Iranian officials are denying President Trump’s claims his envoys have had “very good and productive conversations” with their Iranian counterparts. On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said there had been “no dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, with a top official stating that Trump “retreated after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia.” Iran’s denials on Monday came as President Trump continued to insist that Iran had reached out to him and that talks were going “perfectly.”

President Donald Trump: “So, they called. I didn’t call. They called. They want to make a deal. And we are very willing to make a deal. It’s got to be a good deal, and it’s got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons.”

Trump insisted he’d been in contact with a “top” and “respected” Iranian official but refused to name the person, saying only that it wasn’t Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. Trump also said he would “jointly control” the Strait of Hormuz, personally, along with “whoever the next Ayatollah is.” Meanwhile, the U.S. and Israel are continuing airstrikes across Iran, where the government says more than 1,500 civilians have been killed since February 28. Huge explosions were reported overnight in Tehran, while other airstrikes targeted the cities of Tabriz, Isfahan and Karaj, as well as two gas facilities and a pipeline.

In Israel, Iranian missiles struck several areas of Tel Aviv, injuring several people and setting buildings and cars on fire. Elsewhere, Iranian missiles and drones targeted Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. We’ll have more on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran after headlines.

In Lebanon, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says his forces will establish a so-called security zone stretching to the Litani River, cutting off Lebanon’s south from the rest of the country, while indefinitely displacing hundreds of thousands of residents who’ve been ordered to evacuate their homes. On Monday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should annex southern Lebanon, with the Litani River as Israel’s new northern border. Meanwhile, there’s been no letup in Israeli airstrikes. Earlier today, Israel bombed a residential apartment in the capital Beirut, killing at least three people, including a 3-year old girl. Israel also blew up a bridge in the western Beqaa Valley. This is Ali Attar, a local official who survived an Israeli strike on the town of Chaat.

Ali Attar: “After fasting, we were having dinner. All we heard was a strike, a huge boom and the roar of aircraft. It left. We went outside to see what had happened. When we got here, we found people collecting body parts from the building. The building had nothing in it, nothing at all, except civilians living there.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon since early March. More than 1 million people are displaced.

In Gaza, local and international media outlets report Israeli forces tortured a Palestinian toddler to coerce a confession from his father. According to reports from Palestine TV, Al Jazeera and others, the child’s father, Osama Abu Nassar, was detained near the al-Maghazi refugee camp on Saturday after he came under fire from Israeli soldiers. He was forced to approach an Israeli checkpoint, where he was separated from his 18-month-old son, stripped naked and forced to watch as soldiers used a cigarette to burn one of the toddler’s legs while using a nail to puncture the other. This comes as a new report published by a U.N. expert on Palestine warns Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale that “suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent.” This is Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

Francesca Albanese: “Since October 2023, torture has effectively become state policy, sustained by a torturous culture that is socially produced, politically defended and publicly normalized. The proposed bill on the death penalty for Palestinian detainees marks yet another dangerous escalation. I’ve therefore recommended that those responsible, including senior officials such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz, be investigated and, where warranted, that arrest warrants be issued.”

In Cuba, an estimated 11,000 children are awaiting surgery as a U.S. fuel blockade is pushing hospitals to the brink amid worsening blackouts and supply shortages. Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday more than 96,000 Cubans are in need of surgery, but hospitals have been forced to suspend some medical procedures due to limited electricity and as they run out of supplies like syringes and antibiotics. Cuban officials have condemned Trump’s intensifying siege on Cuba as “energy asphyxiation” as the island has not received any oil imports in more than three months, reducing its fuel supply by about 90%. U.N. experts have condemned the U.S. blockade on Cuba as a violation of international law.

In Washington, D.C., Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin has been confirmed as homeland security secretary — installing another Trump loyalist to oversee mass immigration raids and deportations. Mullin was Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month. Mullin was confirmed in a 54-45 Senate vote. Republican Senator Rand Paul broke from his party to vote against Mullin; the two clashed at Mullin’s confirmation hearing last week, with Paul referring to Mullin as a “freaking snake.” Meanwhile, two Democrats joined Republicans in backing Mullin: Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Mullin’s confirmation comes as lawmakers warn a DHS partial shutdown could drag into April.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to more than a dozen airports across the U.S. on Monday amid persistent staffing shortages within the Transportation Security Administration caused by the prolonged partial government shutdown. TSA workers have gone without pay for more than one month, leading many to call in sick or resign. That’s led to wait times of up to six hours at some airport security lines. This is Pascual Contreras, a union member and TSA employee in Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport.

Pascual Contreras: “On a personal level, I don’t think we need them here. We need to be paid. Why would you bring another agency to be TSA when you already have TSA? … What I’m getting from some of the officers is that they’re just in the way. Now we’re just — on top of having the heavy burden, now we have to train them in how we do our job?”

Videos have emerged of ICE agents in plain clothes violently detaining a woman on Sunday inside San Francisco International Airport in front of her daughter. The woman, who is from Guatemala, is seen crying as agents pin her down before dragging and restraining her in a wheelchair. Her daughter was also reportedly in custody as the ICE agents were enforcing a removal order. Bystanders are heard asking the agents to identify themselves, with the officers refusing to say their names or show their badges.

The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. On Monday, the court’s right-wing majority appeared to reject arguments that mail-in ballots are consistent with federal election laws because voters make their final choices by Election Day. More than two dozen states have similar laws, meaning the Supreme Court’s ruling, expected by June or July, could have a big impact on November’s midterm elections.

Postmaster General David Steiner is warning the U.S. Postal Service is running out of money and might stop delivering mail by next February unless Congress changes a federal law that caps the agency’s borrowing limit at $15 billion. USPS has operated with a deficit almost every fiscal year since 2007.

Hawaii’s governor has asked the White House for a presidential major disaster declaration, after heavy rains and floodwaters forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes on the North Shore of Oahu. It’s the worst flooding Hawaii has seen in more than 20 years.

In North America, a rapid analysis of this month’s early spring heat wave by World Weather Attribution has found record-shattering, triple-digit March temperatures across the southwestern U.S. would have been virtually impossible if not for climate change.

On Monday, the United Nations warned in a new report that concentrations of greenhouse gases have reached all-time highs, with the climate “more out of balance than at any time in observed history.” Ko Barrett of the World Meteorological Organization said the report confirms 2025 was at least the third-hottest year on record.

Ko Barrett: “It was about 1.43 degrees C above the 1850-to-1900 baseline. Between 2015 and 2025, we experienced the hottest 11 years on record. In 2025, our glaciers continued to retreat, and ice continued to melt. The warming ocean and melting land-based ice are driving the long-term rise in global mean sea level rise.”

Here in New York, nearly 1,000 unionized full-time faculty members at New York University have gone on strike, calling for higher wages, job stability and for the school to address heavy workloads. The nontenured faculty members are represented by the Contract Faculty United-UAW union, which had been negotiating with NYU’s administration for a fair contract that would address pay inequities between nontenured and tenured staff.

The CFU-UAW said on social media, “We’re dismayed that the administration prefers the disruption of a strike to settling a fair contract.” Classes have not been canceled.