Trump Calls Off Iran Attack, Threatens Future Assault Amid Stalled Talks

President Donald Trump said he has called off a planned attack on Iran at the request of Gulf states to allow negotiations to continue.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had approached Washington because of the chance of reaching a deal that would be “very acceptable” to the US and preclude Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump said he has told military leaders “to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”

While Trump has regularly used social media to threaten Tehran and claim a peace deal is near, there has been no sign of an immediate breakthrough in stalled negotiations to end the war.

A ceasefire has paused most violence after six weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes and Iranian retaliation, but little progress has been made since Trump said the ceasefire was “on life support,” with some Israeli media reports suggesting a resumption of hostilities is imminent.

Trump said he instructed military leaders that “we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice.”

The announcement came as Iran’s foreign military spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, claimed Pakistan has shared Tehran’s latest proposal with the US.

Trump’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest point of his second term amid mounting frustration over the cost of living and the US-Israel war on Iran.

As November’s US midterm elections approach, most American voters believe Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was the wrong choice, according to new polling.

Trump moved to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, dropping his claims amid reports he is considering a settlement that would create a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies for supposed persecution by the government.

The filing came two days before a May 20 deadline in which the judge asked the parties for briefing on whether a legitimate controversy existed, because Trump controls the IRS.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown could cause the US to lose up to $479 billion in tax revenue over the next 10 years, as enforcement deters undocumented workers from filing taxes this year, according to tax experts.

As the US prepares for hurricane season and a summer of record heat, experts fear the administration’s cuts to climate and weather data programming could make federal government forecasts less reliable when needed most.

The Trump administration has announced a plan to kill Biden-era drinking water limits on four PFAS “forever chemicals” and delay implementation of standards for two other compounds.

PFAS are a class of at least 16,000 compounds used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant, linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and other serious health problems, and dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment.

Additional details are available in the full report.

The New York Times has filed a second lawsuit against the Pentagon, arguing that a policy requiring journalists to have official escorts on Pentagon grounds is unconstitutional.

In a suit filed in US District Court in Washington on Monday, the Times argued that an interim policy introduced in the spring had imposed “utterly unreasonable” restrictions on journalists attempting to cover the department.

Three people were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which authorities said is being investigated as a hate crime. Two suspects, aged 17 and 19, were also dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned that any US military action against his country would lead to a “bloodbath” with incalculable consequences for regional peace and stability. “Cuba does not represent a threat,” he said in a post on X.

A jury ruled in favor of Sam Altman, concluding a long and bitter legal battle that pitted the richest person in the world against a leader of the AI boom.

US health authorities confirmed Monday that an American has developed Ebola after exposure during work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and officials said they are taking “proactive measures” to protect US citizens in response to the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the DRC and Uganda.

Greenland’s government criticized the arrival of a US doctor in Nuuk alongside Trump’s special envoy, Jeff Landry, saying Greenlanders are not “experimental subjects.”