A ceasefire to the Iran War entered its 39th day Saturday with a report in the Telegraph, citing anonymous sources, that Trump administration officials have urged the United Arab Emirates to seize Iran’s Lavan Island.

The report comes after Israeli reports of a secret meeting between Israel and UAE leadership. Israel’s i24 News said Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “confirmed secret visit to the UAE” included the Mossad chief, the director of the Shin Bet, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. The UAE denies that the visit occurred, despite reports.

In an interview Thursday with Fox News, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. is fighting the war in Iran “to help Israel” and Gulf Monarchies. “We’re doing it to help Israel, and to help Saudi Arabia, and to help Qatar and UAE, and you know, Kuwait, and other countries,” Trump said.

Iran’s current stated conditions to end the conflict, as reported by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, include an immediate end to hostilities, non-aggression guarantees, the lifting of U.S. sanctions, Iranian management of the Strait of Hormuz, an end to the ongoing U.S. naval blockade, and an end to the war “on all fronts” including in Lebanon, where Israel has waged a deadly military campaign. Iranian officials have expressed their belief that the economic toll caused by the conflict will cause the U.S. to meet their conditions to open the Strait of Hormuz and end the War.

The IDF issued new forced displacement orders for nine towns in southern Lebanon on Saturday, one day after Israeli airstrikes killed at least six people, including three paramedics.

Gas prices remained elevated. AAA reported the national average price of gas at $4.52. Brent crude closed Friday at over $109 per barrel.

The post Ceasefire Day 39: U.S. Urges UAE to Seize Iranian Island appeared first on The American Conservative.

Imagine if a group of disaffected Republican congressmen could get together to bring down a president of the United States—just like that—by getting 20 percent of their colleagues to nominate someone new. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president, as head of state, has his own mandate for a four-year term. But in Britain, a prime minister remains the prisoner of his party and remains in office only with the consent of his or her backbenchers.

That is one reason why Britain has had six prime ministers in the last 11 years, and why it is about to lose another.

Less than two years ago, Sir Keir Starmer won one of his party’s greatest election victories. Under his leadership, Labour returned 412 MPs out of 650, a feat bettered only by Tony Blair in 1997. He has an unassailable majority in the House of Commons. No other political party leader can touch him. But as for his own party—well, that’s another matter. 

There is an old saying in Westminster: Forget the opposition, your real enemies are right behind you. Never has that been more true than this week, when Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned his post and made clear to the media that he was planning a coup. 

Streeting needs the support of 80 Labour MPs, and there is some uncertainty about whether or not he actually has the numbers. Indeed, Starmer faced him down in Cabinet. The PM said that he was not going anywhere, no formal leadership election had been triggered, and, if there were, Starmer’s name would be first on the ballot paper. It looked as if all bets were off. 

But then another contender for the crown broke cover. The Labour Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham announced that he had persuaded the Labour MP for Makerfield in Wigan, Josh Simons, to stand down so that Burnham could take his seat and return to Westminster—that is, if he wins the by-election.  This is by no means certain since Reform UK are serious challengers in Makerfield. Moreover, Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee doesn’t like Labour mayors deserting their posts—though it appears to be accepting Burnham’s carpet-bagging this time. 

International leaders are bewildered and alarmed by this latest exercise in parliamentary regicide. It looks like a repeat of the chaos of the Tory years. Is it something in the water in Westminster? Is Britain becoming ungovernable?  Confusingly, there is still no formal challenge to Starmer, yet his authority is draining away by the hour. Britain has a prime minister in purgatory.

And these are dangerous times. Britain is involved indirectly in two wars—Ukraine and Iran—and faces an imminent energy and inflation crisis. The IMF recently forecast that Britain would probably be the country that suffers worst from the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. The bond markets are going crazy, with UK gilt yields soaring to their highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis.

The proximate cause of Labour’s latest exercise in mad party disease, as some call it, was last week’s local and regional election results. Labour lost nearly 1,500 seats in England, lost the Welsh Senedd to the nationalist Plaid Cymru, and saw the nationalist SNP win a fifth consecutive term of office in the Scottish Parliament. The UK is in danger of fragmenting along regional lines, with separatist first ministers in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. This danger is made immeasurably worse if the center does not hold. And right now it doesn’t. 

Certainly, Starmer’s unpopularity with voters was a large part of the reason for last week’s election losses.  But governments have suffered midterm setbacks before. To repeat, at the time of writing, there is still no actual Labour leadership contest—just an orgy of speculation. 

Others may join the fray, like Angela Rayner, the plain-speaking former deputy prime minister who had to resign for failing to pay her property taxes. Ed Miliband, the ultra-green environment and Net Zero secretary, is also warming up as a potential leadership challenger.

But does anyone seriously think these wannabes would do better than Starmer? Miliband was Labour leader before and went down to a crushing general election defeat in 2015. Burnham stood for the Labour leadership a decade ago, before he left for Manchester, and lost badly. 

Rayner has demonstrated a lack of grasp of basic economics that would shame an undergraduate. Streeting is certainly competent, but he comes from the pro-European right of the party, was a close friend of the disgraced former Labour minister Peter Mandelson, and, as an erstwhile Starmerite, lacks deep support in the parliamentary Labour Party. He will definitely stand however—if and when Burnham launches the election process. 

Starmer’s allies have been telling anyone who will listen that it is senseless to squander the authority of this government by launching a chaotic leadership process that could last six months or more. This will only further alarm the bond markets, undermine voter confidence, and expose deep divisions in the Labour movement before an electorate already terminally dissatisfied with the state of national politics.

Doom-scrolling through potential leaders was what the Tories did five times, and each fared worse than the previous. It is not as if Starmer has been all that bad in office. He won plaudits for securing a reduction in Trump’s tariffs and for not getting involved in his wars. The British economy is growing again, if weakly. It is not at all certain that any of his rivals will manage any better—certainly not in a financial crisis which is getting worse by the day.

If Burnham does finally make it to Number 10, he is promising to borrow yet more, increase the minimum wage, nationalize key utilities, and introduce wealth taxes. This is very much old state socialism with a modern green-digital twist. These policies would only deepen Britain’s economic malaise. Perhaps the parliamentary Labour party should recall another old Westminster saying: Always keep ahold of nurse for fear of getting something worse.

The post Britain Has a Prime Minister in Purgatory appeared first on The American Conservative.

President Donald Trump and Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinub confirmed Saturday morning joint strikes on Islamic State leadership in Nigeria. The president claims that the strikes killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the “second in command of ISIS globally.”

Prior to leadership in the Islamic State (ISIL or ISIS), al-Minuki is alleged to have been a member of the jihadi group Boko Haram. He is also alleged to have overseen kidnappings and attacks against “ethnic and religious minorities” in Nigeria. The Nigerian military claimed in 2024 to have killed al-Minuki, though “it is not clear,” according to the New York Times, whether that was a premature claim or applied to a different person of the same name.

The U.S. has conducted operations in Nigeria since last December. The U.S. has been training Nigerian forces and aiding them with surveillance, in addition to conducting missile strikes last December. American involvement has been prompted in part by lobbying from the Nigerian government and Christian groups concerned over persecution inside the country.

The post Islamic State Leader Killed in U.S. Strikes in Nigeria appeared first on The American Conservative.

President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post depicting Venezuela overlaid with an American flag and labeled the 51st state followed a Fox News report that Trump had said he was “seriously considering” such a move.

The post Trump Floats Venezuela as ‘51st State’ appeared first on Breitbart.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from Virginia Democrats for the nation's high court to intervene after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled to strike down a gerrymander scheme that would have redrawn the state's congressional map in favor of Democrats.

The post Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats’ Request to Intervene in Gerrymander Scheme appeared first on Breitbart.

During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” President Donald Trump said that the United States allowed China to get tankers filled with Iranian oil out. Host Bret Baier said, “China got three tankers

The post Trump: ‘We Allowed’ China to Get Tankers with Iranian Oil Out appeared first on Breitbart.

'It is a nightmare over there'

'$19 trillion'

Americans have an abundance of payment mechanisms available to them, including cash, debit cards, credit cards, and others. Although inflation has eroded purchasing power, by world standards, the U.S. dollar remains a bastion of stability and credibility. In this menagerie, stablecoins and cryptocurrency remain niche payment products for many Americans.

The relative novelty of digital assets is reflected in the current heated Beltway debate between policy wonks and industry experts. So why should everyday Americans care about legislation like the GENIUS Act (enacted last year to create a regulatory framework to facilitate stablecoin adoption) or the Clarity Act, which got one step closer to becoming law yesterday, for crypto? Because even though use today is not yet ubiquitous, the stakes are huge — nothing short of the United States’s future global financial leadership and civil liberties for all Americans.

Today’s stablecoins have come a long way from early cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin), and stablecoins were pure digital money backed by nothing tangible. Today, virtually all stablecoins are backed by some tangible, convertible asset. Overwhelmingly, that convertible asset is some U.S.-dollar-denominated asset, such as short-term Treasury bonds or insured bank deposits. Overall, more than 99% of all stablecoins in circulation worldwide are backed by dollar-based assets, with Euro- and Yen-backed assets comprising less than 0.5% each.

OPINION — CRYPTO CLARITY: TIME FOR WASHINGTON TO TAKE THE FUTURE OF MONEY SERIOUSLY

Stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies are here already and are expected to grow rapidly in the near future. According to a recent survey, 27% of Americans say they have already used stablecoins for purchasing or investing. But the generational numbers are striking. While only 2% of baby boomers and 14% of Gen Xers have used stablecoins, 42% of Generation Z say they have.

The implications of getting policies right are heightened because the adoption of USD Coin is even higher in the rest of the world. This is especially the case in developing countries, where populations do not trust their local currencies.

In Latin America, for example, U.S. stablecoins have become institutionalized as part of their financial infrastructure and account for 7.7% of regional GDP transactions. In Africa, it’s 6.7% and, according to research, the majority are everyday people using stablecoins for ordinary payments and savings, not speculation. In short, through stablecoins, we are quietly and quickly dollarizing the world economy and providing an important counterweight to China’s global economic influence.

Through the spread of dollar-based stablecoins, the U.S. is therefore expanding its economic and financial power worldwide, effectively enabling the rest of the world to invest in the United States. When we dominate the global digital economy, the benefits of stablecoins are not just for the rest of the world — they flow to Americans as well.

But this rapid expansion requires market structure and clarity. Without U.S. leadership and growth, this sector will come to a screeching halt. That’s why the Clarity Act, the product of nearly a year of negotiations, is essential. Lawmakers have worked diligently to strike the right balance of implementing guardrails to protect consumers without heavy-handed bureaucracy that would stifle this exciting financial innovation. Senators’ diligent, bipartisan efforts to reach such a compromise are likely why both Democrats and Republicans voted in the Banking Committee yesterday to advance the bill to the full Senate.  

Throughout the process, however, legacy financial institutions worked assiduously against the Clarity Act, moving goalposts, skipping negotiations, and earlier this week, complaining that negotiations were happening publicly instead of behind closed doors. The bank lobby has made it clear that tanking the compromise negotiated in Clarity is their goal because legitimizing digital currency would cut into their own profits and market power. As we’ve seen with the debate over open banking and fintech innovation, many of these big banks simply want to use their lobbyists and trade associations to strangle competition. But the crypto ship has sailed, and experts and even skeptical lawmakers suggest the banks have already gotten the overwhelming majority of what they wanted in negotiations. The White House team, which has led good-faith discussions and brought all parties to the table throughout negotiations, also grew weary of the bank lobby’s eleventh-hour bait-and-switch.

OPINION: WHILE CONGRESS BALKS AT CRYPTO REGULATION, OUR ADVERSARIES PUSH FOR MARKET DOMINANCE

Privately-issued, dollar-backed digital currencies offer the best of both worlds: the ability to spread the influence of the dollar around the world while providing a buffer against the overwhelming presence of the regulatory state to weaponize the payments system to punish political opponents and disfavored speech.

The Clarity Act represents an opportunity for a major bipartisan win on an issue of critical importance to our financial system and our position in the world. The bank lobbyists have telegraphed that they’re not giving up their stall tactics as this bill moves to the Senate floor. But any further delay would in effect surrender American leadership in the next era of global financial innovation, risking our economic and national security. The yearlong negotiations have produced measured legislation that balances stability, security, and structure, with room for innovation and growth. Senators should pass the Clarity Act as quickly as possible.

Todd Zywicki is a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and co-founder of the Institute for Consumer Financial Choice. From 2020-21, he was chairman of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law.

More than 25 Tren de Aragua gang members have been arrested and many other criminals brought to justice, FBI Director Kash Patel said during a weekly agency update.

The post FBI Director Kash Patel Celebrates Major Victories: More than Two Dozen Tren de Aragua Gang Members Arrested appeared first on Breitbart.

Grammy-winning music producer and singer Jack Antonoff blasted what he called "Godless whores" who create art with artificial intelligence.

The post Music Producer Jack Antonoff Slams AI Users as ‘Godless Whores’: ‘By All Means, Drive Right off That Cliff’ appeared first on Breitbart.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Texas Attorney General's Office announced a "landmark" $10 million resolution with the Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) on Friday, which includes the creation of a clinic for detransitioners harmed by sex-rejecting drugs and surgeries. 

The post Texas Children’s Hospital to Pay Millions, Create ‘First-Ever’ Detransition Clinic in DOJ Settlement appeared first on Breitbart.

With semi-automatic gun bans and magazine caps popping up in more states, it will likely fall to the high court to stop the assault on Second Amendment rights.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Friday a significant settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston over that hospital’s long practice of harming minors with cross-sex hormones and transgender surgeries. The settlement focuses on billing fraud, a much-discussed aspect of transgender medical programs in which providers bill insurance for falsely described procedures that appear […]

Chinese students come to milk our education system and then bring their newfound education back to China to make China great.

Their union BMA Scotland has accused the government of reneging on a commitment to restore pay to 2008 levels.

In a study that followed more than 30,000 adults in the U.S. for two decades, people who consistently helped others outside the home showed a slower rate of age-related cognitive decline. The researchers found the decline was reduced by about 15%-20% among those who either volunteered formally or helped in informal ways, such as supporting neighbors, family, or friends. The strongest and most consistent benefit appeared when people spent about two to four hours per week helping others.

The findings were published recently in Social Science & Medicine. The work was supported by funding from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"Everyday acts of support -- whether organized or personal -- can have lasting cognitive impact," said Sae Hwang Han, an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at UT who led the study. "What stood out to me was that the cognitive benefits of helping others weren't just short-term boosts but cumulative over time with sustained engagement, and these benefits were evident for both formal volunteering and informal helping. And in addition to that, moderate engagement of just two to four hours was consistently linked to robust benefits."

Formal volunteering and informal helping both mattered

The study is among the first to examine formal volunteering and informal helping side by side. Informal helping can include giving someone a ride to a health appointment, watching children, doing lawn work, or helping prepare taxes for a neighbor, relative, or friend.

Previous reports suggest about 1 in 3 older Americans take part in scheduled or formal volunteering. In contrast, more than half regularly help people they know in these less formal ways.

"Informal helping is sometimes assumed to offer fewer health benefits due to its lack of social recognition," Han said. But in fact, "It was a pleasant surprise to find that it provides cognitive benefits comparable to formal volunteering."

Long-term national data strengthens the findings

To study these patterns over time, the researchers analyzed longitudinal data from the national Health and Retirement Study. The dataset includes a representative sample of U.S. residents over age 51, with information dating back to 1998.

The researchers accounted for other factors that can shape both helping behavior and cognitive health, including wealth, physical and mental health, and education. Even after considering those influences, cognitive decline tended to slow when people started helping others and continued to do so. The results also suggest that the benefits may grow when helping becomes a steady routine year after year.

"Conversely, our data show that completely withdrawing from helping is associated with worse cognitive function," Han said. "This suggests the importance of keeping older adults engaged in some form of helping for as long as possible, with appropriate supports and accommodations in place."

Why this may matter for public health and aging

The researchers argue these results strengthen the case for thinking about volunteering, helping, and neighborhood connection as public health issues. This may be especially important later in life, when conditions tied to cognitive decline and impairment, including Alzheimer's, are more likely to develop.

The paper also points to related work by the same lead researcher. Another recent study led by Han found that volunteering helped counter the harmful effects of chronic stress on systemic inflammation -- a known biological pathway linked to cognitive decline and dementia. The benefit was strongest among people with higher levels of inflammation.

Taken together, these findings suggest helping others may support brain health in more than one way. It may reduce the physical strain linked to stress, and it may strengthen social bonds that provide psychological, emotional, and cognitive support. As societies age and concerns about loneliness and isolation grow, the results also support continued efforts to keep people involved in ways that let them contribute, even after cognitive decline has begun.

"Many older adults in suboptimal health often continue to make valuable contributions to those around them," Han said, "and they also may be the ones to especially benefit from being provided with opportunities to help."

Other authors on the study were former UT postdoctoral researcher Shiyang Zhang and Jeffrey Burr of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The House of Lords said raising the state pension age and increasing immigration would not be a solution.

Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell was a late scratch from his second start of the season Friday at Angel Stadium because of loose bodies in his left elbow, which will sideline him indefinitely.

Gina Carano said she lost 100 pounds over the past two years in an effort to make Saturday's highly anticipated MMA fight against Ronda Rousey come to fruition.

President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post depicting Venezuela overlaid with an American flag and labeled the 51st state followed a Fox News report that Trump had said he was “seriously considering” such a move.

The post Trump Floats Venezuela as ‘51st State’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Every major emerging technology has required more energy and infrastructure. Everything digital runs through data centers, making them foundational, not optional. Questions should center on their undertaking rather than their elimination.

The post The Electricity Myth: Data Centers Aren’t the Villain appeared first on Watts Up With That?.

Beware the horror of temperatures a few degrees warmer than normal.

The post Claim: The Coming El Nino Global Warming may Kill 50 Million People appeared first on Watts Up With That?.

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach (@WEschenbach on X, my personal blog is here) We live in an odd age when a billionaire can look at the planetary mess, point at…

The post Wildebeest, Buffalo, and Cattle, Oh My! appeared first on Watts Up With That?.

WILLISTON, N.D. — A major dust storm created blizzard-like conditions in western North Dakota Thursday afternoon, reducing visibility to near-zero and causing several crashes on local highways. 

DANGERS OF DUST STORMS

Video from the North Dakota Highway Patrol showed a wall of dust that made it nearly impossible to see. 

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Troopers responded to a crash involving tanker trailers on Highway 85 in Williams County around 1:30 p.m. local time. Police said the driver was saved by their seatbelt.

A pickup towing a trailer rolled over on Highway 83 south of Minot during the dust storm. Similar conditions were seen on Highway 28, north of Berthold and on Highway 40, south of Tioga.

A High Wind Warning for gusts between 40 and 70 mph was in effect and a Blowing Dust Advisory was upgraded to a Blowing Dust Warning just after 2 p.m.

LIGHTNING SPARKS MASSIVE GRASSFIRE AND BURNS THOUSANDS OF ACRES IN TEXAS

An area of low pressure in Canada pumped strong wind gusts across the Northern Plains Thursday and also fueled a Fire Weather Warning.

A Blowing Dust Advisory remains in effect for North Dakota Friday and police are asking drivers with high-profile vehicles to avoid peak winds.