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L.A. Mayor Primary Polls Show Results Too Close to Call
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In any normal year, the California “jungle primary” system would work as desired: producing two Democrats to run against each other in November. This year in Los Angeles, it may do something unusual: put a Republican on the ballot. Competing polls have Pratt ahead of both Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, and Pratt in third place. CBS News: A new poll shows that Mayor Karen Bass has a slim lead over her opponents – Councilmember Nithya Raman and political newcomer Spencer Pratt – in the upcoming June primary election. The trio appeared deadlocked in a tight battle for voters, with Bass holding a slim 26% lead, Raman close behind at 25%, and Pratt trailing at 22%, according to the UC Berkeley-LA Times poll from May 28. Campaign strategist Luis Alvarado said this is the closest race he’s seen in decades. “Everybody is tied within the margin of error,” Alvarado said. “What’s interesting is that a lot of people haven’t turned in their ballot, or are just really glued to the TV and trying to figure out how they’re going to vote. There are too many undecideds, and even those who said they’re going to vote and they know who they’re going to vote for — they still haven’t voted. ( CBS News.) California Post on McLaughlin Poll: Overall, the reality TV star-turned-mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is narrowly leading the race with 30.1% support, edging out Bass at 29.5% and putting the incumbent in a statistical tie heading into next week’s primary election. Socialist LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman trails in third at 23.4%. ( California Post.)
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Iran Negotiations Going as Expected
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President Trump and Iran may be ever-so-close to a deal, but that may be equivalent to reaching 99.9% of the speed of light: the last 0.1% is out of reach. CBS News: President Trump’s edits to the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding included somewhat significant changes related to the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of highly enriched uranium, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. The broad strokes of the memorandum include a 60-day cessation of violence, along with clauses that call for reopening the strait and a framework to reopen negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. Multiple sources told CBS that the arrangement also involves the potential of waivers or sanctions relief to Iran that could allow it to access billions in frozen assets depending on the progress of the diplomacy. ( CBS News.)
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Democrats: Maybe Platner Isn’t Going to Be President?
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It was less than a month ago that Democrats were floating the idea of Graham Platner for president. Now, some are hoping he drops out of the Maine Senate race. RedState: Democrats are not taking the latest revelations about their presumptive Senate nominee for Maine, Graham Platner, very well. As RedState reported, The Wall Street Journal broke a story on Saturday that centered on how Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, had shared with campaign officials information about how her husband had exchanged sexually explicit texts with somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen women. The campaign had been doing some research of its own into Platner in the summer of 2025, and Gertner informed them ahead of a scheduled rally where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was set to endorse Platner. They were married in late 2023, and Gertner discovered them in the spring of 2025, when they were still newlyweds. Conveniently, a campaign official told The New York Times that “the conduct had stopped…before the campaign launched.” Of course it did. Here’s something interesting about this story that, as my colleague Brad Slager hinted at in his write-up, is fueling speculation that Democrats may try to force Platner out of the race. ( RedState) Some Democrats may be having second thoughts, but Platner will win the primary for sure.
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Newark ICE Protests Escalating, Curfew Imposed By Mayor
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Governor Mikie Sherrill has been backing rioters in Newark as they “protest” ICE, but now that weapons are showing up, a crackdown has begun. Washington Times: The mayor of Newark imposed a curfew early Sunday around an immigration detention center in New Jersey after a series of intense clashes between protesters and police. The curfew around Delaney Hall will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. until further notice, Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement. The move came after another night of standoffs between law enforcement and demonstrators at the facility, as protesters could be seen in photographs and videos fighting over barricades as police used riot shields to push them back. A video posted on social media showed police on horseback marching into crowds attempting to break up groups of protesters. ( Washington Times.) Sherrill’s about-face may have been sparked by the fact that New Jersey State Patrol officers were assaulted, instead of just federal agents.
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Texas Wins Key Border Security Lawsuit
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This was a big win for Texas and all the border states. Townhall: Senate Bill 4 had made it a state-level crime to enter Texas illegally. It further prohibited state and local agencies from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and required magistrates to pursue criminal prosecutions for violators even if the perpetrator had an outstanding federal immigration case. Above all, it allows the state judiciary to carry out deportations independent of the federal government. In May, a district court blocked several key provisions of the law from going into effect, notably the ability for the state to issue its own orders of removal and the criminality for refusing to comply with such removal orders. That decision was reversed by the latest. Governor Greg Abbott hailed the decision as a victory for the state on social media. ( Townhall.)
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Euthanasia: Parents Approved of Starving Their Child to Death
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Slippery slopes are real. One day it is helping terminally ill patients to leave on their own terms, the next it is starving kids to death. LiveAction: Dutch parents whose teenage daughter had been diagnosed with so-called “incurable” depression approved her decision to pursue euthanasia, and ultimately, kill herself through voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED). Key Takeaways: Omar and Cissy Dekker’s daughter Iris struggled with depression throughout her life, and carried out multiple suicide attempts. Iris applied for euthanasia at the age of 16, which is allowed without parental consent under Dutch law; however, her parents did not disapprove of her desire to die. Ultimately, Iris chose to stop pursuing treatment and opted for VSED, dying just short of her 20th birthday. ( LiveAction)
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Israel Clearing Southern Lebanon of Hezbollah Step by Step
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In a major symbolic move, Israel recaptured Beaufort Castle, a Crusades-era fortress that was once a Hezbollah stronghold. Times of Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday celebrated the IDF’s capture of Lebanon’s historic Beaufort Castle and the surrounding strategic ridge, calling it “a dramatic shift” in Israeli policy as forces pushed deeper into southern Lebanon amid an expanding ground offensive against Hezbollah. “The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading,” Netanyahu said in a video message released by his office, adding: “Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold on areas that had been under Hezbollah’s control.” The statement came as Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with relentless rocket and drone fire. Sunday’s barrages triggered sirens in Acre and the Haifa area, the first attack on the major northern urban area in nearly a month, and caused schools to close near the Lebanon border. ( Times of Israel)
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Blue Origin New Glenn Explosion a Disastrous Setback
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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on the launchpad Friday during a test of the rocket, delivering a blow to the company’s spaceflight ambitions and NASA’s plans to return to the moon, as well as Amazon’s plans to compete with Starlink. David Strom: It turns out that the size of the metaphorical bomb crater left behind is far larger than most people seem to understand. The disaster wasn’t just for Blue Origin, but for NASA’s plans to build a base on the moon in the near future, and probably for companies that were relying on the Vulcan launch system to put their payloads into orbit. The Vulcan Centaur is currently grounded due to solid rocket booster failures, but with suspicions now focused on a failure of a BE-4 engine on the New Glenn, it could be that 100% of the propulsion system for Vulcan Centaur is flawed and won’t be certified to return to space for even longer than we thought. But it is the blow to NASA’s moon landings that will really hurt. We are in a race to the moon with China, and the failure of New Glenn calls into question whether Blue Origin’s moon lander can even reach lunar orbit. ( Hot Air)
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Did Iran’s President Try to Resign?
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Iran International reported that the Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, submitted his letter of resignation, while Iranian sources denied the reports as nonsense. The report has the ring of truth, but then again, the president hasn’t said a word yet about it. Iran International: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted an official letter of resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International. In the letter sent on Sunday, Pezeshkian stressed that the president and the government have effectively been excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs, the source said. Pezeshkian added that under such circumstances he is unable to run the government and carry out his legal responsibilities, and for that reason has requested to step down immediately. It is not yet clear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will accept the president’s resignation, but the contents of the letter point to a deep and unprecedented rift at the highest levels of power. ( Iran International.)
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Right-Wing Candidate Wins First Round of Colombian Presidential Election
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The pundits didn’t expect this, but a right-wing candidate came in first in Colombia’s presidential election. He did not cross the 50% threshold, meaning a second round of voting is coming. New York Times: A far-right candidate forced a runoff in the Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday, in what could herald another gain for the right-wing wave sweeping elections across Latin America, according to preliminary official results. The candidate, Abelardo de la Espriella, will now go head to head against Iván Cepeda, a senator from the left-wing party of the country’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro. Mr. De La Espriella, whose rise came late in the campaign, resembles a new breed of flashy populist leaders in Latin America like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele who share President Trump’s hard-line approach to crime and have pledged to apply it to drug traffickers. With more than 99 percent of the votes counted, results released by the national civil registry revealed an electorate split down the middle. Mr. De La Espriella got 44.73 percent of the vote, and Mr. Cepeda 40.91 percent. Because neither candidate received more than 50 percent, a runoff will be held on June 21. ( New York Times.)
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