MicroWave

The probes could result in fresh tariffs on imports from 16 major trade partners, including China and the European Union.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it will launch a wave of tariff-related investigations into more than a dozen U.S. trade partners, the next phase in Donald Trump's sweeping global trade wars.

In a process that is likely to result in a fresh round of tariffs in the near future, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative is opening the formal probes into major trade partners that include the European Union, Mexico and China — each of which ranks among the top five sources of U.S. imports.

Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Japan and India will also be the targets of investigations under the trade statute known as Section 301.

Among dozens of companies competing for Pentagon contracts to supply attack drones, one stands out.

Powerus is flush with cash and ballooning in size as it buys up rivals and has one other advantage: It is partly owned by Donald Trump’s two oldest sons.

The Trump family has drawn criticism for expanding its real estate business into foreign countries that are trying to curry favor with the president and for making billions of dollars off cryptocurrency ventures benefiting from his policies. Grabbing less attention are new ownership stakes in federal contractors providing everything from rocket parts and rare earth magnets to AI chips and computer hardware.

Lack of public appearances prompted speculation about new leader’s mortality after multiple family members died

The confirmation that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the first wave of Israeli attacks underlines how desperate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (ICRG) was to ensure their wounded choice was elevated to high office, and how confident it is that the wartime machinery can operate almost on automatic pilot without him.

The full scale of Khamenei’s injuries and speed of his recovery remain unclear, but a broken leg and facial injuries are the minimum. It is not a medical bulletin on which the authorities are seeking to dwell, although Ali Larijani, the secretary of the supreme national security council, chose his words carefully in saying “his condition has not been reported as critical”, a phrasing that suggests he has not personally seen him.

Three cargo vessels have been hit by "unknown projectiles" in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime authorities say, as pressure intensifies on one of the world's most important shipping lanes.

Traffic through the strait - a vital corridor for oil - has fallen sharply since Israel and the US attacked Iran in late February, sending global energy prices soaring.

Iran said it unleashed another volley of retaliatory attacks across the Gulf on Wednesday, with targets including a major oilfield in Saudi Arabia and drones falling near Dubai International Airport.

The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

The warning came just as the Trump administration launched its ongoing assault against the Islamic Republic. Iran has been retaliating with drone strikes against targets throughout the Mideast.

KEY POINTS

Three cargo ships were struck by suspected projectiles off the coast of Iran on Wednesday morning, according to the UKMTO.

The incidents mark the latest in a string of reported attacks in or near to the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the strategically vital waterway.

Prior to Bill C-3, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act (2025), citizenship by descent for those born abroad was limited to the first generation.

But now, Canadian citizenship is being retroactively granted to people born before the new law came into effect on Dec. 15, 2025, who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit. Different criteria, however, apply to those born on or after that date.

Members of Congress demand investigations after complaint alleges unprecedented breach of Americans’ data

A former employee with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency allegedly claimed he tapped into two sensitive Social Security Administration databases and intended to share the information with his private employer, according to an anonymous whistleblower complaint.

The complaint — filed with Social Security’s internal watchdog and first reported by The Washington Post — alleges that the U.S. DOGE Service staffer accessed two protected databases containing personal information, including Social Security numbers, for more than 500 million living and dead Americans.

The employee allegedly told the whistleblower who filed the complaint that he intended to move the data from a thumb drive to his personal computer “so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data” before taking it to his private employer.

Long security lines snaked into baggage claim areas and parking garages at some U.S. airports this weekend, a possible indicator of more widespread travel problems as the latest government shutdown drags on.

That kind of disruption, while not yet widespread, is not a concern that typically surfaces at San Francisco International Airport, the largest of nearly two dozen U.S. airports where screening checkpoints are staffed by private contractors under a little-used federal program that allows airports to outsource security screenings while maintaining TSA oversight.

Because contractors’ pay comes from a federal contract, it often continues even when the government shuts down.

Andy Ogles said Muslims do not belong in the US and Randy Fine made a comparison of Muslims to dogs

Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Tuesday declined to condemn Republican lawmakers who recently made Islamophobic comments, saying only that he had spoken to them about their “tone”.

Democrats and groups advocating religious tolerance have decried the statements from congressmen Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Randy Fine of Florida, with the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling on Johnson to discipline the latter.

But the Republican speaker showed little interest in doing so when he was asked about the issue at a press conference during the House GOP’s retreat in Doral, Florida.

Donald Trump referred to Prime Minister Mark Carney as the “future Governor of Canada” in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

Trump’s post was in reference to working with U.S. governors to “save The Great Lakes from the rather violent and destructive Asian Carp.”

This is not the first time Trump called the prime minister “governor.” In January, he posted on Truth Social in reference to China making a deal with Canada.

“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” Trump wrote.

In response to the jab, Carney said he won’t “comment on every ‘tweet,’ or ‘truth,’ or comment from whoever,” and that he “can handle it.”

While federal investigators had searched other properties of the late sex offender, there's no record they checked the 7,600-acre property where some women say he preyed on them.

State investigators in New Mexico on Monday searched a 7,600-acre property that once belonged to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The search came after documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act showed no record of federal investigators ever searching the property, known as Zorro Ranch, despite a number of years-old civil suits that accused Epstein of sexually assaulting girls there — allegations over which he was never charged.

"This search is part of the criminal investigation announced by the New Mexico Department of Justice on February 19th into allegations of illegal activity at Epstein’s ranch prior to Epstein’s 2019 death," the state agency said in a statement.