Conservative Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez announces bid to run for US Sen. Bill Cassidy's seat
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez officially launched his bid on Tuesday to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy in 2026.
Miguez is the latest GOP challenger to Cassidy, who has been chastised by his party for being one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial .
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Bloomberg
20 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Israel-Iran Conflict Continues, Trump Weighs Options
00:00 What are Donald Trump's options at this point? Well, Tom, ever since President Trump left that G7 summit early to focus on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, that has been the number one question. What are his options here? What is he thinking? Can we get insight into what is going on in President Trump's mind? We know that we had this reportedly one hour meeting with his national security team in Washington. There was no statement put out afterwards. So unclear what was discussed in that meeting. He also had a call with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. No readout of that call either. But at this point, there is a lot of focus on some of the posts that he put out on social yesterday, and not only because of the content of what he's saying, calling for Iran's unconditional surrender, suggesting that the US know exactly where the ayatollah is. But for now, he's safe. However, at least think that in with the threats if Iran don't yield to the US terms, but also using the plural term, we are suggesting that the US are somehow already involved or even tacitly participating in the Israel campaign against Iran right now. So his options at this point are do they get actively militarily engaged as well? Do they start really deploying U.S. assets and aiding actively Israel with these airstrikes and attacks on Iran? Or do they push for the diplomatic channel and try to bring even out weakened Iranian regime with weakens military and defense capabilities in addition to nuclear capabilities to the table and try to get them to agree to terms. As previously discussed, the six rounds of U.S. Iran talks were supposed to take place on Sunday. They were canceled. In the meantime, the hostilities between Iran and Israel continue. More attacks overnight at the death toll in Iran hasn't been formally updated, but some human rights groups are saying that the death toll has climbed to more than 500, of which about 100 constitute security personnel. Some of those senior commanders in Israel, the death toll official figure is still sitting at 24. Of note, though, Tom, as well, the US embassy in Jerusalem is now closed for three days. Okay. So the conflict, of course, continues. And President Trump, as you say, weighing up what could be a monumental, potentially historic decision. What have other world leaders being saying about this conflict, about this war now, Joumanna? Yeah, well, you have to remember, President Trump on both his first term and his second term, talked about ending the, quote unquote, forever wars in the Middle East. He spoke about that when he was in Saudi Arabia just a couple of weeks ago. But it's interesting to hear that some other leaders around the world are a bit more cautious, namely because they are beginning to draw parallels between the decision to attack Iraq back in 2003 and the chaos that unfolded in Libya after military intervention there. Take a listen to what President Macron said on the sidelines of the G7 summit last night. No to military actions aimed at regime change because no one knows what comes next. Haven't we collectively seen the consequences this has had in the region and beyond? Does anyone think what was done in Iraq in 2003 was a good idea? Does anyone think that what was done in Libya last decade was a good idea? No. So the international community agreeing that Iran shouldn't develop the capability of an atomic weapon or nuclear weapon, but at the same time saying that going one step further and trying to push or externally force regime change doesn't have good results. If you take other episodes in history where that has happened in the Middle East, including in this example, President Macron talk specifically about Iraq and Libya, which is why many of the countries in the region, Arab states, the likes of Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, all of them are pushing for mediation. They're pushing to restart those diplomatic channels, condemning the acts that Israel and the actions that Israel have taken only six days ago, and saying that at this point that what they did, the military aggression, actually violates the principles of the charter of the United Nations. So there is a bigger consensus of countries out there pushing for a diplomatic solution, looking to bring down the temperature and others going as far as President Macron suggesting that if you push too hard and regime change, it could have ultimately undesired consequences and potentially even lead to chaos.
Washington Post
22 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Israel-Iran live updates: Trump weighs strike on Iran; conflict enters sixth day
President Donald Trump is weighing whether to strike Iran as the conflict between Israel and Iran entered its sixth day. On social media, Trump demanded unconditional surrender from Tehran, without detailing what that would mean. Trump also said Washington knew the exact location of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though he said the United States had no plans to target him, 'at least not for now.' Trump's remarks come at a time of weakness for Tehran, whose power is at a low ebb after a year of Israeli attacks against its regional proxies. Israeli warplanes struck a centrifuge production site and missile production facilities in Iran, the Israel Defense Forces said early Wednesday. The airstrikes aimed to degrade Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons, it said. According to the IDF, the centrifuge site helps Iran expand uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons development, and Iran manufactures components for surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles at the production facilities. President Donald Trump faced one of the most monumental decisions of his presidency on Tuesday as he debated whether to join a war against Iran that risked sucking Washington into a new Middle Eastern conflict but also offered the chance to eliminate a foe's nuclear program. On social media, the president said warned Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini that he was an 'easy target,' and demanded 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER' without defining what that would mean.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Asian shares mixed and oil prices stay high over Iran-Israel crisis
Asian shares were mixed and oil prices remained high on Wednesday as investors closely tracked the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. US benchmark crude oil was down around 0.43% at $74.52 per barrel in the afternoon in Asia — or the morning in Europe. Brent crude, the international standard, slipped around 0.43% at $76.12, although both WTI and Brent remain high on the month. Crude prices rose more than 4% on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump left a Group of Seven summit in Canada early and warned that people in Iran's capital should evacuate immediately. Within about eight hours, Trump went from suggesting a nuclear deal with Iran remained 'achievable' to urging Tehran's 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives. Iran and Israel continued to exchange air strikes on Wednesday. The fighting has driven prices for crude oil and gasoline higher because Iran is a major oil exporter and it sits on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's crude passes. Past conflicts in the area have caused spikes in oil prices, though they've historically proven brief after showing that they did not disrupt the flow of oil. Related Israel-Iran crisis: How vital is the Strait of Hormuz for oil market? Explosions ring out in Tehran as Israel says it struck a centrifuge site overnight Japan, meanwhile, reported that its exports fell in May as the auto industry was hit by Trump's higher tariffs, with exports to the US falling more than 11%. But Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 0.78% to 38,837.48. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.17% to 23,698.65 while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to 3,388.77. The Kospi in Seoul gained 0.54% to 2,966.20 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1% to 8,533.10. On Tuesday, US stocks slumped under the weight of higher oil prices and weaker than expected retail sales in May. Trump raised the temperature on Israel's fight with Iran by calling for 'Unconditional surrender!' on his social media platform and saying, 'We are not going to' kill Iran's leader, 'at least for now'. The S&P 500 fell 0.84% to 5,982.72 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 42,215.80. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.91% to 19,521.09. On early Wednesday morning in the US, S&P futures rose 0.11% to 5,991.50, Dow Jones futures increased less than 1% to 42,245.00, while Nasdaq futures advanced by 0.13% to 21,759.00. The markets will be looking to the Federal Reserve as it makes a decision on its interest rates today. The nearly unanimous expectation among traders and economists is that the Fed will make no move. In currency trading early on Wednesday, the US dollar fell 0.2% to 144.94 Japanese yen. The euro edged 0.18% higher, to $1.1502.
