The United States and Iran have nailed down “a final, agreed upon text for a peace deal,” said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, whose country has been a key mediator, on Friday. There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Iranian leaders on Sharif’s statement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted earlier Friday on X that an agreement “has never been closer,” although he provided no details.
Three regional officials say the emerging
deal is expected to pave the way for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the phased lifting of sanctions on Iran, and the release of frozen Iranian assets.
It’s already a big weekend for U.S. President Donald Trump.
The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday. Then the president will host a UFC fight at the White House on Sunday — his 80th birthday. Hours later, he's scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps.
However, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds independents have grown increasingly unhappy with Trump during his second term, particularly those without a college degree.
Here's the latest:
A federal judge has refused to stop the White House from staging a UFC mixed martial arts event this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on Trump’s 80th birthday.
The nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event.
The White House calls the lawsuit baseless, saying it’s no different from many other events hosted at public forums in the capital.
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That denial came Friday. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last month Trump’s name was illegally added to the iconic Washington performing arts facility. Cooper ruled only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump to be removed by Friday.
’A June 4 memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel said email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center.”
The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped Trump’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the June 28 Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday that a “final, agreed upon text of the peace deal” between the United States and Iran has been reached and that Pakistan is now working with both sides to finalize the next steps.
“Peace has never been this close as it is now,” he added.
In a post on X, Sharif said Pakistan was engaged in “ongoing intense mediation efforts” and accused unnamed actors of spreading “incessant misinformation” aimed at undermining the process.
The U.S. and Iran did not immediately comment on Sharif’s statement.
Dana White, president and CEO of UFC, was on hand to watch as the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and U.S. Navy Blue Angels did a practice run over the White House, where the lawn is set up for Sunday’s matches.
White is a big Trump supporter. Sunday is also Trump’s 80th birthday.
Yet there were signs of activity on this steamy summer afternoon, as workers put up scaffolding around a section of the performing arts venue that includes Trump’s name.
Workers have appeared in the area before so it’s unclear whether they were preparing to immediately take down his name.
Much of the attention is on U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who must decide whether to grant a last-minute pause for his earlier ruling to remove Trump’s name. The judge ruled in May that only Congress could make such changes.
U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, made a filing earlier Friday opposing the request. An ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, she filed the lawsuit seeking to remove Trump’s name from the institution.
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Striking an unusually optimistic tone, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that a Pakistan-brokered agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end their war “has never been closer.”
He added that the media should not speculate about the deal’s content, apparently in reference to reports circulating with lists of points purportedly included in the agreement.
“All details will be shared with the public in due course,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
Trump shared Araghchi’s post on his own social media account.
The U.S. notified NATO in early June that it’s reducing the American military assets that would be available to Europe in case of attack, according to a NATO official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The reduction included an aircraft carrier strike group as well as a number of submarines, fighter jets, maritime patrol aircraft, air refueling planes and drones, the official said. However, U.S. space capabilities that help with targeting are not being drawn down.
The official said details are still being worked out on exactly when those assets are being reduced and when other NATO countries will step in to fill gaps left by the U.S. The timeline will be discussed further at the NATO summit in Turkey in July.
German news outlet Die Welt earlier reported some details of the cuts.
— Ben Finley
Vance in a social media post appeared to be chiding some of the president’s supporters who “said Donald Trump was a historic president a month ago” were now “criticizing a deal based on unconfirmed media reports.”
“The president is going to get us a good outcome, one way or the other,” Vance said.
The vice president in his post said the Iranians “are not receiving any cash,” but that Iran would receive “economic benefits” if it meets obligations.
“This deal has the potential to remake the region and lead to lasting peace,” he said, without releasing details.
The federal judge agreed Friday to extend a court-ordered block on the Trump administration’s creation and operation of a $1.8 billion settlement fund for compensating people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government.
Earlier this month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the government is scrapping its plans for the fund in the face of a fierce bipartisan backlash. Government attorneys have argued that lawsuits challenging the fund are now moot, but plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t satisfied by Blanche’s assurances that the fund won’t move forward.
President Trump, meanwhile, has not publicly and unequivocally endorsed its cancellation.
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A senior U.S. official said there are five key terms in the agreement: Iran’s nuclear material will be destroyed and removed, its nuclear program will be dismantled, none of its frozen money will be released until it meets certain demands, the Strait of Hormuz will be open, and Iran must not fund terrorist groups.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the sensitive talks.
Trump on Friday lashed out at Iranian officials on social media and said, “They better get their act together, and FAST!”
— Collin Binkley
NATO’s top military officer is weighing alternative plans to defend Europe should it come under attack from Russia, after the United States announced it’s cutting the number of aircraft and warships it would provide in a security crisis.
The so-called NATO Force Model is Plan A for making forces from the 32 member nations available in times of peace, crisis or war. It sets out the military assets commanders can call on in phases over the first six months of any conflict.
But last month, the Pentagon warned its NATO allies it would be scaling down its commitment to focus on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region.
European countries and Canada had waited impatiently for over a year for the Trump administration to detail its plans after it warned that Europe is no longer a top U.S. security priority. They knew cuts were coming, but not how big, fast or what kind.
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The relationship between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron started simply enough, with a handshake, nearly a decade ago.
But even then, there were signs of strain in their relationship — tensions that could be on full display during next week’s G7 summit in France.
Back in 2017, Trump was a brash businessman just elected to America’s most powerful office, and Macron was an upstart politician who had won his race in a landslide. At a NATO summit in Brussels, they clinched hands far longer than most people do when they meet for the first time. Neither seemed to want to be the first to break a grip so tight that it exposed white knuckles.
Nevertheless, a friendship was born. And early on, Macron seemed to be the one European leader with a knack for managing his mercurial, three-decades-older counterpart.
But by the end of Trump’s first term, the bromance had faded. And in his second term, the leaders now openly trade barbs, disagreeing over tariffs, Ukraine and the Iran war.
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The surveillance tool seen as vital in preventing terror attacks and catching foreign spies is set to expire Friday after congressional efforts to temporarily extend it failed in bipartisan fashion.
It’s a significant lapse for the program known as Section 702, and even as President Donald Trump nominates a new national intelligence director more palatable to both Republicans and Democrats than his initial pick, it’s unclear how soon lawmakers — set for recess — would be able to revive the spy program.
Still, there may not be an immediate drop-off given that a court order from March authorized these government surveillance powers to remain in effect for another year.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became a symbol of middle power resistance after a celebrated speech earlier this year, but he is expected to be more muted in his criticism of Trump at an upcoming summit in Europe.
Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, helped make him an international political star in January, when he declared the global rules-based order over and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks and upstaged Trump at the gathering.
But the Group of Seven summit of industrialized democracies that begins Monday in France comes ahead of the scheduled July 1 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the United States, Mexico and Canada since the early 1990s. It is a crucial moment in trade talks, and Trump said this week that he may not renew the deal.
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Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the iconic performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.
The board voted Thursday to seek a stay of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s May 29 ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The formal request was filed late Thursday.
Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.
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Independents have grown increasingly unhappy with Trump during his second term, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds, particularly those without a college degree.
The analysis from researchers at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that while about half of independents without a college education had a positive view of Trump around the 2024 election, his approval with that group fell to about one-quarter this spring. That shift has erased the large education gap that existed among independents in the months before Trump took office for his second term, with independents now holding similarly negative views of the president regardless of their level of education.
The analysis was conducted by aggregating nearly two dozen AP-NORC polls conducted between July 2024 and April 2026, allowing for a deeper look at how support for Trump changed during several distinct periods, including the last six months of 2024, the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, the summer of 2025 when the Big Beautiful Bill passed, last fall’s government shutdown and the beginning of the Iran war.
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Trump has long been looking for this weekend to be a big one for his presidency.
The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday for the first time in 32 years after Trump threw himself into winning the bid to co-host the soccer tourney during his first term. He’ll be feted Sunday, his 80th birthday, during a UFC fight night that’s expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds. Hours after the final bout, he’s scheduled to jet off to the G7 summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he’s been beefing with over war and tariffs.
But Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced Thursday that the U.S. and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war that’s been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets. He said he plans to dispatch Vice President JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.
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