Zelensky’s Interceptor Drones Deployed Across Eurasia, Now Shooting Down Iranian Shaheds
Three weeks after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukrainian drone specialists were helping five Gulf states counter Iranian Shahed drones and build low-cost interceptor-based air defenses, he revealed Friday that Ukrainian military personnel had just recently shot down Shaheds in the Gulf theater.
“Our teams are already working with five countries on countering (Iran’s) ‘Shahed’ drones — we have provided expert assessments and are helping build a defense system,” Zelensky stated on X in mid-March.
By Friday, AP News quoted Zelensky as saying Ukrainian personnel helped partners build effective air defenses using interceptor drones to combat Iranian Shaheds.
“This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defense system that can actually work,” Zelensky said.
Low-cost interceptor drones deployed by Ukraine are among the most effective ways to combat the inexpensive $20,000 Shaheds, as a war of attrition makes little economic sense when interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Ukraine has had four years to develop low-cost one-way attack drones and interceptors during its war with Russia. Now, this technology is clearly being exported across multiple theaters in Eurasia.
Zelensky did not identify the countries or the exact interceptor drones used, but it is possible that Octopus-100 autonomous interceptor drones were deployed.
He said Ukraine had deployed hundreds of experts to the Gulf area, and, in return, has received weapons to protect its energy assets as well as financial support.
We recently published a fascinating piece titled “Ukraine Becomes World’s AI Weapons Laboratory“ that delves into Ukraine’s drone industry and offers more insight into the interceptor technology.
Here’s an excerpt from the note:
General Cherry is one of two Ukrainian companies selected to compete in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, a $1.1 billion initiative to field large numbers of cheap, effective one-way attack drones for American forces. Both General Cherry and Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp. have demonstrated they can mass-produce drones on short notice. General Cherry is now in talks with several Persian Gulf states about supplying interceptor drones to the Iran war.
The conflict areas across Eurasia, from Russia-Ukraine to the U.S.-Iran war, have only reinforced that the warfare technology of the 2030s has been pulled forward. After four years of hyper-development in the Eastern European theater, low-cost drones are already transforming modern battlefields worldwide. The most alarming development is that this low-cost war tech is spreading across Eurasia as more countries work to design, develop, and manufacture at scale, with future stockpiles likely to be measured in the millions.
Avalanche Energy, a fusion energy startup, has won a $5.2 million contract to build radioactive batteries that can power a laptop-class system for months. The contract is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Rads to Watts Program, which aims to build next-generation, compact, resilient nuclear batteries with higher densities.
Radioactive batteries aren’t an entirely new concept. They have been around for years and have made their way even to Mars on NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Another type of radioactive battery is used in medical implant devices and sensors, but all these devices face the same issue: low energy density.
Lithium-ion batteries, which are used everywhere from wearables to grid-level storage facilities, have high energy densities, storing up to 300 watt-hours (Wh) per kilogram. In comparison, radioactive batteries generate only about 2 watt-hours per kilogram, which the Rads to Watts Program aims to address.
What will Avalanche do?
The contract awarded to Avalance aims to build a radioactive battery that can power a laptop-class system for months. However, the battery will weigh only a few kilograms and deliver more than 10 watts per kilogram of energy. This is a major jump in power output for radioactive batteries.
However, given that DARPA projects typically have defense and space applications in mind, these batteries will also need to be resilient in challenging environments, such as extreme temperatures and radiation exposure in space, where conventional electronics degrade rapidly.
Avalanche will work to build solid-state microfabricated cells that convert alpha particles emitted by radioactive isotopes into electricity (alphavoltaic cells). This is quite similar to how photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity. These cells will convert the kinetic energy of alpha particles into usable electricity, powering a laptop-class device.
Avalanche will test the battery’s operational resilience using particle accelerators and active radioisotopes. It will also lead a team of researchers from the universities of Utah, Caltech, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and McQuaide Microsystems.
How will it advance fusion energy tech?
Since Avalanche is a fusion energy startup, taking up a project that uses nuclear fission technology might seem counterintuitive to Avalanche’s core mission. Yet the underlying physics is relevant to Avalanche’s long-term plan of building a portable fusion energy device.
During the project, Avalanche will build degradation-resistant microchips that will be used in alpha-voltaic cells and eventually in fusion devices.
“The DARPA contract represents a critical milestone in our path to practical fusion power,” said Robin Langtry, co-founder and CEO of Avalanche Energy, in a press release.
“The direct energy conversion technologies we’re developing under Rads to Watts will be essential for extracting power from fusion reactions efficiently. We’re building the capabilities today that will enable tomorrow’s fusion systems to deliver reliable, portable energy for defense, space, and commercial applications.”
“The very same fusion machines that produce high-energy alpha particles will also produce high-energy neutrons. The neutrons produced are also efficient at creating the same radioisotopes needed for the Rads to Watts program, creating a reinforcing supply-and-technology flywheel around Avalanche’s core fusion platform,” the company said in the press release.
Avalanche has already built its technology demonstrators but has not yet achieved a net-positive energy gain. So, a compact fusion energy device that is portable is a little way in the future. We will keep you posted if there are updates in that direction.
Airfares In Israel Skyrocket As Travelers Take Advantage Of Ceasefire, But Foreign Airlines Stay Away
The Iran ceasefire has finally allowed Ben Gurion international airport to fully reopen after 40 days of severe war disruptions, and after the ‘new normal’ for people across Israel was to routinely scramble to find missile shelters.
Foreign and international carriers had canceled flights to Israel since the US-Israeli attack started on Feb. 28 – and amid the de facto shutdown in commercial air traffic across the whole region. But Israeli media says that now two days into a full reopening and foreign airlines are not coming back for a while.
Israeli airlines are hastily trying to restore their full regular schedules, amid an expected burst in travel demand during the spring and headed into the summer season.
But given rising fuel costs and expected high demand, amid the absence in seats provided by foreign airlines in ‘normal times’, airfares are skyrocketing, Israeli media says.
“The airfares of Israeli airlines are already skyrocketing because of expectations of strong travel demand in the coming weeks and especially during the summer months,” Yoni Waxman, deputy chairman of Ophir Tours, explained to The Times of Israel.
“Prices are very high because of the low capacity of seats currently available for the upcoming period relative to the demand for bookings,” Waxman continued. “Now airfares will be even higher as the Iran war sent global oil prices and jet fuel costs soaring in recent weeks,” the analyst added.
TOI reviews the impact of the over one-month long war on Israel’s national carriers: “Due to the imposed aviation restrictions, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa had to cancel their regular flight schedules and operate a sharply reduced emergency schedule, mainly to repatriate citizens stuck abroad and help travelers stranded inside the country leave. The restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport upended travel plans for tens of thousands of Israelis.”
As people rush back to the ticketing counters, they are likely to experience sticker shock.
Serious security threats to Ben Gurion airport still persist…
🇱🇧🇮🇱 Hezbollah rockets hit Tel Aviv.
Ben Gurion Airport was evacuated after Hezbollah rockets reached deep into Israeli territory. pic.twitter.com/sQbOJynDPT
And looming large in all this is the possibility that the war could just resume again at the end of the 2-week agreed upon ceasefire. Also the Lebanon crisis is still lingering. There are reports that Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon this week have reached all the way to the environs of Tel Aviv, threatening the airport once again.
An immigration appeals board on April 9 denied Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s final appeal seeking to keep him from being deported from the United States.
The former Columbia University student and leader of pro-Palestinian protests is now subject to an administrative final removal order, authorizing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove Khalil from the country.
Khalil, 31, said the board’s decision was based on politics.
“I am not surprised by this decision from the biased and politically motivated Board of Immigration Appeals,” Khalil said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.
“I have committed no crime. I have broken no law. The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine—and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it.”
A Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson told The Epoch Times the decision “speaks for itself.”
The DOJ oversees the Board of Immigration Appeals
Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and is a citizen of Algeria. He entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 and married an American citizen a year later, becoming a legal permanent resident following the marriage. He was arrested in March 2025 and spent 104 days in an immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.
Khalil’s detention has been criticized by progressive officials and organizations and politicians from the Democratic Party.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have all expressed support for Khalil.
In March 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that charged Khalil’s presence in the country as having “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in January 2026 during an appearance on the NewsNation show “Katie Pavlich Tonight” that Khalil may be removed to Algeria.
“It looks like he’ll go to Algeria. That’s what the thought is right now,” McLaughlin said.
“It’s a reminder for those who are in this country on a visa or on a green card. You are a guest in this country—act like it.”
Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, a San Francisco immigration attorney, claims his client was targeted for his speech.
“Federal courts have already agreed that Mahmoud was targeted for his speech, and there is likely much more evidence of the government’s unlawful retaliation that has yet to come to light,” Van Der Hout said in a statement.
“This is a clear continuation of the administration’s retaliation against Mahmoud for exercising his First Amendment rights.”
Khalil’s remaining federal court case is also on uncertain ground after suffering a setback earlier this year when a U.S. appeals panel ruled 2–1 that a New Jersey judge overstepped his authority by releasing him on bail and barring the government from detaining or deporting him.
Khalil’s legal team has asked the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals to consider a full rehearing of his case. His attorneys said they believe Khalil can’t be removed until his appeal is resolved. The board’s decisions are not public.
The government has asked for 14 days to file a response to the request.
The Trump administration will soon release a rule dealing with ATF’s illegal registry. It will change the Biden-era requirement that gun dealers permanently keep all firearm transaction records.
Ending the permanent retention of these records is could be a huge step in the right direction, since the Biden ATF’s entire plan was to use these forms to continue building their illegal gun registry.
So how does GOA know this?
Well in case you missed our video on it, the Trump administration’s proposed new director of the ATF, Robert Cekada, answered questions from Senators following his hearing.
These “Questions for the Record” or QFRs, are questions that could not be asked during hearings because of time constraints. Nominees submit their answers creating a via a public legal record that is published before their confirmation vote.
These answers can be enlightening where a nominee stands on particularly complex issues.
Specifically, Senator Ted Cruz asked about ATF’s 920 million-record illegal registry and how many documents they’ve added in the 4-year gap since the ATF last updated those figures.
In his response, Deputy Director Cekada said
“Consistent with the President’s Executive Order on the Second Amendment, ATF is also undertaking a review of how long firearm transaction records should be maintained.”
In another question from Senator Cruz, he asks what’s the point in maintaining infinite or even more than 10 years of records when the average national time to crime is less than 10 years, and there are few traces that use records older than 20 years.
In Cekada’s response to this question, he says:
“Further, in accordance with the President’s Executive Order, Protecting Second Amendment Rights, ATF has been working with the Department to conduct a thorough review of existing regulations to assess whether they infringe on Second Amendment rights. As part of this review, we are examining the law enforcement value of older firearm transaction records. The results of that review should be forthcoming shortly.” “
Thanks to these public records, we KNOW the ATF is looking into ending the Biden era Rule that made all gun transaction records or ATF Form 4473s into permanent records. And this is “coming soon.”
Ending the Biden era rule is good news. Permanent record retention was a crucial step in the anti-gun lobby’s plan to build a complete registry of all guns and gun owners in the United States to be used eventually for confiscation.
But before the permanent record retention rule, Federal Firearms Licensees only needed to keep their records for 20 years; afterwards they could destroy them.
So right now, the ATF and FFLs nationwide have every single dealer sale record since 2002. That’s a pretty significant number of records, which the ATF is attempting to turn into a registry as you read this article.
There is no public information outside of Cekada’s responses to Senator Cruz about what the rule will look like. But, in light of this information, the GOA’s Legal and Federal Affairs teams have put together a proposal to the DOJ, ATF, and the Trump administration on what a “No Compromise” rule would look like.
And don’t worry, we’re still lobbying Congress to delete the registry with Rep. Michael Cloud’s No REGISTRY Rights Act and some appropriations language that Rep. Andrew Clyde has been introducing the last couple of years.
And of course, we’re continuing our lawsuit against the Biden-era rule that made these records permanent. But there’s a path here for President Trump to really restore our Second Amendment rights and dismantle this registry.
Ideally, ATF’s record retention period should be zero years.
A registry of guns and gun owners in the United States is a total contradiction of the intent behind the Second Amendment. The founders of this country knew that the only way to keep a government from becoming tyrannical is to have an armed population.
And 40 years ago, Congress agreed. By passing the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, our elected officials explicitly prohibited the government from creating or maintaining a registry.
The Firearm Owners Protection Act is clear evidence that the ATF has no right to keep any records on guns or gun owners. However, GOA is concerned that the ATF will not heed this warning and will instead default to the status quo. Even worse, ATF could propose a rule that maintains records for longer than 20 years.
Whatever happens, the change will be “better” than Biden’s attempt to force the US into a universal background check system via executive fiat.
But the prior status quo of 20 or more years of gun registration would not be anywhere remotely close to what gun owners and voters expect from the most Pro Second Amendment administration in history.
And this is only half of the story for record retention.
Thanks to a GOA Freedom of Information Act request in 2022, we know that the ATF maintains nearly a BILLION records in their “Out of Business Records Repository,” the permanent registry of all records collected from gun stores or dealers that have closed for any number of reasons.
We also know that the ATF has these records in a digital, searchable format, making it easy for ATF to find gun owners and their guns.
Because of the current permanent retention of Out of Business records, GOA believes any rule released by ATF must also address how long ATF maintains these records before destruction.
Simply maintaining the status quo, where ATF keeps these records permanently, is a non-starter. Even if gun dealers only had to hold their records for 10 years, any records within 10 years of a gun store closing would still be permanently retained in the Out of Business records registry.
ATF claims that these records help them to solve crime, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, ATF themselves admit they have no ability to determine if maintaining this massive registry of gun owners has ever helped them solve even one crime.
“The NTC [or National Tracing Center] has no ability to determine the successful prosecution of hundreds of thousands of crime gun traces it completes annually, nor does it have any way to link a trace for a specific prosecution for a particular year.”
.@ATFHQ claims the FFL records & registry help with firearm tracing & solving crimes HOWEVER the agency admits that only 50% of departments bother to use this information to solve crimes.@RepBenCline is right: this is more about gun registration than it is about solving crimes! pic.twitter.com/3QPVSOloFz
In fact, all the trace does is allow ATF to figure out who purchased the firearm at the point of sale, not who used it in a crime. If anything, the older these records get- the less useful they are to law enforcement.
So, if that’s true-—who are these forms useful to then?
The answer: A tyrannical government, or an invading foreign military as shown perfectly in the 1984 film “Red Dawn.”
Even the invading Soviets knew that the 4473 forms were a de-facto registry of gun owners.
President Biden and his administration knew exactly what they were doing when they mandated that all 4473 records be kept permanently. Around the same time, the Biden DOJ announced a new rule, which as President Biden said himself: “moves the United States as close to universal background checks as possible without new legislation.”
President Biden (@POTUS) announced an executive order to implement backdoor universal background registration checks (UBCs) WITHOUT CONGRESS OR A NEW LAW. 😠
This is a direct violation of the Constitution & will do NOTHING to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. pic.twitter.com/HXOheZUOEH
The permanent recordkeeping requirement, combined with a federal prohibition on private sales of firearms, leads to one place, a gun registry.
The pieces were simply being put together slowly by the anti-gun lobby under the guise of “public safety.” Thankfully, we at GOA were able to sue and halt the Biden Administration from implementing their universal background check rule. And now, Biden is out of office, and we apparently have a pro-gun DOJ working on behalf of gun owners nationwide, right?
The Trump Administration’s next move here is crucial.
ATF should take this opportunity to deliver gun owners a much-needed victory after decades of attacks on their privacy. That’s why we’re asking the Trump Administration to implement our suggestions to the final rule. And we’re asking our grassroots membership to speak out when the comment period opens.
ATF Director nominee Cekada was asked whether he would commit to repealing Biden-era ATF infringements, such as the:
❌Pistol Brace Ban
❌Frame & Receiver Rule
❌Engaged in the Business Rule
When it comes to the topic of registries and gun owners’ personal information, an ATF working for “the most pro-Second Amendment” administration in history should not do the bare minimum for gun owners.
Instead of reimplementing the previous 20-year record retention period and to be consistent with President Trump’s pro-Second Amendment policies, ATF’s own research on the matter, and even anti-gun organizations’ prior proposals, ATF should adopt a retention period of zero years.
This policy is supported by what the current statutes permit, and the Constitution requires.
Gun owners expect forward progress, not merely a reversal of Biden-era infringements.
“Move To California”: Nvidia CEO Becomes Unofficial Pitchman For Struggling Left-Wing State
The California exodus is a very simple byproduct of one-party Democratic rule, with unhinged progressive politicians abusing their tax base through high taxes, overregulation, and experiments with extreme progressive policies that have transformed parts of some metro areas into crime-ridden hellholes. Average people, billionaires, and businesses have all been voting with their feet, fleeing to red states in search of lower taxes, law and order, more affordable living conditions, fewer regulations, and an economic environment where they can actually thrive.
This brings us to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who may be a genius when it comes to AI and chipstacks, but on Thursday at Stanford, he delivered one of his most absurd remarks.
“I say to everybody, ‘Move to California. Don’t leave. It’s the highest taxes in the world, but it’s OK,'” Huang told the audience at an event hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business that also featured Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Huang continued trying to sell folks moving back: “The weather is great.” He might not be wrong about that.
The event brought together Huang and Khanna, with former National Security Advisor and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Gen. H.R. McMaster moderating the discussion alongside host Sarah Soule, dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Khanna has faced criticism for introducing the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” which would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires. California Democrats have floated similar ideas in recent months, which sparked an exodus among some of the state’s wealthiest residents. The latest to leave was Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, who packed his bags for Texas.
And it is not just billionaires leaving. Alongside an alarming outbound migration of working- and middle-class residents, one recent study found that California lost 789 corporate headquarters on a net basis between 2011 and 2021, equal to about 1.9% of the state’s more than 47,000 headquarters.
Jonathan Turley recently described the exodus as a “giant sucking sound” that can be heard in the Golden State, “which is virtually chasing taxpayers and companies out of the state with a massive state deficit, rising taxes, crippling regulations, and wasteful programs.”
And while San Francisco and Los Angeles compete for the cesspool crown, Los Angeles County just won that title for population loss.
According to the latest US Census data, LA County lost over 53,000 residents, marking the largest decline in any US city between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, while the overall population loss from 2020 to today is roughly 300,000 people.
Why Huang chose to go against the grain and urge people to “move to California,” even as smart money has already left or is still trying to leave, raises serious questions about his political judgment calls.
Young Americans are using artificial intelligence (AI) regularly, but their distrust and resentment toward the technology are also growing, according to a new Gallup survey.
The survey, released Thursday, found that more than half of Generation Z respondents ages 14 to 29 said they use generative AI either daily or weekly. Younger members of Gen Z who are still in K–12 education were more likely than Gen Z adults to say they use AI at least weekly.
Yet even as usage remains widespread, optimism is fading.
Compared with Gallup’s survey last year, young people are less excited about the changes AI could bring and more skeptical about its growing presence.
The share of respondents who said AI made them feel hopeful fell to 18 percent, down from 27 percent a year earlier, according to Gallup.
The share who said it made them feel excited dropped to 22 percent from 36 percent.
At the same time, negative feelings have grown.
Thirty-one percent of respondents said AI made them feel angry, up 9 percentage points from 2025, while 42 percent said it made them feel anxious, roughly unchanged from last year.
Among employed members of Gen Z, skepticism was especially pronounced.
Gallup found that 48 percent of working Gen Z respondents said the risks of AI in the workplace outweigh the benefits, an 11-point increase from the previous year. Only 15 percent said they viewed AI as a net positive on the job.
Confidence in the technology’s practical value also faltered. Just 37 percent said AI would help them find accurate information, down from 43 percent a year earlier. Only 31 percent said it would help them generate new ideas, down from 42 percent in 2025.
Still, younger respondents who have not yet entered the workforce continue to see AI as a skill they will need to understand. Gallup found that 52 percent of Gen Z students in K-12 said they believe they will need to know how to use AI in higher education, while 48 percent said they expect to use it in their future careers.
“Gen Z isn’t rejecting AI outright, but they are reassessing its role in their lives. What we’re seeing in the data is a generation that recognizes AI’s utility but is increasingly concerned about its long-term impact on learning, trust, and career readiness,” Stephanie Marken, senior partner at Gallup, said in a news release.
“Their growing skepticism signals a need for more thoughtful integration of these tools in both school settings and the workplace.”
Gallup surveyed 1,572 people ages 14 to 29 across all 50 states and District of Columbia between Feb. 24 and March 4. The poll, commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
The findings come as another Gallup study pointed to growing unease among college students about AI. That report, released last week, found that almost half of bachelor’s degree students said AI had caused them to give at least a fair amount of thought to changing their major. The share was even higher among associate degree students.
Students in technology and vocational fields appeared especially uneasy, according to that survey. A majority of respondents in the humanities, business, and engineering also reported similar concerns.
“Terrifies Billionaire Class”: Pro-China Party Of Socialism & Liberation Plans General Strike On U.S. Economy
The Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL) is promoting a May 1 “general strike” aimed at disrupting economic activity across the U.S., framing it as a coordinated effort to pressure the Trump administration.
“The prospect of a nationwide shutdown terrifies the billionaire class, and it is what can really stop Trump in his tracks,” PSL wrote on X.
Millions hit the streets this past weekend. On May 1, we shut it all down!
No Kings Day brought millions of people out in demonstrations that made it impossible to ignore the widespread opposition to Trump’s agenda that exists in every part of the country. Now, organizations… pic.twitter.com/hsAWbEHK3Q
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) March 31, 2026
PSL added that recent nationwide protests demonstrated opposition, and said left-wing nonprofits are now mobilizing for a larger action on May 1.
🚨Tonight’s Raleigh protest is already being used to build support for a May Day General Strike.
“We will commit ourselves to an anti-imperialist and working class movement, one where the working class will make it palpable that a general strike will defeat Trump’s billionaire… pic.twitter.com/vZWTN0XJsH
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) April 8, 2026
A 2023 report by The New York Times noted that Marxist billionaire Neville Roy Singham has been linked to PSL and is aligned “with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.”
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Anti-U.S. protests by pro-communist groups — funded by American Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham from his base in Shanghai — now emerge as B-roll for the propaganda arm of Qatar, which plays both sides of America’s conflict with Iran. https://t.co/C1Va0EQrzK
🚨EXCLUSIVE: Never-before-seen photos reveal the moment a “Revolutionary Love” wedding birthed a $600M anti-American pipeline.
From a Jamaica marriage to America’s streets, Fox News Digital reveals how Neville Roy Singham’s network uses a former CCP leader’s playbook to turn… pic.twitter.com/BpkpR26QVl
From a national security perspective, a coordinated general strike to crash the economy – or, really, destroy capitalism, because that’s the intended end goal – could create localized disruptions across critical logistics networks, including transportation, ports, energy systems, and manufacturing. In more extreme scenarios, prolonged strikes on critical logistical nodes could disrupt supply chains critical to defense and infrastructure.
Nationwide strike threats come as ongoing conflicts across Eurasia, including the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing US-Iran conflict, have transformed these areas of the world into warzones, in which the U.S. is a critical supplier of weapons.
Who benefits in a general strike if the U.S. economy comes to a halt?
The prospect of a large-scale domestic work stoppage may suggest that China is waging asymmetric warfare through the Singham nonprofit network, as Beijing is furious about the energy shock at the Hormuz chokepoint following the Gulf conflict.
President Trump was reportedly on the verge of firing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — until longtime adviser Roger Stone stepped in at the last minute.
According to an Axios report citing ‘advisors’, Trump had grown frustrated with Gabbard’s congressional testimony on threats to the U.S., in which she stopped short of a full-throated endorsement of the ongoing Iran conflict. The sources described the president polling other advisers on her performance and whether she should be replaced.
The drama unfolded after the high-profile resignation of Gabbard’s former adviser and counterterrorism director, Joe Kent, who publicly accused Israel of misleading the administration into war with Iran. Gabbard’s decision not to forcefully condemn Kent during her testimony only added fuel to the fire.
In a private meeting, Trump “scolded” Gabbard and questioned her loyalty, according to two sources. Others described the exchange as sarcastic but ultimately friendly.
Yet it was Roger Stone — Trump’s friend and political confidant since 1979 — who ultimately changed the president’s mind, according to the report.
“Roger sealed the deal. He saved Tulsi,” a source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Axios.
Stone laid out four key arguments for keeping her, according to people who spoke with him. Gabbard had remained loyal, delivered her testimony in a professional manner, and never publicly disputed the president. Unlike Kent, she showed no signs of resigning and did not deserve to be fired preemptively. Dismissing her would trigger a damaging news cycle and turn her into a martyr among segments of the base uneasy about the war. And firing her could give her credibility with MAGA skeptics, potentially positioning her as a future GOP presidential contender — one who might challenge Vice President JD Vance in key early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Stone himself confirmed his intervention on X, writing: “Fortunately, I acted in time.”
Last Monday Loomer tried to convince the President that Tulsi Gabbard was about to resign- in an effort to get Trump to move preemptively to fire her. The whole thing was a hoax. Fortunately, I acted in time. When I called Loomer out on her lie is when she became unhinged pic.twitter.com/Qbg2GpI6C2
Stone’s comments come against a backdrop of a verbal feud with Laura Loomer.
.@LauraLoomet You planted the idea that Tulsi was about to resign in an effort to stampede the president Into firing her but you got out maneuvered . Tulsi had no intention of resigning and has done nothing to merit her termination .
.@LauraLoomer persuaded the president that Tulsi Gabbard was about to resign and should be preemptively fired. It was another one of her lies. The dirty trick didn’t workhttps://t.co/TKqTjx7ezX
Loomer took to X to declare: “Tulsi is done. The White House wants zero drama so they gave her the option to resign, but … she will do a lot of damage if she is given the choice to resign because she will launch her 2028 presidential campaign.”
A Gabbard ally fired back, calling Loomer’s claim “absolutely false” and noting that Trump has repeatedly stood by his DNI.
The White House pushed back hard on any notion of discord. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “President Trump believes Tulsi Gabbard is doing an excellent job on behalf of the administration. She is a key member of his national security team.”
An ODNI spokesperson added that Gabbard “remains committed to fulfilling the responsibilities the President placed in her to protect the safety, security and freedom of the American people. She will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of President Trump’s agenda.”
The episode highlights the intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering inside the Trump administration as it navigates foreign policy challenges and internal loyalty tests. Gabbard, a combat veteran and longtime skeptic of endless Middle East entanglements, was brought on board for her outsider perspective and America First instincts. Yet her independent streak has created friction with hardliners who demand unwavering alignment on every national security issue.
Stone’s apparent intervention appears to have preserved stability — at least for now. In an administration that prizes loyalty above almost everything else, the veteran political operative reminded the president why keeping experienced voices who deliver results without grandstanding serves the country better than another round of public bloodletting.
This isn’t the first time Gabbard has faced scrutiny. Tensions surfaced last year over her decision to pull certain security clearances without full consultation and her public warnings about nuclear risks. She was also notably sidelined from some key pre-war discussions.
Still, the president’s ultimate decision to retain her — guided by Stone’s counsel — sends a clear signal: personnel moves will be deliberate, not reactive. In a high-stakes environment where every leak and resignation threatens to become a headline, avoiding unnecessary drama may prove the smarter long-term play.
The media’s breathless coverage of the near-firing only underscores how quickly internal deliberations become public fodder. Yet the outcome reinforces a core truth in this administration: seasoned advisers who understand Trump’s instincts can still shape decisions behind closed doors, protecting both the president’s agenda and the team executing it.
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“I am sick of serving in Congress with immoral freaks who abuse their office and bring dishonor to the institution.”
– Rep Anna Paulina Luna
You have entered the season of chaos. Better get used to it. The center quit holding a long time ago, and now even the margins are quivering. Buckle up and batten down. It will probably get rougher and weirder. Struggle is everywhere.
Iran Declares Victory
Will Iran reopen Hormuz or not? They really only have days to stop playing games with the rest of the world. It will soon be clear whether they can negotiate in good faith. It doesn’t look good. Their theology of jihad contains a permission structure for lying to their enemies to accomplish their aim: which is, to annihilate the hated infidels (that’s us).
That is the reason for this conflict, by the way. They have promised over and over again to destroy us. Why not believe them? The thousand pounds of enriched uranium is still stashed somewhere in the country. It has only one purpose, to be made into bombs, and they’re not allowed to keep it. The message is pretty simple, but they don’t seem to get it. There are probably big fissures between the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), the secular government of President Masoud Pezeshkian, and the regular army (the Artesh). Are they even able to communicate with each other? You and I don’t know, though Mr. Trump and his people might know.
I doubt that Mr. Trump wanted to drop the hammer on Iran last Tuesday, as he vowed to do. But it might eventually be necessary to turn the lights off there if they don’t stop screwing around.
Does Iran have an inexhaustible supply of missiles and drones, as some observers seem to believe? I doubt it. We blew up their factories. We have the option and the ability to track down whatever they’ve got left in storage and destroy it. One way or another, we are going to end Iran’s ability to be a problem for the rest of the world.
The American Left (the Democratic Party) would like nothing better than for Iran to thumb its nose at the rest of the world (at us especially), because the American Left has launched its own sort of Jihad.
It has been waging war on the rest of us in America for ten years, and you can be sure that, as springtime blossoms over the land, they intend to ramp up the action.
Expect Act One on May Day.
That is the day that the Left customarily celebrates socialism. It started off decades ago as a holiday for industrial workers. There are few enough of those left in the USA these days that they constitute less than a critical mass of all American workers. They have been replaced by grifters, fraudsters, and other parasites looking to get money-for-nothing from the rest of us without working at all. That is the Democratic Party’s raison d’être. They are now strictly a racketeering operation.
The Left will stage widespread demonstrations around the country on May Day. The several No Kings demos in cold weather were rehearsals for the spring and summer fun. You can expect the May Day action to turn into riots. Antifa is still very much at the Party’s beck and call for sparking that sort of thing. The idea behind it is to provoke the president into reacting forcefully to the Left’s riots so they can brand him “a tyrant.” If May Day is insufficient to accomplish that, wait until the extravaganzas around the Fourth of July when the USA ostensibly gets to celebrate our 250th birthday as a republic.
Considering that the Republican majority in Congress was unwilling to pass an election reform bill, it is also a fairly sure thing that sometime between May Day and July Fourth the president will have to issue an executive order setting out requirements for a free and fair election: voter ID, citizens only, highly restricted and tightly regulated mail-in voting, no electronic ballot-counting machines, etc.
That alone will inflame the Left, who cannot win elections without ballot fraud.
Of course, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Mary McCord, and the lawfare ninjas will file lawsuits to negate any executive order on election procedures, and their select federal judges will issue injunctions against it. Which will provoke Mr. Trump, in turn, to go full Abe Lincoln on them and declare an insurgency requiring extraordinary executive powers to overcome the Left’s ploys — just as Mr. Lincoln had to overcome the traitorous Confederates of his time. That will get Mr. Trump branded “a super-tyrant.”
From that point, we’re really in uncharted territory. But, it being the nation’s 250th birthday and all, a great majority of US citizens may be in no mood by then for any further pranking and punking by the Left. They will be more than eager for trials, perhaps by military tribunals if the corrupt federal judiciary proves intractable.
This is the kind of thing we have to look forward to as 2026 keeps rolling out. But meanwhile, events might get even hotter over in Euroland. The joint is primed to blow. They’ve had enough jihad, too, and enough of the retarded political leadership that allowed it to be inflicted on the people of Europe. It’s already started. Ireland is about to go up in flames, a case of the government’s utter betrayal of the people. After Ireland, cue the United Kingdom. They’ve had enough of hostile Islam and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.
They don’t call this the Fourth Turning for nothing.
