SpaceX launch of updated Starship V3 ‘delivered’ on first flight
May 22 (UPI) — SpaceX successfully launched an updated version of its Starship on Friday evening, meeting all goals the company said it was aiming for.
The launch was the first of the company’s V3 version of both the booster rocket and “Ship” upper stage, which is a key part of NASA’s Artemis series of missions to the moon and, potentially, to Mars.
SpaceX commentators said during the company’s official broadcast that the updated Starship, which delivered 22 simulator Starlink satellites into orbit and converted flight adjustments it will need when it lands instead splashing down in water, “delivered.”
The company had scrubbed the first attempted launch of the megarocket, the largest ever built, on Thursday because of an engineering issue that could not be fixed in time to make the scheduled launch window.
The mission for the 408-foot-tall Super Heavy rocket, which is powered by 33 newly redesigned Raptor engines, the same as Starship, was to successfully launch, ascend, separate from the second stage — Starship — and then perform boost back and landing burns before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.
After separation, Starship’s goals were to light its engines, enter a sub-orbital path and release a series of dummy Starlink satellites before performing a series of maneuvers and testing its newly designed heat shield.
When Starship splashed down in the Indian Ocean after its tests, SpaceX commentators said during the broadcast that the fireball when it hit the Indian Ocean was the goal, “as weird as that sounds.”
Kevin Warsh takes the oath of office as he is sworn-in as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in the East Room of the White House on Friday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
This version of Starship is not the final one, but rather is a prototype of one of several that are planned for NASA’s return of Americans to the moon.
NASA’s planned Artemis III mission in 2028 is expected to test connecting the Orion crew capsule — which was tested on its first crew mission earlier this year — to both Starship and Blue Origin‘s Blue Moon space vessel, which has yet to take its first flight.
Ebola outbreak disrupts life along the DRC-Uganda border | Newsfeed
With almost 750 suspected Ebola cases in the DRC, health measures intensified along the DRC–Uganda border. At the busy Mpondwe crossing near outbreak zones in Beni, authorities deployed health workers and shut weekly border markets, measures that residents say are threatening their livelihoods.
Published On 23 May 2026
‘Housewives’ star Erika Girardi settles $25-million civil lawsuit
Pop crooner and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Girardi quietly put an end to a long and splashy legal battle over her ex-husband’s now-defunct law firm on Thursday, settling a $25-million bankruptcy lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court.
The suit alleged the singer should have known she was profiting off embezzled funds linked to the sprawling case against her ex-husband, former L.A. legal heavyweight Tom Girardi, and his firm Girardi Keese. The couple was accused of funneling millions from the law firm to prop up Erika’s music career.
Performing as Erika Jayne, she topped the charts in the 2010s with a series of raunchy dance club hits. But court records show she spent millions more than she made as a musician.
Larry W. Gabriel, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, wrote in a pretrial filing Monday that Erika and a company associated with her “received the benefit of [Tom] Girardi’s massive fraudulent scheme.”
Tom Girardi is currently serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison after he was convicted of wire fraud for bilking his personal-injury clients in 2024. The disgraced former attorney was found to have stolen tens of millions from his firm.
His wife’s pop hits mixed boasts about luxury brands and explicit sex acts with pulsing dance beats and a bratty falsetto, a tone actress Lake Bell famously dubbed “sexy baby voice.”
In depositions taken as part of the suit, Erika said she had no knowledge of her husband’s crimes. She claimed to be ignorant about where the millions she spent on recording, merchandise, tours and “fun, playful, and sparkly outfits” were drawn from.
“I did not know how much I spent per month or per year,” she said in one exchange. “Girardi Keese paid my Amex credit card bill every month.”
Monday’s filings show Girardi Keese paid at least $14 million in charges to her American Express account between 2008 and 2020.
The payouts began in the late 2000s when Erika, then a stay-at-home mom, sought to relaunch herself as a performer. In 2016, near the height of her pop fame, her husband began to complain she was charging too much on the credit card account. After repeated entreaties to tamp down her spending, Girardi tried for the first time to look at her balance.
Soon after, Girardi grew suspicious of charges being made to her card by a Hollywood costumer — worries she reported to one of Girardi Keese’s clients, an agent in the Secret Service, records show.
On the advice of the agent’s Secret Service colleagues, she said she disputed the AMEX charges and was ultimately refunded more than half a million dollars to her personal account, despite the original payments having come from the law firm.
Erika Girardi’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
CBS News Radio signs off after nearly 100 years
As a radio professional who grew up aspiring to work at CBS News Radio, anchor Steve Kathan understood the weight of the words he wrote and recorded Friday on the final broadcast of “World News Roundup.”
“America’s longest running newscast signs off for the last time,” Kathan said in the small dimly lighted studio in the CBS Broadcast Center on Manhattan’s West Side. “It all began on March 13, 1938,” he said, referring to the iconic news program.
Kathan played a recording of Edward R. Morrow, the legendary CBS News journalist who delivered his first report on the debut of the program, saying “the best in radio reporting is yet to be — good night and good luck.”
“And goodbye,” Kathan added, ending the run of around 23,000 editions of the 10-minute signature broadcast, delivered from CBS’ radio network . A final news update was scheduled to run later Friday night.
CBS News Radio and its 26 employees became a victim of budget cuts across parent-company Paramount’s news division announced in March.
“A shift in radio station programming strategies, coupled with challenging economic realities, has made it impossible to continue the service,” the company said.
Privately, longtime insiders at CBS News say the division has struggled for years to find ways to financially turn around its radio business.
The unit was operating at a loss with monthly revenues recently falling as low as $67,000, according to a network executive not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The service held on because it still had value in promoting CBS News and its journalism, reaching 20 million listeners a week.
Leadership over the years have put off the messy task of winding the radio business down due to its iconic status at the company. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was reluctant to make the cuts as well, according to people inside the company familiar with her thinking. But with Paramount taking on substantial debt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, considerations of the division’s legacy are likely to matter less in ongoing efforts to reduce costs.
Kathan had heard rumblings about CBS getting out of radio going all the way back to its first ownership change in the 1980s when Larry Tisch acquired the company.
“Even though I’ve been here 39 years, the thought was someone’s going to decide to do it,” he said.
As television dominated the media landscape, CBS News Radio retained its role as what Kathan called “the background track of American history.”
As a child growing up in Connecticut, Kathan recalls watching Douglas Edwards, the “World News Roundup” evening anchor for two decades, doing TV news updates in between the soap operas his mother watched on CBS. After Kathan joined the network in 1987 as a writer and producer, he would see Edwards and other famous names from the division walking through the hallways of the broadcast center before doing his afternoon newscasts.
“Just the fact that you were working with them made you think and realize you had to up your game,” Kathan said. “You wanted the audience to trust you as much as it trusted them.”
“World News Roundup” rose to prominence during World War II, when Murrow and other CBS News correspondents delivered live reports from Europe.
Once TV supplanted radio as a source for scripted entertainment, news and information became the primary mission of CBS’ radio division that began in 1927. In 1967, the company converted its owned AM radio stations — including its Los Angeles outlet KNX — to an all-news format.
While the stations focused on local news, traffic, weather and sports, they also prominently featured CBS News Radio reports at the top of the hour and other features throughout the day.
Longtime listeners became familiar with Edwards, Dallas Townsend, Reid Collins, Richard C. Hottelet, Christopher Glenn and other CBS News veterans who brought national and world stories to listeners throughout the day, introduced by a five-note sounder that simulated a telegraph. Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite were heard daily with analysis.
The radio network developed a major star in Charles Osgood, who joined WCBS in New York as anchor. He went national in 1971 with a twice-daily segment called “The Osgood File.”
Osgood wrote two-minute reports in succinct prose delivered in his mellifluous tones. He occasionally offered commentary in verse, which earned him the title of poet-in-residence at CBS News.
Osgood’s popularity was rivaled only by ABC Radio personality Paul Harvey. CBS News even allowed him to read commercial copy to satisfy eager advertisers who wanted their product messages presented in his comforting voice. When Osgood became a host on the TV side in the 1990s on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” his sign-off remained “I’ll see you on the radio.” He filed his final “Osgood File” report in 2017.
Charles Osgood in the WCBS radio studio in New York on July 25, 1967.
(CBS Photo Archive/CBS)
CBS sold off its radio stations in 2017, but continued to produce and distribute its network programs as the business faced competition from digital media.
Dustin Gervais, technical operations manager for the network, said CBS News Radio struggled as more audio advertisers prefer digital content because of its effectiveness at targeting specific demographic groups. The shift is reflected in radio ad revenue, which dipped about 2% to $14.37 billion, according to media research firm Kagan. But the digital ad revenue portion of that pie continued to grow, topping $1.75 billion.
Charles Forelle, managing editor for CBS News, said the company plans to remain in the audio journalism business through podcasting and not straight newscasts.
“We have a whole bunch of different things in development that are less news reading and more other things,” he told The Times.
Not all of radio’s problems are related to digital.
Michael Socolow, a professor of communication and journalism at the University of Maine, notes that the industry troubles began in 1996 when deregulation loosened the limit on the number of stations a single entity can own. Buying sprees of outlets led to owners who became highly leveraged and less able to invest in programming, which put the squeeze on suppliers such as CBS News Radio.
“Radio was hollowed out by the corporations, before its utility to the American citizen ended,” Socolow said. “You can trace it to the Telecom Act of 1996.”
Some of the 26 employees at CBS News Radio who were severed from the company have found work at Worldwide News Network, a service launched by John Catsimatidis, the owner of New York’s top-rated talk station WABC. The company said the service, which begins Saturday, will deliver “hard news, breaking headlines, and fact-driven reporting to affiliates across the country.”
CBS News Radio’s biggest customer — the all-news stations owned by Audacy, including KNX — have already switched their network service to ABC News Audio.
Kyle Busch dead: Legendary NASCAR driver was 41
Kyle Busch, a two-time champion of the NASCAR Cup Series and the winningest driver in the association’s history, has died at age 41.
“We are saddened and heartbroken to share the news of the passing of Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup champion and one of our sport’s greatest and fiercest drivers,” NASCAR said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We extend our deepest condolences to the Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and the entire motorsports community.”
No cause of death has been disclosed.
Earlier on Thursday, Busch’s family posted a statement on the driver’s X account saying that Busch had been hospitalized with a “severe illness” and would not be participating in this weekend’s NASCAR events at Charlotte Motor Speedway — including the Coca-Cola 600, a race Busch won in 2018.
According to the Associated Press, Busch became unresponsive on Wednesday while testing in the Chevrolet racing simulator in Concord and was transported to a Charlotte hospital.
In response to a request for information about Busch’s death, the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office emailed The Times a 911 call asking for an ambulance to come to the address of the General Motors Charlotte Technical Center at around 5:32 p.m. Wednesday.
“I have got an individual that [has] shortness of breath, [is] very hot, thinks he going to pass out and is … coughing up some blood,” said the caller, who added that the person was awake but “on the bathroom floor right now.”
Busch is not identified by name as the person experiencing the symptoms.
NASCAR officials confirmed that the Coca-Cola 600 will be held as scheduled. When Busch’s hospitalization was announced earlier Thursday, Richard Childress Racing said Austin Hill would drive the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in his place. Speedway officials indicated that Busch would be honored at the race.
During a Cup Series race on May 10 at Watkins Glen International in Dix, N.Y., Busch told his crew on the radio that he would need medical aid and a shot after the race. The TV broadcast mentioned that Busch had been dealing with a sinus cold all week. He ended up finishing in eighth place, his best Cup Series finish of the season.
Last week at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, Busch finished 17th in the Cup Series exhibition All-Star race but won his second Truck Series race of the year.
“Absolutely cannot comprehend this news,” Denny Hamlin, NASCAR driver and former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, posted on social media. “We just need to think of his family during this time. We love you KB.”
Busch raced in NASCAR’s top division for 22 full-time seasons, winning the Cup Series championship in 2015 and 2019 and the series regular-season championship in 2018 and 2019. He won 63 Cup Series races, 69 in the Truck Series and 102 in the XFinity Series, making him the winningest driver in NASCAR’s top three series combined.
The last time Busch missed a Cup Series race was in 2015, when he was recovering from a compound leg fracture and broken foot and was unable to take part in the first 11 events that season.
“A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation,” NASCAR said in a separate statement released Thursday, also on behalf of the Busch family and Richard Childress Racing.
“He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans. Throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR’s highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series.
“His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal ‘Rowdy Nation.’ … NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon.”
Born May 2, 1985, in Las Vegas, Busch was surrounded by racing. His father, Tom, was a mechanic and local racer who had relocated from Illinois with his wife, Gaye. Busch’s brother, Kurt, was seven years older and an eventual Cup Series champion (2004) and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
Working his way up from go-karts in cul-de-sacs and parking lots to full-bodied Late Model competition, Busch earned the respect of his older brother early on.
“You think I’m a pretty good race car driver?” Kurt Busch said in 2001, four years before his younger sibling’s rookie season. “Wait until you see my brother. He’s the best driver in the family.”
Busch made his O’Reilly Series debut for Hendrick Motorsports on May 24, 2003, with a second-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Entering the series as a full-time driver the next year, Busch won five races and finished second overall to Martin Truex Jr.
Around that time, Busch started what would become his signature celebration, a showman’s bow after each win.
Known as “Rowdy” and “Wild Thing” for his postrace fights and feuds with other drivers, Busch first reached the Cup Series in 2004 before his full-fledged rookie campaign the following season. The 2005 rookie of the year, Busch became the series’ youngest winner in his 31st start, one of four wins during his three full seasons at Hendrick.
Busch joined the Gibbs team in 2008 and remained there until switching to Childress and taking over the No. 8 Chevrolet in 2023.
After his win at Dover this month, Busch was asked how many races he wanted to win before he stopped racing.
“You take whatever you can get, man,” Busch said. “You never know when the last one is going to be, so cherish them all — trust me.”
Busch is survived by his wife Samantha, son Brexton, 10, and daughter Lennix, 4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Saturday 23 May Labour Day in Jamaica
As part of the British Empire, Jamaica had historically had a public holiday on May 24th to mark Queen Victoria’s birthday. This holiday was known as Empire Day. Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day in the 1950s, but is still celebrated as Victoria Day in most regions of Canada.
In 1962, Jamaica gained its independence from the United Kingdom. Celebrating Empire Day was no longer seen as relevant to the fledgeling country and in 1961, Jamaican Chief Minister Norman Washington Manley proposed replacing Empire Day with a new holiday called Labour Day.
This new holiday was to be a commemoration of a labour rebellion on May 23rd 1938. The rebellion was led by Alexander Bustamante who gained prominence during the rebellion, becoming a noted trade union leader and eventually becoming Jamaica’s first prime minister following independence.
In 1972, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley started the movement to make Labour Day a day when Jamaicans would get involved in local community projects. Today, on Labour Day, groups, individuals, and communities all over Jamaica will dedicate their time and labour to improve public areas, do repairs, paint or build homes, schools, and churches.
Paragraph 4 of the Schedule to the Holidays (Public General) Act provides that where the 23rd of May falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then the following Monday is observed as a public holiday.
Iran war live: Tehran says diplomacy continues but no deal yet with US | US-Israel war on Iran News
Live updatesLive updates,
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,111 people since March 2, with 9,432 injured, according to Lebanese Health Ministry.
Published On 23 May 2026
Bunker Talk: Memorial Day Weekend Edition
Welcome to Bunker Talk, Memorial Day Weekend Edition. For all our American readers/commenters, I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend. And, of course, I want to give a huge thanks to all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
We owe you everything.
This week’s caption reads:
4th July 1944: An American soldier takes a drink of captured German Cognac, while clearing out a German gun emplacement at Cherbourg. (Photo by Fred Ramage/Keystone/Getty Images)
Directives:
- If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you.
- If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
- No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like.
- Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.
- So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on.
- Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.
Strictly Come Dancing hosts make first public appearance as fans left concerned
Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe have made their first public appearance together as the new hosts of Strictly Come Dancing but have already left fans divided
Strictly hosts make first public appearance together but fans aren’t convinced(Image: Oliver Dixon)
The new Strictly Come Dancing presenters were all smiles during their first public outing as a trio at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe visited the London garden show on Friday, in their first appearance together since being announced as the new faces for the hit BBC dancing competition earlier this week.
Willis, wearing a white waistcoat and matching trousers, was seen smiling and posing for photos alongside co-hosts comedian Widdicombe and professional dancer Radebe.
Widdicombe wore a long-sleeve shirt and black trousers, despite the hot weather, while Radebe sported a see-through black top adorned with red flowers and green flared trousers.
In one image, Johannes lifts up Josh as Emma gestures beside them. The new line-up will take over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who announced their departure from the programme in October 2025.
Emma has hosted shows including Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother and Love Is Blind UK, while Josh has previously competed on the show in a festive special and currently hosts podcast Parenting Hell alongside fellow comedian Rob Beckett.
Johannes joined the programme as a professional dancer in 2018 and is currently starring in West End musical Kinky Boots. The trio were also seen expressing their excitement for their new roles at a photoshoot for the BBC dancing competition, in a behind-the-scenes video posted to Strictly Come Dancing’s Instagram on Friday.
The announcement was a long time to come, and fans have waited almost a year to find out just who will step into the roles once held by Tess and Claudia. But following the first public appearance of the trio, several fans were left divided about what is to come, with some predicting that the lineup will change again after just one series.
One fan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I’m so sorry but even this photo backs up my theory that it’ll just be Emma + Johannes after 1 series. This is just so odd and you can’t keeeeep dancing like this!”
Another said: “I would have put Emma with Rylan, not sure about Josh or Johannes,” and a third, writing on Reddit, said: “producers were thoroughly surprised and impressed with Johannes during the screentest.
“I wouldn’t be surprised they added the 3rd host role specifically for him. If Josh doesn’t work out for them, they can slot Johannes right in that spot upstairs, with a year of experience under his belt. If it does all work out, they have 3 amazing hosts!”
Others had an optimistic outlook, with one viewer writing: “Good luck Josh, Emma and JoJo, looking forward to the new line-up!” and another said: “Love Emma! Don’t know too much about Josh so will stay open minded before making judgements. I’m sort of gutted we won’t see Jojo with a partner, but I will love to watch him on my screen every week!!”
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Judge dismisses human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported
NASHVILLE — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, finding that the Justice Department’s pursuit of criminal charges was designed to punish him for challenging his mistaken deportation to El Salvador last year.
The ruling amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of a Justice Department that under President Trump has repeatedly been accused of targeting defendants for political purposes. The Trump administration touted the charges against Abrego Garcia last year at a press conference in which then-Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi declared, “This is what American justice looks like.”
“The evidence before this court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, in Nashville, said in his ruling granting Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for “selective or vindictive prosecution.” Without Abrego Garcia’s “successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.”
Abrego Garcia’s deportation became an embarrassment for Trump officials when they were ordered to return him to the U.S. In his motion to dismiss, Abrego Garcia claimed that the timing of the criminal charges and inflammatory statements about him by top Trump officials demonstrated that the prosecution was vindictive.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department,” his criminal defense attorneys said in a statement after Friday’s ruling. “We are so pleased that he is a free man.”
The Justice Department vowed to appeal, calling the judge’s order “wrong and dangerous.”
Crenshaw stopped short of finding the government acted with “actual vindictiveness,” a rarely met standard that usually requires evidence like a prosecutor admitting that charges were filed in retaliation against someone. But the judge did find there was enough evidence of “presumptive vindictiveness” — including the timing of the indictment, statements made by then-U.S. Deputy Aty. Gen. Todd Blanche, and the sustained oversight of the case by other top Justice Department officials — that the case against Abrego Garcia was thoroughly tainted.
The government’s own explanations weren’t convincing, Crenshaw wrote.
Abrego Garcia was charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling, with prosecutors claiming that he accepted money to transport within the United States people who were in the country illegally.
The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.
In the Friday ruling, Crenshaw wrote that the timing of the charges was central to the presumption of vindictiveness. Homeland Security had been aware of the traffic stop for two years and had closed the case against Abrego Garcia when it deported him. Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he should be brought back to the U.S., they reopened the case. While the government bore the responsibility to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness, prosecutors did not call as a witness the person who reopened the case, to explain why. Instead they offered only “secondhand testimony.”
In a statement released by the group We are CASA, which has been supporting Abrego Garcia and his family, he thanked God for the dismissal of the criminal charges.
“Justice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill; and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward,” he said.
Abrego Garcia’s deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order granting him protection from deportation to his home country, after the judge found he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years although he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. The 2019 order allowed him to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, but he was not given residency status.
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials have said Abrego Garcia cannot remain in the U.S. They have vowed to deport him to a third country, most recently Liberia.
Loller writes for the Associated Press.
High school softball: Thursday’s City Section playoff scores, upcoming schedule
HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL
CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS
THURSDAY’S RESULTS
Quarterfinals
OPEN DIVISION
#4 San Pedro 13, #5 El Camino Real 2
#3 Birmingham 6, #6 Wilmington Banning 5
#2 Carson at #7 Legacy
FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Quarterfinals
OPEN DIVISION
#8 Granada Hills Kennedy at #1 Granada Hills
DIVISION I
#9 San Fernando at #1 Venice
#5 Chavez at #4 Chatsworth
#6 Eagle Rock at #3 Port of LA
#10 Verdugo Hills at #2 Marquez
DIVISION II
#9 Northridge Academy at #1 LA Marshall
#20 Cleveland at #5 Sylmar
#19 North Hollywood at #6 Arleta
#18 Taft at #10 Sun Valley Poly
DIVISION III
#16 Van Nuys at #9 Palisades
#5 South East at #4 Maywood Academy
#14 VAAS at #11 Westchester
#15 Reseda at #7 LACES
DIVISION IV
#16 Vaughn at #9 Smidt Tech
#12 Downtown Magnets at #4 Huntington Park
#14 Franklin at #11 Bernstein
#18 Diego Rivera at #7 CALS Early College
Note: Semifinals all divisions May 27 at higher seeds; Finals all divisions May 29-30 at TBD.
Vintage 1930s lido perched on the edge of the ‘UK’s Costa del Sol’ is reopening today
A HISTORIC lido with stunning sea views is reopening today, just in time for the good weather.
Located on the edge of a scenic area dubbed the UK’s Costa del Sol, this pool is the perfect place to cool off in the summer sun.
Dating back to the 1930s, Brightlingsea in Essex is one of the last remaining lidos in the area.
The site boasts an Olympic-size outdoor pool, along with a heated toddler pool as well as sun loungers, changing rooms, and a cafe.
Summer sessions will run from 7am until 5pm, with the first three hours allotted for relaxed lane swimming.
Aquacise and “little dipper” sessions for younger swimmers are also available.
The lido first opened in 1932 as a tidal salt pool, eventually converting to freshwater in the 1970s.
Nowadays, the popular site is run by volunteers who saved it from closure in 2017.
General entry costs £7.50 for adults and £5.50 for children aged two to 18 and seniors over 65.
Toddlers under the age of two can enter for free.
Cheaper rates are available for lane swimming, quiet sessions, and aquacise, with more information available on the lido’s website.
The site will be open from 7.30am until 7.15pm until Monday, August 31.
Brightlingsea is much quieter than its neighbouring towns such as Clacton but is still known for its shingle beach.
The area is perhaps most recognisable for its line of colourful beach huts on the promenade.
One visitor described the area as “very unspoilt, family oriented, beautiful beach. Traditional town back in the 50’s.”
Brightlingsea is on the UK’s Sunshine Coast, which one person said is like “going back in time to seaside holiday of the past.”
Another visitor told The Sun: “I was on the Sunshine Coast of Essex, which is often compared to Spain thanks to it being one of the sunniest, driest spots in the country.
“What I really loved about exploring the Essex seaside is the sheer variety of experiences on one relatively small stretch of coast, bookended by Brightlingsea in the south and Harwich in the north.”
People in U.S. on a visa who want a green card must leave to apply
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, pictured during a congressional hearing in April, announced on Friday that people in the U.S. on any kind of visa who want to apply for a greed card will have to leave the country to do so. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
May 22 (UPI) — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that people in the United States temporarily who want to apply for a green card will have to leave first.
USCIS said in a statement that people who have traveled to the United States on a temporary visa but want a green card to remain in the country permanently “must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”
The new requirement could make it more difficult to obtain permanent residency in the United States, and may lead to family separations and longer wait times, experts have said.
“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,” Zach Kahler, spokesperson for USCIS, said in the statement.
“When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency,” Kahler said.
Kahler said that people visiting the country on visas for students, temporary workers or tourists “should not function” as the first step in the green card process.
The Christian humanitarian organization World Relief said in a statement that the change alters a “longstanding practice of allowing non-citizens who the United States lawfully and now qualify under U.S. law for lawful permanent resident status to ‘adjust status’ within the United States.”
There were about 1.4 million green cards granted in 2024, nearly 1 million of which were applied for and granted to people already residing in the United States, and at least 500,000 per year have received their cards the same way during the last two decades, The New York Times reported.
“Our consular processing system through which they would have to apply is already overburdened,” Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst at USCIS, told The Times. “So that means we could have families separated for months or years.”
Kevin Warsh takes the oath of office as he is sworn-in as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in the East Room of the White House on Friday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
Canadian Grand Prix 2026: George Russell takes pole for sprint race
George Russell bounced back after a difficult recent run to beat Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Briton, who is 20 points adrift of the Italian after four races this season, headed Antonelli by 0.068 seconds after being fastest on both runs in final qualifying.
Lando Norris headed an all-McLaren second row, 0.315secs off pole and 0.019secs in front of team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari and Red Bull completed a two-by-two top eight with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc and then Max Verstappen in front of Isack Hadjar.
Russell came to Montreal looking to turn around what he admitted had been a “turbulent” start to the season, in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the weekend off well.
“It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself,” said Russell. “I always knew what I could do. This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you’re driving a proper grand prix car.”
Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race and Russell said it had made a significant difference.
“It’s definitely feeling great,” he said. “The team have done a great job to bring this forward. Pleased to have it on the car and pleased to be back in P1. It’s been a little while but still a big focus for tomorrow.”
Antonelli said he had started his lap with his tyres under temperature and described his session as “messy”.
McLaren also brought an upgrade to Montreal, their second in as many races, but while it kept them within range of Mercedes it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of Mercedes on this track, where the world champions have often struggled.
Norris said: “A good surprise. After this morning, we were a little bit worried about how far off we were. More just the lack of confidence in the car.
“But we changed some things on the car and seemed to make a good improvement. I could have got more out of it, but not enough to close the gap to the guys ahead.”
Hamilton was 0.361secs off pole and 0.084secs ahead of Leclerc on a circuit where he shares the record number of wins with Michael Schumacher.
The seven-time champion was pleased with his performance, saying his decision not to go into the Ferrari simulator before this race, because of a feeling it was leading to incorrect set-up choices, had paid off.
“Probably the best qualifying session we’ve had for some time,” said Hamilton. “Great work with the engineers.
“The car felt really fantastic from P1. We made just subtle changes going into qualifying. Q1 and Q2 was looking good and then I don’t know what the others are able to turn up a bit more, but I am just happy to be in the fight.
“I was having so much fun out there, and the fact I didn’t do the sim and it was the best I felt all year. I chose a set-up we’ve not used before and its transformed the car for me.”
And Verstappen, struggling with a car he said was “jumping” at the rear, was just 0.101secs clear of tea-mate Hadjar.
“My feeling in the car was not very good,” said Verstappen. “I was struggling a lot with the ride. All over the bumps I couldn’t put my foot down. Actually my feet were even flying off the pedals and it made it very difficult to be consistent.”
Gogglebox star Giles Wood makes ageing admission ‘I deserve better’
Gogglebox couple Mary and Giles bickered in the latest episode of the Channel 4 show
Giles and Mary are favourites on Channel 4’s Gogglebox(Image: Channel 4 screengrab)
Gogglebox star Giles Wood bickered wife Mary Killen on the show as he insisted he deserved “better” now he’s getting older.
The armchair critic launched into a rant about wanting “new, fresh things” in the latest instalment of the Channel 4 show, as he dug in his heels about wanting a new BBQ.
He and wife, Gogglebox co-star Mary, had been watching celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s Ultimate BBQ show, when Giles decided that he wanted to splash out on a new one himself.
“Let’s buy that barbecue, Mary,” he said, however, she replied: “We’ve got one.”
“I know, but it’s c**p,” said Giles, but Mary asked: “Is it? You haven’t even tried it yet.”
“No, I just don’t like old things,” Giles insisted. “The older I get, the more I want new things, Mary. That’s irony. I like to buy new, fresh things.”
“Well, too bad,” his wife retorted.
“I’ve had a lifetime of hand-me-downs, and I’m fed up with it,” Giles explained. “I deserve better.”
Mary replied “No, you don’t deserve…” but Giles interjected: “I deserve better.”
“You certainly do not!” she exclaimed, as Giles restated his desire for Jamie’s BBQ. “I deserve one of these, Mary,” he told her.
Viewers were tickled by the exchange, with one posting on X: “Lol, Gyles just wants a new BBQ.” “Giles go buy yourself a new BBQ,” urged another viewer, as somebody else exclaimed: “Giles deserves better!”
“Giles is great at winding up Mary and she always bites,” one person posted on the platform, which was formerly Twitter. Another quipped: “Giles! He kills me.”
The pair squabbled again later in the episode, which saw the cast watching programmes such as the Eurovision Song Contest, Race Across the World and Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly.
They had words when Giles took issue with a pork pie containing pickle.
Giles was sampling the pie as they tuned into the week’s TV offerings but when Mary asked if he was “pleased with it” he confessed: “Um, sadly no.”
“That is not a proper pork pie,” he said. “So what?” Mary asked. “It’s nicer than a pork pie. It’s sophisticated.”
But Giles said the fact it was called a pork and pickle pie “should immediately send red lights buzzing in, in anyone’s head” as he complained about it being “soggy”.
Unimpressed, Mary got up to take it off him. “Oh, you horrible man, stop touching it,” she said. “I’m going to take it away… If you’re ungrateful, there are 100 men who would say, ‘Ooh, that’s a sophisticated take on a pork pie, Mary.’ I’m going to have that. Thank you. You’re not having it again.”
Gogglebox airs on Channel 4.
Friday 22 May Pentecost in Israel
This excerpt from the Occasional Digest explores the multi-faceted significance of Shavuot, a Jewish holiday also referred to as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The text explains that the celebration honors the wheat harvest and commemorates the divine revelation of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. Readers learn about traditional customs, such as adorning homes and synagogues with floral decorations and greenery to symbolize the mountain’s landscape. Beyond its religious focus, the source serves as a news roundup for May 22, 2026, touching on global politics, space exploration, and sports. These diverse headlines provide a snapshot of current events occurring alongside the religious festivitie …
Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil wants Supreme Court to weigh in on deportation fight
NEW YORK — Former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after a federal appeals court on Friday declined to reconsider a decision that put the government a step closer to deporting him, the pro-Palestinian activist’s lawyers said.
Judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia voted 6-5 against having the court’s full complement of judges review the ruling. In January, a three-judge 3rd Circuit panel found that a federal judge in New Jersey who had sided with Khalil and ordered his release last year from immigration detention didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in representing Khalil, said his lawyers will ask the 3rd Circuit for an order preventing the decision from taking effect — and barring Khalil from being detained or deported — while it asks the Supreme Court to take up the case.
An appeal to the high court is expected in the coming months, possibly in late summer.
“Today’s decision is not the final word, and we still strongly believe in our arguments going forward,” ACLU senior counsel Brett Max Kaufman said in a statement.
In its January ruling, the 3rd Circuit found that Khalil’s lawsuit challenging his detention and U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s subsequent rulings in the case were premature because federal law requires that such challenges first move through the separate immigration court system. That system is part of the Justice Department, not the judicial branch.
The decision didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.
Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, who had voted for the 3rd Circuit to review the decision, wrote in a dissent that the court was “abdicating our duty to meaningfully review Khalil’s constitutional claims. The Judicial Branch, she wrote, cannot fulfill its role as a check on the other branches of government, “if we write ourselves out of relevance and leave the Executive Branch to check itself.”
Khalil, 31, has also appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana, where he was detained, after the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld his removal order.
Through his lawyers, Khalil argued that the immigration judge who issued the order failed to consider relevant evidence and wrongly upheld a charge that he had misrepresented information on his application for legal permanent resident status. That charge, Khalil’s lawyers said, was brought in retaliation for his protest activity.
The immigration judge suggested Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family. Khalil’s lawyers have said he would face mortal danger if forced to return to either country.
An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested in March 2025. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his child.
Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused Khalil of failing to disclose information on his green card application.
Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
The government justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. In June 2025, Farbiarz ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.
President Trump’s administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court. The 3rd Circuit ruled 2-1 in the administration’s favor.
Judge Emil Bove, who was involved in investigating student protesters while a top Justice Department official, did not participate in the 3rd Circuit vote on whether to review the decision. He later issued an order denying a request by Khalil’s lawyers that he step aside from the matter, calling it moot.
Sisak writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
Soo-Jin Berry accepts smaller role at UCLA to part of a winner
Soo-Jin Berry is grateful her name has inspired fans from the Korean community to connect with her.
“For me, it’s just nice that I can represent something so much bigger than softball,” Berry said with a raspy voice after cheering on her UCLA teammates during the Bruins’ NCAA regional wins.
“My name is Korean, so I have a lot of Korean fans that will walk up to me, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you Korean? I am too!’”
Berry thrived at Iowa as one of the Big Ten’s most potent hitters, but she chose to end her college career at UCLA even though it meant taking on a smaller role with drastically reduced playing time. Now she is a reliable option as UCLA faces Central Florida in the super regional round, a three-game series that begins at 6 p.m. Friday at the Bruins’ Easton Stadium. The game will air on ESPNU.
UCLAs’ Soo-Jin Berry celebrates hitting a home run against California Baptist on May 15.
(John McCoy / Ap Photo/john Mccoy)
Berry said she joked with her family that UCLA called her as she considered leaving Iowa for other schools before she ever met with the Bruins. Then associate head coach Lisa Fernandez emailed Berry. Bruins head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez then called Berry and they had a two-hour conversation.
“We talked about my life experience in Iowa, and then I kind of knew from the beginning what I wanted, so I made those desires clear to her,” Berry said. “I just want to grow. I just want to have some role on this team because it would mean so much to me. I feel like growing up, everyone’s dream is to go to UCLA, especially for softball.”
When she set foot on the UCLA campus during her recruiting visit, a quarter of the team greeted her, including her former high school teammate and Bruins hitting star Jordan Woolery.
“Jordan was the main person helping me on my visit,” Berry said. “We actually flew in together.”
Since transferring to UCLA, Berry said she learned that she could raise her standard of play while having the best time doing it.
While UCLA was a dream destination, Berry was the last Hawkeye to enter the transfer portal at the end of last season.
“Iowa is a very special place to me, so I don’t have any regrets going there. I loved my time there,” Berry said. “There were just differences between administration and coaching, which I didn’t agree with.”
Berry competed against the Bruins last season, helping Iowa beat UCLA by going 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs and two home runs — the second one in the fifth to help the Hawkeyes extend their lead to 7-4.
Inouye-Perez said after UCLA’s NCAA regional win over South Carolina on Saturday she hasn’t forgotten the game last season when Berry got the best of the Bruins.
“This girl straight beat us last year — she is a pure hitter,” Inouye-Perez said, with Berry sitting next to her.
In 52 games played at Iowa, Berry led the Hawkeyes in RBIs (33), slugging percentage (.589) and extra base hits (21) while recording a .335 batting average (53-158). Her nine home runs put her 10th in Hawkeyes single-season history.
Her on-plate numbers have dropped since joining UCLA’s roster, but her confidence is higher than ever thanks to the supportive techniques provided for Bruins.
“I feel in general I am more comfortable being myself and being more open with my teammates about certain things, so the journaling definitely does help because I can write ‘I belong here,’” Berry said.
She added that she has been able to simplify the situation by trusting the process the coaching staff has implemented for the team.
“Failure is part of the game, and it’s going to happen, and you can’t do anything to avoid it,” Berry said. “So just being OK with failing and knowing if I strike out at this at-bat, what can I change at the next one?”
Berry has accepted coming off the bench and playing any position needed.
“It comes down to the process we have during practice,” Berry said of getting playing time. “Coach Lisa [Fernandez], coach Mysha [Sataraka] and coach [Rob] Schweyer all have full confidence in me.”
When her time was called during the postseason, she contributed to the Bruins advancing as they push to win a national title.
In the regional round, she brought in runs. During the Bruins’ 12-11 walk-off win over California Baptist in the regional opener, Berry hit a three-run home run that helped UCLA take a 7-1 lead.
Berry said she wasn’t getting the outcomes she wanted earlier in the season, but being there for her team when her name was called is special.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to run in Broward County’s new district
May 22 (UPI) — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., announced Friday she will run for a U.S. House seat to represent a newly drawn district, which now has majority Black or Latino voters.
The new map created four Republican-leaning congressional districts. She is running in the new 20th District, an all-Broward County district.
“I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be running for Congress for re-election in District 20,” she said in a telephone interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I just can’t wait to continue to fight on behalf of Broward County and our people. I know Broward County. I have represented Broward County my entire adult life. It’s the place I’ve raised my family. It is the place that I have served in public office, and the people of this county know me and I know them.”
But her decision has added to tensions with Black Democrats who are already frustrated with the Republican gerrymandering throughout the South.
Two Democratic districts held by Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., had been eliminated or mostly redrawn. In an interview with The New York Times, Wasserman Schultz said Republicans were taking a “cynical, disrespectful” approach to redistricting.
“We cannot let Trump destroy Broward County’s power,” Wasserman Schultz said in her video announcement. She is now serving in her 11th congressional term.
As of March 31, Wasserman Schultz had $2.5 million in her campaign account, which is more than all five other candidates combined, and she is well-known in Broward County, the Sun Sentinel reported.
“No one gets 100% in an election. So there are definitely going to be people that will support other candidates. There will be people that don’t think that I should run,” she said. “It’s my job to make sure that I can erase that doubt, that I can ease whatever concerns anyone might have.”
Republicans have said Wasserman Schultz is “abandoning her home district” because she would lose. She has long lived in Weston, Fla., which is in the new 22nd District.
“Instead of facing voters after years of backing Democrats’ failed agenda, Wasserman Schultz is running scared,” Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Kevin Warsh takes the oath of office as he is sworn-in as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve by Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in the East Room of the White House on Friday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
Iran Now Trying To Cement Long-Term Control Over Strait Via Fees
Iran is reportedly working to solidify its control over the Strait of Hormuz despite U.S. objections by seeking a joint deal to impose fees on ships transiting the strategic waterway with Oman. The move comes amid increasing hopes of a peace deal to end the war that began Feb. 28 and highlights just how difficult it will be to reach such an agreement. Iran’s closure of the Strait has created severe global economic impacts and spurred the Trump administration to stand up Project Freedom, a short-lived effort to provide military protection for ships stuck in the Persian Gulf and trying to get out.
Though U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted the Strait remain open and free of any tolls, Iran is in discussions with Oman, a U.S. ally, to impose financial burdens on vessels passing through the critical chokepoint, The New York Times reported. Together, the countries border both sides of the Gulf of Oman, through which any ship must pass to get into or out of the Strait.
Two people familiar with the discussions over management of the waterway said that “Iran was not planning a toll system, which would charge simply for transit,” according to the Times. Instead, the talks with Oman have “explored a proposal to charge vessels fees for services.”
“Oman had initially rejected a joint partnership with Iran on the strait but is now in discussion over a share of the revenues,” the newspaper stated, citing two Iranian officials familiar with the talks. “The officials said Oman told the Iranians that it was willing to use its influence with neighbors in the Gulf, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and with the United States to push the plan, having realized the potential economic benefits of a fee system.”
Iran and Oman “appear to be emphasizing that the proposed system would involve fees, not tolls, a legally significant distinction,” the Times posited. “A tolling system that simply charges ships to pass through the waterway would be illegal under international law, but charging fees for actual services rendered to vessels, such as waste disposal at a port, is allowed under certain circumstances.”
On Wednesday, Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority declared on X that it has “defined the boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz management supervision area” as the “line connecting Kuh Mobarak in Iran and the south of Fujairah in the UAE in the east of the strait to the line connecting the end of Qeshm Island in Iran and Umm al-Qaiwain in the UAE in the west of the strait.”
Iran’s claimed area of control includes the coastal waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman in addition to its own.
In the face of Iran’s insistence on controlling the Strait, Rubio on Friday reiterated that the Trump administration rejects any form of Iranian tolling on the Strait.
“That’s just not acceptable. It can’t happen,” Rubio said of any Iranian effort to impose payment for the safe passage of vessels. “If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world.”
Rubio added that NATO allies are beginning to think through a worst-case scenario if Iran refuses to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“We all would love to see an agreement with Iran in which the Straits are open and they abandon their nuclear ambitions and so forth,” he told reporters. “We also have to have a plan B…We have to start thinking about what do we do if, a few weeks from now, Iran decides ‘We don’t care, we’re going to keep the Straits closed. We’re going to sink any ship that doesn’t listen to us or doesn’t pay us.’ Then someone’s going to have to do something about it.”
Since implementing the blockade on Iranian ports on April 13, “U.S. forces have redirected 97 commercial vessels and disabled 4 since the start of the blockade,” CENTCOM claimed on X.
Regardless of the blockade, Japan is anticipating the arrival of the first tanker full of oil that transited the Strait of Hormuz since the war began.
The Idemitsu Maru, a very large crude carrier that passed through the waterway in late April, could dock as soon as Monday, according to the trade ministry. Hauling two million barrels of Saudi crude, the vessel is on track to arrive at Idemitsu Kosan Co.’s Aichi refinery, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a briefing document on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.
The announcement highlights the difficult choices many nations now have as a result of the war. Japan is a key U.S. ally and risks running afoul of Trump, who maintains opposition to Iranian control of the vital waterway, including tolls on shipping levied by Iran, something Trump vehemently opposes. But Japan is also one of the world’s importers of Middle Eastern oil and the inability to get what it needs as a result of the Iranian Strait closure is having dramatic economic effects.
Most of the ships passing through the Strait under the new Iranian system “were linked to Southeast Asian nations that maintain friendly relations with Iran,” the official state broadcaster IRIB claimed on Friday in a post on X.
There has been a large increase in the number of Iranian-trading tankers at anchor off the country’s main oil export port of Kharg Island in the past week, according to the Windward maritime intelligence firm’s multi-source intelligence (MSI) analysis.
“MSI images show 27 tankers off Kharg Island as of May 21, including 18 assessed as very large crude carriers (VLCC),” Windward reported. “This has expanded from 14 tankers a week ago on May 14, a 93% increase. All were ‘dark’ and not broadcasting their position via AIS.”
Windward “assesses the majority of VLCCs at anchor off Kharg Island are being used for floating storage. About two-thirds of Iranian-trading tankers are now constrained in the Gulf of Oman or Arabian Gulf by the U.S. blockade. The remaining third are either waiting at ports off China or at anchor off the Riau archipelago, in Malaysia’s EEZ.”
UPDATE: 5:25 PM EDT –
Trump convened a meeting with his senior national security team on the war with Iran on Friday morning, Axios reported Friday evening, citing two U.S. officials.
The president “is seriously considering launching new strikes against Iran barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, sources who have spoken directly with the president say,” the news outlet stated.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other officials attended the meeting along with Trump, the sources told Axios.
Hours later, Trump issued his cryptic message on Truth Social about not attending his son’s wedding due to “circumstances pertaining to Government.”
Iran insists it is ready with new tactics, weapons and a threat to extend the conflict beyond the region should a new round of fighting break out.
UPDATES
There are growing indications that the U.S. and Iran could be moving closer to a deal to end the war. However, both sides are poised to resume fighting as major sticking points remain over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its control over the Strait of Hormuz and the future of its ballistic missile arsenal as well as U.S. sanctions.
In a sign that progress has been made in talks to reach a deal, Pakistani and Qatari negotiators are now in Tehran.
“Field Marshal Asim Munir, is traveling to Tehran on Friday in an effort to reach a deal under which the U.S. and Iran would agree to end the war and launch negotiations for a broader agreement,” Axios reported on Friday, citing a Pakistani security source.
The Qatari negotiating team arrived in Tehran on Friday ”in coordination with United States to help secure a deal to end the war with Iran and resolve outstanding issues,” Reuters reported on X, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. “Doha, which has worked as a mediator in the Gaza war and other areas international tensions, had till now distanced itself from playing a mediation role in the Iran war after it came under attack from Iranian missiles and drones during the latest conflict.”
Confirmation of Munir’s trip to Tehran, from several media outlets, came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was “slight progress” in negotiations with Iran.
“I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good,” Rubio said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sweden, on Friday.
In a post on X, the Saudi-based Al Arabiya news outlet claimed it has obtained a “final draft of a possible agreement between the United States and Iran, mediated by Pakistan” that is “expected to be announced within hours.”
The purported details of the nine-point plan are as follows, according to the publication:
- Immediate, comprehensive, unconditional ceasefire on all fronts, including land, sea, air.
- Mutual commitment not to target military, civilian or economic infrastructure.
- End to military operations and halt media war.
- Commitments to respect sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs.
- Guarantees freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
- Joint mechanism to monitor implementation and resolve disputes
- Negotiations on outstanding issues would begin within seven days.
- Gradual lifting of US sanctions in exchange for Iran’s commitment to the terms of the agreement.
- Draft agreement reaffirms compliance with international law and UN Charter.
However, the reported draft agreement does not explicitly mention Trump’s key demands, including the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program and export of its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium, limiting its ballistic missiles and ending its support for Iranian proxies like Hezbollah, the Houthis and several groups in Iraq.
Trump has repeatedly stated that Iran must dismantle its nuclear weapons program, turn over the enriched uranium and reopen the Strait.
Given the American leader’s stance on the issues, it seems unlikely that he would agree to such a deal as stated by Al Arabiya. TWZ cannot verify the validity of these details. Asked if they are accurate, the White House gave us the following response:
“Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and while President Trump always prefers a diplomatic solution, he has been clear about the consequences if Iran refuses to make a deal,” a White House official told us. “As the president stated, he will only make a good deal for the American people. He is not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. Due to the successes of Operation Epic Fury, Economic Fury, and the blockade, President Trump holds the cards and has all the time he needs to make the best deal for the United States and the world.”
The White House, however, pushed back on a Reuters report that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei told his country’s decision-makers not to agree to any deal to remove enriched uranium out of the country. A White House official told Fox News that the claim is untrue and that as of yet, no decision has been made on the matter by either side.
With the status of the peace process uncertain, Trump claimed he decided not to attend the wedding this weekend of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to socialite Bettina Anderson due to “circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America.”
“I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time,” Trump stated on Truth Social.
Amid talk of diplomacy, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) indicated that the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, loitering in the Arabian Sea, “is maintaining peak readiness while enforcing the U.S. blockade against Iranian ports.”
The post messaged that should negotiations break down, the U.S. is ready to resume attacking Iran should Trump so order.
For its part, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has threatened to push the war “beyond the region” if the U.S. or Israel resume attacks, promising “crushing blows … in places you cannot even imagine.”
Despite a bombing campaign that top U.S. officials say has severely crippled Iran’s ability to produce drones and missiles, Tehran has reportedly used the six-week old ceasefire to rearm far faster than anticipated.
“While the time to restart production of different weapons components varies, some US intelligence estimates indicate Iran could fully reconstitute its drone attack capability in as soon as six months,” CNN reported on Thursday, citing a source familiar with those assessments. “The Iranians have exceeded all timelines the IC had for reconstitution,” the US official said.
The network claimed that Iran is “rebuilding…military capabilities, including replacing missile sites, launchers and production capacity for key weapons systems destroyed during the current conflict.”
Iran “also still maintains ballistic-missile, drone-attack and anti-air capability despite the serious damage inflicted by US-Israeli strikes,” the network claimed, citing recent US intelligence assessments. That means “the quick rebuilding of military production capacity isn’t starting from scratch.”
These efforts are being aided by China and Russia, CNN added.
The U.S. military “has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves,” The Washington Post reported, citing Defense Department assessments.
“The imbalance, according to three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes duringOperation Epic Fury, and raises questions about U.S. military readiness and security commitments around the world,” the publication added. “The United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel — roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory — along with more than 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors fired from naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, said the U.S. officials, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.”
By contrast, the newspaper noted, “Israel fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors, some of which were used against less sophisticated projectiles fired by Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon.”
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao on Thursday testified before the Senate that the U.S. is pausing arms sales to Taiwan because of the war with Iran.
“Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury,” Cao told Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishyna, however, told Politico Washington Bureau Chief Dasha Burns that the war with Iran has not yet affected U.S. weapons shipments to Kyiv. Still, she said American military officials told Ukraine “there’s nothing that could be guaranteed for the future.”
The war is facing increasing opposition in Washington. House Republicans on Thursday “abruptly canceled a vote on a resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after it became clear they lacked the votes to defeat the measure,” The New York Times reported. “The retreat was a striking setback that exposed fractures within the G.O.P. over the conflict at a moment when the party has begun pushing back forcefully on Mr. Trump and his agenda.”
In another sticking point to a peace deal, Israel continues to hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Friday released video it claims struck a structure in which five Hezbollah fighters “were located north of the forward defense line in southern Lebanon and eliminated.”
Contact the author: howard@TWZ.com
Rob Base dead aged 59: It Takes Two rapper in duo with DJ E-Z Rock dies after cancer battle
HARLEM rapper Rob Base, one-half of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, has died aged 59.
The musician, whose real name is Robert Ginyard, passed away after a private battle with cancer, his family announced in a statement.
Base, best known for the hit “It Takes Two”, celebrated his birthday just four days ago.
A statement posted on his social media account read: “Rob’s music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world.
“Beyond the stage, he was a loving father, family man, friend, and creative force whose impact will never be forgotten.
“Thank you for the music, the memories, and the moments that became the soundtrack to our lives.”
Base and E-Z Rock brought a unique blend of house music and hip-hop to the mainstream in the 1980s.
E-Z Rock died from complications of diabetes in 2014.
Their breakaway hit, “It Takes Two”, reached number three on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Songs chart in 1988.
What began as a neighbourhood party record from the streets of Harlem blew up into an iconic anthem.
Since its release the track has been sampled by everyone from Snoop Dogg to Black Eyd Peas.
Base and E-Z Rock met in the fifth grade while growing up in Harlem.
They became inspired to form a duo as teenagers leading Base to buy a mic and E-Z Rock a mixer and turntables.
More recently, Base continued performing on the “I Love the ’90s Tour” alongside acts like Vanilla Ice and Young MC.
He also mentored up-and-coming artists under his company Funky Base inc.
Base also worked as an executive producer on the horror film “Urban Flesh Easters”, released last year.
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‘A bridge too far?’: As GOP senators revolt, Trump defends fund and attacks defectors
WASHINGTON — For much of President Trump’s second term, Republican senators have largely stayed in line, wary of the consequences of defying a president with a history of targeting those who cross him. This week, that dynamic noticeably shifted.
Senate Republicans blocked two of Trump’s legislative priorities, angered by the push to create a $1.8-billion federal fund to compensate people who claim to have been politically persecuted, including rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The revolt forced Republican leaders to pull a planned vote on legislation to fund the president’s immigration crackdown and security features for the president’s White House ballroom project.
In response, the president defended the fund and lashed out at its critics.
“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE”!
The president also called Republican senators who broke with him quitters who are “screwing the Republican Party.”
The friction, which has been building for weeks, is being watched as potential test to the limits of Trump’s grip on his party amid an already tense political environment heading into the midterm elections.
“This is kind of a perfect storm,” former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It may be that this time you can point to it and say this is when the great migration begins, away from some of the president’s policies and away from the fear that the president can target you.”
Whether this week marks the beginning of that moment — or simply another episode of political turbulence that fades — is the central question now handing over Trump’s second term.
Not the first break — but an escalation
This is not the first time Republicans have broken with the president. In November, Congress overwhelmingly voted to force the Justice Department to release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, an effort that Trump unsuccessfully tried to thwart for months.
The Epstein vote showed that on the right issue, under the right circumstances, Republicans could be moved to defy Trump. This week, the creation of the fund changed the circumstances again, and the number of Republican senators willing to act quickly grew.
This moment comes after months of rising costs during the war in Iran, efforts by the president to oust members of his own party and now a set of proposals that are proving hard to defend in an election year.
“What you have is basically a bunch of people who feel a bit under siege,” said Bob Olinksy, the senior vice president of Structural Reform and Governance at the Center for American Progress. “At the same time, they know that most of what the president is doing is unpopular, and they’re the ones who are going to be standing for reelection in November.”
Republicans push back
Senate Republicans leaders are now asking the Department of Justice to reconsider the terms of the fund, underscoring just how politically toxic the idea has become within the president’s own party.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters that the politically speaking, the fund is “unexplainable.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told the New York Times the fund should be in real trouble. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) called the fund “utterly stupid” and “morally wrong.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican whom Trump has singled out for going against him, was equally unsparing, saying he opposed “using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police.” He also criticized the administration for pushing domestic and foreign policy issues that he says are bad for housing and the military.
“If opposing these things makes me a RINO [Republican In Name Only], then I gladly accept that nickname,” Tillis wrote on X. “We need Republicans to do well in November, but the stupid stuff is killing our chances!”
The Republican push back comes as the concern about self-dealing runs deep across the electorate.
A recent poll Economist/YouGov poll found that 59% of Americans believe Trump is using his office for personal gain, though that belief is sharply divided among partisan lines. A CNN poll found that 37% of Americans say Trump puts the good of the country above his personal gain, while 32% say he is in touch with the problems of ordinary Americans.
Asked if the political environment influenced the actions this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that there is a “political component to everything we do around here.”
Funds and tax immunity clauses
Senate Democrats are wondering if the fund will mark a watershed moment for Republicans.
“Have Republicans finally found a bridge too far?” Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters after Republicans left Washington without funding Trump’s priorities.
Democrats have called the fund an illegal abuse of power designed to line the pockets of Trump’s allies with taxpayer dollars. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it a “pure theft of public funds.”
The fund was created as part of a settlement resolving a $10-billion lawsuit Trump personally brought against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Alongside it, the deal says the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing any tax claims against Trump and his businesses.
Under the tax immunity clause, Trump and his family could save more than $600 million, according to an analysis by Forbes.
The fund, however, has been the target of most of the bipartisan ire. Mostly because Trump and administration officials have not ruled out that it could stand to benefit people who carried out violence during the Jan. 6 riot.
The public funds, if disbursed, would come from the federal judgment fund, which is a Congress-approved ongoing appropriation that allows the Justice Department to settle cases and make payouts. In the past, Republicans have taken issue with the fund. The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee characterized it an abuse in 2017.
Several of the president’s allies have already talked about tapping into the fund.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who served prison time in relation to campaign finance violations, said he plans to apply for compensation.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and later pardoned by Trump, told CBS News he would seek a payout from the fund.
“I was targeted,” Tarrio said. “And I do believe that this fund does apply to me.”