John Harbaugh likened the start of his first offseason program as coach of the New York Giants to the first day of school, so he kept introducing himself to players along the way.
“I’m like, ‘Hi, John Harbaugh,’" he said with a chuckle. “Most guys will say, hey and give me their name. Some guys don’t give me their name and I'm like, ‘Dude, I’m not really sure who you are.’”
Harbaugh knows who Dexter Lawrence is but did not get the chance to say hello Tuesday. The three-time Pro Bowl nose tackle was one of three players not present, following word that Lawrence had asked for a trade.
Attendance is voluntary at this stage, and Harbaugh cited good conversations with agent Joel Segal while acknowledging he was not surprised by Lawrence's absence. Still, though, Harbaugh estimated “the prospects are going to be high” for Lawrence to stick around.
“Speaking for the Giants, we want Dexter here. I believe Dexter wants to be here. That’s a good formula,” Harbaugh said on a video call with reporters. “But there’s business involved. It’s a business proposition. We know it’s pro football. These things happen every year pretty much on every team.”
Harbaugh spent the past 18 season with the Baltimore Ravens, coached them to a Super Bowl, and three years ago dealt with a trade request from quarterback Lamar Jackson, which got resolved. Familiarity helped that situation, though Harbaugh said this also calls for a patient approach.
"It’s going to work out," Harbaugh said. “It’s high-level business, high-level football. I’m sure it will be handled in a real high-level way like that. I’m not worried about it.”
Lawrence, 28, has two years left on his contract, set to earn $20 million and $19.5 million, respectively. He's coming off a tumultuous 17 games in which he finished with a career-low 31 tackles and a half-sack.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy called New York's front the best he and the Kansas City Chiefs saw last season, and Lawrence is a significant part of that, even if the stats are not there.
"He’s a beast," Nagy said. “He’s been doing it a while and a lot of respect for him. I just know that when we played him last year, we had to know where he was on every play.”
Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson reached out after getting the job on Harbaugh's new staff to open a line of communication and sensed Lawrence was in a good place.
“Hopefully everything works out in our favor, but, hey, I love Dexter and we have a good relationship,” Wilson said. “For me personally, and from an organization standpoint, we understand the value of Dex. We love him, and we understand the business side, as well.”
Cornerback Paulson Adebo made it two defensive starters not in attendance for the start of the spring program, Harbaugh said, adding he was not sure of the reason.
“It's his right,” Harbaugh said. “Guys come or not come according to their choosing: voluntary time of year.”
Harbaugh said the third player who did not take part was defensive tackle Sam Roberts, who had a procedure that did not allow him to travel to the practice facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Top receiver Malik Nabers is coming off a torn ACL in his right knee from a home game on Sept. 28, and running back Cam Skattebo is working back from a dislocated right ankle and additional damage incurred Oct. 26 at Philadelphia.
Each player was at the facility, Harbaugh said, with Skattebo ahead of Nabers, who is expected back either during training camp or closer to the season.
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to give you days or dates,” Harbaugh said. “I have a vague idea. It’s not that important today.”
After edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux's name surfaced in trade buzz in recent weeks, Harbaugh said “everybody's tradeable.” But Thibodeaux was in attendance and has not been traded yet, if he is at all.
“He’s a great player,” Harbaugh said. “I’m excited about him. I was fired up to see him today. He looks great, he’s in great shape. I’m thinking about him on the field, getting him plugged into our defense and getting him rolling.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh talks with reporters at the annual NFL football meetings, Monday, March 30, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline to strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while the Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets.
Trump’s expansive threat did not seem to account for potential harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.
Tehran’s representative at the U.N., Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats “constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide” and that Iran would "take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures” if Trump launches devastating strikes.
The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with attacks targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. Iran has responded with a stream of strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors, causing regional chaos and outsized economic and political shock.
As Trump’s deadline neared, an official said indirect talks continued between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan's prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. In a post on X, Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been leading negotiations, also asked Iran to open up for two weeks the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits in peacetime. The White House said Trump had been informed of the proposal and would respond.
Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island, a key hub for Iranian oil production.
Since the war began, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the president insisted this one is final and will expire at 8 p.m. in Washington unless there is a major diplomatic breakthrough. Tehran previously rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal by Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.
Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. That's despite Trump saying that U.S. forces could wipe out all bridges in Iran in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.
It was not clear if airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday were linked to Trump’s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.
Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.
While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait since the war began in late February is roiling the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if a deal isn’t reached, Trump said in an online post Tuesday morning. But he also seemed to keep open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”
Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.
Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. State media posted videos online that showed hundreds of flag-waving people massed at two bridges and at a power plant hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.
“They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.
A general in Iran's Revolutionary Guard general warned that Iran would “deprive the U.S. and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.
In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran's Islamic system had hoped Trump's attacks would quickly topple it. As the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli strikes will spread chaos.
“If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,” she told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity for her safety.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday that the threats were “truly unacceptable” and that such attacks would violate international law.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Trump has said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the threats, saying no military objective justified targeting civilian infrastructure.
Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighborhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iranian government and security officials.
The Israeli military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility. The military later said it also struck bridges in several cities that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes on Kharg Island as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran. Iran also fired on Israel.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed. and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; Farnoush Amiri at The United Nations; and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price, Joshua Boak and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
A girl stands next to replica of a space craft in a memorial for school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People wave Iranian flags and chant slogans in a memorial for school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Damavand power station is seen from a nearby road on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Bystanders try to comfort and assist a woman as she reacts near the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Relatives react next to the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
An excavator removes rubble at the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man takes a selfie while taking cover with three others along a highway as air raid sirens warn of an incoming Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Bystanders watch from a distance as rescue teams and first responders work at the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A first responder leaves the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People drive their motorbikes past a billboard that shows a graphic depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Displaced people wait to receive donated food beside the tents they use as shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man inspects the damage to cars and an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Ramat Gan, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
