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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
U.S. and Iran Agree to Two-Week Ceasefire
President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post Tuesday night that he agreed to delay his pledged bombardment of Iran for two weeks, provided the regime concedes to a “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” Earlier that day, Trump posted that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” should Iran not agree to a ceasefire. Trump repeatedly postponed similar deadlines in recent weeks, though never paired with such stark threats. The proposal—relayed through Pakistani mediators and summarized by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council—includes demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian military coordination, end the war, withdraw U.S. forces from regional bases, lift all sanctions against Iran, and release frozen Iranian assets. Nuclear commitments were notably absent. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited delegations from both countries to Islamabad on Friday to continue negotiations. Oil and gas prices fell on the news of a ceasefire, with Brent crude oil down by as much as 16 percent (below $100 a barrel).
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted that the Iranian regime agreed to halt “defensive operations immediately,” and for two weeks allow “safe passage” through the Strait of Hormuz should the U.S. pause its attacks on the country. But missile alert sirens sounded across the Gulf this morning, with Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia all reporting incoming Iranian missile or drone threats.
- The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel supports the two-week suspension of strikes on Iran but that the ceasefire does not cover Lebanon, contradicting a claim by Pakistan’s prime minister that it did.
- The Times of London reported Tuesday that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is unconscious, in “severe condition” and “unable to be involved in any decision-making by the regime.”
U.S. Journalist Freed in Iraq
U.S. and Iraqi officials announced on Tuesday that 49-year-old American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who was kidnapped in Baghdad on March 31, was freed from captivity in a reported prisoner exchange. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. was “working to support her safe departure from Iraq.” The Iran-backed, Iraqi-based paramilitary group Kata’ib Hezbollah, which was responsible for abducting Kittleson, said in a statement on Tuesday that it freed her “in appreciation of the patriotic positions” of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, who worked to negotiate her release. The militia’s framing of the release as a gesture of goodwill contrasted with the reported prisoner exchange, in which Iraqi officials agreed to free six detained Kata’ib Hezbollah members, most of them connected to attacks on a U.S. military base in Syria.
- While the U.S. and Iraq had said last week that members of Kata’ib Hezbollah kidnapped Kittleson, the group only publicly admitted to abducting her on Tuesday, and Iraqi officials told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it was difficult to establish and maintain contact with the group.
- U.S. officials said they warned Kittleson multiple times about threats to her safety—including the night before her abduction—but she chose not to leave.
Israeli Consulate Attacked in Turkey
Three men armed with automatic rifles and handguns attacked the Israeli consulate building in Istanbul on Tuesday and engaged in a shootout with law enforcement. According to Turkish journalist Tamer Oskay, reporting on CNN Turk, the three attackers attempted to reach the consulate’s seventh-floor office about 30 minutes before the shooting, but were intercepted by security guards and police at the building entrance. One of the perpetrators was killed by police in the gunfight, and the two others were wounded, detained, and are currently being interrogated. Two Turkish police officers were also lightly injured in the assault after sustaining gunshot wounds to one of their legs and ear, respectively. No Israeli staff were in the building at the moment the gunmen opened fire, as Israel withdrew its diplomats from Turkey shortly after October 7, 2023, amid security concerns. Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel in November 2023, and diplomatic ties have been effectively frozen since.
- Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said all three suspects were connected to a group that “exploits religion,” but did not provide more details on their suspected association. Turkish media outlets speculated that the unspecified linked group could be the Islamic State.
- The speculation followed a gunfight in late 2025 between Turkish police and six Islamic State militants in the town of Yalova—about 55 miles from Istanbul—during raids on cells believed to be planning holiday-season attacks.
Orbán Offers Putin ‘Help in Any Way’ in Leaked Call
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in October, offered to “help in any way,” according to a transcript of the call that the news organization reviewed. “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service,” Orbán said. That included offering to host a summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest. (Trump initially agreed to the summit later that month, before reversing his decision.) Putin told Orbán that he appreciates his “independent and flexible” stance on the Ukraine war, and added that Hungary is “perhaps the only European country that is an acceptable venue.” When asked about the transcript of the call and the fable, Orbán told Bloomberg, “I say the same to Trump.” The transcript’s publication comes five days before Hungary’s parliamentary election, Orbán’s toughest challenge since taking power in 2010, with opposition leader Péter Magyar’s Tisza party leading in most independent polls.
- The publication also follows the release last week of audio recordings of a call between Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in which Szijjártó reportedly discussed lobbying to remove Russian individuals from the EU’s sanctions list.
- Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Budapest on Tuesday for a campaign rally alongside Orbán, who has been endorsed by Trump.
- The Jerusalem Post reported that the Kremlin shared with Iran a list of 55 critical Israeli energy sites to potentially target, which are divided into three categories based on Russia’s evaluation of their “strategic importance.”
FBI Disrupts Russian Router Hacking Operation
The Department of Justice and FBI announced a court-authorized operation dubbed “Operation Masquerade” to neutralize a network of compromised home and small office routers that a Russian military hacking group—known as APT28 or Fancy Bear—has been using to conduct espionage against military, government, and critical infrastructure targets worldwide. Since at least 2024, the Russian hackers had exploited a known vulnerability in TP-Link routers to steal device credentials, then redirect internet traffic through servers controlled by the Russian military. They then used an automated filtering process to identify targets of intelligence value and served fraudulent login pages—mimicking services like Microsoft Outlook—to harvest passwords, authentication tokens, and emails. At its peak in December 2025, more than 18,000 unique IP addresses across at least 120 countries were communicating with APT28’s infrastructure. Microsoft identified more than 200 organizations and 5,000 consumer devices affected by the campaign.
- The U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre said the hacking campaign cast a wide net before narrowing its focus to targets of intelligence value—primarily government agencies including foreign affairs ministries and law enforcement across North Africa, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
- The operation comes after the Federal Communications Commission banned imports of new foreign-produced consumer routers, a move primarily targeting TP-Link, which holds an estimated 60 to 65 percent of the U.S. retail router market.
- TP-Link routers had already faced scrutiny over Chinese government ties before the Russian exploitation campaign added a separate security dimension.
Fighting in Iran may have reached a temporary halt—courtesy of a two-week ceasefire announced last night by President Donald Trump—but despite calls for an expanded ceasefire, the war continues in Lebanon, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops are carving through the south in a campaign against the terrorist group and Iranian proxy Hezbollah.
On March 2, two days after the United States and Israel launched their joint campaign against Iran, Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets and drones into northern Israel, breaking the ceasefire it signed with Israel in November 2024. Israel—which had been hitting Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon at a near-daily pace—responded with strikes across the country, including Beirut, beginning a campaign that would put Israeli ground troops back in the country and open a second front in the war.
By March 6, the IDF issued evacuation orders for all Lebanese civilians within 20 miles of the Israeli border, with IDF troops in some border towns, and Israeli drones as a constant buzz in the airspace, surveilling and broadcasting messages. Then, 10 days later, a surge of IDF ground troops entered southern Lebanon.
“At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish itself in a security zone inside Lebanon” up to the Litani River, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a televised statement. “In addition, the return of more than 600,000 residents of Southern Lebanon who evacuated northward will be completely prohibited south of the Litani until the safety and security of Northern [Israel] residents are ensured,” he said. He added that all houses in villages “near the Lebanese border” would be destroyed to prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, roughly 1,500 people, including civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, with more than 4,800 injured. More than a million people have been displaced. Meanwhile, Hezbollah attacks have killed 10 IDF soldiers and at least two Israeli civilians since the resumption of fighting, and northern Israel continues to face widespread disruptions to daily life, including frequent air-raid warnings and school closures.
But what is Israel trying to achieve in this campaign? How likely is it to be successful? Or will its occupation, as it has before, ultimately strengthen the very force it seeks to destroy?
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Hezbollah—founded during Israel’s first occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000—is the most powerful military force in Lebanon, which shares a 50-mile border with Israel. Hezbollah has tens of thousands of troops and decades of military and financial support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has embedded advisers and infrastructure in Lebanon for more than four decades. Over that time, Hezbollah has established itself as a “state within a state” and the self-declared protector of Lebanon’s Shiite community, which makes up roughly a third of the population. (Sunni Muslims and Christians each account for about 30 percent; Druze about 5 percent.)
At the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 designated the area south of the Litani River—which bisects southern Lebanon roughly 15 to 20 miles north of the border—as a buffer zone, banning unauthorized weapons from the area. But the resolution was never enforced. Hezbollah maintained a significant military presence throughout the zone, establishing outposts within firing range of northern Israeli communities.
So far, Israel has been successful at securing territory once controlled by Hezbollah. On Tuesday, the IDF said it completed the opening stages of its deployment, with six divisions—roughly 90,000 soldiers—in southern Lebanon, and Lebanese villages up to about 6 miles from the Israeli border having been occupied to establish a “front line.” Katz claimed the Lebanon operation would be similar to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which a U.S.-backed peace plan envisions concluding with Israeli control of a 1-kilometer buffer zone on Gaza’s border.
But most experts agree that external intervention alone is unlikely to defeat Hezbollah. “What Israel cannot and will not tackle are the foundations you cannot target only militarily—the financial foundation of Hezbollah and the political foundations, which means Hezbollah now has people inside the security, financial, military institutions in the state,” Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told TMD.
Randa Slim, a researcher at the Stimson Center who has long been involved in Lebanese peace efforts, agreed. “Only the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people can disarm Hezbollah,” she told TMD, “and it has to be done through a diplomatic process involving the Lebanese government.” And the Lebanese government hasn’t shown great commitment to disarming the group.
After the attacks on March 2, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced his government would ban military activities by Hezbollah and restrict it to political activism. But enforcing the ban has proved another matter. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) arrested 27 people for carrying unlicensed weapons in the days after the announcement—including some suspected Hezbollah members—but detainees were released shortly afterward. The LAF’s commander defied the government’s order, refusing to confront the group directly, citing the need to preserve national unity.
“There’s no direct, immediate military capacity to take on what [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] has built in Lebanon over the last 45 years,” Paul Salem, a Beirut-based fellow at the Middle East Institute, told TMD. Additionally, offensive action by the LAF would “within hours or days, be spun by Hezbollah as a sectarian attack, it would spiral into sectarian conflict, the army probably would not hold together, and we’d sink into civil war.” Hezbollah enjoys broad support within Lebanon’s Shiite community, and the LAF is not only chronically underfunded and vastly outgunned by Hezbollah, but its ranks include a substantial number of Shiites, raising questions about the willingness of its troops to undertake missions that could be seen as targeted at the broader Shiite community.
If the Lebanese government can’t restrain Hezbollah, then Israel has little choice but to take direct military action, David Daoud—a Lebanon and Hezbollah expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies—told TMD. “It seems like the Israelis are trying to do more now to tip the scale until the Lebanese can pick up the slack,” he said. Sara Harmouch—an expert in Middle Eastern terror networks and the CEO of H9 Defense, a national security consultancy—told TMD that Hezbollah is in a relatively weak spot. Its key foreign backers, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the Iranian regime, have been either deposed or significantly weakened, and “it’s not taken as seriously within the Lebanese community,” she said. “They’ve seen the Lebanese community now being dragged into a war multiple times over the past couple of years.”
But actions by the IDF in border areas, as well as statements by some Israeli officials, risk undermining Israel’s military successes. Last week, the New York Times reported that Israeli military officials had told leaders of Christian and Druze communities they could remain in the evacuation zone, but urged them to force out Shiites who may have taken refuge in their towns, citing concerns about Hezbollah ties. According to local leaders, Israeli officials called leaders of at least eight villages and told them to expel Shiites who had sought refuge in their communities. All complied, fearing their towns would be hit next. Israeli drones have also broadcast messages targeting individuals by name; in one case, a broadcast named a local architect involved in reconstruction efforts, urging residents to “chase him” and “drive him out.” In Marjayoun, a Christian hilltop town, displaced Shiites who were asked to leave reportedly responded with veiled threats: “We will leave now, but you’ll see what happens after the war.”
If such ejections become permanent or aren’t immediately necessary militarily, they would constitute ethnic cleansing, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
The IDF is targeting these communities because of fears of Hezbollah’s influence inside largely Shiite towns, which Hezbollah uses as bases from which to threaten northern Israel. “When they were there [in southern Lebanon] in every house, there was a launcher, or a missile, or UAVs, that were used against the Israeli communities,” Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told TMD.
Statements from some hard-right members of the Israeli government have only compounded the problem. “I say here definitively… in every room and in every discussion, too: The new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said last month. That notion is “really far-fetched,” Asher Kaufman, a professor of peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, told TMD, but the comments were widely covered in Arab media. Kaufman also noted that most IDF commanders are veterans of the first Lebanon war, and “know from their experience that military occupation of South Lebanon will not necessarily increase the security for Israel.”
Though Israel has weakened Hezbollah’s control of southern Lebanon, its actions also risk strengthening the terror group’s appeal. According to Salem, when the war began, many Shiites were enraged that Hezbollah had dragged them into another conflict with Israel. But as Israeli forces began to demolish villages and eject civilians from the region, many Shiites came to the view that “this is occupation and war, and no matter who started it … Hezbollah is the only one fighting back.”
In recent weeks, Hezbollah rocket attacks have increased even as the IDF campaign ramped up, and Israeli intelligence reports indicate Hezbollah units are maintaining cohesion and planning to expand operations against the IDF.
The fight against Hezbollah, then, may have only just begun. “I don’t think the Israelis are going to wait around for the Lebanese government to try to dissolve Hezbollah,” Rafi Cohen, a military analyst at the RAND Corporation, told TMD. But Salem warned that Israel’s campaign has revived the narrative it sought to destroy. Hezbollah, he said, is “much weaker—but riding high.”
Today’s Must-Read
When Mark Oppenheimer, editor of Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera, was in seventh grade, he was bullied by an eighth grader. One day, he accidentally let a classmate named Joe Manuli know about his troubles. Manuli made quick work of the bully—and at 3 feet tall (due to a disability that robbed him of legs) this was quite the feat. Today we recommend Mark’s tribute to the late Joe Manuli—a hero, for more than just fighting off a high school blockhead. “I always meant to reach out, and when I finally tried, about a year ago, I discovered that I had just missed him,” Oppenheimer writes. “He had died on April 20, 2024, at the age of 56. When I got in touch with the younger of his two older sisters, I learned that the birth defects that had taken his legs had taken his life … He was a superhero for beating up Tom O’Dwyer, and a hero for living long enough to do the job.”
In Other News
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said that in the first quarter of 2026, 15 people died in the agency’s custody. The 31 deaths in ICE custody in 2025 was the highest number recorded in more than 20 years.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the U.S. may pull customs officers from major airports near “sanctuary cities,” effectively barring international travelers from entering the U.S. through those hubs.
- A federal appeals court overturned two separate lower court rulings, allowing the implementation of an Iowa law restricting teachers and school staff from teaching lessons and offering some books that discuss topics of sexual orientation and gender identity.
- The American Historical Association for professional historians and the American Oversight nonprofit government watchdog sued the Trump administration over a Justice Department declaration that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 was unconstitutional for intruding on the president’s authority.
- A federal judge in Louisiana refused to block mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone, staying the state’s challenge to the FDA’s 2023 prescribing rules while the agency completes an ongoing review, but said the state was likely to succeed on the merits.
- ICE said that its agents shot a suspected gang member during a vehicle stop in Patterson, California, after he allegedly “weaponized his vehicle” in an attempt to run over an ICE agent during a traffic stop. According to ICE, the suspect, who was hospitalized, is also wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
- Iraqi officials said that a rocket believed to have been fired from the direction of Kuwait, struck a house in the Iraqi city of Khor Al Zubair, killing at least three people. Later that day, protesters stormed Kuwait’s consulate building in the Iraqi city of Basra, which is located near Khor Al Zubair.
- Officials from the Taliban-led Afghan government said that they met with Pakistani officials in China and made “useful” progress in reaching a peace resolution to end the fighting between the neighboring nations.
- Australian officials arrested and charged 47-year-old Ben Roberts-Smith—a former Australian military service member and one of the most decorated soldiers in the country’s history—with five war crime charges in connection with five killings in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
- A high-speed train collided with a truck carrying military equipment in France, killing the train’s driver and injuring 16 others.
- One day after Nigeria’s army claimed to have freed civilians whom armed gunmen had previously kidnapped at a church, a Nigerian Christian group said the abducted civilians had not yet been rescued, describing the military’s statement as “misinformation.”
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a ban on social media access for children under 15 that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
- Russian state-sanctioned media reported that the country’s space agency has delayed three lunar space missions, stating that the Luna-28, Luna-29, and Luna-30 projects won’t take place until between 2032 and 2036.
- Pershing Square Capital Management—the activist hedge fund founded by Bill Ackman—proposed acquiring Universal Music Group for 55.8 billion euros (about $64.3 billion).
- The U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced that it would acquire German-based biotech company Tubulis GmbH—which has developed cancer-countering treatments known as antibody-drug conjugates—for at least $3.15 billion in cash, which can increase to up to $5 billion total depending on whether the company meets certain pre-arranged targets.
- Ford is recalling 422,613 vehicles—models of its Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator produced between 2021 and 2023, and 2022-2023 Ford F-250 to F-600 truck models—after identifying that its windshield wipers “may fail.”
- Delta Air Lines raised its domestic checked bag fees by $10—to $45 for a first bag and $55 for a second—becoming the third major U.S. carrier to hike baggage charges during the Iran war.
- Britain’s Home Office rejected a request from Kanye West to travel to the country to headline the three day Wireless Festival, which has now been cancelled.
- “How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran.” (New York Times)
- Isaac Stanley-Becker profiles Gladden Pappin, and how the former political science professor and ally of Vance ended up working for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. (The Atlantic)
- Assa Doron and Alex Broom on how easy access to antibiotics in India risks allowing bacteria to develop a resistance to it. (Aeon)
- Frannie Block profiles Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut leading NASA operations. (The Free Press)
- Lintaro Donovan lays out a plan—called “astrocapitalism”—to expand the global economic market to the moon. (Arena Magazine)
- Tiffany Ap shares what it’s like to compete in a Hyrox extreme fitness racing competition. (Bloomberg)
Oregon Live: Portland Judge Says She’s Too Busy Running for Reelection To Oversee Trials
Ars Technica: Testing Suggests Google’s AI Overviews Tell Millions of Lies per Hour
York Press: [British] Filey Man Inherits 500 Vintage Lawnmowers From Dad
Jonathon, a gardener landscaper from Filey, regularly cuts the lawn at his mum’s house and said he now has “plenty of options” of lawnmowers when doing so.
“There are so many to choose, I am spoiled for choice really,” he said.
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Correction, April 8, 2026: This newsletter has been updated to correct that Pershing has proposed to acquire Universal Music Group but has not completed the deal.