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Iran Strikes at UAE, Ships in Gulf
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The cease fire looks to have ended. The Wall Street Journal sums things up on Monday evening: Fighting in the Middle East flared, as Iran struck a crucial United Arab Emirates oil port and several ships, testing a shaky cease-fire. The U.A.E., which has backed tougher action against Tehran, said it had intercepted missiles and drones launched from Iran. It also confirmed a drone hit sparked a fire at the crucial oil hub of Fujairah, which the country has used to pump much of its crude output around Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. “We reserve the right to a full and legitimate response to attacks,” the U.A.E. foreign ministry said. Iran fired cruise missiles and other projectiles at U.S. warships and commercial vessels as the U.S. launched an effort to help vessels through the strait, according to Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command. Additional ships are “en route” to transit the strait after U.S. military forces successfully guided two U.S.-flagged commercial vessels through the vital waterway, he added. President Trump warned Iran against attacking U.S. ships near the strait ( Wall Street Journal). More from Axios: CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters on Monday that after the U.S. began the operation, Iran fired cruise missiles at Navy ships and drones at commercial vessels. All were “engaged” and no U.S. Navy ships or U.S.-flagged ships were hit, he said. Six Iranian small boats were eliminated by U.S. forces, including by military helicopters, Cooper said. CENTCOM said earlier on Monday that it had helped two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels cross the strait. Cooper said multiple U.S. destroyers were in the Gulf to help more ships cross ( Axios).
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Trump Warns Iran: If They Interfere With US Ships, They’ll Be “blown off the face of the earth”
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The dynamic in the region is changing quickly. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air: The sound you heard is the rattle of millions of pearls being clutched to media chests. The last time Donald Trump threatened to completely destroy the IRGC “civilization,” we heard the same sound, only to watch the Iranian regime remnant call for a ceasefire. Today, they have openly violated that ceasefire by attacking a United Arab Emirates oil facility with four cruise missiles and shooting at several commercial ships, damaging at least one. Trump had warned Iran not to interfere with commercial shipping when he launched Project Freedom. After today’s attacks, Trump told Fox’s Trey Yingst that the US can and will return to full combat operations if Iran continues its attacks on American allies and international shipping. This time, Trump warned again that he’s prepared to use all assets to blow Iran “off the face of the earth.” Will this get Ahmad Vahidi’s attention again? ( Hot Air).
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Iran Drone Strike Hits Oil Terminal in UAE City of Fujairah
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Fujairah is critical because it’s the bypass route, the alternate for getting oil past the Strait of Hormuz. Bloomberg: An oil terminal in the United Arab Emirates city of Fujairah was hit in an aerial attack amid an up-tick of Iranian strikes on Monday in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz…. The attack came within hours of an Iranian drone strike on an empty Adnoc tanker off the coast of Oman. A South Korean vessel in the strait also suffered an explosion and fire, Yonhap reported. Oil prices surged on the escalation in hostilities. Fujairah is a key hub for crude and fuels, and its importance has grown during the Iran war due to its location just outside the Strait of Hormuz ( Bloomberg). Former U.S. Army Green Beret Chris Rollins: This pipeline was built specifically so the UAE could export oil without transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is not just hitting a coalition partner. They are targeting the infrastructure that lets oil flow without Hormuz. The only other major Hormuz bypass is Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to Yanbu, which was attacked in April and lost approximately 700,000 barrels per day of throughput. Iran’s message is clear. If they cannot export through Hormuz, nobody bypasses it either ( Rollins).
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President Trump on Iran: ‘They will never have a nuclear weapon’
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The president was a guest of Salem Media’s Hugh Hewitt. Trump drove home that message no fewer than five times. One key interchange: President Trump: And you know, the Iran nuclear deal that was given to us by Barack Hussein Obama, that was a shortcut to a nuclear weapon. And we would not have been able to live with that. They would have used it. We can’t allow this to happen. Hugh Hewitt: The JCPOA was a guarantee. It was a guarantee that they would get a weapon. Trump: 100 percent. Yeah, it’s 100 percent they would have. Hewitt: One of your red lines is they have to renounce having their nuclear ambition. Trump: Correct. Hewitt: Do we have to get back the highly-enriched uranium? Is that a redline for a deal? Trump: Yes. Yes, we do. That’s part of it (the full interview and transcript: Hewitt).
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Supreme Court Agrees to Fast-Track Request on Louisiana Congressional Map
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Bloomberg: The US Supreme Court agreed to fast-track issuance of its mandate in a Louisiana redistricting fight, potentially clearing the way for the state to draw new congressional maps for the upcoming midterms. The court granted the request in an unsigned order Monday, five days after a decision ruling Lousiana’s current congressional map violated the constitution. Justices Samuel Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch noted concurrences…. A group of Louisiana voters who challenged the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district asked for the unusually swift judgment, warning that the standard 32-day delay for mandates could “endanger” the timeline for implementing a new map. A three-judge panel in the Middle District of Louisiana upheld its prior injunction on the map following the Supreme Court’s ruling and directed the state to submit a plan within three days on complying with the opinion, with responses due shortly after ( Bloomberg).
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Justice Alito Excoriates Justice Jackson’s Dissent in Louisiana Case
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Alito—in his concurring opinion noted above—is expressing a well-grounded fatigue with Ketanji Brown Jackson. From Alito: The dissent in this suit levels charges that cannot go unanswered. The dissent would require that the 2026 congressional elections in Louisiana be held under a map that has been held to be unconstitutional. The dissent does not claim that it is now too late for the state legislature or the District Court to adopt a new map that complies with the Constitution. Nor does the dissent assert that it is not feasible for the elections to be held under such a map. Instead, the dissent offers two reasons for its proposed course of action. One is trivial at best, and the other is baseless and Insulting…. The dissent accuses the Court of “unshackl[ing]” itself from “constraints.” Post, at 4. It is the dissent’s rhetoric that lacks restraint ( Supreme Court).
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DeSantis Signs Law Formally Embracing New Electoral Map; “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered”
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A GOP-friendly electoral map that could give the GOP four seats in November. The Hill: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Monday that he signed into law a new set of congressional lines that could net his party up to four House seats in November. The governor’s signature caps off a fast-tracked redistricting special session, which marked Republicans’ last chance to draw new maps in the mid-decade national redistricting battle. The new House map aims to boost Florida’s GOP congressional delegation from 20 to 24 seats, while reducing Democrats’ eight seats to four. “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis wrote on social media Monday. Last week, both the Florida House and Senate passed the congressional lines — just one day after panels in both chambers advanced the map ( The Hill). Legal Insurrection: For all the brinkmanship, the redistricting war has so far produced a near stalemate. But that assumes Virginia is able to use its new map in November. Far from a certainty, the early signals lean against Democrats. And that’s because the problem isn’t about the map itself, but real constitutional questions about the process followed by lawmakers in advancing the amendment that authorized it ( Legal Insurrection).
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Judge Apologizes to Suspect in Latest Assassination Attempt of Trump
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The would-be assassin from the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Apparently the accommodations on somewhat less than ideal. Fox News: A federal judge on Monday decried the prison treatment of President Donald Trump’s alleged would-be assassin, and apologized to him for restrictive confinement imposed by jail staff. Cole Allen, 31, has been in federal custody since prosecutors say he attempted to gain access to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner ballroom and kill Trump along with other high-level government officials. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told an attorney representing the Department of Corrections (DOC) that he was “fascinated and disturbed” by Allen’s treatment in jail. Allen was placed on suicide watch when he was first imprisoned ( Fox News). New York Post: “Whatever you’ve been through, I apologize for the prior week,” the judge told Allen, according to a report by USA Today. The move prompted furious US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro to tweet, “Welcome to Washington, DC, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Faruqui believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant” ( New York Post).
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Supreme Court Places Stay on 5th Circuit Abortion Pill Decision
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Alliance Defending Freedom explains: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-day administrative stay while Danco and GenBioPro appeal that victory. To be clear: This is NOT a reversal of Friday’s decision. Rather, it’s the run-of-the-mill pause that the Justices typically use to consider the issues raised in an emergency application. We—with @AGLizMurrill—will respond by Thursday. The stay will expire on Monday ( ADF). The background, from SCOTUS Blog: The 2024 case, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, was filed in federal court in Texas by several individual doctors who are opposed to abortion on religious or moral grounds, as well as medical groups whose members are opposed to abortion. The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to rescind both the FDA’s initial approval of the drug in 2000 and its 2016 and 2021 expansions of access to the drug, arguing that mifepristone is unsafe and that the process that the FDA used to approve the drug was flawed. The FDA, as well as several leading medical groups, countered that, based on extensive evidence, mifepristone is safe and effective. Kacsmaryk, however, suspended the FDA’s approval of the drug and the agency’s later changes, made in 2016 and 2021, to the conditions on the use of the drug – which included allowing the drug to be used through the 10th week of pregnancy, allowing health-care providers who are not physicians to prescribe the drug, and permitting it to be prescribed without an in-person visit ( SCOTUSblog).
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Conservative Leader in UK Stands Up to the Antisemites
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Kemi Badenoch is the leader of the Conservative Party ( Parliament). She’s quite good. She’s exceptional here, standing up to the antisemitic fringe: Banenoch: It very much is about Jewish people. And you can say all that you like, but this is how the 1930s started with people pretending not to see what was happening in front of them. I am not blind. I can see. No, no, no. I’m telling people the truth and they will always know that I stand behind Jewish people and I stand for them. I’m sorry, but I disagree with you. You just have to accept that…. People know where I stand and I’m not going to be intimidated…. No, no, no. I am the right. I am the right, yes. And I’m very proud of being on the right. I’m not pandering to the far right. What I am doing is supporting …. Jewish people from the sort of ignorance people like you put out there. And I will never be intimidated by it ( Badenoch).
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