Mr. Trump intensified his threats against the Islamic regime in Tehran on Tuesday as his 8 p.m. deadline approached for the regime to cooperate with U.S. demands or face a dramatic increase in U.S. airstrikes targeting the country’s civilian electrical grid and other infrastructure. 

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the president said in a threatening post on social media.

Mr. Trump’s threat came hours after Iran issued a defiant response to the administration’s proposal for a 45-day ceasefire. Tehran asserted through Pakistani intermediaries that any temporary ceasefire would be unacceptable, citing prior experiences with the U.S. and Israel, and called for a comprehensive peace agreement that would permanently end hostilities. U.S. sources tell Threat Status the Trump administration is wary that Iran is using obfuscation and diplomatic delays to continue both its nuclear enrichment activities and its support for terrorist proxies around the Middle East.

Hungary’s parliamentary election on Sunday is shaping up as the toughest political test in the 16-year-rule of Mr. Orban, the conservative prime minister and Europe’s longest-serving leader. Mr. Orban is both a staunch ally of Mr. Trump and widely considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally inside NATO.

Whether or not Orban continues to hold power is deeply consequential for Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as for the Trump administration’s efforts to support populist conservative movements within the European Union. The administration’s focus on Hungary was underscored Tuesday by Vice President J.D. Vance’s arrival in Budapest to boost Mr. Orban ahead of Sunday’s election.

Threat Status Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak is on the ground in Hungary, reporting that Mr. Orban’s strongest challenger is Peter Magyar, a former government insider whose center-right Tisza party has led in several recent independent polls. At the same time, the race is difficult to call as large numbers of voters remain undecided and Hungary’s electoral system favors the incumbent.

The Chinese Communist Party’s effort to sow political discord in Taiwan by supporting opposition factions in the U.S.-aligned island democracy gained new steam this week with the visit to Beijing by Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The visit to China by Ms. Cheng is the first in a decade by a Taiwanese opposition leader. It comes as the Xi government pushes for economic and political control over Taiwan.  It also comes as U.S.-China tension over Taiwan threatens to disrupt the complex diplomacy surrounding Mr. Trump’s planned summit with Mr. Xi in Beijing next month.

A key aspect of the tension centers on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. The opposition-controlled parliament in Taipei has recently stalled attempts by Taiwan’s pro-U.S. government to pass a $40 billion special defense budget that would fund arms deals with Washington and the development of Taiwan’s indigenous defense industry — both of which are seen as critical to defending the island from a potential military invasion by China.

As discussions about Iran’s future intensify with the war, any “serious vision for a stable and democratic transition must include the Kurds,” writes Salah Bayaziddi, an Iranian Kurdish representative to the United States.

“Kurdish political parties represent millions of people and possess significant organizational capacity and grassroots support. Yet they are often viewed through a narrow security lens, portrayed as a threat to Iran’s territorial integrity,” Mr. Bayaziddi writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times, asserting that “this framing is counterproductive.

“The right to self-determination is recognized under international law, and Kurdish movements in Iran have repeatedly demonstrated a preference for political engagement and responsible governance rather than fragmentation,” he writes. “Far from destabilizing the country, they have the potential to contribute meaningfully to a more inclusive and stable political order in a unified Iran.”

In case you missed it, the niece and grandniece of deceased Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles. The State Department says the elder niece, 47-year-old Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, “denounced America as the ‘Great Satan’” while living in the United States and, according to federal authorities, enjoying a sumptuous lifestyle.

Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler highlights in a Times column how Ms. Afshar and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, were posting now-deleted Instagram pictures of themselves jet-setting around the U.S.: partying in Miami, vacationing in Alaska, clubbing in Las Vegas and chugging champagne in front of a helicopter at an undisclosed location in the desert.

“In most of their posts, they are scantily clad in designer couture, wearing bikinis, midriff tops, miniskirts and Christian Louboutin high heels while clinging to Louis Vuitton handbags, with their dark hair freely flowing, unrestricted by a hijab,” Ms. Sadler writes. “In Iran, if women are not covered in their hijabs properly, acid is thrown onto their faces, and they are beaten by the morality police, arrested and blacklisted.”

• April 7 — Argentina’s Turning Point: Accelerating Economic Takeoff, Atlantic Council

• April 7 — A Conversation with Portuguese Ambassador Duarte Lopes: Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean, Stimson Center

• April 9 — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte: Remarks and Conversation, Ronald Reagan Institute

• April 9 — Same Engine, New Fuel? China’s Economic Model and the AI Bet, Chatham House

• April 9 — New Evidence of China’s Forced Organ Harvesting and a Proposed U.S. Response, Hudson Institute

• April 13-16 — 41st Space Symposium for Government, Military and Industry Leadership, Space Foundation

• April 14 — Global Democracy under Pressure: Insights from Africa for a Changing World, Brookings Institution

• April 15 — Invisible Attacks: What’s Behind Havana Syndrome & Anomalous Health Incidents, Hayden Center