Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Texas Democratic Senate Nominee James Talarico Sought To Mandate Climate Change Instruction in Texas Schools To Create ‘New Generation of Climate Activists’ Plus, El-Sayed campaign surrogate shared since-deleted posts praising Hezbollah and Free Beacon columnist Mike Watson previews US-Iran talks Eliana Johnson Apr 10 READ IN APP James Talarico (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for Vox Media) Texas’s far-left Democratic Senate nominee, James Talarico, says he supports his state’s enormous oil and gas industry. Which is funny because he was a leading climate activist in the Texas State Legislature, introducing a bill that sought to “stop climate denialism” and “inspire a new generation of climate activists” by, of course, mandating that every K-12 public school teach kids about “the long-term problem of human-caused climate change and its effects.” Talarico also authored a Green New Deal-style bill that would have implemented statewide green energy mandates. And in 2019, he joined a world-wide school walkout protest inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg during which participants “called for a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels.” Talarico posted a photo from the so-called Youth Climate Strike. “Students around the world are walking out of school to save our planet,” he wrote on Facebook at the time. “It’s time for the grown-ups to follow their lead.” Which super-supporter of the oil and gas industry hasn’t? Talarico said he championed the climate education bill because he was “so proud of the young people stepping up to push legislators like me to address the climate crisis. But we need millions more.” He unveiled the legislation in March 2021, around the same time he introduced the Texas Climate Action Act, “which would have required the state to cut its total carbon emissions in half by 2030 and by 90 percent by 2050,” our Thomas Catenacci writes. None of these bills got anywhere in Texas’s GOP-controlled Legislature. Now, as he runs to represent a state that generates more than $400 billion in oil and gas revenue, Talarico says he wants to “make gasoline more affordable by investing in pipeline fortification” and “add to our hundreds of thousands of oil [and] gas” jobs. A spokesman for Talarico told the Free Beacon the candidate “knows how essential oil and gas is to Texas’s economy” and “has never supported the Green New Deal.” But Talarico’s Texas Climate Action Act was strikingly similar to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s dead-in-the-cradle federal climate resolution, which called for a carbon emissions reduction of 40 to 60 percent by 2030 compared with Talarico’s 50 percent. Talarico praised Ocasio-Cortez in 2021 for arguing that fighting climate change “is about ‘creating prosperity.’” READ MORE: Texas Senate Hopeful James Talarico Sought To Create ‘New Generation of Climate Activists’ by Mandating Climate Change Lessons in Texas Schools Abdul El-Sayed (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images), Amir Makled (hallmakled.com) The anti-American streamer Hasan Piker was the main draw at left-wing Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed’s rally earlier this week at the University of Michigan, but he wasn’t the only disgraceful figure out stumping for El-Sayed. The Senate candidate was introduced by “civil rights” attorney Amir Makled, himself a candidate for the University of Michigan’s board of regents, who shared since-deleted social media posts praising the Iranian regime and Hezbollah terrorists, the Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman reports. Makled is looking to unseat longtime regent and Israel supporter Jordan Acker. Last June, Makled shared a post from a Hezbollah fan account that described the terrorist group’s onetime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as a “martyr” and lamented the death of his security chief. “May His Ascension rise High,” the post read. That same month, the day Israel began pounding Iran’s nuclear facilities, Makled shared a post from an Iranian regime fan account calling on the Islamic Republic to “show no laxity in sacred war against the enemy.” Makled has also shared posts from podcaster and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens describing Israelis as “demons” and asserting they have a “bloodlust like no other.” All of those posts have now been deleted. “Makled is best known in the university community for representing Michigan students who faced criminal charges after participating in the university’s illegal anti-Israel encampment in spring 2024,” writes Goodman. “The Tuesday night campaign event—where El-Sayed spoke alongside Piker, who has said that ‘America deserved 9/11’ and that it ‘doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7’—came after a Free Beacon report on a private campaign call the Senate candidate held one day after the death of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. El-Sayed said he wanted to avoid making a statement on Khamenei’s assassination because many voters in Dearborn, Mich., were ‘sad.’” READ MORE: El-Sayed Campaigns With UMich Board of Regents Candidate Who Shared Since-Deleted Posts Praising Hezbollah and Iranian Regime President Donald Trump monitors Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, 2026. (White House) and R: Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei (Iranian state media) Negotiations between the United States and Iran are set to begin in Pakistan this weekend, assuming Hezbollah’s foolhardy attacks on Israel and Iran’s reluctance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz do not derail them. The regime says publicly it’s sticking to a 10-point plan that the White House literally threw in the trash, but the White House claims to have a different set of points that President Trump called “workable.” Trump’s demands, by contrast, are clear: open the Strait of Hormuz, stop enriching uranium, and give up the nuclear material buried during last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer. Free Beacon columnist Mike Watson writes about whether and how the U.S. might achieve victory at the negotiating table: Forcing Iran’s rulers to give up their nuclear program and agree to inspections that verify their continued compliance would be a significant victory. For decades, Iran’s rulers have claimed that they have the right to enrich uranium. According to the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, they used that supposed right to stockpile enough uranium that was just shy of weapons-grade to make 10 bombs. Other parts of the regime have researched how to use that material to make nuclear weapons. The knowledge of how to make a nuclear bomb cannot be fully removed, but the material needed to do so can. This would not fully blunt the threat to the Strait, but it would dull it. The United States can demonstrate that closing the Strait is a losing proposition for Iran without necessarily forcing it open in combat. The regime has prioritized the nuclear program for decades over nearly everything else, especially the wellbeing of the Iranian people. Abandoning it despite having blocked the Strait would reveal to all that the regime fears continued American and Israeli bombardment far more than many believe. Threats to the Strait could still spike oil prices at inopportune times, much as they did before the war, but they would be a dead man’s hand, not a trump card. A victory of this kind would not bring true peace to the region, but it would constrain Iran’s options. Iran had depended on its legions of terrorist lackeys and missile arsenal to deter the United States and Israel from halting its nuclear program. But the proxies have had little impact on this round of fighting. Gen. Dan Caine said that over 80 percent of Iran’s missile facilities are “gone,” the United States “hit” a similar share of its nuclear industrial base, and “attacked” about 90 percent of Iran’s weapons factories. If Iran’s minions are neither reliable nor effective, its long-range missiles depleted and irreplaceable, and its threat to close the Strait defeatable, the mullahs will need to find new options to threaten their neighbors and the United States. READ MORE: Managing the Mullahs: What a Negotiated Victory Over Iran Looks Like Elsewhere: In the first statement released in his name since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced, Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei or somebody writing on his behalf set the tone for negotiations in Islamabad: “All must know that, by Almighty God’s will, we definitely won’t allow the criminal aggressors who attacked our country to go unpunished.” Buckle up, New York: Zohran Mamdani told the New York Times that he, rather than police commissioner Jessica Tisch, holds “the final decision” on matters of policing, adding that he remains “steadfast” in his pledge to dismantle an NYPD unit, the Strategic Response Group, that polices unruly protests. The White House is considering a proposal that would “involve moving U.S. troops out of North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries deemed unhelpful to the Iran war effort and stationing them in countries that were more supportive,” the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s unclear which countries might be affected, though presumably the list includes Spain, which blocked U.S. planes from using its airspace and is reopening its embassy in Tehran. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan broke his silence Thursday about a Free Beacon investigation into his pocket-size height. “I am in fact only 5’9…in shoes,” he posted to X. “I ask that the press and the public give my family and me space in this trying time.” Insurgent Florida gubernatorial candidate and alleged groomer James Fishback used “fake email and X accounts” and “paid” social media bots to “plant media tips, inflate social media engagement, and counter online criticism,” Florida Politics reported. Mainstream outlets like the New York Times have cited Fishback’s online engagement to suggest Fishback “might be a harbinger of conservative politics to come.” Happy Friday, our full lineup is below. Texas Senate Hopeful James Talarico Sought To Create ‘New Generation of Climate Activists’ by Mandating Climate Change Lessons in Texas Schools El-Sayed Campaigns With UMich Board of Regents Candidate Who Shared Since-Deleted Posts Praising Hezbollah and Iranian Regime Managing the Mullahs: What a Negotiated Victory Over Iran Looks Like Federal Judge Authorizes Evictions at Condominium Besieged by Sprawling Homeless Encampment Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.