Mediators want both sides to agree to suspend hostilities but Tehran warns peace talks âincompatible with threatsâMiddle East crisis â live updatesProposals for an immediate ceasefire have been circulated to Washington and Tehran in an attempt to halt the five-week-old war and stave off an extraordinary threat issued by Donald Trump to bomb Iranâs power plants.Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey want both sides to agree to suspend hostilities and reopen the strait of Hormuz, to be followed by a period of detailed negotiations intended to reach a more complete peace agreement. Continue reading...
US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make âheavily fortifiedâ facilityDonald Trumpâs administration is arguing that a judgeâs order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling.In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judgeâs order to suspend construction of the new facility is âthreatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the presidentâs staffâ. Continue reading...
Trump ordered data collection after raising concern about race being used as factor in college admissionsA federal judge on Friday halted efforts by the Trump administration to collect data that proves higher education institutions arenât considering race in admissions.The ruling from the US district court judge F Dennis Saylor IV in Boston granting the preliminary injunction follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general. It will only apply to public universities in plaintiffsâ states. Continue reading...
⢠Pfizer and BioNTech stopped a large US trial of their updated COVID-19 vaccine targeting healthy adults aged 50-64 due to inability to recruit 25,000-30,000 participants without conditions like hypertension or diabetes.
⢠The halt highlights recruitment challenges amid low interest in trials for healthy populations.
⢠This occurs against a backdrop of shifting vaccine policies under the Trump administration, prioritizing chronic disease over broad COVID efforts.
Federal agency, which normally supports state and local public health labs, has been hobbled by staff departuresSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US federal agency responsible for monitoring diseases has temporarily halted certain diagnostic testing, including those for rabies, human herpesvirus and several other infectious illnesses.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a list on Monday showing that more than two dozen types of testing are now unavailable. Continue reading...
The National Capital Planning Commission had previously delayed the vote after thousands of negative public commentsHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The National Capital Planning Commission will meet this afternoon to decide on Donald Trumpâs White House $400m ballroom project, after a federal judge halted construction earlier this week.House Republicans announced that they will pass a bill, advanced by the Senate last week, to end the record-breaking partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown after previously rejecting the measure.Democrats quickly celebrated the win with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying âHouse Republicans cavedâ after previously â[derailing] a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunctionâ.Nasaâs lunar rocket successfully launched and the astronauts on the first crewed lunar rocket in more than 50 years received praise from across the US.Attorney general Pam Bondiâs job with the Trump administration is reportedly at risk. The president is said to be unhappy with Bondiâs performance as the head of the justice department and the controversy surrounding the Epstein files, according to a New York Times report.Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation.Supreme court justices appeared skeptical of the Trump administrationâs argument to restrict birthright citizenship for hundreds of thousands of children born to undocumented immigrants of temporary foreign nationals. Trump himself attended the hearing, widely considered to be the first time a sitting president has attended arguments at the supreme court. Continue reading...
Group cuts costs as shares plunge while it grapples with impact of Iran war on property market Business live â latest updatesOne of Britainâs biggest housebuilders has said it will stop buying new land and hiring new staff, as it grapples with the impact of the Iran war on the property market.Berkeley, a London-focused housebuilder, said it would cut costs as it warned that âgeopolitical volatilityâ and âreduced potentialâ for interest rate cuts could weigh on the business. Continue reading...
US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft projectSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trumpâs $400m White House ballroom.The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project. Continue reading...
Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff also running for governor, had seized 650,000 ballotsChad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff, has halted a contentious investigation into a alleged voter fraud that has drawn opposition from the stateâs attorney general.The move marks a major reversal for Bianco, a prominent Donald Trump supporter who is one of the top two Republican candidates running for the governorship of California. Continue reading...
US president says he is extending deadline for strait of Hormuz to reopen to 6 April; Houthis tell Lloydâs List âno reasonâ to prevent Saudi oil using Red Sea routeFull report: Trump extends deadline Analysis: Trump pitches peace plan but military buildups rarely veer to off-rampHello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and the consequences for the region, the world, and the global economy.Here are the latest developments:Donald Trump said he will extend â once again â his pause on his threat to attack Iranâs energy infrastructure for 10 days until 6 April, claiming that the request came from Tehran and that talks were going âvery wellâ. The US president threatened last Saturday to would strike Iranian energy infrastructure if Tehran did not reopen the strait of Hormuz. Then, on Monday he postponed his threat for five days (until Friday), citing âvery good and productive conversationsâ with Iran on ending the war (which Tehran dismissed as âfake newsâ designed to âmanipulateâ the oil markets). Now, heâs pushing that deadline back, again.The price of Brent crude also dropped following Trumpâs latest announcement. Oil prices rose to their highest level this week, with Brent crude trading at roughly $108 a barrel after Trumpâs cabinet meeting earlier on Thursday.Yemenâs Houthis have said there is no need to worry amid fears that if Donald Trump follows through on threats to seize Iranâs Kharg Island, Tehran may ask them to attack shipping in the Red Sea.A day after Tehran dismissed Trumpâs 15-point ceasefire plan, the US president claimed that Iran was âbegging to make a deal,â and that he wasnât the one pushing for negotiations. Earlier, he told Tehran to âget serious soonâ on negotiating a deal to end the war.Trump rejected reports that he was looking for an exit ramp, as oil prices soar and political pressure mounts to avoid the kind of drawn-out Middle East war he once spurned. âI read a story today that Iâm desperate to make a deal,â Trump told reporters. âIâm the opposite of desperate. I donât care.âA US proposal for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is âone-sided and unfairâ, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday.However, Trump said Iran is allowing some oil tankers through strait of Hormuz as a sign of good faith for talks. He said that Iran allowed 10 oil tankers to pass through the strategic strait as a âpresentâ to show it was serious about negotiations to end the war.The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give Trump more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, quoting defence department officials with knowledge of the planning.The Israel Defence Forcesâ chief of staff has warned that the military will âcollapse in on itselfâ as it faces increasing demands and a growing manpower shortage while fighting on multiple fronts, according to Israeli media reports.A Thai-flagged cargo ship that was hit by unknown projectiles in the strait of Hormuz earlier this month has run aground off Iranâs Qeshm Island, Iranâs Tasnim news agency said on Friday. Continue reading...
Woodcocks and pochard, pintail and goldeneye ducks among threatened species protected by proposalsHunters will be banned from shooting a rare and beautiful duck under new proposals to halt the decline of six British wild birds.The new rules would restrict the shooting of species including the distinctive woodcock, and the striking pintail, goldeneye and pochard ducks, all of which are classed as under threat and have seen their populations fall sharply in recent years. Continue reading...
The regulator has issued a ground stop for all planes and New Yorkâs emergency management authority warned people to expect cancellations and delaysNew Yorkâs LaGuardia airport was closed to flights early on Monday after an Air Canada flight and Port Authority vehicle collided.The New York police department confirmed the collision but could not immediately offer further information. The update came after flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said in post on X late on Monday that an Air Canada Express plane had collided with a ground vehicle at the airport. Continue reading...
⢠Senators Marsha Blackburn and Peter Welch sent a formal complaint letter to ByteDance CEO demanding the company halt its new AI app Seedance 2.0, citing concerns that it poses a direct threat to American creative industries.
⢠Content creators have documented instances where Seedance replicated expensive film shots for pennies, including a comparison showing the AI generated a near-exact copy of a clip from the film F1 for nine cents, sparking concerns about systemic copyright infringement.
⢠The letter reflects growing Capitol Hill concerns about AI companies' training practices and insufficient protections for content creators whose materials are used to develop AI models without permission.
⢠UPMC, a major Pittsburgh health system, stopped providing gender care services to patients under age 19 approximately nine months ago, leaving local transgender teens struggling to find alternative care options.
⢠The policy change has forced young patients like Moss Brinzer to scramble for medical services, creating significant gaps in access to gender-affirming healthcare for minors in the region.
⢠The decision reflects broader tensions in U.S. healthcare around gender medicine for adolescents, with major health systems reassessing their policies amid ongoing national debate.