Drivers lined up for free gas in Chicago as fuel prices surge, driven by the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupting global oil supplies, with some blaming President Donald Trump.
Published On 5 Apr 20265 Apr 2026
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United States President Donald Trump said early on Sunday that an American soldier who went missing in Iran after the downing of his F-15E jet has been rescued following what observers called a dramatic firefight between Iranian and US rescue forces.
The US and Iran were racing to find the airman for about two days, with Tehran calling on the public to hand over the soldier to the authorities in what appeared to be attempts to capture an American prisoner of war as the US-Israel war on Iran entered its 37th day.
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That scenario would have delivered a significant win to Tehran amid the ongoing pummelling of its territory, and for Washington, a stunning blow, analysts say. It could have been the moment that parts of Trump’s support base, which has so far supported the war, started to rethink their stance, they say.
“It was a major test for the American military because they really don’t want to leave any of their servicemen behind enemy lines,” Amin Saikal, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian studies at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera.
But this rescue “also really frees up President Trump to pursue whatever strategy he has in mind”, Saikal added, referencing Trump’s 48-hour deadline for Iran to make a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz “before all Hell will reign down on them”. Trump has already threatened to bomb energy plants in Iran. Targeting of civilian infrastructure is seen as a violation of the laws of war.
At least 2,076 people have been killed, and 26,500 have been injured in Iran since February 28, when the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several other senior military and political leaders.
The conflict has since escalated into a regional war with Iran retaliating against Gulf countries hosting US military and commercial assets.
The F-15E jet carrying two members was flying over southern Iran when it was shot down on Friday morning local time.
According to Tehran, the aircraft was shot down by Iran’s “new advanced air defence system”, which it said remained effective despite claims by the US that it had been destroyed.
It was the first time during the war, and the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, that a US aircraft had been shot down.
Washington immediately launched a rescue mission. Although US forces rescued one crew member hours after the crash, the second pilot, believed to be a colonel-rank weapons system officer, was yet to be found.
At least one Black Hawk helicopter was hit in the initial rescue, but US officials said it managed to stay airborne.
Trump suggested that the US appeared to have the location of the airman and was tracking him as the rescue mission unfolded in an area with difficult, mountainous terrain that made physical recovery challenging.
An A-10 Warthog aircraft was also hit near the Strait of Hormuz around the same time as the F-15E, but its pilot was able to eject before the plane crashed and was subsequently rescued. Iranian media reported that this aircraft was also hit by Iran’s defence system.
How did Iran react?Following the downing of the F-15E, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cordoned off some parts of the mountainous southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province because they believed the airman went down in the vicinity.
Iranian media also reported that parts of the southern Khuzestan region, an important energy hub, were being scrutinised. That region was the focus of heavy US-Israeli strikes on Saturday that killed at least five people and injured dozens.
Iranian authorities, in a rare move, called on the public on Friday to help find and capture the missing American soldier. State media reported that Tehran offered a $60,000 reward for the airman as clips on state TV repeatedly played footage showing the remnants of the downed US aircraft.
Nomadic tribes in the area, appearing to heed the calls, set about searching for the US airman. Footage from state media showed men carrying rifles and Iranian flags moving in between the mountains of the country’s southwest region.
Some successfully shot at two US Black Hawks that were part of the rescue mission, Iranian officials said. The BBC also verified footage appearing to show Iranian men firing their rifles at US helicopters.
Nomadic groups in Iran, and elsewhere, usually carry rifles to protect their cattle from wildlife and bandits.
The IRGC on Sunday claimed that Iranian forces destroyed two C-130 aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters during the operation to rescue the US pilot in southern Isfahan.
Early on Sunday morning, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that the missing soldier had been rescued in “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S History”.
“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue,” Trump said in his message.
The president revealed some details of the high-risk operation. He had ordered that dozens of aircraft carrying “lethal weapons” be sent in to retrieve the airman who had managed to evade Iranian forces for two days. All the while, the US was tracking the airman.
Although Trump did not reveal details of the firefight believed to have ensued when the US closed in on the airman and went to retrieve him, he confirmed that the officer “sustained injuries” and added that “he will be just fine”.
Al Jazeera’s John Hendren gathered that there was a “heavy firefight” as what was meant to be a “get-in and get-out” rescue operation dragged on.
While US forces had aimed to use the cover of night to conduct the rescue mission after closing in on the airman, enemy fire prolonged the mission into daylight, making it more dangerous.
“We’ve heard it described to us as a heavy firefight,” Hendren reported. “In the end, they managed to spirit that airman out of the country … and into safety, but it didn’t come without injuries, including injuries to that airman himself, but in the end, the US was allowed to avoid a situation where they would have a prisoner of war inside of Iran.”
Hendren added that the US had earlier started a disinformation campaign in Iran, according to officials, claiming the airman was already rescued, to jeopardise Iran’s search.
Iran has not yet confirmed the incident. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the firefight appeared to have occurred in the Kohgiluyeh Boyer-Ahmad region, and that nine people have been reported killed in “strikes”, although it is unclear if it was related to the US rescue mission.
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities said on Sunday morning that yet another US aircraft – a Lockheed C-130 Hercules – had been downed.
The US has not responded to those claims. At least one such aircraft was spotted flying low over southwest Iran, along with two smaller refuelling helicopters, during the rescue mission effort of the last 48 hours.
April 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday reminded Iran that his 10-day deadline for it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is 48 hours away and “all Hell will reign down” if the trade route is not made passable.
Trump said on March 26 that he had given Iran 10 days to start allowing ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas supply travels, or he would direct the U.S. military to attack the nations energy sites.
Iran on Wednesday requested a ceasefire in the war launched in February by the United States and Israel, which Trump said he would consider when the Strait is “open, free and clear.”
Saturday morning, in a post on Truth Social, Trump reiterated his expected time frame for the Strait to open, the deadline for which is April 6.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump said. “Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them. Glory be to GOD!”
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said later Saturday after speaking with Trump that he is “convinced that he will use overwhelming military force against the regime if they continue to impede the Strait of Hormuz and refuse a diplomatic solution to achieve our military objectives,” Axios reported.
Iran’s Gen. Ali Abdollah Aliabadi in a statement reportedly called Trump’s post “a helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action,” and then Aliabadi returned Trump’s threat that “the gates of hell will open for you.”
In indirect negotiations, Iran has said that it would not accept a temporary ceasefire, and instead wants an end to the war and promises that the United States and Israel will not stage future attacks against it.
United States President Donald Trump has issued another threat to Iran, writing that it has two days to “make a deal or open up the Hormuz Strait”.
Saturday’s brief, three-sentence post on Truth Social did not reference the ongoing search for a US pilot who is believed to have ejected over Iran after an F-15 fighter jet crashed in the country. Iran has taken responsibility for the downing, the first of its kind since the US and Israeli launched attacks on Iran on February 28.
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A separate incident on Friday saw Iran claim it shot down an A-10 Warthog near the Strait of Hormuz, raising questions about Trump’s earlier assertion that the US has established dominance over Iran’s airspace.
Rather than remark on the recent crashes, Trump’s post focused on a 10-day deadline he announced on March 26.
He had called on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to international traffic, or else face the “destruction” of its energy plants. That 10-day period is set to expire on Monday.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote. “Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”
While Trump did not provide further details about Saturday’s threat, in a series of posts this week, he pledged to attack Iran’s power plants, oil facilities and “possibly all desalinization plants”.
During a national address on Wednesday, he also threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, and on Friday, he cheered a strike on a bridge that connects Tehran to the Caspian Sea.
Just this week, more than 100 international law experts published an open letter, warning that targeting civilian infrastructure is a violation of the Geneva Convention and could constitute war crimes.
The Trump administration has also offered shifting objectives and plans for ending the war.
Administration officials have repeatedly said that the US prefers a diplomatic solution. Trump, meanwhile, has touted “victories” even as he has hinted at more weeks of attacks.
At the same time, Iran and the US have sent contradictory messages on the progress of peace talks.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran remained open to diplomacy, after Iran rejected an “unreasonable” 15-point plan put forward by the Trump administration.
“What we care about are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
The US, however, has argued that Iran’s demand that it maintain “sovereignty” over the Strait of Hormuz is a non-starter.
Pakistan has indicated it will continue to try to support ceasefire negotiations despite the ongoing “obstacles”.
While Trump has not publicly addressed the ongoing search for the US pilot, NBC News reported on Friday that he did not believe the incident would affect any negotiations with Iran.
“No, not at all. No, it’s war,” he reportedly told the network in a phone call.
Nevertheless, experts have warned that the possible Iranian capture of the pilot could create a crisis for Washington, giving Tehran a major leverage point that could snarl any diplomatic resolution.
The incident could also undermine US claims it has a dominant position in negotiations.
Marina Miron, a researcher at King’s College London, said the shooting down of the F-15 undercuts statements from Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that the US has established complete control over Iranian airspace.
“Now we have a visible example that Iran still has the capability to target and successfully shoot down US aircraft, making this, of course, very important for Iran to demonstrate the capability to resist,” Miron told Al Jazeera.
“Most likely, the kinds of air defences that Iran is using, such as man-portable air defences, will be much more difficult to locate.”
Any US efforts to rescue the pilot would risk US casualties, Miron added, heightening the risk of further military escalation.
“It’s a race for time, because right now we have this critical window of up to 72 hours where both sides are trying to get hold of the pilot for both military and political purposes,” she said.
U.S. special forces were in a race against Iran to find a U.S. airman missing after their F-14E Strike Eagle fighter jet went down in Iran. File Photo courtesy the Department of Defense
April 4 (UPI) — Israel’s military suspended attacks in an area of Iran where a U.S. airman is believed to be lost as U.S. forces carried out a second day of search-and-rescue operations Saturday.
The service member was one of two pilots on board an F-15E fighter jet that Iran shot down over its airspace on Friday. U.S. officials were able to safely rescue one of the pilots, but the second was missing.
An unnamed Israeli official told The New York Times that the Israeli military halted its operations in the area — the mountainous regions of Kohgiluyeh, Boyer-Ahmad and Khuzestan provinces — amid the search. The official said it was also sharing information with U.S. officials to aid in the rescue mission.
Meanwhile, state-run media in Iran encouraged civilians in the region to also look for the missing U.S. airman, The Guardian reported.
Speaking Friday with NBC News, President Donald Trump said the downed U.S. fighter jet won’t affect the United States’ negotiations with Iran more than a month after U.S. and Israeli forces began strikes on the country.
“No, not at all,” Trump said of the possibility. “No, it’s war. We’re in war.”
A U.S. official told NBC News that it’s believed that the downed F-14E fighter jet was originally based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath in Britain.
Elsewhere, Iraq closed its border crossing with Iran at Shalamja on Saturday after an Iranian missile strike at the site killed one person and injured five others. Lt. Gen. Omar al-Waeli, who heads the Border Ports Authority, said the injured were injured were taken to a hospital in Iran.
All trade and passenger traffic were halted, the Iraqi News Agency reported.
“There are alternatives to Shalamja crossing, regarding the entry of goods, such as the Safwan border crossing, in addition to the existence of other land crossings operating in the rest of the govern orates in order to secure the entry of goods and commodities,” al-Waeli said.
April 3 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday refused a Department of Justice request for him to reconsider his earlier ruling to block grand jury subpoenas it issued to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday said he would not lift his block on subpoenas that the Justice Department issued to board of the Federal Reserve regarding the $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s complex in Washington, D.C.
The judge had previously blocked the subpoenas because, he said, they had nothing to do with a Justice Department probe about the renovations, but rather were intended to pressure Powell into adjusting interest rates, as President Donald Trump had been chiding him to do for months.
“On March 11, 2026, this Court issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order that quashed the Government’s subpoenas directed to the Board of Governors of the Federal Research System,” Boasberg wrote in a response to the Justice Department request that was filed on Friday.
“The Government promptly moved for reconsideration of that decision,” he wrote. “As its cursory brief neither offers new evidence nor points to any material error, the Court will deny the Motion.”
The DOJ launched its criminal investigation into the Fed’s renovation budget, which Powell at the time called “pretexts” to punish him for not setting interest rates based on Trump demands.
Boasberg, in his response to the Justice when he blocked the subpoenas said that the government “has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”
The Justice Department later acknowledged when appealing Boasberg’s quashing of the subpoenas that it did not have evidence that a crime had been committed, instead saying that there were “1.2 billion reasons for us to look into it.”
The Iranian military shot down a U.S. F-15E similar to the one pictured on Friday. File Photo by Senior Airman Mitch Fuqua/U.S. Air Force.
April 3 (UPI) — The U.S. forces rescued at least one crew member after Iran shot down a U.S. F-15E fighter jet Friday, unnamed U.S. military sources told multiple media outlets.
Officials confirmed the rescue to CBS News but said search-and-rescue operations were still taking place. CNN reported they were looking for one other pilot before Iranian forces could reach them. The F-15E has a standard crew of two pilots, The New York Times reported.
Iran’s state-run Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian officials’ efforts to locate the two U.S. pilot had “so far been unsuccessful.” Another Iranian news outlet, Fars News, said the government was offering a reward to anyone who captured an “enemy pilot or pilots.”
The New York Times reported that amid the search-and-rescue efforts, Iranian ground fire also hit a U.S. Air Force UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Officials told the news outlet that the crew was able to fly the aircraft back to safety in Iraq.
The Times also reported that another aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt, or Warthog, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz around the same time as the F-15E fighter jet. Two U.S. officials told the outlet that the only pilot on board the aircraft was rescued.
Iranian media outlets published photos of what appears to be a shot-down F-15 fighter jet.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN that President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.
This is the first U.S. aircraft to be shot down by Iran since the start of U.S. and Israeli bombing on Feb. 28. Three other F-15 jets were shot down by mistake in Kuwait.
Iran claims responsibility for downing two US warplanes, as search under way for missing crewmember.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
Iran has claimed responsibility for shooting down two US warplanes.
Two American crewmembers were rescued and one airman remains missing after a F-15E Strike Eagle went down over the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces and an A-10 Warthog crashed into the Gulf, according to US media reports.
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Iranians took to the streets in Tehran to celebrate what authorities described as a major military success.
Iranian officials said the downing of the aircraft demonstrates that Tehran still has the capability to confront US and Israeli forces, despite the Trump administration’s claims that the country’s military infrastructure has been severely damaged.
The incidents mark a significant escalation in the conflict, with search and rescue operations under way for the missing US crewmember.
Here is what we know about the latest developments:
Propaganda impact: Geopolitical analyst Phyllis Bennis said the downing of a US fighter jet and search for the missing airman could make it harder for the White House to maintain public support for the war, particularly among Trump’s MAGA base. The incident “changes the propaganda equation”, even if it does not change the military balance, she told Al Jazeera.
April 3 (UPI) — The Trump Administration has requested $152 million in its fiscal year 2027 federal budget proposal to refurbish and reopen Alcatraz as a prison.
President Donald Trump first broached the idea of reopening the prison on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay in May 2025, but with the administration’s release of its budget proposal to Congress he is looking to put his plan in motion.
Alcatraz was closed in 1963 after 30 years as an active prison that has become famous for its former inmates and stories of attempted escapes, but has long been a popular tourist attraction that sees more than one million people per year visit the island, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In the budget proposal, the administration argued that restoring Alcatraz is an appropriate response to the federal Bureau of Prisons housing “violent criminals in crumbling detention centers.”
“The Budget affirms the President’s commitment to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility, providing $152 million to cover the first year of project costs,” the budget proposal said.
The request is part of the administration’s $5 billion request for the BOP, and its larger intent is to improve working conditions and pay to stem shortages of correctional officers.
While the $152 million is projected to over the first year of refurbishing the prison, there are no details of the project or longer-term details included in the proposal.
In 2025, however, when Trump said he’d directed his administration to start looking into reopening Alcatraz as a prison, his administration suggested that the multi-year project to make it usable could cost around $2 billion.
The prison originally was closed because it was so expensive to run — every supply needed for the facility has to be brought there by boat because it is in the middle of the San Francisco Bay — and had at least 36 inmates attempt a total of 14 separate escapes in its 30 years as a prison.
“Alcatraz is a historic museum that belongs to the public, and San Franciscans will not stand for Washington turning one of our most iconic landmarks into a political prop,” U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told The Los Angeles Times.
Rights groups have raised concerns about Trump’s efforts to change election administration before November’s midterms.
About two dozen Democrat-led states have filed a lawsuit against the administration of United States President Donald Trump to block an executive order setting new limits on mail-in ballots.
Friday’s lawsuit comes as voting rights groups charge that Trump is seeking to make it more difficult to vote before the consequential midterm elections in November.
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Trump, meanwhile, has argued that his efforts are meant to counter rampant voter fraud in US elections.
That opinion runs counter to the findings of independent election monitors, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, whose decades-spanning database has found an exceedingly low rate of election fraud.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was among the attorneys general in 23 states and the District of Columbia who filed Friday’s suit, alongside the governor of Pennsylvania.
In a statement, she argued that Trump’s executive order exceeded his presidential power.
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and no president has the power to rewrite the rules on his own,” James said.
Trump’s latest executive order, signed on Tuesday, calls on the Department of Homeland Security to “compile and transmit” a list of United States citizens who are eligible to vote in each state.
It then requires the United States Postal Service (USPS) to “transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive absentee or mail-in ballots”.
Voting rights groups have said the measures would likely rely on an incomplete federal list of US citizens and would heap too much responsibility on USPS.
Mail-in voting has increased across the US, in states that lean both Republican and Democratic, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2024 elections, a third of all ballots were cast by mail.
In Friday’s lawsuit, the states argue that Trump’s order violates the US Constitution, which says that state officials decide the “times, places and manner” of elections.
The states further maintain that only Congress can pass new restrictions related to how elections are conducted. Forcing a change to election administration so close to the November elections will also create chaos, according to the lawsuit.
The midterm elections will determine which party controls the US House of Representatives and Senate.
Trump has previously voiced concern that he may face impeachment proceedings, should the Republican Party see its majorities in both chambers disappear.
For years, Trump has maintained, without evidence, that his 2020 election loss was the result of widespread fraud, and he has pledged reforms to the voting system.
He previously signed executive orders seeking to overhaul US election administration, although they have been mostly blocked by the court system.
The Department of Justice has also sued several states in an attempt to gain access to voter information, and the FBI seized ballots from the 2020 election during a raid last January in Fulton County, Georgia, further stoking concerns.
Trump, meanwhile, has been pushing lawmakers to pass the “SAVE America Act”, which would require increased proof of US citizenship when registering to vote, including a birth certificate or a passport, as well as a photo ID to cast a ballot.
Rights groups have warned the measures could disenfranchise many voters, including women who changed their last name upon marrying.
A United States federal judge has once again batted down a pair of subpoenas from the administration of President Donald Trump seeking information about Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank.
In a brief, six-page opinion published on Friday, Judge James Boasberg rejected the Department of Justice’s motion to reconsider his earlier ruling rejecting the subpoenas.
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“The Government’s arguments do not come close to convincing the Court that a different outcome is warranted,” Boasberg wrote.
On March 13, Boasberg, a judge for the federal court in the District of Columbia, nullified the subpoenas on the basis that they were issued for an “improper purpose”: to pressure Powell into compliance with the president’s demands.
Trump and Powell — an appointee from the president’s first term — have been at loggerheads since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January 2025.
Although the Federal Reserve is an independent government agency, not subject to political demands, Trump has repeatedly called on the bank to slash interest rates, and he has denounced Powell as “incompetent”, “crooked” and a “fool” for not following suit.
For months, pressure had been building from the Trump White House to investigate Powell and push him prematurely from his job as Federal Reserve chair. Powell’s term is slated to expire in May.
Much of the Trump administration’s focus has fallen on renovations to the Federal Reserve’s historic 1930s buildings in Washington, DC, which have gone over budget.
The administration has pointed to the cost overruns as evidence of malfeasance.
Last July, for instance, Trump appointee William Pulte called on Congress to investigate Powell for “political bias” and “deceptive” testimony related to the renovation project.
The following month, Trump posted on his platform Truth Social that he was considering “a major lawsuit against Powell” in response to “horrible, and grossly incompetent” work on the renovations.
The pressure reached a climax on January 11, when Powell made a rare statement announcing he was under a Justice Department investigation over the renovation project. He dismissed the probe as a “pretext” to undermine the Federal Reserve’s leadership over monetary policy.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said.
The Federal Reserve has since sought to have the subpoenas into Powell’s behaviour tossed.
Boasberg sided with the central bank in his initial ruling, and in Friday’s opinion, he called the Trump administration’s efforts to change his mind insufficient.
The Justice Department had argued that it does not need to produce evidence of a crime to seek a grand jury subpoena.
Boasberg agreed with that point, but he said subpoenas were also subject to a legal standard that bars them from being issued for “improper” purposes.
“The subpoena power ‘is not unlimited’ and may not be abused,” Boasberg wrote, citing court precedent.
He therefore ruled that the lack of evidence overall against Powell was relevant to the legality of the subpoenas.
“The controlling legal question is what these ‘subpoena[s’] dominant purpose’ is: pressuring Powell to lower rates or resign, or pursuing a legitimate investigation opened because the facts suggested wrongdoing,” Boasberg said.
“Resolving that question requires probing whether the Government’s asserted basis for the subpoenas — suspicions of fraud and lying to Congress — is colorable or tenuous. That inquiry, in turn, means asking how much evidence there is to back up the Government’s assertions.”
Boasberg underscored that he has seen no suggestion that Powell committed criminal wrongdoing and pointed to the long list of statements Trump has made attacking the Federal Reserve chair, suggesting an ulterior motive.
“The Government’s fundamental problem is that it has presented no evidence whatsoever of fraud,” he concluded.
Friday’s ruling is likely to set the stage for the Trump administration to appeal. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has previously denied any political motivation for the investigation.
She has also asserted that Boasberg is “without legal authority” to nullify the subpoenas.
April 3 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has requested that Congress increase the Pentagon’s budget by $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027 on Friday.
The additional funding the president is asking for is a 40% increase over the current budget. At the same time he is requesting a 10% decrease in all non-defense spending, cutting about $73 billion from domestic programs.
Some of the programs that Trump is proposing to reduce funding to include environmental, renewable energy, transportation and infrastructure programs. About $1.6 billion would be eliminated from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research programs.
The budget request is being led by White House Budget Director Russell Vought, the author of Project 2025.
“The 2027 budget builds on the president’s vision by continuing to constrain non-defense spending and reform the federal government,” Vought wrote in a message to Congress. “A historic paradigm shift in the budget process is occurring and is producing real results for the American public. Fiscal futility is ending. Together, we will achieve significant budgetary savings for the American people while implementing the president’s bold vision.”
The request comes on the heels of Trump’s speech on Wednesday, in which he said the United States cannot “take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things.” Instead, the United States must focus on war.
“Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care.”
Fiscal year 2027 begins in October.
The White House published a top-line fact sheet summarizing the request for more defense spending on Friday, along with additional documents highlighting the president’s spending goals. It outlines Trump’s wish to “reinvigorate” the military.
Trump is calling on Republicans in Congress to approve $350 billion in additional funds through reconciliation for obtaining munitions and expanding the defense industry.
By taking $350 billion in additional funding through the budget reconciliation process, Republicans could avoid the Senate filibuster and the need to negotiate with Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Trump is also requesting $40.8 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Justice, a $4.7 billion increase over its current budget. The White House says this is to continue the Trump administration’s efforts to “stop the migrant crime epidemic.”
Another $1.47 billion is being requested for the Department of Defense to add resources to the southern border, including sensors and surveillance technology.
This photo, taken Friday, shows the trading room of Hana Bank in central Seoul as South Korean stocks jumped nearly 3 percent on hopes that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks soared by nearly 3 percent Friday, as Iran’s discussions with Oman on a protocol to monitor traffic through the Strait of Hormuz boosted hopes of easing oil supply disruptions despite heightened tensions in the Middle East. The Korean won strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 143.25 points, or 2.74 percent, to 5,377.30, rebounding from sharp losses in the previous session.
Trading volume was moderate at 1.12 billion shares, with a total value of 22.13 trillion won (US$14.69 billion), as gainers outnumbered losers 664 to 224.
Foreign and institutional investors bought a net 814.57 billion won and 716.93 billion won worth of shares, respectively, while individuals sold a net 2.09 trillion won worth of shares.
The rebound followed news that Tehran was drafting a protocol with Oman to monitor maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, raising hope of progress toward reopening the waterway.
The strategic waterway has effectively been shut since the outbreak of war in the Middle East in late February, driving up global oil prices due to supply disruptions.
Dozens of countries are also seeking ways to resume shipments through the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of an “extremely hard” attack on Iran within the next two to three weeks, while urging countries that rely on the key shipping route for energy imports to “take care of” it themselves.
“Iran has said the measure is intended to ensure safety and improve services, suggesting that the blockade of the waterway may be easing,” Seo Sang-young, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said.
Top-cap shares finished mixed.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics surged 4.37 percent to 186,200 won, while chip giant SK hynix soared 5.54 percent to 876,000 won.
Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace climbed 2.26 percent to 1,449,000 won, and artificial intelligence investment firm SK Square went up 2.88 percent to 483,000 won. Nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility jumped 3.21 percent to 96,600 won.
Shipbuilders gathered ground. Local industry leader HD Hyundai Heavy spiked 9.23 percent to 479,000 won, and its rival Hanwha Ocean went up 7.29 percent to 128,000 won.
Carmakers finished mixed. Top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 1.18 percent to 471,000 won, while its affiliate Kia fell 0.27 percent to 150,200 won.
Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 1.48 percent to 398,500 won, and bio giant Samsung Biologics lost 1.96 percent to 1,554,000 won. Leading financial firm KB Financial shed 0.68 percent to 145,500 won.
The local currency was quoted at 1,505.2 won against the U.S. dollar as of 3:30 p.m., up 14.5 won from the previous session.
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Iran says it is ready to counter any US-Israeli attacks, insisting its military capabilities remain intact despite Donald Trump’s claims they’ve been ‘decimated.’
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
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Fuel shocks from the US-Israel war on Iran are rippling worldwide, as Strait of Hormuz disruptions push prices higher. From Nigeria to Vietnam and India, workers face soaring costs, longer hours and lost jobs amid a deepening global energy crisis.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
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Iranian officials say the country’s largest bridge will be “built back stronger,” but America’s standing won't recover.
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Ten Muslim civil rights groups have issued a joint letter denouncing the arrest of a Palestinian American community leader in Wisconsin, Salah Sarsour.
The president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a vocal Palestinian advocate, Sarsour was reportedly pulled over by 10 federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while driving on March 30.
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The joint letter explains that Sarsour was transferred to a detention facility in Illinois, then to Indiana, leaving his family “scrambling to determine his whereabouts”.
A lawful permanent resident, he had lived in the US for 32 years, according to the letter, and his wife and children are all US citizens. Sarsour has been in immigration detention ever since his arrest.
“We must be clear that Salah is being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background,” the letter, issued Thursday, said.
It was co-signed by organisations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Legal Fund of America, and the US Council of Muslim Organizations.
The groups noted that, under President Donald Trump, a number of immigrant activists, scholars and foreign students had been targeted for deportation based on their pro-Palestinian solidarity.
“His detention reflects a troubling trend we’ve seen with Mahmoud Khalil, Leqaa Kordia, Mohsen Mahdawi and other voices critical of Israeli oppression,” the groups wrote.
“This administration is weaponizing the U.S. justice system to advance the interests of a foreign state, Israel, at a time when it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.”
The groups have launched an online campaign for Sarsour’s legal defence. By Thursday afternoon, it had earned over $35,500 in donations.
While the Trump administration has yet to issue a statement about Sarsour’s arrest, it has taken a hardline approach to pro-Palestinian activism.
When running for re-election in 2024, Trump pledged to crack down on protesters denouncing human rights abuses during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
According to statements obtained by the Washington Post in May 2024, Trump reportedly called the protest movement a “radical revolution” and said that, if he were elected, he planned “to set that movement back 25 or 30 years”.
Within months of taking office in January 2025, Trump proceeded to take action.
Starting in March 2025, his administration moved to strip hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds from universities that saw protests unfold on their campuses, citing claims of anti-Semitism.
Federal agents also arrested legal permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student leader, stripping him of his green card.
One scholar, Rumeysa Ozturk of Turkiye, saw her student visa revoked for co-signing a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in her school’s student newspaper.
The arrests and subsequent efforts to rapidly deport the activists and scholars have prompted widespread condemnation as a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment right to free speech and protest.
Officials in Wisconsin have been among the leaders to denounce Sarsour’s arrest as the latest in a series of efforts to stifle free speech. Two local alderpersons, JoCasta Zamarripa and Alex Bower, called the situation a “nightmare”.
“This is an illegal detention of a longtime permanent U.S. resident, as Mr Sarsour is a Milwaukeean who is lawfully present in our community,” they wrote in a joint statement on Thursday.
“The unacceptable activities by ICE — and especially illegally detaining citizens without due process — must stop immediately. How dare federal ICE agents come into our community and unlawfully detain a grandfather, a faith leader, a Wisconsinite!”
State Senator Chris Larson, meanwhile, underscored that the federal government has yet to offer any reasons publicly for Sarsour’s arrest.
“We have already seen numerous Muslim activists unfairly and unlawfully targeted by the Trump Administration for their beliefs and their speech,” Larson wrote.
“These Unconstitutional assaults on our freedoms should alarm all of us. When any individual or group is targeted by the government for their speech, all of our freedoms are threatened.”
US president has said that he will use tariffs to bring down costly pharmaceutical drugs, but the impact remains uncertain.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that could slap long-threatened tariffs of up to 100 percent on some patented drugs if pharmaceutical companies don’t reach deals with his administration in the coming months.
Under Thursday’s executive order, companies that have signed a “most favoured nation” pricing deal and are actively building facilities in the US will have a zero-percent tariff.
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For those that don’t have a pricing deal but are building such projects in the US, a 20 percent tariff will apply, but it will increase to 100 percent in four years.
A senior administration official told reporters on a press call that companies still have months to negotiate before the 100 percent tariffs kick in. Bigger companies will have 120 days, and 180 days are offered for everyone else.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the executive order before it was issued, did not identify any companies or drugs that were in jeopardy of getting hit with the increased tariffs.
But the source noted the administration had already reached 17 pricing deals with major drugmakers, 13 of which have signed.
In Thursday’s executive order, Trump wrote that he deemed the tariffs necessary “to address the threatened impairment of the national security posed by imports of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients”.
The order arrived on the first anniversary of Trump’s so-called Liberation Day, when the president unveiled sweeping new import taxes on nearly every country in the world, sending the stock market reeling. Those “Liberation Day” tariffs were among the duties the Supreme Court overturned in February.
Critics, pharmaceutical leaders and medical groups warned of the consequences the new tariffs could bring.
Stephen J Ubl, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company trade group PhRMA, said taxes “on cutting-edge medicines will increase costs and could jeopardize billions in US investments”.
He pointed to America’s already large footprint in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and noted medicines sourced from other countries “overwhelmingly come from reliable US allies”.
Trump has launched a barrage of new import taxes on US trading partners since the start of his second term and repeatedly pledged sky-high levies on foreign-made drugs.
But the administration has also used the threat of new levies to strike deals with major companies — like Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb — over the last year, with promises of lower prices for new drugs.
Beyond company-specific rates, a handful of countries have reached trade frameworks with the US to further cap tariffs on drugs sent to the US.
The European Union, Japan, Korea and Switzerland will see a 15 percent US tariff on patented pharmaceuticals, matching previously agreed rates for most goods.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom will get 10 percent, which Thursday’s order noted would “then reduce to zero” under future trade agreements.
The UK previously said it secured a zero-percent tariff rate for all British medicines exported to the US for at least three years.
Former clerk Tina Peters has become a cause celebre for the election denial movement and President Donald Trump.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
An appeals court in the state of Colorado has ordered the resentencing of Tina Peters, a former county clerk convicted of involvement in an election meddling scheme in the United States.
The court overturned Peters’s nine-year prison sentence on Thursday, but not her conviction for helping to tamper with voting machines after the 2020 presidential race.
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Her case has become a cause celebre for President Donald Trump and the election denial movement, after it emerged that she was seeking evidence to support Trump’s false claim that his 2020 loss was due to massive fraud.
In Thursday’s decision, the three-judge appeals panel ruled that a lower court had considered Peters’s personal beliefs when deciding upon a punishment, thereby rendering the sentence improper.
“The trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing,” the appeals court wrote.
The panel cited comments from Judge Matthew Barrett, who blasted Peters as a “charlatan” promoting “snake oil” claims.
“Her offence was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud,” the appeals court said. “It was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud.”
Peters was convicted in August 2024 for helping someone from outside the government gain access to the Mesa County election system and make copies.
That person was affiliated with efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss, and the copies they obtained were then shared on social media.
False claims that the 2020 election was marred by massive fraud have been a persistent fixation for Trump and his allies, even after his successful re-election in 2024.
Trump’s efforts to remain in office after his 2020 defeat were the subject of a 2023 criminal indictment brought by former special counsel Jack Smith.
He alleged that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to undermine the election process and rally supporters to overturn the results. Those charges, however, were ultimately dropped when Trump took office again in 2025, as the US Justice Department has a policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Since his inauguration, Trump has continued to push the claims he won the 2020 race. He has also used his allegations of fraud to demand greater control over the country’s election infrastructure in advance of the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
In December, the president pardoned Peters, even though she was not in federal custody, and the presidential power of pardon does not extend to state crimes.
The appeals court panel confirmed on Thursday that Trump’s pardon had no impact on state offences.
“We have found no instance where the presidential pardon power has been stretched in such a way as to invade an individual state’s sovereignty,” the panel said.
State Governor Jared Polis suggested last month that he could consider clemency for Peters.
Legal groups in Uganda have announced that a dozen deportees from the United States are expected to land in the country, following a deal with President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, the Uganda Law Society and the East Africa Law Society announced they had gone to court to challenge the deportation, which they called “an undignified, harrowing and dehumanising process”.
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“We have approached the Courts of Law in Uganda and the region, seeking bespoke reliefs designed to arrest this patent international illegality,” Asiimwe Anthony, the vice president of the Uganda Law Society, wrote in a statement.
“Our perspective of the matter is broader than a single act of deportation. We view it as but one gust from the ill winds of transnational repression that are blowing across our world.”
Thursday’s deportation marks the first confirmed instance of deportees being transferred from the US to Uganda.
The 12 people reportedly landed at the Entebbe International Airport, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Kampala, by private aircraft. No identifying information was provided about the deportees.
But the deportation is the latest example of Trump’s far-reaching efforts to offload immigrants to “third countries”, where they have no personal connections — and may not even know the language.
So far, Trump has struck deals with a number of countries to accept deported foreigners. They include at least six African countries, among them Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan.
The deal with Uganda came to light last August. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the agreement was a “temporary arrangement” and that priority would be given to deportees from other African countries.
Unaccompanied children and people with criminal records would not be allowed under the deal, according to the ministry’s statement at the time.
It is unclear whether Uganda received payment for its decision to accept third-country deportations.
Other countries, though, have signed multimillion-dollar deals. El Salvador was given nearly $6m to imprison deportees from the US, Equatorial Guinea got $7.5m, and Eswatini nabbed $5.1m.
There is no official estimate about the total cost of these third-country deals, but Senate Democrats in the US have estimated that at least $40m in funding has been given as incentives for countries to accept deportations.
Most of those funds, the Democrats added, were disbursed in lump sums before any deportees arrived. They also note that those funds are separate from the additional costs of the deportation flights: US military aircraft can cost $32,000 per hour to operate.
“Through its third country deportation deals, the Trump Administration is putting millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of foreign governments, while turning a blind eye to the human costs,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said in a February statement.
“For an Administration that claims to be reigning in fraud, waste and abuse, this policy is the epitome of all three.”
Critics have also questioned whether the countries receiving US deportees are adequately safe.
In the past, the US has criticised Uganda for “significant human rights abuses”, citing reports of extrajudicial killings, life-threatening prison conditions, and torture and other degrading treatment from government agencies.
It also noted that Uganda had government restrictions against human rights and civil society organisations, and that consensual same-sex conduct was outlawed.
According to the United Nations, Uganda already plays host to nearly 1.7 million refugees and asylum seekers, as people flee violence in neighbouring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
In his letter on Thursday, Anthony, the vice president of the Uganda Law Society, called the US deportations part of a “broader authoritarian project” that his group felt compelled to oppose.
“This development and the attendant illegalities that accompany it are reminiscent of a dark past that the global family of humanity supposedly put behind itself in the pursuit of the ideal that every human being is born equal,” Anthony wrote.
He added that US actions under Trump were paving the way for similar policies elsewhere.
“In the United States, the militarisation of society has given carte blanche to captured democracies in Africa to carry on with despotism unchecked,” he said.
Still, the Trump administration has defended the deportations as legal under the US Immigration and Nationality Act, which has loopholes for removals to “safe third countries”.
The Trump administration has also pointed to diplomatic assurances from the “third countries” in question that US deportees would not face persecution.
The “third-country” policy has, however, faced numerous legal challenges. While the US Supreme Court has largely let such removals proceed, a lower court once again ruled in February that the policy could infringe upon immigrants’ due process rights.
In the case of Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, lawyers have even argued that his deportation to a country far from home was evidence of “vindictiveness” on the part of the Trump administration.
Uganda has been floated as one of the destinations for Garcia, who was wrongfully deported in March 2025 and then returned to the US in June, only to face deportation proceedings once more.
Trump has pushed an aggressive programme of mass deportation since returning to the White House for a second term in 2025.
At least 675,000 people have been removed under his administration as of January, according to US government statistics.
April 2 (UPI) — A Colorado appeals court on Thursday threw out the sentence of Tina Peters, a former elections clerk, who was convicted in an election data case.
Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison in August 2024 on seven of the 10 counts for which she was charged.
She allowed an unauthorized person to make copies of voting machine hard drives that included classified information. The data from those drives was then leaked online by conspiracy theorists who falsely said it proved President Donald Trump correct in his assertion that the 2020 election was “stolen.”
Trump later pardoned Peters, but Colorado officials said he has no power to do so because she was convicted by the state. He has since pressured Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to pardon her.
The judges of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge Matthew Barrett wrongfully used Peters’ beliefs and promotion of election fraud conspiracy theories in his sentencing.
“We reverse her sentence because it was based in part on improper consideration of her exercise of her right to free speech,” the court wrote, sending her case back to the trial judge. Now Barrett must re-sentence Peters without using her beliefs to make the decision, the appeals judges said.
At the sentencing, Barrett said Peters had no remorse and called her a “charlatan” who abused her position to “peddle snake oil.”
“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could,” The Hill reported Barrett said. “You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen.”
In its decision, the appeals court said her beliefs shouldn’t color the sentencing.
“Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud. Indeed, under these circumstances, just as her purported beliefs underlying her motive for her actions were not relevant to her defense, the trial court should not have considered those beliefs relevant when imposing sentence.”
The appeals court did not overturn Peters’ conviction and formally said Trump doesn’t have the power to pardon a person for state law offenses.
“The crux of Peters’ argument is that the phrase ‘Offences against the United States’ includes an offense against any of the states in the union,” the court wrote. “We join what appears to us to be every other appellate court that has addressed the issue and reject such an expansive reading of the phrase.”
Peters served as a clerk in Mesa County, Colo., whose county seat is Grand Junction, in western Colorado.
She was convicted on three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state.
EXPLAINER
As the war enters day 34, US President Donald Trump said Washington was close to achieving its objectives.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
Iran has launched a new wave of missiles at Israel after United States President Donald Trump said Washington had “destroyed the Iranian military” and was close to achieving its war objectives.
Trump’s address to the nation came hours after he said Tehran had asked for a ceasefire, a claim Iran denied.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country held no hostility towards the people of the United States, Europe or neighbouring countries.
Here is what we know: