The Latest: Vance says Insurrection Act not needed 'right now' in Minneapolis

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Insurrection Act wouldn’t be needed “right now” in Minneapolis after meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the city, which has emerged as a national focal point in the clash over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The comment seemed to echo a similar retreat by President Donald Trump, who had threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to quell persistent protests against federal agents in Minneapolis before telling reporters a week ago that there wasn’t a reason to use the act “right now.”

Vance also responded to reporting that federal authorities are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.

“We’re never going to enter somebody’s house without some kind of warrant, unless of course somebody is firing at an officer and they have to protect themselves,” he said.

An ICE memo obtained by the AP authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal.

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US completes withdrawal from World Health Organization

The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday.

But it’s hardly a clean break.

The U.S. owes more than $130 million to the global health agency, according to WHO. And Trump administration officials acknowledge that they haven’t finished working out some issues, such as lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of a new pandemic.

The withdrawal will hurt the global response to new outbreaks and will hobble the ability of U.S. scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and medicines against new threats, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University.

“In my opinion, it’s the most ruinous presidential decision in my lifetime,” he said.

The WHO is the United Nations’ specialized health agency and is mandated to coordinate the response to global health threats, such as outbreaks of mpox, Ebola and polio.

Nearly every country in the world is a member.

▶ Read more about the WHO

TikTok finalizes deal to form new American version of the app

The move avoids the looming threat of a ban in the U.S. that has been in discussion for years.

The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the joint venture.

The new app will operate under “defined safeguards” with an emphasis on data protections and software assurances for U.S. users, the company said in a statement Thursday.

The establishment of a U.S. unit marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States.

Trump says US is moving fleet of ships toward Iran

The president said the move is “just in case” it wants to take action against the country over its crackdown on protesters.

“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

Trump said he had threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against its nuclear sites “look like peanuts” if the government proceeded with planned executions of some protesters.

A Navy official confirmed that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three accompanying destroyers left the South China Sea and began heading west earlier this week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is currently in the Indian Ocean.