Top Stories — Saturday, April 18, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- AI chipmaker Cerebras files to go public after scrapping IPO plans last year — CNBC
- Iran War Live Updates: Hopes for Peace Deal Rise After Iran Says Strait Is Open — nyt News
- Europe Wants to Help Restore Shipping in the Strait. It Just Isn’t Sure How. — nyt News
AI chipmaker Cerebras files to go public after scrapping IPO plans last year
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/18/2026, 2:06:47 AM
Cerebras, a producer of chips that run artificial intelligence models, on Friday filed to go public on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "CBRS."
Cerebras reported a $87.9 million in net income on $510 million in revenue during 2025, according to Friday's filing. Revenue grew nearly 76% from 2024, when the company had a $485 million net loss.
When Cerebras sought to go public the first time around in 2024, it said one company, Microsoft-backed G42, based in the United Arab Emirates, contributed 87% of revenue for the first half of that year. In 2025, 24% of Cerebras' revenue came from G42, Friday's filing showed. But another customer, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, a public institution based in the United Arab Emirates, provided 62% of revenue in 2025.
For years, Cerebras sought to sell chips to companies, but it has begun operating the chips inside its own data centers as a cloud service on behalf of clients. In January, Cerebras touted plans to provide up to 750 megawatts of computing power to OpenAI through 2028 in an agreement valued at more than $10 billion.
OpenAI has since expanded its relationship with Cerebras in an agreement worth over $20 billion and will get warrants to buy Cerebras shares, one person said. The Information previously reported on the arrangement.
In January, Cerebras received a $1 billion loan from OpenAI to build data center infrastructure and provide services as part of a broader agreement, according to the filing.
Another major expansion could be on the way.
On Oracle's March earnings call, CEO Clay Magouyrk mentioned that the database and cloud company offers chips from Cerebras and other suppliers. But at the time, Oracle's price list did not contain references to Cerebras.
Cerebras does supply OpenAI with cloud-based computing power to operate a coding tool. Many companies that build and deploy generative AI models rely on Nvidia's graphics processing units, or GPUs. Advanced Micro Devices has made inroads in AI infrastructure as well. Cerebras says on its website that its Wafer Scale Engine 3 chips work at higher speed and for lower cost in comparison with GPUs.
Cerebras has picked up new business by emphasizing the high speed that its large-scale processors can deliver, particularly for responding to queries from end users.
The company announced plans for an initial public offering in 2024 but withdrew the paperwork last year to add information on financial performance and strategy.
Retail investors are thirsty for IPOs from large and growing technology companies after a relative drought that began in 2022. AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI are considering going public as soon as this year.
In February, Cerebras said it raised $1 billion in financing at a $23 billion round.
In September, days before withdrawing the IPO paperwork, Cerebras said it had raised a $1.1 billion funding round at an $8.1 billion valuation.
Cerebras was founded in 2016 and is based in Sunnyvale, California. Andrew Feldman, the startup's co-founder and CEO, sold server startup SeaMicro to AMD for $355 million in 2012.
Feldman has said that in 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tried to buy Cerebras. The company's investors include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS are among the top underwriters in the offering, according to Friday's regulatory filing.
CNBC reported earlier that the company had plans to file the paperwork on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Cerebras declined to comment.
— CNBC's Seema Mody contributed to this report.
Iran War Live Updates: Hopes for Peace Deal Rise After Iran Says Strait Is Open
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/18/2026, 2:05:13 AM
Reporting from Washington and New York
President Trump’s announcement that Iran had agreed to “completely open” the Strait of Hormuz bolstered hopes that the two governments were keeping alive a cease-fire agreement reached last week and nearing a framework for further negotiations to reach a lasting peace deal.
The announcement came a day after Mr. Trump said U.S. and Iranian teams would probably meet this weekend for a second round of talks, as Iranian officials said the sides were nearing agreement on a document that sets a formal framework for negotiations.
It also followed Israel’s agreement on Thursday to pause its military campaign in Lebanon, which Iran had called a violation of its cease-fire deal with the United States.
Mr. Trump said on Friday that with the Strait of Hormuz reopened, the process of clinching a final peace deal with Iran would “go very quickly.” But analysts called that unlikely.
“We’re still miles away from a comprehensive agreement,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert with Crisis Group, a global conflict resolution organization.
Writing on his Truth Social account on Friday, Mr. Trump also said that the naval blockade he placed on Iranian ports this week would remain in place until his negotiations with Tehran are “100% complete.” It is unclear how that ultimatum might change Iran’s negotiating posture. The U.S. military affirmed that the blockade would last until Mr. Trump ended it.
The path to a deal continues to run through Pakistan, whose army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been encamped in Tehran since Wednesday. Mr. Munir has been facilitating talks over a three-page memorandum of understanding that establishes a general framework for a deal, according to three senior Iranian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive diplomacy.
Pakistan hosted a first round of direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials last weekend, and the sides nearly reached agreement on the document, according to Iran’s foreign minister, before the session ended in public acrimony. The White House has not confirmed that claim and did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Iranian and Pakistani officials said the memo would set a 60-day window for further talks to resolve matters including the Iran’s nuclear program, which Mr. Trump wants halted, and Iran’s demands for relief from U.S. economic sanctions.
But even two months is most likely an unrealistic time frame, experts said, if only given the technical complexity of matters like retrieving Iran’s 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium — at least some of which is believed to be buried under the rubble of U.S. airstrikes last summer.
“Making these deals durable requires rigor and clarity, which takes expertise and time,” said Jon Finer, who spent countless hours negotiating a 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran as chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry. “The risk of rushing is that you don’t sweat the details and miss something important or you don’t actually have a meeting of the minds at all, and it unravels.”
Mr. Vaez added that the Trump administration’s diplomatic track record shows little skill at nailing down the fine points of complicated negotiations. In Gaza, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Trump administration’s efforts to settle conflicts faltered over misunderstandings and ambiguities.
“They need to pin down every single detail. And that requires the kind of diplomacy that this administration has demonstrated again and again it is not adept at,” Mr. Vaez said.
Israel also remains a wild card in the Iran talks, a day after Mr. Trump appeared to force a reluctant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire in Lebanon in order to secure Iran’s agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. officials deny any connection between the Iran talks and Israel’s war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Iran’s most important proxy force. But analysts called that implausible, saying that Mr. Trump clearly decided his needs in Iran outweighed Mr. Netanyahu’s determination to smash Hezbollah.
Mr. Trump only bolstered that view when he wrote on social media on Friday of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon: “They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA. Enough is enough.”
Mr. Netanyahu “had no choice,” said Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East negotiator now with the Carnegie Institute for International Peace. Mr. Miller noted that Mr. Netanyahu was counting on Mr. Trump’s support ahead of Israeli elections expected this fall. “He couldn’t say no, let alone cross Trump.”
“Netanyahu, who played such a critical role in the beginning and start of this war, is going to have much less say or influence on how it ends,” he added.
But other analysts said that Iranian leaders remain suspicious of Mr. Netanyahu, who supports continuing the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and fear that he might try to scuttle Mr. Trump’s peace efforts.
Mr. Trump made several heady claims of diplomatic progress on Friday, saying in an interview with Axios that he believed he could achieve a deal with Iran “in a day or two” and telling a NewsNation reporter that Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium. But Mr. Trump has made numerous exaggerated claims over the course of the war about the state of his negotiations with Tehran.
It is possible that Iran has offered to suspend uranium enrichment — the process that refines the fissile material needed for a nuclear bomb — for a finite period of time. Iran has previously offered to stop enrichment for 5 years. But Mr. Trump has demanded that Iran permanently agree to “zero enrichment” on its own soil, a position Iran has rejected for decades.
The Iranian officials said that Iran has agreed to suspend its enrichment activity for only 10 years, followed by another 10 years of minimal enrichment for laboratory research.
Iran has also agreed to dilute the stockpile and either keep it on its own soil under the watch of international inspectors, or ship it to Russia. Dilution would also take place in phases sequenced to the release of Iranian funds, and lifting of American sanctions, the Iranian officials said.
Iran is also seeking access to an estimated $27 billion in assets frozen by the United States, mostly in the form of oil revenues held in Iraq, Qatar, Japan, Germany and China.
Even if the sides can reach an agreement in theory, it remains unclear how they can overcome the extreme mistrust between them and commit to action. Mr. Trump has depicted Iran’s leaders as “crazy” and “lunatics.” Iranian officials say that Mr. Trump has repeatedly burned them, and some say it would be folly to trust his word.
They note that in his first term, Mr. Trump unilaterally exited the 2015 nuclear deal even though Tehran was complying with its terms, and imposed heavy economic sanctions on Iran.
In June and then again in February he began diplomatic talks with Tehran over its nuclear program only to launch military strikes without first declaring those negotiations dead.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
In comments to Iranian state media, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Tehran had rejected the option of transferring its enriched uranium stockpile abroad. The statement came after President Trump told CBS News in a phone interview that Iran would cooperate with America to remove enriched uranium from Iran.
Three senior Iranian officials familiar with negotiations said Iran and the United States are finalizing a three-page memorandum of understanding that lays out a broad framework for a lasting peace deal. The memo defines a 60-day period for negotiations to continue and reach a deal, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They expressed optimism that Tehran and Washington would sign the memorandum when they meet in Pakistan for a second round of talks expected to be scheduled in the next few days.
President Trump said on Thursday that he might travel to Pakistan if a deal to end the war in Iran was signed there, hours after the country said it expected to host a second round of negotiations between American and Iranian officials.
Senior Pakistani mediators were in Tehran this week in an effort to shore up a fragile U.S.-Iran cease-fire that is set to expire next week. A reporter asked Mr. Trump outside the White House on Thursday afternoon if he would visit Pakistan to “seal the deal yourself.” He said yes.
“If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go,” Mr. Trump said. He added that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, as well as the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, had been “great.”
“So I might go,” he said. “They want me.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Pakistan and its leaders for their mediation work with Iran. Pakistani officials have been courting Mr. Trump since last year, including by nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump deflected questions about whether he would extend the cease-fire with Iran, telling reporters that it might not be necessary and expressing optimism about striking a deal.
“They’re willing to do things today that they weren’t willing to do two months ago,” he said, without providing any details.
Mr. Trump said the next in-person negotiations with Iran might occur over the weekend, but warned that fighting would resume if no deal emerged.
Later on Thursday in Las Vegas, where Mr. Trump traveled for an event aimed at promoting his economic policies, he said the war in Iran “is going swimmingly,” insisting again that it would end soon.
He also appeared to criticize advisers who had warned him against going to war with Iran because it would affect fuel prices. He described rising costs as “fake inflation.”
“We have consultants,” Mr. Trump said, recounting the conversation, “‘Sir, if you do this, fuel is going to go to $300 a barrel. The Depression is going to happen.’ That can’t happen because we just hit a brand new all-time high.”
That was an apparent reference to the stock market, which hit a fresh record high this week, reflecting investors’ optimism that a peace deal would be reached before the war could inflict significant damage on corporate America.
While oil prices have dropped from their most recent peak, they are still much higher than they were before the start of the war.
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan
Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday, becoming the first regional player to visit Iran since the United States and Israel began attacking it on Feb. 28. He carried with him the praise of the White House.
“Pakistanis have been incredible mediators,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said after the army chief’s arrival in Iran. “The president feels it’s important to continue to streamline this communication through the Pakistanis.”
Pakistan helped negotiate a two-week cease-fire last week, scoring a major diplomatic victory. That cease-fire is set to expire on April 21.
Pakistan’s military said Field Marshal Munir was visiting Iran to sustain continuing peace efforts. On Thursday, Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, said that a second round of talks between the United States and Iran was expected to take place in Islamabad, though he declined to provide a date. Neither U.S. nor Iranian officials have confirmed that, though both sides have said that indirect negotiations were continuing.
A Pakistani official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations said Field Marshal Munir was still in Iran as of Thursday morning local time.
Gen. Muhammad Saeed, a former Pakistani chief of general staff and former deputy to the field marshal, said: “Pakistan is helping with an exit strategy that must be a respectable outcome for both” countries.
The diplomatic push is a pivot for Pakistan, which has spent more time as a combatant over the past year in its own conflicts than as a peace broker.
When the United States and Israel began their war in Iran, Pakistan was conducting a series of airstrikes against another neighbor, Afghanistan. They have stopped for now, but only after the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan. And last spring, Pakistan and India were embroiled in a tense military conflict that ended after a diplomatic push by the United States.
After President Trump took credit for ending that war, Indian officials bristled, but Pakistani officials drew closer to the White House. Field Marshal Munir met with Mr. Trump twice last year, and the American president has referred to him as his “favorite field marshal.”
While Field Marshal Munir was traveling to Iran, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Their countries are allies and have a mutual defense agreement that was a potential source of tension between Pakistan and Iran, after Iranian forces began firing missiles at the Saudis and other Persian Gulf countries last month.
Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Iran, said that unlike other countries involved in the war, Pakistan didn’t have major conflicts with Iran. On Saturday, Mr. Sharif greeted Iran’s Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in Islamabad with a warm embrace.
“Iran would not trust any other country,” Mr. Durrani said about Pakistan’s role as a mediator between the United States and Iran. “Pakistan is the only candidate.”
Commercial ships can sail through the Strait of Hormuz after the agreement of a cease-fire in Lebanon, according to statements from Iran and the United States on Friday
The flow of oil and gas through the waterway had slowed to trickle during the war, creating a shortage of gasoline and diesel that had rattled economies around the world. The prospect of the strait reopening prompted a sharp decline in oil prices and a rally in stock markets on Friday.
But Iran and the United States were still at odds over the U.S. military’s blockade of Iranian ships, in place since Monday, and enforced east of the strait in the Gulf of Oman. President Trump said on Friday that the blockade would remain. Iran said that it opposed the blockade, and that it may take countermeasures against it, without saying what those might be.
And there are obstacles to a quick return of ships to the waterway. Shipping executives want to be certain that their vessels aren’t in danger, and they may be reluctant to comply with Iran’s requirement that ships use a route that runs close to its coastline, rather than the two main lanes used before the war. Iranian officials said on Friday that vessels would still need permission to travel through the strait.
Ships had not returned in large numbers to the strait as of Friday, according to shipping analysts.
Still, assertions from Iran and the United States that the strait is open suggest that both sides see the waterway as a crucial part of a wider, permanent peace agreement.
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said in a post on X that the strait would be “completely open” after the cease-fire in Lebanon, which began at midnight.
Shortly after that announcement, Mr. Trump responded in a social media post: “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!”
The statements raised hopes among tanker owners eager to resume moving oil and gas out of the Persian Gulf.
“Assuming this holds, then I think it’s great news,” said Jerry Kalogiratos, chief executive of Capital Clean Energy Carriers, a shipping company that operates oil and gas tankers.
Before the war, a fifth of the world’s oil and a significant share of its liquefied natural gas traveled through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell more than 9 percent on Friday, to $90.38 a barrel, its lowest level in more than a month, though it remains more than 20 percent higher than before the war started. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell over 11 percent Friday, to below $84 a barrel.
Stocks, which have rapidly recovered from a war-induced sell-off in March, rose after the announcement. The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent on Friday.
Ship traffic through the strait plummeted after Iran attacked vessels in the region. By effectively closing the waterway, and cutting off energy supplies, Iran had leverage what it could use against the United States and Israel.
The recent cease-fires have to last.Mr. Araghchi said on X that the strait would be open for the “remaining period of cease-fire.” He did not specify whether that was the 10-day cease-fire that began in Lebanon or the one between the United States and Iran, which is scheduled to end on Tuesday.
Experts said Iran’s demand that ships used a route through the strait that runs close to its coastline would mean that the waterway was not truly open.
“That does not equate to freedom of navigation,” said Martin Navias, an author of “Tanker Wars: The Assault on Merchant Shipping During the Iran-Iraq Crisis.”
Before the war, around 130 ships a day passed through the strait, using two main lanes that are different from the route that Iran has specified. To maximize the flow of tankers through the waterway, shipping analysts said vessels would have to return to the two main lanes. But for shipowners to use the lanes, they would have to be certain that they are free of mines.
According to U.S. officials, Iran has not been able to locate all of the mines it has laid in the strait and lacks the ability to remove them.
On Friday, Mr. Trump said on social media that, with the help of the United States, Iran “has removed, or is removing, all sea mines!”
In normal times, the two lanes operate as a “traffic separation scheme” that the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, adopted in 1968 to avoid collisions.
On Friday, the organization’s secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez, said it was looking at whether the announcement on the opening of the strait complied “with freedom of navigation for all merchant vessels and secure passage using the I.M.O. established traffic separation scheme.”
The U.S. blockade seeks to stop Iranian and Iran-linked ships leaving the region. Iran had been exporting crude during the war at volumes that were similar to those before the conflict.
U.S. Central Command posted a video on Friday of U.S. officials directing a merchant vessel to return to an Iranian port. It was one of 19 ships that have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return to Iran, Central Command said on social media. “ZERO vessels have evaded U.S. forces during the blockade,” it said.
Major shipping companies, which have been hesitant to send ships through the strait, even ones that have been stranded there for weeks, said they were assessing whether the waterway had become safer.
“There are still some open questions on our end, but they might be resolved within the next 24 hours,” said Nils Haupt, a spokesman for German company Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth-largest container shipping company in the world. He added that Hapag-Lloyd wanted its six stranded ships to cross the strait as soon as possible, but that it still needed answers on insurance coverage as well as clear orders from the Iranian government on the sea corridor that should be used and the sequence of ships leaving.
“On paper, this looks great,” said Alexis Ellender, an analyst at Kpler, a marine data tracking firm. But he added that he expected it would to take some time — weeks, not days — before there was a significant uptick in the volume of ships going through.
Some smaller companies may be willing to restart traffic if they secure affordable insurance cover. Around 900 ships have been stranded in the Persian Gulf over the course of the war, according to a New York Times analysis of Kpler data.
One Istanbul-based ship operator with a stranded ship, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that he would consider moving it out of the strait as soon as Friday if he could secure insurance coverage, but he expected it to take several days.
Pranav Baskar contributed reporting.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, said on Friday that the blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports would remain until President Trump suspended it.
“As the president announced earlier today, U.S. forces in the Middle East continue to fully enforce the maritime blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports in coastal areas,” Admiral Cooper said in a conference call with reporters. “It will remain in effect until further notice.”
So far, 19 Iran-linked tankers or cargo vessels have returned to the country’s ports after a line of more than a dozen U.S. Navy ships strung across the Gulf of Oman intercepted them, and ordered them by radio to reverse course, the admiral said.
None of the commercial ships have fired on U.S. Navy ships or aircraft or had armed Iranian navy escorts, he added.
Admiral Cooper said that U.S. intelligence analysts are monitoring “several vessels of interest,” both inside and outside the blockade boundary, that could try to evade the blockade.
“We have eyes on every single one of them,” he said.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that U.S. military commanders elsewhere in the world, and especially in the Indo-Pacific region, would “actively pursue any Iranian flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran.”
The United States is currently monitoring “a handful” of such vessels, said a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. A spokeswoman for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command declined to comment on any ongoing or future operations.
After Iran’s foreign minister announced that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open” on the “coordinated” route Iran had previously laid out, military and government officials reiterated that the waterway remained under Iranian supervision, saying that was in keeping with the implementation of the cease-fire.
A statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy commander said a “new order” had been established over the strait, but that passage would be contingent on permission from the navy, echoing what Iran said when the truce began. Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, told Iranian state media that no new understanding had been reached, and that the foreign minister’s announcement was merely in line with the implementation of the cease-fire. He added that if the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continued, Iran would take unspecified counter-measures.
Both statements could be designed to assuage fears in some parts of Iran that the country is giving up its leverage after the foreign minister’s announcement, even though neither established a significantly different policy.
After Iran’s foreign minister announced on social media that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open” for all commercial ships, backlash has begun to stream in from several news outlets affiliated with Iran’s hardline security forces.
The Tasnim news agency called the post “bad and incomplete,” and said it glossed over how transit through the waterway would still require coordination with Iran’s armed forces. It added, without citing an official source, that the opening would be voided if the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continued. The Fars news agency called on Iranian authorities to clarify, saying it was not the sort of policy to lay out on the internet. Iran’s state TV focused on how passage would be restricted to commercial ships, writing that “any ship or cargo linked to hostile states will not be permitted to cross.”
In a concerted effort to showcase global unity behind freedom of navigation, the leaders of the initiative, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, spoke by video with counterparts from 48 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. They were joined in the room by Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy.
“Today’s message is a message of hope,” Mr. Macron said afterward. “It is also a message of preparation. It is a message of unity.”
Mr. Starmer welcomed the announcement by an Iranian government and President Trump that Iran had reopened the strait, but he said, “We need to make sure that this is both lasting and workable.”
Complicating matters, however, Mr. Trump said on social media that the United States would continue to blockade ships coming from or going to Iranian ports. And a state media outlet associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also disavowed the government’s earlier announcement, saying Iran, too, would bar ships from passing if the American blockade was not lifted.
Against that rapidly shifting backdrop, European leaders tried to project steady resolve. With the presence of Mr. Merz and Ms. Meloni in Paris, they sought to show Europe’s solidarity in the face of Mr. Trump, who did not consult them before launching the war and has castigated them for not supporting it. Yet even as the leaders stood shoulder to shoulder, there were some signs of division.
France has insisted that the United States should have no role in the mission, saying that it was reserved for “nonbelligerent” countries. But Mr. Merz said that Germany would prefer to have the United States take part.
“If possible, we would like to insure participation by the United States, which would be desirable,” he said after the meeting.
Mr. Merz said Germany, which has an expertise in mine sweeping, would seek the imprimatur of the United Nations Security Council and the German Parliament before deploying its military. German officials said earlier that they wanted to see a conclusive end to hostilities before committing assets.
France is willing to begin operations during a cease-fire, provided Iran guarantees that it would not fire on European vessels escorting commercial ships or sweeping the strait for mines, according to a senior French official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The situation is complicated by the fact that no one, seemingly even in the Iranian government, knows exactly how many mines have been left in the strait, U.S. and European officials said. The total could be fewer than a dozen, but could be much higher, the officials said.
It was not clear how Iran’s initial announcement that it had reopened the strait would affect the mission, though Mr. Macron and Mr. Starmer both suggested that it would be important as a way of restoring confidence in the shipping industry.
French officials said the in-person participation of Mr. Merz and Ms. Meloni attested to Europe’s common purpose. Germany has taken a less confrontational approach to the Trump administration than France. Ms. Meloni had been viewed as close to Mr. Trump, before falling out with him over his recent criticism of Pope Leo XIV.
A senior British official said there might be little distinction between a cease-fire and a conclusive end to hostilities, given Mr. Trump’s comments that he wants to wind up the war. On Thursday, Mr. Trump said he might travel to Pakistan for a new round of peace negotiations with Iran.
While Mr. Trump said the United States would leave its blockade in place, a U.S. military official said it had built up a naval presence outside the strait to assure ships not bound for Iranian ports that they would be protected while sailing through.
European leaders have not yet disclosed specific military resources that their countries planned to contribute to a potential mission. France has an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle; six frigates, two amphibious helicopter carriers, and 50 Rafale fighter jets in the Middle East. Mr. Macron said part of that force could be redirected to the strait, with other ships and planes going to the Red Sea.
Mr. Starmer said he expected more than a dozen countries to contribute military assets. The senior French official said Spain, Holland, Greece, and Italy — as well as Britain and Germany — were likely to contribute ships or other assets.
Among the operational issues to be worked out, the French official said, is how ships would be escorted from one end of the strait to the other, and how large an area the operation would cover. There is also a question about where to put the forward headquarters of the mission.
The United Arab Emirates is viewed by some in Europe as having been too close to the United States in the war. Oman, which sees itself as a mediator between Iran and the West, is not likely to welcome it. Qatar is a possibility.
European officials said they hoped that Asian countries, which buy oil and gas shipped through the strait, could help persuade Iran not to undermine the mission. China has mostly stayed on the sidelines, one official said, so the Europeans were focusing on India and Indonesia.
Mr. Starmer said military officials would meet next week in London to continue planning, and would announce details on the scope of the operation.
Reporting was contributed by Jim Tankersley in Berlin; Lara Jakes in Rome; and Julian E. Barnes in Washington.
The apparent opening of the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic brought immediate relief to a world starved of fuel, sending international oil prices tumbling 9 percent on Friday, to about $90 a barrel.
Oil last traded at that level more than a month ago, in the first weeks after the United States and Israel began attacking Iran. The reprieve, announced on X by Iran’s foreign minister, should give tankers at least a brief window to bring oil and other fuels from the Persian Gulf to other countries. That, in turn, would bring down prices for consumers in the coming weeks and blunt shortages that have developed in many places.
But reopening the strait, a narrow passageway on Iran’s southern coast, is not a panacea.
“If the strait does remain open, we’ll see the oil that already has been produced and is being stored, that can flow,” said Spencer Dale, who until recently served as the chief economist of the London-based oil company BP. But, he added, producers that have been forced to turn off their oil and gas wells will be reluctant to turn them back on “until people have confidence that you have a lasting agreement.”
That is far from certain. Iran’s foreign minister said on social media that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open for the remaining period of cease-fire” after a détente between Israel and Lebanon. But it was not immediately clear whether he meant that the strait would stay open for the duration of the U.S.-Iran cease-fire, which ends on Tuesday, or the Israel-Lebanon cease-fire, which is set to end later.
Also complicating matters is President Trump’s statement that the United States would maintain its blockade on ships that have visited Iranian ports. That blockade has effectively stopped exports of Iranian energy in recent days.
Prices at the pump have already been falling in the United States and most likely will keep dropping if ships start going through the strait and hostilities do not restart. But that does not mean that fuel prices are likely to return to prewar levels anytime soon.
Sui-Lee Wee reported from Singapore, Javier C. Hernández from Tokyo, Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, and Alex Travelli from New Delhi.
As recently as last year, America’s allies and strategic partners in Asia steered clear of buying Russian oil in order to comply with Western sanctions. And many had limited interactions with Iran, another major producer.
The U.S. and Israeli war on Iran has upended those dynamics.
For many Asian countries reeling from the oil shock caused by the war, securing a meeting or phone call with officials in Moscow and Tehran is now top of the agenda. On Monday, a special envoy from South Korea began meeting officials in Iran to discuss the fate of South Korean vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf. That same day, President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia arrived in Moscow to buy oil.
Before the war, about 80 percent of the oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz was destined for Asia. The sudden shortfall caused by the war has left countries with small oil reserves, like the Philippines, scrambling to figure out how to shore up supplies. Many leaders in the region are turning to America’s adversaries for their needs, as President Trump sends mixed signals about how long the war will last.
That means that for some countries in Asia, oil from Iran and Russia is returning for the first time in years, after Washington suspended some sanctions on its rivals. Last month, the Philippines received its first shipment of Russian crude oil in five years. This week, Iranian crude oil officially returned to India after a seven-year pause.
These transactions do not signal a break from Washington, but they are helping America’s rivals.
“U.S. foreign policy under Trump is to push many away from the U.S. to seek other alternatives,” said Huong Le Thu, the deputy director of the Asia program for the International Crisis Group.
Even so, how much oil can flow from Iran and Russia to Asia is unclear. The U.S. Navy has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports. The Trump administration did not extend the sanctions exemption on Russia and may similarly let a temporary license allowing Iran to sell oil expire on April 19.
The reality for many countries in Asia is there are few sources of oil that don’t sail through the strait. One is Russia.
That has given Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, a renewed prominence on the global stage. On Monday, Mr. Prabowo praised him for playing “a very positive role in dealing with this uncertain geopolitical situation.”
After Mr. Putin launched the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, some of America’s allies in the region — including South Korea and the Philippines — stopped importing Russian oil, in solidarity with the United States and Europe. That helped push down the price of Russian oil steeply.
But Russian barrels are now fetching a double-digit premium above the global benchmark price for oil, according to Emma Li, an analyst at Vortexa, a data analytics firm specializing in oil and gas shipments.
“I’m afraid that, given the current situation, no matter how expensive the oil is, there is no choice,” Ms. Li said.
Here is what some countries are doing to shore up their oil stocks:
For countries like South Korea, one option is to wait for the United States or Europe to release some of their strategic petroleum reserves. But shipping oil from those places would be expensive, and shipments would take up to two months to arrive, Ms. Li said.In contrast, shipments sent from ports in the Russian Far East could reach South Korea in just a few days, she added.
On March 30, South Korea allowed some companies to import from Russia 27,900 tons of naphtha — a refined product typically used as a feedstock for petrochemicals.
When President Lee Jae Myung convened his National Economic Advisory Council last week, the group suggested that South Korea import crude oil and natural gas from Russia and Iran, as well as buy “as much naphtha as possible” from China and Russia.
Park Won-joo, a council member, recalled that during the Middle East crisis in 1973, South Korea issued a pro-Arab statement despite being a U.S. ally.
“Even within an alliance, we should secure practical exceptions for energy,” he said at the meeting.
Japan is in the unusual position of having friendly relations with both the United States, its main ally, and Iran, which for decades was a primary supplier of oil to Japan.
In 2015, Japan chose not to participate in the negotiations that led to the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. That decision created space for Tokyo to pursue an independent policy toward Tehran.
This month, Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, spoke by phone with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian. She pressed him to work to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and to release a Japanese citizen detained by the Iranian authorities, according to a statement by the Japanese government.
It is not the first time Japan has directly engaged with Iran. In 2019, Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister, visited Tehran in an effort to contain the fallout of Mr. Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear accord and impose crippling sanctions. Under American pressure, Japan has in recent years stopped oil imports from Iran.
Some officials and commentators have argued that Ms. Takaichi should follow that example and push Iran to reach a deal with the United States.
In the Philippines, America’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, the oil shortage has led to the declaration of a national emergency. It is looking to Russia as well as the United States, Canada, and India.
The country is asking the U.S. government to extend the sanction waiver to allow it to purchase more Russian oil, said Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippines’ ambassador to the United States.
Mr. Romualdez said the Philippines’ ties with the United States and with Russia were “not mutually exclusive” and that his country’s foreign policy would always be “anchored on our national interest.”
“The Philippines does not view developments in the Middle East as necessitating a re-calibration of its relationship with Russia vis-à-vis the United States nor does it view its international relationships in absolute terms,” Mr. Romualdez wrote in an email.
India, while not formally an ally of the United States, has become an indispensable part of American strategy in the region. The relationship, despite some rockiness, is important to both sides..
India had stopped buying Iranian oil in 2019, to comply with American sanctions on Tehran. In recent weeks it was on the verge of replacing Russian crude imports with oil from the Middle East — a move to placate Washington and reach a trade agreement.
But the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and the ensuing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz made mincemeat of that plan. Instead, India had to resume buying Russian seaborne oil, now at a premium.
And on Tuesday two tankers filled with oil from Iran docked at Indian ports, according to Bloomberg.
Indonesia, which says it pursues an independent foreign policy, is also not a formal treaty ally of the United States.
But it has developed closer ties with America, and the two countries announced a defense partnership on Monday.
At the same time, Indonesia has secured the import of oil, liquefied petroleum gas and fuel from Russia, said Laode Sulaeman, an official at Indonesia’s energy ministry, who said the specifics were still being ironed out.
Rin Hindryati contributed reporting from Jakarta.
Reporting from Washington
The exchange of bombs and missiles in the Middle East between Iran and its foes has been paused for more than a week now. Iran’s hackers, however, have remained active on the digital battlefield.
Iran has continued its cyberspace operations since the cease-fire with the United States began on April 8, according to Western cybersecurity experts and former U.S. intelligence officials. In doing so, Tehran is trying to keep up pressure on the United States and Israel but also positioning itself to mount a bigger retaliation if peace talks do not resume.
Since the war began in late February, Iran has combined real-world attacks, disinformation and a mix of low-level and more advanced cyberattacks to create confusion in Israel. In the United States, it temporarily caused a global, companywide shutdown at a major medical-equipment supplier, Stryker, scoring a major success that surprised some security analysts.
A group affiliated with Iranian intelligence also took responsibility for the release of emails and photographs stolen from a personal account of Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director.
Now in the cease-fire, Iran is tactically shifting from overt demonstrations meant to undermine support for the U.S.-Israel campaign toward quieter efforts to prepare for what might come next. This new phase of cyberspace operations includes a greater focus on espionage.
Iran has continued to target individuals in the United States and Israel who are either government officials or linked to the government. Its hackers have also stepped up its efforts to penetrate critical infrastructure, attempting to get access to water and power systems in the Middle East and the United States as part of an effort to prepare for future operations that would cause societal pain, experts said.
Iran’s cyberoperations have generally been less effective or sophisticated than those from China or Russia, which have for years launched large-scale espionage campaigns against the United States and penetrated some of America’s most sensitive infrastructure.
But Iran’s dispersed network of hackers has long used cyberattacks to project power across the Middle East and to challenge — or at least annoy — the United States. And Iran’s hackers are considered less predictable than their Chinese and Russian counterparts, especially when their government feels threatened.
“This is a time, more than ever, we should worry about Iran,” said Evan Peña, a co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Armadin. “In cyberwarfare there isn’t really a cease-fire.”
Mr. Peña said that if the cease-fire or negotiations collapsed, Iran would want to be in a strong position to retaliate, potentially by attacking critical infrastructure in the United States. Tehran has done so in the past but generally with limited impact. More than a decade ago, Iranian hackers targeted a small dam in upstate New York, but by happenstance the dam’s sluice-gate controls had been taken offline for maintenance, much to the relief of U.S. investigators at the time.
Iran, Mr. Peña said, is going to be more aggressive and devote more resources to trying to get access to American companies as the war rages on.
“I am not saying they have gotten in, but I do believe they are trying to get in,” he said. “The motive is, hold your position in the network. Should you find a way in, if something doesn’t go the way Iran wants it to go, then they are going to make a disruption.”
Josh Zweig, the chief executive of Zip Security, which secures small and midsize enterprises, said Iran was specifically looking for less well-defended targets, like municipal-run water and energy facilities.
He also said small firms that make investment decisions for wealthy individuals and families have been targeted.
With both kinds of attacks, the goal is to gain leverage, Mr. Zweig said.
“They’re going after individuals in and around the government — not through official channels but through their personal networks: service providers, contractors, the kinds of organizations that handle sensitive day-to-day information,” Mr. Zweig said.
Some security experts have said they have observed an overall drop in Iranian cyberoperations in the United States since the cease-fire took hold. Iran-linked hacking groups have been less active in claiming credit for attacks, suggesting a desire to more quietly embed undetected within networks for potential future leverage.
And some cybersecurity experts said the overall number of attempted cyberattacks has fallen, at least in the United States.
Much of the activity against the United States has taken the shape of rudimentary denial of service attacks, which attempt to knock websites offline by spamming them with junk traffic, said Cynthia Kaiser, a senior vice president at the cybersecurity firm Halcyon and a former senior cyber official at the F.B.I.
But in Israel, Handala, a hacking group affiliated with the Iranian government that claimed credit for both the Stryker attack and the breach of Mr. Patel’s emails, has continued its campaign, according to Ms. Kaiser and other experts.
The group masquerades as an independent hacktivist collective but is controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, Iran’s chief spy agency, according to U.S. officials.
It has hacked and leaked accounts tied to the former head of the Israel Defense Forces, Herzi Halevi, and released documents about intelligence analysts who work for an Israeli intelligence agency.
The group also recently claimed responsibility for hacking government entities in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
“They are basically doxxing a few dozen individuals — the fact they are doing it, they are basically saying they will continue with the cyberwar,” said Gil Messing, the chief of staff at Check Point, an Israeli-American cybersecurity firm. “They want to make sure that everyone is aware that they are continuing and will continue to target Israel.”
Mr. Messing said Iran stepped up hacking activity against Israel after their war last year and is likely to continue that pattern now. Check Point, he said, had observed a 10 percent increase in cyberoperations linked to Iran across the Gulf region since the cease-fire took hold, and a 15 percent increase against Israel.
“After the cease-fire agreement, they are escalating their cyber efforts,” Mr. Messing said. “Often we see that digital-based attacks are more prominent when the physical front is more silent.”
Farah Stockman reported from New York, Neal Boudette from Detroit and John Ismay from Washington.
The Pentagon has met with senior executives of Ford Motor and General Motors to gauge whether the auto industry could help the military acquire vehicles, munitions or other hardware more quickly and at lower costs, according to three people familiar with the talks.
The conversations are in the very early stages, and relate to the possible production of components by the companies, not entire weapons systems. No specific projects are currently being negotiated, the people said.
The discussions with automakers underscore Trump administration efforts to revamp military procurement as the war in Iran and U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia deplete supplies. The idea is reminiscent of World War II, when G.M., Ford and other automakers supplied the military.
“The Department of War is committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base by leveraging all available commercial solutions and technologies to ensure our war fighters maintain a decisive advantage,” a Pentagon official said in a statement in response to questions about the meetings with automakers. “The department is aggressively pursuing and integrating the best of American innovation, wherever it resides, to deliver production at scale and drive resiliency across supply chains.”
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on the talks between the Pentagon and the automakers.
The Trump administration has complained for months that traditional defense contractors take too long to manufacture weapons systems and charge too much for them. In January, President Trump signed an executive order that aimed to punish defense contractors that failed to expand their manufacturing capacity. And in November, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, rolled out a strategy for military procurement that included buying more widely available off-the-shelf components to avoid the high costs and delays associated with the specialized systems that the military typically uses.
The defense industrial base “is stagnant, building the world’s best and most exquisite weapon systems at low volume while relying on obsolescent parts, outdated manufacturing processes and stale innovation,” the strategy read. “In contrast, the commercial industry outpaces the D.I.B. in advancing cutting-edge technology.”
The issue has become more urgent because the war in Iran has depleted U.S. stockpiles of commonly used munitions, such as Patriot missile interceptors. By some estimates, it could take five years or more to replenish the munitions that have been used in the last 40 days.
“We are on borrowed time,” said John Ferrari, a retired Army major general who is now a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a research group in Washington. “The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, everybody knows that we don’t have enough munitions.”
The Pentagon has turned to auto suppliers because U.S. officials remember how Ford and G.M. revamped production lines during the Covid-19 pandemic to make personal protective equipment and ventilators.
During World War II, the U.S. government asked car companies based in and around Detroit to produce weapons, an industrial mobilization that became famous for building what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the “arsenal of democracy.” The Willow Run factory that Ford built near Ypsilanti, Mich., churned out thousands of planes, producing about one B-24 Liberator bomber an hour at its peak. But that was possible only because military officials designed the planes to be built using machinery Ford already owned, General Ferrari said.
A big question today is whether the Pentagon will be able adjust its specifications and requirements to fit the machinery that carmakers use.
“Otherwise, it is not going to work,” General Ferrari said. “The commercial factories are not going to go out and buy new machines, and if they did, that would take years.”
While they gave up making bombers long ago, some automakers continue to work with the military. G.M., for example, has a defense unit that makes vehicles for the Army.
Foster Ferguson, vice president of industrial business at Stratasys, a company that manufactures 3-D printers used by Ford and G.M., said machines that mass-produce parts for the auto industry could make components for military systems.
The U.S. military has been exploring the use of 3-D printers to make replacement parts for older systems, he said, but the devices could also be used to mass-produce other components. Last month, Stratasys was selected to participate in a military pilot program to accelerate the qualification and deployment of 3-D-printed parts.
“The Pentagon is bringing a sense of urgency to the modernization and scaling of defense manufacturing,” said Mr. Ferguson, who served as an officer in the Marine Corps specializing in supply chain and maintenance operations. “The automotive industry can make a significant contribution due to their expertise in economies of scale, cost-down engineering and experience in consistently producing high-volume, quality parts that meet strict production requirements.”
But many weapon systems require components that cannot be 3-D printed or need rare-earth metals mined or processed in China.
Read the full story at nyt News.
Europe Wants to Help Restore Shipping in the Strait. It Just Isn’t Sure How.
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/18/2026, 2:05:09 AM
European leaders gathered in Paris Friday to advance a multinational mission to fully restore shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, their deliberations interrupted by conflicting reports about whether Iran had reopened the waterway.
In a concerted effort to showcase global unity behind freedom of navigation, the leaders of the initiative, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, spoke by video with counterparts from 48 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. They were joined in the room by Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy.
“Today’s message is a message of hope,” Mr. Macron said afterward. “It is also a message of preparation. It is a message of unity.”
Mr. Starmer welcomed the announcement by an Iranian government and President Trump that Iran had reopened the strait, but he said, “We need to make sure that this is both lasting and workable.”
Complicating matters, however, Mr. Trump said on social media that the United States would continue to blockade ships coming from or going to Iranian ports. And a state media outlet associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also disavowed the government’s earlier announcement, saying Iran, too, would bar ships from passing if the American blockade was not lifted.
Against that rapidly shifting backdrop, European leaders tried to project steady resolve. With the presence of Mr. Merz and Ms. Meloni in Paris, they sought to show Europe’s solidarity in the face of Mr. Trump, who did not consult them before launching the war and has castigated them for not supporting it. Yet even as the leaders stood shoulder to shoulder, there were some signs of division.
France has insisted that the United States should have no role in the mission, saying that it was reserved for “nonbelligerent” countries. But Mr. Merz said that Germany would prefer to have the United States take part.
“If possible, we would like to insure participation by the United States, which would be desirable,” he said after the meeting.
Mr. Merz said Germany, which has an expertise in mine sweeping, would seek the imprimatur of the United Nations Security Council and the German Parliament before deploying its military. German officials said earlier that they wanted to see a conclusive end to hostilities before committing assets.
France is willing to begin operations during a cease-fire, provided Iran guarantees that it would not fire on European vessels escorting commercial ships or sweeping the strait for mines, according to a senior French official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The situation is complicated by the fact that no one, seemingly even in the Iranian government, knows exactly how many mines have been left in the strait, U.S. and European officials said. The total could be fewer than a dozen, but could be much higher, the officials said.
It was not clear how Iran’s initial announcement that it had reopened the strait would affect the mission, though Mr. Macron and Mr. Starmer both suggested that it would be important as a way of restoring confidence in the shipping industry.
French officials said the in-person participation of Mr. Merz and Ms. Meloni attested to Europe’s common purpose. Germany has taken a less confrontational approach to the Trump administration than France. Ms. Meloni had been viewed as close to Mr. Trump, before falling out with him over his recent criticism of Pope Leo XIV.
A senior British official said there might be little distinction between a cease-fire and a conclusive end to hostilities, given Mr. Trump’s comments that he wants to wind up the war. On Thursday, Mr. Trump said he might travel to Pakistan for a new round of peace negotiations with Iran.
While Mr. Trump said the United States would leave its blockade in place, a U.S. military official said it had built up a naval presence outside the strait to assure ships not bound for Iranian ports that they would be protected while sailing through.
European leaders have not yet disclosed specific military resources that their countries planned to contribute to a potential mission. France has an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle; six frigates, two amphibious helicopter carriers, and 50 Rafale fighter jets in the Middle East. Mr. Macron said part of that force could be redirected to the strait, with other ships and planes going to the Red Sea.
Mr. Starmer said he expected more than a dozen countries to contribute military assets. The senior French official said Spain, Holland, Greece, and Italy — as well as Britain and Germany — were likely to contribute ships or other assets.
Among the operational issues to be worked out, the French official said, is how ships would be escorted from one end of the strait to the other, and how large an area the operation would cover. There is also a question about where to put the forward headquarters of the mission.
The United Arab Emirates is viewed by some in Europe as having been too close to the United States in the war. Oman, which sees itself as a mediator between Iran and the West, is not likely to welcome it. Qatar is a possibility.
European officials said they hoped that Asian countries, which buy oil and gas shipped through the strait, could help persuade Iran not to undermine the mission. China has mostly stayed on the sidelines, one official said, so the Europeans were focusing on India and Indonesia.
Mr. Starmer said military officials would meet next week in London to continue planning, and would announce details on the scope of the operation.
Reporting was contributed by Jim Tankersley in Berlin; Lara Jakes in Rome; and Julian E. Barnes in Washington.
Mark Landler is the Paris bureau chief of The Times, covering France, as well as American foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
Read the full story at nyt News.
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