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 My son has narrated the last book I wrote.
Please consider listening to it and encouraging others to do so too. (Click HERE) World & Nation Iran's top military leader emerges after months in hiding for Khamenei funeral Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who leads Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has made his first public appearance since going into hiding on February 8, weeks before the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury. Vahidi was photographed at the side of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's casket on Thursday, days ahead of the former supreme leader's state funeral. The photo was released by the Iran's Supreme Leader's office, a position held by Mojtaba Khamenei since the February 28 airstrike that killed his father at his compound in Tehran. Vahidi, who is believed to be a part of a small group in contact with Mojtaba Khamenei, had strong words for the enemies of Iran in comments that were aired by state media on Friday. Trump Opposed Iran Negotiator Killings As President Donald Trump pursued a negotiated end to the Iran war, senior U.S. officials grew increasingly concerned that Israel could derail the peace process by targeting Tehran's top negotiators, according to multiple reports. The reports said the Trump administration took the unusual step of using regional intermediaries to warn Iran that Israeli assassination attempts against Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were possible during ceasefire negotiations. According to The New York Times and The Washington Post, administration officials feared killing the two senior Iranian officials would eliminate the only remaining interlocutors capable of reaching an agreement with Washington, jeopardizing efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and limit Tehran's nuclear program. "You kll those folks and you're killing the pragmatists," one U.S. official told the Post, reflecting concerns that eliminating the negotiators would strengthen hard-liners inside Iran rather than advance peace. Iran Prepares for Ayatollah's Dayslong Funeral Iran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners across Tehran urging the public to rise in support of the Islamic Republic after the devastating war that killed the 86-year-old cleric. The country's theocracy plans to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent of the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. That could provide a boost for Iran's government, particularly as it tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the United States over a permanent end to the war, and as concern still lingers that Israel could attack yet again.
Hormuz Ship Transits Quadruple as Trump Plan Works President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz appears to be working, as transits show the strongest signs yet of returning to normal operations. Commercial shipping is steadily increasing under the 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire, easing fears of prolonged global oil supply disruptions and driving crude prices lower. New maritime data shows vessel traffic through the strategic waterway has more than quadrupled over the past week as shipping companies cautiously resume voyages through the Persian Gulf.
FBI infiltrated Gavin Newsom’s inner circle by convincing governor’s ally to wear a wire: lawyer The FBI had a mole inside Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political orbit before the agency’s corruption probe expanded into the governor and his wife, The Post has learned. Democrat insider Alexis Podesta, 45, secretly recorded conversations during the criminal probe into Newsom’s then-chief of staff, Dana Williamson, 53, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges in May, according to Williamson’s attorney. The revelation she was wearing a wire as far back as June 2024 explains why a swath of Sacramento political insiders and lobbyists were stunned to receive FBI letters last fall informing them that their phone calls had been intercepted during the investigation — despite many having little or no connection to Williamson. “Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not,” said McGregor Scott, Williamson’s lawyer and a former US attorney for the Eastern District of California, which is now investigating the Newsoms. Newsom Ally Wore FBI Wire Before Probe Expanded Federal investigators used a longtime Democrat insider as a confidential source in a corruption investigation that later expanded to include California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, according to the attorney for Newsom's former chief of staff. Alexis Podesta secretly recorded conversations for the FBI beginning in June 2024 during the agency's criminal investigation into Dana Williamson, Newsom's former chief of staff, according to Williamson's attorney, McGregor Scott, The New York Post reported on Friday. "Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not," Scott, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, told The Post. Cities brace for holiday weekend teen takeovers putting bystanders at deadly risk, former prosecutor warns Greenville Mayor PJ Connelly enacted a juvenile curfew ahead of the Fourth of July weekend Cities across America are bracing for a wave of social media-fueled "teen takeovers" this Fourth of July weekend, with police departments in several states taking preemptive steps to stop the chaos before it starts. The so-called teen takeovers, some of which have been organized on social media, have erupted across the country and now threaten to interfere with Americans' Fourth of July weekend. As the holiday weekend arrives, police departments across the country are taking steps to stop the chaos before it even starts. In Falmouth, Massachusetts, police said they have increased staffing and are using drones to combat teen takeovers on beaches and stopping large gatherings before they become dangerous, according to Masslive.com. The states that still allow trans athletes in women's sports face questions after Supreme Court ruling California and Illinois vow to defy the shift, while Nevada's GOP governor pushes for new state legislation The U.S. Supreme Court has codified the protection of laws in 27 states that prevent biological males from competing in women's sports. Still, 23 states do not have such a law, and 19 of those states actively allow transgender athletes in girls' sports. The remaining four states restrict participation through state education agencies or athletic association rules rather than official state legislation. Fox News Digital reached out to the governor's offices in all 23 states with questions about where they stand after the ruling. The lesson we can learn from Bicentennial history is to party like it’s 1976 A 1976 Gallup poll found 77% of Americans believed the country had achieved its founding ideals despite years of turmoil By Michael Auslin
Can Americans come together over the next week to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary? With the country seemingly split into irreconcilable, and increasingly violent, camps, storm clouds darken the summer commemorations. Those worrying that the Semiquincentennial will be a giant bust should look no further than the Bicentennial. Plagued by similar fears, the Bicentennial turned into the biggest party the country had ever seen. Today, Americans should take heart and party like it’s 1976. America’s two-hundredth anniversary came either at the worst possible moment or just in time. The previous 13 years had been among the most violent and disruptive since the Great Depression, possibly even the Civil War. The upheavals of the Civil Rights Movement had been punctuated by the tragic assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. America’s postwar consensus had spectacularly disintegrated barely two decades after the resounding victory in World War II. To many, America had fundamentally changed. After the assassinations and riots, and the lies of Vietnam and Watergate, the country had become more cynical and distrusting of government, the elites, and big business. As a Boston Globe columnist wrote, the great issue in the 1976 presidential campaign would be "to restore confidence of the American people in their government and themselves," short of which he feared the country would remain "purposeless, rudderless, powerless." Old flame! The Statue of Liberty is the greatest gift one country ever gave another By Diane Von Furstenberg
Lady Liberty means so much to so many people. For me, growing up in Europe, she was always a beautiful postcard. But my relationship with her changed drastically when I joined the board of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. I was initially very reluctant to join, but President Stephen Briganti seduced me to change my mind by highlighting a very personal passage from my memoir, “The Woman I Wanted to Be.” My mother Lily had survived a war concentration camp, and I was born 18 months after she came home. In my book, I wrote about how she used to say, “God saved me so I can give you life. By giving you life, you gave me mine back. You are my torch of freedom.” Steve reminded me of those poignant words from my mother — and made it seem like destiny. I had to accept. Saying yes meant that I would have to help raise $100 million for the island’s new 26,000-square-foot museum, a showcase for the original torch. |
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