🇺🇸⚡️- According to the Wall Street Journal President Trump is having preliminary discussions about a plan to issue 250 pardons to mark the US 250th anniversary.

🇺🇸🇨🇴⚡️- "Today the FBI and our partners extradited the highest ranking member of Tren de Aragua (TdA) ever brought to justice - Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, aka "Chuqui.

Flores just arrived in Houston from Colombia this evening.

This is the first time ever that a TdA member has been charged with terrorism-related crimes and been extradited to the U.S. - history made pursuant to President Trump’s executive order last summer designating Tren de Aragua as an FTO.

Flores is charged with providing material support to TdA, a designated foreign terrorist organization, as well as with international drug distribution conspiracy. He is scheduled to make his federal court appearance Friday morning." - FBI Director Kash Patel

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇹🇼⚡️- "I think China’s preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly, voluntarily join them, in a perfect world what they would want is some vote or referendum in Taiwan that agrees to fold in, I think that's what they would prefer.

Ultimately President Xi’s mandate in the time he's been in office, he's made clear that what they call reunification is something that has to happen at some point, We think it would be a terrible mistake to force that through force or anything of that nature, there would be repercussion for that globally, not just from the United States.

We kind of leave it there, that sort of ambiguity is what i think has defined the way we characterise this issue. The reason being the strategic ambiguity is we don't want to see conflict, we don't want to see something disruptive happen. I think that would be very disruptive for the world and both countries." - Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State.

🇺🇸🎂⚡️- George Lucas the creator of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and founder of Lucasfilm celebrates his 82nd birthday today.

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇮🇱⚡️- The US House of Representatives has voted again on a war power resolution to limit military action against Iran. The vote failed with 212 for, 212 against.

🇮🇳⚡️- Last summer, FBI Director Kash Patel made a stopover in Hawaii while returning home from his official travel, which was justified by FBI press releases showing his tour of the FBI field office in Honolulu.

The Associated Press obtained exclusive emails showing that the FBI's disclosures left out that Patel stayed in Hawaii for 2 nights and took part in a "VIP snorkel" of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. A sunken battleship where more than 900 sailors and Marines lost their lives during World War II.

The USS Arizona is a closed site with few exceptions outside of maintenance or survey dives being permitted by the US Navy.

The FBI refused to answer questions regarding the snorkeling mission.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- Hezbollah rocket alerts in northern Israel.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- US Defence secretary Pete Hegseth and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun have been meeting on the sidelines of the President Trump and President Xi meetings.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- "URGENT WARNING TO RESIDENTS OF LEBANON LOCATED IN THE FOLLOWING TOWNS AND VILLAGES: Shabriha, Hmaideh (Tyre), Zaqaq al-Mufdi, Mashouk, Al-Hawsh

- In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Defense Army is compelled to act against it forcefully. The Israeli Defense Forces do not intend to harm you.

- For the sake of your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns for a distance of no less than 1000 meters to open areas.

- Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, their facilities, and their combat means exposes their life to danger!" - Israeli Defence Force Spokesperson.

🇫🇮⚡️- Air traffic at Helsinki airport was briefly closed earlier due to suspected drones.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Reporter: "Do you feel that think you have to get the dust [Iran's enriched Uranian], or have you been told there's maybe a way to entomb it, so that they could never get to it".

President Trump: "We were thinking about doing it early on. it would take a while, it would take a week and a half [to get the Uranian out of Iran]. that's a long time to be in enemy territory.

i don't think its necessary, except for a public relations standpoint. i think its important for the fake news that we get it. I'm the one who said were gonna get it, and were gonna get it, we have our eye on it."

🇨🇳🇷🇺⚡️- Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in Beijing next Wednesday, May 20, according to Chinese media.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- President Trump: "Ask the President [Xi], other presidents and prime ministers, does he bring them here?"

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- President Trump has left China, concluding the two-day summit.

🇨🇩⚡️- An Ebola outbreak has been declared in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 246 cases and 65 deaths.

🇦🇪🇮🇱⚡️- Israeli media I24 reports that in addition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the UAE during the Iran war, the Mossad Chief, Shin Bet director and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also visited the UAE.

The UAE has previously publicly denied that Netanyahu visited.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- The IDF has announced the death of the sixth soldier since the start of the ceasefire in Lebanon due to mortar fire in southern Lebanon.

🇦🇪⚡️- The UAE has announced they are building a second oil pipeline to Fujairah, on the eastern side of the UAE, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, which will double its current capacity to 3-3.6 million barrels per day.

The project is expected to become operational in 2027.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- "The IDF has begun attacking Hezbollah terrorist organization infrastructures in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon." - Israeli Defence Force.

🇮🇷🇦🇪⚡- UAE's Mohamed bin Zayed attempted to form a regional coalition to respond militarily to Iran's attacks against the Gulf region, Bloomberg reports.

MbZ personally contacted the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and even Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the Emirati proposal was rejected.

🇸🇩🇱🇾🇹🇩⚡- A large-scale military build-up is being observed by Sudanese monitors in the al-Kufrah region of southeast Libya, near the Sudan-Chad border point.

The build-up consists of Emirati officers, Khalifa Haftar's run Libyan National Army elements, pro-Haftar Chadian militias, and the Rapid Support Forces. The Sudan-Chad-Libya-Egypt border point is currently under the control of the Rapid Support Forces and remains one of the key logistical support routes for the group.