Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on Friday that back-channel discussions to halt the U.S.-Israel war with Iran is “a little bit of movement.”
However, Rubio warned that the window won’t be open forever, and Washington is keeping another option on the table.
“The latest signs are encouraging, but I’m not popping champagne yet,” Rubio said Friday.
“I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement, and that’s good,” he said, while stressing he doesn’t “want to be overly optimistic.”
Behind the scenes, Pakistan is again stepping into the middle.
As Islamabad seeks to keep the discussions going, Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, identified by security sources as a major intermediary between Washington and Tehran, is heading to Tehran for consultations with Iranian officials.
Rubio’s measured tone carries a stark red line: Iran’s efforts to impose what it terms a “tolling system” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Rubio called the notion a nonstarter, saying it would make diplomacy difficult and would reach well beyond the region.
“No one in the world is in favor of the tolling system,” Rubio said. “It can’t happen. It would be unacceptable.”
“It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that. So it’s a threat to the world if they were trying to do that, and it’s completely illegal,” Rubio added.
The pressure point remains the Strait of Hormuz.
The small river transports almost a fifth of global oil exports, and disruptions have unsettled markets and governments with shipments slowed and costs rising. Iran claims ownership over the strait and says it will only completely reopen it if it can charge commercial vessels to pass through.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) announced on Friday that she’s seeking re-election in another district after the Sunshine State passed a new congressional map.
“Today, I’m announcing my candidacy for Florida’s 20th congressional district. I’ll continue to use my seniority in Washington to make Broward a safer, less expensive place to live, raise a family, and retire. We cannot let Trump and DeSantis take away Broward County’s power,” Wasserman Schultz said.
The deep-blue 20th District was previously held by Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned from Congress last month amid allegations of financial misconduct that were poised to lead to her expulsion from the chamber.
But Cherfilus-McCormick is already running again for the now-reconfigured 20th District, teeing up a Democratic primary showdown with Wasserman Schultz.
The Cook Political Report rates the seat as solidly Democratic and argues that Cherfilus-McCormick’s exit “has created an opening” for Wasserman Schultz, but it notes that the congresswoman is facing resistance from Black political leaders over the move.
The plurality Black district has long been represented by a Black lawmaker, and several are running in the Aug. 18 primary for the seat. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by double digits in 2024, even as Trump won the state for a third consecutive cycle.
Maureen O’Toole, a spokesperson for Republicans’ House campaign arm, accused Wasserman Schultz, a former Democratic National Committee chair, of “abandoning her home district because she knows she was headed for defeat” in the district that Trump won by double digits in 2024, calling the seat “a prime pickup opportunity” for the GOP.
The political reshuffling comes after Republicans in Florida advanced a map that created four GOP pickup chances, in part by scrambling Wasserman Schultz’s South Florida seat.
Wasserman Schultz has long been a key figure in the Democratic Party, leading the party as Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair from 2011 to 2016.
First elected to Congress in 2004, Wasserman Schultz is a long-time senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.
“Debbie Wasserman Schultz is carpetbagging to FL-20, a black opportunity district instead of running in her own. DWS is everything that’s wrong with the Democratic establishment. From insider trading to payday lenders. I look forward to retiring her from public office permanently,” Democratic candidate Elijah Manley said.
In response to the criticism, Ms. Wasserman Schultz said in the interview that she already represents a majority-minority district, where a plurality of voters are Hispanic, and has a proven track record of helping diverse communities. Her announcement video included supportive clips from a number of people, including several Black activists and officials. She also emphasized her seniority and experience.
The Republican Party portrayed Ms. Wasserman Schultz as “abandoning her home district” because she would lose. The congresswoman has long lived in Weston, a city west of Fort Lauderdale that is in the new, Republican-leaning 22nd District.
“Instead of facing voters after years of backing Democrats’ failed agenda, Wasserman Schultz is running scared,” Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Social media users erupted on Thursday night after a Fox News segment featuring retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward went viral because he appeared to be wearing a “creepy full-face mask.”
The backlash went mega-viral, with people across the political spectrum expressing how freaked out they were by the video.
The clip is from an interview Harward did on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom with hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino earlier this week.
Harward is a retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and decorated Navy SEAL. He has served as Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), led special operations across multiple theaters, and is fluent in Farsi after living in Tehran as a teenager.
Since retiring, he has held senior roles at Lockheed Martin and now serves as an executive at Shield AI, a leading defense technology firm.
The topic of the interview was President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to Iran, including crushing sanctions, potential military options, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the strategy of forcing the regime to capitulate without another nuclear deal.
Harward told viewers Trump “has time on his hands” and holds decisive strike capability. He stressed the importance of sustained economic pressure and naval strength over rushed negotiations.
It was a pretty standard Fox News CENTCOM analysis.
The clip did not go viral for what he was saying, but rather because of Harvard’s neck, which had a dark line or what appeared to be a “separation” below the jawline and at the collar.
Immediately, people began insisting it was the edge of a hyper-realistic silicone full-face mask.
Others pointed out that his face looked “too smooth,” his expressions “stiff,” or that he “didn’t blink enough.”
WATCH:
The video went so viral that it even sparked a Polymarket betting question.
Those who do not believe he was wearing a mask claim that his odd appearance was likely due to skin folds combined with video compression artifacts.
Harward and Fox News have not publicly commented on the matter.
European authorities are not only banning Christians from writing about the Bible, but trying to keep the world unaware they have done so.
A Protestant bishop and pastor’s wife will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights the Finnish Supreme Court’s recent ban on their speech affirming what the Bible says about human sexuality. The appeal could take years amid escalating Soviet-like restrictions on free speech and religious expression across the continent that extend to Americans under European internet censorship.
In its March decision, Finland’s Supreme Court tried to dodge the reality that its 3-2 conviction of Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen criminalizes speech stating Christian theology about sex. It did acquit Rasanen of a charge for posting a Bible verse on X, she noted in an in-person exclusive interview with The Federalist Saturday. But then it convicted her and Pohjola under Finland’s “hate crimes” laws for writing and publishing a book discussing the central Christian teachings that men and women are different and sexually complementary. This is also the position of orthodox Muslims and Jews, and global majorities of Buddhism and Hinduism.
“It is really about the Christian view and Christianity that they are trying to prohibit and censor,” Rasanen, who is also a medical doctor, told The Federalist in English. “And now I think that many Christians and many pastors are in confusion. They do not know where’s the line. What can they teach?”
With that conviction, the court indicated Christians in Finland can quote the Bible, but not discuss, explain, or teach what it says. That threatens not only theological speech such as sermons and books, but also private conversations and the existence of any faithful Christian church or community whatsoever. It also threatens the global majority of religious adherents who acknowledge the reality that opposite-sex intimacy is physically and procreatively distinct from same-sex interactions.
Rasanen said she and Pohjola know the ECHR may be a difficult venue, but they feel compelled to appeal yet again. That’s because the other option is accepting the European erasure of Christianity and basic human rights protections Christianity has created, such as freedom of speech and toleration of lesser theological differences among orthodox Christian denominations.
Rasanen and Pohjola have now been prosecuted in Finland for more than seven years for talking and writing about the Bible. The two were acquitted at two lower courts, but prosecutors kept exercising the unusual Finnish option to re-prosecute after acquittal until they achieved a conviction. Even if the two are ultimately again acquitted at the ECHR, they and their lawyers have noted their years of legal battles have already strongly discouraged free speech.
Hostility to free speech and Christianity is growing dramatically across Europe, slowly shifting restrictions on these fundamental human rights closer to those of repressive regimes such as Russia and China. A former U.S. ambassador estimated England alone now jails more citizens over speech crimes than Vladimir Putin’s Russia, including numerous prosecutions of people for admitting to silent prayer on public property. The systemic repression of speech has fueled citizen unrest, massive recent opposition party wins in local U.K. elections, and calls for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation.
Other European countries are trending in a similar direction. The most recent U.S. State Department report on human rights says that in Germany in 2024, “Law enforcement, including the Federal Criminal Police Office, routinely raided homes, confiscated electronic devices, interrogated suspects and prosecuted individuals for the exercise of freedom of speech, including online.”
Police in Belgium arrested two individuals last June for standing on a public sidewalk with signs objecting to transgender child mutilation. In France, the U.S. State Department says acts of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish violence, typically by Muslims, have increased exponentially.
Most European countries, and many U.S. jurisdictions, maintain laws that could enable authorities to prosecute a wide range of speech simply by labeling it “hate speech,” as occurred in the Finnish case. In addition, through its 2022 Digital Services Act and other mechanisms, the European Union is now a top enforcer of internet censorship rules and algorithms that prohibit not just Europeans but also Americans from freely discussing and seeing information on topics the government dislikes.
EU-required internet censorship, like U.S. censorship under the Biden presidency, punishes even true and non-hateful speech, according to a February U.S. House report. Topics the EU bans the whole world from freely discussing online include LGBT activism, mass migration, Islamism, anti-energy environmentalist policies, wars, criticism of the EU, and memes, the report says. The Federalist is a known specific target of European censorship. All this means European authorities are not only banning Rasanen and Pohjola from writing about the Bible, but trying to keep the entire world unaware they have done so.
“The DSA has faced criticism from European and global free speech experts, European NGOs, the US Administration, and the House Judiciary Committee for imposing an online censorship regime around the world,” notes Alliance Defending Freedom International. ADFI is legally assisting Rasanen and Pohjola and the U.S. social media company X, which was given a 120 million Euro fine in December under the DSA for allowing free speech for European users.
ADFI also notes the commission that adjudicates disputes over the DSA also prosecutes alleged violators and regulates the social media monopolies subject to its provisions, which include Google and Meta (Facebook/Instagram). This means the commission is an involved party in the disputes it judges, a massive and transparent conflict of interest. Most administrative agencies in the United States and in Europe function similarly.
Numerous U.S. officials and international religious and human rights organizations have condemned both the DSA’s speech abuses and Finland’s prosecution of Rasanen and Pohjola. The U.S. ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, said of the DSA in September, “No president of either party, and I can tell you President Trump in particular, is going to tolerate a foreign government restricting the First Amendment fundamental free speech, free expression rights of American citizens, to an extent that the United States government can’t even regulate those rights.”
In November, the U.S. Department of State told The Federalist it had repeatedly raised concerns about Rasanen’s case with the Finnish government, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member U.S. taxpayers provide billions. Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes in September called “the case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen … baseless.” In 2021, members of Congress, including Rep. Chip Roy, who is now running for Texas attorney general, sent a letter calling on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to take action against Finland for prosecuting the two Christians.
The ECHR is known for often prioritizing sexual politics over human rights. In November, the European court ruled that Poland must allow people to kill unborn children whom doctors think may be disabled. In March, the ECHR refused an appeal from Swedish parents after the government took their children because the parents didn’t think their daughters should wear makeup or own a cell phone due to Christian convictions.
The Finnish Christians’ punishments include significant fines and the startling erasure of their speech about the Bible from both print and the internet. The booklet Rasanen wrote and Pohjola published in a catechetical series, titled “Male and Female He [God] Created Them,” is now banned in Finland. This has prompted an international movement to share the booklet, both online and in print.
At Concordia Theological Seminary in Indiana on Saturday, attendees lined up at the exit to have Rasanen autograph their copies of her banned book. The seminary on Friday awarded Rasanen an honorary doctorate in gratitude for her “faithful defense of biblical truths and religious freedom, and the bold witness in the face of persecution.” Rasanen’s husband, Niilo, is a pastor with his own doctorate, and he travels with her for support and protection.
Theology professor Peter Scaer introduced Rasanen, noting her book is now like “smuggling Bibles into the Soviet Union.” He encouraged attendees to share her book far and wide, and post pictures of themselves holding it with the caption “I stand with Paivi.”
U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, told The Federalist via a spokeswoman, “Paivi Rasanen never should’ve been prosecuted for writing about her Christian faith. Concordia awarding her with an honorary doctorate is well deserved.”
Rasanen with Sen. Jim Banks’ field assistant Darren Vogt in Indiana Saturday.
In a moving speech, Rasanen told her story and thanked God for all the good He has worked through her trials. In response to a question about how to prevent prosecutions like hers in the United States, Rasanen encouraged opposition to hate speech laws and for Christians to thoroughly teach children the Bible and theology.
She was in Parliament in 2010 when it passed the law used years later to convict her and Bishop Pohjola, she said, and at the time “nobody could understand where it would lead.”
“These [hate speech] laws are so vague and unpredictable they can be used against almost anyone,” she noted. “It depends who is in power.”
The audience tittered with happiness when the mother of five and grandmother of 12 mentioned she currently has three grandbabies on the way. Rasanen said experiences in her youth of serious doubt about God’s mercy on her sins helped prepare her to proclaim the gospel across the world due to her suffering at the hands of her government. Rasanen told of a young man who emailed when her prosecution began, angry that she agreed with the Bible about homosexual relationships. Years later, he emailed again to say he had become a Christian, and thanked her for responding to his anger in love.
“Without this prosecution I would not be able to testify about Jesus to police, courts, into homes all around the world,” she said. “It is not in vain to defend in public the Word of God, the teachings of the Bible. You intended to harm me, but God intended for this to accomplish the saving of many lives. Our God is amazing at turning evil into good. Jesus is alive, and He stands by His Word.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on Friday that back-channel discussions to halt the U.S.-Israel war with Iran is “a little bit of movement.”
