Summary

• Trump unilaterally extends ceasefire after Vance calls off trip to Pakistan – says Iranian port blockade to remain in place. Tasnim says Iran’s ‘final decision’ is to not attend talks.

• Trump warns: ‘Expect…bombs’ & urges Tehran “release women” said to be on death row.

• Overnight, US forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani in Indo-Pac region: CENTCOM

• As just 12 ships have gone through Hormuz Strait in last 24 hours, Iran claims one of its own made it past the US naval blockade. CENTOM says 28 turned around.

• Trump on Truth Social early Tuesday: Iran has Violated the Cease Fire numerous times!

*  *  * 

TACO Tuesday… Again: Ceasefire Extended in Trump TS Post

Can’t make this up… Trump unilaterally extends ceasefire, but says US Navy’s blockade of Iran’s ports will stay in place, after Islamabad talks collapse. Trump punts again… enjoy TACO Tuesday… we can say at least the bombing doesn’t look to resume, yet. To give more formality to it – or make it official, the White House also quickly put out Trump’s statement (and in a more presentable font) below. Initial reaction from Tehran:

• IRAN NOT OFFICIALLY COMMENTING ON CEASEFIRE EXTENSION
• IRAN’S POSITION WILL BE ANNOUNCED SUBSEQUENTLY

2nd Round Talks Collapse, Vance Not Traveling

Late afternoon headlines now confirm what was looking more and more inevitable as the hours passed but with no one side boarding planes to head to Islamabad: the Associated Press is reporting that Vice President Vance has called off the whole trip.

This also as Tasnim is reporting Iran’s “final decision” to not be in Pakistan Wednesday – the same day the two-week ceasefire formally comes to a close. Pakistan sources are meanwhile reporting that key negotiating figures are absent on the ground, and officials are said to be urging the sides to join a second-round summit.

And per Bloomberg: “Iran, for its part, told the mediators its delegation won’t leave Tehran before the blockade is lifted, according to officials familiar with the matter.”

Iranian officials have consistently said that they are prepared for Trump to resume the war. A senior official recently told me that if that happens, Iran will suspend all diplomatic channels indefinitely and focus on imposing “significantly greater costs on US interests”

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) April 21, 2026

US Delegation Trip for Talks ‘On Hold’

As VP Vance has been seen at the White House, clearly not en route to Pakistan for Iran talks, a hugely significant headline has sent oil up and stocks dumping more:

• VP Vance’s Pakistan trip has been put on hold as Iran’s leadership remained divided over whether to participate in a new round of peace talks, via Axios
• VANCE TRIP ON HOLD AS IRAN DIDN’T RESPOND TO US POSITIONS: NYT
• VANCE TRIP TO PAKISTAN HAS NOT BEEN CANCLED: NYT

Newsquawk market reaction: Stocks see weakness, while oil and Dollar gain amid NYT reports that VP Vance’s diplomatic trip to Islamabad has been put on hold after Tehran failed to respond to American negotiating positions.

Latest Update on Islamabad Talks: Pakistan remains in continuous contact with the Iranian side regarding confirmation of its delegation. As mediator, Pakistan continues sincere efforts to advance diplomacy and dialogue. With the ceasefire ending at 4:50 AM PST on 22 April, Iran’s… pic.twitter.com/r95ywZttwC

— Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (@MoIB_Official) April 21, 2026

Latest from Iran Foreign Minister:

Blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire.
Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation.

Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying.

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 21, 2026

Iran Last-Minute Major Demand

Talks are in peril as it’s unclear whether Vice President JD Vance intends to depart today for Pakistan, though Axios says he will. And now the Iranian side is imposing a new key demand to even get to the negotiating table – the lifting of the US Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports:

Iran has cast doubt over a second round of peace talks with the U.S. in Islamabad after refusing to publicly commit to attend the talks this week, as the expiration of a ceasefire looms.

Tehran had initially told mediators that it would send a delegation to Pakistan Tuesday for talks but later informed them that the U.S. would have to lift its blockade on Iran ports, according to officials.

Pakistan is urging the U.S. and Iran to extend the two-week cease-fire and continue to work toward a diplomatic solution. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected the lead the U.S. delegation.

President Trump has said he doesn’t intend to sign on to any ceasefire extension, and it expires by Wednesday. He has also warned the Iranians should “expect” bombs if no breakthrough can be found.

Trump to Iran: Release These Women

President Trump has suddenly pivoted to making the ‘humanitarian’ or ‘protect the protesters’ argument once again. He has just written on Truth Social the following words, while sharing the below image of eight Iranian women allegedly on death row:

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!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Whether these women are actually about to be hanged is another, lingering question (there’s no legitimate sourcing confirming that a group of eight women are about to be hanged) – but clearly Trump is trying to inject some more leverage on the US side before the second-round Pakistan talks even get started.

He had quickly followed the above with the below message talking about having ‘obliterated’ Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ to the point that the Iranians can’t get to it:

Trump: Iran Has No Choice, ‘Expect’ Bombs

President Trump on Tuesday said he expects a strong outcome from negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC that “they will end up with a great deal.” He added that “Iran has no choice, it is regime change no matter what you want to call it,” and emphasized that the US is in “a strong negotiating position.”

He said the naval blockade “has been successful” and that US forces are “in control of the Strait.” Trump also stated he does not want to extend the ceasefire, saying “there is not that much time” – but added that “Iran can get itself onto good footing with a deal.”

He also acknowledged that Iran has likely continued to do missile restocking in the ceasefire interim period, and also moving its remaining missile arsenal around. But Trump also claimed the US is “much more powerful than it was a few weeks again” and that CENTCOM used the ceasefire to restock as well. Importantly he also said the US is “ready to go militarily” and that the world should “expect” bombing – in the instance there’s no Pakistan deal reached. And an interesting China reference:

• Caught an Iranian ship with gifts from China, thought he had an understanding with China’s Xi, says “that’s alright”.

Pakistan Talks: Timeline Still Up in the Air

Who will fly to Islamabad first? Al Jazeera comments on the emerging diplomatic standoff before actual diplomacy even gets started, amid the continued tit-for-tat threats of potential escalation on the battlefield:

Pakistan is ready to host the talks. They are planning for them to take place on Wednesday at the highest level. But the White House has been very tight-lipped about when JD Vance will be leaving Washington.

What appears to be going on is the US trying to protect itself from embarrassment.

If it is to send its team, which ends up sitting here in Islamabad without Iran showing up, that would be a huge embarrassment. As a result, there now appears to be a game between the US and Iran over who is going to get on their plane and fly here first.

Per Bloomberg at about 4am US time: “Iran’s state-run TV denies unspecified media reports that an Iranian delegation has departed for or arrived in Pakistan for negotiations with the US.” Latest:

Al Jazeera reports: Mediators received confirmation of US VP Vance and Iran’s Ghalifab’s arrival in Islamabad at dawn Wednesday to lead talks.

At the same time, per WSJ, Iran has informed regional mediators that it will send a delegation to Islamabad after for days of repeatedly refusing to commit to a new round of negotiations. However, there’s not been official confirmation, only signaling, with Pakistani officials insisting the Iranians will be there. And yet, it was only on Monday that Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said that there was no plan for a second round of negotiations.

But if all goes well, Vice President Vance is expected to depart for Pakistan today, leading the delegation which includes Kushner and Witkoff. As a reminder, on Monday President Trump said “lots of bombs” will be unleased on Iran if there is no deal, and also given the White House doesn’t plan to extend the ceasefire. The key issues of Iran’s nuclear program and the Hormuz Strait loom large. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has at the same time warned: “we do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and over the past two weeks we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield”.

Since the start of the U.S. blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, U.S. forces have directed 28 vessels to turn around or return to port. pic.twitter.com/mZOq3SfxKt

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 21, 2026

Another Vessel Interdiction by US Navy

US forces boarded a sanctioned tanker without resistance in the Indo-Pacific as part of operations targeting vessels linked to Iran, the Pentagon said on X. Initial statements did not indicate a precise location, and clearly it did not occur in the Hormuz Strait. Washington recently announced it is ready to seize ‘illicit’ Iran-linked vessels anywhere on the high seas. The move follows Sunday’s major boarding of an Iranian-flagged vessel, when a US warship opened fire as it attempted to transit the strait, striking and damaging the engine room.

CENTCOM: Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.



Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.⁰⁰As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit… pic.twitter.com/EGwDe3dBI3

— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) April 21, 2026

“As we have made clear, we will pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran—anywhere they operate,” a CENTCOM post said. “International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels. The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain.”

Iran has been referring to this incident as a second fresh US violation of the ceasefire, amid the tit-for-tat accusations:

🚨The US has Intercepted A Second Iranian Ship In What Looks Like A Final Ceasefire Violation

A ship heading to China, called TIFANI, is allegedly carrying millions in crude oil.

This occurs right as Washington is seeking to bring Tehran to Islamabad to negotiate. pic.twitter.com/tZQEgXF1yf

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) April 21, 2026

Meanwhile…

Iran Claims Successfully Defied US Blockade

An Iranian oil tanker entered the territorial waters of Iran overnight after transiting the Arabian Sea with support from the country’s navy, according to the army, and as reported in NBC. Semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the vessel continued its route despite what it described as repeated warnings and threats from US forces enforcing a Trump-ordered blockade on Iranian ports.

The tanker is now anchored at a southern Iranian port and has remained there for several hours, the report indicated. Tanker traffic remains at a tiny trickle, with 12 presumably US-approved vessels having made it through in the past 24 hours.

A sense of normalcy returns to Iran as countdown to Wednesday expiration of 2-week ceasefire weighs heavy…

🇮🇷 Coffee shops bustling in Tehran as Middle East ceasefire nears end

Iranians gather in coffee shops in northern Tehran, as uncertainty grows over a push to stop the Middle East war from resuming. pic.twitter.com/svvALqngbT

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 21, 2026

There are even reports that Iran is ready to open up domestic air travel once again, but that could soon prove short-lived as President Trump’s threats keep coming, and given the unlikelihood that Pakistan talks will in the end succeed.

Longtime North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test launch of missiles equipped with multiple reentry vehicles, a move that drew limited international attention despite its escalation risk.

“The purpose of the test-fire is to verify the characteristics and power of cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead applied to the tactical ballistic missile,” North Korean state media reported Sunday. “Five tactical ballistic missiles, launched towards the target area around an island about 136 km away, struck the area of 12.5~13 hectares with the very high density, fully displaying their combat might.”

Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, attended the launch – the latest in a series of recent public appearances alongside her father – a trend which has only intensified speculation about his succession planning.

Just several weeks ago, his daughter was filmed and photographed enjoying a battle tank ride alongside her father. Per prior reporting in the NY Times:

It seems like a familiar rite of passage: a dad teaching his daughter to drive. Except in this case, the girl is at the helm of a hulking battle tank, her head sticking out from the driver’s hatch, while the father — the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un — reclines on the hull behind her.

The video and photographs of the girl, Kim Ju-ae, who is believed to be around 13, apparently driving the heavily armed vehicle during a military exercise, were published last month by North Korean state media. It was the latest in a series of public appearances that have fueled speculation that she is being groomed to succeed her father.

That theory has gained added credence from South Korea’s spy agency, which now believes Ju-ae has officially been chosen to succeed her father, South Korean lawmakers briefed on the matter said on Monday. They added that the agency’s analysis was based on “credible intelligence” rather than circumstantial context.

In the tank video, Mr. Kim is shown riding on the hull, smiling and occasionally leaning down to speak to his daughter, who is looking straight ahead.

A South Korean lawmaker subsequently saw in the whole scene “an intent to highlight Ju-ae’s military exceptionality” and “dilute skepticism of a female heir.”

Trump and Kim met three times between 2018 and 2020, but talks collapsed without an agreement – and this was followed by a period marked by rising tensions under Biden.

WATCH: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un rides in new tank with daughter pic.twitter.com/Pq78MSNjKt

— Rapid Report (@RapidReport2025) March 20, 2026

North Korea’s freshly conducted the test reportedly utilized fragmentation-style munitions after Iran deployed similar systems against Israel. Missiles carrying cluster or fragmenting warheads can overwhelm and evade advanced air defense systems.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US and the Philippines on Monday launched what’s being billed as the “biggest ever” Balikatan Exercise, an annual military drill that, for the first time, includes a significant contingent of Japanese troops as Tokyo increases its military activity in the region, ramping up tensions with China.

The drills are scheduled to take place from April 20 to May 8 and will involve more than 17,000 troops, including about 1,400 Japanese military personnel.

Importantly, exercises will include live-fire drills in the northern Philippines, facing Taiwan, and in Palawan, an island province facing the disputed South China Sea.

The start of the drills comes amid a very fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is due to expire on Wednesday if it’s not extended.

While the US has committed more than 60,000 troops to the Middle East, the Trump administration continues to focus on building alliances in the Asia-Pacific as part of its strategy against China, including a new security deal with Indonesia.

In response to the start of the Balikitan drills, the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US activity in the region.

“The world has seen enough damage done by unilateralism and abuse of military might. What the Asia-Pacific needs most is peace and tranquility, and the last thing the region needs is division and confrontation as a result of the introduction of external forces,” said spokesman Guo Jiakun.

The location of the same drills last year, via AEI’s Critical Threats Project

“No military and security cooperation should be conducted at the expense of mutual understanding and trust as well as peace and stability in the region. Such cooperation should not target any third party or harm the interests of any third party. For countries that tie their own security to others, it is important to bear in mind that this may very well backfire,” Guo added.

An emerging theme we are focusing on is the early stage of a major capex upcycle in America’s oil patch, with even Goldman now moving in that direction and forecasting a boom that could echo the industry’s expansion cycle of the early 2000s.

Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler was the first of the major oil patch players to mention in early April that “Continental is increasing our capital budget, which will increase production.”

Now, another giant of the oil patch, Halliburton, a major supplier of the gear, crews, and services that keep drilling and fracking going, reports new signs of life in oilfield activity across North America. 

“While these calls are not for committed crews, they do suggest incremental demand is building in spot markets with smaller operators. This is the leading edge of capacity tightening. While we are in the early innings, in my view the setup for North America is constructive. Premium equipment is already tightening,” Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller told investors in the company’s first-quarter earnings statement earlier today. 

Halliburton reported strong international performance, especially in Latin America, where revenue jumped 22% year over year, helping to offset disruptions in the Gulf area. The company still beat Bloomberg Consensus expectations on adjusted earnings, though the conflict in the Middle East reduced profit in its drilling and evaluation units by about 2 to 3 cents per share. 

Melius Research analyst James West noted that Halliburton “posted a solid beat across the board” that was “driven by international strength that more than offset continued North America softness.” 

Miller’s comments about signs of life returning to the oil patch add to remarks made by Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler earlier this month. 

This leaves us asking whether a broader shale response is still to come…

Answering that question is a team of Goldman analysts led by Michele Della Vigna, who now expects “the sector is poised for a major oil capex upcycle, similar to that of the early 2000s.”

We must point out that the oil patch has yet to respond to WTI futures topping $110 a barrel, before sliding to $83 a barrel. WTI tradnig around $89 on Tuesday morning. 

Della Vigna outlined, “The escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East since February 28 may have accelerated the timing of a structural capex upcycle, which we now expect to start in 2027.“

She also laid out a list of companies that clients should be long as this emerging theme begins to revive life in the oil patch. Read the report here.

In short, Halliburton has been a leading oilfield services player in North America for decades, and its commentary may be one of the first real signals that the investment cycle is turning up. After a long stretch of under investment, the trend now appears to be shifting back toward renewed capital spending and reserve expansion.

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Treasury Department on April 21 announced that it is imposing sanctions on 14 targets “for their involvement in helping the Iranian regime obtain weapons,” in contravention of international sanctions.

“As the regime attempts to reconstitute its production capacity, the United States will continue to deplete Iran’s ballistic missile inventories,” the Treasury wrote in a post on X.

According to a press release from the Treasury, the targets include 14 “individuals, entities, and aircraft” based in Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, “for their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime.”

During the military operations in the region, the United States and Israel have sought to deplete Iran’s weapons reserves, particularly targeting Iranian ballistic missile sites.

Amid these operations, the Treasury said, Iran “is seeking to reconstitute its production capacity.”

The Treasury noted that increasingly, the Persian state is relying on one-way, unmanned drones to target U.S. and allied locations in the Middle East, and indicated that the Treasury would continue to work to prevent Iran from obtaining weapons.

“The Iranian regime must be held accountable for its extortion of global energy markets and indiscriminate targeting of civilians with missiles and drones,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, as part of Economic Fury, Treasury will continue to follow the money and target the Iranian regime’s recklessness and those who enable it,” Bessent added.

Currently, the ceasefire between the United States and Iran is holding. On Tuesday, Trump agreed to extend the ceasefire, but tensions with Iran remain high.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Simultaneously, Trump said the U.S. military will extend the more-than-week-long naval blockade of Iranian ports, saying that it will, “in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to commercial traffic.

Iran briefly opened the all-important shipping route on April 17 after the initial ceasefire agreement, but again closed the area to commercial shipping the next day, citing the ongoing U.S. blockade of its ports.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted on federal fraud charges that accused it of illegally raising millions of dollars to pay informants in white supremacist and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

An Alabama grand jury returned an indictment on April 21 with 11 counts of wire fraud, making false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the Justice Department (DOJ).

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said SPLC used paid operatives within extremist circles to incite and intensify racial tensions, arguing the group fostered the very threats it claimed to fight.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Blanche said in a statement.

“Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

A federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama brought 11 charges against the nonprofit, including six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering.

The indictment covered the years from 2014 through 2023 and alleged that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) paid at least $3 million to at least eight informants affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, the National Socialist Party of America, and the American Front.

In a twist that no one saw coming, one of the SPLC’s paid informants was a member of the leadership group that planned the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that resulted in one death, according to the DOJ.

“As the indictment lays out, after SPLC paid members of these extremist groups, it created work product that reported on these activities that the members participated in or contributed to,” Blanche explained.

“And to that end, it was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing.”

Patel said the SPLC facilitated state and federal crimes by funding these groups.

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” Patel stated on X. 

“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups—even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes.”

“That is illegal—and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved,” Patel added.

The FBI director accused the SPLC of using donors to pay the leaders of extremist groups to stage “hate crimes”

They used the fraudulently raised money by lying to their donor network—thousands of Americans—to go ahead and actually pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups.

Furthermore, our investigation revealed that the Southern Poverty Law Center—on TOP of perpetuating this widespread decade-long multimillion dollar fraud—conducted more criminal activity.

They attempted to HIDE their criminal activity from our financial banking network.

They set up shell companies and entities around America so that the financial institutions that we rely on as everyday Americans were DECEIVED in believing that money was NOT coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center in the perpetration of this scheme and fraud, but rather fictitious entities they stood up to perpetuate this ongoing fraud.

Watch the full press conference below:

But it gets even better worse, during an appearance on FOX News, acting AG Todd Blanche reveals the Biden regime actually closed the investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center — even though they were paying people to stage “hate crimes”.

As Nick Sortor noted, the Biden regime was directly involved in the coverup!

🚨 WOW! Acting AG Todd Blanche reveals the Biden regime actually CLOSED the investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center — even though they were PAYING people to stage “HATE CRIMES”

The Biden regime was DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the coverup!

Biden DOJ officials KNEW! pic.twitter.com/k8fDtloCDz

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 21, 2026

America First Legal broke down some additional ‘easter eggs’ in the whole 

/3 The SPLC also received early access to FBI hate-crime data and drafted talking points for Biden’s DOJ. https://t.co/M42eC5vYg2

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 21, 2026

/5 The SPLC was also personally asked by the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at Biden’s DOJ to flag “civil rights matters” for the department. https://t.co/UV7HJrSJKn

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 21, 2026

Simply put, the SPLC’s hypocrisy is now on full display – At the same time that the SPLC wielded unprecedented influence over federal civil rights enforcement, it was also allegedly bankrolling the very extremist groups it purported to seek to destroy.

As Tom Gantert reports for The Epoch Times, the SPLC announced earlier Tuesday that it was the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation and was facing possible charges related to its use of “paid confidential informants” to infiltrate alleged “extremist” organizations.

Bryan Fair, interim president of the SPLC, said in a video posted on its website before the DOJ news conference that the investigation was “the most serious” of recent acts against it.

“Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid, confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups,” Fair said.

“This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence.”

Fair said the SPLC no longer works with paid informants but did frequently share the information gained by them with law enforcement. Fair said the informants risked their lives to infiltrate radical groups and the SPLC began working with them during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

“There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives,” Fair said.

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) defended the SPLC on X.

“The DOJ uses paid informants all the time—why is it OK for them but not the SPLC?” Goldman wrote.

He said that the organization “plays a vital role in fighting hatred, yet has been unfairly targeted by [President Donald] Trump and House Republicans since day one.”

“This politicized intimidation needs to stop, now,” he said.

Kyle Shideler, the director for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, said the issue is not the use of informants—as long as the informants were not involved in criminal activity, which he presumed the DOJ investigation would determine.

“The issue is that the SPLC always sought to use its supposed expertise on Right Wing Extremists to slander their non-extremist opponents,” Shideler said on X.

“Linking groups like [Turning Point USA] (or my employer) to actual violent actors by putting them all on the same list was the political purpose.”

The Republican National Committee adopted a resolution in 2020 refuting the legitimacy of the SPLC when it came to identifying hate groups.

The resolution said the SPLC “makes a practice of incorrectly labeling persons and organizations as ‘hate groups,’” which mobilizes people to act “in hate and violence” against the people on the SPLC’s list.

The group has vowed to “vigorously defend” itself, its staff, and its work against the allegations.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The FBI said it is leading federal efforts to investigate potential connections in reports of dead or missing U.S. scientists in recent years, coming days after President Donald Trump expressed alarm.

“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” an FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

The spokesperson, who didn’t provide additional comment, was responding to a question about whether the federal law enforcement agency was involved. Last month, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) called on the bureau to investigate the deaths.

This past week, Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to questions from reporters about roughly 10 scientists who went missing or died in recent years and whether those incidents involved any national security concerns.

Reports of the scientists dying or going missing, Trump told reporters on April 16, should be considered serious because “some of them were very important people.“ He added that he hopes they are ”random” occurrences.

A day earlier, Leavitt was asked a similar question during a daily press briefing, with the reporter saying that some of the scientists had knowledge of nuclear or aerospace research.

“I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and we’ll get you an answer. If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into,” she said in response.

Multiple House lawmakers, including Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), have suggested the possibility that their disappearances or deaths are connected.

“The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research. I think we’d better be paying attention, and I don’t think we should trust our government,” Burchett told the Daily Mail in March, referring to the researchers.

In the interview, Burchett referred to the case of a former Air Force general, William McCasland, who went missing from his New Mexico home without his phone or glasses in February. His colleague, Monica Reza, who works as a rocket scientist, was also reported missing last year after going hiking in Southern California.

Speaking to Fox News this week, Burlison said he was particularly concerned about McCasland’s case, describing him as an expert on unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. He said that his office was working to contact the former general about a separate congressional investigation.

“He was on our list to talk to, and he disappeared, so that kind of piqued our interest,” Burlison told Fox News.

He later added, “It’s just really, really strange that in about a five-month period of time, four or five people walked out their front door and never returned, and were all doing advanced aerospace research.”

NASA released a statement on Monday saying that, while it is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists,” there is nothing to suggest “a national security threat.”

“The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able,” NASA wrote in a post on X, responding to a video with Leavitt’s comments.

Just as the Iran ceasefire seems on the brink of collapsing (though unilaterally extended late in the day Tuesday by Trump), so does the Lebanon one as well, as on Tuesday Israel accused Hezbollah of firing a new rocket volley at its IDF forces, effectively breaking the ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah targeted its troops in southern Lebanon, seeing in this a breaching of the fragile ceasefire ahead of a further round of US-mediated talks between the Israeli and Lebanese governments.

However, Hezbollah’s stated stance is that it has the “right to resist” Israeli forces operating inside southern Lebanon, given they are occupying forces.

Starting last Thursday, a 10-day ceasefire brokered by Washington took effect, even as Israeli forces remain deployed in a strip of Lebanese territory several miles deep along the border.

Israel calls it a ‘buffer zone’ – but Lebanese sees it as a land grab. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally and leader of the Amal Movement – which is the other big Shia organization in Lebanon – has newly stated that if Israel “maintains its occupation, whether of areas, positions, or by drawing yellow lines, it will smell the scent of resistance every day.”

He added: “If they insist on remaining, they will face resistance, and our history bears witness to that.”

Lebanese officials have also charged Israel with trying to erase the Lebanese presence in southern Lebanon in a genocidal act, or ‘cultural genocide’.

This after Israeli forces have carried out demolitions in southern villages, targeting what they describe as Hezbollah infrastructure embedded in civilian areas.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported new detonations in at least eight villages on Tuesday, as well as shelling in some of these locations.

🇮🇱🇱🇧⚡️– Al Jazeera: Israel has established a “yellow line” in southern Lebanon, a no-go zone targeting anyone who approaches. Similar to measures in Gaza, the move risks further land seizures and systematic demolitions. pic.twitter.com/oeovSFDJ1i

— MonitorX (@MonitorX99800) April 19, 2026

Israeli officials previously referred to their deployment boundary as the “Yellow Line” – which it should be noted is a designation also used in Gaza, where entire local neighborhoods have long ago been permanently wiped out.

Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned from Congress on Tuesday, stepping down hours before the House Ethics Committee was set to recommend a punishment for the 25 violations of campaign finance law and House rules it found her guilty of last month.

The third-term Florida Democrat announced her resignation in a written statement, calling the ethics process a “witch hunt” and saying the committee had denied her new attorney’s request for time to prepare a defense while a federal criminal case against her remains pending.

“I will not stand by and pretend that this has been anything other than a witch hunt,” Cherfilus-McCormick said.

“I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished.”

“I hereby resign from the 119th Congress, effective immediately,” she said.

In a brief hearing Tuesday afternoon, Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) confirmed the panel had lost jurisdiction following the resignation and would not recommend a sanction.

He read the resignation letter to the committee into the record, in which Cherfilus-McCormick called it “the honor of my lifetime to serve the people of my district.”

“After careful reflection and prayer, I have concluded that it is in my best interest and the interest of my constituents and the institution that I set aside at this time,” she wrote, making her resignation effective at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Guest defended the 2 1/2-year investigation against what he called claims it had been “a rush to judgment.”

“This was a very deliberate process to gather information into allegations that were extremely serious and extremely complicated,” he said, noting the committee interviewed multiple witnesses over two years and reviewed tens of thousands of subpoenaed documents.

He said Cherfilus-McCormick had been given “multiple ample opportunities to present exculpatory evidence” and to comply with the committee’s subpoena.

Ranking Member Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) echoed the chairman’s remarks.

“Nobody’s happy. I don’t think any of us are happy at what we’ve gone through,” he said.

“But I am extremely proud of being associated with all of you, and I’m grateful for the hard work and the diligence of the staff.”

Ethics Investigation

Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation ends a two-year ethics investigation before the committee could formally recommend a sanction. The panel had been scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday to decide whether to recommend expulsion, censure, reprimand, a fine, or other penalties.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) had said he would file a motion on the House floor to expel Cherfilus-McCormick once the committee issued its recommendation. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters last week that “the facts are indisputable at this point” and predicted the full chamber would have moved to expel her.

Expelling a member requires a two-thirds vote of members present, meaning Republicans would have needed roughly 70 Democrats to join them, assuming full attendance. Only six House members have been expelled in U.S. history: three for disloyalty during the Civil War, two after criminal convictions, and former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in 2023.

The third-term Florida Democrat was accused of routing more than $3.6 million from Trinity Health Care Services, her family’s company, into her 2022 special election campaign through family members, allied political action committees, and shell entities. Investigators have said much of that money stemmed from a roughly $5 million overpayment Florida mistakenly sent Trinity for COVID-19 vaccination work in 2021.

The committee’s adjudicatory subcommittee announced on March 27 that it had found 25 of 27 counts against her proven by clear and convincing evidence. The counts include accepting improper campaign contributions, filing false reports with the Federal Election Commission, failing to file required House financial disclosure reports on time, and providing special favors in connection with Community Project Funding requests.

In a memorandum filed ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, committee counsel wrote that the 25 violations were “very serious standing on their own,” citing the scope and continuous nature of her conduct and her refusal to accept responsibility as aggravating factors.

Counsel compared her case to Santos, who was expelled following a committee report detailing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign finance violations. Cherfilus-McCormick’s case, counsel wrote, stands apart because the funds involved total in the millions.

During a hearing last month, Cherfilus-McCormick declined to testify, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Her federal trial is currently scheduled for February 2027.

Her attorney, William Barzee, has argued the committee should have held a full evidentiary trial at which he could have called witnesses and presented evidence.

Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Cherfilus-McCormick submitted letters of support from faith leaders, union officials, and community organizations in Florida’s 20th Congressional District.

The Palm Beach County Democratic Black Caucus and the nonprofit Women of Veteran Affairs both urged the committee to reject expulsion, arguing it would leave hundreds of thousands of Floridians without representation during an upcoming redistricting fight in the state.

“Our district is currently navigating a high-stakes redistricting period, during which continued representation is essential,” the Palm Beach group wrote.

“The loss of a sitting Member would weaken the district’s ability to advocate for itself and protect its interests when those interests are most vulnerable.”

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had called a special session in Florida for late April to redraw maps in the Republican-dominated legislature.

Before Tuesday, a small number of Democrats had publicly called on her to resign, including Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Becca Balint of Vermont.

Authored by Maryanne Demasi via The Brownstone Institute,

For months, a quiet battle has been unfolding inside the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It began with an analysis of child deaths after Covid vaccination, followed by strategic leaks to major media outlets, and has now erupted into the open with a memo from the regulator’s own vaccine chief.

In September, it was reported that FDA officials had privately investigated 25 paediatric deaths following Covid vaccination — the first systematic review of such cases since the rollout began.

The findings were meant to be presented to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). But the presentation never came. The meeting passed without a word. Something had happened behind closed doors.

Now we know what.

On 13 November 2025, STAT published an extraordinary insider account describing a tense internal meeting in which FDA scientist Dr Tracy Beth Høeg presented evidence of young people who had died after Covid vaccination.

According to STAT, her findings triggered pushback from career FDA regulators who feared the implications of acknowledging fatal cases.

Now, comes the explosive memo from FDA vaccine chief Dr Vinay Prasad, confirming — for the first time — that US regulators have formally attributed at least 10 of these children’s deaths to Covid vaccination.

Prasad called it “a profound revelation” with far-reaching implications for American vaccine policy, adding that the true number is “certainly an underestimate.”

Here, I’ll take you through the memo, the leaks, the internal rebellion at FDA, and what this means — not just for Covid vaccines, but for all vaccine approvals going forward.

This story marks a turning point in US vaccine regulation.

The Story That Divided the Regulator

In early September, insiders at the FDA and CDC quietly told the New York Times and the Washington Post that the agency had begun investigating child deaths reported to VAERS.

My reporting confirmed that Dr Tracy Beth Høeg, a senior adviser within the FDA’s vaccine division, had led the review — contacting families, gathering medical records, and obtaining autopsy findings.

click image for story

It was the first case-by-case evaluation of paediatric deaths conducted since the vaccines were authorised.

The review identified twenty-five children whose deaths occurred following vaccination. Those findings were expected to be presented to ACIP on 18–19 September. Instead, without explanation, the discussion disappeared from the agenda.

Even FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary had hinted at the findings on CNN, saying, “We’ve been looking into the VAERS database self-reports, [and] there have been children that have died from the Covid vaccine.”

He described an “intense” investigation involving doctors, autopsies, and family interviews. Yet ACIP heard nothing.

Had the FDA reversed course — or had internal forces blocked disclosure?

STAT’s reporting offered the first real clues.

Inside the FDA: The Meeting That Changed Everything

STAT described a confidential gathering of FDA vaccine scientists in which Høeg presented slides listing roughly two dozen deaths of young people following vaccination.

One slide reportedly read: “Timing fits. Diagnosis fits. No better explanation found. Sufficient information provided.”

According to STAT, some career regulators reacted with “quiet horror” — not at the deaths themselves, but at the policy implications of acknowledging them.

The article portrayed Høeg as pushing to bring the findings to ACIP and to amend vaccine labels for younger males, while longtime staff resisted, describing the evidence as “thin” and worrying about restricting vaccine access.

STAT reported that “no career regulator would stand by the decision,” and Høeg backed away from presenting the cases to ACIP.

It was a rare glimpse of a regulator divided against itself: career staff trying to contain the findings, and FDA leadership apparently trying to surface them.

Nothing more was said publicly — until Prasad’s memo detonated inside the agency.

Prasad’s Explosive Memo

The memo from Dr Vinay Prasad, Director of the FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), is unlike anything ever issued by a senior US vaccine regulator.

Addressed to all CBER staff, it confirmed what STAT only implied: FDA scientists had determined that “at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving Covid-19 vaccination.”

Prasad wrote that the true number is “certainly an underestimate” and that “the real number is higher.”

He wrote that “deaths were reported between 2021 and 2024, and ignored for years,” calling it a systemic failure that “requires humility and introspection.”

“It is horrifying to consider that the US vaccine regulation, including our actions, may have harmed more children than we saved,” he wrote.

Prasad defended Høeg’s analysis, saying “Dr Hoeg was correct in her assessment,” and that disagreements reflected subjective coding — not differing facts.

He also noted that healthy children at extremely low risk from Covid had been “coerced” into vaccination under Biden-era mandates, some of which he said “were harmful.”

He added that it was “difficult to read cases where kids aged 7 to 16 may be dead as a result of covid vaccines.”

Prasad also challenged one of the most repeated claims in pandemic messaging — that Covid infection causes more myocarditis than vaccination.

He argued that these comparisons rely on faulty denominators, because they count only people sick enough to seek hospital care while ignoring the far larger number of infections that never present to clinics.

He underscored that vaccination does not prevent eventual infection, so the comparison cannot be framed as “virus versus vaccine.”

A vaccinated child still encounters the virus over their lifetime — but now carries the additional myocarditis risk from the vaccine itself.

The Leaks

Prasad’s memo contained another revelation — confirmation of internal sabotage inside the FDA.

He wrote that “slides she presented, emails she sent, and distorted firsthand reports” from Høeg’s meeting had been leaked to media outlets by staff who believed they were acting appropriately.

He condemned the behaviour as “unethical, illegal, and…factually incorrect,” a blunt repudiation of how the STAT narrative had framed events.

In Prasad’s telling, Høeg had not exaggerated the evidence at all. She had uncovered what the FDA had failed to recognise for nearly three years — that Covid vaccines had killed children.

Far from being the rogue figure depicted in selective leaks, she was doing precisely what the public assumes a regulator does: investigating deaths, contacting families, gathering records, and treating each case as a potential signal that demands scrutiny.

For Prasad, the leaks weren’t merely improper — they betrayed the core obligation of a scientific agency.

He said internal debates must remain inside the FDA until ready for public release, and that he would not “endorse selective reporting of our meetings and documents.” Anyone unwilling to follow that principle, he said, should resign.

It was an extraordinary directive — and a clear sign that the internal battle over whether to acknowledge children’s deaths had reached a breaking point.

A Reaction from Inside ACIP

When the memo surfaced, ACIP vice-chair Dr Robert Malone issued his own statement.

He wrote that he had been aware of the review through ACIP’s internal working group, and that the child deaths “have been known since this summer but not released to the public due to the need to validate the initial findings independently.”

Bound by confidentiality, he could only say, “I have seen the data and findings, and they are even more stunning than this strongly worded letter indicates.”

He said he was “stunned, gobsmacked,” adding: “The significance and importance of this letter in the context of US and global vaccine policy cannot be overestimated. This is a revolution, the likes of which I never expected to see in my lifetime.”

Malone then took aim at the Covid-19 mRNA products: “These products do not work. They do not prevent disease and death. And as Secretary Kennedy testified in the Senate, objective analysis cannot even demonstrate that, on balance, they saved lives.”

MIT professor Retsef Levi — who leads ACIP’s Covid-19 Vaccines Workgroup — issued a similarly forceful response.

He wrote, “the acknowledgement that at least 10 children died from COVID vaccination must be followed with disclosure to the parents,” and said regulators and media “have gaslighted the vaccine injured, including the parents who lost their precious child.”

He described disclosure as “a moral imperative” and essential for any hope of trustworthy vaccine programs.

Inside ACIP, the memo is being understood not only as a scientific shift — but an ethical reckoning.

Critics Rise Up

Predictably, the memo triggered pushback from establishment figures who have spent years defending the Covid vaccines from scrutiny.

Dr Paul Offit — a long-time industry-aligned vaccine promoter and a familiar voice deployed whenever safety concerns arise — dismissed the memo as “science by press-release.”

He argued that the memo lacked context and should not be treated as evidence, calling the memo “irresponsible” and “dangerous.”

But Prasad’s communication was never presented as a scientific publication. It was an internal memo to staff. Offit’s attempt to judge it by academic-paper standards is a tactic to avoid addressing what the memo actually says — that children died and regulators overlooked it.

Former CBER director Dr Peter Marks — whose tenure is explicitly criticised in the memo for failing to identify child deaths for years — said he was “taken aback by the clearly political tone of the communication.”

But Prasad’s memo details precisely why Marks’s era is under scrutiny, including his 2021 decision to push out senior FDA officials Marion Gruber and Philip Krause after they objected to the Biden administration’s rush toward booster approval.

If anything was political, it was that episode.

For years, figures like Offit and Marks insisted that VAERS was a robust early-warning system — and that anyone citing it without follow-up investigation “didn’t understand pharmacovigilance.”

Now that FDA investigators have actually done the follow-up — contacting families, obtaining medical records, and reviewing autopsies — these same voices suddenly claim VAERS can’t establish causality at all.

This is the core hypocrisy. You cannot praise VAERS as the backbone of vaccine safety, then declare its signals meaningless once they are properly investigated.

Critics also warned that stricter evidence requirements — such as randomised trials and rejection of surrogate endpoints — would “slow innovation” or “harm vaccine confidence.”

But vaccine confidence is already shattered. Fewer than 10% of American healthcare workers took last season’s Covid booster.

Trust collapsed not because regulators asked too many questions — but because they asked too few, dismissed safety concerns that later proved real, and insisted on messaging long after the data had shifted.

The problem for these critics is not that children have died after vaccination. The problem is that the regulators have finally acknowledged it.

The Future of Vaccine Regulation in the United States

Prasad’s memo goes far beyond confirming child deaths. It announces a structural overhaul of vaccine oversight.

He wrote that future vaccine approvals would require randomised trials for most new products; that immunogenicity studies would no longer be accepted as proof of effectiveness in new populations; and that vaccines for pregnant women would not be authorised on unproven surrogate markers.

He committed to rewriting the US influenza vaccine framework and overhauling assessments of concomitant vaccination.

Most strikingly, he declared that vaccines would be treated as “no better or worse” than any other medical product — ending decades of special regulatory leniency.

“Never again,” he wrote, “will the US FDA commissioner have to himself find deaths in children for staff to identify it.”

A Global Shift Begins

The ACIP meeting on 4–5 December will be the first held under these new realities — with the knowledge that the FDA has attributed paediatric deaths to Covid vaccination, that senior leadership has repudiated the previous regulatory approach, and that a revolution in evidentiary standards is underway.

Because many international regulators track the FDA, the acknowledgment that children died from the Covid-19 vaccine — and that the agency failed to detect it — marks a seismic moment in global vaccine policy.

For bereaved families, the acknowledgment is devastating but necessary. For the public, it signals that the institutional silence of the pandemic era is beginning to fracture.

The reckoning has begun.

Republished from the author’s Substack