From 19m ago 06.57 EDT Foreigners have no place in Gulf 'except at bottom of its waters' says Iranian supreme leader in statement Iran’s supreme leader says that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as US president Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the 28 February airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities - from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities – as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said. “By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei added in the statement. “We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it - except at the bottom of its waters.” A man holds a flag with a picture of late leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026. Photograph: Majid-Asgaripour/Reuters Share Updated at 07.09 EDT

6m ago 07.10 EDT House votes to reauthorize domestic surveillance The US government’s effort to renew its warrantless domestic surveillance powers cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday, after House speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials persuaded Republican holdouts to back the bill. The renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act now goes to the Senate, where it faces a potentially rough reception because it was attached to unrelated legislation that would restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to issue digital currency - something Senate majority leader John Thune has described as a non-starter. The White House and Congressional leadership have piled pressure on recalcitrant lawmakers to endorse FISA, which has drawn bipartisan skepticism because a provision in the law - Section 702 - allows authorities to bypass warrant requirements before rifling through vast hauls of Americans’ communication data. US spy chiefs have long defended the program, saying it provides an irreplaceable surveillance tool. Lawmakers’ concerns over the warrantless spying have in past years repeatedly delayed attempts to renew the surveillance authority, although the intelligence community and its allies always won in the end. Share

19m ago 06.57 EDT Foreigners have no place in Gulf 'except at bottom of its waters' says Iranian supreme leader in statement Iran’s supreme leader says that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as US president Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the 28 February airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities - from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities – as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said. “By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei added in the statement. “We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it - except at the bottom of its waters.” View image in fullscreen A man holds a flag with a picture of late leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, during a rally in Tehran, Iran, April 29, 2026. Photograph: Majid-Asgaripour/Reuters Share Updated at 07.09 EDT

39m ago 06.36 EDT British monarchs to say farewell to Trumps on last day of US state visit Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will end a four-day state visit to the US on Thursday with a formal farewell with US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump in Washington. The king is then expected to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River in Virginia, a sacred site for many Americans where tens of thousands of the country’s war dead are buried, as well as two presidents and some former Supreme Court justices. The royal visit to the US, officially to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from British rule, came at a time of tensions between Britain and the US, with Trump having criticized British prime minister Keir Starmer for what he says is his lack of help in the US-Israeli war on Iran. Charles and Camilla are due to fly to Bermuda on Thursday evening, after attending events in Virginia. View image in fullscreen Queen Camilla, King Charles III, U.S. President Donald Trump and First lady Melania Trump attend a state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on April 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Share

51m ago 06.25 EDT A message from Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei will shortly be released on the occasion of “national Persian Gulf day“, the country’s state media said on Thursday. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has previously said that Iran’s new leader, who has not been seen in public since the war began, is “disfigured”. It comes at a time when Iran’s Gulf ports are under a US blockade. Share

1h ago 06.06 EDT US growth likely picked up in first quarter US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown, but the pickup is expected to be short-lived as the war with Iran drives up gasoline prices and squeezes household budgets. The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department’s advance estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday is, however, expected to show consumer spending losing further momentum even before the US-Israeli war with Iran raised the average US gasoline price to above $4 a gallon. “We remain in relatively slow growth mode, nothing exciting,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “There’s nothing really to get a good fire going. There are some warm embers, but there is no fire out there.“ Share