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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR – CEASEFIRE
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragachi is expected to travel to Islamabad on Friday, according to a Pakistani official and a report on Pakistan’s state broadcaster. Aragachi’s trip raises hope that direct talks with Washington could resume. Humza Jilani reports for the Financial Times.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. He said the U.S. Navy was clearing the Strait of mines and that he was ordering it to continue doing so at “a tripled up level!” Kevin Breuninger reports for CNBC.
The Pentagon said it seized a second tanker carrying Iranian oil on Thursday. It was stopped in the Indian Ocean, according to the Defense Department. A U.S. military official told the New York Times’ Eric Schmitt that “Navy destroyers are also shadowing several other Iranian vessels.” It is now up to the White House to decide what to do with the seized ships and their cargo.
U.S. military officials are developing plans to target Iran’s capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz in case the ceasefire falls apart. Sources tell CNN’s Zachary Cohen that potential targets include “small fast attack boats, minelaying vessels and other asymmetric assets” that are helping Iran control the Strait. CNN.
A third U.S. aircraft carrier, plus its accompanying warships, arrived in the waters near Iran on Thursday. The USS George H.W. Bush strike group is carrying thousands of additional troops and dozens of advanced fighter jets. And more U.S. troops are headed to the region: Another “4,000-plus troops with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are expected to arrive in the Middle East in coming weeks,” Tara Copp reports for the Washington Post.
In response to officials in Washington, including Trump, describing Iranian leadership as fractured, three senior Iranian officials put out statements on Thursday night saying the government was unified. The statements came from the speaker of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, plus the president and the head of the judiciary. James C. McKinley Jr. reports for the New York Times.
IRAN WAR – LEBANON OPERATIONS
Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks after talks between the two countries took place at the White House on Thursday. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that Israel is fighting inside Lebanon, was not present. During the ceasefire, which was set to expire on Sunday, attacks between the two sides have continued but the violence has been reduced. Israel has taken over parts of southern Lebanon and declared it a “buffer zone.” Simon Lewis, Steve Holland, Maya Gebeily and Ryan Patrick Jones report for Reuters.
The Israeli military said Friday morning that it had carried out new attacks against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, and Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported airstrikes overnight in several towns. Abdi Latif Dahir, Euan Ward, and Qasim Nauman report for the New York Times.
Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel of war crimes after an Israeli airstrike killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil on Wednesday. She and another journalist had taken shelter when the building they were in was bombed. In response, Israel claimed it does not target journalists. Charbel Mallo,Tamara Qiblawi, Sana Noor Haq, and Dana Karni report for CNN.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
With the Strait of Hormuz under a double-blockade, the world is “facing the biggest energy security threat in history,” Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told CNBC on Thursday. If the closure continues, it could lead to further energy rationing and rising inflation. The oil crisis would likely lead to a boost for other energy sources such as nuclear energy, solar, wind, and coal, he said.
The United States has used so many of its munitions in its war against Iran that some U.S. officials fear it threatens the United States’ ability to defend Taiwan from Chinese attack. The United States has used more than 1,000 long-range Tomahawk missiles, as well as 1,500 to 2,000 critical air-defense missiles. These could take more than six years to replace, Alexander Ward, Shelby Holliday, and Yoko Kubota report for the Wall Street Journal.
An internal Pentagon email outlines options for punishing NATO allies who the United States believes failed to support Iran war operations, Reuters’ Phil Stewart reports. The options include suspending Spain from NATO but do not include a U.S. withdrawal from the alliance. Reuters.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a Kuwaiti-American journalist, was acquitted on Thursday of all charges in Kuwait after 52 days in detention. He was arrested after he posted about the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran on social media. The Committee to Protect Journalists described the charges against him as “vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists.” Ismaeel Naar reports for the New York Times.
In the United Kingdom, the unit within the Foreign Office “tracking potential breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and more recently Lebanon has been closed because of cuts within the department.” Along with shutting down the international humanitarian law cell, the “decision also means funding for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project run by the Centre for information Resilience (CIR) will end,” Patrick Wintour and Sinéad Campbell report for The Guardian.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump plans to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 leaders’ summit scheduled for December at President Donald Trump’s Doral golf resort in Miami. “No formal invitations have been issued at this time, but Russia is a G-20 member and will be invited to attend ministerial meetings and the leaders’ summit,” a senior administration official told the Washington Post.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Rather than reach a compromise with Democrats on how to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Republicans are eyeing an approach to funding that would not require Democrats’ backing. The Senate approved a measure on Thursday to begin work on a bill that would send approximately $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol under budget reconciliation rules. Reconciliation allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than the typical 60 votes. Riley Beggin and Theodoric Meyer report for the Washington Post.
A U.S. special forces soldier, who was involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly betting on Maduro’s removal from office just hours before Trump announced his capture. Federal investigators say the soldier bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket, a wager that won him a total of $409,000. Katherine Faulders, Aaron Katersky, Peter Charalambous, and Alexander Mallin report for ABC News.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are mounting a new effort to pass a bill that would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for three years. The draft legislation “includes minimal new oversight and penalties for abuses of the spy authority but stops short of warrant requirements sought by GOP hard-liners, mostly restating current law,” Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney report for POLITICO.
Some Republican lawmakers think Trump should make any further changes to his Cabinet sooner rather than later so that Senators can fit new confirmations into their busy schedule before mid-term elections in November. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and FBI Director Kash Patel are the names that lawmakers privately offered as most likely to go. Jordain Carney reports for POLITICO.
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan butted heads before Hegseth fired him on Wednesday, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reports. Hegseth recently fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, also without explanation, and against the wishes of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. Griffin reports that Hung Cao, the new acting Navy secretary, is a Hegseth loyalist. Hegseth feuded with Phelan when he refused to ignore a federal judge’s ruling that said punishing Democratic Senator Mark Kelly for making a video advising service members to refuse illegal orders would violate his 1st Amendment rights, according to Griffin.
Phelan lost his job because he was unable to deliver Trump his desired new class of battleships on the “nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded,” sources told the New York Times’ Greg Jaffe and Helene Cooper. Phelan reached the conclusion that the U.S. shipbuilding industry would not be able to build the ships Trump wanted in the time he wanted them. Trump did not like Phelan’s suggestion that European shipyards might have to be used to complete the project. Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg called Trump in early April and told him that Phelan “was not a team player and needed to go.” The New York Times.
After Hegseth asked him to resign on Wednesday, Phelan went to the White House to meet with Trump to see if he could save his job. Trump ultimately backed Hegseth’s decision to oust Phelan, a longtime friend of the president’s. Lara Seligman, Josh Dawsey, Alexander Ward, and Natalie Andrews report for the Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon fired the ombudsman overseeing the military newspaper Stars and Stripes without providing an explanation. After the Pentagon announced it was overhauling the newspaper, saying it had become too “woke,” Jacqueline Smith spoke out about the decision, worried the changes threatened the paper’s editorial independence. Liam Scott and Scott Nover report for the Washington Post.
A defense company backed by Eric Trump has landed a $24 million contract with the Pentagon. The president’s son appeared with Foundation Future Industries’ CEO Sankaet Pathak on Fox Business on Thursday to promote the company, which builds robots.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced on Thursday that it’s laying off 10 percent of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 people. In a memo to staff, the company said, “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” Meta, like other tech companies, is investing heavily in developing artificial intelligence. Mike Isaac and Eli Tan report for the New York Times.
On Friday, Chinese AI company DeepSeek released a preview of V4, its long-awaited follow-up model. The world paid attention last year when DeepSeek unveiled an AI model it had developed for far less money than its American counterparts. It also released the model as open source. Meaghan Tobin and Cade Metz report for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The Trump administration has launched an investigation into New York City’s Education Department over claims that a group, known as N.Y.C. Educators for Palestine, had violated Jewish students’ civil rights. Matthew Haag for the New York Times.
The Trump administration is undoing immigration protections set by Biden for individuals with connections to the construction workers killed in the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Ximena Bustillo reports for NPR.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.
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ICYMI: Yesterday on Just Security
Former FBI General Counsel Weissmann on FISA Reforms
Ryan Goodman interview with Andrew Weissmann
By Kateryna Rashevska
