China Warns U.S. Over Blockade of Iranian Ports

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day. “The Strait of Hormuz Is Open to Us”: China Warns U.S. Against Blockading Iranian Ports China’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports as “dangerous and irresponsible,” warning against any effort to obstruct Chinese vessels. On Monday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said in a statement, “We have trade and energy agreements with Iran; we expect others not to interfere in our affairs. The Strait of Hormuz is open to us.” His warning came as at least four Iran-linked ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday after the Trump administration declared the start of its blockade. Meanwhile, delegates from the U.S. and Iran could soon return to Pakistan for another round of peace talks, after negotiations in Islamabad last weekend failed to reach a long-term deal to end the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran. Reuters and the Associated Press report a date has not yet been decided, though negotiations could resume as early as the end of this week. This comes as The New York Times reports the U.S. and Iran have traded proposals for a suspension of Iranian nuclear activities, with Iran proposing a five-year suspension, after the U.S. sought a 20-year moratorium. We’ll have more on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran after headlines. Hezbollah Rejects “Futile” U.S.-Brokered Talks Between Israel and Lebanon Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has rejected U.S.-brokered talks between the Lebanese government and Israel, calling the attempt at diplomacy “futile.” Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors are gathering in Washington, D.C., today for a meeting hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — the first direct, high-level engagement between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. Hezbollah is not a party to the talks. This comes as the death toll from Israel’s continuing attacks on Lebanon is approaching 2,100, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Of those killed by Israel, at least 88 are medics. The International Committee of the Red Cross says an Israeli strike on Monday killed one person and damaged humanitarian vehicles at a Red Cross center in the coastal city of Tyre. Separately, family members and medics gathered at the temporary grave site of paramedic Hassan Badawi, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday. His father says he was targeted by an Israeli drone. Ali Badawi: “The Israelis attacked him. He was just providing aid. He wasn’t doing anything else. He spent his whole life doing humanitarian work, and I encouraged him, and he loved doing the work.” Ali Badawi: “The Israelis attacked him. He was just providing aid. He wasn’t doing anything else. He spent his whole life doing humanitarian work, and I encouraged him, and he loved doing the work.” Israeli Soldiers Tear-Gas Palestinian Children After Settlers Block Access to School In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinian schoolchildren who were staging a sit-in protest Monday after settlers blocked access to their school in the village of Umm al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta region. The students had been peacefully holding an open-air class when they were gassed. They’d been seeking to return to classrooms for the first time in over 40 days, after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran forced schools across the West Bank to close. Another Whistleblower Describes “Indiscriminate” Israeli Violence Against Gaza Aid Seekers In the Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks killed at least six Palestinians on Monday in the latest violations of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect last October. Meanwhile, a second whistleblower has stepped forward with disturbing details about his time as a contractor with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the former U.S.- and Israeli-backed organization whose aid distribution centers were condemned by Doctors Without Borders as sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanization.” In his first interview since returning from Gaza, the contractor, David McIntosh, tells Drop Site News he witnessed Israeli soldiers indiscriminately gunning down Palestinians seeking aid, including children. He also witnessed Israelis using stray dogs for target practice and firing dangerously close to — or directly at — the GHF contractors themselves. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that between May and October of 2025, over 2,600 Palestinians were killed and more than 19,000 wounded at or near aid distribution sites and U.N. convoys. Scores Arrested at Jewish-Led Protest Demanding New York Senators Vote Against Arms to Israel Here in New York, nearly 100 antiwar protesters led by Jewish Voice for Peace were arrested Monday outside the offices of Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand while attempting to stage a sit-in. Demonstrators demanded the senators use their power to block a pending U.S. sale of thousands of bombs to Israel. Police moved in as activists filled the sidewalks with signs and chants. This is Sonya Meyerson-Knox of Jewish Voice for Peace. Sonya Meyerson-Knox: “Our senators need to listen to their constituents. Right now the U.S. is continuing to send endless amounts of money and weapons to Israel. As it does that, it is bombing Beirut, it is occupying south Lebanon, it bombs synagogues and universities in Iran, and it is continuing the genocide in Gaza. It is doing this with our weapons that we are sending and our money that we are selling to Israel to buy these weapons. So, our senators need to listen to their constituents. Three hundred New Yorkers are here to say, 'Stop arming Israel.'” Sonya Meyerson-Knox: “Our senators need to listen to their constituents. Right now the U.S. is continuing to send endless amounts of money and weapons to Israel. As it does that, it is bombing Beirut, it is occupying south Lebanon, it bombs synagogues and universities in Iran, and it is continuing the genocide in Gaza. It is doing this with our weapons that we are sending and our money that we are selling to Israel to buy these weapons. So, our senators need to listen to their constituents. Three hundred New Yorkers are here to say, 'Stop arming Israel.'” Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders said Monday he will force a vote this week on legislation to block the sale of nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli military. Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will compel a vote on an Iran war powers resolution, now that the House is back in session. Food and Agriculture Organization Warns Strait of Hormuz Crisis Could Lead to Hunger “Catastrophe” In India, the government of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has raised the minimum wage in response to days of protests by tens of thousands of workers in the industrial hub of Noida. On Monday, protesters demanding higher pay torched vehicles and threw stones at police, who fired volleys of tear gas shells. The protests came as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has dramatically raised the cost of fuel, fertilizer and other basic commodities worldwide. Máximo Torero, the chief economist at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, warned a lengthy disruption to trade through the Strait of Hormuz could result in a global food “catastrophe.” Máximo Torero: “The clock is ticking, because everything that relates to agrifood system is linked to the crop calendar. If we don’t follow the crop calendar and we don’t have the inputs in the time that is needed for planting and so on and so forward, that implies that producers will have to produce with less inputs, and therefore they could have lower yields, and that will affect the next season, the next half of the year or potentially the next year.” Máximo Torero: “The clock is ticking, because everything that relates to agrifood system is linked to the crop calendar. If we don’t follow the crop calendar and we don’t have the inputs in the time that is needed for planting and so on and so forward, that implies that producers will have to produce with less inputs, and therefore they could have lower yields, and that will affect the next season, the next half of the year or potentially the next year.” Mexican Immigrant Alejandro Cabrera Clemente Dies in ICE Jail Another immigrant has died in ICE custody. Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49-year-old man from Mexico, was being detained at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. He was reportedly found unresponsive in his cell last week. He is at least the 16th immigrant to die in ICE custody so far this year and the 47th reported ICE death since Trump returned to office. In related news, federal regulators have cited three contractors on violations following the death of a construction worker last year while the Trump administration rushed to build Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, where ICE is now jailing immigrants. Hector Gonzalez was crushed to death by falling construction materials in July, just days after the U.S. Army awarded a contract worth more than $1 billion to Acquisition Logistics to build and operate the camp at Fort Bliss. Details of the contract and safety violations were first revealed in a Public Citizen investigation. While the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration declined to cite Acquisition Logistics over Gonzalez’s death, it sought penalties against three subcontractors that helped build Camp East Montana. Department of Homeland Security Republican Rep. Gonzales and Democratic Rep. Swalwell Announce Plans to Leave Congress Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales of Texas and Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California both announced Monday they will resign from Congress amid mounting sexual misconduct allegations. Gonzales admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later took her own life, and faces additional accusations of sending explicit messages to a campaign aide. Meanwhile, Swalwell is facing allegations from multiple women, including a former staffer who says he twice raped her while she was heavily intoxicated. There are now growing calls in Congress for Republican Cory Mills and Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, both from Florida, to resign. Mills is facing a House Ethics investigation into domestic violence and campaign finance violations. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors and a House Ethics subcommittee have both accused Cherfilus-McCormick of illegally funneling millions of dollars in federal disaster relief funds into her own congressional campaign. Sexual Harassment & Abuse U.S. Military Says It Struck Alleged Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Killing Two People The ⁠U.S. military says it struck an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific Monday, killing two people. The Pentagon offered no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs. The latest strike comes two days after U.S. military strikes killed five people in two boats, also in the eastern Pacific. The attack brings the total death toll to at least 170 people since the Trump administration began targeting so-called narcoterrorists in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific last September. International law experts and human rights groups say the U.S. strikes are likely to be extrajudicial killings. Chevron Set to Expand Oil Extraction Operations in Venezuela U.S. oil giant Chevron is set to expand oil extraction operations in Venezuela after signing two massive deals with the Venezuelan interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez. Rodríguez spoke Monday from Caracas after meeting with corporate executives and a U.S. Energy Department official. President Delcy Rodríguez: “It will allow us to make significant progress in production. And the revenue generated from that production will go directly to the benefit of the Venezuelan people, and it will be a shared benefit, good for the people of the United States and Venezuela.” President Delcy Rodríguez: “It will allow us to make significant progress in production. And the revenue generated from that production will go directly to the benefit of the Venezuelan people, and it will be a shared benefit, good for the people of the United States and Venezuela.” The agreements are expected to boost U.S. crude extraction in Venezuela’s vast Orinoco Belt oil-producing region, and come in the aftermath of a U.S. military strike on Caracas and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in January. Delcy Rodríguez’s interim government has since opened some of Venezuela’s key resources to foreign exploitation. Hollywood Stars Sign Open Letter Opposing Merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. More than a thousand of Hollywood’s most prominent writers, directors and actors signed an open letter Monday voicing their opposition to the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The letter reads in part, “The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised. Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.” Paramount Skydance announced its intended $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year, after Netflix dropped its bid. Paramount’s offer still requires regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe. If completed, it would create the largest media conglomerate in U.S. history, spanning news, sports, movies, video games, theme parks and more — all controlled by Paramount Chairman David Ellison, a vocal supporter of President Trump. Federal Judge Tosses Out Trump’s $10 Billion Lawsuit Against The Wall Street Journal A federal judge dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch on Monday. Trump’s lawsuit targeted the outlet’s reporting that he had contributed a letter that included a sketch drawing of a naked woman to a birthday album for the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. The letter was later released publicly by Congress, which subpoenaed the records from Epstein’s estate. The judge granted President Trump’s legal team a chance to refile an amended lawsuit before April 27. 1“The War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power”: U. of Chicago Professor Robert Pape 210 Minutes, 100 Airstrikes: Israel Rejects Ceasefire for Lebanon, Kills 250+ in Massive Attack 3Automatic Draft Registration Would Expand U.S. Surveillance State: Antiwar Activist 4“All You Had to Do Was Pay Us Enough to Live”: Worker Sets Fire to California Paper Warehouse Non-commercial news needs your support