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The head of a prestigious US public university resigned Friday amid pressure over his alleged failure to curb diversity programs, the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s war on academia.The Department of Justice had privately pressured the University of Virginia to fire its president to help resolve a probe of its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to the New York Times, which broke the story late Thursday. It had reportedly threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. “I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a statement Friday.Ryan wrote that risking federal funding cuts by staying in his role “would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.”Ryan took the helm of the elite University of Virginia in 2018, a year after white supremacists marched with flaming torches through its campus amid heated debate over the removal of some Confederate monuments in southern states.Ryan’s efforts to make the school more diverse and increase the number of first-generation university students reportedly rankled some conservative alumni.”It is outrageous that officials in the Trump Department of Justice demanded the Commonwealth’s globally recognized university remove President Ryan — a strong leader who has served UVA honorably and moved the university forward — over ridiculous ‘culture war’ traps,” Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, said in statement.Trump is attacking US universities and other sources of what he sees as left-leaning power in the country as he moves to exert unprecedented presidential control over life in America. A top area of conflict has been “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, programs that sought to correct historic demographic inequity in admissions and funding, but have been criticized as unfair to otherwise well-qualified candidates.Trump notably piled pressure on Harvard University, seeking to ban it from having foreign students, slashing more than $3 billion in grants and contracts, and challenging its tax-free status.Some observers said Friday’s developments were an alarming sign for public universities, which are particularly reliant on state and federal funding.”Ryan’s resignation portends a future in which all public university presidents must conform to the political views of their state’s leadership or be kicked out of office,” wrote Inside Higher Ed, an online publication about education.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyer aimed Friday to skewer the credibility of the music mogul’s accusers, saying in closing arguments they were out for money while rejecting any notion he led a criminal ring.But in their rebuttal — the trial’s final stage before jurors are tasked with deciding the verdict — prosecutors tore into the defense, saying Combs’s team had “contorted the facts endlessly.”Prosecutor Maurene Comey told jurors that by the time Combs — once among the most powerful people in music — had committed his clearest-cut offenses, “he was so far past the line he couldn’t even see it.””In his mind he was untouchable,” she told the court. “The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.””That ends in this courtroom,” she said. “The defendant is not a god.”For most of Friday’s hearing defense attorney Marc Agnifilo picked apart, and even made light of, the testimony of women who were in long-term relationships with Combs, and who said he had coerced them into drug-fueled sex parties with paid escorts.Agnifilo scoffed at the picture painted by prosecutors of a violent, domineering man who used his employees, wealth and power to foster “a climate of fear” that allowed him to act with impunity.Combs, 55, is a “self-made, successful Black entrepreneur” who had romantic relationships that were “complicated” but consensual, Agnifilo said.In his freewheeling, nearly four-hour-long argument, Agnifilo aimed to confuse the methodic narrative US attorney Christy Slavik provided one day prior.She had spent nearly five hours meticulously walking the jury through the charges and their legal basis, summarizing thousands of phone, financial, travel and audiovisual records along with nearly seven weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses.Central to their case is the claim that Combs led a criminal enterprise of senior employees — including his chief-of-staff and security guards — who “existed to serve his needs.”But Agnifilo underscored that none of those individuals testified against Combs, nor were they named as co-conspirators.”This is supposed to be simple,” the defense counsel told jurors. “If you find that you’re in the weeds of this great complexity, maybe it’s because it just isn’t there.”If convicted, Combs faces upwards of life in prison.- ‘Brazen’ -Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane described abuse, threats and coercive sex in excruciating detail.Combs’s defense has conceded that domestic violence was a feature of the artist’s relationships, but that his outbursts did not amount to sex trafficking.The defense insisted the women were consenting adults.Prosecutor Comey snapped back that they were being “manipulated” into “brazen” acts of sex trafficking, reiterating once again for jurors what the government says are the clearest-cut examples.Agnifilo pointed to Ventura’s civil lawsuit against Combs in which she was granted $20 million: “If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it would be Cassie,” he said.Comey called that notion insulting: “What was her prize? Black eyes? A gash in her head? Sex for days with a UTI?”The prosecutor also pointed to a violent episode between Combs and Jane, when she says she struck him in an argument before he brutally beat her, knocked her down in the shower, and then forced her into giving an escort oral sex.”Jane may have started that fight, but he finished it with a vengeance,” Comey said, calling that incident the most obvious sex trafficking case and saying he had “literally beaten her into submission.”Throughout the trial, jurors were shown voluminous phone records, including messages of affection and desire from both women — and Agnifilo emphasized the love and romance once again.Both prosecutors said taking those words literally, and in isolation, doesn’t paint the whole picture. They also referenced testimony from a forensic psychologist who explained to jurors how victims become ensnared by abusers.”The defense is throwing anything they can think of at the wall, hoping something will stick,” Comey said.On Monday, Judge Arun Subramanian will instruct jurors on how to apply the law to the evidence for their deliberations. Then, 12 New Yorkers will determine Combs’s future.But Combs’s legal worries may not end there, after three new sexual assault lawsuits were filed against him this week. One was by a woman who alleged the rapper’s son, Justin, lured her from the southern state of Louisiana to Los Angeles where she was held captive, drugged and gang raped by three masked men in 2017. One of the men was allegedly Sean Combs.The other two cases were filed by men who accuse the rapper and his team of drugging and sexually assaulting them at parties in 2021 and 2023.

California Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit Friday against broadcaster Fox News, claiming defamation after alleged purposeful misrepresentation of details of a phone call with US President Donald Trump earlier this month.The suit seeks $787 million in damages and was filed in a Delaware court, where Fox News is registered as a corporation.Trump and Newsom spoke on the phone in the early hours of June 7 Washington time, but the pair did not address protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids occurring throughout Los Angeles, according to the lawsuit.Later that day, Republican Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops to deploy to the city in response to the protests, against the wishes of the Democratic governor.Trump said during a June 10 White House press conference that he talked with Newsom “a day ago” — a claim the California politician quickly refuted on social media.”There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote on X.In response, Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed Newsom was lying about the call.Another Fox News reporter, John Roberts, said Trump sent him a call log to prove Newsom was lying, but the screenshot he provided showed the call happened on June 7.”Rather than leave the matter alone, or simply provide the facts, Fox News chose to defame Governor Newsom, branding him a liar,” the lawsuit said.Newsom told broadcaster MeidasTouch he was used to criticism from Fox News, “but this crossed the line — journalistic lines, ethical lines, defamation, malice.”The lawsuit said Fox News deliberately mislead viewers about the call to harm Newsom’s career, saying those who watched Watters’s report would be less likely to support his future campaigns.Fox News called the lawsuit a “publicity stunt.”It said in a statement to AFP that the legal action “is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him.”Newsom in a statement compared his case to a 2023 lawsuit against Fox News filed by election technology company Dominion Voting Systems, which said the broadcaster knowingly spread lies that its voting machines swayed the 2020 presidential election against Trump.The amount Newsom’s lawsuit seeks in damages, $787 million, is nearly the same as the amount Fox News paid in a settlement to Dominion.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyer aimed Friday to skewer the credibility of the music mogul’s accusers, saying in closing arguments they were out for money while rejecting any notion he led a criminal ring.But in their rebuttal — the trial’s final stage before jurors are tasked with deciding the verdict — prosecutors tore into the defense, saying Combs’s team had “contorted the facts endlessly.”Prosecutor Maurene Comey told jurors that by the time Combs — once among the most powerful people in music — had committed his clearest-cut offenses, “he was so far past the line he couldn’t even see it.””In his mind he was untouchable,” she told the court as the case came to a dramatic close. “The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.””That ends in this courtroom,” she said. “The defendant is not a god.”For most of Friday’s hearing defense attorney Marc Agnifilo picked apart, and even made light of, the testimony of women who were in long-term relationships with Combs, and who said he had coerced them into drug-fueled sex parties with paid escorts.Agnifilo scoffed at the picture painted by prosecutors of a violent, domineering man who used his employees, wealth and power to foster “a climate of fear” that allowed him to act with impunity.Combs, 55, is a “self-made, successful Black entrepreneur” who had romantic relationships that were “complicated” but ultimately consensual “love stories,” Agnifilo said.In his freewheeling, nearly four-hour-long argument, Agnifilo aimed to confuse the methodic narrative US attorney Christy Slavik provided one day prior.She had spent nearly five hours meticulously walking the jury through the charges and their legal basis, summarizing thousands of phone, financial, travel and audiovisual records along with nearly seven weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses.Central to their case is the claim that Combs led a criminal enterprise of senior employees — including his chief-of-staff and security guards — who “existed to serve his needs.”But Agnifilo underscored that none of those individuals testified against Combs, nor were they named as co-conspirators in the indictment.”This is supposed to be simple,” the defense counsel told jurors. “If you find that you’re in the weeds of this great complexity, maybe it’s because it just isn’t there.””It takes a lot of courage to acquit,” he said in closing.If convicted, Combs faces upwards of life in prison.- ‘Brazen’ -Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane described abuse, threats and coercive sex in excruciating detail, for days.Combs’s defense has conceded that domestic violence was a feature of the artist’s relationships, but that his outbursts did not amount to sex trafficking.The defense insisted the women were consenting adults making their own choices.Prosecutor Comey snapped back that they were being “manipulated” into “brazen” acts of sex trafficking, reiterating once again for jurors what the government says are the clearest-cut examples.Agnifilo pointed to Ventura’s civil lawsuit against Combs in which she was granted $20 million: “If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it would be Cassie,” he said.Comey called that notion insulting: “What was her prize? Black eyes? A gash in her head? Sex for days with a UTI?”Agnifilo also pointed to a violent episode between Combs and Jane, when she says she struck him in an argument before he brutally beat her, struck her down in the shower, and then forced her into giving an escort oral sex.”Jane may have started that fight, but he finished it with a vengeance,” Comey said, calling that incident the most obvious sex trafficking case and saying he had “literally beaten her into submission.”Throughout the trial, jurors were shown voluminous phone records, including messages of affection and desire from both women — and Agnifilo emphasized the love and romance once again.Both prosecutors said taking those words literally, and in isolation, doesn’t paint the whole picture. They also referenced testimony from a forensic psychologist who explained to jurors how victims become ensnared by abusers.”The defense is throwing anything they can think of at the wall, hoping something will stick,” Comey said.On Monday, Judge Arun Subramanian will instruct jurors on how to apply the law to the evidence for their deliberations. Then, 12 New Yorkers will determine Combs’s future.

President Donald Trump said Friday he is calling off trade negotiations with Canada in retaliation for taxes impacting US tech firms, adding that Ottawa will learn of their new tariff rate within a week.Trump was referring to Canada’s digital services tax, which was enacted last year and forecast to bring in Can$5.9 billion (US$4.2 billion) over five years.While the measure is not new, US service providers will be “on the hook for a multi-billion dollar payment in Canada” come June 30, noted the Computer & Communications Industry Association recently.The three percent tax applies to large or multinational companies such as Alphabet, Amazon and Meta that provide digital services to Canadians, and Washington has previously requested dispute settlement talks over the matter.”Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Friday.Canada may have been spared some of Trump’s sweeping duties, but it faces a separate tariff regime.Trump has also imposed steep levies on imports of steel, aluminum and autos.Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa will adjust its 25 percent counter tariffs on US steel and aluminum — in response to a doubling of US levies on the metals to 50 percent — if a bilateral trade deal was not reached in 30 days.”We will continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interest of Canadians,” Carney said Friday, adding that he had not spoken to Trump on the day.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Washington had hoped Carney’s government would halt the tax “as a sign of goodwill.”He now expects US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to start a probe to determine the harm stemming from Canada’s digital tax.- China progress -Trump’s salvo targeting Canada came shortly after Washington and Beijing confirmed finalizing a framework to move forward on trade.A priority for Washington in talks with Beijing had been ensuring the supply of the rare earths essential for products including electric vehicles, hard drives and national defense equipment.China, which dominates global production of the elements, began requiring export licenses in early April, a move widely viewed as a response to Trump’s blistering tariffs.Both sides agreed after talks in Geneva in May to temporarily lower steep tit-for-tat duties on each other’s products.China also committed to easing some non-tariff countermeasures but US officials later accused Beijing of violating the pact and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths.They eventually agreed on a framework to move forward with their Geneva consensus, following talks in London this month.A White House official told AFP on Thursday that the Trump administration and China had “agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement.”This clarification came after the US president told an event that Washington had inked a deal relating to trade with China, without providing details.Under the deal, China “will review and approve applications for the export control items that meet the requirements in accordance with the law,” China’s commerce ministry said.”The US side will correspondingly cancel a series of restrictive measures against China,” it added.- Upcoming deals? -Dozens of economies, although not China, face a July 9 deadline for steeper duties to kick in — rising from a current 10 percent.It remains to be seen if countries will successfully reach agreements to avoid them before the deadline.On talks with the European Union, for example, Trump told an event at the White House on Friday: “We have the cards. We have the cards far more than they do.”But Bessent said Washington could wrap up its agenda for trade deals by September, indicating more agreements could be concluded, although talks were likely to extend past July.Bessent told Fox Business there are 18 key partners Washington is focused on pacts with.”If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18, there are another important 20 relationships, then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,” Bessent said, referring to the US holiday on September 1.Wall Street’s major indexes finished at fresh records as markets cheered progress in US-China trade while shrugging off concerns about Canada. 

The US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure logged a mild uptick Friday while spending weakened, triggering another tirade by President Donald Trump against the central bank chair for not cutting interest rates sooner.”We have a guy that’s just a stubborn mule and a stupid person,” Trump told an event at the White House, referring to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “He’s making a mistake.”With Powell’s term as Fed chief coming to an end next year, Trump hinted at his choice of successor: “I’m going to put somebody that wants to cut rates.”The president’s remarks came after government data showed the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index climbing 2.3 percent last month from a year ago in May.This was in line with analyst expectations and a slight acceleration from April’s 2.2 percent increase, but still a relatively mild uptick.Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, the PCE price index was up 2.7 percent, rising from April’s 2.6 percent uptick, the Commerce Department’s report showed.But consumer spending declined, after Trump’s fresh tariffs in April dragged on consumer sentiment. PCE dropped by 0.1 percent from the preceding month, reversing an earlier rise.While Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners since returning to the White House in January — alongside higher rates on imports of steel, aluminum and autos — these have had a muted effect so far on inflation.This is in part because he held off or postponed some of his harshest salvos, while businesses are still running through inventory they stockpiled in anticipation of the levies.But central bank officials have not rushed to slash interest rates, saying they can afford to wait and learn more about the impact of Trump’s recent duties. They expect to learn more about the tariffs’ effects over the summer.- ‘Clear weakening’ -“The experience of the limited range of tariffs introduced in 2018 suggests that pass-through to consumer prices is intense three-to-six months after their implementation,” warned economists Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics in a note.They flagged weakness in consumer spending, in part due to a pullback in autos after buyers rushed to get ahead of levies.And spending on services was tepid even after excluding volatile components, they said.”There has also been a clear weakening in discretionary services spending, notably in travel and hospitality,” said Michael Pearce, deputy chief US economist at Oxford Economics, in a note.This reflects “the chilling effect of the plunge in consumer sentiment,” he added.Between April and May, the PCE price index was up 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department report showed.As a July deadline approaches for higher tariff rates to kick in on dozens of economies, all eyes are also on whether countries can reach lasting trade deals with Washington to ease the effects of tariffs.For now, despite the slowing in economic growth, Pearce said risks that inflation could increase will keep the Fed on hold with interest rates “until much later in the year.”

Lawyers for a Salvadoran man who was wrongly deported and then returned to the US to face human smuggling charges took the unusual step on Friday of asking a judge not to release him from prison.”The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” said the lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a key test of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies.Abrego Garcia was summarily deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador in March and brought back to the US this month to face human smuggling charges.A magistrate judge and a federal district judge have both said Abrego Garcia, who is being held in Tennessee, is eligible to be released on bail pending trial.Federal prosecutors have opposed Abrego Garcia’s release and warned that he may be deported once again if he is released from custody.The deportation threat led Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to ask Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes to request that he remain in custody until a hearing in the case scheduled for July 16.”Because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by the (Justice Department), we respectfully request to delay the issuance of the release order until the July 16 hearing,” they said.”A short delay will prevent the government from removing Mr. Abrego and allow time for the government to provide reliable information concerning its intentions,” they added.Abrego Garcia is charged in Nashville, Tennessee, with smuggling undocumented migrants around the United States between 2016 and 2025.He has pleaded not guilty and Holmes said in a ruling earlier this week that prosecutors had not made a convincing argument that he should be detained pending trial.Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of Trump’s crackdown on migrants.Most of those who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.

Conventional wisdom among Bruce Springsteen fans holds that the 1990s were his “lost” decade — a period where he struggled to chart a new course after parting ways with his longtime collaborators, the E Street Band.  It turns out “The Boss” never bought into that narrative, and now he’s aiming to overturn it with a new collection of unreleased material, “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” released on Friday.”I often read about myself in the ’90s as having some lost period,” the 75-year-old rocker said in a 17-minute documentary released last week.”Actually, Patti and I were parenting very young children at the time, so that affected some of your workout,” he conceded, referencing his wife and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa. “But really, I was working the whole time.” During the Covid pandemic, Springsteen returned to his archives and “finished everything I had in my vault.”The result is a sprawling box set compilation of 83 songs organized thematically into seven albums, spanning his output from 1983 to 2018.But the greatest spotlight falls on the 1990s — a decade long seen as a wilderness period for the New Jersey native, who was said to be struggling to find a solo identity during his hiatus from the E Street Band.Springsteen first burst onto the national scene in the ’70s as a would-be heir to Bob Dylan, hit new commercial heights in the ’80s with “Born in the USA,” and delivered what many view as the definitive artistic response to the 9/11 attacks with “The Rising.”One album in the box set revisits the “Streets of Philadelphia Sessions,” evoking the namesake hit with a moody blend of synthesizers and pulsing drumbeats as he explores dark emotional terrain.”I’d made three albums about relationships, I had a fourth one,” Springsteen said. “It was particularly dark, and I just didn’t know if my audience was going to be able to hear it at that moment.”Another record, “Somewhere North of Nashville,” is a rollicking, country-rooted romp. A third, “Inyo,” recorded in the late ’90s along California’s borderlands, is an ode to Mexican-American culture.Springsteen is far from the first major artist to unearth new material from songs that were originally shelved, following a tradition established by Dylan’s “Bootleg Series” in 1991.”Tracks II,” as the name suggests, is a sequel to 1998’s “Tracks” — and “Tracks III” is set to follow.Over the years, critics have often argued there’s a reason some tracks remain unreleased — with “new” Beatles songs based on the late John Lennon’s homemade demos often cited as proof that not every vault needs to be reopened.So far, however, “Tracks II” has been received favorably by many reviewers.”For any fan, it’s a revelation to hear the secret mischief that Bruce Springsteen was making in the shadows, during his most low-profile era — the music he made for himself, after years of making music for the world,” wrote Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone.

The Trump administration said Friday it is terminating temporary legal protections that allowed more than 520,000 Haitians to live in the United States.The United States grants Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.The Department of Homeland Security said it was ending TPS for Haitians on September 2 and encouraged those who were living in the United States under the program to return home.Former president Joe Biden extended TPS for Haitians before leaving office, allowing them to reside in the United States until February 2026.But the Trump administration announced in February that it was canceling the extension. It said on Friday it was terminating TPS for Haitians altogether on September 2.”The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,” DHS said.Permitting Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to US national interest, it added.Struck by a devastating earthquake in 2010, Haiti has suffered from political instability for decades and more recently from increasing violence by armed groups.The US State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited heath care.”President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations.Trump ordered a review of the TPS program on his return to the White House and his administration has revoked TPS protections for Afghans and Venezuelans in addition to Haitians.During his campaign Trump made baseless claims that an Ohio city had seen a recent influx of Haitian migrants who were stealing and eating residents’ cats and dogs.A UN human rights expert called on the United States and other nations in March not to expel Haitians back to their violence-plagued country.William O’Neill, a UN-designated expert on human rights in Haiti, said deporting people back there would be unsafe.”Violent criminal groups continue to extend and consolidate their hold beyond the capital,” O’Neill said.”They kill, rape, terrorize, set fire to homes, orphanages, schools, hospitals, places of worship, recruit children and infiltrate all spheres of society.”

US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from assassination and lashed out at the supreme leader for ingratitude, declaring he would order more bombing if the country tried to pursue nuclear weapons.In an extraordinary outburst on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran for claiming to have won its war with Israel and said he was halting work on possible sanctions relief.The tirade came as Iran prepared to hold a state funeral for 60 nuclear scientists and military commanders who were killed in the 12-day bombing blitz Israel launched on June 13.Iran says the scientists were among a total of at least 627 civilians killed. Trump said the United States would bomb Iran again “without question” if intelligence indicated it was able to enrich uranium to military grade.Iran has consistently denied any ambition to develop a nuclear arsenal.Trump accused the Iranian leader of ingratitude after Khamenei said in a defiant message that reports of damage to nuclear facilities were exaggerated and that Tehran had dealt Washington a “slap” in the face.”I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump posted.”I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'” Trump also said that he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran’s main demands.”But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” Trump added, exhorting Iran to return to the negotiating table.Iran has denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States, after Trump said that negotiations were set to begin again next week.Its government on Friday rejected a request by Rafael Grossi, the director of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the United States, saying it suggested “malign intent.”Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hit out at Grossi personally in a post on X for not speaking out against the air strikes, accusing him of an “astounding betrayal of his duties.”- ‘Beat to hell’ -Asked earlier in a White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week’s sorties were not successful in ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump said: “Sure. Without question. Absolutely.”Trump added that Khamenei and Iran “got beat to hell”.The war of words came with a fragile ceasefire holding in the conflict between Israel and Iran.Speculation had swirled about the fate of Khamenei before his first appearance since the ceasefire — a televised speech on Thursday.Khamenei hailed what he described as Iran’s “victory” over Israel, vowing never to yield to US pressure.”The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration,” the Iranian leader said.It was unclear if Khamenei would attend Saturday’s state funeral in Tehran.The commemorations begin at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) at Enghelab Square in central Tehran, to be followed by a funeral procession to Azadi Square, about 11 kilometres (seven miles) across the sprawling metropolis.In a televised interview on Friday, Mohsen Mahmoudi, head of Tehran’s Islamic Development Coordination Council, had vowed it would be a “historic day for Islamic Iran and the revolution”.On the first day of the war on June 13, Israel killed Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami.He will be laid to rest after Saturday’s ceremony, which will also honour at least 30 other top commanders.Armed forces chief of staff General Mohammad Bagheri will be buried with his wife and journalist daughter who were killed alongside him in an Israeli strike.Of the 60 people who are to be laid to rest after Saturday’s ceremony, four are women and four are children.Tehran is still coming to terms with the damage wrought by Israel’s bombing campaign, the capital’s first taste of war since the devastating 1980-88 conflict with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.Israel bombed multiple residential neighbourhoods as it killed the senior figures being laid to rest on Saturday, many of them in their own homes.Retaliatory drone and missile fire by Iran killed 28 people in Israel, according to official figures.