This week marked Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican celebration of a 19th century military victory over the French. US President Donald Trump seems to have really got into the south-of-the-border vibe, ordering a Taco and a Nacho.
Taco refers to Trump Always Chickens Out, the nickname traders bestowed on him after he unveiled a host of tariffs last year, only to ease them as markets plunged.
A new acronym, again coined by traders, is Nacho – Not A Chance Hormuz Opens – referring to the repeated promises the vital waterway will be reopened, only for hopes to be dashed.
This week was a case in point. On Monday, Mr Trump announced the launch of “Project Freedom” to much fanfare, promising that the US military would free hundreds of vessels stranded on either side of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Tuesday described it as a “direct gift” to the rest of the world from the US, which is creating a “red, white and blue dome” of protection over the region.
Less than 12 hours later, Mr Trump abandoned ship. He said Project Freedom would be “paused for a short period of time” to see whether the US and Iran could make a deal, leading some online wags to wonder whether it was Taco Tuesday, with a Nacho on the side.
Yesterday, the President said in a post on Truth Social that the war would soon officially be over, assuming Iran agrees to US demands. But there seems to be little evidence the hardline regime is imminently willing to do so.
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” Mr Trump wrote. The question is, does anyone in Tehran believe him?
Eye on the White House
Republicans reject attempt to force Trump to stop war with Iran
The Republican-controlled US Senate halted an attempt by Democrats to force Mr Trump to end the war in Iran.
Democrats say the war is illegal because Mr Trump has not asked Congress for authorisation, or for politicians to declare war against Iran.
A procedural vote to advance the resolution, introduced by Senator Adam Schiff and other Democrats, that sought to force Mr Trump to end hostilities, was defeated 50-47.
It was the sixth such attempt since the war began on February 28. Two Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats, while one Democrat went the other way.
Last week's vote came on the final day of a 60-day deadline by which Mr Trump was supposed to seek authorisation for the war or ask for a 30-day extension to allow time to withdraw troops from the region.
What's Washington talking about?
Marco 2028? With White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on maternity leave, US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio on Tuesday hosted a media conference for nearly an hour. He answered questions on a range of topics – including what his DJ name is, after he was seen playing music at a wedding. His seeming conviviality fuelled speculation that he might be better suited for a presidential run for the Republicans than the effortlessly charmless Vice President JD Vance.
Eyes on Cuba Before his White House news conference, Mr Rubio visited the Florida headquarters of the US military's Southern Command. He chose to stand in front of a large map of Cuba for a photograph, reviving talk that the Trump administration is going to make a move on the communist island as soon as the Iran war ends. “We have, 90 miles from our shores, a failed state that also happens to be friendly territory for some of our adversaries. So it’s an unacceptable status quo. I will be addressing it – but not today,” he told reporters.
CT in the WH The White House 2026 counter-terrorism strategy has identified Islamist extremist groups, Latin American “narco-terrorists” and left-wing agitators as the biggest threats to the US. The document, released yesterday, also says that Iran poses the biggest threat in the Middle East. “We face new categories and combinations of violent actors that make the established ways of doing counter-terrorism insufficient or obsolete,” it said.
Spotlight: AI energy reckoning renews nuclear debate 40 years after Chernobyl
An artificial intelligence-induced energy consumption boom from data centres is causing new debate over the future of nuclear power, as the world marks 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster.
In recent weeks, proponents of nuclear energy in the US have described an increasingly amiable public attitude towards atomic reactors, after decades of caution.
In 1986, the Chernobyl reactor in what was then the Soviet Union melted down and exploded, killing about 30 people immediately and in the days after, as well as causing thousands of subsequent deaths from cancer.
But stigma was attached to nuclear reactors even before the Chernobyl disaster, since the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Pennsylvania in 1979.
Only in America
Anti-war protester comes down from US bridge after five days
An anti-war protester who scaled a bridge in Washington and stayed there for five days came down during a heavy rainstorm on Wednesday after running out of water.
Guido Reichstadter, 45, climbed one of the arches of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge last week and unfurled a long black banner in a bid to bring attention to what he called the “Trump regime's war in Iran” and the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
In a post on X on Tuesday evening, he said he had run out of water at the weekend and would descend the following day.
Mr Reichstadter, who said he would “probably be going to jail for a while”, appeared to be in good health after coming down from the 51-metre-high structure that spans the Anacostia River in south-east Washington.
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