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By Tim Lister, Leila Gharagozlou, CNN

(CNN) — The Iranian official talked of as a potential interlocutor with the Trump administration once boasted that he personally beat protesters as a young police commander in the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has never been shy about his role in suppressing challenges to the Islamic Republic.

“Photographs of me are available showing me on back of a motor bike…beating (the protesters) with wooden sticks…I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that,” Ghalibaf is heard saying in an audio recording from 2013 about protests years earlier.

In recent weeks, as the US-Israeli campaign has killed many of Iran’s top leaders, he has emerged as one of the most senior surviving civilian figures, part of a shrinking pool of officials now shaping the country’s response.

For the 64-year-old Ghalibaf, the security of the Islamic Republic has always been the overriding priority. His public remarks emphasize resistance, national strength, and the need to confront external pressure rather than compromise.

Little surprise then that he is now issuing declarations almost daily through social media in defiance of the United States and Israel.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the US was having “very strong talks” and was “dealing with the man who is most respected” in Iran, but declined to name him.

“We’re dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “The people within know who they are, they’re very respected, and maybe one of them will be exactly what we’re looking for.”

Some reports said he was referring to Ghalibaf, who within hours denied there were any negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

He posted on X: “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”

Throughout the conflict, he has regularly used social media to goad Trump and demonstrate a hard line on Iran’s conditions for ending the war.

“Certainly we aren’t seeking a ceasefire. We believe the aggressor must be punished and taught a lesson that will deter them from attacking Iran again,” he said on X on March 10.

Ghalibaf was also prominent before the war broke out, warning that such a conflict would spread across the region.

“Any war in the region would not be short-lived and would not be confined to a single party or a specific geography,” Ghalibaf told CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen in late January.

Experts say he has connections across the regime’s centers of influence that would afford him a critical role in any negotiated settlement.

“He is the guy running the show,” said Hamidreza Azizi at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Ghalibaf is less interested in ideology than power and shows a Machiavellian touch at times, says Azizi added. “For him, the ends justify the means,” he told CNN, pointing to his shifting perspectives through the years on economic and other issues.

Across a lifetime of service to the Islamic Republic, Ghalibaf has become the consummate regime insider, unfailingly loyal to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and supportive of its regional ambitions.

As a teenager, he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

That marked

By Chelsea Bailey, CNN

(CNN) — The Air Canada regional jet was scheduled to take off Sunday from Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport around 8 p.m.

Steering the one-hour flight were pilot Antoine Forest and a first officer, both “young men,” the top Federal Aviation Administration official would say, “at the start of their careers.”

They were bound for New York’s second-biggest airport, LaGuardia, where the crew of air traffic controllers was slightly smaller than its target of 37, with 33 employed and seven in training, the Transportation Secretary later would explain.

Such a setup wasn’t unfamiliar. Among factors the National Transportation Safety Board found led to last year’s midair collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines regional jet that killed 67 near Washington, DC, was air traffic control’s “degraded performance,” with two positions combined in the tower.

That collision – the deadliest US commercial aviation accident in decades – had become the latest in a series of high-profile, fatal accidents renewing scrutiny of the airline industry.

On Sunday, US air travel also faced another significant strain: diminished Transportation Security Administration staffing owing to a lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security as federal leaders fought over immigration enforcement tactics.

As Air Canada flight 8646’s departure time approached, passenger Jack Cabot made his way to the gate. So did Rebecca Liquori, a mom heading back to her sons, 2 and 4, whose giggles she cherished.

But the flight was running late.

More than two hours late.

‘Truck One, stop, stop, stop!’

It was after 10 p.m. when the CRJ-900 took off, en route to an arrival gate in East Elmhurst, Queens.

About an hour later – shortly after 11 p.m. – LaGuardia’s Air Traffic Control Tower got a radio message from the pilot of another flight, this one run by United Airlines.

His plane had pushed away from the terminal but would head back to it, he said, because of a problem with its de-icing system and a “weird” odor onboard the aircraft, an audio recording indicates.

“We’re going to be going back to the gate,” the United flight 2384 pilot said. “Request fire, as well.”

As the controllers scrambled to find a gate for the United flight, its pilot declared an emergency, noting his flight attendants felt ill because of the odor.

“We will need to go into any available gate at this time,” the pilot said.

The tower confirmed the request and said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia, would send a fire truck, in case the flight needed to evacuate.

Then, several events happened in quick succession, leading d

By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN

(CNN) — Newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told senators during his confirmation hearing that he wanted to keep the department out of the headlines. That won’t be easy.

The Department of Homeland Security is charged with one of President Donald Trump’s key domestic priorities: cracking down on immigration. Mullin, like his predecessors, will face immense pressure to execute on the administration’s agenda and fend off its critics, while also balancing Trump’s ever-shifting demands. The president is scheduled to swear Mullin in Tuesday afternoon after he was confirmed Monday night.

One of Mullin first moves is lining up the personnel to help him do it. He is bringing some of his Senate staff to the department; they already arrived at DHS as of Tuesday morning, according to a source familiar with the matter. Ahead of assuming the role, Mullin spoke with Trump about the people he wanted to bring on.

Troy Edgar, who previously served as deputy DHS secretary until being pulled to be ambassador to El Salvador, is expected back at the department, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Edgar’s nomination is still on the calendar for a Senate vote.

“We have no DHS personnel announcements at this time,” a White House official told CNN.

Mullin is expected to be in briefings with DHS officials throughout the day as he gets read in, according to a Homeland Security official.

While he sets up his team and gets up to speed on policies and contracts that have been placed on hold amid the transition, Mullin will also have to immediately grapple with the department shutdown that’s resulted in Transportation Security Agency personnel going unpaid and fueled hours-long lines at airports. At Trump’s behest and with little notice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deployed to several airports nationwide Monday to do line management.

On the heels of Kristi Noem’s splashy approach to the job as secretary — which yielded headlines, controversy and internal strife — DHS officials have been anxiously awaiting the type of change that they’ve described as “long overdue.” Noem, who was reassigned by Trump to serve as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, is out of the country this week for a multi-country trip in Latin America. Noem’s lightning-rod top aide, Corey Lewandowski, is expected to work with her in her Shield of the Americas position.

Trump, for his part, has expressed complete confidence in Mullin. “He’s going to be fantastic. He’ll make his own change. He’s already given me a list of people he wants to bring,” Trump told reporters, describing him as a “friend of mine.”

On Monday night, soon after Mullin was confirmed to his

Por David Goldman, CNN

El presidente Donald Trump dio un giro radical en su posición con respecto a los ataques contra Irán la mañana del lunes y los precios del petróleo se desplomaron.

Lamentablemente, los precios de la gasolina no seguirán ese mismo camino de inmediato.

El precio promedio de la gasolina en Estados Unidos se acerca ya a los US$ 4 por galón, y los estadounidenses rezan por un alivio en el surtidor. El diésel ha superado los US$ 5 dólares, lo que está empezando a encarecer el precio de cualquier mercancía que requiera transporte.

Sin embargo, deben ocurrir muchas cosas para que los precios de la gasolina vuelvan a caer por debajo del rango de los US$ 3, tal como estaban antes de la guerra: Irán debe reabrir el estrecho de Ormuz, la producción de petróleo debe reactivarse por completo y la bajada en los precios del crudo debe trasladarse a lo largo de toda la cadena de suministro.

Nada de esto está garantizado. Y, aun si lo estuviera, no se trata de un proceso rápido.

El lunes, Trump le dijo a Kaitlan Collins, de CNN, que el estrecho de Ormuz se abrirá pronto al tráfico de buques petroleros, siempre y cuando las negociaciones den frutos. Afirmó que espera que esta crucial vía fluvial sea controlada conjuntamente por Estados Unidos e Irán.

“El ayatolá y yo”, dijo Trump.

Esa es una admisión crucial y el meollo del problema: Estados Unidos no controla actualmente el estrecho, lo hace Irán. El cierre del estrecho causó daños económicos instantáneos a gran parte del mundo, otorgando a Irán una ventaja significativa en la guerra.

“Hacen falta dos para el TACO”, dijo Helima Croft, jefa de estrategia global de materias primas en RBC Capital Markets, refiriéndose al acrónimo de Wall Street “Trump Always Chickens Out” (Trump siempre se acobarda).

“No me creo que esto sea el principio del fin”, afirmó.

El cierre efectivo del estrecho de Ormuz por parte de Irán es similar a la decisión de China de restringir las licencias de tierras raras a las empresas estadounidenses en respuesta a la histórica guerra comercial de Trump. Al igual que con Irán, la administración Trump no logró anticipar la disposición de China a infligirse una herida económica a sí misma a cambio de obtener la ventaja en las negociaciones con Estados Unidos.

Pero China, al menos, cuenta con un liderazgo estable. Los bombardeos israelíes y estadounidenses contra Irán han matado a muchos representantes del gobierno iraní. Trump ni siquiera mencionó con quién está negociando Estados Unidos, se limitó a decir que su administración mantiene conversaciones con “una persona de alto nivel” y que han llegado a acuerdos sobre “puntos importantes”.

El secretario de Energía, Chris Wright, reconoció el lunes ante la CNBC que no estaba claro con quién debería negociar Estados Unidos.

“Ha habido una gran rotación en el liderazgo energético [de Irán]”, dijo Wright. “Esa es una de las cosas que averiguaremos aquí, en estos diálogos: ¿Quién está en el poder?”.

Esto plantea interrogantes sobre si los negociadores iraníes hablan en nombre de todo el gobierno y si poseen la autoridad y el poder para reabrir el estrecho de Ormuz, suponiendo, claro está, que tales negociadores existan realmente. El portavoz del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Irán, Esmaeil Baghaei, ha negado que Irán mantuviera negociaciones con Estados Unidos.

Suponiendo que las negociaciones sean un éxito y que Irán acceda a reabrir por completo el estrecho de Ormuz, es probable que los precios del petróleo caigan de manera brusca y rápida. El simple hecho de que Trump mencionara esta posibilidad hizo que el precio del petróleo se desplomara cerca de un 7 % el lunes.

Sin embargo, se han producido daños considerables en la infraestructura circundante, incluidas las refinerías de gasolina. Qatar declaró que el bombardeo perpetrado por Irán la semana pas