Despite reports of talks between the White House and Democrats to prevent a full shutdown, traders on Polymarket are continuing to predict that the U.S. Government will once again enter a shutdown on Saturday, with current chances sitting at 69%.

Lots of indications this morning that a decision has been made in Washington.

Senior defense and intelligence officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia have arrived in the United States for talks on Iran this week as President Donald J. Trump considers military strikes, four sources with knowledge told Axios.

The Israelis came to Washington to share requested intelligence on possible targets inside Iran, with Israel’s Chief of Military Intelligence, Gen. Shlomi Binder, meeting Tuesday and Wednesday with senior officials at the Pentagon, the CIA and the White House.

The Saudis, meanwhile, are highly concerned about a potential regional war and are trying to help broker a diplomatic solution with Iran. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is expected to hold meetings focusing on Iran at the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House - including with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, while Prince Khalid, the crown prince's younger brother and closest confidant, will be in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

The Mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, has announced that underground parking lots and metro stations across the city will be transformed into “war shelters” in case of resumed hostilities with Israel and the United States.

The European Union has officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as an International Terrorist Organization.

Four KC-46A “Pegasus” Aerial-Refueling Tankers, going by the callsigns GOLD71.72.81.82, departed earlier from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida heading east across the Atlantic, in addition to a KC-135R Stratotanker, GOLD73, from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico. Accompanying the KC-46As and KC-135R across the pond are several F-35A Lightning lls with the Vermont Air National Guard and the remaining EA-18G “Growler” Electronic-Warfare Aircraft bound for Morón Air Base, with their final destination likely the Middle East.

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, held calls today with his counterparts in Egypt, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as Iran scrambles to prevent new strikes by the United States.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke about Iran and Venezuela during today’s Cabinet Meeting alongside President Donald J. Trump and other senior members of the Trump Administration:

“Same thing with Iran right now, ensuring that they have all the options to make a deal, that they should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this President expects of the War Department, just like we did this month.”

An Airbus A321-231 operated by Meraj Airlines and going by the callsign IRAN07, usually reserved for senior members of the Iranian Government, has departed Tehran within the last hour bound for Moscow, Russia.

The First Vice-President of Iran, Mohammad Reza Aref, said earlier today during a speech to other government officials that Iran must be prepared for a “state of war,” stating that they are “ready to enter into negotiations,” but only if there are guarantees they will not be attacked during the diplomatic process by the United States.

F-35A Lightning lls with the “The Green Mountain Boys” of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing - the same unit which deployed to Puerto Rico late last year and participated in the operation earlier this month in Venezuela - seen landing tonight at Lajes Field in the Azores, located halfway between Europe and the United States in the Northern Atlantic, on their way to the Middle East.

Full video credit provided to andre_spotter_lajes on Instagram.

President Donald J. Trump has received briefings on multiple different attack options against Iran in recent days, developed in tandem by the White House and Pentagon, U.S. officials tell the Wall Street Journal.

Among the options is the “big” plan which would see the United States launch strikes against government facilities and those operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a large-scale bombing campaign, likely involving assets from both the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

Less-involved options include strikes on symbolic regime targets, allowing space for the bombings to ramp up if Iran doesn’t agree to end its nuclear work, and/or options such as cyberattacks on Iranian banks or tougher sanctions against the Iranian Government.

In addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and her Carrier Strike Group; consisting of the USS Spruance (DDG-111), USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121), which arrived in the Arabian Sea earlier this week, several other Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers have also arrived in the region, including the USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) which recently transited the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.

President Donald J. Trump announces that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be decertifying Bombardier Global Expresses, and all other aircraft made in Canada, until Canada certifies the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Business Jets produced in the United States. Additionally, Trump states that if the issue is not immediately corrected, he will impose a 50% on all Canadian aircraft sold in the United States.

President Trump does not clarified if this will effect the U.S. Air Force’s Bombardier E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Nodes (BACN) or any of the U.S Army’s Global 6500s, which are produced by Bombardier Defense in Canada. One of the E-11A produced by Bombardier Defense just deployed to the Middle East, part of the ongoing buildup directed at Iran.

Israeli assessments are currently indicating that the United States, on the orders of President Donald J. Trump, will launch a broad attack soon on Iran with the goal of toppling the Iranian Government. According to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, significant cooperation to prepare for such an attack is taking place between the Israel Defense Force and the U.S. Armed Forces.

President Donald J. Trump spoke to reporters about Iran at the screening of MELANIA tonight at the Kennedy Center in Washington, stating, “We're strong, we're financially powerful, we're militarily powerful. I built the military in my first term and now we have a group headed out to a place called Iran and hopefully we won't have to use it.”