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A proposed US-Iran ceasefire extension briefly calmed global markets before fresh accusations of missile fire exposed how fragile the negotiations remain. At the same time, Israeli forces are confronting a new battlefield problem in Lebanon as Hezbollah deploys inexpensive fiber-optic drones that can bypass advanced electronic jamming systems.

In Washington, a federal judge’s refusal to halt President Trump’s mail-in voting order is opening the door to a larger legal showdown over election rules ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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US and Iranian negotiators agreed to a 60-day ceasefire extension with terms covering unrestricted Strait of Hormuz shipping, Iran removing mines within 30 days, and a formal commitment not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Final sign-off rests with President Trump; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said "everything depends on what the president wants to do."

Tehran sent conflicting signals — one Iranian news agency denied any deal had been finalized — while oil prices fell globally on the reports. US Central Command also accused Iran of a ceasefire violation after Kuwait came under a ballistic missile attack, which Kuwaiti forces intercepted.

Hezbollah now deploys fiber-optic FPV drones as its primary weapon against Israeli soldiers and civilians — each costing $300–$500, built from commercial parts, and immune to electronic jamming because it emits no signal. BBC Verify geolocated 35 confirmed strikes since March 26, with four Israeli soldiers and one civilian killed.

Israeli military engineers face a genuinely novel challenge: defeating a weapon cheaper than a traffic fine with systems worth billions. Every jamming attempt has failed, forcing a fundamental rethink of Israel's entire electronic warfare doctrine.

A federal judge in Washington declined to block Trump's mail-in voting order, ruling it premature because the directive's provisions have not yet been implemented. Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump nominee — said opponents hadn't yet demonstrated sufficient legal standing to halt enforcement at this stage.

Five separate lawsuits have been filed by Democratic groups, voting rights organizations, and nearly two dozen states. A federal judge in Boston is expected to rule on related challenges as soon as early June, setting up a critical battle over election access ahead of the midterms.

A measles outbreak in Bangladesh has killed more than 500 people, most of them children, as health officials race to expand vaccination coverage. The death toll is a reminder of how fast a vaccine-preventable disease can rip through a population once routine immunization slips.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly defended his government after former PM Tony Blair accused Labour of having no coherent plan in a 5,700-word essay. Blair called for abandoning North Sea restrictions and cutting welfare spending; Starmer's team rejected the framing outright.

Portugal hit 40.3°C in Mora — breaking its May temperature record — while France and the UK also logged their hottest May days ever. Scientists link the heat dome, running 12–16°C above seasonal norms, to accelerating climate change; multiple drowning deaths across France and the UK were attributed to heat-related conditions.

Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP primary runoff, shifting the Texas Senate race to "Lean Republican" from "Likely Republican" on Cook Political Report. Democrats are encouraged: the race has burned through $108 million already, Republican primary turnout has been lackluster, and a recent poll shows one in five voters still undecided.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed a $269 billion New York budget that introduces a new second-home tax and tightens restrictions on cooperation with ICE. The package leans heavily on policy riders, turning the spending bill into the year's main legislative vehicle.

CVS will restore Zepbound coverage effective October 1 and begin covering Eli Lilly's obesity pill Foundayo on June 1, ending Novo Nordisk's preferred-drug status on standard plans. CVS's plans cover roughly 25 million commercially insured Americans, making the shift a significant realignment in the GLP-1 market.

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April's PCE price index rose 0.4% for the month and 3.8% year-over-year — the highest 12-month headline reading since May 2023. Core PCE landed at 3.3% annually, reinforcing the market consensus that no Fed rate cuts are coming anytime soon.

The DoD awarded Dell Federal Systems a five-year contract worth $9.7 billion to supply Microsoft 365 and cloud tools across the US military. Dell CEO Michael Dell pledged $6.25 billion to Trump accounts last year, drawing scrutiny about the line between political proximity and government contracting.

NPR's Swing Shift panel finds gas prices around $4.25 forcing household budget cuts and fueling political discontent ahead of November. Panel members from both parties said political leaders appear indifferent to their financial pressure, flagging fuel costs as a key midterm vulnerability.

An experimental gene-editing treatment reduced LDL cholesterol by up to 62% in a small early-stage trial after just a single dose. Researchers say the therapy could eventually offer a long-term alternative to daily cholesterol medication if larger trials confirm the results and safety profile.

A new Harvard Medical School molecular clock predicts biological age and time-to-death from any tissue sample, using gene activity patterns across 11,000 individuals and four species. Published in Nature, the tool outperforms existing epigenetic clocks by identifying the underlying biological mechanisms of aging, potentially accelerating longevity drug testing by years.

Physicists in Vienna found magnons that live 100 times longer than previously observed, opening a path to quantum devices roughly the size of a coin. Longer-lived magnons mean more time to do useful computation before quantum information falls apart.

Serena Williams is expected to make her return to competitive tennis at Queen’s Club as preparations continue for the grass-court season ahead of Wimbledon. A comeback by the 23-time Grand Slam champion would mark one of the sport’s biggest storylines after an extended absence from tour-level competition.

The NBA's Board of Governors passed a sweeping draft lottery overhaul, expanding the pool from 14 to 16 teams and forcing the three worst records to pick no higher than 12th. Memphis cast the sole dissenting vote — the team most directly punished by the new anti-tanking provisions.

Four-time Stanley Cup champion and 1995 Conn Smythe winner Claude Lemieux has died at 60. He was a forward remembered for tenacity and an outsized knack for scoring when it mattered most, with one of the most decorated playoff résumés of his era.

Steven Spielberg's sci-fi film 'Disclosure Day' screened for press ahead of its June 12 release, drawing near-universal acclaim with critics calling it his finest work in 20 years. Emily Blunt plays a Kansas City meteorologist overcome by an extraterrestrial force, alongside Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo.

Suki Waterhouse's third album 'Loveland' — out July 10 on Island Records — draws on the Stone Roses and PJ Harvey, with Mick Fleetwood on drums and Robert Pattinson cited as an indirect muse. A North American tour follows, with stops at Radio City Music Hall and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Variety's updated Emmy projections place Apple TV+'s 'Pluribus' as the top drama contender with 15 projected nominations, potentially breaking the freshman-season record held by 'NYPD Blue' since 1994. Nomination voting opens June 11; the ceremony airs September 14 on NBC.

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What it is: The National Science Foundation quietly placed a funding freeze on Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Duke simultaneously on April 9, blocking all new research grants without warning. Internal NSF documents obtained by Nature show the hold was applied with no public announcement, no court notification, and no explanation — leaving the universities with no formal mechanism to contest what was happening.

The detail: New NSF grants to the four schools collapsed from 218 in 2024 to just 13 this fiscal year — a 94% reduction — with Duke and Harvard receiving zero new awards since the freeze. Graduate students have lost stipends, multi-year lab projects face abandonment mid-stream, and department heads are managing growing funding gaps with no timeline and no guidance.

Why it matters: A September federal court ruling permanently barred US agencies from restricting Harvard's funding — legal scholars told Nature the freeze almost certainly violates that standing order. NSF quietly removed the hold notation for Duke, Harvard, and Yale from its internal database the same day Nature's story published, with no statement acknowledging the reversal or explaining why it happened.

What to watch: Princeton's hold remained in place as of Thursday; no agency official has explained the freeze's legal basis, its criteria, or the conditions for lifting it. A broader pattern is visible: rather than high-profile executive orders, the administration is using quiet administrative mechanisms against institutions it considers politically hostile — and the absence of any formal record makes legal challenges and congressional oversight significantly harder to mount.

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—The Five Minute Daily Team