Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the center of a years-long Mossad effort to groom him as an intelligence asset who, when the time came, could be installed as Iran’s new post-regime puppet leader, reports the New York Times. Israel’s then-spy chief David Barnea even traveled to Budapest in 2024 to meet with Ahmadinejad personally, according to former American officials. It’s an extraordinary twist in the saga of Israel’s relations with the former president, who was known for accelerating Iran’s nuclear program, calling regularly for the destruction of Israel and denying the Holocaust.

• Iran threatened to block all oil exporting routes in the region in response to the U.S. maritime blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. "The region's oil and gas exports will either be available to everyone or to no one," said the IRGC. Though it did not make a direct reference to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, in the past Iran has threatened to close off the narrow passage at the entrance of the Red Sea, which links up to the Suez Canal as well as to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, providing passage to commercial vessels between Europe, Asia and Africa. In the hour leading up to the blockade, the U.S. launched another wave of strikes. Iran responded by targeting U.S. military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

• Former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was killed in a “targeted attack,” British counterterror police said. A 28-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder and terror crimes remains in custody. The death of Widdecombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked the British political establishment, where she was long known for blunt-spoken socially conservative views opposing abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.

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