Astronauts return to ISS after sheltering during air leak repair attempt
Russian attempt to repair tunnel area sparks safe-haven procedure for five other astronauts onboard.

Cracks in the transfer tunnel of the aging space station have been causing leaks since 2019.
Russian attempt to repair tunnel area sparks safe-haven procedure for five other astronauts onboard.
Democrats pushed back on the effort during the debate.
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee moved to codify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War” name change during a marathon session of debate over the annual defense policy bill. Lawmakers on the committee, in a party-line vote, adopted the amendment from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) to formally change the Department of Defense to the…
After the House voted to direct Donald Trump to end the Iran war, he exploded in fury at the four Republicans who turned against him, terming them “grandstanders” who “should be ashamed of themselves.” This comes as The New York Times reports that extensive internal war games among military officials established that Iran would react to an attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz—which Trump ignored. And incredibly, officials just leaked to The Atlantic that Trump is privately “irritated” by commentary casting his emerging framework as weaker than Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal. Trump also wants a way to argue that Iran “accepted terms from him that Obama never managed to extract.” We talked to former National Security Council veteran Emily Horne, author of the Spin Class Substack. We discuss how all those leaks themselves signal Trump’s growing weakness, why his demand for a “better” deal than Obama’s may be hopeless, and whether that leaves us any way out of this fiasco. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
Sahil Kapur previews the road ahead for congressional Republicans’ next reconciliation bill.
Leaked emails and messages revealed King Charles harbored private concerns about hosting President Donald Trump for a U.K. state visit, primarily due to Trump and Vice President JD Vance's February 2025 ridiculing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over perceived ingratitude for American support. "Multiple senior Whitehall sources have told this newspaper that the King was reticent about hosting Trump at this time because of his treatment of Zelensky," The i Paper reported.A source claimed the King felt jittery about Trump's appearance, while another alleged the King did not want to host Trump at all.Officials scrambled to address royal reservations, fearing a diplomatic crisis if the monarch snubbed Trump. Leaked correspondence between then-U.S. Ambassador Peter Mandelson and Foreign Office officials in March 2025 documented behind-the-scenes efforts to alleviate Charles's concerns, reports The i Paper.The King's worries reflected broader anxieties about U.S. commitment to Ukraine amid the ongoing war.According to the British media outlet, Mandelson's messages indicated he coordinated with senior civil servants and discussed the matter with Prime Minister Keir Starmer during weekly audiences with the King.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.
Vice President JD Vance hasn't announced if he plans to run for president in 2028, but Republican insiders have pointed to a recent "ultra sneaky" move that could reveal more about his decision.Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, have been "cultivating their image as ultra-MAGA-friendly religious family folk," with Vance's upcoming book "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith" and with Usha's new children's story podcast, Radar reported.By doing so, the vice president has tried to get closer to faith-based voters and "bolster his standing as an early Republican contender among Bible-thumpers ahead of the 2028 presidential election," insiders told Radar."Another party insider said the vice president's long-standing relationship with religious communities could be 'seriously strengthened' by the publication, particularly among Catholic voters looking for a candidate whose faith is central to his public identity," Radar reported.President Donald Trump has received mixed responses among Catholics and Protestants in recent polling. And as a result, Vance has been looking for ways to step out of the president's shadow and prepare to reestablish his independence from the Trump administration, which could be tricky, Christopher Devine, a vice-presidential scholar at the University of Dayton, told Radar."A vice president, while angling for leadership in his own right, has to avoid challenging the leadership of the current president that they serve under; that is incredibly difficult," Devine said. "And to the extent we have a track record over the last 70 years from Nixon on, rarely has it gone well."
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy has joined his Democratic colleague, Cory Booker, in a court filing to block President Trump’s so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”Cassidy and Booker filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit against the fund, alleging that it goes against the Constitution by making “an end-run around Congress’s institutional authority” and violating the spending, appropriations, and appointments clauses.The senators’ brief points out that despite a federal judge temporarily blocking the fund last week, Trump refused to say it was dead in a podcast interview earlier this week. They attacked the origin of the fund, Trump’s excessively favorable settlement with the IRS following his lawsuit against the agency after his tax returns were leaked (during his own first term).“Because the very lawsuit that sparked the settlement was collusive and therefore could not be heard in a federal court, and accordingly no monetary award would have been available through that collusive litigation, the Judgment Fund is not available,” the brief states.It’s another anti-Trump move from Cassidy following his primary election loss last month to Representative Julia Letlow, who had the president’s endorsement. Cassidy has also taken aim at Trump’s ballroom and his choice of Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence. But the only reason he appears to be showing courage now is because he’ll be out of a job by next year.That seems to be one of the few things that gets Republicans to criticize Trump: when he withdraws his support and ends their careers. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a staunch MAGA acolyte, reportedly turned on Trump after he didn’t back her running for the Senate. But this effort from Cassidy at least carries some weight, and could help kill Trump’s slush fund in court.