THE WAR ROOM: Vice President JD Vance is on his way to Pakistan for peace talks today but Iran has yet to confirm whether its representatives will attend. Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said his country would not attend under “the shadow of threats” after President Trump renewed his promise to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants.

  Trump claims to have won a war that has not included a surrender. In a rant on his Truth Social feed Trump blames the press: “I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well, our Military has been amazing and, if you read the Fake News, like The Failing New York Times, the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal, or the now almost defunct, fortunately, Washington Post, you would actually think we are losing the War.”

  Trump repeated his mantra that the US has destroyed Iran’s air force, air defenses, and Navy … all true … but he wrote: “The Anti-America Fake News Media is rooting for Iran to win, but it’s not going to happen, because I’m in charge! Just like these unpatriotic people used every ounce of their limited strength to fight me in the Election, they continue to do so with Iran.”

REPUTATION: FBI director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic yesterday for $250 million claiming that its story about how he drinks to excess and is often missing from the job is false and defamatory.

  Author Sarah Fitzpatrick wrote that Patel’s conduct “often alarmed officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice” and that Patel “has also earned a reputation for acting impulsively during high-stakes investigations.”  Fitzpatrick said she based her reporting on about two dozen interviews, many with FBI employees who asked not to be identified.

  Patel said on Fox News, “You wanna attack my character, bring it on.” His suit posits that his reputation is worth $250 million. 

  Patel’s complaint accuses the magazine and the author  of “publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.”  As a public figure, Patel would have to prove in court that the damaging information about him is not only false but published with reckless disregard for the truth.

  Among other things, The Atlantic said Patel has been seen drinking heavily at the private club Ned’s in Washington and the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where he often spends weekends. Six people told the magazine that briefings and meetings involving Patel had to be rescheduled for later in the day because of his drinking the night before.

  The article says that on “multiple occasions” Patel’s security team had difficulty waking him and once requested equipment to forcibly open a building when Patel was unreachable inside.

THREE OUTS: Facing scandal and an internal investigation, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned yesterday, becoming the third cabinet member to depart the administration since the beginning of March.

  Chavez-DeRemer  has been accused of having an affair with a member of her security team, using department resources for personal trips, treating employees like servants, and drinking in the office. 

MURDER BEAT: The singer known as D4vd … which is pronounced just “David” … was charged yesterday with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old whose decomposed and dismembered body  was found in the trunk of his Tesla in a Los Angeles impound yard last September.

  The charges say that the singer, whose real name is David Burke, committed first-degree murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait, killing for financial gain, and murdering a witness to an investigation. He is also charged with sexual abuse of a child under age 14.

  D4vd’s lawyers said in a statement that “The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”

  Hernadez was just 13 in 2024 when she was reported missing from her home in Lake Elsinor,  about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

  D4vd has a song called “Celeste,” which goes in part:

“Oh, Celeste
The girl with my name tattooed on her chest
Smell her on my clothes like cigarettes
I hear her voice each time I take a breath
I’m obsessed
Oh, Celeste”

CEO IN CHIEF: Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that he is stepping down and Donald Trump claimed that Apple would not be as successful as it is today if Cook had not called him for advice.

  “I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social feed. Congratulating himself for Cook’s success, Trump wrote: “During my five years as President, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him where I could. Years latter, after 3 or 4 BIG HELPS, I started to say to people, anyone who would listen, that this guy is an amazing manager and leader. He makes these calls to me, I help him out (but not always, because he will, on occasion, be too aggressive in his ask!), and he gets the job done, QUICKLY, without a dime being given to those very expensive (millions of dollars!) consultants around town who sometimes get it done, and sometimes don’t.” 

THE SPIN RACK: A gunman killed a Canadian tourist yesterday and wounded several other people at the Teotihuacán pyramid site outside Mexico City. Video showed tourists huddled high up on the pyramid and the gunman firing before taking his own life. — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his dismay over a picture of an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus with a sledge hammer.

BELOW THE FOLD: Scientists say that what looks like a huge bathtub ring on Mars may be evidence that as much as two thirds of the red planet was once covered by water. In the meantime, Elon Musk will have to bring his own.

-30-