"Four settlers were arrested after an attack on CNN and other journalists in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, according to Israeli Police." www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/m...

Thinking about Archbishop Desmond Tutu's statement that he would rather go to hell than a homophobic heaven

NEW: He was picking up a work crew to take them to construction site at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. ICE showed up. And now this small business owner, the father of three American citizens, is dead. www.thebulwark.com/p/he-lived-h...

Iran's armed forces will launch 'massive' attack on US army bases in the region shortly.- Iran's Nour News cites military source

Government run gas stations, with prices not at market value

It’s certainly not my primary concern related to the conflict, but I’ll never not be surprised when the world’s largest economy and military attacks one of the world’s primary sources of energy and equity markets shrug it off.

Losing my mind at this Murder, She Wrote promo

Just POTUS (once again) threatening territorial conquest against a treaty ally and undermining US defense alliances.

Elon Musk’s demolition of USAID, and the resulting suffering and death, “is going to be a defining part of his legacy, and I do wonder if that’s why he’s scrambling so hard to rewrite that history now," @jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social told me: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Four people killed in an Israeli strike in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon reut.rs/4pabt0i

A very sad but fascinating piece on Ukraine's children during wartime. foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/27/u...

Foreign Policy's paywall is down all this week, so here's some pieces I think stand out of late. First up is this excellent breakdown of the geography of the Iran war, and why it gives Iran such an advantage. foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/23/i...

The American legal system is being abused in order to pander to the president's fantasies and make them seem real www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/u...

but remember, according to the Supreme Court it's not corruption unless you say "I am giving you money in exchange for this specific favor", preferably while wearing a "I Love Bribery" hat and getting the whole thing in writing

Commentary: When killing the messenger becomes a strategy of war

NEW: An analyst's missed remarks and US intelligence systems that weren’t connected to one another are among the missteps that investigators have surfaced while probing the cause of a missile strike on an Iranian school that killed an estimated 120 children, people familiar with the matter said.

Russia preparing possible ‘provocation’ in Baltic states or Poland, sources say www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Frank Carone, his brother, and 2 others were arrested this am by the FBI in a bribery case in EDNY, a source familiar with the case tells us. Carone was Eric Adams’ chief of staff. Will post more details when they’re available.

“This waiver doesn’t just weaken the pressure campaign—it puts it into reverse,” said a managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors. “Washington spent months building economic leverage and weeks handing Iran a path around it. What took months to build will be dismantled in a fraction of the time.”

@moryan.bsky.social put together a helluva list

Mona Khalil, who spent more than two decades protecting sea turtles along Lebanon’s coastline, was critically injured in the Israeli strike on her home in the village of Mansouri earlier this month and died of her wounds Friday Via @joudsally.bsky.social apnews.com/article/leba...

relatedly to last rant, why are we all sharing this post with no source and an ad for an app

I feel a great deal of resentment toward Peter Thiel, Amy Chua and Rod Dreher for a lot of reasons but also for introducing me and everyone else to the dull mind and duller heart of JD Vance

Happy Sunday. I took JD Vance to church. nymag.com/intelligence...

The death toll from Israel’s war on Lebanon has surpassed 4,000. Since March 2nd, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health: — Israel has killed at least 4,057 people throughout Lebanon. — More than 12,000 injured. — 135 health workers killed; 17 hospitals damaged.

I saw the Ramones, in 1996, in Syracuse, NY at Lollapalooza. They went on after Rancid and were followed by: Wu Tang, Soundgarden, and Metallica. Easily one of the best concerts I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a few.

During Mamdani’s race billionaires claimed that wealthy people, companies, and working class people would flee if he was elected. He was. They didn’t leave and neither did companies or working class people. Now we have a whole class of Americans that believe this fiction, and articles like this.

Zelenskyy: “i am giving Lukashenko one week to withdraw the military equipment from the Ukrainian border that is being used to adjust artillery fire against the Ukrainian population. “Otherwise, we will do it ourselves.”

Ballistic missiles — incredibly difficult to intercept due to their sheer speed — remain the toughest challenge for Ukraine’s air defenses. As Russia shows no sign of easing its strikes, Ukraine faces a critical shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors.

Middle East crisis live: Iran threatens ‘harsh response’ if Israel fails to cease attacks in Lebanon

for the u.s. this is status quo ante minus for iran it's status quo ante (arguably status quo ante plus www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NEW: A trove of internal records from Dialog, the secret society cofounded by Peter Thiel, was left exposed online. WIRED obtained a second cache of records that reveal who's really attending, how they're screened, and what personal details they were promised would stay private.

I’m in @foreignpolicy.com taking a big swing (but not a hot take): Trump’s defeat in Iran is a bigger US defeat in strategic terms than the US loss in Vietnam foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/16/i...

With the DOJ bringing charges against "antifa" members today, it's worth remembering how frequently such cases bought by the Trump DOJ have been dropped or completely fallen apart, particularly after video footage surfaced that countered the government's allegations.

According to Barak Ravid, here is the MoU. Sure seems like Iran was the one dictating terms: 1. Iran, the US and their allies will cease hostilities, including in Lebanon 2. Iran reiterates its commitment not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons

This war replaced a hard line leader with his more hard line son, ended the U.S.’s ability to guarantee the freedom of maritime navigation, and killed a lot of Iranian and Lebanese civilians. We also decreased our capabilities in the region and lost thirteen service members. An unambiguous loss.

NEW: the US government intervened Monday on behalf of xAI in a lawsuit over its gas turbines, claiming that the company needs to run the turbines in order to power Grok, which is "vital" for national security lots of wild stuff in the filing:

The US secretly approved a financial and maritime arrangement between Qatar  and Iran , under which billions of dollars were paid to Tehran in exchange for free passage for Qatari tankers and ships through the Strait of Hormuz, three diplomatic officials now confirm.

Civil Records for Hundreds of Thousands of Lebanese Could Be Wiped Out By Israel’s Total War theintercept.com/2026/06/14/l...

wrote about what it meant to go from the ultra-high growth era to a normal(ish) economy for China foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/15/c...

This morning scrolling Bluesky, there is nothing at all in my feed about Putin’s barbaric attack on the Ukraine’s holiest site, the UNESCO protected Lavra so I’m posting this here.

BREAKING Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, on Monday denounced the deal between the United States and Iran to end the Middle East war, including in Lebanon, insisting his country was not bound by it

We need some kind of term for deals that are supposedly close to being finalized but in reality hard to believe to be so based on available reports of their details.

The view from Brooklyn. Love you NYC ❤️

The deal remains incredibly close. The U.S. just needs to remove all its military bases from the Middle East and it’s done.

Edward Luce in the Financial Times about Musk:

This is very dangerous: voter registration group being treated as criminal www.ms.now/news/ohio-pr...

It seems as if he got bored and frustrated with Iran and his staff subsequently gave him someone to kill.

Some of the efforts being made in Belfast right now to protect people, because the government can't or won't, will be familiar to Minnesotans.