Fresh attacks in the Gulf threaten the fragile truce with Iran

Summary

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Apple News Today – May 5, 2026

Episode: Fresh attacks in the Gulf threaten the fragile truce with Iran
Host: Cecilia Ley

Overview

This episode covers a series of escalating events in the Persian Gulf that threaten a delicate truce between the U.S. and Iran, an Indiana Republican primary shaped by Trump’s influence, breakthroughs in pancreatic cancer treatment, and other notable national news. Cecilia Ley and a range of expert journalists weigh in on the international tensions, election dynamics, medical advancements, and significant awards in journalism.

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Key Segments and Insights

1. Gulf Tensions and the Fragile US-Iran Ceasefire

[00:05–04:39]

• Escalating Tensions:

  • Attacks occurred in the Gulf on Monday—first since last month's US-Iran truce.
  • The US conducted an operation to move stranded commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded, warning that unauthorized ships faced serious risk.

• Military Actions:

  • US destroyed six small Iranian boats that attempted interference as the Navy escorted commercial vessels.
  • US helicopters shot down missiles and drones targeting these ships during their transit, which was ultimately successful.
  • The UAE reported Iran launched over a dozen drones/missiles, damaging the largest oil storage facility—EU and others condemned the attack.

• Ongoing Vessel Struggles:

  • Many ships remain stranded, including Captain Rahman Kapoor’s tanker and his 23-person crew, stuck for months.
    • "Once it is confirmed whether it is going to be very safe transit, then only owners will take the call... There are insurance parties involved, charters are involved, managers are involved. Various maritime authorities are involved." – Rahman Kapoor [02:09]

• Uncertainty and Risk:

  • The US military's future role is unclear.
  • Ships rely on tactical navigation routes suggested by US and allied authorities to avoid mines and attacks.
    • "What it seems to be is an outgrowth of something that was there already... guidance scheme through which ships are told the best way to go where there are no mines and coordinating...with US Naval assets." – Julian Borger, The Guardian [02:31]
  • Iran interprets US actions as aggression and seeks to maintain military control of the strait.
    • "The Iranian military is determined to assert its control over the Strait of Hormuz and sees this as a challenge to that control...prepared to take risks in order to hold on to the blockade." – Julian Borger [03:02]
  • Despite operations, few ships are attempting passage—insurance and risks keep most in place.
    • "You have 20,000 seafarers...trapped in the gulf...the question is their insurance for doing it? Do the ship owners want to do it?" – Julian Borger [03:40]

• International Response and Economic Impact:

  • US and Gulf allies drafting measures to hold Iran accountable, including sea mine bans and disclosure.
  • Oil prices spiked over 5% and stock markets dipped amid the instability.

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2. Indiana GOP Primary and Trump’s Influence

[04:39–08:46]

• Election Dynamics:

  • Several incumbent Republican state senators face tough primaries after rejecting a Trump-backed redistricting plan.
  • Trump and allies heavily invested in unseating these "RINOs."
    • “President Trump has endorsed conservative Michelle Davis for state Senate.” [04:50]
  • Out-of-state money ($1.5M–$8M) pours in, a dramatic increase for small-scale primaries.

• Candidates’ Perspective:

  • State Senator Jim Buck expresses unease about the unprecedented election spending:
    • “Normally in a primary, we have what’s kindly referred to as a family food fight. But we’ve never had a primary like this, where somebody outside the family is determining how that food fight should occur.” – Jim Buck [06:37]
  • Buck voices concern about the instability of continual redistricting, echoed by many voters.
    • “His concern is that if you draw new lines now, what would stop you from drawing new lines in two years and another two years and another two years…” [07:02]

• Impact on Voters:

  • Senator Spencer Deary notes both the impact and backlash of negative ads, with some voters motivated to support him out of anger at attack ads.
  • The outcome will test Trump’s sway in small, localized contests—candidates can win with only 5,000 votes.

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3. Breakthroughs in Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

[08:58–11:58]

• Why It Matters:

  • Pancreatic cancer remains hard to treat, with a 13% 5-year survival rate.

• Promising New Drugs:

  • Revolution Medicines’ drug Diraxonrazib, a pill, targets the previously “undruggable” KRAS gene.
    • “They reported recently that their drug basically doubled the median survival of patients in their trial...just been an electrifying advance.” – Carolyn Johnson, Washington Post [09:50]
  • The FDA approved early access and is fast-tracking for broader use.

• Real-World Impact:

  • Former Senator Ben Sasse (diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer) credits the drug for improving his prognosis:
    • “I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume over the last four months...maybe I'm going to crank and live a year instead of a handful of months and I feel incredibly blessed.” – Ben Sasse [10:46]

• MRNA Vaccine Innovation:

  • An experimental post-surgery mRNA vaccine trains the immune system to prevent recurrence; early results are promising but require more research.

• Early Detection with AI:

  • Mayo Clinic-developed AI model showing potential to spot cancer years before symptoms appear.

    • "One researcher told Johnson, 'It's been gloom and doom for a really long time, but we have some cause for optimism. Finally.'" [11:58]

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4. News Roundup: White House Incident, Visa Freeze Lifted, Pulitzers

[12:10–15:28]

• White House Shooting:

  • Secret Service shot a man allegedly opening fire near the White House; a minor bystander was injured but survived. President was inside during a summit; VP motorcade passed just beforehand.

• Visa Freeze for Doctors Lifted:

  • The Trump administration ended its freeze on physician visas, resuming green card and work permit processing. The US faces a looming doctor shortage, especially in rural/underserved areas.

• Pulitzer Prize Highlights:

  • Minnesota Star-Tribune won for mass shooting coverage at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
  • Associated Press honored for exposing Silicon Valley mass surveillance’s global spread.
  • “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast took the audio prize for investigating Kawhi Leonard’s NBA contract.
    • “This is a very carefully orchestrated thing...involves...one of the six richest people in the world, a cardinal sin of sports, an unsolved mystery as well..." – Pablo Torre [14:46]
  • Washington Post won for public service, “piercing the veil of the Trump administration’s chaotic overhaul of the federal government.”
  • Awards occurred amid a Trump lawsuit against the Pulitzer board, contesting prizes given for 2016 campaign coverage.

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Notable Quotes

• "Once it is confirmed whether it is going to be very safe transit, then only owners will take the call..." – Rahman Kapoor [02:09]
• "The Iranian military is determined to assert its control...and sees this as a challenge to that control..." – Julian Borger [03:02]
• “Normally in a primary, we have what’s kindly referred to as a family food fight. But we’ve never had a primary like this…” – Jim Buck [06:37]
• “I have...a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume...maybe I’m going to crank and live a year instead of a handful of months and I feel incredibly blessed.” – Ben Sasse [10:46]
• “It's been gloom and doom for a really long time, but we have some cause for optimism. Finally.” – Researcher to Carolyn Johnson [11:58]
• "This is a very carefully orchestrated thing...involves, by the way, one of the six richest people in the world, a cardinal sin of sports, an unsolved mystery..." – Pablo Torre [14:46]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:05–04:39] Middle East crisis: US-Iran conflict in the Gulf
• [04:39–08:46] Indiana GOP primary and Trump’s campaign pressure
• [08:58–11:58] Pancreatic cancer research breakthroughs
• [12:10–13:09] White House shooting incident
• [13:09–13:40] Physician visa policy update
• [14:11–15:28] Pulitzer Prize winners and media landscape

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This episode offers an incisive overview of major global, political, and scientific developments, amplified by first-hand journalism and interviews with those directly impacted. Even without listening, you gain a full sense of the day’s essential stories and the personalities shaping them.

Transcript

[Cecilia Ley]

Good morning.

[Apple News Narrator]

Tensions between the US And Iran flare

[Cecilia Ley]

as American forces attempt to move stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The Guardian explains the calculation ship operators

[Julian Borger]

are making on the whole Ship owners that I've seen interviewed have been fairly tepid about this. They see it as far less than sort of guarantees they would be looking for for safe transit.

[Apple News Narrator]

In an Indiana primary, Trump seeks rich

[Cecilia Ley]

against Republicans who rejected his redistricting efforts. NPR breaks down the race and why new hope for pancreatic cancer patients could be on the Horizon. It's Tuesday, May 5th. I'm Cecilia Ley and this is Apple News. Today,

[Apple News Narrator]

A turbulent 24 hours now threatens to upend the fragile ceasefire between the US And Iran after attacks took place on Monday, the first since the deal

[Cecilia Ley]

was reached last month.

[Apple News Narrator]

The strikes came after the United States announced an operation to help thousands of

[Cecilia Ley]

stranded commercial ships leave the Strait of Hormuz.

[Apple News Narrator]

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded by

[Cecilia Ley]

saying that ships going through the strait without its permission faced serious risks. US Central Command said it had destroyed six small Iranian military boats on Monday as they attempted to interfere while the Navy helped guide two commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. The those ships made it through successfully. US Military authorities also said helicopters shot down cruise missiles and drones that fired at those vessels.

[Apple News Narrator]

The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said that Iran had launched more than a dozen

[Cecilia Ley]

missiles and drones and set fire to the country's largest oil storage facility, drawing condemnation from EU leaders and others. The danger posed by drone strikes, sea mines and other potential attacks has left a lot of vessels stranded, including ships led by people like Rahman Kapoor. He's the captain of an oil tanker who's been stuck with his crew of 23 people for months.

[Apple News Narrator]

Kapoor told the BBC that as of Monday, he hadn't received word from owners of the vessel about navigating the strait.

[Rahman Kapoor]

Once it is confirmed whether it is going to be very safe transit, then only owners will take the call and there is a process for it. They have to obtain various approvals. There are insurance parties involved, charters are involved, managers are involved. Various maritime authorities are involved.

[Apple News Narrator]

The extent to which the US Military would get further involved is still somewhat unclear.

[Julian Borger]

What it seems to be is an outgrowth of something that was there already, which is a coordination and guidance scheme through which ships are told the best way to go where there are no mines and where they're coordinating with the authorities onshore and to a certain extent, to US Naval assets.

[Apple News Narrator]

Julian Borger is a senior international correspondent at the Guardian. He told us that Iran has interpreted

[Cecilia Ley]

the U.S. s actions as a sign of aggression.

[Julian Borger]

The Iranian military is determined to assert its control over the Strait of Hormuz and sees this as a challenge to that control as that is the main point of Iranian leadership in this whole situation. The Iranian military have signaled that it's prepared to take risks in order to hold onto the blockade.

[Apple News Narrator]

In the early hours of the operation,

[Cecilia Ley]

there weren't immediate signs that more ships were crossing the strait. Major shipping companies have told Reuters that they want to wait for an end to hostilities before making any attempts.

[Julian Borger]

On one hand you have 20,000 seafarers, sailors, merchant marine trapped in the gulf and they've been there for weeks. Their situation is getting worse and worse. You have ships owned by companies that have been trapped there, so there is a lot of incentive to get out of there. But the question is their insurance for doing it? Do the ship owners want to do it?

[Apple News Narrator]

U.S. ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said Monday that the U.S. bahrain and

[Cecilia Ley]

other Gulf allies are drafting a security measure to hold Iran accountable for its months long chokehold of the passage. That would include barring Iran from laying any more sea mines and disclosing where existing ones are placed. The escalation sent oil prices up by over 5% on Monday, and stocks also dipped as the tenuous ceasefire between the US And Iran began faced its biggest challenge yet.

[Apple News Narrator]

Some campaign ads have referred to them as RINOs, a derisive term that stands

[Cecilia Ley]

for Republican in name only.

[Apple News Narrator]

One went so far as to compare a candidate to toilet paper and Greg

[Greg Walker]

Walker was soft on redistricting, voting against President Trump to protect liberals in Washington. Greg Walker soft, weak, liberal. President Trump has endorsed conservative Michelle Davis for state Senate.

[Apple News Narrator]

That's the hostility facing seven incumbent Republican

[Cecilia Ley]

state senators in Indiana ahead of today's primary election. They've all been targeted by challengers endorsed

[Apple News Narrator]

by the president in large part because

[Cecilia Ley]

of something they decided not to do.

[Apple News Narrator]

Late last year, they rejected a redrawn

[Cecilia Ley]

congressional map that would have favored Republicans,

[Apple News Narrator]

something that other states across the country

[Cecilia Ley]

have done at Trump's urging.

[Jim Buck]

Indiana ultimately wouldn't go along with the president's plan and the president at that time promised retribution. He said these state senators, these Republican state senators who didn't support his redistricting push should be primaried. And now he and his allies are in the process of doing just that.

[Apple News Narrator]

Tamara Keith is a senior reporter with NPR who recently spent time in Indiana. She reported that a Trump aligned dark

[Cecilia Ley]

money group spent 1.5 million doll million on ads against these incumbents.

[Apple News Narrator]

That's a ton of Money for what

[Cecilia Ley]

is typically a small scale primary election.

[Jim Buck]

State Senator Jim Buck told me that he has never seen anything like this before. He said in his last election he spent, with support from people in the community, spent about $150,000 on his race. And that was big money. This time we are talking about millions of dollars, something over $8 million in total being spen races from outside groups.

[Apple News Narrator]

Here's how Buck described it to a local news affiliate.

[Greg Walker]

Normally in a primary, we have what's kindly referred to as a family food fight. But we've never had a primary like this where somebody outside the family is determining how that food fight should occur.

[Apple News Narrator]

Keith told us that senators like Buck are worried about the ramifications of changing

[Cecilia Ley]

maps now, and that many of their

[Apple News Narrator]

constituents also didn't want the changes.

[Jim Buck]

His concern is that if you draw new lines now, what would stop you from drawing new lines in two years and another two years and another two years, and what that would mean for representation? Whether members of Congress would know their constituents and whether constituents would know their members of Congress.

[Apple News Narrator]

Buck told a voter that even though he was a fan of the president,

[Cecilia Ley]

he just didn't agree with this redistricting push.

[Apple News Narrator]

Keith also spoke to another state senator, Spencer Deary, who told her that he's tried to stay focused on the issue of affordability, but he well aware that

[Cecilia Ley]

the ads against him are making an impression.

[Jim Buck]

He was outside of a polling place in West Lafayette talking to voters as they were going in. Many of them actually said they were going in to vote for him because they were upset about the negative campaign ads that they'd seen on tv. Others gave him a look of recognition and walked past quickly, which might indicate that he does have a real challenge on his hands.

[Apple News Narrator]

The primary results today could reveal whether

[Cecilia Ley]

interference from Trump in an onslaught of

[Apple News Narrator]

negative ads will move the needle. But Keith says it's important to note

[Cecilia Ley]

these districts contain a pretty small pool of voters.

[Jim Buck]

Generally speaking, state Senate races in Indiana, a red state, a ruby red state, are pretty sleepy affairs. Candidates can win with only about 5,000 votes, little more than that. And it's not clear whether this huge infusion of cash is going to change the dynamics, cause more people to vote, and exactly how those people will vote.

[Apple News Narrator]

It's just the start of a busy month of primaries, with the President endorsing challengers to Republicans he considers political adversaries. That strategy will face its next test

[Cecilia Ley]

in upcoming primaries in Georgia and Kentucky.

[Apple News Narrator]

Pancreatic cancer has long been one of

[Cecilia Ley]

the hardest cancers to treat. With a stubbornly low five year survival rate of just 13%. But now there may be a turning point. Two new drugs in clinical trials are showing major promise against one of the deadliest diagnoses.

[Carolyn Johnson]

I think one of the main issues is that this cancer really depends on this one gene that's been really hard to target and was often called undruggable before this.

[Apple News Narrator]

Carolyn Johnson is a science reporter for the Washington Post. She explained that pancreatic cancer is difficult

[Cecilia Ley]

to survive in part because the key

[Apple News Narrator]

protein driving these cancers basically too smooth

[Cecilia Ley]

and makes it hard for drugs to latch on and shut it down. But a breakthrough treatment in the form of a pill developed by a company called Revolution Medicines could very well change that. It's called Diraxonrazib.

[Carolyn Johnson]

It is targeting an oncogene, a cancer causing gene called kras, which has been notoriously difficult for drugs to hit. They reported recently that their drug basically doubled the median survival of patients in their trial and they are presenting the full results in about a month. So we don't yet know all of the details, but this has just been an electrifying advance.

[Apple News Narrator]

On Friday, the FDA said it would

[Cecilia Ley]

permit some patients to gain early access to the drug, as it puts it on a fast track to approval for wider use.

[Apple News Narrator]

Ben Sasse, a former senator from Nebraska, has been using the medication. At the end of last year, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer

[Cecilia Ley]

and was given three to four months to live.

[Apple News Narrator]

He recently spoke to 60 Minutes about the drug and how it had essentially

[Cecilia Ley]

bought him more time.

[Ben Sasse]

I have much, much less pain than I had four months ago when I was diagnosed, and I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume over the last four months. So maybe I'm going to crank and live a year instead of a handful of months and I feel incredibly blessed.

[Apple News Narrator]

Another early trial showed promise as well. It's an MRNA vaccine administered after tumors are surgically removed.

[Cecilia Ley]

It trains the immune system to fight what's left of pancreatic cancer and prevent it from coming back.

[Carolyn Johnson]

So it's very early signal and in the patients that responded to the vaccine, the majority of them are still alive years later. And this is just a really exciting result, but it needs to be followed up by a lot more research.

[Apple News Narrator]

The early phase study included just 16 patients, but a larger clinical trial aiming to enroll 260 people is now underway. In addition to the drugs, there's also progress on detecting pancreatic cancer.

[Cecilia Ley]

A new AI model developed at the

[Apple News Narrator]

Mayo Clinic has been able to detect

[Cecilia Ley]

abnormalities in patient scans years before diagnosis

[Apple News Narrator]

that's also in clinical trials. While it's still early for all of these developments, one researcher told Johnson, it's been gloom and doom for a really

[Cecilia Ley]

long time, but we have some cause for optimism. Finally,

[Apple News Narrator]

And finally, a few other stories we're following. On Monday, Secret Service agents shot a

[Cecilia Ley]

man near the White House who allegedly opened fire after being confronted by authorities. Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of the U.S. secret Service, said that plainclothes officers spotted the suspect, who they described as a, quote, suspicious individual that appeared to have a firearm.

[Apple News Narrator]

After being confronted, the suspect allegedly fled

[Cecilia Ley]

on foot and brandished the weapon, which

[Apple News Narrator]

the director said he fired in the

[Cecilia Ley]

direction of the agents who returned fire.

[Apple News Narrator]

A bystander who is a minor was

[Cecilia Ley]

also hit by the suspect's gunfire and sustained non life threatening injuries during the shooting. The president was holding a small business summit inside the White House, and Vice President J.D. vance's motorcade passed nearby moments before the shooting took place. It's not clear that the incident had any connection to Trump or the White House. Washington's Metropolitan Police Department is conducting an investigation into the incident.

[Apple News Narrator]

The Trump administration quietly lifted a freeze on visas for foreign doctors, a move that could free up thousands of physicians

[Cecilia Ley]

who had been sidelined, worsening staffing shortages at hospitals nationwide. U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services says those applications for doctors will now resume.

[Apple News Narrator]

The administration had paused decisions on applications

[Cecilia Ley]

for work permits, green cards and visa extensions as part of a Homeland Security travel ban implemented in January without a formal announcement. Doctors are now exempted from that freeze.

[Apple News Narrator]

The US faces a shortage of about

[Cecilia Ley]

65,000 doctors, according to the association of American Medical Colleges, a figure that could grow to 86,000 by 2036 as doctors retire and people live longer, Bloomberg notes. Many of the sidelined foreign doctors work in underserved and rural communities. The change follows pressure from the medical community and a bipartisan group of 100 lawmakers who argued that having foreign doctors in the country was a matter of national interest.

[Apple News Narrator]

And finally, the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday. The annual awards are one of the highest honors in American journalism. Among this year's winners, the Minnesota Star

[Cecilia Ley]

Tribune was awarded for its breaking coverage of a deadly mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.

[Apple News Narrator]

And the Associated Press won for its

[Cecilia Ley]

investigation into how mass surveillance built in Silicon Valley is spreading worldwide and coming back to the US in the hands of Border Patrol.

[Apple News Narrator]

The audio prize this year went to the podcast Pablo Torre Finds out for

[Cecilia Ley]

its expose of NBA superstar Kawhi Leonard's contract scandal.

[Pablo Torre]

This is a very carefully orchestrated thing, we're trying to do. And it involves, by the way, one of the six richest people in the world, a cardinal sin of sports, an unsolved mystery as well that I've been investigating for seven months.

[Apple News Narrator]

Meanwhile, the Washington Post took home the award for public service for, quote, piercing

[Cecilia Ley]

the veil of the Trump administration's chaotic overhaul of the federal government.

[Apple News Narrator]

NPR notes the awards were handed out

[Cecilia Ley]

under some political pressure. President Trump has an ongoing lawsuit from 2022 against the Pulitzer's board for awarding the New York Times and the Washington Post prizes for their reporting on alleged collus between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

[Apple News Narrator]

You can find all these stories and

[Cecilia Ley]

more in the Apple News app.

[Apple News Narrator]

And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a

[Cecilia Ley]

narrated article coming up next.

[Apple News Narrator]

Bloomberg Businessweek reports on what are known

[Cecilia Ley]

as social casinos, free to play online games that have led players to spend enormous amounts of money on virtual coins they can never cash out.

[Apple News Narrator]

If you're listening in the podcast app,

[Cecilia Ley]

follow Apple News narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.