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Iran “begged” for a ceasefire agreement, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced during a press conference Wednesday morning, claiming total victory for the United States and noting that President Donald Trump “forged this moment.”Speaking of the eleventh-hour ceasefire following Trump’s threat to end an entire civilization, Hegseth pointed to the broader picture, reminding Americans that Iran has a history of “targeting our people, killing Americans, [and] lying and blackmailing their way toward a nuclear weapon.”“So they thought. No longer. Not on our watch,” Hegseth said, explaining that other presidents have kicked the can down the road. However, he said, Trump...

Investors around the globe on Wednesday cheered what appears to be the beginning of the end of the military clash between the U.S. and Iran, sending stocks higher and government bond yields lower. Oil prices plunged on the promise that the Strait of Hormuz may soon be open for shipping.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 1,000 points by midday, a 2.3 percent gain. The S&P 500 rose 2.1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.6 percent. Stocks had been even higher earlier in the morning but pared gains as reports on ongoing missle strikes and a drone attack on...

Iran has once again closed the Strait of Hormuz, blocking oil tankers from transiting the waterway, in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-tied outlet Fars News reported on Wednesday. Oil tankers attempting to transit the strait received threatening messages from the Iranian Navy, according to several shipping sources. "Any vessel trying to travel into the sea ... will be targeted and destroyed..." the message, which was received by several vessels, said. This is a developing story.

European countries, after the Second World War, came to a painful but profound conclusion: if they wanted to stop centuries of bloodletting among themselves, they had to make war materially irrational. The answer they found was not idealism alone, but interdependence. Trade. Shared markets. Shared interests. Over time, that logic helped give birth to what became the European Union. As the EU notes in its official history of postwar integration, the European Coal and Steel Community was created so that no single country could build the weapons of war against the others as in the past. Established by the Treaty...

US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth claimed today that Iran begged for Donald Trump's 11th-hour ceasefire. Last night, just a few hours before Trump's deadline for Iran to agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US president said via Truth Social that he had agreed to 'suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,' after earlier sparking doomsday fears when he threatened to wipe out its 'entire civilisation'. In a later post, the US President hailed 'a big day for world peace' after agreeing to pause the attacks. At a Pentagon press briefing, Hegseth...

Opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply criticized on Wednesday the ceasefire with Iran announced earlier in the day, calling it a failure of political and strategic leadership and warning of long-term consequences for Israel’s security. “There has never been such a political disaster in all of our history,” Lapid wrote in a statement, arguing that “Israel wasn't even part of the discussions when decisions were made concerning our national security.” He added that while “the military carried out everything that was asked of it” and “the public demonstrated amazing resilience,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “failed politically, failed strategically, and didn't meet...

“Jesse, as soon as we got the ceasefire, we got a bunch of missile fire. [It] wasn’t five minutes from the Truth Social post to the point where the phones started alerting that missiles had launched from Iran. The first of the missiles was intercepted, and the shrapnel landed outside of Jerusalem, not causing any problems,” Tobin told Jesse Watters. “What we saw here in Tel Aviv were these cluster bombs, like you see on your screen right now. They break up and look a bit like a 4th of July firework and usually has one bright point that comes...

An oil refinery ​on Iran's Lavan ‌Island was targeted in an "enemy attack" ​on Wednesday ​without causing casualties, ⁠the National Iranian ​Oil Refining ​and Distribution Company said, according to the ​Oil Ministry's ​news outlet, Shana. The company ‌said ⁠the facility was hit at around 10 a.m. (0630 ​GMT), ​adding ⁠that safety and firefighting ​teams were ​working ⁠to contain the blaze and ⁠secure ​the site.

At a secret Feb. 11 Situation Room meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a four-part pitch for regime change, including a video montage of potential replacement leaders such as Reza Pahlavi. JD Vance was absent, stuck in Azerbaijan. Appearing alongside Mossad chief David Barnea and military officials, Netanyahu argued: Iran’s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in weeks. The regime would be too weak to close the Strait of Hormuz. Street protests — fomented with Mossad help — could trigger an uprising. Kurdish fighters from Iraq could open a ground front in the northwest. Trump’s response: “Sounds good to...

The UK Times reported on Monday that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “incapacitated and receiving medical treatment in the holy city of Qom.” The Times report was based on “a diplomatic memo understood to be based on American and Israeli intelligence and shared with Gulf allies.” The memo said Khamenei is suffering from a “severe condition” and is “unable to be involved in any decision making by the regime.” Qom is a provincial capital and one of the largest cities in Iran, located about 85 miles south of Tehran. The city has historic and religious significance to the...

News of the temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran immediately sent oil prices tumbling. Within minutes of President Donald Trump announcing an agreement had been reached, crude oil prices had fallen below the $100 mark. About an hour after the announcement, the price of oil had dipped all the way into the $91/barrel range before working its way back up. As of 9 p.m., crude oil was trading around $97/barrel, which was still a $20 drop from its intraday-high. The big question that will be on the minds of drivers will be whether this decline, if it holds...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else! The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just “hangin’ around” in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will. Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age...

WANA (Apr 08) – The Full Text of the Supreme National Security Council Statement on the ceasefire is as follows: “The enemy, in its cowardly, illegal, and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historical, and crushing defeat. By the grace of the pure and holy blood of the Martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Imam Khamenei (Peace be upon him), the prudent measures of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei (May God protect him), and the struggle and bravery of the warriors of...

A retired US Navy SEAL has interrupted a live television interview about Donald Trump and the war in Iran to call for the release of Australia's most decorated soldier, who was arrested over alleged war crimes. Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, will face court on Wednesday after being charged with two counts of the war crime of murder and three counts of aiding or abetting the same charge. The maximum penalty for the charges is life imprisonment. The Victoria Cross recipient, who spent the night in custody, is accused of murdering unarmed civilians while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, as...

Pakistan’s prime minister asks US President Donald Trump to postpone his deadline for Iran by two weeks and implement a truce for that same period, also urging Tehran to allow maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz during that time. “To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks,” writes Shehbaz Sharif, whose government is serving as a mediator between Iran and the United States.“Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” he writes...

Tehran’s targeting campaigns against U.S. organizations ‘have recently escalated,’ a federal advisory warns.Iran has demonstrated an ability to penetrate networks tied to critical U.S. infrastructure before.WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies are “urgently warning” private sector companies throughout the nation that Iranian actors “are conducting exploitation activity” that has resulted in “disruptions across several U.S. critical infrastructure,” according to a government notice reviewed by The Times.The Iranian cyberactivity comes as President Trump is threatening to target Iran’s critical infrastructure in the coming hours, particularly its bridges and power plants.Iran’s attack targeted products by Rockwell Automation’s Allen-Bradley, one of the most widely...

Asian nations - most recently the Philippines - have been particularly keen to reach agreements as their economies are heavily reliant on energy from the Gulf. In recent weeks - several Asian countries including Pakistan, India and the Philippines - have made agreements with Tehran to let some ships pass through the strait safely. China has also acknowledged that their vessels have also used the channel. Questions remain over the scope of these assurances and just how lasting these agreements with Iran will be. The Philippines imports 98% of its oil from the Middle East and was the first country...

Iran-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah said it has decided to release American journalist @shellykittleson who was kidnapped in Baghdad last month. The militia's security chief said on his Telegram channel that it “decided to release the American suspect on the condition that she leave the country immediately."

War crime murder charges carry potential sentence of life in prisonAustralia's most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, faces war crime charges on allegations he killed five unarmed Afghans while serving in Afghanistan from 2009 and 2012, police and media reported on Tuesday. Police have not confirmed the name of the 47-year-old former soldier who was arrested on Tuesday. But he has been widely reported in the media to be Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment corporal who was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan. Police charged him on Tuesday with...

The regime has flooded the White Bridge with a human chain OF CHILDREN in Ahvaz, Iran to send a message to President Trump THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE Those kids have NO IDEA what they are doing or why Further proof the regime needs obliteration