UK Prime Minster Kier Starmer faces fresh calls for resignation for misleading Parliament over Peter Mandelson's Jeffrey Epstein ties.

 

Lord Peter Mandelson (left) with Jeffrey Epstein in an undated photo. NBC News.

The Prime Minster of the United Kingdom, Kier Starmer, is facing fresh calls for resignation for misleading Parliament over Peter Mandelson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. NBC News. Mandelson was arrested for passing data to Epstein this year and his ties to the disgraced billionaire were public knowledge before Starmer appointed him to the most prestigious and influential ambassadorship with the United States. The scandal reignited after it was revealed that the Foreign Ministry had recommended against the appointment of Mandelson for security concerns. However, Starmer never mentioned this to Parliament and he stands accused of misleading them on this issue. Starmer placed blame on the Foreign Ministry for not telling him that he failed his background check. 

My Comment:

Kier Starmer is a historically unpopular Prime Minster and this is the kind of thing that can bring down an entire government. Starmer has a lot of enemies and he has pushed many unpopular and damaging policies, most notably restrictions on the internet. Plus, the economy is terrible and they are having major issues with fuel costs due to the Iran conflict. The scandal alone wouldn't be enough to take him down alone, but given his popularity, approval is in the 20's, it could well take him down. 

Though the public perception of Epstein is that he was a pedophile trafficker, it's not entirely accurate. He obviously did a lot of that, but folks stuck by him because he was a fixer too. He was the guy that you would go to if had a problem that needed to be solved or you needed information. He was also probably beholden to one or more intel agencies. Indeed, that was what he was doing with Peter Mandelson in the first place. Epstein was getting information from Mandelson and handing it to someone else. 

That's about the biggest red flag you can get for someone in such a critical government post. The US ambassador spot is a huge one for the UK and it's one that a lot of information can be sucked out off. Though Epstein was long dead before Starmer appointed Mandelson to the post, it's an act of insanity to send the same guy that has already been compromised once to do the job. It's just baffling that it was allowed to happen. 

Regardless of the obvious security issues that Mandelson posed, you would have thought that Starmer would have avoided him for the whole connection to Epstein in the first place. Mandelson's connection was well known and though his corruption wasn't revealed until after the Epstein file release, it still showed some extremely bad judgement for him to be friends with Epstein. 

But Starmer appointed him anyways. Starmer is claiming that it's everyone else's fault and not him. Mandelson lied to him, he says, and so did the Foreign Ministry. It's just pure arrogance on his point and I think it's a major reason why I don't like him or his party. Labor has always struck me as far left schoolmarms that want to control everything people do, regardless of how little credibility they have. 

The sad thing is that Starmer is likely to survive for at least a little while. Starmer still has to support of Labor and as long as that is the case he will likely survive a vote of no-confidence. But he's on the razor's edge. I don't think that this scandal alone will be enough to take him down, as angry as everyone is. But there's a real chance that if anything else happens, Starmer could be forced to resign. 

Crazed woman shot by police after kidnapping and stabbing a 3 year old in Nebraska.

 

Bodycam footage shows Noemi Guzman about to stab the child. New York Post. 

A woman was shot and killed by police after she kidnapped and slashed a 3 year old boy at a Nebraska Wal-Mart. New York Post. 31 year old Noemi Guzman confronted the child's babysitter and took the child after shoplifting a knife from the store. She then stabbed 3 year old Cyler Hillman in the face and hand before police shot and killed her. The boy is expected to recover but had to get stiches to close the laceration inflicted by Guzman. Guzman had a long rap sheet and had been found not guilty due to insanity after a crime spree that saw her stab her father, try to burn down his house and then breaking into a church to threaten a priest. She also had a previous conviction for assault in 2018.

***WARNING: THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED***

An attempted kidnapping at an Omaha Walmart ended with a child injured and a woman dead.https://t.co/WRlvLnFS1a pic.twitter.com/BuDV62DJLK

— KETV NewsWatch 7 (@KETV) April 15, 2026

My Comment:

 Normally I don't cover minor incidents like this one, even if they go viral, but this case speaks to larger trends in law enforcement and criminal justice for what should be obvious reasons. I had wrote previously how the justice system might change how they handle mental illness after the man who murdered Iryna Zarutksa, Decarlos Brown, was found not competent to stand trial.

In a sane world, Guzman would absolutely not be on the streets. Her rampage in 2024 was beyond the pale. Not only did she stab her own father, she tried to light both him and his home on fire. She then broke into a church and threatened a priest and it's a miracle that nobody was killed during that rampage. And she was already a convicted felon for an assault! 

Guzman was undoubtably mentally ill. She appears to have been a severely schizophrenic person and she was apparently off her meds. Her motivations here were likely her mental illness and it's tragic that she wasn't under control. 

But she was supposed to be. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity, but that's not supposed to be a free pass. Instead of institutionalizing her she was let out as an outpatient and was ordered to take her meds. The problem was there was nobody there to actually ensure that she was taking her meds. A lot of people with severe mental illness stop taking their meds for various reasons.

This was a recipe for disaster and it's lucky that Cyler Hillman was only stabbed and not killed. And it's the kind of thing that is sadly predictable. This was an entirely preventable crime. Had the laws of Nebraska had been better, Guzman would have been in prison, getting treatment, or in a secure mental health facility, depending on how the laws would be changed. Something like New York's "guilty but mentally ill" verdict or even just ensuring that folks aren't let out as outpatients would have prevented this crime. 

I do think that there is a growing outrage over these kinds of preventable crimes. People like Noemi Guzman and Decarlos Brown should absolutely not be on the streets and the laws need to change to protect our law abiding citizens from career criminals and dangerous mentally ill people. 

I do understand that the old asylum system absolutely had some downsides. Warehousing the mentally ill did have a lot of injustice involved in it and conditions were poor. But it does seem like it was the better system because at least it protected innocent members of the public from people like this. 

Finally, I do think this is another example of why bodycams backfired on the left. This story would not have gone viral if it wasn't for the dramatic screencap from the officer's bodycam. That means that there wouldn't be more discussion of these insanity laws, many of which were championed by the left in the first place. 

Trump hints that a 2nd round of diplomacy with Iran may be coming soon.

 

An oil tanker. BBC/Reuters. 

President Donald Trump has hinted that a 2nd round of diplomacy with Iran may be coming in the next couple of days. BBC. Trump made comments that the US might go back to Islamabad, where peace talks were held last weekend, in the next couple of days. This comes after a US led blockade has stopped most Iranian traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. At least six ships have been turned back by the US Navy. It is unclear if there has been a breakthrough on diplomacy, the last round of talks failed due to disagreement over Iran's nuclear program. Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon have entered peace talks of their own. 

My Comment:

As expected, a 2nd round of peace talks is beginning. Peace talks usually take quite some time and it's rare for the 1st round of talks to be fully successful. Indeed, it's very possible that the 2nd round of talks will lead into a 3rd round and beyond. 

However, there is a chance that there will be major progress made in the 2nd round of talks. I say this because they are coming so quickly after the 1st round and that could mean that whatever the sticking point was, it has been resolved. 

It could be the fact that while the US diplomats were authorized to negotiate an end to the war, the Iranian delegation had to get it approved with their leadership first. From what I understand, that made their negotiating tactics rather handicapped and they weren't able to actually make a deal. It's possible that obstacle has been removed. But it's also possible, even likely, that this will just be a more considered counter offer from Iran. 

I do think that Iran is going to be motivated to negotiate because of the blockade. Iran gets a huge amount of their money from oil sales and they were also getting money from their transit bribes they were forcing on ships that were trying to transit. The blockade, while not perfect, is going to cost the Iranian regime millions of dollars a day, every day that it's in effect. Give that Iran's economy is in shambles, not having the oil flowing out of the Strait of Hormuz is going to be extremely costly. 

I also think that the conflict will likely remain in a "frozen" state and that the ceasefire will be extended. There is always a chance that something goes wrong, but I am guessing that as long as diplomacy is happening at this high of a level the conflict will remain in it's current state. Both sides have a major incentive to not start the conflict again, so unless someone screws something up or there is just an absolute impasse I am guessing that the ceasefire will hold. 

It's also positive that Israel and Lebanon are holding talks. It shows that Israel too wants to end the conflict. I had worried about them torpedoing any peace deal but it seems like they want out of this conflict as well. 

So, how likely is this 2nd round of talks to end the war? I'd say it's unlikely, but not impossible, like a 1 out of 3 chance. More realistically, it's going to be a starting point and it will probably take more rounds of negotiating to actually end the war. There is always a chance of a breakthrough or some kind of disaster but my guess is that the war will probably end sometime in May or June. 

Two Congressmen, Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales resign from Congress after separate sex scandals.

 

Eric Swalwell. Bloomberg.

Two Congressmen, Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales, have resigned from congress after separate sex scandals. Bloomberg. Swalwell had been accused of raping a drunk woman and additional sexual misconduct by four other women. Gonzales, a married father of six, had an affair with a staffer who then killed herself. Swalwell had already dropped out of the California Governor's race while Gonzales had lost a primary contest against pro-gun Youtuber Brandon Herrera. Both men risked expulsion if they had not resigned as momentum was budling to expel them. Two other members of Congress, Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is accused of stealing pandemic relief funds, and Republican Cory Mills, who has been accused of domestic violence, may also face resignation and/or expulsion. 

My Comment:

I have mixed feelings about this. As a gun rights supporter this is like Christmas, New Years and the 4th of July all mixed together. Swalwell was so deranged on this issue that he literally threatened to use nuclear weapons on gun owners if he didn't go along with his gun confiscation schemes. And Tony Gonzales was so anti-gun that Brandon Herrera almost unseated him in 2024 and was successful in doing so in 2026. Neither of these men cared about the right to keep and bear arms or the right to self defense and I am not sad to see either of them go. 

But I also don't like the precedent set here. Swalwell may well indeed be a sex pest at best and a rapist at worst but none of those accusations have been tried in court and we don't even know who made the rape accusation. That's not enough to get a conviction in court and I don't think it should be enough to force Swalwell to resign, or even leave the California Governor's race. 

As for Gonzales, his case was complicated by the fact that his mistress committed suicide. Had that not happened, he would just be another person who cheated on his spouse. I honestly don't think that Gonzales should be punished just because his mistress ended her life. That's tragic but I also don't think it's a good idea to send the message that if you are angry against your partner you should kill yourself to ruin his life. 

Regardless, both men could have fought against this but decided it wasn't worth it. That could mean that Swalwell is guilty but it also might mean that both men know that fighting against expulsion would be an uphill battle and not worth the trouble they would face.  

Politically this is going to result in a status quo ante. With both men resigning and residing in relatively safe seats, the control of the house won't change. This is another reason why I am upset about Gonzales being forced to resign. We could have had a slight advantage for a short time before Swalwell was replaced but the GOP just threw that advantage away. Gonzales wasn't a great congressman but again, why give away that advantage when he was already going to be gone in less then a year?

As for the two other members of congress, I expect that Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick will be gone soon too. The accusations against her are pretty solid, she absolutely abused her position. She took $5 million in FEMA relief funds and threw them into her congressional campaign and was found guilty on 25 out of 27 charges against her by the House Ethics Committee. It would be crazy if she wasn't forced to resign or even gets expelled if she refuses to do so.  

Cory Mills is a less certain thing, but he's been accused of a whole lot. Domestic abuse, sexual misconduct, various financial crimes, abuse of office and even stolen valor. But the case against him hasn't been tried in the House Ethics Committee and are not as confirmed as the ones against McCormick. Still, he would likely be forced to resign or even be expelled if McCormick is going to leave. 

Either way, I think this is more about appearances than anything else. After all, Katie Porter wasn't forced to leave the California governor's race for domestic violence, but Swalwell was. If we also kicked everyone out that cheated on their spouse, would there be any members of Congress left? Well, maybe Lindsay Graham in the Senate, but that's it. All of this just seems performative.  

The US will blockade Iranian ports after Islamabad talks fail to end the war.

 

Vice President JD Vance after the negotiations. AP. 

The US military will blockade Iranian ports after Islamabad talks fail to end war. AP. The blockade was announced this morning and will block all ships coming out of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. Ships leaving from other ports in the region will not be affected. The 21 hour talks in Islamabad fell apart mostly due to the nuclear issue as Iran has refused to give up their supply of enriched uranium. US destroyers are reported to be in the Strait in an effort to prepare for mine clearing operations. 

My Comment:

First of all, the peace talks. I had some hope that the talks would have worked but it was never a sure thing. The United States and Iran were far apart on the nuclear issue. As long as Iran has nuclear material, it's going to be a red line for the United States and any peace deal is going to require Iran to give it up. They weren't willing to do so yet and that means that the talks were going to fail. 

That doesn't mean that the war is back on. There is a real chance that a 2nd round of talks are going to happen soon. Right now, the ceasefire is still on and neither side has really broken it. Pakistan, in their role of mediator, has said that contacts are still being made between the two sides. And everything I have heard has said that both sides were actually pretty close to a deal besides the nuclear material issue. I think there is a real chance of another round of talks in the "days to weeks" timeline. 

Aa for the blockade, it's mostly symbolic in nature. The elephant in the room is that few ships were willing to run the strait in the first place, even after the ceasefire was put into place. Why? Because was able to lay a few naval mines but they don't actually know where they are. Nobody does because after laying them, the mines drifted out of position, making them a major threat to shipping, and, more importantly, the insurance companies that insure the ships bottom lines. 

The blockade does have a major effect though. A few ships have ran the strait throughout the conflict after paying bribes to Iran. The blockade will absolutely prevent this if the US Navy is up to snuff. Those ships won't be able to escape into the Indian Ocean. This will cut off the last real lifeline in terms of funding that Iran has and it will put some pressure on Iran to cut a deal. 

It's also going to put pressure on the rest of the world to do something about Iran. America doesn't really need any of the oil coming out of Iran. Not only are we the biggest oil producer in the world right now, we are getting oil from our new vassal, Venezuela. Europe, China, Australia and many other countries are going to hurt a lot unless they pressure Iran into making a deal. 

The bigger news is that the United States Navy is moving to remove mines. Supposedly two destroyers have already entered the area and are preparing for mine removal opperations and mapping of safe routes. Once that happens and the mines are gone, or at least a safe path is opened, the Strait of Hormuz will be open for non-Iranian traffic. This would remove a lot of Iran's leverage and I don't think they can really do too much about it.