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Trump's $10B BBC lawsuit is about to backfire spectacularly: legal analysts

President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the BBC is about to implode, legal experts reported on Tuesday.National trial lawyer and strategist Michael Popok, the host of the "Legal AF" podcast, discussed with legal analyst and MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas how Trump's attempts to sue the BBC for $10 billion — after he accused the broadcaster of deceptively editing a documentary about his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — were likely to come back to haunt him."Donald Trump's litigation strategy seems to be blowing up in his face," Popok said. "The BBC and their defamation defense want to take the testimony and obtain documents from 47 different entities because they tell a federal judge that they've got to prove that Donald Trump actually did foment an insurrection and led an insurrection. See, Donald Trump couldn't leave well enough alone. The law of unintended consequences — obviously not something taught at Penn when Trump attended there — because look at all these unintended consequences."Popok pointed to how the BBC had already apologized to Trump. "They already said, 'sorry, we put together a 12-second clip about your ellipse speech,' but the heart of it, the heart of our reporting is still accurate," Popok said.But Trump didn't think that was enough, Popok argued. And he sued for $10 billion."Not only that, he made a decision that he didn't want to stop discovery — 'I have nothing to hide,'" Popok added, mocking Trump's move. But that backfired. "And then when 47 subpoenas came flying into his family and Jack Smith and everybody else, suddenly he's got something to hide," Popok said. "Same kind of backfire that we're seeing with the weaponization fund, the anti-weaponization fund. This is just giving the Democrats — and strengthening their hand — the ability to attack Donald Trump as corrupt and get Republicans to back it. It's just mind-boggling how many mistakes Donald Trump makes because all he does is fight without any strategy or tactics."Trump has filed multiple $10 billion lawsuits, including the one against the BBC, the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department, Meiselas explained."All the $10 billion lawsuits are backfiring in his face," Meiselas said."Donald Trump's refusing to turn over all financial records in discovery," Meiselas added. "Surprise, surprise. When you stand up for Donald Trump and you do aggressive discovery and litigation, Donald Trump backs down."

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US strikes Iran in retaliation for downed Apache helicopter: report

The U.S. military struck Iran in response to an attack against an Apache helicopter, according to breaking news reports.Trump vowed to retaliate for the attack against the helicopter, saying that the U.S. "must, of necessity, respond," Axios reported. He said the attack against the helicopter "wasn't a big deal" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, however.Axios noted that it wasn't clear what the U.S. military was targeting with the strikes, but Central Command described it as "a proportional response." CNN reported that the U.S. military was attacking islands along the Strait of Hormuz.Iranian state media reported explosions in a province called Hormozgan, which lies on the Strait of Hormuz, according to Axios. The Tasnim News Agency said that Iran vowed a "decisive response" to the attacks and called the allegation that it downed the helicopter a pretense, Axios reported."Foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. "We prefer language of diplomacy but speak other languages too."

Expert flags detail that 'changes the entire situation' in Iran's strike on US helicopter

A military expert on Tuesday revealed new details emerging after Iran struck a United States Apache helicopter and how it "changes the entire situation" involving the ongoing conflict.After reports that a Shahed drone struck the helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, and it was unclear whether the drone had initially targeted the Apache or if it was an inadvertent strike, Col. Peter Mansoor told CNN that it could change the response. "I really think that changes the entire situation because Shahed drones are not air-to-air drones," Mansoor said. "It could have been just an accident that the drone was aimed at something else and ran into the Apache, you know, by chance. But, if it was actually aimed at the helicopter, this would be a new use for this particular type of drone, which is really an air-to-surface, guided cruise missile rather than an air-to-air missile like Ukraine has developed."CNN anchor Brianna Keilar cited a recent CNN report that Iran had employed the ceasefire to help rebuild its drone supply and overall military industrial response — and asked Mansoor if that was reflected in the attack this week."Well, we never destroyed the entire drone capability of Iran in the first place," Mansoor said. "In fact, much of it survived. And they were able to dig out the collapsed tunnels and so forth, and reconstitute many of their launch platforms. So I'm not sure they're producing many new drones, but they are recovering those buried by initial strikes and getting them ready to launch. So there's no doubt that Iran today is more capable than it was when the ceasefire began. But it's going to take years for it to recover the sort of production capability that was lost during the airstrikes."

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Trump's perfect image of 'decadence and rot' could be his undoing: Ex-GOP operative

Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist, ripped President Donald Trump after he showed up at the Knicks' NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden, right in the heart of New York City, where he appeared to fall asleep during the historic game. He warned this could signal Trump's undoing.The co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project described how Trump's 30 percent approval rating, the Iran war and his declining health were all leading to MAGA's pending implosion after he was viciously booed by the crowd during the National Anthem on Monday night.Schmidt described his experiences working with former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential candidate and former Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his interactions with the Secret Service. He explained that presidents in the modern era have been considerate of how their travel impacts the voters who elected them — except for Trump."He just doesn't care about anyone besides himself, and that's the point in New York City," Schmidt said."It's not about him, but Donald had to make it about him," Schmidt added. "He needed to inconvenience hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, and ruin the experience for lifelong fans so he could fall asleep in the luxury box. It is the perfect image for the sloth and the corruption, the decadence and the rot that has descended over America." He explained how, as gas prices rise and when people around the world see "this obese sloth," they know "that our greatness has turned into a necrotizing rot, that we are a falling republic."

Trump officials privately worry ceasefire being used as cover for Iran attacks: report

Trump administration officials have expressed in private that they are concerned that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran has given Tehran a chance to recover from previous attacks, CNN reported on Tuesday. CNN senior reporter Zachary Cohen said that as President Donald Trump responded to a downed Apache helicopter that was patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to retaliate, behind-the-scenes sources said this issue had been raised.CNN anchor Brianna Keilar asked Cohen about a recent report that Iran had started to build drones again and "re-upped its drone production during the ceasefire." She questioned if Trump administration officials were reflecting on whether "the ceasefire being dragged out now, weeks and weeks, is giving Iran these capabilities."Cohen confirmed that was the case — but not something that Trump has acknowledged in public."That's something that we hear from sources and U.S. officials in private, for sure," Cohen said. "But we have not heard the president in particular, or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, voice a similar concern, really painting a more optimistic and a more confident view of the damage that the U.S. military has inflicted on the Iranians' capabilities," Cohen added. "But as you mentioned, we reported that the Iranians have been using this time the ceasefire to reconstitute many of their military capabilities. And it's already restarted production on some of these attack drones that, as we're seeing today, are capable of taking down an Apache helicopter, also a threat to U.S. Navy ships and commercial ships alike."