President Donald Trump has issued another warning to Iran to open the strait of Hormuz or risk US attacks on its oil wells and power plants.

“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Writing on Truth Social, he added:

This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year “Reign of Terror.”

Donald Trump is dispatching a so-called “God squad” of top officials to revoke protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, purportedly to protect national security by expanding oil and gas industry operations.

If successful, the administration may kill off dozens of protected species – from Rice’s whales and whooping cranes to sea turtles.

The rarely used “God squad” provision in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows a president to convene a committee of agency heads empowered to effectively veto protections for species on the brink of extinction. The committee essentially weighs whether the benefits from a proposed project outweigh the continued existence of protected wildlife.

The Trump administration is attempting to justify the ESA exemption for “reasons of national security”, marking the first time a security claim has been made. However, oil and gas companies have not asked for the exemption, raising questions about why it is being requested, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center For Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the committee from convening.

The move is presumably aimed at bringing down gas prices that are soaring amid the US-Israel war on Iran, opponents say. Trump wants to make it appear as if the administration is taking action over the growing crisis, but the claim that there is a national security threat is “nonsense” for a multitude of reasons, Hartl said.

The newly appointed College Republicans of America political director Kai Schwemmer has made racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist statements while espousing extremist rightwing views on abortion, a Guardian review of livestream recordings can reveal.

Schwemmer said he would accept a world in which slavery was legal if abortion was criminalised, describes himself as “very much an anti universal suffrage guy” and accepts a supporter’s description of him as “our Mormon Nick Fuentes” – referring to the white nationalist influencer whose platform he streamed on for years.

The comments were made after Schwemmer’s return from a two-year Mormon mission to Argentina, a period he recently claimed had seen him undergo a “process of growth” that led him to abandon previous racist beliefs. Schwemmer had previously expressed extremist and bigoted views.

The streams, many of which are not publicly available but remain accessible behind a paywall on Schwemmer’s Gumroad page, also contain previously unreported material from his earlier broadcasts. In one, he walks a user through a sequence of antisemitic leading questions on the Omegle platform before directing her to Fuentes’s streaming site. In others, he claims gay men are “weaponizing” gyms “to give you Aids” and celebrates a DNA test he says proved “I’m 0% Jewish”.

The Guardian emailed detailed requests for comment to Schwemmer and the College Republicans of America.

Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, renewed his calls for new leadership of the Democratic party, saying the party has “failed this moment”.

“As a whole, our party has failed this moment,” Booker said on Sunday. “I’ve called for a generational renewal, because this left-right divide is killing our country and our adversaries know it.” He also said that “purity tests” within the party have led to more division in the US.

During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Booker also said the Democratic party has “too small of a coalition”, especially as the party seeks to confront “new challenges”, including Trump administration policies and the expansion of artificial intelligence and technology.

Booker’s comments come amid growing divisions within the party, as frustration with Democratic senator Chuck Schumer grows. Some Democrats, specifically on the more progressive wing of the party, have discussed replacing Schumer, the minority leader, as midterm elections approach. Progressive senators reportedly see Schumer as an impediment to change for the party, due to his centrist politics, and as an obstacle to standing up to Donald Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that some senators, including Chris Murphy from Connecticut, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota have been having conversations with colleagues, expressing frustration with Schumer and discussing strategies to remove him from his leadership position.