Six Years Too Late

The U.S. and Iran traded bombs over the weekend, despite ongoing peace negotiations. By Sunday afternoon, both sides appeared ready to climb back down the ladder. Several outlets warned that “Iran” now says it has no choice but to build a nuclear bomb. Not true. Iranian media published an opinion piece making that argument. That is not the same thing as an official Iranian government position, an IRGC directive, or a policy announcement from Tehran. The piece argued that Iran needs nuclear deterrence to force the U.S. and Israel to negotiate from a position of equality. That is a domestic strategic argument, not a declaration that Iran is building a bomb. Iran’s official position remains that nuclear weapons are forbidden under Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa, first publicly reported in 2003 and later cited by Iran at the IAEA. So no, “Iran” did not announce that it is building a nuclear

It’s hard to imagine worse optics. As much of Europe baked under a heat wave, the European Commission reportedly shut off air conditioning on the lower floors of its Brussels headquarters on Friday while keeping it running on the upper floors. Temperatures climbed above 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Guess where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her senior staff have their offices. The top floors. For years, Brussels has lectured Europeans that they must consume less energy, lower their expectations, and make personal sacrifices in the name of climate policy. But when the building got too hot, the sacrifice apparently wasn’t meant to be shared equally. The message couldn’t be clearer: austerity for the staff downstairs, comfort for the ruling class upstairs.

The Supreme Court just slammed the door on nearly 70,000 cancer victims. In a deeply disappointing 7-2 ruling, the justices shielded chemical giant Bayer-Monsanto from state-level product liability lawsuits over its weed killer, Roundup, and its failure to include a warning on the label about the risks of cancer. How exactly did this case come about? John Durnell, a St. Louis resident, sued Monsanto in 2019, alleging that decades of using glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup, caused him to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. The jury sided with Durnell in 2023, awarding him $1.25 million in damages. But after an appeals court upheld the verdict, Monsanto petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case in April 2025. Impacting the recent ruling was Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s majority opinion that: The EPA has “repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not likely to

Ford and General Motors are in discussions with defense contractors about converting some of their factories to produce military weapons. Interesting timing, considering we’re supposedly winding down the latest war. Speaking to reporters this week, President Trump said that companies, including General Motors and Ford, are discussing plans to manufacture weapons such as Patriot air-defense missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of a major expansion of U.S. military production. “I know General Motors is all excited about building weapons now,” Trump said, adding that some civilian factories could be converted for military use as part of what he described as a “big strong economic push.” The proposal comes after reports that the Pentagon has been meeting with major manufacturers about shifting idle production lines toward weapons production, reviving a World War II-style strategy of turning America’s industrial base into a wartime machine. Why the sudden urgency? Years of wasting

“When I came to President Trump, I told him, ‘We are going into Iran. I did not ask permission. I simply informed him.’” Those were Netanyahu’s words during a speech on Wednesday at the Muni Expo conference for local officials in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu also said he was told, “This is impossible,” and “not to do this.” But Israel, knowing Washington has historically backed them no matter what, and that any escalation in Iran would put American forces in harm’s way, knew full well this would drag the U.S. into the war. The U.S. is no victim, though, or innocent bystander; it decided to fund Israel’s military campaign, genocide and all. In extended remarks, Netanyahu discussed his military achievements, saying Israel went “out into the arena, to initiate, to attack,” adding that “the most important thing we did” in the recent conflicts “was break the barrier of fear.” So Israel

The United Nations published a horrifying report detailing the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian children by the Israeli military. The numbers are shocking and the stories are a nightmare. You’ve been warned. The report estimates that at least 20,000 children have been killed and 44,000 wounded between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025. This accounts for 30% of the Palestinian casualties, and the rate may be higher because of the estimated 5,160 children that are still “buried under the rubble.” The children that were wounded are often wounded for life and will require medical care that is not available in Gaza. The report says that they have suffered from what is medically known as “polytrauma,” or “multiple traumas impacting multiple body parts at once, such as bone fractures, significant soft tissue damage, brain and spine injuries, nerve and organ damage and perforating wounds.” Doctors reported what