Shumita Basu

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt relayed the Pentagon's decision to Fox News yesterday.

Reuters' Idris Ali was first to the story.

He told us the motivations here are hard to know for sure.

For now, the end-of-the-week talk is still on.

What's less clear is what Trump actually wants to achieve.

Ali points out if the focus is on Iran's nuclear capabilities, Trump already claimed to have made a significant ding in attacks last summer.

Iranian officials have briefed Reuters that their primary goal is de-escalation with the U.S.

And Iran's president said yesterday he backed, quote, Some of Ali's colleagues have reported in recent days that some within Iran's government worry how strikes might reignite protests on the ground.

The demonstrations in Iran have been silenced for now, with thousands reportedly killed by the regime.

But the underlying economic conditions that provoked them remain, giving the Pentagon some leverage.

Unlike in Venezuela, though, the Trump administration appears much less convinced that proactively forcing leadership change in Iran would be a good idea.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators last week that no one knows what would happen next.

Trump's advisor Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are scheduled to start the talks on Friday in Istanbul, along with other regional leaders.

Sometimes a photo becomes the stand-in for a much bigger story.

That's what happened with five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos when he and his father were detained by ICE last month as he was coming home from school.

Maria Luisa Paul is a reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on immigration.

Liam and his father are now back home in Minneapolis after spending more than a week at an immigration facility in Texas.

But that image sparked national shock and anger at the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts.

A judge ordered their release last weekend, saying that there wasn't enough probable cause to detain them.

The administration has signaled it may appeal the ruling.