The Daily Brief — May 26, 2026
US strikes Iran again, federal court blocks Alabama map, pope apologizes over slavery
These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Catch up here on all the news.
US Strikes Iran During Ceasefire
The US military launched strikes in southern Iran yesterday, even as US and Iranian negotiators met in Qatar for a deal to end the war. The strikes hit missile launch sites and boats the US said were placing mines near the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command, the military command overseeing the Middle East, said the strikes were “self-defense” actions to protect American troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. Iran’s foreign ministry accused the US of “a clear violation of the ceasefire” and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has a right to retaliate.. An Iranian news outlet reported that four Revolutionary Guard troops were killed.
A ceasefire has officially been in place between the US and Iran since April 8, but the two sides have exchanged fire several times since.
The strikes came the same day a senior Iranian delegation, led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, arrived in Qatar for talks aimed at ending the war. Reports over the weekend suggested the US and Iran were nearing a temporary deal, possibly a 60-day halt in hostilities, but the terms were not confirmed.
Trump Demands Muslim Nations Recognize Israel
President Trump said it should be “mandatory” for Muslim-majority countries involved in the Iran peace talks to formally recognize Israel as part of any deal.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump called for those countries to sign on to the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreements his administration brokered that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed in 2020; Morocco and Sudan joined later.
Trump first raised the demand in a weekend phone call with the leaders of a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain. A US official said the leaders — particularly those of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan, which have no formal ties with Israel — were stunned, and that there was silence on the line until Trump joked to ask whether they were still there.
Egypt and Jordan already have peace treaties with Israel, signed in 1979 and 1994, and Turkey recognized Israel in 1949, so it is unclear why Trump named them. Pakistan, which is helping mediate the US–Iran talks, rejected the proposal; it has never recognized Israel, citing Israel’s opposition to a Palestinian state.
SCOTUS Sides With Trump in Speech Case
The Supreme Court has backed the Trump administration in a dispute over a policy limiting what federal immigration judges can publicly say about immigration.
The policy, which requires immigration judges to get approval before making public remarks tied to their official duties, began during Trump’s first term and was revised under the Biden administration. The immigration judges — who work for the Justice Department, not the judicial branch — first sued in 2020, arguing the rule was unconstitutional.
In an unsigned ruling with no noted dissents released this morning, the justices threw out a lower court decision that had favored the judges and sent the case back to that court for more proceedings. The ruling did not decide whether the policy itself violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
Court Blocks Alabama’s GOP-Drawn Map
A federal court has barred Alabama from using its Republican-drawn congressional map in this year’s midterm elections, two weeks after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to use that map.
On May 11, the Supreme Court set aside an earlier ruling against the map and sent the case back to a three-judge panel, telling it to reconsider the case in light of a separate decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and struck down a second Black-majority district in Louisiana. Alabama officials then moved to use the map. Yesterday the same panel again blocked it, finding the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Constitution.
The state’s attorney general said he would appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The judges also set a trial for next year to fully examine the map’s legality.
Separately, a similar redistricting fight ended differently in South Carolina today, where the Republican-led state Senate voted against advancing a new congressional map that would have eliminated the state’s only majority-Black district — long represented by Democratic Rep. James Clyburn — and given Republicans a chance to win the seat. The rejection was a surprise, given President Trump had urged lawmakers to pass the map; the state House had approved it last week.
Pope Leo XIV Apologizes for Catholic Church’s Role in Slavery
Pope Leo XIV issued the most explicit apology a pope has made for the Catholic Church’s role in slavery, acknowledging that past popes helped legitimize the practice and that the church failed for centuries to condemn it.
He made the apology in his first encyclical — a formal letter from the pope to the world’s Catholic bishops and ordinary Catholics on matters of doctrine and morality — released yesterday. Leo called the church’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”
Earlier popes had apologized for the church’s involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but none had acknowledged that past popes gave European rulers explicit authority to subjugate and enslave non-Christians.
ICE Agents Pepper-Spray Protestors at NJ Detention Center
US Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, was struck by pepper spray yesterday outside an immigration detention center in Newark, where he had gone to support detainees on a hunger strike. Kim said he had trouble breathing after the chemicals were deployed and was treated by medics at the scene. During the demonstrations, ICE agents pepper-sprayed protesters, pushed people back with batons and deployed an armored vehicle. Several demonstrators were arrested.
The detainees at Delaney Hall, a privately run, 1,000-bed facility that currently holds about 300 people, began a hunger and work strike late last week to protest conditions including poor food, a lack of medical care and excessive heat.
Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill and several members of Congress were denied entry to the facility over the holiday weekend.