Posts on Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Miguel Díaz-Canel, the figurehead “President” of Cuba, claimed to NBC that any military attempt from the United States to depose him would be met by Cubans willing to die for the communist regime that has oppressed them for 67 years. Díaz-Canel issued the claim speaking with NBC News’s “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in Havana. NBC published the full, roughly 53-minute interview on Sunday days after releasing a five minute-long snippet in which the figurehead claimed he will not step down from his position at a time when U.S. officials and members of the Cuban communist regime have engaged in talks.

The Iranian regime executed more than 1,600 people last year — marking a three decade high not seen since the end of the Islamic Republic’s war against Iraq in 1989. The shocking figures were included in a joint report released by the nonprofit Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty, which estimated that in 2025 at least four people were put to death each day in Iran. In total, at least 1,639 were executed in Iran last year, the highest reported number since the post-war bloodbath in 1989, where an estimated 1,700 political prisoners were executed, according to the report.

France is reducing its enormous budget deficit in the current fiscal year. However, the price for this minimal relief is high: only massive tax hikes can still slow the debt spiral. On both sides of the Franco-German border, the same problem persists: overburdened and reform-averse politicians struggle against a rapidly accelerating debt spiral. Their preferred tool: higher levies. Last week, France’s Finance Minister Roland Lescure reported a revision of the projected budget deficit for the current year. Initial estimates for 2026 had suggested a deficit well above five percent. Yet numerous fiscal measures brought last year’s deficit down to 5.1%. For 2026,

We claim Nothing but the Liberty & Privileges of Englishmen, in the same Degree, as if we had still continued among our Brethren in Great Britain: these Rights have not been forfeited by any Act of ours, we can not be deprived of them, without our Consent, but by Violence & Injustice; We have received them from our Ancestors, and, with God’s Leave, we will transmit them, unimpaired to our Posterity. Can those, who have hitherto acted as our Friends, endeavour now, insidiously, to draw from Us Concessions destructive to what we hold far dearer than Life!

The Iranian regime on Monday denied charging a “toll” to Indian ships for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, following President Donald Trump’s threat to prevent any ship that paid ransom to Iran from using the strait. You can ⁠ask the Indian government if we ​have charged anything up to now,” Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Fathali insisted at a press conference from the Iranian embassy in New Delhi. In this difficult time, we have ​good relations. We believe Iran and ​India share common interests and a common fate,” he said. Fathali said Iran is keeping in “close communication” with India, with an eye toward ensuring the safety of Indian vessels,

Just a few weeks ago, Rep. Eric Swalwell was said to be leading a crowded pack of Democrats trying to win the nomination for California’s governor. Then, in the blink of an eye, his party abandoned him. The alleged reason is evidence of sexual misconduct. In reality, Swalwell fell victim to the Democratic Party’s unquenchable lust for power and California’s bizarre jungle primary. On Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN both ran stories about women accusing him of sexual misconduct. Within hours, Democrats were taking their endorsements back and calling on him to drop out of the race. By Sunday, he’d suspended his campaign.

‘April is the cruellest month,” T.S. Eliot wrote in his epic poem “The Waste Land.” This year, it seems many American taxpayers might be inclined to agree with the venerable poet. More people than not say they will be paying more in taxes this year, not less, and call the federal tax code unfair, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. In its monthly national online poll, I&I/TIPP asked 1,464 adults about their taxes. The poll, taken from March 31 to April 2, has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points. The first question: “Compared to last year, do you feel your federal taxes are …”,

Western media remain utterly incoherent ahead of Tuesday’s Israeli-Lebanese talks in Washington because their Israel Derangement Syndrome renders them unable to acknowledge basic facts. For starters, the Jewish state is not at war with Lebanon, but with Hezbollah, the terror group that occupies the country’s south and until recently had the government bullied into complete submission. It’s a war Hezbollah started — most recently, ending a cease-fire by launching missiles at Israel in revenge for Jerusalem’s assaults on Iran in conjunction with Operation Epic Fury. Israel is in the process of evicting Hezbollah from Lebanon south of the Litani River — as per the accords that ended the 2006 war,

President Trump explained Monday that he deleted an AI-generated image that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ because of the “confusion” the social media post caused — and took a jab at conservative activist Riley Gaines. “Normally I don’t like doing that,” Trump told CBS News, when asked why he deleted the Truth Social post, “but I didn’t want to have anybody be confused.” “People were confused,” the president said. Earlier Monday, Trump told reporters he thought the image of himself — clad in billowy white and red robes —

The Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East is hardly the only waterway on President Donald Trump’s mind at the moment. While Trump and the international media may be talking about the Strait of Hormuz nonstop, the broader questions about other sea lanes and shipping waterways have very much dominated the geopolitical discussion worldwide upon Trump’s return to the White House and have been at the center of tensions between the U.S. and China, set for a worldwide primetime showdown when Trump visits Beijing in May. A top Greek government official is dishing on how Trump and his envoy to the Hellenic Republic have outmaneuvered Chinese President Xi Jinping —

The Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled that the Fulton County commissioners may reject Republican nominees to the county’s election board, finding the board appointments are “inherently discretionary.” For years, the Democrat-controlled Fulton County Board of Commissioners has been fighting the local GOP over who gets to sit on the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections. In May 2025, the commissioners rejected the Republican Party’s nominees, Julie Adams and Jason Frazier.

Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales, who was facing allegations of sexual misconduct with subordinates, announced his intention to resign on Monday. “There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas,” Gonzales, a Republican, wrote on X. Gonzales’ announcement came an hour after Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who has also been accused of sexual misconduct, announced he would resign from Congress. Swalwell fully denies the accusations.

Equally disturbing is the role of Al-Jazeera itself. Owned, funded, and controlled by the government of Qatar, Al-Jazeera, particularly its Arabic-language channel, has long provided a platform for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Its coverage frequently echoes Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood narratives, and amplifies anti-Israel propaganda and antisemitic rhetoric. Reports by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) have documented Al-Jazeera providing a platform for guests who assert that Jews are "enemies of Muslims and all humanity" or that they control global affairs.

By blocking Iranian exports in retaliation for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump administration is poised to strip the cash-strapped regime in Tehran of one of its last streams of revenue. President Donald Trump ordered the blockade to begin on Monday after negotiations in Pakistan between U.S. and Iranian officials ended in a stalemate. In those negotiations, Iranian officials steadfastly refused to drop their demand for a new role in governing the vital waterway. Iran, which has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the conflict with the U.S. earlier this year,

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Monday declassified and released documents she says show that officials within the Intelligence Community mishandled and politicized a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. According to Gabbard, the newly released records allege that what she described as “deep state actors” collaborated with then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to advance what she called a “false narrative” surrounding the whistleblower complaint.

Monday on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Republicans needed to rein in President Donald Trump before he does “irreparable damage to our country.” Clinton said, “I teach a course at Columbia University with the dean of the School of International Public Affairs. We’ve been on your program. And among the things we teach is behavior of of leaders. And there’s something called domain of loss, which means when a leader feels that he’s losing, he actually becomes more reckless.

popular early radio (1930–1954) crime-fighting program, “The Shadow,” began with a distinctive narrator’s voice uttering an iconic opening line, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” In the aftermath of the arrest of a former US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) civilian employee, Courtney Williams, 40, for an act of betrayal against her country, we can only wonder what evil lurked within her heart. To become a SOCOM contractor, Williams took an oath of secrecy for life. It was a condition she had to accept before being given access to a range of classified information. There was nothing complex about the arrangement.

20 years ago Colorado was a Red state and thriving," the State Leadership Initiative posted late last week. "10 years ago liberals were writing pieces about how Colorado was the next Silicon Valley." And now CBS News reports that "Colorado is losing businesses and jobs at an alarming rate."This was the hope, according to Denver-based 5280 magazine in 2020: "With another tech company setting up an office in Denver, the state could become a magnet for Silicon Valley firms and other prestigious businesses during the worst economic climate in nearly a century." Instead of Silicon Mountain, Colorado is quickly becoming "an economic backwater,"

Famed Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says he believes President Donald Trump could have grounds to expunge his 2019 impeachment in the House after bombshell new evidence revealed the intelligence community failed to disclose that his main accuser had the potential for bias, made a false statement and only had hearsay to back up his allegations. Dershowitz, a Democrat at the time who worked to defend Trump at the impeachment trial that ended in the president's acquittal, said it would be "an interesting, novel approach" for Trump to go to Chief Justice John Roberts,

Donald Trump claims that the "right people" in Iran have reached out to cut a deal for real after imposing a naval blockade and cutting off Iran's income stream. Who are we talking with in Tehran? Mahdi al-Hall? That's what Trump claimed in an ad-hoc press conference on the veranda of the Oval Office this afternoon. Trump didn't specify the identities of the "right people," but hinted that the blockade may have changed some minds over the last few hours: One can understand why some Iranian regime remnants may want to cut a deal with Trump that meets his demands. As Trump himself put it, "Iran is doing absolutely no business