The Latest: Iran negotiators agree to extend ceasefire, begin nuclear talks pending Trump approval
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that President Donald Trump still needs to sign off on the emerging memorandum of understanding.
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store 30 years ago, lied during the course of civil litigation against the Republican president, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Also, a federal judge has declined to halt Trump’s executive order, creating a federal voter list and limiting mail voting, clearing the way for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.
Here's the latest:
Attorneys from the American Immigration Lawyers Association are warning that they don’t think anyone should assume they’re safe from a new green card policy announced last week.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that immigrants applying for a green card would have to do so in their home countries except in “extraordinary circumstances.”
In later statements, the agency has said the policy wouldn’t affect people who provide an “economic benefit” or “skilled professionals who have followed the law.”
Immigrants and lawyers have been trying to assess how broadly the new guidance will be applied and who might get a green card in the U.S.
AILA lawyers said during a news conference Thursday that they didn’t think anyone, including those in the country on the highly coveted employment-based H-1B visa, should assume that the new policy wouldn’t affect them.
The association provides legal education to its 18,000 members.
The Treasury Secretary responded to a question about a report earlier Thursday showing Americans are saving the smallest proportion of their paychecks in about two decades, outside the pandemic. He said it could be because wages aren’t going as far, which he termed a “doomer” view, or because they are more optimistic about the economy and the stock market.
Consumers do step up their spending when they are more confident of their job and income prospects. But consumer confidence surveys show Americans have a decidedly gloomy outlook on the economy right now, and their perception of the job market is also negative.
Thursday’s report showed that after-tax, inflation-adjusted incomes have fallen 1.1% from a year ago, a key reason consumers were forced to dip into savings to maintain their spending. Credit-card balances have also jumped as gas prices have spiked.
The Treasury secretary was repeatedly peppered with questions about reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators have agreed to a memorandum of understanding.
But Bessent claimed that he hadn’t spoken with Trump on the matter before taking part in the White House briefing with reporters.
“It’s always a mistake to get out ahead of the president,” he said. “So, it is all going to be the president’s decision.”
Bessent, however, underscored that Trump has made clear that there can be no deal without Tehran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, dispose of its highly enriched uranium and pledge to never have a nuclear weapons program.
During his session with reporters in the White House briefing room, it was noted that the Treasury secretary was following Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the podium -- both of whom are widely expected to run for president in 2028.
Asked to laughs about his own aspirations to be president, Bessent responded with a dose of humor himself.
“No,” he said with a smile, “I just think it just means they’ve run out of things on the food chain.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is on maternity leave, and Vance, Rubio, and now Bessent have taken turns holding weekly briefings in her absence.
Bessent told reporters at a White House briefing that he spoke with Oman’s ambassador to Washington, Talal Alrahbi, earlier on Thursday, and the Gulf envoy assured him that his country had “no plans for tolling the strait.”
Trump, during a Cabinet briefing on Wednesday, warned Oman, a U.S. ally, not to enter into any agreement with Iran to share control of the strait or the U.S. will “have to blow them up.”
Bessent downplayed the president’s rhetoric.
“I think the president wanted to punctuate freedom of navigation in the strait,” he added.
The Treasury secretary said he had breakfast Thursday with Kevin Warsh, the new chair of the Federal Reserve, who was just sworn in last week to replace former chair Jerome Powell.
Bessent provided some cover for Warsh by not repeating the Trump administration’s calls for him to immediately cut the Fed’s short-term interest rate, which Trump regularly demanded of Powell.
Instead, Bessent said, “I believe he will do the right thing to balance inflation and growth.” Such phrasing suggests the Fed should consider addressing inflation, which it typically does by keeping rates elevated or even raising them. Financial markets increasingly expect the central bank to raise its key rate, rather than cut it, by early next year.
Speaking at the White House, Scott Bessent did not take a personal position on the idea of a new $250 bill with Trump’s picture.
He said it’s up to Congress, where legislation to allow a new currency note has stalled.
Bessent affirmed that the Treasury Department does “prepare things in advance.” That’s a tacit confirmation of a Washington Post story that reported said the agency has produced a mockup of a new $250 bill. The design has Trump’s picture and a 250th anniversary logo celebrating the nation’s founding.
The secretary noted that, at least for now, U.S. law does not allow a living person to appear on currency. A bill by Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, would provide an exemption allowing Trump’s image to appear.
“It’s all up to Capitol Hill,” Bessent said. “We will stick to the law.”
Asked about rising oil prices, the U.S. Treasury secretary told reporters that a large number of ships are waiting to “come out of the gulf.”
He said that, once an agreement has been reached between the U.S. and Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, “I think the oil market is going to be very well supplied on the other side.”
“We could see prices come down very quickly,” Bessent said, also noting that prices could further ease because “we saw the UAE leave OPEC.”
Scott Bessent called Trump’s benefit for newborns “the most important benefit for young people since the GI Bill.” He said almost 6 million children have been signed up for the accounts, which will launch on July 4.
The accounts are meant to give $1,000 to every newborn whose parents open an account. That money is then invested in the stock market by private firms, and the child can access the money when they turn 18.
Bessent is part of a rotating cast of Cabinet members leading White House press briefings while press secretary Karoline Leavitt is on maternity leave.
A new camp in Kenya where the Trump administration plans to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola abroad will be operational with 50 quarantine beds starting Friday, according to a senior administration official.
The government is still working on bringing in additional isolation and biocontainment units for Americans who may contract the disease, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss details of the facility with reporters on Thursday.
While no Americans have yet been identified to be sent to the facility, 30 members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps have so far been trained and deployed to staff the camp at Kenya’s Laikipia Air Base, the official said.
The U.S. government has been in conversation with Kenya’s president on the establishment of the facility, said another senior administration official on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters.
Another U.S. official said the broad outlines of a tentative deal have been reached but stressed that until the president signs off on it, there is no deal.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomacy, said there are still questions about whether Trump will ultimately accept the agreement.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump still needs to sign off on the emerging memorandum of understanding.
The tentative agreement worked out by the two sides comes at a moment when the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering.
The U.S. military earlier on Thursday accused Iran of violating the ceasefire after Kuwait reported coming under attack following an American strike against the Islamic Republic. It was the latest flare-up of fighting to threaten ongoing negotiations to end the war.
Details of the tentative agreement were first reported by the news outlet Axios.
In his commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Vance said technology is evolving faster than military institutions have been accustomed to. He endorsed Pope Leo XIV’s recent message warning against outsourcing moral decisions to technology.
“If the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors, decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines,” Vance told graduates Thursday at a ceremony in Colorado Springs.
Vance said he was confident in the class of 2026, saying they will follow in the footsteps of service members who pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was downed by Iran in April.
“Your Air Force, your future force, went in there and did the impossible,” he said.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the U.S. actions reflect a pattern “of coercion, intimidation and interference” which violates the U.N. Charter, threatens the countries’ sovereignty and independence, and endangers international peace and security.
U.S. forces arrested Venezuela’s president and the Trump administration now oversees the country, and it’s pressuring Cuba by blocking the delivery of oil.
Iravani defended Iran’s right to respond to the U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran on Feb. 28 and to close the Strait of Hormuz, accusing unnamed countries of ignoring the root causes of the current situation in the region and unfairly shifting the blame to Iran.
“Iran’s actions are lawful and consistent with international law,” Iravani said. “Iran could not allow such a critical waterway to be used as a corridor for hostile action and military aggression against its sovereignty, territory and vital interests.”
It’s the latest front in the wider struggle between the White House and Democratic-led states over the Republican president’s immigration crackdown.
The Department of Justice alleges in separate lawsuits filed Wednesday that Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington state are imposing unconstitutional restrictions it says impede law enforcement and threaten agents’ safety.
“By denying undercover license plates to DHS components, including ICE, while issuing them to their own state agencies, these governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructionist policies against federal law enforcement,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement.
“These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement, allow dangerous criminals to escape justice, and terrorize American communities,” Blanche added.
The Justice Department filed individual suits in U.S. district courts in the respective states. The four state governments are accused of trying “to obstruct the Federal Government’s immigration enforcement efforts, even though control over immigration and the nation’s borders is an exclusive federal power.”
The Trump administration says it’s boosting its Ebola response assistance to Congo and Uganda by $80 million, bringing the U.S. contribution to those efforts to more than $112 million over the past two weeks.
The State Department said Thursday the additional money would pay for personal protective equipment for health care workers, Ebola test kits, supporting health screening at airports and other points of entry into Central and East Africa, and contact tracing of potential virus victims in the Congo and Uganda.
The U.S. has been criticized for massive reductions in assistance since Trump began his second term, including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. But current officials say the new aid procedures are more effective and less costly.
In addition to the bilateral assistance it has pledged, the State Department said it also committed $50 million to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to fund up to 50 Ebola clinics and has earmarked $300 million through the agency for regional humanitarian initiatives.
She put to rest speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid, saying Thursday that she won’t join what’s expected to be a crowded primary field after leaving office at the end of this year.
Whitmer has long been viewed by some Democrats as a possible White House contender after her decisive election victories in the closely contested state Trump has carried twice in presidential votes. For months, however, Whitmer had offered only cautious answers about her political future.
But she delivered her clearest response yet in an interview Thursday with Fox 2 Detroit.
“I think there will be a robust group of people running for president. I will not be one of them in 2028,” Whitmer said.
Her comments came during Michigan’s annual Mackinac policy conference, where Whitmer is set to be honored and deliver remarks later Thursday.
It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped fund Carroll’s case.
Trump’s lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of concealing that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated.
Oil prices are clawing back some of their sharp drops from earlier in the week Thursday, but U.S. stocks are remaining near their records as companies like Dollar Tree, Snowflake and Hormel Foods keep piling up profits.
The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 219 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower after both indexes also set records the day before.
Stocks appear to be less beholden to swings in the oil market, where prices climbed Thursday following the latest threat to the ceasefire in the United States’ war with Iran. U.S. Central Command said Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night, following earlier “defensive” strikes by the U.S. military on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that New York Knicks owner James Dolan has invited him to the NBA Finals, when the Eastern Conference champion Knicks host either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs next month at Madison Square Garden.
New York, which is riding an 11-game postseason winning streak after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, is scheduled to host Game 3 on June 8 and Game 4 on June 10.
Trump, a New York native, said he initially planned to attend Game 5 of the conference finals at MSG before the Knicks finished off the Cavaliers in four games. The president called Dolan a “great guy” and marveled at New York’s run.
Trump called the club’s return to the finals for the first time since 1999 “great to see.”
Trump has routinely dropped in on prominent sporting events during his time in politics. He’s taken in the College Football Playoff championship and caught a prime-time NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets just days before the 2024 election.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he’s being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks.
Zelenskyy said he hasn’t yet received a reply to a letter he sent earlier this week to President Trump and Congress asking for more of the American-made ammunition. He warned that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks.
“I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.
Zelenskyy is keen to secure more deliveries of foreign weaponry that it can’t produce itself as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. In exchange, he’s offering to share the cutting-edge drone expertise Ukraine has built up during the war.
She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump has called the allegations a “made-up scam.”
A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, awarding her $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump’s social media attacks on her.
A court entry earlier this month said Trump won’t have to pay the award until the U.S. Supreme Court gets a chance to review the case or reject an appeal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a request by one of Trump’s lawyers that it let the president delay the payment to Carroll, though it required that he post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll’s attorney had made.
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