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This evening's music features r&b singer Billy Gayles. Enjoy!

"It’s hard to focus on Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon due to Israel’s invasion of Syria, which is hard to focus on due to Israel’s atrocities in the West Bank, which are hard to focus on due to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which is hard to focus on due to Israel’s war on Iran, which is hard to focus on because of America’s war on Iran."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Iran Shows Us Why The US And Israel Should Not Be Allowed To Have Nukes

Well it’s been a crazy couple of days.

Trump bombed Iran’s civilian nuclear energy facilities in an attack that CNN reports did no lasting damage, and Iran exercised extraordinary restraint with symbolic retaliatory strikes on US military bases coordinated to avoid American casualties — a move many are comparing to Iran’s non-lethal response to the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

After pumping out deception and fake diplomacy for weeks in order to assist Israel’s unprovoked war on Iran and launch an unprovoked attack on his own, Trump took to social media to proudly celebrate his administration’s facilitation of a ceasefire to the war he himself needlessly started, like an arsonist giving himself a trophy for extinguishing one of his own house fires.

And, for the moment at least, the ceasefire appears to be holding. Which is good. There are a lot of terrible people who did everything they could to get Iran to kill US troops and spark a horrific war, but Iran didn’t take the bait. Iran doesn’t want war at all. Trump found out that Americans disapproved of the airstrikes and opposed war with Iran. And Israel found out that fighting an actual military force is a lot less easy than fighting hospital patients and children.

So for now we’ve got a ceasefire.

We have never been shown any evidence that Iran was working on obtaining nuclear weapons, which given the US empire’s extensive history of lying about this sort of thing means we should assume it was not. But it has certainly been given every incentive to obtain them now, given that that’s probably the only thing that can stop the US and Israel from casually committing these egregious acts of aggression whenever they feel like it.

And isn’t it interesting how Iran keeps demonstrating a degree of restraint that we all know we’d never see from the United States or Israel if another country bombed their energy infrastructure or assassinated their military leaders, and yet Iran is the country we’re told can never be trusted with nuclear weapons?

The US empire and Israel both exist in a perpetual state of war and attack other countries constantly; Iran never invades other countries and avoids war like Melania Trump avoids missionary position. But we’re meant to accept that it’s fine for the US and Israel to have nukes and do anything necessary to prevent Iran from getting any?

Even if you accept the evidence-free premise that Iran would do crazy and reckless things if it became a nuclear-armed state, there is no rational argument that Trump and his handlers have been going about preventing this outcome intelligently. As Joe Lauria explains in Consortium News, the Iran nuclear deal was a remarkable achievement of international diplomacy that was working fine until Trump shredded it in 2018. Iran was following all the agreed upon rules and its nuclear enrichment was capped at 3.67 percent, but Trump killed it because the Zionists and warmongers who brought him to power want more aggression toward Iran instead of less.

It’s so intensely stupid that we have to keep doing this horrifying dance every few years just because there are too many war-horny freaks with way too much power inside the US empire. And every time they get closer to getting their wish. Iran is being given more and more reasons to view the US and Israel as an existential threat, more and more motive to obtain nuclear weapons, and less and less reason to negotiate anything with Washington.

These bastards keep pushing us toward something very ugly. Let’s hope people keep waking up to the depravity of Israel and the US empire before the warmakers succeed in obtaining their long-sought prize.

Max Blumenthal : How Trump Was Manipulated

US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites only set back program by months, Pentagon report says

An initial classified US assessment of Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend says they did not destroy two of the sites and likely only set back the nuclear program by a few months, according to two people familiar with the report. The report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency – the intelligence arm of the Pentagon – concluded key components of the nuclear program, including centrifuges, were capable of being restarted within months.

The report also found that much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be put to use for a possible nuclear weapon was moved before the strikes and may have been moved to other secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran. The findings by the DIA, which were based on a preliminary battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, suggests Trump’s declaration about the sites being “obliterated” may have been overstated.

Trump said in his televised address on Saturday night immediately after the operation that the US had completely destroyed Iran’s enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, the facility buried deep underground, and at Isfahan, where enrichment was being stored. “The strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump said in his address from the White House.

While the DIA report was only an initial assessment, one of the people said if the intelligence on the ground was already finding within days that Fordow in particular was not destroyed, later assessments could suggest even less damage might have been inflicted.

Pentagon Doubts Iran Strike Success. NATO Fawns On Trump; More Oreshniks Built Rubio NO To Sanctions

Fragile Israel-Iran truce appears to hold after Trump’s fury at initial violations

The shaky truce between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Tuesday evening after an extraordinary day in which a furious Donald Trump at one point personally intervened by calling Benjamin Netanyahu to get him to scale down an Israeli airstrike.

In a televised address late on Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister hailed a “historic victory” claiming that Israel had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” but it remained unclear whether the deeply buried Fordow nuclear site had been destroyed.

The White House dismissed the report as “flat-out wrong”.

Waking in Washington to find the ceasefire he had brokered the night before had been violated by both sides, Trump told the media: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire. Israel claimed Iran had been the first to break the truce, saying it had shot down two ballistic missiles heading for northern Israel at about 10.30am, about two and a half hours after the cessation of hostilities was due to begin. ...

Iran denied having broken the truce or launched missiles that Israel claimed to have intercepted mid-morning on Tuesday. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had ordered immediate retaliation on Tehran.

Phil Giraldi : Trump Wants War

JD Vance suggests Iran’s uranium stockpile is still intact despite US strikes

JD Vance has suggested Iran’s estimated 400kg (882lb) stockpile of enriched uranium, which is just short of weapons-grade, remains intact despite the recent US bombing campaign against Iran. On Monday, the vice-president told Fox News that the location of the uranium “is not the question before us”, and said the relevant question was: “Can Iran enrich the uranium to weapons-grade level and can they convert that fuel into a nuclear weapon?”

The Iranian stockpile of uranium was believed to have been located mainly at Isfahan, which houses a conversion facility that turns uranium into the form that can be fed into centrifuges for enrichment. However, the UN atomic energy agency chief, Rafael Grossi, said in recent days that the stockpile could have been moved. His inspectors have not been able to visit Iranian nuclear sites since the war began. ...

“The goal was to bury the uranium, and I do think the uranium is buried,” Vance said. Of the US, he said the goal of the bombing “was to eliminate the enrichment and eliminate their ability to convert that enriched fuel into a nuclear weapon. We don’t want that 60%-enriched uranium to become 90% enriched uranium. That’s the real concern”. But Vance insisted it was not a concern that Iran could have moved it and claimed the bombing represented “mission success” because he said Iran no longer had the capacity to turn the stockpile into weapons-grade uranium. “And that was really the goal here,” he said.

Craig Murray : A Phantom Ceasefire

Worth a full read:

Craig Murray: You Can’t Bomb Iran Into Zionism

Israel and the USA have each attacked Iran in the middle of negotiations. Iran must not fall for it a third time. Negotiation is dead.

Israel attacked Iran during negotiations between Iran and the U.S., with the next scheduled meeting just three days away.

Trump then gave Iran a two-week ultimatum to agree a peace deal. Iran held one foreign-minister-level meeting with the U.K., Germany and France and scheduled a second meeting. Trump then attacked Iran with 11 days of the ultimatum still to run.

Plainly the Zionist West not only has zero interest in peace, it is engaging in morally abhorrent levels of dishonesty and deception, attacking under a false flag of truce. The idea that Iran should now return to “negotiation” with such appallingly deceitful interlocutors is risible.

It is also plain that the USA has no intention of stopping the attacks.

“One Mass Casualty After Another”: U.S. Doctor in Gaza on Ongoing Israeli Massacres at Aid Sites

At least 40 more Palestinians killed seeking aid in Gaza

At least 40 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza have died in new shootings by Israeli forces, local medics and officials said, raising the total killed in the last two weeks in such incidents in the devastated territory to more than 500.

Though the fragile ceasefire declared between Israel and Iran has boosted hopes in Gaza that the 20-month-long war in the territory may end soon, there were further Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday and reports of at least two incidents involving Israeli troops opening fire on civilians seeking humanitarian assistance.

Hatim Abu Rajliya, 24, said he had been waiting since 5am for food to be distributed from one of the new hubs set up near what is left of the southern city of Rafah by a secretive private organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which started operating in the territory last month with Israeli and US backing.

“There is a sheltered place where we stay and take cover from bullets and shrapnel near the hub in Shakoush [a former neighbourhood of Rafah]. Some people there warned us not to move forward … Shortly after, Israeli military vehicles advanced toward us and began firing bullets and shells directly at the civilians waiting for aid. Many people around us and in nearby areas were wounded. We tried to pull them into our shelter, some were already dead, others were bleeding out,” Abu Rajliya said.

“Among those we pulled in was my cousin, he had been shot in the head, the bullet tore his skull open. We carried him in an empty flour sack, running under gunfire. We eventually found a [three-wheeled motorised cart] and got him to the Red Cross hospital. They told us he should be transferred to Nasser medical complex [in Khan Younis] where his condition is now stable.”

Prof. John Mearsheimer: Why Israel's War Against Iran BACKFIRED

Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Iran strike

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia congresswoman and Maga firebrand, was quickly critical of missile strikes ordered Saturday by Donald Trump on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Her constituents are not.

In the past week, Israel and Iran traded strikes until the US attempted to intervene, both with its own bombs on three sites, and then with an attempted Trump-brokered ceasefire on Monday, which crumbled within hours. Greene took to social media on Saturday to stridently argue (in her longstanding style) that the US involvement wastes resources to feed the military-industrial complex.

“I’ve watched our country go to war in foreign lands for foreign causes on behalf of foreign interests for as long as I can remember,” Greene wrote on X.

“America is $37 TRILLION in debt and all of these foreign wars have cost Americans TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars that never benefited any American. American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits. I’m sick of it.”

“It feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons, warmongers, military industrial complex contracts, and neocon tv personalities that MAGA hates and who were NEVER TRUMPERS!” she said in another post.

Zelensky determined to stay in power, and then in exile

Nato leader flatters Trump before The Hague summit

In The Hague, the Nato summit waits for Donald Trump – and no one more so than the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte. “You are flying into another big success,” Rutte wrote in a text on Tuesday, one of several released shortly afterwards by a hyperactive Trump as he travelled across the Atlantic in Air Force One. The sycophantic messages from the Dutchman had compared Nato’s plan to dramatically increase defence spending to the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend: “Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do.”

That tone underlined how keen the head of the alliance and most other western allies are to ensure the summit passes off well, knowing full well that Trump’s commitment to Nato has been unpredictable – and that every step has to be taken to keep the freewheeling US president on message.

Meanwhile, as Air Force One flew over the Atlantic to the Dutch capital, it did not take Trump long to drift off message. Would, the president was asked, the US abide by Nato’s article 5 guarantee that says that if one member of the alliance is attacked, it is considered as an attack on all, and other allies should take the actions deemed necessary to assist the country attacked? “Depends on your definition,” Trump said. “There’s numerous definitions of article 5, you know that, right? But I’m committed to being their friends.” The president was asked to explain this watery response, prompting him to say he was “committed to saving lives” and “committed to life and safety”, before adding that he did not want to elaborate while flying.

At the 2018 summit during his first term, Trump hinted that the US might leave Nato, but at this year’s specially shortened get-together, every step has been taken to ensure that he is in an upbeat mood and supportive of the military alliance that the US contributes so much to and Europe has benefited so much from.

Federal Reserve chair defends holding interest rates after fresh Trump attacks

The Federal Reserve is well placed to wait and see how tariffs affect US prices before cutting interest rates, its chair, Jerome Powell, insisted, defying renewed demands from Donald Trump.

The US president has disregarded the central bank’s longstanding independence to repeatedly call for rate cuts to spur economic growth and launch a series of personal attacks on Powell.

In an overnight social media post, Trump branded the Fed chair as “very dumb” and claimed the central bank’s refusal to lower rates since December – in part, the result of uncertainty sparked by his own administration’s erratic economic strategy – was damaging the US.

“We will be paying for his incompetence for many years to come,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Powell reiterated that Trump’s tariffs were “likely” to increase prices – potentially challenging the Fed’s years-long effort to bring down US inflation. He noted, however, that the administration’s policies frequently shift.

Man wrongfully deported to El Salvador must be returned to US, court rules

An appeals court has ordered the Trump administration to return a man wrongfully deported to El Salvador to the US and to explain how it is complying in a ruling apparently designed to break a pattern of apparent government defiance of judicial orders.

The US court of appeals for the second circuit in New York also required the government to provide a declaration of the current whereabouts and custodial status of Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, who was deported on 7 May less than half an hour after the court had expressly barred his removal.

Tuesday’s order seemed intended to forestall a repeat of the long saga surrounding the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, who was deported to his native El Salvador in March, in violation of a 2019 immigration court order preventing his repatriation there on grounds of possible persecution.

Ábrego García remained in custody in El Salvador’s sprawling Cecot terrorism confinement facility for weeks while administration officials claimed they were unable to comply with a court order to facilitate his return. He was eventually returned to the US this month after the government secured a federal indictment accusing him of being a co-conspirator in a people-smuggling ring.

Melgar-Salmeron, 31, a married father of four who lives in Virginia, is believed by relatives to be in custody in a high-security prison after he was deported despite the government having given the appeals court an “express assurance” that it would not schedule a deportation flight for him until the following day while his case was heard. In the event, Melgar-Salmeron left on a flight for El Salvador 28 minutes after the order was issued. A court filing for the government blamed “a confluence of administrative errors”.

128 House Democrats Join GOP to Kill Trump Impeachment Resolution

Over half of the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted alongside all Republicans present on Tuesday to kill Rep. Al Green's impeachment resolution spurred by President Donald Trump's attack on Iranian nuclear sites.

The vote to table the Texas Democrat's five-page measure was 344-79, with 128 Democratic members of the House—including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.)—and 216 Republicans coming together to block the effort.

While Green has pushed to impeach the Republican president over various actions, his new resolution accuses Trump of abuse of presidential powers by disregarding congressional authority to declare war.

"President Trump's unilateral, unprovoked use of force without congressional authorization or notice constitutes an abuse of power when there was no imminent threat to the United States, which facilitates the devolution of American democracy into authoritarianism, with an authoritarian president who has instigated an attack on the United States Capitol, denied persons due process of the law, and called for the impeachment of federal judges who ruled against him—making Donald J. Trump a threat to American democracy," the resolution states.

"In starting his illegal and unconstitutional war with Iran without the constitutionally mandated consent of Congress or appropriate notice to Congress, President Trump acted in direct violation of the War Powers Clause of the Constitution," it continues.

Rep. Al Green Introduces H.Res.537 to Impeach Trump for Bypassing Congress on War with Iran. Watch the short clip of Rep. Green's floor speech by clicking here: https://t.co/NVENn8ugLn pic.twitter.com/evGdBz6vz6

— U.S. Representative Al Green (@RepAlGreen) June 24, 2025

The vote came after Jeffries faced criticism for telling reporters he had not looked at a bipartisan resolution that would require congressional approval for military action against Iran—and as Democratic leaders are under fire for their tepid response to Trump and GOP lawmakers.

In a statement after Tuesday's vote, John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney and president of the advocacy group Free Speech for People, commended Green "for his courage and his leadership," and praised all 79 Democrats who "abided by their oath to protect and defend the Constitution and voted no on the motion to table this article of impeachment."

"Those who voted yes on that motion will be recorded in history for ignoring their oath and standing on the sidelines while this lawless president tramples on the Constitution," he argued. "They will now need to answer to their constituents on why, in the face of this attack on the Constitution, they did not stand up."

Zohran Mamdani Beats Cuomo in NY Mayoral Primary, Vows to "Fight for Working People with No Apology"

‘Extinction crisis’ could see 500 bird species vanish within a century

More than 500 bird species could vanish within the next century, researchers have found, calling for urgent “special recovery programmes” such as captive breeding and habitat restoration to rescue unique species. Birds such as the puffin, European turtle dove and great bustard will be among those to disappear from our skies if trends continue, according to the paper. Their loss threatens to unravel ecosystems across the globe.

“We face a bird extinction crisis unprecedented in modern times,” said Kerry Stewart, lead author of the research from the University of Reading, who described the headline finding of the paper as a “shocking statistic”. It is triple the number of birds that went extinct in the previous 500 years.

The paper, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, examined data from nearly 10,000 birds (almost all of those known to exist) and used IUCN data to predict extinction risk. Habitat loss – driven mainly by the expansion and intensification of agriculture – emerged as the most significant driver of species extinction.

But even if habitat loss, hunting and climate breakdown stopped today, about 250 species could still die out, as they are already teetering on the brink of extinction. Local conservation efforts may feel small but they are essential to save a species from going extinct, the researchers found. “Many birds are already so threatened that reducing human impacts alone won’t save them. These species need special recovery programmes, like breeding projects and habitat restoration, to survive,” said Stewart.

Europe’s pledge to spend more on military will hurt climate and social programmes

Europe risks choosing militarism over social and environmental security, economists have warned, as the head of Nato said all 32 members had agreed to increase weapons spending. Analyses drafted in anticipation of a Nato summit beginning on Tuesday warned of the opportunity cost that higher military spending would pose to the continent’s climate mitigation and social programmes, which are consistently underfunded.

The alliance’s leading member, the US, and its Dutch secretary general, Mark Rutte, expect members to agree to proposals to dramatically raise defence spending targets from 2% to 5% of GDP. But critics say the focus on military spending, which comes on top of big increases by European countries over the past few years, overlooks the risks to security posed by environmental breakdown and social decay.

“Europe’s public finance debate has never been about what we can afford, but what governments choose to prioritise,” said Sebastian Mang, senior policy officer at the New Economics Foundation (NEF). Having already committed to higher defence budgets, plans to raise spending even further expose the double standard applied to investment in climate, housing and care.

“If extraordinary sums can be mobilised for the military, with far lower economic returns and much lower social benefits, then the refusal to fund a just transition and stronger public services is clearly political, not economic.”

According to the Nato proposals, members would increase spending to 3.5% of GDP for “hard defence” such as tanks, bombs and other military hardware, while devoting a further 1.5% to broader security, including cyber threats and military mobility.

Trump rescinds protections on 59m acres of national forest to allow logging

The Trump administration will rescind protections that prevent logging on nearly a third of national forest lands, including the largest old growth forest in the country, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, announced on Monday.

The announcement will be followed by a formal notice rescinding the “roadless rule”, a nickname for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, in coming weeks, the Associated Press reports. The rule prohibits road building and logging on all national forest land without roads, accounting for about 59m acres (24m hectares) of US national forest land.

Rollins shared the news at a gathering of the Western Governors’ Association in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where hundreds had gathered outside to protest against congressional efforts to sell off large swaths of public lands. There, the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, spoke of a new “era of abundance” on public lands, describing Donald Trump’s efforts to extract more natural resources for domestic manufacturing.

“President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to commonsense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” said Rollins. “This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests. It is abundantly clear that properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land.”

Republican lawmakers from western states celebrated the announcement while environmental groups expressed dismay.

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: War Deja Vu

Why Limit Iranian Enrichment Peacefully When You Can Bomb Them Instead?

Marco Rubio Says It’s ‘Irrelevant’ Whether Iran Decided To Build a Nuclear Weapon

No justification for attack on Iran – Putin

Tic-Toc 9 On The War On Iran

Iran Screws Up & Gaza Death Toll

Jeff Bezos alters Venice wedding plans after threat of inflatable crocodiles

Jamaal Bowman NUKES AIPAC, Dem Elites At Zohran Victory

Israeli Mayor INSTANTLY REGRETS Bombing Iran!

A Little Night Music

Billy Gayles - I'm Tore Up

Billy Gayles - Just One More Time

Billy Gayles - I'm Hurting

Billy Gayles - Sad As A Man Can Be

Billy Gayles - No Coming Back

Billy Gayles ft. Ike Turner's Rhythm Rockers - Dreaming Of You

Billy Gayles ft. Ike Turner's Rhythm Rockers - If I Never Had Known You

Billy Gayles - Let's Call It A Day

Billy Gayles - Tired of Being Dogged Around

Billy Gayles - Take Your Fine Frame Home