Online predators are targeting young people in ‘sextortion’ scams. Parents are looking for better safeguards.
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| “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Good morning. The truce between the United States, Israel, and Iran held for a second day on Thursday despite reports of sporadic drone strikes by Iran on the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
The two sides were still at odds over whether Lebanon, home to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists, is part of the deal. Lebanon continued its rocket attacks into Israel, and the Israeli defense forces struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Iran said it reopened the Strait of Hormuz to civilian traffic. President Trump criticized how the passage is being handled, but stopped short of issuing military threats.
A ray of hope for a peaceful solution is coming from Islamabad, Pakistan, the site of the first face-to-face talks between Washington and Tehran scheduled to begin on Saturday. Vice President JD Vance is leading the U.S. delegation. Here are today’s top stories: |
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A growing number of teens are getting ensnared in online “sextortion” scams, sometimes leading to tragic consequences.
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President Donald Trump called out Iran for doing a “very poor job” of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. “That is not the agreement we have!” he wrote on social media as the cease-fire entered its third day. The president also criticized the Iranian regime for allegedly charging ships a fee to pass through the crucial waterway.
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First Lady Melania Trump, in a rare address from the White House, refuted allegations that were made about her and Jeffrey Epstein and vowed to take legal action against those behind the claims.
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🚀 After a historic swing around the moon, the Artemis II crew will be heading back to Earth today, due to splash down off the coast of San Diego at around 8:07 p.m. ET.
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🍵 Health: Recent studies suggest that high cholesterol is not as uniformly harmful as once thought.
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Brad and Kari Boettler hold a photo of their late son, Evan, in their home in Aurora, Mo., on March 23, 2026. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) |
AURORA, Mo.—Kari Boettler could not comprehend what she found on her late son’s cellphone on Feb. 5, 2024. She was searching the metadata to determine why 16-year-old Evan had shot himself in their backyard that January.
Sitting on the sofa in the same living room in which Evan had just celebrated Christmas with his family, only feet from the spot where he died, Boettler tried to make sense of the explicit photos and threatening text messages she found on Evan’s smartphone.
Sexual exploration is a natural part of growing up. Curiosity, biology, and questions about love and romance have always driven teens to experiment. But today’s teens live life with instant access to information through smartphones and the internet.
According to Thorn, a California-based nonprofit that tracks teen online sexual activity, almost one-quarter of children aged 9 to 17 reported in a 2023 survey that sharing nude pictures with their peers was normal.
The explicit images and messages on Evan’s phone had been exchanged in the final hours of his life but had been missed during previous searches. What the police did find told them much about Evan’s life.
“[The police found] videos and pictures of hunting and fishing and soccer, meal prep, stuff like that,” Evan’s father, Brad Boettler, told The Epoch Times. “It wasn’t like he was out looking for inappropriate content or anything like that.”
Evan was a victim of “sextortion.” In sextortion, an online predator convinces his underage victim to exchange sexually explicit pictures or videos, known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Once the predator has the CSAM, he uses it to extort money or more CSAM, or simply to harass the victim.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that in 2021, its CyberTipline received roughly 62,000 reports of online enticement. By the end of 2023, that had increased by 300 percent to 186,800. By October 2024, that number was 456,000. (More)
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- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized direct talks with Lebanon as Israel’s strikes on the country became a sticking point in U.S.-Iran ceasefire efforts. The talks will focus on disarming the Hezbollah terrorist group and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon.
- U.S. House Republicans blocked a Democratic resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s power to wage war with Iran.
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Tucked away in the stalled GOP election integrity legislation—the SAVE America Act—is a provision meant to ensure that its proof-of-citizenship requirement would be enforced even if future administrations choose not to.
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Renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, planned by President Donald Trump, will cost less than anticipated and take less time than expected, the president said.
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A federal judge ruled that the Pentagon’s policy of excluding unescorted media from its buildings violated a previous court order. The judge earlier found in favor of The New York Times, which sued the Pentagon over its new media policy.
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Fertility rates hit a record low in the United States in 2025, according to newly released provisional data. According to the CDC, the fertility rate for 2025 was 53.1 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 44—down 1 percent from 2024.
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Young Americans are using artificial intelligence regularly, but their distrust and resentment toward the technology are also growing, according to a new Gallup survey.
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With net population outflows and slowing company formation in recent years, California is losing momentum as a long-standing high-tech hub and, by extension, a housing hot spot, according to a recent report.
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Worshippers attend Holy Thursday service inside St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 9, 2026. (Antonis Zouridakis/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images) |
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Russia declared a cease-fire in its war with Ukraine from April 11 through April 12 in observance of the Orthodox Easter holidays. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would abide by the ceasefire.
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Taipei’s latest national security report shows that Beijing is exploiting Taiwan as a backdoor to circumvent Western technology restrictions, a tactic experts warn could heighten the risk of an armed invasion.
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Textile manufacturers in eastern China are facing mounting pressure as surging raw material costs collide with falling orders, pushing some factories to the edge of shutdown.
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Truckers and farmers have blocked roads and fuel infrastructure across Ireland in protest against soaring fuel costs and government taxes, while authorities warn that the army is being deployed to restore access.
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The Iranian Regime’s Crypto Shadow Arsenal—by Tamuz Itai (Read)
- The Cost of Distraction—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
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The Strategy Behind the Iran War Ceasefire—by Bryan Brulotte (Read)
- The Story of the Victorian-Era Anti-Jab Movement—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
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Why Faith, Freedom, and Family Are More Relevant Than Ever—by Timothy S. Goeglein (Read)
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A sailboat on the Mediterranean Sea from Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, south-eastern France, on April 9, 2026. (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images) |
📸 Day in Photos: Israeli Strikes in Lebanon, Protests in Venezuela, and Kenyan Tea Farmers (Look)
🎙️ Podcast: City Ordered to Pay $800,000 to Christian Photographer for Unconstitutional Ordinance—Facts Matter (Listen)
🇺🇲 American Thought Leaders: Peter McIlvenna, a UK journalist, in an interview with American Thought Leaders, talks about the failures of multiculturalism in the United Kingdom. (Watch)
🎵 Music: Mozart’s Duo For Violin And Viola In B Flat, KV 424 (Listen)
🍌(Sponsored) Many “health foods” in the US diet contain a dangerous substance that can clog your gut and expand your waistline. By simply eliminating this, Dr. Gundry has seen thousands of his own patients feel better quickly. (and lose 70lbs himself!). Watch now |
(Anusorn Nakdee/Shutterstock) |
Being told you have high cholesterol can feel like a verdict: start taking a statin or risk a heart attack or stroke.
Recent studies, however, suggest that high cholesterol is not as uniformly harmful as once thought. However, the message has swung hard in the other direction on social media, where claims range from “high cholesterol might save your life” to “high cholesterol is the secret to living to 100-plus.” So, is high cholesterol really “good” or “bad”? The reality is more nuanced than either extreme suggests. The more useful question may not be whether high cholesterol is harmful, but when—and in whom—it becomes risky.
Some health influencers on social media have turned the tables on cholesterol, promoting it as a key to longevity instead of something that needs to be lowered with aggressive treatment.
Much of this internet discussion traces back to real research. A 2023 Swedish study followed older participants for 35 years and found that those with higher total cholesterol were more likely to live to 100. In a separate 2025 study, researchers found that adults aged 90 or older with LDL-C or “bad” cholesterol levels above 130 mg/dL lived longer than those with levels below that threshold—notable given that the American Heart Association considers an optimal LDL-C level to be at or below 100 mg/dL.
However, a 2023 study, which analyzed data from more than 4 million veterans ages 18 or older, offered a key caution. The higher rates of coronary heart disease deaths among older participants with low cholesterol levels appeared to reflect what researchers called “reverse causality,” a phenomenon in which the data seem to show that A causes B, when in reality it is B that causes A. In other words, a serious underlying illness may drive cholesterol down, not the other way around. (More)
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Thanks for reading 🙏 Have a wonderful day! |
—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li. |
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