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U.S. and Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire
Iranians react after a ceasefire announcement at the Enqelab square, in Tehran, on April 8 2026.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
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STR/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. and Iran reached a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, less than two hours before the deadline President Trump imposed for Iran to meet his demands or else face wide-scale destruction.
As part of the agreement, set to take effect immediately, Trump said the U.S. and Israel would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran following through on its commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage during the ceasefire period, a strategic waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil supplies passes.
Oil prices plunged and stocks surged at the announcement of a pause in fighting, with Brent crude oil dropping to $94.74, or by over 13 %.
In the early hours of the ceasefire, Israel disputed that the deal included a pause of its attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The negotiations — facilitated by Pakistan — mark a breathtaking comedown from Trump’s pledge made early Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if a deal could not be reached by 8 p.m. ET to open the strait.
In announcing the deal, Trump wrote on his social media platform: “This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”
Trump added that Iran has proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan that includes what he described as “points of past contention,” which “have been agreed to between the United States and Iran.” The extra time, he said, will allow the agreement to be finalized.
Protesters in opposition to the war with Iran gather outside of Lafayette Park across from the White House on April 7, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Leyden/Getty Images North America
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Andrew Leyden/Getty Images North America
Iran’s plan, as published by the Iranian Mehr news agency, consists of a set of conditions that Iran claims the U.S. administration has accepted. They include Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of its nuclear enrichment, the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the region, the lifting of all sanctions and U.N. resolutions against Iran, compensation of damages to Iran as well as cessation of war in all fronts, including in Lebanon.
NPR is working to independently verify if the plan provided to the U.S. administration is the same as the one published by Iranian state-controlled media.
The Iranian proposal was delivered to the United States via Pakistan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has been acting as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, said the ceasefire will take effect immediately, and includes “Lebanon and elsewhere.” The prime minister will remain at the forefront of negotiations in the coming week. He has invited delegations from the U.S. and Iran to “settle all disputes” in continued diplomatic talks in Islamabad on Friday.
A vendor displays morning newspapers at his roadside stall in Islamabad on April 8, 2026. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on April 8 that the United States, Iran and their allies had agreed to a ceasefire “everywhere”, including Lebanon, following mediation by his government to stop weeks of fighting.
Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images
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Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images
Here are more updates from the region today:
Iran reaction | Dispute over Hezbollah | Shelly Kittleson freed
Iranian leaders hail ceasefire as victory
Iranian leaders are also touting the ceasefire as a victory, noting that the “criminal U.S.” has agreed to “the general framework” of Iran’s 10-point proposal.
“Good news to the dear nation of Iran! Nearly all the objectives of the war have been achieved,” the Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.
Iran officials warned that any deviation from the agreement could lead to future violence.
“Our hands are on the trigger, and the moment the enemy makes the slightest mistake, it will be met with full force,” the Supreme National Security Council said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, thanked Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif for his role in the negotiations.
“If attacks against Iran are halted our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi said in a statement. He added: “For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”
Israel disputes ceasefire over Hezbollah in Lebanon
Just hours after the pause in violence was announced there appeared to be disagreement over who would be granted a reprieve from the strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Wednesday morning that it supports Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but that the ceasefire doesn’t include Lebanon, despite Pakistan’s prime minister saying otherwise.
It’s unclear where negotiations stand regarding Iran’s position that it can continue its enrichment of uranium. In his statement, Netanyahu said Israel “supports U.S. efforts to ensure Iran no longer poses a nuclear or missile threat.
“Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability,” Sharif wrote in a post on X, and expressed optimism that the Islamabad talks would result in sustainable peace.
A man flashes the V-sign while driving a vehicle loaded with belongings through the al-Qassimyah area en route to southern Lebanon early on April 8, 2026, after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire. Israel renewed its strikes on southern Lebanon on April 8, state media reported, as the Israeli prime minister insisted the Iran war truce does not include Lebanon.
Kawnat Haju/AFP via Getty Images
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Kawnat Haju/AFP via Getty Images
Prior to the ceasefire agreement, Trump had threatened to destroy bridges, power plants and water treatment facilities; moves that would have imperiled the entire population of Iran.
His comments drew a rebuke from Pope Leo XIV, who called Trump’s threat to destroy Iran “truly unacceptable.”
He called on people to contact their political leaders and congressional representatives to press for dialogue.
“We have a worldwide economic crisis, an energy crisis, situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world,” he said.
“Come back to the table – let’s talk, let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way,” he added.
Wide-scale destruction of infrastructure, without any distinction between civilian and military targets, would be considered a war crime under international and U.S. law, legal experts tell NPR.
American journalist Kittleson is freed
Freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson has been released a week after she was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Iraqi militant group.
“We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a statement on X on Tuesday evening.
Kittleson, 49, has spent over a decade covering the Middle East, according to Columbia Journalism Review. She was captured by the militia group on March 31, in broad daylight on a Baghdad street corner. Her release was a multi-agency effort, according to Rubio.
U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 30.
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AP
“The U.S. Department of State extends its appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of War, U.S. personnel across multiple agencies, and the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council and our Iraqi partners, for their assistance in securing her release,” Rubio said.
He added: “Under President Trump, the wrongful detention or kidnapping of U.S. nationals will not be tolerated. We will continue to use every tool to bring Americans home and to hold accountable those responsible.”
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shia paramilitaries, announced earlier on Tuesday that it was releasing Kittleson in appreciation of “the patriotic positions” of Iraq’s prime minister, who helped negotiate her release. It said she had to leave the country immediately.
The group in Iraq is not related to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It’s part of a coalition of Iran-backed militias that have been attacking U.S. military and government targets in Iraq. The U.S. and Israel have launched airstrikes in response.
When Kittleson was kidnapped last week, the U.S. State Department said it had warned her of threats against her beforehand, and that it was working with the FBI to secure her release. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has said all American citizens should leave Iraq because of attacks.
The Labor Department says the vast majority of new jobs created over the last year went to women, most of them in health care.
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In December 2016, as Donald Trump was headed to the White House for the first time, Betsey Stevenson offered the incoming president some economic advice.
Stevenson, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, argued in an op-ed that it would be a disservice to encourage men “to cling to work that isn’t coming back.” She cited Trump’s promise to bring an iPhone factory to the U.S.
“If Trump really wants to get more Americans working,” she wrote at the time, “he’ll have to do something out of his comfort zone: make girly jobs appeal to manly men.”
It’s a message she believes is even more relevant today.
For decades, the focus has been on getting more women into male-dominated fields. Some efforts have been more successful than others. But now, with the vast majority of new jobs going to women, it’s clear that men need help, too.
“This is happening at a time where it’s become verboten to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion,” Stevenson says. “And yet the people we need to be talking about right now are men.”
17 times as many jobs filled by women
In the mid-1970s, women held about 40% of jobs in the U.S, not including farm work or self employment. By the early 2000s, women’s share of jobs had grown to just under half. It’s hovered around there since, crossing the 50% threshold just a few times, including during the Great Recession, just before COVID, and now.
That parity masks the significant gains women have recently made in the labor market. Of the 369,000 jobs the Labor Department says were created since the start of Trump’s second term, nearly all — 348,000 of them — went to women, with only 21,000 going to men. That’s nearly 17 times as many jobs filled by women as by men.
The lopsidedness was driven by huge growth in health care, where women hold nearly 80% of jobs. Over the past 12 months, health care alone added 390,000 jobs, more than in the economy overall, making up for job losses elsewhere.
“If we want to see job growth that’s as robust for men as it is for women, we’re going to have to see men embracing those kinds of jobs,” says Stevenson.
So far, that hasn’t happened in any meaningful way. Stevenson believes it’s because men are more likely than women to have an identity tied to a particular occupation, making it harder for them to find work outside that field, much less in one dominated by women.
Meanwhile, in his second term, Trump has not strayed from his message that manufacturing will make the country strong. It’s something he emphasized in his second inaugural address, declaring that “America will be a manufacturing nation once again,” and in his repeated promises that tariffs would “bring factories roaring back.”
When manufacturers added 15,000 jobs in March, the White House called it proof that “the best days for American workers, manufacturers, and families are still ahead,” despite the fact that the sector is still down 82,000 jobs from when Trump took office.
“We have seen a year of a president absolutely fixated [on] growing the manufacturing sector,” Stevenson says. “There’s not enough of those jobs for men as a whole to thrive.”
A push for policies to open doors for men
What’s happening now in the labor market comes as no surprise to Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, a nonpartisan think tank.
He says not enough attention has been paid to the scarcity of men in certain professions, and now we’re seeing the consequences.
“There is no cause for panic here,” says Reeves, who’s been studying the decades-long decline in labor force participation among men. “But I do think we should be alert to signs that the labor market might be moving even more quickly in directions that are leaving too many men behind.”
Reeves notes that for years, the country has embraced policies and programs aimed at getting more women into science, technology, engineering and math, and the share of women in STEM jobs has grown.
“But that didn’t happen by itself. It happened as a result of concerted efforts to break down gender stereotypes,” he says.
Still, gaps remain, and some of those efforts have seen their government funding cut under Trump.
Now Reeves says what’s needed are policies and programs to draw male workers into fields such as nursing, teaching and social work.
“Those are occupations that serve people, and they should look like the people that they serve,” he says. “And it’s good for men because it means they won’t lose out on those jobs if that’s where the growth is coming from.”
Framing jobs as more masculine
Stevenson has been thinking about ways to make the fastest-growing sectors of the economy more welcoming to men.
“I think there are ways for us to talk about those jobs as being particularly masculine,” she says.
For instance, many health care jobs could be framed as roles requiring the strength to lift people. Preschools could highlight the need for teachers who serve as positive male role models.
“Kids love to be rough and tumble and build things,” she says.
Stevenson knows some people will be offended by such gender stereotyping.
“But I do want to encourage us to realize that we have to help men understand that they can do caregiving roles and stay masculine,” she says.
Ongoing challenges for women and men
What Stevenson doesn’t want people to conclude is that everything is okay now that women are leading on jobs.
“We know that there is still discrimination that holds people back,” she says.
For women, she says, that discrimination might be preventing them from getting the promotion that they deserve, contributing to the widening gender pay gap. For men, it may mean sitting on the sidelines because they don’t think there’s a role for them in the economy.
“I think we can use this moment to realize that discrimination, occupational segregation… these are things that harm all of us, not just one narrow group,” she says.
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