NY set to pass most extreme sanctuary policies as Hochul, Albany Dems near anti-ICE deal

 New York is set to pass its most extreme sanctuary policies yet – as Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats hone in on a deal that could impose sweeping bans on cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) confirmed “95%” of an anti-ICE immigration package has been agreed upon between Hochul and state legislators as part of ongoing state budget talks – including etching New York’s first statewide sanctuary law restricting how law enforcement can interact with immigration authorities.

“I think we all want to deal with the aggressiveness, or the over-aggressiveness, let’s say, of ICE. But we also understand that there should always be due process,” Heastie told reporters Wednesday.

4

Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are forging ahead with legislation to put statewide sanctuary policies on New York’s books for the first time.Stephen Yang for NY Post

Narrow, but still crucial, details about how the law would function are still being hammered out.

Hochul recently revealed that she had agreed with the legislature’s request to ramp up her initial anti-ICE proposal, which she had released in January amid heightened fury against President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

“I want to say that ICE has no reason to be involved in any civil enforcement,” Hochul said last week.

Hochul’s original proposal had included:

• Banning local governments, like Nassau County, from signing formal “287-g” agreements with ICE to deputize officers and keep detainees in local jails on federal immigration charges.
• An experimental new legal tool aimed at  giving New Yorkers the ability to sue federal agents in state court for a violation of their constitutional rights.
• Restricting access to ICE from “sensitive” locations like schools, hospitals and churches.

Since then, the legislature has largely bullied the governor into adding:

4

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters an immigration package was “95%” agreed upon, Wednesday.Gabriella Bass

• Explicit “sanctuary” protections barring local law enforcement from communicating with federal immigration authorities unless they suspect there’s probable cause someone committed a misdemeanor or felony.
• Many new additional “sensitive” locations to her list, including virtually all public spaces like parks and allowing private businesses to refuse entry to federal agents.
• Barring ICE agents from wearing masks.

4

ICE agents would be barred from wearing masks in New York, under the newest iteration of the proposal, Hochul revealed earlier this month.Adam Gray for New York Post

Albany Dems, however, quickly panned the part of Hochul’s plan allowing local cops to contact ICE in cases with probable cause — and it appears she might be backing down.

“That definitely has been out,” Heastie said Wednesday.

Critics — including the elected sheriffs she wants to restrict from working with ICE — have blasted Hochul for caving to the left, claiming she hasn’t engaged with them in crafting her proposal.

4

Local law enforcement, including the New York State Sheriffs Association, is opposed to the new immigration measures.Getty Images

“The proposed ban on communicating or cooperating with an important unit of federal law enforcement would be a huge step backward and would be detrimental to the safety of the public in areas way beyond immigration issues,” the New York State Sheriffs’ Association wrote in a statement this week.

Turning New York’s sanctuary policy into law could create confusing grey areas and would harm the progress made after the 9/11 terror attacks to encourage branches of law enforcement to be less “siloed” and collaborate more, critics argued.

Hochul still maintains that federal law enforcement will still be able to go after hardcore criminals like human traffickers and drug rings.

“We’ll work with DEA. We’ll work with FBI. We always have,” she stressed.

https://nypost.com/2026/04/30/us-news/ny-set-to-pass-most-extreme-sanctuary-policies-as-hochul-albany-dems-near-anti-ice-deal/

Iran may send revised proposal on Friday after Trump rejection - CNN

Iran is expected to deliver a revised peace proposal by Friday after US President Donald Trump rejected an earlier version, CNN reported citing Pakistani mediators.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202604294038

US Navy deploys AI to detect Iranian mines - Reuters

 

The US Navy is expanding use of artificial intelligence to detect Iranian naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to speed up clearance operations, Reuters reported.

A contract worth up to $100 million with Domino Data Lab will allow underwater drones to identify new types of mines within days rather than months. A company executive said the shift marks a move from ship-based mine hunting to AI-driven systems, as the US seeks to secure a key global shipping route.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202604294038

Iran embassy rejects role in UK violence

 

Iran’s embassy in London dismissed reports linking Tehran to violent incidents in Britain as "unfounded," saying authorities reject such accusations.

The embassy said the Islamic Republic condemns “terrorism” in all forms and described itself as "a victim of such acts," adding it remains "committed to confronting extremism."

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202604294038

Iran clerics reject talks on Hormuz, say negotiations equal surrender

Senior clerics in Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is not open to negotiation and warned against engaging with the United States.

“The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are no longer negotiable,” Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari said on Friday, adding a new legal framework would be pursued with Oman.

“Negotiating with America means surrender,” Mashhad Friday Prayer Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda said, adding Iran could leverage control of Hormuz without talks.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202604294038

Nearly 70% Inflation, Mass Layoffs, And A Strangled Economy: Iran's Brutal Test Of Endurance

 Iran’s economy is undergoing one of the most brutal stress tests in its modern history. Official annual inflation has surged to 50% according to central bank figures released shortly after the ceasefire, while the year-on-year rate reached as high as 67% through mid-April, according to the Wall Street Journal. The rial has crashed to a record low of 1.8 million to the dollar, roughly two million workers have lost their jobs, and the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to throttle the country’s oil exports and critical imports. Reconstruction costs from bombed infrastructure are estimated near $270 billion - alarmingly close to the country’s entire annual GDP of roughly $341 billion last year. What was already a sanctions-battered, mismanaged economy now confronts a grinding “no war, no peace” stalemate. Tehran is wagering that it can hunker down and endure a protracted war - allowing it to outlast American pressure. The early data and on-the-ground reality suggest that wager is being tested to its limits.

The human impact is immediate and visible in everyday Tehran life. A 56-year-old housewife described to Najmeh Bozorgmehr of the Financial Times how a simple block of cheese rose from 5.2 million rials to 6.7 million rials (about $5.09) in a single week. Comparable jumps have struck rice, eggs, chicken, red meat, and other staples. A popular Peugeot 207 has climbed from 18 billion rials to 25 billion since the conflict began, while officials are preparing to authorize a 40 percent increase in government-mandated cement prices.

The cost of living has soared, with the annual inflation rate reaching 67% in the month through mid-April from the same period a year earlier, according to Iran’s central bank. The subsidized price of red meat, which was mostly imported through sea routes, has gone up to the equivalent of around $3.60 a pound, beyond the reach of most in a country where the minimum wage is around $130 a month. -WSJ

Business consultant Siamak Ghassemi publicly advised Iranians that anything short of a near-doubling of wages would fail to offset the cost-of-living explosion. One small petrochemical-dependent factory outside the capital has already dismissed nearly a third of its workforce. A clothing business owner reported recent costs running 150 percent above sales, bluntly concluding, “This is not sustainable.”

A street vendor on the Tehran Metro last week. Unemployment stood at 7.6% before the US-Israeli war with Iran © Vahid Salemi/AP va FT

Macro indicators reveal the depth of the damage. The Journal’s reporting, informed by Iranian officials and international analysts, estimates around one million direct job losses and another million indirect - equivalent to roughly 8 percent of the pre-war employed population of 25 million. War-related unemployment benefit applications have already reached 191,000. Steel output has dropped by up to 30 percent, while damaged petrochemical, gas, and steel complexes - major employers - grapple with raw-material shortages and physical destruction. Oil exports, which averaged 1.85 million barrels per day as recently as March, have been reduced to a near standstill, with shipping analysts at Kpler finding no confirmed evidence of cargoes successfully breaching the US blockade to reach buyers in China or elsewhere.

At the strategic core of the crisis lies the Strait of Hormuz. Iran initially tried to use the waterway as leverage by disrupting traffic; the US responded with a naval blockade that has effectively severed the Islamic Republic’s economic lifeline. Before the war, the strait carried the vast majority of Iran’s oil revenue and imports ranging from food and medicine to industrial components. In response, Tehran has activated emergency bypass routes: rail and road connections through Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea ports supplied by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and new transit corridors via Pakistan. It has drawn heavily on strategic food reserves, raised the minimum wage, increased government salaries, issued monthly food coupons worth around $7 per person, and appealed to citizens to conserve energy and reduce driving.

Yet these measures are widely viewed as temporary holding operations rather than solutions. Virginia Tech economist Djavad Salehi-Isfahani told the Journal that Iranian leaders recognize ending the war is merely the prelude to an even harder challenge: managing a disillusioned and impoverished population without the rapid return of oil income. Middle East Institute fellow Alex Vatanka points out that while the regime can still portray endurance as a badge of national pride, prolonged revenue collapse increases the risk of renewed street mobilization. Vienna-based economist Mahdi Ghodsi offered a stark assessment: “Living is not affordable anymore. Iran is at its weakest point.”

One medium-sized steel entrepreneur told FT that his firm has so far avoided layoffs by shifting entirely to overland routes, but he expressed deep concern about how long this uncertain limbo can continue. Pre-war protests, already triggered by economic distress and crushed with lethal force earlier this year, provide a sobering precedent. The regime retains a formidable toolkit - subsidies, repression, parallel trade networks, and a narrative of resistance - but whether these tools can withstand another year of 50-percent-plus inflation, double-digit unemployment, and eroding living standards is the central question. This is not a sudden collapse, but a brutal, extended test of endurance whose outcome will shape not only Iran’s economy but the broader regional balance of power.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nearly-70-inflation-mass-layoffs-and-strangled-economy-irans-brutal-test-endurance

Canada's Culture Minister: Regulating Online Content A Duty Of Federal Government

 by Olivia Gomm via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Culture Minister Marc Miller says the federal government has the role of regulating content on the internet and that Canada is years behind other countries when it comes to regulating “online harms.”

Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 25, 2026. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

Miller told reporters on Parliament Hill April 29 that when it comes to the regulation of online content and social media, that role is “assumed by the federal government, whether we’re talking about moratoriums or the proper regulation of egregious online harms.”

“That’s stuff that we’re, frankly, a couple years behind in regulating, as we see other jurisdictions like Australia, like Britain, like France taking action,” Miller said, as was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter. “We need to take action as well.”

Asked to comment on when the government plans on tabling a new online harms bill, Miller said “we’re working on it” and declined to share a timeline.

Miller told reporters earlier this month that a new online harms legislation is in the works and the government is “seriously” thinking about adding a social media ban for children to the bill, but did not provide a status or timeline for the introduction of the legislation then either.

The upcoming legislation will be the government’s third attempt to legislate on “online harms,” following previous proposals in 2021 and 2024, neither of which passed before Parliament was dissolved. Conservatives and civil liberties advocates had criticized both bills as posing a risk to freedom of expression.

In March, the federal government reconvened the same group of experts first formed in 2022 that made recommendations to the government on how to address online content deemed to be harmful, which led to Bill C-63.

The department of industry said in a recent report to the Senate social affairs committee that Ottawa is examining a “future online safety regime” meant to reduce content deemed as being harmful, such as hateful content and cyberbullying on large platforms.

“To advise on this proposal, the government has recently reconvened the Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety whose members previously contributed to the development of online harms legislation, to engage on new and emerging issues related to online harms,” the department said.

“Any future legislative proposal would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and details will be made public at the appropriate time.”

In 2021, Bill C-36 proposed a regulatory framework for harmful online content, but faced criticism from the opposition over its scope, including concerns about definitions of harmful speech and the extent of proposed oversight powers.

In 2024, Bill C-63 placed a stronger focus on protecting children and addressing specific categories of harmful content, and proposed the creation of new regulatory bodies such as a digital safety commissioner and ombudsperson. It also included amendments to the Criminal Code and human rights law, with stricter penalties for certain hate-related offences.

After pushback on the 2024 bill, the government said it was open to splitting the bill in two to facilitate the passage of measures protecting children, but the bill lapsed after Parliament was prorogued in January of last year.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said last November that new legislation regulating online content would be different from the government’s previous proposals. Meanwhile, former Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said a few months earlier that upcoming online harms legislation would be similar to the versions tabled in 2024 and 2021.

The Liberals’ election platform last spring promised to “introduce legislation to protect children from horrific crimes including online sexploitation and extortion and give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools to stop these crimes and bring perpetrators to justice.”

The Liberals also pledged to “make it a criminal offence to distribute non-consensual sexual deepfakes” and to “increase penalties for the distribution of intimate images without consent.”

Jennifer Cowan, Noé Charter, and Paul Rowan Brian contributed to this report.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/canadas-culture-minister-regulating-online-content-duty-federal-government