Summary:
US officials: War may resume if no peace talks breakthrough: Axios
Two Iranian gunboats Open Fire on a tanker near Oman; 2nd tanker hit by 'unknown projectile'.
India summons Iranian ambassador to condemn incident
Pentagon prepared to expand anti-vessel action, signals prepared to board Iran-linked ships globally
Friday: Hormuz Open; Saturday: Hormuz Closed
Trump: Iran wanted to close up Strait again, can't blackmail us
Former AI SPAC Executives Indicted For Fabricating "Virtually All" Revenue And Customers
What looked like a booming AI company was, prosecutors say, an audacious house of cards built on deception.
iLearningEngines (former stock symbol AILE) executives allegedly fabricated virtually every pillar of their business—customers, revenues, and contracts—to cash in on the AI hype and dupe both everyday investors and major institutions.
The scheme involved creating entire fake client ecosystems: shell companies with polished websites, insiders or relatives posing as corporate executives, and bogus multimillion-dollar agreements designed to withstand scrutiny, according to a DOJ press release. As U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella put it, the company’s pitch of AI innovation masked something far more fraudulent: “the truly artificial part of the defendants’ story was iLearning’s customers and revenues.”
The scale of the alleged deception was staggering. The company reported soaring growth—claiming revenues that reached hundreds of millions—while prosecutors say those figures were largely invented. According to the indictment, executives inflated results through an “intricate web of sham contracts,” many supposedly worth tens of millions annually, all designed to convince investors the business was thriving.
In reality, the operation functioned less like a tech company and more like a carefully staged illusion meant to unlock funding and drive up valuation.
Behind the scenes, the mechanics of the fraud were brazen. Prosecutors say executives orchestrated “round-trip” transactions exceeding $144 million, secretly funneling investor and lender funds through fake customer accounts and then back into the company to simulate real revenue.
According to the DOJ press release, associates even opened bank accounts in the names of nonexistent clients to keep the money moving and the illusion alive. This circular flow of cash allowed the company to falsely appear profitable while relying entirely on outside funding.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/former-ai-spac-executives-indicted-fabricating-virtually-all-revenue-and-customers
Kuwait Holds American Journalist After Reporting On 'Friendly Fire' Shootdown Incident
Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a fearless Palestinian-American journalist (he's an American-born Kuwaiti of Palestinian descent) whose writing and reports are defined by unparalleled integrity, depth and eloquence, was arrested on March 3rd in Kuwait.
He is charged with spreading false information and harming national security.
His arrest took place following his reporting of the shooting down of three U.S. fighter planes by the Kuwaiti military in an act of friendly fire during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Ahmed, along with other news outlets such as the BBC, published footage of a U.S. F-15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al-Jahra west of Kuwait City.
I fear Ahmed, a graduate of Columbia Journalism School who has worked for The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Al Jazeera English, Vice on HBO, The Huffington Post and appeared on numerous news outlets including the BBC and CNN, will be charged under new, draconian security laws instituted in Kuwait, which have already led to dozens of arbitrary arrests.
Kuwait has desperately tried to maintain the fiction that it did not serve as a staging area for US attacks on Iran.
The NY Times had also confirmed this week:
The arrest of the journalist, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, which Kuwaiti authorities had yet to publicly confirm, would be one of many detentions across the Persian Gulf as governments there try to repress information about local effects of the war in Iran.
“It is understood that authorities have charged him with spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone — vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists,” the committee said in a statement.
He had not posted online or been seen in public since early March, it said. His Twitter and Instagram accounts appeared to have been deleted.
Iran repeatedly attacked Kuwait, including strikes on Kuwait International Airport, the Ali Al Salem Air Base, the U.S. garrison at Camp Buehring and an operations center that saw six U.S. soldiers killed and dozens wounded. Iran also attacked the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery and a Kuwaiti oil tanker.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kuwait-holds-american-journalist-after-reporting-friendly-fire-shootdown-incident
Ukraine Urges Israel To Act Against Russian Ship Carrying 'Stolen' Grain To Haifa Port
Ukraine is pushing Israel to seize a grain shipment it says was looted from Russian-occupied territory as the war persists in the east.
At the moment it does not appear that Israel complied with any interdict of the vessel, also as reports say the cargo is already offloaded and gone.
Ukraine's government flagged the Russian vessel ABINSK, docking at Haifa, as part of Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, alleging that it is tied to operations used to "illegally export, transport, and sell stolen Ukrainian grain" and bankroll Moscow's war effort.
The saga has been featured in Ukrainian media, which says that despite a formal government-to-government request, Israeli authorities didn't stop the shipment.
Some 43,765 tonnes of wheat - loaded at Russia’s Kavkaz port and believed to originate from Ukrainian regions controlled by the Russian military - was allowed to be unloaded.
Ukraine is still expressing hope for "fruitful and constructive interaction" between both sides, with its embassy in contact with Israeli officials, but Tel Aviv does not appear to be as eager to intervene.
According to some further details in Le Monde:
On April 12, it was permitted to dock in Haifa, where it may have unloaded its cargo, valued at about €8.5 million at current wheat prices. The Abinsk then left Haifa the same day, heading for the Dardanelles Strait with the Turkish port of Çanakkale listed as its next stop, according to Marinetraffic.com, a vessel-tracking website.
The Russian bulk carrier reportedly loaded its cargo at the port of Kavkaz on the Kerch Strait, which separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea and links the Russian Federation to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian investigative journalist Kateryna Yaresko, who works for the SeaKrime project at Myrotvorets, an online collaborative platform listing "enemies of Ukraine."
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-israel-act-against-russian-ship-carrying-stolen-grain-haifa-port
Spain Erupts: Patriots Attacked By Socialist Mob Over Mass Illegal Migrant Amnesty
https://twitter.com/i/status/2045130176707575990
Palantir Paid No Federal Income Tax in 2025 as It Partnered With ICE, Pentagon
Its $0 tax bill comes despite the company raking in $1.6 billion and landing a $10 billion military contract last year.
A new analysis finds that tech giant Palantir Technologies paid $0 in federal income taxes last year, despite raking in hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to build out a mass network to surveil Americans in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Palantir, which has landed multiple massive contracts under the Trump administration, made $1.6 billion in net income last year.
It grew so much last year that it joined the list of the 20 most valuable U.S. companies, with its stock more than doubling in value in the first half of 2025 alone. In a report to shareholders, the company said it was “crushing” expectations in terms of growth, with revenue growing 93 percent year over year at the end of 2025.
Despite this growth, it did not pay any federal income taxes in 2025 due to tax policies allowing corporations to effectively dodge taxes, according to an analysis released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The practice has been present for years, but was worsened this year due to the combination of GOP tax breaks passed in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the group found.
Because of this, Palantir was one of at least 88 major profitable U.S. companies that avoided paying any federal income tax in 2025, ITEP found.
This includes companies like Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, who spent the first half of 2025 ravaging critical U.S. welfare, public health, humanitarian aid, and research programs, under the Trump administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Other major companies also owed $0 or even got money back in the form of tax rebates, including ticketing company Live Nation Entertainment; airlines like Southwest and United; other military contractors like Honeywell; utility companies like American Electric Power, Dominion Energy, and Duke Energy; entertainment companies like Walt Disney; and many more.
Together, these companies enjoyed over $105 billion in pre-tax income. If this were taxed at the statutory corporate tax rate of 21 percent, the companies would have paid $22 billion in taxes, ITEP found.
“What we’re seeing in this most recent year is corporate tax avoidance on steroids,” said report co-author Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at ITEP.
Palantir was able to dodge federal income taxes despite being the recipient of massive federal outlays.
“Palantir has been rewarded significantly through the second Trump term. On one end, the company’s domestic revenues surged in 2025, yet it paid zero federal income taxes,” said Spandan Marasini, a co-author of the report and ITEP data analyst, in a statement to Truthout. “Through the corporate giveaways in the most recent tax bill, the administration has made clear that being profitable is no longer sufficient reason to contribute to the public treasury.”
From Donald Trump’s inauguration to May of last year, it received $113 million in federal government funding, in a mix of existing and new contracts, reporting found. This funding just scratches the surface, however, with the Pentagon awarding Palantir a contract ceiling boost of $795 million in May — then, later in the year, a contract worth up to $10 billion that allows the Department of Defense wide latitude to purchase services from the company like its AI military system, Maven.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-corruption/palantir-paid-no-federal-income-tax-in-2025-as-it-partnered-with-ice-pentagon
The 'age verification' bill is a Trojan horse for a REQUIRED national digital ID and CBDC system.
https://youtu.be/LiaCjn3RLlw
LMAO this time they cooked Erica Kirk 😭😂🤣
Iran LEGO
https://twitter.com/i/status/2045433003120214287
Trump-Witkoff Crypto Gave Legitimacy to a Human Trafficking Linked Network
A Trump-branded crypto venture has quietly wandered into the blast radius of one of the ugliest scam-and-trafficking stories on the planet, and now the paper trail is catching up. What the new Guardian Australia and OCCRP investigation reveals, in simple terms, is that people tied to the US president’s family chose to do business with a murky partner whose Timor-Leste showcase project had already drifted into the orbit of an alleged human‑trafficking and cyberfraud empire.
The most damning part of the Guardian Australia and OCCRP investigation is not the photo from Singapore, but what followed that meeting: after Donald Trump Jr. and Zach Witkoff were photographed with Jacky Sui, a central figure in the opaque AB ecosystem, World Liberty Financial moved into a formal commercial relationship with AB and later announced the deployment of its USD1 stablecoin across AB’s trading, lending, liquidity, and wallet infrastructure.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a decentralized finance protocol created by the company of the same name. Founded in 2024 by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, Alex Witkoff, Zach Witkoff, and members of the Trump family, it represents a business initiative of the Trump family.
That was not a casual brush with bad company. It was a politically connected crypto venture extending market credibility to a murky network whose flagship project in Timor-Leste had already involved figures later sanctioned by the United States over alleged ties to Prince Group, the Cambodia-based conglomerate that the U.S. Justice Department says functioned as a transnational criminal enterprise built on forced labor, industrial-scale crypto fraud, money laundering, bribery, and violence.
World Liberty cannot be written off here as an innocent bystander caught in a messy corner of the crypto world. Zach Witkoff has been identified as a co-founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, while his father, Steve Witkoff, serves as President Trump’s special envoy, making this not just another speculative crypto partnership but a business relationship embedded in a family orbit of extraordinary political power. When that kind of venture chooses to do business with an opaque network, the issue is no longer optics alone. It becomes a question of what political access is worth, who benefits from it, and how far the Trump-Witkoff nexus is willing to go in commercializing that proximity.
https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/04/08/trump-witkoff-crypto-gave-legitimacy-to-a-human-trafficking-linked-network/
As you can see, we are living in the United States of Israel & 99% of our members of Congress are slaves to a foreign nation.
Israel 🇮🇱 is in control, until we primary every single one of the traitors.
America 🇺🇸 Only.
https://twitter.com/i/status/2045352312114196573
Is Ben Shapiro now doing undisclosed ads for Palantir?
https://x.com/i/status/2045304710744133650
Putting roundup on food doesn't make it safe! It's poison
Trump order to ensure farmers have herbicides to harvest safe, affordable food supply sparks debate
President Donald Trump issued the executive order in February under the Defense Production Act.
There’s an uproar over President Trump’s recent executive order impacting a widely used weedkiller linked to cancer. Some say it could give broad legal immunity to makers of Roundup and dozens of other products. The debate crosses party lines with some farmers siding with the industry.
But health advocate Leah Wilson, head of the nonprofit Stand for Health Freedom, says giving the pesticide industry immunity would be hazardous to our health.
“What if I told you that there's a coordinated effort to stop food reform in the US and that effort is being carried out by the big chemical industry to make sure that they don't lose their market share of the food market?” Wilson asks Full Measure in a recent interview.
She says the pesticide industry is pressing hard for exemption from liability lawsuits … modeled after protections the vaccine industry convinced Congress to pass 40 years ago.
The controversial National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 largely exempts vaccine makers from liability for injuries, such as brain damage blamed on the childhood DPT vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus.
Wilson says that resulted in an explosion in vaccines and related alleged injuries that industry now cannot be held responsible for.
Today, pesticide interests are lobbying for similar actions that they claim are needed to protect America’s food production.
They argue that lawsuits alleging health dangers, like cancer from glyphosate in Roundup threaten food production because large-scale, efficient farming requires weed and pest control chemicals.
In February, President Trump issued an executive order under the Defense Production Act to boost production of the chemical to protect America's food supply. It gives some immunity. Experts say it’s not a blanket shield, only for acts related to complying with the order. Its impact is uncertain.
The EPA has long insisted glyphosate is safe when used as directed and that Roundup doesn’t need cancer warnings. Yet the company recently proposed a $7.25 billion class-action settlement for current and future cancer claims and has already paid out over $11 billion.
The executive order states elemental phosphorus is a "critical precursor element for the production of glyphosate-based herbicides – "which play a critical role in maintaining America’s agricultural advantage by enabling farmers to efficiently and cost-effectively produce food and livestock feed."
The order also states that such herbicides are "the most widely used crop protection tools in the United States" and a "cornerstone" of the country's "agricultural productivity and rural economy."
A bipartisan group in Congress is pushing to try to reverse President Trump’s executive order and ensure that injured people can sue pesticide makers.
https://justthenews.com/government/roundup-pesticides
Israeli rabbi Yisrael Ariel: "We will conquer Iraq, Turkey… we will get to Iran, too. We will impose the 7 Noahide Laws on all of these places."
"This is a task of the Messiah–to bring the entire world to the 7 Laws. It is not a matter for court hearings; it is something to carry out through war!"
"From now on, there is no more Christianity, no more Islam; the mosques and the Christian spires come down."
https://x.com/TheSaviour/status/2044532501746475424
Convicted Spy Pollard Says Israel Must Nuclear-Threaten America to Break Free of US-Imposed Ceasefires
As U.S.-brokered ceasefires stop the fighting in Lebanon and cool tensions with Iran, convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard is openly urging Israel to threaten nuclear weapons against America itself.
In recent interviews, Pollard — the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who spent decades in American prison for selling secrets to Israel — argued that Israel should have rejected the latest U.S.-brokered ceasefires and instead threatened “unconventional weapons” to force continued arms shipments and military freedom of action.
Pollard explicitly pointed to Israel’s nuclear threats against the U.S. during the 1973 Yom Kippur War as the model Israel must follow again.
Pollard recounted how, in October 1973, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger halted arms resupply mid-war to extract concessions from Israel. In response, Israel parked an A-4 Skyhawk fighter jet loaded with “unconventional weapons” under its wings at Tel Nof Airbase — in plain view of American intelligence — and essentially told Washington to take a look.
Weapons shipments resumed the next day. Pollard stated that Israel should repeat the tactic today rather than accept what he called U.S.-imposed limits on its operations against Iranian-backed forces.
The comments come amid fresh U.S.-backed truces that have blunted Israel’s ability to press for a wider regional confrontation. On April 16, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day U.S.-brokered “cessation of hostilities” targeting fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah, effective at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
https://x.com/RyanRozbiani/status/2044835794444030264
https://vtforeignpolicy.com/2026/04/convicted-spy-pollard-says-israel-must-nuclear-threaten-america-to-break-free-of-us-imposed-ceasefires/
Temple Institute/Sanhedrin Rabbi wants to spread Noahide Law through global war
"Rabbi Ariel speaks of the need to use war to spread the Noahide Laws globally and to destroy other faiths. Now his speech is set in the future, when the Jewish Messiah arrives… but the Temple Institute subscribes to the ideology that the Jewish people can collectively be the Messiah and there is no need for any divine man to come forward.
https://stopnoahidelaw.blogspot.com/2020/06/temple-institutesanhedrin-rabbi-wants.html
Jewish AI Kill and Control System by Palantir
https://www.bitchute.com/video/aDlvO7bdwerk
How the IDF is implementing the 'Gaza model' in south Lebanon
Forces hold a new 'yellow line' buffer, block residents’ return, clear Hezbollah infrastructure and retain freedom to strike beyond it during the ceasefire, while enforcing layered defense lines reaching up to the Litani River
The IDF said Saturday it struck terrorists in southern Lebanon and, for the first time, used the term “yellow line,” previously applied only to a line in Gaza to which IDF forces withdrew in October 2025 under the agreement with Hamas as part of the hostage deal.
The military later said it had eliminated a terrorist cell operating near troops in what it described as a forward defense line aimed at preventing direct threats to northern communities. It also struck an underground shaft south of the line and Hezbollah terrorists identified entering it.
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire in Lebanon and his statement that Israel should halt strikes there, a “yellow line” has effectively been established where IDF forces remain deployed, similar to the arrangement in Gaza. During the ceasefire, the IDF continues to strengthen its hold on key positions in southern Lebanon.
Military officials said the IDF’s defensive layout in the area is divided into three lines: the red line, the yellow line and the Litani line. They stressed that forces have standing orders to act immediately to remove any threat wherever it is identified.
The red line marks villages near the border, many of which have been heavily damaged. The yellow line — an anti-tank defense line — is where forces are currently positioned to prevent direct fire toward northern communities. The third line runs along the Litani River, where the IDF maintains fire control. In some areas, troops are positioned about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
In effect, the IDF has defined a new line up to which it maintains control — the anti-tank line captured during ground operations in southern Lebanon. The area includes 55 Lebanese villages whose residents are not allowed to return. During the ceasefire, the IDF continues to clear what it describes as Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure within this zone, effectively treating it as a security buffer.
Terrorists believed to remain in the area, including in Bint Jbeil, have been called on to surrender. If they do not, the military says they will be targeted once located. The Israeli Air Force continues to operate over southern Lebanon to neutralize threats as needed.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyrl37zpbg
Australia is a captured state!
20 arrested at Brisbane Roma Street rally over banned slogans under new Queensland laws
A Brisbane protest has become the first major test of Queensland’s new hate speech laws, with police arresting 20 people after banned slogans were chanted.
Police have made 20 arrests after moving in on a pro-Palestine rally in Brisbane where about 300 people were heard chanting “from the river to the sea”, in the first major test of Queensland’s new hate speech laws.
The demonstration was held at Emma Miller Pl in Roma St on Saturday afternoon, where protesters gathered to oppose legislation passed by parliament on March 5, which strengthened penalties for breaches of gun laws and made two slogans, “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”, illegal when used in certain contexts.
As the rally escalated, protesters defiantly chanted “from the river to the sea” and some displayed the phrase on placards, prompting a police response.
Officers moved in to make arrests at the scene, before some protesters relocated to the Brisbane watch-house, where further arrests were made outside the building.
Queensland Police confirmed a total of 20 people were taken into custody.
In total, police laid 14 charges of display prohibited expression and seven charges of recite prohibited expression.
The arrests come as authorities continue to enforce the new laws, which have already seen earlier charges laid since coming into effect last month.
Liam Parry, 33, became the first person charged under the legislation following a protest outside Queensland Parliament House on March 11.
Mr Parry is facing one count of reciting or publicly displaying a prohibited expression that is reasonably expected to menace, harass or offend a member of the public.
Police said enforcement operations are ongoing as they respond to protests across Brisbane and other parts of Queensland.
https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/20-arrested-at-brisbane-roma-street-rally-over-banned-slogans-under-new-queensland-laws/news-story/e61112c370ef853971dc7cef81a229ba