Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

American taxpayers have signed up over 4 million children to the tax-advantaged Trump Accounts, and more than 1 million of those accounts have elected to receive the $1,000 pilot contribution from the government, the IRS said in a March 31 statement.

“Contributions to Trump Accounts can be made starting July 4, 2026. All eligible children may receive deposits from parents, relatives, friends, employers, state governments, philanthropic organizations, and individuals, subject to an annual limit,” the IRS said.

The Trump Accounts, formally the Invest America accounts, were established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in July last year.

Every child under 18 who is a U.S. citizen and has a valid Social Security Number is eligible to open a Trump Account. In addition, any child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, can get an initial seed contribution of $1,000 from the government.

According to a March 9 proposed rule from the IRS published in the Federal Register, contributions to Trump Accounts are, in general, subject to an annual limit of $5,000.

Employers can contribute up to $2,500 annually to the Trump Accounts set up by their employees, which will count toward the $5,000 annual threshold. Contributions from the government and nonprofits made via the Treasury Department are not counted in the $5,000 limit.

The annual contribution limits will be indexed to inflation, with adjustments starting after 2027.

Generally, funds in Trump Accounts cannot be withdrawn prior to the child turning 18. After hitting this age, account holders can withdraw the funds for certain qualified purposes such as paying for tuition, purchasing a home, or starting a business.

Funds from the Trump Accounts can be invested only in certain “eligible investments,” such as a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund that tracks stock indexes composed mainly of American companies for which futures contracts are traded in the market. The accounts must avoid using leverage in investments.

The IRS determined that Trump Accounts for more than 4 million children have been opened based on Form 4547 filings made by taxpayers together with their individual tax returns.

“The IRS has been working closely with the Treasury Department to make the election process as simple and easy as possible by permitting taxpayers to fill out a one-page form when they file their tax return,” IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said.

“Families with eligible children born between 2025 and 2028 just need to check the box on a form to stake their claim for the $1,000 contribution. It’s that simple.”

Investments made in Trump Accounts grow tax-deferred, meaning no taxes are charged on the account proceeds until funds are withdrawn, according to investment management company Vanguard.

However, California’s Franchise Tax Board recently announced that it will not treat Trump Accounts as tax-deferred accounts for state tax purposes. As such, families in the state will have to pay taxes on the Trump Accounts’ investment earnings rather than the accounts being taxed during withdrawal.

‘Could Become a Cornerstone’

In a Sept. 3 post, State Street Investment Management said there were some “outstanding issues” regarding the Trump Accounts that needed to be addressed.

For instance, employer contributions must be monitored to ensure compliance, according to the post, and there must be mechanisms to enforce prohibition of withdrawals before children turn 18. The Treasury Department must also remain flexible when it comes to adjusting rules for the accounts to address any new challenges or opportunities.

“The successful implementation of these accounts hinges on the Treasury Department’s ability to address and resolve the outstanding issues outlined,” the post said. “With careful regulation and clear guidance, Trump accounts could become a cornerstone of financial security for future generations.”

A June 12 analysis published by the Tax Law Center at the New York University School of Law raised concerns about the fact that funds in Trump Accounts must be invested in corporate equities, which it said makes the investments “high-risk.”

In a March 6 IRS statement, Bisignano cited the benefits provided by these accounts, terming them a “pro-family initiative that will help millions of Americans harness the strength of [the U.S.] economy to lift up this generation and generations to follow and unlock the American Dream.”

In January, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) highlighted how Trump Accounts are positively transformative for American children.

“[In] my hometown that I still live in today, the average income for an individual is less than $26,000 a year. And so when you look at that, this is the opportunity for those kids,” Smith said.

“It doesn’t matter if you live on a city block or a county road, you’re going to have this investment, and it will be transformational,” the lawmaker said. “Americans’ lives are going to be affected in such a positive way for generations.”

Five days after French authorities foiled a terror plot targeting Bank of America’s Paris headquarters, the threat environment facing U.S. financial institutions in the French capital appears to be worsening.

New reporting from Le Parisien says Goldman Sachs’ Paris headquarters was placed under police surveillance on Wednesday night following threats allegedly linked to Iranian terror networks. 

Le Parisien outlines the rationale behind the heightened security posture:

It’s 1:30 a.m. when the phone rings, shattering the night’s calm.

A security guard on duty at the American bank receives a call from his head of security, based in London.

According to our information, she informs him that she has received an email from the American authorities, advising him to “extend his vigilance” at the bank.

The reason? “An Iranian group is threatening to attack the buildings with explosive devices,” explains a source close to the matter.

By Thursday morning, however, the Paris prosecutor’s office said that “no suspicious elements were found at the scene” following surveillance operations in and around Goldman’s building at 85 Avenue Marceau in the 16th arrondissement.

Reuters reports that Goldman and Citigroup staffers in Paris are remote working amid threats. 

The latest threat comes after last week’s arrest of three suspects linked to the foiled terror plot outside Bank of America’s Paris headquarters. French investigators have reportedly tied the BofA incident to broader tensions stemming from the U.S.-Iran conflict in the Middle East.

Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened US companies with operations across the Middle East, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

“From now on, for every assassination, an American company will be destroyed,” the IRGC said.

It is no longer just U.S. banks being treated as part of the battlefield. U.S. tech firms are in the crosshairs of the IRGC. President Trump’s Wednesday night comments signaling another two to three weeks of military operations against Iran raise the odds of global spillover, including retaliatory or proxy threats against U.S. interests abroad and, potentially, elevated homeland risk.

Authored by Jon Fleetwood,

A newly introduced U.S. Senate bill would allow the military to deploy autonomous lethal artificial intelligence systems by granting the Secretary of Defense the authority to override its own restrictions.

Senate Bill S.4113—the “AI Guardrails Act of 2026,” introduced March 17, 2026 by U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)—is being presented as a framework to limit how the Department of Defense uses AI.

But the actual text includes a built-in waiver mechanism that enables those same systems to be approved and used under national security justifications.

This means a Pentagon-approved AI system could independently identify and engage targets, making life-and-death decisions without real-time human input.

There is no language in that waiver clause limiting where the system can be used, whether targets are foreign or domestic.

The bill has been read twice in the Senate and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee, where it now awaits further consideration.

The waiver raises questions about how often “extraordinary circumstances” will be invoked, who ultimately decides when autonomous lethal force is justified, and what meaningful limits—if any—remain once that authority is exercised.

Waiver Authority Built Into the Core Restriction

The bill prohibits the use of AI for:

Launching or detonating nuclear weapons

Domestic monitoring or targeting without legal basis

Using lethal force through autonomous weapon systems without human oversight

Immediately following that restriction, the bill states:

The Secretary of Defense “may waive the prohibitions… for up to one year” and renew that waiver if “extraordinary circumstances affecting the national security of the United States require the waiver”

How It Works

The decision to authorize autonomous lethal systems is placed with the Secretary of Defense.

Waivers last up to one year

Waivers can be renewed

Congress is notified after issuance

Notifications may include classified components

The bill requires certification that the system’s error rate does not exceed that of human operators performing comparable functions.

Operational Scope

The waiver applies to:

Development

Field deployment

System modifications

It also covers changes to:

Mission sets

Target sets

Operational environments

Algorithmic behavior

Each of those changes can trigger continued or expanded authorization under the same waiver structure.

Sponsor Background

The bill was introduced by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, whose background includes:

CIA analyst

Department of Defense official

Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

Her professional history is directly tied to the national security institutions governed by the bill.

Campaign Finance Alignment

Slotkin’s donor base includes multiple sectors tied to AI development, autonomous systems, and the broader defense-tech pipeline enabled by this bill.

According to OpenSecrets data, top contributors include:

Alphabet Inc ($96,669) and Amazon ($53,771)—major AI developers and federal cloud contractors

General Motors ($57,081) and Ford ($54,020)—advancing autonomous and robotics systems applicable to military use

University of Michigan, Michigan State, Harvard, Stanford—key hubs for federally funded AI and defense-related research

Kirkland & Ellis ($52,360) and WilmerHale ($81,463)—heavily involved in structuring large-scale federal and defense contracts

The bill authorizes deployment of autonomous AI systems under a renewable waiver controlled by the Pentagon.

The companies and institutions funding Slotkin are directly tied to building the AI, infrastructure, and legal frameworks required to support that expansion.

The legislation opens the door, and her donor base sits inside the ecosystem that stands to operate and profit within it.

Bottom Line

The legislation places a restriction on autonomous lethal AI systems while granting the Secretary of Defense—currently Pete Hegseth—the authority to waive that restriction under “national security” conditions.

That waiver:

Is controlled by a single Pentagon official

Can be renewed indefinitely

Applies to real-world deployment, targeting, and system evolution

Contains no language limiting where such systems may be used

Congress is notified after the fact, not required to approve.

The authority to deploy autonomous lethal AI systems sits inside the same section that claims to restrict them.

Another light on America’s economic dashboard is blinking red, as money-pinched workers are cutting their 401k contribution rates. The news follows our earlier report on hardship withdrawals from the cornerstone retirement savings accounts hitting a record high. Critically, these numbers don’t reflect what workers are doing right now — amid war-driven gas price-hikes and worries about the economy. 

According to new data from Dayforce’s State of Retirement Savings 2026 report, in 2025, Americans trimmed their contribution rates to 401k and similar plans from 9.2% to 8.9%. While the decline was relatively modest, it was a widespread phenomenon, with more than one in four workers reducing their contributions. Employees earning between $50,000 and $150,000 were most likely to have eased back. The participation rate slipped from 78.6% in 2024 to 77.5%. The decreases come despite wider use of automatic enrollment in retirement plans, and increasingly-common auto-escalation features that ratchet up contributions each year.  

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“When you are struggling day to day, it’s hard to focus on your long-term goals,” Matt Bahl, vice president at the Financial Health Network, told CBS News. “We’re really seeing the crunch for those middle-income earners — it speaks to the affordability crisis.”

Dayforce cautioned that employers’ concern about the trend should go beyond future retirement security, and include their workers’ present-day financial stress. “[It] can influence engagement, productivity, and retention,” said the company, which offers a cloud-based “Global Human Capital Management” platform. As 2025 ended, roughly half of Americans in an Allianz Life survey said they had more financial stress than they did a year ago.   

via Dayforce’s “The State of Retirement Savings 2026”

Reinforcing that picture of growing financial stress, loan use increased more than 20% since 2022. The Dayforce study didn’t cover hardship withdrawals, but Vanguard’s How America Saves 2025 study found that hardship withdrawal activity “increased to a new high” of 6% in 2025, up from 4.8% in 2024 and about 2% before the pandemic. In part, that trend was facilitated by a regulatory change — in 2018, Congress nixed a requirement that participants first take a 401(k) loan before they could take a hardship withdrawal. 

Men’s 2025 savings rate topped women’s — 9.6% to 8.2% — though that gap was wider a few years ago. Asians had the top savings rate (10.4%), with whites close behind (10.1%), followed by blacks (6.0%) and then Latinos (4.7%). Conversely, 28.7% of blacks and Latinos collectively had an active loan from their retirement accounts, compared to 15.9% of whites. No loan data was given for Asians.  

Watch for all these indicators to keep trending down: Cost-of-living effects of the US-Israeli war on Iran are poised to grow stronger as the global oil shockwave steadily moves closer to America’s shores.  

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

President Trump is taking the fight directly to the drug cartels by launching aggressive military operations in Ecuador with the full backing of the country’s right-wing president. 

Trump believes that the time has come to directly confront the narco-terrorists flooding American communities with poison.

Recent developments include joint US-Ecuador operations under “Operation Total Extermination,” with strikes on narco-terrorist targets along the Colombia-Ecuador border using special forces support, helicopters, boats, and drones. 

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump is now going ALL-OUT on the cartels in Ecuador after their new right-wing President Daniel Noboa gave the US Pentagon a greenlight

THAT’S how you do it. Mexico should do the same, President Sheinbaum should STOP catering to the cartels! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KLZ3je4tzN

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 30, 2026

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has invited US assistance, including intelligence and kinetic actions, as part of a broader 17-country alliance Trump launched at the Shield of the Americas summit.

This builds directly on Trump’s consistent stance against the cartels. As we reported earlier, Trump hinted at military strikes, noting “we know their front door” 

Plans for ground troops and drone strikes in Mexico were also floated:

Former Green Berets have pointed out that Trump could unleash elite units like Delta Force.

While border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly emphasized that US special operations forces will wipe out the cartels.

The contrast with Mexico remains glaring. President Claudia Sheinbaum has resisted deeper US involvement, drawing criticism for appearing to prioritize other concerns over dismantling the networks.

Trump’s approach extends across the region. Venezuelan exiles hailed the raid that removed Nicholas Maduro as essential, with no alternative but to smash the cartel-linked regime.

Trump also suggested a military operation against Colombia’s President Petro could make sense in the context of dealing with a cocaine-linked leader.

Democrats have criticised Trump’s Venezuela action, totally ignoring the fact that for years the likes of Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden advocated for the exact same policy of using a strike force to crush the cartels:

Decades of weak enforcement allowed the problem to fester. Now, with willing partners like Ecuador under Noboa, real pressure is being applied.

By forming coalitions with leaders who refuse to tolerate cartel safe havens, Trump is delivering results where hesitation and open-border policies previously failed. The cartels thrive on weakness; they fold under sustained, coordinated force.

As more nations join the effort, the days of cartel impunity across the hemisphere are coming to an end.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

A video circulating on X appears to show a close-quarters battle exercise, possibly involving the Chinese military, in which a heavily armed quadruped robot is used for clearing of rooms and hallways.

A private company in Shandong, China, demonstrated the correct use of robotic “wolves” and drones: they first provide fire suppression, then soldiers advance.

I think the only shortcoming of the robotic wolves is that they don’t perform flanking maneuvers and are not yet smart… pic.twitter.com/QCgWIsS7xh

— China pulse 🇨🇳 (@Eng_china5) April 1, 2026

The big takeaway is that militaries from Ukraine to Russia to China and even the US are increasingly trying to push machines, robotic dogs, FPVs, and ground bots, into the most dangerous confined spaces before troops follow. 

However, not everyone is impressed…

the quadruped is real but for now it would have been stopped

(1) it is not serious about clearing corners
(2) it aims by making small leg adjustments
(3) how good is it at aiming high or low?
(4) its chassis will show before the weapon can fire
(5) the squad in this video is… pic.twitter.com/o7OB65WcPi

— GROMPIYE (@civic_cat) April 1, 2026

That shift in letting robots handle the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield is already underway, and soon they will be clearing hallways, stairwells, tunnels, and rooms. These remain some of the deadliest areas on the modern battlefield, where first entry often means first casualties. 

Latest from China…

As we recently noted, Mike LeBlanc, co-founder of the humanoid robotics company Foundation, said its Phantom MK1 has been trained to breach rooms and other high-risk, enclosed environments ahead of human operators.

LeBlanc said, “The future of conflict is already here – our adversaries will use robots. The only real decision is whether we build and deploy systems to counter them, or ask someone’s son to do that job instead.” 

By Diana DiGangi of UtilityDive,

Solar developers installed 26.5 GW last year, down 22% from the 33.8 GW they installed in 2024, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

 The decline in solar installations took place despite the ongoing rush to bring projects online in order to qualify for the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, which had their timelines curtailed by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

Despite this decrease, solar still led all other generation sources in 2025 installations. As of December, solar now makes up 12.2% of installed generating capacity in the U.S., according to FERC — trailing only natural gas, at 42.2%, and coal, at 14.3%.

SEIA noted that in the first three quarters of 2025, solar installations remained largely the same year over year, “but in the fourth quarter, volumes fell by nearly 40% year-over-year. By the end of 2025, installations totaled just under 35 GW as many utility-scale projects were delayed into 2026 and 2027.”

“As developers shifted their focus towards safe harbor strategies, there was less urgency to bring late-stage projects online by year end,” SEIA said. “This weakened fourth quarter deployment but created a more robust near-term pipeline for 2026 and 2027.”

FERC’s data shows that natural gas added fewer units in 2025 — 84, compared with to 122 the previous year — despite a 1.5 GW increase in installed capacity. Wind capacity also grew as developers added 5.7 GW in 2025 compared with 4.5 GW the previous year. No new nuclear capacity came online in 2025. U.S. nuclear capacity increased 1.1 GW in 2024, when Plant Vogtle Unit 4 came online in April that year.

In 2025, the U.S. solar industry “navigated unprecedented change, ranging from numerous trade actions to the reversal of renewable energy tax credit policy,” the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a March 9 report. “Many projects stayed on track, but the market and policy uncertainty took a toll, leading to project delays and cancellations across all segments.”

The most visible weapon in the wars across Eurasia, from Ukraine to the Middle East, is the low-cost one-way attack drone. It has forever changed the economics of war and how war is fought on the modern battlefield by enabling swarm strikes at a fraction of the cost of traditional air-delivered munitions. Ukraine and Russia both proved this, and the last five weeks of the U.S.-Iran conflict have really confirmed it.

In many ways, the war in Ukraine accelerated what could very well be warfare of the 2030s, driven by the hyperdevelopment of low-cost consumer technologies that can be dual-use or easily weaponized. From FPVs and AI-enabled kill chains to drone boats, ground robots, and one-way attack drones, the modern battlefield has been transformed by low-cost, scalable, and increasingly autonomous war machines. It is an emerging threat we warned readers about right before the Gulf conflict, because countermeasures against drones are lacking at scale and are unaffordable.

In the Gulf theater, Iran has used these low-cost drones to strike data centers, U.S. military installations, and civilian infrastructure. In a prolonged war of attrition, mass-produced, cheap drones are increasingly likely to prevail over low-production, very expensive interceptor missiles in the long run. The Trump administration has smartly woken up to this new era of warfare and, secretly through the Department of War, deployed its own Iranian-style kamikaze drones (we reported in the first week of the conflict). 

Military strategists around the world are now taking notes and copying the drone playbooks being written in real-time by active players in both Eurasian conflicts. As we noted the other week, China has likely already ramped up mass production of Iranian- and Russian-style one-way attack drones.

Taken together, the speed at which these drones are proliferating across battlefields is very alarming, and yet another country appears set to begin mass production: India.

Indian defense news website Indian Defense Research Wing reports that startup HoverIt has developed DIVYASTRA MK2, an advanced long-range strike drone. 

“With an operational range projected between 1500 to 2000 kilometers and a flight endurance of 8 to 12 hours, the platform is designed to operate deep inside adversary territory, enabling both persistent surveillance and precision strike missions without immediate reliance on forward bases,” Defense Research Wing wrote in the report.

India’s own attack drone is here! 🇮🇳🔥

The Divyastra MK1, with a massive 500 km range, is a true nightmare for Pakistan. #DivyastraMK1 #IndianArmy #MakeInIndia #DefenceNews #DroneTech pic.twitter.com/Tcf03TnaL3

— NewsMatrix (@PabanSingh82441) March 29, 2026

The report added, “The UAV is expected to incorporate advanced AI-driven swarm intelligence, enabling coordinated operations with multiple platforms for saturation attacks, distributed surveillance, and adaptive mission execution.”

Every serious country with a proper defense manufacturing base will be retooling some production lines for these cheap drones. The problem emerging is that the rapid pace of development and deployment has left much of the world unprepared. 

Via Remix News,

The latest data released by the National Court of Asylum reveals a historic statistical milestone: asylum grants in France have reached an unprecedented peak.

In 2025, a record 78,782 individuals were granted asylum, marking a 12 percent increase over the previous year. The recognition rate has also climbed to an all-time high of 52.1 percent – or 47.1 percent when excluding unaccompanied minors.

The initial stage of the asylum process is managed by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). If a claim is denied, applicants may appeal to the National Court of Asylum. While various forms of protection exist, the ultimate goal for many is the status of “refugee,” as it opens rights similar to those of the French in most areas, including social welfare, education, and housing.

The asylum system remains highly accessible, despite President Emmanuel Macron saying year after year that France needs to reduce immigration, just as he did in 2023.

“Are we flooded with immigration? No. You cannot say that. But the current situation is not sustainable, and we need to reduce immigration significantly, starting with illegal immigration. We have a duty to deliver,” the French president said at the time.

Polling shows the vast majority of French want a reduction in immigration, and even a majority of women want zero immigration, both legal and illegal.

France already has the largest Muslim population in Europe, leading to serious cultural, societal, and even security problems. Unlike policies debated or implemented in nations like Italy or Denmark, which seek to reduce the ability for individuals to apply for asylum, France has very generous laws, including allowing those already present on French soil to apply for asylum directly. This creates a significant challenge for the state, as even when applications are denied, authorities have an extremely difficult time removing people. Macron, for instance, stated his goal was a 100 percent deportation rate. France’s actual deportation rate has remained in the teens since then, averaging around 15 percent.

In fact, France has gone from record to record in terms of overall immigration every single year. Last year, Remix News reported that a record 6 million foreigners live in France, after a record 400,000 migrants arrived in the country in 2024. Earlier this year, Remix News reported that a record number of first-time residency permits were issued in 2025.

Nevertheless, despite soaring public pressure, more asylum applications are being approved than ever. Even during the peak of the 2015 migration crisis, France did not grant asylum at these levels. Wars continue to be a major factor. For the second consecutive year, Ukrainians represent the largest group of asylum seekers, followed closely by nationals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan.

Beyond geopolitics, the increasingly broad jurisprudence of the National Court of Asylum plays a pivotal role.

In 2025, the court recognized automatic refugee status for all people from the Gaza Strip, then from the West Bank.

In other words, Palestinians have almost virtually unlimited access to French territory.

The court also recognized an automatic right to women from Iran and Somalia, which are deemed unfriendly states for women.

Similar protections were extended to homosexual individuals from Egypt, Guatemala, and, as of late 2024, Sri Lanka.

Once again, this liberal attitude towards asylum is not backed by the French public, with polling showing that 61 percent of the French want the right of asylum restricted in the country.

According to the BVoltaire publication, there is an “urgent call to reform. Proponents argue that France must consider renegotiating international conventions and amending the Constitution, asserting that both the efficiency of the State and the preservation of French identity are currently at risk.”

Read more here…

The new, younger Ayatollah Khamenei – who may have been wounded in the early days of US-Israeli strikes, hasn’t been seen in any public way, not even on TV, throughout the war. There have not so much as been any official recent images of him circulated.

But Mojtaba Khamenei has apparently been issuing some limited written statements, mainly encouraging foreign proxies in their joining the war against US and Israeli forces in the region. State media has indicated he’s not making public appearances given the ongoing relentless bombing campaign and the Islamic Republic’s wartime footing.

via PressTV

After a long period of relative silence, a message from Khamenei was publicized on Monday. In the message attributed to him, he “expressed his appreciation to the supreme religious authority (in Iraq) and the people of Iraq for their clear stance against aggression against Iran and their support for our country,” Iran’s ISNA news agency said, referring to the Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Sistani is based in Iraq and has long been a highly revered Shia cleric in the region.

The 56-year old Khamenei has on Wednesday apparently broken his silence again, this time praising Hezbollah for joining the war against Israel. Hezbollah has been launching hundreds of rockets on northern and central Israel, amid an emerging ground campaign in southern Lebanon, also as Israel bombs Beirut from the air.

In the new words carried by Iranian state media, he praised Hezbollah for its “perseverance, steadfastness and patience” against “the most ruthless enemies of the Islamic world.”

Meanwhile, the CIA and Mossad are said to be trying to uncover Mojtaba Khamenei’s whereabouts and status. His 86-year old father did not appear to have been in hiding at all when he was slain by airstrike on the very first day of Operation Epic Fury.

The most likely explanation could be that the younger Khamenei is directing the war from a much more secure and hidden setting, for example a deep underground bunker – or in a remote part of the country. 

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, via AFP

But some analysts have questioned why he wouldn’t make a video address, even if pre-recorded, offering to the world proof that he is a alive and is running the country and war. As for the most visible day-to-day leader, this is parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.