President Trump said Tuesday the U.S. and Iran are “in negotiations right now” and suggested Tehran is eager to make a peace deal, even as the Islamic Republic has denied it is in direct talks with Washington, CNBC reports.

Said Trump: “They’re talking to us, and they’re talking sense.”

Reuters: “The Pentagon is expected to send thousands of soldiers from the U.S. Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division to the ‌Middle East, adding to a massive U.S. military buildup even as President Donald Trump talks about a possible deal with Tehran to end the war.”

Associated Press: “Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro received permission Tuesday from a top Brazilian justice to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison because of his failing health.”

Julia Ioffe: “Vladimir Putin is, according to the chatter, completely spooked by the U.S.-Israeli war against Russia’s old ally, particularly the reports that Israel targeted the ayatollah by hacking traffic cameras in Tehran.”

“Earlier this month, the Russian president stopped going to the Kremlin and all his public events vanished from the calendar. Now, Moscow has virtually no cell service and it’s become impossible to message, call, or surf the web in large parts of the city. Even VPNs have been affected: One friend told me he needed to try three different services to see the videos I was sending him.”

“The Kremlin has experimented with shutting off cell service in other, smaller cities, but to do this in the nation’s capital—a city of 13 million people, where so many of the country’s businesses are headquartered—is shocking. The official explanation is that Moscow is protecting itself from Ukrainian drones, but even pro-Kremlin propagandists are speculating that this has more to do with the war in Iran than the one in Ukraine.”

“Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. You said, ‘Let’s do it.'”

— President Trump, making sure everyone knows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was first of his advisers to back the Iran War.