Israel-Iran live updates: European ministers to meet for Iran talks as Trump cites chance for diplomacy
The Israeli military said Friday it attacked dozens of targets in Tehran overnight as well as another site in Iran involved in producing components for the country's nuclear program.
Iranian semiofficial media reported an explosion in an industrial area of Rasht in northern Iran early Friday, hours after the Israeli military had issued an evacuation order for the Sefidrood industrial park outside the city.
President Donald Trump will wait as much as two weeks to decide whether to attack Iran's nuclear program, the White House said Thursday, dialing back rhetoric about Iran having missed its window to reach a deal.
In a statement read by his press secretary, Trump said he believes there is now a 'substantial chance of negotiations' with Iran — a sharp contrast with his bellicose comments on Iran in recent days.
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NBC News
26 minutes ago
- NBC News
What's next in the battle over redistricting as the Texas House passes new GOP maps
The Republican-controlled state House in Texas has passed new congressional maps that aim to pad the party's majority in Washington by as much as five seats in the midterm elections, a move that comes as battles over redistricting spread across the country. With Texas set to fully enact its new plan as soon as this week, urged on by President Donald Trump, California Democrats are moving quickly to implement a plan carving up their state's maps in retaliation. Meanwhile, top Republicans in states like Indiana, Missouri and Florida continue to talk about tweaking their maps to create more Republican-controlled congressional seats in the 2026 elections. Ohio's redraw, which it must do under state law, could benefit the GOP, too. Governors in Democratic-controlled states are weighing a response too, but in many cases, they're restrained by procedural hurdles or by other practical limitations — some have already stretched their own gerrymandered maps as far as they could go — that could make a tit-for-tat more difficult. It's all expected to come to a head in a matter of weeks, against the backdrop of a race for the congressional majority in Washington that sits on a knife's edge. The final outcome in Texas Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Texas House passed their map Wednesday, days after Democrats returned from a two-week "quorum break" in which they fled the state to hold up the bill. But they could only delay, not derail, the new Republican maps, which convert three deep-blue districts into deep-red ones and tilt two Democratic-held South Texas districts slightly further toward the GOP, too. State Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican who represents Corpus Christi and co-sponsored the new map, kicked off the day with some straight talk. 'The underlying goal is this plan is straightforward: Improve Republican political performance,' he told his colleagues, adding that the crux of the changes to the maps center on five districts that 'now trend Republican in political performance.' 'While there's no guarantee of an electorate success, Republicans will now have an opportunity to potentially win those districts,' he added. After a handful of lawmakers remained in the chamber overnight to protest House leadership for requiring Democrats agree to police escorts to ensure they don't attempt to skip town again, Democrats took to the floor to criticize their Republican colleagues over the maps. They questioned whether their Republican colleagues were truly not factoring in the racial compositions of districts, as they claimed, warning Democrats will have "their day in federal court." They also hit out at their scheduling in the special legislative session, which put redistricting on the calendar ahead of voting on relief for the victims of the July floods in the Hill Country. 'This is Donald Trump's map. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows the voters are rejecting his agenda and instead of respecting that rejection, he's changing the rules," said state Rep. John Bucy III of Austin, a Democrat. "Instead of listening to the people he's trying to silence them, and Texas Republicans have been more than willing to help.' California Democrats move to retaliate California's legislature saw an hours-long hearing Tuesday as Democrats there speed toward passing legislation that will call for a fall special election putting redistricting on the ballot. Voters will decide whether to override the state's independent redistricting commission and approve temporary, Democratic-drawn maps for the rest of the decade. Those maps are the political inverse of the ones in Texas — endangering a handful of incumbent Republicans and putting Democrats in position to net up to five seats from California's new map, according to estimates from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. The hearing turned contentious amid interruptions and partisan clashes between lawmakers. Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of wasting state resources — a statewide special election would cost significant funds — and for bucking the agreement that empowered the state's independent redistricting panel in the first place. 'California should lead the way — when other states decide to do something else, we shouldn't react to them, we should prove by example that we can do this better. That we create the foundations for the rest of the nation,' said state Assemblyman David Tangipa, a Republican from the Fresno area, said. Steve Bennett, a Democratic state legislator from Ventura, lashed out at Texas Republicans' mid-decade redistricting by comparing it to power grabs by 'autocrats' like Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We prefer the agreement we all had to play by the old rules," he said. "But when autocrats change the rules and the norms that we are using to decide who has power, we can either fight back or we can potentially permanently lose the ability ever to fight back again." Democrats need to get the maps passed through the legislature soon in order to bring the question to the voters this fall, if they want to enact the maps in time for the 2026 midterms. Republicans are seeking to delay that, with a group of lawmakers suing this week, arguing that Democrats haven't given the public the required time to review legislation before voting. Other states weigh jumping into the fray While the spotlight remains on California and Texas, redistricting remains a live ball in other states. Ohio must redraw its lines by law, since the state legislature approved its 2021 map without Democratic support. The timing could work out well for Republicans, who control the legislature there and could stand to gain depending on how the maps are drawn. Two of Ohio's three Democratic House members won re-election last cycle by less than 3 percentage points. In Indiana, the state's Republican members of Congress have in recent days announced their support for a redraw there, where the party already controls seven of the nine congressional seats. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, hasn't said whether he plans to call for a special session of the legislature. But Vice President JD Vance traveled to Indiana earlier this month to meet with the governor as the redistricting debate swirled. In Missouri, Republicans have been cajoling Gov. Mike Kehoe to call a special legislative session for redistricting there, where the GOP controls six of the eight congressional seats. In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that people can 'anticipate' a mid-decade redraw because there has been a 'sea change in demography' since the 2020 census. Outside of California, where their efforts are subject to approval from voters, Democrats face a smattering of other challenges if they want to redraw maps in other states. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has been vocally supportive of the Texas House Democrats' attempts to delay the redistricting process in their home state, hasn't ruled out a redistricting push in his backyard. But Democrats already hold 14 of the state's 17 congressional districts there. New York Democrats are also interested in redrawing the lines there, but they face logistical hurdles to change the state constitution, which would likely mean no changes until 2028 at the earliest.
Washington Post
26 minutes ago
- Washington Post
White House tours canceled indefinitely because of Trump's ballroom
Public tours of the White House have been suspended indefinitely because of planned construction on the massive ballroom President Donald Trump expects to start building next month. About a half-million people tour the White House every year, and while cancellations happen frequently, a hiatus that could stretch months or years is rare.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fed Found Over 22,000 Mortgages Like Those Pulte Is Flagging
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump and his allies are demanding Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook resign over alleged owner-occupancy fraud — a practice the central bank itself has found to be 'broad-based' across the US. Philadelphia Fed researchers in a 2023 report assessed the number of 'fraudulent investors' in the mortgage market, which they defined as those who had more than one owner-occupied home purchase loan within four quarters after the first one was originated. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has said that Cook took a mortgage on a property in Ann Arbor, Michigan, stipulating that it would be her primary residence, and then two weeks later declared the same for another mortgage on a Georgia property. Why New York City Has a Fleet of New EVs From a Dead Carmaker Trump Takes Second Swing at Cutting Housing Assistance for Immigrants Chicago Schools Seeks $1 Billion of Short-Term Debt as Cash Gone A London Apartment Tower With Echoes of Victorian Rail and Ancient Rome The paper's data set consists of 584,499 loans made from 2005 to 2017. Of those, 22,431 were considered fraudulent. The share of those claiming occupancy for better mortgage terms peaked ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, though remained steady for much of the ensuing decade at about 2% to 3%. The findings are based on a subsample of data, meaning the number of mortgages fitting the central bank's criteria could be higher. The researchers also caution that there are likely cases of accidental occupancy fraud, such as when borrowers were unable to sell their original home because of a worse-than-expected real estate market. Scrutinizing the mortgages of Cook, who was nominated to the Fed by former President Joe Biden, appears to be the latest way in which Trump and his allies are using novel methods to pressure the central bank to lower interest rates. The president said Wednesday that Cook 'must resign now,' while Pulte claimed his accusations give him 'cause to fire' her. If she were forced out, it would create another opening for Trump to appoint someone who would likely push for more aggressive rate cuts. Pulte said 'anybody can go look at these public documents' from Cook in a CNBC interview Wednesday. He cited four criminal statutes for Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe for potential charges. No charges have been filed and it's not clear whether she will investigate. Ronel Elul, a senior economic adviser and economist at the Philadelphia Fed who co-authored the 2023 report, didn't elaborate beyond what was in the paper when reached for comment. The Fed declined to comment. Cook, in a statement Wednesday, said she has 'no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.' She added that she is 'gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.' David Joffe, a federal criminal defense attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said in his experience, occupancy cases are rare. Still, 'like anything else, if you look at it under a microscope you're bound to find something that's wrong,' he said in an interview. Mortgage fraud cases tend to relate to overstating assets and income rather than misstating a primary residence, said Stephen Cazares, a former federal prosecutor who's now a defense lawyer at Foundation Law Group. Those based solely on a home being falsely identified as a primary residence are 'unusual' but 'not unheard of,' he said. They're rare because the theoretical loss to a financial institution is lower in cases based on primary residence, where the lender 'basically got cheated out of a higher interest rate' rather than the value of the home, Cazares said. The Philadelphia Fed report found that about a third of all property investors misrepresent their status as owner-occupants. It found that doing so allowed them to obtain lower interest rates and higher loan-to-value ratios. 'This type of fraud is difficult to detect until long after the mortgage has been originated,' the researchers said in their paper. Cook's mortgages in question were from 2021. Trump's administration has also made mortgage fraud allegations against California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both are Democrats and political foes of Trump. --With assistance from Erik Larson. (Updates with Cook statement starting in ninth paragraph.) Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children Survived Bankruptcy. Next Up: Cultural Relevance? Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
