The Islamabad talks are off — at least for now. President Trump cancelled the planned trip to Pakistan by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Iran's Foreign Minister has departed Islamabad. The ceasefire that paused the US-Iran conflict remains in place, but the diplomatic process meant to build on it has hit a wall. We'll walk through exactly what happened, what Iran is demanding, and what to watch in the next 48 hours.

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on their way to Islamabad today — Saturday, April 25th — for talks with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who arrived in Pakistan on Friday. Pakistan is mediating. Iran has ruled out direct negotiations with the US delegation. That gap — between two delegations in the same city who won't sit in the same room — is the central fact of today's episode.

President Trump has ordered the US Navy to destroy any Iranian vessel caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz — and separately set a May 1 deadline connected to the continuation of military operations. Those two moves, taken together, define the operational and political pressure points heading into the weekend. We'll break down what each means, and what to watch next.

Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz on April 23rd — the day after President Trump announced via social media on April 22nd that he was, according to Al-Monitor, indefinitely calling off attacks against Iran. That sequence raises unresolved questions about the scope of the ceasefire agreement. We'll have the full picture later in the broadcast. Coming up: what Iran's senior leadership is saying about the blockade, what European diplomats are saying about the negotiations, and what the next 48 hours may bring.

Three container ships were struck by gunfire in the Strait of Hormuz today — the same waterway that has remained an unresolved issue in US-Iran peace negotiations. This comes the morning after President Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, even as he renewed threats of military action if no agreement is reached. Those two facts sit in direct tension. We'll work through what it means in today's briefing.

The US has seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman — and Iran has not confirmed attendance at peace talks scheduled for Islamabad this week. Iran has not confirmed attendance and has signaled it may not attend. This as a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran is set to expire in the coming days. We have everything you need to understand what is happening and what comes next.

Iran's Foreign Ministry declared this morning that Tehran has no plans for another round of nuclear negotiations with the United States. That announcement came just hours after President Trump posted on social media that American negotiators would be in Pakistan today for talks with Iran. The two accounts are flatly contradictory — and that contradiction is at the center of everything we're covering this morning, including a seized Iranian cargo ship, a two-week ceasefire deadline, and oil markets reacting to the uncertainty. Stay with us.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again on Saturday — for the second time in roughly twenty-four hours. Tehran had briefly reopened the waterway to commercial shipping on Friday. Then, after Washington confirmed its naval blockade of Iranian ports would stay in place, Iran's military declared the Strait had, in their words, "returned to its previous state." More than a dozen commercial ships were transiting at the time. We'll have the full picture after you have the context to understand it.

Saturday, Iran's central military command announced it would resume what it called "strict management" of the Strait of Hormuz — reversing a decision, made just days ago, to reopen the waterway to commercial shipping. That reversal puts the fragile diplomacy around this conflict under immediate pressure. We'll have the full picture after context. Stay with us.

A ten-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel took effect at midnight local time this morning — and within hours, the Lebanese army was already reporting alleged violations along the southern border. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at the Pentagon podium and directed a message straight at Tehran. What he said, and how he said it, matters. We'll get to that in full.