On Saturday, as The Gateway Pundit previously reported, while high on “wax,” the illegal alien, Atharva Vyas, carried out a savage, unprovoked attack on a mother and her three-year-old daughter in a San Antonio park, biting the toddler’s face, ripping out her front teeth, and jamming his thumbs into her eyes in what witnesses described as a scene straight out of a horror movie.
According to a report from the New York Post, Vyas was allegedly under the influence of “wax,” a highly concentrated form of cannabis with one dose equivalent to smoking 15-20 joints.
The toddler, little Amelia Perez; her father, Xavier Estrada; her mother, Gabriella Perez; and her grandfather, Richard Ariaza, were at the park, spending time together as a family and fishing when the attack took place.
Vyas emerged from the woods and charged at Gabriella Perez, grabbing her hair and punching her in the jaw. He then lunged at her three-year-old daughter, Amelia, pinning the toddler to the ground.
Witnesses said he bit the child’s face and mouth, tried to “eat” her face, gouged at her eyes with his thumbs, and ripped out her two front teeth.
Gabriella fought desperately to save her daughter.
“That brute was ravaging my baby!” Gabriella Perez told The Post. “She’s terrified to sleep. She’s lashing out, angry. She doesn’t understand evil like this f–king man. She’ll never be the same again.”
If the Biden administration had cared about protecting Americans, they would have deported this guy when he was arrested for felony assault. This young girl would have been spared the horrors of mass immigration.
No more children should be victims of suicidal immigration policies.
Investors voted with their pockets, and the merger with Paramount clears another hurdle.
A few months ago, conservatives were very worried that Warner Bros.-Discovery would be bought by the ultra-woke people at Netflix, taking the already decadent film industry into an even deeper leftist purgatory of bad movies with nefarious subliminal messages.
But that was not to be, as Paramount swooped in and made a much better financial offer for the studio, literally saving the day like a hero from one of their movies.
To no one’s surprise, a large group of Hollywood leftists came out in force trying to impede the deal, but they were not successful.
Yesterday, it emerged that Warner Bros’ investors have backed Paramount’s takeover, bringing the $111bn deal a step closer.
*WARNER BROS. INVESTORS APPROVE $110 BILLION SALE TO PARAMOUNT
Warner Bros. shareholders voted overwhelming to approve a merger with Paramount Skydance, despite widespread opposition to the deal in Hollywood https://t.co/v2rEBgpHSt
“An initial count of votes at an investor meeting found shareholders ‘overwhelmingly’ supported the takeover by Paramount Skydance, the Hollywood giant run by the billionaire Ellison family.
The investor support means the tie-up between two of Hollywood’s biggest studios will probably be completed by the third quarter of this year, though it still requires approval by regulators.
Investors are backing the deal despite a widespread backlash in Hollywood, with claims that it will narrow the range of films and TV programs made and give outsized influence to Donald Trump’s allies.”
Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. has been approved by Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders.
HBO and its ‘GAME OF THRONES’ universe are officially heading to Paramount.
When insane leftists say ‘narrow the range’, they mean that movies will not be pure platforms of LGBT-socialist propaganda anymore, nor failed experiments in which racial and social hatred is stoked to the max.
“[The merger] has fueled fears that the Ellison family will have outsized influence over the US media through their control over the Hollywood studios and their media assets, including CBS News and TikTok’s US division.”
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad Saturday evening local time, after attending events in Pakistan. Iran says that they did not hold any direct talks with the U.S. in Pakistan, with Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei writing on X that “no meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S.”
Iran says that their return to negotiations is conditional on the U.S. lifting its naval blockade.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were scheduled to travel to Pakistan today, will not be traveling anymore, President Donal Trump told Fox News on Saturday.
Drop Site News reported, based on ongoing conversations with an anonymous senior Iranian official, that Iran has skepticism toward Jared Kushner in particular, who they perceive as biased toward Israel, and will not participate in a meeting with Kushner or Witkoff without a figure like Vice President J.D. Vance present. Their reporting echoes the assessment of an unnamed Gulf mediator who spoke to the Guardian in March. “We regarded Witkoff and Kushner as Israeli assets that dragged a president into a war he wants to get out of,” the diplomat said.
The Pentagon told Congress in a classified hearing on Tuesday that clearing Iranian mines from the strait could take up to six months and is unlikely to begin before the war ends, reported the Washington Post. Iran’s parliamentary commission is reviewing a plan that would place management of the Strait of Hormuz under Tehran’s authority, which will include formalizing transit fees on foreign vessels, commission member Fadahossein Maleki told Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.
Israeli media reported that Hezbollah fired two rockets and one drone at northern Israel, with no casualties reported. The IDF said it killed several “Hezbollah terrorists” in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed four people on Saturday, following airstrikes on Friday which reportedly killed six people. Local journalist Hadi Hoteit in Lebanon said Israel launched five more airstrikes in southern Lebanon, with an unknown number of casualties. Videos posted to X on Saturday showed Israel’s demolition of civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
A UN Human Rights report covering the first three weeks of renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah released on Friday found that Israeli forces carried out direct attacks on civilians, struck residential buildings, and repeatedly hit healthcare workers and journalists.
“Israel’s vaguely communicated blanket evacuation warnings and displacement orders – covering almost 14 per cent of Lebanon’s territory,” the report said, “may amount to forced displacement, prohibited under international humanitarian law,” noting that 55 towns and villages remain under Israeli evacuation orders today.
Hezbollah rocket fire into Israeli residential areas also drew scrutiny, with the report labeling them possible “violations of international humanitarian law.” UN High Commissioner Volker Türk called for independent investigations and an arms transfer halt for all parties.
Tehran has insisted since the beginning of the ceasefire with the U.S. that the truce should cover Israel’s war in Lebanon.
Federal immigration enforcement is deploying grand jury subpoenas to unmask anonymous online critics after losing repeated court battles, raising urgent questions about whether government agencies are weaponizing secretive legal processes to silence constitutionally protected speech.
Grand Jury Power Replaces Judicial Oversight
ICE turned to grand jury proceedings after courts repeatedly dismissed its standard subpoenas seeking to identify a Reddit user who posted criticism of the agency’s immigration crackdown. The grand jury subpoena grants prosecutors closed-door authority to compel evidence without the public scrutiny of open court challenges. This procedural shift fundamentally alters the power dynamic, allowing government agencies to bypass judicial protections that previously safeguarded anonymous speech. Legal experts describe this as a significant turning point, noting that grand jury authority carries far more compulsion power than the dismissed subpoenas that preceded it.
Protected Speech Targeted Without Criminal Evidence
The Reddit posts at the center of ICE’s investigation contain criticism and general commentary about immigration enforcement, with no evident criminal activity according to the user’s legal team. This distinguishes the subpoena from traditional law enforcement investigations tied to specific crimes. The targeting of political speech raises fundamental First Amendment concerns, as courts have historically protected anonymous online expression absent clear criminal evidence. Lauren Regan, director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, characterizes the tactic as officials being “tired of losing” in court and using grand juries to “strong-arm information” they cannot obtain through standard legal channels that include judicial oversight.
Precedent Threatens Millions of Anonymous Users
Reddit emphasized that privacy remains central to its platform, stating it does not voluntarily share user information, particularly when users criticize the government. The company notified the targeted user, enabling a potential legal challenge before any data handover. However, the case threatens to establish precedent affecting Reddit’s entire user base of over 100 million daily active users and anonymous speakers across all tech platforms. A 2017 federal appeals court ruling already established that online services must identify anonymous commenters to grand juries, creating legal foundation for the current ICE subpoena. The short-term impact could chill criticism of immigration enforcement; long-term implications point toward expanded government surveillance of protected political speech across digital platforms.
Civil liberties organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have long opposed what they term “dragnet subpoenas” targeting anonymous speakers without legitimate cause. The EFF warned in 2010 that overbroad requests create chilling effects on free speech by making citizens fear government retribution for expressing dissenting views. The current ICE subpoena validates those concerns, demonstrating how federal agencies can leverage grand jury secrecy to pursue critics after exhausting traditional legal avenues. This dynamic erodes trust in online anonymity protections that enable millions of Americans to participate in political discourse without fear of government identification and potential harassment or prosecution for constitutionally protected expression.
Broader Surveillance Shift Targets Government Critics
The ICE subpoena signals a broader shift in how government agencies pursue anonymous online critics following court losses. Tech platforms may face increasing grand jury demands as federal prosecutors recognize this pathway circumvents the judicial protections that previously blocked standard subpoenas. The secretive nature of grand jury proceedings prevents public scrutiny of the government’s justifications for unmasking citizens engaged in political speech. This creates asymmetric power relationships where federal agencies operate behind closed doors while individuals must mount expensive legal defenses to protect their identities. Experts note this represents a fundamental departure from transparency principles, with officials bypassing courts that previously served as checks on overreaching government surveillance of protected First Amendment activities.
In yet another shocking development that fits a disturbing pattern of scientist and UFO research-related deaths, would-be whistleblower Matthew James Sullivan, a highly decorated 39-year-old Air Force veteran with top-secret clearances, died of an “accidental” drug overdose just months after agreeing to testify before Congress about the U.S. government’s secret “legacy” UFO crash retrieval programs.
Sullivan was found dead at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, on May 12, 2024, only weeks after he committed to appear at congressional hearings scheduled for that November.
The Northern Virginia District Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death an accidental overdose caused by a lethal combination of alcohol, alprazolam (generic Xanax), cyclobenzaprine (a powerful muscle relaxant), and imipramine.
According to a report from the New York Post, Sullivan was prepared to reveal firsthand knowledge of the U.S. government’s long-running crash retrieval and reverse-engineering programs involving non-human craft and “biologics.”
Sullivan had worked in highly sensitive roles with the Air Force Intelligence Agency, the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), and the National Security Agency (NSA).
Sullivan was part of a so-called legacy UFO program — the US government’s crash retrieval program — that has operated for decades in the shadows across several executive branch agencies, sources told The Post.
Sullivan had personally seen UFOs in the federal government’s possession and would have exposed the legacy program at the congressional hearing in November 2024, according to sources.
Other UFO whistleblowers have also faced threats to their safety after coming forward with world-shattering information.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. David Abba, who spoke at Sullivan’s funeral, described him as carrying “the burden that a select few in this nation have of truly understanding what’s going on.”
Sullivan’s planned testimony would have added significant credibility to the growing number of whistleblower accounts, including those from former intelligence official David Grusch, who has publicly stated that the U.S. possesses non-human “biologics.”
This case is facing renewed scrutiny due to the disturbing wave of deaths and disappearances of scientists, researchers, and insiders with connections to classified UFO/UAP programs, nuclear secrets, and advanced aerospace technology.
Republican Rep. Eric Burlison wrote a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on April 16, stating, “Mr. Sullivan’s death was a local Virginia medical examiner case, and the manner and circumstances of his death raise substantial questions, as he was preparing to provide testimony to Congress… The sudden and suspicious circumstances surrounding his death raise significant concerns about potential foul play and the safety of other individuals involved in this matter.”
The FBI has confirmed it is “spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists” and is working with the Departments of Energy and Defense, as well as state and local law enforcement.
Other cases in the growing list include:
Air Force Maj. Gen. William “Neil” McCasland, who disappeared from his Albuquerque, New Mexico home on February 27, 2026, after leaving all devices behind. He had previously been contacted about UAP research and appeared in WikiLeaks Podesta emails tied to UFO discussions.
Melissa Casias and Anthony Chavez, both linked to Los Alamos National Laboratory (vanished in 2025).
Steven Garcia, who worked security for non-nuclear weapon components (missing August 2025).
Aerospace engineer Monica Jacinto Reza (missing June 2025).
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Frank Maiwald (died 2024).
MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro (shot dead in December 2025).
Caltech exoplanet researcher Carl Grillmair (killed February 2026).
Novartis chemical biology team leader Jason Thomas (found dead in March 2026).
Another name drawing attention is Amy Eskridge, a 34-year-old aerospace researcher from Huntsville, Alabama, who died on June 11, 2022.
Authorities initially ruled her death a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the case is now being re-examined due to the emerging pattern.
Eskridge was president of The Institute for Exotic Science, a company which she founded specifically to create a “public-facing persona” for disclosing anti-gravity technology and related breakthroughs.
She had been researching advanced propulsion systems, gravity modification, and topics involving UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
According to a report from the New York Post, in a 2020 interview, Eskridge explicitly warned that she felt escalating threats and said she needed to go public soon for her own safety.
“I need to disclose soon, man. I need to publish soon because it’s like escalating. It’s getting more and more aggressive,” Eskridge said.
“This has been going on for like four or five years, and over the past 12 months, it’s been escalating, like more aggressive, more invasive digging through my underwear drawer and sexual threats.”
NEW: Researcher working on anti-gravity technology, whose death was ruled a su*cide, sent a text just one month before her death saying she would never kill herself, according to the Daily Mail.
Amy Eskridge was found with a gunshot to the head in Huntsville, Alabama.
“If you see any report that I killed myself, I most definitely did not. If you see any report that I overdosed, I most definitely did not. If you see any report that I killed anyone else, I most definitely did not,” she reportedly said in a text to a friend in May 2022.
She told associates that going public was safer than keeping the work private, stating, “If you stick your neck out in private… they will bury you, they will burn down your house while you’re sleeping in your bed and it won’t even make the news.”
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, prominent UFO researcher, Ancient Aliens personality, and bestselling author David Wilcock was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide outside his home in Boulder County, Colorado.
Just two days before his death, Wilcock went live on YouTube and made chilling remarks about a pattern of deaths in his community.
“I’m excited to be here, you know, every day that I have on earth is a gift and a blessing, and I’m very grateful for that, because frankly, people are disappearing. Scientists are going missing,” he said. “It’s a little bit scary.”
No foul play has been alleged by authorities in Wilcock’s case at this time, and the investigation remains with the coroner.
President Trump kept his promise to seal the border upon resuming office in January of 2025. Since then, border crossings have been down by over 99 percent.
The previous four years under Biden resulted in an open border and an estimated 15 million illegal aliens entering our country.
The result of those reckless open-border policies has led to the current situation that exists in our country today. Law enforcement agencies like the Texas DPS have consistently worked to arrest illegal aliens and those who are smuggling them into the United States.
A DPS trooper in Starr County did a traffic stop and discovered a human smuggler was carrying 5 illegal aliens in a Chevy pickup truck.
The driver was arrested and charged by the Border Patrol, and the illegal aliens were taken into custody by the Border Patrol.
The illegal aliens that were captured were wearing colored wristbands. The cartels give those to track payments and to coordinate illegal border crossings.
Watch:
Texas DPS Traffic Stop Leads to Human Smuggling Arrest
4/19/26 – In Starr Co., a @TxDPS Trooper stopped a Chevy pickup for a traffic violation. During the stop, it was discovered the driver was smuggling five illegal immigrants.
TGP reported earlier this month on a high-speed chase involving Texas DPS agents, which ended with a PIT maneuver. Troopers arrested a human smuggler and found illegal aliens and bundles of marijuana in the vehicle.
Watch:
Smuggling Attempt Disrupted in Cameron County | 3/24/26@TxDPS Troopers shut down a dangerous human smuggling and narcotics operation after a smuggler driving a white Ford Escape led troopers on a high-speed pursuit in Cameron County.
Article IV, Section 4 of the US Constitution gives the federal government the authority and responsibility to protect the country from an invasion.
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.” Article IV, Section 4 of the US Constitution.
The rule of law has been restored under President Trump.
President Trump abruptly canceled his envoys’ trip to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran.
US special envoys to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, were supposed to travel to Pakistan for round two of peace talks with Iran.
On Saturday, President Trump told Fox News that the trip was scuttled.
Trump told Fox that Iran can call at any time.
“We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want,” Trump told Fox.
WATCH:
BREAKING: President Trump tells FOX News’ @aishahhasnie that he has canceled Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff’s planned trip to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran.
President Trump telling FOX News exclusively, “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want.” pic.twitter.com/40b4x8Vms9
President Trump released a statement on his decision to cancel his envoys’ trip to Pakistan:
I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their “leadership.” Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance announced no deal had been reached with Iran after a 21-hour marathon of negotiations.
Vance made the announcement during a press conference in Islamabad a couple of weeks ago.
The Vice President traveled to Pakistan to engage in historic, direct negotiations with Iran after President Trump announced a double-sided ceasefire last week.
“We’ve been at it now for 21 hours, and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” Vance said.
“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” he added.
WATCH:
JD Vance: “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the US. So, we go back to the US having not come to an agreement … they have chosen not to accept our terms” pic.twitter.com/uqFnwVT76g
Here is the US’s ‘red line’ list according to Semafor (It is unclear if any points were agreed upon):
– End all uranium enrichment
– Dismantle all major nuclear enrichment facilities
– Retrieve highly enriched uranium
– Accept a broader peace, security and de-escalation framework that includes regional allies
– End funding for terrorist proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis
– Fully open the Strait of Hormuz, charging no tolls for passage
Per a US official, the US and Iran did not reach agreement to all of the following points during talks this weekend (which are considered red lines for the US):
– End all uranium enrichment – Dismantle all major nuclear enrichment facilities – Retrieve highly enriched uranium…
The SPLC’s funding comes primarily from large liberal donors, including Apple and JPMorgan Chase, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and a direct-mail fundraising operation built on urgent appeals tied to high-profile racial incidents, generating $129 million in revenue in fiscal year 2024 alone. Photo courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
Prosecutors allege that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Alliance, and other extremist groups, the same groups it was publicly raising money to dismantle.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated the SPLC was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose.” The indictment also includes two federal forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the fraud. The SPLC has denied the allegations and vowed to fight them in court.
The charges have forced a question that critics have raised for decades: where does the SPLC’s money actually come from?
The organization’s financial scale is striking. According to its most recent IRS Form 990, the SPLC posted $129 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 and held nearly $800 million in total assets, down from a record $169.8 million in revenue the prior year.
Despite holding reserves sufficient to operate for six years without raising another dollar, the organization ran “urgent” appeals for “emergency” cash throughout 2024, during which it collected $106 million in donated funds. CharityWatch, the nonprofit watchdog, rates the SPLC an “F” for hoarding assets far beyond any reasonable operational reserve.
The fundraising machine has deep roots. Morris Dees, the SPLC’s co-founder, built his personal fortune through direct mail marketing before entering civil rights law. He raised money for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign in exchange for the candidate’s 700,000-name donor list, which became the foundation of the SPLC’s solicitation program.
By 1986, the SPLC’s entire legal staff had quit in protest, accusing Dees of abandoning genuine poverty law, pro bono death row representation, tenant cases in favor of headline-generating KKK lawsuits that produced better fundraising copy.
One departing attorney, Gloria Browne, said the organization’s programs were calculated to cash in on “black pain and white guilt.” Former SPLC staffer Bob Moser later write The New Yorker that “the only thing easier than beating the Klan in court was raising money off Klan-fighting from liberals up north.”
The 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally illustrated how the model worked at peak efficiency. SPLC revenue before Charlottesville was $51.8 million. After Charlottesville, it surged to $133.4 million. Corporate America responded: then-Apple CEO Tim Cook pledged $1 million, JPMorgan Chase gave $500,000, George Clooney’s foundation donated $1 million, and MGM pledged to match employee contributions.
The Google Foundation had already provided $250,000 in 2016. George Soros’s Open Society Foundation pledged $75,000 in 2016 to convene an “Anti-Hate Table” of national organizations.
What those donors did not know, according to the DOJ indictment, was that an SPLC informant paid $270,000 over eight years had been a member of the leadership chat group that planned the Charlottesville rally and helped coordinate transportation for attendees.
The Soros connection to the SPLC runs deeper than that single documented grant. The SPLC has established a fund housed at the Tides Foundation, the left’s primary fiscal intermediary, called Vote Your Voice, committing $130 million over ten years to voter engagement organizations across the Deep South.
Soros has donated more than $7 million to Tides over the years, meaning Soros money flows into Tides and Tides infrastructure flows to SPLC programs. The arrangement also provides political cover: grants distributed through Tides carry Tides’ name rather than the SPLC’s, obscuring the origin of the funds to grantees and the public alike.
While raising tens of millions annually from American donors on civil rights appeals, the SPLC was simultaneously moving hundreds of millions offshore. The Washington Free Beacon’s 2017 investigation, drawing directly from the SPLC’s own IRS filings, Form 8865, Form 926, and Form 990-T, documented specific transfers: $960,000 to Tiger Global Private Investment Partners IX in the Cayman Islands on November 24, 2014; $102,007 to BPV-III Cayman X Limited and $157,574 to BPV-III Cayman XI Limited on the same Grand Cayman PO Box in December 2014; and two separate $2.2 million transfers on March 1, 2015, to entities in Cayman Bay, Cayman Islands.
The SPLC’s 2015 Form 990-T separately disclosed financial interests in the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. Amy Sterling Casil, CEO of nonprofit consulting firm Pacific Human Capital, called the offshore transfers “a huge red flag” and said she knew of “no legitimate reason for any U.S.-based nonprofit to put money in overseas, unregulated bank accounts.” By 2021, the SPLC’s non-U.S. equity holdings had grown from $44 million in 2013 to $233 million, a 430 percent increase.
The executive compensation picture is equally revealing. In 2015, co-founder Morris Dees received $329,560 in base salary plus $42,000 in additional compensation. President Richard Cohen received $346,218 in base pay. The minimum salary for any officer or key employee that year was $140,000, and total salary expenditure reached $20 million. In the same year, the organization, which claimed a staff of 75 lawyers, spent just $61,000 on legal services. When Dees was forced out in 2019 following accusations of sexual harassment and staff complaints of racial discrimination, he, Cohen, and Legal Director Rhonda Brownstein received combined payouts exceeding $1 million despite their forced departures.
At that point, the SPLC’s offshore holdings stood at $162 million and the endowment at $529 million. Staff had long referred to the organization’s Montgomery headquarters as the “Poverty Palace.”
In the wake of the indictment, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it is tightening IRS Form 990 reporting requirements to expose how nonprofits conceal funding used for extremist activity or fraud. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to the SPLC demanding documents and communications related to the informant payments and any coordination with the Biden-Harris administration. The SPLC spent $3.458 million on federal lobbying in 2024 alone.
The indictment is unproven and the SPLC will have its day in court. What is not in dispute is the financial record. This is an organization that built a $786 million fortune on alarmist direct-mail appeals, parked hundreds of millions in offshore accounts, paid departing executives over $1 million on the way out, funneled $130 million through a Soros-linked fiscal intermediary, and solicited emergency donations from Apple, JPMorgan, and George Clooney after a rally that its own paid operative helped organize.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had cancelled a trip by top envoys to Pakistan, where they had been expected to revive ceasefire talks with Iranian diplomats.
“I’ve told my people a little while ago, they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there,’” Trump told Fox News. “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
Trump’s decision not to send the envoys—Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—seemed to come after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had departed Islamabad Saturday evening local time.
Iranian officials say they lack trust in U.S. diplomacy after Trump in late February authorized strikes on Iran during negotiations. This week, Trump extended, indefinitely, a two-week ceasefire that has paused the fighting, though tensions persist in the Strait of Hormuz.
On April 20, 2026, China deployed the aircraft carrier Liaoning through the Taiwan Strait into the South China Sea, while simultaneously dispatching a naval task group through the Yokoate Channel into the Western Pacific. Photo courtesy of China Military via People’s Daily.
On April 17, the Japanese destroyer JS Ikazuchi transited the Taiwan Strait, the fourth such transit by a Japanese warship since September 2024, and the first since Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae took office.
The date compounded Beijing’s reaction. April 17 is the anniversary of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, under which Japan forced China to cede Taiwan, and the PLA Daily accused Tokyo of “harming the feelings of the Chinese people” by choosing that date. Beijing, which claims the strait is Chinese internal waters rather than an international waterway, responded with a coordinated two-pronged naval operation that analysts say goes well beyond a reaction to a single provocation.
The transit also signaled Japan’s alignment with Washington’s freedom of navigation posture. China’s Foreign Ministry called the passage a “dangerous plot” to militarily intervene in the Taiwan Strait, and spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated at a press briefing that the Taiwan issue is a non-negotiable “red line.”
The United States is Taiwan’s primary security guarantor, and Japan has become an increasingly aligned partner, but Washington’s insistence on free passage through the strait is not solely about Taiwan. It reflects a broader principle: that freedom of navigation is a pre-existing customary right of all nations, one that UNCLOS codified but did not create, which the US enforces through its Freedom of Navigation Operations program.
No other nation runs a comparable program, deploys carrier strike groups globally to assert transit rights, or challenges excessive maritime claims at anything approaching the same scale. The legal weight behind Washington’s position is considerable: under UNCLOS Article 58, even within a coastal state’s exclusive economic zone, freedom of navigation cannot be restricted, meaning China has no lawful basis to block transit through the corridor of water lying outside its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea.
The economic stakes underscore the importance of keeping the strait free of China’s control. Roughly 44 percent of the world’s container fleet transits the strait annually, along with 88 percent of the largest ships by tonnage. Over 95 percent of Japan’s crude oil and 65 percent of South Korea’s crude oil arrive from Middle Eastern suppliers, whose tankers follow the most direct route through the Taiwan Strait.
Were China to capture Taiwan, it would control both shores of the strait, making any claim to regulate transit far more practically enforceable, even if it remained illegal under international law. Beijing has long signaled its intention to assert jurisdiction over the waterway, and physical control of both coastlines would move that ambition operational.
Beijing’s response to Japan’s transits was larger and more pointed than usual. The PLA Eastern Theater Command dispatched the 133rd naval task group through the Yokoate Channel, a waterway through the Ryukyu Islands near the Japanese mainland, into the Western Pacific.
In a separate move, the aircraft carrier Liaoning transited the Taiwan Strait on April 20 and headed south toward the South China Sea. The Eastern Theater Command described both movements as “routine training activity organized in accordance with the annual plan” and “not aimed at any specific country or target,” but the composition and timing of the forces suggest otherwise.
Since the main theater of the ongoing US-Philippines Balikatan exercise is centered on northern Luzon, concurrent PLAN operations by the 133rd task group in the Philippine Sea and the Liaoning in the South China Sea constitute what analysts describe as a tactical envelopment rehearsal targeting forces operating near Luzon, with China practicing pressure on US and allied forces from two directions at once.
The deployment also comes after Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s meeting with U.S. leadership, and analysts assess it as designed to signal resolve to Tokyo while shaping the military balance ahead of high-level diplomacy with Washington.
The most recent publicly verified Liaoning strike group composition, from its December 2022 Western Pacific deployment, comprised two Type 055 destroyers, one Type 052D destroyer, one Type 054A frigate, and a replenishment ship.
While the PLA officially frames the deployment as routine, it is not taking place in a vacuum. A more plausible near-term scenario is that the Liaoning will link up with the Shandong carrier group in the South China Sea, potentially as early preparation for dual-carrier or tri-carrier blue-water exercises later in 2025.
In October 2024, the PLAN operated two strike groups simultaneously in the South China Sea for the first time, deploying the Liaoning and Shandong together with at least 11 escorts and conducting J-15 flight operations from both carriers. The current deployment may be a precursor to repeating or exceeding that milestone.
According to the Pentagon’s 2025 China military report, Washington expects Beijing to field nine carrier strike groups by 2035, effectively tripling its current force and positioning the PLAN as a near-peer competitor to the U.S. Navy’s congressionally mandated eleven-carrier fleet.
Texas DPS Traffic Stop Leads to Human Smuggling Arrest
