Discover the real historical figures behind five of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, from Hamlet to Cleopatra.

It's back to the future with Iran talks for President Trump, with the important difference being all that has happened since early June 2025 that makes this search for a deal a dubious quest. First, in June Iran's nuclear program and top military echelon were devastated by Israeli and then U.S. strikes, which exposed Iran's weakness, penetration by Israeli intelligence, and vulnerability by air. Second, in December and January the Iranian people rose up to demand an end to their regime's failed rule. Third, the regime subsequently massacred its own people by the thousands despite Mr. Trump's repeated demands not to do so.

As Iran's dictatorship continues to attack its own people, with as many as 12,000 to 20,000 civilians slaughtered by government thugs in recent weeks, the prospect of American involvement grows. The same theocrats that have been slaughtering their own people have also vowed to destroy the United States and have repeatedly attacked and murdered our fellow Americans. Nearly everyone knows that Iran calls the U.S. the "Great Satan" since Ayatollah Khomeini seized control of the country in 1979. But how many understand the depth of their enmity? How much of the "Islamic Republic" is built upon an all-consuming lust to hurt and kill Americans? I know. I remember. I was born there.

How much does Donald Trump know about about Iran, the country he is threatening to strike for the second time in a year? I don't ask this to take a cheap shot at the president, but because a lack of basic understanding about complex societies in the Middle East has bedeviled US decision makers right back to the 1979 fall of the Shah, if not before. Asking what the White House knows is natural, too, given the scattershot comments from Trump about his reasons for sending a carrier fleet to the Gulf, and his demands not to deploy those forces. So far these have included: Stop killing protesters, surrender the nation's nuclear program, shrink your ballistic missile program and end support for Tehran's network of proxies across the region.

Shifting justifications for a war are never a good sign, and they strongly suggest that the war in question was not warranted. In the Vietnam War, the principal public rationale of saving South Vietnam from communism got replaced in the minds of the war makers—especially after losing hope of winning the contest in Vietnam—by the belief that the United States had to keep fighting to preserve its credibility. In the Iraq War, when President George W. Bush's prewar argument about weapons of mass destruction fell apart, he shifted to a rationale centered on bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq.

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The focus on Epstein Island has distracted the public from the even more depraved crimes committed at the Zorro Ranch.

For the Israeli elite and their global collaborators, the Gaza conflict has become a historic opportunity to seize total control over America and the West.