AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, which he put as Wednesday, and Iran’s chief negotiator saying that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven't yet been revealed.

The two-week ceasefire began on April 8, and seemed likely to be extended if talks resume as planned. White House officials have said that U.S. Vice President JD Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn't said who it might send, and Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad... so far.”

Iranian state TV long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy, and the on-screen alert likely reflects the ongoing internal debate within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.

The U.S. has instituted a blockade of Iranian ports to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Driven by the pressures of war, Iran gives its field commanders more power over militias in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran has granted its commanders greater autonomy over militias in Iraq, allowing some groups to carry out operations without Tehran’s approval, a shift driven by the pressures of the war, three militia members and two other officials told The Associated Press.

Many Iran-backed militias are funded through the Iraqi state budget and embedded within the security apparatus, drawing criticism from the United States and other countries that have borne the brunt of their attacks and say Baghdad has failed to take a tougher stance.

Despite mounting pressure from the U.S., Baghdad has struggled to contain or deter the groups. The most hard-line factions now operate under Iranian advisers using a decentralized command structure, the five officials told AP, each on condition of anonymity to speak freely about sensitive matters.

“The various forces have been granted the authority to operate according to their own field assessments without referring back to a central command,” said one militia official, who didn't have permission to speak publicly.

The war in the Middle East has exposed the fragility of Iraq’s state institutions and their limited ability to restrain these groups. A parallel confrontation between Washington and the militias has deepened the crisis, with factions acting as an extension of Iran’s regional campaign and escalating attacks on U.S. assets in Iraq before a tenuous ceasefire deal was reached in April.

Oil prices slip and world shares mostly gain as US-Iran talks still in doubt

Oil prices slipped and shares were mostly higher Tuesday in Europe and Asia as U.S.-Iran talks aimed at ending the war remained in doubt.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil dipped 0.7% to $94.81. U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 0.9% to $86.63 per barrel.

The war has disrupted transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that usually is fully open to international shipping, pushing oil prices sharply higher.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit the strait unimpeded, imposing a blockade on Iranian ports. He has said Vice President JD Vance will visit Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for talks with Iran. But after the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, the Iranian side has made no commitment to more negotiations.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.6% to 24,558.9 and the CAC 40 in Paris was little changed, at 8,333.05. Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.1% higher, to 10,620.92.

A preschool classroom is shaken by loss after a mass killing in Louisiana

Teacher Angela Hall always starts the day gathering her preschool students in a circle in their Shreveport, Louisiana, classroom. The kids giggle. They share. And they look for who's missing.

“Braylon, he’s not here,” she recalled one of her students saying Monday.

Braylon Snow, who just turned 5, was one of seven siblings who were fatally shot Sunday by their father in an attack that also killed their cousin. The shooting rattled classrooms in Shreveport where teachers like Hall on Monday came face-to-face with distraught parents and a messy stew of emotions.

In Hall's classroom at Johnnie L. Cochran Head Start, it's likely students noticed Braylon's absence immediately. Each day, Hall instructs her students to look around for friends who aren't there.

“When they come back tomorrow, we can tell them, ‘Hey, we missed you, we’re glad you’re back'” she tells them.

Fired former UK official says he felt political pressure to approve Mandelson as US ambassador

LONDON (AP) — The ex-civil servant behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson 's appointment as British ambassador to Washington said Tuesday that he felt political pressure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office to rush through the appointment despite security concerns.

The testimony by former Foreign Office head Olly Robbins turns up the heat on Starmer, who is facing calls to resign over the appointment of a scandal-tainted former politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein to one of the U.K.'s most important diplomatic posts.

The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government's security vetting agency.

Robbins said the security concerns about Mandelson did not relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government's vetting agency to flag Mandelson as a potential security risk.

Robbins said the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance. Robbins decided to clear him anyway.

Pope's visit to Equatorial Guinea is a diplomatic challenge as he closes his Africa trip

LUANDA, Angola (AP) — Pope Leo XIV heads Tuesday to Equatorial Guinea for the final leg of his four-nation African journey, arriving in a country that presents perhaps the most diplomatically delicate challenge of this trip and his young papacy.

The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is run by Africa’s longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 83. He has been in power since 1979 and is accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism.

The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half of its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.

Yet more than half of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty. And rights groups including Human Rights Watch — as well as court cases in France and Spain — have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population.

Leo has shown he won't mince words on this maiden African journey as pope, and the church’s teaching on the scourge of social inequity and corruption is clear. If Leo’s stop in Cameroon was any indication, the pope's messaging in Equatorial Guinea might be just as sharp.

Trump's Federal Reserve nominee to face tough hearing before Senate panel

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kevin Warsh is taking another step toward his decade-long goal of winning the top job at the Federal Reserve by appearing at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. But the role that he may eventually assume could turn out vastly different than what he expected.

Inflation is worsening as the Iran war has spiked gas prices, making it much harder for the Fed to implement the interest rate cuts President Donald Trump so desperately seeks. The conflict could also slow the economy as well as hiring. And if Warsh ultimately becomes chair, he may very well find his predecessor, Jerome Powell, still sitting on the Fed’s governing board, an uncomfortable arrangement that hasn’t occurred since the late 1940s.

Warsh, a former top official at the Fed and a wealthy investor, will likely face a range of tough questions at the hearing. Democrats on the committee have already signaled they will press him about what they argue is a lack of transparency regarding some of his vast financial holdings, which total more than $100 million, according to a recent disclosure.

Another top issue will be Trump's repeated demands for cuts in the Fed's short-term interest rate, which has created the perception that Warsh was nominated to do the president's bidding. Most other Fed officials have said they support keeping the central bank's key rate unchanged, now that inflation has begun to rise again.

Warsh expressed support for the Federal Reserve's independence in written remarks released Monday that he will deliver at the hearing.

Japan scraps a ban on lethal weapons exports in a change of its postwar pacifist policy

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Tuesday scrapped a ban on lethal weapons exports, a major change in its postwar pacifist policy as the country seeks to build up its arms industry amid worries over Chinese and North Korean aggression.

The approval by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet of the new guideline clears a final set of hurdles for many arms sales, including of Japanese-developed warships, combat drones and other weapons.

China criticized the change in policy, but it has been largely welcomed by Japanese defense partners like Australia and attracted interest from Southeast Asia and Europe.

Opponents say the change violates Japan’s pacifist constitution and will increase global tensions and threaten the safety of the Japanese people.

The new policy will “ensure safety for Japan and further contribute to the peace and stability in the region and the international society as the security environment around our country rapidly changes,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters. “The government will strategically promote defense equipment transfers to create a security environment that is desirable for Japan and to build up the industrial base that can support fighting resilience."

Deadly domestic violence cases stir calls for more prevention resources for Black communities

Two headline-grabbing, deadly domestic violence cases, one in Louisiana and the other in Virginia targeting Black mothers, have sparked a national conversation about domestic violence prevention resources and mental health care available to Black communities.

Many advocates in the aftermath of the deadly shootings have said the tragedies pointedly highlight troubling underlying trends where Black women are more likely to experience domestic violence — and they see the killings as an opportunity to confront how disparities in access to care and resources make some women and children more vulnerable to violence in the home.

On Sunday morning, a man police identified as Shamar Elkins fatally shot seven of his children and another child in Shreveport, Louisiana. A relative has said Elkins was in the midst of separating from his wife who was wounded.

And last Thursday, police found the bodies of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, in their suburban Washington, D.C., home. Justin Fairfax shot his estranged wife and then himself, and their two children in the home at the time were unhurt, police said. Like Elkins, Fairfax was in the process of separating from his wife and had faced a judge's upcoming deadline to move from the house.

While it's not clear what prompted the Shreveport killings or the apparent murder-suicide in Annandale, Virginia, experts say that the harrowing details of the killings echo familiar patterns that play out in homes across the country — and underscore the need for solutions that address the root causes of the disparate violence.

South Korean police seek to arrest K-pop mogul behind BTS

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police said Tuesday they are seeking to arrest music mogul Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS, as they expand an investigation into allegations that he illegally gained more than $100 million in an investor fraud scheme.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that it has asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for arresting Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe.

Bang’s legal team in a statement to The Associated Press did not directly address the accusations but expressed regret that police were seeking his arrest “despite our full and consistent cooperation with the investigation over an extended period.”

“We will continue to cooperate with all legal procedures and make every effort to clearly explain our position,” the statement said.

Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by telling them Hybe had no plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, before the company proceeded with an initial public offering. Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang around 200 billion won ($136 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.