Donald Trump is said to be "ready to push the button" on military strikes against Iran, after the U.S. and U.K. withdrew personnel from bases in the Middle East.
The U.S. president has been mulling direct action against Iran, amid ongoing and widespread protests in the country calling for an end to the Ayatollah's regime. Trump has warned there would be "hell to pay" if protesters were killed, but has yet to act despite reports of a death toll now topping 2,500.
A Washington source close to the U.S. administration told The Independent that strikes could be carried out within the next 24 hours.
www.cnn.com Even more. Read more
The newly unveiled Chinese system reportedly delivers an impressive 2.6 megawatts of pulsed power with synchronization accuracy previously thought unattainable. Such power output, combined with fine control over timing, marks a breakthrough in how particle beams can be generated and maintained in the vacuum of space.
The funniest thing about the Secret Service decrying James O'Keefe's honeypot sting tactics -- as "targeted and manipulated" is that sources tell me that Secret Service leaders recently launched their own attempted yet failed sting operation to try to uncover my sources within the agency. In a plan authorized by Secret Service Director Sean Curran himself, I'm told agents posed as journalists fishing for derogatory information on the USSS to try to find out who is leaking to me. The effort failed and provided a lesson for most Secret Service sources inside and outside the agency. They know I would go to jail to protect them -- and that I have not and would never give up their identities
As the people of Iran brave another intensifying crackdown by their rulers after another effort to reclaim their basic rights from one of the world's most repressive regimes, my question is: Where are the protests in the West? Specifically, where are all those defenders of persecuted Muslims who have been so active on the streets of New York, London, Sydney, Rome and elsewhere the past two years? Where are the demands for justice and freedom for the downtrodden victims of a brutally repressive state? What is so different about the cause they have been espousing in their demonstrations over Gaza and the cause of the millions of innocent coreligionists 1,000 miles to their east? Those kaffiyeh-wearing, banner-waving, slogan-chanting activists say they were moved to protest, sometimes violently and unlawfully, by the plight of Muslims dispossessed of their lands and livelihoods, immiserated, starved, beaten and murdered by a savage regime.
An unnamed Israeli official also said it appeared Trump had decided to intervene, though the scope and timing remained unclear.
The United States and the United Kingdom are pulling certain personnel from key bases around Iran amid rapidly escalating tensions in the region, sources told Reuters on Wednesday. "All the signals are that a U.S. attack is imminent, but that is also how this administration behaves to keep everyone on their toes. Unpredictability is part of the strategy," a Western military official told Reuters on Wednesday.
CBS News @CBSNews BREAKING: The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, Jonathan Ross, suffered internal bleeding to the torso following the incident, according to two U.S. officials briefed on his medical condition.
US Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)
We really did not expect this to be a series, but you roll with the punches. That will happen when it's big news AND you have 4 days to think about it while you're in recovery.
Greenland PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is demanding [University of Pennsylvania] turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the Penn community as part of the administration's stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses. But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government's demand as "a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government lists of Jews' conjures a terrifying history", according to a press release put out by the groups' lawyers. Read more
According to The Telegraph, "Trump has been warned that the US military needs more time to prepare for strikes against Iran." Military commanders in the Middle East stated they need to "consolidate US military positions and prepare defences" in anticipation of an Iranian retaliatory attack. Read more
WASHINGTON (AP) " The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.'s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions, following his administration's review of participation in and funding for all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House release. Read more
Scott Adams, the creator of the long-running comic strip Dilbert and an author and commentator whose work reached millions, has died at age 68 following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. Adams had publicly disclosed his diagnosis in 2025, explaining that the cancer had spread to his bones and that his condition was terminal. In recent weeks, he told followers that he was receiving hospice care at his home in Northern California.
The public now demands regime change, financial resources are gone and support outside the country has collapsed, writes Mojtaba Dehghani.
