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Donald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.

The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

This blog is now closed. Our full report is here: Trump puts ‘Project Freedom’ on hold, saying he hopes to finalise a deal with Iran

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is travelling to Beijing later today for talks with his Chinese counterpart “on bilateral relations and regional and international developments”, his ministry said on its Telegram account.

While Beijing condemned the initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran which started the war in late February, China has largely adopted a posture of neutrality ever since and has urged for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

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The supreme court issued a temporary order to restore access to the abortion pill mifepristone by mail on Monday.

This comes after two companies who manufacture mifepristone the drug filed an emergency appeal to the court on Saturday asking it to halt a court decision that would require an in‑person exam before the medication can be prescribed.

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• Trump threatens to blow Iran ‘off the face of the earth’ if it attacks US vessels

• Trump sends warships to break Iran’s strait of Hormuz blockade

We have a bit more of the statement from Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi, the commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, who said earlier that the US or any other foreign armed forces would be attacked if they entered the strait of Hormuz (see post at 07.39 for more details). Abdollahi also said:

We will maintain and vigorously manage the security of the strait of Hormuz with all our might, and we inform all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without the coordination of the armed forces stationed in the strait of Hormuz, so as not to jeopardise their security.

Suleiman had been referred to counterterrorism scheme in 2020 but case was closed the same year

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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires in Golders Green this morning:

A 45-year-old man, who is a British national, born in Somalia, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said he came to the UK lawfully as a child.

The Metropolitan police said he was initially taken to hospital after being arrested but has since been discharged. He was taken to a London police station where he remains in custody.

The Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, said the suspect has a history of mental health issues, drug use and convictions for violence.

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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.

PM chairs Cobra meeting after condemning ‘appalling antisemitic attack’; man with ‘history of serious violence and mental health issues’ arrested

Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation and working with police to establish the full circumstances and any links to terrorism, the Met said in a statement.

Head of counter terrorism policing Laurence Taylor said:

Whilst I must stress this investigation is at an early stage, we are working quickly to understand exactly what happened.

Thank you to those who were in the area at the time and supported the response to this terrible incident.

Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific attack. We are grateful to officers who swiftly Tasered and arrested the suspect before he could cause further harm.

We are aware of the significant distress and concern this incident is likely to cause in the face of a number of incidents in the local area. A suspect is in custody, and investigators are considering all possible motives.

An investigation is under way and a man has been arrested following a stabbing incident in Barnet.

At 11:16hrs on Wednesday 29 April, officers responded following reports of people stabbed in Highfield Avenue.

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• US supreme court ‘demolishes’ key Voting Rights Act provision that prevented racial discrimination

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a key policy meeting, likely the last chaired by central bank chief Jerome Powell, a frequent target of president Donald Trump’s ire.

Policymakers will weigh the risks of surging energy prices and snarled supply chains due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with analysts widely expecting a third pause in a row as the effects of the conflict ripple through the world’s largest economy.

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Donald Trump has reportedly signaled to his top advisers that he is dissatisfied with and unlikely to accept Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which would reopen the strait of Hormuz and leave discussion of Iran’s nuclear program for a later date.

Two people familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump conveyed his views during yesterday’s meeting with top national security aides where the Iranian proposal was discussed. One of the people said Trump was not likely to accept the plan, which was sent to the US in the last few days.

What I will reiterate is that the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.

I wouldn’t say they’re considering it. I would just say that there was a discussion this morning that I don’t want to get ahead of, and you’ll hear directly from the president, I’m sure, on this topic.

US president claims Friedrich Merz ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about’ after German leader criticised US strategy in Iran

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Saudi Arabia is to host a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah later today, in what will be first in-person meeting of Gulf leaders since their states became dragged into the war.

A Gulf official told the Reuters news agency that the meeting aimed to craft a response to the thousands of Iranian missile and drone attacks Gulf states have faced since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on 28 February.

Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei says actions of the United States ‘strike at the heart of international law’ as blockade continues in strait of Hormuz

Iran is proposing that shipping companies should pay charges for specific services when they cross the strait of Hormuz, in a move that would enable it to raise money from shipping traffic without presenting the payment as a toll.

Iran’s framing is designed to maximise political and legal support for the plan it is developing with Oman. Iran has made a solution to its demands an essential precondition to winding down the conflict, including an end to its effective blockade of the Strait and the counter-blockade of Iranian ports being mounted by the US Navy.

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When Pete Hegseth was asked about Pope Leo XIV’s condemnation of the war in Iran, and comments from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops suggesting the conflict is not a “just war”, the defense secretary simply said that the pope was “going to do his thing”.

“We know what our mission is,” Hegseth added. “We follow that the orders of the president. We’ve got lawyers all over the place looking at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and giving us every authority necessary under the constitution and under our laws to execute it.”