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This evening's music features blues guitarist Johnny Jenkins. Enjoy!

"If your case for going to war contains the words “the Bible says” or “God commands us”, then you do not have a case for going to war."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Bombing Hospitals Is Bad Again

Israel and its western allies are crying and rending their garments about an Israeli hospital that was damaged in an Iranian missile strike. Western media outlets like the BBC and New York Times have suddenly remembered how to write headlines which assign blame to the attacker after deciding that hospitals getting bombed is a newsworthy event again.

The Iranian attack didn’t even kill anybody, and the damage to the hospital was reportedly the result of a shockwave from a strike on a nearby Israeli military facility. That’s right: the Israeli military was using the hospital for human shields. As always, every accusation is a confession.

Israel, as we all know, bombs hospitals constantly. Israel bombed an Iranian hospital just the other day to almost no coverage from the western press. Israel has attacked healthcare workers and healthcare facilities in Gaza around 700 times according to the World Health Organisation, and the IDF has repeatedly been documented entering the hospitals it attacks to destroy individual pieces of medical equipment. Israel, unlike Iran, is deliberately targeting healthcare facilities to make Gaza unlivable.

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz is now saying that because of the hospital strike, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “cannot continue to exist.” Knowing what we know about Israel’s track record, saying that people who bomb hospitals should not be allowed to exist can only be interpreted as an extremely antisemitic statement.

And just like that, BBC headline writers rediscovered assigning responsibility. https://t.co/hUWo5DbI2u

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 19, 2025

Larry C. Johnson: Iran PUNCHES Through Israel’s Defenses — U.S. on WAR FOOTING!

Trump denies approving Iran attack plan but will make decision ‘within two weeks’

Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict. He also confirmed, later on Thursday, via his press secretary, that he’d be making a decision within the “next two weeks”.

The Journal reported late on Wednesday that Trump told senior aides a day earlier that he had approved attack plans but was delaying on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program. The report cited three anonymous officials.

On Thursday, Trump responded to the report, posting on Truth Social: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!” But Trump’s decision is dependent on whether the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) would destroy the Fordow uranium enrichment site, a US official told Axios. Fordow, which is built into a mountain south of Tehran, is a target of Israel’s, but they lack the “bunker-buster bombs” and aircraft needed to destroy it; the US has access to both.

“We’re going to be ready to strike Iran. We’re not convinced yet that we’re necessary. And we want to be unnecessary, but I think the president’s just not convinced we are needed yet,” a US official told the outlet.

Debate within Trump’s cabinet and Pentagon chiefs over the effectiveness of the GBU-57s, a 13.6-tonne (30,000lb) bomb, was echoed in Guardian reporting, with Trump reportedly unconvinced of the bomb’s efficacy in destroying the complex and the possibility that direct US involvement could be forestalled by negotiations with Iran. According to two defense officials who were briefed, the thinking is that only a tactical nuclear weapon could be capable of destroying Fordow because of how deeply it is located.

China Deploys Spy Ships; US Says Pulling Back; Iran Israel Continue Strikes; Kiev Israel Run Short

Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost’ of Iran war – postponing son’s wedding

Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London during the blitz, and pointed to his own family’s sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son’s wedding. The Israeli prime minister’s remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Beersheba, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday.

The stunning comments also added grist to the arguments of his critics that the PM is increasingly cut off emotionally from the daily realities of Israel and the region, after more than 17 years in office. Seeking to underline his family’s shared hardship with ordinary Israelis, Netanyahu adopted a Churchillian tone when pointing out that this was not the first time his son Avner’s wedding had needed to be postponed, and that Avner’s fiancee was also disappointed, not to mention the thwarted mother of the groom, Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

“It really reminds me of the British people during the blitz. We are going through a blitz,” Netanyahu said, referring to the wartime Nazi bombing of Britain in which 43,000 civilians died. “There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,” he went on. ... “This is the second time that my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.”

Avner Netanyahu’s wedding was first scheduled for November but was postponed for security reasons. Then it was due to take place on Monday, despite the threat of opposition protests. Reports that the prime minister was going to take a few days off for the event may have contributed to Iran’s complacency on Friday morning when its leadership was taken unawares by Israel’s aerial attack.

Another Iraq? Military Expert Warns U.S. Has No Real Plan If It joins Israel's War on Iran

President Trump Told Netanyahu To ‘Keep Going’ in Iran

President Trump said on Wednesday that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call a day earlier to “keep going” with his attacks on Iran.

The president told reporters that Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for his role in war crimes in Gaza, is a “good man” who has been treated “very unfairly” by his own country. “He’s a wartime president. Going through this nonsense — ridiculous,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments about Netanyahu come amid anticipation over whether or not the US will enter Israel’s war with Iran directly by launching airstrikes. The US has supported the assault by providing weapons and intelligence and intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, but so far hasn’t launched direct strikes of its own.

Iran-Israel; Missile stockpiles and air superiority

Trump Reportedly Greenlights Plan for US Attack on Iran Without Congressional Approval

President Donald Trump is set to meet with top advisers in the White House Situation Room Thursday morning in the wake of reports that he has privately approved plans for a U.S. attack on Iran, a development that comes after days of pressure from Israeli officials and Republican war hawks in Congress to intervene in the war that Israel launched last week.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Trump told senior aides that he "approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran will abandon its nuclear program."

"While Trump weighed his decision, the U.S. military continued to move forces to Europe and toward the Middle East, including tanker planes to refuel aircraft in flight, warships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, an aircraft carrier battle group, and advanced F-22 air-to-air fighters, which flew Wednesday to a base in Britain," the Journal observed.

CBS News also reported that Trump "approved attack plans on Iran Tuesday night."

Trump's belligerent rhetoric and demand for "unconditional surrender" ahead of a possible U.S. attack have drawn sharp rebukes from Iranian officials, who said Wednesday that the country "does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance."

The U.S. possesses 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs within striking distance of Iran, and Israel claims it needs such explosives to hit Iran's heavily entrenched Fordow nuclear site.

"We are the only ones who have the capability to do it, but that doesn't mean I am going to do it," Trump told reporters Wednesday.

With a final decision from the president expected at any moment, anti-war members of Congress are moving with urgency to build support for legislative efforts to avert an unauthorized U.S. attack on Iran.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is co-leading a House war powers resolution with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has called on Democrats to unify against U.S. involvement in Israel's war.

"This is now defining for the Democratic Party," Khanna told HuffPost on Wednesday. "Are we going to criticize the offensive weapons for Netanyahu and the blank check? Are we going to stand up with clarity against the strikes on Iran? Are we going to actually be the party of peace, or are we going to be just another party of war?"

Just 37 members of Congress, according to one tally, have backed anti-war resolutions currently before the House and Senate, even as new polling shows that a majority of the American public opposes U.S. military action in Iran.

"Right now, the most effective thing you can do is flood Congress with calls to show that the American people don't want to go to war with Iran," the advocacy group Demand Progress wrote Wednesday, urging Americans to call 1-833-STOP-WAR to connect with their representatives and push them to support war powers resolutions.

Who ever heard of using a tank or mortar to fire "warning shots?"

Dozens more people killed or injured seeking aid in Gaza

Dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured in Gaza as they sought desperately needed aid on Thursday, with reports that Israeli forces close to one distribution point had opened fire, the third such incident in as many days. More than a hundred people have been reported killed since Monday while either trying to reach aid points or waiting to stop and offload the limited number of UN and commercial trucks entering the devastated territory. There have been about 20 such incidents in the last four weeks.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed 15 people and wounded 60 between the town of Nuseirat and in the centre of Gaza early on Thursday morning after thousands had gathered in the hope of receiving rations. Such reports are difficult to confirm independently but interviews conducted by the Guardian with witnesses appeared to corroborate many of the details.

Abdullah Ahmed, 31, said he had been about a kilometre from an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed private organisation, when there were a series of explosions and shootings at around 2am local time. “I heard that the GHF site would open in the morning and set out early from my home [in the nearby town of al-Bureij] to get food,” he said. “Because there are always many people, we try to be the first to increase our chances of getting aid.

“When I was heading to the aid distribution point, there was heavy but intermittent gunfire from tanks, artillery and quadcopters.“As we got closer to the site, gunfire resumed and shells were launched. A shell fell just a few metres away from me and shrapnel hit me in my chest, neck and leg.” ... Dr Nasser Abu Samra, the head of the emergency reception department at al-Awda hospital, said it received nine dead and 120 injured from the incident.

The Israeli army told Agence France-Presse that troops fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching them in the Netzarim area, but that it was “not aware of any injured individuals”.

New York mayoral candidate arrested by Ice: ‘Trump is looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear’

As the New York city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was hauled away by masked Ice agents on Tuesday, all he could think about was whether there was anything more he could do for the man he was trying to help, an immigrant New Yorker named Edgardo.

Both men ended up detained, but unlike Edgardo’s, Lander’s ordeal was over after a few hours. By the time the New York governor, Katy Hochul, marched him out of the courthouse – after proclaiming, of his arrest: “This is bullshit” – videos and photos of the officers manhandling him had gone viral. The arrest of yet another elected official prompted widespread condemnation of another sign of the US’s steady slide into authoritarianism. A host of New York politicians, along with a swelling crowd of angry New Yorkers, awaited Lander outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. (Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and mayoral race frontrunner, was a notable absence, though he did condemn the arrest.)

“I wasn’t surprised there were a lot of folks outside angry both about the violations of the rights of immigrants and about Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy,” Lander told the Guardian in an interview. “The Trump administration has been very clear that they are looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear, and undermine democracy, and here they are doing it,” he added.

Lander was “just fine”, he told the crowd. He had lost a button in the commotion. But he would sleep in his bed and while no charges against him were filed, he would have had access to a lawyer if they had been. “But Edgardo will sleep in an Ice detention facility God knows where tonight,” he said. “He has been stripped of his due process rights in a country that is supposed to be founded on equal justice under law.”

A day after the ordeal, Lander said he had no updates on Edgardo, a Spanish-speaking immigrant whom Lander had met just before they were both detained. Lander had been accompanying Edgardo as part of an organized effort to shield immigrants from agents who have been increasingly stalking them for arrest when they appear for their regularly scheduled court hearings. On Tuesday, the group watching proceedings at the court included four rabbis, in addition to Lander, his wife Meg Barnette, and other advocates.

Judge blocks Trump plan to tie states’ transportation funds to immigration enforcement

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.

Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states’ request for an injunction barring the Department of Transportation’s policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims. ...

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic state attorneys general who argued the administration was seeking to unlawfully hold federal funds hostage to coerce them into adhering to Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.

The states argued the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, lacked the authority to impose immigration-enforcement conditions on funding that Congress appropriated to help states sustain roads, highways, bridges and other transportation projects.

Outrage as DHS moves to restrict lawmaker visits to detention centers

The US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.

The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Donald Trump’s crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country. Many Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks have either been turned away, arrested or manhandled by law enforcement officers at the facilities, leading to public condemnation towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (Ice) handling of such visits.

Lawmakers are allowed to access DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” for inspections and are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility”, according to the 2024 Federal Appropriations Act. Previous language surrounding lawmaker visits to such facilities said that “Ice will comply with the law and accommodate members seeking to visit/tour an Ice detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight,” CNN reported.

However, in the new guidance, the DHS updated the language to say that Ice “will make every effort to comply with the law” but “exigent circumstances (eg operational conditions, security posture, etc) may impact the time of entry into the facility”. The new guidance also attempts to distinguish Ice field offices from Ice detention facilities, noting that since “Ice field offices are not detention facilities” they do not fall under the visitation requirements laid out in the Appropriations Act.

AIPAC BUSTED Smuggling Cash To Pro-Israel Candidate

Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe

Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to the authors of a new report. It found climate action was being obstructed and delayed by false and misleading information stemming from fossil fuel companies, rightwing politicians and some nation states. The report, from the International Panel on the Information Environment (Ipie), systematically reviewed 300 studies.

The researchers found climate denialism has evolved into campaigns focused on discrediting solutions, such as the false claims that renewable energy caused the recent massive blackout in Spain. Online bots and trolls hugely amplify false narratives, the researchers say, playing a key role in promoting climate lies. The experts also report that political leaders, civil servants and regulatory agencies are increasingly being targeted in order to delay climate action.

Climate misinformation – the term used by the report for both deliberate and inadvertent falsehoods – is of increasing concern. Last Thursday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change, Elisa Morgera, called for misinformation and greenwashing by the fossil fuel industry to be criminalised. On Saturday, Brazil, host of the upcoming Cop30 climate summit, will rally nations behind a separate UN initiative to crack down on climate misinformation.

“It is a major problem,” said Dr Klaus Jensen, of the University of Copenhagen, who co-led the Ipie review. “If we don’t have the right information available, how are we going to vote for the right causes and politicians, and how are politicians going to translate the clear evidence into the necessary action? Unfortunately, I think the [bad actors] are still very, very active, and probably have the upper hand now.”

Jensen added: “We have about five years to cut emissions in half and until 2050 to go carbon neutral. Without the right information, we’re not going to get there. So the climate crisis being translated into a climate catastrophe is possible, unless we handle the climate information integrity problem.”

The US is woefully underprepared for wildfire season, say insiders: ‘The stakes are life and death’

Summer temperatures are rising and the US is bracing for another hot, dry and hectic wildfire season. But with the promise of extreme conditions in the months to come, federal fire crews are also growing concerned that a series of changes brought on by the Trump administration have left them underprepared.

Severe cuts to budgets and staff have hamstrung the agencies that manage roughly 640m acres of the nation’s public lands, leaving significant gaps in a workforce that supports wildfire mitigation and suppression. The administration’s crackdown on climate science and the dismantling of departments that provided world-class research and weather forecasting, may also undermine early warning systems, slowing response and strategic planning.

Donald Trump has championed firefighters and called for bolstering preparedness for the a year-round fire season, using the devastating fire storms that leveled communities across Los Angeles at the start of the year as a call to action. But in the six months since, the administration has only added obstacles to addressing the key issues.

There are also fears that Trump’s new wildfire directive to bring the country’s federal firefighters together under a new agency will be rushed, adding another layer of uncertainty and chaos just as crews are trying to prepare for another grueling season. Many areas have had an exceptionally warm spring following a dry winter. The south-west and Pacific north-west are already experiencing sizzling heatwaves, and on landscapes across California, Montana and Texas, there’s a high danger for ignitions to turn into infernos. Climate forecasters are predicting the potential for forest fires is higher this year than in the previous two years.

“If this turns out to be a major fire year, it’s going to be a shit show,” said Dr Hugh Safford, a fire ecologist at the University of California, Davis, who spent more than two decades working for the US Forest Service (USFS) before retiring in 2021. Five federal firefighters, who spoke with the Guardian under the condition of anonymity because they are barred from speaking publicly, echoed Safford’s unease. When asked if their agencies were ready for the season ahead, the answer was a resounding “no”.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

No, Iran Didn’t Target A Hospital (+Iran Update)

The Chris Hedges Report: ‘Journalists & Their Shadows’

Trump, War, and the Constitution

Iran will defend itself in Israel conflict with ‘full force’, official says

Nihilism is at the Core of the Israel-Iran Conflict — Not Nuclear Weapons

Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 5

Expedition to ‘real home of the pirates of the Caribbean’ hopes to unearth ships and treasure

A Little Night Music

Johnny Jenkins - Love Twist

Otis Redding & Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers - Shout Bamalama

Johnny Jenkins – Pinetop

Johnny Jenkins – Walk On Gilded Splinters

Johnny Jenkins - Big Bad Wolf

Johnny Jenkins – Leaving Trunk

Johnny Jenkins ~ Swift Creek

Johnny Jenkins - Spunky

Johnny Jenkins – Don't Feel Like Talkin'

Johnny Jenkins ~ Bashful Guitar

Johnny Jenkins – 'Till The Blues Go Home