UK police arrest over 200 at protest for banned Palestine group 1News
from news.google.com
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asserted their sweeping control over the Strait of Hormuz, even as it signalled that civilian maritime traffic remains permitted under regulated conditions.In a statement, quoted by AFP, the Guards’ naval command said, “All traffic… is under the full control of the armed forces,” accompanied by footage showing vessels targeted through crosshairs. The warning escalated further with the message, “The enemy will become trapped in a deadly vortex in the Strait if it makes the wrong move.”
Oil prices have rocketed in early market trading after the US announced it would blockade Iranian ports.
The US military has confirmed it will halt all maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, with the measure taking effect at 10am ET (2pm GMT) today.
US crude oil prices surged eight per cent to $104.24 a barrel in early trading, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed seven per cent to $102.29.
Iran sees American demands as reaching far beyond what the United States achieved in war. Tehran is gambling that it can withstand further bombardment more than Washington is willing to sustain economic chaos, experts say.
from www.nytimes.com
The Iranian regime recently massacred perhaps as many as 40,000 of its own people, has been bombarding civilian targets in multiple nations for weeks, and has spent decades practicing international terrorism and domestic tyranny. So, of course, the United Nations just nominated an Iranian representative to its committee overseeing women’s rights and anti-terrorism measures.
Donald Trump hasn’t done interviews with neutral journalists who could challenge him in years. Trump’s venues of choice are either cell phone interviews that last a minute or two or conservative media like Fox News and Newsmax.
The Fox News interviews are heavily manufactured, usually pretaped, and edited before they air.
It takes a special level of incompetence to go on a network that is propagandistic and supportive and botch a softball question in such a friendly and managed environment.
The issue that is driving the special election results that Democrats have been dominating, and the Democratic Party’s midterm generic ballot lead that has been growing, is the economy. Inflation and rising prices are driving voter outrage directed at this president and his administration.
WASHINGTON — Former 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said that the US will “probably” need to dispatch a special forces team to retrieve Iran’s uranium stockpile.
“That’s probably what it’s going to come down to. I mean, this is a special force mission. It would take about a week to ten days to get done. They know how to do it. It’s dangerous,” Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Two U.S. Navy destroyers had transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin mine-clearing operations in the vital waterway, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
The destroyers crossed through the Strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf, CENTCOM said on social media. Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will “join the clearance effort in the coming days,” CENTCOM said.
The operation came as President Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that the U.S. was doing “a favor to Countries all over the world” by clearing mines from the strait. Mr. Trump also said Saturday that all of Iran’s mine-laying ships have been destroyed.
President Donald Trump spent the last week causing global panic, threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization before walking it back—at least for now.
But his callous threats are nothing new.
This is just the latest example of Republicans indulging themselves in phony masculinity by championing loud and obnoxious aggression. And this type of behavior didn’t begin with Trump, and it isn’t even the first time the right’s saber-rattling has involved Iran.
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian man in raid on village Arab News PK
from news.google.com
LONDON — London police arrested more than 200 people on Saturday during a protest against a ban on the group Palestine Action that the government has labeled a terrorist organization.
Metropolitan Police said they had detained 212 protesters between the ages of 27 and 82 for supporting the group.
Britain’s High Court ruled in February that the government’s decision to outlaw the protest group as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place while the government appeals.
ROME — In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
Did Trump arm Iranians and they failed to deliver?
Trump’s Claim of Arming Iranian Protesters Triggers Speculation Among Chinese Netizens Vision Times
from news.google.com
Iran’s leadership is facing new questions after a report claimed the country’s newly installed supreme leader is no longer able to function in his role just weeks after taking power.
According to The Times, Mojtaba Khamenei is “incapacitated and receiving medical treatment” in the city of Qom.
The report cites a diplomatic memo based on U.S. and Israeli intelligence shared with Gulf allies.
Intelligence Memo Raises Serious Questions
The memo reportedly describes Khamenei as suffering from a “severe condition.”
The unidentified condition has left him “unable to be involved in any decision-making by the regime.”
The claims, if accurate, would signal a major disruption at the top of Iran’s ruling structure during a period of heightened regional tensions.
After President Trump took out Soleimani, you would think that his relatives wouldn’t be allowed to spread anti-American hate in the United States. Turns out the State Department is just getting around to it. An F-15E was struck down over Iran, and American special forces went in to recover the missing pilots. Europe just doesn’t understand why it matters. X has become a right wing echo chamber. At least, Nate Silver thinks so. Let’s try to figure out his logic.
Israeli forces killed more than 200 people in strikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, on Wednesday. Top European diplomats called for Lebanon to be included in the cease-fire.
from www.nytimes.com
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s sunny assessment of the prospects for a long-term peace agreement with Iran, fundamental differences remain between the two sides’ visions for a deal.
Trump has described Iran’s 10-point plan as “a workable basis on which to negotiate,” but questions remain about what exactly it contains and whether it crosses U.S. red lines.
Iranian state media have reported that the plan would allow Iran to maintain its ability to enrich uranium, protect Tehran’s allied militant groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah and Hamas, and secure the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from bases in the region.
However, U.S. Vice-President JD Vance denies that this is the plan Trump was describing as workable.
NEW YORK — A Pakistani man pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge Wednesday, saying it was a “morally reprehensible idea” to support the Islamic State group by plotting to use automatic weapons to kill Jewish people at a Brooklyn center.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 21, said he answered the group’s call for Muslims to kill Jewish people by plotting to attack the Jewish center in October 2024.
He entered the plea in Manhattan federal court over 18 months after he was brought to the United States from Canada, where he was arrested on Sept. 4, 2024, in or near Ormstown, Canada, which is 12 miles from the U.S. border.
In a release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Khan planned a mass shooting to coincide with the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks “with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.”
The Australian foreign minister has called for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon.
In a statement, Penny Wong said: “Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom remain deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in Lebanon.
“We welcome the ceasefire agreed between the United States, Israel and Iran. We call for an urgent end to hostilities in Lebanon.
“Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected from the effects of hostilities.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media.”
The FBI has arrested a former Special Operations Command employee who allegedly leaked classified information to the press.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday. “Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests. This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”
Vice President JD Vance said the current ceasefire with Iran remains “fragile,” but the regime’s leaders will learn the hard way if they “mess around” and cause the ceasefire deal to collapse.
Vance is warning that President Donald Trump is prepared to take decisive action if Tehran fails to negotiate in good faith.
Speaking at a conference in Hungary on Wednesday, Vance emphasized that the two-week ceasefire hinges on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and engaging seriously in negotiations.
Trump’s behavior surrounding the Iran war has changed the priorities of House Democrats.
For the duration of Trump’s first year in office, House Democratic leadership has stressed that dealing with affordability and inflation are the top issues that they have been focused on, but Democrats are getting an overwhelming number of calls from their constituents, and the members themselves are enraged over Trump’s behavior.
As the United States-Israel war on Iran — paused for two weeks on Wednesday amid fresh diplomatic talks — has roiled the global economy for more than a month, Iran and China have seized the opportunity to address a shared gripe about the global financial system.
Their common cause: ending the hegemony of the US dollar.
The FBI Cyber Division warned organizations and companies that Iran-affiliated hackers are targeting U.S. critical infrastructures.
The warning comes hours before the 8 PM ET deadline President Donald Trump gave Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran-affiliated cyber actors are targeting operational technology devices across US critical infrastructure, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs),” the division wrote on X. “These attacks have led to diminished PLC functionality, manipulation of display data and, in some cases, operational disruption and financial loss.”
Iran-affiliated cyber actors are targeting operational technology devices across US critical infrastructure, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs). These attacks have led to diminished PLC functionality, manipulation of display data and, in some cases, operational… pic.twitter.com/odBD3lBi0l
— FBI Cyber Division (@FBICyberDiv) April 7, 2026
US President Donald Trump wants to see the Strait of Hormuz open up for oil tankers and other traffic without any limitations, including tolls, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.
from www.news24.com
WASHINGTON, April 8. /TASS/. Iranian representatives offered the United States a revised proposal that has been taken as a basis for negotiations on a potential settlement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing.
“The Iranians originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded. It was literally thrown in the garbage by [US] President [Donald] Trump and his negotiating team. Many outlets in this room have falsely reported on that plan as being acceptable to the United States, and that is false,” she noted.
Iranian-Canadian communities in Vancouver and Toronto say a temporary ceasefire has brought some relief, but deep concern remains for loved ones in Iran following threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire after Trump’s latest warnings raised alarms internationally.
Human rights advocate Soushiant Zanganehpour said the rhetoric marked a sharp escalation.
Pakistan condemns storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces Pakistan Today
from news.google.com
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House Wednesday, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
