The briefing for Thursday, May 21.

The U.S. military boarded an Iranian-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, suspecting it of attempting to breach the American blockade. The vessel, M/T Celestial Sea, was searched and redirected after being suspected of heading to an Iranian port. It's at least the fifth commercial vessel boarded since the blockade was imposed in mid-April, several days into a ceasefire, to pressure Tehran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The action comes as President Trump faces growing domestic pressure to end the conflict. The Senate advanced legislation Tuesday seeking to force Trump to withdraw from the Iran war, with a 50-47 vote that saw a growing number of Republicans defying the president. Trump had called off renewed military strikes on Iran on Monday, saying he had planned "a very major attack" but put it off after Gulf allies asked for more time to reach a deal. The U.S. military recently reported that 1,550 vessels from 87 countries are currently stranded in the Persian Gulf.

The conflict has driven gasoline prices up 40% from last year as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait, while the U.S. enforces its blockade on Iranian ports and Iranian-linked ships worldwide. Republicans in Congress are battling political headwinds ahead of November's midterm elections as energy markets churn. Last week, U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers after exchanging fire in the Strait of Hormuz, with the military saying the tankers were trying to breach the blockade.

The World Health Organization confirmed 51 Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and two in Uganda's capital Kampala on Wednesday, but warned the true scale is "much larger" than official figures suggest. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths, with numbers expected to rise. The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimated actual cases could already exceed 1,000, calling the true magnitude "uncertain."

The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which hasn't been seen for over a decade and brings unique challenges. WHO advisor Dr. Vasee Moorthy said a vaccine against this particular strain could take up to nine months to develop, as neither of two "candidate vaccines" has gone through clinical trials yet. The disease spread undetected for weeks after the first known death on April 24 because authorities initially tested for the more common Zaire species and came up negative.

Healthcare workers in eastern Congo report being overwhelmed, with facilities full of suspect cases and inadequate protective equipment despite some supplies arriving. The outbreak is unfolding in a region already threatened by armed groups that control territory where cases have been confirmed, complicating contact tracing efforts. The International Rescue Committee warned that years of underfunding, compounded by recent cuts to outbreak preparedness programs, have weakened the ability to detect and respond quickly. India and the African Union postponed next week's India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi due to the "evolving health situation."

Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block anyone, including rioters, from receiving payouts from President Trump's new $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund." Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges and former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn claim the fund is an illegal slush fund that Trump will use to "finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name."

The lawsuit, filed a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before Congress, describes the fund's creation as "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century." Blanche, a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn't rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for payouts. The fund stems from a settlement of Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and is designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by prior administrations' Justice Department.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the Capitol riot, and nearly 1,600 people were charged with Jan. 6-related crimes before Trump used his pardon powers to erase all those cases. The officers argue the fund "encourages those who enacted violence in the President's name to continue to do so" and claim it substantially increases the danger they already face from credible threats. Decisions on payouts will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general. One of the attorneys representing the officers is Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who handled Jan. 6 cases.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired the two leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel that determines when insurance must provide free preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies for millions of Americans. In letters dated May 11, Kennedy notified Drs. John Wong and Esa Davis that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms. The letters don't make clear why they were ousted, though Kennedy wrote that their "leadership, contributions and expertise" had advanced the task force's work.

The Department of Health and Human Services had already largely sidelined the task force, indefinitely postponing scheduled public meetings over the past year and leaving some long-expected updates on cervical cancer screenings and other topics in limbo. The panel, first created in the 1980s, is composed of experts who scrutinize evidence behind disease prevention tools and update guidelines with letter grades. Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must cover preventive services given an "A" or "B" grade without requiring a co-pay.

Former task force chairman Dr. Michael Silverstein said the panel wasn't allowed to publish its final cervical cancer screening update or take steps to update recommendations about maternal depression over the past year. He called it "a level of government intrusion into scientific processes that I've not experienced in my 10 years on the task force." Kennedy told lawmakers last month he was reforming the task force, calling it "lackadaisical," to ensure it would meet more frequently and "have, for the first time, transparency." Some health advocates worry Kennedy is preparing to replace the expert panel with less experienced political appointees, similar to what he did with a vaccine advisory committee.

Elon Musk announced plans Wednesday for what could be one of the biggest initial public offerings ever for a space company, despite documents showing SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue. The losses continued piling up at the start of this year as well, according to the prospectus filed Wednesday. The IPO is expected to rank among the largest ever, possibly surpassing Saudi Aramco's 2019 offering, with various reports putting the amount at around $75 billion.

The prospectus did not specify the dollar amount Musk hopes to raise, but stated the money will help finance projects to put people on the moon and potentially Mars in his quest to make humans an "intergalactic species" as civilization faces existential threats. "We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs," the filing stated. The offering could make Musk, already the world's richest man and a major holder of SpaceX equity, the world's first trillionaire.

The IPO structure will give Musk significant control over the business through special voting shares. Certain shareholders, including Musk, will receive shares in a special class of stock that gives them 10 votes for each share they hold. These shareholders will be able to elect a majority of the company's board of directors. SpaceX warned prospective investors in the filing: "This will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters and the election of our directors."

A UPS plane crash that killed 15 people last year might have been prevented if an original inspection schedule hadn't been relaxed, according to testimony Wednesday at a National Transportation Safety Board hearing. The crash occurred after an engine flew off the plane's wing during takeoff at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport, killing all three pilots and 12 people on the ground, with 23 more injured. The plane had flown 21,043 cycles of takeoffs and landings—enough that it would have been thoroughly inspected under the original schedule.

Boeing succeeded in extending required inspections of critical engine mount parts from once every 19,900 cycles to once every 29,260 cycles in 2015, allowing airlines to complete more major maintenance tasks simultaneously. However, the planemaker sought this change even after receiving reports about seven flaws in the bearings before planes reached their original inspection limits. The Federal Aviation Administration approved the request after just a month's review without seeking more information, and three more instances were discovered in the years before the crash.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy questioned why the FAA didn't challenge Boeing's request more thoroughly, especially since regulators knew Boeing had sent out a service letter about the flaws and had previously reported some of them. Boeing's Director of Airframe Service Engineering Justin Konopaske didn't always have answers about what the company considered at the time because records from the MD-11's original designer, McDonnell Douglas, weren't available. Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti noted that "safety is a shared responsibility between the airline, the manufacturer, and the regulator," and the NTSB is attempting to determine each party's role in the tragedy.