Middle Eastern Countries ‘Scrambled’ to Halt Another Iran Strike. Ms. Rachel: Here Are the Real Child Victims of Illegal Immigration. Frail Britannia. Switzerland’s Radical Immigration Referendum. Musk’s ‘Historic’ IPO. More
Is this the real deal?
President Trump cancelled planned night strikes on Iran’s most important oil terminal yesterday, claiming a deal is imminent:
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump asserted that an agreement to end hostilities would be signed “maybe this weekend,” after which the United States would immediately lift its naval blockade of the country.
The deal would bar Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Trump said, an objective he has named as key in deciding to strike the country.
“Bluster or Breakthrough?” is how Mark Helperin framed the issue. Halperin noted the president’s confidence and the instantaneous and positive reaction of the markets, but remained unconvinced. Despite the president’s optimism, Tehran says that no final decision has been made. In an exclusive, Politico reports that there was “a scramble” to stop the president’s planned Thursday attacks on Iran:
Soon after President Donald Trump posted Thursday morning that he would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” leaders from Gulf and South Asian countries called the president in a last-ditch effort to change his mind. They assured him a preliminary agreement that paves the way for more detailed talks was, in fact, at hand.
The calls, which have not been previously reported, came from Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Pakistani defense chief Asim Munir, according to two administration officials and a diplomat briefed on the calls. Both were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic mediation….
A person close to the White House said that the veracity of a deal will depend on who the Trump administration is negotiating with.
The president had threatened to seize Kharg Island. Axios has a good story on why Kharg matters so much.
You’ve probably been hearing about Ms. Rachel, the kid’s star with a following of millions, who, clad in bubble-gum pink, visited Capitol Hill yesterday carrying letters and artwork by children in ICE detention. Ms. Rachel’s cause is ending family detention. But here’s the crushing irony: As unsatisfactory as life inside a detention center may be for a child, it’s not as terrible as the fate of these poor children:
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday that the Trump administration has found at least 146,000 migrant children that were unaccounted for during the Biden administration.
A total of 450,000 went missing under former President Joe Biden — and “nearly 300,000” are still unaccounted for, Mullin said at a news conference.
“We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 6[00] to 700 times,” he added. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids. You don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat. You’re Republican.
“If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you? Who are you?” Mullin fumed. “And do you know where we’re finding the most of them: sanctuary cities.”
Major metropolitan centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement as a result of their sanctuary policies.
Another illegal immigrant angle: Catholic Charities received federal grants totaling $11 million to shelter unaccompanied minors. The Trump administration has cancelled these grants. I feel certain Catholic Charities treated the children well, but, as an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal observes, “Taking federal money has made the Catholic Church a handmaid of the welfare state.”
Speaking of the welfare state, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been accused of putting the country in danger by refusing to spend sufficiently on defense by John Healey, former defense minister, who resigned dramatically, and former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who also resigned. A Wall Street Journal editorial addresses “The Revolt of Britain’s Defenders”:
Labour won’t fund defense because it puts a higher priority on welfare spending, which it refuses to reform. About one in 10 working-age people in the U.K. now claim a sickness or disability benefit, and nearly a million Brits under 25 aren’t employed, in school or in training.
The resignations are a jolting repudiation of the government by officials who best understand the threats Britain is facing.
Frail Britannia. Military decline isn’t all. Examiner Editor Hugo Gurdon writes:
It is impossible to avert one’s eyes from the United Kingdom’s cultural disintegration. It produces horrors that stand as a warning to all Western nations to guard their societies against their current influx of hostile foreigners.
Britain’s moral collapse has, notoriously, produced industrial-scale rape of English girls by Muslim men, mostly Pakistani. More recently, last December, it led to the videoed murder of a teenager, Henry Nowak, by a Sikh wielding the dagger of his religion.
The brilliant Brendan O’Neill of Spiked Online ties together the resignation of the ministers and immigration—both are part of one big scandal, he writes:
Nothing better captures the fall of Britain than the fact we now spaff more cash on caring for people with ‘long-term health conditions’ than we do on training men and women to defend us from our foes.
Even Switzerland has been changed by the influx of immigrants who don’t assimilate. Switzerland votes Sunday on a radical referendum to cap the population:
If passed, the initiative would force the federal government to restrict family reunifications for resident immigrants and new asylum claims the moment the population hits 9.5 million. If it touches the 10 million ceiling, Bern would be constitutionally required to tear up its free-movement agreement with the European Union, risking access to a market that absorbs over half of Swiss exports.
A Wall Street Journal editorial has harsh words for those in the House who allowed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire today. Nineteen Republicans joined the Dems, partly in “myopic revenge” for the President’s “bonehead choice” of housing regulator Bill Pulte as DNI chief. Meanwhile, Trump has switched to Adam Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, for DNI.
Permission to Brag. Independent Women has always supported flexible working schedules for women. The old Women’s Quarterly, which we published, had a cover on flex time as beneficial to women in the late eighties. Well, now the world is catching up. Please don’t miss “Remote Work Lets Moms ‘Have It All’,” by Kate Odell in the Wall Street Journal.
Permission to Brag Again. Independent Women has argued over the years in a stream of articles and blog posts that capitalism and the free market are the tools for prosperity in developing countries. “Hundreds of Billions in Loans Didn’t Make a Dent in Global Poverty” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal story. The subtitle:
Microfinance aimed to foster prosperity but stoked hardship for those borrowers who took on debt they couldn’t afford.
Does that sound familiar? Like maybe our own student loan crisis?
The Miracle of Capitalism. “Vindication For Young Elon Musk” is the headline on a WSJ story on the guy who told the Senate in 2004 that open competition would transform the space industry. Musk’s SpaceX, valued at $1.77 trillion, goes public today in what the Washington Post calls “the most audacious IPO in history.”
Los Angeles voters were not so audacious. Joel Kotkin writes at Unherd that a left-wing civil war is about to take place in Los Angeles:
Nithya Raman’s come-from-behind victory represents a challenge from the Left to an LA establishment that also regards itself as progressive.
Such conflicts are becoming more common as coastal cities evolve into de facto one-party systems, split between establishment Democrats and a newer, generally younger cohort of socialists. Even moderate Democrats — and Republicans, including Spencer Pratt, whose much-hyped effort ultimately failed — are increasingly outliers in their own cities….
According to Tim Campbell, a longtime Angeleno and former government auditor, Raman’s record on homelessness is “worse than Bass — if that is possible”. She has opposed encampment clearing and has been accused of being linked to dodgy NGOs. “She’s incompetent and arrogant, which is a fatal combination,” he concludes.
Two For the Road. Humanities professors at Berkeley, one of California’s most prestigious colleges, have learned to assign fewer pages for reading. Seems Berkeley students just don’t read that well. … “Have the Artists Left the Washington Post Yet?” is the Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman’s headline. We join Mr. Freeman in hoping the answer is “yes.”
