Trump Rejects Iran's Ceasefire, UK Foiled Plot Near US Base, Trump Press Corps Fight

0:02President Trump says he doesn't like Iran's latest proposal for a ceasefire. The idea was similar to the last ceasefire. Its offer would reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts sanctions and is blockade. Is there any path forward? I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadal and this is Up First from NPR News. British police say they foiled a planned attack near an air base that U.S. forces used to strike Iran. Five men were arrested after suspicious white vans were spotted near that base. Authorities are asking who the men are and if Iran was involved. And the president's fight with the press has left some of his biggest events without major TV coverage.

0:40CNN was kept off Air Force One this weekend. Is Trump's fight with the media costing him politically? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

0:53This message comes from Schwab. Self-directed investing, trading, full-service wealth management, automated investing, financial planning, thematic investing, retirement planning. And to think that's just a small taste of what Schwab offers. Because Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters. No matter your goals, investing style, life stage, or experience, Schwab has everything you need all in one place, so you can invest your way. Visit schwab.com to learn more. This message comes from MidiHealth, a virtual care platform for women in perimenopause and menopause. CEO Joanna Strober shares the mission behind working with women in midlife.

1:36It's not just about hormones. It's not just about weight loss medications. We are very much a holistic care platform, and our job is to figure out whatever medications are appropriate for you and offer you those medications. MidiHealth. Committed to helping women in midlife with perimenopause and menopause care. accessible via telehealth visits at joinmidi.com. President Trump says he rejected an Iranian offer to suspend hostilities for seven days and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president said the Iranian offer, quote, would not be acceptable and that Iran is, in his words, losing so badly.

2:14Joining us to discuss this and more is NPR international correspondent in the Gulf, Ayya Batraoui. Good morning, Ayya. Good morning, Layla. Okay, so today marks seven months since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran and killed its supreme leader. Where do things stand right now? So Iran's latest offer, which you mentioned, is basically that the two sides agree to something similar to the memorandum of understanding that they had agreed to back in June, and that deal barely lasted a few weeks. So what Iran wants is the U.S. to lift its naval blockade on its oil exports and to unfreeze billions of its dollars in foreign banks in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

2:49But Trump already says he rejects those terms. Now, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, he was on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. And I'd like you to listen to how he describes his country's position seven months into this war. We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed. And I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war. But at the same time, we are ready, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose. So as you heard there, he talked about being ready for a doomsday war or for diplomacy. Now, Trump says Iran is desperate to make a deal because U.S.

3:26sanctions are strangling its economy. And he says that massive amounts of oil are already flowing through the Strait of Hormuz now. Is that true? Are massive amounts of oil coming through the Strait? So, Leila, flows coming out of the Strait are really not consistent. They do swing from one week to another. but the most recent data by Kepler shows a seven-day average last week of around 13 million barrels a day of oil coming out of the strait. Now, that's compared to around 15 to 17 million barrels a day of crude exports before the war. But there's two things to keep in mind. One is that Iran can and still does attack ships transiting through that narrow waterway.

3:59So these ships are running dark with their transponders off to hide their location. And that leads to the second point, which is that it's very expensive for ships to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz because of those risks without a deal in place. Brent crude is trading at around$107 a barrel today. That's more than 50 % higher than before the war. And we heard last week Qatar's energy minister saying that the Strait of Hormuz is indispensable, that pipelines are not a solution, and they're vulnerable to attacks. Saudi Arabia's key pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz was attacked this month, and it needs the Strait of Hormuz open because its secondary route to export oil through the Red Sea remains blocked by Yemen's Houthis.

4:39That's right. Tell us about that war between the Houthis and the Saudis. Is Saudi Arabia getting support from allies? So Leila, the UK has stepped in with a refueling aircraft to support the Saudi Air Force and its bombing of the Houthis, who are supported by Iran. The UK says these wars in the Gulf are having an impact on prices at home. And as France looks to another winter and its needs for gas and oil, It is sending soldiers, radar and defense systems to help the Saudis defend against Houthi attacks. Now, the Houthis say their attacks will continue until Saudi Arabia ends its attacks. And this past weekend, Saudi Arabia says the Houthis again fired at its capital, Riyadh.

5:14But, you know, ultimately, as we said, Leila, it's seven months into this conflict, which remains unresolved. There is an absence of peace in the Gulf. And it's Washington's Gulf allies that are the ones paying the heavy price of this continued uncertainty and instability. That's NPR's A. Avatrawi in Dubai. Thank you. Thanks, Leila.

5:39British authorities say they've foiled a suspected terror plot. They arrested men near an airbase. And today, counterterrorism officials are asking if Iran could have been behind this as retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes. For more on this investigation, let's go to NPR's Lauren Frayer at our bureau in London. Good morning, Lauren. Good morning. So what exactly happened there yesterday? So this was near RAF, Royal Air Force Base, Fairford in the Cotswolds. It's where some American bombers and reconnaissance aircraft take off for Iran from an otherwise, you know, bucolic green hilly area a couple hours west of London.

6:17A farmer who lives nearby called police in the middle of the night to say she noticed three suspicious vans with masked men. Police intercepted the vehicles, arrested five men on suspicion, they say, of explosives and terrorism offenses. Now, the British Army spent all day Sunday using bomb disposal robots to probe the vehicles. Police say an Iran link is just one of the possibilities they're investigating. The government here has also accused Russia of plotting attacks on British soil. But this past summer, Iran did threaten British bases. OK, so not clear if this is connected to Iran, but you said Iran did make a threat.

6:55What was that? So back in July, Iran's IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, issued a statement saying any base used against Iran is a legitimate target and that, quote, London is responsible if it assists U.S. attacks on Iran. You know, the U.S. military has had a presence at RAF, Fairford and other bases for decades. During the 1991 Gulf War, during the 2003 Iraq invasion, the British Defense Secretary, Wes Streeting, was on the BBC this morning and he was asked whether Britain is now being targeted for that long relationship working with the U.S. military. The defense and intelligence cooperation we have with the United States of America is the closest alliance of any two sovereign countries anywhere in the world.

7:41That makes us more safe, not less safe. Streeting was also asked directly about Iran. He refused to speculate about whether these suspects were Iranian or Iranian linked. But he did say that the Iranian regime does want to do harm to British interests and allies. And the U.S. embassy in London has put out a security alert last night asking U.S. citizens in this country to exercise caution. Interesting. What do we know about the suspects? They have not been identified publicly. President Trump is actually our main source of information about these suspects so far. He told reporters, quote, we had them under investigation.

8:20They were looking to do big damage. And he later said, we know all about them. Now, authorities here have not said whether the suspects were known to authorities or whether they were under any kind of surveillance. It's worth noting that RAF Fairford has also been the target of lots of protests. Polls show most Brits oppose the Iran war, increasingly so amid higher gas prices that it's caused here. British bases have been vandalized, and the British government has also charged anti-war protesters with terrorism offenses. Now, under terrorism laws, these suspects can be detained for up to 14 days without charge.

8:58So who exactly they are may become clear during that time frame. That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Thank you for your reporting, Lauren. You're welcome. Thank you.

9:15President Trump lost in court in his latest attack on the media, but continued his retaliation against CNN anyway. Just to review here, a federal judge said last week that the president likely violated the Constitution when he banned three news outlets from the White House. Trump explicitly said he was banning them over coverage he did not like. This limited coverage last week of a speech at the United Nations and the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The news organizations returned to the White House after the court ruling, but Trump then blocked close-up camera coverage over the weekend as he traveled to a football game in Tennessee and a golf tournament in Illinois.

9:52NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liason is here to talk it through. Good morning, Mara. Good morning. So President Trump chose to attack news outlets at a time when it would seem he would want all eyes on him. Was this a political miscalculation by the president? Well, it could be a miscalculation because he missed out on some coverage he would have liked to have had. On the White House press passes, it looks like the White House exploited a loophole in the judge's order because while White House press passes were restored at the judge's order, CNN was prevented from boarding Air Force One to cover the president's trip to see a college football game in Tennessee.

10:27So far, the other networks, including NPR, are standing in solidarity with CNN, but they're going to be making decisions about the press pool on a case-by-case basis. Politically speaking, does a fight with the major broadcast networks benefit Trump in some way? Well, that's a big question. Picking fights with the media might be popular with his base, but it's similar to another big question that hangs over Trump, which is why is he taking stands that are opposed to majority public opinion on issue after issue? The public wants AI regulated. Donald Trump says he doesn't want regulations. The public is skeptical about data centers.

11:05he said the only people who oppose them are people who want to be, quote, poor and backwards. He's, of course, for tariffs and the war in Iran, two very, very unpopular policies. And all of this does not seem to be adding up to a coherent strategy to help his party win the midterms. So this fight is also distracting from other things Trump is doing, things that could directly impact people's lives far more than a fight with the media. Over the weekend, the administration canceled$810 million in spending. Congress already approved. What happened there? On Friday, the White House announced what's known as a pocket rescission.

11:38That is a spending cut that the president makes without Congress's approval. The canceled funds, according to the White House, include over$550 million from programs that, quote, provide services to refugees and other non-citizens. Later this week, the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, that's food assistance, that were in Trump's one big beautiful bill will kick in. The pocket rescission has been called illegal by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, and also by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins. She's in a tight re-election race in Maine. In a post on X, she said the cuts were intended to, quote, undermine Congress's constitutional power of the purse.

12:20Now, regardless of how that separation of powers dispute is resolved, these cuts added to higher prices at the pump and the grocery stores give voters more reason to feel economically stressed and angry. And that's not good for the incumbent party just before an election. NPR's Mara Liason. Thank you, Mara. You're welcome. This week, the Sunday story looks at a wave of Democrats running for office this November who are all members of the clergy. Can they convince the party's secular base? I don't think religion should play into government and politics at all. I thought the country was founded on that.

12:56This week on The Sunday Story, how Democratic pastors are reframing the role of faith in American politics and how voters are responding. Listen now to The Sunday Story right here on NPR's Up First podcast.

13:13And that's Up First for Monday, September 28th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Tina Kraja, Kelsey Snell, Mohamed El-Bardisi and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines and Patrick Murray. And our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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