Kharg Island

This is YegerPod. I'm Yeger. It's Tuesday, April seventh — Day thirty-nine of the US-Iran war. Today's episode: Kharg Island.

The United States struck military targets on Kharg Island this morning. Iran's main oil export hub. Ninety percent of Iranian crude passes through Kharg.

Vice President Vance confirmed the strikes from Budapest. Quote: "We were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so." A US official told Reuters that oil infrastructure was not targeted — only military sites. But the message is unmistakable. The US just put its hands on Iran's economic jugular.

Hours earlier, Trump posted on Truth Social. Quote: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again." He added that he hoped "maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen" before the deadline. That deadline is eight PM Eastern tonight — midnight GMT — for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It's his third deadline. But the language has never been like this.

Israel followed through on yesterday's warning about trains.

The IDF struck the Yahya Abad railway bridge in Kashan, central Iran. At least two people were killed and three injured, according to Mehr News. Iranian media also reported strikes on bridges in other parts of the country. Rail services in Mashhad have been suspended.

The IDF then announced it had completed what it called a "wide-scale wave of strikes targeting dozens of infrastructure sites" across Iran. Smoke was visible over Tehran on Tuesday morning.

And in Haifa, rescue workers pulled the bodies of the Gershovich family from the rubble of a residential building hit by an Iranian missile on Sunday night. Lena, seventy. Vladimir, seventy-three. Their son Dima, forty-two. His wife Lucille-Jane, thirty. Air defenses failed to intercept that strike.

Then the IRGC dropped its restraint.

In a Telegram statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said — and I'm quoting — "Until now we have exercised significant restraint for the sake of good neighborliness and have taken precautions in selecting retaliatory targets. But from now on, all such precautions have been removed."

The statement continued: "We will act against American infrastructure and its partners in a way that will deprive the Americans and its allies of regional oil and gas for years."

They weren't bluffing. At least not about the direction.

Iran fired missiles at Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, targeting energy facilities including petrochemical complexes at Jubail and Juaymah. The IRGC claimed the strikes hit facilities linked to ExxonMobil. Saudi Arabia's defense ministry said seven missiles were intercepted, with debris falling near energy installations. Damage is being assessed.

The King Fahd Causeway — the only road link between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain — was shut down as a precautionary measure. It's a twenty-five-kilometer bridge. Bahrain hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. The causeway later reopened, but the closure itself is significant.

The UAE's defense ministry reported intercepting one ballistic missile and eleven drones from Iran on Tuesday. Bahrain sounded air raid sirens for the second time since midnight. The war is now actively hitting Gulf state territory on a daily basis.

In Istanbul, gunmen opened fire near the building housing the Israeli consulate on Tuesday. Turkish police responded, killing one attacker. Two others were wounded. Turkey's interior ministry identified the dead attacker as Yunus E.S. and said he had "connections with a terrorist group that exploits religion." Turkish media linked the attack to ISIS. The consulate was unstaffed at the time.

The death toll numbers. As of last Friday, the Human Rights Activists News Agency — HRANA — counted at least sixteen hundred and six civilians killed in Iran, including two hundred and forty-four children. In the past twenty-four hours alone, HRANA reported forty-nine civilians killed — the highest daily rate in ten days.

In Lebanon, at least thirteen hundred and forty-five people have been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. At least fifty people have been killed in Gulf nations in attacks blamed on Iran. In Israel, at least twenty people as of Monday. Thirteen US service members have been killed, with hundreds wounded.

The diplomacy — such as it is.

Iran's ten-point counterproposal, delivered Sunday through Pakistan, went nowhere. Trump called it "not good enough." Iran rejected the forty-five-day ceasefire outright.

But there's a separate track forming. Britain is hosting a meeting today at its Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood — military planners from more than three dozen countries, discussing how to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz after the war ends. The United States was not invited. Or chose not to attend. Either way — over forty countries are planning post-war Hormuz security without the country currently waging the war.

Iranian state television claimed on Tuesday that fourteen million Iranians have volunteered to fight in the event of a ground invasion. President Pezeshkian said they had "declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives." Iran's population is roughly ninety million. The number is unverifiable. But as a signal of domestic messaging — it's clear what Tehran wants the world to hear.

On the home front.

Trump threatened to jail the journalist who first reported the second missing airman from Friday's F-15E shootdown. Quote: "We're going to go to the media company that released it and we're going to say, national security, give it up or go to jail."

The Pentagon canceled a scheduled Tuesday morning briefing with Defense Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair General Caine. No explanation.

And the Hill is reporting that GOP patience with the Iran operation is growing thinner. Three Republican senators have shown what reporters are calling "some independence" on the war. The White House's two-hundred-billion-dollar war supplemental is testing party loyalty — especially with midterms approaching and health care cuts still fresh.

Oil. Brent crude rose roughly three percent on Tuesday to around a hundred and thirteen dollars a barrel. The Kharg Island strikes and the IRGC's threat to regional energy infrastructure pushed prices higher through the morning. As the deadline approaches tonight with no public signs of a deal, traders are pricing in escalation.

Polymarket. The ceasefire-by-April-seventh contract has flatlined. Total volume on Iran markets has crossed three hundred and sixty million dollars — over two hundred and forty-nine active contracts. The money says tonight's deadline passes the same way the others have. But this time, both sides are saying they mean it.

Approval polls. The RealClearPolitics average has Trump at forty point nine percent approval, fifty-six point eight disapproval. Net negative sixteen. The Washington Post/ABC News poll puts him at thirty-nine. He has not been above forty percent since the war began.

Here's where Day thirty-nine stands.

The US hit Kharg Island for the first time. Iran says all restraint is off and it's going after regional energy infrastructure. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain are taking fire. The Gershovich family was buried today. Forty countries are meeting in London to plan a Strait of Hormuz without American involvement. And in eight hours, we find out what Trump's third deadline actually means.