What to know about the Iran war today:
o President Trump threatened Iran on Wednesday with "higher level" military strikes if it doesn't accept a peace deal, but he says it's "too soon" for new direct talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan after reporting "great progress" in negotiations to end the war.

o Iran has yet to react publicly to President Trump's announcement of a pause in the brief Project Freedom mission to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which prompted the first Iranian attacks on vessels in the strait and against U.S. Gulf allies in almost a month.

o Mr. Trump put Project Freedom on pause Tuesday night, saying it was to see if "a Complete and Final Agreement" to end the war with Iran could be nailed down amid what he called "great progress" in negotiations brokered by Pakistan.

Strait of Hormuz traffic still...More

UnitedHealthcare said on Tuesday it is eliminating "prior authorization" requirements for 30% of medical services that previously required insurer approval, a policy shift that could eliminate red tape and speed access to patient care.

The move comes amid pressure on the health insurance industry to limit prior authorizations, the process by which health care providers such as doctors or hospitals obtain approval from patients' insurance carriers to deliver care.

Prior authorizations have long drawn criticism for the time they require of physicians' offices and for hindering patients' access to care, with the American Medical Association finding that such offices spend an average of 12 hours per week seeking insurer approval for medical treatments.

Critics say those hours would be better spent providing medical care, while some patients report being denied treatment by...More

The Emirates Stadium finally echoed with the historic magic of Highbury as Mikel Arteta's squad delivered a Champions League final to Arsenal after a 20-year wait


Getty Images

Manic on the streets of London. What had begun in a sea of red smoke ended amid the din of "super Mik Arteta" and the cry of car horns. Around every corner you turned, a gaggle of delirious Arsenal supporters intent on finding that one last pub that was somehow both open and not overflowing. Best of luck on that front, but you couldn't blame them for trying. This was the sort of day you never wanted to end.

By the look of a few bleary faces on Wednesday morning, it might not have yet.

Twenty or so hours earlier, north London crackled with anticipation. Turn right out of the Emirates Stadium and head up the Hornsey Road, and you might...More

Former President Barack Obama made some pointed remarks about the state of American governance under President Trump in an interview with Stephen Colbert that aired Tuesday night. Obama raised concerns about the expansion of executive branch powers and the use of the Justice Department for political ends, though he didn't mention Mr. Trump by name.

"We can survive a lot — bad policy, funky elections, there's a bunch of stuff that, you know, we can overcome," Obama said on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." "We can't overcome the politicization of our justice system, the awesome power of the state. You can't have a situation in which whoever is in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends."

When Colbert asked about the "need to restrict executive powers" and "what powers do you believe the president should...More

Emergency responders help a woman after a shooting at the Sao Jose school, where two staff members were killed, the Acre state government confirmed in a statement, in Rio Branco, Brazil, May 5, 2026. Sergio Vale / REUTERS

A school shooting Tuesday in Acre state in northern Brazil left two women dead and two others injured, including an underage student, authorities said.

The state government said in a statement that a 13-year-old student admitted carrying out the attack at the public school Instituto Sao Jose in Rio Branco, the state capital.

The two fatalities were female staff members who died at the scene. Another staff member and a student were injured by gunfire and taken to a hospital. The injured student, an 11-year-old girl, was shot in the leg.

Officials did not disclose the victims' identities. Police said the suspect...More

On weekday mornings, Myndie Friedman is out the door just as the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean, a block from her home in Long Beach, New York.

Friedman's first stop is a 7:30 a.m. bus, which she takes to a local train station for a roughly hourlong trip into Manhattan's Midtown neighborhood. Then she hops on the subway before exiting and hoofing it 10 minutes to her office job. Total commute: two hours door to desk, along with another couple of hours for the return trip home.

It would be a challenging daily trek even if Friedman weren't almost 70 years old.

Still, she has no plans to quit her job as an administrator in a medical office. Friedman, a widow, told CBS News her monthly Social Security check covers only a third of her living expenses.

"I need another two-thirds to live the way I'm living," she said.

"You have to eat"
Friedman is part of a...More

Fluency in artificial intelligence is increasingly a prerequisite in today's labor market, with employers across industries seeking AI-literate job candidates.

Research from Resume Genius found that 8 in 10 hiring managers consider AI skills a priority. And in a sign of the times, other data shows that most employers would hire a candidate with AI skills over one with additional years of work experience.

Yet while many workers today are well aware of the need to hone their AI chops, few employers offer the necessary training, said Lisa Gevelber, who heads Google's "Grow with Google" initiative, a program that provides digital skills training to workers and businesses.

"We know AI can be extremely beneficial and that hiring managers say knowing how to use it is essential, but employers aren't meeting that need in terms of training employees," she told CBS...More

America's national debt has surpassed the country's gross domestic product for the first time since World War II, marking a stark increase in the government's fiscal burden.

Debt held by the public stood at $31.27 trillion at the end of April, edging above the U.S. GDP of $31.22 trillion between April 2025 and March 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

"Outside of a brief period early in the COVID-19 pandemic – when GDP temporarily crashed – debt only exceeded GDP for two years at the end of World War II," found the nonpartisan think tank, which focuses on fiscal issues and which favors lower deficits.

Federal spending soared during World War II. By contrast, the recent debt surge has been fueled by a combination of tax cuts, increased government spending on interest payments and the challenge of serving an aging population, which is...More