched before this year’s midterms.

The vote came just two days after the governor, Ron DeSantis, unveiled his proposal and the same day the US supreme court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The decision could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of voters of color.

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Thousands of US hockey fans sing Canadian anthem amid tensions between neighbor countries

Fans in Buffalo, only a few miles from Ontario, filled the silence when a microphone cut out at the start of a match

The Electric City. Nickel City. Queen City. City of No Illusions.

Buffalo, New York, has accrued many nicknames over the years but, in an age of growing tensions between two traditional allies, one among them has taken on extra resonance: the City of Good Neighbors.

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Britain to create joint naval force with nine European countries as ‘complement’ to Nato

Royal Navy chief says unified naval force will deter future Russian threats from the ‘open sea border’ to the north

Britain has agreed to create a unified naval force with nine European countries to deter future Russian threats from the “open sea border” to the north, the head of the Royal Navy has announced.

Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins said that despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, where the strait of Hormuz remains closed after the US-Israeli war in Iran, “Russia remains the gravest threat to our security”.

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‘Flailing’ Georgia attorney general condemned over charges for Cop City protesters

Republican Chris Carr accused of trying to revive bid for governor with indictment – ‘the last gasp of a dying man’

Georgia’s top law enforcement official has drawn accusations of using the weight of his office to lift his own political fortunes by bringing a new indictment against protesters of the Atlanta police training center known as Cop City.

Amid bluster about “holding the line against antifa”, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr announced charges against three activists late last week even as his bid to become Georgia’s Republican nominee for governor limps along, with less than double-digit support in polling ahead of a 19 May primary.

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Trump makes fresh Iran threat after claiming King Charles agrees with him over nuclear weapons – US politics live

US president posts image on Truth social saying Iran ‘better get smart soon’ as king to travel to New York to lay wreath at 9/11 memorial

An attempt by the Trump administration to gain access to Arizona’s detailed voter records was thwarted by the courts on Tuesday, when a federal judge dismissed the US justice department’s lawsuit against the state.

The ruling marks the latest legal setback in an unprecedented nationwide effort by the administration before the midterm elections to collect sensitive information about tens of millions of Americans. The DoJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of the data, which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers.

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First Thing: Justice department indicts ex-FBI director James Comey over Instagram seashells post

Comey, one of Donald Trump’s political enemies, charged with two felonies. Plus, Disneyland introduces facial recognition

Good morning.

The justice department filed new criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, on Tuesday.

What has he been charged with? Two felonies: making a threat against the president, and transmitting that threat, via social media, across state lines.

What does the indictment say? That the seashell numbers were something a reasonable person “would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States”.

And how about Comey? He published a video of himself saying: “Well, they’re back. This time, about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won’t be the end of it, but nothing has changed with me. I am still innocent. I am still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So, let’s go.” He continued: “It’s really important that all of us remember – this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be, and the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith.”

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DNA links Florida man in Philippines to 1989 child abduction

US suspect held in south-east Asia after genealogical DNA identified him in Tampa-area case involving 7-year-old girl

A man accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl in Florida in 1989 was recently arrested in the Philippines, according to authorities.

Preserved DNA and genealogical research allowed investigators to identify Young Tom Talmadge, 69, as the suspect in the Tampa-area case, the Philippines’ government said in a statement.

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CEOs of US’s top energy firms received average pay raise of $12.3m, review finds

Utility bills are up as much as 40% in some regions, and companies shut off power to customers 13m times in 2025

The US’s top utilities’ CEOs enjoyed a 16% pay raise last year – to an average of $12.3m – even as consumers shoulder the pain from high bills spurred by continuing inflation, the Iran war and datacenter growth, a new review of industry financial documents shows.

Utility bills are up as much as 40% in some regions since 2021, and, nationwide, utilities shut off power to customers 13m times last year, federal data shows.

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King Charles agrees with me on Iran nuclear weapon ban, claims Trump

Remarks by US president likely to cause embarrassment for aides of UK monarch, who usually remains neutral

Donald Trump has said King Charles agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons.

Trump made the remarks at a White House state dinner on Tuesday in honour of the visiting Charles and Camilla, after the two men sat down to bilateral talks earlier that day.

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Justice department files new criminal charges against ex-FBI director Comey

Subject of charges remains unclear, after earlier case over congressional testimony was dismissed

The justice department filed new criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Comey was charged over a picture he posted on Instagram last year in which sea shells were arranged to say “86 47”, CNN and the Associated Press reported. The post was taken as a threat to Donald Trump. The number 86 can be used as shorthand for getting rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president. Comey subsequently deleted the post and apologized, saying he didn’t realize the numbers were associated with violence. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.

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US soldier pleads not guilty to charges of betting on Nicolás Maduro’s ouster

Prosecutors allege Gannon Van Dyke won $400,000 using insider information to bet on Maduro raid on Polymarket

The US army soldier charged with winning $400,000 by using insider information to bet on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to fraud charges on Tuesday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in US district judge Margaret Garnett’s courtroom in Manhattan. Van Dyke sported a shaved head and wore a black blazer, jeans and brown shoes as he arrived to the courtroom with his lawyers, Zach Intrater and Mark Geragos.

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