Iran accuses US of violating ceasefire; Bondi won’t testify on Epstein files

Possible complications with the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, how Israel's bombing attacks on Lebanon appear to be clouding the deal

Plus, Pam Bondi is gone as attorney general, and she has no plans to go back to Washington to testify before Congress in the Epstein Files case

Will the threat of being held in contempt compel her to change her mind? And his wife went overboard while on a small boat in the Bahamas

The husband says wind's high seas and the current swept her away, but now he's under arrest and she still has not been found

The stories that matter, clear and credible, from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli

The two-week ceasefire with Iran is already tenuous this morning, with Iran accusing the United States and Israel of violating the terms of the deal after attacks on Lebanon

The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah says in retaliation it launched, quote, a large barrage of rockets at a settlement in Israel overnight

The Israeli military announced this morning it killed Ali Yusuf Karshi, the nephew and personal secretary of Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qasim

in what it calls its most powerful attacks yet on Lebanon Wednesday

They say Qarshi played a central role in providing Qasim security. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says Wednesday's strikes claimed the lives of at least 182 people

Iran and other world powers, including some U.S. allies, have condemned Israel's strikes

saying they violate the ceasefire deal. But President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

insist the ceasefire deal does not include Lebanon. Despite that, an Iranian delegation is still set to arrive in Pakistan Thursday night

ahead of talks about a permanent ceasefire with the U.S. Pakistan which is mediating says those talks could begin as early as Friday The White House has confirmed that Vice President J Vance will lead the U negotiating team

Vance told reporters in Hungary that it is his understanding that Israel will now

back off its attacks on Lebanon for the good of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire

Meanwhile, President Trump says American troops will remain in the region until

quote, the real agreement reached is fully complied with. In a related topic, the Strait of Hormuz appears to be closed again this morning

as Iran claims the United States violated the ceasefire. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says shipping through the critical waterway is now halted

Traffic had begun to resume after the ceasefire went into effect. Marine traffic data, however, shows most ships remained anchored in the Persian Gulf

and only four passed through on Wednesday. The Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization is urging vessel operators to use alternative shipping routes to avoid potential naval mines

It comes after semi-official news agencies in Iran published a chart showing Iran's military put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war

The chart was dated from February 28th until April 9th, and it's not clear if any of the mines have been removed

Vice President J.D. Vance restated Wednesday night that if Iran does not follow through on its promise to reopen the strait, the ceasefire will end

Now to a different topic. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was supposed to appear before the House Oversight Committee next week, but the Justice Department now says she will not

The department argues that because Bondi was subpoenaed in her official capacity as Attorney General, the subpoena no longer applies

President Trump fired Bondi last week. Lawmakers on both sides say they still expect her to sit for the deposition

Republican Nancy May says Bondi cannot escape accountability by leaving office. Democrat Robert Garcia says he will push for contempt charges if she refuses to appear The fight centers on Bondi role in releasing the so Epstein files which lawmakers say contained multiple errors and missed a release deadline set by Congress

The committee is also pressing ahead with other witnesses. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is set

for a closed-door interview on June 10th. Gates has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes

and says he's willing to cooperate. He has called his meetings and dealings with Epstein a huge

mistake. New developments this morning in the case of the missing boater from Michigan, Lynette

Hooker. She went overboard last Saturday on a dinghy in the Bahamas and did not resurface

Her husband, Brian Hooker, said she lost her balance, fell into the water and disappeared

He is now under arrest, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and considered a suspect

The couple was on the small boat heading for their yacht when the incident occurred at around

7.30 Saturday night. Brian Hooker then showed up on shore around 4 a.m. Sunday, claiming strong

current swept his wife away. The 55-year-old woman is still missing, and it's now a recovery effort

in the Bahamas. Her daughter told ABC News she wants a full investigation. The U.S. Coast Guard

will lead that probe. The husband has denied any wrongdoing, blaming unpredictable seas and high

winds for her fall and saying that he is heartbroken. The man charged with terrorizing

women on Long Island, New York for decades, killing them and leaving their remains strewn

about at Gilgo Beach has now pleaded guilty. 62-year-old Rex Heuerman, a former architect

admitted in court on Wednesday that he actually killed eight women, not seven

over a 17-year period. In court, Heuerman admitted to meeting all eight women

some of them prostitutes, strangling them and dumping their bodies on a parkway near the beach

on Long Island's southern shore. The first murder happened way back in 1993. The cases later became

known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings. Investigators arrested Hewerman in 2023

They used DNA evidence from discarded pizza crust to connect him to the murders The Suffolk County Police Commissioner calling him a demon a predator that ruined families A judge will sentence Hewerman in June He is expected to get consecutive life sentences without parole never to be released from prison

Finally this morning, for the first time ever, a new species of spider caught on video

This is Cryptodrasus michaele. Say what? It's actually tinier than the tip of a pencil

It's also incredibly rare, one of only eight to ever be captured

Researchers are now working to learn more about the elusive species, starting with what this spider feeds on and what feeds on it

It is a new species, and the particularity of this species is that it is very tiny

compared to others in their family, which is Nafosidae ground spiders. And we don't know yet anything about the biology

But we know they are in these footwebs that we are studying

The spider, which only measures between two and three millimeters, was first caught in southern Spain in 2021

Proving what kids have sung about for decades, right? There really is an itsy bitsy spider that went up the water spout

All right, before we head out, here's what we're tracking today. Starting at 10 this morning, some of the nation's top Democrats

including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Vice President Kamala Harris

will deliver remarks at the National Action Network Convention on Civil Rights

Then, at 11, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda will be at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington

to talk about the threats the alliance faces and what it takes to ensure peace

At 6 p.m., the astronauts aboard the Artemis II will hold a news conference from space

as they make their way back to Earth. Want more Unbiased Updates? Sign up for our newsletter

It's just the facts, no fluff. Delivered right to your inbox each morning. Go to san.com slash newsletters

Those are your Unbiased Updates for this Thursday. We'll see you back here tomorrow, Friday. We love that

For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig Negrelli. Have a great day