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Iranians breathe a ‘ceasefire’ sigh of relief as all sides claim victory

Iranians breathe a ‘ceasefire’ sigh of relief as all sides claim victory

Tehran, Iran – The mental strain of living under daily bombardment has been partially lifted in Tehran and much of Iran as all parties to the war with the United States and Israel claim victory after a ceasefire was announced. Some traffic has returned to the streets of the Iranian capital during daylight on Wednesday, the first day of a two-week ceasefire agreed between Iran and the US with mediation from Pakistan. Negotiations aimed at reaching a long-lasting agreement are expected to begin in Islamabad on Friday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list But Tehran, home to more than 10 million people, is still far from its usual commotion after being targeted by several thousand munitions since February 28. Air defence systems were activated for short periods several times since the ceasefire was announced overnight, but there were no reports of impacts or any official explanation for the activations. People across Tehran, from young men and women huddling in vibrant cafes downtown to families sitting in parks, were debating whether the ceasefire would hold and what the future could have in store for them. “Looks like the ceasefire will continue. I heard the Israelis are opening up their airspace more,” a young man said, referring to an announcement by Israeli authorities that flights will resume from Ben Gurion Airport. Others, however, were more pessimistic, especially after two critical islands off southern Iran were attacked on Wednesday morning, hitting oil facilities. It is unclear who was behind the attack. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a drone in the southern province of Fars. Advertisement Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain also reported attacks on their territories by missiles and drones from Iran with Iranian state television confirming this was in retaliation for the post-ceasefire oil attacks. Tehran said it was ready to restart military operations if attacked again. On Tuesday, Iranians had been worried about the targeting of critical civilian infrastructure, such as power plants and bridges after a threat earlier in the day from US President Donald Trump to end “civilisation” in a country with one of the world’s oldest civilisations, dating back more than five millennia. The ceasefire was announced shortly before the midnight GMT deadline that Trump had set for an agreement to be reached to avoid US forces carrying out his threat. The Israeli military did, however, intensify its attacks in the hours preceding the ceasefire, hitting electricity outposts, bridges and the railway network. Warplanes also struck the Iranian Aluminium Company in Arak, damaging the country’s largest aluminium production facility. The Israeli army also extensively bombed Iran’s steel factories and petrochemical companies on Tuesday, putting them out of commission in an effort to impose more pressure on the already strained Iranian economy and population of more than 90 million. Even after the ceasefire, Israel continued attacking Lebanon, killing more than 250 people in a devastating day of attacks on Wednesday. Israel said it was targeting Iran’s ally Hezbollah, but civilian locations across Lebanon were hit. ‘Celebrations of victory’ to continue Trump hailed what he described as a decisive victory against Iran while announcing the ceasefire, but Dan Caine, his top general, emphasised that the deal only signifies a pause and combat operations could start once again if no final deal is reached. The US military said it struck 13,000 targets across Iran in less than six weeks of war. In Iran, similar proclamations of victory and celebrations were broadcast from Iranian state television, and a statement from the Supreme National Security Council urged the most fervent supporters of the government to trust in the system and refrain from making “divisive commentary”. The council also stressed that affairs were being overseen by Mojtaba Khamenei, who was declared Iran’s supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the war on February 28. The younger Khamenei and IRGC commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi have not been seen or heard from publicly since the start of the war. Advertisement A large number of events were organised by the theocratic and military establishment throughout Wednesday, and more were planned for Thursday to mark 40 days since the killing of the former supreme leader. These included marches on foot and in vehicles, public religious eulogy sessions and banners erected across the country. A video of an old Khamenei speech being recirculated by state-affiliated media on Wednesday showed him telling supporters to insist on “resistance”. Regardless of the ceasefire, pro-government Iranians have been told to continue driving in motorcades broadcasting religious chanting and take their children to join checkpoints and security patrols. However, some government supporters said they were caught off-guard by the ceasefire announcement because the establishment had repeatedly emphasised it would never agree to a temporary ceasefire and it would continue launching missiles and drones while it had the “upper hand”. Majid Nouri, son of Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official who was handed a life sentence in Sweden for his role in the deaths of political prisoners but ended up being exchanged in a 2024 swap, recorded a video from among government supporters in Tehran to say they were “shocked and saddened”. “Many good arguments and some disagreements have taken place between the people since the announcement of the ceasefire. They say, “We came to the streets for 40 nights. We did not expect this,’” he said. A week earlier, a senior correspondent on Iranian state television was explaining emphatically how the government would not agree to a temporary cessation of hostilities because it would allow the US and Israel to rearm and restart attacks at a time more appropriate for them. But state television’s English-language Press TV on Wednesday claimed Iran has become a “new superpower” since the ceasefire. In the meantime, the vast majority of Iranians continue to suffer from a state-imposed internet outage, which has cut traffic down to 1 percent of pre-war levels, according to monitors. After the ceasefire, the

Judge blocks Trump’s push to deport Abrego Garcia, rebukes DOJ for trying to ‘dictate’ court

Judge blocks Trump’s push to deport Abrego Garcia, rebukes DOJ for trying to ‘dictate’ court

A U.S. judge in Maryland rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, using an otherwise procedural order Tuesday to scold the Justice Department for its conduct and for attempting, in the judge’s view, to “dictate” the actions of the court. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis took umbrage at the government’s demand that she rule by mid-April on their request for her to dissolve her injunction keeping Abrego Garcia in the U.S. for now, and allowing them to deport him to Liberia. She sharply disputed the Justice Department’s assertion that the court “must” rule by that date, at risk of having the injunction ignored.  “Respondents cannot dictate the Court’s schedule or the outcome of the motion,” Xinis said. “Nor can they appeal a judicial order that does not exist.” ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT Ultimately, Xinis said Tuesday, the request was “not ripe” for the court to rule on the government’s removal of Abrego Garcia, and set new briefing dates for both parties. She also set a new briefing schedule, with filings due on April 20, and a new hearing date, scheduled for April 28. Lawyers for the Trump administration told the court during a hearing hours earlier that they still intend to deport Abrego Garcia to the African country of Liberia, despite a new agreement between the U.S. and Costa Rica that would allow him to be sent there.  Acting ICE director Todd Lyons argued that allowing Abrego Garcia to be sent to Costa Rica, his preferred country of removal, would be “prejudicial” to the U.S., citing what Lyons described as the “significant” government resources and capital the U.S. has invested in negotiating his removal and the removal of certain other migrants to Liberia. Another official suggested Abrego Garcia could “remove himself” to Costa Rica, should he choose to live there, which the judge noted was a “fantasy.” ABREGO GARCIA LAWYERS ASK US JUDGE TO ORDER RETURN TO MARYLAND AMID ONGOING CRIMINAL CASE Abrego Garcia’s status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March 2025, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, despite a 2019 order from an immigration judge. He was returned by the Trump administration to the U.S. late last spring.  Xinis, who has presided over Abrego Garcia’s civil cases for the last 13 months, has developed a reputation for her careful, methodological style of questioning — a process she previously likened to “eating an elephant, one bite at a time.” But the laborious review process has sparked criticism from Trump allies and Justice Department lawyers alike, who have expressed frustration with the lengthy timeline and what they argue are undue delays to removal efforts. ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT The Justice Department has bitterly disputed Abrego Garcia’s current status in the U.S. for months, as well as the injunction keeping him in the country, for now. His case has been further complicated by several details, including the November 2025 determination that Abrego Garcia had not been issued a final notice of removal needed to deport him to a third country. Still, Xinis’s unusually pointed order lays out what the judge described as a “careful recapitulation” of the case history, before concluding that “if anyone, Respondents bear the responsibility for substantial delay.” Trump administration officials have for months sparred over the final notice of removal in question, as well as whether the court should consider a retroactive removal order that an immigration judge issued in December. Other hearings have focused on what, if any, assurances the four African nations previously identified for Abrego Garcia’s removal had provided, should he be deported there.  Lawyers for the Trump administration have suggested on multiple occasions that Xinis lacks jurisdiction to review Abrego Garcia’s case, citing matters involving diplomacy and foreign sovereigns, an area where presidential powers are at their strongest.  Senior Trump administration officials have assailed Xinis and other district judges as “activist” judges whom they say have overstepped their powers in halting or pausing some of the president’s biggest policy priorities, including on immigration issues and enforcement. Xinis, for her part, has proceeded unfazed. She said in February that the government had failed to provide the court with any “good reason to believe” that they plan to remove Abrego Garcia to a third country in the “reasonably foreseeable future.”  Instead, she said, the government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.”

Stormy Daniels’ disgraced ex-lawyer and anti-Trump superstar Michael Avenatti moved to halfway house

Stormy Daniels’ disgraced ex-lawyer and anti-Trump superstar Michael Avenatti moved to halfway house

Disgraced Democratic lawyer Michael Avenatti has been moved from federal prison to a halfway house in California, according to Bureau of Prisons records, but remains in federal custody with a projected release date of September 2028. Avenatti is best known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her failed 2018 defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump. Once a media darling with presidential ambitions, he was later convicted in multiple fraud cases and sentenced to years in federal prison. An official with the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Fox News Digital that Avenatti was transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Los Angeles to community confinement overseen by the BOP Long Beach Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Office. He has a projected release date of September 8, 2028. In 2022, Avenatti was convicted and sentenced to 48 months in prison for stealing close to $300,000 in proceeds from Daniels. At the time of his sentencing, Avenatti was already serving a 30-month sentence for threatening to extort $25 million from Nike. Avenatti was also sentenced in December 2022 to 14 years in prison for stealing from four of his clients. One of those clients was a paraplegic. DISGRACED LAWYER MICHAEL AVENATTI LANDS REDUCED PRISON TERM AFTER RESENTENCING HEARING A copy of the probation order signed by U.S. District Judge James Selna stated that Avenatti must pay $5,937,725.58 in restitution to his victims, and he is ordered to participate in a mental health treatment program. Following his release from federal custody in 2028, Avenatti will be under supervised release for three years. TRUMP CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR RELEASE OF TINA PETERS AS COLORADO GOVERNOR WEIGHS CLEMENCY Avenatti’s early release comes after a federal judge in June 2025 reduced his collective prison sentence to eight years, allowing credit for some of the sentences running concurrently. Avenatti’s resentencing came after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated his 14-year sentence in October 2024. He was disbarred in California in February 2025. As Daniels’ defamation lawyer, Avenatti became a household name after regularly appearing on network TV shows. Fox News Digital previously reported that between 2018 and 2019, before his legal troubles began, he appeared on CNN 121 times and MSNBC 108 times. Avenatti was a staunch critic of Trump, saying in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered in 2018 that Trump is “either going to resign… be removed from office by impeachment, or I’m going to beat him in 2020.” “But one way or the other, he’s not going to serve a second term,” Avenatti said. However, the disgraced lawyer has since changed his tone, claiming in an April 2024 New York Post that he is “bothered that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against Trump. “There’s no question [the trial] is politically motivated because they’re concerned that he may be reelected,” Avenatti told the Post. “If the defendant was anyone other than Donald Trump, this case would not have been brought at this time, and for the government to attempt to bring this case and convict him in an effort to prevent tens of millions of people from voting for him, I think it’s just flat out wrong, and atrocious.” A lawyer for Avenatti declined to comment.

US Navy requesting $3B to replenish Tomahawk missiles used in Iran war

US Navy requesting B to replenish Tomahawk missiles used in Iran war

The U.S. Navy is requesting $3 billion in additional funding to replenish its stores of Tomahawk missiles after depleting its stores in the war against Iran. The Navy made the order as part of the Pentagon’s wider $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 released this week. The Tomahawk missile request represents a 1,200% increase in production compared to last year. Last year, Congress approved the Navy to purchase 58 of the missiles at a total price of $257 million. This year’s request is enough to finance 785 missiles. According to a report from the Washington Post last month, the U.S. had launched at least 850 Tomahawk missiles since the war against Iran began on Feb. 28. IRAN CONFLICT COULD BE PUSH GOP NEEDS FOR 2ND ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ The Pentagon says its wider $1.5 trillion budget request is needed to address growing threats from China, Russia and other adversaries. The request includes about $1.1 trillion in base discretionary funding for the Department of War, along with an additional $350 billion in mandatory funding to support priorities such as munitions production and expansion of the defense industrial base. If enacted, the plan would represent one of the largest increases in U.S. defense spending in decades, though the total includes a mix of discretionary funding and mandatory resources that are not typically combined in standard Pentagon budget comparisons. A-10 WARTHOG GIVEN NEW MARITIME ROLE TARGETING BOATS IN IRAN AFTER EFFORTS TO RETIRE AIRCRAFT The budget places heavy emphasis on rebuilding weapons stockpiles and strengthening domestic manufacturing capacity, areas that defense officials have identified as key vulnerabilities in recent years. Shipbuilding is another major focus, with $65.8 billion requested to procure 18 Navy battle force ships and 16 non-battle force vessels as part of a broader effort to expand maritime capacity. The proposal also continues funding for the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, which aims to develop a layered homeland defense using space-based sensors and interceptors. The budget also highlights investments in artificial intelligence, drones and counter-drone systems, and next-generation aircraft, including continued development of the F-47 — a sixth-generation fighter designed to operate alongside autonomous systems — with the program targeting a first flight as early as 2028.

Ousted AG Bondi declines Epstein deposition, but lawmakers say subpoena still holds

Ousted AG Bondi declines Epstein deposition, but lawmakers say subpoena still holds

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not sit for a planned deposition before the House Oversight Committee as part of its probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the panel’s Republican majority said Wednesday.  “The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on April 14 for a deposition since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General,” a House Oversight Committee spokeswoman told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.” The committee has not withdrawn the subpoena, meaning Bondi could still be required to sit for a deposition. Democrats on the committee pushed back on the Justice Department’s explanation in a statement to Fox News Digital. EPSTEIN’S ACCOUNTANT AND LAWYER REVEAL DOJ NEVER QUESTIONED THEM ABOUT DISGRACED FINANCIER’S CRIMES “Now that Pam Bondi has been fired, she’s trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify before the Oversight Committee about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up,” Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., fired back Wednesday. “Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not.” President Donald Trump ousted Bondi from the Justice Department last week after she faced bipartisan scrutiny of her handling of the Epstein files.  Garcia added that he would move to hold Bondi in contempt of Congress if she does not comply with the subpoena to appear before the panel.  The House Oversight Committee could recommend criminal charges against Bondi for defying a subpoena, but the measure would be subject to a chamber-wide vote and would ultimately be up to the DOJ whether to file charges. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to weigh in on whether Bondi should comply with the subpoena during a news conference Tuesday. “What happens now that she’s the former attorney general and there’s the subpoena out there is, I think I’ll leave to Chairman Comer and others to figure out. I don’t have an answer to that,” the nation’s new top prosecutor said. The brewing legal battle comes after five Republicans voted with Democrats to subpoena Bondi as part of the committee’s Epstein probe over Comer’s objections in March. The lawmakers were Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Michael Cloud, R-Texas. BONDI OUSTER IGNITES BIPARTISAN UPROAR: ‘PARTISAN, PETULANT, POLITICAL HACK’ Mace and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., another member of the powerful committee, sent Comer a letter Wednesday asking him to “publicly reaffirm” Bondi’s “legal obligation” to testify before the committee in the April 14 deposition. “Bondi’s removal as Attorney General doesn’t erase her obligation to testify,” the bipartisan duo wrote. “If anything, it makes her sworn testimony even more critical. Congress’s oversight doesn’t stop when an official leaves office.” “Pam Bondi was subpoenaed by name, not by title,” Mace added in a separate statement. Former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Acosta, who served in Trump’s Cabinet during his first term, have testified before the Oversight Committee as part of its Epstein probe. Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.