The briefing for Saturday, April 25.

President Trump is sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan on Saturday for a second round of ceasefire negotiations with Iran, the White House announced Friday. However, Iran's foreign ministry quickly clarified that no direct meetings are planned—messages will be conveyed through Pakistani intermediaries. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad late Friday for talks with Pakistani officials, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Vice President JD Vance remains "on standby" if negotiations prove productive.

The diplomatic push comes as Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely this week, following Pakistan's request for more time for outreach. The first round of indirect talks in Geneva on February 27 ended without agreement, and the U.S.-Israel war against Iran began the next day. Despite the pause in most fighting, tensions remain high in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran maintains its stranglehold on shipping while the U.S. continues its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Brent crude oil prices hovered around $104 per barrel Friday—nearly 50% higher than pre-war levels.

The conflict has claimed at least 3,375 lives in Iran and over 2,490 in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted shortly after the war began, according to authorities. Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks, though Hezbollah has not participated in those negotiations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Friday that Iran has a chance to make a "good deal" by abandoning its nuclear weapons program in "meaningful and verifiable ways," while emphasizing that all sides must respect the indefinite ceasefire for progress to continue.

The Trump administration imposed economic sanctions Friday on a major China-based oil refinery and approximately 40 shipping companies involved in transporting Iranian oil, escalating efforts to cut off Tehran's primary revenue source. The sanctions target Hengli Petrochemical's facility in Dalian, which processes roughly 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily—making it one of China's largest independent refineries. Treasury officials say Hengli has received Iranian crude shipments since 2023, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran's military.

The move represents the administration's first major use of secondary sanctions—penalties against entities doing business with Iran that cut them off from the U.S. financial system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his department "will continue to constrict the network of vessels, intermediaries and buyers Iran relies on to move its oil to global markets." China imports 80-90% of Iranian oil, though shipments often have their origins obscured and arrive labeled as coming from countries like Malaysia, according to the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran.

Separately, Bessent told the AP on Friday that the U.S. will not renew waivers allowing purchases of Russian or Iranian oil currently at sea. "Not the Iranians," Bessent said firmly. "We have the blockade, and there's no oil coming out." He predicted Iran would need to start "shuttering production" within days, which would damage its wells. The sanctions announcement comes just weeks before Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China, and as global energy markets remain in turmoil from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Trump's executive order suspending asylum access at the southern border is illegal, blocking a key pillar of his immigration crackdown. The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that immigration law gives people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president cannot override that authority. The ruling upholds a lower court decision and marks a significant legal setback for the administration's border policies.

Trump issued the executive order on Inauguration Day 2025, declaring the border situation an "invasion" and suspending migrants' physical entry and ability to seek asylum until he determines otherwise. Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee, wrote that "the power by proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of specified foreign individuals into the United States does not contain implicit authority to override the INA's mandatory process." The panel concluded the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn't authorize the president to remove people under "procedures of his own making" or suspend statutory asylum rights.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the ruling unsurprising, saying "liberal judges across the country" are acting "for political purposes" rather than "as true litigators of the law." She defended Trump's actions as "completely within his powers as commander in chief." The administration can request the full appeals court reconsider the ruling or appeal to the Supreme Court. The order doesn't formally take effect until the court considers any reconsideration request. Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, wrote a partial dissent arguing the administration can issue broad asylum denials, though he agreed migrants cannot be deported to countries where they face persecution.

The Justice Department announced Friday it will permit firing squads, electrocution, and gas chambers for federal executions, significantly expanding execution methods as the Trump administration moves to accelerate capital punishment cases. The department is also reauthorizing single-drug lethal injections using pentobarbital, the protocol used for 13 executions during Trump's first term—more than under any president in modern history. The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from federal protocols over concerns about unnecessary pain and suffering.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said "the prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers." The federal government has never previously included firing squads in its execution protocols, though five states currently allow the method: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. The Trump administration released a report Friday arguing the Biden administration "got the standard and the science wrong" in its concerns about pentobarbital.

Only three defendants remain on federal death row after President Biden converted 37 death sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has authorized seeking death sentences against 44 defendants so far. Those still on death row include Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 congregants at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. The new protocols take effect as part of Trump's broader push to resume federal executions after Biden's moratorium.

The Justice Department announced Friday it is dropping its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over alleged building cost overruns, instead referring the matter to the Fed's internal inspector general. The decision comes as the Senate considers Trump's nominee to replace Powell, Kevin Warsh, with key Republican Senator Thom Tillis having withheld support for Warsh unless the administration dropped the Powell probe. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a post on X that she would "not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so."

Trump has waged a months-long public campaign against Powell, calling him a "knucklehead" and claiming he was "doing a lousy job" after the Fed refused repeated presidential demands to cut interest rates. The investigation focused on Powell's testimony to a Senate committee about renovations to Federal Reserve buildings—work that includes the first overhaul since the 1930s and removal of asbestos and lead contamination. Powell took the unusual step in January of releasing a video disclosing that the DOJ had served subpoenas and threatened criminal indictment, calling the investigation "unprecedented."

In that video, Powell warned that Fed independence was at stake, saying "this is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation." The Fed declined to comment on Friday's announcement. White House spokesman Kush Desai said "American taxpayers deserve answers about the Federal Reserve's fiscal mismanagement," adding that the inspector general's office is "best positioned" to investigate. Powell's term expires May 15, but he plans to remain until Warsh is confirmed by the Senate.

U.S. officials announced a sweeping crackdown Friday on Southeast Asian cyberscam operations, sanctioning a Cambodian senator and 28 others while filing criminal charges against two Chinese nationals. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro characterized the effort as a "new theater of war" against Chinese transnational organized crime, targeting operations that have defrauded Americans of nearly $21 billion in 2025 alone. The Scam Center Strike Force—comprising multiple federal agencies—also obtained a warrant to seize a major Telegram recruitment channel and is moving to freeze hundreds of millions in illicit assets.

The most prominent target is Kok An, a Cambodian senator and businessman described by Treasury as a "scam center kingpin." Sanctions block his U.S. assets and prohibit American entities from doing business with him or his network, which allegedly defrauded U.S. citizens of millions. Kok An is the second Cambodian senator to face U.S. sanctions; in 2024, Washington acted against tycoon Ly Yong Phat over similar allegations. A Cambodian Senate spokesperson noted that "as a senator he has parliamentary immunity," while declining further comment. The AP could not reach Kok An for comment.

The crackdown began in November when FBI agents in Thailand accessed evidence from an abandoned Myanmar scam center, including over 8,000 phones and 1,500 computers. That led to wire fraud conspiracy charges against Chinese nationals Huang Xing Shan and Jiang Wen Jie, managers of the Myanmar compound who allegedly sought to reestablish operations in Cambodia. Both are held by Thai authorities on immigration violations, and the U.S. is seeking extradition. Cybercrime operations in Cambodia and Myanmar are closely tied to human trafficking, with foreign nationals often recruited under false job offers and forced to work running romance and cryptocurrency scams in near-slavery conditions, according to UN experts.