The United States’ war in Iran has cost US$25 billion (S$32 billion) so far, a senior Pentagon official said on April 29, providing the first official estimate of the military’s price tag for the conflict.
With just six months before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump’s Republicans may face an uphill battle to keep their House majority, Democrats are riding high in public opinion polls as they attempt to link the unpopular Iran war with affordability.
Mr Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee that most of that money was for munitions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the cost was justified given the US goal of ensuring Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
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PHOTO: REUTERS
The US Supreme Court on April 29 sharply limited the use of race in drawing electoral districts, in a landmark decision that could reshape congressional maps nationwide and boost Republican prospects ahead of midterm elections.
In a 6–3 ruling split along ideological lines, the court struck down a map creating a second majority-Black district in Louisiana, finding it amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander despite being drawn to comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The decision leaves the core of the Voting Rights Act intact but narrows how it can be used, a decision that will be seen by civil rights activists as a blow to a landmark civil rights law that has already been weakened by previous rulings over the past decade.
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PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell said on April 29 that he plans to stay at the central bank as a governor after his chair term ends, as the independent institution battles legal challenges under the Trump administration.
“After my term as chair ends on May 15, I will continue to serve as a governor for a period of time to be determined,” Mr Powell told his last press conference at the helm of the Fed.
He added that he plans to “keep a low profile as a governor” and will leave when he deems it “appropriate to do so” – an unusual though not unprecedented move.
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PHOTO: REUTERS
Two Jewish men were stabbed in north London on April 29 by an attacker who ran down a street targeting Jews in what police said was being treated as a terrorist incident.
Police said the two victims, one in his 70s and one in his 30s, were both in a stable condition in hospital, and officers, some of whom were also attacked, had arrested a 45-year-old man after stopping him by using a Taser stun gun.
The latest in a spate of UK antisemitic attacks has drawn demands for urgent action from Jewish community leaders in London and from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli president amid concerns about the safety of Britain’s 290,000 Jews.
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PHOTO: REUTERS
New maps of Gaza quietly issued by Israel a little more than a month ago have put thousands of displaced Palestinians inside an expanded restricted area, within boundaries the military says it can continue to change.
The restricted area, marked on the maps with an orange line, makes up an estimated 11 per cent of Gaza’s territory beyond the “Yellow Line” demarcating the part of Gaza occupied by Israeli troops since an October ceasefire. The areas cordon off nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s territory in total.
Israel’s military sent the maps to aid groups in Gaza in mid-March, two aid sources said, but has not released them publicly.
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