President Donald Trump said Friday during remarks in Florida that the United States would take over Cuba “almost immediately,” suggesting an aircraft carrier could be positioned offshore after the conflict in Iran.

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While the president’s comments appeared partly joking, they followed concrete policy action in the form of broadened sanctions.

“What would be wrong if they said Biden won?” Grassley [R], the 92-year-old chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was heard loudly asking his aides in a Wednesday hearing.

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Grassley’s remark caught on the mic undermines his public criticisms of Democrats for asking Trump’s nominees this question at all. He opened a hearing earlier this month by lambasting Democrats for having “relentlessly attacked” the president’s nominees with this question, and suggested their questions are “political theater” with no meaningful purpose behind them.

He’s also been giving cover to Trump’s nominees’ evasive answers by arguing it’s accurate when they say Biden was “certified” as president — which is true, except he knows this is how they’ve avoided answering the basic question of who won in 2020.

Since its creation in 1979, the Islamic Republic has revolved around a supreme leader with final authority on all key matters of state. But the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, and the ‌elevation of his wounded son, Mojtaba, have ushered in a different order dominated by commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and marked by the absence of a decisive, authoritative referee.

Mojtaba Khamenei remains at the apex of the system, but three people familiar with internal deliberations say his role is largely to legitimize decisions made by his generals rather than issue directives himself.

Wartime pressure has concentrated power into a narrower, harder-line inner circle rooted in the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the Supreme Leader’s office and the IRGC, which now dominates both military strategy and key political decisions, Iranian officials and analysts say.

Headlines often say that Americans don’t support U.S. aid to Ukraine, but real Americans say otherwise. They have consistently affirmed that Washington should aid Kyiv in resisting Russian aggression. Congress last year acted on that wish: Republican majorities on both armed services committees authorized $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for each of the next two years. Appropriators fully funded that authorization for fiscal 2026 with overwhelming support.

Yet the Ukraine aid we passed months ago is now collecting dust at the Pentagon. When Senate appropriators have sought an explanation from the department’s policy shop, led by Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, they’ve been stonewalled. Our colleagues on armed services have also expressed growing frustration with the Defense Department’s inability to communicate.

Donald Trump's Pentagon officials are examining potential measures to penalize NATO countries that have declined to back the Iran conflict, with reports suggesting this includes a review of Britain's sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

[...] Britain fought a war against Argentina in 1982 to maintain control after Argentine forces invaded the islands. Argentina's current president, Javier Milei, is among Trump's closest international supporters.

• Technically, the new law will raise the legal age requirement in the UK for buying cigarettes, cigars or tobacco, which is currently 18, by one year in every subsequent year, starting on January 1, 2027
• This will effectively mean that people born on or after January 1, 2009 will never be eligible to buy them
• Retailers will face financial penalties for selling the products to those not entitled to them
• The government will also be empowered to impose a new registration system for smoking and vaping products entering the country, seeking to improve oversight
• The bill will expand the UK's indoor smoking ban to a series of outdoor public spaces, for instance in children's playgrounds, outside schools and hospitals
• Most indoor spaces that are designated smoke-free will become vape-free as well
• Smoking in designated areas outside pubs and bars and other hospitality settings will remain permissible
• Smoking and vaping will remain legal in people's homes
• Vaping will become illegal in cars if someone under the age of 18 is inside, to match existing rules on smoking
• Advertising for smoking and vaping products will be banned
• People aged 18 or older will remain eligible to purchase vaping products, but some items targeted at younger consumers like disposable vapes have already been outlawed as part of the program

“We used our oil wealth to build an economic powerhouse. They used their wealth for nuclear programs that are nefarious, for missiles, drones, proxies, etc.,” she told host Jonathan Karl. “So whereas we tried to become and have become an international, global, responsible player, they are a pariah state. And they wanted to break that model, but they underestimated our resolve.”

The UAE has faced a barrage of attacks from Iran since the U.S. and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran in late February. While the Gulf state — like many of its neighbors — initially opposed the war, it has since shifted its tone as it considers how to avoid the breakout of a larger regional war.

WASHINGTON — Military planning for a possible Pentagon-led operation in Cuba is quietly ramping up, in case President Donald Trump gives an order to intervene there, USA TODAY has learned.

Two sources familiar with the order spoke to USA TODAY on condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak to media.

The directives appear to be an escalation of recent tensions between the U.S. and Cuba that began in January when the Trump administration curbed oil shipments to Cuba as part of a broader campaign to force sweeping political changes on the communist-run island.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on April 14 that he is proud of Washington cutting off funding to Ukraine amid Russian aggression, listing it among the Trump administration's top achievements.

Speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Georgia, Vance recalled being confronted by a Ukrainian-American over his calls to halt funding for Ukraine.

"And this person got really agitated at me because I was saying we should stop funding the Ukraine war," Vance said.

The soldiers, operating under the military's 98th Division, identified terrorists who opened fire at IDF soldiers from hospital windows. The military killed an unspecified number of the terrorists operating within the hospital, as well as approximately 20 additional terrorists operating in the vicinity, the military stated.

The soldiers found a Hezbollah weapons cache located within the hospital after raiding the building following a firefight.

"Hezbollah systemically and continuously used the hospital complex and its immediate surroundings for the terror organization's military needs, in severe violation of international law," the military said.

President Trump on Wednesday said he is considering the formation of a “joint venture” with Iran to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz after the Trump administration and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire deal.

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The president also suggested Monday that the U.S. could impose its own tolls on vessels trying to transit through the channel. Leaders in Tehran signaled last week it would install a “toll booth” system to exert a price on ships seeking safe passage through the strait.

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have set his eyes on Greenland again while venting frustration at NATO, as the diplomatic fallout from Iran war exposes rifts in Washington’s ties with the security alliance.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday evening stateside, Trump said that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”

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Trump has taken aim at NATO and Greenland in recent days. “It all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland,” Trump told reporters at a White House press conference Monday. “We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us. And I said, ‘bye, bye.’”