(May 21, 2026)
House Republican leaders yanked a planned vote to restrict President Trump’s ability to conduct military strikes against Iran, after it became clear that the resolution, forced to the floor by Democrats, would likely pass.
“You don’t have the votes!” Democrats shouted in a heated moment on the House floor, when Republicans moved to delay the vote until after lawmakers return from a weeklong Memorial Day recess.
The report said Tehran would hand over nuclear material to a third country, provided it receives guarantees that the stockpile would be returned if talks collapse or if Washington withdraws from any agreement.
Iran also signalled it could gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic in parallel with a lifting of the US maritime blockade, with nuclear issues to be negotiated over a 30-day period.
According to the report, Tehran is prepared to suspend uranium enrichment for a limited time, though for a shorter duration than the 20 years sought by Washington.
Recent polling on the congressional generic ballot shows Democrats with a modest advantage. The party out of power typically gains ground in midterm elections, and these early surveys suggest this may be taking shape ahead of 2026. Democrats lead in the vast majority of recent polls, though by single-digit margins. However, with redistricting efforts underway in several states, the national vote share that Democrats need to retake the House will depend on the extent of these changes.
Source said nine US government aircraft of US Air Mobility Command, operating under “RCH” (Reach) callsigns, have landed at PAF Base Nur Khan, carrying high-level logistics support equipment.
The aircraft convoy is reported to be transporting a range of mission-critical assets, including White House communications systems, Presidential motorcade vehicles and transport units, and Additional operational and support equipment.
Most of flights originated from Joint Base Andrews in the US, a key base used for executive and government transport operations. Several aircraft were also routed through Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where some cargo transfers and aircraft swaps reportedly took place before continuing toward Pakistan.
(April 16, 2026)
Sanders’ resolutions to stop bulldozer, bomb deliveries gain unprecedented Democratic support, demonstrating major shift in party’s approach toward Israel over wars in Gaza, Lebanon
ISLAMABAD – Officials from Pakistan and Iran said US and Iranian negotiating teams could return to Islamabad within the next few days, or possibly early next week, to continue efforts aimed at easing tensions and preventing further escalation in the Gulf while the exact timing has not yet been finalized.
Ahead of the high-profile visit, there were rumours about Trump leading delegation coming to Pakistan. Pakistani officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar have denied rumors that Trump would travel to Pakistan in connection with the talks.
The US-Iran negotiations are set to begin in Islamabad on April 10. Iran’s delegation will be led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, while the US team will include Vice President JD Vance, advisor Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, confirmed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir reviewed peace efforts before US-Iran talks in Islamabad. The meeting matters as Pakistan mediates rising regional tensions through diplomacy. Regional stakeholders, including the United States, Iran, and neighboring countries, are directly affected by these developments.
“World markets are increasingly wary of the U.S. dollar. They’re looking at alternatives. Let’s offer them European debt,” Macron said, adding that Europe’s democratic institutions were a major asset for investors at a time when the U.S. was “drifting away from the rule of law.”
The E.U. used joint debt in 2020 to re-boot the European economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, but French attempts to make such tools permanent have faced stiff resistance from Germany and other more frugal northern member states.
If Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar‘s desire to dislodge Sir Keir Starmer had had public accomplices, that could have been it.
There was a crucial pivot point on Monday afternoon when things could have gone in one of two ways.
If others had said Sir Keir should go, he might not have got to the end of the day without announcing his departure.
But instead, there was a rallying of support from the cabinet and from various wings of the Labour Party.
• The Justice Department is releasing more than 3 million pages of files related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein today, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying the department has now completed its review of the Epstein files.
• Blanche said the White House had “no oversight” of the review of documents and firmly stated that “we did not protect President Trump.” He said any member of Congress can view unredacted versions at the Department of Justice.
• CNN reporters are going through the documents now, and we will share information here as we learn more. The new tranches of Epstein files have an age verification page.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.
The signing ceremony in Paraguay’s humid capital of Asunción marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc’s foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing.
US-Präsident Donald Trump und der ukrainische Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj haben sich positiv über ihre Gespräche in Florida geäußert. Es habe „große Fortschritte“ gegeben, man sei einem russisch-ukrainischen Abkommen seiner Meinung nach viel näher gekommen, sagte Trump.
Allerdings gebe es noch ein oder zwei schwierige Fragen. Die kommenden Wochen würden zeigen, ob eine Lösung zur Beendigung des Ukraine-Kriegs erreicht werden könne. Selenskyj sagte seinerseits, er habe eine großartige Diskussion mit Trump geführt.
Emerging after more than three hours of talks, neither man announced any major breakthrough in the grinding effort to end the conflict started by Russia in 2022. Both emphasized the process was complicated and would take more time. And Trump, who spoke by phone earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin, still offered a relatively sympathetic view of Moscow’s positions.
Yet unlike some previous meetings, Trump praised Zelensky and remained confident that peace was near.
But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump‘s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.
And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers.
The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress‘ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
Police response to protests against group’s ban remains divided, with Scotland and Northern Ireland making no arrests
US State Department said on Friday that Steve Fagin, a career diplomat, will work alongside US Army Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, the military head already appointed to the hub set up after the October 10 ceasefire.
Some 200 US troops were sent to the centre, set up in a rented warehouse, where they work with soldiers from Israel and European countries, representatives of the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and personnel from the United Nations and aid groups.
Speaking on Thursday at a conference organised by the Israeli daily Makor Rishon, Smotrich, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, said: „Sovereignty [over the occupied West Bank] is the real test. If Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, then the answer, my friends, is no thank you – keep riding camels on the desert sands, and we will continue to develop economically and socially, and with all the great things we know how to do.“
A Hamas delegation is set to meet Qatari and Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire, AFP reported.
The reports said the delegation, headed by Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, will discuss „the dozens of air strikes that killed dozens in the Gaza Strip“ on Sunday.
A European and US-backed UN security council motion to give a planned international stabilisation force robust powers to control security inside Gaza is being prepared, with the strong expectation that Egypt will lead it, diplomats have said.
The US is pressing for the force to have a UN mandate without being a fully fledged UN peacekeeping force and will operate with the kind of powers given to international troops operating in Haiti to combat armed gangs.
Turkey, Indonesia and Azerbaijan are also being billed alongside Egypt as the main troop contributors.
According to US defense sources, the three nations are “top contenders” to supply troops to the proposed International Stabilization Force, though none has yet formally agreed to participate. A Trump adviser named Indonesia and Azerbaijan, along with Egypt, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, as possible contributors. So far, Indonesia is the only country to publicly offer troops, saying it could deploy 20,000 soldiers under a United Nations (UN)-mandated peacekeeping mission—something not outlined in Trump’s 20-point plan.
The US is also moving to recruit Palestinians for a transitional technocratic government to administer Gaza.
Italian opposition parties, including the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the left-wing Five Star Movement (M5S), have supported the government’s plan to deploy troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping mission, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
The UN Security Council is expected to work on a resolution in the coming weeks that would set up a mandate for the force.
Among the countries the U.S. is speaking to about contributing to the force are Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan, said the adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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After Hamas killed seven men in Gaza City it accused of collaborating with Israel, the advisers said there were discussions to establish safe zones for civilians to prevent such incidents.
The ministers directed an immediate expansion of intelligence-sharing through the Unified Military Command, integration of regional air operation centers, acceleration of the GCC’s joint early-warning system for ballistic missiles, and the update of collective defense plans.
They also approved joint exercises between air and missile defense centers within three months, to be followed by a live regional air drill.
(September 3, 2025)
Hamas has agreed to ceasefire proposals presented by the mediators, but it has refused to disarm until the Palestinian state is established as part of the so-called two-state solution. Qatar, which has mediated in the conflict, said that Israel has yet to agree to its latest ceasefire proposal, which was accepted by Hamas last month.