Important Takeaways:
- President-elect Donald Trump is weighing his options to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, including preemptive airstrikes that would end years of containing Tehran with sanctions, according to a new report.
- Members of Trump’s transition team are reviewing the military strike option more closely now following the recent upheavals in the Middle East, including the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Israel’s decimation of Tehran terror proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Trump has a “great opportunity” to end the Middle East conflict and halt Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.
- Trump recently said in his interview with Time magazine that America could go to war with Iran after investigators found that Tehran had once plotted to assassinate him.
- The US could also sell additional advanced weapons to Israel, including bunker-busting bombs, to pressure Tehran with a foe that has hit its nuclear facilities in the past.
- “Anything can happen,” he told the magazine that named him 2024 Person of the Year. “It’s a very volatile situation.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A Ukrainian official has taken credit for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s chemical, biological and radiation defense forces, and his assistant, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday.
- Russia’s Investigative Committee said the explosive device was placed in a scooter near a residential apartment block on Ryazansky Avenue and triggered remotely, according to The Associated Press. The bombing came one day after Ukrainian Security Services charged Kirillov with crimes.
- The bomb had the power of roughly 300 grams of TNT, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
- Kirillov was charged by the SBU on Monday with using banned chemical weapons on the battlefield. Several countries had also placed him under sanctions for his role in the war against Ukraine, The AP reported.
- The SBU said it has recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which began in Feb. 2022.
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Important Takeaways:
- A staggering poll from Emerson College suggests that more young Americans believe that Luigi Mangione’s assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was acceptable than don’t.
- According to the survey of 1,000 registered voters, 41% of 18 t0 29-year-olds believe that the murder of Thompson was either somewhat or completely acceptable, with 24% falling into the former and 17% falling into the latter categories. Thirty-three percent of that same cohort believes that the murder was completely unacceptable, and an additional 7% believes it was somewhat unacceptable.
- Nineteen percent professed to be “neutral” on the question.
- The 18-29 grouping was the only age demographic in which a plurality deemed the assassination acceptable. In every other one, a majority said that it was unacceptable.
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Important Takeaways:
- U.S. federal authorities have disclosed an assassination plot by Iranian operatives, targeting former President Donald Trump.
- The plan, unveiled on Friday, involved recruiting criminal assets to monitor and ultimately kill him on American soil, the AP News reports.
- What Happened: The Justice Department released details of the plot following the indictment of Farhad Shakeri, an alleged Iranian government operative. Shakeri reportedly received orders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to organize surveillance on Trump and prepare for a possible assassination attempt, per federal court filings
- The instructions reportedly came with an urgent seven-day deadline. Authorities stated that Shakeri’s handlers implied the operation would be easier if Trump lost the election, expecting a potential delay if he remained in office, the AP reports.
- Shakeri remains at large in Iran, while two other suspects linked to separate Iranian-backed assassination schemes have been apprehended.
- According to the Department of Justice, Tehran’s attempts to disrupt the U.S. political landscape have included both physical threats and cyber operations. A previous incident involved Iranian hackers attempting to distribute stolen Trump campaign data to Joe Biden’s team. Intelligence sources confirmed that no response came from Biden’s camp regarding these phishing attempts.
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Important Takeaways:
- Prosecutors say Panos Anastasiou, 76, levied the threats over the course of about six months, but many were delivered in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision carving out broad criminal immunity for former President Trump.
- In one alleged message sent less than two hours after the July 1 decision, Anastasiou threatened to torture and execute six unnamed justices by “assassination,” according to the indictment. He allegedly sent a similar message that evening.
- Two days later, he made a threat to behead the six justices, prosecutors allege, which was purportedly followed the followed the next day with a threat of drowning, shooting, strangling and “lynching” the six jurists.
- Prosecutors say Anastasiou began sending messages through the Supreme Court’s website as early as March 2023 and started including threats this past January. More than 465 messages were sent in total, according to the indictment, and some allegedly targeted justices’ family members.
- The grand jury returned the indictment just days after authorities began investigating a man for apparently attempting to assassinate Trump at one of his Florida golf courses on Sunday.
- And it comes amid increased concerns about the protection of Supreme Court justices.
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Important Takeaways:
- Routh, who has so far refused to talk to police following his arrest on Sunday, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces additional charges related to the alleged assassination attempt.
- Routh, according to news reports, appeared in court with shackled hands. He smiled and laughed as he talked to his attorney, according to Fox News producers who were inside the courtroom.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Secret Service sniper claims that another assassination attempt against a presidential candidate seems inevitable before Election Day because the attack on former President Donald Trump exposed the weakness in Secret Service security, according to a scathing letter circulating within the agency.
- “This agency NEEDS to change, if not now, WHEN? The NEXT assassination attempt in 30 days?” read the letter, first published by RealClearPolitics.
- “We all SHOULD expect another attempt to happen before November. We’ve exposed our inability to protect our leaders due to our leadership.”
- Law enforcement sources verified the authenticity of the letter to The Post.
- It was sent Monday to the entirety of the Secret Service Uniformed Division — the agency’s police force that secures the White House.
- The sniper demanded the resignation of high-level supervisors, whom the agent accused of failing rank-and-file Secret Service staff.
- “Sadly we have fallen short for YEARS. We just got lucky and looked good doing it. I have conveyed these thoughts to not only supervisors … Only to be brushed off as those with less experience somehow knew more than me,” the letter read.
- “Secret Service SUPERVISORS ‘knew better’ and the foot soldiers working, made the best of a BAD situation.”
- It went on to say that the reputation of the Secret Service and all its agents had been marred by the failures of July 13, which resulted in Trump being shot in the ear and a hero firefighter behind him being killed. The sniper said the day was “a stain I will never be able to cleanse.”
- The identity of the counter-sniper who wrote the letter is unclear. They described themselves as a veteran of the Marine Corps, and a member of Secret Service’s counter-sniper team for more than 20 years.
- Law enforcement sources previously told The Post that a full 30 seconds elapsed between when local police confronted gunman Thomas Crooks and the first shots he fired at Trump — prompting questions as to why Trump was allowed to remain onstage.
- The acting Secret Service director said Tuesday agents were never warned that Crooks was on the roof with a rifle.
- Meanwhile, newly revealed footage from the site of the shooting showed local cops encircling the building he shot from for more than two minutes before the attack, reinforcing that baffling question.
- Local police were in charge of the grounds from where Crooks fired, but the Secret Service was ultimately in charge of coordinating the day’s security.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel early Wednesday morning in the heart of the Iranian capital hours after attending President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration. The details remain unclear, but it’s widely thought that he was killed by a precision drone strike at his residence. The world is watching to see whether Iran and/or its Resistance Axis allies will respond, what form it could take if so, and whether that would escalate tensions to a wider war.
- Here are five takeaways thus far:
- Israel’s Intelligence & Tactics Are Top-Notch
- Israel somehow or another obtained accurate intelligence about Haniyeh’s location despite it being top-secret and was then able to successfully assassinate him. Whatever air defenses (including electronic warfare ones) that Iran had deployed in its capital as part of the security measures to protect its high-profile guests failed to thwart this attack. This is a major embarrassment for the Islamic Republic and prompts speculation about whether it was due to utter incompetence or was partially an inside job.
- Iran Is Caught In A Dilemma Over How To Respond
- It’s unimaginable that Iran won’t respond to its Israeli enemy assassinating a high-profile allied guest in Tehran during the new president’s inauguration, but the dilemma is over the form that this response will take. Launching another drone and missile salvo against Israel like it did in the spring after the bombing of its consulate in Damascus is possible, though Israel could spin that as a failure if many of them are shot down like last time, the on-the-ground damage is minimal, and no high-profile targets are killed.
- Mutually Assured Destruction Hangs Heavy Over Everyone’s Head
- The response that Iran resorts to will be determined by its leadership’s understanding of how far they can go without triggering the “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) scenario, which both Israel and the Resistance Axis fear and is why they’ve thus far restrained themselves from waging all-out war. A repeat of spring’s salvo could remain below that threshold, but Iran might also respond in a different way that’s interpreted by Israel as an escalation, thus prompting its own escalation that could then lead to MAD.
- A Choreographed Response Might Therefore Be The Most “Rational”
- Duma member Dmitry Belik, whose claim to fame was helping Sevastopol reunify with Russia when he briefly served as the region’s acting head in spring 2014, described spring’s salvo as a “beautiful theatrical production”. If there’s any truth to his innuendo that Iran choreographed its response with the US and/or Israel to Israel’s bombing of its consulate in Syria, then it might also do the same after Haniyeh’s assassination, which could help Iran “save face” while averting an escalation towards MAD.
- …But There’s No Guarantee That Iran’s Allies Will “Stand Down”
- Hamas and Hezbollah are Iran’s allies but operate independently of it despite their close ties. There’s accordingly no guarantee that they’ll “stand down” and not respond in their own way if Iran sends another salvo to Israel regardless of whether or not it’s choreographed. After all, Hamas’ political chief was just killed, while one of Hezbollah’s top commanders was assassinated by Israel in Beirut the day prior. This makes the MAD risk even less manageable since those two might not share Iran’s calculations.
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Important Takeaways:
- For Donald J. Trump’s most devoted supporters, the bullet that nicked his ear and came within inches of ending his life was only further proof that a higher power is looking out for him.
- “I don’t see this as luck,” said the Rev. Nathaniel Thomas, a Republican National Convention delegate and a pastor from the Washington, D.C., area. “I see this as God’s protection.”
- “Something’s got to be at play,” said Michael Thompson, the Republican chairman in Lee County, Fla., while looking toward the sky as if to invoke the heavens. “I don’t think the average person could withstand a tenth of what he has gone through. So yeah, I think he’s probably chosen at the right time in our country’s history.”
- “The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” Mr. Trump said. “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of 1 percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.”
- On his social media website, Mr. Trump said, “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
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Important Takeaways:
World leaders have been targeted quite frequently this month, and that should deeply alarm all of us. I think that all of this geopolitical instability is a sign that there is far more going on behind the scenes than we are being told. The major powers appear to be making moves in anticipation of what they believe is coming next. Right now, the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is dominating the news cycle, and at this stage we don’t know if that was an accident or not. But as a Twitter user known as “Cillian” has pointed out, there has been quite a lot of “international intrigue” during the past couple of weeks…
- Over the past two weeks:
- May 7th: Assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince.
- May 13th: Turkish President Erdoğan holds emergency meeting following warning of possible military coup.
- May 15th: Assassination attempt on Slovak PM Robert Fico.
- May 16th: Citizen arrested for threatening to assassinate Serbian President Vučić.
- May 19th: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman hospitalized for second time in four weeks.
- May 19th: Helicopter crash involving Iranian President Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian.
What is going on right now?
- On Sunday, a coup that involved at least three U.S. citizens was foiled in the Democratic Republic of Congo…
- American citizens were involved in an attempted coup d’état that left at least three people dead on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a military spokesperson told CNN Monday.
- The attempted coup, which targeted the residence of Congolese politician Vital Kamerhe and the country’s presidential palace, was led by opposition leader Christian Malanga, who was killed in a gun battle between the armed putschists and the presidential guards, according to army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge. Ekenge also claimed Malanga was a US citizen, though the State Department said later it had no records of him.
- “I confirm the death of Christian Malanga neutralized during the exchange of fire at the Palais de la Nation (presidential palace),” Ekenge told CNN, adding that Malanga’s son Marcel, “was among those arrested.”
- Ekenge named three other Americans, identified as Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, Patrick Ducey, and Taylor Thomson were involved in the foiled coup.
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