Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US vessels trying to reopen a route through the strait of Hormuz.
The US launched an operation on Monday to help hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, dragging the region back to the brink of full-scale war.
Tehran sought to reassert its blockade on the strait, which is a vital waterway in global trade. While the US military claimed to have destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones, this was denied by Iran.
Trump’s comments call into question the fragile, Pakistan-brokered ceasefire that halted hostilities last month, but failed to open up the strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of international oil supplies usually travel.
More than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region.
Trump threatens to blow Iran ‘off the face of the earth’ if it attacks US vessels
Trump’s threats against Iran echo remarks he made in April, when he warned that a “whole civilization will die” if Tehran failed to comply with his demands over the strait of Hormuz – comments that drew widespread domestic and international backlash.
Trump officials threaten UN budget cuts as US pushes ‘trade over aid’ agenda
The Trump administration is continuing to pressure the United Nations and the international aid sector more broadly to adopt trade-focused policies to benefit US firms – or face the threat of further budget cuts.
Trump’s second term has already seen USAID suffer mass layoffs and have its remaining operations folded into the state department, with a ripple effect across the globe that has many experts warning will cost thousands of lives as vital programs are cut.
Trump administration claims food aid fraud but critics say ‘there’s no evidence’
The Trump administration’s attack on the 87-year-old food aid program that supports tens of millions of low-income Americans escalated last week as the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, claimed that 14,000 Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (Snap) recipients included owners of luxury vehicles such as Ferraris, Bentleys and Teslas.
Marco Rubio to meet pope this week after Trump’s broadside against Leo
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will meet Pope Leo on Thursday, weeks after Donald Trump’s unprecedented broadside against the pontiff.
Rubio will meet the first US-born pope privately in the Vatican’s apostolic palace at 11.30am (10.30 GMT), the Holy See’s press office confirmed on Monday after media reports on Sunday.
Florida’s Republican governor signs state’s new congressional map into law
With the stroke of a pen, Ron DeSantis has done more to determine the outcome of congressional elections in Florida than any political operative or field organizer in the state. The new map slices and dices districts around Miami, Orlando and the Tampa Bay area.
US supreme court temporarily restores access to mail-order abortion pills
The US supreme court has temporarily reinstated nationwide access to mifepristone, blocking a ruling that threatened to upend accessibility of an abortion pill involved in nearly two-thirds of pregnancy terminations across the country.
What else happened today:
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The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.
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At least 13 people were hurt in a mass shooting during a party at a campground in Oklahoma on Sunday night, authorities said.
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A US judge on Monday apologized to the man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump for the “legally deficient” treatment he has faced in a Washington DC jail, including being placed on suicide watch, separated from other inmates and denied a Bible.
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Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said.
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New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and other local officials on Monday condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal officers dragged a man out of a hospital building where he had been taken following an arrest, prompting a crowd of protesters to gather outside, where they clashed with police.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Sunday 3 May.