THE WAR ROOM: President Trump posted that he’s getting close to “winding down” operations over Iran and that he will leave it to other countries to protect the Strait of Hormuz now closed under threat by Iran. 

  Angry that allies around the world have not joined his fight, Trump wrote, “The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! “ About 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through the strait. 

  In a further effort to sell the unpopular war to the American public, Trump lifted sanctions on Iranian oil currently at sea to help reduce the price. Oil settled at $122 a barrel yesterday, up about $55 since the start of the war.

  Iran isn’t beaten yet. Now they are threatening to expand retaliatory. Iran’s top military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for the country’s enemies.

  In a message to its citizens and the world that they are still in charge, Iran’s repressive regime publicly hanged three young men they accused of killing two police officers during anti-government protests in January. One of the men, Saleh Mohammadi, was a champion 19-year-old wrestler.

  An official news agency said the three had confessed to their crimes but human rights activists say they had been tortured. The three were also convicted of “moharebeh,” waging war against God, a charge that Iranian authorities often use against dissidents.

  The threat renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.”

FREE PRESS: A federal judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by The NY Times that the Pentagon’s new rules and  restrictions on news outlets violate the First Amendment.

  The Pentagon placed coverage rules on reporters including that they could be declared “security risks” and have their press passes revoked if they report news not approved by the Pentagon or which the defense Department might believe threatens national security.  Almost all reporters for major news outlets surrendered their press passes rather than agree to the coverage rules.

  Judge Paul Friedman in the District of Columbia also ordered the Pentagon to restore the press passes of seven Times journalists. He wrote that the Pentagon’s press policy rewarded reporters who were “willing to publish only stories that are favorable to or spoon-fed by Department leadership.”

POKE IN THE EYE:  The new management at CBS News announced a second round of layoffs and the shutdown of the nearly 100-year-old CBS News radio as they move on what they say are plans to keep the news network alive in the digital age. Just when they are trying to reach more people, they’re silencing a voice that reaches millions.

  Under the direction of its new boss Bari Weiss, CBS yesterday laid off six percent of its staff of 1,100 people. Weiss was given editorial control of the network by new owner David Ellison at Paramount.

 Correspondents laid off include Elaine Quijano, who was also weekend morning anchor for New York, and Dallas-based correspondent Omar Villafranca, who was frequently on the air. 

  The big shock is that Weiss announced she’s shutting down CBS radio, once a powerhouse of the news going back to World War II and the London broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow. CBS radio went on the air in September of 1927 and serves 700 stations.

  Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski said in a joint memo that; 

“New audiences are burgeoning in new places, and we are pressing forward with ambitious plans to grow and invest so that we can be there for them. That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive.” 

THE REGIME:

— Senate Democrats yesterday continued to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a fight to impose more professional standards on immigration agents.

  The burden falls on transportation security employees at airports, and the travelers waiting in long lines while up to 20 percent of unpaid TSA agents call in sick at major airports.

  Democrats want some basic reforms for immigration agents, requiring them to get judicial warrants before entering homes and banning them from wearing masks.

— The Justice Department asked a federal judge to drop the remaining criminal charges against two Louisville, Kentucky police officers involved with drafting the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of apartment-dweller Breonna Taylor in 2020. The two officers were not present at the shooting and a DOJ spokesman yesterday described their indictment as “weaponized federal overreach” under the previous administration.

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor Chuck Norris, the martial arts fighter who kicked butt on screen as the good guy in the television series “Walker, Texas Ranger” as well as the movies “The Delta Force” and three “Missing in Action”  flicks, died in Hawaii at age 86.

  Norris was a fighter, not an actor, but he was popular. He once told The San Francisco Chronicle, “I play the man in the arena who’s pushed to the wall and forced to blast his way out.” 

THE SPIN RACK: Thousands of residents on the island of Oahu are under evacuation orders as flash flooding followed up to 30 inches of rain in the past few days. As many as 230 people had to be rescued. —  Public references and monuments to farmworker leader Cesar Chavez are being removed all over the country following a NY Times exposé that that he was a sexual predator. It took the city of Fresno 30 years to name a boulevard after Chavez, and a day to remove it.  

BELOW THE FOLD: A British version of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” premiers in England tonight, calling to question whether it’s possible to do an impression of Prime Minister Keir Starmer or whether anyone in the country knows that he’s their prime minister. 

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