Iran's government also voted to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will stymie efforts to monitor its uranium enrichment.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, broke his weeklong silence Thursday, claiming in a televised speech that his country had secured a victory over Israel and delivered a "slap in the face" to Washington.

Hours earlier, Iran's government also approved legislation to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a move that will stymie efforts to assess the damage from U.S. airstrikes and monitor uranium enrichment.

“The Islamic Republic emerged victorious and, in return, delivered a harsh slap to America’s face,” Khamenei said after eight days of silence.

Decision to restrict thimerosal in immunizations could impact future vaccine availability on a global scale

A critical federal vaccine panel has recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing a specific preservative – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability.

The panel was unilaterally remade by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who has urged against the use of thimerosal despite a lack of evidence of real-world harm.

Across three votes, members voted in favor of restricting thimerosal in seasonal influenza vaccines across all age groups – with five in favor of the restriction, one abstention and one vote against.

“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent – as far as we know – risk from thimerosal,” said Dr Cody Meissner, a panel member and professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine who was the lone “no” vote.

The US economy contracted in the beginning of the year at a much faster pace than previously reported, after new data factored in much weaker consumer spending.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, registered an annualized rate of -0.5% from January through March, the Commerce Department said Thursday in its third and final estimate. That’s worse than the 0.2% decline reported in the second estimate. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation.

The latest estimate showed that consumer spending — the lifeblood of the US economy — was tepid in the beginning of the year. Spending in the first quarter grew at a rate of just 0.5%, down from 1.2% in an earlier estimate. That’s the weakest rate in more than four years.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is more popular among Pennsylvania Republicans than fellow Democrats, according to a new poll of state voters.

Susquehanna Polling and Research president James Lee told PennLive Tuesday that Fetterman’s overall approval rating among state voters is a “mediocre” 41%, compared to 37% who disapprove of him.

However, the eyebrow-raising result that 45% of Republicans approve of Fetterman while just 40% of Democrats do will surely get political tongues wagging from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C.

The official said the Justice Department was able to scrap a Texas law giving undocumented immigrants in-state tuition "in six hours” by working with state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A top Justice Department official boasted at a private Republican gathering that the Trump administration was able to kill a Texas law that gave undocumented immigrants in-state tuition “in six hours” by coordinating with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a recording obtained by NBC News.

On June 4, the Justice Department sued Texas over the Texas Dream Act, then quickly filed a joint motion with Texas asking a judge to declare the law unconstitutional and permanently enjoin Texas from enforcing the law. The same day, the judge did.

Outside organizations sought to invalidate the ruling Tuesday, arguing that the Justice Department and Paxton’s office “colluded to secure an agreed injunction” and engaged in improper “legal choreography” to obtain their desired outcome.

The Council of Europe will set up a special international tribunal to prosecute top Russian officials for the war in Ukraine. "Every war criminal must know there will be justice," Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement with the Council of Europe (CoE) on Wednesday to establish a special tribunal to prosecute those accused of orchestrating Russia's war in Ukraine.

Ukraine argues that the tribunal is urgently needed to hold Russia's leadership accountable for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"We need to show clearly aggression leads to punishment and we must make it happen together, all of Europe," Zelenskyy said after signing the accord with CoE Secretary General Alain Berset.

The family members of a U.S. citizen who was taken into custody by federal agents in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday are demanding answers as she was detained while on her way to work.

Andrea Velez, a Cal Poly Pomona grad working in merchandising at a shoe company, had just been dropped off by her mother and sister for the workday when they saw her being taken into custody, adding they had barely even driven a block before the arrest began.

"They didn't have vests that said ICE or anything," said Velez's sister Estrella Rosas. "Their cars didn't have license plates."

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys expressed concern that his release would lead to immediate detention by ICE and deportation

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail for now after fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will swoop to deport him as soon as he is released.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys expressed concern that his release would lead to immediate detention by ICE and deportation.

A federal judge ruled the Salvadoran father, who was criminally accused of human smuggling, has a right to be released and even set specific conditions.

But he will remain in jail for at least a few more days while attorneys spar over whether prosecutors can prevent Abrego Garcia's deportation if he is released to await trial.

Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’

Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.

Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.

It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.

Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.

At hearing, US attorney general claims she’s unaware of reports that officials have hid their faces during roundups

The attorney general, Pam Bondi, professed ignorance of reports of immigration officials hiding their faces with masks during roundups of undocumented people, despite widespread video evidence and reports that they are instilling pervasive fear and panic.

Challenged at a Wednesday Capitol Hill subcommittee hearing by Gary Peters, a Democratic senator for Michigan, Bondi, who as the country’s top law officer has a prominent role in the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy, implied she was unaware of plain-clothed agents concealing their faces while carrying out arrests but suggested it was for self-protection.

DHS does not deny strong-arming tourist into letting them into his phone, only that agents sent him home because of a meme

The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen's encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance.

Mikkelsen claims that the officials threatened to fine him $5,000 or send him to prison for five years if he refused to provide them with his phone password. The tourist ultimately agreed to hand over his information, allowing agents to look through his phone.

The reports picked up enough steam in headlines and on social media to justify CBP putting out a statement denying parts of the story.