Athletics beat Yankees 1-0 to clinch their first Yankee Stadium series since 2016

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeffrey Springs took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and combined with two relievers on a one-hitter, and the Athletics beat the New York Yankees 1-0 Thursday afternoon to clinch their first series at Yankee Stadium since 2016.

Springs (2-0)lost his no-hitteron his 84th pitch when Ben Rice hit a single to right field following a walk to Giancarlo Stanton. Springs kept the Yankees scoreless by retiring Austin Wells and Randal Grichuk.

Springs allowed only Rice’s hit in seven innings. The left-hander struck out six, walked two and permitted four base runners.

The Yankees have only two hits in their last 17 innings and have not scored since getting two runs in the first inning ofWednesday’s 3-2 lossoff Luis Severino.

After Springs exited Thursday, Justin Sterner retired Aaron Judge on a groundout with a runner on first to end the eighth. Hogan Harris pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth career save and first this season.

The A’s allowed one hit for the first time since April 15, 2024, at Texas. The Yankees were held to one hit for the first since Aug. 15, 2023, at Atlanta.

MARLINS 8, REDS 1

MIAMI (AP) — Owen Caissie had three hits and three RBIs to help Miami beat Cincinnati.

Javier Sanoja also had three hits with two RBIs, Xavier Edwards tripled and Otto Lopez added a double for the Marlins, who had 12 hits total and moved to 7-3 at home this season.

Marlins right-hander Max Meyer picked up his first win since May 16, 2025, allowing four hits and one run with four strikeouts. Meyer last won a start last year against the Tampa Bay Rays before undergoing season-ending left hip surgery in June.

Caissie drove in a pair of runs with an opposite-field double off Rhett Lowder (1-1) in the third, making it 3-0 after Agustín Ramírez’s fielder’s choice allowed Edwards to score in the first.

Caissie doubled again in the sixth before scoring on Edwards’ single to center, and added a run-scoring single against Jose Franco in the seventh to make it 6-1.

After a double steal by Jakob Marsee and Graham Pauley, Ramírez drove in two more runs with a single in the eighth.

Lowder gave up eight hits and four earned runs with two strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings as the Reds ended their road trip 5-2.

TWINS 3, TIGERS 1

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Brooks Lee hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning for Minnesota in a victory to complete a four-game sweep of Detroit.

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Mick Abel pitched six scoreless innings and Josh Bell went 3 for 4 with a home run for the Twins, who posted the first four-game sweep inMajor League Baseballthis season. The last team the Twins swept in four games was the Athletics in June 2024.

Gleyber Torres tied the game in the seventh with a sacrifice fly for the Tigers, who lost their eighth consecutive road game. They lost center fielder Parker Meadows in the eighth aftera head-to-head collisionas left fielder Riley Greene caught Bell’s fly ball.

Eric Orze pitched a perfect ninth to become the fifth different Twins pitcher to record a save in 13 games this season, after Garrett Acton went two innings for his first career win.

Abel struck out seven batters and stranded seven runners, including five in scoring position as the Tigers lost their eighth straight road game. Minnesota has surrendered two first-inning runs in 13 games. Only Cleveland (one) has allowed fewer in the major leagues.

DIAMONDBACKS 7, METS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Eduardo Rodríguez outdueled Nolan McLean in a rematch of the World Baseball Classic final, leading Arizona to a win over New York.

Rodríguez threw his final pitch down 1-0 before the Diamondbacks scored four runs in the seventh off McLean (0-1) and Luke Weaver. Gabriel Moreno greeted Weaver with a pinch-hit RBI double before Jose Fernandez beat Mark Vientos’ throw home on Alek Thomas’ grounder to first.

Tim Tawa hit a sacrifice fly and Jorge Barrosa followed with a run-scoring triple.

Moreno and Adrian Del Castillo added RBI doubles in the eighth.

Rodriguez (1-0) gave up five hits — including Luis Robert Jr.’s first-inning homer, the first earned run allowed this season by the left-hander — and struck out three in six innings.

McLean was charged with two runs on three hits and struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings.

Rodriguez tossed four scoreless innings and McLean surrendered two runs in 4 2/3 innings on March 17, whenVenezuela won the WBCby edging Team USA, 3-2.

WHITE SOX 2, ROYALS 0

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Anthony Kay allowed three hits in 5 2/3 innings to pick up his first major league victory since July 2021 as Chicago beat Kansas City.

Kay (1-0), who pitched the last two seasons in Japan, walked three but struck out six, getting Vinnie Pasquantino, Jac Caglianone and Kyle Isbel twice each.

Seranthony Domínguez picked up his second save as the White Sox snapped a 14-game losing streak at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City starter Seth Lugo (1-1) was nearly as good as Kay, allowing two runs in 6 1/3 innings. He allowed four hits and struck out four, but issued a season-high four walks, twice his total so far this season.

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April 10, 2026

Athletics beat Yankees 1-0 to clinch their first Yankee Stadium series since 2016

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeffrey Springs took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and combined with two relievers on a one-hitter, and the Athl...

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Immigrant advocates in North Carolina say family was deported without due process

Immigrant advocates and members of the school community in Durham, North Carolina, are calling for justice after they say two children and their parents were swiftly detained and deported to Honduras without due process.

Advocates say Genesis, 11, and Denis, 6, and their parents attended a scheduled appointment with immigration authorities on Monday, and by Thursday morning the family had been deported to Honduras as part of the Trump administration'simmigration crackdown.

Siembra NC, the civil rights group advocating for the family, said the family came to the United States in 2022 and applied for asylum. As one of the requirements of that process, they had to attend scheduled check-in appointments with immigration officials.

Judge rules CBP unlawfully canceled Harvard researcher's visa over frog embryos

On Monday, the children's aunt waited for the family in the parking lot while they attended their appointment, the group said. An hour and a half later, the aunt received a call from a federal agent saying the family had been detained, said the group.

"This family was lured into the check-in office under a false pretense of safety and they were ripped away from their lives, from their school, and deported in about 48 hours," Andreina Malki of Siembra NC said during a press conference Thursday. "That should alarm all of us, because if children that are attending school in Durham can be kidnapped by agents through the back of a building in the middle of the day and deported after doing everything right, then what we're seeing is not enforcement for public safety. This is the dismantling of any promise of safety."

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A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the family had a final order of removal and had no pending asylum claims.

"ICE does not 'raid' schools or target children," the statement said. "This illegal alien family unit was issued a final order of removal by a judge after they failed to show up for their immigration hearing. They were returned to their home country of Honduras together. They received full due process and had no pending asylum claims or immigration applications."

Malki said that following their check-in appointment, the family was placed in a van with tinted windows.

"They could see their aunt in the parking lot in their car, but they could not wave to her, they could not speak to her, and they could not say goodbye," Malki said.

North Carolina State Sen. Sophia Chitlik said several members of the county commission and school board have volunteered to accompany families to these check-ins in the future to document DHS' actions.

The president of the Durham Association of Educators, Mika Twietmeyer, read a statement Thursday from Genesis' fifth grade teacher, who described Genesis as "a smart young lady with a bright future."

"She is a little scientist and mathematician in our classroom, she is always ready to explore, experiment, and learn," the teacher's statement said. "She is always ready to help others learn. She is a giving little girl who leads with her heart. Her character comes from her family. They are loving, kind, and work hard to support their children."

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April 10, 2026

Immigrant advocates in North Carolina say family was deported without due process

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In Congo, an unconventional Christian movement has existential lessons for the troubled nation

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The founder of one of Africa’s largest independent churches spent 30 years in jail and died a prisoner, banished far from his home by Belgian colonial authorities who judged his activities to be dangerous.

Congo Christian Movement

Unexpectedly, Simon Kimbangu’s religious movement spread acrossCongoand prospered enough that it now has followers even in Belgium, with pilgrims visiting a quaint village south of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa to pay homage to him.

April 6 has been marked in Congo as Kimbangu Day since 2023, a holiday to celebrate the "struggle of Simon Kimbangu and African consciousness.” Some see him as theNelson Mandelaof Central Africa, with comparable suffering but not nearly the fame.

If Kimbangu’s articulation of a home-grown theology of Black liberation appealed to many Congolese in violent colonial times, now his message resonates differently as Congo faces instability stemming froma violent rebellion in the east.

Some Congolese say Kimbangu’s movement — nonviolent, independent, well-organized and resilient — can be a positive example for a nation facing perhaps its worst territorial crisis since independence in 1960. Others say the spirit of sacrifice that Kimbangu embodied should be emulated by Congo’s leaders.

“The first challenge for African leaders, or Congolese leaders, is that they are not free,” said Bwatshia Kambayi, a historian of Congo who sees similarities in the struggles of Mandela and Kimbangu. “African leaders, they do not realize that they have a slavery mindset. We are independent, but we are not free.”

A far-flung, multi-million-member movement

The Kimbanguist Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth Through the Prophet Simon Kimbangu, is a revival movement. It is believed to have anywhere between 6 and 17 million members, most of them Congolese. Its spiritual seat is Nkamba, a town southwest of Kinshasa that believers call the New Jerusalem.

Although its primary teachings refer to the Bible, the Kimbanguist Church is distinguished by its veneration of Kimbangu as the Black embodiment of the Holy Spirit. Fiercely independent, the church maintains a hierarchical structure and is currently in its third generation of leadership.

The Kimbanguist Church prohibits polygamy, which is socially accepted in Congo. It encourages peaceful ways of resolving conflict among members. A sense of good neighborliness is witnessed in the sharing of foodstuffs for communal events, and the church has invested widely in schools and other social enterprises. Women can rise to positions of authority.

“Women are ministering in the church. They have a key role to play because the church is so thankful for what the wife of Simon Kimbangu did when her husband was in prison,” said André Kibangudi, a church elder. “We should have more female leadership.”

Congo in 1921 was a Belgian colony, the source of raw materials like rubber, timber and minerals that paid for the reconstruction of Belgium after World War I. Kimbangu, a lay Baptist catechist, was an unlikely candidate for leadership. Even though he urged his followers to pay taxes, his religious idea proved too provocative for authorities.

Kimbangu identified God with Nzambi, the deity in the Kikongo language, and presented himself as God's envoy on Earth. This implied the Blackness of God, subverting cultural representations of the deity as white and possibly European. All the trembling, as Kimbangu touched the sick, alarmed European settlers and reassured the plantation workers who trekked to Nkamba in search of healing.

But he led his ministry for only five months. Facing insurrection charges, Kimbangu was sentenced to death. King Albert I of Belgium commuted the punishment to life imprisonment, and the prophet was exiled to present-day Lubumbashi, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

Few photos were taken of Kimbangu, who was 64 when he died in 1951. In the stylized photo of him presented in official files, he wears the austere garb of a prisoner, baldheaded and looking quizzical. Sometimes he is painted next to his wife, Marie Muilu, who led the movement until her youngest son, Joseph Diangienda Kuntima, took over in 1959. Kuntima was succeeded by his brother in 1992. The group’s leader since 2001 is Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, a grandson of the founder.

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On Easter Sunday, as Kimbanguists prepared for the next day’s holiday, church members at the Kinshasa branch chanted “Simon Kimbangu Kiangani oyee,” praising the leader who was not among them. The group composes its own sacred music, lilting songs that prompt women in green-and-white wraparounds to vigorously shake their bodies. Some in the group were boarding church-owned buses that would take them to Nkamba.

The church’s rules forbid “dating a married man,” said Chantal Makanga, a widow, citing what she considered a striking example of Kimbanguism's values. “It’s not bad to fall in love or to date me, if the final goal is to get married.”

Border tensions fueling Congo's crisis

President Félix Tshisekedi’s major challenge is the armed conflict in eastern Congo, where the largest city, Goma, has been controlled by rebels since January 2025. Those rebels,the Rwanda-backed M23, have effectively carved off the mineral-rich North Kivu province and caused the flight of hundreds of thousands, provoking fear of secession and forcing the president to seek drastic measures.

Notably, Tshisekedi has offered U.S. companies access to eastern Congo’s minerals — mostly untapped and estimated to be worth $24 trillion — as a bargaining chip for U.S. support to secure eastern Congo.

But some critics predict an intensification of the problem with the entry of a big new rival for resources into eastern Congo, where the Chinese have long been active in mineral extraction. Some lawyers and activists have filed a petition arguing that a mineral partnership with the U.S. threatens Congo’s sovereignty, and the leader of the National Episcopal Conference likened such a partnership to“selling off the minerals of an entire nation to save a regime or a political system.”

Tshisekedi has embraced Kimbanguists; his prime minister, Judith Suminwa, is one of them. That's an indicator of the government’s respect for Kimbangu as a champion of Black emancipation and highlights the Kimbanguist movement’s importance as a source of votes.

“The church today is very dynamic, very influential,” said Paul Kasonga, a Kimbanguist pastor of millions in Mongala province.

What Congo’s leaders can learn from Kimbangu “is that the guy didn’t work for himself. He sacrificed himself to free people who had been in slavery, who had been suffering,” Kasonga said.

Kambayi, the scholar and former minister of higher education, said the elite running Congo “are poor men who want to live as rich people."

“This is not the fight of Simon Kimbangu,” he said. “None of them has reached the level of fighting for people’s freedom, for people’s liberty.”

Toussaint Mungwala, pastor of Kimbanguists in Kwilu province, said he felt the force of Kimbangu’s legacy back in 1981 when he saw a German priest praying while holding a picture of Kimbangu and Muilu. The sight intrigued him and drew him to the Kimbanguist Church.

Five years later, Mungwala converted from Catholicism, convinced that Kimbangu was on the side of the people.

“The lesson that people can learn from the church is that the prophet, the founding prophet, fought for people’s rights,” he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’scollaborationwith The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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April 10, 2026

In Congo, an unconventional Christian movement has existential lessons for the troubled nation

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The founder of one of Africa’s largest independent churches spent 30 years in jail and died a prisoner, banished...

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US remarks on NATO are pushing Europe to seek alternative security options, Spain says

(Fixes links in last paragraph)

MADRID, April 7 (Reuters) - Recent U.S. complaints about NATO allies and threats to quit the ‌alliance are pushing European countries to seek alternative security ‌arrangements, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday.

After European countries declined to ​send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping following the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, U.S. President Donald Trump has declared he is considering withdrawing ‌from the alliance, thrusting ⁠it into a crisis.

Albares said the decision was entirely up to Trump, but underscored that NATO allies ⁠stood in solidarity with Washington after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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"NATO is a mutually beneficial alliance for both Europeans and Americans ... But the ​U.S. ​administration's remarks and new positions on ​Euro-Atlantic security are inviting ‌us Europeans to take a leap in terms of our sovereignty and defence matters," Albares told La Sexta TV channel.

"We must take our citizens' security and dissuasion into our own hands," he added.

To do so, he said, the EU should advance toward a pan-European ‌army and integrate its defence industries, ​but also create a digital single market ​and a capital markets ​union.

Spain's leftist government has become one of the most ‌vocal critics of the war ​on Iran, which ​it calls illegal and reckless. It has closed Spanish airspace to U.S. planes involved in the strikes and banned them from ​using jointly operated military ‌bases in southern Spain. Trump has vowed to retaliate ​against Spain using trade tariffs.

(Reporting by David Latona; Editing ​by Charlie Devereux and Andrei Khalip)

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April 09, 2026

US remarks on NATO are pushing Europe to seek alternative security options, Spain says

(Fixes links in last paragraph) MADRID, April 7 (Reuters) - Recent U.S. complaints about NATO allies and threats to quit the ‌all...

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Pirates sign teenage shortstop Konnor Griffin to a 9-year deal worth at least $140 million

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Konnor Griffin is with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the long haul.

Pirates Griffin Debuts Baseball

The 19-year-old shortstop agreed to a nine-year, $140 million contract with the Pirates early Wednesday, less than a week after the former first-round pick made his major league debut.

The deal, the largest in club history, includes escalators that could raise the total value to $150 million.

“Signing Konnor is a meaningful commitment to this team, this city and our fans,” owner Bob Nutting said in a statement. “It reflects our belief in Konnor, in this season's club and in the future of the organization.”

The agreement comes less than 24 hours after general manager Ben Cherington said the “ingredients” were in place for a long-term pact.

The Pirates selected Griffin with the ninth overall pick in the 2024 amateur draft. He sprinted through the team's farm system, hitting .333 with 21 home runs, 94 RBIs and 65 stolen bases. He was one of the final cuts during spring training last month, and his stay at Triple-A Indianapolis was brief.

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Pittsburgh called Griffin to the majors after just a week, and he has played well through his first handful of games. Griffin laced an RBI-double in his first big-league at bat against Baltimore last Friday, and added a pair of hits, including a two-run single, in a 7-1 win over San Diego on Tuesday night that helped the Pirates to their sixth win in seven games.

Griffin, who has said repeatedly he wants to stay in Pittsburgh for as long as possible, has impressed teammates with his maturity and his unique skillset.

Reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes called Griffin “a big leaguer through and through,” though Griffin is doing his best to ignore the attention that has surrounded his arrival for a team that is trying to return to relevance and end a playoff drought that's now over a decade old.

“Just sticking to being myself, not trying to do too much,” Griffin said Tuesday night. "Just let the game tell me the situation. Compete one pitch at a time and let it all happen.”

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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April 09, 2026

Pirates sign teenage shortstop Konnor Griffin to a 9-year deal worth at least $140 million

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Konnor Griffin is with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the long haul. Pirates Griffin Debuts Baseball The 19-year...

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Trump and Iran both claim ceasefire victory. Who does it really help?

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration and Iranian leaders both have claimed victory in thetemporarily paused U.S.-Israel war on Iraneven as details of thetwo-week ceasefireare being disputed.

So who actually blinked first and who really came out on top?

There’s no clear answer, with much of the details hidden beneath layers of secretive multi-party negotiations and changing dynamics. Andkey detailsremain in dispute, including the future of Iran's uranium enrichment program and whether the ceasefire applies to Israeli military action in Lebanon,which already threatens to unravel the shaky detente.

As of mid-afternoon April 8, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that while the U.S. has seen some movement, the strait through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes was not fully open for business.

"We have seen an uptick in traffic in the strait today and I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely,” Leavitt said.

Later in the day,Vice President JD Vancetold reporters Wednesday in Budapest, Hungary, "If we don't see that happening, the President is not going to abide by our terms if the Iranians are not abiding by their terms."

Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Smoke rises following an explosion after the U.S. and Israel reportedly launched an attack against Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026, in this screen grab taken from video.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran on February 28, 2026. Two loud blasts were heard in Tehran on February 28 morning by AFP journalists, and two plumes of thick smoke were seen over the centre and east of the Iranian capital.

Israel's defence ministry announced it had launched a "preemptive strike" on Iran as sirens sounded in Jerusalem and people across the country received phone alerts about an "extremely serious" threat.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after disembarking Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 27, 2026. Hours later, Trump made live comments about the military strikes he launched against Iran.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Buildings inin Tehran stand after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Latest photos capture US and Israeli strikes against Iran

Smoke rises following an explosion,after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

Here’s what we know about initial winners and losers in the ceasefire, which was announced just hours before Trump’s 8 p.m. ET deadline on April 7 for Iran to open the straitor face annihilation.

What are both sides saying about the ceasefire?

Trump delayed the strikes on Iran that he said wouldwipe out a “whole civilization”after receiving a 10-point proposal from the Islamic Republic that he said provided a “workable basis” for negotiations.

The morning after the ceasefire was announced, Pentagon chiefPete Hegsethdeclared the U.S. military campaign on Iran a “historic and overwhelming victory.”

Hegseth said the U.S. armed forces “achieved every military objective” set out at the start of the war, including the destruction of Iran’s navy, air force and weapons manufacturing infrastructure.

“President Trumpforged this moment,” he said. “Iran begged for this ceasefire and we all know it.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council hasalso claimed victoryfollowing a ceasefire deal Tuesday evening, saying the U.S. and Israel were forced to accept Tehran’s 10-point plan.

Leavitt disputed public claims about the 10-point plan circulating publicly, including by the Iranian government.

The real details, Leavitt said at a White House news conference, are being discussed in back-channel negotiations between Washington and Tehran that are being facilitated by the government of Pakistan. A meeting is set forthis weekend in the capitalof Islamabad and Vance is scheduled to attend, the White House said.

What does Iran's ceasefire proposal actually do?

Iran’s exact proposal has not been made public. But many versions of itcirculating publiclycall for American troops to leave the Middle East, for Iran to continue its control over the strategic strait and to maintain its right to nuclear enrichment.

In a public statement, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said its own officials, and Iran’s supreme leader,Mojtaba Khamenei, approved the plan.

The statement is long and rambling, and full of religious references and attacks on the United States and Israel, Washington’s partner in the war on Iran, as “global evil Zionism,” according to atranslation of it by Middle East Eye, an independent news and analysis site.

But the statement by the Iranian council includes some specifics of Iran’s proposal that it said the U.S. accepts as a starting point, including “controlled passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iran’s armed forces” and ending U.S. and Israeli military aggression against Iran and its Lebanese proxy fighting force Hezbollah.

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It also includes the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from all bases and deployment points in the region, the full payment of Iran’s damages from the war and the removal “of all primary and secondary sanctions” against Iran, including the release of all blocked Iranian properties and assets abroad, the statement said.

“Now, the honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan has informed Iran that the American side, despite all outward threats, has accepted these principles as the basis for negotiations and has surrendered to the will of the Iranian nation,” the statement said.

When the details of Tehran’s 10-point plan are finalized, it said, “Iran’s victory on the field shall also be consolidated in political negotiations.”

What is the Trump administration saying?

Both Vance and Leavitt said in their public remarks that elements of the Iranian regime is “lying” about the nature of the ceasefire agreement. Both also emphasized that the truce is a fragile one.

“The Iranians originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded,” Leavitt said at the White House briefing.

Leavitt did not disclose any details of the “new modified plan” but said Trump determined it formed a “workable basis on which to negotiate and to align it with our own 15-point proposal.”

“The president's red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed,” she said. “And the idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wishlist as a deal is completely absurd.”

Since the ceasefire was announced, conflicting accounts have emerged, for instance, over whether Lebanon is included in the agreement. Pakistan, one of the deal's mediators, and Iran said the pause in fighting would indeed extend to Lebanon. Israel has denied this, while Trump has said the Israeli war on Hezbollah is a "separate skirmish."

What are Trump's critics saying?

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and vocal critic of Trump,posted on X some detailsof Iran’s 10-point plan that he said was from “an account close to the Iranian leadership.” The account said that during the ceasefire, “only about 10 to 15 ships will be permitted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran's approval," in coordination with Iran's navy and after payment of tolls and a commitment to remove a U.S. freeze on Iranian assets.

Tehran also “will control and toll the Strait for the first time," the X posting cited by Murphy said. "They keep their nuclear program. They keep their missiles.”

“We are now seeing the shape of why Iran agreed so enthusiastically to this "ceasefire," Murphy said. “What a disaster.”

Another TACO move, or "Trump always chickens out"

Numerous observers said agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran was another example of a Trump “TACO,” short for "Trump always chickens out," a term that first went viral during Trump’son-again, off-again tariff policies.

“This wasno ordinary Trump TACO, this was Trump accepting Iran's victory conditions as the basis of negotiations,” said Phillips O’Brien, professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and author of the 2025 book, “War and Power: Who Wins Wars and Why.”

“It looks likely that Iran will emerge stronger from this war than before; a total US strategic failure,” O’Brien said in an April 8 post on X.

'Strong first step toward holding Iran accountable'

Some of Trump’s supporters in Congress cheered Trump’s acceptance of a short-term ceasefire as a smart tactical victory.

“Excellent news,” RepublicanSen. Rick Scott of Florida, said shortly after Trump announced the ceasefire. “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies.”

“The president has been clear: Iran must NEVER have a nuclear weapon, the Strait of Hormuz MUST be completely open, and our country and our great ally Israel must NEVER be threatened again by Iran or its proxies,” Scott said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Who does Iran war ceasefire help? Trump and Iran both claim victory

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April 09, 2026

Trump and Iran both claim ceasefire victory. Who does it really help?

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration and Iranian leaders both have claimed victory in thetemporarily paused U.S.-Israel war on Iraneve...

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Paul Skenes takes a no-hitter into the 6th as the Pirates beat the Padres 7-1

PITTSBURGH (AP) —Reigning NL Cy Young Award winnerPaul Skenes put together his second straight solid start, keeping San Diego hitless until the sixth inning of the Pittsburgh Pirates' 7-1 win over the Padres on Tuesday night.

Padres Pirates Baseball

Skenes (2-1), who was rocked during anopening day loss to the New York Mets, struck out six and walked two in 6 1/3 innings while lowering his ERA to 5.54. The Padres' first of two hits against the 23-year-old was a clean single to left by Fernando Tatis Jr. with one out in the sixth.

Xander Bogaerts homered off Skenes — the first round-tripper given up by a Pittsburgh starter this season — with one out in the seventh. Skenes exited to a loud ovation from the announced crowd of 9,061 on a chilly night as the Pirates won for the sixth time in seven games.

Oneil Cruz hit a two-run double off Nick Pivetta (1-2) in the fifth and Nick Gonzales added a two-run single to start a five-run eighth for the Pirates. Skenes and three relievers combined on a three-hitter.

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Pirates rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin picked up the second and third hits of his major league career. The 19-year-old had an infield single in the fifth and scored from first on Cruz's laser down the left field line. He added a line drive to center for a two-run single in the eighth, a few hours after Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said some ingredientsfor a long-term contractfor Griffin were “in place.”

Pivetta was dominant through four innings before running into trouble in the fifth. The veteran right-hander gave up two runs on four hits with a walk and a season-high eight strikeouts.

Up next

The series wraps up on Wednesday. Michael King (0-1, 3.38 ERA) starts for the Padres against Pittsburgh's Mitch Keller (1-0, 1.50).

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/mlb

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April 09, 2026

Paul Skenes takes a no-hitter into the 6th as the Pirates beat the Padres 7-1

PITTSBURGH (AP) —Reigning NL Cy Young Award winnerPaul Skenes put together his second straight solid start, keeping San Diego hitless u...

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