All of the press coverage about the shortage of US missile interceptors and long-range attack weapons has clearly hampered president Trump’s negotiating position with Iran. Iran, rather than take advantage of Trump’s unilateral ceasefire in order to gain some room to rebuild and recoup their losses, has decided to take full advantage of Trump’s military limitations and demand yet more concessions. To some extent, I can see Iran’s point of view. In prior negotiations, Trump has demanded “unconditional surrender” and that the Strait of Hormuz return to open shipping like before the war, without giving Iran anything, after having suffered the vast majority of damage and loss of life from the joint Israeli/American attack. According to “The Hormuz Letter on X,” “Trump has privately admitted defeat and told senior aides he is willing to end the Iran war without a nuclear deal if Iran fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz, a [partial] retreat from his initial ‘unconditional surrender’ demand, per WSJ... “Trump has been laying the groundwork to declare victory based solely on Hormuz reopening, walking away from his initial promises to ‘decimate’ Iran's nuclear program.” However, Iran has raised its price for reopening the Strait in the form of new demands, effectively turning what Trump hoped would be his exit into a full US surrender document.” Trump, of course, has rejected all of Iran’s demands so the stalemate continues, and economic hardship continues to loom. To receive a free, one-time sample of the Brief, along with option on how to subscribe, click on Request a sample on the left.
Trump repeats declaration that he'll make Strait of Hormuz a "US territory", calling it "a great idea".
Iran goes "fully offensive": Tehran threatens escalation if diplomacy fails, after last week's military command reshuffle.
MoU expires: Iran says the US-Iran agreement is effectively dead & "irrelevant".
Trump threatens Oman: Trump warns "we'll bomb the s**t out of them."
Backchannel denied: Tehran rejects Trump's claim of IRGC communications.
President Trump revealed Sunday he has ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with longtime close ally South Korea, surprisingly mentioning his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a motivating factor in the decision.
Trump said in a Truth Social posts that exercises, due to start on Monday, are costly and "send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, which he said "has been unthreatening and respectful" during his time in office.
If verified, the invasion attempt comes just weeks after the first round, in which more than 60,000 military-aged men attempted to breach the border. This only suggests that migrant flows are being deliberately weaponized to pressure the socialist government in Madrid, potentially marking a second phase of sustained border destabilization.
A peer-reviewed study documenting millions of excess deaths across the West after the rollout of COVID measures and shots has been yanked by the British Medical Journal — not for bad data, but for the crime of asking inconvenient questions.
“Three Iranian pilots were captured alive by Qatari forces after the Su-24 fighter jets crashed during the March attacks.”
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Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari denied the claims, saying Qatar is not holding any Iranian pilots.
One study by the Heat Initiative found Snapchat recommended 739 “unsafe” videos—including 257 related to drugs and alcohol, and 244 with sexual content—to two 13-year-old avatar accounts across a 12-hour period. It also recommended 419 strangers as friends, including at least six sexual content creators and three people advertising drugs.
Other questionable exposures included violence, criminal activity, disordered eating, self-harm, and suicide.
In a matter of days, once-pristine beaches in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta have been reduced to open-air dumps and disease-ridden camps occupied by thousands of illegal migrants who refused to leave after the mass invasion from Morocco.
Locals describe feces, urine, garbage, and makeshift shacks covering the sand. Contagious illnesses are spreading. Mass brawls with bladed weapons have broken out.
"While many are pro-choice, you can still be pro-choice and see this law as going beyond the norms of acceptability." Rep. Dennis Gallagher, also a Democrat, said he simply saw no need for the law in the first place.
Now here comes Woke 1 and Woke 2. “Woke 1 was crazy,” said U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, quoting an unnamed city councilman in a viral interview for ABC. The congresswoman sheepishly acknowledged that Americans did not like the way Woke 1 played out, while also implicitly announcing that there will soon be, or already is, a Woke 2. And it will be tame. Oh, so tame!
Ukraine's long-range drone attacks have frequently targeted military bases and oil refinery and energy sites of late, and more recently warehouses of major Russian online retailer Wildberries - but on Saturday a new target has been added: space facilities.
Ukrainian forces have touted that they've struck the Progress Rocket and Space Center in Russia's Samara region. The facility focuses on the manufacturing and operation of space launch vehicles.
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced hundreds of commercial ships onto longer routes around Africa, and Somali pirates are moving quickly to exploit the sudden increase in traffic off the continent’s eastern coast. Oil tankers MT Honour 25, MT Eureka and MT Asana were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and off Puntland between April and July 2026, the largest attacks by Somali pirates in years. The Iran war has now delivered these groups more targets, spread across thousands of miles of ocean, while diverting naval resources to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
They are coming for your money, and they have a ton of momentum right now. Democratic Socialists are winning election after election by promising free stuff, but of course free stuff is never actually free. Somewhere along the way, someone has to pay for it. If you find yourself protectively reaching for your wallet as you read this, I don’t blame you one bit. Socialism is a system where the government uses your money to solve everyone else’s problems. Unfortunately, it is also a system that is becoming increasingly popular among our young adults.
Trump and the Pentagon face mounting questions about the state of the military's arsenal, with the war now in its sixth month and a peace deal remaining elusive.
Iran responded to reports of shrinking US supplies by saying its locally produced weapons gave it the ability to respond to "any threat".
Dozens of Patriot interceptors, (as well as thousands of 155mm rounds, 100+ Hellfires, 250+ GMLRS, plus Stingers, AIMs and grenade launchers) were halted on their way to Ukraine. Note the timing just before Trump goes to great lengths to say how much he knows Ukraine needs Patriots.
This kind of cat and mouse game with the administration tormenting Ukraine over Patriots continues for the entire year. And then Trump’s War with Iran breaks out and Patriot deliveries practically stop. For all of 2026, according to Zelensky, deliveries of Patriots to Ukraine were running at a paltry one-third level of the reduced flow of 2025.
Russia used North Korean missiles in a Zaporizhzhia attack killing six, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed.
Six more died in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, while Kyiv suffered fires from the attacks.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed strikes on Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, though it denied North Korean missile use.
Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith called for the firing of Fever coach Stephanie White after she defended DiJonai Carrington despite her Flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham.
While WNBA journalists and reporters circled the wagons in support of Carrington after she clotheslined Cunningham during a layup, it was Fever coach Stephanie White who provided the most puzzling defense during the post-game press conference.
Moscow says it knows where Western commercial ships are sailing, as President Vladimir Putin threatens retaliation if Europe starts seizing Russian vessels.
President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for separating the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine into three single-disease vaccines administered at separate medical visits is a long-overdue step in the right direction, according to doctors, scientists and medical freedom advocates who spoke with The Defender. However, it could be years before separate vaccines become available.
Trump claims "total control" of Hormuz, signals strategy of continued economic pressure.
Iran declares "victory" & says it can sustain the conflict & outlast.
Iran shifts to a "survival economy" to withstand sanctions, Washington's economic warfare, naval blockade.
Peace talks basically not happening, with Pakistan reporting "absolutely no progress."
Tehran: Hormuz remains closed until Washington accepts all conditions.
On Wednesday a "massive" Ukrainian drone and missile strike was unleashed on Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, which badly damaged grain export terminals at what also constitutes the the last major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.
The fraud factories are highly successful and growing, and the United States is feeling the toll. In 2025 alone, Americans reported 72,000 cases of cryptocurrency investment fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. More than $7.5 billion was lost.
Iran rejects peace push narrative: Tehran says Hormuz stays closed until the US accepts all its conditions.
Hardliners take control: Iran reshuffles top military leadership, signaling a tougher stance.
Pakistan pushes talks: Interior Minister arrives in Tehran for mediation efforts.
US enforces blockade: American forces reportedly fired on a ship trying to breach the Iran blockade.
Shipping attacks escalate in region: A Houthi attack reportedly killed three crew members, while another vessel was struck in the Gulf of Oman.
