ISIS-Sahel has now officially claimed responsibility for last week’s mysterious attack against Diori Hamani International Airport in the Nigerien capital of Niamey.

Wow, ISIS-Sahel has published footage of last week’s attack against Diori Hamani International Airport in Niger, with dozens of terrorists - including several on motorcycles - successfully breaching both the civilian and military sides of airport, as well as several hangers and warehouses containing military equipment utilized by the Niger Armed Forces.

During the attack, ISIS appears to have destroyed or at least damaged a Diamond DA42 Surveillance Aircraft, a Mi-171Sh Helicopter, a Hürkuş-C Light Ground-Attack Aircraft, and a Cessna. Several other commercial aircraft at the civil terminal were also damaged by small-arms fire, in possibly one of the worst security failures for Niger since the military coup in 2023.

“Midnight Hammer was a very specific mission,” Lt. Gen. Jason Armagost, the Deputy Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), told reporters at the Mitchell Institute Airpower Forum on Thursday. “It was like a play in a game. It wasn’t the game writ large.”

Iran responded to Midnight Hammer, U.S. strikes last June against its nuclear sites, by launching a small ballistic missile strike against a single base in the region, in an attempt to still look strong to domestic audiences but to also deescalate tensions with the United States.

If the United States were to undertake a major air campaign against Iran, Maloney and others say, Tehran would respond with as much firepower as it could muster, deploying its arsenal of short and medium-range ballistic missiles against U.S. and Israeli positions across the Middle East.

Iran would also likely mobilize its proxy forces, directing Shia militia groups to launch attacks in the region. Israel has battered Hezbollah in Lebanon and defeated Hamas in Gaza, but Tehran could encourage Yemen-based Houthis to target tankers and launch drone and missile strikes against civilian and military infrastructure in the region, and Iraqi militias and extremists groups in Syria could also mount attacks against U.S. Forces.

- The Wall Street Journal

President Donald J. Trump has announced that the Kennedy Center, which was unofficially renamed last year to the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, will close for a two-year period beginning July 4, 2026, for major renovations to bring the center to its “highest level of Success, Beauty, and Grandeur,” in honor of the United States Semiquincentennial.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s senior envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to arrive in Israel tomorrow for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, two senior Israeli officials tell The Times of Israel. These meetings are expected to precede potential talks in Turkey later this week between senior officials from Iran and the United States.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered that Iran immediately enter into nuclear talks and further negotiations with the United States, in order to reduce tensions in the Middle East, according to reports from the Iranian state-run Fars News Agency.

President Donald J. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to meet Friday in Istanbul with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, alongside representatives from several Arab and Muslim countries, to discuss a possible new nuclear deal between Iran and the United States, according to two sources with knowledge and a U.S. official who spoke to Axios.

The United States Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has been accused of wrongdoing in a whistleblower complaint that was filed last May by an intelligence official that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

The filing of the complaint has prompted a continuing, behind-the-scenes struggle about how to assess and handle it, with the whistleblower’s lawyer accusing Gabbard of stonewalling the complaint and the disclosure of its contents potentially causing “grave damage to national security,” one official said. It also implicates another federal agency beyond Gabbard’s, and raises potential claims of executive privilege that may involve the White House.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Gabbard’s office confirmed that the complaint concerned Gabbard but dismissed it as “baseless and politically motivated.” 

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has announced that, effective immediately, body cameras will be provided to every agent and officer on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with plans to expand the body camera program to all DHS law enforcement nationwide as funding becomes available, this includes both Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Body cameras was a major demand by House and Senate Democrats for them to vote in favor of further funding for the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to a prohibition on federal officers wearing masks and an end to roving patrols, along with requiring warrants issued by a judge for arrests and searches carried out by both CBP and ICE.

Iran has informed the United States that it is willing to shut down or suspend its nuclear program in order to calm ongoing tensions in the Middle East, but that it would prefer a proposal made last year to create a regional consortium to produce nuclear power, American and Iranian officials have told the New York Times.

Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, met in recent days with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow with a message from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stating that Iran could agree to ship its stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia, as it did under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Multiple fake emails are circulating that are claimed to be part of the Epstein Files, such as this email here said to be dated June 22, 2013, in which a redacted individual tells convicted sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, “When we come up next month I’m thinking about bringing…” followed by two redacted names, adding “They’re up for anything. you’ll love them.” Epstein responds by stating that he doesn’t believe that’s a good idea, before saying when asked why, “trump will be there. doesnt like black girls,, calls them 'boogers', wont go w in 10 feet.” This email appears to be entirely FAKE and has not been part of any release by the Justice Department, being shared as legitimate by many high-profile accounts on X.

Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have agreed to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee regarding their links to the ongoing investigation into convicted sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, only days before the Republican-led House was expected to vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro speaking earlier today on Fox News:

“And you bring a gun into the district, you mark my words, you're going to jail. I don't care if you have a license in another district, and I don't care if you're a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.”

Speaking to reporters today in the Oval Office, President Donald J. Trump spoke about what he called “talks going on with Iran,” as well as the current military buildup in the Middle East, with him stating: “We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones. Biggest and the best. And we have talks going on with Iran. We'll see how it all works out.”

Chances of a potential nuclear deal between Iran and the United States have skyrocketed within the last few hours on Polymarket, following reports that Iran is prepared to shut down or suspend its nuclear program in order to calm tensions in the Middle East, with traders predicting that the chances of a deal before the end of the year are currently 55%.