Chapter 1: What led to Trump's sudden threat against Iran?
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, April 8th. Here's what we're covering. At 8.06 a.m. yesterday morning, President Trump issued an apocalyptic threat to Iran, saying he was prepared to order widespread attacks against civilian infrastructure and that a whole civilization will die.
Just over 10 hours later, he backed down from that threat, announcing on social media that the U.S. and Iran have reached a two-week ceasefire deal. The idea is that negotiators will spend that time trying to finalize a permanent peace agreement.
The breakthrough came after a frantic diplomatic effort by Pakistan, which had been urging Trump not to carry out the devastating attacks, and pushing Iran to accept the proposal, which Pakistan had drafted. Under the terms of the deal, Iran will let ships carrying oil, gas, and other goods through the Strait of Hormuz. During those two weeks, all fighting is supposed to stop.
Though, as of this morning, there have been a number of strikes reported across the Persian Gulf. raising questions about whether news of the deal has reached all corners of Iran's decentralized military.
Israel, which has been carrying out strikes on Iran alongside the U.S., said it also supports the agreement, but explicitly noted that the ceasefire doesn't apply to Lebanon, where it has been attacking the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia and trying to seize territory.
When it comes to Trump, who called yesterday, quote, a big day for world peace, the whole head-spinning situation appears to be the latest example of a kind of playbook that he has come to rely on, of making increasingly drastic threats before securing some kind of deal that he can claim as a victory.
If this ceasefire essentially becomes permanent with no change, then the White House will have accomplished virtually none of its major goals.
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Chapter 2: How did the ceasefire agreement come about?
And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was for it, saying, we're going to have to take care of the Iranians eventually, so we might as well do it now. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine, persistently flagged risks, but also repeatedly said it wasn't his job to tell the president what to do. In Trump's inner circle, Vice President J.D.
Vance was the only one to make a forceful case against the war, though he ultimately told Trump, you know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I'll support you. The next day, Trump gave the final order. You can find Maggie and Jonathan's full reporting in the Times app or at NYTimes.com. And one last update on the war, which has shaken the global economy.
Markets surged in response to yesterday's ceasefire agreement, and the price of oil dropped sharply, as investors are cautiously optimistic that oil and gas will start moving through the Strait of Hormuz again. Still, gas prices and jet fuel costs are unlikely to return to pre-war levels anytime soon.
since at least 10% of the world's oil supply has been cut off, and it will take time to reopen shuttered wells and repair damaged refineries in the Persian Gulf. In Silicon Valley, major tech companies have been rushing to release the latest and greatest AI models, promising each one is more accurate, more capable, more useful than the last.
Yesterday, Anthropic announced it has a new one, but claimed that it's too powerful to be released to the public. It turns out the model, known as Claude Mythos Preview, is really good at finding security vulnerabilities in software. In theory, that's great. It can help developers identify and patch weak points in their systems.
But that means it could also be used to identify and exploit those same weak points. Anthropic claims the model has already identified thousands of bugs and vulnerabilities, including in every major operating system and browser.
For that reason, Anthropic says it's only giving the model to a limited group of tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, so that they can shore up their defenses. Now, claims about a wildly powerful new AI model from an AI company should be taken with a grain of salt.
But Anthropic is saying this could be a reckoning for the whole tech industry, and researchers who've been given access to the model have called it a significant risk. The head of one cybersecurity firm said, quote, Imagine a horde of agents methodically cataloging every weakness in your technology infrastructure constantly.
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