Mike Baker

First up, new reporting suggests Iran's nationwide protest movement may possibly be losing momentum after a brutal regime crackdown and an information blackout that's obscuring, of course, what's actually happening on the ground.

Later in the show, the U.S.

escalates pressure on Mexico to allow U.S.

forces to target fentanyl labs as Washington weighs direct military action against cartels.

But first, today's afternoon spotlight.

As with everything in Iran right now, the information blackout imposed by Tehran continues to make the situation on the ground difficult to assess.

But there's some indication that the regime's repression and violent crackdown may be having its intended effect and that the immediate threat to the mullahs may be receding, at least for now.

According to reporting from Reuters, people inside Iran who were reached on Wednesday and Thursday say that demonstrations appear to have abated since Monday.

Streets that were once filled with crowds are now quieter.

Gunfire has diminished.

Visible signs of mass protest have become harder to find.

That doesn't mean that anger has dissipated or disappeared.

It just means the cost of expressing it has become too high.

This apparent lull follows days of brutal repression, of course, much of which we detailed earlier today.

Live fire, maimings, mass arrests, beatings, and a near-total Internet blackout designed to sever coordination and hide the scale of the violence by the regime.

And as the protests appear to recede, the regime itself has begun shifting its message and softening its tone a bit.

Oh, look at them.

It's a kinder, gentler mullahs in IRGC.

Just days ago, international outrage spiked over reports that a 26-year-old protester, Efron Soltani, was scheduled to be executed.

Rights groups warned that his hanging could mark the start of mass executions aimed at crushing the movement entirely.