In combination with the downed F-15 weapons systems officer, known publicly only as “Dude 44 Bravo,” activating Boeing’s Combat Survivor Evader Locator, or CSEL, U.S. forces were reportedly able to narrow the search area and then locate the second crew member shot down over southern Iran using a secret CIA reconnaissance tool known as “Ghost Murmur.”

The New York Post reports that the long-range quantum magnetometry surveillance tool, powered by AI, was used in the U.S. search-and-rescue operation for the second crew member from the downed F-15 fighter jet.

Sources described Ghost Murmur as able to detect something as faint as a human heartbeat’s magnetic signal at long distances in complex environments using AI to filter through the noise.

President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe hinted at the new super-surveillance tool at a White House press conference on Monday afternoon. This was Ghost Murmur’s first operational field use, or at least the first publicly known one.

“It’s like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert,” a source briefed on Ghost Murmur told the NYPost. “In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you.”

Ghost Murmur was reportedly developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and has been tested on Black Hawk helicopters, with possible future use on F-35 stealth fighter jets.

“The name is deliberate. ‘Murmur’ is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. ‘Ghost’ refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared,” another source said.

The source continued:

It was “about as clean an environment as you could ask for” because of low electromagnetic interference, “almost no competing human signatures, and at night the thermal contrast between a living body and the desert floor,” which “gave operators a secondary confirmation layer.”

“Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest.”

“But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry — specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds — have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances.”

“The capability is not omniscient. It works best in remote, low-clutter environments and requires significant processing time.” 

Before Ghost Murmur went operational, Dude 44 Bravo activated Boeing’s Combat Survivor Evader Locator, or CSEL, a secure communications device that can transmit encrypted location and status bursts without exposing his position to enemy forces.

“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, finding this pilot, and the CIA was unbelievable,” Trump said Monday, referring to Ghost Murmur. 

Trump: I’m going to introduce the head of the CIA and he is a man who is central casting. If we cast a movie, he’s gonna play the head of the CIA. The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck. They use an expression. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack pic.twitter.com/LZg22AJgSv

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) April 6, 2026

“The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck,” the president said, adding that the CIA spotted the missing American from “40 miles away.”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The FBI released its 2025 Internet Crime Report, revealing that Americans were being defrauded to the tune of nearly $21 billion, with artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency crimes behind some of the massive losses.

“Americans who submitted complaints involving cryptocurrency reported the highest losses, with 181,565 complaints totaling more than $11 billion,” the agency said in an April 6 statement.

Roughly 70 million American adults, around 30 percent of the country’s adult population, own a cryptocurrency, with one in three owners being between the ages of 30 and 44, according to Security.org.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said that total losses of $20.87 billion in 2025 are more than 20 times higher than the $1 billion loss reported in 2015. The number of complaints has also surged during this period, rising from 288,012 complaints to more than a million.

“For the first time in its nearly 25-year history, the IC3 report features a section on artificial intelligence, which accounts for 22,364 complaints, costing Americans nearly $893 million,” the report said.

The losses reported in 2025 were 26 percent higher than in the previous year, with the average loss at $20,699.

The FBI noted that scammers rely on pressure techniques to defraud Americans. The agency advised people to assess the situation carefully before turning over money or personal information.

“IC3 receives nearly 3,000 complaints per day. If you believe you or someone you know may have been a victim of a fraud or scam, contact your local FBI office or submit a complaint at ic3.gov as soon as possible,” the FBI advised.

“You should document the name of the scammer/company, methods of contact, dates of contact, methods of payment, where funds have been sent, and a thorough description of the interactions.”

Artificial Intelligence

The FBI report said that AI-enabled synthetic content is now becoming more difficult to detect and easier to make.

This allows criminal actors to “potentially conduct successful fraud schemes against individuals, businesses, and financial institutions,” it said.

In business email scams, malicious actors use AI chat generators to create official-sounding emails mimicking a company’s CEO or other officials. These emails may contain phishing links or directions to wire funds.

The technology can also be used in romance or investment scams to dupe people into transferring their money.

Crypto Fraud

Complaints involving cryptocurrency were up 21 percent from 2024, with the average loss being $62,604. People may be targeted by scammers who direct them to make payments via crypto ATMs. In some cases, fictitious law firms target cryptocurrency scam victims and exploit them with fake offers of recovering funds.

In January 2024, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service initiated Operation Level Up to identify victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud and notify them about the scam.

As of December 2025, the FBI has notified 8,103 victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud, with 77 percent of them unaware that they were being scammed.

The timely notification by the FBI is estimated to have resulted in more than $511 million in savings to victims, the agency said.

Elder Fraud

The IC3 report also highlighted the issue of elder fraud, listing 201,266 complaints from individuals aged over 60 last year, which is the highest number of complaints filed by any age group.

This age group suffered more than $7.7 billion in losses, up 59 percent from 2024. The average loss was $38,500, with nearly 12,500 individuals losing more than $100,000 in funds each.

In November 2025, the Department of Justice reported charging 608 defendants between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, for allegedly stealing more than $2.36 billion from more than 1 million elderly American victims.

Some of the top schemes targeting elders involved investment fraud, government impersonations, and romance scams, the department said.

To avoid being a victim of elder fraud schemes, the U.S. Secret Service advises people to be wary of unsolicited communications from unknown people or businesses.

The agency warned against handing over personally identifiable information, online passwords, or bank access codes to individuals or businesses they have not verified as legitimate.

Regarding scams involving impersonation of government agencies, the Secret Service said: “Note that government agencies will never call you on the phone to threaten you or your loved ones with arrest or legal action if you do not agree to remit payment for things like debt collections, release from jail, or immigration status issues.

“Official notification from U.S. government agencies will almost always initially involve an official letter sent via regular mail.”

Authored by Maria Mocerino via Interesting Engineering (emphasis ours),

A Chinese-Uzbek archaeological team has discovered a remarkable 3,000-year-old city along the Silk Road that is rich with artifacts, providing new insights into urban development during the early Iron Age in Central Asia.

Surkhan State Reserve. Sherobod District, Surxondaryo Region, Uzbekistan. (Wikimedia)

Originally discovered in 1969, the expansive Bandikhan II site, covering 107,639 square feet, is located in the Bandikhan oasis. The Surxondaryo region in southern Uzbekistan is known as an archaeological treasure trove, containing multiple ancient settlement mounds. It was only recently, in 2023, that a team began excavations at Bandikhan II, which served as a crucial hub on the legendary Silk Road.

During the excavation, archaeologists uncovered remnants of an eastern wall, numerous structures, and interconnected rooms, along with a wealth of artifacts. These findings enabled researchers to identify the city as belonging to the Yaz culture, further enhancing our understanding of their role within ancient Bactria, according to TV Brics.

Though a section of this major urban center of the ancient Bactrian kingdom has been excavated thus far, the findings are providing key evidence “for understanding the form of early Iron Age city-states in southern Central Asia and the evolution of urban layouts from Bronze Age to the early Iron Age,” as per Global Times.

A Silk Road city

So far, archaeologists have explored only 3,229 square feet of the 107,639-square-foot site in the eastern section of the ancient city. However, they have confirmed that it is the largest and best-preserved settlement in the Bandikhan oasis, with foundations dating back to the early Iron Age. Researchers have begun to understand the city’s layout and how it was constructed and used during that time.

The well-preserved eastern wall features a trapezoidal cross-section, demonstrating the construction techniques employed. Inside the city, they found a detailed snapshot of daily life, including five interconnected rooms. One of these rooms was used for sleeping and contained a niche where a lamp was placed, as reported by Heritage Daily. This conclusion was drawn from the hardened interior, which indicated repeated burning and revealed the niche’s function.

Among the recovered artifacts were pottery pieces, including carinated jars, bowls, and flat-bottomed dishes. The forms and decorations of these items matched those found at other Yaz sites, such as Kuchuktepa and Yaztepa, clarifying who built this advanced urban center. While Bandikhan II shares structural similarities with these sites, it also displays notable differences, particularly in the absence of semicircular defense towers along its exterior walls.

An assortment of stone tools, including grinding slabs, mullers, pestles, and mortars, suggested that grain was processed on-site. Additionally, bronze knives and arrowheads were identified, along with seashells.

What will they find next?

The initial excavations at this Silk Road city have yielded impressive findings, generating excitement for future digs as researchers plan to expand their work in upcoming seasons. This flourishing city, with its enduring legacy, continues to be uncovered.

In response to these discoveries, a two-week training program on Silk Road archaeology has been established, aimed at promoting the protection and transmission of Silk Road cultural heritage, as concluded by The Global Times.

The AP, AFP, and others have cited Iranian state media to say that US-Israeli strikes have “completely destroyed” a synagogue in Tehran, as attacks have intensified overnight and into Tuesday.

“According to preliminary information, the Rafi-Nia Synagogue … was completely destroyed in this morning’s attacks,” the Shargh newspaper reported. Mehr news agency describes the synagogue was destroyed when an adjacent residential building in central Tehran was bombed in an aerial attacks.

Jerusalem Post: A reported photo of the damage to the Rafi Niya Synagogue as the result of a strike in Tehran.

Footage from the scene showed Hebrew-language books scattered on the ground and amid the rubble. Rescue efforts searching for bystanders ensued in the area. There have been no initial reports of casualties.

Israeli media, specifically the Jerusalem Post, has actually confirmed the destruction, noting that both Iran’s Jewish parliament representative as well as the synagogue’s Persian Jewish rabbi have condemned the attack in visits to the scene:

The report said that due to the narrowness of the streets surrounding the building attacked, the exterior and interior of the nearby buildings were also “severely damaged”. There was no immediate report on casualties.

In a video published on Telegram by Iran’s official IRIB News outlet, Homayoun Sameh, a Jewish representative in the country’s Islamic Consultative Assembly, said “the Zionist regime showed no mercy to this community during the Jewish holidays and targeted one of our ancient and holy synagogues.

“Unfortunately, during this attack, the synagogue building was completely destroyed and our Torah scrolls were left under the rubble,” he said.

via Middle East Eye/IRNA

According to more confirmation from JPost, “Footage and reports circulated by Iranian outlets and social media accounts identified the site as the Rafi Niya Synagogue, located near Palestine Square in central Tehran, an area that has seen repeated strikes in recent days.”

A US-Israel strike has caused extensive damage to a synagogue in Tehran, according to a video published by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency.

Footage shows civil defence workers amid the rubble, with Hebrew-language books scattered on the ground. pic.twitter.com/Vpvn2dfjw9

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) April 7, 2026

“This was confirmed to The Jerusalem Post by independent sources, who told the Post that a member of the Tehran Beit Din, Rabbi David Sasani, had been seen at the site, evaluating the damage,” it adds.

Judaism, alongside Christianity, is a minority in Iran but has protected status and even enjoys representation in Iranian parliament. There are over 30 synagogues in Tehran alone, and some 100 throughout the country, with estimates of around 10,000 Iranian Jews. The Rafi-Nia synagogue was built in the 20th century.

A few hours ago, the Jewish synagogue near Palestine Street in Tehran was targeted by Israeli fighter jets.

This synagogue, located near Palestine Square, is known as “Rafi Niya Synagogue,” and a significant part of it has been destroyed as a result of the Israeli attack. pic.twitter.com/dBXApQ3omi

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) April 7, 2026

IRNA English, Iran’s official state news agency, has accused Israel of actually targeting it: “a few hours ago, the Jewish synagogue near Palestine Street in Tehran was targeted by Israeli fighter jets,” it said.

Authored by Anthony Esolen via American Greatness,

No kings? But millions of little queens of both sexes, tyrants in both public and private life, who would make sure, if they were in the position to do so, that I would pay dearly for the very sentence I am writing right now; who police both what you say and what you would very much like to be left alone not to say; who use exceptional cases to justify surveillance over people who teach their children at home, and who agitate to make that choice more difficult if not illegal; who have in fact made it illegal, by the agency of the national government, for people to refrain, without suffering a stiff financial penalty, from buying health insurance which they may not need or want.

No kings, but millions of people dancing with glee at the assassination of Charlie Kirk and hoping that that’ll teach those rednecks from getting uppity; headsmen glad to lop off inconvenient lives at their beginning, exercising total and tyrannical power against the most vulnerable, whose very existence is owing to the voluntary actions of those who would slay them; shedding crocodilian tears of sympathy if someone who is sad and lonely at any age decides to end his life, corralling a doctor or nurse to assist in suicide, and thus corrupting the profession; eager to embroil the nation in a war with Russia, yet crying out in rage at the prospect that Cuba and Venezuela might now have the chance to pick themselves up out of their socialist miseries; no kings but Moloch and Marx.

Photo: ST PAUL, MINNESOTA – MARCH 28: People gather for a “No Kings” protest outside the State Capitol building on March 28, 2026 in St Paul, Minnesota. This is the third nationwide “No Kings” protest held against the Trump administration. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

No kings, but fantasy queens, all the touchier and more vindictive if anyone should laugh at the fantasy, or even say, hat in hand, scraping and ducking, that maybe, well, maybe, the fantasy isn’t real; wrenching the very definition of marriage away from common law and common sense; glad to compel girls to compete against mentally ill boys in sports, and even gladder to have them invade their locker rooms; continuing, with all the might and weight of schools, colleges, and the media, to thrust upon a still-hesitating populace one experiment after another against sexual reality and against the most reliable means for climbing out of poverty, the family; no king and queen but Baal and Astarte.

No kings, but people with the souls, though not the courage, of tyrants, who, if someone in a favored group is murdered or is alleged to have been murdered by a policeman, will organize en masse to shut down your city, vandalize businesses that get in their way, and block traffic on major highways, stranding ambulances and the desperate people they are carrying, and who will in general carry on so as to make a fair trial impossible; people, including some who hold political office, who issue open threats to judges, demanding the judgment they approve and saying that they will pay for it if they judge otherwise; no kings, but wannabe dictators everywhere, armed with organizational money and power, going after an ordinary fellow with a bakery, making a federal case of it if he declines politely to contribute his efforts toward the celebration of perversion.

No kings, no kings, but people eager to suppress the native population by conniving at the non-enforcement of immigration laws, laws duly passed by the people’s own representatives in Congress; no kings, but people content to make it trivially easy to cast a vote by mail, which you are not authorized to cast; no kings, but people who hate the less populous states and would overwhelm them with the might of numbers, by eliminating one of their few frail signs and guardians of autonomy, the Electoral College.

No kings, whose appetites for wealth were kept in check in old times by the charters they gave to townsmen and their merchants and who could only take what actually existed, but grubby politicians ready to tax notional wealth, which does not even exist but only might exist, wealth not even on paper but floating in the air of suppositions; no kings, but despisers of intergenerational family wealth, ready to soak up all your assets when you die, on the grounds that every generation should begin from scratch, that it is not “fair” for your children to inherit what you have worked so hard to give them after you are gone; no kings, but Jabba the State.

No kings, but NGOs everywhere, with vast resources in wealth and no legal directives or oversight as to how it is spent, and spent not in charity but in political action, orchestrating demonstrations; no kings, but a million verminous thought-controllers in high technology, invisibly promoting or suppressing what they wish, via the algorithms that would govern our collective thoughts; no kings, but Google, and its court jester Disney.

No kings, but schoolteachers and principals who think it is all right to do with a large classroom of boys and girls what would get the creepy man down the street arrested if he did exactly the same thing with but one; no kings, but people who bar the door against parents who want to find out what is going on in school behind them; no kings, but Kinsey set free from all restraint.

No kings, but a tangle of human resource personnel, lawyers, judges, and political interest groups ranged against you if you attempted to hire a Thomas Edison without formal schooling, thus driving up the costs of higher schooling and higher indoctrination, saddling families with exorbitant debt while providing, in return, very little in the way of a truly human education.

No kings, but haters of religion and people of religious faith, the main obstacle to their power, as the family is the fundamental social unit of possible opposition to the ambitions of the non-religious and their aims to mold the minds of other people’s children, especially since they have rather few of their own; no kings but the murderous and atheistical Mao Zedong and his even crueler wife Jiang Qing; Charlemagne, no, Confucius, hell no, but Mao, yes; Washington, no, but Castro, yes.

No kings, no one to join with the middle class in a flanking action against innumerable rapacious aristocrats; insulation for the exercisers of real political and economic power, whatever they happen to call themselves, but exposure of everyone else; no kings from one horizon to the other, but you will hit a duke or duchess wherever you spit, and God help you when you do.

No kings, but politicians and their wealthy or addle-pated enablers, who would, to “save the planet,” compel everyone to draw their power from centralized electrical grids, even the power to travel by car from Mayfield to Springfield; no kings, then, but controllers of artificially established turnpikes, bottlenecks, and checkpoints, with the power to bring an entire nation to its knees; no kings, but a new kind of Andrew Carnegie with ten thousand times the power and none of the bracing experiences of hard manual labor.

No kings, but censors in everyone’s hair, like lice, not to police public morals and keep obscenity from the eyes of children, but to police people who object to the obscenity; Cato everywhere, on the lookout for demands for decency, to punish those who dare to demand it.

No kings, not even God Almighty, but everyone to be a king or a queen only in those matters that enervate and corrupt; free to be weaklings, slaves, louts, and harlots, all true self-reliance lost, along with the nobility of the divine image; “Non serviam,” cries the slave as he submits his hands to the state, ready to clap them in irons; no king but the Self, and the driver of the Self without God, a driver sometimes called Satan.

No kings indeed.

Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau investigates a large-scale insurance fraud operation in the Himalayan trekking sector. Authorities charge 32 individuals – including trekking company operators, guides, helicopter rescue coordinators, hospital owners, and doctors – with organized crime and fraud. The scheme allegedly triggers unnecessary and expensive helicopter evacuations that insurers foot the bill for.

According to The Independent, the probe focuses on activities between 2022 and 2025 across popular routes that include the path to Everest Base Camp, Annapurna, Manaslu, and Langtang. Investigators examine more than 4,700 international patient cases at implicated Kathmandu hospitals and review thousands of helicopter flights. They identify hundreds of rescues as fraudulent or exaggerated, with operators allegedly inflating symptoms, forging medical records, and billing single flights as multiple separate emergencies to multiply payouts.

Between 2022 and 2025, investigators identified 4,782 foreign patients treated across the implicated hospitals. Of these, 171 cases were confirmed as fake rescues. Over that period, Era International Hospital received deposits of more than $15.87 million linked to these activities. Shreedhi International Hospital received over $1.22 million.

Among rescue operators, Mountain Rescue Service conducted 171 fraudulent rescues out of 1,248 total charter flights, claiming approximately $10.31 million from insurers. Nepal Charter Service carried out 75 fake rescues from 471 flights, claiming $8.2 million. Everest Experience and Assistance was linked to 71 suspicious rescues from 601 flights, with insurance claims totalling $11.04 million.

In one instance that illustrates the brazenness of the scheme, police documented a case in which four tourists were rescued on a single helicopter flight, on the same date, using the same helicopter and manifest. Insurance claims were nonetheless submitted as multiple separate rescues, with the total rescue bill reaching $31,100, plus a separate hospital bill of $11,890. –Kathmandu Post

According to the report, the rescue companies “managed to extract nearly $20m in payouts from international insurance companies for rescues that were unnecessary or, in some cases, completely fabricated.”

The fraud centers on paperwork manipulation and kickback arrangements among trekking firms, hospitals, and helicopter companies. A common tactic involves claiming routine ailments – mild fatigue, stomach issues, or early signs of altitude discomfort – as acute emergencies that require immediate airlift. One documented pattern shows four trekkers on a single charter flight billed as four distinct rescue missions, turning a modest private flight cost into a $30,000-plus insurance claim. Hospitals submit charges for treatments that never occur or prove unnecessary. The scheme primarily targets travelers from countries with straightforward insurance policies, such as the UK, Australia, and Canada.

Some witness statements mention guides adding baking powder to food or giving clients excessive medication and water to induce nausea and symptoms that mimic altitude sickness. Media reports highlight these details and fuel speculation about deliberate poisoning on Everest routes. Nepal police, however, state clearly that the official investigation uncovers no evidence of actual poisoning. In their April 2026 public statement, the Central Investigation Bureau declares: “To date, the official investigation has not found any evidence of ‘poisoning.’ No facts have been found to suggest that poisonous substances were mixed into food.”

The distinction matters. The scam primarily affects trekkers on lower-altitude trails rather than the roughly 500 technical climbers who attempt the Everest summit each year. High-altitude summit expeditions operate under stricter medical protocols, oxygen support, and professional oversight that make staged emergencies far more difficult to execute undetected. The Everest name draws global attention, but the bulk of the documented fraud occurs on approach hikes and other regional circuits where helicopter access remains relatively straightforward.

The investigation highlights systemic weaknesses in Nepal’s rapidly growing adventure tourism industry. Helicopter services, essential for genuine high-altitude emergencies, expand quickly but operate with limited oversight. Earlier government attempts to require tourism authority approval for rescues fail to curb the practice. Insurers now face pressure to tighten verification, while legitimate rescues risk greater scrutiny and delays.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday an investigation into a Dallas-based group accused of operating as a sharia law court.

Protester David Wright (L) speaks with counterprotester Vincent Simon, a Muslim, as Melissa Yassini holds a sign across the street from a mosque in Richardson, Texas, on Dec. 12, 2015. LM Otero/AP Photo

​In a press release, Paxton said he requested documents from the group, known as the Islamic Tribunal, regarding allegations that it was issuing rulings based on sharia law.

According to the release, the Islamic Tribunal has “reportedly sought to replace actual courts of law and to evade neutral, generally applicable state and federal laws.”

Paxton warned, “Anyone or any entity that seeks to subvert the codified state and federal laws of this country will be stopped dead in their tracks. If the Islamic Tribunal is undermining the rule of law or misleading Texans about the legal authority it claims to hold, my office will ensure its operation is shut down.”

​“This is America, and we will not be governed by sharia law,” he added.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Islamic Tribunal for comment.

The organization described itself on its website in April 2025 as a “unique institution” in America. It said its 2014 establishment aimed “to set a precedence [sic] that will be emulated and duplicated throughout the country.”

The organization has since changed the wording on its website, saying it wanted to clarify its operations amid the controversy.

“The Islamic Tribunal wishes to clarify the nature of its work in light of recent public statements,” the group stated. “The Tribunal does not function as a court of law and does not issue legally binding judgments.”

​The website noted the group’s role was limited to mediation and religious arbitration requested by members of the Muslim community.

​“Our experienced imams are here to listen, support, and offer faith-based, non-binding spiritual guidance to anyone seeking clarity or comfort. We provide a welcoming and confidential space rooted in Islamic ethics and in full respect of U.S. and Texas law.”

​Paxton claims the Islamic Tribunal asserts jurisdiction over all aspects of Muslim life, seeks to impose sharia law for Texas Muslims’ disputes, and misrepresents its decisions as final judgments endorsed by the Texas judicial system.

​While the First Amendment allows religious organizations the right to govern themselves, it doesn’t allow a religious organization to act as a court, apply foreign laws that conflict with Texas or federal law, or issue rulings that imply government authority, according to Paxton.

​Doing so would violate Texas law, he added.

The demand for documents is the latest move in targeting what many fear as the establishment of Muslim enclaves and sharia law, which is based on the religion of Islam.

​Paxton has taken a series of legal actions against Islamic groups and Muslim-centric developments in recent months. In December, he filed a lawsuit against a 400-acre Muslim enclave known as EPIC City, named after the East Plano Islamic Center, which is one of its developers.

​EPIC’s developers have denied an intent to establish sharia law or break fair housing laws.

​In the previous year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 4211 and Senate Bill 17 into law. The first bans residential property developers from creating exclusionary compounds, and specifically cited the EPIC project during the signing. The second prohibits transnational criminal organizations and foreign adversaries, including Iran, from purchasing land.

​Abbott also signed a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties to the Hamas terrorist group, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.

​CAIR filed a lawsuit against Abbott and Paxton in response, calling Abbott’s proclamation “unconstitutional and defamatory.”

The Egyptian-owned, Maltese-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige (IMO: 9593517), which was damaged in the first week of the U.S.-Iran conflict following an Iranian strike, has reportedly sunk in the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Bloomberg, Pakistan’s hydrographic service said the container ship sank last week, leaving only an oil slick on the surface of the water in the Hormuz chokepoint.

The IRGC torched the SAFEEN PRESTIGE in the Strait of Hormuz and continues to reignite the fire.
Now they’re illegally closing the strait
This is pure maritime terrorism, not politics.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a global terrorist organization and must be treated as such. pic.twitter.com/u22UNaYSc5

— سيف الدرعي| Saif alderei (@saif_aldareei) March 27, 2026

Satellite imagery from the EU’s Copernicus Browser appears to confirm this, showing the container ship on fire in late March and then disappearing from imagery by last Thursday.

The Safeen Prestige is owned by Transmar International Shipping of Egypt and managed by GFS Ship Management of Dubai, according to the maritime blog TradeWinds. It is also listed as a Maltese-flagged container ship on VesselFinder.

Data from the risk intelligence platform Sayari shows the ownership structure of the container ship:

The latest on Strait traffic comes from UBS analyst Henri Patricot, who noted as of Tuesday morning, there were still “mixed developments” in the maritime chokepoint.

Here’s more from Patricot:

We mentioned on Friday that flows via the Strait picked up slightly as two oil tankers and a LNG carrier came out of the Gulf but this is still very limited and we continue to estimate an oil shortfall of ~12Mb/d, pre-SPR release.

Over the weekend, an Iranian spokesperson said that Iraqi ships would be allowed to pass through the Strait. It is not clear how that is different from previous comments that the Strait would be open to friendly countries and the announcement has not led to a visible increase in flows for now. Iraqi oil production has dropped by >3Mb/d since the start of the conflict as the country’s alternative export routes are limited.

Separately, two Qatari LNG carriers attempting to cross the Strait on Monday ended up turning back.

UBS analyst Catherine Gordon provided more color:

Developments around the Strait of Hormuz remain mixed ahead of the latest stated US deadline, though dedicated investors are cautious about anchoring too heavily to the timing itself, given prior instances in which similar deadlines were set and later extended.

Even if President Trump ultimately opts to delay, soften, or walk back the deadline, that would do little to change the current reality of the oil disruption, as there is still no evidence of a meaningful improvement in flows.

While a small number of tankers have exited the Gulf, volumes remain extremely limited, two Qatari liquefied natural gas carriers reportedly turned back, and UBS continues to estimate an oil shortfall of approximately 12mb/d pre‑Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Weekend commentary suggesting Iraqi vessels may transit the Strait has yet to translate into observable normalization, even as Iraqi production has fallen by more than 3mb/d due to constrained export routes.

Against this backdrop, conditions are increasingly consistent with UBS’s “two‑month disruption” scenario, with Brent potentially reaching around $130/bbl in the second quarter and remaining historically elevated through year‑end, lifting inflation and weighing modestly on growth without tipping the global economy into recession (Global Economics & Strategy note).

Polymarket odds have 13% odds of traffic resuming to normal by the end of April. 

Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of April?
Yes 13% · No 88%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

Professional subscribers can read more on the Hormuz chokepoint at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Authored by Ryan Lovelace via Racket News,

“You’re only going to create a real problem for an FBI employee if you call ‘em direct this way.”

Senior FBI official Thomas Gregory Motta was upset that I dared to call him to talk about the bureau’s hidden experiments on humans.

He joined the bureau in 1998 and was promoted to the FBI’s senior ranks nearly 20 years ago. During his tenure, the bureau has grown proficient at snooping on journalists — as documented in a secret government report published by Racket — without having to face their questions.

Motta is a decorated FBI veteran, credited with an intelligence community award in 2007 for modernizing the American government’s most important foreign espionage tool and having worked on the secretive “going dark” national surveillance program.

After internal criticism surfaced more than a decade ago involving the bureau’s experiments on humans, the FBI put Motta in charge of an internal team revamping its approach to human subjects research.

In 2023, Motta delivered a presentation detailing the government’s work on secret human experiments, going all the way back to a catastrophic project that saw a CIA scientist drugged with LSD plunging to his death from a hotel room window 70 years earlier.

The government labeled his presentation, “NOT AUTHORIZED FOR POSTING ON THE INTERNET.” Here is Motta’s presentation to the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research conference, posted on Racket in full, with only Motta’s personal information removed:

LINK: Fbi Human Subject Research Presentation.pdf

Among the types of human experiments undertaken by the FBI, as detailed by Motta, are research involving facial recognition studies and algorithm testing, genetics, violent extremism, interrogation science, and more.

What is the bureau’s “oldest, continuous human subject research project?” It involves killers, namely the “Serial Homicide Interviews of Incarcerated Offenders” that Motta captioned with a photo of celebrated fictional monster Hannibal Lecter, as played by Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

The psychological thriller depicts a young FBI trainee, actress Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, trying to get inside the head of the cannibalistic killer, Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Motta led the Institutional Review Board for Human Subject Research Protection to oversee such studies at the FBI. In 2023, the secretive unit was moved under the auspices of the “Next Generation Technology Lawful Access Section.”

Motta told me he is no longer the chairman of the board, “not even at liberty to give the name of the chair” overseeing research now, and he said he “probably wouldn’t” speak to me if I approached him formally through the bureau’s press office.

He did not speak with me again and the FBI declined to answer all questions about the bureau’s human experiments. It also rejected Racket’s formal requests to interview those involved with experiments upon Americans.

We found some of the Americans the FBI is studying anyway: identical twins.

The FBI’s decades-long experiments on twins dwarf the scope of deadly Nazi studies

Throughout human history, twins have been the subject of intense interest for outlandish experiments on humans.

The German Nazis’ deadly human experiments researching genetics ensnared approximately 3,000 twins, 1,500 pairs of people, during the 1940s, according to the Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors.

Fewer than 200 children are estimated to have survived, according to an investigation into the twins of Auschwitz authored in 1992.

In America, a major gathering of twins occurs every year, and the FBI looks to take advantage of the large pool of potential test subjects who consent to its experiments.

The Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, annually attracts nearly 2,500 sets of twins, or close to 5,000 people, according to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division 2025 Year in Review.

The FBI’s review said it has sponsored the West Virginia University Twins Day Biometric Collection since 2010, involving those twins who voluntarily participate.

“This collaboration has resulted in the CJIS Division housing a vast dataset of twins’ biometrics with the only known twin age-progression dataset,” the review said. “The FBI uses the dataset to test its own capabilities to accurately identify individuals.”

One twin who grew suspicious of the FBI’s experiments at the Twins Day Festival’s 50th annual gathering in 2025 posted a video to TikTok showing some of the experiments underway.

The festival’s nondescript research sign did not carry the FBI’s insignia but it was adorned with bright red flags:

@brennalip Twinsburg Ohio 50th twins day Festival, where FBI did research on the twins. #fyp #twins #identicaltwins #twin ♬ original sound – Brenna Lip

JoJo Gentry, a twin who has attended the festival for more than 20 years and participated in its human experimentation, told Racket she understood West Virginia University was conducting research with the FBI and signed consent forms.

But Gentry, a former sports anchor who now oversees a multimedia production company, said she is not so sure other twins read the fine print.

She said the research participants are typically hanging out while standing in line, enjoying the rare opportunity to meet other identical twins from near and far.

“You’re standing outside, it’s a hot summer day and you typically have ice cream while you’re waiting so usually your attention is just drawn to whoever is around you and having a conversation before you greet the people, whoever are at the front of the survey area,” Gentry said. “And they say, ‘Hi,’ and it’s brief, and say, ‘Sign this paperwork,’ and you sign it and you go in [and] say, ‘Here’s your 50 bucks,’ and you leave.”

Gentry said she and her sister gave saliva samples when they were younger.

“We thought extra money was cool and with an accreditation, with a higher education university and some corporations that were present. We felt like whatever they were offering was legitimate,” Gentry said. “And, of course, they had friendly faces there.”

Gentry said she has found the data collection process transparent, though she has some lingering questions.

“I’ve learned a little bit about what the government does and how it processes information so I’m like, ‘Oh, who has my saliva from 10 years ago?” Gentry said.

It’s an important question and a difficult one to answer. Data collected at Twins Day is “beneficial to other government agencies, trusted partners, and academic institutions,” according to the FBI’s CJIS 2025 Year in Review.

The identities of the other agencies and trusted partners are not clear. In March, FBI Director Kash Patel said on X the bureau, “expanded biometric collection overseas with foreign partners” to thwart bad guys, also without revealing the partners working with the U.S. government.

Biometric data from identical twins collected by the FBI goes into the CJIS’ Data Analysis Support Laboratory, according to a 2024 Privacy Impact Assessment.

“The multi-year dataset of identical twins’ biometrics in DASL enables the FBI to conduct various biometric algorithm evaluations,” the privacy assessment said. “Tests conducted using this data confirmed that fingerprints and iris biometrics are truly unique.”

Humans knowingly experimented upon by the FBI may expect more fulsome information about how the FBI is using their biometric data. Motta’s 2023 presentation said human subjects must have the right to opt out of future uses of their data and the scope of the future uses must be described to the test subjects.

The FBI’s 2024 privacy assessment said the biometric data and personally identifiable information gathered in its lab will not be shared externally, “except when the FBI shares sanitized—that is, pseudonymized—biometric data from the [Next Generation Identification] System with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.”

Sanitized, pseudonymized, and anonymous no longer mean hidden, however.

Motta’s 2023 presentation said biometrics such as fingerprints, facial images, and DNA are not truly anonymizable, and artificial intelligence is complicating things further.

“AI is challenging the assumptions of anonymity in big data sets,” Motta’s presentation said.

The FBI’s security is also far from best-in-class. U.S. investigators reportedly suspect China of breaching an FBI computer network holding domestic surveillance orders, while Iran-linked hackers appear to be behind a breach of FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal emails that spilled online in March.

The FBI’s human experiments present a risky proposition for both the test subjects and those working in labs.

Motta’s 2023 presentation included a warning that said those who fail to get prior approval from his board before conducting such human research may be stuck with the blame and the financial burden if things go haywire.

“You could, in theory, be on your own if non-IRB-reviewed research creates financial liability,” Motta’s presentation said.

The emergence of data about the FBI’s human experimentation is just the latest in a series of leaks and revelations describing secret programs run by the FBI and other agencies that seem far from normal enforcement. From off-books “prohibited access” investigations to political surveillance to the buying of personal data like geolocation, Americans are increasingly subject to the same bizarre tactics intelligence agencies have deployed abroad or contracted out to other countries. What else is being hidden?