This week, I’m leading with a story that highlights the danger within the conservative movement when good people become yesmen to a leader, Donald Trump and his political endorsement power, rather than doing the tough work of analyzing and judging a leader’s action based upon principles of right and wrong. Yes, the issues of the war on Iran are complex and mired in a myriad of verbal false justifications that require real thinking to sort out. But after the defeat of Rep. Thomas Massie in Republican primary in a very conservative Kentucky district this week, it has become obvious [unless there was vote fraud] that more than half of conservatives having become unthinking supporters of Donald Trump and the Israeli lobby, no matter how bad their mistakes. Thomas Massie was the most principled representative in the US House, and became “enemy No. 1" to Donald Trump for forcing Trump to release more of the Epstein files (albeit highly redacted to protect Trump and other perpetrators), voting against Trump’s Big Beautiful deficit bill, and opposing the war on Iran. I thought, if anyone had the ability to withstand Trump’s endorsement of an opponent, it was Massie. But Trump and his Israeli lobbyist donors mounted a $30 million dollar campaign fund to defeat Massie, the most expensive in House primary in history. Trump and big money appeared to win, though I’m skeptical. In any case, American conservatives lost one their finest. To receive a one-time copy of this brief, click on Request a Sample on the left
CENTCOM denies that US Navy has officially restarted guiding ships through Hormuz Strait amid fresh tanker explosion and fuel leak incident.
IRGC says its military shot down an MQ-9 drone and forced an F-35 jet out of Iranian airspace.
Tehran formally accuses Washington of "ceasefire violation" while warning a final deal is not yet imminent, while Pentagon cites "self-defense" strikes in Hormuz overnight.
Ayatollah Hajj message: US will "no longer have a safe haven for mischief & the establishment of military bases in the region."
Teran is demanding "12 billion released now and 12 billion after MOU 30 days runs out to open Hormuz."
The Deep State just upgraded from clunky human fact-checkers to AI that scales narrative control at lightspeed. No more paper trails, subpoenas, or exposed biases—just seamless manipulation.
Europe risks a major gas storage shortfall if disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz continue for another 1–3 months, with inventories still far below normal seasonal levels.
LNG supply disruptions, strong Asian demand, and distorted gas pricing have made refilling storage unusually difficult and expensive across the EU.
Equinor warns prolonged disruptions could push Dutch TTF gas prices toward €90/MWh, forcing industrial demand destruction and fuel switching across Europe.
CBS detailed how the isolation is to keep Western intelligence from mapping his coordinates, which involves only being reached via a slow, archaic network of physical couriers designed to conceal his location.
... The right of a police officer to conduct a “knock-and-talk” is no greater than a Girl Scout has to approach a house to sell cookies.
Since a Girl Scout cannot walk around your house to the back yard to the back door, neither can the police. Since a Girl Scout cannot come to your house in the middle of the night, neither can uninvited police. No peering through windows. No forcible entry. No hanging around without invitation from the occupant. No repeated trips back to harass the occupant. No surveillance devices. And, the occupant must have the right to refuse to talk, and to revoke the “implied license” for the police to remain and talk whenever he chooses.
The police have a tough enough job. Fuzzy rules of procedure not only jeopardizes the peoples’ liberties, but also law enforcement safety.
It is further and more broadly warning all foreign persons to exit the Ukrainian capital, which has already been getting pounded at various intervals, stretching back days. Russia's foreign ministry slammed the college dorm attack, which killed and wounded dozens - the "last straw" and that the military will initiate "systematic strikes" on assorted targets across the Ukrainian capital from now on.
Mamdani told the crowd:
When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves.
IT BEGINS…
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveils plan to "transfer ownership" from landlords to "the community"
The bottom line is that the supply shortfall will build in coming months as temporary buffers are depleted. And if markets grow increasingly pessimistic over an eventual resolution to the impasse in the strait, oil prices may rise materially higher.
Massie said the move allows him to keep raising money for his political operation while he decides what comes next.
"This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office," Massie wrote in a post on X. "I haven't made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run."
Hours ahead of Russia's huge attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used social media to warn that an Oreshnik assault was in the works, citing intelligence received from American and European partners. He also said the use of such formidable weapons shouldn't be tolerated by other countries:
Russia fires Oreshnik missile for third time in conflict
Bombardment of Kyiv one of the heaviest since war began
Zelenskiy says there must be consequences for Russia
European leaders condemn 'escalation'
"[Macron] highlighted the risks Belarus will face if dragged into the war in Ukraine. He also called on Lukashenko to take necessary measures to improve relations between Belarus and Europe," a source told AFP. Lukashenko let Russia use Belarus as a staging area for the 2022 invasion, and has continued to let Russia launch missile and drone strikes from Belarus over the more than three years of war.
Israel launches significant new attacks on the Gaza Strip just as word of a tentative US-Iran peace deal is driving international headlines.
Trump says an Iran peace agreement has been “largely negotiated” and will be announced “shortly,” with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz included among the deal’s key elements.
Mediators believe they are edging closer to a deal to extend the US ceasefire with Iran by 60 days
Waiting game in Tehran, via Iran Foreign Ministry: "We need to wait and see what happens over the next three to four days."
Trump, officials have canceled prior travel plans: Trump says "Circumstances pertaining to Government" are keeping him from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding this weekend.
"I didn't want what happened to me to happen to other vulnerable girls and women," she said.
Her lawsuit alleged professional malpractice, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud, each rooted in the same core allegation: that she was neither properly evaluated nor genuinely informed before she consented to an irreversible procedure. "And I wasn't given true informed consent. And that's something that everyone deserves to have for any medical procedure," she said.
According to a newly declassified U.S. defense intelligence assessment first reported by Bloomberg, Moscow’s frontline command-and-control structures suffered a catastrophic blackout earlier this year due largely to coordinated crackdown that disabled thousands of black market Russian Starlink terminals.
Ukrainian forces have borrowed a page from China's hypersonic glide-weapon testing and applied it to the Eastern European theater, using one-way attack drones against Russia.
Instead of launching the Hornet strike drone from a ground-based catapult, Ukrainian operators tethered it to a high-altitude balloon, extending its range.
The imbalance occurs because Washington and Tel Aviv developed a strategy for the defense of Israel, where the US advanced interceptors handled the bulk of the Iranian missiles. The official said that the policy resulted in a significant “drawdown” of the US interceptor stockpile.
HR departments were originally created as a means of monitoring compliance with state and federal laws to avoid liability. In many cases this revolved around "sexual harassment" or "discrimination" in the workplace, but it ended up becoming a progressive crusade to make women, LGBT and minority groups a protected class of workers that are difficult to fire because HR is more concerned with lawsuits.
The US blockade of the Iranian blockade is looking increasingly more porous.
Iran said 35 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian state broadcaster reported on Friday. The navy had already reported on Wednesday that 26 ships had passed through the strait within 24 hours. On Friday, the data provider Kpler confirmed only 10 passages on Wednesday. This represented an increase from the four passages recorded the previous day.
Did the Pentagon just back down amid pressure from China? It appears so. As we reported Thursday, China has been actively holding up a proposed visit by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's under-secretary of defense for policy. The move is a transparent effort to pressure President Trump over a looming $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan.
X owner demands answers after officers handcuffed dying teen who begged for help. This poor boy was running away from someone who stabbed him & stole his phone, but the police in the UK attacked him instead of his murderer!
Is the Iranian regime the immediate barrier to oil tankers seeking to exit the Strait of Hormuz, or is it fear of liability that's keeping shipping companies at bay?
The FDA fired Tracy Beth Høeg, the agency’s top drug regulator and a staunch advocate for vaccine safety. It’s the latest in a string of high-profile exits from the agency, many of which followed the appointment of Chris Klomp as HHS’ No. 2 official, Reuters reported. TrialSite News suggested the departures were “associated” with the “COVID-era dissent class” — and that Klomp may have directed the changes on behalf of the White House. The Defender could not verify that claim.
Virginia currently has an independent redistricting committee that drew a congressional map with a Democrat advantage of 6-5. However, voters in April approved a change to the state constitution to allow the partisan redistricting in a narrow referendum last month. The state’s high court determined the state legislature violated the Virginia Constitution in bypassing normal procedures to pass a constitutional amendment.
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from over 1,000 LAUSD employees fired for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, despite CDC admitting the shots do not prevent transmission.
The ruling relied on the outdated 1905 Jacobson precedent, which dissenters warned grants unchecked government power under the guise of public health.
A controversial test of parenting competency that put many Greenlanders’ kids in foster care was dropped in 2025. But parents and kids remain separated.
The secretary of state said on X that he terminated Adys Morera’s permanent resident status. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
