King Charles III addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday, the first time a British monarch has spoken from the Capitol floor since Queen Elizabeth II on May 16, 1991. Thirty-five years ago, Elizabeth spoke about the Gulf War and the end of the Cold War. Her son spoke about reconciliation.
The King told Congress that the story of the United States and the United Kingdom over the past 250 years is one of “reconciliation and renewal” that has produced “one of the greatest alliances in human history,” CNN reported. He called for “generosity of spirit” and said that despite disagreements, the shared foundations of “democratic, legal and social traditions” mean “time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together,” LBC reported.
The speech lasted approximately twenty minutes. It came after a state arrival ceremony on the South Lawn that included a 21-gun salute, an inspection of troops from all six branches of the armed forces, and remarks by President Trump, Al Jazeera reported. Nearly 500 personnel from all service branches participated. A state dinner is scheduled for Tuesday evening in the East Room of the White House.
The visit marks the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain. It proceeds despite Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and amid public differences between Washington and London over the war with Iran, NPR reported. The last state visit by a British monarch was May 2007, when Elizabeth II was hosted by President George W. Bush. Nineteen years ago.
Cole Tomas Allen, the thirty-one-year-old California man who opened fire at the Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, was arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington. He is charged with attempting to assassinate the president, interstate transportation of a firearm to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, the Department of Justice announced.
Allen didn’t enter a plea, NPR reported. He will remain in federal detention through at least Thursday, when a detention hearing is scheduled at 11 a.m. before a magistrate judge.
Court documents included an email Allen sent to family members shortly before the attack, in which he signed his name “Cole ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen,” CBS News reported. He wrote that administration officials would be considered “targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” He described what he called his “rules of engagement,” stating he wasn’t interested in targeting hotel security, Capitol Police, National Guard, hotel employees, or guests.
President Trump and his national security team are reviewing Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the White House confirmed Monday. The proposal, conveyed through Pakistani mediators, would end the blockade and establish a ceasefire, with nuclear negotiations deferred to a later stage, Axios reported.
Trump told reporters the offer was “much better” than previous proposals but didn’t elaborate, CNBC reported. U.S. media reports indicated he was dissatisfied that nuclear talks would be postponed. The administration has insisted Iran’s nuclear program be addressed at the start of any agreement.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Monday, Al Jazeera reported. The strait has been closed since late February. Oil remains above $100 a barrel. On April 21, Trump extended the ceasefire but ordered the naval blockade to remain in place and the military to stay ready to resume fighting.
In 2015, when the United States and six world powers reached the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, the nuclear program was the centerpiece of the deal. Iran’s current proposal sets it aside.
A severe weather outbreak that has produced more than fifty tornado reports since Thursday is continuing across the central United States. The Storm Prediction Center issued a Level 4 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms for parts of the Midwest and Mid-South on Monday, with the potential for intense tornadoes of EF3 or greater, CNN reported.
At least two people have been killed, both in Texas, one in Wise County and one in Parker County, the Washington Post reported. Multiple Particularly Dangerous Situation tornado warnings were issued Sunday evening. The threat extends from the Mississippi Valley into the lower Ohio Valley, placing nearly 40 million people in the path of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes through early Tuesday.
The outbreak is now in its sixth day. The Super Outbreak of April 3 and 4, 1974, produced 148 tornadoes in eighteen hours across thirteen states and killed 315 people. The current outbreak hasn’t reached that scale. The forecast calls for more.
Ukrainian drones struck the Tuapse oil refinery on Russia’s Black Sea coast overnight Tuesday, igniting another fire at the facility, the Kyiv Post reported. More than 160 firefighters were deployed. Authorities evacuated nearby residents, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The refinery has been hit repeatedly. Ukrainian forces struck it on April 16 and April 20. The fire from those strikes burned until April 24. Fifty-two percent of the facility’s storage tanks have now been destroyed, the Kyiv Independent reported. The refinery processes approximately 12 million metric tons of oil per year. It is offline with no timeline for resuming operations.
Oil infrastructure has been a strategic target in modern warfare since the Allied bombing of the Ploesti oil fields in Romania in August 1943. The weapon has changed. The logic hasn’t.
And in Enid, Oklahoma, they are cleaning up.
Last Thursday’s EF4 tornado destroyed approximately forty homes in the southern part of the city. The National Weather Service estimated winds at 170 to 175 miles per hour. The tornado was on the ground for nine miles and measured 500 yards across at its widest, AccuWeather reported. It was the first EF4 in Garfield County since April 26, 1991, Fox Weather reported. Thirty-five years.
Nobody died.
Governor Kevin Stitt said, “Thank the Lord that no one was killed here,” The Hill reported. Senator James Lankford said families told him they didn’t have storm shelters of their own but found one nearby and went in together, Fox Weather reported. The owner of the Texas Roadhouse in Enid opened the restaurant Monday to feed people whose homes were gone. He planned to give away 1,200 meals.
Recovery will take months to years, officials said. Supplies have poured in. The Chisholm Trail Expo Center is accepting donations: buckets, shovels, tarps, work gloves, chainsaws. The things you need when you are starting over.
It is Tuesday. A king spoke to Congress about reconciliation, thirty-five years after his mother did the same. A man accused of trying to kill the president is in a federal cell. A strait that carries a fifth of the world’s oil is still closed. And in Enid, Oklahoma, where the strongest tornado in the country destroyed forty homes and killed nobody, they are feeding each other. That’s the day.
