US military maintaining blockade on Iranian ports as peace talks are set to begin

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a long-shot bill in a possible attempt to remove President Trump from office using the 25th Amendment.

The 10-page legislation, introduced by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., would create a 17-member commission to assess whether the amendment could be used to boot Trump from the White House.

The panel would be composed of several physicians and former high-ranking executive officials appointed by congressional leaders from both parties.

"[T]he Commission shall carry out a medical examination of the President to determine whether the President is mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office," the bill states.

Democratic and Republican leaders of each chamber of Congress would select four physicians and four psychiatrists to serve on the commission. The 16 appointed members would then vote to select an additional member to chair the body.

Many House and Senate Democrats have called for Trump to be removed from office or impeached after he wrote that a "whole civilization will die tonight" in a social media post regarding the war in Iran. Raskin cited Trump's "increasingly volatile, incoherent, and alarming public statements" during the ongoing conflict.

"We have a solemn duty to play our defined role under the 25th Amendment by setting up this body to act alongside the Vice President and the Cabinet," Raskin said in a statement. "Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church, and sends out artistic renderings online likening himself to Jesus Christ."

The legislation has 50 Democratic co-sponsors.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Louis Casiano.

President Donald Trump says Chinese leader Xi Jinping denied sending arms to Iran amid its war with the U.S. on Wednesday.

Trump told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo that he exchanged letters with Xi this week after reports that China planned aid Iran militarily.

Those reports led Trump to threaten China with a 50% tariff if it moved to support Tehran.

President Donald Trump predicted on Wednesday that gas prices will drop "tremendously" when the war in Iran ends.

Trump made the comment during an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo, going on to say that the conflict with Iran is set to end "soon," and before the midterm elections.

"Gasoline is coming down very soon, and very big," Trump said. "I think they'll be much lower. Before midterms? Much lower."

"I mean, that's on the assumption that we stop a country that cannot have a nuclear weapon from--if you give Iran a nuclear weapon, you wanna see bad stock markets? You won't have a country," he continued.

"So, on the assumption we have that settled, hopefully long before that...when that's settled, gas prices are gonna go down tremendously," he added.

President Donald Trump said the U.S.-Iran war is "very close" to an end as hostilities ease amid a two-week ceasefire agreement.

"I think it’s close to over, yeah. I view it as very close to being over," Trump told FOX Business anchor Maria Bartiromo in an interview that will air on "Mornings with Maria" on Wednesday.

"I think it’s close to over, yeah. I view it as very close to being over," Trump told FOX Business anchor Maria Bartiromo in an interview that will air on "Mornings with Maria" on Wednesday.

The president’s comments come as peace talks between U.S. officials and Iranian negotiators are reportedly expected to restart Thursday following stalled weekend talks in Pakistan.

On Monday, Trump instituted a naval blockade of all Iranian ports, marking a fresh intensification of the conflict after the U.S. agreed to stop bombing Iran last week.

Despite Trump saying the war is nearing an end, he also said the U.S. is not done.

"If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we’re not finished," he said. "We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly."

Vice President JD Vance and senior White House officials held negotiations with Iranian officials over the weekend in Pakistan regarding Tehran’s nuclear program and enrichment plans.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox Business' Nora Moriarty.

With a second round of talks likely to place between the U.S. and Iran’s regime this week over its illicit nuclear weapons programs, leading experts on Tehran’s program say the Trump administration was right to walk away.

After nearly a day of talks, Vice President JD Vance’s team pulled the plug on the negotiations taking place in Pakistan, something welcomed by experts in the field.

 "The U.S. team was wise to walk away once it became clear the Iranians would not agree to Washington’s core nuclear demands. Tehran maintaining enriched uranium stocks and uranium enrichment capabilities provides it with a pathway to nuclear weapons, plain and simple," Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ nonproliferation program, told Fox News Digital.

A core dispute between the U.S. and Iran is over Tehran’s desire to enrich uranium — the material used to build nuclear weapons.

In 2018, President Trump withdrew from President Obama’s nuclear weapons deal with Iran because his administration argued that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the deal, permitted Iran to build an atomic bomb.

When asked what a good nuclear agreement would look like, Stricker said, "A good deal requires the regime to not only turn over its nuclear fuel, dismantle key facilities, and commit to a permanent ban on enrichment, but to cooperate with an IAEA investigation that fully and completely accounts for and dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons-relevant facilities, equipment, documentation, centrifuges and related production capabilities."

Stricker acknowledged that the process could take several years, but noted that "the IAEA is well-equipped for this mission and has experience dismantling nuclear weapons programs in Iraq, Libya and South Africa. Anything less and Iran will likely cheat on its commitments and reconstitute a breakout pathway."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Benjamin Weinthal.

A U.S. Navy destroyer intercepted two oil tankers trying to leave Iran on Tuesday and ordered them to turn back, Reuters reported, citing two U.S. officials.

The vessels departed from Chabahar Port in the Gulf of Oman and were contacted by the warship via radio communication, the officials told the outlet.

The officials also said the vessels were among six that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said had been instructed to return toward Iranian ports after entering the Gulf.