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US President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out striking Iran with a nuclear weapon, after his previous threats to completely destroy Iranian civilization.

"No, I wouldn't use it," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it?" he asked.

"A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody."

Trump on April 7 issued a genocidal threat to Iran that a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back," but within hours agreed to a ceasefire that he has since extended in the war launched by the United States and Israel.

Vice President JD Vance during the conflict warned that the United States was ready to intensify damage on Iran with weapons not previously used, but the White House denied he was threatening nuclear strikes.

Vance in failed negotiations had pushed Iran for greater concessions on its contested nuclear work.

Trump told reporters that he was seeking an Iran "without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East."

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and the UN nuclear watchdog says that an atomic bomb was not imminent before the war.

The United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat, obliterating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, killing some 214,000 people.

Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not publicly acknowledge them.

Trump's blanket statement against any nuclear use would appear to be at odds with longstanding US nuclear doctrine, which reserves the right to use nuclear weapons.

Trump has previously called for an end to a US moratorium on nuclear testing in response to US allegations of secret testing by China and Russia.

Former president Barack Obama had called for an eventual goal of a world without nuclear weapons, but his administration also said that so long as they existed, the US arsenal would serve as a deterrent.

The United States has rejected calls to declare that it will never use nuclear weapons first in a conflict.

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Taylor Jenkins, who spent six seasons as coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, was set to be hired as coach of the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, according to multiple reports on Thursday.

The 41-year-old American served as an assistant coach for the Bucks in the 2018-19 season on coach Mike Budenholzer's staff.

Jenkins departed in June 2019 to become head coach at Memphis and went 250-214 before being fired in March 2025 with nine games remaining in the season.

Jenkins would replace Doc Rivers, who resigned as head coach of the Bucks 10 days ago after three seasons at Milwaukee, losing twice in the first round of the playoffs before missing the post-season this year after nine years in a row in the playoffs.

Rivers, 64, guided Boston to the 2008 NBA crown and has a career NBA coaching record of 1,194-866.

The move comes as the Bucks are trying to convince Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo to remain with the club.

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The US Justice Department's internal watchdog said Thursday it will investigate its compliance with a law mandating the release of millions of pages of documents in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The law passed last November obligated the Trump administration to exhibit total transparency on the politically explosive case file of Epstein, the billionaire playboy who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

But after making reams of documents public in a process that culminated with a drop of some three million pages in late January, the Justice Department (DOJ) came in for heated criticism.

Lawmakers from both parties complained about information being withheld, in particular the redaction of parts of the massive case file.

At the same time the department released names and photos of Epstein victims who until then had not been named publicly, triggering outrage. These sensitive parts of the file were later removed from the public domain.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act compelled the DOJ to release all documents in its possession related to Epstein within 30 days.

It required redaction of names or other personally identifiable information about Epstein's victims, who numbered more than 1,000, according to the FBI.

But powerful figures who were friendly with Epstein could not be shielded "on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity," the law states.

The department's Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday it was opening a probe into how the department complied with the law called the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The probe will "evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act." A final report will be issued.

In February, lawmakers from both parties who were allowed to view the fully unredacted Epstein files at DOJ facilities complained that some information in the publicly released files was still improperly shielded.

Simply being mentioned in the Epstein files does not denote the commission of wrongdoing.

But since the huge document drop on January 30, prominent people around the world have been rocked by revelations of their ties with Epstein. This has led to criminal probes, arrests and resignations, mainly in Europe.

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(The Center Square) – Regeneron is the latest pharmaceutical manufacturer to make a deal with the administration to offer some of their drugs at most-favored-nation pricing.

Now, 17 of the largest drug manufacturers in the world have announced similar deals with the White House to offer some of their medicines at rates no higher than other economic peer countries because for decades, Americans have often paid much higher prices for prescription drugs.

The deals have been announced over the course of less than a year, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May 2025 aimed at securing most-favored-nation pricing. The president has said that the U.S. has effectively been paying for the high costs of pharmaceutical research and development and subsidizing prescription drugs for other countries.

The companies have agreed to sell their drugs to state Medicaid programs at most-favored-nation pricing, as well as offering some drugs at deeply discounted rates on government website TrumpRx for Americans not using insurance. Many of the agreements have also mentioned guaranteeing most-favored-nation pricing on all “new, innovative medicines” they bring to market, though it’s unclear whether that only applies to state Medicaid programs or commercial sales.

The president said these deals would result in “the largest drop in prescription drug prices in the history of the United States of America,” but he expressed doubt that it would factor into Americans’ decisions at the polls come November. 

“It's the biggest price reduction in drugs in history. By itself, we should win the midterms. But it doesn't work that way,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. People forget too quickly.”

As part of its joint announcement with Regeneron Thursday, the White House also announced that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved one of Regeneron’s drugs, Otarmeni, which the president described as a “gene therapy curing a rare disease that causes deafness.”

He added that Regeneron would, for a time, be offering the drug for free.

A mother and two-year-old boy who was born with the ultra-rare condition were there Thursday to attest to the drug’s impact.

“It's absolutely incredible,” she said. “With Regeneron and this amazing surgery, he can listen to music, and he loves it, and he loves to dance, and he loves instruments.”

Meta plans to cut a tenth of its workforce, looking for productivity gains from its remaining workers as it invests heavily in artificial intelligence.

Meta will lay off about 8,000 employees and leave thousands of other positions unfilled next month, a source told AFP.

The move comes as co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg makes a priority of delivering "superintelligence" in a costly AI race against rivals including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.

Reports on Thursday also indicated that Microsoft is looking to trim its ranks with voluntary buyouts of some US employees in an unprecedented move by the tech stalwart founded in 1975.

About seven percent of US employees at Microsoft were reported to be eligible for an offer aimed at workers senior director level or lower whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or more, according to a CNBC report.

Microsoft, which has also been pouring billions of dollars into AI, did not respond to a request for comment.

Meta and Microsoft are both set to report quarterly earnings next week.

Meta in January reported quarterly earnings that topped market expectations, as revenue grew along with investments in AI.

Meanwhile costs tallied $35.15 billion, an increase of 40 percent from the same period a year earlier, the earnings reported noted.

Capital expenses, including infrastructure such as data centers to power AI, were $22.14 billion in the quarter, according to the company.

Meta anticipated capital expenditures in the $115 billion to $135 billion range this fiscal year, driven by increased investment in Meta Superintelligence Labs and its core business.

"I'm looking forward to advancing personal superintelligence for people around the world in 2026," Zuckerberg said on an earnings call.

Meta is locked in a bitter rivalry with other tech behemoths racing to invest heavily in AI, aiming to ensure the technology generates profits in the not-so-distant future.

Most analysts believe Meta will make the investment pay off by improving advertising efficiency and creating new opportunities, such as with its smart glasses through a partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica.

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Only one person has been approved for US President Donald Trump's "gold card" visa program so far, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday, referring to a million-dollar residency card unveiled last year.

The US leader signed an order last September to create the program offering residency for a fee of $1 million. It started accepting applications in December.

US officials have recently approved one person, Lutnick told a US House committee on Thursday.

"And there are hundreds in the queue" who are going through the process, he added.

Applicants also have to pay a $15,000 Department of Homeland Security processing fee, and Lutnick said they would go through a "most serious vetting and analysis."

The "gold card" residency program charges a $1 million fee for individuals and $2 million for sponsorships by corporations.

Its creation came at the same time that Trump ordered an annual $100,000 fee be added to H-1B skilled worker visas.

Trump initially said the new visa would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the national deficit.

Since returning to the presidency in 2025, Trump has tightened immigration and his administration has conducted harsh deportation raids.

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(The Center Square) – In honor and ahead of America’s 250th birthday, polling and analysis organization the Napolitan Institute released a “declaration” of 27 shared American ideals Thursday based on the findings of an extensive artificial intelligence-powered survey.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen, the founder of the Napolitan Institute, said that the results showed him that the U.S. isn’t as polarized as it can appear.

“We are not a 50-50 polarized nation. What I believe we are is a 10-10-80 nation,” Rasmussen said at the unveiling of the declaration. “There are people on both the left and the right who reject America’s founding ideals… [but] 80% of Americans hate the political fighting.”

More than 2,400 people across all 435 congressional districts responded in their own words to a series of prompts online asking them about freedom and equality. With oversight, advanced AI models were then used to synthesize those results into 27 core summary statements, “most of which had over 80% agreement from everyone who participated,” according to the website chronicling the initiative.

At Thursday’s annual meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Rasmussen read the declaration. The first statement was a slightly modernized version of the most recognized excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: “We have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Another borrowed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, saying “We should be judged by the content of our character, not by the color of our skin.”

That statement was the “only ideal that had not a single congressional district in opposition,” according to Rasmussen.

Others included “People are born with basic rights that the government does not give them and cannot take away” and “Freedom is the power to make your own choices and control your own life.”

On equality, some of the AI-generated summary statements were, “Equality is everyone having the same opportunity to succeed based on their own efforts, not a guarantee of the same results,” and “The law should apply to everyone in the same way, no matter who they are.”

Participants not only responded to the prompts in their own words, but they were also able to up- or down-vote statements from others. 

The institute was founded in 2024 by founder of RMG Research Rasmussen to “lift up and amplify the voice of the American people so loudly that it cannot be ignored in the halls of power.” 

Napolitan partnered with Google incubator Jigsaw to develop an AI model to support the We the People initiative. 

“One of the domains that we’ve been working on is giving people more agency in their civic life,” said Spencer Baim, head of brand, creative and marketing for Jigsaw. “What if AI could help you chat better with someone else, human-to-human in a world that is increasingly divided? Would it be possible to help people have better conversations and have a feeling that their voice and their table matters?”

One woman at the meeting posed a question to Rasmussen after the unveiling.

“It’s great to hear about these agreements on very general, feel-good kinds of claims. But I would wonder how those people would line up if you asked them about gun control, immigration and their feeling about January 6,” she said.

“One of the great parts of the whole process was that people told us from the very beginning that they were skeptical that they would find common ground with anybody else. Having gone through the process, they were shocked at how much common ground they found on different topics,” Rasmussen said.

The survey was held online for just over five weeks in September and October, and participants were informed at the beginning that they would need to complete three rounds of the survey. To select a nationally representative sampling of participants, the Napolitan Institute partnered with the recruitment firm Rep Data, which recruited U.S. citizens across the country along the dimensions of sex, age, race and political affiliation and aligned with 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. All respondents were compensated for their participation and informed of the purpose of the survey and AI’s role in the process.

European leaders celebrated the long-awaited approval of the release of a 90-billion-euro ($105-billion) loan for Ukraine on Thursday, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly pushed the debate back to his country's EU accession.

After months of wrangling with Hungary, the final sign-off for the loan and a new package of EU sanctions on Russia boosted Zelensky as he touched down for talks with the bloc's leaders in the resort town of Ayia Napa on Cyprus.

Zelensky said he was "very grateful" for the funds that will help Kyiv keep its army equipped and show Moscow that Europe's backing for Ukraine remains strong.  

But then he told reporters he wanted EU leaders to move Ukraine to the next step in its bid to join the bloc.  

"We will push everybody," Zelensky told reporters outside the seaside conference venue, adding that "of course" his dream was to make Kyiv a member by 2027.   

Ukraine's path forward appears to have become easier now Hungary's nationalist leader Viktor Orban is on his way out of power after losing elections this month.

Orban had refused to allow the opening of negotiating "clusters" between Ukraine and the EU.

European Council President Antonio Costa, who represents the 27 member states, said the EU must "look forward and to prepare the next step", which would mean "to open formally the first clusters of negotiations for the European accession of Ukraine".

However, some in the EU are reluctant to fast-track Ukraine's bid and have instead floated a lesser status without full membership rights. 

"We must continue to proceed on a merit-based approach," Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said. "Fast tracks are not possible."

Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden agreed, saying: "You simply cannot become a member of a club without meeting the conditions."

Zelensky has insisted that Kyiv wants full EU membership, not a  "symbolic" status.

French President Emmanuel Macron would not be drawn on the question of accelerated membership but called on the EU executive to provide "a precise timetable and outline the actions to be taken in the coming weeks".

- 'Strengthen' Ukraine -

Orban, who skipped what was meant to be his last summit,  had stalled the 90-billion-euro loan in a row with Zelensky that infuriated his EU counterparts.

Orban used his veto as leverage to get Zelensky to fix a pipeline damaged by a Russian strike. Following its repair this week, Russian oil flowed once more via the pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia.

Zelensky has said the 90 billion euros will be used to "strengthen" the Ukrainian army, boost production in air defence and protect the country's energy grid.

He hopes the money will be disbursed by late May or early June at the latest.

After resolving the row over Ukraine, EU leaders will turn to the Middle East war and its fallout, including skyrocketing energy prices.

Cyprus, which holds the rotating EU presidency, was sucked into the conflict in March after a drone hit a British base on the Mediterranean island.

European leaders will be joined on Friday by counterparts from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan for what a senior EU official described as "intensive dialogue".

A key issue for Europe is the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure has sent oil prices soaring and crimped supply of jet fuel in Europe.

The European Union's 2028-2034 budget will also be discussed for the first time, with hopes of securing a final agreement by the end of 2026.

The EU executive wants a bigger budget worth around two trillion euros ($2.3 trillion) though national governments are reluctant to pay more.

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OpenAI released a new model it touts as its best yet for handling research work like making improved versions of itself, as rapid-fire releases by AI rivals pick up pace.

GPT-5.5 was billed as a "new class of intelligence" and comes just months after the launch of its predecessor.

"What is really special about this model is how much more it can do with less guidance," OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman said at a briefing with journalists.

"It can look at an unclear problem and figure out just what needs to happen next."

The model is particularly adept at "agentic" coding and computer use in which digital assistants independently tend to tasks as directed, according to the San Francisco-based startup behind ChatGPT.

"It feels like it's setting the foundation for how we're going to do computer work going forward," Brockman said.

In the short term, OpenAI is focused on letting humans act as "orchestrators" while AI models do the "heavy lifting," chief research officer Mark Chen said at the briefing.

OpenAI was adamant that it built its strongest safeguards to date into GPT-5.5 "to reduce misuse, especially for bio and cyber capabilities."

That means a ramped-up tendency for the latest model to refuse requests to attempt "cyber-related activities," OpenAI executives said.

Rival company Anthropic has held back a new Claude Mythos AI model deemed so adept at finding vulnerabilities in software it could be a boon for hackers.

Anthropic restricted the release of Mythos to select major tech firms to give them a head start in fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and is looking into reports of unauthorized use of the model.

"There are enough model releases that it's probably going to be hard to distinguish one from another," Brockman mused during the briefing.

"This model is a real step forward towards the kind of computing that we expect in the future, but it is one step, and we expect to see many."

According to OpenAI, artificial general intelligence in which computers think as well or better than people is no longer theoretical, and AI models that research how to essentially improve themselves take the world further in that direction.

The executives described GPT-5.5 "as one of the clearest steps yet toward models that can accelerate AI research itself."

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R&B singer D4vd, who is facing murder charges over the death and dismemberment of a young teenager whose decomposing body was found in his car, had child porn on his mobile phone, a US prosecutor said Thursday. 

The 21-year-old, whose real name is David Burke, faces a possible death penalty over the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who prosecutors say he murdered and hacked up, dumping her body in bags that he left to rot in his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills.

The youngster, 14, was believed to have been in a sexual relationship with the up-and-coming star.

Detectives say Burke killed her on April 23 last year to protect his burgeoning career when she threatened to expose that relationship. 

Her badly decomposed corpse was found in the front trunk of his car at a tow yard in September, within days of what would have been her 15th birthday.

At a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles, prosecutor Beth Silverman said a search of Burke's iPhone had revealed "a significant amount of child pornography."

She gave no details about the imagery, including whether it involved the dead girl.

The murder drew international interest, with some noting haunting parallels with Burke's music career, which included a breakout hit called "Romantic Homicide."

Amateur sleuths have also uncovered details that include appearances the pair made together on streaming platforms, and matching finger tattoos -- saying "Shhh."

Burke was on a nationwide tour when Rivas Hernandez's body was found, and he initially said he would continue playing gigs.

The seven-month investigation into her death culminated in his arrest a week ago.

An autopsy released Wednesday revealed she had died from "multiple penetrating injuries." It did not specify what caused the wounds.

Tests revealed the presence of illegal drugs and alcohol in her system.

The teen's family said they were "absolutely devastated by the findings contained in the Medical Examiner’s Report involving the horrible and gruesome death of their beloved daughter."

Her mother had reported her missing when she was 13.

Burke, who appeared in court on Thursday dressed in an orange jail-issue jumpsuit, has denied one count each of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

The singer remains in jail. His case is next expected to be dealt with on Wednesday when attorneys will negotiate over a date for a preliminary hearing, the moment in which the court decides if there is enough evidence to proceed with the case.

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