News – Page 96 – 105.7 WDNY

Georgia wildfires: 2 major blazes grow to more than 34,000 acres

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga.) — At least 1,000 homes are being threatened by two major wildfires in Georgia that have burned more than 34,000 acres combined, according to officials.

Dry conditions from a persistent drought and gusty winds continue to fuel the wildfires in Georgia, Florida and elsewhere across the Southeast.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for 91 counties in South Georgia.

The two major wildfires burning in Southeast Georgia are the Highway 82 Fire in Brantley County, and the Pinelands Road Fire in nearby Clinch County, officials said.

The Highway 82 fire, which started on Monday, had grown to nearly 5,000 acres and had destroyed at least 54 homes, County Manager Joey Carson said at a news conference on Wednesday. The fire was 15% contained on Wednesday evening, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission.

Hundreds of homes are in danger of being burned in the Highway 82 Fire, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which sent assets and personnel to the area on Wednesday to assist in fighting the fire and helping the community recover.

The Pinelands Road Fire started over the weekend on mostly private forest land, officials said. It grew from about 9,000 acres on Wednesday morning to more than 29,600 acres by Wednesday night and was spreading toward Echols County, according to officials.

The fire was threatening 64 homes and 37 other structures in the area on Wednesday evening, but there were no reports of homes being destroyed, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, which said that fire also was 10% contained by Wednesday evening.

FEMA said on Wednesday said that the two fires are threatening 1,000 homes. The agency sent assets and personnel to assist in battling fires and helping communities recover after the agency approved a Fire Management Assistance declaration.

“Obviously, this fire became a lot larger than we thought it would be on Monday. We’ve got resources that have come in from all over South Georgia and now from the state,” Carson said Wednesday, adding that he expected more resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to arrive later that day.

The fire, burning northwest of Brunswick, Georgia, “continues to exhibit unpredictable behavior,” according to a statement Wednesday night from the Brantley County Sheriff’s Office.

Chuck White, director of Emergency Management in neighboring Camden County, said at the news conference on Wednesday that some homeowners in the area “have lost everything.”

“I’ll be very honest with you and say it’s a miracle that we have not had any lives lost,” Carson said Wednesday afternoon, adding the blaze was among 90 wildfires that have ignited across the state since Saturday.

Schools in Brantley County canceled classes for the second day in a row on Thursday due to the fire threat and smoke, officials said.

“This decision has been made to ensure the safety of our students, families, and employees, and to allow our Brantley County families time and space to navigate the impacts of the fire,” the local school system said in a statement on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, students and staff at two schools in the Brantley County town of Waynesville were forced to evacuate during the school day, officials said.

The Georgia Forestry Commission also issued its first mandatory burn ban in state history on Wednesday. The ban on outdoor burning, which will remain in effect for at least 30 days, is for 91 counties in the lower half of the state due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity, the agency said.

Carson noted that firefighters nearly had the Brantley County fire under control on Tuesday until afternoon wind gusts escalated the fire danger.

“Within 30 minutes, the winds picked up pretty significantly, and it went from being almost in control to a major wildfire,” Cason said. “Yesterday morning, we had 700 acres burned. It burned over 4,000 acres in a matter of hours as soon as the wind picked up.”

Persistent dry conditions have led to one of the worst droughts on record for parts of Georgia, fueling wildfires in the state.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 48% of Brantley County is under what is called an Exceptional Drought – the highest level of drought it has experienced in more than 25 years.

Across Georgia, more than 69% of the state is under an Extreme Drought. At the start of the year, only 1% of the state was under an Extreme Drought or higher.

Georgia needs between 12 and 18 inches of rainfall to end its current drought, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

In Florida, near the Georgia-Florida line, the Railroad Fire was burning in Clay and Putnam Counties, which are also under drought conditions. As of Wednesday morning, the Railroad Fire had grown to more than 4,000 acres and was more than 50% contained on Wednesday morning, according to the Florida Forest Service.

Across the Southeast – including Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina and Virginia – more than 97% of the region is under a moderate drought or higher.

Florida is experiencing its worst drought in 25 years, with at least 71% of the state under an extreme or exceptional drought, the two highest levels, the Florida Forest Service said.

Fire alerts issued from Texas to Montana and Minnesota

Meanwhile, pockets of fire weather continue to linger in parts of the Rockies and Great Plains on Wednesday.

More than a dozen states across the Rockies and Plains from Texas to Montana and Minnesota were under fire weather alerts on Wednesday due to hot, dry and windy conditions.

Relative humidity in parts of the Rockies and Plains on Wednesday was expected to fall to as low as 5%, and wind gusts up to 30 to 45 mph are also forecast, allowing any wildfires to rapidly start and spread.

The wildfire threat is expected to continue Thursday in the Rockies and Plains as wind gusts are forecast to reach 60 mph and relative humidity is expected to be down to the single digits.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders on Thursday voted to approve the Paramount Skydance takeover bid, completing a major step toward the $111 billion media mega-deal.

The offer from Paramount encompasses the HBO Max streaming service, the Warner Bros. film production company, and cable channels such as CNN. Assets owned by Paramount include CBS, Paramount Pictures and Comedy Central, among others.

Shareholders cast ballots “overwhelmingly” in support of the Paramount takeover, Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement.

“Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders. We will continue to work with Paramount to complete the remaining steps in this process that will create a leading, next-generation media and entertainment company,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in the statement.

Shares of Paramount fell nearly 5% in the minutes following the announcement on Thursday morning.

In December, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, just days after Netflix struck a deal to purchase a large part of the media giant.

The rival, multi-billion-dollar efforts to acquire streaming platform Warner Bros. Discovery threatened to upend the media industry and shape content viewed by hundreds of millions of people.

Paramount appeared to gain the upper hand in the bidding war in recent months. In February, the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors voted unanimously to recommend approval of the Paramount takeover.

Under the terms of the deal, shareholders will receive $31 per share, which amounts to a 147% premium, Warner Bros. Discovery said in March.

Man who allegedly beat 84-year-old with dementia, set him on fire is charged with murder

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — A man is charged with murder for allegedly beating an 84-year-old man with dementia and setting him on fire, Los Angeles prosecutors said.

The victim, Bang Cho, had wandered away from a senior care home when he was attacked just before midnight on Sunday in downtown LA, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said.

The incident unfolded when Cho walked behind the suspect, Lavonta Wilder, and grabbed a bag Wilder was carrying, prosecutors said.

Wilder, a 40-year-old experiencing homelessness, allegedly “viciously” punched and kicked Cho, then lifted the elderly man over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground, and then set him on fire, prosecutors said.

Cho was taken to a hospital where he died the next day, prosecutors said.

Wilder is charged with murder and faces a special allegation of having a prior serious felony, prosecutors said. He’s due in court for an arraignment next month.

“The level of violence alleged here is brutal, callous and extreme,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement.

Cho “was disoriented and living with dementia, conditions that made him particularly vulnerable,” Hochman said. “Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they endure this unimaginable tragedy.”

Former police officer arrested over alleged mass shooting plot at Louisiana festival

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(DESTIN, Fla.) — A former police officer who allegedly was traveling to Louisiana to conduct a mass shooting at a large festival was arrested Wednesday night in a Florida hotel where investigators found a gun and nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

Christopher Gillum, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was wanted by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety “for terroristic threats” and was arrested at a hotel in Destin, Florida, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday.

“Authorities obtained information Gillum planned to travel to a festival in New Orleans to conduct a mass shooting and then commit suicide by cop,” the sheriff’s office said.

When officers arrested Gillum, they recovered a handgun and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition from his hotel room, the sheriff’s office alleged.

Attorney information for the suspect was not immediately available.

Gillum was a Chapel Hill Police officer from 2004 until 2019, when he resigned, a spokesman for the town of Chapel Hill said in a statement.

“He returned as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving for another job by the end of that year,” Alex Carrasquillo, the town’s spokesman, said in a statement.

Gillum was being held in a Florida jail and awaiting extradition to Louisiana, the sheriff’s office said.

The Louisiana State Police did not say which festival the suspect was allegedly targeting, but said in a statement Thursday that “there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana.”

The state police will be conducting the ongoing investigation with the FBI, according to the department.

Acting AG Todd Blanche signs order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as less dangerous drug

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order on Thursday reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

The order moves marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, putting state-licensed medical marijuana in the same category as some pain medications, ketamine and testosterone.

While this change aligns federal guidelines with many state laws, marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. It does not remove cannabis from the federal controlled substance list, legalize recreational use nationwide or allow unregulated sales similar to tobacco and alcohol.

However, the move could allow for expanded research and ease many of the tax and regulatory rules placed on the cannabis industry.

“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche wrote in a statement on X.

President Donald Trump announced late last year that his administration would seek to reclassify marijuana, but not legalize it for medical or recreational use under federal statutes. Over the weekend, the president appeared to express frustration that the administration was slow-walking the effort.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Lebanon-Israel talks to resume in Washington amid shaky Hezbollah ceasefire

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors are expected to convene again at the State Department on Thursday for a second round of meetings amid the latest conflagration in the Middle East.

The first direct negotiations between the two states since 1993 are intended as preparatory meetings to shape future talks on a deal to normalize ties between the countries.

Thursday’s meeting is expected to focus on extending a shaky ceasefire that has halted fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, long considered by experts as a “state within a state” wielding enormous influence over Lebanon’s political, economic and security spheres.

The technocratic government in Beirut, which came to power in 2025, is juggling dual pressure campaigns — sustained Israeli attacks and seizure of Lebanese territory on one hand and the internal threat of Hezbollah and its Iranian backers on the other.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday that the goal of the negotiations was to “stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the [Lebanese] army all the way to the internationally recognized southern borders.”

“We negotiate for ourselves,” Aoun said. “We are no longer a pawn in anyone’s game, nor an arena for anyone’s wars. And we never will be again.”

Paul Salem, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank, told ABC News from Beirut that Thursday’s talks are “historically significant in what they might eventually lead to,” but framed the meetings as the first steps on a long and difficult road.

The government in Beirut is facing “a prolonged conundrum,” Salem said. “Iran is insisting on maintaining its presence and backing Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah seems to be happy to continue to play their role with Iran.”

And in southern Lebanon, Israel seems intent on a devastating campaign and seizure of land which its Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly said will be modeled on the destruction of Gaza.

“The Lebanese state needs to be able to bolster its credibility by not allowing a long-term Israeli occupation,” Salem said.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told ABC News of the talks that there is “one obstacle: Hezbollah the Iranian proxy holding Lebanon hostage and threatening Israel. Peace through strength: remove Hezbollah and peace becomes possible.”

President Donald Trump’s administration pushed for a ceasefire in Lebanon earlier this month, as the White House sought a pause in the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel following the first round of talks on April 14 — a ceasefire Netanyahu seemingly had no choice but to support.

But Trump and his top officials have also made clear that Hezbollah cannot be allowed to retain its pre-war clout within the country, nor continue to pose a military threat to Israel.

“We will make Lebanon great again. It’s about time we did so,” Trump said over the weekend.

Ahead of Thursday’s talks, a State Department official told ABC News, “The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14.”

“We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments,” the spokesperson added.

A tentative ceasefire

Thursday’s talks in Washington will resume amid a tentative U.S.-backed ceasefire, under which Israeli strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets continue in eastern and southern Lebanon.

Under the U.S.-backed deal, Israel retains the right to fire on what it deems an “imminent threat” to its troops. The IDF has fired several times on Hezbollah targets since the ceasefire began on April 17. On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets and drones at Israeli forces for the first time since a 10-day truce took effect.

Israeli ground forces are still operating in southern Lebanon, with the goal, according to Israeli officials, of establishing a demilitarized “buffer zone” between the Israeli border and the Litani River, around 18 miles to the north.

The IDF says it is holding approximately 15 positions about six miles deep into southern Lebanon, which it says includes about 50 Lebanese villages. Israeli officials have blamed the Lebanese government for being unable or unwilling to keep Hezbollah away from Israel’s northern border — a responsibility set out in the U.S.-brokered November ceasefire.

The campaign includes the razing of dozens of Lebanese towns and villages, plus the forced — and, at least for some, permanent — displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Human Rights Watch said this month that more than a million people across the country have been forced to flee their homes — nearly one-fifth of the entire population of the country. The Israeli evacuation orders have included all of southern Beirut, the suburbs of which are traditionally considered a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israeli action has killed at least 2,294 people and wounded another 7,544 people since March 2, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said last week. The strikes included a barrage of more than 100 strikes within 10 minutes on April 8, killing at least 357 people across the country, Lebanese authorities said.

Israeli health officials say Hezbollah gunfire, rockets and drones have killed 20 Israelis since March 2 and injured hundreds of others.

On March 2, Hezbollah joined Iran in its response to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched against Iran on Feb. 28. With those strikes, Hezbollah broke a U.S.-backed cross-border ceasefire that had been in place since November 2024. Hezbollah said the attacks were retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of the same ceasefire.

Hezbollah defied assessments it had been substantially weakened by its two-year involvement in the war in Gaza, firing more than 6,500 munitions toward Israel in the first five weeks of renewed fighting, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah fighters have also inflicted significant casualties on invading Israeli forces. Sixteen Israel Defense Forces troops had been killed in the current round of fighting in Lebanon as of Wednesday. The IDF says it has killed more than 1,800 Hezbollah operatives since March 2.

“Hezbollah is back in business,” Salem said. Israel’s operation “enables Hezbollah to resume its resistance narrative. And it certainly suits Iran to keep the Lebanon front open and active, to keep Israel distracted and to drain some of its resources and attention.”

Dual threats

Within Lebanon, Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have faced veiled threats from Hezbollah and Tehran.

After the first round of talks in Washington, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Aoun’s government was “subjecting Lebanon to these humiliations by negotiating directly with the Israeli enemy and listening to its dictates.”

Hezbollah is not a party to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which seeks to sideline the Iranian-backed militant group.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah member of parliament, has called on Aoun to pull out of the talks. “We will reject and confront any attempt to impose political costs on Lebanon through concessions made to this Israeli enemy,” Fadlallah told AFP this week, though said the group wants “the ceasefire to continue” along with an Israeli withdrawal.

A potential clash between Beirut and Hezbollah has been brewing since the Aoun-Salam government took power last year.

In an unprecedented step, The Lebanese cabinet has repeatedly asserted its ambition for Hezbollah to disarm and has declared all military activity by the group to be illegal. Earlier this month, the cabinet ordered security forces to restrict weapons in Beirut exclusively to state institutions

The state’s all-volunteer Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is widely considered to be outgunned by Hezbollah, though it has around 80,000 personnel. Polls suggest the LAF is broadly popular among Lebanese people, but its multi-sectarian character has raised questions as to whether it would prove dependable in the event of renewed communal fighting.

But despite Hezbollah’s mauling in the last round of fighting with Israel and the loss of a key neighboring partner with the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024, observers say the group — which is part of the Lebanese government and holds more than a dozen seats in parliament — retains extensive military and political power, particularly in parts of the capital Beirut and in its southern and eastern heartlands.

Before the outbreak of its latest war with Israel in 2023, estimates of Hezbollah’s military strength ranged from 30,000 to more than 50,000 operatives.

Israeli leaders have committed to an open-ended seizure of parts of southern Lebanon and demanded Beirut’s assistance in the total disarmament of Hezbollah, raising fears that Lebanon’s confessional power-sharing system could fracture and the country slide back into the kind of civil war that killed more than 100,000 people between 1975 and 1990.

Israeli leaders have been clear that they will not tolerate Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon, vowing to keep troops there until the militant group is disarmed.

Risking such a calamity on behalf of Israel — a country which has invaded Lebanon six times since 1978, which is now again occupying parts of the south and which Lebanese authorities say has killed thousands of Lebanese civilians in three and a half years of war with Hezbollah — may be deeply unpopular.

LAF chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal said on Tuesday that Lebanon “will reclaim every inch of its land under Israeli occupation,” according to a readout posted to the LAF’s X page.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran — specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — appear unwilling to give up their Lebanese ally, which for decades has been perhaps the most potent proxy within of Tehran’s “forward defense” strategy by which Iran has sought to deter and punish U.S.-Israeli action against it.

Prominent Iranian leaders who survived the initial U.S.-Israeli onslaught demanded that Lebanon be included in the two-week ceasefire announced on April 8. “For years, Hezbollah has been fighting with the Zionist regime, but in the recent war, Hezbollah fought for the Islamic Republic,” parliament speaker and lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.

Others have hinted at costs for Beirut if the government tries to defang Hezbollah. Ali Akbar Velayati — an adviser to Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei — for example, said in a post to X this month that Salam “should know that ignoring the unique role of the resistance and the heroic Hezbollah will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks.”

“Lebanon’s stability rests exclusively on cohesion between the government and the resistance,” Velayati said.

For many Lebanese — Shiites among them — the return to war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran means more turmoil piled atop years of cascading economic and political crises.

Last month, Salam expressed his own frustration. “This war was imposed upon us,” the Lebanese prime minister said, adding that Beirut “could have avoided it” if Hezbollah had not resumed attacks on Israel.

ABC News’ Chris Boccia and Jordana Miller contributed to this report

Senate Republicans greenlight ICE and CBP budget blueprint after overnight vote-a-rama

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans approved early on Thursday a blueprint for their budget bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after an all-night voting marathon.

The budget resolution, which kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions to ICE and CBP, was approved by a vote of 50-48. It needed a simple majority of votes to be approved.

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, joined with the Democrats in voting against the resolution. All other Republicans voted in favor of it.

The Senate approved the resolution at about 3:36 a.m. after a vote-a-rama that lasted approximately 6 hours.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Retrial begins for former Ohio sheriff’s deputy charged with murder of Casey Goodson, Jr.

April 23, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Opening arguments in the re-trial of Jason Meade are set to begin in a Columbus, Ohio, courtroom on Thursday morning as the former Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy faces charges of murder and reckless homicide in the fatal 2020 shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr.

A jury, made up of nine women and three men, was seated on Wednesday afternoon, according to ABC Columbus station WSYX.

Meade’s second trial comes more than two years after his first trial ended in a mistrial in February 2024, as jurors failed to reach an agreement on the verdict. He has pleaded not guilty.

Meade, who testified during his first trial, claimed that he shot Goodson on Dec. 4, 2020, because he said the man waved a gun at him. Goodson’s family said that he was shot while returning from a dentist appointment and was walking into his grandmother’s home with a Subway sandwich in his hand.

A gun was found in Goodson’s possession with the safety on, according to police. Goodson was a legal gun owner and had a concealed carry permit, which was found in his wallet, police said.

No body camera video of the incident exists because at the time Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies were not issued body-worn camera equipment.

Meade was working with the U.S. Marshals in search for a potential violent fugitive when he fatally shot Goodson.

Goodson was not the target of the search.

The Franklin County Coroner’s Office found that Goodson had been shot six times from behind, including five times in his back.

A judge ruled ahead of the trial that Meade will be allowed to argue self-defense during his second trial, according to WSYX.

Prosecutors had argued that Meade should not be able to claim self-defense because he caused the situation that led to Goodson’s death, WSYX reported, but the judge ruled that Meade does have the option to argue self-defense because no evidence has been presented yet in this new trial.

Seth Walton, an attorney representing Goodson’s family, told ABC News on Wednesday that the family has endured “years of coordinated lies and distortions” as they cope with Goodson’s death.

“The only evidence that Casey Goodson, Jr. did anything to contribute to his own death comes from Jason Meade, and Jason Meade alone,” Walton said. “No independent witness. No footage. Just the word of the man who shot him in the back. And yet, despite everything Meade has claimed, the facts and evidence were strong enough to indict him and nearly convict him at the end of the last trial.”

Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 9 — the union that represents Meade — has supported him and claimed that shooting was justified.

“We just want the facts of this case to get out there, and where the jury lands, the jury lands,” Steel told WSYX.

“The reality is, he was not just an innocent person with a subway sandwich; he was an individual with a gun, pointed a gun at a cop, and the cop reacted,” Steel added.

ABC News reached out to Meade’s attorneys for comment.

Meade was charged with two counts of murder and one court of reckless homicide in Dec. 2, 2021 and was indicted by a grand jury.

Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Tyack appointed two special prosecutors in June 2021 to investigate the case, citing a potential conflict of interest with his office, which has represented the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in legal proceedings.

The charges against Meade were brought by special prosecutors Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer following an investigation by the Columbus Division of Police and the local branch of the FBI.

Meade was placed on administrative leave amid the investigation before retiring on disability on July 2, 2021.

This case led to widespread outrage and fueled pressure for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to equip deputies with body-worn cameras — a new policy that was rolled out in 2022, WSYX reported.

Trump now says Iran’s government is ‘seriously fractured’ after previously praising new leaders

April 22, 2026 by WDNY Radio

$Trump now says Iran’s government is ‘seriously fractured’ after previously praising new leaders$

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed the Iranian regime was “seriously fractured” as part of his pretext for indefinitely extending the ceasefire with Iran a day before the previous one was set to expire.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday afternoon in which he announced he was prolonging the current ceasefire for an indeterminate period of time.

Before that, however, Trump repeatedly telegraphed as recently that the U.S. was negotiating with “rational” and “reasonable” individuals in Tehran’s government after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed several of Iran’s senior leaders.

In the preceding days and weeks, the president praised what he portrayed as a new Iranian regime as a better negotiating partner than that which existed prior to the war.

Even in the hours before his post on Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the leaders now in charge of Iran were “much more rational.”

“It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, but I’ve done it,” Trump said.

It’s a sentiment that the president has repeatedly conveyed.

“Now it’s a new regime, OK, and we find them pretty reasonable, to be honest with you, by comparison pretty reasonable. It really is a new regime, and I think we’re doing very well,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News on April 15. “We have had regime change, because the people we dealt with yesterday were, frankly, very smart, very sharp, very good, very good.”

He followed up those remarks the next day, telling reporters as he departed the White House that Iran has “a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable.”

In a phone call on April 17 with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said he believed he could trust the Iranians and that this will all be resolved “very soon.”

On April 7 as Trump’s deadline for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz approached, he threatened “A whole civilization will die tonight,” but said “now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS.” Hours later, he extended the deadline for another two weeks.

But since then, tensions have continued in the Strait of Hormuz and an effort to restart peace talks in Islamabad this week fell apart.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Wednesday that Tehran would return to the negotiating table when “necessary and logical grounds” are met, according to Iranian state television.

“Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from achieving their sinister goals, we will take action,” Baghaei said.

Asked Wednesday by the New York Post in a text message if talks with Iran could resume by Friday as its sources were telling it, Trump replied, “It’s possible! President DJT.”

At the same time, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who Trump had said was “much more reasonable” than the previous regime, said a ceasefire is only “if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted.”

Ghalibaf said opening the Strait of Hormuz is “impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire.”

“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”

ABC News’ Desiree Adib contributed to this report.

Crypto mogul sues Trump family venture over alleged fraud

April 22, 2026 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A cryptocurrency mogul who has invested tens of millions of dollars in various enterprises tied to President Donald Trump and his family filed suit against the Trump family’s flagship crypto venture late Tuesday for, among other claims, alleged breach of contract and fraud — a major escalation of a feud that erupted on social media earlier this month.

Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who has cultivated deep ties to the Trumps, filed the lawsuit late Tuesday in a California federal court, accusing World Liberty Financial of freezing his investment in the firm’s digital tokens in a bid to “ratchet up pressure” on Sun to promote another one of the company’s offerings.

Sun “has long been (and remains) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump family” and has invested roughly $45 million in World Liberty Financial at least in part “because of the Trump family’s association with the project,” Sun’s lawyers wrote.

But Sun’s lawsuit accused other World Liberty “operators” of “engaging in an illegal scheme to seize property … [causing] Mr. Sun and his companies to incur hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,” his lawyers wrote.

A World Liberty Financial spokesperson directed ABC News to posts on X from Eric Trump, who called the suit “ridiculous,” and World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff called the claims in the suit “entirely meritless.”

“World Liberty looks forward to getting the case thrown out promptly,” Zach Witkoff wrote.

Eric Trump, the son of President Trump, and Zach Witkoff, the son of the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial in 2024, shortly before Donald Trump’s election.

Sun gained notoriety in part for his purchase of a $6 million banana art piece — an actual piece of fruit duct-taped to a wall — and has since invested in both World Liberty Financial and the president’s meme coin, called $TRUMP. He attended a gala last year for the top investors in the meme coin and currently sits atop the leaderboard for a luncheon scheduled for this weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Earlier this year, Sun agreed to pay $10 million to resolve a civil fraud case brought by the Biden-era Securities and Exchange Commission.

In his lawsuit filed Tuesday, Sun accused executives at World Liberty Financial — excluding members of the Trump family — of using the firm “as a golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud.”

He accused the firm of seizing his coins as leverage to persuade Sun to promote World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, called USD1, and “mint” it on his own platform, called TRON — a strategy he called “a pressure tactic that itself qualifies as criminal extortion.”

Sun first raised these concerns on social media earlier this month. World Liberty Financial at the time denied the allegations and added in a post on X, “See you in court pal.”

+ More