In today’s newsletter: The U.S. and Iran reach a two-week ceasefire deal less than two hours before Trump’s deadline. “Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul details alleged domestic violence incidents. And AI is making it easier than ever to code — but it could come with hidden costs.
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Here’s what to know today.
U.S. and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire
President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran last night — hours after he’d threatened “a whole civilization will die tonight” and about 90 minutes before a deadline he set for Tehran to reach an agreement with the U.S.
“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” he wrote on Truth Social.
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The ceasefire, Trump said, is contingent upon Iran reopening the strait. For its part, Iran proposed a 10-point plan to end the war, which includes “controlled passage” through the strait, coordinated by Iran’s armed forces. Trump called the plan “workable” while the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it supports the ceasefire if Iran “immediately” opens the straits and stops attacks on other countries.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that it has allocated two weeks for negotiations with the U.S. beginning Friday in Islamabad, Pakistan.
After the announcement, the price of U.S. crude oil slid more than 16% to below $94 per barrel, a stunning drop after it traded as high as $117 earlier in the day.
Trump’s threat to Iran marked his most extreme public rhetoric in the conflict to date, sparking reaction from across the political divide. A number of MAGA influencers are challenging Trump, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Mike Cernovich. Controversial radio host Alex Jones and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said they want Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to oust him from the Oval Office. By Tuesday night, more than 70 Democratic lawmakers had also called for Trump to be removed from office.
Read the full story for more about the deal.
Follow our live coverage — Israel says Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire.
Democrat wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will now have a 5-2 liberal majority after Chris Taylor, a state appeals court judge and Democratic state legislator, won the election in the key battleground state. Taylor will succeed retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley after she beat conservative appeals court judge Maria Lazar for the seat.
Taylor’s win marks another win for Wisconsin Democrats, who have seen success in recent years. In 2023, liberals won a majority on the court for the first time in 15 years and maintained that majority last year, when Elon Musk’s big donations drew national attention to the race. How the impact of the liberal majority is already being felt.
In Georgia, Republican prosecutor Clay Fuller won the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House, defeating Democrat Shawn Harris.
While Republicans were successful in padding their slim House majority, the race also marked the biggest swing yet against the GOP in special House elections in Trump’s second term when compared to the 2024 presidential results.
As of last night, Fuller led Harris 55.9% to 44.1% — that’s a 12-point margin and a 25-point swing from Trump’s margin. Now compare that to 2024, when Greene won the district by almost 29 points, and Trump won by almost 37. Similar swings have shown up in special elections in Florida, Georgia, Arizona and other states. Take a closer look.
Taylor Frankie Paul alleges ‘pattern of abusive conduct’ against her ex
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul filed a temporary protective order against her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, the latest move in their ongoing legal battle. In a declaration attached to the protective order, filed yesterday, Paul laid out new details in four alleged incidents of domestic violence involving Mortensen.
On Feb. 17, Mortensen texted Paul a photo of her initials, “TFP,” tattooed inside his lip after he realized their relationship was over, she wrote in the declaration. Days later, on Feb. 22, Paul said Mortensen came to her house with their son to discuss their relationship. When she asked him to leave, she alleges he became hostile. The next day, he returned, and tensions escalated, she claims. In the declaration, Paul wrote that “we each allege that we were physically assaulted by the other.”
For subscribers: See a complete timeline of Paul’s rise and fall amid domestic violence allegations.
Reports of the most recent incident raised concern among “Mormon Wives” cast members and executives and led to the decision to pause filming for season five of the show. Paul also claims Mortensen released a video to TMZ of a 2023 incident, which led to the cancellation of Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.”
Read more about the new allegations.
Read All About It
- Rex Heuermann, the former architect and suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to change his plea to guilty during a court appearance today.
- The daughter of an American woman who was reportedly swept out to sea during a boat ride in the Bahamas said her mother was unlikely to “just fall” overboard.
- The Artemis II crew proposed naming a crater on the moon after one of the astronauts’ late wife. The tearful moment was captured on video.
- A college student charged with murdering her newborn had images of Casey Anthony on her phone, a Florida sheriff’s office said.
Staff Pick: Anyone can code with AI. But it might come with a hidden cost.
About nine years ago, I bet a few of my computer science friends that the machines would be capable of generating their own code within 15 years. I should have put money on that bet. Over the past six months AI systems have become really, really good at turning English-language instructions into fully formed computer code. Now I (or you) can tell systems like Anthropic’s Claude Code or OpenAI’s Codex to “design a website” or “create a new exercise app based on my FitBit data,” and the product will appear within minutes as if by magic.
Yet many experts and engineers are worried that the code generated by these AI systems is not as trustworthy as human-designed code. The AI-designed scripts might be bulky or repetitive, or they might unwittingly include security vulnerabilities that the AI systems have not been trained to recognize. Some see the rate of progress as a sign that these systems will be able to solve the problems it might initially create, while others worry that critical software infrastructure will soon be overrun by code that no human has ever verified — think power grids, medical equipment, even planes.
Where will we be in six more months? This story is one to follow. — Jared Perlo, tech reporter
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