WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon would have been a blip in today’s news cycle, and he drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump – arguing that both were targeted by “deep state” forces.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a run for president as he approaches the end of his term, called for a national “billionaires’ tax” on Friday even as he fights another proposal targeting the wealthy in his home state.

LONDON (AP) – Britain looks set to get a change of tone at the top, replacing stolid, unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer with popular, affable Andy Burnham. But the charismatic Burnham may have difficulty – at least initially – distancing himself from policies set in motion by his predecessor.

Ukraine struck a major industrial facility in the Russian city of Volgograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, while a Russian drone attack killed a man in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region overnight.

ISLAMABAD (AP) – As the U.S. and Iran exchanged escalating strikes on June 11, a plane carrying Qatari mediators was stranded on the tarmac in Tehran.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A cargo ship moving through the Strait of Hormuz on a route backed by the United Nations was hit by a projectile Thursday, the British military said, as several tankers made their way out of the channel using the same path.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 100% tax on imports from any country that imposes a tax on digital services from United States companies.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Leo XIV said war is “never blessed by God” as he opened a meeting of the world’s cardinals on Friday by insisting the Catholic Church has a prophetic message of peace for a world ravaged by conflict.