News of a potential reopening of the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas pass, sent stock markets higher and oil prices lower on Monday morning. Iran had closed the waterway to most shipping in the early days of the war mounted against it by the US and Israel.
The secretariat of Iran’s supreme national security council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently from Monday night. The precise terms of the peace deal remain unclear and Julian Borger writes that in reopening the strait, on a basis yet to be fully explained, Donald Trump achieves little more than fixing a problem that he caused himself. “Even that is not in the bag yet. It is still a long way to Friday and a planned signing ceremony in Geneva, in view of all the fudges that have been packed into this compromise deal.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Iranian American demonstrators amassed Monday outside Iran’s first World Cup match, waving the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags banned inside the stadium and calling for change in Tehran. Protesters snatched an official Iran flag from one fan, video shows, stomping on and ripping it.
Iran’s participation in the World Cup, beset by challenges since the war’s outbreak, has divided the U.S. diaspora. Rallygoers outside the stadium near Los Angeles contended the team is synonymous with Iran’s government, while fans clad in red-and-green and scarves, their cheeks striped with face paint, filed past saying they were separating soccer from politics.
Southern California is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran, many who arrived after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Just hours before kickoff against New Zealand, a Los Angeles judge upheld FIFA’s ban on the pre-revolutionary flag at matches. But the flags and related apparel were nonetheless spotted inside the stadium. Ella Bah, 42, brought extra clothing to conceal the lion-and-sun flag she wore tied around her like a dress.
“We’re not here to cheer them on,” she told The Associated Press. “We’re here to be the voice for the people inside Iran.”
When soccer and geopolitics collide
Several hundred demonstrators attended the rally outside the stadium in Inglewood, California. Some said they also planned to watch the team play. As kickoff neared, event security broke up shouting matches between protesters and fans and were eventually joined by sheriff’s deputies.
Rameileh Jaffrey, 46, said she wants a change in Tehran’s government to bring freedom to the country she left a dozen years ago.
“They are not my team. They are a government team,” she said. Even so, she said she hopes Iran will win, and has plans to see the team play later in the tournament.
A woman protesting jeered Kia Keanh and his family as they walked by wearing T-shirts supporting the team.
“I’m just here to watch the sport, it’s not about the regime,” he said. “I’m just here for a World Cup game, to enjoy it with my family.”
Iran’s participation in the tournament has been fraught with conflict because of the country’s war with U.S. and Israeli forces. Late Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had reached a deal with Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28 has rattled the region and virtually shut down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf.
After the war’s outbreak, the team moved its training base to Mexico from Tucson, Arizona, and some of the country’s soccer officials were not granted visas to enter the United States. Many in the diaspora have mixed feelings over how to show their support of the Iranian people, but not the government.
“We play for every Iranian, be it in the diaspora or in Iran. People have different opinions, but we are here to unite people and we will try to bring joy to all Iranians wherever they live,” team captain Mehdi Taremi said at a press conference Sunday.
A wide range of views
Kourosh Safavi, 42, traveled to see Iran play from Dallas, Texas, with his 11-year-old son Jibreel. While he was born in the U.S, Safavi said he wanted to cheer on the country of his ancestors, where soccer means so much.
“They’re playing for the people, and I just hope and pray that they have success, that they can bring the people in Iran happiness,” he said.
Babby Ramesy, a 50-year-old telecommunications engineer, said with so many fans at the game being played in the heart of the largest Iranian American community, it feels like Iran had the support of a home team.
“We just support the team,” he said. “I really don’t care about politics.”
Cheers and boos greeted the start of Iran’s national anthem. Several people holding the lion-and-sun flag near the pitch turned their backs.
Some Iranian American soccer fans have said the team is tied up in politics, dissuading them from supporting the squad. But in the past, Iranian athletes have faced serious consequences for speaking out. In 2022, a prominent former member of the national team was arrested for allegedly protesting against the country’s leadership, and star striker Sardar Azmoun wasn’t selected for the World Cup squad this year, reportedly because of a social media post that angered authorities.
Still in their street clothes, many of the Iranian players walked onto the field nearly two hours before kickoff. Thousands of fans already in the building greeted them with loud cheers and whistles.
The flag question
Some Iranian Americans are also upset about FIFA’s rule barring political flags from being flown. The Iranian American Institute for Voices for Liberty filed a lawsuit last week to circumvent the ban on the pre-revolutionary flag, but a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Monday the ban could stand.
“It is a tremendous burden to change a long-standing stadium protocol for a massive event in a period of hours,” Judge Curtis Kin said, according to The Athletic. “It is hard to see how FIFA could make a change at one stadium and not the rest.”
Outside the stadium, Parsa Ezati, 21, and his mother brought the official Iranian flag of the current government to the protest so that people could stomp on it. Many passersby took the opportunity to walk over it, some giving it an extra scuff or taking a minute to spit on it.
“It represents the ayatollahs that killed so many Iranians and have massacred people in my generation,” Ezati said. “FIFA only accepts this flag on the floor.”
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AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham contributed to this report.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with his security cabinet in a bunker late Sunday night, ready for the potential of Iranian ballistic missiles, when the phone rang.
On the line was President Donald Trump, calling with news of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.
It was the second phone call of the day between the two leaders.
In the first, Trump told the Israeli leader he was “pissed off” at Israel’s earlier strike on Beirut and that Netanyahu “has no fucking judgment,” according to Axios. In the second, Trump informed him the war they had launched together in late February was effectively over.
When President Barack Obama signed a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, Netanyahu rejected it publicly and forcefully. He spoke before Congress, knowing he had the support of Republicans as he bashed both the deal and the president who pursued it. This time, the Israeli prime minister has said almost nothing publicly about the man who made the agreement.
The emerging accord is the scenario Israeli officials have spent weeks dreading: It could reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lead to the easing of economic sanctions on Tehran while delaying talks on the issues that were Israel’s declared war goals. The memorandum of understanding leaves for later discussion the thorny topics of Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, even as it offers economic respite to the regime Netanyahu wanted to topple.
When Netanyahu finally made public comments after Trump announced the memorandum of understanding, it was hours after other Israeli politicians had already spoken. In a press conference Monday evening, Netanyahu hardly mentioned the deal in his entire eight-minute opening statement.
Perhaps even more surprising is that he barely mentioned Trump in his opening remarks, instead of boasting about their relationship as he has regularly for years.
When asked about the deal afterward, he said: “There are cases in which President Trump and I do not see eye to eye. … I am responsible for Israel’s security interests, and it needs to be done wisely.”
The agreement also may entail new restrictions on Israel’s ability to fight Hezbollah, as Iran is demanding a full Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon, something Israel has said it is unwilling to do.
On Monday, a senior US official told reporters that withdrawal “was not a condition of the deal.”
“If Iran is not able to control Hezbollah, and if they attack, you know, Israeli positions or Israeli towns, Israel will have the right to defend themselves and respond,” the official said.
While Netanyahu has so far avoided a direct public confrontation with Trump, figures across the Israeli political spectrum have been far less restrained. Netanyahu’s own far-right coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, called it a “dangerous deal” and declared Israel does not consider itself bound by it.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is running to unseat Netanyahu, called it “a dangerous turn in Israel’s security.” Former Israeli military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, also a leading contender for the premiership, described it as a “miserable result” born of a lack of strategy and courage.
Netanyahu’s reticence reflects a sensitive foreign policy moment, but also how central Trump is to his electoral strategy. Months ago, sources tell CNN, his political team had envisioned a clear arc for the election: a swift victory over Iran, a triumphant visit to the White House in September, a return visit by Trump to Israel in the final stretch, and a flood of presidential imagery sweeping Netanyahu all the way to the polls in October.
Instead, discussions to end the war are straining relations between the two leaders. A series of public disagreements exposed Trump’s pressure on Israel to end the war and limit its actions in Lebanon. His outspoken calls for Israel to cease fire and announcements about the nuclear negotiations on Truth Social, as well as a recent comment to ABC News questioning whether Netanyahu still wants to “continue” in politics, have all caught the Israeli prime minister off guard, according to sources.
Political consultant Nadav Strauchler, who previously worked with Netanyahu, described the current moment as a “test point,” but not a breaking point.
“I wouldn’t eulogize the relationship so fast,” he said, adding that with October elections roughly four months away, the relationship can recover, and predicting Trump will still be a center stone in the campaign.
“Trump has been angry before — at Netanyahu, at other leaders — and things tend to fall back into place,” Strauchler told CNN. “Until the last two weeks there was hardly any daylight between them,” he said. “Even now, Trump still respects him and isn’t closing the door. There are still 60 days to influence the final nuclear deal. As long as a candle is burning and the window is open, Netanyahu will try to get in through the chimney.”
The mood shift is easy to track on Channel 14, the pro-Netanyahu television network where presenters who once called Trump the greatest gift to the Jewish people are now denouncing him as a “loser” who has weakened both Israel and America. One Likud source privately compared him to the emperor of Japan in defeat.
“Right now, Trump is highly unpopular within Netanyahu’s base,” the source said, while noting the shift could still prove temporary ahead of October’s elections.
The numbers tell the same story. A recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute published last week found a sharp drop in the share of Jewish Israelis who view Israel’s security as a central consideration for Trump — from 64% in March to 44% this month, the lowest level recorded since late 2024.
“Trump’s stock is declining,” right-wing political analyst Mati Tuchfeld wrote in the Maariv newspaper last week, “not a crash or collapse, but the trend is downward.” Netanyahu’s campaign team, he reported, is now searching for new messaging because a “Strong Together” campaign featuring the two leaders “will no longer achieve the same effect it was originally expected to deliver.”
Opposition leaders are also eyeing the shift. A source familiar with their planning told CNN that if Trump endorses Netanyahu, his opponents plan to use it against him and frame it as proof that he has “turned into a poodle and given up Israel’s security interests.” Opposition figures, the source said, have been conveying messages to Trump’s contacts, urging him not to endorse Netanyahu or take an active part in his campaign.
However, Netanyahu’s camp still believes it’s only a temporary hurdle. Behind the scenes, an Israeli source told CNN that Netanyahu is quietly seeking a one-on-one meeting with the US president — something his office has denied. Such a meeting would allow Netanyahu to convey his concerns about the emerging Iran deal to Trump. And it would give Netanyahu the political currency he was hoping to trade on: a picture of how close he is to Trump.

UFC boss Dana White spoken out against against Josh Hokit after the fighter made disparaging and false remarks about Michelle Obama during the White House’s UFC Freedom 250 event.
“I understand that the Obamas are public figures but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,” White wrote Time magazine in a text message. “Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense.”
After winning his heavyweight fight against Derrick Lewis on the White House lawn, Hokit was interviewed on the Paramount+ livestream by Joe Rogan. Unexpectedly, Hokit shouted into the microphone, “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?,” drawing cheers and screams from the live audience. The incendiary remarks were roundly criticized on social media but went unaddressed throughout the remainder of the broadcast. Rogan appeared flustered and backed away from the fighter, only saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, Josh Hokit.”
White House spokesman Steven Cheung dodged a question about Hokit’s comment, saying, “He had a great win last night. He showed toughness and the ability to pressure his opponent both on his feet and on the ground,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The bloody spectacle — a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary that also happened to land on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday — was otherwise largely avoidant of partisan politics. UFC athletes (both from the U.S. and other countries) walked out the White House and into the octagon, with Trump, the First Lady Melania and UFC CEO Dana White sitting cageside. The fighters marched alongside U.S. veterans and first responders as people dressed as Revolutionary War soldiers stood guard. The Zac Brown Band performed the national anthem.

After a year that brought Iranians two devastating wars, mass protests crushed by the government and an imploding economy, Iran’s appearance in the World Cup is doing little to cheer people up or to unite the country.
Some Iranians view the national soccer team as representatives of a repressive government. Others see the players as a source of pride that should transcend politics. But the overall feeling, expressed in interviews with Iranians across the political spectrum in recent days, is one of exhaustion and jadedness.
Iranians’ problems are so dire, it appears, that even seeing their national team play at the highest levels of an enormously popular sport won’t deliver much-needed distraction.
“People don’t feel pride anymore,” said Iman, 38, a Tehran resident who said he would not be supporting the Iranian team. Like others interviewed by The New York Times, he declined to be fully identified for fear of government reprisal.
“People have so many problems and are dealing with so many challenges that this soccer thing is really not a big deal for them,” he added.
Another Tehran resident, Iraj, 48, said he would be cheering on the national team. But, he said, “everyone is so occupied with other things that soccer really doesn’t unite.”
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