It appears Iran’s whole civilization will not die tonight.
With less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline for Iran to surrender or face annihilation, Donald Trump announced that the US and Iran had agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan.
Just hours earlier, Trump had written on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” B-52 bombers were reported to be en route to Iran before the ceasefire agreement was announced.
The sudden about-face will allow Trump to step back as the US war in Iran has dragged on for five weeks with little sign that Tehran is ready to surrender or release its hold on the strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the global energy supply, where traffic has slowed to a trickle.
Donald Trump says he has agreed two-week ceasefire with Iran
Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire agreement came less than two hours before the US president’s self-imposed 8pm Eastern time deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges in a move that legal scholars, as well as officials from numerous countries and the Pope, had warned could constitute war crimes.
Republicans silent as Democrats call on US cabinet to oust Trump over Iran
As Donald Trump unleashes curse-filled threats against Iran, Democrats are raising alarm over his mental stability and calling for his removal from office – while Republicans remain conspicuously silent.
Democrats are escalating their rebukes as the 79-year-old president delivers rambling, incoherent speeches, hurls puerile insults at US allies and brazenly threatens to commit war crimes. He used an Easter Sunday social media post to warn Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell”.
Democrats outraged at Trump’s Iran post: ‘A threat to commit a war crime’
Donald Trump on Tuesday morning threatened to completely annihilate the entirety of Iranian civilization should their government ignore his 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
The president’s own words, posted publicly and tied to a specific deadline and set of demands, provide unusually direct evidence of intent to violate international law, and is widely being met with shock and dismay by Democrats.
Democrats accuse ICE of creating ‘disappearances’ on US soil
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.
Starmer urged to limit US access to UK bases after ‘dangerous’ Trump threats
UK prime minister Keir Starmer is facing increasing pressure to limit US access to British airbases after Donald Trump threatened “a whole civilisation” would die if Iran ignored his demands, comments that Downing Street has not directly criticised.
DHS secretary calls for US states to lead disaster response instead of Fema
Markwayne Mullin, the US homeland security secretary, used a visit to Asheville, North Carolina to call for a fundamental shift in the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), arguing that states and local governments – not the federal agency – should lead disaster response.
What else happened today:
JD Vance has railed against the EU, accusing it of blatantly interfering in Hungary’s upcoming elections, even as the US vice-president said he had travelled to Budapest to “help” Viktor Orbán win Sunday’s vote.
Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.
The US journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped from a Baghdad street corner last week, has been released, according to an Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation.
A California sheriff’s decision to seize about 650,000 ballots based on specious allegations of fraud has raised considerable alarm bells that similar efforts to undermine confidence in the electoral system could materialize this fall.
The wife of a US soldier who was detained last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at her husband’s Louisiana military base was released from federal custody on Tuesday.
Nasa’s Artemis II astronauts have described the powerful emotion they felt while soaring over the moon as they photographed impact craters, cracks and ridges and began their long journey home.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Monday 6 April.
