Listen to this issue.

0:00

/7:05

1×

U.S., ISRAEL, IRAN WAR | Day 63.

• In a statement released on state media yesterday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei insisted that his country will protect its nuclear and missile capabilities and said that the only place U.S. personnel should be in the Persian Gulf is "at the bottom of its waters." [more]
• In a communique to its embassies around the world yesterday, the U.S. State Department instructed diplomats to seek their host government's support for President Donald Trump's call for assistance in ensuring free and unimpeded shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. [more]
• Facing a deadline to seek congressional approval for military action that extends beyond 60 days, as mandated by the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Trump administration officials suggested yesterday that the ongoing cease-fire in Iran has effectively ended the war and that approval from Congress for further action is, therefore, not needed. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,525 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that he is seeking clarification on a short-term May 9 cease-fire reportedly proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump. [more]

U.S. SCHOOL VIOLENCE | Four students and an adult security guard were wounded in a stabbing incident carried out by a student yesterday at Foss High School in Tacoma, Washington. The incident remains under investigation, and school has been cancelled at the site for today. [more]

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY | The House passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, a Senate-approved measure yesterday that funds most of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the department's record-setting partial shutdown. The measure, originally proposed more than two months ago, does not fund DHS' immigration enforcement operations, which are under continuing scrutiny and demands for reform in the aftermath of the deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. [more]

U.S. SURVEILLANCE | The House and Senate approved a short-term extension yesterday of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor foreign communications without a warrant even when such monitoring can incidentally include the communications of U.S. citizens. The extended authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's Section 702 runs through June 12. [more]

LOUISIANA | Following this week's Supreme Court ruling seen as significantly weakening the Voting Rights Act and striking down a previously mandated second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order yesterday postponing U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana to give lawmakers time to approve a new congressional map. Reports note that early voting in the House primary had been scheduled to begin tomorrow. [more]

NEBRASKA | Nebraska today becomes the first U.S. state to implement new work requirements for Medicaid health insurance coverage, as mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Donald Trump last year. Under the law, Medicaid enrollees must work or volunteer at least 80 hours a month, attend school at least part-time, participate in job training, or qualify for specific exceptions. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that up to 4.8 million people will become uninsured over the next 10 years as a result of the work requirement. [more]

U.S. GAS PRICES | According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. rose 9 cents today to $4.39 – the highest level since July 2022 and a 47% increase since the start of the war in Iran. [more]

U.S. SENATE | In a unanimous voice vote yesterday, the Senate passed a resolution banning senators and their staff members from making bets on so-called prediction markets. Reports note that senators have called on the House and the Trump administration to adopt similar measures and that a bipartisan bill to ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to make prediction market bets has been proposed in the Senate. [more]

U.S. RETIREMENT SAVINGS | President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday calling for the establishment of a website where U.S. residents can find and compare private-sector retirement savings accounts. Reports note that the order comes ahead of the start of a new government retirement savings matching contribution of up to $1,000 for low-income workers, as mandated in legislation passed under the Biden administration and which starts next year. [full executive order] [White House fact sheet] [more]

U.S. SURGEON GENERAL | President Donald Trump pulled his nomination of Dr. Casey Means to be the U.S. Surgeon General yesterday amidst stalled confirmation hearings in the Senate, and announced his new nomination of radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier for the role. [more]

MINNESOTA | U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced yesterday that the Trump administration is deferring $91 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over concerns about fraud in state-run federally funded social service programs. The new funding deferral follows an earlier $243 million withholding of funding to the state over fraud concerns announced by Vice President JD Vance in February. [more]

UNITED NATIONS | Following reports that the Trump administration had placed reform-related conditions on releasing funds owed to the United Nations, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday that the billions of dollars owed to the world body by the U.S. is "non-negotiable." [more]

E.U. AND SOUTH AMERICA | The landmark trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur South American trade bloc took provisional effect today. Signed earlier this year, the trade deal creates a trans-Atlantic market with about 720 million customers and a trade value estimated at $22 trillion. [more]

SOUTH SUDAN | The U.N. Security Council voted yesterday to extend the United Nations peacekeeping force in conflict-torn South Sudan through April 30, 2027, and to reduce force levels in the East African nation from 17,000 to 12,000. [more]

MEDITERRANEAN MIGRATION | Officials at the U.N. International Organization for Migration say at least 17 people died, and nine others remain missing, after a boat carrying 33 Sudanese migrants to Greece capsized earlier this week in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. [more]

MYANMAR | According to state media, Myanmar's ruling military junta has moved the country's former leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from a military prison, where she had been held since being removed from office in a military coup in 2021, to house arrest. [more]

GOLF | Administrators of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund said yesterday that the fund has suspended future funding of LIV Golf, the rival league to the PGA that was launched four years ago. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk, Russia, and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, in what became known as the U-2 incident. [more history]