US, Iran said closing in on framework to end war; Trump warns ‘bombing starts’ if Tehran rejects proposal

US, Iran said closing in on framework to end war; Trump warns ‘bombing starts’ if Tehran rejects proposal

 Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday

Trump: If Iran rejects latest US proposal, ‘bombing starts’; if it accepts, war over

If Iran accepts the latest US proposal, the American war on Iran and blockade will end, says US President Donald Trump, while threatening a renewed bombing campaign if it refuses.

“Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran,” writes Trump on Truth Social.

Yesterday, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the operation “has concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation.”

“If they don’t agree,” writes Trump, “the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”

Trump had made repeated threats to return to war on Iran since the April ceasefire, but has ultimately chosen to continue attempts to reach a negotiated settlement.

Commodity ship transits in Hormuz hit lowest level since start of war

Commodity ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell this week to its lowest level since the beginning of the war despite a brief US attempt to reopen the strategic waterway, according to data from marine analytics firm Kpler.

Kpler, which tracks only commodity-carrying vessels, recorded just one transit on Monday and none on Tuesday, the fewest seen since the start of the war triggered by a wave of US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

Around 120 vessels transit the strait daily in peacetime, according to maritime news outlet Lloyd’s List.

Before the war, the strait handled roughly one-fifth of global hydrocarbon exports, alongside other key commodities.

The Nooh Gas, the only commodity vessel to transit the strait on Monday, was carrying 11,357 tons of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas.

The cargo was transferred ship-to-ship from the Tania Star off Dubai on May 1, and its final destination remains unknown.

The Tania Star had loaded the cargo at the Iranian port terminal of Bandar Mahshahr on April 25.

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Worst spring drought in 131 years grips 63% of the US with no end in sight

Worst spring drought in 131 years grips 63% of the US with no end in sight

Everett Sloane

Winter wheat is dying in Kansas fields that should be green by now. Ranchers in New Mexico are selling cattle they cannot afford to feed. Reservoir levels along the Colorado River system are dropping weeks ahead of the season when mountain snowmelt is supposed to refill them. Across roughly 63% of the contiguous United States, drought rated moderate to exceptional on the federal scale has taken hold, and the first three months of 2026 were the driest the nation has recorded in 131 years of continuous measurement.

Federal forecasters say the parched footprint is more likely to grow than shrink as spring advances, leaving farmers, water managers, and fire agencies bracing for a summer that could test infrastructure already running on thin margins.

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, which maintains climate records dating to January 1895, confirmed in its March 2026 national climate summary that the January-through-March period was the driest on record for the contiguous United States across the full 131-year dataset. The rankings are built from precipitation totals collected at thousands of weather stations and compared against long-term regional averages.

March 2026 alone ranked among the driest Marches nationally. California recorded both its warmest and driest March on a statewide basis since record-keeping began, a combination that accelerated snowpack loss in the Sierra Nevada at the worst possible time.

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, published through Drought.gov, puts the damage in geographic terms: about 63% of the Lower 48 falls within drought categories D1 (moderate) through D4 (exceptional). The affected zone stretches from the Pacific Coast through the Intermountain West and deep into the central Plains, covering agricultural regions responsible for a large share of the nation’s wheat, cattle, and irrigated produce.

Why forecasters expect it to get worse

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center stated in its spring outlook that drought is likely to expand across the western U.S. and parts of the Plains through the spring months. The agency pointed to three reinforcing drivers:

For farmers on the central Plains, the timing is brutal. Winter wheat, planted in the fall and dependent on spring moisture to fill grain heads, is showing visible stress across Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop condition reports will offer the first systematic look at how much acreage has been lost or downgraded, but anecdotal reports from county extension agents already describe fields that may not be worth harvesting.

Ranchers face a parallel crisis. Rangeland forage that normally greens up in March and April has barely emerged in parts of the Southwest and southern Plains, forcing producers to buy supplemental feed at elevated prices or reduce herd sizes. Livestock sell-offs driven by drought tend to depress cattle prices in the short term and tighten beef supply months later.

Western water managers are watching reservoir gauges with growing concern. The Colorado River system, which supplies water to roughly 40 million people across seven states, entered spring with storage levels already below target after several years of below-average inflows. Low Sierra Nevada snowpack threatens California’s State Water Project allocations, though the state’s Department of Water Resources had not issued a formal emergency declaration tied to the 2026 spring shortfall as of late May 2026.

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Persecution Update: Nigeria pastor, wife, children burned alive along with 50 church members

Nigeria pastor, wife, children burned alive along with 50 church members

Christian Today

Reports disclosed that over 100 people were killed by armed terrorists this past week, who went on a 12-village killing spree in Nigeria's Plateau state. Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has once again taken responsibility for the assaults.

While different sources shared various reports of the numbers who lost their lives last week in the latest assault on Christians, which have been occurring on a weekly basis for many months in Nigeria, a story last week by the Baptist Press confirmed that about 50 members of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in the village of Maseh were burned alive after they took refuge in their pastor's house following a terrorist raid.

"Fifty of our church members were killed in the church building where they had fled to take refuge. They were killed alongside the wife of the pastor and children," said the Rev. Dachollom Datiri, vice president of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, in a July 11 interview.

Officials from the church confirmed that over 100 members were killed through various villages in Nigeria, which included Maseh, Ninchah, Kakkuruk, Kuzen, Negon, Pwabiduk, Kai, Ngyo, Kura Falls, Dogo, Kufang, and Ruk.

"Nigeria is truly becoming the new killing field for Christians. Hundreds of Christians have already been brutally murdered – including women and children – by the Boko Haram," said Open Doors, USA spokesman Jerry Dykst. "The Boko Haram earlier this week said that all Christians need to turn to Islam or 'they would never know peace again.' Their goal is make all of Nigeria a country run and dominated by Shariah law."

Some Nigerian security officials have claimed that Muslim Fulani tribesmen, who populate the Plateau State, could have aided Boko Haram in their bid to get rid of Christians from the North and establish Islamic dominance over all of Nigeria.

"I don't think that Boko Haram could, out of nowhere, have raided these villages. They couldn't do that without local support and collaboration," said Nigerian criminal justice consultant Innocent Chukwuma.

"Attacks on Christian villages are not new in Plateau State, as Fulani tribesmen are known to have raided Christian communities in the past," further explained Heritage Foundation Africa analyst Morgan Roach.

"Should Boko Haram be responsible, this would deviate from its past tactics, which have tended to be more sophisticated," he added.

Nigeria's citizens have been critical of the government's response to the on-going attacks, and have called for more to be done to counter Boko Haram's terrorism activities.

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has also called upon the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee for the U.S to officially declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization that the international community needs to battle against.

"This would be the equivalent of designating Bin Laden as a terrorist, but failing to designate al-Qaida as a terrorist organization," Ortisejafor told the committee in response to only select members of Boko Haram being branded as terrorists.

"There are certain Muslim extremists who believe that Nigeria must be an Islamic nation [and] Boko Haram is the body that is fronting for this group of persons… [Nigeria] has a very well divided population among the two major religions [Christianity and Islam], so it's not possible to Islamize Nigeria," the pastor added.

Things To Come: Deception

Dawkins Mocked Religion For Years, Now Believes AI Has “Consciousness”

Communist Rhetoric – Dangerous

 

Deception Coming?

CHRIS MELORE,

Influential pastors are claiming that they have been told to prepare their followers for shocking revelations about UFOs which may upend belief in the Bible.

Perry Stone, a well-known evangelist, author and Bible teacher from Tennessee, warned that fellow pastors were recently invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for the release of secret files on extraterrestrials.

According to Stone, the officials warned a small group of pastors with a large reach in the Christian community that the government was about to release reports and possibly videos of aliens and spacecraft which were not from this planet.

In the April 27 video posted to his YouTube channel, the evangelist claimed that pastors were told about the existence of 'reptilian' creatures, UFOs and materials from a non-human origin and 'other things that almost sound like something out of a sci-fi movie.'

On February 19, President Trump ordered the Pentagon and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to release all information the government possesses regarding UFOs and alien life.

Last week, Trump said that the first files would be released 'very, very soon' and would contain some 'very interesting' things for the public.

However, officials in this secret meeting allegedly said the information on its way may cause some Christians to question how the universe was created and even lose faith in religion.

Stone said: 'You're going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you're going to have people that's going to apostatize and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they're about to hear.'

Stone also claimed in the April 27 video government officials warned these religious leaders that non-Christians might panic and turn to churches for answers.

'They're going to freak out and they're going to come to pastors, ministers, and teachers and say, "What is this? Is this really real?"'

This reported meeting involved approximately six Christian leaders, including Bishop Alan DiDio of the Revival Nation Church, who confirmed that he was a part of the extraordinary gathering.

DiDio said: 'It seems like a half a dozen people were gathered in an Airbnb in the mountains of Tennessee discussing an investigation that's going on in the United States government against crimes they have committed in the process of retrieving and reverse engineering um technology from non-human intelligence.'

'The meeting also went forward to discuss the propaganda plan that was in place leading up to disclosure,' the pastor added in a March 7 livestream on YouTube.

Another reported attendee, American evangelist and podcaster Tony Merkel, added that the government officials who held the meeting expressed concerns about the impact of UFO disclosure on organized religion.

Merkel said: 'I came in contact with these guys more than a year ago now, and I've been in touch with them, communicating with them, and their heart is to prepare the body of Christ for what's coming.

'These guys are part of, let's just say they're Christians in intelligence operations and they are specifically geared towards, initially, it was to gather evidence and data on what's actually going on behind the scenes within the disclosure community.'

The three pastors also warned that when the US government finally releases the historic report about UFOs and extraterrestrials, it will not just be surprising news, they believe it will be part of a plot designed to pull people away from faith in Jesus.

The men compared it to what the Bible calls the 'great deception' in end times prophecies.

Stone explained that supposed revelations about aliens could make the Bible’s creation account look like a myth, causing believers to 'fall away' from the teachings of Christianity.

Merkel and DiDio went further, saying the disclosure had already been set up to paint Christians as the 'bad guys' who were holding humanity back, with people being told: 'You were close, Christians. You were close. That's right. But no cigar. And here's what it actually is.'

All three men urged churches to get ready now so believers would not be shocked or deceived, but instead stay grounded in the Bible and their belief in Jesus when this 'great deception' arrives.

While religious leaders have allegedly been warned about the coming UFO files, multiple government officials have also tied the alleged existence of alien life directly to events and beings written about in the Bible.

Vice President JD Vance said in March: 'I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons.'

He previously declared himself a 'UFO lunatic' and was committed to 'get to the bottom' of answering whether aliens exist or not.

Netanyahu, Trump and Gulf leaders discuss major security upgrade after Iranian fire at UAE

Netanyahu, Trump and Gulf leaders discuss major security upgrade after Iranian fire at UAE

Danny Zaken

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken in recent days with several Gulf leaders, including United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, to coordinate positions regarding the situation with Iran.

The United Arab Emirates is now taking Iranian fire after Tehran failed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed.

Netanyahu briefed US President Donald Trump on his talks, and according to diplomatic officials from the region, beyond policy coordination and discussions of possible responses, the talks also addressed tightening security cooperation.

According to various reports and analysis of footage of interceptions over UAE skies, the Iron Dome system deployed there with Israeli teams intercepted at least some of the missiles fired at the Emirates. In Netanyahu's recent talks with Gulf leaders, the groundwork is also being laid for deepening security cooperation in a way that is far more extensive than in the past.

The US, along with Israel, is debating how to respond to the fire on the Emirates, while Iran's political leadership is trying to make clear that extremists in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were responsible for the attacks.

President Trump, and especially War Secretary Pete Hegseth, downgraded the nature of the Iranian response in their remarks Tuesday. According to Hegseth, it still had not crossed the threshold of violating the ceasefire.

"They attacked American assets in 10 instances, but below the threshold for reopening the military conflict," he said.

According to the diplomatic sources, the US message to Iran's political leadership was that continued fire at the Emirates would ultimately require a harsh American response.

As reported in Israel Hayom, consultations between the US and Israel have included consideration of strikes on energy facilities, alongside missile and drone launchers positioned in western Iran opposite the Gulf. For now, the Americans, as well as Israel, prefer not to reach the point of renewed fighting, but do want to intensify the move to transfer ships and tankers through Hormuz after Monday's successful pilot.

US warships are passing through the strait almost without disruption, after several war boats belonging to the Revolutionary Guards' navy were destroyed Monday and attempts to fire missiles at the Americans were intercepted.

Alongside the military move, the Americans and Gulf states are pressing major maritime transport companies to send ships into the strait, while promising to secure them. The Iranians tried to strike ships passing through, and on Monday hit a tanker south of Hormuz, but most other ships passed through unharmed.

Danish shipping giant Maersk has already reported that a tanker and a cargo ship passed through the strait, and the assessment is that others will follow. The Americans are deploying all their capabilities, together with the Gulf states, in an effort to prevent damage to these ships. The concern is that if a ship is hit, the others will turn back.

A US official familiar with the details of the economic blockade and its impact on Iran said that in theory, the Iranian regime could continue for several more weeks and even longer, but the cumulative damage to the economy was enormous and the economic situation of the country's citizens was continuing to deteriorate.

"The moment will come when the economic pressure rises from below and forces the commanders to seek an end," he said.

He acknowledged that rising oil prices in the US were putting pressure on the administration, but said the increase was far more moderate than originally feared. He added that the more tankers pass through the strait and the more oil is transferred through bypass routes, the more the price will fall again.