Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House Tuesday for his first face-to-face meeting with President Trump since the two launched military operations against Iran five months ago. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran and discussed expanding the Abraham Accords. Before the meeting, Trump appeared on Fox and Friends to publicly air frustration with Netanyahu and casually mentioned the U.S. could strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility, quote, very easily.
Former FBI Director James Comey asked a federal judge Monday to throw out the indictment charging him with threatening the president, stemming from a photo he posted of seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to spell out "86 47." His legal team argues the image is constitutionally protected political speech, not a true threat, and that prosecuting him is a misuse of criminal law. If the case survives, it heads to trial in October.
New Jersey is moving to remove approximately 4,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls after more than 6,600 self-identified noncitizens were found registered to vote. Governor Mikie Sherrill blamed a software error, but vendor IDEMIA says its system correctly recorded both "yes to registering" and "no to citizenship" for all 6,600 applicants. The DOJ has opened an investigation and 19 House Republicans, led by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, are demanding answers from the governor.
A Shanghai state-backed firm has begun low-volume production of homegrown immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, the precision chipmaking equipment that Dutch company ASML has long dominated. ASML shares fell more than 7% on the news, with AMD dropping 7.3% and Micron sliding nearly 5%. Analysts say China's initial capacity is limited to just five units this year, but the strategic signal to global markets has been significant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Washington Tuesday to attend the funeral of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who had visited Ukraine just days before his death, and to hold a separate private meeting with President Trump. Zelensky is pressing for continued U.S. military support as Russia's war grinds on, making today an extraordinary convergence of wartime diplomacy on the Potomac.
Catastrophic wildfires are scorching France and Spain, forcing more than 330,000 people from their homes. The blaze near Bordeaux has burned an area four times the size of Paris, while a fire west of Madrid has become the largest in Spanish history at 500 square kilometers. President Macron called the crisis completely unprecedented and described it as France's gravest fire emergency since the Second World War, as a dozen nations rush aircraft, helicopters, and firefighters to assist.
Mediators operating largely through Oman are reporting real progress in getting Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table following weeks of escalating hostilities. The U.S. held off on airstrikes against Iran for the second consecutive night, a signal diplomatic sources say is deliberate and significant. Trump has warned publicly that strikes will resume quickly if talks collapse, keeping the pressure on while the window for a deal remains open.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft successfully used Mars's gravity Tuesday to slingshot itself toward asteroid 16 Psyche, a metal-rich space rock scientists believe may be the exposed iron-nickel core of a long-dead planet. The gravity assist puts the craft on course for its historic 2029 rendezvous. If Psyche is as metal-dense as models suggest, it would represent one of the most scientifically significant close encounters in the history of space exploration.
Scientists have used radiocarbon dating to precisely date paintings in France's Font-de-Gaume cave for the first time, after discovering traces of charcoal hidden inside black pigments previously believed to contain only minerals. The cave, famous for its bison and mammoth illustrations, had never been scientifically dated in more than a century of study. Researchers say the findings open a new window into exactly when Ice Age artists were at work in southwestern France.
An Idaho man has claimed a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive flaming torch juggling catches while riding a unicycle. The achievement came at a cost: his eyebrows did not survive the attempt. He suffered no serious injuries beyond the scorching of his brow line, and he reportedly holds the certificate to prove it was worth it.
