President Donald Trump said Friday the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have agreed to his request for a three-day ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners, saying it could be the “beginning of the end” of the long war between them.
However, in the Middle East, the shaky ceasefire in the U.S. war with Iran was strained even further.
The U.S. said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliated against Iranian military facilities.
Hours later, U.S. Central Command said its forces disabled two more Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade on Iran’s ports.
Washington, meanwhile, awaits a response from Tehran in negotiations to end the war.
Here's the latest:
Republican state senators gave final approval to the legislation on Friday, sending it to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.
The action in Alabama came on the same day that the Virginia Supreme Court dealt a major setback to Democrats by overturning a redistricting plan that could have helped Democrats win as many as four additional House seats.
The Alabama bill could set aside the results of the May 19 primaries, if courts lift an injunction requiring it to use a map with two districts that have large Black populations.
The U.S. president said Friday that such a halt to hostilities could be the “beginning of the end” of the long war between the two nations.
Trump announced on social media that the ceasefire would run Saturday through Monday. Saturday is Victory Day in Russia, a holiday that commemorates its victory over Nazi Germany 81 years ago in World War II.
Trump says he’s “pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE.” The Republican president said the ceasefire includes a suspension of all kinetic activity and the exchange of 1,000 prisoners by each country.
Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion while noting the voters of the state had approved of the new congressional map.
“We gave this decision to the voters — exactly where it belongs — and they spoke loud and clear,” he said in a statement. “They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.”
He said “every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure.”
In a post on X, Araghchi said “Iranians never bow to pressure” and questioned whether the U.S. actions were a crude pressure tactic or the result of “a spoiler once again duping POTUS.”
Araghchi also boasted that Iran’s missile inventory and launch capacity was at “120%” of prewar levels, attaching a screenshot from a U.S. newspaper report that said the CIA had found Iran managed to retain more of its weaponry after the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign than previously thought.
The violence came as Washington awaited a response from Tehran in negotiations to end the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he expects to hear from Iran later Friday.
“I hope it’s a serious offer,” Rubio told reporters. “I really do.”
The U.S. military posted video of two Iranian oil tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet Friday, marking the latest confrontation between the U.S. and Iran.
Both countries exchanged fire off Iran’s coast on Thursday as U.S. Navy warships passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. also disabled another Iranian ship earlier this week.
“U.S. forces in the Middle East remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the leader of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down the voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.
The court ruled the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.
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That’s according to U.S. Central Command in a social media post.
In the social media post on Friday, it says a U.S. Navy fighter jet fired into the smokestacks of ships in the Gulf of Oman after they tried to pull into an Iranian port.
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It features black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font.
The first release includes 162 files, such as old State Department cables, FBI documents and transcripts from NASA of crewed flights into space.
One document details an FBI interview with someone identified as a drone pilot who, in September 2023, reported seeing a “linear object” with a light bright enough to “see bands within the light” in the sky.
“The object was visible for five to ten seconds and then the light went out and the object vanished,” according to the FBI interview.
Another file is a NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, showing three dots in a triangular formation. The Pentagon says in an accompanying caption that “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly” but that a new, preliminary analysis indicated that it could be a “physical object.”
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And Rubio said the U.S. believed it could still have a “productive and fruitful and important relationship” with the Catholic Church.
Rubio spoke to reporters in Rome, a day after his meeting with Pope Leo XIV during a fence-mending visit to Italy and the Vatican.
He was asked if he would recommend that Trump stop criticizing Leo’s position on the Iran war.
“The president will always speak clearly about how he feels about the U.S. and U.S. policy,” Rubio said. “The president of the United States is always going to act in what’s in the best interest of the United States.”
Rubio came to Rome after Trump repeatedly criticized Leo’s calls for peace and dialogue. The back and forth that ensued riled Italian leaders who came to Leo’s defense.
“The president’s perspective is clear. He thinks that Iran is a threat, and it needs to be addressed. And that position remains unchanged,” Rubio said.
Hiring was better than the 65,000 forecasters had expected, though it decelerated from the 185,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.
The Iran war has caused the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history and sent average U.S. gasoline prices surging past $4.50 a gallon this week. But the conflict hasn’t done much damage to the American job market so far.
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In addition to the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.
The Pentagon said Friday in a post on X that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, Trump “is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.”
The Pentagon says additional documents will be released on a rolling basis.
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And he warned that if Tehran attacks U.S. Navy ships “they’re going to get blown up.”
Rubio fielded questions at the end of a two-day fence-mending visit to Rome and the Vatican after sharp disagreements over the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.
He was asked about reports from a shipping data company that said Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the strait.
“Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?” Rubio asked. “What is the world prepared to do about it?”
He also warned Tehran against attacking American maritime assets in the region. The U.S. said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The red line is clear. They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,” he said.
The secretary of state, traveling in Italy, said the U.S. is anticipating a response from Iran on the ongoing diplomatic discussions sometime later Friday.
“We should know something today,” Rubio, who doubles as the White House national security adviser, told reporters.
He added: “I hope it’s a serious offer. I really do.”
The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding.
Government lawyers had argued that the cuts of more than 1,400 grants of congressionally approved funds were legal moves to implement President Donald Trump’s directives, eliminate grants associated with diversion, equity and inclusion and reduce discretionary spending under the administration’s priorities.
The White House and Department of Justice, which defended against the lawsuit, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear if an appeal was planned.
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A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.
A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.
The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are “invalid″ and “unauthorized by law,” the majority wrote.
The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.
If the administration appeals Thursday’s decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.
At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs were set to expire July 24.
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Trump on Thursday went on an unannounced trip to the Lincoln Memorial to see the Reflecting Pool after he had it coated in a color he calls “American flag blue.”
The Republican president was driven across the new coating before he got out of his SUV to make a statement and answer questions from reporters who had been taken there to await his arrival before the sun set.
The new blue coating will hide the pool’s gray stone, a color Trump said was “never good.” The project cost nearly $2 million, he said.
“It never had the color people wanted, but now it’s going to have the great color,” he said, standing in the pool surrounded by some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Doug Burgum of Interior and Markwayne Mullin of Homeland Security.
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The Iran war’s shaky ceasefire was further strained on Friday as the United Arab Emirates responded to a missile and drone strike, hours after the U.S. said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliated against Iranian military facilities.
There were no immediate reports of damage in the UAE.
Iran and the U.S. are trading blows as their negotiators are seeking a deal to end the fighting, but so far they’ve avoided a return to all-out fighting. It’s not clear how close the two sides are to a deal on issues like Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel vowed to halt when they launched the war on Feb. 28, or the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that Iran has all but closed in a bid to pressure the global economy.
On Thursday, Tehran said it was examining the latest U.S. proposals for ending the war delivered to it via Pakistan, which is serving as a mediator.
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Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday that Europe needs the United States, and vice versa, as America’s top diplomat wrapped up two days of fence-mending talks in Italy and the Vatican following weeks of tensions over the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
Tajani reaffirmed strong trans-Atlantic ties and said he hoped “tensions have been calmed” with Rubio’s visit. He said the two discussed the Iran war and spillover into Lebanon, as well as the situation in Venezuela and Cuba. The U.S. secretary of state was also meeting Friday with Premier Giorgia Meloni.
“I believe things can go in the right direction,” Tajani said. “I am convinced Europe needs America — Italy needs America — and the United States also needs Europe and Italy.”
President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his complaints about Europe’s unwillingness to help the U.S. with the Iran war and his attacks on Pope Leo XIV have fueled weeks of sharp disagreements over trade and defense cooperation between the two traditionally strong allies.
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