First Thing: Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan if Iran agrees to talks | US news

Good morning.

JD Vance is expected to travel to Islamabad on Tuesday to lead the US delegation if Iran agrees to continue negotiations as the current ceasefire expires.

The US vice president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said there remained a “deep historical distrust” of the United States and that Tehran was concerned about “unconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials,” declaring: “The Iranians do not submit to force.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would not agree to negotiations with the United States if it was threatened, adding in his message on X on Tuesday: “We have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

The head of the UN humanitarian agency, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday that the normalization of violent language, such as Trump’s threat to bomb Iran into the Stone Age, was very dangerous because it emboldened any “wannabe autocrat”. He also said the $2 billion a day the president was spending on the Iran war could have saved more than 87 million lives amid a humanitarian funding crisis.

• What effect does war have on developing countries? With food and oil inflation reaching nearly 20%, Fletcher warned: “We will feel the impact for years in sub-Saharan Africa and East Africa, pushing even more people into poverty. »

Israeli soldiers use sexual assault to force Palestinians out of West Bank, report says

Israeli soldiers and settlers are using gender-based violence, sexual assault and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, human rights and legal experts said.

Palestinian women, men and children have reported attacks, forced nudity, invasive and painful body cavity searches, Israelis exposing their genitals, including to minors, and threats of sexual violence. Researchers have recorded accounts of increasing sexualized attacks and humiliation against Palestinians in their communities and homes since 2023.

• What are the impacts on travel? Sexualized attacks are accelerating Palestinian displacement, the report found, with more than two-thirds of households surveyed identifying rising violence against women and children as a turning point in their decision to leave. Researchers also found that it caused girls to drop out of school, women to stop working, and contributed to an increase in early marriage.

Trump Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigns following misconduct investigation

Donald Trump’s Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has resigned, the administration announced Monday, after a series of allegations of misconduct, including drinking on the job and having an affair with a subordinate.

Chavez-DeRemer and his close associates are under investigation by the department’s inspector general over allegations of professional misconduct. These include, but are not limited to, claims that Chavez-DeRemer had an affair with a member of his security detail, kept a “stash” of alcohol in his office, and used government resources for personal travel, while his aides sought to funnel grants to politically connected figures, The New York Times reported in March.

In other news…

• US spy technology company Palantir has released a manifesto extolling the benefits of US power and implying that some cultures are inferior to others. causing shock and condemnation.

• A five-year-old Minnesota boy reportedly saved his younger brother by jumping into freezing water on Easter Sunday. and has been fighting for his life in the hospital ever since.

• Big tech platforms are aggressively pushing to expand on-demand work in healthcare, according to a new report that warns that the growing use of AI technology is coming at the expense of workers’ rights and wages.

Today’s statistic: almost half of the EU’s busiest air routes are ‘difficult or impossible’ to book by train

If you wanted to replace a two-hour flight with a train trip, how easily could you do it? In large parts of the United States you may encounter problems – but it’s not great in Europe either. Analysis by a think tank found that booking equivalent train tickets was “difficult, if not impossible”, on almost half of the EU’s busiest international air routes.

Cultural choice: How the female gaze attracted the attention of cinema, television and fiction

From television and movies to the rise of romance books, the female gaze is everywhere right now, says Deborah Linton. Heated Rivalry and Wuthering Heights are both examples of this repositioning, which builds on shows such as Girls, Killing Eve and I May Destroy You. “The representation of internalized female perspectives – and, more importantly, desires – has moved from guilty pleasure to the middle of the zeitgeist,” she writes.

Don’t miss this: AI job scams are booming – and I was duped by one. Here’s how to avoid them

When the headhunter contacted Victoria Turk, the offer seemed perfectly suited to her experience. Maybe too perfect: a hybrid job in your city and a high salary. She felt something was wrong, but couldn’t figure out what it was, until they advised her to pay for the services of a CV specialist. Turk pulls back the curtain on AI-assisted job scams: Even if no money is exchanged, fraudsters can still exploit victims’ data.

Climate review: Democrats urged to tie clean energy to affordability as Iran war drives up prices

As the war in Iran triggers a surge in oil and gas prices, Democrats should loudly defend the affordability of clean energy and the stability it provides, according to some of the party’s leading voices on climate. Meanwhile, as rising energy costs hit ordinary Americans, Donald Trump is doubling down on his support for increasing domestic fossil fuel production for so-called “defense preparedness.”

Last thing: bedtime stacking – like a lousy bed, but productive!

Another day, another self-improvement TikTok trend with a boring name. “Bedtime stacking” is apparently a way to relax while working through a never-ending to-do list. You go to bed very early (around 8:30 p.m.) with, for example, a laptop, an iPad, an e-reader, moisturizer, some sort of snack, the TV remote, a planner, and a gratitude journal. Disastrous times.

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