Response

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Hamilton werd vorig jaar ontslagen als waarnemend administrateur nadat hij tijdens een hoorzitting in het Huis van Afge representan plannen om de instantie af te schaffen tegenging. Donald Trump heeft Cameron Hamilton opnieuw genomineerd om de Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) te leiden, nadat Hamilton eerder was ontslagen omdat hij zich publiekelijk had uitgesproken tegen plannen om de organisatie op te heffen. Hamilton werd vorig jaar uit zijn functie als waarnemend administrateur van de rampenhulporganisatie gezet na zijn getuigenis voor een ondercommissie voor budgettering van het Huis van Afgevaardigden. Tijdens de hoorzitting verklaarde hij: “Ik geloof niet dat het in het belang van het Amerikaanse volk is om de Federal Emergency Management Agency te elimineren.” Lees verder...

De opmerkingen van de president volgden op verklaringen van Benjamin Netanyahu dat de oorlog 'niet voorbij is'. Daarnaast reizen Amerikaanse passagiers van het door het hantavirus getroffen cruiseschip naar Nebraska.

De Amerikaanse president noemt de Iraanse reactie 'totaal onacceptabel', terwijl Teheran stelt dat het zal terugslaan bij nieuwe Amerikaanse aanvallen of buitenlandse oorlogsschepen in de Straat van Hormuz. • Trump noemt de reactie van Iran op het vredesplan 'totaal onacceptabel' terwijl het staakt-het-vuren wankelt • De Amerikaanse kaders voor de nucleaire gesprekken omvatten naar verluidt een moratorium op de Iraanse nucleaire verrijking voor maximaal 20 jaar; de overdracht naar het buitenland, mogelijk naar de VS, van de voorraad hoogverrijkt uranium (HEU) van Iran, dat gebruikt zou kunnen worden voor het maken van kernwapens; en de ontmanteling van Iraanse nucleaire faciliteiten. • Volgens de Wall Street Journal suggereerde het Iraanse tegenvoorstel een korter moratorium, de export van een deel van de HEU-voorraad en het verdunnen van de rest, en een weigering om de ontmanteling van faciliteiten te accepteren. Lees verder...

• Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft de reactie van Iran op een Amerikaans vredigvoorstel publiekelijk veroordeeld als 'totaal onaanvaardbaar', te midden van vastgelopen onderhandelingen in de afgelopen weken. • Iran heeft zijn 'oorlogbeëindigende' reactie ingediend via Pakistaanse bemiddelaars, terwijl een fragiel staakt-het-vuren standhoudt ondanks incidentele escalaties in de Golf en meldingen van droneaanvallen. • De uitwisseling verhoogt de spanningen; Iran bestempelt de afwijzing van Trump als 'irrelevant' en waarschuwt landen die Amerikaanse sancties handhaven voor 'moeilijkheden' bij het passeren van de Straat van Hormuz.

• President Trump verklaarde op 9 mei 2026 dat de VS nog steeds wachten op de reactie van Iran op het nieuwste vredesplan, waarbij hij benadrukte dat deze 'elk moment' kan komen. • De brandstofprijzen in oorlogstijd gemiddeld $4,53 per gallon bedroegen in het hele land, wat een stijging van 25 cent markeerde voor de tweede week op rij te midden van aanhoudende spanningen. • Het uitblijven van een antwoord vergroot de risico's in de Straat van Hormuz, waar recente marineacties de fragiele dynamiek van het staakt-het-vuren onderstrepen.

• The United States is monitoring Iran's reply to a renewed peace proposal following mutual strikes, as reported by Fox News White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie. • President Trump pursues a diplomatic deal amid Middle East tensions, with former Iran special representative Brian Hook praising the administration's 'disciplined deterrence' strategy. • The developments signal potential de-escalation in the conflict, highlighting Trump's foreign policy focus on security and negotiation.

Diplomatic efforts continuing despite fighting in and around contested strait of Hormuz in recent daysMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said that Washington is expecting a response from Iran on Friday to its proposals for an interim deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, as Iran accused the US of breaching the increasingly fragile ceasefire announced last month.In recent days there have been the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the contested strait of Hormuz since the informal truce began. The rise in violence followed Donald Trump’s announcement – then rapid pause – of a new naval mission aimed at opening the strategic waterway. Continue reading...

• Indian cybersecurity companies are deploying in-house AI agents built on large language models to combat threats. • These AI agents reduce software vulnerability detection and remediation times from days to hours. • The acceleration matches attackers' machine-speed operations, where human response windows shrink to near zero.

PM will say responsibility to stand with Jewish communities lies with ‘every one of us’ at event on TuesdayKeir Starmer will call for a whole-of-society response to rising antisemitism on Tuesday, saying that it is not enough simply to condemn the scourge, but people “must show it” through their actions too.Before a roundtable event at Downing Street, the prime minister will call for action on all forms of antisemitism, after a knife attack against the Jewish community in Golders Green last week, a spate of serious arson attacks and the terror incident in Heaton Park in October. Continue reading...

The Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, was cited as saying by state news agency Xinhua that the economy got off to a better-than-expected start this year.

Overnight incident in Romania did not lead to hostilities as potential target stayed within Ukrainian airspaceTwo RAF Typhoons have been scrambled from a Romanian air base to engage Russian drones close to Nato air space although did not fire or shoot any down.British defence sources said the fighter jets did not enter Ukrainian airspace, contradicting reports that Russian drones had been shot down by the RAF there, an event which would have represented a major escalation in hostilities between the western alliance and Moscow. Continue reading...

• 88-year-old congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is leading a back-seat response to the most serious federal threat to D.C.’s government in 30 years. • The challenge targets local autonomy, echoing Muriel Bowser's conflicts with Trump policies. • Victory for D.C. allies could preserve home rule amid national partisan divides.

Drivers booted off the platform say they have little recourse to appeal as rideshare giant increasingly relies on automated systemsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMichael Thorn thought he’d suffered enough after his Uber passenger punched him in the head, sending him to hospital. But then the ride-share platform deactivated his account.“It’s even worse than getting belted,” Thorn said. Continue reading...

• Apple announced a delay of the Vision Pro 2 launch to Q4 2026 on April 19, pushing the release back six months as initial sales of the first-generation headset underperformed internal forecasts. • The company cited mixed customer feedback regarding the $3,499 price point, limited app ecosystem, and extended battery life requirements as factors influencing the postponement and product refinement timeline. • The delay marks a strategic recalibration for Apple in the spatial computing market and provides competitors including Meta's Quest 3 and Sony's PlayStation VR2 additional time to strengthen market position.

• The UK and France announced a joint initiative on April 7 to address Mediterranean migration flows, with both countries deploying increased naval assets and proposing new burden-sharing mechanisms among EU member states. • Record numbers of migrants attempted Channel crossings in March; both nations acknowledged root causes including conflict in Syria, instability in Afghanistan, and economic desperation in North Africa. • The agreement includes expanded search-and-rescue coordination, joint processing centers, and humanitarian support; however, European capitals remain divided over permanent asylum burden-sharing frameworks.

Markwayne Mullin visits Asheville to survey Hurricane Helene recovery in first big trip since Kristi Noem’s ousterMarkwayne Mullin, the US homeland security secretary, used a visit to Asheville, North Carolina to call for a fundamental shift in the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), arguing that states and local governments – not the federal agency – should lead disaster response.“We shouldn’t look at Fema as being a first responder, but look at Fema as supporting the first responders you already have,” Mullin told reporters at a roundtable discussion. Continue reading...

Former government adviser Polly Billington urges bigger steps to shield people in UK from effects of Iran warMiddle East crisis – live updatesKeir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Continue reading...

Opposition leader calls for the prime minister to give more details about the fuel crisisGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the breaking stories before Natasha May takes the helm.Anthony Albanese used a rare address to the nation to attempt to allay public fears over dwindling fuel supplies, vowing to keep petrol prices down by shoring up international supplies and ramping up local production. Continue reading...

Pakistani intermediaries deliver 15-point plan but some proposals proved intractable in previous negotiationsIranian officials expressed initial disapproval of a US ceasefire plan on Wednesday, even as intermediaries suggested direct talks between the two could start as early as this weekend.Representatives from Pakistan who reportedly delivered the US plan to Iran told the Associated Press that it was a 15-point proposal that would include sanctions relief for Iran, dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme, restricting its use of missiles and reopening the strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20% of the world’s oil. Continue reading...

Energy minister Michael Shanks reassures drivers ahead of chancellor’s statement to MPsGood morning. At lunchtime Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will give a statement to MPs that will cover what the government is doing, and (more tentatively) might do, in response to the soaring global energy prices caused by the Iran war. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, also creating a global energy shortage, the Conservative government ended up spending £40bn supporting families and firms with energy bills over the following winter. Reeves’s problem is that she has not got £40bn spare. With spring upon us, and people starting to turn down their central heating, the issue may not seem particularly pressing in many households (although heating oil and petrol prices are already soaring.) But, by the end of this year, this could be the sort of colossal economic crisis that gets remembered for half a century.As Chris Mason explains in a good preview, Reeves is expected to cover three points. She is expected to confirm that the government wants to give the Competition and Markets Authority new powers to deal with any potention profiteering by oil companies. She will confirm that the government wants to go “further and faster to secure the next generation of nuclear power and to reclaim Britain’s place as a leading nuclear nation” (as the Treasury puts it in its overnight preview).[Drivers] should do everything as absolutely normal because there is no shortage of fuel anywhere in the country at the moment. We monitor this every single day, I look at the numbers personally. There’s no issue at all with that …People should go about their business as normal. That’s what the RAC and the AA have said. It’s really important people do that. There’s no shortage of fuel and everything is working as normal.Look genuinely, people shouldn’t change their behaviour or their habits in the slightest. Continue reading...

• The State Department announced a new Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response with 12 regional hubs to coordinate emergency aid, replacing functions of the dismantled USAID. • Hubs will be located in Miami, Bogota, Guatemala City, Santo Domingo, Kyiv, Amman, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dakar, Bangkok, Dhaka, and Manila, with 200 staffers based in Washington. • The move follows Trump administration cuts to foreign aid, especially climate and social justice programs, amid criticism from aid organizations, though a $2 billion UN contribution was made last year.

US president was meeting with Japanese PM when he said: ‘Who knows better about surprise than Japan?’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxIt would be funny if it wasn’t so Trumpy.Hosting the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Donald Trump could not resist mocking Japan about its 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor during the second world war. Continue reading...

The cases recorded so far have all been linked to a nightclub popular with students in Canterbury on 5-7 MarchTwo young people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in Kent as private supplies of vaccines run out. Here’s what we know about how the disease spread and what the authorities did to tackle it. Continue reading...