US Fighter Jet Shot Down In Iran, One Crew Member Reported Rescued

Update(11:55ET): The NY Times has cited US and Israeli officials who has given confirmation that a US fighter jet was downed and that a major rescue operation is underway, with the fate of the plane's crew unclear:

The fate of the plane’s crew was unclear, as American officials scrambled to mount a search and rescue operation before Iran could get to any survivors, said the U.S. and Israeli officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The situation creates a military and diplomatic challenge for the United States, as President Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran “back to the Stone Ages.” Over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region.

The U.S. jet was an F-15E, U.S. officials said, which has a standard crew of two, and not one of the stealth fighters of more recent design. Just days ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s air defenses were so degraded that the United States was sending B-52 bombers over the country; the F-15E is much smaller, faster and more agile, making it a tougher target.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-fighter-jet-downed-iran-large-aerial-search-underway-crew

Summary

Trump: US needs "a little more time" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while floating the prospect of seizing oil amid potential island or ground campaign. WSJ reports indirect talks at 'dead end'.

Iran and Hezbollah fire 140+ rockets during Jewish Passover, with sustained barrages hitting Israel

French-owned vessel becomes first Western-linked/European ship to transit Hormuz since war began, signaling a tentative thaw after weeks of near-total shipping freeze

Iran targets Gulf infrastructure, including a Kuwaiti desalination plant, while UAE defenses intercept large-scale missile and drone waves and energy facilities face disruptions

Trump Proposes $1.5 Trillion In War Spending, 'Largest In Decades'

US President Donald Trump is asking Congress to boost military spending to $1.5 trillion for 2027, the largest such request in decades, while demanding cuts to domestic spending on social programs, AP reported Friday.

The White House released details of the desired spending increase on Friday as part of Trump's 2027 budget proposal. The proposal comes amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, which is costing US taxpayers over $11 billon for each week it continues.

Last month, the Pentagon proposed receiving an additional $200 billion to backfill munitions and supplies used in the war, which has killed 3,527 Iranians, including 1,606 civilians and at least 244 children.

While the White House is demanding huge sums for war, Trump's proposal would reduce non-defense spending by 10 percent, primarily by shifting some responsibility for social programs to state and local governments.

"We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care," Trump said at a private White House event on Wednesday. "It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare – all these individual things," he said. "They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal."

According to AP, "The president's annual budget more broadly is considered a reflection of the administration's values," but does not carry the force of law.

For Trump's spending proposal to take effect, Congress would have to approve it. The US is already heavily in debt, with the federal government spending nearly $2 trillion more than it receives in tax receipts each year. This year, the national debt surpassed $39 trillion, while the debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio now exceeds 120 percent, surpassing the peak reached after World War II.

While Trump ran for president on a platform of ending US wars abroad and putting the needs of US citizens first, he has instead prioritized initiating foreign wars in support of Israel's project to expand its hegemony and territory in West Asia.

The war on Iran is providing a boon to US and Israeli weapons firms, who stand to earn hundreds of billions in additional profits. After meeting with major defense contractors at the White House in early March, Trump said the companies had agreed to quadruple production of "exquisite" and sophisticated defense systems that can repel ballistic missile attacks, such as Patriot missile batteries and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors.

Each THAAD interceptor missile costs roughly $12.7 million, and each Patriot PAC-3 interceptor costs about $3.7 million. The interceptors have been used in large quantities to intercept Iran's retaliatory missile and drone attacks on Israel and US bases in the Gulf.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/trump-proposes-15-trillion-war-spending-largest-decades

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said that no staff were injured in the Iranian drone strikes on its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery.

No adverse impact on air quality due to the resulting fires has been detected, it added.

KPC Press Release on this morning's malicious attack on Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery.

https://x.com/kpcofficialkw/status/2039931610473074785

>>24460515

Drones strike Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery.

At least two drones hit operational units at the key refinery, triggering fires visible from the site. Emergency teams are battling the blaze. No injuries reported so far.

The strike raises fresh concerns about the security of Gulf energy infrastructure amid escalating regional tensions.

https://x.com/i/status/2039949035893858641

Senior Iranian Official Involved In Reaching Out To Vance Severely Wounded In Airstrike

A top Iranian official who was involved in diplomatic outreach and indirect talks or messaging with the United States and Pakistani mediators was reportedly critically wounded in a US-Israeli strike. Kamal Kharazi, an 81-year-old senior adviser to Tehran and former foreign minister, lost his wife in the Wednesday strike on his home, state media has said.

Kharazi chairs Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations and has been viewed as a potential backchannel negotiator involving Islamabad, but now he's been hospitalized with serious injuries, state media has also said.

"We have seen what looks like an assassination attempt against the former foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi … We don’t know why he’s been targeted. He has been gravely wounded, and his wife was killed," said an Al Jazeera correspondent in Tehran.

Iranian officials described to Mehr News Agency that Kharazi was overseeing outreach to Pakistan tied to a possible meeting with US Vice President JD Vance. A potential Vance trip to Pakistan was initially reported as possibly being in the works late last month.

But Middle East Eye has reported that Kharazi was not seeing much room for diplomacy as US-Israeli actions escalate to attacks on Iranian infrastructure and energy:

He told CNN in March, "I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us."

If he succumbs to his wounds, Kharrazi would be the latest senior Iranian official killed since the war began.

In addition to Khamenei, top security adviser Ali Shamkhani, Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Pakpour, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh were all killed on the first day of the war.

Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was killed on 17 March, along with his son and one of his ⁠deputies. Intelligence minister and head of civilian monitoring, Esmail Khatib, was killed in an Israeli strike a day later.

Some analysts and pundits have accused Israel in particular of trying to sabotage any US-Iran talks, as the Netanyahu government wants to see complete regime collapse in the Islamic Republic.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039483372704018445

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/senior-iranian-official-involved-reaching-out-vance-severely-wounded-airstrike

Hegseth Ousts Chief Of The Army As Iran War Persists

The Pentagon shake-up under Trump has not ended, as on Thursday Pete Hegseth has dismissed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, asking him to step down into early retirement.

The move is unusual, given this is the head of the Army and the United States is past the one-moth mark in Trump's Operation Epic Fury. A reason hasn't been given as to what amounts to Gen. George being effectively fired.

CBS writes, "One of the sources said Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth's vision for the Army."

A top defense official has also said: "We are grateful for his service, but it was time for a leadership change in the Army."

The chief of the Army is typically a four-year term, and already there's speculation over who will be the likely candidate to lead next:

The current vice chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who was formerly Hegseth's military aide, will likely be considered as a replacement. He previously served as the commanding general of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division from 2022 to 2023.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point posted photos on social media on Thursday of George, saying he "shared experience-driven guidance with cadets preparing to lead" during a visit.

There's been some serious background controversy over the last weeks among top command ranks regarding the Trump admin's preferences:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.

As for Gen. George, he was commissioned as an infantry officer out of US Military Academy in 1988 and saw deployments in Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom. He later served as vice chief of staff of the Army from 2022 to 2023, before being nominated by Biden to become Army chief of staff.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/hegseth-ousts-chief-army-iran-war-persists

‘For the Sake of the World, The UK’s Censorship Regime Must End’: Proposed Free Speech Bill Published

A group of pro-freedom lawyers have published a speech bill to repeal decades of laws crushing freedom and curbing expression, creating something of a First Amendment for Britons.

“The United Kingdom does not have free speech, not in any sense that an American would recognize”, an Anglo-American group of lawyers reported as they published a Freedom of Speech Bill through the classical liberal Adam Smith Institute (ASI). The group say ending “Britain’s sophisticated censorship framework” is more essential than ever because its authoritarianism is now attempting to spread its influence abroad, with London’s attempts to censor American citizens and businesses already causing concerns in Washington.

Offered for free to any British political party that would put it through Parliament and vote it into law, the grassroots bill seeks to “recognise and restore the ancient liberty of free speech, to protect expression by the public… [and] restrict the power of public authorities… to interfere with lawful expression”.

This would be achieved by the bill setting freedom of speech on a firm legal grounding — the chilling effect of what exactly is legal speech or not in Britain being so vague and too often up to the interpretation of individual police officers or judges hitherto having been so keenly felt –and abolishing decades of earlier laws severely clamping down on the freedom to speak.

The bill names 13 laws that would be abolished in full or amended in part, dating back to the Obscene Publications Act of 1959. Particularly in the sights of the bill are the Public Order Act of 1986, the Communications Act of 2003, and the Online Safety Act of 2023, which criminalise speech and threaten Britons with prison and “life altering fines”. The laws are “frequently exploited by activists” in lawfare bids to take out their political opponents.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/04/03/uks-censorship-regime-must-end-proposed-free-speech-bill-published/

https://www.antiwar.com/

In the village of Shama in southern Lebanon, the IDF has reduced the mausoleum of Simon Peter,an apostle of Christ, to ruins.

Two thousand years of history, wiped away in a single moment……

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039953644863316276

Tesla Is Sitting On A Record 50,000 Unsold EVs

The American EV brand’s sales rebounded in the first quarter, but a new problem is making its presence felt.

Tesla has never had so many new cars sitting on lots.

The company experienced an uptick in sales during the first quarter, but production significantly exceeded deliveries.

Recently, Tesla discontinued the Model S and Model X to focus more on robotics and automation.

Tesla manufactured significantly more electric cars in the first quarter than it delivered, leading to a new record number of cars on lots. The American EV brand is sitting on 50,363 unsold vehicles, more than the company has ever had since going into business two decades ago.

The company manufactured 408,386 cars in the first quarter, a nearly 13% increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, deliveries accounted for 358,023 units, Tesla said in its latest quarterly report.

https://insideevs.com/news/791999/tesla-unsold-inventory-record-q1-2026/

World Court: Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, West Bank is illegal and must end

ICJ says Israel’s actions in West Bank amount to de facto annexation, calls for end of Israeli control; PM slams decision: ‘The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land’

In a conclusive and unambiguous decision, the International Court of Justice declared in a non-binding ruling Friday that Israel’s 56-year long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is “illegal,” and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.”

In its decision, the ICJ said it determined Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violates international law, and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which was formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.

The legal consequences of its findings, the court ruled, were that Israel must end its control of these areas, cease new settlement activity, “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation” — including those which it said “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” — and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.”

In addition, the court said that all UN member states are obligated not to recognize changes to the status of the territory, and that all states are obligated not to aid or assist Israel’s rule of the territories, and ensure that any impediment “to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end.”

The court also said that despite the complete civilian and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel has “remained capable of exercising, and continued to exercise, certain key elements of authority” there. It added “this is even more so” since the Hamas-led October 7 attack that started the ongoing Gaza war.

The ICJ’s decision is an advisory opinion and has no direct legal consequences on Israel or other UN member states, but it could be another blow to the Jewish state’s international standing and add political pressure over its devastating nine-month-old war against Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel did not take part in the hearings, instead submitting a written contribution that described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/world-court-israeli-presence-in-east-jerusalem-west-bank-is-illegal-and-must-end/

jewish Israeli settlers attacking Christians:

"You & your f*g Jesus can kiss my ass"

"We k1lled Jesus. We're proud of it"

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039998965450506583

Exactly seven years two months and 26 days since Gavin Newsom became governor of California. California is:

#1 in homelessness

#1 in poverty

#1 in Retail crime

#1 in gas prices

#1 in illiteracy

#1 in wage stagnation

#1 in frivolous lawsuits

#1 in unemployment

#2 in housing costs

#2 in water bills

#1 in restrictions on workers

#1 in Anti-business regulations

#3 in energy/electricity costs

#3 in inequality

#1 in income tax

#1 in gas tax

#1 in budget deficit

#2 in educational inequity

#1 in COVID school shutdowns

#1 in COVID business shutdowns

#1 in COVID mandates

#1 in illegal border crossings

#1 in funding for illegal immigrants

#1 in People leaving state

https://x.com/i/status/2039799538765164932

Israel Finally Went Too Far; Dept. of Justice Opens FARA Investigation into AIPAC

The state of Israel finally overplayed its hand with the government of the United States; pushing the US into a war it didn't want, and refusing to do as the US requests to stop the war. The US Department of Justice has announced it is opening an investigation into AIPAC for possible violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA)

DOJ Announced a FARA Enforcement Action Against AIPAC.

In an unexpected move this evening, the Department of Justice announced the launch of a formal investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). AIPAC has declined to comment, but sources inside the organization describe the mood as "panicked."

This is expected to have a shocking effect immediately. No member of Congress will be willing to risk continuing to meet with, or even speak to AIPAC lobbyists, until the investigation is complete, for fear of being investigated or potentially prosecuted for dealing with a (potential) Foreign Agent.

https://x.com/TrackAIPAC/status/2039485095955022230

https://www.coreinsightsintl.com/post/israel-finally-went-too-far-dept-of-justice-opens-fara-investigation-into-aipac

Father of 22-year-old Logan Federico is screaming at Democrats in Congress after his daughter was dragged from bed, forced on her knees, and executed…

…by a man arrested 39 TIMES with 25 FELONIES!!!

We need to hold judges & DAs responsible for releasing vicious murderers on innocent victims.

Everyone who let this demon walk freely, should be in prison.

https://x.com/i/status/2039900461126316399

More Bullshit to protect Israel

AG Todd Blanche - Epstein was not a Foreign spy from what we can tell

https://rumble.com/embed/v75t2bk/?pub=4

Rubio: Imagine if Iran funded the well-being of its people, rather than its military

Trump, two days later: We can’t fund daycare or Medicaid, we need more money for our military

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039738442368549294

CAMPAIGN TRUMP: “Child care is child care. You have to have it. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. America first.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We can’t take care of daycare. Just military.” 🤔 🤷🏼

#StopTheWar

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039803441208263026

Allegations Of Pentagon "Casualty Cover-Up": The Intercept

Well-known national security news site The Intercept has issued fresh reporting which alleges a Pentagon cover-up when it comes to mounting US casualties from Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Speculation and questions have lately surged among the public and analysts given that casualty updates put out by the Pentagon have been very few and far between. It actually accuses the Pentagon of shoddy record-keeping going back significantly before the current Iran war.

Currently the official numbers… "Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 US service members have been wounded," CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins said earlier this week. And, as of April 2nd, 13 US service members have been confirmed killed going back to the war's start on February 28, 2026. But The Intercept is alleging an astounding "casualty cover-up" by the Trump administration:

Almost 750 U.S. troops have been wounded or killed in the Middle East since October 2023, an analysis by The Intercept has found. But the Pentagon won’t acknowledge it.

U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a “casualty cover-up,” offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.

Two officials confirmed that at least 15 soldiers were injured last week in an Iranian strike on a Saudi air base, adding that "Hundreds of US personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the US launched a war on Iran just over a month ago."

The Intercept found that CENTCOM's latest April 2nd casualty count and 'update' to be "three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia," noting that "The command did not reply to repeated requests for updated figures." This has raised suspicions that other incidents are being omitted too.

The US military has also declined to provide a confirmed death toll since the start of the Iran war. The Intercept estimates it is "no less than 15" - while Washington has publicly acknowledged no more than 13 fatalities.

"This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps," an anonymous defense official was cited in The Intercept as saying. The report ultimately charges the US Army with "hiding losses".

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/allegations-pentagon-casualty-cover-intercept

GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew's message to Americans struggling with rising prices: "Maybe get yet another job"

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039733835928154356

Iran Warns Israel Was Behind Attack On Power And Desalination Plant In Kuwait

Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy announced on April 3 that a power generation and water desalination plant were hit by Iranian strikes early in the day.

Ministry spokesperson Fatima Abbas Jawhar Hayat said that technical and emergency teams responded immediately under contingency plans to manage the impact and maintain operations, while coordinating with security and other authorities to secure the area.

Following the attack, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied responsibility and shifted blame to Israel.

Israel’s “unconventional and illegitimate attack on Kuwait’s water desalination centers is a sign of the vileness and baseness of the Zionist occupiers,” the guards said in a statement posted on Telegram.

The Islamic Republic “condemn[s] this inhuman act and announce that the American bases and military in the region and the military and security centers of the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories are our powerful targets,” it added.

The attack came shortly after Kuwait’s Al-Ahmadi oil refinery was also targeted in early morning strikes. State news agency KUNA said that the attack caused fires in a “number of operational units,” and no employees were injured. Emergency and firefighting teams were sent, environmental experts are monitoring air quality, according to the agency.

The Al-Ahmadi oil refinery is Kuwait’s strategic energy hub, serving as its primary facility for converting crude oil into high-value clean fuels for global export.

https://southfront.press/iran-warns-israel-was-behind-attack-on-power-and-desalination-plant-in-kuwait-videos/

==Liberals to remove 'God' from O Canada

The move aims to make the Canadian anthem fully reflective of modern, secular, progressive and multicultural values.==

According to documents obtained by the Western Standard under the Access to Information Act, a confidential working group within Canadian Heritage has been tasked with reviewing the English lyrics of O Canada specifically the line "God keep our land glorious and free" as part of the government's broader commitment to building a more secular, progressive, post-national identity.

https://www.westernstandard.news/news/exclusive-liberals-to-remove-god-from-o-canada/72334

The Kosher Cowboy Represents Everything Wrong with Big Ag

A recent podcast episode put Jordan Levi, known as the Kosher Cowboy, in the spotlight. The host introduced him as a Jewish kid from the Chicago suburbs who rose to run Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, the largest cattle feeding operation in America with capacity for nearly a million head across 13 feedlots. Levi started young as a runner on the Chicago Board of Trade. A hedge fund sent him to a feedlot in Amarillo, where he arrived in Gucci loafers and stayed in the game. He now trades the cattle curve, manages risk on a massive scale, and buys up operations that define industrial beef production.

Oklahoma rancher Okie_Rancher cut straight through the glamour.

This is not a rancher. This is not a cowboy. This is a profiteering hedge fund manager who trades cattle instead of stocks. Big Ag at its worst, pretending to be rural. He dons the cowboy hat as if he cares about the millions of cattle funneled through crammed, manure-filled feedlots where none touch grass and they stand shoulder to shoulder on concrete. The circle of life becomes nothing more than a profit source.

That critique lands because it exposes the core rot in modern agriculture. Levi did not grow up on the land. He did not inherit a family ranch or learn the rhythms of calving, drought, and pasture rotation from generations before him. He entered through finance, spotted an opportunity in livestock as a tradable asset, and scaled it into an empire of feed pens. Five Rivers operates like any other commodity business: hedge corn, optimize daily gains, minimize variables that eat into margins. Animals live and die on spreadsheets. The cowboy hat is the costume that sells the story to outsiders and to the industry itself.

This is not unique to one man. It is the model Big Ag has perfected. Financial players and urban transplants flood into cattle feeding, land ownership, and processing. They wear the boots, the hats, and the belt buckles. They post photos from the pens or the sale barn. Yet their operations prioritize efficiency, scale, and returns for investors over animal welfare, soil health, or the survival of independent producers. Real ranchers know the difference. They work cattle on horseback in open country. They respect the land that sustains their herds. They do not need to LARP as connected to it because they actually are.

Look around the industry and the pattern repeats. Cowboy hats have become the uniform of choice for posers, urbans, and grifters. Generational cattlemen in Texas and the Plains often stick to baseball caps because the hat has been co-opted. It now signals image over substance. You see it in auction yards where middlemen squeeze margins while preaching about supporting family farms. You see it in the boardrooms of packers who own feedlots and control the supply chain from calf to carcass. You see it in the rising number of non-farm investors buying ranches not to steward them but to flip them or run them as tax-advantaged assets.

The feedlot system Levi oversees is the endgame of this thinking. Cattle spend their final months in high-density pens with no access to pasture. Gains come fast through grain diets, but at the cost of natural behavior, exercise, and forage. Quality suffers. Animal stress rises. Waste piles up. Defenders point to efficiency and the need to feed a growing population. Critics, including working ranchers, counter that this model destroys the very things that made American ranching worth preserving: respect for the animal, care of the land, and direct connection between producer and consumer. Small operations can and do raise beef on grass with humane practices. They simply cannot compete on price when Big Ag externalizes the true costs.

https://agrowars.com/the-kosher-cowboy-represents-everything-wrong-with-big-ag/

Israelis Spit on Churches During Holy Week' op YouTube

Defined by Cabalism, Judaism is a satanic cult masquerading as a religion.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xn1iBY2VfXM

>>24460753

https://twitter.com/i/status/2039771807109038285