Power Plant Day

This is YegerPod. I'm Yeger. It's Monday, April sixth — Day 38 of the US-Iran war. Today's episode: Power Plant Day.

On Easter Sunday, President Trump posted to Truth Social.

Quote: "Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!"

He signed off with "Praise be to Allah."

In a follow-up post, he wrote that Tuesday would be, quote, "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it."

This is his third deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has postponed twice before. The new deadline is Tuesday, eight PM Eastern.

Later that day, Trump told Fox News there was a "good chance" of reaching a deal with Iran by Monday. He said Iranian negotiators had been granted amnesty. He also said if no deal came, he was considering, quote, "blowing everything up and taking over the oil."

Iran's Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with the judiciary, said Trump's language was "vile" and that Iran's, quote, "steadfastness and resistance have driven Trump to the brink of madness."

Now — the full rescue story.

After the F-15E was shot down on Friday, the pilot was recovered quickly. But the weapons systems officer was stranded deep inside Iranian territory.

According to the New York Times, he hiked up a seven-thousand-foot ridgeline and hid in a mountain crevice. Iran offered a sixty-thousand-dollar reward for information on his location.

According to the Times and Politico, the CIA ran a deception campaign inside Iran — spreading false signals that the airman had already been recovered and was moving out of the country in a ground convoy.

US special forces set up a temporary base on an abandoned agricultural airstrip fourteen miles north of Shahreza, in southern Isfahan.

Late Saturday, they located and extracted him. The Pentagon reported no American casualties in the rescue.

Trump posted on Truth Social at midnight: "WE GOT HIM!"

Iran's state TV later aired footage of what it said were destroyed American transport planes left behind at the airstrip. The Pentagon says US forces deliberately blew up aircraft that got stuck during the extraction.

Monday morning.

The IRGC confirmed that Major General Majid Khademi — the head of its Intelligence Organisation — was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran at dawn.

Israel's defense minister called it a "significant blow." The IRGC declared a period of mourning.

The same wave of strikes hit Sharif University of Technology — Iran's most prestigious science and engineering institution. Founded in 1966. A primary recruiting ground for top American PhD programs.

Iran's first vice president accused the US of using a bunker-buster bomb on the campus. Quote: "An attack with bunker-buster bombs on Sharif University is a symbol of Trump's madness and ignorance."

The IRGC responded by declaring American universities across the Middle East to be, quote, "legitimate targets." The Washington Post reported that American schools in the Gulf are now on high alert.

Iran's retaliation on Sunday and Monday.

An Iranian ballistic missile struck a residential building in Haifa on Sunday. Four people are missing — their bodies are being recovered. An eighty-two-year-old man was seriously wounded. A ten-month-old baby was hit by shrapnel.

More missiles hit Petah Tikva, Tel Aviv, and Nahariya. Israel's emergency service reported injuries across multiple cities.

In the Gulf, Iranian drones hit Kuwait overnight. Power generation units knocked offline. Water desalination plants significantly damaged. Oil facilities at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation hit, with fires reported across several sites. The corporation reported "significant material losses."

The IRGC Navy posted a statement on X.

Quote: "The IRGC naval force is completing operational preparations for the Iranian authorities' declared plan for the new Persian Gulf order."

They added that Hormuz will, quote, "never return to its former state."

Axios reported Sunday that Egyptian, Pakistani, and Turkish mediators have sent both Iran and the US a formal ceasefire proposal.

Phase one: a forty-five-day ceasefire. Iran reopens Hormuz. Both sides stop shooting.

Phase two: negotiate a permanent end to the war.

Both sides have received it. Neither has accepted.

Iran's position, according to a senior official: it won't reopen the strait in exchange for a "temporary ceasefire." It wants a permanent one.

Japan entered the picture. Prime Minister Takaichi told Parliament she's arranging direct talks with Iran's leadership — possibly as soon as Wednesday. Japan imports ninety-five percent of its oil from the Middle East. A Kyodo poll found ninety percent of Japanese say they're worried about the war's impact on daily life.

OPEC Plus met Sunday and approved an output increase for next month. Bloomberg noted that several members cannot actually deliver the increase because their production infrastructure has been damaged in the fighting. Eight OPEC Plus members issued a statement warning that, quote, "restoring damaged energy assets to full capacity is both costly and takes a long time."

The numbers.

Oil. WTI hit a hundred and fourteen dollars at Monday's open. Brent at a hundred and eleven. Russian Urals crude surged to a hundred and twenty-one. All climbing.

Hormuz shipping passage is down ninety-four percent from pre-war levels.

Trump's approval: thirty-three percent in a new UMass poll. RealClear Politics average at forty-one. The Economist's tracker has net approval at negative twenty — the lowest of either term. About sixty percent of Americans oppose the war.

Polymarket. Ceasefire by year-end: seventy percent. Ceasefire before oil hits a hundred and twenty dollars: fourteen percent.

The prediction platforms themselves are facing political backlash. Congressman Moulton called Polymarket a "dystopian death market" after it hosted bets on whether the missing airman would be rescued alive. Polymarket pulled the wager and apologized. Moulton noted that Donald Trump Junior invests in the platform. Both Polymarket and Kalshi announced new insider trading restrictions.

Here's where Day thirty-eight stands.

Trump has set a Tuesday deadline — his third — to strike Iran's power plants and bridges. The IRGC says it's preparing a new order in the Gulf. Three countries have proposed a forty-five-day ceasefire. The IRGC's intelligence chief is dead. Oil is approaching a hundred and twenty dollars.