US fires on Iranian oil tanker as Trump pressures Tehran for deal to end war

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military says it has fired on an Iranian oil tanker as President Donald Trump seeks to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal to end the war. U.S. Central Command said Wednesday that an American fighter jet shot the rudder of an Iranian-flagged tanker attempting to breach the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports. It occurred as the U.S. and Iran appeared to be moving closer to an agreement to end the two-month war. Trump on social media threated of a new wave of bombing if a deal is not reached that includes opening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for shipping oil and natural gas.

3 patients are being evacuated to Europe from cruise ship with hantavirus outbreak

PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — The U.N. health agency says three patients on a cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infections are being flown to the Netherlands. The ship involved in the deadly outbreak departed from Cape Verde Wednesday and headed to Spain’s Canary Islands. The World Health Organization says eight cases have been recorded, with five confirmed by lab tests. Three people have died. The ship’s doctor, initially in serious condition, is now stable. Meanwhile, two Argentine officials investigating the origins of the outbreak say the government’s leading hypothesis is that a Dutch couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing before boarding.

Hantavirus is on the rise in Argentina, where a stricken cruise ship began its journey

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to figure out if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise. Argentina is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest incidence of the rare, rat-borne disease in Latin America. And it’s seeing a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the accelerating effects of climate change. The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025. That’s roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.

Southern Republicans press ahead with election-year redistricting of US House despite protests

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republicans are rapidly pursuing redistricting efforts across the South following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affects majority-Black congressional districts. South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana are all considering changes. Tennessee lawmakers have proposed a new House map that would divide Memphis, a majority-Black city. They pressed ahead with it on Wednesday, despite protests. In South Carolina, Republican leaders are targeting a district held by a longtime Black Democratic lawmaker. Alabama lawmakers are considering a new congressional primary if courts allow the state to redistrict. Louisiana already has postponed its congressional primary to allow time for a new redistricting plan.

Oil prices sink and stocks rally worldwide on hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are sinking, and stock markets are bursting higher worldwide with hopes that a deal is nearing to allow ships to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again to customers. The price for a barrel of Brent sank below $102 Wednesday. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2% and was heading for another record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 575 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.7%. Stock markets abroad jumped even more. Oil prices pared their steepest drops from the morning, though, and Wall Street has seen past hopes for an end to the Iran war get dashed several times.

FBI searches Virginia Senate leader’s office as part of corruption probe, AP source says

The FBI has served a search warrant at the office of the Virginia Senate leader as part of a corruption investigation. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The search Wednesday at Sen. L. Louise Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s redistricting effort. The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant. The investigation comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened several probes into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump. He has denounced Virginia’s Democrat-backed redistricting initiative.

CNN founder Ted Turner, a brash and outspoken television pioneer, has died at age 87

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN founder Ted Turner has died at age 87. His company Turner Enterprises says the television pioneer died Wednesday. Turner transformed an obscure Atlanta television station into the first satellite-based “superstation” and founded Cable News Network, the first 24-hour, all news TV network. The brash Southerner owned sports teams, was a champion yacht racer and was married to actor Jane Fonda for 10 years. He was one of America’s most extensive landowners and became a prolific philanthropist, donating $1 billion to the United Nations. President Donald Trump, in reacting to Turner’s death, called him one of the all-time greats.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick appears before a House panel to answer for his changing story on Epstein

WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is appearing before a House committee investigating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Lawmakers are seeking answers about Lutnick’s contact with Epstein after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in Florida. Lutnick says he’s done nothing wrong and welcomes Wednesday’s closed-door interview with lawmakers. The Republican congressman who leads the House Oversight Committee says an interview transcript will be released. James Comer says that will help the public judge whether Lutnick’s “credibility was damaged or not” from statements he made about his contact with Epstein and from information that’s come out in the Epstein files.

Shipping firms are being whipsawed by changing stances and risks as they wait for Hormuz to reopen

NEW YORK (AP) — With hundreds of vessels still stuck in the Persian Gulf and costs piling up, shipping companies are being whipsawed by uncertainty over how and when the Strait of Hormuz might reopen more than two months into the Iran war. U.S. President Donald Trump first announced an effort in which the US military would “guide” ships through the strait, then paused that to allow time for a deal to end the war. A French-operated ship was damaged attempting to transit the strait. Industry figures say a return to normal transit will take weeks even if there’s a deal.

Lower-income Americans hit hardest by gas price spike, widening inequalities, study finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lower-income Americans sharply reduced their gas consumption in the month following the Iran war, yet spiking prices still forced them to spend more at the pump, worsening the economy’s disparities, new research released Wednesday showed. Higher-income households, meanwhile, ratcheted up their spending on gas while barely reducing their consumption, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Middle-income households fell in-between. The figures suggest the gas-price surge has worsened what many economists call the “K-shaped economy.”