U.S.-Iran Talks Fail After Reaching Shaky Ceasefire Agreement

Over the last 40 days, the U.S./Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top officials and devastated much of Iran's military. In response, Iran has bombed Israel and states around the Gulf and closed the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping.

The situation is dangerous and complex. Thirteen Americans have been killed and hundreds wounded, and the Iranians have razed U.S. bases in the area. It appears the Iranians still have the uranium they have enriched, and the Islamic Iranian regime is still in power.

After threatening to “completely obliterate” Iran's power, energy and water infrastructure, unless the Strait of Hormuz were opened, and stating “a whole civilization will die tonight,” President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire—90 minutes before the deadline. The ceasefire deal was based on a 10-point Iranian peace proposal (several versions have been circulated, and it is unclear what the exact agreement is).

Israel has continued bombing Lebanon throughout the first days of the ceasefire, which Iran says violates the terms of the deal; the U.S. and Israel insist Lebanon is not covered by the deal. Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait were struck by Iran during the ceasefire's first 12 hours. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed—Iran paused ship traffic again after the Lebanese strikes—and Tehran is now reportedly seeking a $1-per-barrel cryptocurrency toll on tankers as part of any permanent arrangement.

Last week, American special operations forces carried out two back-to-back high-risk missions inside Iran to recover the 2-person crew of a downed F-15E Strike Eagle. The pilot was quickly rescued, but the weapons systems officer survived 36 hours evading Iranian forces in unfamiliar wilderness, eventually hiding in a mountain crevice at 7,000 feet before CIA-aided teams located him.

Vice President JD Vance led the U.S. delegation in Islamabad this weekend, where the Pakistanis brokered talks between the U.S. and Iran—the highest-level American-Iranian meeting since 1979. Unfortunately those talks were not successful, and Vance is headed back to the U.S. “We’ve been at it for 21 hours. We've had substantive discussions . . . but the bad news is, we have not reached an agreement . . . That’s bad news for Iran much more than it is bad news for the USA,” Vance said in a press conference.

U.S. News

🚀 Artemis II completes first manned space mission since 1972: On Friday evening, NASA's Orion spacecraft, carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, completed a perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, capping a historic 10-day mission. The crew became the first humans to travel around the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, broke the human spaceflight distance record by traveling 252,756 miles from Earth (surpassing Apollo 13's mark set over 50 years ago) and witnessed a nearly hour-long solar eclipse from the far side of the Moon. Reentry was particularly nail-biting: Orion's heat shield had known design flaws, so NASA flew the capsule in at a steeper angle to minimize exposure to the roughly 5,000°F temperatures caused by the rate of reentry into the atmosphere. Mission Control called it "a perfect bullseye splashdown," and all four crew members were reported in good health. Read more about the flight path in the graph below.

👩‍⚖️ Pam Bondi fired as Attorney General: President Trump dismissed Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday after roughly 15 months on the job, publicly praising her while administration officials gave less rosy reports to media outlets. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting Attorney General.

🪖 Army Chief fired: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Army Chief of Staff General Randy George from his post this week, making him the latest in a string of more than a dozen generals and admirals Hegseth has dismissed since taking office. General Christopher LaNeve, formerly Hegseth's top military aide, will serve as acting Army chief of staff.

💥 Pentagon seeks $1.5 trillion defense budget: The White House formally proposed a 2027 Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion Friday (a roughly 40% increase) paired with a 10% cut to non-defense spending that would reduce or eliminate funding for farmers, rural small businesses, public schools, and broadband access programs, among others.

🏛️ Ballroom gets design approval despite court block: The National Capital Planning Commission gave design approval to Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project this week, even as construction remains halted by a federal judge who ruled it violates federal law without congressional authorization. President Trump told reporters the military is building a facility beneath the ballroom, which features "drone-proof roofs" and bulletproof windows. The ballroom is mostly a pretty cover for the planned state-of-the-art military bunker.

⚖️ Supreme Court hears birthright citizenship case: The High Court heard oral arguments Thursday on President Trump's executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship to apply only to children of citizens and permanent residents, which challenges the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment that allows non-citizens to come to the U.S. on a visit and grant their baby citizenship. President Trump attended the arguments—an unprecedented move for a sitting president—as the administration argues the clause's “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” language was never meant to apply to children of undocumented immigrants.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

👶 U.S. birth rate hits record low: The CDC reported Thursday that the U.S. birth rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, continuing a decline that has worsened steadily since 2007. More American babies were born in 1966—when the population was 196 million—than in 2025, when it stood at 343 million.

📉 Trump approval hits 33%: A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released Monday showed the President's approval rating at 33%, with support among Black Americans and working-class voters down nearly 20 points since April and moderates and independents falling at similar rates. Approval for the Iran War stood at 25 points underwater and the administration's handling of inflation at -47 points.

🏳️ Conversion therapy ban struck down: The Supreme Court sided with a Christian therapist who argued that a Colorado law banning conversion therapy violated her First Amendment free speech rights. Conversion therapy is any emotional or physical therapy used with a formerly LGBTQ person to “cure” or “repair” their sexual identity.

Good News

TSA agents have begun receiving back pay. According to The Hill, on Friday they received checks “covering pay period 6, which ended April 4, as well as previously unpaid hours from earlier in the shutdown—while other DHS employees will receive back pay this week for all pay periods during the lapse through that date, according to a memo sent to DHS employees Monday.” Airports don’t recommend arriving earlier than 90 minutes for a domestic flight. Arriving earlier can bog down security lines, especially early in the morning.