“I'm confused because we have one extra layer that we don't normally have, which is we have no idea what the truth is. I'm not being funny. There was a time when someone said the following is a red line, you would understand it to be a red line. There was a time when someone said these are the conditions, you understood it to be the conditions. There was a time when someone said we've reached an agreement, you would understand that they'd reached an agreement. None of those things are true right now.”
“The pilot was quickly recovered, but his weapons officer or colonel spent again two days evading Iranian militia and Revolutionary Guard forces. He was eventually plucked from a crevasse in a mountain some 7,000 feet high. I'm told by a US official, he's in stable condition, though no detail on his wounds.”
Global trade interdependencies limit US military leverage
“What if we learn that this world is wildly interdependent? More so than most of us appreciate. The moment you try and chop off an arm, all of a sudden you discover interdependencies and what there seems to be. At least those two stories tell us that that may be a fairly general thing.”
Zelensky trades drone expertise for missile defense
“Russia attacks Ukrainian cities with hundreds of Shaheds a day, and Ukraine's military has learned how to intercept them. Zelensky is offering to trade this anti-drone expertise for systems that shoot down Russian ballistic missiles. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, CAVE.”
“You cannot have a Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result. You have hundreds of millions of people dead, and it's not gonna happen. So I can't, I think he's very weak on crime and other things. So I'm not I mean, he he went public. I'm just responding to Pope Leo.”
“US Southern Command posted grainy videos on social media showing explosions that destroyed two small boats alleged to be smuggling drugs. Many legal experts say these strikes amount to execution without trial or simply murder, and some allies in South America and Europe have stopped sharing some intelligence with the US military as a result.”
“Meanwhile, in a profanity-filled post on social media, President Trump threatened Iran again today over opening the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli attacks have killed at least 39 people across Lebanon today. And Piers-Lauren Freire reports, one of the biggest attacks targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, where Iran-backed Hezbollah has offices.”
Strait of Hormuz blockade reveals strategic US weakness
“Iran showed that it has control over the Strait of Hormuz. That's actually very important and a major loss to the United States. When someone reveals a weakness that you had, that's as bad as them creating a weakness. And so if eight weeks ago, Iran didn't understand itself to have leverage, it had never had the opportunity to test it. Today it does.”
“What the president calls a deal is not, I promise I will give up this and you will give up that. Promise means I'm going to follow through. What he has at the moment is press releases. What he's capable of delivering is, if you do this and I do this and it's in your best interests and it's in my best interests, we can get there. Which is basically a small set of possible outcomes.”
Mark Carney secures Canadian parliamentary majority
“Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has secured a parliamentary majority. His Liberal party won the majority Monday night following two special election victories. Carney has said that a win would help him deal more effectively with the trade war started by president Trump.”
“The Screenwriters Union and Hollywood Studios have reached a tentative four-year agreement after weeks of negotiation. Details of the agreement between the Writers Guild of America West and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers hasn't been released. But the Union was asking for better health care plans and protections against artificial intelligence.”
Iran war threatens massive household economic stability
“The administration has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, which makes me think, okay, this is all noise, this is all nonsense. Gas prices are continued to be elevated. I think there are more than 30 percent since the war began. It seems as though this is only going to continue. At least that's my sense, but maybe I'm being pessimistic.”
“Israel says that it will have full control of the Lebanese town of Bin Shabeel, quote, within days. The town has become the center of intense fighting. It's part of land that Israel says it's seizing from Lebanon to create what it calls a buffer zone so Hezbollah can't fire rockets into Israel.”
“In a statement, James says an investigation found people arriving at New York Presbyterian's hospitals in New York City received inadequate care that, quote, put vulnerable patients at risk. Her report alleges people with mental illness weren't properly screened. And in some cases, patients who appear to pose serious risks to themselves or others were left unsupervised or received no care.”
“Residents posted this video to social media showing people covered in gray dust, ferrying the wounded out of a collapsed building on slings made of blankets. Israel often issues evacuation orders, but this attack in Beirut's coastal area of Jenach came without warning. Hitting a dense residential area near a public hospital, health officials say a four-year-old girl was among those killed.”
