Obama intel chief angered president at meeting by asking if he’d tolerate Iran having nuclear weapon

Former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair once angered then-President Barack Obama during a White House meeting on Iran, after he pressed Obama on whether he could tolerate the nation obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to newly released oral history interviews.

“When it came my turn to speak at this meeting,” Blair said, “I said, ‘Mr. President, you really just have one decision to make… Are you going to tolerate Iran having a nuclear weapon or not?’” He added that rejecting a nuclear Iran would require espionage and military options, while acceptance would mean a strategy to contain and deter Iran.

The exchange, documented in interviews conducted by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and reported by The New York Times, offers a window into internal divisions within the Obama administration as officials debated how to respond to Iran’s nuclear program.

Blair said the moment prompted a sharp warning from Obama.

“The president took me aside after that meeting and said, ‘Denny, don’t ever put me on the spot like that again,’” he recalled. “I said… ‘Yes, sir, Mr. President. I certainly won’t.’” He added, “I was kept out of meetings from that time forward.”

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Blair described the meeting as one that had been presented as an opportunity to provide input on Iran policy, and he made the “mistake” of thinking Obama was honestly looking for “fresh insights.”

Blair served as Obama’s DNI from the start of his presidency in 2009 until he resigned at Obama’s request in May 2010.

Obama would go on to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal during his second term, which his administration hailed as a landmark diplomatic achievement that limited the country’s nuclear ambitions while avoiding bloodshed. Its critics savaged the deal as mere appeasement that granted unearned sanctions relief to the world’s largest state sponsor of terror. 

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018.

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The released oral histories also include accounts of internal political discussions within the Obama White House, including deliberations over Vice President Joe Biden’s potential 2016 presidential bid.

David Plouffe, a top political strategist, urged Biden not to enter the race, telling him, “There’s no room. There’s just no room for you.”

Plouffe added, “I’m concerned about you as a human being. I’m not sure you’re in a state to run.”

Biden, who mourned the death of his son Beau in 2015, announced later that year that he would not enter the Democratic race, which came down to a heated battle between Hillary Clinton, Obama’s preferred candidate, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

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Clinton would go on to win the nomination and lose the general election to Donald Trump.

Obama’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital‘s request for comment. 

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Trump delays Xi meeting as Iran conflict lets US strong-arm China’s oil supply

President Donald Trump’s decision to delay a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the U.S.’ conflict with Iran unfolds is raising a new question in Washington: whether pressure on global oil flows is factoring into U.S. leverage with Beijing. 

The summit originally had been planned for March 31 to April 2, but Trump said on March 16 that he had asked China to delay it by “a month or so,” explaining, “We got a war going on. I think it’s important that I be here.” 

The following day, Trump said the meeting would instead take place in “about five or six weeks,” adding, “We’re working with China — they were fine with it.”

“The president has some things here at home in May that he has to attend to,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters March 16, adding that the two sides would set a date “as soon as we can.”

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At the same time, U.S. strikes on Iran — and earlier pressure on Venezuela — have been affecting countries central to China’s energy supply, disrupting shipping and raising costs without fully cutting off flows. 

China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, and shipments are still moving despite the conflict. But increased risk, higher prices and logistical disruptions are squeezing one of Beijing’s most important energy lifelines — raising the prospect of Washington gaining leverage by driving up the cost and risk of the oil China depends on.

Pressure on China’s energy and influence

In recent months, U.S. actions have hit two countries where China has built deep economic ties — Venezuela and Iran, both tied to Beijing through oil and investment.

In 2023, China helped broker a deal restoring relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a move widely seen as a sign of Beijing’s growing influence in the Middle East. That détente is now under strain as the conflict escalates, exposing the limits of China’s ability to sustain stability once fighting begins.

Those developments point to China’s position more clearly: a global power with significant economic reach, but limited willingness — and potentially limited ability — to shield its partners when conflict escalates.

“It is very much connected,” said Brent Sadler of the conservative Heritage Foundation Washington think tank. “It’s all connected to China at the end of it.”

For Beijing, the stakes are primarily economic. China is the world’s largest oil importer, and disruptions to Iranian supply can raise costs, complicate logistics and reduce access to discounted crude that has helped fuel its economy.

At the same time, the conflict itself is rooted in long-running tensions with Iran, including its nuclear program, missile capabilities and support for regional proxy groups.

“It’s not all about China,” said Piero Tozzi of the America First Policy Institute. “It’s primarily about Iran.”

That distinction — between what is driving the conflict and what it affects — has shaped the debate in Washington over how much the fallout could influence broader U.S.-China dynamics.

The delay adds another layer to that dynamic, coming as energy markets tighten and U.S.-China discussions continue.

Oil flows disrupted — but still moving

China’s dependence on Iranian oil remains a central vulnerability, even as the conflict disrupts shipping lanes and raises risks in the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly half of China’s seaborne oil imports pass.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped sharply and become far more volatile, with only limited oil shipments still getting through under heightened risk.

Iran accounts for roughly 13% of China’s crude imports, while China remains Tehran’s largest customer, purchasing an estimated 80–90% of its exports.

Much of that oil is sold at a discount — often $8 per barrel to $10 per barrel — giving Chinese refiners access to cheaper crude that is difficult to replace elsewhere.

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Much of the trade is handled by smaller independent “teapot” refineries, allowing Beijing to maintain imports while limiting exposure of its state-owned energy companies to U.S. sanctions.

In many cases, those transactions are conducted in yuan rather than dollars, with proceeds often recycled into Chinese goods and infrastructure projects.

“One of China’s long-term objectives is challenging the supremacy of the dollar,” Tozzi said.

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“It’s going to be hard to turn off the supplier side of this,” Sadler said, pointing to the entrenched networks that keep crude moving despite sanctions and conflict.

Those networks — built over years of sanctions — allow Iranian oil to be rerouted through indirect channels, often using tankers that operate outside traditional tracking systems.

For China, that means continued access to supply, but at higher cost and greater risk, as shipments become more difficult to move and insure.

The result is sustained pressure rather than a cutoff: fewer shipments, higher prices and increased uncertainty around a supply line Beijing has come to rely on.

The Trump administration also has taken an unusual step to stabilize energy markets, temporarily easing sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on tankers to allow those barrels to be sold. The short-term waiver, covering an estimated 140 million barrels, is aimed at easing supply disruptions caused by the conflict.

But it also widens access to oil that had largely been flowing to China, increasing competition for those barrels rather than allowing Beijing to remain the dominant buyer.

The U.S. also has eased some restrictions on Russian oil in recent weeks, allowing additional supply to flow to Asia. Taken together, the moves are reshaping global oil flows — forcing China to compete more directly for supply rather than relying as heavily on discounted crude.

U.S. intelligence assessments reflect similar limits, describing the China-Iran relationship as economically significant but largely transactional rather than a coordinated strategic bloc.

Combat experience — and a strain on stockpiles

The Iran conflict is giving U.S. forces real-world experience that cannot be replicated in training environments, allowing different branches of the military to operate together under live conditions and test how their systems perform.

“There’s a lot of real-world experience getting gained,” Sadler said. “We are refining our capabilities in a massive way.” 

But those gains come with costs. 

“We’re also wearing down our sailors, as well as the material, the aircraft and the ships.”

The same stockpiles being used in the Middle East would be needed to deter any conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

“We don’t produce munitions at the speed and capacity that we should be. It’s not a new problem,” Sadler said. “We’re going to go through a lot of our interceptor missiles very quickly.”

He warned that at current production rates, inventories could last only “maybe a week or two,” assuming they are used judiciously.

As of late 2025, the U.S. had roughly 414 SM-3 interceptors and 534 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THADD) interceptors, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. THAAD is one of the U.S. military’s primary systems for intercepting ballistic missiles in their final phase of flight.

Those systems have been used heavily in recent Middle East operations, and they also would be central in any potential conflict with China, particularly in defending U.S. forces and allies in the Indo-Pacific from missile attacks.

Drawing down those stockpiles now raises a practical concern: the more the U.S. uses these interceptors in the Middle East, the fewer are immediately available for a high-end conflict with Beijing.

China keeps its distance

Beijing has avoided direct involvement in the U.S.–Israel conflict in Iran, focusing on diplomacy, with its deep oil reserves as a fallback. 

“They’re all very opportunistic,” Sadler said. “They don’t want to take any undue risk.” 

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“The more diplomatic noise they make, the more it draws attention from their incapacity to stand up for their partners,” he said.

The conflict’s effects extend beyond the region, testing China’s role as a global power while forcing the United States to weigh immediate military demands against its longer-term competition with Beijing.

“China strongly urges the parties involved to immediately cease military operations, return to dialogue and negotiation, avoid further escalation of the situation, and prevent regional instability from having a greater impact on global economic development,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Fox News Digital. “Energy security is crucial to the world economy, and all parties have a responsibility to ensure a stable and unimpeded energy supply. We are also maintaining communication with all parties regarding the current situation and are committed to promoting de-escalation.”

Megan Rapinoe praises Iranian women’s soccer team’s ‘bravery’ after facing criticism

Former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe spoke out in support of the Iranian women’s soccer team amid the players’ trials and tribulations over the last few weeks while competing in Australia.

The Iranian women’s soccer team was in Australia earlier this month to compete in the Women’s Asian Cup. Players were seen refusing to sing their country’s national anthem as the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military campaign on the Iranian regime. The players were dubbed “wartime traitors” by an Iranian broadcaster for their decisions during the tournament.

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Australian officials then raced to try to get the players asylum in the country. At least two players stayed in Australia while the rest of the team made it back to Iran.

Rapinoe praised the “bravery and courage” of the women.

“I’m just thinking about this in the context of, like, the immense pressure that these young adults and these young women are under to make a decision like this,” she said on the “A Touch More” podcast. “Like, the incredible courage and bravery it would take knowing what that could potentially mean for their family back home. The bravery and courage to protest the national anthem, basically in protest of the Iranian regime and not singing the national anthem during a match. The stress and uncertainty they’re facing – their family, their loved ones. What does that all mean for back home?

“I, of course, fully support their decisions to seek asylum and seek a better life and to try to escape an incredibly oppressive regime in that situation. I don’t know what’s going on with them and why some of them left and however that is. I hope the ones that returned home have done so under their own free will and choice and that their families are safe, that they’re safe, and their friends are safe. I hope the ones that have chosen to stay feel a sense of peace and hope about a potential for a new life in Australia or otherwise.”

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Rapinoe added that she was “in awe of their courage.”

The former U.S. soccer star faced scrutiny for not speaking out as the saga was unfolding in the country. Piers Morgan was among those who labeled Rapinoe as “hypocritical.”

“The silence over this from Rapinoe, and so many supposed ‘feminists’ like her, is so telling, damning, and hypocritical,” he wrote in a social media post. “They’d rather campaign for biological men to wreck women’s sport than campaign for these heroic young sportswomen to help save their lives.” 

She didn’t address her critics in her latest podcast episode with Sue Bird.

Initially, seven of the Iranian women’s soccer players accepted asylum but turned around and declined the opportunity at the last minute. Two players who stayed were seen training with one of the country’s premier clubs last week.

The Australian government faced criticism for not working fast enough to get to the players.

“We ended up with an outcome that is certainly far from ideal,” Graham Thom, an advocacy coordinator for the Refugee Council of Australia, told The Associated Press.

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“Hopefully the two who are remaining get the protection they need, but we just hope that those who have returned are also safe.”

Trump orders War Dept to postpone strikes on Iranian energy sites, citing ‘productive’ talks to end war

President Donald Trump, in an all-caps post early Monday morning, declared progress toward “resolution” of the war with Iran.

“I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.”

FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo spoke with Trump shortly after the post, and Trump stressed, “Iran wants to make a deal badly.”

Trump’s move followed a threat by Iran to attack Israel’s power plants and those supplying U.S. bases across the Gulf region if the U.S. targets Iran’s power network.

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The post led to an immediate reaction in the oil futures market globally.

Iranian state television is denying that any negotiations are underway, but Trump rejected that reporting to Bartiromo, saying peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had spoken with their counterparts Sunday night. 

The United Arab Emirates reported its air defenses were attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian fire Monday afternoon.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged talking by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

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Speaking in Parliament, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday compared the challenges caused by the war to those faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and said India needs to be equally prepared this time.

Modi said the country’s power plants have adequate coal reserves and that all power supply systems are being closely monitored as summer approaches and demand rises. He said India’s fertilizer stocks remain sufficient.

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“This war is not in the interest of humanity,” Modi said. “India is encouraging all sides to end war peacefully.”

Power Couple of Chaos: How a tycoon and activist built a ‘Revolutionary Base’ at the House of Singham

As far-left American activists flood Cuba to support its flailing communist regime, U.S. officials have opened a sprawling investigation into an anti-America, pro-China nonprofit network forged during a wedding celebration in late February 2017, off Runaway Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast.

There, beneath a canopy of palm trees, an elite cadre of activists, intellectuals, celebrities, political organizers and comrades in a global Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement assembled to celebrate the “Revolutionary Love” of two luminaries, both 62 at the time: Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, and Jodie Evans, a red-haired veteran activist and co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace.

Like the opening scene of “The Godfather,” where powerful families consolidate power, the wedding celebration was about much more than the union of two people. 

Over four days of dancing, lectures and late-night conversations in venues from the Flavor Beach Bar to Sharkey’s Seafood, celebrating the bond of “Roy and Jodie,” alliances were formed that would shape protests, unrest and political agitation over the next decade, from the fiery 2020 scenes in Minneapolis to demonstrations today supporting the regimes in Cuba and Iran.

That weekend, Vijay Prashad, an academic described in the official wedding itinerary as a “Marxist intellectual,” spoke on a panel, “The Future of the Left.” Medea Benjamin, Evans’ friend and CodePink co-founder, danced barefoot at the wedding in a bright Indian outfit.

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Mao’s Blueprint for the ‘People’s War’

According to sources, the wedding attendees invoked the teachings of Mao Zedong, the 20th century Chinese Communist Party leader who ruled China with an iron fist, inspired by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and they discussed how to mobilize the masses to wage a Maoist “People’s War.” 

“The revolutionary war is a war of the masses,” Mao said in 1934.

Many were themselves relics of the Cold War, growing up before the Soviet Union was dismantled in 1989.

A monthslong Fox News Digital investigation pinpoints the Jamaica wedding as a starting point for launching a network of organizations that is today waging a new “People’s War” on America, aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s geopolitical ambitions to eclipse the U.S. as a superpower through economic programs like the “Belt and Road” initiative, realizing the vision of China’s ideological godfather, Mao, through trade partnerships, economic deals and pro-China propaganda.

National security experts call it cognitive warfare.

Over almost a decade, Fox News Digital has learned, Singham and Evans have activated a global network that now numbers an estimated 2,000 hard-left organizations that parrot anti-U.S. propaganda supporting autocratic regimes leading China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Gaza. Within activist circles, far-left critics refer to leftists who align with authoritarian regimes as “tankies.” Many groups and leaders from Singham’s network, including Evans and Benjamin, are part of the pro-communist convoy now in Cuba.

Fox News Digital has established a documented $278 million that flowed from Singham into organizations that “sow discord” in the U.S., as House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith put it recently at a hearing on foreign malign influence in the nonprofit industry.

According to the data, Singham created a base from which the U.S. is now one of the world’s most prolific exporters of radical pro-China communist ideology. Singham and Evans didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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‘Mao’s Dream for a People’s Army’

Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese American who survived Mao’s purge of innocents during the Cultural Revolution, told Fox News Digital that Singham and Evans are following the communist dictator’s playbook.

“Neville Roy Singham and his wife, Jody Evans, are bringing into the 21st century Mao’s dream for a People’s War,” Van Fleet said.

Mao’s doctrine of the People’s War emphasized long-term struggle through decentralized networks, ideological indoctrination and the mobilization of civilian institutions rather than direct military confrontation. 

“They are bringing to the streets America’s worst nightmare of a Red Army that is seeking to destroy the United States and make China more competitive on the world stage,” said Van Fleet, the author of “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”

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‘Adorable Troublemaker’

Singham grew up familiar with Mao’s dictates.

He was born in mid-May 1954 in Middletown, Conn., the son of Archibald Singham, a Marxist-Leninist scholar of Sri Lankan heritage, and Shirley Hume, who also adhered to far-left ideology. By his own account, he joined the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as a teenager and worked at a Chrysler assembly line in Detroit. 

FBI agents once attempted to interview him at the Chrysler Eldon Avenue Plant, noting in their report that he was “potentially dangerous” because of his “background, emotional instability” or role in groups involved in harmful activities “inimical to U.S.,” according to a copy of the FBI report released by the House Ways and Means Committee.

According to the FBI report, Singham told the agents, “I don’t want to talk to you,” and walked away.

Singham quietly built his Thoughtworks technology company through the 1990s. Meanwhile, Evans was campaign manager for Democratic politician Jerry Brown’s losing 1992 California governor’s race. 

After they exchanged vows in Jamaica, Evans called Singham her “adorable troublemaker,” her “darling Roy” and “adorable husband” in Instagram posts. 

5 Rings, 2,000 Groups

Fox News Digital analyzed 223 transactions that moved $591 million in total across five continents from 2017 through 2025, the latest year available, and found the money flows through five concentric rings of an ideological pipeline that spreads pro-China propaganda:

• Level 1: Singham allegedly set up a system to funnel tax-exempt dollars through two apparent shell corporations and a donor-advised fund, GS Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund For Wealth Management Inc., which is closely associated with Goldman Sachs. Wealthy patrons can hide donations as anonymous, experts say. Revealed here for the first time, Goldman Sachs spokesman Tony Fratto said the company’s philanthropy arm “terminated” Singham’s donor-advised fund in February 2024.
• Level 2: Singham poured a documented $278 million from the three organizations into six nonprofits – five created virtually overnight with Evans on the board of several and the sixth being Evans’ longtime agitation project, CodePink. The six organizations are BreakThrough BT Media, CodePink, Justice and Education Fund Inc., People’s Forum Inc., People’s Support Foundation Ltd. and Tricontinental Ltd.
• Level 3: Those six nonprofits have pumped about $163 million into 52 organizations – including themselves – and, importantly, five regions identified only by geography.
• Level 4: Over this period, 11 groups have distributed $150 million into four nonprofits and five geographic regions, including $23 million to Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Level 5: The network doesn’t stop where the money trail ends, because 67 core groups partner with hundreds of groups worldwide, creating a network of about 2,000 organizations worldwide.

Singham Emerges

Last November, Singham walked through the doors of the Golden Tulip hotel in Shanghai for one of his rare public appearances, a two-day “Global South Academic Forum” conference blessed by the country’s ruling Chinese Communist Party, which the government officially calls the Communist Party of China, or CPC.

Videos and images from the conference provide a rare public window into the messaging, symbolism and participants of a network that otherwise operates opaquely.

The opening talk featured Prashad, Singham’s wedding guest, releasing a 172-page treatise written by Singham, chairman of the “International Advisory Board” of Tricontinental, a think tank Singham had funded and one of the conference sponsors. Another co-sponsor was the East China Normal University, which is administered by the Communist Party of China.

In the report, “80th Anniversary of the Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War: Acknowledging Who Truly Saved Human History and Restoring Historical Truth,” which Fox News Digital has uncovered, Singham rewrote the history of World War II to elevate the role of China and the “Global South” in defeating Nazi Germany.

On page 61, Singham blasted the West but held out hope it could be defeated. 

“Socialist peoples and leadership can defeat imperialism in any form – fascist then, hyper-imperialist now – despite every material disadvantage,” he argued. “That victory required genius, courage and unimaginable sacrifice. It also proved something imperialism cannot accept: ordinary people, organised and led with brilliance, can defeat any empire.”

Singham then quoted Mao, saying that the brutal leader “crystallized this truth” in his book “On Protracted War,” when he wrote, “The richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people.”

In the paper, Singham diminishes the deaths of U.S. and British troops and service members, writing that the Soviets and China really won the war with, “59.8% socialists dead, 13.1% colonised peoples dead – only 1% Anglo-Americans dead.”

He also condemns British leader Winston Churchill’s “genocidal impulses.”

About 23 minutes into his remarks, Prashad welcomed Singham on stage with two other colleagues and Singham took a bow to the applause of the audience members and said, “Thank you, comrades, friends.” 

In a video of the event, unearthed by Fox News Digital, Singham railed against “the fascist lie” of the West that “there is a battle between fascism, democracy and communism.”

Singham articulated a view of global power that challenges the Western understanding of World War II and the postwar international order.

“Fascism is actually a face of capitalism and imperialism, as is colonialism. These are the three faces of a system that is quite now becoming very dangerous for us.”

He didn’t identify “us.” 

In the clip, Singham describes a “rules-based international order” that he argues is built on a “lie” about democracy. The excerpt is included for the purpose of reporting and analyzing the content of his remarks.

He talked about the Americans and “their” failure to hold fascists accountable from the “anti-fascist” war. 

“If we want to, therefore, have a new world order that is based on multilateralism that President Xi and CPC and China have proposed, we have to undo the ideological damage that has been done by the narrative of World War II,” he said, using the acronym for the Communist Party of China, called CCP in the West.

He ended by recognizing Soviet and Chinese fighters who died during World War II, and he urged the group to “honor” them for their underappreciated sacrifice. 

“China has a very important role, and we, in this forum, have a very important role,” Singham said, “that to envision a new order, a new multi-polarity order, requires, quite frankly, the deconstruction, a restorationist history of what really happened, who really suffered. Of those who died, almost 70% of the people who died in World War II were in China and the Soviet Union.”

The comments reflect a broader ideology that reframes historical events and positions China’s communist system as the better alternative to Western “democracy.”

Asked about Singham, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, “I am not familiar with the specifics of this particular case.”

Pengyu added, “As a matter of principle, however, China consistently upholds the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”

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Asymmetric War Machine

As part of this investigation, Fox News Digital tracked street protests from New York City to Berkeley, Calif., and built a database with thousands of pages of IRS tax filings, corporate records, social media posts, website content and other material. 

The investigation analyzed 1,663 events the People’s Forum hosted from early August 2018 and its most recent gatherings early this year. The events included academics and researchers from at least 225 colleges and universities that are being analyzed separately.

The scale of what the couple built goes far beyond anything previously documented, revealing a network that acts like a transnational, asymmetric propaganda machine. It features a central headquarters, substantial war chest, defined command structure, propaganda wing and street-level foot soldiers. Its operations extend beyond the United States into multiple overseas theaters.

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‘Terrorist’

At a protest in Lower Manhattan in early January, David Chung, organizing director at the People’s Forum, and Hannah Priscilla Craig, art, culture and communications director at the People’s Forum, walked away from requests for interviews.

When approached by Fox News Digital at the People’s Forum offices in Manhattan, Brian Becker, a founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, with operations at the People’s Forum, called the inquiries “witch hunting” and referred to a reporter as “a terrorist.” 

Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the People’s Forum, compared the scrutiny to the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who conducted congressional hearings into communist infiltration in the U.S. in the 1950s.

Becker’s son, Ben Becker, editor-in-chief of BreakThrough BT News, a propaganda wing of Singham’s network, watched silently.

Soon after, in mid-February, the Global South Academic Forum released a video, “The World Is Small, The South Is Vast,” featuring highlights from last fall’s conference at Shanghai’s Golden Tulip hotel. The video underscores how the Singham network has created a “Revolutionary Base” in which academic discussion blends with historical symbols tied to revolutionary communism.

In the last seconds of the video, Singham stands at attention as a global communist anthem, “The Internationale,” plays, his comrades punching the air with their fists in solidarity.

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Trump’s Iran strategy is working and teaching our foes what deterrence means

President Donald Trump didn’t start this war. The Islamic Republic did — on Nov. 4, 1979, when it invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. For nearly half a century, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism has killed and maimed more Americans than any other terrorist regime on Earth. It even plotted twice to assassinate Trump himself.

The regime’s attacks against the United States and our allies are not a series of isolated incidents, but a single, continuous war waged by the mullahs for 47 years. From the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing to the Iranian IEDs that killed 603 Americans in Iraq — roughly one out of every six American combat fatalities — the regime operated on the assumption that Washington lacked the stomach to respond. For years, that bet paid off. Tehran interpreted restraint not as prudence but as permission.

From the October 7 Hamas massacre of roughly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans to 180-plus attacks on U.S. forces last year, the regime has always told us what it wants: death to America.

To confront this looming threat, every American president since Jimmy Carter chose to kick the can down the road, calling it diplomacy. That changed in 2020 when Trump ordered the strike against Qassim Soleimani, the regime’s chief terrorist and IED mastermind. Washington’s foreign-policy class criticized it, but the Iranian people celebrated it.

MICHAEL OREN: IRAN HAS WAGED WAR ON AMERICA FOR 47 YEARS — TIME TO END IT

When the regime massacred more than 40,000 protesters in January 2026 and attempted to hide the atrocity from the world by shutting down the internet, the people again looked to Trump for help. He answered their call by doing what his predecessors never dared, moving to “end this long-running danger once and for all.”

The case for action was strong. Beyond humanitarian grounds, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, revealed the details of his and Special Peace Envoy Jared Kushner’s negotiations leading up to the conflict. Their Iranian counterparts proudly admitted they stockpiled enough uranium for 11 nuclear bombs, attainable in weeks. When the U.S. offered to supply Iran’s nuclear fuel for free in exchange for a halt to enrichment, Tehran refused. Witkoff concluded that Iran had no intention of doing anything other than weaponizing its stockpile.

This nuclear threat was built on decades of deception. The regime hid tubes from IAEA inspectors so it could secretly restore the Arak reactor. It concealed an entire nuclear weapons archive from negotiators (subsequently acquired by Israel), then stonewalled international investigators probing undeclared nuclear materials and activities at multiple sites.

THE WAR HITS HOME: WHY FINANCIAL PAIN AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY THREATEN TRUMP’S DRIVE TO TOPPLE IRAN’S REGIME

The Obama administration’s deeply flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) did not constrain the Islamic Republic. Instead, it legitimized and funded Iran’s gradual pursuit of nuclear weapons. Trump accurately called the JCPOA “the worst deal ever negotiated.” He walked away from the agreement in 2018, instituting a maximum pressure campaign, denying the regime more than $200 billion in oil revenue that would otherwise have financed terror operations.

President Joe Biden inexplicably abandoned the strategy, handing Iran the breathing room to accelerate enrichment — until Trump struck the regime’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan last June during Operation Midnight Hammer. When Iran’s negotiators bragged about their bomb-ready stockpile, telling Witkoff, “We’re not going to give you diplomatically what you couldn’t take militarily,” Trump launched Operation Epic Fury.

The operation’s objectives — the embodiment of Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine — were laid out by the Department of War: destroy Iran’s offensive ballistic missiles and production facilities, annihilate its navy and naval infrastructure, sever terrorist proxy networks, prevent nuclear-weapons development by targeting related sites and degrade the regime’s security apparatus — including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centers, air defenses, missile and drone launchers and airfields.

LIZ PEEK: IRAN WAR COULD BECOME THE ACHIEVEMENT THAT ENSURES TRUMP’S LEGACY

So far, the results are ahead of schedule. In a joint operation with Israel, Ali Khamenei, the regime’s leader, was killed alongside much of his inner circle and the senior military command — including the heads of the IRGC and Basij, as well as senior power broker Ali Larijani.

More than 80% of Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile and production capacity has been destroyed, along with the bulk of its naval fleet and port infrastructure. Iran’s proxy financing networks — the pipelines that kept Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas armed and operational — have been severed. Nuclear-related sites across the country have been obliterated. At least 49 senior regime officials have been killed or removed from the battlefield.

Their Iranian counterparts proudly admitted they stockpiled enough uranium for 11 nuclear bombs, attainable in weeks. 

This unprecedented degradation of the regime’s repressive forces is leveling the battlefield and creating unprecedented conditions on the streets for the Iranian people to rise up and challenge the mullahs directly.

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The job is not finished. But it is on track. Staying the course will finish it.

President Trump spoke directly to the Iranian people in his address launching the operation: “[T]he hour of your freedom is at hand…When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.” That moment is now within reach.

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Trump’s strategy is working. His legs are not wobbly and his commitment unshaken: “We don’t want to leave early, do we? … We don’t want to come back every two years.” Half-measures against this regime have a 47-year track record of failure. History will vindicate Trump’s resolve to end it.

As Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the leader of Iran’s democratic opposition, put it: Donald Trump will be remembered as the leader who stood with the Iranian people when it mattered most — alongside history’s greatest liberators.

Trump, Starmer agree Strait of Hormuz must reopen as Middle East conflict escalates

President Donald Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday to discuss escalating tensions in the Middle East, with a focus on the urgent need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore global shipping.

The leaders discussed the current situation in the Middle East, and in particular, the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to resume global shipping, Downing Street said in a statement.

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“They agreed that reopening the Strait of Hormuz was essential to ensure stability in the global energy market. They agreed to speak again soon.”

The call came amid a rapidly intensifying conflict in the region, with Iran blocking the strategically vital strait since the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iranian targets on Feb. 28.

The military action triggered swift retaliation from Tehran and has since escalated into a broader regional war as Iran has sent missiles into numerous neighboring countries not directly involved in the initial conflict.

UK NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DEPLOYED TO ARABIAN SEA BEFORE IRAN TARGETS KEY US-UK BASE: REPORTS

On March 21, Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran demanding the reopening of the key maritime route, through which approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply passes.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned that failure to comply would result in further U.S. action, including potential strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure.

EU PUSHES FOR END OF IRAN WAR IN A MANNER WHERE ‘EVERYBODY SAVES FACE’

Sunday’s conversation between Trump and Starmer perhaps reflected a thaw in the tense relationship between the two leaders.

Trump had publicly criticized the U.K. government, stating that Britain “should have acted a lot faster” in allowing the U.S. to use British military bases for strikes targeting Iranian missile sites.

Starmer had also maintained that the use of U.K. bases could only be justified under the principle of “collective self-defense” in the region.

He had initially declined to support the U.S.-Israeli military operation, drawing repeated criticism from the White House.

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Meanwhile, Trump appeared to apply public pressure, sharing a “Saturday Night Live” clip Sunday mocking the British prime minister’s handling of the crisis.

Iran threatens mass ‘water war’ with strikes on key plants in days, UN official warns

Iran is poised to strike critical desalination infrastructure across the Middle East within days, escalating tensions with the U.S. and Israel and triggering global economic fallout, a U.N. official warned Sunday.

Kaveh Madani, an Iranian scientist and U.N. official, said desalination plants across the region could be hit “within the next few days,” raising the prospect of a broader regional water crisis and affecting global markets.

The strike threats made by the regime on Sunday came in response to President Donald Trump’s warning that the U.S. would hit Iranian power infrastructure unless the Strait of Hormuz was opened within 48 hours.

A spokesperson for the Central Headquarters of Hazrat Khatam al-Anbiya (PBUH) said, “Following previous warnings, if Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy, information technology, and desalination infrastructure belonging to the US and the regime in the region will be targeted.”

IRAN HOLDS WORLD ENERGY HOSTAGE WITH ‘NIGHTMARE’ STRAIT OF HORMUZ SEA MINES, FORMER CENTCOM OFFICIAL WARNS

“The desalination plants might be targeted again within the next few days,” Madani told Fox News Digital.

“The driest region of the world might see a real water war, but the knock-on effects on the world’s economy, including the U.S., will be both immediate and lasting,” Madani said, pointing to what he described as a “new phase in the conflict” involving such critical civilian infrastructure.

“Now, add the possibility of damage to the already fragile water infrastructure, including treatment plants, pumping stations, and distribution networks,” he said. “The consequences would be catastrophic and lasting.”

Kaveh’s warning comes as the conflict — now in its fourth week — has expanded beyond military targets. Desalination facilities, including a plant on Iran’s Qeshm Island and another in Bahrain, have allegedly already been struck.

US ‘LOCKED AND LOADED’ TO DESTROY IRAN’S ‘CROWN JEWEL’ ‘IF WE WANT,’ TRUMP WARNS

Desalination, the process of creating drinkable water from seawater, is critical to supplying water across Israel and many of Iran’s Gulf neighbors, particularly in such arid regions where natural freshwater is scarce.

Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, echoed the regime’s threats in a post on X on Sunday, warning that “critical infrastructure, energy, and oil across the region will be irreversibly destroyed, and oil prices will rise for a long time” if Iran’s power plants are struck.

“With a blackout, water treatment and distribution systems will also collapse in some parts of the country,” Madani clarified.

“Iran will retaliate by attacking desalination, energy, and other energy-related infrastructure in all countries in the region that are parties to the war, including Israel,” he added. “The price of oil and gas will increase further, and the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, while a humanitarian disaster is created as millions of people lose access to water and electricity in the region.”

TRUMP SAYS US ‘OBLITERATED’ TARGETS IN STRIKE ON KEY IRANIAN OIL HUB

“The U.S. has allegedly already attacked a desalination plant in Qeshm Island, and the Iranians have allegedly responded by striking a plant in Bahrain,” he said.

“Iran is the least reliant on desalination plants, so it is explicitly including them as legitimate targets for retaliation because this is the biggest vulnerability of the other parties to the war across the Middle East,” he added.

Despite that relative advantage, Iran itself has faced years of severe drought, mismanagement of water resources, and declining groundwater levels, leaving parts of the country increasingly water-stressed.

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“If Iranians run out of water and/or electricity, they won’t rise up,” Holly Dagres, Libitzky Family Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.

“The unfortunate truth is that the Islamic Republic would rather allow the country to burn than appear weak while it is facing an existential threat,” she said.

Jeffries tells Trump to keep his ‘reckless mouth shut’ after president calls Democratic Party ‘greatest enemy’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, rebuked President Donald Trump on Sunday and said he should keep his “reckless mouth shut” after the president called Democrats the “greatest enemy” in America.

“Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democratic Party! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

CNN’s Dana Bash asked Jeffries to react to the statement during Sunday’s “State of the Union.”

“Donald Trump should keep his reckless mouth shut before he gets somebody killed,” Jeffries said.

HOUSE VOTES TO LET TRUMP’S OPERATION EPIC FURY CONTINUE IN IRAN

Jeffries also spoke to Bash about the war in Iran, which he described as a “reckless war of choice.”

“They clearly didn’t anticipate some of the things that have happened, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. What you’re seeing right now are gas prices are through the roof, and that’s adding to an environment in America right now where life has already become too expensive for the American people because of failed policies by Donald Trump,” he said.

Jeffries did not say whether he would support any more funding for the Pentagon or whether he would urge Democrats to vote “no.”

SUNNY HOSTIN DISMISSES ‘THE VIEW’ GUEST HOST’S IRAN WAR COMMENTS: ‘IF THAT HELPS YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT’

“Well, we’ll have that leadership conversation when we actually have a piece of legislation that is in front of us. But I can tell you, uh, there is strong opposition right now to the notion that this war of choice — that is reckless, that’s costing the American people now more than $30 billion — should continue. We need to move, which we plan on doing in short order, a War Powers Resolution so we can bring this situation to a close,” he said.

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Jeffries previously predicted the war would result in “failure” for the U.S.

“The American people want us to focus on making their life better and making their life more affordable; not getting involved in another endless war in the Middle East that is going to end in failure. This administration somehow found the resources, has found billions of dollars for bombs but can’t find any money to actually bring down the high cost of living here in the United States of America,” Jeffries said.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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