Senior US officials are demanding that Iran’s leadership publicly state that ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been fully restored.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, say they are making progress negotiating with top Iranian leaders. But the US officials said they want Tehran to issue a statement saying Iran’s forces will stop attacking ships in the strait to help ensure that negotiations move forward.
Follow along live.
Marco Rubio speaks with Saudi FM as US makes demands from Iran — 9:15 p.m.
By the Associated Press
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said that Rubio spoke on the phone Friday with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud as regional allies have been rushing to get Washington and Tehran back on track after their monthslong ceasefire broke down this week.
Pigott said the two men “discussed the importance of close coordination to promote regional security and stability.”
US wants Iran to publicly guarantee that the Strait of Hormuz is open and safe for ships — 9:14 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Senior U.S. officials are demanding that Iran’s leadership publicly state that ship traffic in the strait has been fully restored.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe to reporters the state of play with Iran, say they are making progress negotiating with top Iranian leaders.
But the U.S. officials said they want Tehran to issue a statement saying Iran’s forces will stop attacking ships in the strait to help ensure that negotiations move forward.
Moments before the U.S. officials spoke, however, Tehran’s diplomat at the United Nations struck a more defiant tone, telling reporters that any activity in the strait “rests exclusively with Iran.”
Iranian diplomat says Tehran ‘remains committed’ to cease-fire deal if US complies — 3:14 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Speaking outside the Security Council, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s UN diplomat, told reporters Friday that his government is willing to return to the terms of the framework agreement with Washington if it stops violating the terms.
“Iran remains committed to the faithful implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding, provided that the United States fully and faithfully complies with its own obligations,” Iravani said. “And if not, Iran will no longer be bound by its obligations under the MOU.”
He also accused the US of attacking installations in the southern part of Iran on July 7 and 8th.
US imposes sanctions on Iranian financier — 3:08 p.m.
By the Associated Press
The US imposed sanctions on Iranian financier Ali Ansari, who Treasury says oversees a global network of assets benefitting Iran’s leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
Ansari, who is already under UK sanctions, is accused of diverting public funds into real estate holdings outside of Iran to benefit himself and Iranian leadership.
“Treasury will continue using every tool at its disposal to isolate him and other regime elites from the global financial system,“ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. ”We will preserve these assets for the Iranian people.”
Prime minister affirms Pakistan’s readiness to broker peace — 2:19 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday to discuss regional developments.
The conversation came as Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has been encouraging the United States and Iran to return to the negotiating table and discuss issues covered under the memorandum of understanding that Islamabad helped broker to help end the regional conflict.
In a post on X, Sharif said they discussed the evolving regional situation and stressed the need for restraint, dialogue and diplomacy to preserve the hard-earned peace gains of recent months.
“I reaffirmed Pakistan’s readiness to continue playing its role as an honest and sincere mediator for lasting regional peace,” Sharif wrote.
US lawmakers cite ‘significant progress’ on a Russia sanctions bill — 2:05 p.m.
By the Associated Press
US lawmakers leading an effort to sanction countries purchasing Russian oil say they have reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward with an updated bill.
The original bill was unveiled about a year ago and has languished in the Senate as the sponsors worked to win full backing from the White House.
“We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
The original bill called for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It targeted nations like China and India, which account for roughly 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
The four senators announcing the progress on their effort are Republicans Lindsey Graham and Roger Wicker, and Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Jeanne Shaheen.
D.C. calls on Michigan and the US Virgin Islands to bring their troops home — 1:38 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Washington, D.C., council members have added their voices to a chorus of groups asking Michigan and the US Virgin Islands to bring their National Guard units home.
“Temporary, event-specific assistance for a major national celebration is fundamentally different from an open-ended military presence in District neighborhoods,” reads a letter sent Thursday that was signed by all 13 council members.
A coalition of groups previously sent a similar letter to Michigan raising questions about how troops sent to help with the July 4 celebration were diverted to a surge in President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting initiative in the nation’s capital.
“DC residents have been saying for 11 months straight that we need the National Guard and federal surge forces out of our communities immediately,” Keya Chatterjee, executive director of the group Free DC, said in a statement.
Crews are draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again as part of Trump’s troubled revamp — 1:30 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Crews are again draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as President Trump’s problem-plagued efforts to revamp the waterway pushes well past his initial goal of having it ready by July 4 to mark the nation’s 250th birthday.
The president at first suggested his renovations would last a century. But, within weeks of the project originally reaching completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals, though critics allege it’s from shoddy repair work.
No immediate change in US military operations following end of cease-fire — 12:15 p.m.
By the Associated Press
Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for US Central Command, said there were “no operational updates at this time” when he was asked about the end of the ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump in a social media post earlier Friday.
Trump said in a post on his social media platform that the United States told Iran “in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”
When asked if the end of the ceasefire would mean a restart to the air bombing that was the mainstay of the conflict, Hawkins said he wouldn’t forecast future operations.
Hawkins did say that US forces in the region “remain vigilant, lethal, and prepared to execute operations directed by the Commander in Chief.”
Critics accuse Trump of damaging voters’ trust — 11:41 a.m.
By the Associated Press
On Capitol Hill, the leading Democrats with election oversight responsibility said Trump, rather than bolstering U.S. election integrity, is further politicizing the voting process.
“President Trump is trying to dismantle yet another independent guardrail of our democracy designed to keep elections fair and secure,” said Senator Alex Padilla of California, and Representative Joe Morelle of New York. “Purging commissioners just months before the midterm elections and further gutting support for our state and local elections officials is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections and enable more unlawful and dangerous election interference.”
Padilla is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee and Morelle is ranking member of the House Administration Committee.
A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quick — 10:57 a.m.
By the Associated Press
President Trump’s pledge to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air-defense systems could mark a major breakthrough for Kyiv, but experts and Ukrainian officials warn that turning the idea into real weapons would likely take years.
Speaking Wednesday alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said the United States would allow Ukraine to make the US-designed systems Kyiv has long sought to shield its cities and infrastructure from Russian missiles and drones.
“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”
But the statement left open a crucial question: What exactly would Ukraine be allowed to produce?
Trump’s decision on housing bill comes more than a week after he canceled plans to sign it — 10:37 a.m.
By the Associated Press
He announced then that he was using it as leverage in his push for a strict voter ID bill.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and spur more home construction. It’s the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, as state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many of the communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists estimated earlier this year a national shortage of 10 million homes and the bill could help to close a portion of that gap.
But Trump called the bill “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.
He surprised Republican lawmakers June 24, when, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, he announced he wouldn’t approve the bill until lawmakers first passed the voting legislation.
Stocks and oil prices drift as global markets continue to calm — 10:00 a.m.
By the Associated Press
US stocks and oil prices are drifting toward a quiet finish of the week Friday following earlier fireworks on worries about how the war with Iran will affect the global flow of crude.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent and was on track to close out a fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65 points, or 0.1 percent, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 percent higher.
Oil prices were holding relatively steady, even after a series of unclaimed airstrikes hit Iran after the US said it finished its attacks. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 0.2 percent to $76.47.
That’s above the $72 it was at the start of the week, when it was back below its level from before the war with Iran, but it’s still well below its wartime peak of nearly $120.
Trump won’t sign housing bill but will let it become law — 9:45 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump has chosen not to sign a sweeping housing affordability bill Friday, in protest of Congress not approving a strict voter ID bill that doesn’t have enough support to pass.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted on social media.
The housing measure will become law without Trump’s signature. He had 10 days to issue a veto and stop the measure, which he chose not to do.
Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his own party in a midterm election year and cuts short their efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs.
Trump ousts election commission members in latest push to reshape US voting process — 8:54 a.m.
By the Associated Press
Trump has ousted members of the bipartisan federal election commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their US citizenship before registering.
The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration forms.
It’s the latest move in the Republican president’s effort to expand White House influence over how US elections are conducted and comes after a recent US Supreme Court ruling that gave the president new personnel authority to fire members of independent agency boards.
Unclaimed airstrikes target Iran after US attacks, raising questions of who launched them — 8:30 a.m.
By the Associated Press
The series of unclaimed airstrikes that hit Iran after the US said it finished its attacks have again raised questions of who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.
The strikes Thursday, just as Iran prepared to bury the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hit areas across southern Iran. The country’s theocracy hasn’t directly blamed anyone for the strikes, though one lawmaker issued a warning to the United Arab Emirates over allegedly providing support to the United States in its campaign against Iran.
Gulf Arab states, which repeatedly have been targeted by Iran since the war began Feb. 28, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday over the strikes. The attacks come as they and the US insist the Strait of Hormuz must be open and free to ships to transit.
Trump administration fires members of independent election group — 1:26 a.m.
By The New York Times
The Trump administration has forced out the three remaining members of an independent, bipartisan commission that supports states in administering their elections, the White House confirmed on Thursday.
The move comes as President Trump seeks to cast doubt on the outcome of the upcoming midterms and impose control over how ballots are counted.
Mexican man killed in Houston ICE shooting was not the target of operation, lawmaker says — 12:02 a.m.
By the Associated Press
A Mexican man living in the US who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in a Houston operation, US Representative Sylvia Garcia said Thursday.
The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the Houston neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said acting ICE Director David Venturella told her the agency has confirmed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “was not a target.”