Robert Sullivan

🇮🇷 Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard in public since being announced six weeks ago. That absence may be the regime's most useful political tool right now. - Khamenei reportedly suffered a fractured foot, bruised eye and lacerations in the same strikes that killed his father - Is reportedly participating in meetings via audio call and approving major decisions, but not micromanaging talks - The regime is using AI-generated videos to simulate his public presence - Analysts say officials are attributing views to him as political cover against hardline criticism - Vance said after the failed Islamabad talks that Iran's delegation needed to go home for approval from "someone else" - Araghchi came under fire from hardliners for opening Hormuz without apparent leadership sign-off Nobody knows who's actually calling the shots, and that's exactly how the regime wants it Source: CNN

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S. blockade will not break Iran, and Washington may be the last to accept that. Iran has absorbed sanctions, assassinations, airstrikes, and now a naval blockade, and each time the expectation was that the pressure would eventually force capitulation, and each time it did not. The regime does not calculate the way Washington assumes it does: Economic pain gets absorbed, deflected onto the population, and reframed as foreign aggression, so it does not translate into political concessions. What Iran is doing right now is not stalling, it is positioning, seizing ships, closing the strait, and calibrating harassment to shift the pressure back onto Washington and the world economy. The blockade is not a stable strategy, it is a transitional phase that ends in one of two places: a negotiated deal that requires U.S. concessions, or military escalation that risks a broader regional war. There is no third option where Iran simply “breaks.” The U.S. must make the same decision they have faced in this region for decades: Escalate or concede, and find a way to call whichever one you choose a victory.

Bacteria move around using a molecular machine called the flagellar motor that rotates faster than the flywheel of a race car engine and switches directions in an instant. After 50 yrs, scientists have finally figured out how it works. “My lifelong quest is now fulfilled.” Link⤵️

We’re doing everything we can to help secure more fuel for Australians.

🇨🇳 Mao was a HERO who liberated MILLIONS of people.