WND

April 17, 2025: 11:00 p.m.:
April 17, 2025: State Highlights

• U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff met with European and Ukrainian officials in Paris to promote a U.S.-led peace framework to end the war in Ukraine. The framework received a positive response from European powers and Ukraine, although Russia remains cautious. President Donald Trump seeks a swift resolution and has proposed a minerals and economic cooperation deal with Ukraine as part of the peace initiative. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the talks, emphasizing Europe’s continued involvement in negotiations and opposition to exclusive U.S.-Russia talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized perceived Russian narratives promoted by Witkoff and accused China of supporting Russia militarily. While a full ceasefire remains elusive, there is tentative agreement on limiting attacks on energy targets and at sea. Negotiators plan to reconvene in London next week. Separately, U.S. and French defense leaders discussed NATO defense spending and Ukraine’s long-term security. U.S. officials also held side talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program, with further discussions scheduled in Rome.

• Secretary Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, presenting the same peace proposal discussed in Paris. The State Department reported an “encouraging reception” from European and Ukrainian counterparts, though Russia remains cautious.

• President Trump hosted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House, expressing support for a future EU-US trade deal. On Ukraine, Trump gave mixed messages, stating his desire to end the conflict while expressing dissatisfaction with all parties involved, including Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, whom he criticized. A potential US-Ukraine minerals deal is expected to be signed soon. Trump also praised Meloni for aligning with NATO defense spending targets and accepted her invitation to visit Rome.

• The U.S. and Iran have resumed indirect nuclear talks, with initial discussions held in Oman and further meetings planned in Rome. The Trump administration seeks to cap Iran’s uranium enrichment at 3.67%, while Iran continues its nuclear development. Russia has ratified a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Iran, adding complexity to the negotiations.

• The State Department held a press briefing led by Spokesperson Tammy Bruce, addressing ongoing diplomatic efforts in Ukraine and Iran, and reaffirming the U.S. commitment to European security partnerships.

What precisely did candidate Donald Trump mean with his campaign pledge to “Make America Great Again”? From the first week of this presidency to today, it is clear MAGA was more than a campaign slogan. It was a substantive campaign promise. And a defining part of that promise is to “Make American Self-sufficient Again.”

Partisan Democrats hate the idea. Registered Democrats not so much. Finding work in a semiconductor chip factory is not so bad. In fact, while the partisans try to enforce their opposition by defacing or burning property, or staging protests to inconvenience as many working Americans as possible, they have no answer for Trump’s push to create more domestic jobs. Their fallback position is to claim jobs require energy and energy use is a threat to earth. This week we were told dogs are a threat to the planet too.

Elon Musk is the Trump administration face of a parallel campaign to reduce the cost and the scope of the federal government at home and abroad. Those same partisan Democrats are violently opposed to any welfare-state reduction. Characterizing the reduction of government as a threat to democracy is nonsense, and the general public knows it.

For decades those bitter partisans have galloped into office astride social issues, but their overall campaign seeks a total destruction of what American has been, and still is. The partisans want to burn it down, replaced by government as the provider of all things necessary. The Trump administration labors to discard the bureaucratic model and build upon the successes of this nation.

The partisans have gone so far some state legislators and governments are attempting to withdraw from the union by defying federal law. This week Maine said it would not obey federal rules excluding men from women’s sports. Also this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit to block President Trump’s authority to establish tariffs. California will go it alone, Newsom argued. This is not new to the United States of America. Americans killed each other in record numbers over the issue of a federal ban on slavery. Will the next civil war be waged to settle immigration policy?

While partisan Democrats would deny the federal authority to regulate immigration to this country, non-partisan Democrats who suffered a job loss to an illegal alien, or worry about that prospect, are not so enthusiastic about defying the federal government.

To complicate matters, the United States Supreme Court has obfuscated over the plain language of the Constitution for decades, and soon it will have to decide. Do we hang in there with the founders, or plunge into fragmented chaos? That issue is knocking on the courthouse door. Will we have 50 separate sets of immigration rules? Will the federal government be relegated to a roll of welfare provider? Will the fiction of sanctuary California serve as a backdoor to an eastern migration?

Meanwhile, working Americans watch and listen. Working Americans already have made sacrifices to the cost of the welfare state. Family size has been declining as the cost of government rises.

Suburban parents do not allow their children to walk to school today. They are driven, and the traffic jam around the neighborhood school is a twice-daily headache. The children all have smartphones to protect them. Tree forts and secret hideaways are no more. In fact, outdoor playtime is not heard in the neighborhood.

In a broad sense, insecurity has replaced freedom as a feature of American family life.

Donald Trump confronted all this and more with “Make American Great Again.” His critics screamed “hate” and rapidly morphed into violent behavior. More and more partisan Democrats call for violence against the president. The non-partisan Democrats, not so much.

What would our world be like today if the internet did not host websites independent of some sprawling corporate entity, websites offering debate instead of directional commands? Those Democrat partisans did recognize the threat of the internet, but their campaign of “disinformation” and “misinformation” failed under the weight of freedom of speech.

At least now we can begin to debate tariffs and world trade, gas-powered cars versus EVs, and perhaps participate, as is our right, as the decisions are made.

This week, Democrats decided to expend their quickly diminishing political capital in defense of a deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia was deported to El Salvador some weeks ago; the Department of Justice initially admitted that his deportation was an “administrative error.” It turns out that Garcia had an order withholding removal to his home country, due to his claims that returning to El Salvador would risk his life. Nonetheless, the administration flew him to that country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, where he is apparently being held to date.

Initially, a district court judge ruled that Abrego Garcia’s removal was violative of due process, and that the administration had to “facilitate” his return to the United States. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court, which found 9-0 that while the executive branch likely had the power to order his deportation, it still had to follow court orders to “facilitate” his temporary return for due process reasons. The Trump administration, for its part, claims that it has already “facilitated” his release from custody – that they’ve asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele nicely to release him, and that Bukele has refused. Bukele sat in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and said just that: “The question is preposterous: how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”

Regardless of the legal wrangling over the case – and there is in fact a solid legal basis to the idea that the administration ought to temporarily return Abrego Garcia just to receive a court hearing, after which he can be deported right back again – Democrats have wrong-footed themselves yet again. This week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., decided to fly down to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia; other congressional Democrats vowed to do the same. In their telling, Abrego Garcia is an innocent caught up in the mills of wrongheaded justice.

But Abrego Garcia is indeed a nefarious character. It turns out that aside from his illegal immigration status, Garcia’s wife accused him of “violently beating her multiple times” in a 2021 court filing, according to the Daily Mail. When he was originally arrested in 2019, arrest records show he was found with cash and drugs, as well as two other members of MS-13, while wearing gear associated with MS-13. And this is the person Democrats have tried to valorize.

Abrego Garcia isn’t the only awful person Democrats have attempted to sanctify. Democrats have also rushed to the defense of terror supporter and Columbia student visa holder Mohsen Mahdawi, who posted on his social media in commemoration of his terrorist cousin: “a leader of a fierce resistance fighter.” The New York Times went so far as to headline his story, “He Wanted Peace in the Middle East. ICE Wants to Deport Him.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have little to say about the illegal immigrant killer of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was raped and murdered; Rachel’s mother, Patty, visited the White House briefing room to explain the case to a media that largely ignored it. Democrats similarly have gone silent about the burning of the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa.; his home was set aflame by an anti-Israel man who said he wanted to let Shapiro know he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” Democrats’ inconsistency here speaks volumes: If you are an illegal immigrant criminal, they will either ignore it or downplay it; if you are a visa-holder or criminal who favors Hamas, they will do the same.

Democrats have a wide variety of lines they can use to attack the Trump administration. But their binary view of the world – opponents of Trump must by necessity be good – leads them down dark pathways. Which means that no matter how much they decry the lack of due process, nobody will trust them with the levers of power.

Democrats have chosen to fight President Donald Trump to have returned to the United States an illegal alien who was deported to a prison in El Salvador.

The El Salvadoran president has confirmed the inmate is not being released or returned to the U.S., so that end of the arguments appear to be nearing a conclusion.

But the details about the inmate still are being revealed.

A report from the Daily Caller, for example, explains that Department of Homeland Security documents show that Kilmar Abrego Garica, an alleged member of MS-13, a terror organization, was stopped in 2022 on suspicion of human trafficking.

It was during a traffic stop by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer that Garcia “was found to be transporting eight passengers across the country,” according to sources for the Tennessee Star.

“He allegedly did not have a valid driver’s license and was suspected of trafficking the passengers but was let go at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report confirmed.

The traffic stop was triggered by “speeding” and the driver’s difficulty maintaining a lane.

Garcia’s ID was a temporary license from Maryland that is given to non-citizens.

He explained at the time he was driving the eight people from Texas to Maryland, the report said, and none of the passengers had any luggage. They all provided the same home address, Garcia’s, the report said.

Garcia was given a warning.

Further in Garcia’s background is the fact that DHS confirms he is on the “Threat Screen Center’s Transnational Organized Crime Watchlist.”

And the Department of Justice told the Daily Caller Garcia is identified as a member of MS-13.

He was subject to deportation when the Trump administration sent him to El Salvador, but the only glitch appears to have been a removal restriction he was not supposed to be sent to that country.

Further, reports confirm he had been the subject of complaints by his wife of domestic abuse.

The Daily Caller News Foundation said Jennifer Vasquez Sura sought a domestic violence restraining order against him in 2021.

Sura now is publicly advocating for his return.

DHS, in a statement, said, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as. According to court filings, Garcia’s wife sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, claiming he punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt, among other harm.”

The facts that are being revealed are making it harder for Democrats to continue identifying Garcia as a “family man.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported the DHS documents show, “Officers found Abrego Garcia loitering in a Home Depot parking lot on March 28, 2019, wearing ‘a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,’ the initial Prince George’s County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet states. ‘Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13,’ the document states. ‘Officers contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando ABREGO-GARCIA is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique.”

 

A report from an education industry watchdog confirms that hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation are defying President Donald Trump’s executive orders to end promotions for the discrimination found in “diversity, equity, and inclusion” ideologies on their campuses.

Many are simply relabeling the offices, excising the DEI moniker and installing “Advocacy,” “Belonging,” “Community,” “Inclusive,” “Resilience” and the like, the report said.

It’s from Defending Education, an arm of Parents Defending Education, and confirmed 243 universities still are running their DEI agenda through on-campus offices.

The organization reported it reviewed schools in 46 states plus the District of Columbia, assessing the work of 259 institutions.

Colleges and universities with active DEI projects totaled 243 and total active DEI offices/programming (including colleges or departments) totaled 388.

They are found in business schools, law schools, colleges of education, engineering, dentistry, medicine, nursing, health and more.

“This investigation is intended to track the current state of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices and programming (names will vary) at colleges and universities. It is meant to identify which institutions currently have DEI offices, have shut them down, or appear to have renamed or rebranded their DEI offices and programming,” the report said.

“To date, Defending Education has tracked 243 universities which still have institution-wide DEI offices and/or programming in operation, 166 schools or colleges (such as Colleges of Education, Engineering, or Medicine, etc.), with an overall total of 388 currently active DEI offices and programming.”

Further, it reported, “Additionally, 28 institutions and schools/colleges appear to have renamed or rebranded their DEI offices, 16 universities have removed webpages and/or shut down DEI initiatives, and in a few cases, have moved the DEI webpage behind an institutional login. These cases are noted with an archived page of that institution’s former DEI page.”

There are some, like the University of Alaska Anchorage, where officials “seem to have completely shut down DEI operations,” and the University of Michigan, which “has allegedly shut down its overarching ‘Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.’”

But at Michigan Law, or the LSA Department of Psychology, the ideology, which largely is based on discrimination based on race, sex and such, “still have active DEI pages.”

A report on the dispute, from the Washington Stand, explained the report is not exhaustive.

And Family Research Council Senior Fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon said, “It would be naive to think that reforming educational institutions could be accomplished by the stroke of a pen.”

She continued, “DEI is rooted in a belief system that is enforced, but more than that, it is accepted and believed. The hearts and minds of people running colleges and universities must change if we want true reform. It will take generations to transform higher education.”

Trump condemned the agenda in his order, describing how the agenda violates “the text and spirit of our longstanding federal civil-rights laws.”

Further, he said, they undermine traditional American values.

His order included instructions for schools to purge DEI offices and programs and instead, enforce federal civil rights laws.

 

A new poll shows a whopping 56% of Americans want all illegal aliens deported from the county – so reports CNN data analyst Harry Enten.

WATCH:

? New CNN Poll: Most Americans SUPPORT deporting ALL illegal immigrants.

“A big part of the reason why Americans are increasingly saying the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy.” pic.twitter.com/yDUIgTJizr

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) April 17, 2025

Two people were killed and five others wounded after an active shooter opened fire on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee Thursday, police said. Five patients and the shooter were brought to local hospitals.

Police said the gunman was believed to be an FSU student. CBS News Miami reported the suspect was taken into custody after being shot in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Police said the two people killed in the shooting were not students.

The second round of negotiations between Iran and Western powers is unfolding amid escalating internal tensions within the Islamic Republic. At the heart of this internal strife is a clan known as the “hard core of the regime,” which is no longer merely at odds with rival political factions, but seems at times openly defying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself. This comes after Khamenei expressed tacit support for the talks and the Iranian negotiating team in a recent speech.

This “hard core” comprises elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, plainclothes security forces and key branches of the intelligence apparatus. Though numerically in the minority, they represent the foundation of the Islamic Republic’s power structure. These forces are responsible for widespread repression in the streets and for orchestrating acts of violence and executions within the country’s prison system.

From its inception, the Iranian regime has based its identity on rigid religious dogma with roots in medieval theology. It has projected this identity outward through slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” while simultaneously enforcing brutal repression at home. The IRGC was created to serve this dual mission: exporting terrorism abroad and quelling dissent domestically.

Leveraging this ideological hostility, the regime succeeded in consolidating a loyal base of repressive forces internally, while building a network of proxy militias across the region. Yet now, the very regime that once dubbed the United States “the Great Satan” and “enemy of the revolution” finds itself seated across from its former nemesis – negotiating and shaking hands.

Two diverging paths before the regime

Today, the Iranian regime faces a stark binary choice:

Engage in negotiations with the United States and Western allies, which would require abandoning its nuclear program, halting support for proxy forces and stepping back from military interference in the region.

Or, refuse to yield, risking airstrikes on nuclear sites, the full reimposition of maximum sanctions and a scenario comparable to the dismantling of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

Reports from political circles in Tehran suggest that senior IRGC commanders, along with high-ranking officials – including newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian – have warned Khamenei that the second path, which entails escalating international pressure and military confrontation, could lead to the inevitable collapse of the Islamic Republic.

It is worth recalling that on March 2, at the onset of Ramadan, Khamenei addressed a gathering of current and former IRGC and government officials, declaring that negotiations with the United States were “neither wise” “nor honorable,” and “not rational.”

The ideological origins of the regime’s hard core

According to an investigative report by the semi-official Etemaad website, the “hard core” of the regime – also called the “ideological-security circle” – consists of factions that define their legitimacy through unwavering allegiance to the revolution’s founding ideology: implementing sharia law, rejecting Western engagement and sustaining permanent hostility toward the United States.

This faction emerged in the 1990s and has since remained ideologically rigid. For its members, any compromise – whether on hijab enforcement, foreign policy or diplomatic relations with the West – is viewed as a direct existential threat to the regime.

Historically, their relationship with Khamenei has been one of mutual reinforcement. He saw them as the regime’s shield against internal dissent – “the force that paralyzes opposition from within” – and in return, they defined their mission as the “unconditional defense of the Supreme Leader.”

Reformists vs. the hard core?

If negotiations proceed, it is expected that so-called moderate and reformist factions will gain momentum, while the hard core will lose influence. “Reformists” oppose measures such as strict hijab enforcement in public that could ignite new waves of civil unrest. They view such policies as accelerants to regime collapse. Still, despite their reformist rhetoric, these groups have largely remained silent amid the rising tide of executions, failing to issue clear condemnations or take meaningful action.

The crumbling pillar of power

Should the regime proceed with an agreement that includes halting its nuclear and missile programs, it will likely weaken the foundational power base that has supported it for decades.

This would empower the so-called reformists or moderates, who believe that negotiating with the United States is not just permissible but essential for the regime’s survival. However, these factions appear blind to a critical truth: Any serious engagement with the West will, inevitably, lead to demands for political openness and reform.

And this would come at a perilous moment. In the most recent presidential election, only about 8% of eligible voters participated, many under pressure and amid an atmosphere of intimidation. Such a lack of public legitimacy could become the final accelerant in the regime’s collapse.

Can Khamenei really be unaware?

Is it possible that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is unaware of these dangers? It is difficult to believe so. Indeed, Khamenei is acutely aware of the consequences of nuclear compromise and the decline of the regime’s hardline base. During the second term of President Hassan Rouhani, from 2016 to 2020, Khamenei directly obstructed progress in the nuclear talks. Not only did he halt negotiations, but he later defended that move with pride. Today, he seems to lack the same power and authority.

Disaster or catastrophe?

The choices before Khamenei are no longer between good and bad – or even bad and worse.
They are between disaster and catastrophe.

Because none of the available options guarantee his survival.

The Trump administration placed roughly 75% of full-time AmeriCorps employees on administrative leave Wednesday as the administration looks to rebuild the Clinton-era volunteer agency from scratch, Fox News Digital learned.

A total of 535 full-time AmeriCorps employees out of the agency’s 700 staff were placed on leave, an administration official confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday.

Volunteers with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps, a program that focuses specifically on volunteer opportunities for youth between the ages of 18–26, were preemptively pulled out of the field ahead of the Trump administration placing the agency’s full-time staffers on leave Wednesday, Fox Digital learned. Roughly $250 million in AmeriCorps contracts also have been canceled.

A video of a former employee of the Environmental Protection Agency last year explained how Biden administration officials were trying to hand taxpayer money out to various organizations and foundations very fast, before the administration of President Donald Trump came into office.

The worker said, “It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge.”

Now an appeals court has ordered a halt to the tossing.

A report from Washington Examiner said the D.C. Court of Appeals has put on hold an order from Tanya Chutkan, a leftist whose antagonism to President Trump is well-established in the court records, and had issued an order that gave various climate groups access to the funds being held in Citibank.

The appeals court said it wants to review Chutkan’s full order before moving on with the dispute, in which the new EPA managers want to terminate some $20 billion in grants, to save taxpayers from those handouts.

“The purpose of this order is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the district court’s forthcoming opinion in support of its order granting a preliminary injunction together with the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and any response thereto, and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the appeals court said.

That decision is just the latest development in the fight brought on by three climate groups against the EPA. The funding comes from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was part of Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which even leftists have admitted was not intended to, and did not, reduce inflation.

Climate United official Beth Bafford said her group stands firm “on the merits of our case.” Her group, along with Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, all sued, demanding delivery of the tax funding they want.

However, Lee Zeldin, appointed to head the EPA under President Trump, explained the grant money was distributed improperly, because it was routed through Citibank.

The funds were frozen and there was an order to cancel the handouts.

Chutkan has tried, through a preliminary injunction, to order Citibank to hand out the money.

Taxpayers could be forced to hand out is $14 billion that the three nonprofits are demanding.

A previous report confirmed that there were many “financial conflicts of interest and billions of questionable expenditures under Biden’s EPA.”

And House investigators are reviewing the problems.

It was in a letter House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.; and Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo.; asked Zeldin for a briefing, while also commending Zeldin for identifying waste, fraud and and abuse in the agency.

The report explained, “The letter from Comer and Burlison, the chairman of the Oversight’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, seeks more information on the EPA’s “allocation of funding resources to outside groups and its novel agreements.”

Zeldin has explained the Biden administration parked the $20 billion at Citibank “to distribute climate grants to avoid oversight.”