It’s Tuesday, July 14. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: America’s abandoning a crucial ally. Arthur Brooks on how the self-help industry can survive AI. Prince Harry’s much-needed life lesson. And much more.
But first: What’s going on with Iran?
The on-again, off-again war against Iran is very much back on. Consider yesterday’s developments alone:
Trump ordered U.S. forces to “reinstate” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and proposed a 20 percent toll on all cargo that travels through the strait;
The White House sent a letter to Congress, dated July 10, declaring a resumption in hostilities with Iran beginning July 7;
The U.S. conducted a third consecutive night of strikes on Iran to “impose a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack shipping in the strait”;
The UAE said that Iran had struck two of its tankers in the strait;
Oil futures saw their largest single-day gain since April;
Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt that the U.S. might strike the Iranian nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain with “a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” and that the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” Monday and Tuesday.
Free Press columnist Aaron MacLean saw much of this coming last week, when he argued that the reality of the president’s predicament pointed to him reinstating a naval blockade to take control of the strait. That now appears to be the administration’s strategy. But will it work? And at what cost? To make sense of the flurry of Iran news over the last 24 hours, read Aaron’s latest column.
And for more on the conflict, don’t miss the latest episode of School of War. He talks to Mike Doran about the state of play in the Middle East, just how weak the Iranian military actually is at this point, and whether or not the conflict’s end is in sight.
Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, accusing the company of trade secret theft at “every level”—from technical staff to its chief hardware officer. The allegations are explosive, but are they the whole story? Apple-watcher and Free Press tech writer Patrick McGee isn’t so sure. He dives into this clash of the tech titans, and what he thinks it’s really all about.
Over the weekend, congressman Ro Khanna had a run-in with a handful of armed Israelis that went viral. If you listen to Khanna’s version of events , you would think that this was an illegal detention of an American lawmaker by armed settlers. But that’s not what happened, writes Haviv Rettig Gur. Read Haviv’s latest on the stunt, why the congressman’s story fell apart, and what the incident reveals about the rocky relationship between Israel and the new Democratic Party.
In January, Donald Trump liberated Venezuela from Nicolás Maduro. But since then, Washington has hugged the socialist puppet Delcy Rodríguez and undermined and demeaned opposition leader María Corina Machado. It’s a dismaying turn of events, including for Elliott Abrams, who served as special envoy for Venezuela during the first Trump administration. Today in The Free Press, Abrams outlines what is becoming nothing less than a betrayal of the Venezuelan people.
Who needs a self-help book when you have a chatbot to apply the wealth of human knowledge to your personal problems? As a writer in the self-improvement space, Arthur Brooks admits we may soon see a decline in sales for books like “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” But Arthur says he’s not worried. Read why in his latest column.
Last week, Prince Harry suffered a major defeat in his bitter war against the tabloids after claiming they illegally invaded his privacy. Harry had, for a time, convinced the world that the media was an insatiable monster that ruined his childhood. But “the fairy tale has finally run out of road,” argues Kara Kennedy—and become a cautionary tale of its own. Read her column on the fable of the prince who complained too much.
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THE NEWS
A federal judge ruled Monday that President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns was filed for “improper purpose.” The Obama-appointed judge claimed the IRS settlement with Trump was an exercise in self-dealing. She did not explicitly void the deal that created the $1.776 billion legal defense fund for alleged victims of Biden DOJ lawfare, though she recommended disciplinary action for one of Trump’s lawyers.
A federal immigration enforcement officer shot and killed a man in Maine on Monday. Senator Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the motorist, a 26-year-old Colombian national, attempted to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents.
Fergie Chambers was arrested Friday morning in Spain on a U.S. extradition request for alleged money laundering, among other offenses. The heir to the Cox family fortune has spent the last decade funding radical left-wing causes and has worked alongside anti-Israel activists like Calla Walsh. (Read Suzy Weiss’s profile of Fergie Chambers: “He’s Got $250 Million to Spend on Communist Revolution.”)
Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline Graham Nordone will serve out the remainder of his term in the Senate after South Carolina governor Henry McMaster formally appointed her on Monday. President Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly indicated their support for Graham Nordone in advance of her appointment.
Twelve state attorneys general are attempting to block Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, alleges the combined entity would control almost a third of theatrical films and basic cable assets in the United States. Paramount, The Free Press’s parent company, says the suit “distorts settled antitrust law and is based on a misrepresentation of competition in the entertainment industry today.”
Madonna’s latest album, CONFESSIONS II, hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 this weekend. The record, a spiritual successor to her 2005 dance-pop hit Confessions on a Dance Floor, marks the 10th chart-topping album in her four-decade career.
Sam Neill, Jurassic Park’s leading man, died Monday at 78. The actor starred in more than 150 movies and TV shows during his five-decade career. His family announced his death via Instagram on Monday, though the cause of his death remains unknown.
Rh Khanna is just representing his constituents....Gaza
What should be the issues of paramount importance to young, adult Americans. They should include the economy which is the inability to afford the necessities of life. Food, clothing, housing, education are all indispensible. Add to this the inferiority of primary & secondary education where American student's scores in the basics, reading, math & STEM are abysmal. They should be concerned about urban crime & the fentanyl/Opioid crisis which takes the lives of 80-100,000 lives each year. Too many college graduates, left with high tuition debts, are trained to do nothing. An elite university that provides 85% of students with A's accomplishes nothing. The populous is led to believe that males particularly white males are TOXIC. We learn that In every white male there a rapist just chafing at the bit to soil the Vestal Virgin. Too many of our young males, caucasian & of color are left with no employment opportunities.
There was a time in America when politicians, particularly those from the south used racism, hatred of blacks, to advance their political careers. Strom Thurmond, James Eastland, Harry Byrd to name a few were in this category.
So why am I presenting all the above? Americans are led to believe that the origin of ALL the above listed problems originate with Jews, Zionism & Israel! If only the world would erase the Zionist, Apartheid, Oppressor, Genocidal state humanity would be a better place. Let's rid the world of Jews just like Nazi Germany. In 1932 the total population in Germany was 65 million of which 500,000 were Jews. In the U.S. Jews represent < 2% of the population. Israel with all its flaws is the ONLY democracy in all of the Middle East. Every Muslim country is an oppressive dictatorship. Israel is a light among the nations. Thus it should be destroyed, an idea which is evil lunacy. Politicians & political wanna be's like Ro Khanna, Col. Sanders, the Fields Medal winner AOC, Mandamni, Platner, Abdul El-Sayed, Bowman, Lander, Chevalier, Melat Kiros, Rahm Emanuel & their sycophants are all morally bankrupt. Tucker, Owens, Fuentes, Kelly are no better. They are all devoid of honor & integrity. They are a pox on the nation.