Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the temporary ceasefire announcement which she called “a long-overdue step after over a month of war without a clear purpose and with mounting costs for the American people.”

In a statment, she also called for “a real accounting of what President Trump’s war achieved”, adding: “After weeks of combat, 13 American service members killed and enormous disruption to the global economy, President Trump has seemingly managed to replace Iran’s Supreme Leader with his hardliner son and equally dangerous IRGC officials. At the same time, I remain deeply concerned that U.S. actions may have incentivized Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. The American people are also paying the price of President Trump’s war, with the cost of gas rising dramatically since the beginning of the conflict; Iran poised to further weaponize the Strait of Hormuz; and the ongoing shock to the global economy. None of this makes Americans safer or our people better off.”

She concluded by calling for “an intensive diplomatic effort, alongside our allies, to conclude this conflict and ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.”

US political leaders and many Americans breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday evening, after Donald Trump announced a provisional ceasefire deal following threats to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization”.

“I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said on Tuesday night.

Several Republicans cheered the president’s decision, casting it as shrewd and tactical.

“Excellent news,” senator Rick Scott of Florida said. “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the chamber’s loudest and most aggressive Iran hawks, said on Tuesday evening he shared the hope that “we can end the reign of terror of the Iranian regime through diplomacy”.

But he added: “We must remember that the strait of Hormuz was attacked by Iran after the start of the war, destroying freedom of navigation. Going forward, it is imperative Iran is not rewarded for this hostile act against the world.”

Shelly Kittleson, the US journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad by the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah last week, has been released, says secretary of state Marco Rubio.

“We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq,” Rubio said in a social media post.

Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that Kittleson had been released, citing an unnamed Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation:

While White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has issued a polite if vague statement on the Iran ceasefire agreement, White House communications director Steven Cheung has taken a more inflammatory approach to criticism of the deal.

“You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about you loser. Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of because you clearly can’t read,” Cheung said in a social media post responding to a description of the 10-point plan Iran had proposed.

Earlier, Leavitt issued a statement saying,“President Trump’s words speak for themselves: this is a workable basis to negotiate, and those negotiations will continue.”

The Pentagon will hold a press briefing tomorrow morning. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are expected to attend.

The National Iranian American Council, widely known as the Iran lobby within the United States, said the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran is “very tenuous” and requires that Trump “stand up to Netanyahu”.

“President Trump has gone from threatening civilizational annihilation in the morning to announcing a very tenuous ceasefire in the evening. There are many questions to answer, including how sustainable it can be,” the group said in a statement.

“Trump will have to do some serious work to make this ceasefire work,” it added. “As a first step, he must halt not just U.S. but Israeli attacks, which may require he stand up to Netanyahu. He also must appoint credible diplomatic interlocutors to pursue a deal based on the ten points he apparently finds workable.”

Oil prices fell, bonds rallied and stocks surged as an apparent two-week ceasefire in the Middle East was seen as potentially paving the way for a lasting peace and resumption of Gulf oil and gas exports.

As his deadline came within two hours of passing, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he agreed to suspend bombing and attacks on Iran for two weeks.

On that news, US crude futures fell around 9% to $103 a barrel, S+P 500 futures leapt 1.6% and the US dollar fell broadly.

Futures pointed to broad gains for Asia’s stock markets, and 10-year US Treasury futures jumped about 15 ticks.

Details about the ceasefire are still very sketchy. However, Iran has said it would guarantee safe passage for maritime traffic through the vital strait of Hormuz for two weeks, announcing the pause would be used for talks with the US on ending the war, starting Friday in Islamabad.

Markets in Asia are about to start opening. We’ll stay on top of market movements through the day.

More congressional Democrats are reacting to Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.

“This statement changes nothing”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative from New York, posted on X Tuesday evening, adding that the push to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office should continue.

“The President has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat”, Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer. None of these considerations should be partisan, but shared in good faith by Americans of all backgrounds who care for the safety and stability of the United States. Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the President must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”

Ro Khanna, a US representative from California, also weighed in on social media.

“Trump backed down”, he wrote. “No credit to Congress, which barely made a whimper.”

Khanna gave credit to both “progressive activists & anti-war conservative voices”, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former US representative and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The White House has not answered messages from the Associated Press thus far this evening clarifying the 10-point peace plan Donald Trump described as “workable” in a social media post.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Iran said the propsoal includes an easing of sanctions on the Islamic Republic and giving the country power over the strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has accepted a two-week ceasefire in its war with the United States and Israel. Iranian officials will meet with the United States for talks in Islamabad beginning Friday.

“It is emphasized that this does not signify the termination of the war,” the council said in a statement. “Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force.”

Even as Trump announces the outlines of a ceasefire agreement, Israel’s military has warned that Iran is firing missiles toward it.

The warning came just minutes after Trump said he had agreed to suspend a devastating attack on Iran by two weeks and was ready for a ceasefire in the war if Tehran completely reopens the vital strait of Hormuz.

The [Israeli army] identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat.”

Blasts were heard from Jerusalem and Jericho on the occupied West Bank, AFP correspondents said.

The Israeli military told people in the areas affected by the incoming missile warnings to seek safety in bomb shelters.

As Donald Trump’s 8pm ET deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz approaches, demonstrators have gathered outside the White House to protest against the war in Iran.

Here are some images from the wires:

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, says Senate majority leader John Thune must reconvene the Senate so it can vote to stop the United States’s war in Iran.

“Congress needs to pull the emergency brake now. We should be voting to stop Trump’s war today,” Warren said in a newly released video.

“We don’t know what will happen tonight…But I do know that Congress has the power and the responsibility to end Trump’s war. Enough. Call your representatives. And tell these Republicans to grow a backbone and do their damn jobs.”

US senator Ron Johnson, a close ally of Donald Trump, warned on Monday that the US president would lose his support if he struck Iran’s civilian infrastructure, as a small chorus of Republican unease begins to grow.

Speaking on the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday, Johnson said: “I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure.” He added: “I hope and pray that President Trump is just using this as bluster.”

After Trump’s staggering warning on Tuesday morning that Iran’s “whole civilisation will die”, Johnson told the Wall Street Journal that the president would forfeit his backing and it would be “a huge mistake” if he carried out his threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”.

I think it would be a huge mistake. I mean, he loses me if he attacks civilian targets. Whatever we do has to be within the laws of warfare.

Most Republicans have stayed schtum on Trump’s threat, but a handful have urged caution and called for de-escalation.

Jason Carter, the grandson of former president Jimmy Carter and chair of The Carter Center Board of Trustees, denounced Donald Trump’s threat to annihilate a “whole civilization”. Jimmy Carter was president of the United States in 1979, during the Iran hostage crisis.

“If my grandfather were here he would challenge all Americans - Democrats, Republicans and especially Christians who worship the Prince of Peace – to stand up and say enough is enough. The Islamist government of Iran has been our enemy, including an enemy of my family, but the people of Iran have never been our enemy. This country must be better than Donald Trump’s unbridled and dangerous rhetoric,” said Jason Carter.

Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, has called on Donald Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, which removes a president who is deemed unfit for office.

“Donald Trump’s instability is more clear and dangerous than ever,” Pelosi said. “If the Cabinet is not willing to invoke the 25th Amendment and restore sanity, Republicans must reconvene Congress to end this war.”

So far today, more than 20 Democratic members of Congress have called for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have shot a man in central California’s Stanislaus County.

According to a Department of Homeland Security statement, agents were conducting a targeted traffic stop when the man, identified as Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, “weaponized his vehicle”. Former DHS secretary Kristi Noem repeatedly used the same phrase to describe the actions of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who ICE agents fatally shot in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said officers fired defenisvely and claimed that Mendoza Hernandez is a gang member wanted for questioning in connection to a murder. Earlier this year, DHS claimed that two other people shot in Oregon were “vicious” gang members who had “attempted to run over” officers. Court records later showed those claims were false.

Mendoza Hernandez has been taken to a hospital though his condition remains unknown.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told the Washington Post that he has no plans to leave his position, despite ongoing tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that saw three other senior military leaders, including Army general Randy George, leave their posts last week.

“Serving under President Trump has been the honor of a lifetime and I remain laser focused on providing America with the strongest land fighting force the world has ever seen,” Driscoll told the Post. “I have no plans to depart or resign as the Secretary of the Army.”

The White House voiced support for Driscoll, who is a close personal friend of JD Vance, in a statement to the Post.

Sean Parnell, who is now serving as Hegseth’s spokesperson, has privately voiced an interest in Driscoll’s job, the Post reports. However, he declined to answer questions about the role in an interview with the Post and disputed claims that Hegseth and Driscoll were on tense terms.

The wife of a US army staff sergeant has been released from an immigration detention center in Louisiana after she was detained by ICE last week. Annie Ramos, a 22-year-old college student, was detained at a military base in Louisiana on Thursday as her husband, 23-year-old Matthew Blank, prepared to deploy.

“All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby. I want to finish my degree, continue my education, and serve my community - just as my husband serves our country with honor,” Ramos said in a statement after her release. “As Matthew continues preparing for his long career in the military, my focus now is on securing my status, continuing my studies, and building our life together.”

Pope Leo XIV called Donald Trump’s threat to annihilate “a whole civilization” tonight if Iran does not open the strait of Hormuz by 8pm ET “truly unacceptable." In remarks to reporters, the first American pontiff added that attacks on civilian infrastructure would violate international law.

Here’s more of my colleagues’ recent coverage of Leo’s criticism of the Iran war:

The average price for a gallon of gas in the US is now $4.14, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

That is up from $2.98 at the end of February, when the US-Israel war on Iran began.

As lawmakers condemn Trump’s comments, saying they are tantamount to the president telegraphing war crimes, my colleagues Joseph Gedeon and Lauren Gambino have more on the implications for international law.

Neither the US nor Iran is a member of the international criminal court, they write, meaning no formal ICC jurisdiction applies.

The more immediate legal framework is the Geneva conventions of 1949 onwards, which both countries have ratified. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention explicitly prohibits collective punishment of a civilian population.

Article 54 of Additional Protocol I – whose core principles are binding as customary international law even on states, like the US and Iran, that never ratified it – prohibits attacks on infrastructure indispensable to civilian survival, with only a narrow exception for objects used exclusively to sustain enemy armed forces.

The US has itself acknowledged this customary obligation, though the adoption of this position came under the Biden administration in 2024. In one formal UN submission, Washington said it treated the fundamental protections of Additional Protocol I as legally binding even without ratification.

Even Nigel Farage now believes that Donald Trump has gone too far. In the past the Reform UK leader has been one of the president’s biggest supporters in the UK. More recently he has started to stress that he does not agree with the president on everything.

But Trump’s latest Truth Social post has pushed Farage over the edge.

During a post-press conference walkabout in Bedworth, a Press Association reporter told Farage what Trump had said in his post and asked for a response. Farage said:

I am quite shocked just to hear that. That is over the top in every single way.

Yes of course he wants to threaten – to get them to the negotiating table. But those words are … they’re way too far.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 800 people following tips shared by federal airport security officials from the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency through February 2026, according to internal agency data reviewed by Reuters – a figure far above what was previously publicly known.

The leads came from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which supplied ICE with records on more than 31,000 travelers for possible immigration enforcement, the data showed.

Reuters could not determine how many arrests took place inside airports, although the TSA tips would mainly be useful in determining when a person would be traveling.

ICE and the TSA are part of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agencies have historically shared information related to national security threats, but they began focusing on routine immigration arrests after the start of Trump’s second presidency as part of his mass deportation effort.

The 31,000 traveler records were gathered by TSA’s Secure Flight Program, which was created in 2007 to allow the agency to review passenger information for people who may be on US government watchlists. The program was intended as a counter-terrorism measure, not to track down immigration offenders, according to the regulation outlining its purpose.

The DHS did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the TSA providing passenger information to ICE. But the TSA said that under Trump it “is pursuing solutions that improve resiliency, security and efficiency across our entire system”.

The city of Minneapolis released a video yesterday that undermined the initial ICE account of a shooting involving an agency officer and two Venezuelan men in January.

The video, from a city-owned security camera, captured federal officers chasing one of the men to his residence. Another Venezuelan man who lives there was shot during the confrontation, which eventually led to the suspensions of two federal officers involved in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the so-called Operation Metro Surge.

Meanwhile, federal authorities in February dropped all charges against the two immigrants and opened a criminal investigation into whether the officers lied under oath about what had happened.

The city released the video after the New York Times, which obtained a copy earlier, reported that the footage raised questions about why it took weeks for the federal government’s case against the two men, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, to collapse. Among other things, though the ICE officer at the center of the case claimed at first that he tussled with both men for about three minutes before firing, the video released on Monday depicted a confrontation lasting about 12 seconds.

The Times reported that federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the 14 January shooting – but did not watch it until nearly three weeks after they had charged the two men.

“The video makes it crystal clear that, just like in other situations during Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s account of what happened simply does not match the facts,” Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said in a statement.

More on this story here:

A group of 36 lawmakers says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has created “disappearances” on US soil, due to the “increasingly unreliable” online system used to track people detained by immigration authorities, according to a letter shared with the Guardian.

The lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, are urging that the DHS inspector general’s office open an investigation into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “online detainee locator system” (ODLS), which has been used for years by family members, attorneys and journalists to track people in the federal immigration detention system.

“Since January 2025, that system has grown increasingly unreliable,” the lawmakers, including Senator Ben Ray Luján and House representatives Veronica Escobar and Lauren Underwood, say in the letter. “Without a functional locator system, DHS is effectively creating ‘disappearances’ on US soil, and we urge the DHS office of inspector general (OIG) to investigate this matter.”

The scathing letter, submitted to the DHS inspector general office on Monday evening, comes as the Trump administration continues with its aggressive anti-immigrant arrest, detention and deportation practices.

The ICE detention system is made up of a network of large and small facilities, jails, military bases and federal prisons, many of which are privately owned and operated. Often the agency will quickly and quietly shuffle detained immigrants from one facility to another.

ICE created the ODLS in 2010 so family members and attorneys could quickly and accurately track people detained by ICE in its detention network. Before the Trump administration, ICE added people to its locator system within eight hours of their arrival to an ICE facility. But since the Trump administration took office last year, there has been a radical increase of complaints that the ODLS is not working properly.

Read the full report here:

Republican senator Ron Johnson said that he hopes Donald Trump’s threats to target energy and civilian infrastructure in Iran is “bluster”.

In an interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday, the Wisconsin lawmaker noted that the president’s vow to launch strikes that could amount to war crimes if the regime doesn’t fails to reopen the strait of Hormuz was concerning. “I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I do not want to see that. We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them,” Johnson said.

His comments came before Trump said on Truth Social that a “whole civilization would die tonight”, and an outpour of condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and former officials.

Brent crude has risen above $110 a barrel again, after Donald Trump warned Iran “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make an agreement by 8pm ET.

Brent, the global oil benchmark, has see-sawed in volatile markets today, and is now up 0.8% at $110.67 a barrel.

Democrat Martin Heinrich has joined the chorus of lawmakers decrying the president’s latest social media post – where he writes that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran doesn’t reopen the strait of Hormuz by 8pm ET.

“This man is unhinged,” the New Mexico senator said plainly. Also calling into question Donald Trump’s mental acuity is former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – once a loyal ally of the president who has since soured on the administration and left Capitol Hill.

“25TH AMENDMENT!!!” Greene wrote on social media, in reference to the constitutional provision which includes a section that allows for the replacement of the president in the event of incapacitation. This, however, must be invoked by the vice-president and a majority of the cabinet.

“Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” Greene added.

Joe Kent, the former top counter-terrorism official who resigned last month in opposition to the war on Iran, said that Trump’s threats to eradicate Iranian civilization ultimately endanger America.

“The United States will no longer be viewed as a stabilizing force in the world, but as an agent of chaos – effectively ending our status as the world’s greatest superpower,” he wrote on social media. “This would upend our economy and shatter the global order.”

Kent added that the US still has time to “avert catastrophe if Trump finds the courage to pursue serious negotiations rather than reckless rage and destruction”.

A reminder that Kent is the administration’s first major defection over the ongoing war. He resigned as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in March, said that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation” and blamed Israel for pressuring the US to launch a military operation in his resignation letter. Trump, and several White House officials rebuked Kents claims, and undermined his overall performance.

During a press conference in Budapest with Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, vice-president JD Vance is asked how the military goals in Iran can be achieved if the US continues its attacks on the country.

Vance was also asked about reports about US attacks on Kharg Island. The vice-president said the plan was to hit “some military targets” there and “I believe we have done so.”

“The president’s deadline has been followed by us and everybody else,” Vance said. “We’re not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don’t make a proposal. But he’s given them until Tuesday at 8.”

The vice-president also noted that the news about Kharg Island doesn’t represent a change in strategy from the preisdent.

He then joked about Iran leaders being “not the fastest negotiators,” but said he hopes to get an answer by the this evening’s cutoff point.

One note, we were expecting a Pentagon press conference today with defense secretary Pete Hegseth and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine, but that has now been cancelled.

This comes as US-Israeli strikes have hit the key Iranian oil export terminal of Kharg island, according to state media.

“The American-Zionist enemy has carried out several attacks on Kharg island, and several explosions have been heard there,” Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

My colleagues on our dedicated Middle East blog are covering the latest developments in the region.

Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll spend most of the day in policy meetings, before welcoming the ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, to the White House for a dinner reception at 7pm ET. However, these events won’t be open to the press. We’ll keep an eye out if any of that changes.

Donald Trump said he was “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants if Tehran does not meet his Tuesday 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

“I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off-limits. Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wanted a permanent end to the conflict.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the Associated Press.

At a news conference, Trump said all of Iran could be “taken out” in one night “and that night might be tomorrow night”, referring to Tuesday. Without an agreement with Tehran, he said, “every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight ET on Wednesday and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again”.

Israel and the US carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.

Vice-president JD Vance has arrived in Hungary in a bid to turn the tide of an election campaign where long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of president Donald Trump, is trailing in the polls.

Vance’s two-day trip, where he is scheduled to hold an official visit with Orbán and later appear at one of his campaign rallies, offered the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is going all-in for an Orbán victory when Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday.

Mexico is facing a “toxic crisis” and has become a “garbage sink” for the US, exposing Mexican communities to dangerous pollution, a UN expert has warned.

In an interview with the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, an investigative outlet, Marcos Orellana, an environmental specialist, said pollutants ranging from imported waste to dangerous pesticides are affecting people’s right to live healthy lives.

Orellana, whose title is UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, conducted an 11-day investigative mission in Mexico last month to learn about toxic threats facing its population. He said he found lax environmental standards and a lack of oversight, which have allowed pollution to accumulate over the years.

“Where standards are weak, what you get is legalized pollution,” he said, adding that imports of hazardous and plastic waste from the United States are worsening the situation.

“US overconsumption and economic activity are using Mexico as a garbage sink.”