Today: Trump to Hold Emergency Cabinet Meeting With Iran Deal Pressing

The meeting was initially going to be at Camp David, but weather considerations led to a meeting at the White House. Fox News: All Cabinet members are expected to attend the meeting, first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by Fox News, including outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The gathering comes as the administration weighs next steps in high-stakes negotiations aimed at securing a broader agreement with Tehran amid a fraying ceasefire. Trump in recent days has suggested the sides are nearing a potential breakthrough, while Iranian officials have publicly pushed back on claims that a deal is imminent…. Trump repeatedly has warned that military action remains on the table if talks collapse, even as administration officials continue to publicly express optimism about diplomacy (Fox News).

Texas Runoff: Paxton to Represent GOP in November Election

The current Attorney General will face James Talarico—an especially odd proponent of the most extreme LGBTQ ideology. Current polling has the two nominees neck and neck—with Talarico up 1.5 points (RCP). Fox News: President Donald Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are the winners in the Lone Star State’s bitter Republican Senate primary battle, which has spanned for more than a year and became the most expensive Senate primary in history. Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump just one week ago, defeated longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday’s runoff election for the Republican nomination, the Associated Press reports (Fox News). The NRSC has done the work of pulling together the crazy takes of James Talarico, beginning with: God is nonbinary (NRSC). Texas Governor Greg Abbott: Congratulations Ken Paxton on the resounding victory. Next, he will destroy Talarico and become the next US Senator from the state of Texas (Abbott).

Vance Holds Press Briefing, Pressing ‘Full-Scale War on Fraud’

The vice president was joined by Andrew Ferguson (the task force chair), Stephen Miller and some 15 state attorneys general. Vance: In just two months, we exposed billions of dollars in benefits that had been stolen from the American people. We referred over $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans back to the treasury for collection. We deferred more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements that were coming from various states, particularly California…. We recovered taxpayer funds from the $135 billion stolen after the floodgates were open in the immediate aftermath of COVID. We have found $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts, which were mostly awarded during the last administration and that has stopped. Finally, we blocked $60 million in student aid fraud that should have gone to young people trying to get an education, but instead we’re going to fraudsters (Full video: C-SPAN). From the White House: This is a direct offensive against every fraudulent scheme preying on hardworking Americans — and the results are already staggering (White House). More from Ward Clark at Red State: So, the question is this: Why has this been allowed to go on this long? It staggers belief that there wasn’t some indication as to how bad things were before now (Red State).

Florida Judge Lets New Maps Stand

The new maps could give the GOP four additional seats. Townhall: Florida’s new Republican-backed map is allowed to plow forward for now, after a state-level judge did not stop the map from going into effect as it faces an ongoing legal fight, according to The Hill. The map, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) this spring, will potentially give Republicans four more seats in Congress in the Sunshine State. “The election machinery of the state is already underway,” Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes wrote in his Tuesday order. Hawkes was appointed by DeSantis in 2020. “The primary is less than three months away, and the general less than six months. The public interest weighs more in favor of certainty than a haphazard judicial mandate of discarded maps,” he added (Townhall). Watch for the legal wrangling to continue: Opponents have already declared they will appeal the decision. “We will continue our fight to protect the will of Floridians who overwhelmingly voted to ban partisan gerrymandering in this state,” Common Cause’s Florida executive director, Amy Keith, said in a statement (The Hill).

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Florida Challenge to Blue State Practice of Issuing Trucking Licenses to Illegals

Readers may remember the August 2025 case where an Indian national made a U-turn on a Florida highway, resulting in the death of three Floridians (ABC). CBS sums up the decision of court on Tuesday: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Florida’s bid to file a lawsuit against Washington and California for allegedly providing commercial driver’s licenses to truck drivers who are in the U.S. illegally and not proficient in English (CBS). Justice Thomas was not pleased. He issued a dissent, joined with Alito: This Court has exclusive original jurisdiction over Florida’s suit because it involves one State suing other States. Article III establishes that “[i]n all Cases . . . in which a state shall be [a] Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction.” §2, cl. 2. Congress has made our original jurisdiction “exclusive” in “all controversies between two or more States,” meaning that no other court can hear this case (Supreme Court).

Israel Pushing Deeper Into Lebanon, Securing ‘strategic positions’

It does not appear that Israel is limited in any capacity by pressure from the U.S. Times of Israel reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that Israel is “intensifying operations” in Lebanon by taking strategic positions and reinforcing the security buffer zone as the IDF pushed past the lines it held as it seeks to counter the recent surge in drone attacks by Hezbollah. The announcement, which the premier made during a full security cabinet session Tuesday evening, came as the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it has expanded ground operations beyond the designated security zone in parts of southern Lebanon in recent days, in an effort to push Hezbollah operatives farther north and reduce the threat of explosive drone attacks on northern Israeli communities (Time of Israel). Prime Minister Netanyahu: The IDF is operating with large forces on the ground and seizing dominant terrain. We are fortifying the security zone to protect the communities of the north (Netanyahu).

Israel Eliminates New Military Leader of Hamas

Muhammad Ouda was the successor to Az al-Din al-Haddad. Both were instrumental in the October 7 massacre. Amit Segal: The update on Odeh’s elimination arrived during the talk between Trump and Netanyahu, delivered by the Chief of Staff. Immediately after the killing of Az al-Din al-Haddad ten days ago, the Chief of Staff gave the army an immediate order to hunt down his successor (Segal). Ouda had been in the position for 11 days (Times of Israel). YNET: “Odeh was responsible for the murder, abduction and wounding of many Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu and Katz said in a joint statement. “We will continue to pursue everyone who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre. Sooner or later, Israel will reach them all.” … In a photo released by the IDF showing senior Hamas military commanders in Gaza at the time of the Oct. 7 attack, Odeh was the only one who had not been killed, aside from Imad Aqel, head of Hamas’ home front command in Gaza (YNET).

A New Phase in Russia’s War Against Ukraine; ‘Ukrainian forces are out-innovating Russian forces’

Russia’s progress has slowed. Ukraine has surpassed Russia in certain capacities—particularly in the use of drones. Institute for the Study of War: Ukraine is actively challenging the positional character of the war that has dominated the battlefield since 2023. Russian battlefield gains are approaching net zero, while Ukrainian forces are setting conditions potentially to break out of positional warfare by reintroducing limited elements of mechanized maneuver at the tactical level…. Ukrainian forces are achieving temporary tactical drone overmatch in some frontline sectors, which is slowing Russian offensive operations by degrading the effectiveness of Russian shaping operations…. Conclusion: The war in Ukraine is competitive and far from stalemated. Ukrainian forces are out-innovating Russian forces in both military technologies and in applying these new technologies in effective operational concepts that can help Ukrainian forces break out of positional warfare (Understanding War).

Colombia Poised to Elect a Populist Conservative President

The South American nation will hold their election on Sunday. The current favorite is Abelardo de la Espriella. He’s pro-free markets, pro-Trump, pro-law and order—and quite the character, running as “The Tiger.” Polymarket gives him a 72 percent chance of winning (Geiger). He’ll be facing Ivan Cepeda, a hard-left candidate in the mode of current Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Readers may remember Petro as the leader who refused to accept repatriation flights of Colombians in Trump’s push on deportation. El Pais on Abelardo de la Espriella: a lawyer making his political debut as an outsider, has emerged as the far right’s leading figure in national politics, appealing to a sense of epic destiny in his bid to become the candidate who defeats the left. His campaign has centered on defending the “Miracle Homeland”—a vision of a country grounded in traditional values, with the economy and security at its core, and in which the left—or “communism,” as he calls it—and moderate parties play no prominent role. His rhetoric has resonated within a society battered by violence, where many view the self-styled “Tiger” as the embodiment of necessary change (El Pais). Economist: He promises to build ten privately run megaprisons in the jungle “in the style of President Bukele”. He says “it will probably be necessary to use a state of exception,” a constitutional move to temporarily give the president and the armed forces far-reaching powers (Economist). The election may have to go to a runoff—as a result of multiple additional candidates in the race.

Birthrates Are Falling Everywhere; Smartphones ‘The population threat in your pocket’

The number of births per woman to maintain any given population has long been known to be 2.1. In 66 nations, the average it now closer to one than to two. The Financial Times: Both the pace and the breadth of the decline are defying expectations. Just five years ago the UN predicted there would be 350,000 births in South Korea in 2023. That was a 50 per cent overestimate: the real figure was 230,000. “Fertility decline is the big question of our time,” says Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading researcher on the consequences of demographic change. He argues that almost all pressing problems flow from the collapse in birth rates: “Everything else is downstream.” … The population threat in your pocket: Dissatisfied with purely economic explanations, researchers are beginning to point the finger at a new culprit — the digital devices and platforms that play an outsized role in young people’s lives across the world. Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso-Boedo of the University of Cincinnati published a paper last month looking at birth rates through the lens of the rollout of 4G mobile networks in the US and UK. The number of births fell first and fastest in the areas that received high-speed mobile connectivity earliest. The authors argue that smartphones have transformed how young people spend time with one another, sharply reducing in-person socialising and leading to the collapse in their fertility. In country after country the birth rate plunged after the introduction of smartphones, no matter what the previous trend was. The younger the age group, the more pronounced the downturn — a mirror image of smartphone usage patterns (Financial Times).