Trump threatens Oman as Iran deal deadline expires; Hawaii digs out after Lala

President Donald Trump’s 60-day window for an Iran deal has expired with the two sides still far apart, while Jared Kushner says Tehran is showing little interest in an agreement the U.S. can accept.

Plus, Luigi Mangione’s September state murder trial is now off the calendar after his federal guilty plea, setting up a fight over whether New York can still prosecute him for Brian Thompson’s killing.

And Hawaii begins a difficult recovery from Hurricane Lala after torrential rain sent rivers over their banks, washing out roads and bridges and damaging or destroying roughly 100 homes.

These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.

Iran shows little interest in US deal as Trump threatens ally Oman over Strait of Hormuz

The Trump administration said Iran is “not showing any interest” in a deal with the U.S. The 60-day negotiating window the U.S. and Iran agreed to expired Monday without a deal, and the two sides remain far apart.

Trump’s special envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of the administration’s top negotiators, said Tehran still isn’t ready to make a deal.

“Right now, they’re not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us,” Kushner said. “I think if they’re gonna try to play a trick or do something to hide certain cards and get certain concessions — for now, President Trump wants to make a fair deal that could be a win-win, but that has to be very basic and that, you know, they have to want to be a real country, which is no nuclear weapons and no funding terror in the region.”

Meanwhile, Iran said it has reached an understanding with Oman on a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, and the two countries are now working to finalize the details.

Reopening the strait has been a key U.S. demand, and Trump has since threatened Oman, a U.S. ally, if it “gets in the way.” Trump told Fox News the U.S. would bomb them.

There’s also a split between Trump and Vice President JD Vance over how they describe the administration’s top priority.

Vance said last week it was keeping oil and gas prices down for Americans. Meanwhile, on Monday, Trump said the “number one goal is, and always will be,” preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Look, we’re in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the b-2 bombers, it’s going to be, it’s going to be a long time. But Iran cannot have — it’s very simple — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Judge blocks FBI headquarters move, reviving Biden-era Maryland plan

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to move FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C.

It’s the latest turn in a years-long fight over where to put the bureau’s new central location.

In 2023, the Biden administration chose Greenbelt, Maryland, after a long site-selection process. But last year, the Trump administration scrapped that plan and chose the Reagan building in downtown Washington instead.

Trump had previously criticized the Greenbelt location, calling Maryland a “liberal state.”

Now, a federal judge said the administration didn’t have the legal authority to make that switch, ruling that Congress had required the government to choose from three specific sites, including Greenbelt.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown called the ruling a victory for the state and for congressional authority.

“It is about ensuring that when Congress makes a decision, the Federal Government cannot simply ignore it because they do not like the outcome,” Brown said. 

The FBI has pushed back, saying the judge “impermissibly intervened for political reasons.”

The administration has not yet said whether it will appeal.

DOJ fights to revive smuggling case against Abrego Garcia

The Justice Department is trying to revive its human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the fight now centers on why prosecutors brought the case in the first place.

Abrego Garcia is the Salvadoran man whom the Trump administration wrongfully deported last year before he was returned to the U.S. Prosecutors later charged him with two counts of human smuggling stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. 

He has pleaded not guilty.

In May, a federal judge dismissed the case, finding that Abrego Garcia had demonstrated the prosecution was vindictive.

Now, the Justice Department is asking the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the charges. In a filing Monday, the DOJ argues prosecutors brought the case because the evidence supported it, and says the judge went too far in questioning their motives.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers called that argument “flat wrong.” They said the case was retaliation for his successful fight against his deportation.

For now, the charges remain dismissed. His lawyers will respond before the appeals court decides whether to revive the case.

Mangione’s state murder trial delayed as judge weighs defense bid to dismiss

Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial will no longer begin next month, and a judge will now decide whether the case can move forward.

The judge removed the trial, originally scheduled for Sept. 8, from the calendar as Mangione’s lawyers pursue dismissal of the state charges. Their argument: Mangione has already pleaded guilty in federal court to conduct related to the same killing, and prosecuting him again would violate New York’s double jeopardy law.

Mangione pleaded guilty Friday to two federal stalking charges and, for the first time, admitted in court that he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died. I knew what I was doing was illegal,” Mangione told the judge.

In December 2024, the gunman shot Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. Surveillance cameras captured the shooting.

Mangione still faces second-degree murder and weapons charges in the state case, and Manhattan prosecutors say they will fight to keep the case alive. They now have until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense.

The next state court hearing is set for Dec. 10, eight days before Mangione is sentenced in the federal case, where prosecutors say they will seek life in prison.

Lala leaves widespread damage across Hawaii

People in Hawaii woke up this morning to the damage left by Hurricane Lala. The storm damaged homes, washed out roads and bridges and left thousands without power.

Lala never made landfall, but it came close enough to hammer parts of the Big Island with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain. Wicked winds and high seas washed away or damaged about 100 homes. Some communities were cut off after floodwaters took out roads and bridges.

Two paramedics had to be rescued after their truck became trapped in rushing floodwaters. The National Guard sent a high-water vehicle to get them out safely.

Rainfall totals were staggering — one part of the Big Island received more than 40 inches of rain, turning rivers into raging torrents that overflowed their banks. The winds were strong enough to topple trees and power lines, leaving some residents just now getting their first look at what remained.

Devastation through the communities of Naahehu/Waiohinu, Hawaii after significant flooding. Multiple homes have been completely destroyed, dozens of vehicles underneath volcanic rock and debris, and the cemetery was partially destroyed as flood waters carried headstones and… pic.twitter.com/fkMFGNK7B3

— Jordan Hall (@JordanHallWX) August 18, 2026

“We haven’t had electricity all night, so I just wanted to get out here and kind of assess for myself what’s going on. It’s been a pretty challenging experience, just trying to,” local resident Shelly Brown said. “All these trees are down on top of wires. So we’re just hoping emergency crews get to us and help us out a little bit.”

Restoring power could take days, and in some of the hardest-hit areas of the Big Island, officials warn it could take weeks.

Lala has now moved west of Hawaii, but for people on the islands, cleanup is just beginning.

Childhood vaccine exemptions reach record high, driven largely by nonmedical requests

It’s back-to-school time for millions of kids, and new CDC data shows that exemptions from routine childhood vaccines have reached an all-time high.

The share of kindergartners with at least one vaccine exemption reached 4.2% in the 2025-26 school year, nearly double the 2.2% recorded five years earlier. Most of those exemptions were for nonmedical reasons.

Measles vaccination rates have also slipped from 95% before the pandemic to 92.4% today. That’s below the level doctors say is needed to maintain herd immunity and comes amid the worst year for measles cases in the U.S. since 1991.

Vaccination rates also fell slightly for polio, DTaP and the first dose of the chickenpox vaccine.

Dr. David Margolius, the director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health, called the trend “concerning.”

But it’s unclear how much of the increase is due to parents who oppose routine vaccines and how much to families facing other barriers to vaccinating their children.

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The evidence against plastic is mounting. But is it possible to cut it out of our lives?

Terry Sawyer and her husband were getting older, summiting their mid-40s and “creeping into the whole middle age health issue thing.” 

She developed joint pain her physician believes may be psoriatic arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes stiff, swollen joints and a tell-tale scaly skin rash.

“I didn’t understand why this is normal now,” Sawyer remembers thinking about six months ago. “You didn’t hear your grandparents, or really even your parents, talking about so many autoimmune diseases.”

What she does remember clearly: The day in February when Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek died of colorectal cancer at 48.

“It’s kind of alarming that this is happening,” she said. “Something’s definitely wrong.”

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