Here's a rundown of all the news you need to start your Saturday, including US Vice President JD Vance departing for Pakistan to lead peace talks with Iran; US President Donald Trump saying his country is loading warships with the “best weapons ever made,” warning force could be used if no deal is reached; and the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 has risen to 1,953, with 6,303 injured.
US Vice President JD Vance departed Friday for Pakistan to lead peace talks with Iran, saying he expects the negotiations to be “positive,” according to a video record on DRM News' YouTube account.
Speaking before departure, Vance said the US delegation is “looking forward to the negotiation" and voiced hope that the talks would yield a constructive outcome.
“I think it’s going to be positive,” he said, while stressing that progress would depend on Iran’s approach at the negotiating table.
“If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith and extend an open hand, that’s one thing,” Vance said.
US President Donald Trump said his country is loading warships with the “best weapons ever made” as the US delegation is headed to Pakistan for talks with Iran, warning that force could be used if no deal is reached.
“We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post, adding that the weapons are “even better than what we did previously.”
“And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively,” he said.
Asked if he thinks the talks would be successful, Trump responded: “We’re going to find out in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon.”
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 has risen to 1,953, with 6,303 injured, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Friday.
In a statement, the ministry said the wave of Israeli attacks on April 8 killed 357 people and injured 1,223 others.
It added that the figures remain preliminary as rescue teams continue clearing rubble, noting that a large number of remains require DNA testing to confirm the identities of victims.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell held an urgent meeting with leading Wall Street executives this week amid growing concerns that Anthropic PBC’s latest artificial intelligence model could heighten cyber risks for the financial system, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The meeting took place on Tuesday at the Treasury Department in Washington and was organized on short notice to ensure major banks are aware of the potential risks posed by Anthropic’s Mythos model and other similar systems, according to people familiar with the matter.
Officials sought to assess whether the country’s largest banks are taking sufficient precautions to protect their systems against emerging threats linked to increasingly capable AI models, according to the report.
US consumer inflation accelerated in March to its highest level since May 2024 as a steep rise in energy prices, led by gasoline, pushed up the overall cost of living, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.9% on a monthly basis in March, its highest increase since June 2022, after rising 0.3% in February, while annual inflation climbed to 3.3% from 2.4% the previous month.
The rise in annual and monthly inflation came slightly below market expectations, which had pointed to an annual rate of 3.4% and a monthly rate of 1% for March.
The Artemis II mission concluded Friday with a historic splashdown off the coast of San Diego, California, capping a milestone journey for humankind.
The Orion crew module entered Pacific waters at 8.07 ET (0007GMT) after a high-speed descent through the Earth's atmosphere, pushing through temperatures that exceeded 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius).
All four crew members—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—arrived safely after the vessel gradually slowed from speeds of about 33 times the speed of sound, hitting the Pacific at 19 mph (30 kph).
The crew traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history after completing a lunar flyby and sling-shotting around the moon to launch the return trip to Earth.
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