Politics
What to Know About Iran’s Response to Trump’s Letter Urging Talks
Iran announced on Thursday it had responded to a letter from President Trump in which the American president had urged direct negotiations with the government in Tehran on a deal to curb the country’s advancing nuclear program.
Iran appeared to be taking the middle ground, neither rejecting negotiations with the United States nor accepting face-to-face talks with Mr. Trump.
But Kamal Kharazi, the top foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said, according to local news reports, “The Islamic Republic has not closed all the doors and is willing to begin indirect negotiations with the United States.”
The countries have not had official diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but they have engaged directly and indirectly on issues like the nuclear program, detainee swaps and regional tensions.
Iran said it submitted its written reply to Mr. Trump through Oman on Wednesday. The foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, said Tehran had presented a comprehensive view on the issues raised by Mr. Trump and on the overall situation in the Middle East, according to the official news agency IRNA.
“Our policy is to not negotiate directly while there is maximum pressure policy and threats of military strikes,” Mr. Araghchi said on Thursday. “But indirect negotiations can take place as they have in the past.”
What did the Trump letter say?
Mr. Trump sent the letter this month to Mr. Khamenei, saying he preferred diplomacy to military action.
“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing,’” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
On March 12, Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates who traveled to Tehran to deliver Mr. Trump’s letter, told Iranian news media that it contained “threats” and also an opportunity.
Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, revealed more details in an interview with Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host who is now a popular podcaster. Mr. Witkoff said the letter roughly said: “We should talk, we should clear up the misconceptions, we should create a verification program so that nobody worries about weaponization of your nuclear material.”
An Iranian official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that Mr. Trump had set a two-month deadline for Iran to negotiate, a detail initially reported by Axios.
Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a research institute based in London, said the letter-writing between Tehran and Washington showed that both sides were “sizing each other up and finding different channels, some public and many private, to define what they can achieve.”
“This is an opportunity for both sides,” she added, “but it comes with a thousand risks and challenges.”
What is the view in Iran?
Since Mr. Trump’s election, officials and pundits in Iran have publicly debated the topic, with a conservative hard-line faction vehemently objecting to talks or concessions and a moderate and reformist faction arguing that negotiations are necessary to lift sanctions.
Mr. Khamenei, who has the last word on all key state matters, has said he does not believe that Iran would gain from talks.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate, has distanced himself from that view, telling Parliament this month that he favored negotiations but would follow Mr. Khamenei’s directive.
On Thursday, Mr. Khamenei’s office signaled a shift in tone, based on Mr. Kharazi’s remarks.
What other options are being considered?
If talks on a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program fail, Israel and the United States have suggested the possibility of launching targeted strikes on the two main underground nuclear facilities in Iran, Natanz and Fordow.
But that risks setting off a wider regional war since Iran has warned it would respond to any strikes on its soil. And any attacks could destabilize the Middle East, with Tehran turning to its network of weakened but still active proxy militias, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the West and Israel are concerned that Tehran has been secretly planning a faster, cruder approach to building a weapon.
In 2018, Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and imposed tough economic sanctions. The moves prompted Iran to abandon its commitments to the deal and increase uranium enrichment from a cap of 3.5 percent to 60 percent now.
The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog says in its latest report that Iran has stockpiled enough enriched uranium to make several bombs. But the watchdog says it has found no evidence that Iran is weaponizing its program.
“Iran is at a crossroad, between having an off ramp or being militarily hit,” said Ms. Vakil, of Chatham House. “It’s a year of really consequential decisions, and how they play their hand could give them a lifeline or lead to further strikes and weakening of the government.”
Politics
Trump issues fresh pardons for Jan 6 defendants, including woman accused of threatening FBI on social media
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President Donald Trump has granted fresh pardons to two Jan. 6 defendants facing charges on other issues.
Suzanne Kaye, a Jan. 6 defendant, was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for allegedly threatening to shoot FBI agents in social media posts.
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice stated that on Jan. 31, 2021, the day before Kaye was set to meet with FBI agents regarding a tip that she was at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, she posted videos on social media in which she said she would “shoot” FBI agents if they came to her house. The FBI learned of Kaye’s social media posts on Feb. 8, 2021, and arrested Kaye at her Florida home on Feb. 17, 2021.
A White House official told Fox News Digital that Kaye is prone to stress-induced seizures and suffered one while the jury read its verdict in 2023. The official said that the case was one of disfavored political speech, which is protected under the First Amendment.
TRUMP PARDONS NEARLY ALL JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS ON INAUGURATION DAY
President Donald Trump granted a Jan. 6 defendant another pardon to cover unrelated firearm charges. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
U.S. Special Attorney Ed Martin posted about the pardon on Saturday, thanking Trump in a post on X.
“The Biden DOJ targeted Suzanne Kaye for social media posts — and she was sentenced to 18 months in federal lock up. President Trump is unwinding the damage done by Biden’s DOJ weaponization, so the healing can begin,” Martin wrote.
Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Wilson remained incarcerated after Trump pardoned convicted rioters because he pleaded guilty to firearms charges. A White House official told Fox News Digital that the president made the decision to grant Wilson an additional pardon because the firearms were discovered during a search of Wilson’s home related to the Capitol riot.
Despite being included in the sweeping pardon granted to Jan. 6 defendants by Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, Wilson remained incarcerated due to the firearms charge and was set to be released in 2028. Prior to his sentencing on Jan. 6-related charges, for which he received five years in prison, Wilson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of an unregistered firearm.
While the Trump administration Justice Department initially said that the firearm charge should not count under the Jan. 6 pardon, it later reversed course, citing “further clarity,” without going into details about what caused the shift.
A scene from the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Photo)
TRUMP ISSUES SWEEPING PARDONS FOR 2020 ELECTION ALLIES — WHAT THE MOVE REALLY MEANS
In his original pardon, Trump declared that pursuant to his authority under Article II, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, he was commuting the sentences of those “convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” That pardon included Wilson’s Jan. 6 charges, but not the firearms-related ones.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee involved in Wilson’s case, rejected the expanded definition of what exactly Trump was pardoning, saying it stretched the bounds of the order too far. In her opinion, Friedrich criticized the use of the phrase “related to” from Trump’s original pardon to expand its meaning.
“The surrounding text of the pardon makes clear that ‘related to’ denotes a specific factual relationship between the conduct underlying a given offense and what took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Friedrich wrote in her opinion.
An appeals court later supported her objections, saying that Wilson had to remain behind bars during the appeal process.
Rioters try to break through a police barrier, on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
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Wilson previously identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers and the Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia, according to Politico.
“Dan Wilson is a good man. After more than 7 months of unjustified imprisonment, he is relieved to be home with his loved ones,” Wilson’s attorneys, George Pallas and Carol Stewart, told Politico in a statement. “This act of mercy not only restores his freedom but also shines a light on the overreach that has divided this nation.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department and Wilson’s legal team for comment.
Politics
Commentary: Catholic Church puts foot down on Trump’s mass deportation policy. That’s a start
When millions of European immigrants came to the United States in the 19th century only to be scorned by mainstream society, it was the Catholic Church that embraced them, taught that keeping the customs of one’s native lands was not bad and created systems of mutual aid and education for the newcomers that didn’t rely on the government.
The 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, an Irish American Catholic, showed that the U.S. was ready to expand its definition of who could become president. Labor organizers like Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day and Mother Jones pushed for the dignity of workers while frequently citing the woke words of Jesus — the Sermon of the Mount and the Beatitudes among the wokest — as the fuel for their spiritual fire.
Catholicism is the faith I was baptized in, the one I embraced as a teen and that’s the bedrock for my moral code of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. My work desk covered with statues and devotional cards of Jesus, Mary and the saints is a physical testament to this.
But I’m also one of the 72% of U.S. Catholics that a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year found don’t attend weekly Mass, which we’re obligated to do.
I stopped going early on in my adulthood because the Church became something I didn’t recognize.
The bishops and cardinals who preached we should follow Jesus’ admonition we should tend to the least among us presided over a child sex abuse scandal in the 1990s and 2000s that cost parishioners billions of dollars in legal settlements and their ethical high ground. The obsession that too many of those same church leaders had over abortion and homosexuality — which Christ never talked about — over social justice matters during the Obama administration left me disappointed. Their continual condemnation of pro-choice Catholic Democratic politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden for taking Communion while staying silent about Donald Trump’s constant violations of the Ten Commandments was rank hypocrisy.
The Pew Research Center found 55% of my fellow faithful voted for Trump. Key Catholics have blessed Trump’s uglier tendencies: A majority of them rules over our revanchist Supreme Court while the president’s team features a vice president who’s a convert and a rogue’s gallery of influential insiders that bear surnames from previous generations of Catholic diasporas — Kennedy, Rubio, Bovino, Homan among the worst of the worst.
Yet I remain a Catholic because you shouldn’t turn your back so easily on institutions that formed you and you don’t cede your identity to heretics. The election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the Holy See, to succeed Pope Francis stirred in me the sense that things might change for the better as our country worsens.
Now, without naming him, the U.S. Catholic hierarchy has rebuked Trump on his signature issue and one close to my heart in a way that shows my hope hasn’t been in vain.
Clergy attend the 2021 Fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Md.
(Julio Cortez/Associated Press)
This week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a so-called “special message” to blast Trump’s deportation Leviathan, decrying its “vilification of immigrants” “the, indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and how hundreds of thousands of residents have “arbitrarily lost their legal status.” Citing passages from across the Bible — the Gospel, the Old Testament, the Letters of Paul — to argue for the human worth of the undocumented and the holy mandate that we must care about them, it was the first time since 2013 that American bishops collectively authored such a statement.
Even as a majority of U.S. Catholics have gone MAGA, support for the special message was overwhelming: 216 bishops voted in favor, 5 against, and there were 3 abstentions. Their missive even concluded with a shout-out to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the brown, pregnant apparition of the Virgin Mary who’s the patroness of the Americas for Catholics.
Talk about someone who would get deported if la migra saw Her on the street.
The cruelty this administration has shown throughout its deportation campaign — families torn apart as easily as the Constitution; U.S. citizens detained; wanton federal violence that a federal judge in Chicago described as “shock[ing] the conscience” — has become one of the most pressing moral issues of our times. The call by Catholic bishops to oppose this wrong is important — so like a voice crying in the wilderness, the church must set an example for the rest of the country to follow.
This example already is being set in parishes across Southern California.
Priests and deacons have marched at rallies and prayed for those detained and deported from Orange County to downtown L.A. and beyond. Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights has let local activists stage know-your-rights workshops since Trump won last November. While L.A archbishop José H. Gomez and Diocese of Orange bishop Kevin Vann, the two most senior Catholic prelates in the region, have spoken out forcefully against immigration raids, some of their local brother bishops have pushed harder.
Diocese of San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas has allowed Catholics who are afraid of la migra to skip Mass since July after immigration agents detained migrants on church property, arguing “such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience” for his flock. In San Diego, Bishop Michael Pham — who’s been in his seat for only four months — helped launch a program encouraging religious leaders to accompany migrants to immigration court to bear witness to the injustices inside and has participated himself.
Expect to hear gnashing of the teeth from the conservative side of church pews about how everyone should respect the rule of law and to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s as if there ever was a Pope Donald. Already, Trump border czar Tom Homan has cried that the bishops are “wrong” for issuing their pro-immigrant letter and suggested they focus on “fixing the Catholic Church.”
But Homan’s dismissal and that of his fellow travelers doesn’t make the bishop’s admonition against Trump’s policies any more prophetic. The president’s immigration dictates are out of Herod — no less an authority than Pope Leo described them in October as “inhuman,” told a delegation of American bishops that “the church cannot remain silent” on those outrages and stated in a separate speech that such abuse was “not the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather grave crimes committed or tolerated by the state.”
The Catholic Church never will be as progressive as some want it to be. Even as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released its message, the group elected as its next president Diocese of Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, whose public politics have so far mostly aligned with those of his deep-red state. But on the issue of dignity for immigrants during the Trump era, U.S. bishops have been on the right side of history — and God. They criticized Trump’s Muslim ban and his move to separate undocumented parents from their children during his first administration and have kept a watch on his attempt to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows some people who came to this country as children to legally remain in the U.S.
We’re about to enter the Christmas season, a holiday based on the story of a poor family seeking shelter in an era when their kind was rejected by the powers that be and ultimately had to flee home. It’s the story of the United States as well, one too many Americans have forsaken and that Trump wants all of us to forget.
May Catholics remind their fellow Americans anew of how powerful and righteous standing up for the stranger is.
Politics
Zohran Mamdani tells 1M social media followers to boycott Starbucks amid ongoing worker strike
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New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani encouraged his more than 1 million X followers this week to boycott Starbucks.
“Starbucks workers across the country are on an Unfair Labor Practices strike, fighting for a fair contract,” the 34-year-old wrote on Thursday. “While workers are on strike, I won’t be buying any Starbucks, and I’m asking you to join us. Together, we can send a powerful message: No contract, no coffee.”
On the same day, Starbucks Workers United, a union representing workers at the coffee giant, announced it was going on an open-ended strike in what is being dubbed the “Red Cup Rebellion.”
1K UNIONIZED STARBUCKS BARISTAS LAUNCH LABOR STRIKE AT 65 STORES
New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani encouraged his more than 1 million X followers this week to boycott Starbucks. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
“As of today, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE,” the union wrote on social media. “And we’re prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON’T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX.”
Thursday was also Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, during which customers can pick up a free reusable festive red cup for the holidays.
CHICAGO BARISTA SAYS STARBUCKS WORKERS ARE BEING ‘ABUSED VERBALLY’ UNDER NEW CEO POLICIES
Starbucks employees and supporters strike in Seattle, where the company was founded, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Red Cup Day is typically one of the company’s busiest days.
Mamdani was elected mayor on Nov. 4 following a shock win in the Democratic primary last June due to him being a Democratic socialist. Both times he handily beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent in the general election.
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Mamdani’s office and Starbucks didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
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