The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports has entered its third day. According to U.S. Central Command, the blockade is being enforced by more than 10,000 U.S. troops, over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft. Vessels traveling to or from non-Iranian ports are allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This comes after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks collapsed over the weekend in Islamabad, Pakistan. President Trump told the New York Post Tuesday that new U.S.-Iran talks “could be happening over the next two days.” Separately, Trump told Fox News that the war is “close to over.” Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon is sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East in the coming days.

Since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran erupted, the U.S. military has acknowledged 399 American troops have been wounded. Iran’s forensic chief told state media that more than 3,000 Iranians have been killed. The president of Iran’s Red Crescent Society said that emergency teams had rescued more than 7,200 Iranians from rubble after U.S. and Israeli bombings. This is Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

President Masoud Pezeshkian: “By what right did they attack our country? What had we done? For what reason did they martyr our leader? What had we done? For what reason did they martyr our commanders, our scientists, our students? What was their reason? Why? What had we done? Had we attacked anyone? Had we violated any law? What had we done?”

In Washington, D.C., U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday hosted the first direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in more than three decades. Hezbollah, which was not a party to the talks, made clear it will not abide by any agreement that results from the negotiations. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to bombard towns in southern Lebanon today, according to Lebanese state media. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, Israeli attacks have killed over 2,100 people, wounding nearly 7,000. Over a million Lebanese have been displaced, while the World Food Programme warns of a spiraling hunger crisis in the region.

In Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians on Tuesday, including two children, in separate attacks. Four people were killed, including a 3-year-old, in a strike targeting a police vehicle in Gaza City, with at least nine bystanders wounded. Later that evening, another Israeli drone strike hit Shati refugee camp, killing several people. Gaza officials say 754 Palestinians have now been killed since October’s so-called ceasefire, brokered by the U.S. On Tuesday, Palestinians gathered at Al-Shifa Hospital to mourn 3-year-old Yahya Al-Malahi, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Hader Al-Malahi: “This child, his father had him after girls. He is the only son for his father. What is his fault? What is his crime? He should be wearing a wedding suit today at his cousin’s wedding. Instead, he wore a shroud stained with blood. Only God can help us.”

Kuwaiti American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been held in a Kuwaiti prison for six weeks. He was arrested on March 3 in Kuwait City and faces prosecution in a special tribunal. On March 2, he shared photos and videos of a U.S. fighter jet that crashed in Kuwait on his Substack page, content that was not exclusive to him and had appeared on other platforms. Kuwaiti authorities have charged Shihab-Eldin with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his cellphone, which the Committee to Protect Journalists describes as “vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists.” His detention is part of a wider crackdown on online speech in Kuwait and other Gulf countries during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. In the United Arab Emirates, authorities say police detained 375 people across Abu Dhabi over the course of the war for filming and disseminating what officials called false information on social media. Shihab-Eldin is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, where he has also taught as an adjunct lecturer. He has worked with several outlets, including PBS, The New York Times and Al Jazeera English, and has more than 2 million followers online.

Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Tuesday that Italy is suspending its defense cooperation agreement with Israel. This comes after Israeli forces fired warning shots at an Italian U.N. peacekeeping convoy in Lebanon. Italy summoned Israel’s ambassador in protest over the incident, which damaged at least one vehicle. Meanwhile, President Trump criticized Meloni for failing to join the U.S. in its attacks on Iran, telling an Italian newspaper, “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.” This is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: “Taking into account the current situation we’re experiencing, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel.”

Republican Congressmember Tony Gonzales of Texas and Democratic Congressmember Eric Swalwell of California officially resigned from Congress Tuesday. Both of them faced potential expulsion votes after they were accused of sexual misconduct. Gonzales admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later took her own life, and faces additional accusations of sending explicit messages to a campaign aide. Meanwhile, another woman has accused Swalwell of sexual assault, saying he drugged and raped her in 2018. Lonna Drewes is the fifth woman to come forward with allegations against Swalwell. She spoke at a press conference in L.A. Tuesday.

Lonna Drewes: “He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died. … It had a profound impact on my mental health. I self-medicated in an unhealthy way. I did not want to live anymore. I cried all the time for years.”

The Justice Department has requested that a federal appeals judge overturn convictions for members of far-right groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who were previously found guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection to the January 6 insurrection. Since returning to office, President Trump has issued pardons and commutations to about 1,600 people who had been charged in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Several leaders with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were granted clemency. Tuesday’s filing by the DOJ would erase the convictions from their records.

In Washington, D.C., an appeals court has ordered a federal judge to end his investigation into probable criminal contempt by Trump officials who deported dozens of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison last year in violation of a court ruling. Last March, Judge James Boasberg spurred a yearlong standoff with the Trump administration after he ordered federal immigration officials to halt the U.S. deportation flights bound for El Salvador, which they ignored. Boasberg then launched a probe into Trump administration officials, condemning their actions as unlawful. The ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, who is the lead attorney for the Venezuelan plaintiffs in the case, condemned Tuesday’s ruling by the appeals court as “a blow to the rule of law.” He said in a statement, “The stakes could not be higher if the executive branch is ultimately allowed to avoid accountability for deliberately violating a court order, especially one of this magnitude.”

In Arizona, opposition is mounting against the Trump administration’s plans to build a second border wall. The second barrier would reportedly run parallel to another border wall that’s already standing along Arizona and Mexico, cutting through several wildlife refuges, national park sites and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Parallel border walls are also reportedly planned in California and New Mexico as part of Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

In Tennessee, the NAACP is suing Elon Musk’s xAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of polluting Black neighborhoods with toxic emissions from its makeshift power plant fueling its data centers in Memphis. The lawsuit alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act by operating over two dozen methane gas-burning turbines without legal permits. The massive xAI data centers are known as “Colossus” and “Colossus II.” Click here to see our coverage of this story.

In related news, Maine has become the first state in the nation to ban large data centers. Maine lawmakers on Tuesday approved the statewide measure which would prohibit the construction of new data centers that use up more than 20 megawatts of power until the fall of 2027.