'No Deal': Vance Leaves Islamabad As Iran Talks Stall Over Nukes; US Starts Mine-Clearing Hormuz

 

Summary: 

• US-Iran peace talks have broken down over Iran's commitment to no nuclear weapons, Vance said "it's bad news for Iran, much more than for the US."

• CENTCOM confirms two mine-sweepers are clearing the Strait, Iran claims it turned the warships back.

• President Trump announces start of "clearing out the Strait" as a favor to the rest of the world.

• Peace talks in Pakistan begin in indirect format, led by Vance and on Iran side - Ghalibaf, Arachchi - expected to continue tomorrow

• Saturday sees more Israeli strikes on Lebanon, with Hezbollah supporting Pakistan talks but rejecting 'separate deal' directly with Israel.

• Trump on talks and potential bigger future attacks on Iran: "You don’t need a backup plan" as Iran's "military is defeated".

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VP Vance Departs Pakistan After Failing To Read Deal With Iran

Talks between the United States and Iran ended early Sunday without a peace agreement after Tehran refused to accept key US demands, including commitments on its nuclear program, US officials said.

US Vice President JD Vance said the 21-hour negotiations concluded without a breakthrough, despite good-faith efforts by Washington.

 “We have not reached an agreement, and I think it's bad news for Iran, much more than for the US," Vance said

“But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon,” Vance said, adding that the proposal presented was the administration’s “final and best offer.”

The talks marked the third round of direct, face-to-face negotiations between the two sides, taking place days after a fragile two-week ceasefire was announced in the conflict that has entered its seventh week.

Iran has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, Fars news agency reports, citing a source close to the negotiating team.

“The American team was looking for an excuse to leave the negotiating table,” it adds. 

The only market showing any notable impact is crypto with BTC retracing some of the post-ceasefire gains...

The odds of a peace deal by the end of the two-week ceasefire just plunged...

Talks Continue, Hormuz Remains Key Point of Contention

Iranian media are striking a cautiously optimistic tone on the progress of the talks.

They say there was progress on implementation of the ceasefire in Lebanon, technical negotiations that went beyond generalities and now an exchange of texts that would put any progress in writing. 

To be sure, the US side has been much quieter, and sticking points may come into focus once they’re in black and white.

Teams of experts joined the main negotiators after about an hour, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Those technical discussions in Islamabad focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a potential ceasefire extension and phased sanctions relief. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency says, citing its reporter at the venue.

“The issue of the Strait of Hormuz is one of the points facing serious disagreement”, adding that the US delegation “hindered progress” during the text-exchange stage with “its usual excessive demands”

Talks have reportedly mostly avoided the core issues that the Trump administration said drove it to war, according to a US official and a Pakistani official familiar with the matter.

Those issues include Iran’s support for armed proxies, and the nuclear and missile programs that were at the heart of Trump’s stated reasons for attacking Iran beginning Feb. 28.

“We have goodwill, but we do not have trust,” Ghalibaf told reporters after arriving in Islamabad, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

“In the upcoming negotiations, if the American side is prepared for a genuine agreement and to grant the rights of the Iranian nation, they will see readiness for an agreement from us as well.”

Tasnim said that Tehran’s 71-member delegation also included the Islamic Republic’s central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.

Also on the agenda will be the fate of Iran’s uranium stockpile and missile production, as well as US sanctions against the Islamic Republic and broader military presence in the Middle East. Many of those issues were the same ones the two sides failed to resolve in February negotiations before the war began.

Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says Tehran has entered negotiations from a position of strength, arguing that the war on Iran had failed to deliver decisive strategic gains for the US.

Trump - as we detailed below - made it clear he sees Iran 'holding no cards'.

US Starts Clearing Mines In Strait of Hormuz

Seemingly confirming President Trump's earlier comments on "clearing out the Strait", U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that two U.S. missile destroyers started clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz on April 11 as peace talks kicked off between Washington and the Iranian regime

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement Saturday.

The American ships included the USS Frank E. Peterson (DDG 121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112).

CENTCOM revealed that the mission on Saturday is part of a broader goal to make the crucial waterway, located on the southwest coast of Iran, clear of sea mines laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Saturday’s confirmation about the mine clearing came hours after a United States government vessel was spotted entering the Strait of Hormuz, according to the ship-tracking intelligence platform Marinetraffic.com.

It’s not clear if this was related to CENTCOM’s mine-clearing mission.

Trump Announces Start Of "Clearing Out" The Strait As A "Favor" To RoW

Earlier reports appears to have been confirmed as three US officials have stated to The Wall Street Journal that two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, marking the first transit of American warships through the waterway since the war began six weeks ago.

President Trump took to social media to explain what was going on. But first, he clarified a few things to the 'fake news media'...

The Fake News Media has lost total credibility, not that they had any to begin with. Because of their massive Trump Derangement Syndrome (Sometimes referred to as TDS!), they love saying that Iran is “winning” when, in fact, everyone knows that they are LOSING, and LOSING BIG!

Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead, their Missile and Drone Factories have been largely obliterated along with the Missiles and Drones themselves and, most importantly, their longtime “Leaders” are no longer with us, praise be to Allah!

The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may “bunk” into one of their sea mines which, by the way, all 28 of their mine dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea.

Having got all that off his chest, he then confirmed the operation to open the Strait:

We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others.

Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.

Very interestingly, however, empty Oil carrying ships from many Nations are all heading to the United States of America to LOAD UP with Oil.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

But he wasn't done with that. A few minutes later he followed with a shorter pithier version of the same narrative:

The Fake News Media is CRAZY, or just plain CORRUPT!

The United States has completely destroyed Iran’s Military, including their entire Navy and Air Force, and everything else. Their Leadership is DEAD!

The Strait of Hormuz will soon be open, and the empty ships are rushing to the United States to “load up.”

But, if you listen to the Fake News, we’re losing!

Iran explicitly informed the Pakistani mediator during talks that if the vessel continued its movement it would be targeted within 30 minutes and the Iran-US negotiations would be damaged.

However, no issues were reported during the ships transit of the Strait, and the move was described as a freedom-of-navigation mission.

The (successful) timing of this action - as talks begin in Islamabad - is certainly a show of strength amid the delicate negotiations.

Several US Warships Cross Hormuz Strait: Axios

Just as indirect talks kick off in Islamabad, a shocking and surprise development is being reported by Axios' Barak Ravid, though this is not confirmed:

If accurate, are we witnessing Trump suddenly pile on more leverage before negotiations even get off the ground? It seems like the Iranians would have noticed several US Navy warships passing. Either they held off attack for the sake of pursuing peace, or this was truly done 'stealthily' and Iranian capabilities are degraded to the point they may have 'missed' it. Or is this an attempt to muddy the negotiations? Sabotage? Ravid after all has long stood accused of pushing an Israeli agenda in his reporting.

Talks Begin with Indirect Format Mediated by Pakistanis

By Saturday afternoon (local), the highest-level US-Iran-related talks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution have kicked off in Islamabad. Vice President JD Vance met Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif just ahead of the negotiations, and also senior Iranian officials were greeted by Sharif and other Pakistani leaders. Iran's delegation is led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The engagement by each side has begun indirectly.

Pakistan has made clear it is working to facilitate direct negotiations between the US and Iran to fully bring to an end the six-week war in the Middle East. Sharif hailed both sides' commitment to engaging constructively, and "expressed the hope that these talks would serve as a stepping stone toward durable peace in the region," his office stated in a news release.

"Vance was joined for the bilateral meeting by special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner," CNN reviews. "Sharif was joined by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sen. Mohammad Ishaq Dar, along with Interior Minister Sen. Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, according to a news release from the Pakistani prime minister’s office. There was no press coverage of the meeting."

CNN also has this interesting detail on just how many officials have traveled with the Iranian side: "Iran’s delegation in Islamabad is made up of 71 people, including negotiators, experts, media representatives and security, Tasnim reported." According to some of the latest:

Tehran reportedly set 2 main conditions. The issue of frozen funds being already accepted by Washington. Despite no strikes on Beirut, attacks in southern Lebanon are ongoing and are now part of the negotiations.

Below: Ghalibaf (Speaker of Parliament) - Araghchi (Foreign Minister) - Ahmadian (Secretary of the Defense Council) - Hemmati (Central Bank Governor)

Lebanon Fighting Has Not Stopped But Rare Diplomatic Contact Made

Fighting has not fully stopped in Lebanon, raising the possibility of derailing the Pakistan talks, after Tehran had earlier in the week threatened that it could pull out if Israel keeps ups its attacks. On Saturday, Lebanon's Health Ministry raised the death toll from the Israeli surprise Wednesday strikes to 357, and suggested the figure could rise amid several days of search and recovery operations.

But one rare bright spot in terms of diplomatic contact, as international reports say the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States held a phone call in the first direct contact reported between the two countries, ahead of ceasefire talks scheduled in Washington for next week.

Meanwhile, Iran confirmed it is coordinating with Lebanon to ensure ceasefire commitments are upheld across all fronts, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on state TV from Islamabad, where senior US and Iranian officials are holding talks to end the six-week war. At the same time, Lebanese officials close to Hezbollah told Reuters the group supports the Pakistan dialogue and considers it the appropriate path, rejecting a separate round of talks planned in Washington next week.

Iranian delegation in Pakistan seeks to present 'unity' of government/military leadership and coordination:

Israeli airstrikes have continued on a sporadic basis: "Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports that an Israeli air attack on the town of Kfar Sir in the Nabatieh district has killed four people, including a paramedic, and injured four," writes Al Jazeera Saturday. "Another Israeli attack on the town of Zefta, also in the Nabatieh district, killed three people, including a member of the Lebanese Civil Defense, and wounded two." There's been an additional third attack on Toul and Nabatieh, killing three and injuring several more.

Trump: 'No Backup Plan' Needed Since Iran's Military 'Defeated'

"You don’t need a backup plan," Trump told reporters Friday when asked about possible next steps of Pakistan talks fail, according to a report by The Hill as he departed Washington en route to Florida. "The military is defeated."

"Their military is gone. We’ve degraded just about everything," Trump added. These words suggest he sees the Pakistan peace process as a serious offramp. However, as we and others have reported, there's an ongoing Pentagon build-up in the region. This has kicked off speculation that a bigger US attack could be around the corner, at that the Islamabad summit is cover for ongoing military preparations.

And yet, the reality is that Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz, with only a tiny trickle of 'vetted and approved' vessels making it through, and reportedly paying hefty toll fees to Tehran, which Trump has warned against. Iran in Pakistan is asking for sanctions to be lifted. If the US grants this, Iran will be in a better position than went the war started, which will be tantamount to gains made through the fight.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/several-us-warships-reportedly-transit-strait-hormuz-pakistan-talks-led-vance-start

Will the ceasefire hold?

by Kenneth R. Timmerman

 The Iranian regime seems not to have taken the measure of Donald Trump, even after over a month of war.  The Iranians appear to believe he is just another John Kerry or Barack Obama or Joe Biden, who can be intimidated into making every concession they can imagine.

Kerry showed us again on Thursday night, in an interview with his former staffer Jen Psaki on MSNBC, just how bad he was as Secretary of State.

While berating Trump for rushed negotiations with the Iranians before going to war, he reminded us that “we took four years” to get to the failed 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, as if the foot-dragging and unending concessions were a virtue.

The Iranians need to understand that J.D. Vance, who is leading the U.S. negotiating team, is their best shot at getting any sort of deal with the United States that leaves the regime intact.

As he was departing for Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday, Vance told reporters he was hoping for a “positive outcome” to the talks.  But he also warned Iran not to try to play him.

My money is on the Iranian team ignoring that warning.

Since Iran’s leaders began negotiating with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the late 1990s, they have lied, cheated, and delayed.  And when they got caught cheating, they just smirked and cheated some more.

The United States has three non-negotiables going into these talks: Iran cannot enrich uranium, Iran must give up its stockpile of 1,000 lb of highly enriched uranium, and Iran must open the international waterways in the Strait of Hormuz without tolls and without impediment.

From the confused and contradictory statements made by different Iranian regime leaders over the past few days, it’s unclear if they are ready to concede any of these three points.

Since the ceasefire, they have continued to extort international shipping companies by requiring that they coordinate with the IRGC navy and take a new route through the Strait that passes behind Larak Island, close to the Iranian coastline.

This allows them to charge tolls for safe passage, on the phony pretext that ships are transiting Iranian territorial waters, not the international passage of the Strait.

President Trump made clear that this is a non-starter.  In a post on Truth Social on Thursday evening, he wrote: 

There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — they better not be and, if they are, they better stop now! 

At best, ten to twelve ships have transited the Strait each day since the ceasefire, instead of the hundred or more that normally make the journey.  Most of them are small oil tankers, LNG ships, or bulk carriers.

It’s unclear if a supertanker loaded with two million barrels of oil or a SuperMax container ship could even negotiate the sharp turn required to go around Larak Island.

And now, Iranian negotiator Mohammad Baqr Ghalibaf is claiming that he won’t even come to the table unless the U.S. makes two brand new concessions: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the unfreezing of Iranian assets.

The Iranians need to understand that while these talks go on, the United States continues to send troops, ships, and material to the region.  As the president has said, it’s a good time for our pilots and war-fighters to rest up so they can deliver a knock-out blow in two weeks’ time (or less) if the talks fail.

We’re hearing that IRGC commanders are trying to instruct the regime’s negotiating team to refuse any discussion of their ballistic missile arsenal.  They seem already to have forgotten that they rained down twice the number of missiles and drones on the UAE alone than they did on Israel, and also targeted oil and gas infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

You would think those countries would get a say in negotiating a total halt to the regime’s ballistic missile and drone programs, but as of now, they remain on the sidelines.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/04/will_the_ceasefire_hold.html

Mamdani’s City Hall shuts down Times Square for the America 250 celebration

 by Andrea Widburg

Zohran Mamdani just passed an emergency order that effectively prevents New Yorkers from gathering in Times Square just before midnight on July 3, when the famous ball is scheduled to drop, signaling that America’s grand 250th birthday celebration has begun. The problem is that New York City doesn’t have enough police officers because NYC is making policing impossible.

The reason for the emergency order is the threat of violence while the FIFA World Cup is in town:

Soccer mega-fan Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an emergency order that will block events including some concerts and food festivals from city parkland during the FIFA World Cup.

The city Parks Department adopted the rule at the request of the NYPD, denying new permits for special events on park property during the tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19.

The directive could block any events with 20 or more people that require the special permits which could even include birthday celebrations at the Big Apple’s 100 featured parks.

What quickly became apparent, though, was that this order shutting down any celebrations on New York City property for over a month would slam right into the 250th birthday celebration.

Now, at this point, you’d think that Mamdani would make an exception for that Times Square event. I mean, it’s a big deal. Or as the leftist hero, John Biden, would say, an “effing big deal.”

But that’s not what’s happening. Instead of a joyful gathering of a patriotic crowd (and we know from Tea Party gatherings that patriots are law-abiding and pick up after themselves), they’re going to drop the ball before an empty square:

A planned Times Square ball drop for America’s 250th birthday is still on — but you’re not invited.

 

The New Year’s Eve-style event will continue as planned at midnight on July 3, organizers said Tuesday — in the wake of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new emergency order banning hundreds of public celebrations during the FIFA World Cup in the Big Apple.

But in a bizarre statement Tuesday, organizers said the show will go on anyway — without a crowd.

The whole thing will be played on TV. That’s it. A stunning moment celebrating one of the world's oldest continuous governments is being marginalized because the city fears soccer fans.

The real issue, of course, is that New York City is so dangerous for police that the force is a fraction of the size it needs. Thus, the same article says that New York City is 6,000 officers short of full staffing. That’s a staggering number.

That’s no surprise. In New York City, a black judge (and yes, I think his race matters) threw the book at a police officer who lobbed a cooler at a scooter-riding drug dealer who was on a dangerous collision course with the policeman’s fellow officers. The cooler didn’t kill the dealer. Instead, the dealer swerved on his scooter, fell off, and hit his head.

At most, it was manslaughter, and even that is a hard sell given that former Sgt. Erik Duran was acting to protect his men. Nevertheless, Judge Guy Mitchell sentenced Duran to 3-9 years in state prison, which will inevitably be in solitary confinement because Duran will be killed otherwise. The goal, said the judge, was to make an example of Duran as a “general deterrent,” presumably to all police officers trying to stop fleeing suspects and protect each other.

New York City was a player in the American Revolution. It was the site of some of the earliest battles and the location of George Washington’s almost magical retreat following the Battle of Brooklyn. Yes, it was a retreat, but it also saved the military to fight another day. Also, the British were headquartered there, so it had enormous symbolic importance. We won; they left.

But now, the Barbarians are inside the Gate. Leftists in City Hall and the judicial system have made being a policeman a job too dangerous for sane people to hold. The attrition rate will inevitably accelerate as police become more and more vulnerable with every drop in their numbers and every attack from their government.

I should add here that many believe that, while the police force staffing problem is real, the fact that Mamdani’s City Hall is doing nothing to dig up more staffing (including asking Gov. Hochul for help from the National Guard) suggests that the month-plus shutdown is a pretext to ensure that the anniversary is not honored. We don’t know who in the NYPD asked for the order, and it may well have been a political operative working with Mamdani. There’s a definite feeling of “pretext” here, with the ostensible reason for the shutdown having little to do with the real reason.

And the symbolic Ball Drop in Times Square will be just a flickering shadow on television, not a joyous celebration of an extraordinary moment in human history: The first revolution that didn’t trade one totalitarian government for another, but that was dedicated to individual liberty. And yes, it took a while to erase slavery, but it wouldn’t have happened at all without the stunning, new concept of a government “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

UPDATE: When I wrote this essay, I said that it mattered that the judge is black. He reeked of bias. That stench just got stronger:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/04/mamdani_s_city_hall_shuts_down_times_square_for_the_america_250_celebration.html

Swalwell implosion smells like material for an internal Democrat civil war

 by Monica Showalter

Taking a page from their very successful Cesar Chavez playbook, Democrats have effectively taken Eric Swalwell out of the race for California governor based on a cavalcade of sudden sexual harassment and predation allegations, everything from his sending pictures of his privates to unwilling interns, to rape allegations by female staffers who were intoxicated and incapable of giving consent, along with video of the married Swalwell being 'serviced' by hookers in his home. Swalwell also reportedly retaliated against those who complained, threatening and firing them from their jobs and up until now getting away with it. Democrats knew about this for years, but only now has the Cesar Chavez hammer come out of the woodwork to dislodge him the race.

Oh, sure, Swalwell says the charges are false and he's not dropping out of the race, but just look at him:

Hear it directly from me. These allegations are flat false. And I will fight them. pic.twitter.com/bQSlCquD1U

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 11, 2026

Disheveled, dirty, greasy and badly in need of a shower. He looks like a guy in the dock.

Does that look like a guy who's going to win this demolition derby? He may hang on and draw a few hundred thousand votes to spite those Democrats who want someone else in the governor's chair. One thing that looks pretty unlikely is that Republicans did this --  if they did, it would be dismissed in the press as "a conspiracy theorry," not revealed in press outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle.

The theory out there is that this is a typical Democrat playbook trick to thin the crowded Democrat herd in the crowded California gubernatorial race, where two Republicans lead in the top-two primary for the general election, and Democrats are split between several candidates. Ugly rival Katie Porter has been accused of orchestrating this, which she has denied, so nobody really knows for sure how this happened.

But even more mysterious is 'why' -- two factors leap out that give one pause as to why this happened:

One, Swalwell was polling above the other Democrats in the race. 

Swalwell was outperforming every other Democrat and was the closest to Hilton.

So my question is: why? pic.twitter.com/McOIVtMITy

— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) April 11, 2026

Why would they thin from the top of the herd instead of the bottom where many are polling in single digits?

Here is the other strange factor -- big dollar donations were rolling in up until the day of the revelations.

Arguing against the theory that there was a high-level Democratic Party op to get Swalwell out of the race at this moment: independent expenditure committees for Swalwell that were funded with 7-figure donations in recent days from powerful Democratic players. (Nobody told them.) pic.twitter.com/XwJzIEA9uJ

— Susan Shelley (@Susan_Shelley) April 11, 2026

 

You can bet that whoever made them is probably pretty steamed right now, and may well tell Swalwell to fight on, making it a good civil war where they all go down and a Republican, either Steve Hilton or Chad Bianco, wins the race, and if the pair of them take the top two slots in early June, there is no doubt it will be a Republican.

But there's another problem for the Democrats way back there in the background that is bound to get louder as time goes on.

People are asking why if Swalwell with all his vileness is unfit to be governor of California, why is he occupying a seat in Congress?

Democrats such as Adam Schiff, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and other leading lights of that repulsive party have all loudly called on Swalwell to drop out, but not said a word about getting him out of Congress. Why, exactly, should an accused rapist sit in Congress? They threw George Santos out for a lot less.

Rep. Anna Luna, a Florida Republican, has filed a motion for Congress to expel him.

Thus far, no Democrats have joined her. 

Which goes to show how cynical this move is, despite Swalwell deserving everything that is coming to him. Why was he chosen as the Democrat to pitch over the side? They clearly don't care that he's a sex predator, they care to virtue-signal about 'metoo' despite their devotion to this idea being, to say the least, selective. They knew what Swalwell was about, and as Jonathan Turley writes, he was their useful 'monster' but they didn't speak up until now and until it seemed as though it would help their party thin the herd in California as a working theory. 

It’s because they’ve all known for years.

It’s been an open secret.

And I don’t say that as a guess. https://t.co/OWBlHg6iDC

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 11, 2026

Cynical, indeed. This could get ugly fast as Democrat-on-Democrat infighting carries on in the next six weeks.

Let's hope they end up a puddle of muck after a bumfight like this one and all the truth eventually comes out about the disgusting doings in that party.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/04/swalwell_implosion_looks_like_material_to_reveal_an_internal_civil_war.html

Climate Organization Behind Anti-ICE Protests Leads May 1 School Walkout Plan: Parent Group

 by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

One of the main organizations behind the recent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations is encouraging children to walk out of class en masse next month to help promote its agenda, which includes achieving what it said are “Eco-socialism, [a] multi-racial democracy, and Green New Deal legislation,” according to a April 8 report by representatives of parent group Defending Education.

Organized by the Sunrise Movement, hundreds of young climate activists march to the White House to demand that U.S. President Joe Biden work to make the Green New Deal into law in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Sunrise Movement, during its March 17 online membership meeting, called on schools to “train up” employees and students to disrupt the federal government ahead of planned May 1 “May Day” protests as part of an ongoing “political revolution” to “structurally change the foundations of this country,” according to slides Defending Education, a nonprofit opposing indoctrination in classrooms, obtained from a tipster who attended the meeting.

The Sunrise Movement, according to the slides and its website, describes itself as an anti-President Donald Trump “climate revolution” group that advocates socialism, supports a rainbow coalition of the multi-racial working class, and calls for an end to the “billionaire” two-party political system.

In addition to mass school walkouts, the organization is also calling for more disruptions to Hilton hotels, which have housed ICE officers, according to the slides. Past actions included calling for boycotts of the hotel chain and engaging in “wide awake” events where protestors gathered outside of Hilton-branded hotels and made as much noise as possible to prevent ICE officers—and everyone else staying there—from sleeping.

Another slide illustrates a domino effect that starts with the ideological conversion of students and young people and spreads to teachers, customer service workers, city service workers, factory service workers, shipping and transportation workers, and ultimately “military and police defections.”

“They have zero reservations about using children to advance their political ideology,” Rhyen Staley, Defending Education research director, told The Epoch Times. “These kids are being used for their propaganda.”

The Sunrise Movement was frequently listed in an earlier report produced by Staley that identified 357 protests and walkouts at middle schools and high schools so far this year. He said the organization, backed by wealthy donors, recruits students via social media and provides signs used at the protests.

The slide presentation is not currently on the Sunrise Movement’s website, but the information noted in it is contained in different pages throughout the site, including a “student rise-up” guide.

“May Day 2026 is our chance to practice mass non-cooperation, prove our power so we can pick bigger fights, and set the movement’s agenda with clear demands,” the guide says.

“On May Day 2026, students at hundreds of schools are walking out, rising up, and disrupting business as usual.”

Staley anticipates participation from K-12 students across the country, especially in Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and California. Most of them, he said, don’t necessarily agree with or understand the ideology they’ll be walking out for; it’s just a chance to get out of class.

He previously told The Epoch Times that teacher unions are connected to public school protests nationwide.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association (NEA) teachers’ union, appeared in a Sunrise Movement video two days before the Jan. 30 “National Day of Action” coordinated by the coalition NationalShutdown.org.

“On behalf of the education professionals who belong to the NEA ... thank you, Sunrise, for standing on the front lines in Minneapolis and in so many cities across our nation, demanding justice in all forms,” Pringle said in the video.

Staley said these events exacerbate what he said is an ongoing discipline crisis in public schools. Districts might not have updated policies to address walkouts or delegate responsibility to teachers, who might only deduct class participation points with no further discipline for skipping class without an excused absence. School officials often don’t understand how freedom of speech protections apply in school settings and fear they’ll be sued for First Amendment violations if they don’t allow students to participate in walkouts.

“They don’t want nastygrams [from attorneys] and the bad attention,” he said. “They’d rather deal with the fallout from just a few parents afterward.”

Safety is another concern, given the heightened fear of terrorism. A massive May 1 mobilization of children is a dangerous idea right now, Staley said.

Defending Education urges parents to talk with their children about the consequences of skipping classes to promote politics they don’t necessarily support. Teachers can also use this current event as a teaching moment and challenge students to state their views in writing as if they were submitting a letter to Congress or their local newspaper.

“[Students’] responsibility is to be as educated as possible,” he said, “so [they belong] in a classroom.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the Sunrise Movement for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

Janice Hisle, Savannah Hulsey Pointer, and Darlene McCormick Sanchez contributed to this report. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/climate-organization-behind-anti-ice-protests-leading-may-1-school-walkout-plan-parent