Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Blue Room of the White House, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs dropped a major scoop on Wednesday, alongside national security reporter James LaPorta: that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret trip to the United Arab Emirates during the Iran war.

CBS reported that Netanyahu made the trip “recently” and met with UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed. The report added that Netanyahu’s office confirmed the trip in a statement, saying it “resulted in a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed on Tuesday that Israel had sent Iron Dome missile defense systems to the UAE to help protect the country against Iranian attacks. Iran has targeted Dubai and energy infrastructure in the UAE as the Iran war has continued.

Netanyahu previously traveled to the UAE in 2018, and in 2020, the UAE was the first country to normalize relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the United Arab Emirates “has carried out military strikes on Iran,” citing “people familiar with the matter.”

The explosive report is the first time since the war began that the UAE has been implicated as an active combatant in the war, joining the U.S., Iran, and Israel as a primary actor.

The post Bombshell Scoop Reveals Netanyahu Made a Secret Visit to the UAE During Iran War first appeared on Mediaite.

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Modern Bluetooth speakers have features that make them much better than they were just a few years ago, from USB-C for universal fast charging, to hi-res audio playback, to serving as a battery backup for other devices. The Beats Pill speaker has all these features and more, making it a great upgrade choice, and it has dropped in price to $99.95 (down from $149.95), matching the lowest price it has reached since its release, according to price-tracking tools. For less than a hundred dollars, this speaker is a steal.

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I've been trying out the Beats Pill speaker since it came out in summer 2024, and it has everything I could want in a portable speaker: stereo sound when connected to another compatible speaker, multi-room mode to play the same music on multiple speakers, the Find My Device feature in case you misplace it during a rager, and Class 1 Bluetooth for extended range.

Apple users will get the most out of the Pill, with seamless iOS compatibility for a smoother experience. You can read about it in more detail on PCMag's "excellent" review, but this Beats speaker is not just for Apple users. Android users can also connect to it with a Bluetooth 5.3 connection, but it only supports AAC and SBC codecs, so there are no Android-friendly codec options that will make the audio really pop.

When it comes to battery life, you can expect around 24 hours per charge, depending on your use, which is comparable to other speakers of its size. It has that classic, bright Beats sound signature, balanced yet bass-heavy. It is rated IP67 dust-proof and waterproof, so it can be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. The biggest downside is that there is no adjustable EQ within the app, but that's less important when it sounds so great out of the box.

Former Vice President Mike Pence revealed that he wrote his forthcoming book, What Conservatives Believe, in an effort to persuade Republicans not to continue down the path his old boss, President Donald Trump, has led them.

Pence made the comments during an appearance on Going Big! with Kevin Gentry, where he said:

I wrote the book largely because I wanted people to know that while the the great contest of ideas in America has been between right and left for generations now, that increasingly while that battle between the right and the Republican Party, and the progressive left — increasingly more radical progressive left –in the Democratic Party goes on, that there’s a new fault line within Republican ranks. That I think Republicans face a new time of choosing, whether we’re going to stay on the path of the traditional conservative principles that have always defined our party for the last half century, or whether we are going to follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles.

And there are loud voices in and out of government, some of which have been able to influence the new Trump administration, in ways that are taking our party and our movement far afield from those traditional conservative underpinnings and, you know, where we’ve always been the party of a strong defense and we see America as leader of the free world, the arsenal of democracy, there are a rising chorus of isolationist voices in the Republican Party — I write about that in my book. Where we have always been a party committed to low taxes, including low tariffs and free trade, now, as we witnessed the president impose unilateral tariffs on friend and foe alike until the Supreme Court stepped in and used the constitution to turn him back.

And most poignantly to me is while we’ve been a pro-life party and the party of the sanctity of life throughout most of my adult lifetime, and now we have voices from the administration on down that are marginalizing the right to life in our party, suggesting it’s only a state issue. So I felt inspired to simply put together a book that described first and foremost what those principles are. And secondly, to juxtapose them against those crosscurrents on the left and on the populist right. And I’m looking forward to traveling the country and engaging in a great debate.

Because I do think as people look to the future, Kevin, I think it’s gonna be more important for us to figure out what we’re for before we decide who we’re for in the next presidential election. I think Republicans ought to do a lot of soul searching. Look, I make the point, I know Donald Trump better than his most ardent defenders know him, okay? And he is not ideological. In fact, he often bristled when I would refer to policies as conservative. He would, with a wave of a hand, say to me, “That’s just common sense.” But now, as you see, the stops and starts on our support for Ukraine under this administration, nationalizing American businesses, unilateral tariffs, price controls on everything from pharmaceuticals to credit cards. All of this gives, I think, should create a backdrop for a very healthy debate over whether we’re going to stay moving in the direction on these issues that President Trump has led our party, or whether we are going to reground ourselves back to those timeless conservative principles, I think that have always made not only our party successful, but more importantly have made America strong and prosperous and free.

Watch above via Going Big! with Kevin Gentry on YouTube.

The post ‘Republicans Ought to Do a Lot of Soul Searching’: Mike Pence Says His New Book Is About How GOP Should Turn Away From Trumpism first appeared on Mediaite.

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In Dan Fogelman's Paradise, we're apparently in an affluent suburban town in which everything looks fairly tidy. It's the home of Sterling K. Brown's Xavier Collins, a widower and secret service agent, which would be more impressive if the president he'd been serving (James Marsden) hadn't been murdered (much of the narrative is revealed in flashbacks). Oh, and that cute little town? Turns out that it's ... something else. These 10 shows also come at their dystopian narratives sideways, using science fiction in surprising ways. Stream Paradise on Hulu and then head down these other dark holes.

Silo (2023 – )

Rebecca Ferguson stars as Juliette Nichols, an engineer who gets wrapped up in an investigation involving the local sheriff (David Oyelowo)—usual procedural stuff, except that the characters all inhabit a massive silo, 144 levels deep, protecting the remaining 10,000 humans from the allegedly poisoned world above. Those running the silo have managed to convince everyone left that only strict adherence to rules and procedures will keep them safe from the dangers outside. This is a more dour, less colorful apocalypse than the one in Fallout—it's a prestige drama that incorporates elements of horror, mystery, and science fiction to tell human stories about fear and control. A third and concluding fourth season are both coming, so the show has the increasingly rare advantage of a planned conclusion. Stream Silo on Apple TV+.

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Ascension (2014)

This smart, not terribly well-remembered miniseries establishes an alternate timeline à la For All Mankind: The Kennedy administration sends a generation ship into space (allegedly) in order to ensure the survival of humanity through the Cold War; as the series opens, it's been just a bit over 50 years since the launch (2014, as it happens). The first murder ever committed on the Ascension raises a ton of questions, as does the fact that nobody back on Earth seems to have ever heard of this massive project. Look out for a couple of shock reveals and smart twists. Stream Ascension on Tubi.

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Snowpiercer (2020 – 2024)

Though initially feeling like an unnecessary extension of Bong Joon Ho's allegorical post-apocalyptic film, Snowpiercer ultimately takes on a life of its own as a clever sci-fi melodrama, smartly recognizing that there are no heroes and few true villains at the end of the world—it's mostly just people doing whatever they can to survive. In a frozen future, humanity survives on an extremely long train that circumnavigates the globe. If it stops, the power will go out and everyone (literally everyone) will die. Those who came aboard with wealth live near the front in relative luxury, while the poor live on scraps (or worse) in the train's tail. Daveed Diggs stars as former detective Andre Layton, a "Tailie" deputized by Jennifer Connelly's Melanie Cavill, engineer and the train's Head of Hospitality, to solve a series of murders. The inevitable uprising that follows sets the two of them on different sides of a violent conflict, before each eventually realizes they're just pawns of elites—same as it ever was. It's far less coy about its sci-fi setting than Paradise, but pays as a similarly apocalyptic political thriller. Stream Snowpiercer on Prime Video and Tubi.

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Sugar (2024 – )

Sugar doesn't try to obscure or downplay its reliance on old-school Hollywood noir tropes: Its characters are driven to emulate the style of antiheroes of old, and clips from old movies even play alongside the action as a means of driving the point home. The central mystery sees detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) summoned to the mansion of a rich movie producer (James Cromwell), whose granddaughter has gone missing. The first few episodes are intriguing, and  the premise is unique in that Sugar is kind of an anti-anti-hero—he's an actual nice guy in a world where he's expected to play the tough guy. The sixth episode, though, drops an absolutely wild, love-it-or-hate it plot twist that drives the remaining episode and, presumably, the forthcoming second season—and that's where it it heads into Paradise territory as a bit of sneaky, stealthy sci-fi. The show comes from writer Mark Protosevich (The Cell, I Am Legend) and is smartly directed by City of God's Fernando Meirelles, so it has style to spare. Stream Sugar on Apple TV.

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Wayward Pines (2015 – 2016)

While we're talking high-concept sci-fi, let's head off to Wayward Pines, from whence you will never leave. Based on a trilogy of Blake Crouch novels, this one stars Matt Dillon as a secret service agent investigating the disappearances of two fellow agents in the Idaho town of Wayward Pines. Things go awry pretty much immediately, and he wakes up from a car accident to find one of the agents (Carla Gugino), who's also his ex, having settled down in the seemingly idyllic community—and 12 years older than when he last saw her only a few weeks ago. Even more dramatically, the local sheriff (Terrence Howard) enforces a strict "no one ever leaves" policy, on pain of having one's neck slit. The mysteries pile up from there. Stream Wayward Pines on Hulu and Disney+.

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Fallout (2024 – )

In the world of Fallout, adapted from the video games, the aesthetic of the 1950s hung on for a lot longer than it did in our own, so plot similarities give way, in part, to a unique sense of style. The background is a little complicated, but not belabored within the show itself: It's 2296 on an Earth devastated two centuries earlier by a nuclear war between the United States and China. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) emerges from the underground fallout shelter where she's lived her entire life in order to find her father, kidnapped by raiders. The aboveground wasteland is dominated by warring factions, each of which considers the others cults and believes that they alone know the correct way forward for mankind. Amid this conflict, the landscape is also overrun by ghouls, gulpers, and other wild radiation monsters, and Lucy seems to be just about the only human with any lingering belief in humanity. Stream Fallout on Prime Video.

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The Silent Sea (2021)

Bae Doona (whom you'll know from everything from Cloud Atlas to Sense8 to Rebel Moon) stars in this twisty-turny sci-fi drama that starts on a dry, near-waterless Earth of the near-future, following a team of astronauts and scientists sent on a mission to an abandoned lunar base. They're tasked with retrieving a mysterious sample, and it soon becomes clear that the bureaucrats on Earth know a lot more about that sample than they’re telling. Suffice it to say that nothing goes particularly well—there are deaths, betrayals, and a deadly something that might be humanity's future, but might just as easily be its end. Stream The Silent Sea on Netflix.

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Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyō) (2023)

We follow two parallel narratives in this (deeply weird) post-apocalyptic anime: In one, a group of children live in a confined, sterile, closely monitored school environment, called "Heaven" and protected from what we quickly learn is the devastation outside; in the other, bodyguard Kiruko and their companion Maru travel across a devastated Japan. Those relatively straightforward dystopian strands soon give way to some wild twists and turns as the plot lines dovetail into a story involving gender and sexual politics as well as a whole lot of dark secrets. Stream Heavenly Delusion on Hulu.

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Class of '09 (2023)

In much the same way that Paradise takes us to a sci-fi-inspired world for a political thriller, Class of '09 feels like a crime thriller until it doesn't: Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara star as a couple of FBI trainees in 2009 who we follow, concurrently, into two further timeframes: the present, circa 2023, and the future of 2034. The primary thread here is the development of artificial intelligence as a tool to predict crime, and the dangers inherent in targeting people who might only hypothetically commit crime. Prescient only a couple of years ago, the show feels impressively and alarmingly current in our AI-whether-you-like-it-or-not era. Stream Class of '09 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Class of '09 (2023)

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Severance (2022 – )

Late-stage capitalism encourages “work-life balance” while simultaneously making it impossible, and then makes us feel guilty about it. In Severance, biotechnology giant Lumon Industries has a solution: They split your consciousness between your life at work and your life outside of it. For our lead characters (among them, Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and Britt Lower) the work- and home-based consciousnesses grow apart to the point that they become different people. The show blends the conventions of office-based dark comedies with movies like Brazil and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, diving into the dangers of modern American-style totalitarian capitalism while providing a reminder that technology often promises to improve our lives while only making them worse. Stream Severance on Apple TV+.

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LEFT: Donald Trump and Tom Homan (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) RIGHT: Stephen Miller (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller is reportedly far less influential now than he was at the outset of President’ Donald Trump’s second term.

According to The Atlantic‘s Michael Scherer and Nick Miroff, Trump “has also told others in recent weeks that he understands Miller sometimes goes too far.” Miller’s power began to wane when Trump “recognized immediately after the second killing in Minneapolis, of the protester Alex Pretti, that the policy needed to shift. Miller, on the other hand, referred to Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” in the immediate aftermath of his death.

Recent months have seen Trump backpedal away from numerous policies advocated by Miller, including a plan to cut the number of visas for seasonal workers by 50%, after consulting with border czar Tom Homan.

“The new secretary is listening to Tom Homan and Rodney Scott before he is ever listening to Stephen Miller,” one senior administration official told Scherer and Miroff.

A former official declared, “The president knows who he is, period.”

From The Atlantic‘s story:

There have been no accounts of clashes or tension between Homan and Miller, and the former has even praised the latter as “one of the most brilliant people I’ve met in my entire life.” But from the start of the administration, they have advocated for different approaches to Trump’s mass-deportation campaign. Miller has emphasized sheer numbers, and Homan prefers a quality-over-quantity approach that prioritizes immigrants with criminal records. “I have always worked, and continue to work closely, with Stephen and now Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin to deliver on the President’s commitment to the American people,” Homan told us in a statement.

But Homan’s approach is the predominant one right now, and the department has been quietly reversing changes that Miller ordered. Miller had pushed aggressively to fast-track training for new ICE hires, slashing the academy course to about eight weeks. The accelerated schedule alarmed veteran ICE officers, and the hiring surge was marred by high dropout rates. In recent weeks, ICE reverted to a four-and-a-half-month training program similar to its former academy course, according to three officials who were not authorized to discuss the change.

Still, Scherer and Miroff reported that “White House insiders said that Miller remains a top adviser to the president, that he has a singular relationship to Trump built over the past decade, and that his job is not in jeopardy.”

A bombshell report from The New York Times last March suggested that at the peak of his powers, Miller was setting “the agenda” for the Trump Department of Justice.

“It was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department, current and former Trump aides said,” observed the Gray Lady at the time.

The post ‘The President Knows Who He Is’: Stephen Miller Reportedly Sidelined by Trump Admin first appeared on Mediaite.