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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
The United States could end the ceasefire and resume its attacks on Iran, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday. Hegseth told a congressional hearing: “We have to plan to escalate, if necessary. We have a plan to retrograde, if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets.” He declined to provide details, saying it would not be appropriate in a non-classified hearing. Karoun Demirjian, Megan Mineiro, Euan Ward, and Michael Levenson report for the New York Times.
Trump told reporters yesterday that he did not think about the economic hardship Americans feel as a result of his war in Iran, and it did not factor into his negotiations to end it. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all,” Trump added. Erica L. Green reports for the New York Times.
IRAN WAR – STRAIT OF HORMUZ
U.S. Central Command said yesterday that its forces had redirected 65 commercial vessels and disabled four ships amid the blockade imposed last month. At the same time, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said that the “scope of the Strait of Hormuz has been significantly expanded” and had “transformed into a vast operational region.” Ami Daniel, the chief of Windward, a maritime intelligence firm, said, “There is a 600 percent rise in dark activity” in the strait. Many ships are turning off the transponders that transmit their locations and the radar that allows them to detect other ships. Ephrat Livni and Euan Ward report for the New York Times; Reuters reports.
Both Iraq and Pakistan have cut deals with Iran to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, according to five sources. In a deal between Baghdad and Tehran, Iraq secured safe passage for two crude carriers, each carrying about 2 million barrels of crude, that passed through the strait on Sunday. Iraq is now working to secure Iran’s approval for more transits, an Iraqi oil ministry official said. Similarly, two tankers loaded with Qatari LNG are headed to Pakistan following a separate bilateral agreement between Islamabad and Tehran, two industry sources said. Marwa Rashad and Ahmed Rasheed report for Reuters.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in late March in retaliation for Iranian attacks carried out in the kingdom, two Western officials and two Iranian officials said. The officials added that Saudi Arabia made Iran aware of the strikes, and this was followed by intensive diplomatic engagement and Saudi threats to retaliate further, which led to an understanding between the two countries to de-escalate. Timour Azhari and Parisa Hafezi report for Reuters.
U.S. intelligence shows that Iran has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources. The sources said that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations, and in some cases, they can launch missiles directly from the facilities. Iran also still fields about 70 percent of its mobile launchers across the country and has retained roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile, according to the assessments. The findings undercut months of assurances from Trump and Hegseth about the success of U.S.-Israeli strikes. Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan report for the New York Times.
The cost of the Iran war to the United States has risen to $29 billion from an estimate of $25 billion last month, acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst told the House and Senate Appropriations panels yesterday. Connor O’Brien reports for POLITICO.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
A team of Israeli researchers yesterday published a report on sexual violence by Palestinian militants during and after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The report, culminating two years of investigation by a nongovernmental team, concludes that sexual violence against women and men was “systematic, widespread and integral” to the attack by Hamas and its allies as well as to the violations against hostages who were taken back to Gaza. Isabel Kershner reports for the New York Times.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
Seventy children have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territories, excluding Gaza, since early 2025, while over 800 have been injured, UNICEF said yesterday, adding that 93 percent of these children were killed by Israeli forces. “These are not isolated incidents. They point to a sustained pattern of the worst kind of violation – violations against children,” a UNICEF spokesperson told reporters. Reuters reports.
Israeli bulldozers tore down around 50 Palestinian shops on the edge of a town southeast of Jerusalem this week. Israel says the demolitions are needed to make way for a road serving Palestinian communities. But Palestinian officials say the road is part of a broader plan to keep Palestinian vehicles off a new highway being built to serve nearby Israeli settlements. Sam Metz and Mahmoud Ilean report for AP News.
SUDANESE CIVIL WAR
Drone strikes accounted for over 80 percent of civilian deaths in Sudan’s civil war during the first four months of this year, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said yesterday. Brian O. Otieno reports for the New York Times.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Nigeria’s military said today that there has been no evidence of civilian casualties from an airstrike on militants in the northwestern Zamfara state in recent days, calling reports of large death tolls unverified and misleading. Amnesty International said earlier in the week that at least 100 civilians were killed in the May 10 airstrike. Camillus Eboh reports for Reuters.
Authorities in eastern Libya say they have found and deported 120 migrants who were being held captive by people traffickers south of Benghazi, and have recovered the bodies of three other migrants from the Mediterranean shore. The operation to free the migrants lasted almost a fortnight, the Ajdabiya security directorate said. In captivity, they had been “forced to plead for help under whippings and beatings, while their suffering is documented in videos sent to their families to extort money from them,” it said. Reuters reports.
The Dutch counterterrorism agency (NCTV) has investigated a covert operation by London-based private intelligence firms that monitored International Criminal Court staff in The Hague, including the lawyer who accused the court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of sexual abuse in 2024. The London-based investigation allegedly involved collecting sensitive personal data on staff and their families and probing potential links to a cover-up or foreign intelligence, with reports suggesting Qatari funding behind the operation. Lineke Nieber and Romy van der Poele report for NRC.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
OpenAI is facing a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that ChatGPT encouraged a 19-year-old to take a fatal combination of drugs while presenting dangerous advice in an authoritative and reassuring way. The company says the older AI model involved has been retired and that newer versions include stronger safeguards for handling harmful or sensitive conversations. Ashley Belanger reports for ArsTechnica.
Anthropic’s Mythos AI tool is helping major U.S. banks uncover hundreds or even thousands of hidden cybersecurity weaknesses, several sources said. The larger banks are also helping inform smaller banks that do not have direct access to the tool, so they can prepare their systems, those sources said. Saeed Azhar, Tatiana Bautzer, Michelle Price, and Francesco Canepa report for Reuters.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was added at the last minute to Trump’s delegation for the U.S.-China summit with President Xi Jinping, after reports suggested he had not originally been invited. Katherine Long reports for POLITICO.
Multiple sources told CNN that a fatal attack earlier this spring on Francisco Beltran, a man accused of being a mid-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel, was a targeted assassination, facilitated by CIA operations officers. The Beltran operation was part of an expanded CIA campaign inside Mexico to dismantle entrenched cartel networks, sources said. The Mexican government and CIA denied CNN’s report yesterday. Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Bertrand, Evan Perez, Mauricio Torres report; Julian E. Barnes and Maria Abi-Habib report for the New York Times.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The Dominican Republic announced yesterday that it has agreed to take third-country deportees from the United States. President Luis Abinader had said last year that the Dominican Republic would not accept people from other countries. James Wagner and Hogla Enecia Pérez report for the New York Times.
Officials at the Florida immigration detention center, known as Alligator Alcatraz, yesterday told vendors that it was closing, sources said. Vendors were told that detainees would be moved from the facility by the start of June and that the center would be broken down over the following weeks, three sources said. Patricia Mazzei and Hamed Aleaziz report for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The Justice Department yesterday defended itself after the Wall Street Journal reported it had received subpoenas in connection with a leak investigation into its reporting on the war with Iran. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “Prosecuting leakers who share our nation’s secrets with reporters, in turn risking our national security and the lives of our soldiers, is a priority for this administration.” Sarah N. Lynch reports for CBS News.
The Justice Department is holding internal discussions about settling Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in the coming days, according to the sources. The judge is examining whether the lawsuit is valid by ordering Trump’s personal lawyers and the Justice Department to explain by May 20 whether a genuine legal conflict exists between them, given that Trump oversees the agency he is suing. Andrew Huehren and Alan Feuer report for the New York Times.
At a congressional hearing yesterday, FBI Director Kash Patel angrily denied accusations from Democratic senators that he drank excessively, ordered improper polygraph tests, and lied to Congress, leading to heated exchanges, especially with Sen.Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). Devlin Barrett reports for the New York Times.
A newly released Gallup survey shows that seven out of 10 Americans said they would oppose a data center being built near them. The poll found that more people would rather live near a nuclear power plant than a data center. Tim Craig reports for the Washington Post.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
A national missile defense system, like Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome,” could cost taxpayers $1.3 trillion over 20 years, according to a government report published yesterday. The estimate was provided by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office using an executive order issued by Trump in January 2025 as a blueprint. Even if the system is built, the report concluded, an adversary like Russia or China that has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons could overwhelm it, and some missiles would hit their targets. John Ismay reports for the New York Times.
The Department of Homeland Security yesterday announced that David Venturella, who has been overseeing contracts for detention centers at DHS, will serve as the acting director of ICE. Aaron Pellish reports for POLITICO.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary has left his post, Trump said yesterday on social media, adding that Kyle Diamantas will serve as the FDA’s acting commissioner. Asked by reporters if he fired Makary or asked him to resign, Trump replied, “Well, I don’t want to say, but Marty is a great guy. … He was having some difficulty.” Peter Sullivan reports for Axios.
Vice President JD Vance is bringing in longtime Trump ally Cliff Sims as a new national security adviser, Vance said. A source added that an exact start date has not been determined, but Cliff is expected to join imminently. Sophia Cai reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal appeals court yesterday temporarily paused a lower court ruling against the Trump administration’s 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act. Dietrich Knauth reports for Reuters.
The Trump administration last week filed a lawsuit to use eminent domain to seize about 14 acres from the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces at the base of Mount Cristo Rey in order to advance border wall construction, offering roughly $183,000 as compensation. Chris Brittany Gibson reports for Axios.
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
