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Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told Congress the Iran conflict has cost "about $30 billion," six days after his own agency asked lawmakers for $67.1 billion to cover the same conflict's costs.Neither Vought nor lawmakers reconciled the two figures during the June 30 hearing, even as Congress weighs a request that works out to about $412 for each of the nation's estimated 162.8 million individual income tax filers, according to IRS data. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., asked Vought during the hearing how much the conflict, formally called Operation Epic Fury, has cost. "We've spent about $30 billion,"...

U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials. Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April. Fearful that an Israeli assassination effort would doom the negotiations,...

Several leading European nations now accept that ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz will need to pay fees to Iran and Oman, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday.The possibility of service fees following the US and Israeli war with Iran is now reportedly viewed by some EU countries as unavoidable. Some Gulf Arab officials are said to also privately share this view, though it may not reflect their governments' official positions. The type and amount of fees that nations would accept remains unclear. The US and Gulf Arab countries maintain that Iran and Oman cannot impose any charges for...

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) is considering moving its military bases’ operational systems in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Israel in order to increase their distance from further Iranian missile and drone attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday. The US Navy may revamp its base in Bahrain, which has suffered severe damage since late February up until the recent US-Iran ceasefire. Bahrain has been home to the US Navy’s central forces in the Middle East for over 50 years. One option is to establish a new base in the Negev big enough to hold the American...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pressed President Trump earlier to cripple Iran. But as Iran asserted its power, the prince urged a cease-fire, and is now pursuing his security priorities.President Trump and his military commanders were in a bind.They had announced the start of a new mission to help guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had effectively closed early in the war. U.S. naval and air power would ward off any Iranian attacks during a tentative cease-fire, the commanders said.But U.S. Central Command was caught by surprise when officials from Saudi Arabia said American forces could...

"As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability," said Katz.Israel is developing space lasers to carry out attacks above the Earth, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday.“One of the central goals that the prime minister and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” he said in a briefing with military reporters. “As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability.”“If we achieve this, it...

Ooops! What we predicted about higher gas prices a couple of months ago... Never mind! On April 28, Politico White House reporter Scott Waldman along with his sidekick, Eli Stokols, were confidently citing experts who predicted a big surge in gasoline prices due to the Iran war as you can see in "‘There’s a day of reckoning coming’: Energy experts expect another spike at the pump."

Former US Senator Norm Coleman, who was appointed Monday by Pete Hegseth to a position on the US Defense Policy Board, said a year ago that ‘the masters of the universe are Jews.’ (LifeSiteNews) — After the Monday appointment of former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to vice chair of the U.S. Defense Policy Board by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a year-old clip has resurfaced of his exclaiming “the masters of the universe are Jews.”Coleman, who also serves as national chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, drew attention for remarks made in April 2025 at the Jewish News...

JERUSALEM (AP) — It was the deadliest reported strike in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Most of the victims were children.In almost any other conflict, these haunting truths would be seared into national memory. Yet more than 120 days since at least one U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school, there remains no final accounting of what happened.The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or formally release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the bombing, even though the military possessed evidence almost immediately that the site of the school had been struck, a U.S. official with knowledge...

Multiple IRGC assassinations in Iran. At least one attack with at least two IRGC taken down on surveillance video.

WATTERS >> The Democratic Party is getting squeezed and they're not even putting up a fight. This is the new battle. HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy joins us now. How you doing, Mr. Secretary? RFK >> I'm very good, Jassee. It's good to be back with you. WATTERS>> Good to see you. So, your father, your uncle fought communism hard. How much of a danger do you think this new breed of communism is here in America? RFK>> I'm very concerned. I don't think my father and my uncle would recognize the Democratic party today. And you know all the the...

Iran launched a drone assault targeting Bahrain while a ship in the Strait of Hormuz separately came under attack Saturday in Tehran's likely response to overnight airstrikes by the United States. The U.S. had launched airstrikes overnight in response to an Iranian drone attack on a container ship trying to leave the strait Thursday, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the war's uneasy ceasefire. Iran has insisted that ships must obey its orders and warned it will start charging fees for transit through the strait. However, ships have been increasingly trying to leave the Gulf in recent days....

There have always been those who respond to war throughout the church differently. - Pacifists- Those who believe in Just War Theory - Others who believe in the “Blank Check” model—without questioning War is complicated, ugly, and addictive. It reveals our sinfulness in a way that few controversies can. God was bold enough to send his son to die in order to save us, not by storming the Temple with swords and shields, not by overthrowing the Roman Empire, but with a slow and non-violent march to the top of a hill with a cross on his back.

Supporters welcomed the agreement as a step toward curtailing Iran’s influence within Lebanon, but others took to the streets, calling it a capitulation. After Israel and Lebanon signed a preliminary agreement in Washington on Friday aimed at establishing a lasting peace between them, the reaction in Lebanon was immediate and sharply divided.Supporters of the U.S.-brokered deal said it was a move to curtail Iranian influence in Lebanon, setting out a pathway for the disarmament of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which Israel is at war with. They also said it asserts Lebanese sovereignty over the country’s internal security.Others, not least...

The deadly US strike on a girls school in the Iranian coastal city of Minab happened due to gaps in the Pentagon’s system for analyzing potential targets, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.The bombing, in which more than 120 students aged between 6 and 13 were killed in addition to 26 teachers, happened on February 28, the opening day of the American-Israeli military campaign against Iran.The investigation into the incident, ordered by the chief of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Brad Cooper, was completed in April, but its results haven’t yet been made public, Bloomberg said in an...

In a move likely to further raise tensions with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, Pope Leo XIV will gather the world’s cardinals behind closed doors on Friday to hash out new guidelines on when war is justified. It’s a topic that has already fired a spat between the White House and the Vatican within the context of the Iran conflict. When Leo said the disciples of Christ were never on the side of those who “once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,” Vice President JD Vance retorted that the pontiff needed to be “careful” about his theology,...

Regardless of how it gets done, putting the crazy-vicious Iranian mullahs back into their box will trigger a sigh of relief all across the planet. This sigh will be loudest among the millions of innocent Iranian captives of this despotic regime. Meanwhile, criticism of U.S. efforts to complete this process is both loud and mostly erroneous. Why? Because Trump is leading the effort. This misinformation campaign is obviously fracturing American support. For example, I recently received this email: Hello Mark. Can any sane person believe that the US MOU with criminal Iran can have any basis for approval? IRGC remains...

Iran launched a drone assault targeting Bahrain after overnight airstrikes by the United States. The attacks across the Persian Gulf show the danger of the Iran war again spinning out of control, even after Iran and the U.S. reached an interim deal to try and agree on a final accord to end the conflict. The U.S. had launched its airstrikes in response to an Iranian drone attack on a ship trying to get out of the strait on Thursday, continuing a string of attacks that have shaken the uneasy ceasefire in the war. That Iran targeted Bahrain likely was not...

It may be asked, then, how the ten commandments can be called "the covenant." We answer, That is just where the people are misled. They are never called "the" covenant, referring to the first or old covenant. That the ten commandments are called "a" covenant, we admit; but what kind of a covenant? and in what sense are they so called? Ex. 19:5: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant", etc. Then God had something which he called his covenant, which antedated the covenant made with Israel. It was already in existence, before any...

When American and Israeli warplanes struck Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli officials let themselves believe the alliance was entering a golden age. Four months later, they are bracing for a future where Israel stands more alone than ever. The vice president of the United States set the stage last week, telling Israel it has almost no friends left in the world, and that it should think hard before turning on the one it has. But the problem for Israel is much bigger than JD Vance, according to seven people, including U.S. and Israeli officials and others familiar with the relationship....