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In Iran, the assassination of a Supreme Leader demands a response, a do-or-die response. Backing down would risk undermining Mojtaba's legitimacy at home and weakening his authority among the hardline institutions that support his regime.

Through this performance, Narayanan set the record for breaking the most burning concrete blocks in 30 seconds.

President Donald Trump predicted that his war in Iran would be "a little winding road for a little while" but said it had to be done because the country had an "evil curse."During an interview with controversial YouTube boxer Jake Paul this week, Trump attempted to explain his thinking on the Iran war."We did this excursion. We had to do it. Wipe out evil. Sometimes you have evil," the president said. "So we have to do it right, but our military has been unbelievable.""No, and I commend you for your bravery, and I think so many Iranians do as well," Paul speculated. "And I think what you're doing is phenomenal. And I was shocked that so many activists, like, in America, didn't like it. But meanwhile, they were like, 'oh, we support women.'""We support gays, but they throw gays off the buildings, okay?" Trump replied. "But I think I have tremendous support on this. This is something that's been incredible. I have the best poll numbers I've ever had now, and it's not because of this.""It's a little bit of a, we take a little winding road for a little while, but we have to wipe out the evil," the president added. "It's an evil curse. They're evil people."

Only some agencies within the DHS, including the Tsa and Fema, and the Coast Guard are affected by the shutdownSign up for the Breaking News US emailBoth Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine were asked today about energy secretary Chris Wright’s comments to CNBC on Thursday, where he said that the US Navy cannot escort ships through the strait of Hormuz now but it was “quite likely” that could happen by the end of the month.Gen Caine appeared to agree with Wright’s assessment, calling the waterway a “tactically complex environment”. Continue reading...

A Turkish-owned vessel that had been waiting near Iran has been permitted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after authorities in Tehran approved, Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.

Congressional Republicans are openly rejecting Donald Trump's pleas for emergency funding to sustain the Iran war, signaling deep skepticism within his own party about a conflict that remains broadly unpopular with American voters, according to a report.Operation Epic Fury has already consumed staggering sums — over $1 billion per day, with the Pentagon burning through $11.3 billion in just the first six days of combat. Yet Republican lawmakers are unmoved by White House requests for supplemental spending.Top Republicans told Politico they see no urgency to boost the Pentagon's already bloated $1 trillion budget. Democrats are unlikely to provide support, making passage of any supplemental package an uphill political battle — especially in a midterm election year when Trump needs to campaign on affordability.The White House faces a political nightmare, Politico reported. It must spend significant time and political capital securing funding for a deeply unpopular war while simultaneously claiming fiscal responsibility. The sluggish congressional timeline threatens to collide with Trump's plans to dramatically expand the defense budget next year.Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel, captured the lack of urgency: "I don't think there is any urgency at this moment. The urgency is in starting to educate Congress as to why we need a supplemental at all."Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) indicated the supplemental won't reach Capitol Hill until the month's end at the earliest, with key appropriators warning passage could take weeks or months.Democrats hold significant leverage. A unified caucus can block the legislation if at least seven Democratic senators refuse back it, meaning it would fail to cross the 60-vote threshold required for passage.At least one Republican is already siding with skeptics. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) vowed to oppose any Iran supplemental, citing constituents hurt by war-driven oil prices. "I'm against borrowing money from China to finance the war in the Middle East," Paul stated. "We've got a lot of problems in our country that we need to fix."You can read more here.

Trio captured relaxing around a wooden table in photo believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson have been pictured in bathrobes alongside Jeffrey Epstein, in the first known photograph of them together.The trio were captured relaxing outside at a wooden table with mugs decorated with the American flag in the newly unearthed photograph believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts that is favoured by the wealthy. Continue reading...

There are nearly 23,000 Indian sailors on merchants ships in the Gulf region, the Ministry of Ports and Shipping said Friday afternoon, echoing comments from last week as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out war after joint United States-I