U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday the U.S. is nearing the “finish line” in its conflict with Iran, while warning that Tehran was seeking to become the next North Korea.

Rubio told “Hannity” Tuesday that Iran was pursuing intercontinental missiles capable of striking the United States and would have achieved those objectives if President Donald Trump had not launched Operation Epic Fury.

“They were aiming to become the next North Korea, except not a North Korea run by a regime that is troublesome and hard to understand, but an Iran run by radical Shia clerics with intercontinental missiles that could reach the mainland of the United States eventually,” the Secretary of State said.

“That’s what they would have ultimately achieved… had President Trump not taken these steps that he’s taken.”

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Rubio accused Iran’s regime of misleading the public about its ballistic missile capabilities, saying officials “denied” their missiles could reach as far as London.

“[Abbas] Araghchi, their foreign minister, this guy is a liar,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “This guy was on television like a week ago – two weeks ago – denying that Iran had any missiles that could go beyond a certain limitation.“

Trump has recently said the Iran conflict could last only a few more weeks, as Operation Epic Fury nears 33 days, with Rubio echoing that the end is near.

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“We can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming,” Rubio said.

Rubio has signaled progress in talks with Iran, noting that while Tehran remains publicly defiant, its officials are being more cooperative in private discussions.

But he said President Trump will not be “strung” along like the Biden administration.

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“What President Trump is not going to allow is he’s not going to allow fake negotiations to be used as a delay tactic, to buy more time, to buy themselves space,” Rubio explained.

Iranian leadership remains fluid, according to reports, as Pakistan announced Sunday that it will host talks between the United States and Iran.

Rubio warned that if a deal is not reached, the United States will not stop its military campaign.

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“We’re not going to allow… the failure of talks to impede our ability to defend this country and to protect this country from a real threat,” he declared.

Rubio argued the Iranian regime is made up of people with destructive tendencies.

“This is a regime led by people who believe that it is their calling and their purpose in life is to usher in the end of the world,” he told Fox News. “These people want nuclear weapons.“

He also warned that the United States may reconsider its role in NATO once the U.S.-Iran conflict ends, as the war raised questions about the alliance’s value.

“We are going to reexamine whether or not this alliance, that has served this country well for a while, is still serving that purpose or has it now become a one-way street, where America is simply in a position to defend Europe. But when we need the help of our allies, they’re going to deny us basing rights,” he told Fox News.

President Trump will address the nation Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET to discuss the state of the U.S.-Iran conflict.

Podcaster Joe Rogan spoke with epidemiologist Shanna H. Swan, PhD on Tuesday about how chemical and cultural factors are destroying America’s birthrate.

Swan, an environmental epidemiologist and author of “Count Down,” spoke with Rogan about how widespread exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in plastics, food, water, and everyday products is contributing to declining fertility in modern society.

Rogan noted that treatments like IVF have become an increasingly commonplace topic, particularly as “older people that are, you know – they put their careers aside in their 30s, they decided now it’s time to have kids. They’re worried that it’s too late.”

“But listening to you talk about it, it seems like that’s only one part of the issue and not the big part,” Rogan said. “The big part seems to be that we’re being poisoned, and we’re doing it by virtue of our modern world that we live in where so much of your life relies on plastic.”

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Swan proceeded to tell Rogan that “fertility is in the toilet” in modern societies to the point where it was once the norm for couples to have five children in the 1960s, but now in places like South Korea, that number has plummeted to about 0.88 children per couple on average.

“They’re in danger of complete population collapse,” Rogan said.

Swan noted that many articles have spoken about the issue, but very few are willing to mention the role that exposure to toxic chemicals plays not only in harming human fertility, but that of other species as well.

“Animals are not choosing to have their children later or to delay childbearing,” she warned. 

“They have big careers,” Rogan joked sarcastically. “Beavers are trying to make dams. They don’t have time for children.”

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One study they spoke about indicated alligators are being impacted by chemical pollution to the point it has altered their genitals to be abnormally small and made it so their eggs are less durable, parallel to increasing human issues with testosterone and fertility.

“It completely makes sense,” Rogan said. “But what doesn’t make sense is how little attention that’s being paid.”

He continued, “You would think that in a society that is fa- I mean America is also facing a potential population collapse. People don’t think about that, but our reproduction numbers we’re not reprodu- Yeah. They’re down quite a bit, and they’re not at the level that we need in order to keep our population.”

“It’s the — you know, the normal shape of the population is like this right?” Swan said as she made a pyramid shape with her hands. “So this is up here, not very many people, and down here, lots and lots of people.”

“Lots of people are living longer,” she continued. “But few are down here, and then what that means is the ones down here are supposed to support the ones up here – “

“—But there’s not enough of them,” Rogan said, completing her sentence.

“But there’s not enough of them,” she agreed.

Rogan marveled at how widespread this issue is, noting that they had discussed these issues 5 years before, and yet very little has been done in the intervening years to address them. But this set of issues, he said, affects all humanity. 

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Todd Monken was really looking forward to his first picture day as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, when all 32 coaches were scheduled to appear in Phoenix at the NFL annual league meeting this week. 

However, Monken never made it to the group photo, and Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot found out a haircut was to blame. 

Monken set up a haircut specifically for the photo Monday, and he believed he timed the situation perfectly, writing in his agenda that the photo was scheduled for noon Pacific time in Phoenix. 

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But when Monken ran into Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, he learned the photo was already taken. 

It wasn’t that Monken was late. Instead, a coaches meeting, which he skipped, let out early, and they decided to take the photo with all the coaches assembled. Well, not all the coaches. 

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Monken wasn’t the only coach not in the photo, though. Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was also absent from the photo. 

While Monken may have missed the picture, he hasn’t missed sharing his thoughts about his quarterback depth chart heading into his first season on the job in Cleveland. 

All eyes are on Monken and his staff choosing an eventual starter for the Browns, whether it be veteran Deshaun Watson, who could be on track to return in 2026; Shedeur Sanders; or Dillon Gabriel. 

With the Browns’ offseason program beginning April 7, Monken was asked if he has a QB1 in mind. While he didn’t name the depth chart order, he did note that the workload won’t be an even split for the quarterbacks who participate. 

“I don’t expect the reps to be divided equally,” Monken said on Tuesday, per the Akron Beacon Journal. 

That would mean Monken does have an order in mind for his quarterbacks, though he noted he wasn’t yet ready to say who sits atop the list. However, Monken said he and the staff will go off “basically what we’ve seen in the past and where the year ended last year.”

Based on the three quarterbacks, Sanders would likely have the upper hand. Watson was still recovering from his Achilles injury, and ex-head coach Kevin Stefanski had Sanders start the remaining seven games of the season after Gabriel struggled before suffering an injury.

Sanders’ earned his first win against the Las Vegas Raiders. 

But it’s all speculation until the Browns’ program begins next week. 

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