Read Online  |  April 12, 2026  |  E-Paper  | 🎧 Listen

“Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.”

—Ovid 

Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor

Good morning. It’s Saturday. Here are today’s top stories.

• Iran has rejected the terms of a U.S. peace deal.
• Two U.S. missile destroyers started clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
• One or two health systems controlled the entire market for inpatient care in nearly half of U.S. metropolitan areas in 2024, marking a sharp intensification of hospital consolidation over the last decade.
• The sender of emailed bomb threats to the venue hosting Shen Yun Performing Arts in Toronto has boasted about having links to the Chinese Communist Party, contents of two newly released emails received by the show’s presenter reveal.
• 🍵Health: One drug can lead to another. Doctors call it a prescribing cascade—and it often begins in predictable moments. Here’s how to prevent it.

Vice President JD Vance (R) speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (L) and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (C) watch, in Islamabad on April 12, 2026. (Jacquelyn Martin/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran Rejects Peace Terms

U.S. and Iranian delegations closed out peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Sunday, without a deal.

Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation in the talks, said the Iranian delegation has declined to accept a set of U.S. terms for a lasting peace.

“We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” Vance said. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America.”

The Islamabad talks began on April 11, four days after President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The temporary truce has already proven contentious.

Vance said the stumbling block in the Islamabad talks has been Tehran’s refusal to commit to forego nuclear weapons.

“The simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term. We haven’t seen that yet. We hope that we will,” Vance said.

Iranian state media said the U.S. terms had been excessive. State media said Iran’s nuclear rights and control over the Strait of Hormuz were among the points of contention

Before the April 7 ceasefire, Tehran had submitted a set of its 10 terms for a lasting peace. Those terms included the acceptance of some degree of uranium enrichment.

Trump has not agreed to Iran’s 10-point peace proposal, but referred to the terms as a “workable basis” to continue negotiations when he accepted the April 7 ceasefire

As he closed out the Islamabad talks, Vance said, “We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on.” (More)

IRAN WAR

• Two U.S. missile destroyers started clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his country plans to keep fighting the Iranian regime and its proxies.

POLITICS

• As the first MAHA Action-endorsed state-level candidate, Zach Lahn is a regenerative farmer who is one of five Republicans in a crowded Iowa gubernatorial primary.
• Several Democratic politicians have pulled their endorsements of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and urged him to end his campaign for California governor amid sexual assault allegations.

MORNING READ: Following a landmark $6 million personal injury verdict in March against Meta and Google, the next bellwether case in California state court considering whether tech giants can be liable for harms caused by their platforms’ addictive features will center on a 17-year-old boy from Panama City, Florida.

 

OPINION

• Why the Thaw in China–India Relations Is So Slow—by Wang He(Read)
• Interpol at Risk: CCP Influence and the Abuse of Red Notices—by Antonio Graceffo (Read)

Alina Fernández Revuelta (C), Fidel Castro’s daughter, poses with other crew members of documentary “Revolution’s Daughter.” The film was released in Miami, Fla., on April 10, 2026. (Troy Myers/The Epoch Times)

🎤 Interview: Why 28- and 29-Year-Olds Are Disappearing From China’s Uyghur Concentration Camps—Ethan Gutmann (Watch)

🍿Film: Alina Fernández Revuelta, daughter of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, premiered a documentary on April 10 at the Miami Film Festival, bringing together personal testimony from generations of exiles grappling with displacement, shared trauma, and a search for freedom. (Read)

🎵 Music: Junyi Tan: “Handkerchiefs” (Listen)

💊 (Sponsored) Tylenol masks pain — it doesn’t fix it. And long-term use risks real organ damage. One natural herb is shown to reduce pain and swelling as well as ibuprofen, with zero harsh side effects.* Seniors are ditching the pill bottle for good.

ARTS & CULTURE

Knighthood blended strength, courage, piety, and courtesy into a code that has influenced generations of Western men. 

Chivalry in an Age of Algorithms 

In 1960, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s “Camelot” took Broadway by storm. In that play, as Lancelot wends his way to King Arthur’s court, he sings of the attributes and virtues of a perfect knight: strength, courage, prowess in battle, and purity “with a will and a self-restraint that’s the envy of every saint.” 

He asks, “But where in the world is there in the world a man so extraordinaire?” then boldly and humorously answers, “C’est moi!”

Broadway’s Lancelot embodies a code of chivalry conceived hundreds of years ago, a model of virtue, honor, and right conduct that has long served as a staple of Western manhood. Chivalric ideals influenced the social behavior of America’s Founders and helped define the Victorian gentleman. Even today, the knight haunts our postmodern sensibilities, a ghost in our algorithmic age who still has the power to summon boys and men to his banner.

To better understand the code of chivalry and its meaning for men, let’s look at one of the greatest knights of the Middle Ages, England’s William Marshal (c. 1146-1219), and the forces that shaped him.

Because he was a younger son, William had no hope of inheriting from his father, a minor noble. After a rough-and-tumble childhood amid upheavals in England, he was sent in his early teens to Normandy at the household of a relative for training as a knight. There, he excelled in horsemanship and the arts of individual combat while being schooled in the manners and courtesies of his class.

Knighted around age 20, William spent years fighting in battles and skirmishes, as well as in tournaments. (More)

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Thanks for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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