Trump Says Iran Deal ‘will happen’

Jerusalem Post pulls together the latest reports: The United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end their war, a Pakistani source involved in the peace efforts told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming an Axios report citing two US officials. “We will close this very soon. We are getting close,” the source said, with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister adding that the country is working to ensure the agreement would lead to a “permanent end” to the conflict. According to Axios, the US expects a response from Iran within 48 hours regarding the key points of a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told CNBC later on Wednesday that the proposal was being “evaluated” (Jerusalem Post).

Watching the Details on Proposed Deal With Iran

Israeli journalist Amit Segal highlights one key piece that has drawn concern: Negotiations are still underway on the duration of the uranium enrichment freeze. Three sources said the freeze would last at least 12 years, and one source estimated the final outcome would be 15 years. In addition, the U.S. wants to include in the agreement a clause stating that any Iranian violation regarding uranium enrichment will extend the freeze period (Segal). Hugh Hewitt: This would be a terrible deal. I hope the terms of any deal would be significantly stricter: No enrichment, ever. HEU to us stat. No more proxies. Turn on the internet. President Trump never gives up leverage. Why would he start now with #Iran on the ropes? (Hewitt). Marc Thiessen: Here’s what Iran sees: After being warned not to, they hit UAE and fired on a US ship – and we didn’t respond. Instead we suspended the SoH mission. They take that as weakness. They don’t think Trump is willing to bomb them again. They think they have leverage. He needs to prove them wrong (Thiessen).

Federal Agents Lead Massive Drug Raid at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles

The raid included over 300 officers from DEA, DOJ and the LAPD. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli: Federal agents have taken control of MacArthur Park to execute federal arrest and search warrants targeting the notorious open-air drug market there. We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Over the last 24 hours, federal and local law enforcement have started arresting 25 defendants charged in a federal criminal complaint with possessing and distributing dangerous narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine. The park’s #1 drug trafficker, a Calabasas resident, is in federal custody and faces possible life imprisonment. The other defendants arrested today also face decades in federal prison (Essayli). Arrests were made in MacArthur Park, Calabasas, San Gabriel and South L.A. ABC: As part of the arrests made in those cities, agents seized 18 kilograms of fentanyl, worth about $8 million to $10 million, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, adding that he believes these drugs are from the Sinaloa cartel (ABC News).

Man Charged With Death of Jewish Protestor in Southern California Pleads Guilty in Sweetheart Deal

He could be free in less than a year. First a reminder: In November of 2023—in the wake of the October 6 massacre at the hands of Hamas in Israel—Paul Kessler was protesting in Westlake Village, California. Kessler was Jewish, carrying an Israeli flag. He was confronted by Loay Alnaji who struck Kessler on the head with his bullhorn. Kessler fell, crushed his head on the concrete and died about seven hours later. Fast forward to today, Jennifer Van Laar reports for RedState: Alnaji’s attorney, Ron Bamieh, told the Ventura County Star that on Tuesday morning, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Derek Malan offered Alnaji probation if he pled guilty and that the sentence would be one year in jail followed by three years on probation. However, according to the DA’s office, “the court has indicated it is likely to place him on formal probation with up to 365 days in jail” at the sentencing hearing on June 25…. Alnaji’s attorney, Ron Bamieh, told the Ventura County Star that on Tuesday morning, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Derek Malan offered Alnaji probation if he pled guilty and that the sentence would be one year in jail followed by three years on probation. However, according to the DA’s office, “the court has indicated it is likely to place him on formal probation with up to 365 days in jail” at the sentencing hearing on June 2 (Red State).

FBI Raids Home of Leading Virginia Democrat

Louise Lucas is a state senator in Virginia. She also served as the lead in the state’s effort in creating new electoral maps that may end up giving Democrats four additional seats in the House. And: She’s the co-owner of a cannabis dispensary that has been part of a corruption probe. Free Beacon: The FBI raided Virginia state senate president pro tempore L. Louise Lucas’s (D.) district office and a neighboring cannabis dispensary she co-owns as part of a corruption probe involving at least 10 locations, Fox News reported Wednesday morning. Lucas’s Portsmouth office staffers were brought outside as the FBI carried boxes out of the building. Across the parking lot, a SWAT team ordered everyone inside the Cannabis Outlet to exit the building, then handcuffed at least three people who were taken into custody…. The FBI confirmed it was “executing a court-authorized federal search warrant,” but declined to provide any additional information…. The investigation was opened under the Biden administration and is examining possible corruption and bribery tied to dispensaries, two people familiar with the case told the New York Times (Free Beacon).

Israel Targets Key Hezbollah Commander With Strikes in Beirut

Malek Balout was a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit. Israel Hayom:  “With the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the IDF has just struck in Beirut against the commander of the Radwan Force in the Hezbollah terrorist organization in order to eliminate him. The Radwan terrorists he led are responsible for firing at Israeli communities and harming IDF soldiers. No terrorist has immunity. Israel’s long arm will reach every enemy and murderer. We promised to bring security to the residents of the north. This is how it is done, and this is how we will continue to act,” Netanyahu and Katz said in a statement (Israel Hayom). Balout’s fate remains unknown.

Board of Peace Warns Hamas: Israel’s Ceasefire Ends Without Disarmament

Times of Israel: The US-led Board of Peace tasked with overseeing the postwar management of Gaza does not intend to hold Israel to the terms of the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire if Hamas does not accept the international panel’s framework for the terror group’s disarmament, a document obtained by The Times of Israel shows. While the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov has warned that refusal from Hamas to disarm could lead to the resumption of the war, he goes much further in the document, saying that Israel will not be expected to halt attacks in Gaza or ensure humanitarian aid enters the Strip (Times of Israel). Ed Morrissey at Hot Air sums up well what the Islamists do: The Board of Peace has finally run out of patience…. This is another bout of radical-Islamist bargaining techniques. Make an agreement, claim a grievance, and demand concessions to return to the original agreement. During the war, I called this the Hamas Hokey Pokey, but it’s the same strategy Ahmad Vahidi is using now with Trump. The IRGC keeps demanding that Trump buy the same carpet repeatedly with new concessions…. Trump’s 20-point plan required Hamas to disarm immediately after the exchange of all hostages and remains (Step 6), and only after disarmament would humanitarian aid begin (Steps 7 and 8). Under some pressure from Trump, Israel began transmitting aid immediately and has continued it, even without Hamas’ disarmament (Hot Air).

Thuggish Activists Surround Car of Cornell University President; He Presses Back

Could it be the start of a new chapter?—with leaders standing up and leading? Free Beacon: Cornell University president Michael Kotlikoff sent an email to the university community on Friday pushing back on the anti-Israel radicals who surrounded his car after a campus debate on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and accused him of backing into a demonstrator. “As I left the event room, I was accosted by a group of several individuals in the hall, among them students and non-students,” Kotlikoff wrote. He added that the group followed him from the lecture hall to his car, shouting questions and taking video on their phones, and wrote, “After answering a few questions, I let them know that I was not planning to engage further, and asked them to stop recording.” “Their response to this was, ‘No, we are not going to stop,’” Kotlikoff wrote. “They continued to follow me to my car and then surrounded the car, banging on the windows, blocking the car, and shouting. I waited until I saw space behind the car and then, using my car’s rear pedestrian alert and automatic braking system, was able to slowly maneuver my car from the parking space and exit the parking lot.” Kotlikoff concluded his email with strong language about “successful disagreement,” which he described as democracy’s “single, foundational skill” (Free Beacon).

Trump-Endorsed Candidates Do Well in Indiana Primary Contests

Axios reports: President Trump exacted retribution Tuesday on a group of Indiana Republican state legislators who blocked his push to redraw the state’s congressional map. Trump’s political operation targeted eight GOP state senators for defeat in their primaries. By late Tuesday, six of those legislators were defeated, one survived and one was locked in a race that was too close to call. The outcome represented a major win for Trump’s political team, which is aggressively going after Republicans who defy the president (Axios). Scott Jennings: He calls the shots in the Republican Party, and if you go against that, he will pour his wrath out upon you and it doesn’t typically turn out well. As Harry Enten has said before, go against Trump in a primary and you wind up in the grinder. And that’s what happened in Indiana. To me, what I was looking for tonight was the forward-looking lessons here. For instance, what’s going to happen in Kentucky in a couple of weeks in that fourth congressional district where Thomas Massie is the one congressional Republican who has been the biggest thorn in Donald Trump’s side. They have poured millions into that race. And a lot of people are wondering, could he withstand a challenge from a Trump backed challenger there? If you look at what happened in Indiana tonight and you’re Thomas Massie tonight or you’re anybody else in a primary right now where Trump’s on the other side of you, you got to be thinking this is a bad night for me (Jennings).

Race to Watch: Louisiana Senate Primary, May 16

Louisiana’s primary schedule has been altered as a result of the Supreme Court decision and the necessity of the state to redraw their congressional districts. But: The primary vote for the U.S. Senate is a week from Saturday, May 16 (Louisiana). GOP Senator Bill Cassidy has been a source of frustration for Trump, most recently with the scuttling of Trump’s surgeon general nominee, Casey Means. Trump: “Bill Cassidy will lose his re-election and immediately work for the pharmaceutical industry who funded his political career. He will be remembered as an inconsequential figure who tried to stop the important and disruptive MAHA conversation President Trump and RFK unleashed,” he wrote (Axios). In January, Trump endorsed current GOP Congresswoman Julia Letlow: “RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” (Fox News). Axios: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his MAHA movement are out for payback, setting their sights on unseating a fierce adversary — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy — in next week’s Louisiana primary. Kennedy and his supporters view the physician-turned-senator as an avatar for the medical establishment they’re determined to upend. The big picture: Cassidy, who chairs the Senate HELP Committee, has been openly skeptical of Kennedy’s bid to reform health policy (Axios). The polling? The latest from Emerson has Cassidy in third—at 21 percent. Letlow is virtually tied with current State Treasurer John Fleming—at 27 and 28 percent, respectively (Emerson).