Tucker Carlson usually breaks news by interviewing guests, but today HE was the story as he broke the news that the Murdoch family recruited him to run for President, against Donald Trump, in the 2024 election. Watch here: Tucker reveals the Murdochs asked him to run against Trump in the 2024 election. Right after they cancelled his contract. pic.twitter.com/FvNc0ttCQs — Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) June 24, 2025 Of course this is a startling revelation on many levels… First, the Murdochs had just fired him from Fox News, so that would have been a very strange turn of events. It also reveals just how badly the Murdoch family hates Donald Trump. Gee, I wonder why? Here’s a quick summary of all we know so far: Tucker Carlson says the Murdoch family encouraged him to run for president in 2024, after Donald Trump had already entered the race and shortly after Carlson was fired from Fox News in April 2023. Carlson claims Lachlan Murdoch personally told him the family would back his campaign, offering support from not just Fox News, but also the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and other Murdoch-controlled media outlets. Carlson rejected the offer, saying he had no interest in public office and wouldn’t get elected anyway. He also stated, “I like Trump!” Carlson reiterated that the Murdochs “really hate Trump,” and suggested their push for his candidacy was a clear attempt to block Trump’s nomination. The feud between Trump and the Murdochs has been ongoing, with past incidents such as a dismissive New York Post headline after Trump’s 2024 campaign launch and critical coverage from WSJ editorial boards. Carlson noted that although he’s occasionally frustrated with Trump (especially regarding foreign policy), he remains generally supportive of him. After being ousted from Fox, Carlson launched his own media company and has continued hosting interviews with major political figures, including Trump. Fox News settled a major defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million in 2023, which Carlson believes contributed to his firing. Tensions between Trump and Carlson also briefly flared over Carlson’s criticism of Trump’s handling of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict, though Carlson reportedly apologized. The situation highlights internal divides within the conservative movement, especially around foreign policy and support for Trump heading into 2024.

Remember Edward Coristine? Better known as “Big Balls”, Coristine quickly became a legend in the DOGE community, due in large part to his interesting nickname and his “whiz kid” reputation. He’s now out of DOGE and out of the Government, effective today: NEW: Big Balls no longer works for the United States government, has resigned according to WIRED. DOGE legend Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old high school graduate, resigned yesterday according to the White House. “Coristine received full-time employment status at the GSA late… pic.twitter.com/2fA7AfUqYe — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 24, 2025 NEW: Big Balls no longer works for the United States government, has resigned according to WIRED. DOGE legend Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old high school graduate, resigned yesterday according to the White House. “Coristine received full-time employment status at the GSA late last month … As of Tuesday afternoon, his Google Workspace account with the General Services Administration (GSA) was no longer active,” WIRED reported. While some claim he was fired, the best sources I can find say he resigned. Here’s a quick summary of all key information we know so far: Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, a 19-year-old tech worker, has resigned from his federal government position, confirmed by a White House official. Coristine was one of the first hires in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and held a senior advisor role at the General Services Administration (GSA) as of late May 2025. He attended high-level interagency meetings, including sessions with the Commerce Department on President Trump’s Golden Visa program, the military regarding DOGE implementation, and the Treasury Department. His government credentials were deactivated, and his name was removed from internal employee lists shortly after Musk and Boring Company President Steve Davis officially exited government service. Coristine’s exit follows a wider shakeup within DOGE, with other early hires reportedly leaving or being let go during the standard federal probationary period. Coristine had previously worked at Neuralink, founded his own tech venture called Tesla.Sexy LLC, and was briefly employed by Path Network, a cybersecurity firm started by reformed hackers. He gained notoriety online under the nickname “Big Balls,” a moniker given by a friend in high school, which he used on LinkedIn and in appearances on Fox News. He became well-known among Musk’s supporters, particularly after appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime and being publicly praised by Musk. Coristine worked on systems integration and government tech modernization, including efforts to reduce fraud and inefficiency across various federal agencies. Despite his young age, Coristine was considered a trusted member of the DOGE team and was actively involved in high-level technical work within the federal bureaucracy. For more on “Big Balls”, check this out from a few months ago: WATCH: Full Interview With Elon and DOGE Team Reveals Not Just 20-Year-Old Whiz Kids! WATCH: Full Interview With Elon and DOGE Team Reveals Not Just 20-Year-Old Whiz Kids! If you thought Elon Musk's DOGE was just a bunch of 20-year-old whiz kids with names like "Big Balls" then it turns out you're missing a huge part of the story. Yes, DOGE has its whiz kids, and that's great.  We need them. But it turns out the focus on "Big Balls" may have distracted you from the rest of the team. Because it turns out the rest of the team is comprised of quite stunning individuals.  Like Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb who is focused on overhauling the retirement system for federal workers.  Gebbia has a net worth of $8 billion, making him one of the 400 wealthiest people in the world.  No slouch! We also met Anthony Armstrong, formerly a Morgan Stanley investment banker, Aram Moghaddassi, Brad Smith, Tyler Hassen, Tom Krause and Steve Davis.  Each with equally impressive resumes and long careers spanning vast experience. Before I show you the full interview, first this stunning clip: This is mind blowing DOGE “There is actually really only ONE BANK ACCOUNT that's used to disperse ALL monies that go out of the federal government” “It's a big one — A couple weeks ago it had $800 billion in it, it's the treasury general account” “We're serving 580+ agencies.… pic.twitter.com/GLlvfMBi6T — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 28, 2025 This is mind blowing DOGE “There is actually really only ONE BANK ACCOUNT that's used to disperse ALL monies that go out of the federal government” “It's a big one — A couple weeks ago it had $800 billion in it, it's the treasury general account” “We're serving 580+ agencies. And up until very recently, effectively they could say, make the payment and Treasury just sent it out as fast as possible. NO VERIFICATION” “There's a $500 billion of fraud every year. There's hundreds of billion dollars of improper payments and we can't pass an audit. The consolidated financial report is produced by treasury and we cannot pass an audit” And now please enjoy the entire interview with no commercials: NBC News had more details: The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has had one public face since late January: tech billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, who posts nearly constantly about DOGE on social media and has given several media interviews about its budget-slashing effort. Musk said as recently as last month that it was a “crime” to publicly name other people who worked at DOGE, and his strict secrecy helped to keep DOGE employees out of the spotlight, even as they went about radically remaking the federal government and trying to dismantle entire agencies. But in a switch, Musk introduced a few other faces Thursday in a group interview on Fox News that featured some of his chief lieutenants. They included DOGE staffers who have worked quietly behind the scenes to upend key components of the U.S. government such as the Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration. Seven DOGE employees participated in the interview on “Special Report” hosted by Bret Baier, and it was by far their most extensive public comments since President Donald Trump began his second term on Jan. 20. The seven DOGE staffers struck a more technocratic tone than Musk often does in his rhetoric about the federal government. None referred to a chainsaw or a wood chipper — two of Musk’s go-to analogies — choosing instead to talk about the duplication they see in government software systems. “We really believe that the government can have an Apple Store-like experience: beautifully designed, great user experience, modern systems,” said Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb who is focused on overhauling the retirement system for federal workers. Gebbia has a net worth of $8 billion, making him one of the 400 wealthiest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk is ranked first, with $337 billion. DOGE staffers have generally kept a low profile, with news organizations relying sometimes on anonymous sources to compile lists of DOGE employees in defiance of threats by Musk. But some of the staffers interviewed Thursday, including Tom Krause, had previously popped up in lawsuits challenging DOGE’s authority. In February, after a lawsuit by labor unions, the Trump administration agreed that Krause’s access to Treasury Department payment systems would be “read only,” without the authority to make changes. Krause told Fox News’ Baier that he wants to be able to audit all the payments the government makes. “What we’re doing is applying private company standards to the federal government,” he said. Trump administration investigates Maine for claims of withholding gender transitions from parents The interview did not include some of the most-talked-about DOGE staffers, such as one 19-year-old who has gone by the nickname “Big Balls.” All seven of the interviewed staffers are men, and they did not include Amy Gleason, the person whom the White House has said is the acting administrator of DOGE. Her name did not come up in the hour-long Fox News program, and Trump has repeatedly said that Musk is the head of DOGE. All seven are also new to government work, with some of them including Steve Davis joining from Musk’s private companies. Davis has worked at Musk’s SpaceX and The Boring Co. and he has been an investor in Musk’s social media app, X. Davis said the stakes for DOGE were high, arguing that the country was at risk of “going bankrupt.” Another DOGE staffer, Anthony Armstrong, formerly a Morgan Stanley investment banker who worked on Musk’s deal to buy X, said in the interview that he did not believe the changes brought on by DOGE had been as radical as critics argue. He said that reductions-in-force, or firings, amounted to less than 0.15% of the federal workforce, and he said there was still money “sloshing out the door.” The other DOGE staffers interviewed were Aram Moghaddassi, who specializes in the Social Security system, Brad Smith, who works with the Department of Health and Human Services, and Tyler Hassen, who’s assigned to the Interior Department. Backup here if needed: My interview with the @elonmusk and the @DOGE team tonight on #SpecialReport pic.twitter.com/KKpxEPtu1Z — Bret Baier (@BretBaier) March 27, 2025

Writer Mick Wall has written books on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Eagles and more

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The Straits of Hormuz have never been closed. The last time it was an issue was in the late 1980s when Iran and Israel were in a nasty war. It spilled over into the Persian Gulf so that 450 tankers were attacked. It was dubbed the Tanker War. There was a massive escalation in war […] The post Dr. Mercogliano: Why Iran Will Never Close the Straits of Hormuz appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The vice mayor of Cudahy, a city in southeast LA County, Cynthia Gonzalez, posted a video to social media in which she seems to call for 18th Street and Florencia 13 gang members in LA to defend their territory from ICE. She even urges gang leadership to “get your fucking members in order.” “Not for […] The post LA City Mayor Seems to Encourage Gangs to Defend Their Territory from ICE appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a historic shift for both public health and LGBTQIA+ rights, Australia is lifting long-standing restrictions that effectively barred many gay and bisexual men from donating blood and plasma. Beginning in July, the country will become the first in the world to remove all sexual activity-based restrictions on plasma donation. The change follows years of advocacy and research, and is expected to significantly expand Australia’s donor pool. According to Lifeblood, the country’s national blood donation service, an estimated 625,000 more people will now be eligible to donate. “Australian lives will be saved by this overdue and important decision,” said Rodney Croome, a spokesperson for the Let Us Give campaign, which has long advocated for lifting the discriminatory restrictions. From exclusion to eligibility Under previous guidelines, any men or transgender women who had sex with men in the prior three months were barred from donating blood or plasma. The policy also restricted sex workers and women who had sex with bisexual men, citing concerns about HIV transmission risk. Now, individuals in a monogamous relationship of six months or more regardless of gender or sexuality will be eligible to donate blood. More significantly, Australia will no longer restrict plasma donation based on sexual activity at all, marking a global first. “Blood safety is and always will be our top priority,” said Dr. Joanne Pink, Lifeblood’s Chief Medical Officer. “But we know the current donation rules have been very difficult for many people in the LGBTQIA+ community… and we know that they’ve contributed to the stigma faced by [them].” Instead of blanket bans, the new screening process will ask all potential donors if they’ve had anal sex with new or multiple partners. If they have, they will need to wait three months before donating blood. However, they can still donate plasma during that time. The updated approach also allows individuals taking the HIV prevention medication PrEP to donate plasma, though they remain restricted from donating blood. A science-backed change The shift in policy has been approved by Australia’s health products regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and is based on extensive scientific research. Lifeblood collaborated with the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales to ensure that the new criteria maintain high safety standards. Research confirmed that the changes would not compromise the safety of the blood and plasma supply. Plasma donations undergo pathogen inactivation, a process that removes viruses and bacteria, greatly reducing the risk of transmitting infections. Dr. Pink called the development “a significant milestone” for both donors and recipients. As global demand for plasma hits record highs and continues to rise in Australia, the expanded eligibility could offer a timely and much-needed boost to national supply. Looking ahead: optimism with caution The new rules for plasma donation will come into effect on 14 July 2025. The updated guidelines for blood donation will be implemented in 2026, allowing time for education and logistical preparation. While many advocates have praised the changes, some believe there is still progress to be made. Sharon Dane, a researcher with Let Us Give, welcomed the move but noted it falls short of best global practices. “It appears Lifeblood and the TGA are taking a more conservative approach to whole blood donation, relative to other countries like the UK, Canada and the US,” she said. In those countries, only three months of a monogamous relationship is required for those engaging in anal sex, versus Australia’s proposed six months. Still, the mood among public health experts and LGBTQIA+ advocates is largely optimistic. The reform signals a critical shift away from stigma-based policy and toward evidence-based, inclusive healthcare. With the doors opening to hundreds of thousands of new donors, Australia is positioning itself not just as a leader in health equity, but also as a model for scientifically grounded policy reform.The post New rules allow thousands more Australians to donate plasma, regardless of sexuality first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Your daily cup of coffee might be doing more than waking you up; it could be helping you age more healthfully. According to a sweeping new study from Harvard University, moderate coffee consumption during midlife is linked to better mental and physical health later in life. Researchers followed nearly 50,000 women over a 30-year period and found that each 8-ounce (340-ml) cup of coffee per day was associated with a 2 to 5 percent increase in markers of healthy aging. And no, tea, decaf, or cola didn’t make the cut. A long brew: 30 years of data The study, presented at the Nutrition 2025 conference, analyzed data from 47,513 women in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study. Starting in 1984, researchers tracked participants’ diet, lifestyle, and health every four years. By 2016, 3,706 women had reached the study’s definition of “healthy aging.” So what counts as aging well? In this study, it meant being at least 70 years old without major chronic diseases, cognitive impairments, mobility issues, or memory complaints. Participants who met those criteria were grouped as “healthy agers.” Dr. Sara Mahdavi from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health highlighted the study’s scope: “In addition to the large sample size and 30 years of follow-up, we assessed several different aspects of longevity and healthy aging, as well as comprehensive information on nutritional and lifestyle habits.” Coffee comes out on top The majority of caffeine consumed by the healthy aging group came from coffee—about 315 mg per day, or roughly three small cups (1.5 large ones by today’s standard). Researchers found that for every 80 mg of caffeine consumed daily, which amounts to approximately one small cup of coffee, health markers improved by two to five percent. Interestingly, other caffeinated drinks didn’t share the same glow. Tea and decaf coffee had no significant association with better aging outcomes. Even worse, caffeinated cola took a dive. Each 12-ounce (355-ml) glass of cola per day was linked to a 20 to 26 percent drop in the likelihood of aging healthfully. “While past studies have linked coffee to individual health outcomes, our study is the first to assess coffee’s impact across multiple domains of aging over three decades,” Mahdavi said. “The findings suggest that caffeinated coffee—not tea or decaf—may uniquely support aging trajectories that preserve both mental and physical function.” Don’t ditch your dumbbells yet Before you grab a fifth espresso in the name of science, it’s worth noting that the effects, while encouraging, are relatively modest. And as always, correlation doesn’t mean causation. Genetic differences in caffeine tolerance and other lifestyle factors also play major roles. “Moderate coffee intake may offer some protective benefits when combined with other healthy behaviors such as regular exercise, a healthy diet and avoiding smoking,” Mahdavi explained. “These results, while preliminary, suggest that small, consistent habits can shape long-term health.” Next up, researchers plan to dive deeper into how specific compounds in coffee might influence the biological pathways of aging. So while coffee isn’t a magic longevity potion, your daily brew may be doing more for you than just fueling your to-do list. Sip, smile, and maybe skip the cola.The post Brewing better health: Harvard study explains what coffee has to do with aging well first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.