Donald Trump

United States President Donald Trump has said he will not call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in the wake of weekend shootings that killed a Democratic state lawmaker and injured another.

Trump denounced the shootings as an act of “horrific violence” in a statement over the weekend. But on Tuesday, he confirmed to reporters that he would not reach out to Walz, who served as the running mate to his rival in the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris.

“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him?” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?”

Walz, for his part, said he was not surprised by Trump’s lack of interest in calling him. He did, however, point out that he had spoken with Vice President JD Vance.

“I’m always open to, you know, people expressing gratitude. Vice President Vance assured us, and he delivered, that the FBI would be there as partners with us to get it done,” Walz said. “That was what needed to be done.”

The suspect in the shootings is 57-year-old Vance Boelter, a father of five who was arrested on Sunday night.

He has since been charged with federal counts of murder and stalking in connection with the shootings early on Saturday, which resulted in the killings of Melissa Hortman, a top Democrat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband, Mark Hortman.

Boelter is also accused of shooting Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, both of whom survived.

Prosecutors said that Boelter visited the lawmakers’ homes wearing a face mask and body armour to impersonate a police officer. He allegedly knocked on the Hoffmans’ door, identifying himself as police.

Prosecutors said on Monday that Boelter sent a message to his family after the shootings, which read: “Dad went to war last night.”

Law enforcement officials have said they are still investigating a potential motive in the attack. But investigators have recovered notebooks from the suspect with the names of Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates.

“Political assassinations are rare,” Joseph Thompson, Minnesota’s acting US attorney, said at a news conference. “They strike at the very core of our democracy.”

He added that authorities are searching through Boelter’s notebooks but have not found a “manifesto” clearly laying out his motivations. Boelter’s friends, meanwhile, have told reporters that the suspect was a supporter of Trump and an opponent of abortion rights.

The slayings have spurred increased concerns about political violence in the US. In the past year alone, Trump has faced an assassination attempt, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has seen his governor’s mansion targeted in an act of suspected arson.

Between January 6, 2021, and October 2024, the news agency Reuters said it had tallied upwards of 300 cases of political violence in the US.

In the aftermath of last weekend’s shootings, conspiracy theories claiming that the alleged shooter was a leftist ideologue began to circulate, with support from some Republican lawmakers.

Boelter had previously served with other community members on a state workforce development board under two Democratic governors, including Walz, a fact that helped to fuel the rumours.

He had also worked as the director of security patrols at a security services company whose website said he had been “involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip”.

Boelter appeared briefly in court on Monday but did not enter a plea. He is due to appear in court again on June 27.

SEOUL, June 17 (UPI) — The G7 Summit in Calgary was disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump‘s unexpected early departure, which he attributed to urgent Middle East developments. His abrupt return to Washington derailed scheduled engagements and left several key diplomatic efforts, including those of South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung, unfulfilled.

President Lee arrived in Calgary on the afternoon of June 16, aiming to hold high-level discussions with global leaders, particularly a bilateral meeting with President Trump according to Lee’s office. However, the sudden change in the U.S. president’s schedule led to the cancellation of their planned talks.

South Korea’s National Security Office Director Wi Sung-Lak confirmed that the meeting was effectively canceled, adding that no alternative arrangements could be made due to the disruption of the summit.

The missed opportunity is a setback for the Lee administration, which had hoped to use the G7 platform to deepen strategic ties with the United States and reinforce South Korea’s role in global affairs. The failure to secure direct engagement with President Trump during such a pivotal event could limit Seoul’s diplomatic momentum in the short term.

Despite the setback, President Lee held talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, though no major outcomes were announced by the close of the summit.

June 17 (UPI) — Israel claimed Tuesday it had killed Iran’s highest-ranking military chief after just days in the job in an airstrike by Israeli warplanes.

“Ali Shadmani, Iran’s senior-most military official and Khamenei’s closest military adviser, was killed in an Israeli Air Force strike in central Tehran, following precise intelligence,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

Shadmani was appointed as the new head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard‘s Emergency Command to replace Gholam Ali Rashid in the hours after Rashid was among five of Iran’s most senior military commanders killed in the initial phase of Israel’s surprise attack early Friday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces.

The development came as both sides continued to trade deadly attacks into a fifth day — Israel leveraging its stranglehold on Iranian airspace to ramp up its airborne assault on key military and nuclear targets while Iran launched 30 ballistic missiles with blasts reported in northern Israel.

Israel’s health ministry said another 154 people had been injured overnight, with 149 admitted to hospital in a moderate condition or with only minor injuries.

However, Israel said there had been noticeably fewer missiles incoming than on previous days.

Two dozen people in Israel have been killed since Friday, mainly in missile strikes on residential districts in the center and north of the country, while Iran’s Health Ministry says Israel’s attacks have killed 224 people and injured more than 1,200, mostly in Tehran.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One after cutting short his meeting with world leaders at a G7 summit in Canada to head back to Washington, President Donald Trump, in a somewhat cryptic comment, denied an Israel-Iran truce was afoot, saying “we’re looking at better than a cease-fire.”

Before departing Calgary, Trump had told Iranians they needed to evacuate Tehran immediately.

Analysts were trying to figure out whether Trump intends to try to go the diplomatic route and get Tehran to return to the negotiating table to deal on its nuclear development program or double down on his support for Israel.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued renewed but vague threats Tuesday, warning Iran “will have to show more painful responses,” unless the United States reined in Israeli aggression and repeated the claim that none of what was occurring could take place without Washington’s involvement.

“If the U.S. government does not prevent the spread of insecurity to the region by bridling that savage [Israeli] regime, Iran will be obliged to give heavier and more painful responses beyond what has occurred so far,” Pezeshkian warned in a call with Omani sultan Haitham bin Tariq.

Oman has been hosting talks on Iran’s nuclear program between top U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials that began in April.

Pezeshkian insisted all regime officials, political factions of all persuasions and the people of Iran were willing the armed forces to succeed in their fight against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, similarly, gave away no indication of wanting to end the conflict any time soon, saying Israeli air power was operating freely while the city of Tehran burned.

“The Israeli Air Force controls the skies over Tehran. We strike regime targets — not civilians. That’s the difference between us and Iran’s terrorist regime that aims to murder women and children,” he said in a post on X.

“I am proud of our security forces and our wonderful people. Together we will win.”

At least two European countries have already begun implementing plans to evacuate their citizens from the region.

A Czech government evacuation flight touched down Tuesday with 66 people on board, according to Defense Minister Jana Cernochova, with another 11 due to be brought out on a Slovakian government flight in the coming hours.

Another flight that landed in Bratislava from Jordan on Monday evening had 14 other Czech citizens aboard.

Poland is sending planes to collect up to 300 of its nationals who have asked to be repatriated from Israel, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Monday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said initial evacuations would be via Egypt and Jordan, with a government-chartered aircraft due to depart Sharm el-Sheikh early Wednesday, followed by a military flight out of Amman on Thursday.

June 17 (UPI) — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has thrown support to a pair of progressive candidates running in Democratic primaries against more established candidates.

Sanders is expected to officially endorse Zohran Mamdani in the party’s mayoral primary in New York City on Tuesday.

A Brooklyn native, Sanders joins Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. in support of Mamdani, a left-wing Democrat who must compete against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Current mayor Eric Adams is running for reelection as an independent.

“Our nation faces a fundamental choice: Will we continue with a corporate-dominated politics driven by billionaires or will we build a grass-roots movement fueled by everyday people, committed to fighting oligarchy, authoritarianism and kleptocracy?” Mr. Sanders has said about Mamdani.

“The New York City Democratic primary presents a clear choice as to the path forward,” he added.

Sanders has also announced his support for Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who seeks to unseat current Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich.

“As a Member of Congress, Donavan will fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, fully fund our public schools, invest in public housing and support Medicare for all,” said Sanders of McKinney. “A former union leader, he has dedicated his life to standing with working people, and is ready to lead the struggle against Donald Trump, the oligarchy, and the corporate interests who prioritize profits over people.”

McKinney, who also has the support of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said in a statement that “Senator Sanders has long been a progressive champion for working class Americans, and I am honored to receive his endorsement.”

Sanders had also announced in May he had partnered with the Run for Something young candidate recruitment organization, which posted to X in May that “His message is clear-run for office-and we’re here to make sure new leaders have the tools to win.”

Waves of Russian missile and drone strikes have killed at least 15 people and injured 116 others, with most of the casualties in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have reported.

The massive aerial assault overnight into Tuesday struck 27 locations in the Ukrainian capital, damaging residential buildings and critical infrastructure, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

Ukrainian officials were quick to call for international attention on the attacks as Kyiv pushes diplomatic efforts to raise pressure on Moscow to agree a ceasefire.

“Today, the enemy spared neither drones nor missiles,” Klymenko said, describing the attack as one of the largest against Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block, and emergency services were searching through the rubble for possible survivors, Klymenko added.

People were injured in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, and fires broke out in two other parts of the city, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

‘Total disrespect’

Klitschko also noted that a United States citizen died from shrapnel wounds.

The Russian strikes, which lasted throughout the night, came as world leaders met in Canada for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to attend the talks on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha suggested the “massive and brutal strike” against Kyiv was deliberately timed, in particular painting it as an insult to US President Donald Trump.

“Putin does this on purpose, just during the G7 summit. He sends a signal of total disrespect to the United States and other partners who have called for an end to the killing,” he wrote on social media.

Zelenskyy is seeking to persuade Trump to extend support to Ukraine and put additional pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree a ceasefire.

Sybiha suggested the Russian president wanted to make G7 leaders “appear weak”.

“Only strong steps and real pressure on Moscow can prove him wrong,” the diplomat added.

Zelenskyy called the overnight strikes “one of the most horrific attacks” carried out by Moscow and declared that Putin “does this solely because he can afford to continue the war”.

Little progress

Pressed by Trump, Russia and Ukraine have held two rounds of direct talks over a truce but have made little progress with the exception of agreeing prisoner exchanges and the return of bodies.

In the meantime, Russia has increased its bombardments since a daring operation by Ukraine deep inside Russia on June 1 destroyed much of Moscow’s heavy bomber fleet.

In its latest attacks, Russia used 175 drones and more than 14 cruise missiles, Kyiv’s authorities said on Telegram.

Officials in Odesa said 13 people had been injured in further attacks on the Black Sea port city.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.

While Ukraine is pressing for support from the West to help it maintain its air defences, Russia is suspected of sourcing arms from China, Iran and North Korea.

Reflecting Moscow’s growing ties with Pyongyang, Putin’s top security adviser, Sergei Shoigu, was reported by Russian state media to have arrived in the North Korean capital on Tuesday for talks with leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea is suspected of supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, antitank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition while thousands of its soldiers are reported to have died during operations to oust occupying Ukrainian troops from Russia’s border region of Kursk.

It is the second time that Shoigu has visited North Korea in less than two weeks, and it is seen as a sign that Moscow and Pyongyang are continuing to deepen their alliance. Kim and Putin signed a strategic partnership treaty last year, including a mutual defence pact.

June 14 (UPI) — Millions of people turned out for “No Kings” protests nationwide on Saturday that were largely peaceful though there were some arrests and police had to disperse unruly crowds, including in Georgia and Los Angeles.

In Texas, a credible threat led to the temporary closing of the Texas Capitol building in Austin on Saturday before a planned protest there. The Texas Department of Public Safety evacuated the building and grounds after learning of a threat made against state lawmakers planning to attend the, KXAN reported.

The DPS arrested one person during a traffic stop in La Grange and reopened the Capitol grounds shortly before 5 p.m. CDT, which is when the protest was scheduled to start.

Law enforcement did not identify the suspect or any charges against that person.

In Atlanta, members of the far-right Proud Boys appeared at the city’s protest, wearing the group’s distinctive black and yellow colors.

Police in Georgia arrested at least eight protesters after they entered a roadway in DeKalb County during the afternoon, WSB-TV reported.

Hundreds gathered to protest against President Donald Trump at a site near Chamblee Tucker Road, and many began marching in the road toward Interstate 285 northeast of Atlanta.

Local police ordered the crowd to return to the sidewalk and deployed tear gas when they did not.

Two motorists have been arrested in separate incidents on opposite ends of the country after driving into protesters, according to a report by The Guardian.

At least four protesters suffered non-life-threatening injuries at a protest in San Francisco when a motorist allegedly drove into them. The unidentified motorist was detained.

Police in Culpeper, Va., arrested Joseph Checklick Jr., 21, on reckless driving charges in an incident that caused no injuries.

1,500 protests scheduled nationwide

At least 1,500 “No Kings” protests nationwide were scheduled Saturday, the same day as President Donald Trump’s large-scale military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army and his 79th birthday.

The protests across all 50 states and commonwealths were “largest single-day mobilization since President Trump returned to office — a mass, nationwide protest rejecting authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy,” according to the organizers’ website.

The 50501 Movement — 50 protests, 50 states, one movement — is one of the main organizers of the demonstrations that are designed to be peaceful.

“The ‘No Kings’ mobilization is a direct response to Donald Trump’s self-aggrandizing $100 million military parade and birthday celebration, an event funded by taxpayers while millions are told there’s no money for Social Security, SNAP, Medicaid, or public schools,” according to the website.

The parade is officially celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States Army and has been planned for well over a year, although it has been expanded to meet Trump’s requests since he retook office.

The protests were organized by a coalition of more than 200 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Federation of Teachers and the Communications Workers of America.

Protests nationwide began after Trump’s inauguration for his second presidency on Jan. 20 over several of the Trump administration’s moves, including its crackdown on immigrants and cuts to the federal workforce and services.

Where protests happened

A map shows where the events took place.

In New York, about 50,000 protesters marched a mile on Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Madison Square Park, an NYPD spokesperson told WNBC-TV. As of 4:30 p.m., the NYPD reported no arrests or incidents of note related to the demonstrations.

“Real power looks like the thousands of people that are going to gather here in Bryant Park and stand up to their neighbors and for their communities,” 50501 organizer Hannan Strauss told CNN during an interview in New York.

In Chicago, several thousand people packed streets in and around Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago. They then marched to Trump Tower, shouting “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

Events in Minnesota, including in Minneapolis, were canceled though several thousand showed up in the state capital, St. Paul. Minnesota State Patrol and Gov. Tim Walz asked people not to participate after State Rep. and Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed. State Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin and his wife Yvette were shot multiple times.

Despite triple-digit temperatures, a crowd demonstrated at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.

More than 75 protests were scheduled in Florida, including near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach where demonstrators marched to the Mar-a-Lago gates. They were met by Trump supporters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is ready to “quell any violence” at events in his state. During an interview on Fox News, he said local police, county sheriffs, highway patrol and the National Guard will be ready to stop any violence or “unrest” against federal anti-illegal immigration efforts.

The protests, large and small, are taking place everywhere except the nation’s capital “to draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”

“We’re showing up everywhere he isn’t — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings,” the website reads. Trump on Thursday told reporters that, despite the protests’ title, “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”

Demonstrators gathered outside a Metro station in Arlington, Va.

D.C. residents were encouraged to go to a demonstration in Philadelphia, which is America’s first capital and the birthplace of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The protest includes plans to march from Love Park to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson told WCAU-TV an estimated 80,000 people attended the protect along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Situation in Los Angeles

Protests against immigration arrests have been going on for a week in downtown Los Angeles.

Some protesters in downtown Los Angeles threw objects at police officers as they attempted to clear the crowd using chemical irritants ahead of a nightly curfew, city police said.

The Los Angeles Police Department issued dispersal orders in downtown and approved the use of less lethal munitions that it said “may cause discomfort and pain.”

On Saturday, protesters in Los Angeles carried an enormous copy of the Constitution through the streets. The protest drew about 25,000, KCBS-TV reported.

And there was a 20-foot balloon of Trump wearing a diaper in downtown’s Gloria Molina Grand Park.

A nightly curfew that began Tuesday will remain in effect through the weekend, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Friday. It turns from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Trump has nationalized California’s National Guard at the opposition of Gov. Gavin Newsom. There are 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines.

June 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday night cut short his participation at the G7 summit to leave Alberta, Canada, and returned to Washington, D.C., to focus on the conflict between Israel and Iran.

French President Emmanual Macron announced Trump had made a cease-fire offer between the two countries.

“There is an offer that has been made, especially to have a cease-fire and to initiate broader discussions,” Macron told reporters at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada on Monday.

“If the United States of America can achieve a cease-fire, it is a very good thing and France will support it and we wish for it,” Macron said, using a translator.

“It is absolutely essential that all strikes from both sides against energy, administrative and cultural infrastructures, and even more so against the civilian population, cease,” Macron added. “Nothing justifies this.”

The conflict became the top issue among the G7 leaders during the three-day summit after Iran and Israel began exchanging airstrikes Thursday night. Trade issues, which became a major issue following tariffs imposed by Trump, also are occupying their time.

Trump arrived in Canada on Monday and flew back to Washington, D.C., after a dinner with heads of state. Trump was previously scheduled to depart Canada on Tuesday after a news conference.

“Much was accomplished, but because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt

During the dinner, he said to Canada’s host, Prime Minister Mark Carney: “I have to be back early for obvious reasons. They understand. This is big stuff.”

Trump met earlier with Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

But before he left, Trump signed off on a joint statement about the Israel-Iran situation because language was added to seek a diplomatic resolution to the situation and uphold international law, CNN reported.

Trump hadn’t planned to sign the declaration because he had already made his stance clear.

“We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza,” the statement read.

“In this context, we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel. We also affirm the importance of the protection of civilians. Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror. We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

Carney, Starmer, Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer were seeking consensus among the leaders about the Middle East situation.

The other leaders are Japanese President Kishida Fumio and Italy’s President Giorgia Meloni. The European Union represents 27 members, including France, Germany and Italy.

No other nations have helped Israel fire missiles at Iran, including the United States. But the United States is concerned about protecting its airbases and embassies in the region.

The United States only possesses the bomb required to strike Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. told Merit TV on Monday.

Trump said he believes Iran wishes to de-escalate the situation. They had been in talks for a nuclear deal, but Sunday’s negotiations in Oman were canceled because of the airstrikes.

Later Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social about stalled nuclear talks: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

Trump also talked about the situation during a public meeting with Canada’s prime minister.

“They’d like to talk, but they should have done that before,” Trump said. “I had 60 days, and they had 60 days, and on the 61st day, I said, ‘We don’t have a deal.’ They have to make a deal, and it’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late.”

Carney cut off comments from Trump when he started to speak about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plans to expand efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants in America’s largest cities run by Democratic mayors in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

“If you don’t mind,” Carney said, “I’m going to exercise my role if you will as G7 chair, since we have a few more minutes with the president and his team, and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of the big issues. So thank you.”

Trump was making his first appearance at the summit since attending a meeting in the south of France in 2019. The previous year’s gathering in Canada ended with him withdrawing support for the final communique.

Trade talk

Trump formalized tariff cuts on British goods, and said he anticipates reaching new trade deals in Canada.

“We just signed it, and it’s done,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a fair deal for both.”

Trump lowered tariffs on the British aerospace sector to zero at the end of the month. The deal also cuts tariffs on British auto imports to 10% on the first 100,000 vehicles, according to the White House. Previously, vehicles imported from Great Britain faced a 27.5% duty.

The agreement does not lower steel tariffs to none from 25% as the leaders agreed in May. Trump has imposed a 50% steel and aluminum in other countries that went into effect earlier this month.

Canada is among the countries hardest hit, with a 25% tariff on autos imported into the United and 50% on steel and aluminum. Canada also faces tariffs, along with Mexico on imports of goods not exempted by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The EU, in particular, wants to get a deal done before the July 9 expiration of a 10% tariff implemented by Trump to allow time for negotiations.

Before going to the summit, Trump had said he expected to sign new trade agreements with other nations.

Russia

The nation hasn’t been invited to the summit in 10 years.

Like in the past, Trump called it wrong for Russia to have been removed from the G8 in 2014 for annexing Crimea.

“The G7 used to be the G8,” Trump said.” And I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in.”

“It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia. And he’s no longer at the table, so it makes life more complicated.”

Trump also said he won’t impose more sanctions on Russia with more sanctions at the G7 summit, saying European nations should hit the target with more sanctions.

“Let’s see them do it first,” he told reporters in a joint news appearance with Starmer. “When I sanction a country, that costs the U.S. a lot of money — a tremendous amount of money.”

The president held a roughly 60-minute call with Putin on Saturday in which much of the focus was on the Israel-Iran fighting, and less on Russia’s war with Ukraine. Trump was scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the summit.

June 16 (UPI) — Israel and Iran intensified their deadly airstrikes Monday on the fifth day after Israel launched its first attack to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capability.

Hundreds of people have been killed, including 224 in Iran and 24 in Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strikes a significant setback to Iran’s nuclear program.

“I estimate we are sending them back a very, very long time,” Netanyahu told reporters.

Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv late Monday, the central Israeli city of Bat Yam and the Palestinian-Israeli town of Tamra as Israel Defense Forces told residents to rush to bomb shelters.

“Israel’s defense systems are currently working to intercept the threat,” the IDF said in a statement, before allowing Northern Israel residents to leave.

Iran said its ninth wave of attacks will continue through Tuesday morning, according to Iranian media.

Israel said three workers at the country’s Bazan Group oil company were killed earlier in the day. The power plant, which was significantly damaged, is responsible for steam and electricity production.

Iran also warned Israel to evacuate two Israeli television headquarters after an Iranian state television station in Tehran was struck and one of its workers was killed.

President Donald Trump announced Monday he would leave the Group of Seven summit in Canada to monitor the situation in the Middle East, as he warned Iranians to “immediately evacuate Tehran.”

“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social before leaving the summit. “Simply stated, Iran can not have a nuclear weapon. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

As Trump returned to Washington, D.C., U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered “the deployment of additional capabilities.”

“Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier group was moving toward the Middle East to join the USS Carl Vinson. The Defense Department also announced it would move aircraft to the European and Central Command theaters to support U.S. bases in the region, according to the Navy Times.

While attending the G7 summit, Trump had been in contact throughout the day with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Trump and Rubio returned to Washington, D.C., on Monday night, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Over the weekend, Israel’s strikes killed top Iranian military commanders and scientists and targeted nuclear infrastructure. While Trump has rejected any plan to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Netanyahu was not ruling it out Monday, according to ABC News.

Thousands of Israel’s residents have evacuated in response to Iran’s strikes, according to Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

“Our teams have handled, as of Saturday, 14,583 claims for direct damage from the attacks from Iran,” Smotrich said Monday.

“We are assisting 2,775 residents who were evacuated from their homes, most of whom were accommodated in hotels through local authorities in a model we determined in advance,” he added.

So far, we have identified 24 structures, buildings that are designated for demolition.”

Vance Boelter, a former state board appointee, was arrested Sunday after allegedly killing ex-House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and wounding Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, ending the largest manhunt in Minnesota’s history.

June 16 (UPI) — The Nimitz aircraft carrier group was rerouted from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, joining the USS Carl Vinson. The move comes amid airstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Also, the Defense Department is moving aircraft to the European and Central Command theaters if needed to support U.S. bases in the region, the Navy Times reported.

And other ships, including Navy destroyers, are also headed to the region, a U.S. official told NBC News. Those ships, which are now based in U.S. European Command, include ballistic missile defense, or BMD, capabilities. Some destroyers are now stationed off Israel’s coast in the Mediterranean.

“Over the weekend, I directed the deployment of additional capabilities to the United States Central Command Area of Responsibility, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted Monday on X. “Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.”

The Nimitz was scheduled to go to the Middle East but officials canceled a stop in Vietnam, NBC News reported. The George Washington carrier group is operating in the Philippine Sea.

The Nimitz strike group could reach the Middle East later this week, an official told Politico. The exact location hasn’t been disclosed.

The carrier was sailing in the South China Sea and has made its way through the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Andaman Sea and the South China Sea and is about 1,200 miles from Iran.

The Vinson has sailed in the Arabian Sea, and it has partnered with the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group to hit Houthi targets in Yemen, as well. Its home port is San Diego.

President Donald Trump hasn’t said whether the United States will join Israel against Iran.

“We’re not involved in it,” Trump said during an interview with ABC News. “It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved.”

Israel’s aircraft have mainly been targeting nuclear facilities, including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant built into a mountain and buried deep underground.

The Nimitz carrier group has about 5,000 sailors and Marines, including aircraft crews. Assigned destroyers are Wilbur, Gridle, Meyer and Higbee

The aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1975 and the home port is in Bremerton, Wash.

All but three of the 11 active U.S. aircraft carriers are in homeports now.

The Vinson and Nimitz are among the 10 in an older carrier class. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier is only one commissioned in the new class.

Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a cabinet and inner circle that is markedly less hawkish on Iran than during his first term.

But analysts told Al Jazeera that it remains unclear whether the composition of Trump’s new cabinet will make a difference when it comes to how the administration responds to the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

Last week, fighting erupted when Israel launched surprise strikes on Tehran, prompting Iran to retaliate. That exchange of missiles and blasts has threatened to spiral into a wider regional war.

“I think there are fewer of the traditional Republican hawks in this administration,” said Brian Finucane, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, a think tank. “And you do have more prominent restraint-oriented or restraint-adjacent people.”

“The question is: How loud are they going to be?”

So far, the Trump administration has taken a relatively hands-off approach to Israel’s attacks, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed were “unilateral”.

While the US has surged military assets to the region, it has avoided being directly involved in the confrontation. Trump also publicly opposed an Israeli strike on Iran in the weeks leading up to the attacks, saying he preferred diplomacy.

However, on Sunday, Trump told ABC News, “It’s possible we could get involved,” citing the risk to US forces in the region.

He has even framed Israel’s bombing campaign as an asset in the ongoing talks to curtail Iran’s nuclear programme, despite several top negotiators being killed by Israeli strikes.

Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “playing” Trump and US taxpayers for “fools”, saying the US president could end the fighting with “one phone call” to the Israeli leader.

‘Our interest very much is in not going to war with Iran’

Analysts agree that any course of action Trump takes will likely transform the conflict. It will also reveal how Trump is responding to the deep ideological rift within his Republican base.

One side of that divide embraces Trump’s “America First” ideology: the idea that the US’s domestic interests come before all others. That perspective largely eschews foreign intervention.

The other side of Trump’s base supports a neoconservative approach to foreign policy: one that is more eager to pursue military intervention, sometimes with the aim of forcing regime change abroad.

Both viewpoints are represented among Trump’s closest advisers. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, stands out as an example of a Trump official who has called for restraint, both in terms of Iran and US support for Israel.

In March, Vance notably objected to US strikes on Yemen’s Houthis, as evidenced in leaked messages from a private chat with other officials on the app Signal. In that conversation, Vance argued that the bombing campaign was a “mistake” and “inconsistent” with Trump’s message of global disengagement.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Vance also warned that the US and Israel’s interests are “sometimes distinct… and our interest very much is in not going to war with Iran”.

According to experts, that kind of statement is rare to hear from a top official in the Republican Party, where support for Israel remains largely sacrosanct. Finucane, for instance, called Vance’s statements “very notable”.

“I think his office may be a critical one in pushing for restraint,” he added.

Other Trump officials have similarly built careers railing against foreign intervention, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that the US “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”.

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who had virtually no previous diplomatic experience, had also floated the possibility of normalising relations with Tehran in the early days of the US-led nuclear talks.

By contrast, Secretary of State and acting National Security Adviser Marco Rubio established himself as a traditional neoconservative, with a “tough on Iran” stance, during his years-long tenure in the Senate. But since joining the Trump administration, Rubio has not broken ranks with the president’s “America First” foreign policy platform.

That loyalty is indicative of a wider tendency among Trump’s inner circle during his second term, according to Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“I think Trump 2.0 has a cabinet of chameleons whose primary qualification is loyalty and fealty to Trump more than anything else,” he told Al Jazeera.

Katulis noted that the days of officials who stood up to Trump, like former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, were mostly gone — a relic of Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021.

The current defence secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has shown an appetite for conducting aerial strikes on groups aligned with Iran, including the Houthis in Yemen.

But Hegseth told Fox News on Saturday that the president continues to send the message “that he prefers peace, he prefers a solution to this that is resolved at the table”.

‘More hawkish than MAGA antiwar’

All told, Trump continues to operate in an administration that is “probably more hawkish than MAGA antiwar”, according to Ryan Costello, the policy director at the National Iranian American Council, a lobby group.

At least one official, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, has sought to equate Iran’s retaliation against Israel with the targeting of US interests, highlighting the large number of US citizens who live in Israel.

Costello acknowledges that Trump’s first term likewise had its fair share of foreign policy hawks. Back then, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, his replacement Robert O’Brien and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all advocated for militarised strategies to deal with Tehran.

“But there’s a big difference between Trump’s first term, when he elevated and very hawkish voices on Iran, and Trump’s second term,” Costello said.

He believes that this time, scepticism over US involvement in the Middle East extends throughout the ranks of the administration.

Costello pointed to a recent conflict between the head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby. The news outlet Semafor reported on Sunday that Kurilla was pushing to shift more military assets to the Middle East to defend Israel, but that Colby had opposed the move.

That schism, Costello argues, is part of a bigger shift in Trump’s administration and in the Republican Party at large.

“You have many prominent voices making the case that these wars of choice pursued by neoconservatives have been bankrupting Republican administrations and preventing them from focusing on issues that really matter,” Costello said.

Finucane has also observed a pivot from Trump’s first term to his second. In 2019, during his first four years as president, Finucane said that Trump’s national security team gave an “apparently unanimous recommendation” to strike Iran after it targeted a US surveillance drone.

Trump ultimately backed away from the plan in the final hours, according to multiple reports.

But a year later, the Trump administration assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq, another instance that brought the US to the brink of war.

Who will Trump listen to?

To be sure, experts say Trump has a notoriously mercurial approach to policy. The last person to speak to the president, observers have long said, will likely wield the most influence.

Trump also regularly seeks guidance from outside the White House when faced with consequential decisions, consulting mainstream media like Fox News, breakaway far-right pundits, social media personalities and top donors.

That was the case ahead of the possible 2019 US strike on Iran, with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson reportedly among those urging Trump to back away from the attack.

Carlson has since been a leading voice calling for Trump to drop support for the “war-hungry government” of Netanyahu, urging the president to let Israeli officials “fight their own wars”.

But Carlson is not the only conservative media figure with influence over Trump. Conservative media host Mark Levin has advocated for military action against Iran, saying in recent days that Israel’s attacks should be the beginning of a campaign to overthrow Iran’s government.

Politico reported that Levin visited the White House for a private lunch with Trump in early June, just days before the US president offered his support for Iran’s strikes.

But Katulis at the Middle East Institute predicted that neither Trump’s cabinet nor media figures like Levin would prove to be the most consequential in guiding the president’s choices. Instead, Trump’s decision on whether to engage in the Israel-Iran conflict is likely to come down to which world leader gets his ear, and when.

“It’s a favourite Washington parlour game to pretend like the cabinet members and staffers matter more than they actually do,” Katulis told Al Jazeera.

“But I think, in the second Trump administration, it’s less who’s on his team formally and more who has he talked to most recently – whether it’s Netanyahu in Israel or some other leader in the region,” he said.

“I think that’s going to be more of a determining factor in what the United States decides to do next.”

The prominent legal organisation has called the US president’s executive orders against law firms unconstitutional.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has sued the administration of US President Donald Trump, seeking an order that would prevent the White House from pursuing what it called a campaign of intimidation against major law firms.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in Washington, DC, alleged that the administration violated the United States Constitution by issuing a series of executive orders targeting law firms over their past clients and employees.

According to the complaint, those executive orders were used to “to coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, causes, and policy positions the President does not like”.

Dozens of executive agencies and US officials are named in the suit, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

In a statement, the ABA — the country’s largest voluntary association for lawyers — called Trump’s attacks on law firms “uniquely destructive”.

“Without skilled lawyers to bring and argue cases, the judiciary cannot function as a meaningful check on the executive branch,” the association wrote.

Four law firms have separately sued the administration over President Trump’s orders, which stripped their lawyers of security clearances and restricted their access to government officials and federal contracting work.

Four different judges in Washington have sided with the firms and temporarily or permanently barred Trump’s orders against them. One of the firms that sued and won a preliminary victory, Susman Godfrey, is representing the ABA in Monday’s lawsuit.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to Monday’s lawsuit with a statement calling it “clearly frivolous”.

He added that the ABA has no power over the president’s discretion to award government contracts and security clearances to law firms.

“The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue,” Fields said.

Despite Trump’s court losses, nine law firms have struck deals with the president, pledging to offer nearly $1bn in free legal services to stave off similar executive orders.

Monday’s lawsuit escalates a clash between the ABA and the Trump administration, which has cut some government funding to the group and has moved to restrict its role in vetting federal judicial nominees.

In March, Bondi — the chief law enforcement officer in the US — warned the group that it could lose its role in accrediting law schools unless it cancels a requirement related to student diversity.

Federal judge on bench for 40 years lambasts grant terminations as ‘racist’ and anti-LGBTQ.

A Massachusetts federal judge has declared that cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants made by the administration of US President Donald Trump are “illegal” and “void,” and ordered that many of the grants be restored.

In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge William Young vacated the terminations that began in late February and said the NIH violated federal law by arbitrarily cancelling more than $1bn in research grants because of their perceived connection to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Young told the court there could be little doubt the cuts represent “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community”, according to quotes published on X by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.

In April, a group of researchers sued the NIH, saying hundreds of critical research projects were halted due to an “ideological purge”. The plaintiffs argued that the reasons given for the terminations – connections with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and “gender identity” – were vague and lacking in concrete explanation.

Terminated grants included programmes focusing on women, racial minorities and the health of health of gay, lesbian and transgender people, but also included studies on cancer, youth suicide and bone health. The government has argued that the court lacks jurisdiction and that the NIH has discretion to set its own priorities.

Young said he was reinstating grants that had been awarded to organisations and Democratic-led states that sued over the terminations. And the judge strongly suggested that as the case proceeds, he could issue a more sweeping decision.

Young, who was appointed by US President Ronald Reagan, offered a harsh rebuke to the government, saying that in his 40 years on the bench, he had “never seen evidence of racial discrimination like this”.

‘Didn’t take job to terminate grants’

The ruling comes almost a week after Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), admitted that the Trump administration had gone too far in slashing biomedical research grants and said efforts were under way to restore some of the funding

Bhattacharya made the remarks Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing examining both recent cuts to his agency and deeper reductions proposed by the White House in next year’s budget.

“I didn’t take this job to terminate grants,” said the physician and health economist, who left a professorship at Stanford University to join the Trump administration.

“I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people,” he said, adding that he had created an appeals process for scientists and laboratories whose research was impacted, and that the NIH had already “reversed many” of the cuts.

A $499 gold phone built entirely in the United States and a mobile plan boasting telehealth services have been announced by the Trump Organization as part of an effort to entice the US president’s supporters away from major telecom providers and wireless services.

The mobile service is the latest example of the president’s family striking business deals off of the Trump name.

The eponymous Trump Mobile was announced in a Monday statement issued by the Trump Organization, which is led by President Donald Trump’s son Eric.

Dubbed the 47 Plan, the service will cost consumers $47.45 a month and will offer “5G service through all three major cellular carriers” – T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. According to the statement, it will offer telemedicine, unlimited texting plans with 100 counties, and roadside assistance.

Some key details about the venture, including those about the family’s partner in the business and the financial terms of their licensing deal, were not immediately disclosed.

The “T1 Phone” is advertised as “proudly designed and built in the United States” and listed with a release date in August, although a tech writer from The Verge questioned the viability of building a phone in the US so quickly.

Speaking on Fox Business, Eric Trump said Trump Mobile would have call centres in St Louis, Missouri.

The Trump family, long known for its real estate empire, luxury hotels, and golf resorts, has in recent years ventured into newer arenas including digital media and cryptocurrency.

President Trump has said he put his business interests in a trust managed by his children to avoid conflicts of interest, but income from such business ventures will eventually enrich Trump, who sits atop the series of Trump family firms. In the president’s financial disclosure released on Friday, he reported more than $600m in income from licensing deals, crypto projects, golf clubs and other ventures – though that figure appeared to be only through the end of 2024, before his inauguration.

Targeting Apple?

The Trump Mobile announcement coincides with increased tension between the Trump administration and Apple in particular. The White House explicitly called for 25 percent tariffs on Apple products unless they are made in the US.

“It’s pointed at Apple, that’s a really big downward price pressure on what Apple’s trying to do,” Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, told the Reuters news agency.

Despite a recent pledge to spend $500bn in the US on manufacturing, research and development – comparable to pledges the Cupertino, California-based tech giant made in the past – the company recently doubled down on moving key parts of its production from China to India.

“There’s been kind of an opening for this type of device, if you will, simply because not just Apple, but Samsung devices to a certain extent as well, have really gotten so expensive in the moment in time and we haven’t really seen that big of a measurable increase in utility,” Mulberry said.

The Trump Organization, which is the main holding entity for most of the US president’s business ventures, said ahead of Trump’s inauguration that control of the company would be handed to his children, replicating the arrangement from his first term, though concerns about potential conflicts of interest remain.

“No one who has been paying attention could miss that President Trump considers the presidency a vehicle to grow his family’s wealth. Maybe this example will help more come to see this undeniable truth,” Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School, told Reuters.

Will it land?

While the Trump Organization is privately held, Trump-related stocks have not performed well on the news of the new smartphone and service plan. ​​Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, which is traded under the ticker DJT, is down 1.59 percent for the day as of 11am ET (15:00 GMT). The stock has already been on the downturn. It has tumbled more than 10 percent in the last five trading days.

“I don’t see much impact from Trump Mobile across the industry, as half of its addressable market is negated by political parties, and then from there, this industry already has a lot of stickiness to current providers,” David Wagner, head of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, told Reuters.

Major wireless carriers have been having a mixed day on Wall Street. Verizon is down by about 0.1 percent from yesterday’s close. AT&T is up 0.2 percent from the market close yesterday. T-Mobile is up 0.5 percent. The new phone announcement has not underpinned Apple in the markets. Apple’s stock is up 0.7 percent from the market close yesterday.

Washington, DC – A prominent Democratic senator has introduced a bill to require United States President Donald Trump to first seek authorisation from Congress before ordering military strikes against Iran.

The measure, put forward by Virginia Senator Tim Kaine on Monday, came amid growing calls by pro-Israel groups for the US to join the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran as the attacks between the two countries intensify.

“I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict,” Kaine said in a statement.

“The American people have no interest in sending service-members to fight another forever war in the Middle East. This resolution will ensure that if we decide to place our nation’s men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we will have a debate and vote on it in Congress.”

The bill invokes the War Powers Resolution of 1973, passed during the Vietnam War to constrain unilateral presidential powers to engage in military hostilities.

The US Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, but successive US presidents have used their positions as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to mobilise troops, initiate attacks and start conflicts without clear congressional authorisation.

Kaine’s proposal adds to the pressure Trump is facing from antiwar advocates in both major parties, advocates said.

Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, said the bill sends a message to Trump against going to war with Iran and to the Israelis that “they’re not going to just get blank-cheque US support”.

It could also gauge the level of opposition to war with Iran in Congress, especially among Republicans. A growing contingency of right-wing lawmakers has been warning Trump against being dragged into a conflict that they said does not serve US interests.

‘De-escalatory signal’

While Trump’s Republican Party controls both houses of the US Congress, the resolution may pass if conservative lawmakers who oppose foreign military interventions join the Democrats in backing it.

To become law, the bill needs to pass in the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by Trump, who would likely block it. But Congress can override a presidential veto with two-thirds majorities in the House and the Senate.

During his first term, Trump successfully vetoed two war powers resolutions, including a 2020 bill that aimed to curb his authority to strike Iran, which was also led by Kaine.

El-Tayyab said the 2020 push helped warn Trump against further strikes against Iran after the killing of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani despite the presidential veto, adding that the current measure may have a similar effect.

“Even if it passes and Trump vetoes it, it still sends a de-escalatory signal, and it reminds the administration that only Congress can declare war,” El-Tayyab told Al Jazeera.

Trump has not ruled out US strikes against Iran. “We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved,” he told ABC News on Sunday.

At the same time, the US president has called for ending the war.

Israel launched a bombardment campaign against Iran on Friday, targeting military and nuclear sites as well as residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, killing dozens of people, including top military officials and nuclear scientists.

The assault came just days before US and Iranian negotiators were to meet for a sixth round of nuclear talks in Oman.

Iran has responded with hundreds of ballistic missiles, many of which have penetrated Israel’s air defences, causing widespread damage across the country.

Hawks urge Trump to ‘go all-in’

With Israel under fire and seemingly unable on its own to take out Iran’s nuclear programme – including facilities buried deep underground and inside mountains – the US ally’s supporters are calling on Trump to come to its aid.

“The US has the bombers to carry deep-penetrating bombs that Israeli jets can’t. … This will be a missed opportunity if some of Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity survives when US participation could have made a difference,” The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote on Saturday.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also said the US should “go all-in to help Israel finish the job”.

However, many US politicians have cautioned against American involvement in the war. Trump ran last year as a “peace” candidate, slamming his Democratic opponents as “warmongers”.

Right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a social media post on Sunday that Americans are “sick and tired of foreign wars”.

“We have spent TRILLIONS in the Middle East and we have dealt with the aftermath of death, blown apart bodies, never ending suicides, and disabling PTSD,” she wrote in a post on X.

“All because they told us propaganda as to why we must sacrifice our own to defend some other country’s borders and some other country’s borders.”

Some US lawmakers have also stressed that war with Iran without the approval of Congress would be illegal.

“The president cannot circumvent congressional war powers and unilaterally send US troops to war with Iran,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said last week.

“The American people do not want another endless war in the Middle East that will cost lives and tear their families apart.”

‘Devastating regional war’

Antiwar advocates have long called on Congress to assert its powers over conflict. On Monday, several groups expressed support for Kaine’s proposed legislation.

“This is a critical moment for Congress to step in and exercise its constitutional authority to prevent the US from being dragged into another war,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now, told Al Jazeera.

“Democrats and Republicans should unite in rejecting any US involvement in a devastating regional war launched by a genocidal maniac – one that would needlessly risk American lives and squander national interest,” he added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel, which is carrying out a military campaign in Gaza that major rights groups have described as a genocide, has been warning for years that Iran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon.

While Israel has portrayed its strikes as “preemptive” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Tehran says the war was unprovoked and violates the United Nations Charter’s rules against aggression.

US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard had certified in March that Washington “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency accused Iran for the first time in 20 years of breaching its nonproliferation obligations. Israel is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

June 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump participated in a meeting of the G7 in Canada on Monday that had a wide range of pressing issues including the Israel-Iran conflict and trade

He and counterparts from Europe and Japan, as well as six countries not in the group that were invited to attend, will meet for three days.

Ahead of the summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Trump held a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, their second in less than six weeks after the U.S. president hosted Carney in the White House after his unexpected general election victory April 28, attributed in large part due to “the Trump effect.”

Trump had said he expected to ink new trade agreements at the meetings, which are also being attended by the European Union, Ukraine, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, India and Australia, but ABC News said Israel’s strikes on Iran had “scrambled” the agenda.

The network said there were differences between the U.S. administration and its international allies, with Trump telling ABC he was open to an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to mediate between the parties.

French President Emmanuel rejected the idea, saying Putin lacked the necessary credibility due to his country’s military intervention in Ukraine.

The president held a roughly 60-minute call with Putin in recent days in which much of the focus was on the Israel-Iran fighting, and less on Ukraine. However, Trump was scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the summit.

Uncertainty generated by Trump’s positions on the big geopolitical issues was likely seen as forcing allies to seek reassurance on where he stands, from supporting Ukraine over the longer term to what to do about Iran, as well as looming fears of a global trade war.

Trump is expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with the key trading partners at the summit, many of them slapped by the United States with hefty goods tariffs and separate tariffs on autos and steel and aluminum. Some have responded in kind.

Canada is among the countries hardest hit, with a 25% tariff on autos imported into the United and 50% on steel and aluminum. Canada also faces tariffs, along with Mexico on imports of goods not exempted by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Trump told reporters as he departed for Canada that deals with the United States’ trading partners were just a matter of formally notifying them “what you’re going to have to pay,” but the summit comes amid Trump’s 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs announced May 12.

The EU, in particular, wants to get a deal done before the July 9 expiration of a 10% tariff reduction implemented by Trump to allow time for negotiations.

So far, the only country with which a deal has been reached, but not implemented, is Britain. That deal announced in May allows Britain to export 100,000 cars annually to the United States at its standard 10% baseline tariff rate.

The deal also allows for British steel and aluminum quotas that will effectively reduce the tariffs to zero, although it currently remains at 25%, but still far below the 50% imposed on all other countries.

Trump is making his first appearance at the summit since attending a meeting in the south of France in 2019. The previous year’s gathering in Canada ended with him withdrawing support for the final communique.

June 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced that the nation’s large Democratic-run cities are to be the new focus for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this Truth, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest mass deportation program in history,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account Sunday night.

The post goes on to order the expansion of the efforts of ICE within cities Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, where he also alleged “millions upon millions of illegal aliens reside.”

Trump went on to call the cities the “core of the Democrat Power Center,” each of which he purports uses migrants to control elections and expand the use of welfare in actions that he alleges simultaneously take jobs and benefits from citizens.

“These radical left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our country, and actually want to destroy our inner cities,” Trump further wrote, and went on to declare the same cities believe in “transgender for everybody, and men playing in women’s sports.”

He went on to say he has directed his entire administration “to put every resource possible” behind the efforts of ICE, and that the federal government is focused on the “remigration of aliens to the places from where they came, and preventing the admission of anyone who undermines the domestic tranquility of the United States.”

Trump said Thursday there will be policy changes that promised migrant farmers and those employed across the hospitality industry would be protected from deportation after he heard complaints from others in those fields.

“Our great farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump posted to Truth Social Thursday, “This is not good. We must protect our farmers but get the criminals out of the USA.”

Israel and Iran have launched more strikes on one another overnight and into the morning as the military confrontation between the two traditional adversaries persists.

Iranian attacks on Israel on Monday morning killed at least eight people and wounded dozens, officials reported, while Tehran said Israeli attacks overnight hit military and civilian targets.

The mutual strikes pushed the death toll from four days of open conflict between the foes close to 250.

Raised rhetoric emanating from both countries following the strikes suggested there is little prospect of the hostilities halting soon, with the risk of an escalation into a wider regional conflict persisting.

Iran announced it had launched some 100 missiles and pledged further retaliation for Israel’s sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure, which have killed at least 224 people in the country since Friday.

In Israel, state broadcaster Israeli Army Radio reported that eight people were killed – five in the central part and three in the port city of Haifa.

That takes the total death toll in Israel to more than 20 since it launched air attacks on Iran four days ago. More than 300 others are reported wounded.

A branch of the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv sustained “minor damage” as a result of the attack, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said.

Earlier, Israel carried out further strikes on Iran. The Israeli military said its jets struck several command centres in Tehran belonging to Quds Force, an elite arm of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.

“In these command centers, Quds operatives advanced terrorist attacks against the State of Israel using the proxies of the Iranian Regime in the Middle East,” it wrote in a post on X.

On Sunday, Iran said Israel had struck oil refineries, killed the IRGC’s intelligence chief and hit population centres in intensive aerial attacks.

‘Make a deal’

Much of the world has urged restraint since the conflict broke out on Friday when Israel launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities, killing military commanders and scientists.

Israel said the action was necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons that would threaten its survival.

Iran retaliated with ballistic missiles, and the countries have been engaged in an exchange of strikes since.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he hoped the adversaries would “make a deal”, but added that they might have to “fight it out” first.

A staunch ally of Israel, Trump has maintained erratic messaging since the strikes began, raising concern that the conflict could escalate.

Iran has said the US is complicit in the Israeli military action, and suggested it could target US forces in Syria and elsewhere in retaliation.

Trump has insisted that Washington has “nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign, but also threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked its interests in the Middle East.

That has helped encourage a rise in the hardline rhetoric emerging from Tel Aviv and Tehran, which continued on Monday, suggesting there is little chance either side is ready to step back.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Monday that residents in Tehran would “pay the price” for Iran’s killing of Israeli civilians in its overnight missile attacks.

“The boastful dictator from Tehran has turned into a cowardly murderer, deliberately firing at Israel’s civilian home front in an attempt to deter the (Israeli military) from continuing the offensive that is crippling his capabilities,” Katz wrote on his Telegram channel. “The residents of Tehran will pay the price – and soon.”

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, urged people to put aside differences and unite against Israel.

“Every difference, issue, and problem that has existed must be put aside today, and we must stand strong against this genocidal criminal aggression with unity and coherence,” he said, addressing parliament.

Israel has suggested that regime change in Iran could be one result of the conflict, hoping to press opposition to the regime in Tehran to rise.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran’s response will stop when Israel halts its attacks.

The IRGC warned through a statement to the official IRNA news agency, “effective, targeted and more devastating operations against the vital targets” in Israel “will continue until its complete destruction”.

Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, told Al Jazeera that few signs of a let up have been seen.

“I think it’s going to continue escalating because we are just in the first days of the war,” he said. “The Israeli officials, the prime minister and the army, have all warned Israeli society that this war is going to be heavy and … the price is going to be extremely high.”

Meanwhile, Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera that Iran would likely welcome an end to hostilities in the non-too-distant future.

“I don’t sense they have the confidence that they can stay in this game for long. Remember, Iran is alone. It’s got no friends, it’s on its own. Israel’s got the US, most of Europe and plenty of other friends … and that should obviously be of concern for Tehran.”

‘Brutal funding cuts leave brutal choices,’ says aid chief, as humanitarian appeal slashes and priorities refocused.

The United Nations has announced sweeping cuts to its global humanitarian operations, blaming what it described as the “deepest funding cuts ever” for a drastic scaling back of its aid ambitions.

In a statement released on Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was now appealing for $29bn in aid – down sharply from the $44bn it had requested in December – and would refocus on the most critical emergencies under a “hyper-prioritised” plan.

The move follows a steep decline in funding from key donors, with the United States – historically the largest contributor – having slashed foreign aid under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Other donors have since followed suit, citing global economic uncertainty. So far this year, the UN has received only $5.6bn, a mere 13 percent of what it initially sought.

This comes as humanitarian needs soar in conflict zones, including Sudan, Gaza, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Myanmar.

“Brutal funding cuts leave us with brutal choices,” said undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher.

“All we ask is 1 percent of what you spent last year on war. But this isn’t just an appeal for money – it’s a call for global responsibility, for human solidarity, for a commitment to end the suffering,” he added.

OCHA said remaining aid efforts would be redirected towards the most urgent crises and aligned with planning already under way for 2025 to ensure maximum impact with limited funds.

“We have been forced into a triage of human survival,” Fletcher said. “The math is cruel, and the consequences are heartbreaking. Too many people will not get the support they need, but we will save as many lives as we can with the resources we are given.”

June 15 (UPI) — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that he is “not an absolute no” on the Trump administration’s House-passed budget reconciliation bill, which threatens cuts to social services and would increase the national spending deficit.

“I talked to the president last evening after the parade, and we’re trying to get to a better place in our conversations,” Paul said on NBC News’ Meet the Press Sunday. “And I’ve let him know that I’m not an absolute no.”

Paul has been a leading critic of the bill in its current form, along with a handful of other Republicans skeptical of the scope of the cuts. A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report that shows that the measure would come at the expense of lower income Americans to benefit higher earners.

“I don’t have as much trouble with the tax cuts,” Paul continued. “I think there should be more spending cuts, but if they want my vote, they’ll have to negotiate,” specifically citing his opposition to raising the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.

In its current form, the measure would increase the national deficit by $2.4 trillion over 10 years. Lawmakers are trying to pass the bill through a reconciliation process that only requires a simple majority for passage.

Paul said last week that tensions have come to the fore between him and his GOP colleagues, and that he was “uninvited” to a White House picnic that is typically attended by lawmakers and their families.

He called the move “petty vindictiveness,” and said he felt the White House was trying to “punish” him for his opposition to the bill as it stands. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that “of course” Paul was invited to the picnic.

Republicans can only afford to lose three votes pending a tie breaking vote by Vice President JD Vance. The measure currently awaits action in the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats. The body has taken a more conservative approach in the negotiations than the House.