Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. You can find all of our live coverage of the war in Iran here.
Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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Shortly before his 8pm ET deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz, or face the death of its “whole civilization”, Donald Trump posted on social media that the US had reached a temporary ceasefire agreement with Iran. Details of the agreement are still forthcoming and bombing continues across the region.
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Iranian officials will meet with the United States for talks beginning Friday. Pakistan, which brokered the ceasefire agreement, will host the negotiations in Islamabad.
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The Pentagon will hold a press briefing at 8am ET tomorrow morning. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, are expected to attend.
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Some Democrats criticized the ceasefire deal, saying its terms, if true, would cede major concessions to Iran, including control over the strait of Hormuz. Others, including New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called for Congress to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office after he “threatened a genocide against the Iranian people”.
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Several Republicans cheered the president’s decision, casting it as shrewd and tactical. “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable,” said senator Rick Scott of Florida.
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Shelly Kittleson, the US journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad by the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah last week, has been released, says secretary of state Marco Rubio.
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Repulican Clay Fuller won Georgia’s special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House of Representatives. In line with special elections for Congress since the start of Trump’s term, his Democratic rival, Shawn Harris, overperformed.
Key events
Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the temporary ceasefire announcement which she called “a long-overdue step after over a month of war without a clear purpose and with mounting costs for the American people.”
In a statment, she also called for “a real accounting of what President Trump’s war achieved”, adding: “After weeks of combat, 13 American service members killed and enormous disruption to the global economy, President Trump has seemingly managed to replace Iran’s Supreme Leader with his hardliner son and equally dangerous IRGC officials. At the same time, I remain deeply concerned that U.S. actions may have incentivized Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. The American people are also paying the price of President Trump’s war, with the cost of gas rising dramatically since the beginning of the conflict; Iran poised to further weaponize the Strait of Hormuz; and the ongoing shock to the global economy. None of this makes Americans safer or our people better off.”
She concluded by calling for “an intensive diplomatic effort, alongside our allies, to conclude this conflict and ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.”
Lauren Gambino
US political leaders and many Americans breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday evening, after Donald Trump announced a provisional ceasefire deal following threats to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization”.
“I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said on Tuesday night.
Several Republicans cheered the president’s decision, casting it as shrewd and tactical.
“Excellent news,” senator Rick Scott of Florida said. “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies.”
Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the chamber’s loudest and most aggressive Iran hawks, said on Tuesday evening he shared the hope that “we can end the reign of terror of the Iranian regime through diplomacy”.
But he added: “We must remember that the strait of Hormuz was attacked by Iran after the start of the war, destroying freedom of navigation. Going forward, it is imperative Iran is not rewarded for this hostile act against the world.”
Shelly Kittleson, the US journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad by the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah last week, has been released, says secretary of state Marco Rubio.
“We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq,” Rubio said in a social media post.
Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that Kittleson had been released, citing an unnamed Iraqi official with direct knowledge of the situation:
While White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has issued a polite if vague statement on the Iran ceasefire agreement, White House communications director Steven Cheung has taken a more inflammatory approach to criticism of the deal.
“You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about you loser. Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of because you clearly can’t read,” Cheung said in a social media post responding to a description of the 10-point plan Iran had proposed.
Earlier, Leavitt issued a statement saying,“President Trump’s words speak for themselves: this is a workable basis to negotiate, and those negotiations will continue.”
Fuller wins Georgia runoff election
Repulican Clay Fuller has won Georgia’s special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House of Representatives.
As my colleague George Chidi writes:
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.
Associated Press called the election as results from the rural counties of north-western corner of the state rolled in.
Both men running to replace the former Trump ally turned critic, who resigned from Congress earlier this year, have considerable military credentials. Fuller is an air force reserve lieutenant colonel and military attorney. Harris is a retired brigadier general who has commanded combat troops in Afghanistan, Liberia and elsewhere, with his last active-duty assignment as a military attache in Israel.
On paper, the odds of a Harris win were slim. Georgia’s 14th congressional district voted for Trump by a two-to-one margin in 2024, which is nearly the same margin Harris lost to Greene in 2024. In line with special elections for Congress since the start of Trump’s term, the Democratic candidate overperformed. Early results suggest Harris has improved on his 2024 margin by double digits. Harris said he will try again in November with a full congressional term on the table.
The Pentagon will hold a press briefing tomorrow morning. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are expected to attend.
The National Iranian American Council said the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran is “very tenuous” and requires that Trump “stand up to Netanyahu”.
“President Trump has gone from threatening civilizational annihilation in the morning to announcing a very tenuous ceasefire in the evening. There are many questions to answer, including how sustainable it can be,” the group said in a statement.
“Trump will have to do some serious work to make this ceasefire work,” it added. “As a first step, he must halt not just U.S. but Israeli attacks, which may require he stand up to Netanyahu. He also must appoint credible diplomatic interlocutors to pursue a deal based on the ten points he apparently finds workable.”
Mark Saunokonoko
Oil prices fell, bonds rallied and stocks surged as an apparent two-week ceasefire in the Middle East was seen as potentially paving the way for a lasting peace and resumption of Gulf oil and gas exports.
As his deadline came within two hours of passing, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he agreed to suspend bombing and attacks on Iran for two weeks.
On that news, US crude futures fell around 9% to $103 a barrel, S+P 500 futures leapt 1.6% and the US dollar fell broadly.
Futures pointed to broad gains for Asia’s stock markets, and 10-year US Treasury futures jumped about 15 ticks.
Details about the ceasefire are still very sketchy. However, Iran has said it would guarantee safe passage for maritime traffic through the vital strait of Hormuz for two weeks, announcing the pause would be used for talks with the US on ending the war, starting Friday in Islamabad.
Markets in Asia are about to start opening. We’ll stay on top of market movements through the day.
Ryan Fonseca
More congressional Democrats are reacting to Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
“This statement changes nothing”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative from New York, posted on X Tuesday evening, adding that the push to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office should continue.
“The President has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat”, Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer. None of these considerations should be partisan, but shared in good faith by Americans of all backgrounds who care for the safety and stability of the United States. Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the President must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”
Ro Khanna, a US representative from California, also weighed in on social media.
“Trump backed down”, he wrote. “No credit to Congress, which barely made a whimper.”
Khanna gave credit to both “progressive activists & anti-war conservative voices”, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former US representative and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The White House has not answered messages from the Associated Press thus far this evening clarifying the 10-point peace plan Donald Trump described as “workable” in a social media post.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Iran said the propsoal includes an easing of sanctions on the Islamic Republic and giving the country power over the strait of Hormuz.
Democrats react to Iran ceasefire deal
Chris Murphy, the senior senator from Connecticut, said it does not appear the United States has actually reached a ceasefire agreement with Iran, since both countries are sharing different terms of the agreement. But, if the agreement that Iran believes it has entered into is true, that would be “cataclysmic for the world”.
In an appearance on CNN shortly after Donald Trump announced the ceasefire in a social media post, Murphy said: “Who knows what’s going on. Donald Trump lies every single day.”
But Murphy raised concerns about Iran’s explanation of the 10-point plan it shared with the United States, which suggests the strait of Hormuz would be regulated “under the coordination of the Armed Forces of Iran.”
Murphy added that the Iranian National Security Council claims “that Trump has also agreed to Iran’s right to enrichment, to suspend all sanctions against Iran, and to allow Iran to keep their missile program, their drone program and their nuclear program.”
“Now, who knows if any of that is true, but if, at the very least, this agreement gives Iran the right to control the strait that is cataclysmic for the world, and it is just stunning that that’s where we have gotten to that Donald Trump took a military action that has apparently, at least for the time being, given Iran control over a critical waterway that they did not have control over, before the war began.”
In a separate reaction to the ceasefire agreement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster.”
