The Trump administration on Saturday allowed a sanctions waiver to lapse that had previously allowed countries including India to buy Russian seaborne ​oil after a month-long extension aimed at easing oil supply shortages and ‌high prices due to Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Parents had sued to halt law, saying they had the right to make decisions regarding the health of their children

A Kansas judge has temporarily blocked a law banning gender-transition treatments for minors in the state.

The state district judge Carl Folsom III granted an injunction requested by the parents of two teenagers who want to continue gender-transition treatment with medicines. Folsom’s decision halts the enforcement of a recently approved state law that banned such treatments.

In a ruling Friday, the judge sided with the teens’ parents, who sued to halt the law, saying they had the right to make decisions regarding the health of their children, according to court documents and a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs.

Democrats once hailed Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) as the party’s poster child: A plain-spoken, hoodie-wearing populist who appealed not just to those in his party but to independents and even some Republicans.

Lately, though, some Democrats say he’s appealing to Republicans and turning his back on his party with remarks defending Trump and attacking his party over their criticisms of the White House.

As the Pennsylvania senator increasingly clashes with progressives and breaks with his fellow Democrats on a string of issues, some in the party are comparing him to former Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), another Democrat who some in the party say boosted Republicans while hurting his side.

No swift end to the Iran war, uncertainty over Taiwan and only vague outlines of commercial deals … but the US president did get to bask in the company of Xi Jinping

It was historic, to be sure, but not as anyone had predicted. First there was Donald Trump, a self-declared teetotaler, apparently drinking champagne after Xi Jinping assured him that China’s “great rejuvenation” could go hand in hand with “Make America great again”. Then there was a Chinese military band playing a rendition of the US president’s signature campaign song, YMCA.

Beneath giant chandeliers, blue and gold balconies and a big orange backdrop with pagoda-style roofs, Thursday’s state banquet in Beijing featured characters whose presence would have been unthinkable here a decade ago: Elon Musk, the eccentric tech billionaire, Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned “secretary of war”, and of course Trump himself, a former reality TV star now leading the world’s biggest superpower.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed legislation banning the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, prompting immediate lawsuits from gun-rights groups.

The limits on “ assault firearms,” as they are described by the legislation, are among two dozen new restrictions and regulations on guns enacted by the Democratic governor in her first few months in office. That marks a sharp policy reversal from her Republican predecessor, who had vetoed many similar measures.

“Firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets,” Spanberger said in a statement Friday. “We are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe.”

The new gun restrictions move Virginia closer to the likes of California, Illinois and New York, which similarly have full Democratic control of their legislatures and governors’ offices. They also highlight a continued national divide on gun policy, as various Republican-led states have taken steps to relax firearm restrictions that they describe as an infringement on Second Amendment rights.

Belarus’ authoritarian leader on Friday greeted U.S. Rev. Franklin Graham, who arrived in the tightly controlled country to hold the largest evangelical Christian gathering in its history.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko asked Graham to convey warm greetings to Donald Trump and tell him that he has “reliable friends and supporters in Belarus.”

Since Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions, part of the isolated leader’s efforts to improve ties with the West.

The agreement ends a three-year battle over transgender healthcare at the country’s largest children’s hospital. Advocates for trans rights raised concerns about politics shaping medicine.

Texas Children’s Hospital must create the country’s “first-ever detransition clinic,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday in announcing a settlement agreement that concludes a yearslong investigation into the medical center’s treatment program for transgender youth.

As part of the deal, the Houston hospital also agreed to terminate five doctors who previously provided transition care to children and to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that the hospital improperly billed the state’s Medicaid program for transition care, according to a news release from Paxton’s office. For the first five years of the clinic’s operation, Texas Children’s must provide detransition care for free.

Officials have not detailed exactly what the detransition clinic will offer. Detransitioning, which involves no longer identifying as transgender or stopping medical transition, is rare. The potential medical interventions are similar to those involved in transitioning — mental health therapy, hormone therapy and surgeries.

The FDA this month opened a pathway for tobacco companies to sell flavored e-cigarettes and granted its first authorization for fruit-flavored vapes.

The Trump administration’s recent moves to make flavored e-cigarettes and vapes more widely available have caused a splintering among prominent voices in the MAHA movement and even some federal health officials.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s senior spokesperson, Richard Danker, resigned Wednesday over the regulatory changes, which include a pathway for tobacco companies to begin selling flavored electronic cigarettes and the first Food and Drug Administration authorization of fruit-flavored vapes. The new policies also played a role in the ousting of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who opposed them.

In Danker’s resignation letter, viewed by NBC News and first obtained by The New York Times, he wrote that flavored e-cigarettes “would appeal to children and expose them to nicotine addiction, lung damage, and higher risk of cancer.”

Taiwan asserted its sovereignty Saturday after Donald Trump warned against Taiwanese self-determination following the American leader’s two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Taiwan “is a sovereign and independent democratic nation, and is not subordinate to the People’s Republic of China,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry’s remarks come as a swift rebuke against Trump, who said Friday that he was “not looking to have somebody go independent” when asked about whether the U.S. would come to Taiwan’s rescue in the event of an invasion by China.

DHS made social media posts out of a protester’s arrest at gunpoint. Christian Cerna speaks out about the lengthy prosecution that derailed his life

Christian Cerna, 28, was driving with his partner and their two young children through Los Angeles, when two vehicles rammed his car and a group of men jumped out and trained their guns on them.

It was 11 June 2025, and as Cerna exited his vehicle with his hands raised, he realized the masked men weren’t street criminals as he initially feared. They were Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Cerna, a carpenter, is a US citizen and southern California native. But ICE was targeting him after a border agent reported that Cerna had “assaulted” him during a rowdy anti-ICE protest days earlier. The officers arresting Cerna detonated flash-bang grenades and pointed assault rifles at his car, with his infant and toddler inside.

Sen. John Fetterman’s latest high-profile vote backing Donald Trump angered Democrats, who lambasted him as “shameful” and a “traitor.”

On Wednesday, Fetterman again voted to block another war powers resolution to constrain Trump’s authority to wage war on Iran without congressional approval.

It was the seventh time Democrats have attempted to rein in Trump’s power.

This time, however, Fetterman was the deciding vote after three Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Rand Paul — supported it.

Louisiana had sued the FDA in a bid to curtail the regulatory agency’s rules on prescribing mifepristone remotely

The US supreme court upheld nationwide access to mail-order mifepristone, an abortion medication, in a shadow-docket decision on Thursday.

Louisiana sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October in a bid to curtail the regulatory agency’s rules on prescribing mifepristone remotely, arguing that it interfered with the state’s ban on abortion.

The fifth circuit ruled in Louisiana’s favor on 1 May, effectively banning mail-order mifepristone for the entire country. Two mifepristone manufacturers, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, filed an emergency request with the supreme court, which granted a temporary stay until at least Thursday.