From Iran to Nebraska: Ripple Effects of US-Israeli War plus updates on Epstein files

Summary

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Drop Site News — Episode Summary

Episode Title: From Iran to Nebraska: Ripple Effects of US-Israeli War plus updates on Epstein files
Date: May 12, 2026
Host: Murtaza Hussain, with Maisa Mustafa, Courtney Bonneau, and Julian Andreon

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates the far-reaching consequences of the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, examining ripples from the Middle East to the American heartland. Through field reporting from war-affected South Lebanon and impacted Nebraska farmers, the episode uncovers being on “the front lines”—whether facing direct violence or economic shockwaves. The second half pivots to new revelations in the Drop Site team’s independent reporting on Jeffrey Epstein, detailing his role in foundational cryptocurrency development and connections with US intelligence.

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Segment 1: The Geopolitical and Economic Tidal Wave

Escalating War and a Fraying Ceasefire

• Hosts: Murtaza Hussain (A) and Maisa Mustafa (B)
• Key Points:
  • Iran’s population is in “the eye of the storm”—anticipating re-escalation after April’s devastating conflict, per Murtaza’s sources [01:48].
  • Trump is attempting to avoid active entanglement before a major diplomatic trip to Beijing, but the region faces “endemic conflict” [01:59].
  • Regional impact is immediate: Middle East populations face economic shockwaves, such as rapidly changing salaries in the West Bank (Maisa recounts her cousins’ experiences) [03:25].
  • While Americans mainly notice higher gas prices for now, the most severe impacts are imminent, reminiscent of the early COVID-19 information lag [01:59].

Analysis of Negotiation Dynamics

• Iranians’ Position:
  • Recent Iranian statements raise stakes: threats to enrich uranium to weapons grade if attacked again [04:24].
  • Deep mistrust for Trump, who repeatedly broke agreements—2018, 2025, and again in 2026, often attacking in the middle of talks [04:24].
  • Public and elite consensus in Iran assumes escalation is inevitable unless a comprehensive, credible deal is struck—viewed as unlikely.

"The idea that you can make a deal with [Trump]...there's a small and shrinking contingency of people who think that's a plausible outcome."
— Murtaza Hussain, [05:32]

• Broader Economic Disruption:
  • India, for instance, enacted “COVID 19-level restrictions” due to financial instability [07:00].
  • Political instability is likely as economic ripples spread globally.

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Segment 2: Field Reporting from South Lebanon

On-the-Ground: Courtney Bonneau’s Dispatch

• Guest: Courtney Bonneau, reporting live from a car in South Lebanon [09:15]

The Situation

• Courtney has lived and reported in South Lebanon since October 2024, witnessing two wars [09:39].
• Reporting interrupted by ongoing violence; on route to Nabatiya following an attack that killed two paramedics that morning [09:39]

Civilian Impact

• The Israeli military has killed nearly 3,000 civilians since March—“men, women, and children” [11:38].
• Systematic targeting of medical professionals; “medical professionals have been killed so far..." [11:38].
• Relentless drone surveillance; communities are under constant threat [11:38].
• Courtney draws direct comparisons:

  “Parts of South Lebanon have been raised to the ground. It looks like Gaza.”
  — Courtney Bonneau, [12:48]

Forced Displacement and Humanitarian Crisis

• 1.2 million displaced due to forced evacuation orders, often under explicit threat of violence [13:56].
• Many displaced live in cars, tents, or open spaces, including in Beirut [16:00].
• Israeli statements and policy appear aimed at permanent population removal:

  “They do not want the residents of South Lebanon to return to their homes.”
  — Courtney Bonneau, [16:01]

Permanent Occupation?

• Israeli military constructing permanent concrete bases—“not temporary”—with explicit annexationist intent [17:03].
• Intermittent technical difficulties interrupt Courtney’s reporting—a reminder of insecure communications in war zones.

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Segment 3: The Disconnect Between Negotiation and Reality

• Talks between Israel and Lebanon, mediated by the Trump administration, are described as “historical” but removed from the lived reality in the South. Despite theoretical ceasefires, field reality is ongoing, even expanding war and displacement [20:26–21:40].
• Ceasefire discussions tied to Iran’s broader 14-point agenda — which demands cessation of hostilities on all fronts, explicitly including Lebanon and Gaza [21:40].

  “They cannot allow this, any deal to go through without...a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon.”
  — Murtaza Hussain, [24:20]

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Segment 4: US Economic Ripples — Nebraska Focus

Nebraska Farmers on the Front Lines

• Guest: Julian Andreon reports from Nebraska [25:37].

Fertilizer Bottleneck and Fuel Price Surge

• Urea fertilizer costs up 30%, with 50% of the global urea trade blocked by the Strait of Hormuz closure [25:37].
• Fuel and fertilizer shocks are immediate—farmers and their supply chains are being pinched, with the cost passed down to consumers [25:37–26:49].

Political Fallout in Agricultural America

• Insurgent Senate candidate Dan Osborne, running as an independent, is gaining traction:
  • Poll: Osborne leads billionaire Senator Ricketts by 5 points, with Independents preferring the challenger 60–22% [27:09].
  • Farmers, “three-time Trump voters,” are frustrated: Trump promised “no new wars” yet delivered an economically devastating war [25:37, 29:51].

  "Almost all of them are really frustrated because the President promised them...‘no new wars and America first’. And now we've got a new massive regional war and Americans are feeling it on the ground.”
  — Julian Andreon, [25:37]

Voters’ Shifting Sentiments

• Many farmers are considering not voting at all or voting out all incumbents, regardless of party [30:32].
• Julian observes widespread support for populist policies: Medicare for All, antitrust enforcement, affordable food supplies [34:49]:

“You see these 70-some-odd year old white folks in an R+20 state...asking if [Osborne] would support a transition to a universal health care program.”
— Julian Andreon, [34:49]

• Even Trump’s loyal base is fracturing;

  “That portion of the base is dwindling...we’re seeing the other portion...look around and say ‘whoa, this is not sustainable.’”
  — Julian Andreon, [37:35]

Impending Food Price Spikes

• If input crises persist, farmers warn higher consumer food prices are right around the corner as current plantings are affected [32:35].

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Segment 5: New Epstein Files — Cryptocurrency, Intel, and War

Epstein’s Cryptic Influence

• Reported by: Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim [41:24].

Key Findings:

• Epstein was involved in foundational work on Bitcoin and early blockchain, especially “infrastructure around Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, zcash and other more secretive currencies” [41:56].
• He served as an advisor and backchannel to the CIA (including the then-Assistant Director) and US Treasury, who consulted him about crypto’s role in sanctions evasion during the Iran deal era [41:56].

  "[Epstein] was keen on funding the early development of Bitcoin...his involvement...was really part of a broader theme...to be on the cutting edge of the way power is developing."
  — Murtaza Hussain, [41:56]

• Epstein was skeptical of US officials’ understanding of these technologies [41:56].
• His activities had direct geopolitical implications:
  • Facilitated Russian-Israeli “track two” talks during the Syria war [45:21].
  • From 2013, “expressed tremendous hope that the US would attack Iran” [45:21].
• The financial innovations Epstein funded and promoted are today used by Iran to bypass US sanctions:

  “Iran...is asking people to pay in cryptocurrency...to help facilitate [strait] transactions.”
  — Murtaza Hussain, [45:21]

  • US Treasury’s current “Operation Economic Fury” attempts to seize Iranian crypto wallets ($374 million reportedly seized) [47:45].
• Much of the mainstream press remains fixated on Epstein’s sexual abuse network, ignoring his secret influence in these domains [47:45–50:03].

Ongoing & Future Reporting

• Upcoming series will continue to explore Epstein’s global network and intelligence activities—from Africa to Central Asia and Israel.

  "There's a lot we don't know about this. We're trying to get to the bottom of it as much as we can through this."
  — Murtaza Hussain, [53:15]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• [05:32] “The idea that you can make a deal with [Trump]...there's a small and shrinking contingency of people who think that's a plausible outcome.” — Murtaza Hussain
• [12:48] “Parts of South Lebanon have been raised to the ground. It looks like Gaza.” — Courtney Bonneau
• [16:01] “They do not want the residents of South Lebanon to return to their homes.” — Courtney Bonneau
• [25:37] “The President promised them...‘no new wars and America first’. And now we've got a new massive regional war and Americans are feeling it on the ground.” — Julian Andreon
• [37:35] "...That portion of the base is dwindling...we’re seeing the other portion...look around and say ‘whoa, this is not sustainable.’” — Julian Andreon
• [41:56] “[Epstein] was keen on funding the early development of Bitcoin...his involvement...was really part of a broader theme...to be on the cutting edge of the way power is developing.” — Murtaza Hussain
• [45:21] “Iran...is asking people to pay in cryptocurrency...to help facilitate [strait] transactions.” — Murtaza Hussain

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–04:21: Opening and immediate regional impacts of the war (inflation, instability)
• 09:15–18:07: Courtney Bonneau reports live from South Lebanon: daily life under siege
• 19:34–24:20: Contradiction between peace talks and continuing violence
• 25:37–34:39: Nebraska farmers and the economic chain reaction of the Strait closure
• 34:49–39:18: Voter sentiment in Nebraska: populism, healthcare, loss of faith in Trump
• 41:24–53:15: Epstein files: crypto’s origins, US intelligence, and present-day war finance

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Episode Takeaways

• The US-Iran-Israel war is not a regional issue—it’s a global disruption, economically and politically.
• South Lebanon is experiencing crisis-level attacks and displacement, resembling Gaza.
• US farmers, especially in the Midwest, are already feeling major economic fallout, likely to expand throughout the US economy, with significant political ramifications.
• Trump’s broken promises and the realities of war are eroding his agricultural base and fueling populist candidates.
• The Epstein files connect unexpected dots: covert intelligence activities, the origins of cryptocurrency, and today’s sanctions-busting tactics—showing influence that stretches from shadowy financial systems to open warfare.

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For sustained, independent analysis on international politics, war, and covert networks, subscribe and follow Drop Site News.

Transcript

[A]

Good morning everyone. Welcome to the drop Site News Tuesday Morning Livestream. I'm your host this week, Murtaza Hossein. I'm joined very shortly by the colleague Maisa Mustafa. We have a great show this week. We're going to be talking to a very intrepid journalist in South Lebanon, Courtney Bonneau. She's been reporting on the ongoing war in South Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah and particularly the impact on communities in South Lebanon of this conflict. We'll also be joined by other colleague Julian Andreon, who's been doing reporting close to home on the looming impacts of fuel and fertilizer shortages on farmers in Nebraska as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the shutdowns of critical minerals, critical inputs for fertilizers and industrial inputs as a result of the war and the broader collapse of the economic infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. And also we're going to be talking about a report that myself and Ryan Grim recently published on our ongoing series on the political and intelligence activities of Jeffrey Epstein and specifically Epstein's role, believe it or not, in the development of some of the core code of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in general and talks he had with the US Treasury Department during the period of the Iran nuclear deal in the mid 2010s as well as contacts with the CIA during that time, which has all kind of become relevant again too, because Iran today is using cryptocurrency reportedly to bypass U.S. sanctions, including in the regime its new tolling regime is putting in place on the straight of four moves. So incredible little history how it all ties up. But first I want to bring on Maisa to chat a bit about what's going on at the moment. Mesa, how are you this morning?

[B]

I'm doing good. How are you?

[A]

I'm good, thanks. Good. You know, Mesa, it's very interesting. I kind of was talking to a colleague based in Iran this morning. He mentioned that in Iran it feels like people are in the eye of the storm at the moment. They had this horrific war last month and right now they're bracing themselves for the possibility of renewed conflict. Donald Trump said the other day that the ceasefire is on life support. And while he hasn't seemed like he's wanted to jump back into the conflict, it seems as though we may be headed in that direction. Anyways. Trump currently is on preparing for a very high profile trip to Beijing to meet with China, meet with Xi Jinping to talk about shaping the US Chinese economic relationship and issues like Taiwan and Very, very big picture issues. He wanted to have this conflict off his plate before he went there, it seems, but that's not the case. It seems like it's becoming endemic conflict. He's stuck in with Iran and as well as the broader region. I'm kind of curious what you see actually, I'll put it this way. I was traveling in Asia last month and you really do feel the impacts of the war there because the economic impacts we're going to be talking about, Julie, and so forth for people in America, they're still somewhat in the future. The only thing we're really seeing manifesting right now is gas prices, but they're coming. And it really reminds me of the period right at the start of COVID 19 when a few people were plugged into the situation that was developing in China and there was going to be a huge impact on everybody. But the broad there was still sense of normality or normaly in the broader public, at least in the US right now. I'm kind of curious how you're perceiving this at the moment and if that's the same kind of perception that you have.

[B]

Yeah, no, for sure. And especially, I mean I was just recently with my cousins in Jordan. They live in the West Bank. Like it's down to their salaries are being changed week by week. Like there are places we might not feel it as much in the US we do. We'll see later on with Julian how it might be affecting different industries, but it really is, you know, making. It's a shockwave across the region, especially in the Middle East. But I do think in the last week we've been seeing kind of a swarm of, of different statements contradicting statements maybe from both sides. I kind of wanted to get your sense on what you think is happening. Do you think? I mean we see the Iranian officials are pretty consistent in not bending the knee per se, but it. Do you feel like there's some flexibility with the negotiations? I feel like last week there was some momentum there and it kind of stopped on Sunday.

[C]

What are you.

[B]

What's your read on what's happening?

[A]

You know, very interestingly this morning there was a statement reported by Al Jazeera and also I saw it actually given directly from an Iranian parliamentary official basically stating that if Israel and the US attack again, Iran would start enriching uranium up to 90%. And 90% uranium is actually weapons grade uranium which you could use to develop a nuclear weapon. So I interpreted that statement as raising the stakes of the situation and from everything we've discussed and are reporting with people in Iran, and what I've been seeing in the last week or so, it doesn't seem like there's much momentum, at least now, for negotiations. And I think there's a core reason for this, is that there's very little trust, particularly of the Iranian side, towards Trump. And if people are aware of the history, in 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal with the United States, which seemed to give both sides what they wanted. It would prevent any Iranian breakout to a nuclear weapon. If they chose to, would not be possible. They'd be under strict monitoring, and in return, they would receive sanctions relief. And that was an acceptable deal to both Washington and Tehran. Trump was the one who violated that deal. He pulled out of the deal in 2018. Later on, the Iranians still tried to negotiate with him during this term. In 2025, he attacked them in the middle of negotiations again. This year, in 2026, despite that, they still negotiated with him again, and he attacked him in the middle of negotiations again. So it really seems very difficult even. Even if you can imagine the situation, the idea that you can make a deal with him, either that he wouldn't attack once again, or that he would just simply violate the deal in a short period of time, a year or two years from now, maybe reinitiate a war with Iran on more favorable terms, there's a small and shrinking contingency of people who think that that's a plausible outcome. So I think in the absence of a negotiated deal, including a negotiated deal, which I think the Iranians across the spectrum would prefer having, I think that they are bracing themselves for a situation, escalation and confrontation is inevitable. And over the last week, that statement I mentioned Trump saying that the ceasefire is on life support. It came in the context of a response that the Iranians gave to an American MOU proposal for how to proceed with the talks or how to deal with the current situation. And the Iranian response, if reported correctly in Iranian state media, was effectively very maximalist in a way. It was not really giving any ground. It didn't seem to move towards the US position at all. There was some contradictory reporting in the Wall Street Journal saying that they did compromise. At a few points, it's not entirely clear, but I do think that generally, if you look at the tenor of Iranian statements, they're taking a very hard position, I think for two reasons. Number one, they believe that they successfully resisted the US Israeli war in April, and the US was unable to be decisive, defeating them. They wasted a lot of munitions right now as well. In that conflict, they may not have everything they need to continue at full scale again, but also they don't really believe there's a negotiation to be had. They don't really trust Trump for the reason I mentioned, nor do they think this is likely. So that's kind of, I'm kind of dubious about it now. It's very interesting what you mentioned about the prices of salaries and so forth changing week by week. I heard the same thing actually in Iran, that when you go to restaurants, in some cases the prices are, they have to keep changing them, really, because the price of meat and things like that are changing. And a very big deal this week, India, which is a country of 1.2 billion people, major economy and so forth, enacted basically COVID 19 level restrictions saying please work from home, don't buy gold because foreign exchanges and gold's a very big deal over there, things like that. That's a really big looming impact that's coming. So I think that we're as horrible a situation is, it seems like maybe locked in. And I really do hope for a taco for everyone's sake that Trump simply backs away or somehow makes a deal or somehow agrees to Iranian terms or some sort of way opens up, otherwise we're in for a very, very significant disruption in the weeks and months to come. And to your point, when these economic ripples happen in the world, there's political consequences while two governments become unstable, conflicts break out and so forth. So that's all coming down the pipe right now. But I do want to bring in Courtney Bonneau right now. Courtney, we have her. Thank you so much for joining us. Courtney, you're driving right now. You're in South Lebanon. For those who don't know, Courtney's been doing some of the most incredible, I would say, heroic reporting from South Lebanon. I think maybe the only foreign correspondent in there at the moment right now reporting on the war, reporting on the impact of Israeli operations there. Courtney, thank you so much for joining us.

[C]

Thank you so much for having me. I'm sorry it's a little bit shaky, but I am on the road to Nabatiya right now.

[A]

We really deeply appreciate. You know, I want to let Mesa weigh in and ask you some questions, but very briefly to kick it off, I wanted to ask, you know, can you tell us a bit about how long you've been there and the kind of reporting you've been doing and your sort of history reporting on South Lebanon?

[C]

So I started living in South Lebanon at the beginning of the last war, so in October of 2024. And I've been stationed down here ever since. So I've been down here for both wars. And I did extensive investigative reporting about the illegal Israeli occupation bases here. That was like the core part of my work during the ceasefire period. And, yeah, now I'm still here during this ceasefire, which is not a ceasefire at all. In fact, we're rushing to Nabatiya now because there was just another attack on paramedics in Nabatiya about one hour ago. Two were killed so far, and that's a preliminary death toll. The number could absolutely rise. There have been Today at least 45 attacks on South Lebanon since I woke up. Today has been really chaotic. The violence is escalating exponentially over the weekend.

[B]

Over the last week, I think we've really seen how the escalations reach.

[C]

I can't hear you.

[B]

Oh, you can't hear me? Can you hear me?

[A]

I can hear you. Can you hear me, Courtney?

[C]

I can hear you. Yeah.

[B]

So funny. Okay, then you must take it over. It's fine.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. So, Courtney, we've all been watching, reporting, and we're seeing this, the impact. It seems like there's been an escalation, really, in the last week or so. Well, too, as you mentioned, there is notionally a ceasefire, but Israel has continued launching these attacks. Can you talk a bit about the impact of these attacks on civilian populations in South Lebanon? Because you mentioned also paramedics. We've been reading these stories filed by you and others about attacks on reporters and paramedics and others. How is it reshaping life in South Lebanon to the impact of this war and these Israeli operations?

[C]

I mean, it's, it's, it's devastating. You know, they've. They've killed. Since March 2, almost 3,000 civilians have been killed. That's men, women and children. They are systematically targeting medical professionals. And medical. Medical professionals have been killed so far. You know, it's just. We wake up and if you. You've seen my reports, you've. My reports with the sound of the drone. You know, this is. We go to sleep and we wake up with the sound of surveillance drones flying over our heads. We never know when or where or who they're going to strike. The attacks are just constant. They're relentless. And the impacts on the community, like I said, has been devastating. The systematic raising of villages and towns to the grounds. I mean, it looks like Gaza, parts of South Lebanon have been raised to the ground.

[A]

You know, some Israeli officials actually.

[C]

Sorry, go ahead.

[A]

Specifically they want to apply the Gaza model, the Tusa Lebanon. And you've been seeing that in the sense of house demolitions and so forth?

[C]

Absolutely, yeah. They're doing. I can hear and I can see from where I live, illegal civilian home and infrastructure demolitions. So this is something that I see and I listen to every single day. I take footage of it.

[A]

Wow. You know, South Lebanon was already, you know, target economic siege and obviously the impact of the previous war and so forth. And now because of these operations, these home demolitions, it seems like it's intended to create a humanitarian crisis in a sense of displacement and so forth. Can you talk a bit about how that is manifesting as people evacuate these towns, or is there an exodus out of this areas because of danger? What is the actual. How is life being reshaped as a result of this practical sense?

[C]

Well, 1.2 million people are currently displaced. The, you know, evacuation orders are. These are illegal. They in themselves are war crimes. They're. They're forced displacement orders under the threat of death. And they put that in the order. If you, if you translate it so, you know, people are living. Look at this. This is Napatilla. Now, this is where I'm driving through. There have been multiple attacks on this road. Anyway, 1.2 million people are displaced. I was displaced from where I'm living.

[A]

I think the connection may have frozen.

[B]

This was probably going to happen. We expected it, but we expected that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

She may pack up everything that I have. Did you get that?

[A]

It cut out briefly there, but we got the majority.

[C]

Which part did it cut out?

[A]

Yeah, you said you were driving through Nabatia and you were displaced yourself as well. And. And then.

[C]

Yeah, and as is my driver and my colleague brother. He has a newborn baby. He's been displaced twice. The latest time was this morning. So he's still working like, hey, how you doing? He got up in the morning to a displacement order and had to gather his newborn baby and his family and get out of here to get out of where he was. But, yeah, there's a lot of people living in their cars. And I know in Beirut there are a lot of people living outside in tents and large open spaces. In Beirut.

[B]

Can you hear me now?

[C]

What the Israeli army is saying? Indeed, they are applying the Gaza model, and that's evident here, because what they're saying is that these people are not going to be allowed to return to their homes. And they've been very vocal about this in the media. They do not want the residents of South Lebanon to return to their homes.

[B]

Courtney, can you hear me now? I tried refreshing. I don't think she can. It's okay.

[A]

It's okay. That's fine. You know, Courtney, that's a really important point, because I think that there's also. There has been for many, many decades, statements by Israeli officials claiming that they want to turn south Lebanon into, like, the cordon sanitaire, like, completely, you know, wiped out the population. Wiped out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Scorched earth. Exactly. Do people have a sense that there is an attempt to create a permanent Israeli ground occupation in south Lebanon?

[C]

Well, like I said before, I have been. The core part of my work down here has been documenting the construction and the expansion of the illegal Israeli bases. And I can tell you that these are not temporary bases. They are permanent structures. They are made of concrete. They're not temporary. And the Israeli military, the Israeli politicians, they have said out loud that this is their plan to occupy south Lebanon. And if you look at the history of attacks since 1948 on south Lebanon, all the attempts at annexation and occupation, you know, you'll see that that is the case. Can you grab my vest? Can you get my vest for me? Yes. So we're preparing to go to. To targeted area, so I need to put my vest on.

[A]

Let's be cautious of your time, too, especially where you are right now. But I want to ask very quickly as well.

[C]

I can't hear you.

[A]

Oh. So I said I want to ask very quickly as well, too. You know, there are negotiations taking place ostensibly between Lebanon and Israel. Being media.

[C]

There's no sound.

[A]

Oh, you can't hear. Can you hear me?

[B]

She can't hear us.

[A]

I think we may.

[C]

I have no sound from you guys.

[A]

Could you try refreshing. If she can't hear us,

[B]

I wonder if she can see the chat.

[A]

You can text us.

[B]

I can text her. There you go.

[A]

Courtney, can you hear us? Can you hear us now?

[C]

Still no, I can't hear you guys.

[A]

Yeah, ask her to. If she can refresh.

[B]

Yeah. Trying to WhatsApp her, but, yeah, this

[A]

is the challenge of sometimes having someone in the field is amazing. She's right on the front line. I'm sure there's Internet disruptions there as well, too, but, I mean, yeah, there

[B]

was the war even, so, who knows?

[A]

Exactly. Exactly. So we're gonna see if we can get Courtney back on briefly and see if she'll come back. But, you know, actually, I want to ask you Meissa as well, too, because, you know, you've been following us very closely. There have been these negotiations planned ostensibly between Israel and the Lebanese government, mediated by the Trump administration. But it seems almost divorced from the reality on the ground, especially in south Lebanon, where while on paper there is a ceasefire, as Courtney's talking about, and she's witnessing herself and reporting on their horrific and ongoing attacks and even the preparations for permanent military occupation in south Lebanon. How do you see that disjuncture between this narrative of talks and the reality that's of the escalating war taking place there?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the south right now and what you're saying, living a reality that it maybe seems like half of the country above the river, you know, might not understand or really, really grasp. And I always think about, like, I wonder what we're seeing. These people are calling them historical talks between Lebanon and Israel recently. And it comes at a time where Lebanon is in or was in the points for the Iran ceasefire. And I wonder now what, you know, if that's even still a part of it, if that's even still a part of the deal, a part of their, their, their points. And if it is, I wonder if they think that the negotiations between Lebanon and Israel might be, you know, a disservice to what's happening. And I don't know, actually, Merteza, do you know, do you feel like Lebanon and even Palestine, which was a part of, you know, the full ceasefire package maybe a couple weeks ago, whenever we were seeing the peak of the negotiations in Pakistan, what do you think's happening to those? What do you think is going to happen to the region? Is it going to be included in the ceasefire anymore?

[A]

Well, you know, in the original talks that took place in Islamabad between the US And Iran, the Iranian condition for the talks were America's acceptance of this 14 point agenda as the basis for the communications or basis for the meeting. And the US had a separate 10 point agenda. And I won't go through all the points that differ between them, but the Iranian 14 points were obviously much more favorable to Iran's view of the situation, whereas the US Was focused on the way it wanted to frame the conversation. And in Iran's 14 points, which trump in theory did accept as a basis for the talks, they did include a succession of conflict on all fronts, mentioning Lebanon, specifically the Hezbollah Israeli conflict. And they've also brought Palestine that conflict as well too, in Gaza. And, you know, so now there aren't any talks at the moment. But Mohammed Bakr Ghaliba, who's the speaker of Parliament, in Iran and who's with the lead of the negotiations at that time. He did reiterate yesterday that any deal has to take place on the 14 points. So the 14 points would still include the cessation of the war on all fronts in the region. And Iran's relationship, especially with Hezbollah, is obviously very close. And there's a perception in Iran, among people in the system, that Hezbollah in particular made a tremendous sacrifice by joining the war because already it fought Israel in 2024. Obviously, it was very devastating conflict at the time, but they joined again. And you're seeing what Courtney's reporting. It's inflicting tremendous suffering in south Lebanon and tremendous sacrifices on people there. So there's a perception that, you know, they cannot allow this, any deal to go through without, at minimum, a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon for two reasons. One is a reason of their ideological and, you know, you could say personal ties between Iran and Hezbollah. But also, you know, this, Iran has a doctrine of unity of fronts, which means that if there's going to be a ceasefire in one place, has to fly everywhere for a very practical reason, that Hezbollah is part of their own. They have a mutual dynamic of protection and deterrence that would be undermined were the war to continue in Lebanon while ending in Iran. So our talks to people in Tehran, too, in the government or connected the government, they're very, very insistent that there must be an end to the war everywhere for the war to end between Iran and Israel, and particularly with reference to Lebanon. So, you know, Julian, our colleague, just, just joined as well, too. So, you know, now that I think Courtney's fallen off, I think we should bring Julian on, because Julian's been doing some of the reporting that we were discussing earlier Meissa, about the very quickly incoming impacts of the Strait of Hormuz closure on people in the United States. And I'll say by way of introduction, people at the start of this war often said that this war was unthinkable because the economic impacts, and we think of oil coming out of the Persian Gulf, and that is very important, oil and gas, helium tech, manufacturing and so forth. But I think maybe the most important potentially impact is going to be the fertilizer impact. And fertilizer impact is not felt for a very, very long time down the road because obviously planting season, it doesn't have instantaneously, there's a month's time lag and so forth. But, Julian, you were in Nebraska and you reporting on the impacts today on farmers in Nebraska, of the shutdowns of fertilizer and fertilizer inputs from that region. Tell us a bit about what you were doing and what you found on that trip.

[D]

Yeah, so while I was in Nebraska, I met with a bunch of corn and soybean farmers who were really feeling the cost, not only with the fertilizer, because there's been a 30% increase in the price of urea, which is the main ingredient in nitrogen fertilizer. And the Strait of Hormuz closure has bottled up 50% of the world's trade of urea. But they're also feeling it in terms of fuel costs because not only do they have to fill up their vehicles, but they also have to fill up the massive machinery on their farms. So everybody on the ground is feeling it. And I talked to these farmers who they and their friends. A lot of them were, you know, three time Trump voters and they said that almost all of them are really frustrated because the President promised them on the trail, no new wars and America first. And now we've got a new massive regional war and Americans are feeling it on the ground. Everything that comes into the farm comes in via truck. There's a semi truck that brings it in and everything that goes out of the farm goes out via truck. And those trucks, the semis have to fill up their gas tanks too. So the fuel cost is passed on down to the producer being the small family farmers.

[B]

Julian, while you were there, you also spent a lot of time with insurgent Senate candidate Dan Osborne. Can you talk a bit about what his race is looking like? I know that he's going against a self funded billionaire, the current Senator Ricketts.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

How the war has also impacted maybe his campaign as well.

[D]

Yeah. Recent poll came out yesterday from, you know, full disclosure, a left leaning pollster, but had Osborne up five points. And Ricketts is, you know, Ricketts is numbers with independence going all the way down. I believe it was 60 to 22% where Osborne was leading with independent voters. So you're seeing some of that messaging about the war, about costs, about fuel prices and fertilizer prices, but also about monopolies in the agricultural industry and monopolies elsewhere. Vertical integration in the health care system paying off. When I was embedded with the Osborne campaign for three days there in Nebraska, we traveled from Omaha to Lincoln to Crete and he held a number of town halls and meet and greets and coffee shops and schools and things of the sort on the university campus in Lincoln. And we were hearing a lot of the same things, whether people were pro Osborne or anti Osborne. A lot of the same issues and policies that they were looking for, which was breaking up consolidation in the industries that are touching their lives and they're feeling it in their pockets. Ricketts, as you said, is a self funded billionaire. He's going to have a lot of corporate money behind him from the nrsc, but also from just independent corporate backers. And then he's going to probably start to pour in some of his own money into this race here, especially as these numbers start to favor Osborne. It's going to be a close race. Today we have primaries in Nebraska and there is a Senate primary. Actually, we're going to write about it here in the newsletter shortly. We're going to do a long Twitter post, so some of you guys can go check that out. But there is a Democratic Senate primary. Osborne, of course, is not included because he's an independent candidate. But there's a candidate who a lot of people in Nebraska think was installed by or propped up by Pete Ricketts because only months ago he went to a conservative leadership forum or training that was held by the Nebraska gop. He's a pastor, he's a three time Trump voter. He talks a lot about the Islamist and Marxist takeover of the United States. But now he's running as a Democrat in the Democratic primary. He's been questioned by CNN and other sources about whether he's loyal to Ricketts and he skirted the question. But I think all of the proof is in the pudding. And the Democratic Party in Nebraska is asking folks to vote for a different woman who has privately signaled and who the Nebraska Party has sent out emails saying that she's going to drop out if she wins to clear the field for Osborne. That was reported in the New York Times yesterday. So it's becoming really controversial and sort of chaotic in Nebraska right now. But the one thing that's sort of sort of rising in the tide, above all of it, is that this independent candidate, Dan Osborne, is speaking to people on both sides with sort of distinctly populist values.

[A]

You know, Julian, one thing you mentioned, which is really interesting to me, is that people who were Trump supporters previous elections are particularly angry about the economic impacts, but also the connecting it to the war itself. And I was curious about that because, you know, I was mentioning earlier I was traveling in Singapore and Malaysia last month and people were very aware that the war was driving their economic, you know, dislocation. That was really, you feel at that moment right there. But did you find that in your travels that people were specifically clued into the stray Formu situation and how it was directly driving that. And they were even thinking of Trump's broken campaign promises. That was something you saw directly in your conversations.

[D]

100%. I mean, these farmers know exactly how their operations work. They're far more educated than any of us who read about it in these outlets. They know exactly how the operation works from production to bringing it to market. And they know what's bottling up the resources that they need in order to survive. Because at the end of the day, they're feeding their families with this and they, they need these costs to go down so that they can buy their supply for the next year of farming. Remember, this is not like a week to week thing where they buy fertilizer for a week and then the prices may go down. No, they're buying year long supply. And if the prices are too high when they need to buy their year long supply and they're out of fertilizer and they need to keep their operations running, it's going to screw them for the whole year. But I was talking to some of these farmers. One of them told me he's so fed up that he's considering either two options for the, for this upcoming midterm election. Either he's going to sit out the election and not vote for anybody, or he's going to vote against every single incumbent on the ballot, regardless of party, because he's so frustrated with the way that elected leaders are serving right now. So he's saying, anybody who's not in office right now, let's get them in there in place of who's in there.

[A]

That's really fascinating. And you know, it's interesting because they are at the front line in a way of seeing the impact of this because, you know, me and myself were talking. A lot of people in the broader society have yet to make the connection. They're seeing gas prices go up, but the impacts have not manifested for at least Americans yet in this very significant way. But it's coming. And you know, I was curious, you know, you were talking to these farmers and they have a sense of the lead times of these in the way impacts hit. Obviously, fertilizer, it's related to planting season, you need it at a certain time of year and then the crops don't give off until later in the year and so forth. Did you get a sense of what people were forecasting about the impact on them as farmers, but also potentially food prices more broadly if they don't have the inputs again in time or they're not priced at an economical level.

[D]

I'm glad you mentioned that because that's what they were talking about. They were saying not only are they worried for themselves, but they're worried about the prices that are going to be passed on to consumers. You, all of the food that's created on their farms comes to our plate at a certain point. And these prices are passed on and passed on because not everybody can deal with the inflation and taking the hit themselves. You know, I think, I think a lot of these guys at the end of the day really want to. They, they feel a sense of service to the country. They think that or they believe rightfully that what they're producing is keeping the country going in terms of putting food on people's plates. And they want that food to be affordable. They don't want it to only be for wealthy people to eat. You know, and I think that they're frustrated that they're going to have to pass these costs on. They're feeling it in their own pockets, but they know that everybody else is feeling it too. You know, it's funny, while I was trailing around Dan Osborne, he was telling me about some of the effects on him because he's a working class guy. He only, he only quit his job as a steam fitter two weeks ago. He was squeezing this campaign into sort of the margins of a working class lifestyle. He was working 40 to 50 hour weeks and he was taking hour long lunch breaks to do call time, calling donors and potential voters. And he was saying when he quit his job to go all in on this Senate campaign, and we're gonna talk about it in this exclusive article I have coming out this week on my trip to, about my trip to Nebraska. But he was talking about the fact that he lost his health insurance and also he's having to refinance the mortgage on his home, his wife is meeting with their bank and he's looking at credit unions to meet with. I mean, people are really feeling this all the way from the ground to the guy who might be the senator for state, almost everybody except Ricketts, actually, because he's a billionaire and he can foot the costs. And in fact, he doesn't even really need to fill up his tank or anything like that. He gets driven around D.C. by his staff. So I think Osborne's really feeling it and so are all of his potential voters or constituents. And, and yeah, I think people are going to feel it too. Outside of Nebraska, outside of farming towns, when that cost is passed down to the consumer.

[B]

Did you feel like Whenever you were going to those town halls, what was the range of demographics that you were seeing? Were you seeing different ages? Were you seeing different races? What kind of people were showing up?

[D]

Yeah, I mean, it was a multi racial and, and you know, it was, it was multiracial, multi ethnic, several ages. There were a lot of older. You know, it's one thing I found amazing, just personally. Like we were in these rooms and there were like a lot of older white folks and they were asking him about Medicare for all. And so you, you see these like 70, 70 some odd year old, you know, white folks in an R plus 20 state, and they're asking him whether he would support a transition to a universal health care program. So we're seeing this shift more towards populist economic beliefs on the ground. Things that would be considered radical if you were to tune on a turn on corporate media, any of the outlets right now. I'm sure they're talking about how radical and ridiculous these ideas are, but almost everybody wants them. The most recent poll on Medicare for all countrywide was in, I believe, November of 2025, and it showed that 65% of Americans and around 20% of Republicans are in favor of a universal health care system in this country. And I think that I was seeing those types of trends on the ground. People talking about antitrust enforcement and antitrust law. If you heard any of the big names in corporate media or in private industry talking about Lina Khan over the last four years, they would have told you she was insane and she was anti business and her policies weren't good for people on the ground. Well, I went to go talk to people on the ground and they loved what she was doing because they don't want monopolies controlling our society, and they don't want the people who profit from those monopolies donating money to our politicians and buying off policy for future years. It's time for workers to have a voice up on Capitol Hill again. And I think that that's not me saying that. That's just me echoing what I heard in Nebraska.

[A]

You know, that's really fascinating, Julian, and it can be hard to draw a broader trend out of a specific incident. But I think that you were in what you described locality where there was very strong support for Trump in previous years. And do you get a sense that that's transformed in sense of betrayal? Because I talk to people myself, I know who support Trump or who are sympathetic. They feel very angry, actually, because he seems like he actually governed in a manner which is not Just something they disagree with. But it was diametrically opposite to what he campaigned on in 2024. He said that they were not going to have not just wars in general, but not war in the Middle east and specifically not a war with Iran. In fact, he campaigned against this particular war. And now he's saying things such like, if gas prices go up, who cares, to paraphrase. But he said that on numerous occasions. Meanwhile, the impact of that's being felt by people in the country, and particularly as voters did that. Do you think that there's a broader trend that this may manifest in the midterm elections, based on your experience, that people may see a broader backlash against Trump or Trumpism manifesting for these reasons?

[D]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I talked to a number of Trump voters on the ground, actually, who were in favor of the war and were, but that's only a small section of them. And I was talking to the farmer who told me he was planning on voting out all incumbents. And, and he was saying all of the people he knows who are Trump voters are in one of two camps, right? They're three time Trump voters and they're one of two camps. They recognize, almost all of them, even the ones who are in the camp that's supportive of the war, recognize that the war isn't exactly good right now, but they're hoping that Trump is going to fix it in the future. They're just holding out hope. Oh, if you just give him one more day, one more week, one more month, he's going to fix it. He always does. He's going to fix it. And he was saying that the people in the other camp are starting to recognize, wait, sometimes he doesn't always fix it. Sometimes he promises to do something and then hopes that you forget. And I think this is one of those cases. I know that you were talking about Trump saying that the gas prices are going to go up and who cares? And he said something along the lines of like somebody, a reporter, was asking him about the fact that gas was at, you know, 102 a barrel or something. And he was saying, well, I thought it was going to shoot up to 200. And that would have been unprecedented. 150 would have been unprecedented. But he's trying to sort of gaslight people into thinking that what they're experiencing or what they're seeing with their own eyes or what they're feeling in their own pocketbooks is not the reality. But I think some people are starting to grow wiser to it. So you've Got that section of the Trump voters who are quite, you know, staunch and some people would call it a little cultish. Regardless of what he does, they're going to get on board. But that portion of the base is dwindling in numbers and percentage. We're seeing the other portion of the base start to sort of look around and say, whoa, this is not sustainable.

[B]

Thanks so much, Julian. And everybody will have more insight into his. Was it three days in Nebraska that you were in the farms? How long were you there?

[D]

Got there Wednesday night and got back Sunday morning.

[A]

So four nights.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. I got to know the state quite well. I enjoyed it.

[A]

Yelling at Fetterman now terrorizing.

[D]

He might be yelling at me. He recently brought up drop site in an interview with a guy who wasn't. He's seeing us in his dreams. He brought up drop site in an interview with a guy who wasn't even dropsite. He's like, oh, well, tell your boss at drop site. It's like, well, that's not one of our guys. But appreciate the shout out. Thanks, John.

[C]

That's great.

[A]

Yeah. Well, Mesa, I think that one thing we had to discuss as well too is there's a report that we did, or me, myself and Ryan did earlier this month about, you know, you've been following and probably our viewers been following as well, too, ongoing reporting about Jeffrey Epstein and his connections to the Israeli government, but also his broader political and intelligence activities. And it seems like this Epstein story has been pushed aside, at least for now, by the war. It was, you know, the release of these documents and so forth, by the Justice Department prior to that. But the war, whether by intention or just by coincidence, it's move that discussion to the side. But we still have an ongoing series about that. And, you know, this story was very, very strange actually, because it kind of relates back to today's events. It was about Epstein's own involvement, first of all in the development of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, but also his talks with the CIA director, or, sorry, deputy director of CIA in the 2000 and tens. At the same time the Iran nuclear deal was going on. At the same time he was also briefing the Treasury Department about cryptocurrency and bitcoin so forth as a means of sanctions evasion and funding illicit activities and so forth. So, you know, I wanted to chat with you a little bit about that. Maybe you can, you can queue up some questions about it specifically. But that's a story that we're still reporting.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, I saw it. On Friday, I. I wanted to ask you kind of what. What was the biggest find for you? What was the most surprising insight that you got from this investigation? I think a lot of people. There were a lot of responses I saw on Twitter about Epstein's interest in bitcoin. It would kind of fluctuated, it seemed, during that time. Can you kind of explain, contextualize what his. What his relationship was with cryptocurrency and. And what it was that he was trying to do there?

[A]

Well, you know, it's funny that myself and Ryan and some other colleagues have been working on these stories. We've really had to spend a tremendous amount of time reading Epstein's communications and sort of delineating his views and his interests and his, you know, just the broader trend of his activities. And one thing about Epstein, which is very fascinating and has not been covered at all by the rest of the press, is that he was somebody who clearly had a very keen sense from how power operated and how, you could say, maybe the system operated. So in his interactions with other people and his schedules and the way he devoted resources and time, he was clearly very interested in the development of frontier technologies. And Dropside published an interview that Epstein did with Steve Bannon before his death. And he clearly, many, many years ago had knowledge of frontier models in AI. We've done stories about his involvement in gene editing technologies and transhumanism and biotechnology and life sciences. He was very important to him to be surround himself with the researchers who were on the cutting edge of those technologies, because he knew that technology, the way it shapes power and the way how important it can be to be the ground floor of these things, he was very keenly aware of that. And another technology that he was very interested in from the very beginning was cryptocurrency, blockchain, bitcoin and so forth. And that's very fascinating because he was somebody whose core competency, in many ways the thing that made him powerful in the beginning or got the ball rolling in his career, so to speak, was his involvement in money laundering and hiding money, illicit transfers of money. We've done reporting about his ties to Iran Contra, which was an episode which was very, very much about the creation of black budgets and so forth. So if you are familiar with cryptocurrency, if you know how to use it, you know how it operates at a high level, you know how it can be useful for hiding money, for hiding money and hiding transactions from government authorities and the broader public. And, you know, he was keen on funding the early development of Bitcoin or the development of the infrastructure around Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, zcash and other more secretive currencies as well too. And I think that his involvement in all that was really part of a broader theme of his really, in some ways darkly impressive ability to forecast and to be on the cutting edge of the way power is developing. And that manifests in other ways too, other reporting we've done in the past about his involvement in global port infrastructure and so forth. He knew the ports were also where power came from. So his involvement in technology was kind of the same. And it was so advanced that even the U.S. treasury Department was looking to him in the mid-2010s to help them understand cryptocurrency and understand Bitcoin. And you can also see in his emails that he didn't have a very high opinion of their own knowledge. He kind of viewed them as amateurs, the Treasury Department compared to him and his own knowledge about it.

[B]

What specific ways do you think the current situation that we have, what specific ways was his impact on the Iran deal? Like, what do we see today? What came out of that? And we see like almost a decade later.

[A]

Well, you know, in 2013, and again we've done some reporting on this, but Epstein was involved in the back channel talks between setting up back channel talks between the Russian government and the Israeli government, they call it track two dialogues related to Syria conflict and having an ending to the Syria war which led to a Russian led regime change approved by Israel in Syria in the conflict. And he was setting up talks with Ehud Barak and Vladimir Putin, people he had very close ties with at that time, to help manifest that. But also around the same time he expressed tremendous hope that the US would attack Iran and Congress would authorize US war against Iran as far back as 2013. So he was deeply invested in that prospect. Now, obviously we're living through a period when the US has attacked Iran. And again, another thread of Epstein's own activities which have manifested themselves in the current situation is that while he was very involved in the early development of cryptocurrency, including US dollar backed cryptocurrencies, like one that's very famous called Tether, those are now playing a role in the current situation because Iran, as it's developing a tolling regime over the Strait of Hormuz, it's asking people to pay in cryptocurrency and reportedly in tether in some cases as well too, to help facilitate those transactions. Now obviously the US Treasury Department and Marco Rubio and others have said that these transactions, if someone transacts with Iran, including in this polling regime, it's unacceptable, it's subject to sanctions and so forth. And to evade that, the Iranians are trying to rely on cryptocurrency as a means of evading the US dollar system and being able to run this alternate financial regime over the strait. Now, if you look at their story and you look at the development of these technologies, you know that despite the kind of branding and maybe the initial intention of cryptocurrency to be this outside channel, free of government interference, governments have been very interested in this for quite some time. They've been trying to stop this, create choke points in this technology to prevent it from being used this way to maintain the dollar hegemony that exists, the petrodollar and so forth, and to prevent alternative financial channels from arising which would undermine that. So there's kind of an arms race in a way, because there are cryptocurrencies which again, Epstein was very involved in, which are very robust and maybe have some anti censorship and anti surveillance capabilities and maybe they might be employed in a situation like this. But at the same time, the US government, and that's why they were talking to Epstein as well, has been trying to embed themselves in these processes, in these infrastructures to make sure that they have control and have surveillance and they can't evade sanctions. And recently, in the context of the war, the Treasury Department's also launched Operation Economic Fury to add on to Operation Epic Fury. And one aspect of that has been targeting cryptocurrency wallets allegedly used by Iran to evade sanctions and potentially to run operations like this alternate tolling regime in the straight and to seize those wallets. There was one announcement of, I believe the seizure of $374 million allegedly linked to Iran in cryptocurrency at the time. So we see this cat and mouse game of cryptocurrency being used in the current situation. And it's so funny because mesa there's so much coverage of Jeffrey Epstein and mostly his involvement with other elite figures related to sex abuse. And that's really important and that's a, a very, very vital part of understanding who he was and the notoriety and the role he played in these networks. But there's a whole other world of his activities which is contained in his hacked emails, in these DOJ disclosures and so forth, which relate to global politics and relate to his incredibly influential role in high stakes geopolitical bargaining and activities which even Seven years after his death continues to manifest today. And we're seeing the latest manifestation now in this Iran situation.

[B]

I mean, last question for me is what questions did this leave you with? What other places, what other connections, what other relationships are you, you know, more interested in digging into now?

[A]

Yeah. So, you know, it's funny. We have been doing this reporting about Epstein and his intelligence and political activities for almost nine months now at Drop Site. And obviously it's become an ongoing series and a major focus of our coverage. And we didn't pause it for the Iran war, but obviously we had to cover this tremendously important event that is developing. So we have an ongoing, long series of stories still to do about Epstein's ties or things we've gleaned from his emails about his ties to, you know, Israeli operations in Africa related to current ongoing conflicts there at the moment, Central Asia, Mongolia, you know, obviously Israel itself. You know, Epstein was a tremendously, you know, important figure in global politics for all this time, and his connections and networks are very much still operative. So, you know, I don't want to give a teaser too much or spoil any of these stories, but they're coming down the line. But we have a lot of reporting still to do about Epstein and the way that people, himself and people that he worked with, their activities continue to shape global politics, continue to conflict around the world. There's a very important email in Ehud Barak's hacked inbox talking to Epstein. And Epstein's telling him that, you know, I'll paraphrase it briefly, but he's telling him that, you know, there's conflicts around the world in Syria and Somalia and Ukraine and so forth. Isn't it something you can profit from? Isn't something which is an opportunity for you? And Barack responds in the affirmative. And really the entire relationship is showing how multiple things interact. Epstein's ability and desire to make money for his elite friends and contacts, but also their own work together in reshaping geopolitics in a means that they can profit from, but it's also beneficial to the state of Israel and other states which are in their network. And as I mentioned, Epstein died to 2019. But that way of operating above and beyond states by private individuals who are very wealthy, connected in certain countries is something which is still going on. And I hope that the coverage of Epstein that we do can help elucidate the way power operates, but also the way that his associates are still operating out there. And again, this is not to say that the coverage of his sex abuses is not important. It's very, very important. It's integral to the entire story, but it's only one component. And in the absence of the rest of the press covering it fulsomely, we're gonna continue to take that lane and the emails are out there, the documents are out there. It's only a matter of time. And we're gonna continue covering it during the war, during this interregnum between the. In the war or. And even beyond that and probably for many months and even beyond that to come.

[B]

I mean, I, like everyone else, is, you know, excited to see what you guys find. This man was busy. I don't know how he. I don't know how he had the time to balance so many different relationships, let alone, you know, a government.

[A]

Well, that's a really funny thing. We talked about that too because we have his calendars which came out in the DOJ releases and he was clearly very busy in his calendar. How can one even balance, you know, making. Doing diplomacy in Africa and running the stuff for Israel so forth with the sex trafficking. We also know he's involved in, which is not in the calendar. And yet he was clearly integral part of his life as well too. It really actually does. You know, you make a very important point. It actually leads to the question what network of people was helping him manage all this? Because it certainly was beyond the ability of one individual to, to manifest or to manage on their own. So yeah, I think there's a lot we don't know about this. We're trying to get to the bottom of it as much as we can through this. Limited disclosures we have, but there's still so much more to go.

[B]

Yeah, looking forward to it. I think that is all we have for today. Thank you so, so much. We packed a lot in into an hour.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you everyone for joining us. We'll be back here every Tuesday with another live stream. Thank you to our guests Courtney Bono and our colleague Julian Andreon. You can catch us on all social media and so forth. We have a tremendous amount of coverage to come this week about Iran, about Gaza, about Lebanon, about impacts in the United States as well beyond. We're going to continue covering it. Thank you to Maisa Mustafa for co hosting this week as well too. We'll be back next Tuesday morning. Every week at this time, you can catch us on this live stream. Thank you so much to all our viewers and readers. Please share these videos, please subscribe, we'll see you next week. And thank you as always for reading and watching Dropside News.