Read Online  |  April 1, 2026  |  E-Paper  | 🎧 Listen

“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”

— René Descartes

Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor

Good morning! It’s Wednesday. Here are today’s top stories:

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday regulating elections nationwide by establishing a list of voters eligible to vote by mail.
• The Supreme Court ruled against a Colorado ban on so-called conversion therapy for LGBT youth.
• The Supreme Court is set to consider a landmark case challenging President Donald Trump’s bid to limit birthright citizenship. Here are some of the key questions in the case and how they’ve been debated. The president said he’ll attend the hearing.
• President Donald Trump is scheduled to address the nation at 9 p.m. today to give an “important update” on the war in Iran, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said.
• About 55 percent of Americans surveyed in a 2026 poll said artificial intelligence (AI) will be more harmful than helpful.
• 🎥 Documentary: Healthcare Decoded (Watch)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Signs Order Creating National Eligible Voter List

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday regulating elections nationwide by establishing a list of voters eligible to vote by mail.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what has been going on,” Trump said. “If you don’t have honest voting, you can’t have, really, a nation.”

The order, which is expected to spark legal challenges, says only American citizens are eligible to vote by mail, with lists verified by the Homeland Security Department in coordination with the Social Security Administration.

The U.S. Postal Service is ordered to only send ballots to individuals included on the lists, with unique bar codes applied to each envelope—one per voter—to facilitate tracking and audits.

The attorney general and department heads are instructed to forward evidence of violations to the Department of Justice for investigation.

One Democratic lawmaker critical of the new order challenged the president’s authority.

“This executive order is a blatant, unconstitutional abuse of power,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: Trump’s attacks on our elections are a clear and present threat to our democracy.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the order as illegal and warned of incoming litigation.

“The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy,” Newsom’s press office wrote on March 31 on X. “California will see him in court.”

Administration officials said the order, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” is a step toward restoring faith in the electoral process.

“We believe, combined, the measures in this order will help secure elections in the future and ensure the many abuses of our elections in the past are not repeated in future elections,” said Will Scharf, White House staff secretary and assistant to the president.

POLL

(Getty Images)

The SAVE America Act

The SAVE America Act passed the House but stalled in the Senate. The bill would require proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and expand identification requirements. Supporters call it necessary for election integrity; critics say it risks limiting access. What is your view on this? 

The results will be featured in an article published this Saturday. (Take the Survey)

IRAN WAR

• U.S. forces could conclude combatoperations against Iran in as few as two weeks, President Donald Trump said.
• Iran’s military has launched the lowest number of missiles and drones in the past day since the start of the conflict one month ago, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
• A top U.S. general said that increased U.S. air superiority has allowed B-52 bombers to fly over Iran for the first time since the start of the war.
• Iran attacked a fully loaded crude oil tanker off the coast of Dubai.
• President Trump urged U.S. allies to secure their own energy access through the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting Washington may step back from direct involvement in reopening the critical shipping lane.

POLITICS

• ▶️ Video: What to know about the Supreme Court taking on the birthright citizenship order. (Watch)

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WORLD

• The Chinese Ministry of Education has issued a new set of rules for basic education, raising concerns among scholars, teachers, and students who say the measures are less about improving teaching and more about tightening political control in schools.
• About 650 service stations across Australia remain without petrol, diesel, or both, despite earlier assurances from the federal government that supply is stable.
• Teenage recipients of COVID-19 vaccines faced an elevated risk of serious adverse events, including appendicitis, after a second dose, researchers said in a new study.

 

OPINION

• The Barbell Economy—by Tamuz Itai(Read)
• The Objectives of the Iran War Are Now Within Reach—by Conrad Black (Read)
• When Instinct Collides With Expectation—by Mollie Engelhart(Read)
• Hong Kong: A City Where Even Books and Phones Are No Longer Safe—by Edward Chin (Read)
• Hartford, Conn.: The City That Was Crossed Out—by Jeffrey A. Tucker(Read)
• Why States Are Right to Reject AI Legal Personhood—by Siri Terjesen and Michael Ryall (Read)

A visitor picks tulips in a field of ‘Tulipani Italiani’ tulips at the Agriturismo Cascina DUC farm, in Grugliasco, near Turin, Italy, on March 31, 2026. The Tulipani Italiani you-pick garden was launched by the Netherlands’ Nitsuhe Wolanios and her companion Edwin Koeman. With an entrance fee, visitors visit the garden, pick tulips, and relax. (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)

📸 Day in Photos: Protest in Jerusalem, Farmworkers Day, and Geisha Dance (More)

🎙️ Podcast: After Supreme Court Ruling, School Board Ordered to Pay $1.5M to Parents Over LGBT Storytime—Facts Matter (Listen)

🍵 The Upgrade: Where Gut Feelings Really Come From (Watch)

🇺🇲 American Thought Leaders: He Ran the World’s Biggest Payment Processor; Now He’s Taking on Social Security—Frank Bisignano (Watch)

☀️ Dance: As his enemies make him a wanted man in his own kingdom, can the emperor reach his loyal forces before it’s too late? This captivating story dance tells the emperor’s adventurous tale (Watch). 

🎵 Music: Mozart – Quartet No. 21 (Listen)

🤖 (Sponsored) AI Is Digital. Its Bottleneck Is Physical. AI is exploding. But behind every data center… there’s copper. See N. American Copper Story Behind AI >

HEALTH

(ivi.photo93/Shutterstock)

Cooking, Processing, and the Real Cancer Risks of Meat 

Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy piles beef on her plate frequently and shares photos and videos of it on social media with the caption: “What a cancer doctor eats for dinner.”

A cancer doctor who eats beef regularly might sound like a contradiction, but Connealy, medical director of the Cancer Center for Healing, isn’t ignoring research—she’s reading it more carefully than most. The danger, she told The Epoch Times, is not in the meat itself. It’s in the char, the chemical preservatives, and the shortcuts taken between the farm and your fork.

Meat—when chosen and prepared mindfully—offers abundant nutrients including iron, zinc, and B vitamins. “It is a complete food,” she said. “I probably don’t eat meat every day, but I would say more often than not I do.”

What has science found, and how can we make eating meat safer?

Cooking meat too quickly by charring or burning—often done when grilling or pan-searing—generates heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, compounds that can cause genetic mutations in cells lining the colon and rectum and lead to cancer. These cancer-causing compounds also cause cellular damage and inflammation, both of which are known factors in cancer development.

A study published in Nutrientsfound that eating meat cooked at high heat—particularly smoked, fried, roasted, and boiled—increases the risk of oral cancer in the same way.

Connealy prepares meat in a slow cooker or in a non-toxic stainless steel pan, using minimal oil. “You have to be mindful of every single thing.”

Creating a barrier around meat by marinating it first lowers the production of heterocyclic amines, Lise Alschuler, a naturopathic oncologist, told The Epoch Times. She suggests a homemade marinade with olive oil and spices. (More)

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Thanks for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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