Listen to this issue.

0:00

/526.524082

1×

U.S., ISRAEL, IRAN WAR | Day 104.

• Following a second-straight day of escalating violence, the U.S. and Iran continue to blame the other today for cease-fire violations in the Middle East war that analysts warn risk a full-scale resumption of the conflict. U.S. forces are reported to have struck more than a dozen sites in Iran over the past day, while Iran targeted several Gulf-region countries that host U.S. troops, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. [more]
• Iran's Revolutionary Guard said yesterday that it has, once again, closed the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping – a contention rejected by U.S. officials – and the Iran Foreign Ministry said this morning that U.S. strikes on Iran have "“effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless." [more]
• In a social media post today, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will continue to hit Iran "very hard" and that "in the not ​too distant ​future, we will be taking ‌Kharg ⁠Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total ​control ​of ⁠their Oil and Gas Markets." [more]
• The board of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution yesterday demanding that Iran cooperate with the agency, provide complete information about its stockpiles of nuclear materials, and grant inspectors access to nuclear sites. Reports note that IAEA inspectors have been barred from Iranian nuclear facilities since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in June 2025. [more]

U.S. INFLATION | Labor Department data released today shows that the Producer Price Index – a measure of the cost to produce goods for delivery to the market – rose a higher-than-expected 1.1% in May from the previous month. On an annual basis, the PPI rose 6.5% from May of last year – the highest annualized increase since November 2022. [full report] [more]

U.S. INTELLIGENCE | Congressional leaders warn that, ahead of its midnight Friday expiration, authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's Section 702 – a key measure that allows U.S. agencies to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant – is likely to lapse amidst opposition to President Donald Trump's temporary pick of federal housing finance regulator Bill Pulte to serve as director of national intelligence. [more]

U.S. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE | The FBI announced yesterday that it recently seized 13 websites and domains linked to efforts on the part of Chinese intelligence agencies to recruit U.S. workers who have access to classified or other sensitive government information. [press release] [more]

U.S. EDUCATION | According to new test results released by the National Center for Education Statistics, reading scores among nine-year-old students in the U.S. rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2025 and math scores in the same age group saw some recovery. Test scores for 13-year-old students, however, remained below pre-pandemic averages for both reading and math. [full report] [more]

FLORIDA | With a 6-1 decision yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court allowed newly revised congressional districting maps drawn to favor Republican candidates to be used in this November's mid-term elections. Opponents of the new maps had claimed the re-districting violated a state constitutional prohibition on partisan gerrymandering, but the Court, without ruling on the merits of the case, said it lacked jurisdiction to intervene while related proceedings play out in lower courts. [more]

WHITE HOUSE | According to a National Park Service court filing in response to a lawsuit seeking to block the event, the UFC fight scheduled to take place on the White House grounds this weekend has involved work by more than seven federal agencies and hundreds of staff, and has cost at least $60 million in non-government funding. [more]

U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS | Announcing the findings of a six-month investigation yesterday, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said the University of California-Davis School of Medicine "discriminates based on race in its admissions process" in violation of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action in higher education admissions. [press release] [more]

GLOBAL DISPLACEMENT | In its Global Trends 2025 report released yesterday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced by conflict, violence, or persecution in 2025 and that there were 41.6 million refugees at the end of the year, 39% of whom were children. The report notes that about 70% of the global refugee population in 2025 originated from just six countries: Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela. [report website] [full report] [more]

ISRAEL AND WEST BANK | In a 149-page report released yesterday, rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of carrying out a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. [full report] [more]

PAKISTAN | Authorities say 22 Pakistani soldiers were killed yesterday in the crash of a military helicopter in Muzaffarabad, the regional capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Preliminary reports cite a technical fault as the cause of the crash. [more]

U.K. | Accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to commit sufficient government resources to defend the country, British Defense Minister John Healey resigned today. [more]

CANADA | Joining numerous other countries implementing similar measures, Canada yesterday introduced legislation that would bar children younger than 16 years of age from having social media accounts unless companies can show that their platforms are safe from various forms of harmful content. The legislation would also create a new regulatory agency, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, to oversee online safety, and would require platforms to implement age-verification measures. [more]

SPACEX | The initial public offering listing price for the Elon Musk-led SpaceX conglomerate is expected to be announced late today and the stock is set to open for trading tomorrow under the ticker SPCX. According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company is aiming to raise a record-setting $75 billion by selling more than 555 million shares at an expected price of $135 each. [more]

SOCCER | The 2026 FIFA men's World Cup opens today with matches between Mexico and South Africa and Czechia and South Korea. The U.S. team's opening game is tomorrow against Paraguay. [full schedule] [more]

BASKETBALL | With an NBA Finals record-setting comeback, the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 107-106, last night to win Game 4 of the league championship and take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 5 is scheduled for Saturday night. [more]

ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS | The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday that actress Glenn Close, director Ridley Scott, and animator Floyd Norman are among those who will receive honorary Academy Awards at a ceremony scheduled for November 15 in Hollywood. [full announcement] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1776, amidst the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five – composed of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman – to draft a Declaration of Independence, from Great Britain, to be completed in the subsequent 17 days. [more history]