NFL color guys used to be unreal. Listen to how effectively Dan Dierdorff explain what’s going on while Ian Eagle shuts up and lets him.

At his third Antichrist lecture in Nashville, Peter Thiel talks about the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel, the United States, and the Iran War. He describes the ICC as part of the emerging ideological architecture of the Antichrist, likening language on the ICC's website to the antichristic talk of peace and safety in 1 Thessalonians. Thiel notes that the ICC's arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have limited where they can travel. The ICC warrant meant Netanyahu couldn't visit Poland on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp; though Poland's president said he wouldn't enforce it, Poland's authority to defy the ICC wasn't clear, and so the Israeli PM didn't come. While condemning what he describes as the neoconservatives and George W. Bush people—we "made a lot of mistakes in the Middle East wars," and "you're not supposed to torture people"—Thiel says the ICC was already emerging as an issue under that administration, citing a 2003 memo from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on what he called the judicialization of international politics. The investor interprets former VP Dick Cheney's condemnation of Trump as an effort to buy favor with the ICC, "probably too late." He says he's come to suspect that the threat of an ICC warrant is a sword of Damocles over the Trump administration amid the Iran War. Thiel describes himself as skeptical of that war, saying it is possible the US will lose the soft power war before outlining a mildly esoteric interpretation of US policy on the ICC. Thiel says that, on the surface, Secretary of State Marco Rubio's condemnation of the ICC might look like a favor to Israel. In his reading, though, it could be a means of protecting Rubio or War Secretary Pete Hegseth from potential future warrants that could be enforced by a left-wing president.

A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. Watch the whole thing:

The MLB Playoff format will be on the table during CBA negotiations this winter after a division winner (3 seed) will enter the Playoffs with a .500 record or worse, per @TheAthletic Ideas that were proposed during last negotiations: - 14-team proposal that let division winners choose which wild card they wanted to face in the first round - Two of the Players Association’s proposals included a seven-game Division Series and reseeding (based on record) after the Wild Card Series - In one format, the third division winner — the one without a first-round bye — would start the Wild Card Series with a game in hand. The series would only be two games instead of three, and the No. 3 seed would only need to win one of the two games. That would create a clear incentive for the No. 5 seed over the No. 6 seed - The union also pushed to phase in a structure with two divisions in each league rather than three, to reduce the chance of a particularly poor division winner. In that format, the two division winners would receive byes, and the Wild Card Series would involve only wild-card teams (nytimes.com/athletic/7628400…)

You can see why Burnham is keen to avoid making this much worse

🚨 NEW: Senior No 10 advisers are pushing for Andy Burnham to call a general election early next year [@Telegraph]