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Wall Street ended higher on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced that the planned military action against Iran was called off. Semiconductor stocks were front and center among the top gainers.
The benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) closed +1.7%, while the tech-heavy
MINNEAPOLIS — The man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband, as well as the nonfatal shootings of a state senator and his wife, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday after prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.
Vance Boelter was charged with murdering Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and with shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Boelter came to their doors in the early hours of June 14, 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.
The Hortmans’ golden retriever was so gravely injured that it had to be euthanized.
Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle the day after the shootings following what prosecutors have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He also faces state charges, which have been on hold pending the resolution of his federal case.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis notified the court Wednesday that the Justice Department would not seek the death penalty against Boelter in accordance with a proposed plea agreement, and the court set the change-of-plea hearing for Thursday.
Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said the federal plea deal would not affect Boelter’s state charges.
While the Trump administration has pushed for greater use of capital punishment, there were questions about whether Boelter’s case would qualify for the death penalty under federal law.
Prosecutors have called the shootings political. When they announced the federal indictment in July, they released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the attacks. However, the letter didn’t make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans.
In some messages to media, Boelter referenced a vague and cryptic “investigation” he had been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary, who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.
John Hoffman said in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand likely would never fully recover, and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems.
Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, the lawsuit said, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was there and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Trump threatened Thursday to launch major strikes on Iran and seize control of its oil industry as escalating attacks between the countries pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.
Trump said in a social media post that the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and would “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the vital Kharg Island oil terminal, in the “not too distant future.”
The American leader’s latest threats came as efforts to negotiate an end to the war appeared stuck. Trump has voiced his frustration with the stalled negotiations, warning earlier in the week that Tehran would “pay the price” for taking too long to reach a deal.
Iran’s monthslong stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.
The U.S. and Iran traded strikes for a second straight day Thursday after reaching a tenuous ceasefire more than a month ago. While the strikes have increased tensions in the region, they have been more limited compared to the early weeks of the war and negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are ongoing.
Trump’s threats on Thursday, while stark, represented his latest verbal escalation in the Iran war. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it didn’t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.
Kharg Island — located on the other side of the Persian Gulf from U.S. bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — is the beating heart of Iran’s oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass. It is important because Iran’s coastline is mostly too shallow for tanker ships to dock.
It was unclear how serious Trump was about his threat to seize it.
“My preference has always been to take Kharg Island,” Trump said in an interview Thursday on Fox News. “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it to be honest.”
American troops would be vulnerable on Kharg Island because of its close proximity — about 21 miles — to the Iranian mainland, from which missiles, drones and artillery could be fired.
Trump indicated in the interview that he remains averse to sending U.S. forces into Iran. “We could walk in there tomorrow. We could take soldiers — I don’t want to have boots on the ground. But if I wanted to we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.”
Trump compared his threat to take over Iran’s oil industry to how the U.S. assumed control of Venezuela’s oil sector after capturing then-president Nicolás Maduro in January.
American strikes on Iran that lasted into Thursday morning appeared more intense and widespread than the day before.
Tehran released little information on the extent of the damage and said it fired back at Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, as it had the previous day.
It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire … meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the U.S. would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies as well as any tolls Iran imposes on ships seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful but which the U.S. and Israel fear could be used to build an atomic weapon due to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The U.S. and Israel said a major reason they went to war on Feb. 28 was to ensure that Iran would never be able to do that.
Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally Hezbollah and Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.
Central Command said its latest round of airstrikes came “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression” and targeted “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites.” It did not elaborate on the damage done by the strikes, which it said ended just before sunrise Thursday in Iran.
Explosions from the strikes echoed around Iran’s capital, as well as the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard later said sites hit included a manufacturing complex, a military barracks and a local Guard base outside of Tehran.
Kuwait closed its airspace for several hours because of the attack, but did not elaborate on any damage. Jordan said it intercepted 20 Iranian missiles fired toward an area that is home to a base hosting U.S. troops, though no one was hurt.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an 11-year-old girl was hurt and cars and homes were damaged by debris from interceptions responding to the Iranian attack.
Meanwhile, Israel warned residents in the country’s north to seek shelter after the detection of suspected incoming fire from Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iran-allied Hezbollah militant group.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday that it struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker attempting to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. It said the M/T Jalveer was transporting Iranian oil when it was disabled late Wednesday after its crew failed to obey U.S. orders.
It’s the ninth merchant vessel the U.S. military says it disabled to enforce the blockade.
Three Indian sailors were killed when American forces struck the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello on Tuesday, India’s minister overseeing ports and shipping said Thursday on X.
U.S. Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship, which it accused of trying to evade the blockade.
The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack.
Gambrell and Madhani write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Washington. AP writers Will Weissert, Collin Binkley, Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Victoria Eastwood in Cairo and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., contributed to this report.
14:45, 11 Jun 2026Updated 15:06, 11 Jun 2026
Jet2 is making its largest ever winter travel offer
Jet2 has announced the launch of a brand-new range of travel options for Brits seeking some winter warmth. The 2027/28 Winter Sun programme will be the largest ever offered by the leisure airline and tour operator.
It will see nearly 4.5million seats go on sale for the winter, flying to 17 destinations from airports including Belfast International, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool John Lennon, London Gatwick, London Stansted, London Luton, Manchester and Newcastle International.
The programme encompasses 181 routes, covering the Canary Islands (Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, La Palma, Mainland Spain (Alicante, Malaga), Balearics (Majorca), Portugal (Faro and Madeira), Turkey (Antalya), Malta, Morocco (Marrakech and Agadir), Cyprus (Paphos), and Egypt (Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada).
Jet2 says it is the first airline and tour operator to go on sale for the winter of 2027/28. In the coming weeks, the airline and tour operator will also unveil details of its Ski, City Breaks and Iceland programmes for Winter 27/28.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, said: “Our winter sun programme for 2027/28 is on sale nice and early, and we are very pleased to be giving customers and independent travel agents fantastic choice and flexibility.
“The launch of our biggest ever winter sun programme gives customers from across all 14 of our UK airport bases huge choice. We have designed the programme in direct response to demand, so as well as offering 4.5 million seats, this will be our first year of full winter season operations to Egypt. We are not done yet, with even more exciting announcements about our Winter 27/28 programme coming soon.”
Key Winter Sun highlights by base for Winter 27/28 include:
Belfast International Airport
Birmingham Airport
Bournemouth Airport
Bristol Airport
Edinburgh Airport
East Midlands Airport
Glasgow International Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport
London Gatwick Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
London Luton Airport
Manchester Airport
Newcastle International Airport
London Stansted Airport
08:04, 11 Jun 2026Updated 08:17, 11 Jun 2026
Seating fees are being looked at(Image: surachetsh via Getty Images)
Budget airline Ryanair is facing an investigation.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced it is looking at fees that parents are required to pay to sit alongside their children on flights. The CMA revealed that the airline insists at least one parent sits with their children aged between two and 11.
This is enforced through what Ryanair refers to as a mandatory family seat, while seat reservations remain optional for all other passengers. The charge typically comes in at around £8 each way, according to the CMA.
The regulator confirmed it was looking into “whether Ryanair’s approach to seat reservations may mean parents are being charged for the airline to meet its child safety and disability‐related obligations as set out under aviation rules”.
It further stated that it would “determine whether or not this practice is in line with consumer law”. Ryanair is “the only major airline flying out of the UK to impose this charge”, according to the watchdog.
Other carriers offer to seat children flying with a parent without the need for a paid reservation, or automatically allocate seats together during booking, the CMA said. The investigation will also examine whether Ryanair’s mandatory family seat fee is dripped during the booking process, which is when a business does not initially present customers with all unavoidable charges.
The CMA added that it was at the beginning of its investigation and has “reached no conclusions about whether Ryanair has broken the law”.
Hayley Fletcher, senior director of consumer protection at the CMA, said: “Lots of families save up to afford a summer holiday and we know that extra charges can quickly bump up the price. Our investigation will consider Ryanair’s approach to family seat reservations and how the cost is presented to consumers, to determine whether they comply with consumer law. For the past year, we’ve told businesses to ensure their customers are shown the total price upfront – those who don’t face the very real possibility of action from the CMA.”
The airline responded with a statement: “Ryanair’s family seating policy fully complies with all relevant laws and regulations, and saves families money when travelling on the UK’s lowest fare airline. Ryanair does not charge any fee for children to sit beside their parent or accompanying adult.
“Like all adults who select a reserved seat, adults travelling with children pay one reserved seat fee, but can select reserved seats beside them for up to four children on the same booking free of charge.
“This means that parents travelling with children pay for only one (adult) reserved seat but pay nothing for the four other reserved seats for their children travelling with them.
“This bogus CMA investigation is a failed effort by the Starmer Government to pretend it cares about consumers when it has failed to abolish APD (air passenger duty) which would immediately deliver lower fares for all consumers and growth for the UK aviation, tourism and wider economy. Ryanair looks forward to disproving these false CMA claims during this bogus investigation.”
The CMA is an independent non-ministerial Government department, funded by the Treasury.
What was the moment from the season finale of “The Pitt” that finally broke you?
Was it the shot of the day-shift staff watching the Fourth of July fireworks from the hospital roof, the sound of “America the Beautiful” playing in the distance? Maybe it was Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) crying in her car, realizing she can’t work around the seizure disorder that makes her a liability in the ER. Or perhaps it came when Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robinavitch (a.k.a. Dr. Robby) swaddled Baby Jane Doe, telling her that “everything’s gonna be just fine,” because she has “so many wonderful things to see and so many people to love.”
But what opened the floodgates for me, after the last half-hour of the episode left me completely dazed and dumbfounded, was Drs. Santos (Isa Briones) and King (Taylor Dearden) exorcising the day’s demons by belting out Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” at a karaoke bar and demonstrating that primal scream therapy is alive and well three decades into the 21st century.
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Which is all to say: “The Pitt” is the only television show I’ve watched that gives me the same feeling I have when I read a great, immersive novel. When the end is near, I’m bereft. I’m Al-Hashimi in her car, wanting to pound the dashboard. I do not want to let these characters go. They’ve given me 15 hours and I still crave more. I would devour a series of short films about odd couple Santos and Whitaker (Gerran Howell) sharing an apartment or a summer spinoff showing Dr. Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) working off-hours as a SWAT medic. Anything to fill the long, “Pitt”-less weeks between seasons.
Instead, I’ll just have to content myself with scrolling through social media, watching fan-made videos of Dr. King self-soothing her way through the day, (this one, set to Vince Guaraldi’s score from “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” is the absolute best) and taking in the compilation of the show’s cast asking, “What’s the status on Baby Jane Doe?” in their best Katherine LaNasa Pittsburgh accent.
“The Pitt” won five Emmys from 13 nominations, including best drama series, for its celebrated first season, a 15-episode run that began with Dr. Robby up on the hospital roof talking down Dr. Abbot after an intense shift. The season ended with Dr. Abbot returning the favor after Robby and his staff ground their way through a day that included a mass shooting, a child drowning and a patient assaulting LaNasa’s no-nonsense charge nurse.
How do you follow that?
For a few episodes this new season, it looked like “The Pitt” wasn’t up to the task. We watched the ER staff dealing with a series of bloody, messy (the disimpaction!) medical maladies, an avert-your-eyes spectacle that felt like the writers were trying to one-up themselves and find the worst possible affliction to make viewers double over. Worse, the thrill of discovery that kept us invested throughout the first season, the slow drip of information about the characters, wasn’t quite there. Something was missing, and it wasn’t just Dr. Robby’s motorcycle helmet.
But the luxury of having 15 episodes is that the writers can take their time laying the groundwork for the story they want to tell.
And what a story it was.
Over the course of the season, we watched Dr. Robby disintegrate, his mental health more precarious than ever because he has done nothing to address his apparent PTSD. “You need help,” Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) tells Robby, confronting him in the finale. “Be honest with yourself.”
Robby isn’t the only one struggling, as Dr. Abbot puts it, to “dance through the darkness.” Langdon is back, managing his sobriety. Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) is having panic attacks. Santos is still dealing with self-harm. Dana remains haunted by that Season 1 patient assault and now carries a syringe containing a heavy sedative just in case somebody emerging from that overcrowded waiting room crosses the line again.
“I’ve seen so many people die that I feel like it’s leaching something from my soul,” Robby says. “I’m tired of feeling like I’m drowning every day.”
And there you have it, the subject of Season 2 of “The Pitt.” Medical professionals are gasping for air, and the American healthcare system, with its focus on profit above all else, is failing them and the patients they treat.
Remember Orlando, the patient with severe diabetic ketoacidosis who arrives at the ER after fainting? Orlando had to ration his insulin because he lacked insurance and felt he had to cut corners. He ends up leaving the hospital early, fearing the cost of treatment. Later he returns, having fallen (jumped) from a catwalk at his construction job, fracturing his skull. But good news: He now qualifies for Medicare and Medicaid due to long-term disability.
It’s a tragedy, one of many reasons the season finale shot of the ER staff holding back tears as they watched the Fourth of July fireworks felt like a body blow. “America the Beautiful”? How can that be true when the current administration is seeking $1.5 trillion for defense spending — nearly 50% more than this year — while cutting healthcare and social safety nets? How can that be true when an act known as the “Big, Beautiful Bill” removed funding from an already frayed healthcare system and exacerbated the shortage of care in rural areas of the country?
That one scene, the culmination of hours of careful, patient storytelling, said more about the disconnect between American ideals and America’s reality than anything else I’ve read or watched this year.
Give “The Pitt” all the Emmys. It has more than earned them.
Serena Williams has added another stop to her comeback tour: the Berlin Tennis Open.
Just a day after announcing her return to professional tennis, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has been added to the 16-team doubles field at Germany’s WTA 500 event.
“Every tournament I add to my schedule right now feels special, and Berlin is no exception,” Williams said in a statement shared by the event on Tuesday. “I’m excited to compete in front of the German fans and continue building momentum throughout the grass-court season.”
Williams is set to play in the doubles tournament at the HSBC Championships at London’s Queen’s Club, which kicks off June 8. On Thursday, 19-year-old Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko confirmed on Instagram that she’ll be Williams’ partner at the event. The Berlin Tennis Open will begin June 13 and Williams’ partner has yet to be named.
The 44-year old tennis great is returning to the sport after almost four years away from competition. She firmly denied rumors of her return on social media just last year.
Williams appeared to poke fun at her own turnaround with a short ad video posted to X on Thursday captioned “I changed my mind.”
Despite prior rumors, Williams’ sister Venus seemed just as surprised as everyone else that Serena was returning to the competitive circuit.
“I think she hits every now and then,” Venus Williams, who also still competes professionally, said during a recent interview at Roland-Garros. “I never see her on the court that often, so I don’t know when she’s been practicing, honestly.”
Despite not having seen her practice first-hand, Venus Williams is not worried about how Serena will play at the upcoming competitions.
“She’s, I think, a little bit of a natural,” she said with a laugh. “She has a pretty good record. She knows what she’s doing. She’s very tenacious. I’m not worried about how she’s going to play, even though I really haven’t seen her play. It’s so crazy.”
WASHINGTON — Former Trump administration national security advisor John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes from his time in government that officials say he shared with his family members as he was preparing a memoir about his time in office.
Under the agreement, Bolton would also face a $2.25-million fine, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a deal that had not been made public. Any prison sentence would be capped at five years, but the agreement allows for him to avoid time behind bars, though the punishment will ultimately be up to a judge.
The case against Bolton, filed weeks after prosecutors secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, unfolded against the backdrop of concerns that the Justice Department was using its law enforcement powers to pursue perceived adversaries of President Trump. The investigation burst into public view last August when FBI agents served search warrants at his Maryland home and Washington office, but it had been well underway by the time Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Bolton is a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who became known for his hawkish views on U.S. power. He served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019 and publishing a critical book that portrayed the Republican president as deeply misinformed, an unflattering portrait of his leadership and decision-making.
Trump’s administration fought unsuccessfully to block the publication of “The Room Where it Happened” on the grounds that the book risked disclosing classified information. The plea deal that Bolton will enter covers the notes he shared with relatives as opposed to information published in the tell-all book.
A rearraignment, which typically signals a plea agreement, is scheduled for June 26 in federal court in Greenbelt, Md.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The indictment’s 18 counts carried a threat of a substantial prison sentence in the event of conviction.
Court documents alleged that he shared with two family members “diary-like” entries with information classified as high as top secret that he had learned from meetings with other U.S. government officials, from intelligence briefings or talks with foreign leaders. After sending one document, Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives, “None of which we talk about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhhhh,” prosecutors said.
The indictment said that among the material shared was information about foreign adversaries that in some cases revealed details about sources and methods used by the U.S. government to collect intelligence. One document related to a foreign adversary’s plans for a missile launch, while another detailed U.S. government plans for covert action and included intelligence blaming an adversary for an attack, court papers say.
In a statement released after his indictment, Bolton described the charges as part of an “intensive effort” by Trump to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct.”
Bolton also served in the Department of Justice during President Reagan’s administration and was a State Department point person on arms control during George W. Bush’s presidency.
Bolton was nominated by Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the strong supporter of the Iraq war was unable to win Senate confirmation. He resigned after serving 17 months through a recess appointment that allowed him to hold the job on a temporary basis without Senate approval.
In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump’s third national security advisor. His brief tenure was characterized by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.
Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure, with Trump announcing on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation.
Bolton subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his book, alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to that country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential election, and members of the Biden family.
Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”
Tucker writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte, his pick for acting director of national intelligence, would not be his “permanent” choice for the critical security post.
The Republican president’s disclosure that he was ruling out installing Pulte in the position full time came after bipartisan pushback on Capitol Hill in recent days over Pulte’s lack of national security experience. The position requires Senate confirmation, something that lawmakers indicated was unlikely if Pulte were the nominee.
“He’s not going to be permanent because, you know, I don’t think he’d want to be permanent,” Trump said while taking questions in the Oval Office after an event on coal. He called Pulte a “very smart guy” and said he may look at past elections that Trump claims, without credible evidence, were “rigged” against him.
Trump said other candidates were under consideration for nomination to the post. “We’re interviewing people right now,” he said.
Pulte, a grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, has been a source of controversy within the administration for his work as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and his oversight of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Pulte has used his position to pursue Trump’s perceived political rivals for alleged mortgage fraud and has verbally attacked Jerome H. Powell, whose term as the Federal Reserve chairman recently ended after months of Trump and Pulte attacking him for not slashing the central bank’s benchmark rates. The federal housing finance regulator has also pitched a 50-year mortgage, an idea that backfired as it meant that the process of building wealth through homeownership would be slowed.
Both Republican and Democratic senators expressed concerns about Pulte and his lack of national security credentials in occupying a role coordinating 18 federal agencies involved in domestic and foreign security issues. Trump’s initial director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned last month, citing her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said the national intelligence director job shouldn’t be “weaponized” and should be led by “professionals.”
Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, who are each leaving the chamber after this year’s elections, also expressed concerns about Pulte.
Democratic senators view Pulte as a risk even if he is serving only temporarily as the director of national intelligence while keeping his position at the FHFA.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent Trump a letter on Thursday calling on him to rescind Pulte’s national security appointment.
“Americans cannot trust him to protect our nation and refrain from misusing the sensitive information he will have access to,” Warren wrote, saying that giving Pulte the job on an acting basis was a risk because Trump’s own words suggested the federal agency could be used “to promote election denial theories.”
At a hearing on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed reports that he had threatened to fight Pulte in September, a sign of the friction that the federal housing finance director had generated inside the administration.
But as a frequent traveler on Air Force One, Pulte has a close relationship with Trump.
“He’s a person who’s got high integrity,” Trump said Thursday about Pulte.
Boak writes for the Associated Press.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum should be set to return to action on Friday against the Dallas Wings.
Plum, who leads the WNBA in scoring, missed the last three games with a sprained ankle injury she sustained in practice. She practiced in full on Thursday, and head coach Lynne Roberts seemed optimistic that she would play.
“I think so,” Roberts said when asked if Plum would play. “She looks good. Hopefully she can play.”
Plum led the Sparks to a 101-95 win in Las Vegas on May 23 and has been one of the best shooters in the league.
She said she feels ready to play on Friday.
“I hated it,” she said of watching from the bench. “I have been just rehabbing like a maniac, sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, red lighting my way back.”
In her absence, the Sparks went 1-2 and averaged 83 points, including their worst offensive game of the season on Tuesday in a loss to the Aces.
“She’s kind of the engine that makes everything go,” Roberts said on Thursday. “We’ve sputtered a little bit offensively.”
Before this injury, Plum had missed only four games in her nine-year career because of injury.
The Sparks are 4-5 after starting the season with high hopes to make a return to the postseason.
Jared Grindlinger is not ready to say goodbye to his friends at Huntington Beach High. The likely first-round draft pick didn’t have to play for the Oilers in the Southern California Division I regional playoffs, let alone pitch. But he did both to help Huntington Beach knock off San Diego Open Division champion Patrick Henry 10-3 on Tuesday.
Grindlinger went four for four, including a home run, and finished with three RBIs. He also struck out five in three innings on the mound. Dane Cunningham had a three-run home run. Huntington Beach advances to play the winner of Wednesday’s game between Corona and Chula Vista Eastlake on Thursday.
Cathedral Catholic 4, St. John Bosco 2: The impressive two-year run of St. John Bosco’s baseball team has come to an end. The Braves had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t push across any runs and were eliminated in a first-round Division I game. They won the Southern Section Division 1 title the last two seasons and the regional title last season.
La Mirada 7, Liberty 6: A three-run seventh inning helped the Matadores enjoy their bus ride home from Bakersfield. The big hit was a three-run home run by Justin Torres. La Mirada will face Cathedral Catholic on Thursday in the semifinals.
Arroyo Grande 4, Loyola 3: An RBI single in the eighth inning by Colton Gotchal pushed Arroyo Grande to victory over top-seeded Loyola in Division 2. Jack Murray had a home run and two RBIs for Loyola.
Newport Harbor 2, Madison 0: Gavin Guy threw the shutout with seven strikeouts.
South El Monte 3, Brentwood 2: South El Monte went on the road and pulled off the upset of Division 6 champion Brentwood. Anthony Mata had an RBI single and Gabriel Canchola limited the Eagles to four hits while striking out nine in six innings.
Westview 7, Carson 1: Leadoff hitter Eli Irvine had three hits for the winners.
North Torrance 2, Bell 0: Seth Narasaki and Joey Banuelos combined for the shutout.
Verdugo Hills 11, Rolling Hills Prep 2: Cutlor Fannon finished with three hits and three RBIs for the Dons.