President Trump called Monday for Israel and Iran to lay down their weapons in his first public comments since the Middle Eastern enemies traded attacks overnight.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, says the Democratic Party 'has lost its focus on working people'
Israel and Iran's recent exchange of fire is threatening the truce in the Middle East. And, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading at an unprecedented rate, officials say.
LIVE FIRE CEASEFIRE: Iran attempted to use its leverage with President Donald Trump — who is anxious to seal a nuclear deal with Tehran — to protect its proxy forces in Lebanon from Israeli retaliation, after Iran struck Israel with a wave of missile attacks over the weekend. Trump told Axios he would call Israeli […]
President Donald Trump said that Israel and Iran are once again negotiating a ceasefire as violence in the Middle East escalated over the weekend. Iran launched a missile strike against Israel Sunday morning in retaliation for Israel’s attacks against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon earlier in the weekend. Israel responded Monday morning with a strike against […]
President Donald Trump recently declared that a deal with Iran is “largely negotiated.” As a liberal Muslim scholar from the Middle East who was forced to flee Egypt after defending Israel following Oct. 7, 2023, I know exactly what that declaration is worth without the Arab world’s full commitment behind it: very little. There is […]
President Donald Trump said the US would maintain its blockade of Iranian ports until there is a deal to end hostilities in the region after demanding Israel and Iran stop military action.
President Donald Trump publicly pleaded with Israel and Iran to halt their fighting early Monday as the two countries traded their worst strikes since the April truce, threatening to collapse the peace deal Trump had declared was days away from completion."Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:36 a.m. Eastern. "President DONALD J. TRUMP."The all-caps signature did not appear to have the desired effect. By morning, Israel was defending fresh waves of Iranian missiles — with CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting interceptions visible over Jerusalem — while Iran threatened to target all oil and gas facilities associated with the U.S. and Israel if attacks on its energy infrastructure continued.The escalation unraveled a week of optimistic diplomacy. Trump had told the Financial Times just days earlier that negotiations were "very close" and predicted a deal would be announced this week. He had also told Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran, according to a U.S. official — an instruction Netanyahu appeared to ignore.The sequence: Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the IDF, with Yemen's Houthi rebels launching two more in the first such attacks since April. Israel responded with two waves of strikes on Iran, targeting aerial defense systems in the first wave and a petrochemical facility in the second. Iran then struck petrochemical infrastructure in Haifa, with footage showing missiles bearing the message in three languages: "You will regret this."Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. "bears responsibility" for Israel's actions as a party to the April ceasefire. Iran also called "absurd" any suggestion that frozen Iranian assets could be redirected to compensate U.S. allies for war damages.The financial fallout was immediate. Brent crude surged nearly 5 percent to $97.52 a barrel. Asian stock markets tumbled, with South Korea's KOSPI plunging more than 8 percent.Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Spanish parliament in Madrid on a peace-focused visit, called war "a painful defeat of the capacity to negotiate" as the strikes unfolded. Israel's military said it was preparing for at least several days of fighting and the possibility of a prolonged campaign.Trump told Fox News the Iranian attack "certainly is not going to help negotiations" and called on Iran to "get back to the table and make a deal." He had previously told the Financial Times that Israel "would have to accept any deal" the U.S. reaches with Iran, saying "I call all the shots."On Monday morning, that bold claim was being tested in real time.
The Yemeni Houthis announced early Monday they would impose a “complete ban” on Israeli sea vessels from passing through the Red Sea, a partial blockade that risks hitting global trade with a “two-front crisis” as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, several outlets reported.“We declare a complete ban on enemy navigation in the Red Sea and we consider any Zionist movements to be military targets for our forces,” said Houthi spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Al Saree in a televised statement released on Monday, according to the United Arab Emirates news outlet The National.“We will respond to escalation with escalation and our operations will intensify in line with the battle and in conjunction with the axis of jihad and resistance."The announcement comes in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran Sunday, itself a response to Iranian strikes on northern Israel as retaliation for Israel’s siege on Beirut, Lebanon.While not as critical to global trade as the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea is still a major shipping waterway, with around 12% of global trade passing through the channel, “including 30% of global container traffic,” according to The Guardian. Together, disruptions to both shipping waterways would likely further exacerbate supply shocks sparked by President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran.“The two waterways together carry an estimated 30% of global container shipping and approximately 22% of the world's seaborne oil supply, according to analysis by The Middle East Insider,” reads a report from Insurance Business Magazine. “A combined disruption places an estimated US$10 billion per day of global trade at risk.”YEMENI HOUTHIS ANNOUNCE NAVAL BLOCKADE ON ISRAEL IN THE RED SEA pic.twitter.com/AWSP9pEgvI— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 8, 2026