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Ceasefire in Doubt, Deluge in Hawaii & AI Industry Reckoning? - Thursday, April 9, 2026
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Today is Thursday, April 9th. We'll explain some of the confusion about the ceasefire that temporarily ended fighting in Iran and why the US Is now being accused of violating the deal. Also, how some of President Trump's war rhetoric is facing bipartisan backlash and where a major storm is threatening one of America's prime vacation spots. Plus, which White House Cabinet member is starting a podcast, why a new AI model is being called a cybersecurity reckoning, and what to expect from the biggest golf event of the year. Those stories and even more news to know next. Welcome to the Newsworthy all the days news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica. Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. Let's do this. Turmoil continues in the Middle east this morning despite the temporary truce the US And Iran announced earlier this week. In fact, that ceasefire seems to be under threat from multiple directions. One point of contention is that Israel bombarded Lebanon yesterday. Both commercial and residential areas were hit and at least 182people were killed in the deadliest day of fighting there so far. Both Israel and the US Say the attacks on the Iranian backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon were not part of the ceasefire. But Iran says the deal did include Lebanon and Pakistan, the country that mediated the truce agrees. So now Iran says the truce has been violated. Persian Gulf countries also reported dozens of Iranian missile and drone attacks yesterday. And there were reports of explosions on two Iranian islands in the Gulf. Another issue is the Strait of Hormuz. Remember, President Trump's main demand with the ceasefire was that the vital waterway would be reopened, but it's not clear if that's actually happened yesterday. Only a few merchant ships with dry cargo were recorded passing through yesterday. And reports say no oil tankers have crossed since the truce began. But both sides have incentive not to launch into a wider war again since the announcement of even the two week truce had an immediate positive impact on the oil and financial markets. So for now, both the US And Iran are planning to begin formal talks in Pakistan later this week. Vice President J.D. vance plans to lead the peace talks on the American side, along with some of President Trump's top negotiators. Meanwhile, Trump says all US Military personnel and assets will stay near Iran and that if a longer term deal is not reached, quote, the shootin starts bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. More than 50,000American troops are in the Middle east right now. Some of President Trump's rhetoric about the war in Iran has sparked concerns even beyond his usual critics. In fact, some of his usual defenders have started Publicly pushing back, including a few lawmakers and several prominent conservative commentators. For example, after Trump's strongly worded threat on Easter to blow up civilian infrastructure in Iran, political pundit Tucker Carlson called the president's post vile and evil on every level. In response, Trump called Carlson a, quote, low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what's going on. Then when Trump posted that quote, whole civilization will die. Tonight, many other Republicans spoke up. For example, Senator Lisa Murkowski said that kind of talk directly endangered Americans both at home and abroad. And Senator Ron Johnson, who's usually a staunch Trump ally, said he was hoping and praying the president's message was just bluster. Well, yesterday, Trump told the New York Post his threat was not just a ploy to scare Iran into a ceasefire. That instead, quote, I was willing to do it. And now dozens of Democrats are going beyond criticism and are calling for his removal from office. They're talking about using the 25th Amendment. But to go that route, the Vice President and most of Trump's Cabinet would have to sign off. And at this point, J.D. vance and the Cabinet are still backing the president, saying his ultimate objective is to end the war and save lives. Other Republicans are also on his side, including some who say Trump is looking to bring peace through strength. Either way, this kind of support or opposition hasn't been put to a vote since. Congress is still on recess until next week. It's not just critics here in the US the war has also put President Trump at odds with many of America's allies. Remember, Trump has already been criticizing NATO countries for not supporting the war, so much so that he said the US should rethink its membership in the military alliance. So yesterday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte traveled to the White House to meet with Trump. Reports say the idea was to convince the president it's still in his interest and America's to be a member. And Ruta called their discussion very frank and very open. He also seemed to at least personally support the war, saying that because of Trump's leadership, Iran's nuclear threats have been minimized. But after the meeting wrapped up, Trump posted again about his misgivings, saying, quote, NATO wasn't there when we needed them, and they won't be there if we need them again. Now, the White House says pulling out of the alliance is still up for discussion. A couple of years ago, though, US Lawmakers voted to keep any president from withdrawing from NATO without the approval of 2/3 Senate Majority or an act of Congress. Stay tuned. This week, the head of the EPA gave a keynote address at a conference hosted by a group that denies the overwhelming scientific consensus around climate change. Specifically, the Heartland Institute believes climate change is not as severe as mainstream science says it is, that human activity is not the primary driver, and that proposed regulations are unnecessary or harmful. And at its event this week, EPA chief Lee Zeldin told members they should feel vindicated. He said the Trump administration has been finishing its policies quicker than anyone expected. Under his leadership. Dozens of environmental regulations have been appealed, but critics say this action has not made the world safer, and some protesters hung posters outside the Heartland Institute's conference showing images of smokestacks and forest fires. President Trump supports Zeldin, though in fact, he's reportedly considering having him take over for former Attorney General Pam Bondi, putting him in a position to legally defend his climate positions as their challenge to be continued all of Hawaii is now under some kind of flood watch. Storms have already started dropping heavy rain over the islands, and parts of the state could record multiple months worth of rain in just a few days. We're talking more than 10 inches in some places, and it comes just two weeks after its worst flooding in 20 years. So the ground is especially saturated and is expected to flood even quicker than it would have otherwise. At this point, the Big island and Kauai are expected to see the worst of this latest storm system, but depending on how it evolves, the heaviest rain bands could really hit any island. So local officials are warning people to be ready to evacuate if they need to, and first responders are stationed in the most vulnerable areas. The storms are expected to stay pretty intense until at least tomorrow evening. We have much more news for you still ahead, but first a quick break to tell you about our sponsor. There are certain parts of the day that just seem to sneak up on me, and dinner is one of them. 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Go to homechef.com newsworthy that's homechef.com newsworthy for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Homechef.com newsworthy. You must be an active subscriber to receive the free dessert. Now back to the news. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is launching a new podcast, the first to be hosted by a sitting cabinet secretary. It will reportedly feature him in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff. Administration officials say the strategy is simple to spread important messages about improving health to a wide audience, but RFK Jr describes it as a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick. Now, critics worry the show will be used to spread misinformation, since many of Kennedy's views contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists, though at this point it's not clear if any of his more controversial opinions will be discussed. The Secretary Kennedy podcast will launch next week. This week, an Ohio man became the first person to be convicted under a new law criminalizing deepfake porn. President Trump signed the bill into law last year after it got bipartisan support in Congress. It's called the Take It down act, and it made it a federal crime to post sexual images of someone without their consent. It applies whether the images are real or deepfakes made by artificial intelligence. In this case, the man used AI to create pictures and videos of both adults and children. He posted more than 700 images online, both real and fake, and in some cases shared them with the victim's families and coworkers. He had thousands more images on his phone, and he pleaded guilty. Now, because of the Take It down act, he could face a significant amount of time in prison, though his sentencing hasn't been scheduled just yet. Aside from this law, Congress and state lawmakers are circulating bills to further criminalize AI generated child sex abuse material. This week, Meta debuted its first major artificial intelligence model since revamping its superintelligence labs. It's called musespark, and right away it's going to be used to power the tech giant's chatbot and embedded AI features. Of course, the market is now dominated by OpenAI, Google and anthropic, but Meta says not for long, since the company says the new model is already outperforming Google on some of Meta's internal tests and is competitive with models from OpenAI and Anthropic on others. The company is also working on the next generation of Muse, Spark, and eventually Meta's goal is to achieve superintelligence, AKA technology that's smarter than humans. Meanwhile, Anthropic says it built a new AI model called Claude Mythos that's too powerful to be released to the public, so it's making it available to more than 40 tech companies instead, like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. The idea is that they can use the model to find and patch security vulnerabilities in critical programs, and it apparently can do that pretty well, anthropic says Mythos has already been able to identify thousands of bugs in popular software, including every major operating system and browser. But the issue is if the technology got into the wrong hands, bad actors could also find those bugs and easily exploit them. And because of models like this one, tech leaders are now questioning whether most or all of the world's critical software needs to be patched or rewritten. The head of the Anthropic team that tests new models for dangerous capabilities, called Mythos, the starting point for what we think will be an industry change point, or reckoning with what needs to happen now. Today, the biggest golf event of the year is set to kick off at Augusta National Golf Club. We're talking about the Masters tournament that's now in its 90th year. It brings lifetime prestige to the winner, along with more than $4 million, a replica of the Masters Champions trophy and, of course, the iconic green jacket. Today, some of the greatest golfers in the world are competing, including the world's number one, Scottie Scheffler, who's favored to win it. Other big names in the field could also come out on top, like reigning champion Roy McIlroy, Colin Morikawa, Cameron Young or Bryson DeChambeau. But other big names will be notably absent. For example, Tiger woods, who was charged with driving under the influence last month, and Phil Mickelson, who says his family is dealing with a personal health matter. This marks the First Masters in 32 years without either woods or Mickelson playing. The tournament runs through Sunday. Well, that's it for the main news today. So now it's time for Thing to Know Thursday. But first, thanks to our sponsor, I've been in that mindset lately where I just want everything to feel a bit more streamlined, especially in my closet. Fewer pieces, better quality and things I can reach for without overthinking it, because who has time for that? That's what I've found with Quint's Their whole approach is built around elevated essentials, pieces that are simple, versatile and made with quality materials. I'm talking European linen, organic cotton and soft denim that feels good right away. In fact, I've now been eyeing my next jeans purchase from Quince, knowing I won't need to pay for brand markup and will still get a great looking, high quality pair of jeans. Remember, Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen so prices are actually reasonable. I already have several Quince pieces that I reach for, often from a linen dress to my favorite Carry on suitcase. Ever refresh your spring wardrobe with Quint's? Go to quince.comnewworthy for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to q U-I-N-C-E.comnewsworthy for free shipping and 365 Day Returns. Quince.comnewsworthy okay, now back to Thing to Know Thursday, the US military is going to start automatically registering all eligible American men for the draft system. Later this year, a new rule was published saying as much, and it's gotten a lot of traction online. But to be clear, the military draft has been around since 1917, after the First World War and already under federal law, Most men between 18 and 25 years old are required to register with a selective service system just in case Congress and the President authorize a military draft. Not registering is considered a crime, so young men who don't do it face a fine up to five years in prison, and they can be denied student loans, government jobs, and for immigrants, U.S. citizenship. Bottom line, the new rule that was published just makes the registration that was already required automatic. And President Trump has not announced any plans to actually draft soldiers. That hasn't happened since the 1970s, near the end of the Vietnam War. Thank you so much for listening today and making us part of your daily routine. We'll catch you up on more news to know tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.