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Trump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to congressional leaders

Donald Trump said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Friday that hostilities with Iran have “terminated”, suggesting that the 60-day deadline to seek approval from the legislative branch no longer applied. Friday marks 60 days since the US president notified members of Congress that the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president can deploy troops to respond to an “imminent threat” but must receive congressional approval within 60 days to continue military operations. In the letter, dated 1 May, Trump said he initiated Operation Epic Fury against Iran and notified Congress on 28 February “consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests”. “On April 7, 2026, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire,” the letter, addressed to Republican House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican senator Chuck Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate, continues. “The ceasefire has since been extended. There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated.” The letter effectively waves off the 1 May legal deadline, which was already expected to lapse without intervention from Republican lawmakers, most of whom have been reluctant to challenge the president’s unilateral use of force. As he departed the White House on Friday, Trump told reporters that he had no intention of seeking congressional approval for the military campaign because “it’s never been sought before” and suggested the War Powers Act was “totally unconstitutional”. “Nobody’s ever asked for it before. It’s never been used before. Why should we be different?” he said. Trump’s letter underscores an interpretation of the War Powers Act that is fiercely contested by legal scholars and Democrats, who have argued for weeks that the president’s war in Iran tramples the separation of powers between the three branches of government. “That’s bullshit” the Senator minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on X. “This is an illegal war and every day Republicans remain complicit and allow it to continue is another day lives are endangered, chaos erupts, and prices increase, all while Americans foot the bill.” Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate armed services committee, said Trump’s declaration “doesn’t reflect the reality that tens of thousands of US service members in the region are still in harm’s way, that the administration continually threatens to escalate hostilities or that the strait of Hormuz remains closed and prices are skyrocketing at home”. “President Trump entered this war without a strategy and without legal authorization and today’s announcement doesn’t change either fact,” Shaheen wrote. On Friday, the ACLU sent a letter to the White House, expressing “profound concern” that the president was “carrying out an illegal war”. “Even a quick reading of the short and clearly written War Powers Resolution makes clear that there is no pause button – and certainly no reset button – under the statute,” the ACLU letter states. The letter comes one day after Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, put forward a similar argument in his testimony before the Senate armed services committee, on Thursday. In an exchange with the Democratic senator Tim Kaine, who has forced a vote on several ultimately unsuccessful war powers resolutions on the Iran war, Hegseth claimed that “the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire”. “I do not believe the statute would support that,” Kaine said, adding that Trump’s prosecution of the war raised “serious constitutional concerns”. On Thursday, Senate Republicans again blocked a war powers resolution brought by Democrats aimed at ending the conflict in Iran. “Even if you accept the premise that Trump’s war in Iran was responding to an imminent threat, which I certainly don’t, under the War Powers Act he has no authority to continue this war past 60 days,” Adam Schiff, a California Democratic senator who brought the latest war powers resolution, said in a statement after the failed vote on Thursday. Though Trump has previously claimed that the war would be over “very soon”, his letter made clear that the operation was very much ongoing. “Despite the success of United States operations against the Iranian regime and continued efforts to secure a lasting peace, the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant,” Trump stated in the letter, adding that the Pentagon would continue to “update its force posture” across the region “as necessary and appropriate, to address Iranian and Iranian proxy forces’ threats”.

Iran offers new peace proposal to US but Trump ‘not satisfied’

Iran has passed a new proposal to Pakistani mediators in the latest effort to end the war with the US, but Donald Trump said he was not “satisfied” by it. “Right now, we have talks going on, they’re not getting there,” he told reporters, adding that his options remained “either blast them away or make a deal”. Trump did not elaborate on what he saw as the latest proposal’s shortcomings, but said: “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to.” In Washington, Trump waved off a Friday deadline imposed by the war powers act, requiring the US president to seek congressional authorisation to continue hostilities beyond 60 days. In a letter to congressional leaders, Trump claimed that the White House did not need to seek approval from the legislative branch because the ceasefire agreement forged with Iran had in effect paused the 60-day clock – an interpretation disputed by many legal experts. Speaking to reporters, Trump suggested the Vietnam war-era law was “unconstitutional”. Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that Tehran handed the offer to Pakistan on Thursday night, to pass on to Washington, though its contents were not immediately clear. The new proposal had initially been seen by Pakistan’s government as an outcome of its energetic back-channel diplomacy. Islamabad’s role switched in recent days to the lower-profile but urgent task of passing messages between the two sides after the momentum behind direct talks stalled. Islamabad has said it believes a deal is within reach. But it faces Iranian officials in danger of overplaying their hand and a US administration that is seeking total victory rather than a compromise. Pakistani officials say they are conscious that it is not only regional peace at stake, but the health of the global economy and the livelihoods of millions of the poorest people in the world – including in Pakistan, whose monthly energy import bill has almost tripled because of the war. The decision to submit proposals to Pakistan followed a debate inside Iran on whether it should pursue the diplomatic path at all, or instead rely on the leverage provided by the ad hoc blockade of the strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials hope Trump will want to end the conflict before his summit with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, on 14 and 15 May. Islamabad views the continuation of the ceasefire, in place for more than three weeks, as a major achievement. Tehran and Washington have said Pakistan remains the primary conduit for negotiation. Both Iran and the US hardened their positions after the breakthrough of getting them into the same room in Islamabad for an all-night negotiation session in April, the highest-level engagement between the two sides since the 1979 revolution. According to Tehran, those talks got close to a deal but the US abruptly walked out. Washington said Iran was not prepared to go far enough. An attempt to engineer a second round in Islamabad last weekend fell apart after the Iranian side refused to meet the US team, which was ready to fly in. US officials briefed this week that Washington was considering returning to war. Some voices in Iran have expressed frustration that Pakistan has not been able to hold the US to commitments given in the negotiations. Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, said Pakistan was not only transmitting messages between the two sides. He said Islamabad’s intervention had led to an initial two-week ceasefire and the US-Iran meeting with Pakistani officials as referees. Islamabad persuaded Trump to extend the ceasefire, he said, which now has no stated deadline. The next task was to convince both sides to simultaneously lift their blockades on the strait of Hormuz, he said. But Trump this week said the blockade was more effective than bombing, while Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, hailed a “new chapter” for the strait, suggesting neither side was about to back down. The US Treasury Office warned on Friday that any shipping companies that paid tolls to Iran for passage through the strait of Hormuz, including charitable donations to organisations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, would risk punitive sanctions. Tehran has proposed charging fees on vessels passing through the strait, as part of a deal to end the war. Pakistan’s military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, spent three days in Tehran in April, meeting Iran’s different power centres, while the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, worked on regional support for the peace process, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Islamabad has enlisted countries as far afield as Japan to put their weight behind the diplomacy, and Pakistan’s foreign minister also spoke this week to Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign secretary. “The clock on diplomacy has not stopped,” said Tahir Andrabi, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, before the reports of the new Iranian proposal. “We remain hopeful of a negotiated settlement of this issue.” The previous Iranian bid offered to reopen the strait but defer resolving the issue of the country’s nuclear programme. Trump said Iran must commit to not acquiring nuclear weapons, so Tehran would need to tackle this issue to satisfy Washington and set up the possibility of a new round of direct talks. Two outstanding issues on the nuclear front are agreeing to a pause on Iran’s uranium enrichment, and coming up with an arrangement for its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Regional diplomats with knowledge of the discussions said it should be possible to agree on a moratorium on enrichment of about 10 years – roughly halfway between the negotiating positions of the two sides. In place of the US demand to hand over the highly enriched uranium, it could be sent to Iran’s ally Russia, a possibility discussed this week between Trump and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. Iran remains exasperated by the inability of the US to adopt a coherent public position after Trump said he opposed Iran being allowed to enrich uranium even for medical purposes, a concession Iran believed the US delegation had already made. Jauhar Saleem, formerly Pakistan’s top diplomat, who is now president of the Institute of Regional Studies, a thinktank in Islamabad, said Iran’s apparent strategy of dragging out the negotiation in the expectation of getting a better deal was highly risky. But Washington also had to recognise that its pressure tactics had not worked on Iran over the years, he said. “It is not realistic that Iran would give in to all demands,” said Saleem. “An agreement has to be a win-win situation for both sides.”

Sabastian Sawe receives hero’s welcome in Kenya after sub-two hour marathon feat

Hugged, cheered and adorned with garlands, the first man to run an official marathon in under two hours has returned as a hero to his home village in Kenya. Sabastian Sawe, who stunned the world when he clocked 1h 59m 30s in the London Marathon last weekend, flew in a Kenyan military plane normally reserved for special operations on Thursday to his home region of western Kenya. Waiting on the runway at a small airport perched on an escarpment 2,150 metres above sea level, Lydia Sawe was trembling with anxious excitement, hands clasped around a huge bouquet of orange roses, as her husband’s aircraft touched down. The plane door opened and the 31-year-old runner locked eyes with his wife and, beaming, made a beeline for her arms. “Congratulations, darling,” she whispered in his ear, tears streaming down her face. Sawe, who broke the world record by 65 seconds, signed a visitor book in the little VIP lounge at Eldoret airport and hugged a line of ecstatic friends and locals. He was given a wreath made from the sinendet plant, which symbolises victory within his Kalenjin ethnic group, and fed fermented milk from a gourd by Lydia to celebrate his win. “The victory that took place last Sunday was not just my victory, it was a victory for all of us,” he said in Kiswahili, addressing the jubilant local community that had gathered to welcome him at the airport entrance. “I’m so happy to be home and … welcomed this much, I’m so grateful,” he told the Guardian. Famous runners are nothing new to this high-altitude part of Kenya. In the towns and villages around the city of Eldoret, in the Great Rift Valley, life is about farming crops, tending to livestock and nurturing the next generation of world record-breaking distance runners. Every day, the red dirt roads that weave between modest homesteads and maize fields are pounded by the trainers of thousands of hopeful, driven young runners. People living in and growing up in Eldoret are often able to become good distance runners because people living and training at altitude produce more red blood cells to deal with the lower-oxygen environment. When competing at lower altitudes, the greater number of red blood cells can boost oxygen delivery to muscles, resulting in better endurance and performance. Sabastian’s grandmother Vivian Kimaru had also had sporting success. “I competed in Munich’s 1972 Olympic Games in 1500 and 800m and reached the semi-final,” she said. “I’m so proud,” she said of her grandson, speaking from his parents’ home in Ndonyongaria village where the celebrations continued. People sat under marquees and women danced on grass in between bursts of torrential rain while traditional music boomed from a sound system. After speeches and prayers, mounds of rice, sauteed cabbage, beef stew and chapati were served. Sawe’s victory on Sunday was followed by days of rushing around, and he arrived in Kenya on Wednesday night to chaotic crowds at Nairobi’s international airport. At a lavish welcome event and breakfast at the presidential residence, the president, William Ruto, who is also from Eldoret and of the same Kalenjin community, said Sawe’s achievement was “not merely a sporting triumph, it is a defining moment in the story of human endurance”. He presented Sawe with two cheques totalling 8m shillings (£46,000), one for winning the race and the other for breaking the world record. Sawe also received car number plates showing his record time. In return, Sawe gave the president one of his racing shoes with 1.59.30 written in marker pen on the sole. Running is not a hobby or pastime in and around Eldoret; it is seen as a route to wealth that is often unattainable by other means. Runners are spurred on by a desire for a better life through sponsorship deals, race wins and athletics scholarships at foreign universities and prestigious academies. Emmy Biwott, 45, the director of Uasin Gishu county government primary school, who had come to the airport to welcome Sawe, said athletes were “our cash crop”. In the area, “90% of those people who are doing well are athletes”, she said. Toby Tanser, an author of books on Kenyan running and the founder of Shoe4Africa, a running and Aids awareness charity, said money was the motivation behind the region’s running success. Six of the 10 fastest male marathoners in history and four of the fastest females marathoners have come from Kenya. In Sawe’s village, Tanser said: “You’ll not see a single fun runner, a charity runner or just running for health. People around here run for a way out of poverty. Nearly every famous Kenyan runner has come from a village setting.” Away from the crowd, in the living room of her parents-in-law, Lydia, sat with close family and friends. How would life change for her family, which includes three sons? “I can’t even imagine,” she said. “It will be so strange,” she said of the future. “We will be [going] somewhere. I will be someone.”

Pope Leo is wise, though not infallible | Letters

Jonathan Freedland is right: in a contest between a former property developer turned politician and the Vicar of Christ, there is only ever going to be one winner (It’s no surprise Trump has met his match in Pope Leo – the US president represents the polar opposite of Christianity, 24 April). The present pope is an intelligent and sophisticated Augustinian, well versed in dealing with subtle and complex disputes within the Catholic church. Crude attacks from Donald Trump and JD Vance hold no terrors. The president’s greetings-card picture of himself as a Christ-like healer was childish and self-defeating, while the vice-president’s pointed gift of volumes of Saint Augustine’s writings, as if the pontiff were unfamiliar with their contents, was simply crass. Nevertheless, not all papal pronouncements are infallible. Pope Leo did open himself to legitimate criticism when he declared in his Palm Sunday address: “He [Jesus] does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” In the context of the Iran conflict, we know what he meant, but the bald statement invites misunderstanding. It appears at odds with the concept of a just war – the conditions for which are laid out in the catechism of the Catholic church (paragraph 2309). The pope’s remark would hardly apply to the petitions of those who waged war against the Nazis and who liberated the death camps. Francis Bown London • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Pro-Trump commentator snaps and drops F-bomb on CNN when asked to justify Iran war

Scott Jennings, CNN’s most prominent pro-Trump commentator, was triggered into swearing at a fellow panelist on live television on Thursday night after being repeatedly pressed to name a single political concession the US had extracted from its war with Iran – and failing to answer. The outburst came during NewsNight With Abby Phillip, where Jennings clashed with Adam Mockler, a 23-year-old commentator with the progressive MeidasTouch. When Mockler asked him to name a concrete gain from the conflict, Jennings responded with the party-line response that the conflict had a singular, clear purpose – preventing a theocratic regime from acquiring nuclear weapons – but Mockler shot back that the non-answer was itself an answer. “So you can’t answer the question,” Mockler replied. Moments later, as Mockler kept gesturing with his hands while speaking, Jennings, a former George W Bush campaign staffer, snapped: “Get your fucking hand out of my face.” Jennings has a history of lashing out at panelists who get in his personal space, including a tense moment from 2024 with the Democratic commentator Bakari Sellers. Jennings’s most recent outburst may be a reflection of the times. A new Washington Post–ABC News-Ipsos poll from Friday found 61% of Americans now consider the use of military force against Iran a mistake – a level of opposition the pollsters compared to the Iraq war in 2006, when violence was at its peak, and to the Vietnam war in the early 1970s. Fewer than one in five Americans believe the campaign has been going well, with roughly four in 10 saying it has not been successful and a further four in 10 saying it is too early to render a verdict. The results mirrored a similar CNN poll conducted in the very first days of the war. The argument that Jennings made on air before his meltdown has remained the go-to Republican position that has been the cause of their headaches: that it is Democratic opposition that was manufacturing the war’s unpopularity rather than reflecting it. The Pentagon secretary, Pete Hegseth, when testifying before the Senate on Thursday, offered a similar line. “We are two months into a historic military success in Iran,” Hegseth told Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, “and it’s defeatist Democrats like you that cloud the mind of the American people that would otherwise fully support preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon.” Jennings did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would explain the outburst or apologize to Mockler.

Trump threatens to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw US troops from Italy and Spain, a day after saying he was looking at reducing the number deployed in Germany. Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said he did “not understand” Trump’s motives for the threat (10:22) with both prime ministers not offering any immediate response to the US president’s comments (16:19). In other news, International Workers’ Day parades took place across Europe (11:09, 13:05, 14:26). The European Union’s mammoth trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur provisionally enters into force today, despite a pending court ruling on its legality (12:29). German airline Lufthansa said it had apologised to Russian film-maker Pavel Talankin for losing his Oscar statuette, which has now been found and remains in the airline’s Frankfurt office (11:50, 15:38). Italian authorities evacuated some 3,500 people in its famed Tuscany region as they try to tame a wildfire there that has been raging for more than 24 hours (14:56). The European Union marks the 22nd anniversary of the “big bang” enlargement by 10 member states in central, eastern and southern Europe, celebrated by the countries’ leaders (11:29). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa. Have a great weekend!

Italian city orders dog owners to wash away urine or face €500 fine

Dog owners in an Italian port city will be required to clean up their pets’ urine from public spaces or face fines of up to €500. Luca Salvetti, the mayor of Livorno, on the Tuscan coast, introduced the measure after complaints from residents about the smell of dog urine, particularly in parks and children’s play areas. Dog owners will be required to carry water bottles and sprayers to cleanse pavements, benches and even the wheels of parked cars and scooters. Their pets are forbidden from urinating near doorways and windows, and especially by the entrances of shops, offices and homes. Salvetti’s council said in a statement outlining the measure: “Public spaces are community property that must be protected to ensure decorum, hygiene and urban livability.” The council said it was responding to “numerous reports from residents highlighting the discomfort caused by foul odours and the health and hygiene issues resulting from the presence of liquid animal waste in spaces intended for socialisation by adults and children”. It said the measure was especially needed in light of a big rise in the number of pets, especially dogs. The measure will apply to anyone walking a dog, be it the owner or someone taking care of the animal, and will be in force between 20 May and 31 October, the period deemed the most critical owing to the higher temperatures and lower rainfall. Those proven to have broken the rules face fines of between €25 and €500 (£21 and £425). Similar rules are already in place in Livorno for dog waste, with dog walkers obliged to carry equipment to scoop up the excrement. Dog walkers can be subjected to spot checks by public officials to ensure they are appropriately equipped for the task. In September last year, leaders in Bolzano sparked controversy among animal rights’ groups after proposing a dog tax of €1.50 a night for canines visiting the northern Italian province and €100 per year per dog for resident dog owners, with the proceeds used to rid the streets of dog mess.