Cecilia Lei

Good morning.

Diplomacy with Iran falls flat and President Trump responds with new threats.

Reuters explains.

California's race for governor is rocked by sexual assault allegations against a Democratic frontrunner.

The San Francisco Chronicle broke the story and tells us what led one candidate to drop out.

And Hungary's Viktor Orban suffers a historic election defeat.

It's Monday, April 13th.

I'm Cecilia Ley, and this is Apple News Today.

The weekend began with cautious optimism, talk of possible negotiations that could end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

By Sunday, that hope had faded.

Instead, President Trump was ordering a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz and threatening new bombings in a phone call to Fox News.

On Saturday, Vice President J.D.

Vance led a delegation to Pakistan alongside Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and real estate investor-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff.

These were some of the highest-level direct talks between Iran and the U.S.

since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But after 21 hours of discussions, Vance emerged to say the two sides remained far apart.

Phil Stewart is Reuters national security correspondent who told us how we got here.

According to Stewart, neither side even agreed on what went on in the room.

He told us that certain U.S.

demands weren't met, including an end to uranium enrichment and the funding of proxies abroad.