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A U.S. judge on Thursday declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive ‌order tightening rules on mail-in voting, but left the door open for the Democratic Party to challenge it again after the administration takes further steps to implement the measure.

Washington-based U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote that the Democrats’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s March 31 order, which directed his administration to ​compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, was premature. The decision did not address ​whether Trump’s executive order was lawful.

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Members of the Iranian security forces stand guard under a large portrait of Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, during a memorial to mark the 40th day since his father, Ali Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli joint strikes.

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

  • Iranian negotiators are reportedly seeking the release of about $24 billion in frozen assets as part of talks aimed at ending the war with the United States.
  • Tehran is finalising a 14-point framework for a possible agreement following months of conflict sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
  • Senior Iranian officials, including Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi, are in Qatar for negotiations focused on accessing an initial $12 billion tranche of funds.

Iranian media said on Tuesday that Tehran’s negotiators were seeking the release of around $24 billion in frozen assets abroad as part of a process aimed at ending the war with the United States.

The report by Tasnim news agency came as a top Iranian delegation was in Qatar, and after Tehran said it was finalising a 14-point framework for a deal on ending the war, which began with US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran on 28 February.

“Iran’s frozen assets are to be released during the course of the negotiations, and this amount is estimated at $24 billion in accordance with the 14-point memorandum of understanding,” Tasnim quoted an unnamed source close to the negotiating team as saying.

Around half of that sum “should be made available at the start of the announcement of the memorandum,” it added.

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Israel said on Wednesday it had killed the new head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, in a strike the day before, after killing his predecessor in a similar attack earlier this month.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “commander of the armed wing of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza was eliminated yesterday and sent to meet his associates in the depths of hell.”

Hamas hasn’t commented yet.

“In the Prime Minister’s name and in my own, congratulations to the IDF and the Shin Bet on the brilliant execution,” Katz said.

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Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. The Sine Qua Non Sequitur is spending the day providing sweater vests to disgruntled sociology professors who’ve had  previous complaints about Canada.

The alternative universe that the “journalists” at The New York Times and The Washington Post write about is filled with stories about an ever-widening rift in the MAGA movement. Accoding to the fiction, people on the right are becoming disenchanted with President Trump. I keep looking for signs of it in the real world and have not yet been able to find any.

In fact, it looks like Trump’s influence in the Republican Party is stronger than ever. GOP candidates that the president endorsed have been cleaning up in recent primaries and runoff elections. Last week we discussed the Democrats’ excitement about Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Some polling showed Talarico looking good against Republicans Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who were facing each other in a runoff.

I got quite a few emails and comments after that the Republicans simply needed to get the runoff election behind them in order to begin focusing on Talarico. Well, that happened last night, and the contest wasn’t even close. This is from Catherine:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a hardcore MAGA warrior endorsed by President Donald Trump, has won the Republican Senate primary run-off race against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

The biggest race of Primary Election Day 2026 in Texas was between Cornyn and Paxton. After a long period of widespread speculation, Trump finally declared a week ago that he was backing the Texas attorney general to win the Senate primary runoff. “Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to WIN… KEN PAXTON WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump wrote.

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On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said that picking up Raul Castro in Cuba wouldn’t be difficult, but he thinks that, due to a desire by Castro to avoid dying in prison, “Raul Castro is going to leave the country, along with his family” “before we pick him up.”

Scott said, “Well, let’s remember, the Cubans were supporting — were defending Maduro, and that took, what, seven minutes to take out Maduro? So, it won’t take much to pick up Raul Castro. And the people of Cuba are already –.”

Co-host Kailey Leinz then cut in to ask, “You expect that to happen?”

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A massive tank of caustic chemicals burst at a Washington paper mill Tuesday morning, killing an unknown number of workers and sending others to hospitals, officials said.

The tank failed around 7:15 a.m. at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. plant on Industrial Way in Longview, the Longview Fire Department (LFD) said in a joint statement with the company. Ten people went to hospitals in the area, including nine plant workers and one firefighter, while some remain unaccouted for, according to KGW. Officials said the identities of the dead and wounded will not be shared until relatives have been informed.

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Redistricting is the fight of the year as we’re getting involved in the 2026 election season; primary elections are already being held across the fruited plain, and the battle lines are being drawn for November. By and large, the redistricting efforts have favored Republicans, but there are some truly baffling exceptions.

One of those is South Carolina, where the state Senate refused to pass a redistricting bill; several Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure.

The Republican-led South Carolina Senate on Tuesday voted against a measure to advance a new congressional map, ending the redistricting effort in the state for now.

The failed vote was a surprise rejection of President Donald Trump, who had urged lawmakers to pass a redrawn map that eliminated the state’s single majority-Black district, represented by longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.

The South Carolina House approved the map last week in hopes of putting it into place for this year’s midterm elections. As part of the effort, lawmakers also sought to set another primary election for the affected districts in August. But after early voting began on Tuesday for the previously scheduled June primary, some Republicans changed their tune, arguing it was too late to enact new district lines.

“Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” said Republican state Sen. Richard Cash, a Republican who changed his vote due to timing.

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Alabama Republicans immediately called for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing a redistricting battle at a three-judge panel of a federal court.

Republicans are trying to reinstate a 2023 congressional map that would allow them the possibility of picking up a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats claimed the new map would send Alabama back to the ‘1950s and 60s.’

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Conservatives have every right to feel betrayed by the Republican Congress’ recent antics.

Freemarketeers, from the U.S. House to homes across America, were told in April to accept Senate Republican Leader John Thune’s emaciated Reconciliation 2.0 bill. The South Dakotan employed a limited-use budget procedure that obviates that pesky 60-vote filibuster threshold and permits passage via simple majority.

These special bills typically deliver the sponsoring party’s leading initiatives. This is how President Donald J. Trump and Republicans enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill in 2025 and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. Reconciliation was the needle through which Obama and Democrats injected the poison of Obamacare into America’s body politic in 2010.

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Iran’s Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei declared in his first major public statement since taking office that regional countries would no longer serve as staging grounds for US military bases, after US Central Command acknowledged carrying out strikes on missile sites and boats in southern Iran overnight.

In a 14-page written message marking the Eid al-Adha holiday and the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Khamenei said the US “in addition to no longer having any safe haven in the region for aggression and the establishment of military bases, is moving further and further away from its former position with each passing day.”

“The hands of time will not turn backwards, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” he added.

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Cuba’s acquisition of more than 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia since 2023 underscores the regime’s deepening alignment with Washington’s adversaries. Cuban planners have reportedly discussed strikes against Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and even Key West, Florida. While these systems provide Havana with a limited harassment and asymmetric strike capability, they do nothing to narrow the overwhelming gap between Cuban and American military power.

Yet, Cuba poses a direct threat to American homeland security through migration waves, narcotics transshipment, espionage, and now drone threats. Over 600,000 Cubans have attempted or reached U.S. shores since 2021, surpassing the Mariel boatlift and the 1994 rafting crisis combined, straining resources and creating security vulnerabilities. Pentagon contingency planning intensified this month with the USS Nimitz carrier group deployed to the Caribbean, underscoring the urgency.

Cuba fields 50,000 active troops, 40,000 reserves, and approximately 1.1 million personnel in its Territorial Troops Militia. Its air force operates roughly 20 aircraft. The army possesses around 300 aging T-55 and T-62 tanks, Soviet-era artillery, and surface-to-air missile launchers upgraded by Belarus in 2025. Global Firepower ranks Cuba 65th globally, a position that conceals obsolescence and systemic decay

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The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with the Trump administration on Tuesday in a dispute involving its policy regulating immigration judges’ “work-related speech.”

In its per curiam opinion, the high court vacated and remanded a decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that centered around the government’s rules governing the executive’s immigration courts. The specific policy in question — which was enacted in October 2021 under the Biden administration — required immigration judges “to obtain supervisory approval for public speeches relating to their official duties” and was designed “to ensure that employee speech which may be seen as bearing the ‘imprimatur’ of the Office is consistent with its official positions,” according to SCOTUS.

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Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito blasted their Supreme Court colleagues on Tuesday for ducking a pivotal interstate dispute over issuing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal aliens who can’t read or speak English.

The verbal smackdown came about in the high court’s most recent order list, in which the justices disclosed which cases they will not be taking up and hearing arguments in during its upcoming 2026 term. Among the rejected cases was Florida v. California and Washington, in which Florida sought to file a lawsuit against California and Washington “for defying federal law by providing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who cannot read English,” as summarized by Thomas.

In its October 2025 filing, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked the high court to greenlight and consider his state’s legal complaint against the aforementioned Democrat-run states over the contested policy. He noted that Florida’s “serious and dignified” claims “arise under the United States Constitution,” and that “there is no alternative forum to provide adequate relief.”

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Thousands of demonstrators marched through central Madrid calling on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to resign over corruption allegations involving members of his political circle.

Video showed large crowds carrying Spanish flags and chanting slogans against the socialist leader as they moved through the streets of the capital.

Organisers claimed around 120,000 people attended the rally, while government officials estimated the turnout at closer to 40,000.

The protest comes amid mounting political pressure on Sánchez and growing tensions between Spain’s government and opposition parties over several ongoing corruption investigations.

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The 18-year-old suspect was taken into custody uninjured, and a firearm was recovered from his vehicle.

Five police officers were struck by a vehicle early Sunday morning while attempting to disperse a large “teen takeover” in Chicago.

The incident occurred at around 3:20 am as Chicago Police Department officers on foot were trying to clear a large crowd from the area. Authorities said the driver of a blue car struck five officers before driving over a curb and crashing into a CPD squad car, as well as a pole and a fence.

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The explosive standoff over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act has pushed the U.S. Senate into a pressure cooker, transforming the legislative battle into a high-stakes referendum on the leadership of Majority Leader John Thune. For a rapidly growing number of Americans, the slow, agonizing movement on this landmark election security bill is nothing short of a tactical surrender – a profound failure of nerve from a leader increasingly viewed as a worthless roadblock to the populist agenda.

Across the country, the hatred directed at Thune is reaching a boiling point, fueled by the conviction that his deliberate inaction is a direct betrayal of the citizens he was chosen to lead. Indeed, there is no institutional excuse; his handling of the SAVE Act is a definitive reason why he should resign.

To understand the intense fury surrounding John Thune’s leadership, one must first look at the bill at the center of the storm. The SAVE Act represents a massive proposed shift in how American federal elections are conducted. The bill’s core mandate is simple but sweeping: it would require all Americans to present formal documentary proof of citizenship – such as a U.S. passport or a certified birth certificate alongside photo identification – in order to register to vote in federal elections.

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As RedState’s Ward Clark reported earlier in May, an Iraqi militia commander, part of an Iranian-backed terrorist group called the Kataib Hezbollah, was arrested in Turkey and was shipped to the U.S. to face charges of plotting numerous terrorist attacks, mostly against Jewish targets.

On Friday, The New York Post brought more disturbing details about the militant, 32-year-old Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, and his diabolical quest to kill the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump:

First Daughter Ivanka Trump was targeted for assassination by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) trained terrorist in a twisted plot to avenge the president taking out his mentor, The Post has learned.

Recently captured Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, made a “pledge” to kill Ivanka and even had a blueprint of her Florida home, sources claimed.

The Iraqi national was allegedly targeting President Donald Trump’s family in response to the killing of Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad six years ago.

“After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house,’” Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché in the Iraqi embassy in Washington told The Post.

He’s allegedly one evil individual:

Few outside of the FBI have heard of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, but they say he’s behind a series of attacks – including in the UK

But the complaint against him describes the 32-year-old as a key figure in Iran’s covert overseas terror operations

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In a surprise reversal of efforts to reduce the American military footprint in Europe, President Donald Trump said Thursday that the US will now be deploying an additional 5,000 troops to Poland.

The declaration came just days after the Trump administration said it would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany and follows the Pentagon’s abrupt cancellation of a large training exercise in Poland.

The announcement also came on the heels of a Pentagon memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth temporarily halting the deployment of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team to Poland.

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We currently face an Ebola epidemic in Africa, and it doesn’t help that health facilities are being attacked by mobs. The region where this latest outbreak occurred has long been neglected by government officials, so the increased attention has triggered hostile reactions from locals, some of whom suspect hidden motives. Yes, some believe the Ebola outbreak is a hoax, while others are secretly upset that they can’t bury their loved ones. The latter is how patient zero spread this pathogen. Now, we have dozens of those infected with Ebola roaming free after fleeing these facilities (via NBC News):

Doctors operating on the front lines of the fight against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, already grappling with shortages of basic supplies, are now also having to deal with attacks on their facilities and fleeing patients as the virus spreads rapidly.

At least three such incidents have occurred in the northeastern province of Ituri where the first Ebola cases were reported, including two at the weekend targeting the same hospital that permitted more than two dozen patients to run away.

The attacks recall the widespread violence targeting health facilities during a 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern Congo that killed more than 25 health workers.

Some were perpetrated by civilians who were angry about not being able to bury their loved ones or were convinced that the outbreak was a hoax. The influx of money and manpower into an area that had felt neglected during decades of conflict and humanitarian crisis has spurred local suspicions about the real motives for the sudden spike of interest.

A similar dynamic seems to be playing out now, said Dr. Richard Lokodu, medical director of the Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, which came under attack first Saturday and again Sunday.

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President Donald Trump said Monday that six Muslim-majority nations must join the Abraham Accords if they want to participate in an agreement currently being negotiated with Iran.

In a Memorial Day post on Truth Social, Trump said the negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” but added that he had made normalization with Israel a condition for several regional governments seeking involvement in the deal.

Trump said he spoke Saturday with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Jordan and told them they should formally recognize Israel through the Abraham Accords framework.

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Lawmakers in the South Carolina House of Representatives have just passed a new U.S. congressional map that could eliminate the district of a powerful congressman with the only Democrat seat in the state.

The move is setting up a major political battle ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The Republican-led chamber approved the measure by a 74–37 vote after lengthy debate, sending the proposal to the GOP-controlled state Senate for further consideration.

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After Maryland announced an error within a massive shipment of more than 500,000 mail-in ballots, Rep. Greg Murphy had a one-word description.

“Oops,” the North Carolina Republican said during a hearing Wednesday of the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections.

“What’s the deal going on with Maryland?” Murphy asked Don Palmer, a former chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

“It’s a very, it’s a huge mistake. Obviously, you can point at the vendor and say, well, the vendor made this mistake, but the buck stops with the election officials,” Palmer, now a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told the House panel.

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President Trump scored another major primary victory as Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie lost to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein. Horrifying new details and livestream footage have emerged from the deadly San Diego mosque shooting. Investigators say the attackers were fueled by online radicalization and white supremacist ideology.

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba on Thursday for meetings with senior Cuban officials, including the grandson of former communist leader Raúl Castro, as the Trump administration pursues renewed pressure and negotiations with the island’s government.

According to US and Cuban officials, Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and Cuban intelligence leaders during the visit. Discussions reportedly focused on intelligence cooperation, economic conditions, and regional security issues.

A CIA official said Ratcliffe traveled to Havana “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”

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It’s no surprise Republicans feel desperate to burnish Donald Trump’s reputation. His approval ratings are in the toilet, his unwanted and unnecessary war and tariffs are causing inflation and gas prices to soar, and while using his p***y-grabbing hands to pocket billions of taxpayer dollars and documents for himself, he has taken away health insurance and food benefits from Americans.

That’s not counting Dozy Don’s obvious mental decline.

Republicans in Congress could do a lot to rein in Trump’s wrongdoings and actually serve struggling Americans. Instead, Rep. Darrell Issa has introduced a resolution, cosponsored by more than 20 other Republicans, to rewrite history and expunge Trump’s two impeachments. Not only that, as Alternet reported, “it appears he wants to allege ‘misconduct’ on the part of those who were part of the process of impeaching him.”

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U.S. President Donald Trump entered his final talks with Xi Jinping on Friday touting economic wins that gave markets little to cheer, while Beijing warned Washington about mishandling Taiwan and said its war with Iran should never have started.

Trump is making the ‌first visit by a U.S. president to China, America’s main strategic and economic rival, since his last in 2017, and has been seeking tangible results to beef up his dented approval ratings ahead of crucial midterm elections.

“We’ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,” Trump said, seated beside Xi in a decorative red armchair at the opulent Zhongnanhai complex, a former imperial ‌garden that houses the offices of Chinese leaders.

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The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Washington D.C. Bar, escalating the Trump administration’s fight against what it describes as politically motivated disciplinary actions targeting conservative government lawyers.

The lawsuit challenges the D.C. Bar’s recommendation to disbar Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official in President Donald Trump’s first administration. Clark had been accused of violating legal ethics rules over actions connected to efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results.

According to the complaint, the administration argues that state and local bar authorities are improperly interfering with executive branch functions by pursuing disciplinary action against federal attorneys over legal advice and internal deliberations.

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LONDON — Efforts to unseat British Prime Minister Keir Starmer broke out into open rebellion Thursday, with one potential rival resigning from the Cabinet and another clearing the way for her to enter any future leadership contest.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting became the first senior minister to quit Starmer ’s Cabinet on Thursday in what is expected to be a precursor to challenging his leadership.

Starmer is facing growing pressure to step down after his Labour Party’s disastrous results last week in local and regional elections.

“You have shown courage and statesmanship on the world stage — not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran,” Streeting wrote in a letter. “But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”

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Older adults who cut back on dietary fat or reduced the amount of animal-based protein they consumed showed signs of becoming biologically younger, according to new research from the University of Sydney.

The study, published in Aging Cell, found that adults between the ages of 65 and 75 experienced reductions in their estimated ‘biological age’ after following specific diets for just four weeks. Researchers say the findings suggest dietary changes later in life may quickly improve markers linked to aging and overall health.

The research was led by Dr. Caitlin Andrews from the University of Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences. While the results are promising, the scientists emphasized that the study provides only an early indication rather than definitive proof that diet can reverse aging. They say larger and longer studies are needed to determine whether these biological changes lower disease risk over time and whether the same effects occur in other age groups.

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The United States, with “America First” President Donald Trump at the helm, along with his anti-Castro Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been putting the pressure on the communist regime founded in 1959 by that infamous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. In an executive order issued in May, the president deemed the island country, which is only 90 miles off the Florida Keys, an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and the administration has been busy since slamming them with sanctions and cutting off their oil supplies.