Iran ceasefire – New drone strikes near the Strait of Hormuz sharpen tensions between the U.S. and Iran just as the White House rejects claims of a finished peace draft. In a separate legal fight, the Justice Department opens a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll after
The U.S. and Iran traded strikes again on Thursday, and the ceasefire that had been offered up as a pathway to calm is now looking fragile—at the exact moment the White House is pushing back against Iranian claims that a peace deal is already done.
The U.S. military said it shot down four Iranian attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz. It then targeted a ground control site in Bandar Abbas officials said was preparing to launch a fifth drone.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it responded by targeting the U.S. air base used to launch those strikes.
The exchange lands in the middle of a political dispute over how far negotiations have really gone. The White House is confronting Iranian state media reports claiming a draft peace agreement has been reached, calling those reports a “complete fabrication.”
President Donald Trump, speaking with the bluntness of someone refusing to be rushed, said he’s in no rush. “Their Navy is gone, as I’ve said a thousand times, their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone. Everything’s gone, and they’re negotiating on fumes. But we’ll see what happens. Maybe we have to go back and finish it. Maybe we don’t. They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, ‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”.
The administration’s pressure campaign has also expanded beyond the battlefield. The U.S. has sanctioned Iran’s new Persian Gulf Strait Authority. the body created by Tehran to enforce shipping rules around the Strait of Hormuz. Iran. for its part. declared its support for Oman after Trump warned the country not to attempt to assert control over the strait.
The shape of the dispute is clear even before anyone says the word “ceasefire.” Drones shot down over the waterway, counterstrikes fired from bases, and competing claims about whether a peace draft exists all point to one reality: calm is still conditional.
The same day the administration is seeking to contain the region, the Justice Department has opened a new front in a separate high-profile case.
The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into writer E. Jean Carroll, the woman who won a multi-million-dollar civil judgment against Trump. The investigation is focused on whether Carroll lied under oath during testimony in her civil cases against Trump.
One of those cases involved Carroll’s sexual assault allegations against the president. The other involved defamation claims after Trump repeatedly denied her accusations. A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages last year.
Trump has been trying to overturn that verdict at the Supreme Court, but the justices have delayed deciding whether to take the case multiple times.
The probe also includes internal personnel changes. Multiple news outlets reported that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has recused himself from the investigation after serving as one of Trump’s personal defense attorneys in the civil cases.
In Washington state, attention has been dominated by a disaster no political argument can touch directly.
Officials said two workers have been confirmed dead following the paper mill disaster in Longview. after a massive chemical tank collapsed Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company. The search has moved to a recovery operation after investigators said they no longer expect to find nine other workers alive.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said the incident could become one of the deadliest industrial accidents in state history.
The tank was filled with “white liquor,” a caustic chemical mixture used in paper production. Officials said more than half a million gallons spilled during a shift change, leaving workers with serious burns and respiratory injuries.
Some chemicals reached the Columbia River, but environmental testing so far has not found an immediate threat to drinking water or air quality.
Recovery crews are moving slowly through the wreckage because of ongoing safety risks at the site, while federal investigators try to determine what caused the tank to fail.
Politics, law, and disaster continue to collide in the week’s news cycle, and it isn’t only on Earth.
NASA laid out long-term moon plans that go beyond short missions and flag-planting imagery. NASA announced astronauts could return to the moon as soon as 2028 as part of a broader effort to build a sustainable base on the lunar surface. The agency unveiled new details on how landers. rovers. and even drones could work together near the moon’s south pole.
NASA said landers built by Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin would deliver lunar terrain vehicles—“moon buggies.” Drones developed by Firefly Aerospace would map the lunar surface and scout future landing sites.
NASA said lessons learned from the Artemis II fly-around mission are helping prepare for longer stays and more complex operations. “Everything we tested and learned on Artemis II — the systems. the teamwork. the operational tempo — feeds directly into our ability to build a sustainable foothold on the moon. With a moon base. our Artemis astronauts will stay longer. explore farther and conduct the kinds of science that advances exploration itself. Understanding how humans operate off world, how we build infrastructure and how we prepare for Mars.”.
NASA expects to spend about $20 billion over the next several years on its lunar program. The second phase of the plan, extending into the early 2030s, includes building permanent infrastructure on the moon—power systems and, eventually, living quarters for astronauts.
The next major step is Artemis III, currently targeted for 2027.
The day’s developments don’t share a theme in policy or purpose—but they do share a tension you can feel: negotiations and promises under strain in the Middle East. courtroom consequences in a case that has already produced a $5 million civil verdict. and a search effort still moving carefully through wreckage in Washington state.
U.S.-Iran ceasefire Strait of Hormuz Donald Trump E. Jean Carroll Department of Justice Todd Blanche Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company Longview Washington white liquor NASA moon plans Artemis II Artemis III
Wow, drones again.
So Trump delays and then the DOJ is investigating Carroll… why are these even connected? Feels like they’re just tossing out different headlines to distract people. Also if they “shot down four drones” then why does it still sound like nothing’s under control?
I thought we already had a peace deal with Iran? Like they keep saying it’s done, then the article says it’s fragile, so which one is it. And the whole “ground control site in Bandar Abbas” thing sounds like a video game name. If the IRGC hit back on the air base then doesn’t that mean the drones still got through anyway?
DOJ probing Carroll for what, like after Iran stuff happened? That part is confusing. But the drone strikes near the Strait of Hormuz… that’s basically the choke point right? If ceasefire frays then gas prices are gonna spike and nobody can stop it. Meanwhile they’re arguing about a “draft peace” like it’s a school project. Also Trump delaying sounds scary, like we’re just waiting for it to get worse.