Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit on April 21 seeking to block the Department of Justice (DOJ) from collecting, compiling, and analyzing state voter registration lists.
As of April 1, the DOJ has sued 30 states, including Washington, for failing to turn over voter rolls. The department has said the U.S. attorney general has congressional authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to seek election records from states to check for improper voter registrations.
The groups filed a complaint on April 21, accusing the DOJ of seeking to use the sensitive data to build what they described as a “sprawling new voter surveillance and purging apparatus” without congressional authorization.
The complaint alleges that the department attempted to usurp states’ authority to oversee election administration and impose its own “secretive ’verification procedures’” to identify ineligible voters.
“Never before has a federal agency centralized this volume of Americans’ voting data in a single system of records,” it stated.
“And in doing so, DOJ has flouted statutory safeguards designed to ensure transparency and public participation in the federal government’s collection of Americans’ personal information.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by advocacy group Common Cause and four individual members of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The data requested by the DOJ includes voters’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, political party affiliations, and voter participation history, according to the filing.
The groups are seeking a court order requiring the DOJ to delete any voter rolls it has obtained from states and to bar the department from compiling or disclosing voter data.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said on April 1 that the department has a duty to ensure state compliance with election laws.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Sept. 29, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its oversight role dutifully, neutrally, and transparently wherever Americans vote in federal elections,” Dhillon said in a statement
“Many state election officials, however, are choosing to fight us in court rather than show their work. We will continue to verify that all States are carrying out critical election integrity legal duties.”
Dhillon added that the Civil Rights Act allows the attorney general to “demand the production, inspection, and analysis of statewide voter registration lists that can be cross-checked effectively.”
In an April 21 statement, Common Cause CEO Virginia Kase Solomon said the DOJ’s efforts to collect voter rolls amount to “a blatant, partisan power grab.”
“By attempting to interrogate and exploit voter data for political purposes, President Trump’s DOJ isn’t just threatening the privacy of every American—they are building a system designed to imprison the ballot box and silence millions of eligible voters,” Solomon said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOJ for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Not So Fast: Virginia Judge Blocks Redistricting Referendum
Update (1835ET): A Virginia judge ruled on Wednesday that the state’s redistricting referendum approved by voters a day earlier was invalid, nullifying the election results.
“Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote,” said Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, adding that the state would appeal.
As American Greatness notes further, Tazewell County Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that the referendum was likely unconstitutional as it violated procedural requirements in the Virginia Constitution, including the timing of the vote and the failure to publish the amendment three months before the prior general election.
The Tazewell Circuit Court also ruled the ballot language was misleading, specifically the phrase “restore fairness,” which Hurley determined could improperly influence voters by implying opposition is unfair.
The constitutional amendment was framed on the ballot as a vote “to restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” It narrowly passed Tuesday night by a margin of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent.
In his written ruling, Hurley said the plaintiffs had an “extraordinarily high likelihood of success on the merits.”
The contested measure would allow Democrats to re-draw the state’s congressional maps from a 6-to-5 advantage to 10-to-1 majority, disenfranchising potentially millions of Republican voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The temporary restraining order was requested by the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and U.S. Reps. Ben Cline (R-Botetourt County) and Morgan Griffith (R-Salem).
In the emergency motion, the plaintiffs asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Virginia’s commissioner of elections, members of the State Board of Elections and several Tazewell County election officials. They contend the court should intervene immediately to “preserve the status quo” and prevent what they describe as “irreparable harm” before a hearing can be held.
“The Democrats’ unfair redistricting scheme is illegal. We are grateful that the court has agreed and swiftly applied justice to stop this unconstitutional power grab that would disenfranchise millions of Virginia voters by reassigning them members of Congress from other parts of the state,” said Cline. “This ruling is an important victory in our fight to make sure that politicians don’t get to select their own voters.”
Hurley’s ruling declares that any and all votes for or against the proposed constitutional amendment in the April 21, 2026 special election are ineffective and enjoins Defendants and their successors from certifying the results of the election.
Additional legal challenges argue the amendment violates the single-subject rule and was improperly advanced during a special legislative session. Although the Virginia Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed while reviewing the case, if it upholds the lower court’s findings, the referendum results could be invalidated.
President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social Wednesday morning, claiming the referendum itself was “rigged.” In his post, Trump wrote:
“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. … Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’”
Trump’s comments focused on the overnight counting of mail-in and absentee ballots — which flipped the initially reported lead — echoing his past criticisms of election procedures. The referendum was extremely close (roughly 51.4% Yes / 48.6% No), and in Virginia it is standard for in-person votes to be tallied first on election night while mail ballots are counted later.
Virginia’s Republican-hating Attorney General Jay Jones (D) has already vowed to appeal the ruling.
“My office will immediately appeal the ruling issued by the Tazewell County Circuit Court,” Jones said. “These arguments are already before the Supreme Court of Virginia, the proper forum to consider the arguments, which has set a schedule for receiving arguments and has justifiably allowed the vote to proceed during this time.”
Virginia Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover) and House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore (R-Scott) issued a joint statement saying the ruling was “a necessary step to protect Virginia voters from an illegal and rushed” redistricting referendum.
“The Constitution sets clear rules for how amendments must be advanced. Those rules were not properly followed. Plain and simple. Virginians deserve transparency, fairness, and adherence to the law — not backroom deals,” they said.
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli predicted on the Scott Jennings Show, Wednesday that the Virginia redistricting measure won’t survive the legal challenges.
“Here’s my prediction,” Cuccinelli posted on X. “The referendum gets tossed out in May.”
Now they care about activist judges!
We are having quite the night in the courts. A Virginia judge just blocked the state from certifying the results of Tuesday’s congressional map referendum as unlawful. Judge Jack Hurley Jr., ruled that Democrats did not follow the correct procedure for a constitutional…
Democrats’ decisive win in Virginia Tuesday night has dealt a significant blow to Republican hopes of retaining control of the House.
By persuading voters to dismantle the state’s independent redistricting commission – created just six years ago – Democrats wiped out four Republican-held congressional districts. This means Virginia’s House delegation is now on track to shift to a 10-to-1 Democratic advantage, a dramatic reversal for a state that remained firmly in GOP hands not long ago.
That said, Democrats dropped $65 million on the races (though the final tally was uncomfortably close), while Punchbowl reports that Republicans are trading blame internally – second-guessing whether they let a chance slip away to blunt the Democratic surge.
And with midterms right around the corner, there are few indications that President Trump or House Republican leadership possesses either the strategic focus or message discipline needed to protect their narrow majority. Fresh off Trump’s 2024 presidential win, Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, clung to control by the slimmest of margins. Pulling off a repeat performance now looks considerably tougher.
Betting markets are already pricing in a Democratic win in the House.
While party leaders insist a third Trump impeachment is off the table, the shift would almost certainly unleash a barrage of investigations and subpoenas aimed at the White House and Cabinet agencies – with major legal and political ripple effects. Lawmakers could also face even more protracted government shutdowns than the record-length appropriations lapses seen in the current Congress.
“I told Mike Johnson in July of last year that, ‘If you go down this road, it’s not going to work out for you,'” Jeffries told Punchbowl Tuesday night.
He added: “And at the end of the day, his best-case scenario was that he would net zero seats, but force at least 10 Republicans, who are incumbent members of his conference, into premature retirement. And that is exactly what has happened.”
Jeffries earned significant credit for orchestrating Tuesday’s outcome – as Virginia Democrats first had to steer the ballot measure through the state legislature twice, beat back multiple court challenges, and then win over voters. A nonprofit aligned with Jeffries poured $38 million into the effort to secure passage, and he personally managed the operation from beginning to end – designing the referendum strategy, recruiting staff and directing on-the-ground coordination. Many Virginia Democrats initially resisted the high-stakes gamble, requiring Jeffries to personally persuade both the state delegation and the warring legislative chambers to fall in line.
True to form, Jeffries remained measured when asked whether Tuesday’s result clinched the majority or signaled an impending blue wave. He did, however, declare victory in the broader redistricting battle.
“When you line up the congressional map in Texas and compare it with the response in California, they’re going to lose seats and would be fortunate if in Texas, they win two or three of the five seats that they claimed they were going to steal from Democrats,” Jeffries said.
The biggest wild cards left for both sides are Florida and the future of the Voting Rights Act, which is up to the Supreme Court. Tuesday’s result intensifies pressure on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to advance an ambitious congressional map next week capable of delivering Republicans a net gain of three to five seats. Yet DeSantis is encountering pushback from the state’s Republican congressional delegation and the GOP-controlled legislature, many of whom doubt such an aggressive redraw is feasible. Several Florida Republicans caution that Latino voters are not reliably in the GOP column and may not show up for the party the way they did in 2024, urging caution.
Spending in Virginia was wildly lopsided. Democrats poured $56.4 million into television and digital ads; Republicans mustered just $24.6 million. Republicans still lost by fewer than 90,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast.
According to the report, GOP strategists insist they deliberately avoided nationalizing the contest to keep from energizing the Democratic base. They argue that heavier spending would simply have provoked an even larger Democratic response. They also note that the “No” side outperformed Trump’s 2024 numbers in the state. Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and onetime House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who helmed the opposition effort, pledged to keep fighting the new map in court.
House Republicans, however, were already firing off frantic messages Tuesday night. Several told reporters they had been assured that additional money would make no difference in Virginia – yet the narrow margin suggests otherwise.
The American Action Network, a nonprofit close to Johnson, quietly funneled money to the group bankrolling the “No” campaign, according to a person familiar with the transaction. Meanwhile, only one solidly Republican seat remains, in the state’s southwest corner. GOP Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith may find themselves forced into a member-versus-member primary.
Given the eight straight days of gains for Software stocks, one could argue that the death of code-base companies was greatly exaggerated (cough -dead-cat bounce – cough), but not every boat is being lifted by this massive short-squeeze rebound
JPMorgan Trader Brian Heavey said earlier that it “seems we are moving from ‘SAAS is dead’ to ‘maybe they can co-exist'”, but it appears one software firm is indeed ‘no more’.
Thoma Bravo and its co-investors contributed roughly $5 billion of equity, while Blackstone and other private-credit lenders provided $1.8 billion of debt.
The deal reflected the era’s sky-high software valuations and Thoma Bravo’s aggressive playbook of buying mature SaaS platforms with heavy leverage.
But…
By 2026, the investment had become one of private equity’s most visible busts.
Medallia’s growth stalled in a crowded CX market where survey-based platforms faced commoditization and slower enterprise spending.
PE Insights reported two weeks ago that debt servicing costs ballooned to nearly $300 million (carrying around $3 billion in total debt).
Annual earnings hovered around just $200 million – insufficient to cover interest – leaving the company struggling to deleverage.
Around a month ago, Barron’s reported that lenders were under serious pressure as Blackstone, the lead creditor, repeatedly marked down its large loan position: from par to the high 80s in mid-2025, then to roughly 70 cents on the dollar by February 2026, with further declines reported into the 60s.
Other lenders including Apollo and KKR followed suit.
All of which brings us to today…
Reuters reports that, according to two people familiar with the matter, Thoma Bravo is nearing an agreement to hand over software firm Medallia to its lenders, wrapping up months of restructuring negotiations.
The move will wipe out $5.1 billion in equity for Thoma Bravo and its co-investors.
Medallia provides software that collects and analyzes customer and employee feedback for companies, and has like other software/SaaS companies, seen its valuation hit in recent months over concerns that its services will eventually be supplanted by artificial intelligence.
Will this prompt markdowns across other SaaS firms in PE books? We suspect it might force some hands to admit the painful truth.
With a literal tsunami of supply on its way this year – most notably Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX all pushing to IPO in 2026 at massive valuations – some investors may see parallels to the classic 2021-vintage risks exposed by Medallia today: overpayment at peak multiples, excessive leverage, and sector headwinds that private ownership could not fix.
For Thoma Bravo and other large-scale investors, it stands as a cautionary tale of how quickly high-priced software bets can sour when growth assumptions prove overly optimistic.
Researchers at Harvard have developed a fleet of robotic ants that mimic the self-organizing behavior of social insects to build and dismantle structures without blueprints or central leadership.
Dubbed “RAnts”, these robotic ants have been designed by researchers from the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
These are simple, decentralized robots that can spontaneously organize to build — and just as easily destroy — complex structures.
Instead of chemical pheromones, these robots use light fields (photormones) to communicate.
“Our new study shows how simple, local rules can lead to the emergence of complex task completion that is self-organized and thus robust and adaptive,” said Professor L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at SEAS and FAS.
“We also introduce the concept of exbodied intelligence, where collective cognition arises not solely from individual agents, but from their ongoing interaction with an evolving environment,” Mahadevan added.
Digital pheromones
Ants prove that you don’t need a big brain to be a great builder. All that is needed is a great team. Without blueprints or supervisors, these tiny creatures construct some of nature’s most complex habitats.
And now, experts are taking this cue. In recent years, AI development has obsessed over faster chips and bigger digital brains.
But Professor L. Mahadevan and his team looked elsewhere, particularly exbodied intelligence.
In this model, the smart systems aren’t located inside the robot’s hardware. Rather, the intelligence emerges from the interaction between the robot and its surroundings.
This study demonstrates that decentralized agents can achieve complex goals by following minimal physical rules and responding to environmental cues.
In the wild, ants communicate via pheromones — chemical breadcrumbs that signal where to walk or where to dig. To replicate this, the Harvard team used photormones.
Using a biological concept called stigmergy, in which individuals respond to environmental changes made by others, the team created “RAnts” that communicate through light fields known as photormones.
These digital signals act as a substitute for natural pheromones, allowing the robots to coordinate their actions by sensing and modifying their surroundings in a continuous feedback loop.
Diverse use
Following simple gradients in a “photormone” light field, these robots create a feedback loop that coordinates the entire swarm.
These operate on just a few basic rules, like tracking signals, transporting blocks, and depositing them at specific thresholds.
The beauty of the system lies in its simplicity. Interestingly, the swarm can switch roles instantly by adjusting just two parameters: the intensity of the light-following behavior and the setting for dropping or picking up blocks.
One minute, the robots are a construction crew, and the next, a demolition team.
This development offers a new model for autonomous robotics, proving that sophisticated, large-scale tasks can be managed through simple, self-organizing interactions.
It suggests that collective intelligence isn’t just in the robots’ brains, but arises from the constant interaction between the agents and their evolving environment.
These findings pave the way for diverse applications, ranging from autonomous construction in hazardous zones and planetary exploration to the creation of advanced experimental models for analyzing animal behavior.
The study findings were detailed in the journal PRX Life.
Embassy Tells Americans Still In Lebanon Depart Now While Flights Available As Ceasefire Collapsing
The US-mediated Lebanon ceasefire is unraveling fast amid intensified fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday.
This has resulted in the US embassy in Beirut issuing an urgent renewed security alert, urging US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options are still available.
The statement explained the security situation “remains complex and can change quickly.” It further said that those who don’t or cannot leave must be prepared to encounter emergency situations, and also warned of unexploded ordnance which has resulted in the recent war.
A 10-day ceasefire is still technically in effect – which began about six days ago after it was brokered between Lebanese and Israel officials in Washington D.C.
However, Hezbollah did not sign on, while also Israel said it would continue going after the Iran-allied paramilitary group, chiefly in the south of the country, where it has its main outposts.
At this point about 2,300 Lebanese have been killed since fighting intensified, including civilians, according to Beirut officials – and on the Israeli side, at least 13 soldiers and two civilians have died.
Lebanese media reported Wednesday that two journalists, Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj, were wounded in an Israel airstrike in the village of A-Tiri in southern Lebanon. According to the reports, Red Cross teams were dispatched to evacuate them. Later reports said two bodies and Faraj were recovered, while Khalil remained trapped, with Lebanese officials blaming Israel for difficulties in reaching her.
Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, said he was following developments and instructed the Red Cross to continue rescue efforts. A senior Lebanese army official told Reuters that an Israeli drone dropped a grenade near rescue teams, adding that Lebanon had appealed to Israel through the United States to allow access to the area.
And Israel has charged Hezbollah with breaching the ceasefire by sending drones and rockets into Israel lately.
Lebanon: The U.S. Embassy in Beirut is closely monitoring the security situation in Lebanon. The security environment remains complex and can change quickly. We urge U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options remain available. We recommend that U.S. citizens… pic.twitter.com/RwHBB4DKpC
While the Lebanon ceasefire is separate from the US-Israel-Iran ceasefire, it certainly is parallel, and typically when Iran and Israel are locked in direct battle, so is Hezbollah.
Israeli officials are now warning the ceasefire in Lebanon could collapse “at any moment” – and precautions are also being taken in northern Israel.
Tesla Surges After Beating Expectations, Says “Rebound Of Demand” For EVs
Heading into today’s TSLA earnings, Wall Street was braced for a miss, with debate only around how big it would be. Well, it wouldn’t be an Elon Musk joint if there wasn’t some big twist, and sure enough, the stocks is soaring after hour on what can only be described as a very big, and very unexpected beat.
Here is what the company reported for the first quarter:
Rev. $22.39B, beating Est. $22.19B
Adj EPS 41c, beating Est. 34c, the second straight quarter Tesla’s earnings beat expectations.
EPS 13c vs. 12c Y/Y
Gross Margin 21.1%, beating Est. 17.7%
Auto Gross Margin Ex-Reg Credit 19.2% vs 12.5% Y/Y
Free Cash Flow positive $1.44B, beating est. Negative $1.86B
Perhaps the most interesting of the above, besides the modest beats in revenue (which benefited from positive FX impact of about $900 million in the quarter translating into $200 million at the bottom line; as well as higher average selling prices) and EPS, is that despite weak EV and energy unit sales, Tesla’s reported gross margins in both businesses are up. Generally, fixed costs spread over fewer units puts pressure on GPM, all else equal. The auto margin, less credits, of 19.2% is up q-o-q and y-o-y. In energy, despite lower revenue both sequentially and versus last year, Tesla reports what looks like a record gross margin for that business of almost 40%.
Yet while Tesla turned in higher auto gross margins than expected, given weak sales, that fades away when reading down the P&L: operating margin of just 4.2%.
Meanwhile, earnings continue to subsist heavily on a diet of regulatory credit sales, which in Q1 dropped to 381 million from $337 million a year ago, and net interest income.
And visually:
Starting at the top, it’s no surprise that that TSLA likes soaring gas prices, which have helped a “rebound in demand” in the core US market, to wit: “We saw continued growth in demand for our vehicles in markets in APAC and South America, while also seeing a rebound of demand in both EMEA and North America.”
The surprisingly optimistic comments come several weeks after the automaker reported one of its worst quarters of auto sales in years.
Here is how TSLA laid out its automotive business” We are focused on optimizing our vehicle product portfolio, with an emphasis on vehicles designed for a fully autonomous future. We continued the launch of Model 3 and Model Y trims globally, including the roll-out of the Model YL in markets outside of China and more affordable trims of both models. We also began deliveries of Cybertruck in the UAE.“
Unlike recent quarters, we didn’t have an “other updates” section with a surprise investment, there’s minimal change in language and if anything it projects a lot of confidence in core business. In short, a “no surprises, no drama” print.
One key metric that is also key to Elon Musk’s pay package, is active FSD subscriptions. They were up slightly this quarter to 1.28 million from 1.1 million at the end of 4Q, and up a whoppint 51% YoY.
There were some working capital issues: global inventory spiked to 27 days, up from 15 days, which was to be expected given that Tesla produced more than 50,000 cars than it delivered in 4Q, but still that’s a lot of inventory to clear.
And speaking of inventory, Tesla has overcapacity in its factories, so now the company is rolling out the Model YL (Long) in “markets outside of China” and more affordable trims of both models. It also began deliveries of cybertruck in the UAE.
While energy storage had been Tesla’s fastest-growing sector but that trend failed to continue into the first quarter, when year-over-year revenue slipped 12% and quarterly deployments of 8.8 gigawatt-hours were the lowest in a year. This is what it had to say about the business:
“Progress continued at the new Megafactory outside Houston, which will produce the Megapack 3 for Megablock. Start of production is on track for later this year. We began meaningful customer deployments of Tesla’s first in-house designed solar panel produced at Gigafactory New York. The new panel has 18 individual power zones – 3x more than a conventional residential panel – enabling it to reliably produce more energy in shady conditions. Other innovations include improved aesthetics and faster and simpler installation.”
Turning to the far more important robotics business, the company expects the first large-scale Optimus factory to start in Q2. The first generation line, designed for 1 million robots a year, will replace the Model S and Model X lines in Fremont. The company is also preparing Gigafactory Texas for the second-generation line, which is being designed for long-term annual production capacity of 10 million robots.
Turning to AI, Tesla said that “Cortex 2 is now online and has started running training workloads.” Tesla continues to ramp its onsite training infrastructure to ensure sufficient compute resources for the development of our AI products and services and “are also continuing our custom silicon development with Dojo 3 in an effort to reduce the cost of training over time.“
In the battery business, “ramp has begun across our new battery and material factories, including LFP cells in Nevada, cathode material and lithium refining in Texas.” Battery pack capacity continues to be the limiting factor on ramping our vehicle production the company said.
What is the company’s other supporting infrastructure? This is what it had to say: “Gigafactory New York is now producing V4 Supercharging cabinets, which boast 3x the power density and 2x the number of stalls per cabinet compared to V3. Alongside the ramp of Tesla Semi, we are deploying public Megachargers, including our first one in Southern California. While we aim to leverage as much of our existing investments as possible, we continue to build out our supporting infrastructure for our vehicle and mobility businesses, including Robotaxi expansion, across established and growth markets around the world. In Q1, we added over 2,200 net new Supercharging stalls, growing the network 19% year-over-year. This year we look to increase our presence in Japan by doubling our service centers and expanding our Supercharger coverage in the world’s third largest vehicle market”
The company’s outlook was generally very favorable:
Volume: “We are focused on maximum capacity utilization at our factories. Deliveries and deployments will be impacted by aggregate demand for our products, supply chain readiness and allocation decisions between sale to customers or use for our owned and operated fleet.”
Cash: “We will manage the businesses such that we ensure a strong balance sheet, maintaining sufficient liquidity to fund our product roadmap, long-term capacity expansion plans – including further vertical integration – and other expenses.”
Profit: “While we continue to execute on innovations to reduce the cost of manufacturing and operations, over time, we expect our hardwarerelated profits to be accompanied by an acceleration of AI, software and fleet-based profits.”
Product: “We continue to evolve and augment our product lineup with a focus on cost, scale and future monetization opportunities via services powered by our AI software. We remain focused on growing our sales volumes through a differentiated and efficiently managed product portfolio, which includes leveraging and optimizing our existing production capacity before building new factories and production lines. Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 are on schedule for volume production starting in 2026. First-generation production lines for Optimus are being installed in anticipation of volume production. Capacity build out and ramp related to our multi-year infrastructure initiatives, including AI compute, solar, battery material and semiconductor manufacturing are underway.”
There was yet another sign of convergence between Elon Musk’s companies:
“Our partnership with SpaceX aims to build the largest chip fab ever: vertically integrating logic, memory and advanced packaging to allow for rapid iteration as we anticipate greater chip demand than what existing and planned industry capacity can accommodate. This begins with the Tesla-owned Research Fab on our Gigafactory Texas campus.”
As for Terafab, we already knew that this mega project would start with a pilot line. But what’s interesting is this is Tesla’s and not a part of the joint-venture with SpaceX/xAI. Here’s what the deck says:
“This begins with the Tesla-owned Research Fab on our Gigafactory Texas campus.”
Last but not least, TSLA surprised the market by reporting a positive free cash flow…
… but Tesla pulled a number of levers:
Stock-based comp nearly 2x, year-over-year
Big swing in accounts payable and receivables add ~$1.9B, offsetting much of the big inventory headwind
Most of all, capex at just $2.5B, or only about half the run-rate implied by guidance
Also don’t expect free cash flow to remain positive: Tesla is working to ramp up production as part of a more than $20 billion spending plan this year. For the first three months of the year, however, Tesla spent less than $2.5 billion, half the outlay the company will need to average per quarter to reach its expenditure forecast for the year. This contributed to Tesla posting $1.4 billion in positive free cash flow for the quarter, far better than analysts’ expectation that the carmaker would burn through almost $1.9 billion.
Looking ahead the company is excited “about Tesla’s positioning in 2026 with tailwinds persisting for the autos business, our continued progress on FSD (Supervised), the ramp of Robotaxi, progress on Optimus ahead of mass production and the growth of our energy production capacity”
Judging by the stock reaction, the market is also excited, and as Interactive Brokers Chief Strategist Steve Sosnick writes, this print is “good enough.” He highlighted the adjusted profit and revenue beats as well as the “surprise” positive flip to free cash flow. “The car business improved, and there is nothing that disrupts the futurism that juices Tesla’s valuation. Now it’s up to what Musk says on the call”
Others, like Adam Sarhan, of 50 Park Investments, were also happy: “The real story isn’t just these numbers — it’s the execution on the roadmap. The trajectory feels constructive. Longer term, I’m still very bullish on Tesla’s positioning in AI, robotics, and energy. These results show resilience and set up better comps ahead. The market will digest the forward commentary tonight, but the fundamentals are pointing up.”
That said, the initial euphoric reaction may moderate if analysts interrogate this idea of rebounding demand on the earnings call, given that Tesla has loads of cars in inventory right now.
Trump Extends Ceasefire 3-5 Days As Third Carrier Close; US Intercepts 3 More Iranian Tankers In Asian Waters
Summary
At least two fully laden Iranian tankers slip past US naval blockade, amid reports of more going dark, BBG reports, but Pentagon denies.
Reports of three more Iranian tankers being seized by US in Asian waters.
Trump extends ceasefire by 3-5 days, per White House statement to Fox. Third US carrier precisely 3-5 day away from Mideast waters: Fox
IRGC seized the MSC Francesca and a Greek-owned ship named Euphoria, which had been attempting to transit the Hormuz chokepoint earlier today.Within hours, a third ship comes under fire by the IRGC.
Senior Iranian adviser says the US naval blockade is “no different than bombing” and must be met “with a military response”.
Competing narratives emerge over what Iran calls “fake news” as Trump hails “release” of 8 Iranian women said to be facing death penalty.
Three Iranian Tankers Intercepted by US in Asian Waters
The US appears to be serious about its counter-Iran interdictions going global, as the US military has newly intercepted at least three Iranian oil tankers in Asian waters, per Newsquawk.
The tankers are now being redirected and escorted, according to shipping and security sources, presumably in what will end up being another seizure of Iranian oil on the high seas.
Plot Thickens, Gets More Bizarre: Iran Denies 8 Women Set to Be Executed
There’s been a lot of fresh back and forth over Trump’s initial Truth Social Post earlier this week: first he demanded that eight young women he said were on death row in Iran for protesting must be released. Then on Thursday Trump proclaimed that Iran complied.
But Iran is rejecting the whole narrative as fake news from the start. “Trump was misled once again by fake news,” the judiciary’s official Mizan Online website said. “The women who were claimed to be on the verge of execution, some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.” The Times (UK) picked up on the story, but underscored:
The image Trump recirculated was originally created by the Lawfare Project, a pro-Israel organisation based in the US.
The human rights organisation Hiwa identified the women in the post. They included Panah Movahedi Salamat and Ensieh Nejati.
“To the Iranian leaders, who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women. I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!” – President… pic.twitter.com/pxU8xZFvAh
We’ve been tracking the progress of the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier as it makes its way to the US Central Command/Mideast area. Interestingly its arrival could correspond with the end of Trump’s extended ceasefire by this weekend. Fox News is freshly reporting that the vessel, which will be the third carrier in waters near Iran, is expected to arrive in three to five days. “The USS Bush Aircraft Carrier is expected to arrive in the Middle East within five days,” a Fox News reporter has said on X.
It took the ‘long way’ around Africa in order to avoid the Red Sea, and thus the potential for coming under attack by the Houthis or Iranians.
The aircraft carrier strike group is currently located somewhere off the coast of Tanzania or Kenya and will arrive in the region in 3-5 days, becoming the third aircraft carrier in the war against Iran.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says in a post on X: “Breach of commitments, blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations.”
Carrier-related air traffic has been observed in this area over about the last day (FlightRadar):
Serious Slippage in US Naval Blockade as Iranian Vessels Go Dark
Confirmation from Bloomberg after some initial unverified claims circulated yesterday: Iran Tankers Go Dark to Sail Past US Blockade Laden With Oil. Additional reports suggest that the total number of Iran-linked tankers slipping through is actually much larger, suggesting the potential unravelling of the US naval blockade of ships visiting Iran’s ports:
Donald Trump’s naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is unraveling after dozens of Iranian vessels secretly slipped past US surveillance, even as the regime tightened its grip on the critical oil passageway by attacking three tankers.
Approximately 34 Iranian oil tankers have slipped through the blockade, with 19 vessels exiting the Persian Gulf past Trump’s navy and another 15 ships entering from the Arabian Sea toward Iran, according to the Financial Times. Six of those tankers were smuggling Iranian crude oil totaling 10.7 million barrels, estimated to be worth approximately $910 million in revenue for the regime.
Of course, the Pentagon’s own figures stand in direct contradiction, but the fact that major Western MSM outlets like FT and Bloomberg are picking up on significant numbers getting through doesn’t bode well for the Trump blockade.
Meanwhile, the locations of the earlier seizures by Iran’s IRGC. Two are being escorted to Iran’s coast:
Trump Extends Ceasefire for 3-5 Days
The White House has told FOX Wednesday morning that President Trump has extended the ceasefire by three to five days. This was also reported earlier by Axios, with the US seeking for the Iranian side to “come to the table with a unified approach.” There’s a growing assumption within the administration that it might be dealing with two competing factions: a civilian government side in Tehran, and the IRGC.
Tasnim meanwhile reports that Iran has made no decision as of yet to negotiate with the US, amid rumblings that talks could resume Friday. WSJ’s latest commentary:
Singh [former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council who is now at the Washington Institute think tank] warned that the blockade could prove a double-edged sword for Washington, at a time when the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is hurting the world economy and driving up U.S. energy prices ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“The blockade is a bet that Iran will break before the rest of the world will, but it’s a risky bet,” he said. “The Iranian regime is fighting for its survival and has demonstrated an ability to withstand the strangulation of its oil exports.”
The latest as both warring sides impose rival blockades in Hormuz:
FT: At least 34 tankers with links to Iran have bypassed the US blockade since it began, according to the cargo tracking group Vortexa, including several carrying Iranian oil— despite President Trump declaring the barricade a “tremendous success”. https://t.co/G3v3VbHnsA
The IRGC on Wednesday attacked a third vessel of the day in the Strait of Hormuz, rapidly escalating tensions further in the dangerous standoff. The container ship Francesca, owned by Mediterranean Shipping, was targeted while waiting to enter.
“An Iranian gunboat fired on a containership northeast of Oman, before a second vessel reported being fired at off the coast of Iran,” according to WSJ. “Then the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on a third ship. The incidents within hours of each other demonstrate that while the aerial war between the U.S. and Iran is on pause, the fight for control of the strait continues.” The same publication offers the following outline summary of where things stand on the diplomatic front:
A senior Iranian adviser said the U.S. naval blockade is “no different than bombing” and must be met “with a military response.”
Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. said his country is ready to negotiate with the U.S. once it ends the blockade.
Britain will host military planners from more than 30 countries for two days of talks aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz starting Wednesday.
Iran Seizes Two Ships In Hormuz
The semi-official news agency Fars reports on X that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the MSC Francesca and a Greek-owned ship named Euphoria, which had been attempting to transit the Hormuz chokepoint earlier today. In total, three ships were targeted this morning by IRGC naval forces, and two were seized.
“The IRGC Navy seized two violating vessels and transferred them to Iran’s coast. IRGC Navy Command: Disruption of order and safety in the Strait of Hormuz is our red line,” Fars said, adding that both vessels had been “immobilized.”
نیروی دریایی سپاه دو کشتی متخلف را توقیف و به ساحل ایران منتقل کرد
Earlier, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reported that the two vessels had come under heavy fire in the narrow waterway.
Current snapshot of the waterway via Bloomberg ship-tracking data of tankers:
All three maritime incidents in the Strait come as President Trump has kept the U.S. blockade of Iran in Hormuz in place, and U.S. naval forces seized an Iranian ship over the weekend before boarding another tanker linked to Iran.
Overnight, Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran so negotiators “can come up with a unified proposal,” but said the naval blockade will continue, while Tehran says it is an “act of war.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim cited the country’s envoy to the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, as telling reporters: “We have received some sign that they are ready to break it and as soon as they break this blockade, I think that the next round of the negotiations will take place in Islamabad.”
Iravani added, “If they want to sit at the table and discuss and find a political solution, they will find us ready. If they want to go to war, in this case also Iran is ready.” The status of the next round of US-Iran talks remains unclear. Vice President JD Vance has not departed for Pakistan as expected on Tuesday.
More Latest Regional Developments
via Newsquawk…
No Iranian delegation, primary or secondary, has traveled to Islamabad; reports about their departure and alleged meeting times are inaccurate, IRIB reported.
Earlier reports by Al Jazeera, citing a Pakistani diplomatic source, claimed that Iranian and US preliminary delegations were present in Islamabad.
“A Pakistani official source told Al Arabiya: The US and Iranian delegations will arrive in Islamabad today at the same time”; “The second round of negotiations will be held as scheduled”; “We currently have no information about extending the ceasefire between America and Iran”.
US Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to travel to Pakistan on Tuesday for Iran talks, according to sources cited by Axios.
US-Iran negotiations may begin Wednesday morning in Islamabad; the US believes there is a split within the Iranian negotiating team, according to Al Arabiya citing CNN sources.
Pakistani media expect the US and Iran to reach an agreement by Wednesday, according to Al Arabiya.
An Iranian official told The Washington Post that both sides have largely agreed on the broad outlines of a deal, according to Al Arabiya.
Pakistan asked the US and Iran to extend the truce for two more weeks; Pakistani media report Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif may announce a ceasefire extension on Tuesday, according to Al Arabiya.
Journalist Elster wrote: “Pakistani source told Reuters that Trump may attend talks with Iran in person or remotely if an agreement is reached”.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the US has never been closer to a strong deal with Iran and stated that Donald Trump still has options if no deal is reached.
An Iranian oil tanker entered Iran’s territorial waters despite the US blockade, escorted by the Iranian navy, Al Mayadeen reported.
Iran’s judiciary chief said it is “very possible” negotiations will fail; in that case, Iran will respond to the US interception of an Iranian ship.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US seizure of the cargo ship Touska and demanded the “immediate release of the Iranian vessel, its sailors, crew and their families,” according to CNN.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the blockade and ceasefire violations aim to turn negotiations into surrender or justify renewed war and stated Iran rejects talks under threats while preparing new battlefield responses.
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire was violated, ISNA reported, citing sources.
The Israeli army withdrew part of its forces from southern Lebanon following the ceasefire, according to sources cited by Haaretz.
A UN agency is preparing an evacuation plan for hundreds of ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported.
The Chicago Public Schools are facing a major truancy problem…among teachers.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was up in arms over suggestions that classes should be held on May 1 when teachers wanted to be out protesting.
Called International Workers’ Day, May Day is a global day of protest for socialist, communist, and unionist groups.
The CTU was upset when parents objected that canceling a day of class for teachers to join a political protest was a burden for working parents. These teachers believe that they are teaching something far more important through their activism. In defending the demand for publicly subsidized protests, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter explained that “teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks.”
While that does not help with the dismal proficiency scores of actual students, it is vital to training students as political foot soldiers.
The CTU and the National Education Association recently collaborated on a “curriculum build” to bring “social justice into the classroom” ahead of May Day. Dave Stieber, a history teacher in Chicago Public Schools is shown declaring that “May Day is a dress rehearsal for maybe there’s a random day in, you know, June that we all are, like, no work, no school, no shopping…So this is a continuation and a buildup of that.”
In the meantime, with only 2 of 5 students reading at grade level, the Chicago teachers chose to lower proficiency levels rather than improve their teaching record.
While failing on actually teaching students, the CTU is proficient at instructing politicians such as Mayor Brandon Johnson through the use of union dues to fund Democratic campaigns. The CTU and other teachers’ unions funneled millions into Johnson’s campaign. By one estimate, 93 percent of Johnson’s campaign budget came from unions.
The CTU has long held the distinction of being the most radical teachers’ union in the country. It was a CTU delegation that went to Venezuela during the Maduro regime to praise conditions under socialism. In a country where dissenters and reporters were being jailed and killed, the Chicago teachers gushed about how “we did not see a single homeless person!”
Suggesting that teachers should work rather than attend May Day protests set off the Chicago teachers. Now, the union has confirmed that classes will be held without the participating teachers, and Chicago Public Schools will pay for buses for both students and educators to go to the protests.
The city further promised that there would be no repercussions for either students or teachers playing hooky from school.
This is not the first time unions and teachers have allowed students to skip classes to support left-wing protests. In New York, teachers and students were allowed to skip school to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. Previously, students were allowed to skip school to protest climate change.
These school districts do not show the same participatory support for protests on the right. There is no accommodation or city-subsidized buses for pro-life protests or demonstrations in favor of Israel.
Nevertheless, the Chicago school system is declaring that this is what schooling is all about in the Windy City. CPS CEO Macquline King stated that “the agreement honors the proud history of civic action in Chicago and beyond.”
Decades ago, my parents helped create an organization to stem the exodus of families from public schools and to reinforce academic standards in the Chicago Public School system. They convinced more families to remain in the system because they believed (as I do) that public schools can play a critical role in shaping citizens through a diverse and shared experience.
I was long skeptical of voucher systems because of that commitment to public education. However, teacher unions and administrators are destroying public education in America. They are treating families as captive audiences while infusing education with social and political agendas. The only way to break this decades-long cycle of failure, in my opinion, is to give families alternatives by allowing them to send their children to schools with core educational (as opposed to advocacy) priorities.
Nevertheless, Mayor Johnson celebrated the funding of the May Day protests:
“We are pleased all parties are working together to ensure school communities can participate in commemorating International Workers Day…Encouraging participating allows Chicagoans to honor our history while advocating for our future. We look forward to a day of meaningful solidarity and community resistance to the forces trying to tear us apart.
Schools have long been a target for indoctrination by radical elements. The Cultural Revolution in China was the most extreme example where children were forced into protests and taught that political activism came before scholastics under the slogan “to rebel is justified.”
Mao declared that “our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture.”
In the CTU/NEA seminar, Kirstin Roberts, a pre-school teacher in Chicago Public Schools, is shown explaining that the purpose is to “encourage teachers of young children not to feel like this is stuff that’s way beyond their students, not to be afraid of raising up social justice issues, including workers’ rights, anti-racism, pro LGBT, LGBTQIA plus issues, immigration and immigrants rights.”
The erosion of the line between education and advocacy is now occurring on every level of our educational system. Some universities now have “resident activist” programs or offer degrees in advocacy.
In my book Rage and the Republic, I discuss the rise of the “new Jacobins” in the United States, including a cadre of radical educators who use our schools to pursue fundamental changes in our constitutional system. Law professors and deans are now calling for trashing our Constitution as a threat to the nation while teachers are using classes to radicalize students.
Chicago’s subsidy of May Day protests uses public funds in the struggling school system to foster radical political agendas. It removes any doubt for parents about the priority of Johnson, the CTU, and many of these teachers.
Some of the sentiments expressed in Chicago could have been ripped from Mao’s Little Red Book and speeches. He insisted “education must serve proletarian politics” and demanded “the period of schooling should be shortened, education should be revolutionized.”
In Chicago, the “period for schooling” is now being shortened in favor of “solidarity and community resistance.” While the students may not be able to actually read, they will learn the three R’s of modern education: resisting, raging, and rebelling.
Pentagon Denies Widespread Reports Of Iran’s ‘Dark’ Tankers Breaching US Blockade
Update(1510ET): The Pentagon has not been happy with today’s media headlines that proclaimed Iranian ‘dark’ tankers (with their transponders switched off) have been able to penetrate and get past the US Navy’s blockade. CENTCOM issued a late afternoon public message, stating: “Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These reports are inaccurate. Hero II and Hedy did not sail past the blockade as part of a flotilla that ‘ferried’ millions of barrels of oil to the market.
It continued, “In fact, the Iranian-flagged tankers are anchored in Chah Bahar, Iran, after being intercepted by U.S. forces earlier this week. Dorena has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after previously attempting to violate the blockade.”
Earlier even Bloomberg alleged that two Iranian fully laden tankers breached the US blockade. Amid two competing and contradictory narratives, the fog of war remains thick, making it difficult to assess which version is ultimately correct.
U.S. forces have directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the U.S. blockade against Iran.
Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These… pic.twitter.com/SKelkSOr77
As Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com reported earlier, Iran continues to export its oil out of the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz using dark mode on tankers to move past the US blockade outside the world’s most vital oil chokepoint.
At least two Iran-flagged supertankers fully laden with an estimated about 4 million barrels of crude have exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz and through the U.S. blockade, Bloomberg reports, citing satellite imagery analyzed by energy flows intelligence firm Vortexa.
The two Iranian very large crude carriers have been detected by satellite images as they had turned off their transponders and AIS positioning weeks ago. One of the supertankers, the Hero II, last transmitted a signal more than a month ago, with position in the Malacca Strait, data on MarineTraffic showed. The other VLCC, the Hedy, was last detected by AIS transponders around the same area near Malaysia and Singapore more than 70 days ago.
Various vessel-tracking and maritime intelligence firms say that Iran continues to export its oil and move tankers past the U.S. blockade, by increasingly using dark activity and signal spoofing tactics.
Earlier this week, an Iranian supertanker, which had delivered 2 million barrels of crude to a ship-to-ship transfer offshore Indonesia, was en route to return to Iran’s Kharg Island after entering the Strait of Hormuz through the U.S. blockade.
An Iran-owned VLCC departed Iran in late March 2026 and traveled to the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia, where she transferred 2 million barrels of crude oil to another VLCC, according to vessel monitoring data by TankerTrackers.com.
“Iranian flows continue via deception, including dark activity and ship-to-ship transfers,” maritime intelligence firm Windward said in a daily note on Tuesday.
“Iranian maritime trade remains active, but increasingly reliant on deceptive shipping practices and alternative routing strategies. New intelligence indicates potential shifts east of Hormuz, suggesting that pressure in the Gulf is driving adaptation rather than halting flows.”
A federal appeals court on Tuesday pulled a judge’s previous order to dismantle the high-profile detention center in the Florida Everglades for illegal immigrants, known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
In a 2–1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sided with the Trump administration’s argument that there was minimal federal involvement in the facility’s construction, so a federal environmental review was not warranted.
“Using state employees and state funds, Florida officials, on their own initiative, constructed a detention center at an airport on state property in the Florida Everglades,” court documents showed.
Two environmental groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, joined the Miccosukee Tribe, which has villages close to the facility, in challenging construction of Alligator Alcatraz.
The groups accused state and federal officials of rushing to build the facility and failing to conduct an environmental review as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
That federal law, passed in 1970, requires federal agencies to evaluate environmental impacts of proposed major construction.
Construction began last year on the facility, located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades, to assist with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and detainment of illegal aliens.
A lower court in August sided with the environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe, ordering officials to halt construction and even undo some work that had already been finished. But the higher court’s Tuesday order lifted that.
Federal authorities inspected the site for compliance with federal standards, court documents said, but this wasn’t enough to trigger a federally mandated environmental review.
“Because the environmentalists and Tribe failed to prove either a final agency action or federal control, and because the injunction, in part, violates a statutory prohibition of enjoining immigration enforcement, we vacate and remand,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in the federal appeals court ruling.
The 11th circuit has now twice lifted orders to halt construction—Tuesday’s ruling and again back in September.
“Victory secured against activist judge who held me in contempt,” Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X in response to the 11th circuit’s September decision.
“A win for Florida and President [Donald] Trump’s agenda!”
Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Center for Biological Diversity, however, issued a news release Tuesday in response to the latest legal development, calling it a “temporary” setback.
Wildlife and ecosystems remain imperiled, the group said.
“This disappointing decision won’t stop our challenges to the numerous environmental violations that the Trump administration is overseeing there,” Elise Bennett, director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “We’ll keep fighting because the Trump and DeSantis administrations’ obsession with sacrificing our Everglades, endangered panthers and wild waters to their cruel detention center is utterly indefensible.”
The groups further argue there was enough federal involvement to warrant a federal environmental review. The Center for Biological Diversity said FEMA committed hundreds of millions of dollars to Florida for building and operating the facility.
Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, had a statement in the news release as well, saying, “This fight is far from over.”
“Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost,” she said.
Samples added that she is pursuing every legal avenue available to shut down Alligator Alcatraz.
