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The Star
a day ago
- Politics
- The Star
Trump says he will decide on US involvement in Iran within two weeks
US President Donald Trump has announced that he would make a decision about US military involvement in Iran within two weeks, offering a timeframe for a possible intervention into a conflict that flared last week and has so far remained limited to Israel and the Islamic Republic. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision on whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' Trump said via White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who asserted that Tehran might be 'a couple of weeks' away from being able to deploy a nuclear weapon. 'As for correspondence between the United States and the Iranians, I can confirm that correspondence has continued as you know we were engaged with six rounds of negotiations with them in both indirect and direct ways,' Leavitt said in a briefing. Leavitt delivered Trump's statement and discussed the president's thinking as he faced defiance from many in his own party over his comments on Wednesday, in which he said that he 'may' or 'may not' order US forces to participate in Israel's strikes against the Islamic republic. Steve Bannon, one of the most influential voices from Trump's 'America First' coalition, has warned against any US military operations supporting Israel's bid to destroy Iran's nuclear programme absent a diplomatic deal. 'We can't have another Iraq,' Bannon said in a discussion hosted on Wednesday by The Christian Science Monitor, referring to the war started in 2003, which is estimated to have killed some 4,700 US and allied troops. 'The Israelis have to finish what they started. They started this. They should finish it,' Bannon said. Other political figures, who have staunchly supported Trump over many years – including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, and far-right pundit Tucker Carlson – have also come out against US military intervention. They are clashing with other Republicans who parrot Trump's insistence that Iran is likely developing nuclear weapons or already has one, which they call an outcome that must be stopped by any means necessary. Republicans supporting US military action against Tehran seem to include Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, whose military background carries weight with her colleagues. 'Maybe our public is not aware that 43 Americans lost their lives on October 7 [2023] at the hands of Hamas, which is an Iran-backed terrorist organisation,' Ernst said in a contentious Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. Leavitt said that Iran only needed approval from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and two weeks to complete production of a weapon that would pose 'an existential threat ... to the entire world'. 'Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon,' she said. 'All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that, and it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon, which would of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel, but to the United States and to the entire world. 'That is something that the entire world, including countries like Russia, is in agreement with: that Iran should not and cannot obtain a nuclear weapon,' Leavitt added. The press secretary was also asked whether Trump might want to involve Beijing in possible negotiations, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call in which they urged Israel and Iran to stop fighting. Asked whether Trump administration officials were concerned about China supporting Tehran, Leavitt said: 'I don't believe we're seeing any signs of that at this moment in time.' When pushed on whether a decision not to strike Iran might send a message to Beijing on Taiwan, Leavitt pointed to the 'very respectful' and 'cordial relationship' between Trump and Xi. She noted that Trump had 'long maintained' this relationship, even during his first term, emphasizing that the US and China 'share many strategic interests, not only in economics but also in global affairs and foreign policy'. Asked about the division among Republicans and the Trump base's reluctance to engage in a foreign war, Leavitt urged his supporters to 'trust' the president, citing his 'incredible instincts' and describing him as a 'peacemaker in chief' who preferred diplomacy but was not 'afraid to use strength as well'.
Politico
3 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Steve Bannon has some thoughts
Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben | Email Holly PROGRAMMING NOTE: We'll be off this Thursday but will be back in your inboxes on Friday, June 20. President DONALD TRUMP's administration is moving toward attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a Trump official. That isn't stopping MAGA godfather STEVE BANNON from making a last-minute plea to Trump to steer clear of plunging the U.S. into a war in the Middle East — and perhaps blowing up the coalition that gave the president another term in the process. At a breakfast in Washington this morning hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, Bannon continued to beat MAGA's isolationist drum, arguing that Trump rose to power by assailing the Iraq War as a 'big, fat mistake' and that his base remains skeptical of endless foreign wars. 'This part of MAGA that's most concerned is principally veterans or parents of young people that could be called in there. And it's a very deep thing,' he told reporters. 'We don't want any more forever wars. And if you look at the cheerleaders' like Fox News, 'it is unacceptable.' Bannon even tied the issue to the future of the Republican Party, saying, 'How do you get those people to come out and vote when Donald Trump's not on the ticket?' Bannon's remarks amounted to a full airing of MAGA's case for avoiding U.S. military involvement at a key moment in the Israel-Iran conflict. His comments also come at a critical time for the debate between the dueling factions of the GOP. Other MAGA voices, including political commentator TUCKER CARLSON and Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.), have this week spoken out against foreign entanglements. At the same time, pro-Trump foreign policy hawks like Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) have urged the president to go 'all in' with military action if diplomacy fails. 'The Israelis have to finish what they started,' Bannon said. 'The president should take the time and think this through.' Trump-friendly reporter BRIAN GLENN of Real America's Voice pointed out to the president today that some of his supporters fear a protracted war with Iran. 'We're not looking for long-term war,' Trump replied. 'I only want one thing — Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That's it.' It was Bannon's comments about what would happen to the base if Trump decides there's no alternative to bombing Iran's nuclear sites that were most striking. Echoing a plea this week from Vice President JD VANCE, Bannon suggested Trump's backers would trust the president's determination. 'If Trump decides to do that, I know and particularly his skills as a communicator, that he will come and walk people through it,' he said. 'The vast majority of the MAGA movement will go, 'Look, we trust your judgment … we don't like it. In fact, maybe we hate it. But we'll get on board.' MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER To which NBA player did BARACK OBAMA compare himself? (Answer at bottom.) Agenda Setting THE MAN BEHIND THE SCENES: Defense Secretary PETE HEGSETH has given an unusual level of authority to a single general in the Middle East crisis: U.S. Central Command chief Gen. ERIK KURILLA, an Iran hawk, our JACK DETSCH and PAUL McLEARY report. Kurilla has played a significant role in the clashes between Iran and Israel, with officials saying that nearly all his requests have been approved, from more aircraft carriers to fighter planes in the region. Known as 'The Gorilla,' he is overruling other top Pentagon officials and playing a quiet yet decisive role in the U.S. response to Iran. WHO HAS HIS EARS: Despite his criticism of the last administration for allowing wars to break out, Trump is increasingly listening to a small group of Iran hawks — including Kurilla — pushing him to be tougher on Tehran, our FELICIA SCHWARTZ, ELI STOKOLS and DASHA BURNS report. The president has been more receptive to those advocating for more military engagement, including Graham and Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.). IT'S KRISTI'S WORLD: Homeland Security Secretary KRISTI NOEM is demanding more control over FEMA and her department's funding, ordering every contract and grant over $100,000 get her approval, CNN's GABE COHEN reports. Some FEMA officials worry the new approval process could slow down the already inhibited distribution of emergency funds during natural disasters. In the internal memo, Noem demanded all requests include extensive details: Mission impact, dollar values, descriptions of the supplies or services, timeliness issues and a description of the proposed action. STOPPING LGBTQ SUPPORT: The Trump administration instructed the national suicide prevention hotline to stop offering specialized support for LGBTQ+ callers next month, NYT's MAGGIE ASTOR reports. The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provided support for LGBTQ+ callers to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, received a stop-work order for that service, according to a copy of the order obtained by the Times. In a statement that referred to 'L.G.B.+ youth services' — not including the 'T' for transgender people — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the agency within HHS that oversees the hotline, said the decision was based on a desire to 'no longer silo' those services and to 'focus on serving all help seekers.' WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT GOING DARK: The Trump administration is slated to shut down a primary source of public information about climate science by halting updates to which for more than a decade provided an entry point for people seeking to better understand the climate and the threats posed by climate change, POLITICO's E&E News' DANIEL CUSICK reports. The website's former managing editor, REBECCA LINDSEY, said today that the remaining National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contract employees who wrote and produced articles, graphics, photos and storyboards for the site learned their jobs had been eliminated. Knives Out NOT QUITE THERE: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a government watchdog's argument for why a court should order DOGE to collect and preserve its records 'does not stick the landing,' POLITICO's E&E News' NIINA H. FARAH reports. Chief Judge JAMES BOASBERG of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declined to issue a preliminary injunction against DOGE, deciding that the Project on Government Oversight did not adequately show it faced irreparable harm if the court did not intervene quickly. In the Courts BIDEN GETS THE W: A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that EPA's termination of $600 million in environmental justice grants issued by JOE BIDEN's administration for low-income areas and communities of color was unlawful, our ALEX GUILLÉN reports. The ruling over the Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program comes as the EPA is separately appealing a court ruling that its termination of $20 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants was also unlawful. What We're Reading Katie Miller's Washington Rise Takes a Musk Detour (NYT's Matt Flegenheimer) State Department unveils social media screening rules for all student visa applicants (POLITICO's Nahal Toosi and Eric Bazail-Eimil) Inside the clashes between Trump and Gabbard (POLITICO's Rachael Bade, Amy Mackinnon, Felicia Schwartz and John Sakellariadis) The Tesla Brain Drain (The Atlantic's Patrick George) His custom cancer therapy is in an NIH freezer. He may not get it in time (WaPo's Carolyn Y. Johnson) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER In 2004, the then-senator from Illinois compared himself to LeBRON JAMES — who at the time was also an up-and-coming star. 'I'm LeBron, baby. I can play on this level. I got some game,' Obama told journalist DAVID MENDELL ahead of the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech in Boston that catapulted his career. MEA CULPA: In Tuesday's edition of West Wing Playbook, we said that THEODORE ROOSEVELT was the first president to fly in an airplane while in office. While he was the first former president to fly in a plane, it wasn't when he was in office. Former President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was the first to do so while in office.
RTÉ News
09-05-2025
- Science
- RTÉ News
Russia marks victory in World War II with military parade
Fred Weir, Moscow Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, reports on Russia's lavish celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
New York Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Joseph Boskin, Scholar of Humor and April Fools' Prankster, Dies at 95
In March of 1983, a public relations official at Boston University asked Joseph Boskin, a scholar of humor in the history department, whether he knew anything about the origin of April Fools' Day. Answering facetiously — but apparently not facetiously enough, Professor Boskin later recalled — he replied that he had been researching the subject for many years. The university, to his surprise, issued a news release touting him as an authority on the subject. What happened next was one of the kookiest episodes in the annals of April Fools' tomfoolery, with a revenge plot involving a coconut cream pie. 'I've written three or four books,' Professor Boskin told The Christian Science Monitor in 2010, 'but this seems to be my Andy Warhol moment.' Professor Boskin died on Feb. 16, his family said. He was 95. His death, in a hospice facility in Lincoln, Mass., had not been widely reported. Shortly after the news release went out, Fred Bayles, an Associated Press reporter, requested an interview with Professor Boskin, who couldn't immediately be reached because he was flying to Los Angeles to interview Norman Lear for a book he was planning to write. When the purported April Fools' expert landed, he heard his name paged over the airport intercom. It was the B.U. public relations office. 'I said, 'You know, I was just jiving,'' Professor Boskin told The Christian Science Monitor. 'I protested and said I couldn't do it. She said, 'Oh no, you must call him.'' After reaching Mr. Bayles, Professor Boskin admitted that he knew nothing about the origin of April Fools' Day. 'I was a young, eager reporter, and I knew this would make a great national story, and so I figured he was just being shy about it,' Mr. Bayles said in an interview. 'Little did I know shyness was not his problem. So, like a good reporter, I persisted.' In the spirit of April Fools' Day, Professor Boskin relented. On the spot, he invented a tale about Constantine, the Roman emperor. A group of court jesters, he said, had convinced Constantine that they could run the empire better than he could. Constantine was amused and appointed a jester named Kugel as king for a day. Kugel declared that April 1 would be an annual holiday dedicated to absurdity. 'I figured he would catch on,' Professor Boskin told BU Today, a university publication. 'Instead, he asked how to spell Kugel.' On April Fools' Day, Mr. Bayles's article appeared in newspapers around the world. 'In a way, it was a very serious day,' Professor Boskin was quoted as saying in the article. 'In those times, fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor.' Two weeks later, Professor Boskin told his class what he had done. One of his students was a reporter for the campus newspaper. Sensing a good story, the student called The Associated Press for comment. Mr. Bayles found out and was devastated. 'I thought my career was over,' he said. 'It was absolutely horrifying.' The A.P. published an article about the episode that quoted a Boston University spokesman saying, 'We regret that something that originated as a story on humor has now proved humorless.' Professor Boskin contended that he had done nothing wrong. 'I made up the story because it comported with April Fools' Day,' he said, 'and I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about.' The story did not end there, though. Joseph Boskin was born on Aug. 10, 1929, in Brooklyn to Abraham and Diana (Geyer) Boskin. His father was a plumber. After graduating from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1951, he served in the Army as a historian for a top-secret scientific expeditionary unit in Greenland. Afraid of heights, he spent much of his deployment avoiding H-13 helicopters. 'Heady as it was for others, the air-sail thrill of a lifetime was not for me,' he wrote in a memoir, 'Corporal Boskin's Cold Cold War: A Comical Journey' (2011). 'I was already quite content defending my country as a land historian.' After his Army service, he earned a master's degree in history from New York University and, in 1959, a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. Professor Boskin did research into race relations while teaching at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s. After joining the Boston University faculty in 1969, he began teaching humor and wrote academic journal articles with titles like 'Humor in the Civil Rights Movement' and 'Black Humor: The Renaissance of Laughter.' After The Associated Press debunked the April Fools' prank, Professor Boskin thought the story would fade into history. So did Mr. Bayles — at least he hoped it would. But every year around April 1, reporters would seek out the pair for interviews. Mr. Bayles always said no; Professor Boskin often said yes. 'It was like he was rubbing it in,' Mr. Bayles said. In 2004, Mr. Bayles joined the journalism department at Boston University — yes, really. Their memories of who reached out to whom differ, but they eventually agreed to have lunch at the university's faculty club. Before they met, Mr. Bayles said, he went to the supermarket to buy a pie. He was going to pie his nemesis right in the face. 'He's big into humor, so I thought I'd return the favor,' Mr. Bayles recalled. 'I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which pie would be funnier. Lemon meringue was in the running, but I settled on coconut cream.' They engaged in small talk before getting to Constantine and Kugel. Mr. Bayles, with the pie in his knapsack, revealed that he had felt — and continued to feel — betrayed. Professor Boskin said that he hadn't appreciated being branded a liar. 'His eyes really darkened,' Mr. Bayles said. 'I was taken aback. And I realized, at that point, that this had been torturing him in some ways, too.' He left the pie in his knapsack and went back to his office to eat it. Professor Boskin's marriage to Claire Greenberg in 1955 ended in divorce. He is survived by his longtime partner, Charlene O'Connor; his daughters, Julie Scott, Lori Boyle and Deborah Boskin; three grandchildren; and a brother, Melvin. The story of the professor and the reporter didn't end with their lunch. Mr. Bayles's daughter, Cara, became a reporter. She had grown up hearing the story and thought it was one worth telling, so in 2017 she emailed Professor Boskin asking for an interview. 'I'd be delighted to get together with you,' he replied, adding, 'I have to say, there are sudden surprises in life, and this is one I never could have imagined.' Ms. Bayles was not entirely convinced that the pie detail was true; it sounded almost too good. She told Professor Boskin about her father's revenge plan and asked what he thought. 'Even if it's a hoax,' he said, 'it's a great hoax.'
