5 Big News Stories Overnight - Sunday, April 19, 2026

Iran: No Talks

Al Jazerra reports:

Iran says it will not open the Strait of Hormuz unless the US stops blockading its ports.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh says no date has been set for a new round of face-to-face talks with the US and slams Washington’s refusal to abandon its “maximalist” demands.

FBI Director Denies Report

The FBI director, Kash Patel, is denying allegations detailed in a new report that he drinks to excess.

Patel published an X post on his official FBI account.

Trump: Iran will not blackmail us over Hormuz

The Telegraph reports:

The US will not be blackmailed by Iran, Donald Trump has declared, after Iranian gunboats attacked cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran closed the vital oil passage on Saturday morning in response to a continuing US blockade of its ports, just hours after agreeing to reopen it.

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vessels opened fire on the ships 23 miles north-east of Oman, without warning their crews, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre.

“They wanted to close up the strait again, as they’ve been doing for years. But they can’t blackmail us,” Mr Trump said on Saturday. The day before, he claimed the waterway would “no longer be used as a weapon against the world”.

Maine: Wealth Taxes Are Spreading

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Maine has one of the nation’s smaller economies, rooted in timber, lobster, manufacturing and tourism. 

But it also has growing pockets of wealth, which have caught the attention of state bean counters. Maine this month joined a growing list of blue states exploring or adopting new taxes on the highest earners, enacting a new 2% surcharge on annual income over $1 million. 

The state’s new levy shows that wealth taxes aren’t just for states groaning with tech founders and hedge-fund billionaires. Even small or midsize economies see opportunity to raise revenue through new income-tax levies on top earners.

These Democratic-led states say the extra revenue is badly needed to fund state services in the wake of federal cuts to healthcare and food assistance from President Trump’s tax and spending bill. Republicans and state chambers of commerce generally oppose the taxes, warning they will undermine entrepreneurship and potentially lower state revenue by driving away well-off residents.

Washington: Trump Loosens Restrictions on Psychedelic Drugs

The New York Times reports:

President Trump on Saturday signed an executive order seeking to hasten research into the therapeutic benefits of LSD, Ecstasy, psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs by ordering federal agencies to ease restrictions that have long limited the ability of scientists to study them.

The measure also provides $50 million for state-level research into ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic made from the root of a Central African shrub that has been drawing interest from researchers for its potential to treat opioid use disorder and other forms of substance abuse.

The funding will most immediately benefit Texas, which has already committed $50 million to studying ibogaine but recently failed to secure matching funds from a private drug developer.