👀 STORIES TO WATCH
💣 SINKS · STRIKES · BOMBS · “DEFENSIVE”
Overnight, the US Navy sank seven Iranian fast-attack boats in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian drones and cruise missiles slammed into the United Arab Emirates and lit the Fujairah oil terminal on fire. Israeli warplanes hit Tehran’s Shahran oil depot. This morning, Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine stood at the Pentagon lectern and called the operation “Project Freedom” — and “inherently defensive.” Trump won’t call it a war. The Pentagon won’t call it a war. Brent crude sits above $112 a barrel, gas at $4.46 a gallon, Iran’s parliament speaker telling the country, “we have not even begun yet.” The bodies, the boats, the burning terminals, the warplanes over Tehran — those are calling it.
🎖️ WHERE IS PUTIN?
Yesterday a leaked European intelligence report described a Kremlin in lockdown. Putin’s cooks, photographers, and bodyguards are barred from public transit. Surveillance now sits inside their homes. The report names Sergei Shoigu — the sidelined former defense minister — as the figure the Kremlin treats as its biggest internal coup risk. Putin has stopped visiting his Moscow-region residences and has not set foot at a single military site this year. Three years after Prigozhin marched on Rostov, the man who insisted it could never happen is preparing for the day it might.
📉 INDIANA TESTS TRUMP’S GRIP
Polls open this morning in Indiana for the first competitive primary of the cycle. Trump has personally endorsed in the marquee Senate race, and his team has spent the week leaning on the state party to break for his pick. The MAGA wing is fighting to clear the field; the establishment Republicans Trump has spent six months sidelining have a candidate of their own. Tonight’s count is the first hard number on whether Trump still owns the GOP base or only its leadership.
🌍 ONE ROOM, ONE RING
Last night, the Met raised its seats to $100,000 with Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos chairing for $10 million; Zohran Mamdani refused the invite; Beyoncé wore a feathered skeleton. Across town, the Pulitzers gave Public Service to Bezos’s Washington Post — high fashion and high journalism and only one ring to kiss.
🎯 THE PATTERN
They want you to believe the ceasefire holds, the missiles are defensive, the boats were a skirmish, and the warplanes over Tehran weren’t there. They want you to know Putin is in full control, and that MAGA stands united. They want you to believe it’s about art, fashion, and journalism when it’s really all about the money and the oligarchy. We know the difference.
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