Trump Says Iran Deal Is Near, But Tehran Says Not Yet

LONDON - U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey resigned Thursday, saying the government’s military funding plan falls well short of what Britain needs as threats rise.

Healey said Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Treasury had failed to commit enough resources for the armed forces, leaving the long-delayed defense investment plan unresolved. The departure piles more pressure on Starmer before a NATO summit next month. Dan Jarvis was named as Healey’s replacement later Thursday.

TENERIFE - Pope Leo XIV told migrants in Spain’s Canary Islands that “all of us are migrants,” then urged host communities to welcome them and newcomers to learn the language, respect the laws and join communal life.

He called integration a “reciprocal journey” and warned traffickers and smugglers that they would answer for exploiting people trying to reach Europe. The islands have become a major gateway for Atlantic crossings, and the pope said no one should be left in a “silent shipwreck” of abandonment.

BRUSSELS - Ukraine’s AI-guided drones are hammering Russian supply routes in occupied territory, and Crimea is already feeling it. NBC News reported fuel stations on the peninsula are running dry as attacks hit vehicles carrying supplies on the R-280 highway, a critical link for Russian forces. Kyiv says the strikes are also making it harder for Moscow to keep its logistics moving. That is the point.

LOS ANGELES - Iran held its first open training session in Mexico on Thursday, then turned toward a World Cup opener against New Zealand at SoFi Stadium under the shadow of war with the United States. The squad moved its camp from Arizona to Tijuana and has said little since arriving last Sunday. Alireza Jahanbakhsh has called for peace. The football is only part of this story.

WASHINGTON - President Trump on Thursday nominated Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, to be the next director of national intelligence. The move follows pushback over Trump’s interim choice, Bill Pulte, who drew criticism from lawmakers for lacking intelligence experience. Trump urged the Senate to confirm Clayton as soon as possible. The intelligence job has become a small test of whether experience still counts.

WASHINGTON - Alabama is trying to execute death row inmate Jeffrey Lee by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the state from using nitrogen gas on Thursday night. State lawyers told the Alabama Supreme Court that the injunction only barred nitrogen hypoxia, not Lee's death sentence itself. The move keeps the execution fight alive, just with a different method and the same grim clock.

WASHINGTON - Congress is about to let Section 702, the surveillance authority that lets the government collect foreign intelligence without a warrant, expire for the first time since 2008. The House failed to pass a short-term extension before leaving town for 12 days, and the law is now set to lapse Friday at midnight. Lawmakers have spent months arguing over privacy guardrails, but Bill Pulte's interim intelligence role helped blow up the deal.

WASHINGTON - The FBI searched the office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on Thursday as part of an ongoing fraud-related investigation, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The civil rights group works on voter registration and criminal justice reform. It was not immediately clear what investigators were looking for, and a board member said agents also showed up at employees' and volunteers' homes.

NEW YORK - SpaceX’s first day on the market sent its shares sharply higher Friday and pushed Elon Musk past the trillion-dollar mark, a first for any person.

The rocket company raised $75 billion in the biggest IPO ever, pricing shares at $135. Buyers were up 19 percent almost immediately, and at one point the stock was 31 percent above the offering price. Musk still controls almost all the power, which is great if you trust him and less great if you are the one writing the check.

Investors, for now, seem willing to follow him to the Moon. That is either confidence or a very expensive habit.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has cleared Paramount Skydance's $110 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after an eight-month antitrust review. Regulators said they found no evidence the merger would hurt competition or consumers, and closed the probe without demanding changes. The deal still faces scrutiny in Europe, where regulators are examining its financing. Hollywood's consolidation machine keeps humming.

SAN ANTONIO - The Knicks are one win from their first title since 1973 after erasing a 29-point deficit to beat the Spurs 107-106 in Game 4. OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left finished the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. New York leads the series 3-1, and Game 5 is Saturday in San Antonio. The Spurs have to answer fast, because this one already feels like a turning point.

TORONTO - Cyle Larin came off the bench to score in the 78th minute and rescue Canada from a 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina in its World Cup opener. Jovo Lukic had put Bosnia ahead in the 21st minute, and Canada spent much of the night chasing the game. Jesse Marsch said he did not prepare his team enough for the first half. Canada now has its first World Cup point on home soil.

LOS ANGELES - The United States opens its World Cup campaign Friday night against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium, with kickoff set for 9 p.m. ET and Fox carrying the match in the U.S.

Christian Pulisic is expected to lead a U.S. side that starts Group D as the favorite, but Paraguay has already shown it can spoil a party. The South Americans return to the World Cup for the first time since 2010 and beat both Argentina and Brazil in qualifying. This one should be tight.

LONDON - David Hockney, the British artist whose swimming pool paintings and bright landscapes made him one of the defining figures of modern art, has died at 88.

His publicist said he passed away peacefully at home in London on Thursday, a month before his 89th birthday. Hockney rose to fame in the 1960s with Pop art, then kept moving. He painted on iPads, made stained glass, and never stopped chasing color. As his own line went, he always wanted to see more. That much was obvious.

NEW YORK - Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday night, then spent 21 minutes thanking the people who got her there.

She told the room that songwriting came instinctively, while everything else in her career took work. She also credited her family for uprooting from Pennsylvania to Nashville when she was 14 so she could chase it. Steven Spielberg introduced her, and Travis Kelce was in the room with Swift's mother, brother and future mother-in-law. The Hall of Fame has a new youngest woman, and she was in tears about it.

NEW YORK - Taylor Swift’s debut single came out 20 years ago, and the song already had the blueprint. It had the tiny, telling details, the romantic sting, the sense that a pop song could feel like a diary entry and still fill a stadium.

That is still the trick. This week alone, Swift showed up at the "Toy Story 5" premiere, played Madison Square Garden, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by Steven Spielberg. After the Eras Tour, which grossed $2 billion, she did not flood the market. She stepped back, and everyone started reading the tea leaves again.