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Iran is no longer entertaining a potential peace deal with U.S. negotiators.Tehran declared Friday that it would not meet with U.S. officials in Islamabad, adding that the White House’s demands are “unacceptable,” reported The Wall Street Journal’s senior Middle East correspondent, Summer Said.The country’s regional neighbors are still attempting to mediate the situation, offering Iranian officials other opportunities to settle the conflict with the U.S. Turkey and Egypt have offered new venues for the talks, including Istanbul and the Qatari capital, Doha, as well as new proposals, noted Said.However, Qatar has so far resisted efforts by its neighbors and the U.S. to play a major role in the peace talks, “complicating efforts to find a way forward for the talks,” mediators told the Journal.Earlier Friday, Mohammad Javad Zarif—a former Iranian foreign minister who served as Iran’s top diplomat from 2013 to 2021—became the first figure in the country to offer a detailed, “comprehensive peace” plan that he believed Tehran would find attractive. It outlined a nonaggression pact between the U.S. and Iran, as well as “economic interactions” that include the involvement of American companies in Iran’s oil sector.But Zarif is only on the periphery of power in Iran. The country’s current leadership is fronted by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of previous Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in February by a U.S.-Israeli joint operation. The junior Khamenei is considered even more extreme, and has been described as his father “on steroids.”Iran’s newly installed leadership refuted claims made by Donald Trump earlier this week that the country was open to a ceasefire, informing state media Wednesday morning that the idea was “false and baseless.” Iranian state media has repeated the idea that Iran is “winning” the war, despite the devastation wrecked by American forces.The campaign has so far cost the lives of more than 2,000 people in Iran, including dozens of political leaders, according to Al Jazeera. At least 13 U.S. soldiers have also been killed in the war, not including the two crew members of an F-15 fighter jet that was downed by Iranian fire earlier Friday. So far, one crew member has been rescued, while the other is still missing. American, Israeli, and Iranian forces are rushing to locate the ejected soldier, reported Axios.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted Monday that the conflict would be resolved in the coming weeks, and that the war itself would not take longer than four to six weeks (the conflict is currently in its fifth week). Military officials have not agreed with that estimate, predicting that the war could instead rage for months or even years.

Donald Trump’s so-called fraud crackdown will soon be coming to a (Democrat-led) state near you.On Friday, the president celebrated the beginning of the crackdown, claiming that fraud is being committed “primarily in those Blue States where CROOKED DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS, like those in California, Illinois, Minnesota (Somalia beware!), Maine, New York, and many others, have had a ‘free for all.’”Trump added that Vice President JD Vance would become America’s “FRAUD CZAR,” a title that sounds amusingly like Vance is being tapped to commit fraud.A day earlier, the Justice Department arrested eight people in California allegedly involved in health care fraud schemes netting more than $50 million.Most of the California fraud consists of hospice centers allegedly filing false Medicare claims to receive federal funds for patients who did not need them. Hospice centers located in Artesia, Glendale, Tarzana, and Simi Valley—all cities and suburbs surrounding Los Angeles—were caught up in the DOJ raid.The most egregious alleged fraudster is the owner of an Artesia hospice center who paid middlemen to refer fake hospice patients to her. The DOJ claims she submitted more than $9 million in fake Medicare claims and was paid over $8.5 million, and that one couple at the center said they were told they could receive $300 a month each if they signed up for hospice care, though neither needed it.Two additional detainees are charged with defrauding a California labor union out of health care money, and a final person is accused of forging immigration-related medical documents.The Trump administration enjoys singling out California when discussing nationwide fraud, frequently equating the alleged fraud with its Democrat leadership, personified by Governor Gavin Newsom (notably not a fan of the president).Newsom, for his part, signed a law in 2021 that paused new hospice licenses over fraud concerns. He said his state has been cracking down on hospice fraud ever since, rescinding over 280 hospice licenses in two years and investigating 300 further medical centers.“Glad the federal government is finally stepping up to do their part,” Newsom wrote on X.Trump has made tackling Social Security and Medicare fraud a focus of his administration, which is great in theory. But the government has not produced many notable results yet, and we are yet to see whether the allegations into these eight Californians will hold up in a legal sense. Trump’s Department of Justice has had an incredible capacity to lie and face-plant in court, perhaps more so than any former iteration of the department.And of course, the great irony is that there are many instances of massive, provable fraud taking place in Trump’s own Cabinet. The president also likes to pardon and drop investigations into convicted fraudsters who have pledged fealty to him.

“Neither in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres can good come from abuse of power,” he said.

James Fishback—the right-wing Groyper currently sitting near the bottom of Florida’s list of GOP gubernatorial candidates—told a Black man he should be “lynched” when asked about allegations he dated an underage girl.“So Mr. Fishback, what’s with you smashing a 16- or 17-year-old, can you answer about what’s going on with that?” influencer Tajy TV asked Fishback at an event, surrounded by a crowd of supporters, camera in hand.“What are you talking about?” Fishback responded.Tajy TV then goes on to reference allegations that Fishback had a romantic relationship with Keinah Fort in 2022, when she was 17 and he was 27. Fishback called the allegations “completely false.”Tajy TV then moved on to graphically describing Fishback and Fort having sex, setting Fishback and the crowd off. “Why haven’t I been arrested?” Fishback said, not exactly denying the accusations. “You should be lynched. You should be lynched for talking about me like that.”“I should be lynched?” said Tajy TV.“Yes, you should be lynched.”Then Tajy yelled to “lynch all pedophiles,” which Fishback awkwardly agreed with. This brain-dead interaction is just one of Fishback’s many instances of using this shock-and-awe bigotry to try to build momentum among the Nick Fuentes–adjacent crowd. He has frequently used George Floyd as a meme, called GOP front-runner Byron Donalds (who is also Black) “Byrone,” and made tongue-in-cheek references to Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. Disgusting comments like this are all Fishback really has going for him. James Fishback tells a Black voter that he should be “lynched” after the man asked him about his history of dating minors. pic.twitter.com/0hcivZyc0k— Justin (@JustinUSA) April 2, 2026

Iranian officials are trolling President Donald Trump’s abysmal leadership amid an ongoing search for the pilot of a U.S. F-15 fighter jet that was shot down over Iran. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf took the opportunity Friday to mock the United States for repeatedly declaring victory on its ever-vacillating set of objectives. “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’” Ghalibaf wrote on X. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”The Iranian Embassy in South Africa also posted a joke about MAGA’s successful “regime change,” including photographs of U.S. military leadership who had been ousted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—most recently Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, who was told to step down on Thursday. Online, Iranian officials in the government and Revolutionary Guard have engaged in an ongoing meme war against the White House.A pro-Iran account called Explosive News has started posting AI-generated cartoons in the style of Legos to mock Hegseth’s reckless war in Iran and communicate a crude solidarity with the victims of Western aggression. One of the videos posted Thursday attacked Hegseth as a “punk ass rapist bitch,” adding, “Think you a crusader? Nah you just a drunk infidel in a fake uniform.”Explosive Media shared an AI-generated image Friday of a Lego pilot being chased by Iranian military officers. “Our team announces that anyone who captures the pilot alive will have their own LEGO-style character made in their honor,” the account wrote in a subsequent post.

A study found that AIs fed interpersonal dilemmas from the subreddit r/amItheasshole were twice as likely as humans to endorse the user’s behavior.

This time around, it’s the bedroom coders, some of whom are still in their teens.

Gun-shooting humanoid robots fighting on the front lines are becoming less of a dystopian fantasy.

Being first isn’t necessarily the same as winning.