Trump dispatches Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan for new talks with Iran’s foreign minister<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to meet with Iran’s foreign minister, the White House said Friday, as officials in the South Asian nation pushed to revive ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n
The talks planned for Saturday come as much of the world is on edge over a war that has snarled crucial energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz, clouded the global economic picture and left thousands dead across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday. Earlier on social media, he wrote that he was traveling to Pakistan on a trip focused on \u201cbilateral matters and regional developments.\u201d He didn\u2019t specify who he would meet.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Araghchi touched down, the country\u2019s government made it clear there would be no direct negotiations with American government representatives during this visit.<\/p>\n
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmael Baqaei said on X that, \u201cNo meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
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US imposes sanctions on a China-based oil refinery and 40 shippers over Iranian oil<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump’s administration is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil.<\/p>\n
The move, announced Friday and first reported by The Associated Press, makes good on Trump’s threat to impose secondary sanctions on companies and countries that do business with Iran. It’s also part of his Republican administration\u2019s overall ramped-up campaign to cut off Iran\u2019s key source of revenue \u2014 its oil exports. <\/p>\n
Concurrently, the U.S. this month imposed a physical blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.<\/p>\n
The sanctions, which cut off the companies from the U.S. financial system and penalize anyone who does business with them, come just a few weeks before President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are due to meet in China.<\/p>\n
Included in Friday’s sanctions is Hengli Petrochemical\u2019s facility in the port city of Dalian, which has a processing capacity of roughly 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it one of the biggest independent refineries in China.<\/p>\n
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Justice Department drops criminal probe of Fed chair Powell, likely clearing the way for Warsh<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department has ended its investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, clearing a major roadblock to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as his successor. <\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on X Friday that her office was ending its probe into the Fed\u2019s extensive building renovations because the Fed\u2019s inspector general would scrutinize them instead.<\/p>\n
The move could lead to a swift confirmation vote by the Senate for Warsh, a former top Fed official whom President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated in January to replace Powell. Powell’s term as chair ends May 15. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, had said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation.<\/p>\n
Republicans praised Warsh during a Tuesday hearing even as Democrats questioned his independence from Trump, the lack of transparency around some of his financial holdings, and what they said was his flip-flopping on interest rates. Still, Trump’s previous appointment to the Fed’s board of governors, Stephen Miran, was approved by the full Senate just 13 days after his nomination.<\/p>\n
Pirro\u2019s investigation focused on a $2.5 billion building renovation that Trump criticized sharply last year for its cost overruns. Trump visited the building last July and on camera presented to Powell an inflated cost estimate, which Powell corrected as the two stood at the construction site in hard hats.<\/p>\n
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Appeals court rules that Trump’s asylum ban at the border is illegal<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 An appeals court on Friday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order suspending asylum access at the southern border of the U.S., a key pillar of the Republican president\u2019s plan to crack down on migration.<\/p>\n
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can\u2019t circumvent that.<\/p>\n
The court opinion stems from action taken by Trump on Inauguration Day 2025, when he declared that the situation at the southern border constituted an invasion of America and that he was \u201csuspending the physical entry\u201d of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it is over.<\/p>\n
The panel concluded that the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn\u2019t authorize the president to remove the plaintiffs under \u201cprocedures of his own making,\u201d allow him to suspend plaintiffs\u2019 right to apply for asylum or curtail procedures for adjudicating their anti-torture claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power by proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of specified foreign individuals into the United States does not contain implicit authority to override the INA\u2019s mandatory process to summarily remove foreign individuals,\u201d wrote Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
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Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions in move to ramp up capital punishment<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday. <\/p>\n
The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration \u2014 more than under any president in modern history. The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.<\/p>\n
The moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,\u201d Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Growing wildfires blamed for death of Florida firefighter and destruction of 120 Georgia homes<\/p>\n
NAHUNTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 A volunteer firefighter died battling a wildfire in northern Florida while more than 120 homes have been destroyed in southeast Georgia and thousands more remain threatened by two large blazes, one of which investigators suspect was sparked by a foil balloon touching power lines, officials said Friday.<\/p>\n
An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast, where scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees still littering some forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.<\/p>\n
In northern Florida, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that volunteer firefighter James \u201cKevin\u201d Crews suffered an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. Crews was rushed to a hospital where he died Thursday evening, according to a news release posted to social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin was the epitome of courage and dedication,\u201d Hilliard Volunteer Fire Chief Jerry Johnson said in a statement. \u201cHis sacrifice will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
After getting a firsthand look at firefighting efforts in southeast Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters that state officials believe 87 homes burned in rural Brantley County this week are the most destroyed by a single wildfire in the state’s history. <\/p>\n
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Violent tornado tears through Oklahoma town, damaging 40 homes but sparing lives<\/p>\n
ENID, Okla. (AP) \u2014 Raeann Hunt scrambled to her cellar as a tornado bore down on her Oklahoma community. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is headed right for us,\u201d she recalled thinking, as she peeked outside, unable to contain her curiosity. <\/p>\n
Huddled inside the dark 8-by-8 foot (2.44-by-2.44 meters) concrete shelter with her husband, brother-in-law and a neighbor, she heard roaring, metal slapping on the door and glass breaking.<\/p>\n
Afterward, they emerged unscathed, but found the windows smashed out of the one-story brick home in Enid and the roof badly damaged.<\/p>\n
The scene was repeated Thursday night across the city of about 50,000 people about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City as the EF-4 tornado hit. It was on the ground for 9 miles (14.48 kilometers), packing winds of 170 to 175 mph and measuring 500 yards across at its widest, said Rick Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Police identify the body of 1 missing USF student, second still missing as roommate is charged<\/p>\n
The body of a Bangladeshi doctoral student who went missing with his girlfriend from the University of South Florida was found on a bridge over Tampa Bay, and his roommate has been taken into custody, law enforcement authorities said Friday.<\/p>\n
Zamil Limon\u2019s remains were found on the Howard Frankland bridge Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing, Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said. <\/p>\n
Limon\u2019s roommate Hisham Saleh Abugharbeih, 26, was taken into custody at his family’s home nearby on preliminary charges that include unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment and battery. He was expected to make a first appearance in court Saturday morning. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still actively searching for Nahida,\u201d Maurer said, appealing to the public to share any useful information. Law enforcement dive teams were searching the bay near the bridge as part of those efforts, the sheriff’s office said. <\/p>\n
Officers encountered Abugharbeih as they responded to a report of domestic violence at his family’s home, just north of the campus, and were able to move his relatives to safety. But then he barricaded himself inside and refused to come out. A SWAT team responded \u2014 along with a drone, a robot and crisis negotiators \u2014 before Abugarbeih came out with his hands up, apparently wearing nothing but a blue towel.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Intel\u2019s best day since 1987 leads the US stock market to more records<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A surge for Intel following a blowout profit report led the U.S. stock market to more records Friday, while oil prices kept yo-yoing in the wait for what\u2019s next with the Iran war.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and topped its prior all-time high, which was set on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 79 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.6% to its own record thanks to the jump for tech.<\/p>\n
Intel led the way and roared past its 2000 peak during the dot-com boom to an all-time high. It soared 23.6% for its best day since 1987 after reporting much stronger results for the first three months of the year than analysts expected. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the next wave of artificial-intelligence technology is increasing the need for Intel\u2019s chips and products, and the company\u2019s forecast for profit in the spring topped analysts\u2019 estimates. <\/p>\n
Such strong profit reports have helped Wall Street rally to records, and the S&P 500 has leaped nearly 13% in a little under a month. Hopes have also built in financial markets that the United States and Iran can find a way to avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy because of their war.<\/p>\n
A ceasefire is tenuously in place between the two, but tensions between them are still keeping oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. <\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
FDA plans ultra-fast review of three psychedelic drugs following Trump directive<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it will offer ultra-fast review to three psychedelic drugs being developed to treat mental health conditions, including depression, the latest step by the Trump administration toward possible approval of the experimental treatments.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last weekend directing the FDA and other federal agencies to speed research and loosen restrictions on psychedelics, a class of hallucinogenic drugs which remain illegal under federal law.<\/p>\n
The FDA said it awarded priority review vouchers to two companies studying psilocybin \u2014 the active ingredient in magic mushrooms \u2014 for hard-to-treat forms of depression. A third company received a voucher for methylone, a drug related to MDMA, for post-traumatic stress disorder. The FDA did not name the companies in a press release announcing the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe it to our nation\u2019s veterans and all Americans who are suffering from these conditions to evaluate these potential therapies with urgency,\u201d FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The vouchers don\u2019t guarantee approval, but instead mean that regulators will try to shorten their reviews from a period of months to weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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