Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones declared President Donald Trump's war in Iran to be a "fiasco" after concluding that a ceasefire was "falling apart."

During a Wednesday interview with conservative author Michael Savage, Jones noted that Trump's approval ratings were plunging amid the war in Iran.

"But admitting this is a big defeat so far for the U.S. The problem is we keep staying in there, in my view, it only gets worse," Jones noted. "And they've got thousands of people that are related to Muhammad that can be the mullah. And each one you get worse than the next. And Trump keeps saying, oh, I've got people I can work with now."

"And then, of course, he can't. And now the ceasefire is falling apart. And so this is a disaster in my view," he added. "Now they've closed this [Strait of Hormuz] again. As I predicted this morning, it's all off, and just — this is a fiasco. It's like watching a Three Stooges movie, but they got nuclear weapons. So that's my take."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday welcomed news of a two-week ceasefire in Iran as a step back from the brink of catastrophe, but said the war’s aggressors—the US and Israel—deserved no praise for the temporary reprieve.

“Ceasefires are always good news. Especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace,” Sánchez wrote on social media. “But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost. The government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”

“What’s needed now: diplomacy, international legality, and PEACE,” the prime minister added.

Drawing US President Donald Trump’s ire, Spain’s government has opposed the US-Israeli war on Iran from the start, calling it a “cruel, absurd, and illegal” assault and closing off Spain’s military bases and airspace to American forces involved in the attack.

“Remaining silent in the face of an unjust war is an act of cowardice and complicity,” Sánchez said last month.

Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said Wednesday that the government supports “the crucial work of the mediators,” including Pakistan, in preventing further escalation of the conflict that the US and Israel launched in late February.

“Diplomacy, negotiation, and international law are the only path to the lasting peace that the citizens of the Middle East deserve,” said Albares. “All parties must show responsibility and commitment to ceasing attacks and de-escalating, which Spain will continue to support.”

The foreign minister went on to stress that the ceasefire “must extend to Lebanon,” which Israel has invaded and bombed relentlessly in recent weeks, displacing 20% of the country’s population, devastating its healthcare system, and killing more than 1,500 people. On Wednesday, the Israeli’s unleashed a massive bombing blitz of Beirut, the nation’s capital and largest city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following Trump’s announcement of the two-week ceasefire deal with Iran that the agreement “does not include Lebanon.”

“Spain will not spare any efforts in supporting the Pakistani mediation efforts in the war in the Middle East and in paving the way for diplomacy,” Albares said Wednesday. “Today is a day of hope that we hope will culminate in a definitive peace that must include Lebanon.”

Political analysts expressed shock at the terms of President Donald Trump's announced two-week ceasefire with Iran, reached just one hour before his self-imposed deadline.

According to the New York Times, ceasefire provisions include the U.S. agreeing not to attack Iran again and lifting all sanctions on Iranian oil, including those imposed during the George W. Bush administration.

On X, Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger called Trump "the biggest disaster of a president ever."

Investigative journalist Scott Stedman wrote on X, "Putin smiles," suggesting geopolitical advantages for Russia.

Josh Schwerin, founder of Saratoga Strategies, expressed relief at the ceasefire but questioned whether the U.S. had capitulated, reacting on X, "it sounds like we lost."

Watch the video below.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back after a reporter wondered how the U.S. could claim the moral high ground after President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Iran's entire civilization.

"So, regarding the President's rhetoric, when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed, quote, against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you," the reporter noted during Wednesday's White House press briefing. "Yesterday, the President threatened to destroy Iran's civilization, the entire civilization, not the Iranian government, but the Iranian civilization, the Iranian people."

"The U.S. has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations," he continued. "How can the president claim that America can ever have the moral high ground if he's threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments?"

"I think you should take a look at the actions of this president," Leavitt replied without addressing Trump's threat. "A rogue Islamic regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years, that has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers over the course of the last five decades."

"The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime," she added. "And for you to even suggest otherwise is frankly insulting."

With that, Leavitt cut the reporter off and moved on to the next question.

Supporters of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who also back Donald Trump’s America First policies, took to Truth Social on Wednesday to implore the president to set aside his differences with the Georgia Republican after he attacked her once again.

Greene has been harsh in her criticism of Trump's war on Iran and has called for him to be removed from office after he threatened to obliterate Iran if the leadership didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz.

With the ceasefire in hand, Trump launched a new war with his former cheerleader, writing on Truth Social, “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man, Clay Fuller, who won convincingly, and right from the beginning, despite many people running for that ‘TRUMP'+37 seat, and despite the stench left by Greene. Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

That led MAGA fan Jdeluca16 to complain, “Its a shame you are going against MAGA like MTG. You believe lies from your advisors. So sad. Most of us agree with her. Gas is still high, us under 40 cant afford a home or to pay our student loans. Groceries still high. And u care about other countries.”

“Glad he won but I hate the way you refer to MTG as a traitor and having a stench. Absolutely not appropriate, even if true in your opinion. Try to be more civil, please. It makes you look bad, not her,” conservative Kudzu2moose wrote.

DBailey added, “Please stop. She fought hard for you. Leave it be.”

Whiskey Deez suggested Trump has bigger fish to fry, writing, “This is stupid. You need to concentrate on America First. Veto the Diversity Act that Republicans in Congress are voting for. (Amnesty). Stop starting Wars that should be NATOs problem. Get prices lower in the United States. The Clarity Act still isn’t passed. Nothing on the Epstein Files, What about Fauci?”

KamalaNever bashed the president for his ties to Israel, noting, “Marjorie is more AMERICA FIRST than our USA president Bibi- I mean Donald Trump! DONALDS TRUMPS PANTS TURNS BROWN WHEN HE TACOS.”

“Why are you letting Israel control you?” Trump fan Brett Nance agreed.

Famed actor George Clooney condemned President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his recent threat to destroy Iran’s entire civilization – a threat he ultimately backed down from – but in doing so, ignited fury from a top White House official.

On Tuesday, Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” referencing his then-impending deadline for Iran to lift restrictions on a critical trade waterway or face the destruction of its civilian infrastructure. The threat sparked global panic, along with widespread calls for Trump to be immediately removed from office.

Among those critical of the president’s threat was Clooney, who on Wednesday described Trump’s threat in an interview with Variety as a “war crime.”

“Some say Donald Trump is fine. But if anyone says he wants to end a civilization, that’s a war crime,” he said. “You can still support the conservative point of view, but there must be a line of decency, and we must not cross it.”

Clooney’s remarks were soon picked up by the White House, with White House Communications Director Steven Cheung lashing out at the veteran actor on Wednesday.

“The only person committing war crimes is George Clooney for his awful movies and terrible acting ability,” Cheung wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 145,000 followers.

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly blasted President Donald Trump for threatening to end Iran's civilization despite saying she would vote for Republicans even if he dropped a nuclear bomb.

"I am sick of this," Kelly said a day after Trump threatened Iran's civilian population. "Can he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president, 3D chess! Just shut up... shut up about that... You don't threaten to wipe out an entire civilization. We're talking about civilians just casually in a social media post."

Kelly said she had "learned the hard way" not to put too much stock in Trump's social media posts.

"But this is completely irresponsible and disgusting," she insisted. "This is wrong. It's wrong. He should not be doing it. I don't care that it's a negotiation. His negotiation tactic is to kill an entire country full of civilians, men, women, and children."

A day earlier, Kelly suggested she would support the Republican Party even if Trump used a nuclear weapon.

"All I think about when I think about the Democrats is those very unattractive people in Minneapolis," she asserted in an earlier podcast. "That to me, I could never vote for, never."

"I mean, honestly, Trump could drop a nuke, and I'd still vote Republican over those people," she added.

Congressional Democrats called for invoking the 25th Amendment Tuesday after President Donald Trump threatened that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" if Iran missed his 8 p.m. ET deadline.

A number of Democrats reacted to the president's threats.

Representatives called for the impeachment of Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Maxwell Alejandro Frost called for the War Powers Resolution and impeachment, while Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) wrote on X Trump is escalating an illegal war with war crimes threats and introduced Articles of Impeachment against Hegseth.

Separately, Representatives Summer Lee (D-PA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) condemned Trump's threats as genocidal on X, with Tlaib describing the President as a war criminal. While Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) wrote on X she was sick to her stomach and called Trump a "sick and demented man."

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) urged military members not to follow illegal orders, on X.

Multiple lawmakers characterized Trump as unhinged and unfit for office, demanding his immediate removal and urging his presidential powers and duties be delegated to Vice President JD Vance.

Watch the video below.

Donald Trump claims to have reached a successful but still evolving ceasefire agreement with Iran, but National Review editor Jim Geraghty has a different assessment: the president has been completely outmaneuvered and is poised to capitulate on nearly every significant demand.

According to Geraghty's scathing analysis, Trump and Iran are describing fundamentally different agreements. The Iranian proposal includes concessions that represent a catastrophic setback for American national security interests.

The Iranian demands include: "Iran's continued control of the Strait of Hormuz," "Iran's uranium enrichment right should be accepted," and "Payment of compensation for damages inflicted on Iran."

Trump celebrated the deal, writing: "We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated."

Geraghty was not impressed. "The first things that jumps out about President Trump and the Iranian government's statements is that the two sides seem to have a dramatically different sense of what they just agreed upon."

His verdict on Iran's demands was withering: "Your mileage may vary, but my answers to this list of demands would be 'depends upon how you define 'non-aggression'; no; no; heck no; hell no; [bad word] no; [even worse word] no; no [bad word]-ing way; absolutely no [bad word]-ing way; and you can stick this where the sun doesn't shine.'"

"These are nine-and-a-half unreasonable and unrealistic demands, and a U.S. concession to just about any of them would represent a dreadful setback to American national security interests. This is an ayatollah's wish list," Geraghty wrote.

The ceasefire is already unraveling, he noted with reporting that Bahrain claimed Iranian drones damaged homes after the announcement. The United Arab Emirates military said air defenses are "actively engaging" incoming Iranian missiles and drones. Israel declared its agreement to cease attacks on Iran doesn't include stopping strikes on targets in Lebanon. So far, this is a ceasefire in name only — a violent catastrophe dressed up as diplomacy, he suggested.

Michael Avenatti, disgraced former lawyer of Stormy Daniels, was released from prison this week while facing a mountain of debt and still not completely out of custody, TMZ reported on Wednesday.

Avenatti represented the adult film actress and director in her hush money payment case against President Donald Trump and also represented women who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. He was convicted of multiple crimes, including a $20 million extortion scheme against Nike and stealing $300,000 from Stormy Daniels, for which he served approximately 4 years of an 11-year-and-3-month sentence before he was released on Tuesday. He was also disbarred following the conviction.

"Avenatti is not a fully free man," TMZ reported. "He's been ordered to serve more time in a halfway house in Hollywood. He's also required to participate in mental health treatment and stay away from unlawful controlled substances. His projected release date is September 2028."

But that's not all.

He was also required to pay restitution of $5,937,725.58, according to TMZ.

Democrats achieved significant electoral victories Tuesday in Wisconsin and Georgia, described by Politico as "one of their best election nights since President Donald Trump returned to the White House."

In Wisconsin, Democratic-backed candidate Chris Taylor won a state Supreme Court race with nearly a 20-point margin in a state Trump carried in 2024. Democrat Alicia Halvensleben also won a mayoral race in Republican-leaning Waukesha, Wisconsin.

While in Georgia, though Democrat Shawn Harris lost a special election runoff, he cut Trump's margins by 25 points.

A GOP strategist anonymously criticized Republicans involved in the Wisconsin contest, saying those responsible "should be doxxed, tarred and feathered." However, former GOP strategist Brandon Scholz called the results "a wow moment" and warned Republicans face serious midterm challenges, stating they need to ask themselves "What are we going to do in November?"

Watch the video below.

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On Saturday, March 28—No Kings Day in the US—an estimated 50,000 people marched in the streets of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico to protest plans for “Esencia,” a proposed huge, gated, luxury ocean-side development in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. The protest was spear-headed by Defiende a Cabo Rojo, a coalition of community, scientific, and cultural organizations, and was joined by 66 co-sponsoring groups from all over the island. A retired US professor of (radical) economics, I attended the protest with my friend Dimaris Acosta-Mercado, an activist in the anti-Esencia movement and professor of ecology at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüéz.

The $2.5 billion Esencia project, first proposed in May 2024, is a quintessential example of neocolonial capitalist development. It would create a tropical enclave for super-rich foreigners on 2,000 acres of land along a 3-mile stretch of beach in the southwest of the island, including 1,200 homes, 500 hotel accommodations, two golf courses, its own school, and an airport. Although it does not yet have building permits, the proposed project has already received generous tax credits and exemptions.

The movement to stop Esencia views this issue in both class and territorial terms. Its goal is to defend the community and island against a project that would turn over a significant piece of Puerto Rico’s land to foreign billionaires, to serve their needs, not the needs of the Puerto Rican people. It builds on a history of successful struggles against previous development projects such as the Northern Corridor, mining in Adjuntas, and beachside construction in Rincon.

One of the movement’s core critiques of Esencia is the loss of public access to the beaches, which has happened with previous developments such as Dorado Beach and Palmas del Mar. Bad Bunny’s song, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii", “What Happened to Hawaii,” has become a theme song for the movement, with its powerful chorus (translated to English):

Thеy want to take my river and my beach too
They want my neighborhood and grandma to leave
No, don’t let go of the flag nor forget the lelolai
'Cause I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii

A second set of criticisms of the project focus on its negative ecological and environmental impact. As part of a team of academic researchers involved in the movement, my friend Dimaris’ critique focuses on the harm Esencia will do to endangered species, including birds, reptiles, snails, and plants that exist only in Puerto Rico, and to the critical habitat system that supports them. Other movement researchers predict that Esencia will cause shortages in the region’s water, already in short supply. A third critique emphasizes the area’s importance as an archaeological site.

The March Against Esencia: A Celebration of Life and Love

The march began at El Escambrón, another public beach threatened with privatization. From there we marched along the coast of Old San Juan, stopping to rally at the Capitol Building, where the Puerto Rican Senate and House of Representatives meet, and then marched to the Governor’s mansion, La Fortaleza, for more protesting.

It is hard to capture in words the powerful anti-Esencia presence and statement that the march created. At the front of the protest were huge flags of Puerto Rico and Cabo Rojo. Soon after came a large paper mache model of a guabairo, a rare bird endangered by the project, carried overhead for the length of the protest, wings flapping. Marchers carried and wore a variety of printed and homemade posters denouncing the proposed project. Percussion—including drums, folding fans, kitchen pots, guiros—was omnipresent. The call and response chant of “Esencia No Va… Que No Va, Que No Va” (Esencia is a no-go, it shouldn’t go, it shouldn’t go) echoed throughout the march. Continual rhythmic chanting, drumming, singing, and dancing made the protest come alive as a potent force opposing the project. As a North American, I was touched to join in the familiar “El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido” chant and to sing “No Nos Pararon” (“they won’t stop us”) to the tune of “We shall not be moved.”

If we in the US and elsewhere are to use social strikes to retake control of our governments... we have much to learn from the joyful, creative protests of our Puerto Rican comrades.

Puerto Rican peoples are a mixture of African, Indigenous, and European heritage, and, as Dimaris put it, “It’s as if all our ancestry (was) coming alive and making peace in this land to protect it.” Indigenous heritage took center stage when the march stopped in front of the Capitol building, with the blowing of conch shells, chanting, calling in the directions, and leading an areito dance. And Afro-Puerto Rican ancestry was omni-present in the bombas and drumming.

One group wore purple T-shirts announcing “anti-patriarchal, feminista, lesbiana, trans, Caribena, Latinoaméricana.” Another T-shirt depicted a plant and the words “sembrando rebeldias” (planting rebellions). Gay protesters snapped fans for percussion (one of their signature acts). The Puerto Rico Sierra Club was there, along with Para la Naturaleza, and AFSCME, and many other groups.

The protest had something I hadn’t experienced in the many many US demonstrations I have participated in since the 1960s: It was fun! It was actually a party, with masses of people dancing, drumming, chanting, singing, and reveling in the streets. It was a celebration of life—not only of Puerto Rico and being Puerto Rican, but also of standing up for Mother Earth, an affirmation of love, cooperation, art, and beauty by a diverse community organizing in self-defense and defense of nature, against the greed, displacement, ecological destruction, and extreme wealth inequality that Esencia embodies. Dimaris later told me that the protest resembled the spirit of Verano 2019, the 15-day protest strike which used creativity, art, and fun to topple Gov. Ricky Rosello, including evening dance parties in front of the governor’s mansion. If we in the US and elsewhere are to use social strikes to retake control of our governments, as Jeremy Brecher suggests, we have much to learn from the joyful, creative protests of our Puerto Rican comrades.

A final note. The Solidarity Economy movement uses the motto, “Resist and Build.” Movements such as the one opposing Esencia, which resist the take-over of our lands and lives, are key. Equally important are a growing number of efforts to build non-capitalist, community-based alternatives, which are sprouting up all around the world, such as Casa Pueblo and Plenitud in Puerto Rico, or, in the US, land development projects such as those of the Peoples’ Network for Land and Liberation.

In these dark times, here’s to inspiring one another as we resist and build, and to having fun as we do so! Esencia No Va!!!!!!

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a ceasefire that required the waterway to remain open.

Iran had threatened to close the strait again on Wednesday morning due to Israeli strikes in Lebanon. For his part, Trump insisted that Lebanon had never been part of the ceasefire deal.

"Chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet says that despite Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announcing a ceasefire on all fronts, attacks in Lebanon have continued - and in some ways intensified," BBC reported.

Within hours, the IRGC said that traffic through the strait had been stopped. The Associated Press also confirmed the report.

"Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated news agency Fars has reported that while two oil tankers were able to pass through the strait with permission from Iran this morning, the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has been stopped," according to the BBC report. "The Islamic Republic News Agency is also reporting ships have been halted, with both outlets referencing Israel's continued strikes on Lebanon."

Ship-broker SSY confirmed that vessels in the Gulf had been notified of the situation.

"Attention all vessels," an IRGC announcement said. "Attention all vessels. Attention all vessels in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. This is the IRGC Navy Station. Transiting the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and you need permission from the IRGC before sailing through the strait. Any vessel trying to travel into the sea will be targeted and destroyed."

A new rule proposed by the Trump administration purportedly designed to bolster “American workers’ retirement accounts” is expected to be finalized later this year, but one financial expert is warning that, in actuality, the rule is a “massive greed grab for Wall Street,” and one at the expense of Americans’ retirement savings.

“Not for a second do I believe this is a move to help regular investors,” argued Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for The Washington Post, in an analysis published in the outlet on Wednesday. “Instead, it’s a massive greed grab for Wall Street firms looking to tap into the money workers are trying to save for retirement.”

Dubbed “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,” the proposal was initiated last August via executive order, with the rule now in its public comment period through May, expected to be finalized later this year. The change would allow Americans to more easily invest in “alternative assets,” or markets not historically available to them through their retirement accounts, including the private credit market.

While expanding the investment options available to Americans has been pitched by the Trump administration as a tool to help enrich working-class Americans, Singletary said that the rule would likely have the opposite effect, and only work to shield companies from being held accountable for mismanagement of Americans' retirement savings.

“If finalized, this rule would add protection against lawsuits. As long as the people managing your 401(k) can demonstrate they’ve checked certain boxes, like reviewing fees, this rule would provide companies with a ‘safe harbor,’” Singletary wrote. “It essentially creates a legal shield that makes it much harder for you to hold your company accountable if they choose to offer riskier investments.”

Furthermore, Singletary argued that the rule appeared to be designed from the ground up to cater to Wall Street’s interests first and foremost.

“This push to add complex investments feels like a case of ‘misplaced priorities,’ focusing on Wall Street’s needs while ignoring the struggles of average workers, according to Christine Benz, the director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar,” she wrote.

“The companies behind these alternative investments have lobbied hard to get onto plans, arguing investors could see higher returns than traditional stocks and bonds. But with higher returns come higher risks. Employees are better off in the simple, and yes, boring low-cost index funds.”

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson sparked outrage among Trump allies by raising questions that suggest President Donald Trump could be the anti-Christ, as interpreted by critics.

Carlson asked rhetorically, "Could there be a spiritual component to this? Could it be something bigger?" adding "Is it possible what you're watching is a very stealthy yet incredibly effective attack on...belief in Jesus?"

He further questioned whether Trump "sees this as the fulfillment of something? An elevation of some higher office beyond president of the United States?"

Conservative activist Ian Miles Cheong called for Trump administration officials to publicly condemn Carlson, demanding they be fired if they don't. And Trump ally Laura Loomer, accused Carlson of "riling people up with lies" and attempting to incite violence against Trump.

Right-wing filmmaker Nathan Livingstone highlighted Carlson's inconsistency, noting that in 2021 he called Trump "a demonic force," in 2024 campaigned for him, and now appears to suggest anti-Christ connections.

Watch the video below.

This story was originally published by Mississippi Today.

Billionaire Tommy Duff, a likely candidate for governor, and his brother James Duff are being sued by California-based attorneys on behalf of the federal government alleging the men and their companies improperly obtained over $6.7 million in federal pandemic loans.

The lawsuit, which was filed under seal in the U.S. Northern District of California in 2024, claims the brothers – the wealthiest people in Mississippi – took advantage of a program designed to help small businesses cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit will move to Mississippi after a federal judge in March granted the Duffs’ motion to transfer the case. The plaintiff in the case is Relator LLC, a limited liability corporation formed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, by California attorneys Anoush Hakimi and Peter Shahriari.

The Duff brothers, estimated to be worth a combined $7 billion, became the wealthiest people in Mississippi by turning a small, struggling company into Southern Tire Mart, the nation’s largest truck tire dealer and retread manufacturer. They created Duff Capital Investors, the largest privately held business in Mississippi, with ownership in more than 20 companies.

The complaint references that wealth to paint a stark picture, alleging the Duffs “looted the government” by submitting “falsified loan documents” to the Small Business Administration in order to obtain taxpayer-funded payments through the Paycheck Protection Program. Congress created the program in March of 2020 to keep businesses afloat as the global economy shuddered to a halt at the outset of the pandemic.

In court filings, attorneys for Duff have sharply contested the claims, arguing the lawsuit relies on “inflammatory rhetoric” instead of facts. The Duffs’ legal team has also pointed out that the California attorneys have filed similar lawsuits against other individuals, some of which have been dismissed, and argue the lawsuit is the product of trial lawyers looking to capitalize on confusion surrounding pandemic-era government programs.

In a statement to Mississippi Today, Matthew D. Miller, an attorney for the Duffs, said he expected his clients to be “fully vindicated by the judicial process.”

“The PPP loans were lawfully obtained, fully disclosed and reviewed by banks, the SBA and federal attorneys,” Miller wrote. “This case is exactly the kind of parasitic, web-scraped lawsuit that courts have repeatedly rejected from this plaintiff. The allegations were also independently reviewed by the Department of Justice which, after this review, declined to intervene in this lawsuit.”

Thomas Duff, 69, has used his wealth from a tire empire he and his brother created to become a political power broker and philanthropist. He served an eight-year stint on the state Institutions of Higher Learning Board, first appointed by former Gov. Phil Bryant, and has been a major contributor to many Republican campaigns in Mississippi. The tire baron has said he is considering running for governor in 2027, and the lawsuit could unfold as he campaigns for the state’s highest office.

Whistleblower or ‘serial relators?’

The lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 20, 2024, under the federal False Claims Act, alleges the Duffs and their companies falsely claimed eligibility for PPP loans during the pandemic. The suit was brought by a “relator,” a legal term for a private entity suing as a whistleblower on behalf of the government to recover funds obtained by a defendant accused of defrauding the government.

The Justice Department investigated the allegations made in the complaint and in June of 2025, federal prosecutors declined to intervene. That means federal prosecutors decided against litigating the case themselves, but allowed the private attorneys in California to prosecute the action on behalf of the United States. The case was then unsealed days later.

The Justice Department can decline to intervene for a number of reasons, including a lack of resources or insufficient evidence in the case. In a June 13 court filing, federal prosecutors asked that if either side proposes the lawsuit be dismissed, settled, or otherwise discontinued, the court provide the Justice Department with “notice and an opportunity to be heard before ruling.”

In this case, the relator is called, fittingly, “Relator LLC.” Court records and settlement agreements show the entity has filed several similar lawsuits, with mixed results. For example, it secured a multi-million dollar settlement against a dental services company, while a federal judge threw out its suit against a ritzy golf club.

According to an analysis of these sorts of cases by the law firm Crowell & Moring LLP, a group of “serial relators” including Relator LLC have relied on publicly available PPP data published by the Small Business Administration to file a deluge of lawsuits. The suits allege that borrowers have violated the False Claims Act by seeking PPP loans for which they were ineligible.

Hecht Partners, a New York-based commercial litigation firm representing Relator LLC in its lawsuit against the Duffs, did not respond to messages seeking additional comment about its client’s multiple lawsuits against those alleged to have committed PPP fraud in recent years.

Plaintiffs say the Duffs ‘simply took advantage’

More than $4 billion in PPP loans flowed to Mississippi after Congress approved the federal support program for businesses, with the goal of preventing mass layoffs amid a widespread economic shutdown. Over 79,000 businesses in the state were approved for PPP loans, with disbursements ranging from from $100 to $10 million.

The Duffs applied for loans under the program, and some of their businesses received a total of over $6.7 million, according to court records. The companies should never have received the money, Relator LLC contends, because the Duffs had access to substantial money through their multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

“They are the two richest people in the state of Mississippi,” the lawsuit reads. “They own Duff Capital Investors LLC, which is their very own well-financed investment firm with access to significant capital. There was no need for the loans, and certainly no need to get money from the U.S. government as opposed to their own corporate coffers.”

The lawsuit further alleges the Duffs’ companies were far too large to qualify for relief, calling one reported employee count “a totally fabricated figure” and describing its economic-need certification as “a massive lie.”

Southern Tire Mart, the center of the Duffs’ business portfolio, underreported its headcount, claiming to have 496 employees in order to stay below the 500 threshold to remain eligible for the relief funds, the lawsuit claims. Some estimates say Southern Tire Mart has upwards of 10,000 employees.

Relator LLC also maintains the Duffs’ businesses were financially successful during the pandemic and could have shifted capital around through their parent company or investors to shore up any losses they might have suffered during the pandemic.

After receiving the PPP loans, the Duffs “doubled down on their misappropriation by seeking loan forgiveness” for a program they were never eligible for in the first place, the lawsuit claims.

“This is a glaring example of two wealthy billionaires taking advantage of the system,” the complaint reads.

Duffs say the lawsuit is ‘groundless’

In subsequent court filings, the Duffs’ legal team rejected all the allegations made in the complaint and said their clients obtained the loans lawfully for the purpose of keeping “hard-working people employed and paid.”

In response to the allegation that the Duffs fabricated their employee headcounts, their attorneys argue the lawsuit misstates the rules for obtaining PPP loans. The companies that received loans – including Southern Tire Mart and two auto dealerships – qualified as franchisees, the attorneys say, which made them eligible for loans even if the broader Duff business network employed thousands.

“Relator LLC argues that defendants were ineligible for the loans but never mentions a statute that specifically authorized the loans to the recipients, as ‘franchisees,’” the Duffs’ attorneys write. “The complaint is full of vague and speculative claims that do not plausibly allege wrongdoing.”

The Duffs’ legal team also argues that regardless of the financial resources the brothers had, the federal government tied eligibility for the loans only to “economic uncertainty,” a condition the Southern Tire Mart clearly faced in the early days of the pandemic, they added.

Lawsuit could stretch into governor’s race

Court filings indicate both sides are gearing up for a protracted legal fight. In addition to Miller, the Duffs have retained Joseph Tartakovsky, a San Francisco-based attorney who is the former deputy solicitor general of Nevada. Tartakovsky filed paperwork on Monday seeking permission to represent the Duffs in the U.S. Southern District of Mississippi.

District Judge Kristi H. Johnson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, has been assigned the case. She could dismiss the case in a matter of months, but if she declines to do that, legal proceedings could stretch well into the 2027 governor’s race.

Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson has already entered the Republican primary for governor, and former House Speaker Philip Gunn is expected to do the same next week.

Duff has stopped short of formally announcing a run for governor in 2027, but he has said publicly he is considering entering the race, pitching himself as an outsider businessman who rose to prominence with no experience holding elected office.

Editor’s note: Mississippi Today received a Paycheck Protection Program loan in 2020.

A Democratic lawmaker sounded the alarm on Wednesday that it was time for Democrats to proceed ahead with impeachment articles against President Donald Trump.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) explained to CNN anchor Pamela Brown why he has called for Trump to be removed from office for threatening war crimes against Iran — criticizing his Republican colleagues for their silence amid the ongoing war and negotiations.

"What Trump and Hegseth were planning was a war crime," Markey said. "They were planning an actual genocide — an actual destruction of a civilization. That's why Trump should be impeached. That's why Democrats should file impeachment articles against Trump. That's why the 25th Amendment to remove him should be invoked."

"We need to work as hard as we can to put the Republican party — which is morally bankrupt, which is spineless, which wants to be in a witness protection program — even as moral atrocities are being planned in their name," Markey added. "We must proceed towards the goal of removing Donald Trump from office. And we must do this now. And that has to be the Democratic agenda."

After years of failed negotiations between the states and decades of negligent water management, we now have just months for federal officials to decide how to divide up the ever-shrinking flow of the Colorado River between the seven river basin states that share it — and the 40 million people relying on the river for drinking water, including right here in Colorado.

As we wait with bated breath for a conclusion, another major threat to our precious water in the American West is emerging: hyperscale data centers.

If we don’t immediately halt this buildout, we will continue the legacy of failed water management of the river: giving our water away to polluters and profit-hungry developers at the expense of our communities and our future.

Hyperscale data centers are massive facilities that house and operate computer servers. While they have been around for years, the sudden surge in hyperscale buildout is being driven by the artificial intelligence boom. By 2030, it is estimated that 70% of U.S. data center energy demand will come from these hyperscale facilities.

Massive data centers already exist or are expected to be built in the arid American West and in Colorado. A company called Global AI just purchased over 400 acres near Windsor, where it reportedly plans to operate a large data center by the end of the year — with ambitions of expanding the campus to over 1,000 megawatt capacity.

Hyperscale data centers pose many harms to our communities, including enormous consumption of electricity, loss of critical farmland and unrelenting noise pollution. When we focus on water consumption, however, the data center buildout becomes immensely more alarming.

AI data centers need unsustainable amounts of water to cool their servers. A single large data center can consume as much water as a town of 50,000 people — more than live in Windsor. By 2028, U.S. data centers could use as much water as 18.5 million households for this cooling process across the U.S. And the demand is only growing. The amount of water consumed by data centers nationally more than tripled from 2014 to 2023. This is all remarkably concerning for the American West, which is critically dry and getting drier.

And yet, we’ve seen this before. The players might be different but the results are the same: the overextension of our resources to serve corporate polluters that are wasting our water and threatening our future.

Take Colorado’s agribusiness industries, for example. Food & Water Watch analysis of agricultural census data found that Colorado’s alfalfa farms consumed an estimated 394 billion gallons of water in 2025 — enough to meet every Denver resident’s indoor water needs for over 35 years. We also found that mega-dairies in 2022 consumed 6.9 billion gallons — enough to supply water to 173,000 households.

We have already given away billions of gallons of water to these polluting factory farms at a time when Colorado is experiencing a historic and prolonged megadrought that isn’t expected to improve. We must stop the extractive industries that are driving our current water crisis and hold them accountable for the harm they are causing our communities and our water supplies.

As our leaders come up with a plan to divide up what remains of the Colorado River, we urge them to tackle the roots of this crisis and address the fact that the interests and motivations of the Big Ag and Big Tech industries are not compatible with our climate and water reality. We must boldly address the water consumption of the major polluters that are already sucking the region dry and are poised to grow even more aggressive.

No plan that does not tackle this reality head-on will be sufficient.

President Donald Trump's longstanding intimidation tactic, effective during his real estate career and first term, has now become largely ineffective, according to New Republic analyst Ross Rosenfeld.

Trump attended Supreme Court oral arguments on birthright citizenship, having previously attacked justices as "dumb" and "embarrassments," yet the justices completely ignored his presence.

Rosenfeld wrote Trump's glare "failed to do the trick" as justices questioned ACLU attorney Cecilia Wang, prompting Trump to walk out.

While Trump successfully pressured NATO allies to increase defense spending during his first term, Rosenfeld argues Trump's "intimidation shtick" now falls flat because "no one of consequence is intimidated by him." Rosenfeld also warns, as Trump's intimidation tactics lose effectiveness, he may become more dangerous and described him as a "foolhardy buffoon" unwilling to admit defeat and prone to covering up failures.

Watch the video below.

President Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at media outlets over their coverage of the two-week ceasefire agreement his administration reached with Iran, which has been heavily scrutinized for the concessions the United States would make to the Middle East nation.

On Tuesday, Trump announced that “authorities” were investigating CNN for having published a “false” statement from the Iranian government, a statement in which Iran claimed to have achieved a “great victory” in the conflict. Other media outlets have also published stories that include statements, letters and documents from the Iranian government.

“Numerous Agreements, Lists, and Letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S.A. / Iran Negotiation, in many cases, they are total Fraudsters, Charlatans, and WORSE,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“They will be rapidly exposed after our Federal Investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful ‘POINTS’ that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations. These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE. It is something that is reasonable, and can easily be dispensed with.”

When he asked the White House whether President Donald Trump was considering using nuclear weapons against Iran, officials refused to deny it, Mother Jones columnist Noah Lanard reported.

Trump had threatened that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" if Iran didn't open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. When Lanard asked directly about nuclear options, an unnamed White House official responded only "We refer you to the President's TRUTH on this inquiry," and declined to rule out nuclear action.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later stated only that "the President knows where things stand and what he will do."

The escalating threats, including Trump's Monday statement that Iran "can be taken out in one night", alarmed observers including Tucker Carlson and Anthony Scaramucci. Even some Trump allies questioned his fitness, with Marjorie Taylor Greene calling the threats "evil and madness."

Watch the video below.

By The Conversation.

In early March, a week after the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the White House posted a video of real American attacks mixed with clips from popular movies, television series, video games and anime.

President Donald Trump and his administration are presenting a different proposal for the Iran ceasefire deal than Iranian officials', according to the Associated Press.

The AP reported Iran's Farsi-language version of its 10-point ceasefire plan includes the phrase "acceptance of enrichment" for its nuclear program, language conspicuously absent from English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.

Few details about the agreement have been publicly released.

The discrepancy suggests Iran may be attempting to mislead the Trump administration regarding uranium enrichment requirements.

Political analysts reacted with mockery on social media.

Via Bluesky, Political strategist Simon Rosenberg wrote Trump's action in Iran will be remembered indefinitely, adding, "There is no possibility of redemption."

University of Florida professor Michael McDonald reacted sarcastically, "Quick. Someone shove granite and gold fixture choices for the ballroom bathrooms in front of Trump."

Rutgers professor Matthew Buckley asked on Bluesky, "Are you tired of winning yet?"

Watch the video below.

A Supreme Court Justice has criticized a colleague appointed by Donald Trump for failing to grasp the severity of the administration's immigration policy.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor hit out at her colleague, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during an event yesterday (April 7). Sotomayor, appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama, criticized the September 8 emergency order which meant lower court rulings were to be paused indefinitely.

This means immigration agents have a wider scope for profiling people and are free to target them based on their language, occupation, race, or presence at specific locations like bus stops, Bloomberg Law reported. Sotomayor referenced a piece by Kavanaugh while delivering a speech at the University of Kansas School of Law.

She said, "I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour."

Sotomayor went on to claim that even short-term detentions can affect those wrongly arrested by immigration agents. "Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person," she said. "And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper."

"Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and to see things others may not. And when I have a moment where I can express that on behalf of people who have no other voice, then I’m being given a very rare privilege."

Kavanaugh's concurrence with the immigration stops and the lower court suspension, according to Sotomayor, "relegates the interests of U.S. citizens and individuals with legal status to a single sentence, positing that the Government will free these individuals as soon as they show they are legally in the United States."

Justice Kavanaugh authored a controversial concurrence supporting immigration stops based on ethnicity and language. He wrote that "apparent ethnicity" could be a "relevant factor" in immigration enforcement.

However, he later attempted to walk back these remarks, stating officers "must not make interior immigration stops or arrests based on race or ethnicity," though legal experts criticized this as insufficient damage control for his earlier endorsement of racial profiling.

During an appearance on MS NOW on Wednesday morning, noted historian Douglas Brinkley expressed surprise that Vice President JD Vance has chosen to ally himself so closely with Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán as he seeks re-election.

While the US was prepping for a massive escalation of the war in Iran, which was averted at the last moment after Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire that heavily favors Iran, Vance was taking part in a MAGA-style rally for the Hungarian prime minister who is fighting an uphill battle to hang on to his job.

Appearing with “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire, Brinkley was quick to point out that Orbán is a high-profile puppet belonging to Vladimir Putin.

“Can you think of another moment where a sitting president or vice president would openly campaign for a foreign head of state, particularly one who we learned yet again today with Michael Weiss, terrific reporting a couple hours ago, is firmly in the pocket of Vladimir Putin?” Lemire pressed his guest.

"It's utterly nutty,” Brinkley quickly replied. “The F-grade goes to NATO, the failing of NATO, meaning Donald Trump's failure to keep NATO engaged. NATO doesn't want to be engaged with war crimes either. And we forget that our foreign policy has to have NATO at its center.”

“And the disrespect and the disassembling of NATO under the Trump/Vance regime is disheartening, to say the least, because we're losing, squandering soft power all over the world,” he added. “And we're seeing the great alliance that's been with us, Truman, through Biden, just starting to wobble, almost crumble. And you can't expect our NATO allies to trust what President Trump says because he does a 180 the next day and he's ruling as if he's he's not really part of an alliance writ large.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

President Donald Trump's comments on Truth Social amid the Iran war revealed how this conflict would potentially play out, a former Defense Department official said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Farkas, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, told MS NOW host Alex Witt that Vice President JD Vance referred to these talks as "fragile" and discussed what could come next.

"I think he's right to call it fragile," Farkas said. "We don't know whether the truce will hold. And clearly, the Iranians are nervous that, you know, our administration could take advantage of the truce in some way militarily. Although I would say that because of President Trump's very emotional messages over the weekend, they probably are feeling pretty confident that they've gotten under the skin of our government and that we were we really did want a resolution to this diplomatically. So I think that there's a greater than 50 percent likelihood that this truce will hold, and that it will actually transform into a durable agreement, because both sides do, at the end of the day, want to put an end to this fighting."

President Donald Trump ended a call with PBS reporter Liz Landers after she asked if he regretted threatening Iran's entire civilization.

Following a press briefing with Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, Landers said she had contacted the president by phone.

"I asked about Lebanon still being hit and if he'd seen that," the reporter recalled.

"Yeah, they were not included in the deal," Trump replied. "Because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal. That'll get taken care of, too. It's alright."

Trump suggested he did not disapprove of Israel continuing to shell Lebanon.

"It's part of the deal — everyone knows that," he explained. "That's a separate skirmish. Okay? You gotta talk faster."

"I tried to ask if he regretted that Truth Social post about wiping out a civilization and noted that there was huge push back to that statement from Democrats," Landers remarked. "Then he hung up."

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been featured recently in a series of videos that have “flooded the internet” since the United States attacked Iran in late February, videos from pro-Iran groups that prominently feature the sexual assault allegations leveled against the current president and his top Defense official.

“Trump is globally known for sex crimes and, like Hegseth, charges of sex crimes – and the Iranian videos depict the two men explicitly as rapists,” reads a report published Wednesday in The New Republic.

“In one video, [a] Lego Trump has doll-like girl figures on his bed and lap, and Hegseth is shown in military garb, repeatedly committing rape. Assaults on girls are the modus vivendi of these videos’ versions of Trump and Hegseth.”

Trump has faced sexual misconduct allegations from at least two dozen women dating back to the 1970s, and was found liable for sexual abuse by a jury in civil court in 2023. Hegseth has also faced an allegation of sexual assault, though both Trump and Hegseth have denied any wrongdoing.

While not produced by the Iranian government, the video campaign – described by The New Republic as "not idle trolling" – has been heavily promoted by Tehran.

Pro-Iran groups, particularly the anonymous student activist group Explosive News, have seized on the allegations against Trump and Hegseth, depicting Trump as a sexual abuser in a series of Lego-inspired videos generated with generative artificial intelligence, videos that have gone on to be watched by millions on social media. Hegseth has also been featured prominently in the video campaign.

As to the campaign’s core message as it relates to Trump – that the president had “the ideology of the rapist” – The New Republic’s Virginia Heffernan argued it was hard to disagree.

Ever since Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired last week, it has left the unsettled question of whether she still has to sit for the upcoming congressional deposition, where, among other things, she was set to be asked about the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

The GOP-led commission has stated Bondi won't attend. In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) revealed on Wednesday, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) demanded that he publicly clarify she does, in fact, still have to participate.

"We moved to subpoena Pam Bondi, and the Committee voted to approve this motion on a bipartisan basis, because the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) still has not complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act ... and because serious questions remain regarding the DOJ's non-compliance and their handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates while she was Attorney General," said the letter.

Bondi's dismissal as AG, they wrote, "does not diminish the Committee's legitimate oversight interests in seeking her sworn testimony or the need for accountability and information about files withheld from the public by the DOJ. On the contrary, it makes her sworn testimony even more important, especially with respect to actions she took as Attorney General, matters already under investigation, and decisions made under her leadership."

The handling of the Epstein files was reportedly at least one of the reasons Trump decided to remove Bondi, a longtime MAGA loyalist who oversaw a number of prosecutions of Trump's political enemies, from the Justice Department.

Bondi's abrupt reversal on the files, telling the public there was no "client list" and nothing new of note in the files after she had spent months hyping it up to Trump supporters, played a huge part in fracturing the MAGA coalition and reducing public support for the president. Since legislation was passed compelling the release of all Epstein files, Bondi also presided over the department as it slow-walked that process and blew through important legal deadlines.

"The American people deserve answers about whether Congress was misled and whether information is being withheld by the DOJ," said the letter, telling Comer, "We ask you to publicly reaffirm that Pam Bondi must appear on April 14 for a sworn deposition as ordered or face appropriate enforcement if she refuses to comply."