Wednesday, June 18, 2025

June 18, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump weighs joining Iran strikes after calling for 'unconditional surrender' . . . President Donald Trump is considering whether to join Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, as the conflict continues for a sixth day and angry rhetoric ramps up between all sides. American strikes could involve using superior weaponry to hit an underground nuclear site at Fordo, according to five sources who spoke to the BBC's US partner CBS News. The president met with his national security team on Tuesday to discuss next steps. BBC

Iran is running out of ammo, rocket launchers as it struggles to keep up with Israel: experts . . . Iran's retaliatory attacks against Israel have been significantly diminished over the past two days following Israeli assaults against its missile silos and launching sites, experts said. After firing more than 200 rockets in six waves of missile strikes against Israel on Friday and Saturday, Tehran only launched two waves of attacks the following day with only three dozen missiles each, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank tracking the fighting. New York Post

Iran threatens US involvement will lead to 'all-out war

Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for Israeli Strikes—and for Trump's Response—Among MAGA Base . . . A new poll that found 83 percent of those voters support the strikes on Tehran's nuclear program and 95 percent approve of Trump as the president rallies behind the Jewish state. A GrayHouse poll conducted shortly after Israel began its war effort shows that 67 percent of those who voted for Trump "strongly support" the attack on Tehran's nuclear facilities, while another 16 percent said they somewhat approve. Washington Gree Beacon

Fetterman Opposes Bill to Curb Trump's War Powers Relating to Iran

US critical networks are prime targets for cyberattacks. They're preparing for Iran to strike . . . The organizations representing critical networks that keep the lights on, the water running and transportation systems humming across the U.S. are bracing for a possible surge of Iranian cyberattacks. Virtually every critical infrastructure sector is on high alert amid a deepening conflict between Iran and Israel, though no major new cyber threat activity has been publicly reported so far. Politico

Inside the clashes between Trump and Gabbard . . . As President Donald Trump privately mulled joining Israel's campaign against Iran this month, one member of his Cabinet sent what he viewed as an audacious attempt to steer him in the opposite direction. At 5:30 a.m. on June 10, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard tweeted a cryptic, three-minute video warning that "political elite and warmongers" are "carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers" — and that the world is "on the brink of nuclear annihilation." Politico

Trump has privately complained that she is off message.

Pentagon Official Removed From Joint Chiefs Of Staff For Anti-Israel Posts . . . Colonel Nathan McCormack, who was the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff's J5 planning directorate, according to his LinkedIn, posted several controversial tweets on his X account. He called Israel a "death cult" and referred to the Israeli government as "Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies," among other things, Jewish News Syndicate reported. Daily Wire

Politics

Democrats want to fight Trump, but they can't stop fighting each other . . . Many Democratic leaders and activists have grown frustrated with the state of their national party operation, worrying that a spate of internal divisions and unflattering feuds threatens to hinder their fight against President Donald Trump's Republican Party. The Democratic National Committee, typically the domain of nuts and bolts political activity, has been rocked by clashes that reflect broader generational and ideological strains in the party. Washington Post

Members clash over increasing their own security . . . Lawmakers confronting a rise in political violence are grappling over whether to use more tax dollars for their own protection, even as Republicans search for deep cuts across the federal government. That question will be tested next week, when the House Legislative Branch appropriations bill funding the operations of Capitol Hill gets marked up. Top congressional Democrats are pushing for more money. Some Republicans are also calling for a funding boost. Politico

Supreme Court disclosures detail millions in justices book payments . . . The Supreme Court justices' annual financial disclosures were released Tuesday, revealing millions of dollars in combined book payments to the justices in 2024. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took in the most, disclosing a nearly $2.07 million book advance from Penguin Random House, which published her memoir, "Lovely One," in September. Jackson received nearly $894,000 the year prior. Justice Neil Gorsuch, meanwhile, reported just $259.95 in royalties for his 2009 book "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. The Hill

'It will fail': Megabill changes have Republicans doubting July 4 timeline

Senate Panel Examines Olympics Doping . . . A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday heard a lack of confidence in the World Anti-Doping Agency's ability to combat cheating at the Olympics. The hearing, "WADA Shame: Swimming in Denial Over Chinese Doping," comes after an April 2024 report detailed how top Chinese swimmers tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug just months before they were allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. Daily Signal

We've been competing against cheaters for at least half a century at the Olympics and other international events.

Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz get in heated back and forth over Iran . . . Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a fiery exchange on Tuesday over the senator's support for President Trump and his posturing toward Israel in its escalating conflict with Iran. The conservative media personality on Tuesday released a clip from the interview — set to be released in full on Wednesday — in which he grills Cruz on details about Iran and its demographic makeup. When Cruz does not know the answers Carlson is seeking, the host blasts the senator for failing to know the details of "the country you seek to topple." The Hill

Did Roosevelt know the population of Japan when he asked Congress to declare war after Pearl Harbor?

White House condemns Jim Acosta as 'disgraceful human being' after he jokes about Trump's dead ex-wife . . . Ex-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta joked in an interview posted Monday about President Donald Trump's deceased former wife's burial site and called her an example of an immigrant "doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do." Acosta argued he is a hypocrite on the immigration issue because of his immigrant wives, including his late first wife Ivana. "How many immigrants has he married? He's got one buried at his golf course in New Jersey! Isn't she buried by the first hole or the second tee or something like that?" he said. Fox News

Culture

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Order Mandating Biological Sex On Passports . . . A federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from barring gender identities on passports that differ from a person's biological sex. U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction that expands on an April ruling that applied to six plaintiffs who sued the federal government. Kobick granted the plaintiffs' request to make the lawsuit a class action, expanding the injunction to block President Donald Trump's order restricting passports to only reflect biological sex. Daily Wire

National Security

Zero Illegal Aliens Released Into U.S. In May By Customs And Border Protection . . . Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not release a single illegal alien into the United States during the month of May, a new report from the federal immigration enforcement agency revealed. The figure lies in sharp contrast to May of 2024 under the Biden administration, when approximately 62,000 illegal aliens were released into the United States. CBP agents encountered just 8,725 illegal aliens attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry last month, a whopping 93 percent decline since last May. Daily Wire

Kristi Noem Hospitalized After Allergic Reaction . . . Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Washington, D.C., Tuesday afternoon due to an allergic reaction, the White House says. "Secretary Noem had an allergic reaction today. She was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering," Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said. Daily Signal

Money

OpenAI boss says Meta offering $100m plus to poach my staff . . . The boss of OpenAI, Sam Altman, says members of his team have been getting "giant offers" from rival tech firm Meta, including $100m "signing bonuses." Meta - which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - is attempting to boost the artificial intelligence (AI) side of its business, including recently spending $14bn to buy 49% of the startup, Scale AI. However Mr Altman said "at least so far" none of his "best people" had been persuaded to jump ship. BBC

You should also know

Marijuana use doubles the risk of sudden heart disease death . . . University of California researchers reviewed 24 studies involving 200million people to investigate the relationship between weed and cardiovascular disease, stroke and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) - a group of heart conditions in which there is reduced or blocked blood flow to the heart, such as a heart attack. They found there was a 29 percent higher risk of ACS, a 20 percent higher risk for stroke and double the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, which includes coronary artery disease, heart failure and irregular heartbeats. Daily Mail

Guilty Pleasures

An 80-year-old drives a luxury Mercedes sedan down Rome's Spanish Steps and gets stuck . . . An 80-year-old man drove a compact luxury Mercedes-Benz A Class sedan down the landmark Spanish Steps in Rome early on Tuesday before getting stuck part way down, municipal police said in a statement. Police said the man, a resident of Rome, tested negative for alcohol and was at a loss to explain how he had wound up driving down the famed steps. They did not release his name and it was unclear if the car was his. The small sporty car was later removed by firefighters using a crane. Associated Press