THE WAR ROOM: The US and Iran reached a ceasefire agreement allowing for further talks without reaching a definitive resolution over Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon. The text of the agreement has not been released.

  That didn’t stop President Donald Trump form declaring a diplomatic victory, posting on his social media a self- congratulatory statement that, “This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me.”

  Trump said the deal opens the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and he will withdraw the US Navy from the region. “Ships of the World, start your engines,” he wrote. “Let the oil flow!”

  The price of oil dropped and stocks rose on the news.

  The deal is set for signing on Friday. The NY Times reports that, according to its sources, Iran held off agreeing until the early hours of today so it would not fall on Trump’s birthday yesterday as he had wanted.

  Trump called the NY Times and in a 28-minute conversation that his war on Iran has re-made the Middle East in America’s favor.

  Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last-minute-attacks in Lebanon that jeopardizes the deal, “He’s a very difficult guy,” Trump said, “and to be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn’t be around for two hours.”

CAGED IN: President Trump’s UFC cage fights in honor of his 80^th birthday at the White House were carried off after a weather delay last night. The propriety of having such a brutal event on the White House grounds in a venue constructed taller than the iconic presidential home was the subject of quite a bit of debate. More so after Josh Hokit, right after his fight, grabbed a microphone and shouted, “Michelle Obama is a man.”

  The event brought the crudest side of America to the grounds of the White House. Trump on his social media declared it, “One of the most exciting days in the History of our fabled White House!”   

  Philip Kennicott writes in the Washington Post that: “Trump takes pleasure in presiding over conflict. The world comes to him, where he, the perpetual winner, lords over contests, over victories and defeats. You’re fired. You don’t hold any winning cards. You’ve lost the match. For many Americans, there is nothing surreal about this delight in domination. It simply reflects the world they live in, where people are losing all the time, at the gas pump, at dead-end jobs, in marriages that founder on the shoals of stress and poverty.”

KEYS TO THE CITY: New York will hold a victory parade on Thursday for the New York Knicks … who … if you’ve been buried in the sand … won the NBA championship in San Antonio Saturday night. Fans had filled the streets of New York, some watching the game projected on the sides of buildings.

  And, of course, there’s always the post-championship violence. Celebrants burned a school bus in Times Square.

  Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the Knicks will be presented with the keys to the city.

  The Knicks displayed once again an uncanny ability to keep their cool and come from behind to win.  The Knicks had been 16 points down and won it 94-90.

  Jalen Brunson, at 6-2 one of the shortest guys out there, scored 45 points for the Knicks. “I have no words,” he said after the game. “It’s everything I ever dreamed of.”

TARP WATCH: Managers of the Kennedy Center in Washington have left up the shroud of tarpaulins that prevents anyone seeing or photographing the building without the name “Donald J. Trump” over the name “John F. Kennedy.”

  The center’s directors certified to a court that the Trump name was removed in the wee hours of Saturday morning but they have left the Kennedy name obscured in what appears to be an act of defiance.  

THE SPIN RACK: Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former majority leader, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday. Details have not been given. McConnell has been a stalwart supporter of Trumpism while at the same time sneaking in some disagreements with the President. He blamed Trump for the January 6^th insurrection then endorsed him for re-election in 2024.  — Eleven passengers and the pilot were killed in the crash of a skydiving plane shortly after takeoff at the airport in rural Butler, Missouri yesterday. The plane was about 100 feet in the air before it went down and no cause was immediately known. — British forces for the first time intercepted and seized a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the English Channel that was surreptitiously transporting oil in violation of international sanctions imposed as a result of the Ukraine war. The British government says the shadow fleet is more than 700 vessels that carry 75 percent of Russia’s sanctioned oil. — A 21-year-old bungee jumper fell 130 feet to her death in Brazil when her friends pitched her off a bridge without first attaching the cord to her legs. Six people were arrested after the incident. — Scientists have unearthed communities of marine life in the Indian Ocean, including jellyfish, tubeworms, and brittle stars, thriving on a whale graveyard that is millions of years old and 23,000 feet deep.

 BELOW THE FOLD: Los Angeles has one of the deadest downtowns in the world, according to a new survey. Out of 75 of the top cities around the world, LA ranked among the lowest for vibrancy in Gensler’s 2026 City Pulse report. Los Angeles ranked 20th-lowest globally and 11th-lowest among 34 US cities in vibrancy.

  This, despite the attraction of Phillipe’s French Dip sandwiches on North Alameda.