President seemed to suggest that legislative deadline to approve war no longer applies as Democrats push back

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Donald Trump said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated”, suggesting that the 60-day deadline to seek approval from the legislative branch no longer applied.

Friday marks 60 days since the US president notified members of Congress that the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president can deploy troops to respond to an “imminent threat” but must receive congressional approval within 60 days to continue military operations.

Scott Jennings was questioned by Adam Mockler about political concessions gained by the US in its war on Iran

Scott Jennings, CNN’s most prominent pro-Trump commentator, was triggered into swearing at a fellow panelist on live television on Thursday night after being repeatedly pressed to name a single political concession the US had extracted from its war with Iran – and failing to answer.

The outburst came during NewsNight With Abby Phillip, where Jennings clashed with Adam Mockler, a 23-year-old commentator with the progressive MeidasTouch. When Mockler asked him to name a concrete gain from the conflict, Jennings responded with the party-line response that the conflict had a singular, clear purpose – preventing a theocratic regime from acquiring nuclear weapons – but Mockler shot back that the non-answer was itself an answer.

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• Iran offers new peace proposal to US but Trump ‘not satisfied’

• Trump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to Congress

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Meanwhile, the White House has said it will not detail private diplomatic conversations when Reuters asked about Iran’s new proposal to the United States that was submitted to Pakistani mediators.

“We do not detail private diplomatic conversations. President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and negotiations continue to ensure the short- and long-term national security of the United States,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters.

I do have the impression from some of the briefings that I have received, as well as other sources, that an imminent military strike is very much on the table.

There really is no coherent strategy, which came across very vividly and graphically in the hearing today with Secretary Hegseth.

And it comes across in the president’s comments, which oscillate between seeming open to negotiation and then foreclosing it entirely and threatening destruction of civilizations.

Tehran reportedly passed proposal to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night, though its contents are not yet clear

Iran has passed a new proposal to Pakistani mediators in the latest effort to end the war with the US, but Donald Trump said he was not “satisfied” by it.

“Right now, we have talks going on, they’re not getting there,” he told reporters, adding that his options remained “either blast them away or make a deal”.

Yara CEO warns of global auction that would leave poorest countries scrambling for supplies they can ill afford

The Iran war could have “dramatic consequences”, causing food shortages and price rises in some of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, the head of the world’s largest fertiliser company has said.

Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara International, said world leaders needed to guard against soaring prices and shortages of fertiliser causing a de facto global auction that would leave the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, scrambling for supplies they could ill afford.

US president faced a 60-day deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it

A US-Iran ceasefire that began in early April has “terminated” hostilities between the two sides for the purposes of an approaching congressional war powers deadline, a senior official of the Trump administration said on Thursday.

Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

Mojtaba Khamenei says Tehran will eliminate ‘enemy’s abuses of the waterway’ and guard its nuclear and missile programmes

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Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement read by a state television anchor.

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Louisiana governor Jeff Landry yesterday told GOP candidates that he plans to suspend next month’s primary elections so that state lawmakers can pass a new congressional map first, the Washington Post (paywall) reported last night.

It came hours after the US supreme court decided that Louisiana’s creation of a second majority black congressional district to satisfy previously rulings relied too heavily on race and was “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander”, as opposed to a required effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

US president uses social media post to criticise chancellor over Ukraine, immigration and ‘interfering’ in Iran conflict

The Commission was also asked about yesterday’s meeting of Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Péter Magyar.

But we didn’t get much more than what we saw in yesterday’s social media posts from Magyar and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen.

ECB keeps interest rates on hold as growth stumbles and price rises gather pace, up from 2.6% in March and 1.9% in February

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• Air France-KLM cuts forecasts amid $2.4bn fuel bill rise

Inflation across the eurozone soared to 3% this month as the Iran war drove up energy prices and growth stumbled.

Consumer prices rose by 3% in the year to April across the single currency bloc, data from the statistics body Eurostat showed on Thursday morning, up from 2.6% in March and 1.9% in February.

Markets spooked as US president appears willing to keep up naval blockade and Iran keeps strait of Hormuz all but shut

The global oil price hit $126 a barrel on Thursday, its highest level since 2022, after Donald Trump said the US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months and peace talks remained stalled.

After surging more than 13% in 24 hours, the price of Brent crude futures reached its highest price since the war began on 28 February. Not since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has Brent topped $120, with the price then peaking at $139.