Strait of Hormuz control in question; Grand jury to investigate controversial Pirro cases

Calling the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz a wall of steel

President Trump says the U.S. is in total control. Why Iran disputes that and claims it is still closed

Plus, an Apache helicopter crashes near Fort Hood, killing two soldiers and sparking a big fire

This morning an investigation is underway as to why the so-called most advanced aerial fighting vehicle in the world went down

And the White House press secretary says she's leaving the administration. The key reason why Caroline Levitt is headed home at the end of the month

The stories that matter, clear and credible from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli

This morning, it's not completely clear who is in control of the Strait of Hormuz

as both President Trump and Iranian officials continue to make opposing claims

Trump taking to social media overnight, reiterating his assertion that the United States has total control over the strait, adding, I think we will keep it

Iran continues to dispute that, saying it controls the strait, leaving ships wary to pass through the key lane

According to Reuters, the number of vessels tracked transiting the strait has fallen to a one-week low of just eight

Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which was recently created to police maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz

said in a post of its own that Trump's assertions, quote, do not change the reality that the Strait will remain closed until Washington agrees to Tehran's conditions

Iran is also accusing the U.S. of committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions

specifically saying the U.S. has targeted civilian infrastructure. Meanwhile, dozens of countries around the world and the European Union are calling on

Iran to stop executing protesters and to free political prisoners. It comes after Iran recently publicly hanged two men accused of killing four police officers during nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic in January We are learning new details about President Trump decoy flight from Turkey last month

Multiple sources say the decision to pull off the elaborate ruse, in which Trump secretly transferred from the old Air Force One to a military aircraft in a catering truck

was made just a few hours before takeoff, after U.S. and Turkish intelligence picked up on an Iranian plot to fire a missile at the presidential jet

Intelligence officials also reportedly believe the Iranians had information about Trump's movements while in Turkey for the NATO summit

We've also learned that the two most senior members of Trump's cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and several other top White House aides, stayed on the original plane for the trip home, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on the secret flight with President Trump

This morning, two soldiers are dead after an Army Apache helicopter crashed violently into a central Texas field

then touched off a grass fire that forced evacuations. The AH-64 Apache went down Wednesday afternoon near Salado, about 50 miles north of Boston

The first 911 call came in around 1.30. Later that afternoon, authorities said the fire was still out of control with evacuations underway and a nearby road shut down

By 7 p.m., the fire had burned 155 acres, but crews had it 85 percent contained

No homes or buildings were damaged, and authorities said no one else was hurt

The helicopter was based at Fort Hood. The Army has not released the soldiers' names

The Criminal Investigation Division at Fort Hood is leading the inquiry. Back in Washington, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt is leaving the Trump administration

just weeks after returning from maternity leave. The 28-year-old, who made history as the youngest White House press secretary, will step down

at the end of the month after about a year and a half on the job

Levitt gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in May, and says trying to balance two young

children with one of the most demanding jobs in Washington has become too much In a post on X she wrote that since returning to work she has felt she cannot be the best mom her children deserve while also giving the job the time and attention it requires

Leavitt called the decision bittersweet, but she isn't completely leaving President Trump's orbit

Trump says Leavitt will become one of his top outside advisors and an influential Republican

voice heading into the midterms. He also called her one of the best White House press secretaries

in history. So far, the White House has not announced who will replace her behind the podium

The Justice Department has taken a rare step in Washington, convening a special grand jury

that could be used to investigate some of the most controversial cases handled by U.S

Attorney Jeanine Pirro. The Washington Post is first to report it, and right now it is not clear

what case or cases the grand jury will actually take up. But this is not your typical grand jury

Its 23 members can focus on one case or a group of related cases and can even issue a public report naming people accused of wrongdoing whether or not they are ever charged

The Post says the grand jury will be overseen by Stephen Vandervelden, one of Pirro's top allies, who has already worked on some of her office's most high-profile investigations

Those include the probe into then Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and an inquiry into whether D.C. police purposely skewed crime statistics

And all of this comes after President Trump publicly turned on Pirro

over her decision to drop the reflecting pool vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn

Although The Post reports prosecutors submitted the paperwork for this special grand jury

before Pirro dropped the Hearn case. Special grand juries are rare, and legal experts tell The Post

there is no known recent precedent for seeding one in Washington. Finally this morning, what a sight in various parts of Europe on Wednesday

A total solar eclipse as the moon passed between the sun and the Earth

turning day into night with the sky appearing to be an eerie gray color

In London the Royal Observatory Greenwich captured the moment the moon went passing through and covered about 90 of the sun Crowds gathered at parks and other vantage points to watch the spectacle A fantastic view in Spain

as a total solar eclipse took place in the northern and central parts of the country

The sun just gradually disappeared. It's the first time that this has happened there since 1905

Some of the spectacular video was captured in Madrid. People in Portugal, Greenland and Iceland

also witnessed the phenomenon. Totality lasted less than three minutes with the maximum duration

reported off Iceland's west coast. It ended over the Mediterranean. I still remember the last total

eclipse we had here in the U.S. It was in the spring of 2024. I sat on my back deck for at least

an hour here in Omaha, Nebraska. It was like one in the afternoon. All of a sudden, the sky starkened

The birds started chirping wildly. They raced into the trees. Winds picked up. There was a cold front

And just like that, it was nighttime in the middle of the afternoon. It was so, so cool

And of course, I had those special glasses for the viewing. Oh, my gosh, it was memorable

All right, we give you the headlines here. Offscript gives you everything that comes next

It's a new show where we talk with journalists behind the reporting and dig into stories we just can't fit into this short morning show

Watch Offscript later today only on SAN.com and the Straight Arrow app

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or join our other listeners on Spotify. At Straight Arrow, we fear no fact. Those are

your Unbiased Updates for this Thursday. We'll see you back here tomorrow. For all of us here

at Straight Arrow, I'm Craig DeGrelli. Have a great day. Ever wonder what we learned that doesn't

make it into a two-minute story? That's what Offscript is all about. Longer conversations

extra reporting. And then to make things more complicated, environmental factors often

interact with genetics. And the context behind the headlines from the people who know the stories best

President Trump chose to go to Michigan and make his presence felt

and make himself part of the conversation there. Unbiased updates off script

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