Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Heavy newsroom. Let's start with the president and Iran.

KELI From our Ground News desk: Trump told Reuters this week he is personally selecting Iran's next supreme leader. He said Khamenei's son is unacceptable to him. He also said the recent attack knocked out most of the other candidates — they are all dead. Trump named Venezuela as his model, saying he was involved in the appointment of Delcy Rodriguez after the government captured Maduro in January. The president of the United States describing himself as an empire selecting governments.

HAST That's empire language, flat out. How was this covered?

KELI As a war update. Mostly. You had Reuters reporting the direct quote, AP moving it. But the frame in most outlets stayed tactical — the attack, the succession scramble, the regional leverage. Not the sentence structure: a sitting U.S. president saying he picks foreign leaders.

HAST What should we watch for?

KELI Within 48 hours, watch for State Department clarification or walk-back. If there is none — if the White House lets the appointment-power claim sit — you're watching a structural statement about how this administration sees its role in the world. That's not a mistake. That's policy language. The other thing: Congress. If House or Senate foreign relations committees ask about it, what does the administration say then? That's where you'll see if this was off-the-cuff or intentional.

HAST Staying stateside. Former Southern Poverty Law Center employee Heidi Beirich has been arrested and charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to conceal money laundering. According to CNN, the charges center on her paying informants inside white supremacist groups. One informant was romantically involved with Beirich. The specific allegations aren't clear yet, but the structure is: federal charges for how she was running her informant network.

KELI That's a big institutional story — inside a civil rights organization.

HAST Yeah. And it moves fast. Courts next: a lawsuit is challenging Trump's new paid service for early access to his Truth Social posts. The legal theory hasn't been fully aired, but the core claim is that early access to presidential statements — for paying subscribers — raises constitutional questions about equal access to government speech. That case is in motion.

KELI Different scale, but same motion: Colombia. The BBC reports rescue workers are still searching the rubble of Torres del Limonar in Cali after an earthquake. That building is where survivors are still missing. The rescue is continuing. Same story in energy markets — oil prices are up this week because attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have dimmed hopes for reopening the corridor. Brent crude is climbing.

HAST One more: NPR reporting that a Utah-based group called Our Rescue just won a $158 million federal contract to represent unaccompanied immigrant children in legal proceedings. Our Rescue was founded by Tim Ballard, and it was formerly known as Operation Underground Railroad. The group does sting operations and human trafficking recovery work. A $158 million contract for that scale of work is significant — and the group's history is controversial enough that this award is drawing scrutiny.

KELI Before we close, a history note.

HAST In 1964, South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.

KELI That's the Independent News Drop. For live bodycam explainers — Lawz videos on the channel. Race night tools at racer.wiki. Cards, shirts, and all scripts at inkwell.wiki slash cards, slash bible-shirts, slash art-shirts. Full newsroom at inkwell.wiki slash news. From Inkwell.

KELI Before we close, a word from Inkwell. There's an essay at Gil's Intelligent Version on what actually happened in 1914 — and how a real historical instinct curdled into false certainty the moment someone tried to measure it to the inch.

HAST It's called The Witness and the Ruler. At inkwell dot wiki, slash giv.