S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on April 24, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Despite facing the 60-day deadline under the War Powers Act, the president is not asking Congress for authorization, rather providing an update to the posture of U.S. forces in the region.
Echoing Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, the president noted that he ordered a two-week ceasefire on April 7 that has since been extended.
“On April 7, 2026, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire. The ceasefire has since been extended,” Trump wrote. “There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated.”
Trump also stressed that he ordered Operation Epic Fury “consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests.”
King Charles III speaks on March 27, 2026 in Oxford, England. (Kate Green/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — King Charles III will address a joint meeting of Congress on April 28 as part of his upcoming state visit to the U.S., according to a joint statement issued by Congressional leaders on Tuesday.
The address, the statement said, “celebrates the 250th anniversary of American independence and the enduring special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.”
The statement was issued by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“This year, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence. As we celebrate this historic milestone and recommit ourselves to the principles upon which our nation was founded, we also recognize that the American experiment endures in no small part because of the British tradition from which it sprang,” the statement said.
“We believe an address to Congress will provide a unique opportunity to share your vision for the future of our special relationship and reaffirm our alliance at this pivotal time in history,” it added.
Johnson posted about the invitation on X, noting the U.S. and U.K. “share one of the most consequential partnerships in history.”
President Donald Trump said that the state visit will take place from April 27 until April 30.
Preparations for the visit come at a tense moment between the Trump administration and NATO, of which Britain is a member, over the reluctance of allies in the intergovernmental military alliance to join the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. On Wednesday, Trump said in an interview that he is considering pulling the U.S. out of NATO.
In a press conference on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. is fully committed to NATO and that he isn’t going to change his position on the war.
“I have to act in our national interests,” Starmer told reporters. “This is not our war,” he continued, noting “a good deal of pressure on me to change my position in relation to joining the war. I’m not going to change my position on the war.”
In 2023, Congress passed legislation requiring any presidential decision to leave NATO to have two-thirds approval in the Senate or be authorized through an act of Congress.
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, March 26, 2026 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Israel Defense Forces need “a few more weeks” to fully degrade Iranian military capabilities, such as missile-launchers, a senior Israeli security official told ABC News.
The Israeli security official poured cold water on the idea that a substantive deal between the United States and Iran could be reached within President Donald Trump’s earlier deadline of this weekend. Trump said Thursday that he was postponing plans to target Iran’s power plants until April 6 citing ongoing talks.
The Iranians “are very well-trained negotiators,” the security official said. “They won’t agree in a few days to end all the actions.”
The senior Israeli security official, who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said he was worried that U.S.-Iran talks could lead to a deal which does not extract significant enough concessions from the Iranians.
The Israeli security official said that if he were advising U.S. negotiators he would ask “to see actions [from the Iranians] that can be measured.”
“For example, giving [up] all the 400 kilograms of enriched uranium,” he added.
Iran has previously denied U.S. and Israeli accusations that it was enriching uranium to near weapons-grade level, with an ultimate aim of producing nuclear weapons.
The Israeli official spoke to ABC News on Tuesday, the day after Trump posted on his social media platform that there had been “very good and productive conversations” between the U.S. and Iran “regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
Iranian officials have denied — at least publicly — that negotiations with the U.S. are taking place. On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, told Indian TV that there were “no talks or negotiations” between Iran and the United States.
“No one can trust U.S. diplomacy,” Baqaei added.
However, on Thursday a Reuters report quoted an Iranian official as saying that a U.S. proposal for ending the war was “one-sided and unfair.”
The White House said in a statement that the U.S. military had been “decimating Iran’s military capabilities with overwhelming firepower, skill, lethality, and force.”
“The United States is winning very decisively and way ahead of schedule,” a White House official said.
“We have taken major strides towards completing our military objectives, to the point that we are close to completing them,” the White House added.
On Thursday, Trump announced a further pause in plans to hit Iran’s power plants, again citing talks that he said were “going very well.”
An Israeli military official who was authorized to speak with journalists told reporters during a briefing Wednesday that the Israeli Air Force had conducted 8,500 strikes in Iran since the end of February and had destroyed some 400 Iranian ballistic missiles and 335 missile-launchers, which equated, he said, to about 70% of Iran’s overall arsenal of missile-launchers.
However, when the military official was pressed by reporters on the extent to which the IDF’s military operations and goals were outstanding in the war, he declined to give details, stressing that the U.S. and Israeli militaries were “well-coordinated” and working “shoulder-to-shoulder.”
“We are achieving more and more of our objectives,” said the military official , who is part of the IDF division that coordinates operations deep inside enemy territory.
“War is not a one bang and it’s over. It’s an ongoing machine,” he added.
The senior Israeli security official who spoke anonymously to ABC News said the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, was leading the talks with the Trump administration.
Ghalibaf’s apparent leading role in negotiations, which has not been confirmed by the U.S. or Iran, was first reported by Axios.
On Monday, Trump refused to confirm which senior Iranian official the U.S. was in talks with, telling reporters, “I don’t want him to be killed” and referring to the Iranian lead negotiator as “a top person.”
The senior Israeli security official described Ghalibaf, who is a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Air Force, as “an extremist” and “not Mother Teresa” and told ABC News that Israel would refrain from attempting to kill Ghalibaf while the talks continue.
“He has this kind of insurance [policy] as long as he talks,” the official said, adding, “no one is secure in Iran.”
Asked by a reporter if the IDF was holding off on any attempts to kill Ghalibaf, the military official did not comment directly about Ghalibaf but stressed that, in terms of its list of targets, the IDF would accept and follow any political decisions.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration sent a 15-point plan to Iran end the war, via Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator, two sources familiar with the plan told ABC News Tuesday.
Those sources said the plan addresses Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs as well as maritime routes but would not provide any other details including which Iranian officials the proposal was sent to. It is also unclear whether Israel has signed onto the proposal.
While diplomatic efforts continue, the Pentagon is preparing to deploy as many as 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East, with some of those forces already in transit.
The troops are a mix of U.S. Army paratroopers and Marines.
However, exactly when the troops will arrive or where they will land is not clear.
Trump has indicated that the negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials have, in part, been focused on Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s stranglehold over that narrow waterway, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes, has caused a spike in energy prices and volatility in trading on financial markets.
The senior Israeli security official who spoke anonymously with ABC News said Israel was working on the assumption that Iran had laid naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Israeli official stressed that locating naval mines and disarming them is a “complicated” task.
“If one big oil tanker were exploded by a few naval mines, it would play havoc with markets, as well as the insurance for shipping companies, and would send the price of oil skyrocketing,” the Israeli official said.
“If Iran says they have mined the Strait of Hormuz then the basic assumption we must have as commanders … is that they have mined the Strait of Hormuz,” said the Israeli military official who briefed reporters.
In possible talks Israel wants the U.S. to press Iran to give up what remains of its enriched uranium and rein in its proxies in the region, the senior Israeli security official stressed.
That Israeli official suggested that it would not be possible to seize Iran’s enriched uranium by military force.
The two U.S. Marine Expeditionary Units which are being deployed to the Middle East, “don’t have the engineering tools” to conduct an operation to “pull out” Iran’s remaining enriched uranium from underground sites, he said.
Asked about this issue on the briefing with reporters, the military official declined to comment.
The Pentagon declined to comment about the senior Israeli official’s assessment of remaining objectives in the war and the U.S. military’s capabilities.
The White House said the war on Iran was “a conditions-based operation” and said it would conclude when the president “determines that our objectives are met.”
his photo taken on May 17, 2026 shows an exterior view of a hospital that has been designated as an Ebola treatment center in Goma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC. TO GO WITH “Update: DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to rebel-held city, Rwanda closing down border” (Photo by Str/Xinhua via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least 513 suspected cases and 131 suspected deaths have been recorded in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials said Tuesday.
Congolese Minister of Public Health Samuel Roger Kamba said during a press briefing in French that authorities will determine which of these deaths “are actually linked to the disease.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during the United Nation agency’s annual World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday, recalled how he declared Congo’s current Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, saying it was the first time a WHO chief had done so before convening an emergency committee.
“I did not do this lightly,” Tedros said. “I did it in accordance with Article 12 of the International Health Regulations, after consulting the ministers of health of both countries, and because I am deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic. We will convene the Emergency Committee today to advise us on temporary recommendations.”
At least 30 cases of Ebola virus disease have been confirmed in the ongoing outbreak in Congo, from the northeastern province of Ituri. In addition, there are more than 500 suspected cases and over 130 suspected deaths, according to Tedros.
Cases have been reported in urban areas, including one of Congo’s largest cities, Goma, the rebel-held capital of the eastern province of North Kivu, Tedros said.
Uganda has also confirmed two cases in its capital Kampala, including one death, among two individuals who traveled from neighboring Congo, according to Tedros.
This outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics, Tedros said.
On Tuesday, Dr. Anne Ancia, WHO’s representative in the DRC, said more than 40 experts were deployed to the field on Sunday and the WHO has sent 12 tons of supplies, with six more tons coming.
Supplies include personal protective equipment for front line healthcare workers, laboratory samples, tents, drugs and other treatments.
“What I see here in the field is extremely vulnerable people, a [fragile] population,” Ancia said. “But I see also people working together while facing great uncertainty as to the [scale] or the extent of this outbreak.”
She said the surveillance capacity is limited in the affected region, which could be why the outbreak is spreading rapidly.
“We really need to go fast to really try to stop the spread of the disease further,” she said. “We don’t understand yet the extent of the spread of the disease.”
According to The Associated Press, more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have occurred in Congo and Uganda, but this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.
An American doctor working in the DRC is among those who has tested positive for Ebola amid the outbreak, according to an international Christian missions organization.
Dr. Peter Stafford, a medical missionary with the missions organization Serge, was exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital, the group said Monday.
He sought testing “after presenting symptoms consistent with the virus,” Serge said in a statement.
Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, said the agency had activated its Emergency Operations Center through its country offices in the DRC and in Uganda, and is deploying technical experts that have been requested from Atlanta headquarters.
Pillai added that the risk to the U.S. general public remains low.
The CDC said earlier Monday that it is preparing to restrict entry for travelers arriving from parts of central Africa where an Ebola outbreak has been declared, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
On Sunday, the CDC said in a statement that a “small number of Americans” were directly affected by the Ebola outbreak.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News on Monday that his agency is “working on” the Ebola outbreak.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud, Eric M. Strauss and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
