Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia-Trump campaign ties, dies.

“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away” on Friday night, his family said in a statement Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”

At the FBI, Mueller set about almost immediately overhauling the bureau’s mission to meet the law enforcement needs of the 21st century, beginning his 12-year tenure just one week before the Sept. 11 attacks and serving across presidents of both political parties. He was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush.

The cataclysmic event instantaneously switched the bureau’s top priority from solving domestic crime to preventing terrorism, a shift that imposed an almost impossibly difficult standard on Mueller and the rest of the federal government: preventing 99 out of 100 terrorist plots wasn’t good enough.

Later, he was special counsel in the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.

Trump posted on social media about Mueller’s death: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead.” The Republican president added, “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

US authorizes operations with Iranian oil for one month — Treasury Department.
The sale, delivery, and unloading of oil and petroleum products are allowed until midnight on April 19.

The United States has authorized the sale of Iranian oil loaded onto tankers before March 20 for a month, according to a general license published by the US Department of the Treasury.

According to the document published on Friday on the website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), operations for the sale, delivery, and unloading of oil and petroleum products loaded onto tankers before midnight on March 20 are permitted for one month, until midnight on April 19.

In particular, the United States allows, during the specified period, financial transactions for the purpose of ensuring the safe mooring and berthing of oil tankers, maintaining the safety of crews, repairing vessels, implementing measures to mitigate environmental damage, as well as other related tanker servicing operations.

The license permits the supply of oil and petroleum products originating from Iran to the United States. However, it does not permit transactions with persons located in or acting under the laws of the #DPRK, Cuba, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, and #Crimea.

U.S. missiles that hit Iran likely were fired from Gulf countries that have taken the brunt of Iranian drone and missile attacks—although none acknowledges allowing use of their land or airspace

‘Who knows better about surprise than Japan?’ Trump’s Pearl Harbor comment to Japan’s PM stuns room.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday drew ‌a parallel between U.S. strikes on ‌Iran and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor decades ago, as he defended the war against Tehran at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Washington.

“We wanted surprise. Who ​knows better ​about surprise than Japan? ‌Why didn’t you tell ⁠me about Pearl Harbor?" Trump said when a journalist asked why he had not told allies about his war plans.

“You believe in surprise, I ⁠think much more so than us.”

Takaichi’s eyes widened and she shifted in her chair as Trump, seated beside ⁠her in the Oval Office, evoked the moment that drew the U.S. into World War Two.

The Japanese attack on the ​U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on ‌Dec. 7, 1941, ⁠killed 2,390 ⁠Americans, and the U.S. declared war on Japan the next day.

U.S. President Franklin ⁠D. Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy.”

The U.S. defeated Japan in ‌August 1945, days after U.S. atomic bomb attacks ⁠on Hiroshima and ‌Nagasaki killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and ‌Bhargav Acharya; Writing ‌by Daphne Psaledakis; editing by ​Scott Malone and Chizu Nomiyama)

#BREAKING: Canada, allies ready to ‘contribute to appropriate efforts’ on Strait of Hormuz blockage.

Canada is ready to “contribute to appropriate efforts” to resume safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a significant artery in international shipping undergoing a “de facto closure” amid the war in Iran.

That’s according to a joint statement released Thursday, co-signed by Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. The countries demanded that Iran halt its “threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the strait to commercial shipping.”

#BREAKING: Fighter jets escort two Montreal-bound flights after ‘security incident’: Norad.

Norad said fighter jets, including CF-18s, escorted two international flights bound for Montreal on Wednesday due to a “security incident” that prompted a police response at the Trudeau International airport.

The binational organization that monitors and defends airspace in North America told CTV News that CF-18 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as KC-135s aerial refuelling tankers, “monitored the situation until the involved commercial aircraft landed safely at destination.”

When the planes landed, Quebec provincial police arrested two male passengers in their 20s and 30s. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) said the men are being questioned by investigators and “could face charges related to fraud,” according to SQ spokesperson Béatrice Dorsainville.

No further details about the men were released by police.

Meanwhile, Norad did not provide any further details.

“Norad employs a layered defence network of radars, satellites, and fighter aircraft to determine appropriate responses to air security incidents and ultimately to keep Canada and the United States safe each and every day,” a spokesperson said in an email.

FAA grounded all flights to Montreal

As the incident unfolded, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights to the Montreal international airport “due to bomb threat,” a notice on its website stated on Wednesday.

The ground stop was issued at 3:02 p.m. but was lifted shortly before 5 p.m., when the mention of the alleged bomb threat was removed.

Montreal police say they responded to the airport and assisted Quebec provincial police, which has taken the lead on the investigation.

The airport said passengers are urged to check their flight schedules before heading to Trudeau airport due to possible delays.

US President Donald Trump said Israel will not attack Iran’s South Pars Gas Field from now on.

"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The US leader believes that the Jewish state delivered the strike "out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East." In his words, "a relatively small section of the whole has been hit."

"No more attacks will be made by Israel pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar," Trump added.

On Wednesday, the head of the Assaluyeh District administration in Iran's Bushehr Province reported that a fire had broken out at several facilities in the South Pars gas field following an attack by Israel and the United States. In this regard, Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (#IRGC) said it would attack oil and gas sites in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

#Iran EXECUTED MOSSAD SPY, Kourosh Keyvani, today...

He provided images & information about sensitive locations to Mossad. He was arrested with 30,000 euros in cash, a pickup truck, a motorcycle, various complex espionage, intelligence & satellite communication devices

#Moscow is currently considering whether it should proactively stop supplying energy resources to the European market, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"As far as the order from the President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] to consider the possibility of an early withdrawal from European gas markets is concerned, this issue is under consideration, requiring a fairly in-depth analysis," he told a briefing.

The energy market is currently experiencing serious turmoil due to the war around Iran, Peskov noted. "And, of course, these upheavals make it difficult for everyone to predict market trends. Therefore, an in-depth analysis is currently underway, considering all the specifics of the current situation," he added.

Putin said earlier that the Russian government had been tasked with assessing the feasibility and advisability of halting energy supplies to the European market, adding that starting April 25, EU countries planned to impose additional restrictions on the purchase of Russian hydrocarbons, including LNG, up to a complete ban on such supplies in 2027.

In this regard, it may be more advantageous for Russia not to wait until the door is ostentatiously slammed in its face, but to redirect supplies to more interesting destinations now, Putin noted.

#UNICEF says it's investigating Israel’s allegations of smuggled tobacco in a #Gaza aid shipment