Iran's top negotiator says country ready for war as peace talks inch along

By Alex Sundby, Frank Andrews

Updated on: June 30, 2026 / 7:03 PM EDT

What to know about the Iran war today:

• Iran's top negotiator told state television that the country is ready for war if the U.S. doesn't fulfill its commitments.
• Iranian and U.S. officials have traveled to Qatar, but aren't expected to hold direct talks.
• An agreement signed four days ago between Israel and Lebanon links an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon to the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah being disarmed. Analysts say that could mean Israel occupying southern Lebanon indefinitely, which could continue hampering efforts toward a full U.S.-Iran peace deal.

Newly Released Emails Reveal Just How Little RFK Jr. Cares About Public Health

We should all be angrier that our lives are in the hands of Secretary Roadkill and his MAHA brigade

By Charles P. Pierce

Published: Jun 30, 2026 3:19 PM EDT

I have been charmed by the videos of Senator Bernie Sanders shooting hoops at various locations throughout the past several years. Man still has a nice, if earthbound, shooting touch. He’s just a couple of inches on his vertical away from being Hank Luisetti. And it turns out, in his day job, he’s still got some moves too.

In his role as the ranking Democratic member on the Senate’s HELP committee, Sanders obtained and released a trove of emails from the Department of Health and Human Services. The emails provide a window into what happens when a position in a president’s Cabinet is handed over to the medical equivalent of the Ancient Aliens guy. 

Ray Dalio says the U.S. just had its ‘Suez moment’—and history says what comes next could end an empire

The departure of Sir Anthony Eden and Lady Eden on the New Zealand line ship Rangitata from the Royal Albert Docks following his resignation as British prime Minister. Before their departure Sir Anthony said a few words before a battery of microphones and cameras. January 1957. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
FORTUNE

By Nick Lichtenberg

Business Editor
June 26, 2026, 3:04 AM ET

“Watch out for allies and creditors losing confidence, the loss of its reserve currency status, the selling of its debt assets, and the weakening of its currency, especially relative to gold.”

Ray Dalio didn’t write that sentence about Britain in 1956. He wrote it about the United States in March 2026. But the parallel he was drawing was unmistakable — and deliberate. 

US lifts restrictions on Anthropic's advanced AI models

TECHNOLOGY UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

Shakeel Sobhan with AFP, Reuters, dpa

11 minutes ago11 minutes ago

Washington had restricted Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, invoking national security concerns. OpenAI was also asked to limit the rollout of its latest GPT-5.6 model to vetted partners only.

Image: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/IMAGO

The United States has lifted export restrictions on Anthropic's most advanced AI models, the company said late on Tuesday, after Washington suspended access over national security concerns about three weeks ago.

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress

Politics
July 1, 2026 12:06 AM ET
Elena Moore

Political newcomer and democratic socialist Melat Kiros is poised to become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress after defeating 15-term incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in a primary race for Colorado's 1st Congressional District, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

The Washington Post: Trump calls on Congress to end birthright citizenship after court defeat

The president asserted that lawmakers could “easily” address the issue through legislation, defying years of congressional stalemates over immigration.

June 30, 2026 at 5:15 p.m. EDT

By Dan Diamond and Mariana Alfaro

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Congress to end birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional right and struck down his executive order seeking to redefine who is American.

Supreme Court loosens campaign finance laws, opening up flood of midterm cash

The change is likely to benefit Republicans, who brought the case and rely more on large donors

By Jessica Piper and Josh Gerstein

06/30/2026 10:27 AM EDT

Updated: 06/30/2026 11:39 AM EDT

The Supreme Court struck down limits on coordinated spending between candidates and political parties on Tuesday, a win for Republicans that will fundamentally change how tens of millions of dollars are spent in congressional elections.

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s proposed limits

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

How SCOTUS Handed Donald Trump The Powers of a King

June 30, 2026

Despite a tactical setback in influencing the mechanics of the upcoming midterms, the Supreme Court's decisions provided Trump with a powerful tool to purge any independent voice and install his loyalists across the federal government. 

In two of its most political rulings, the Supreme Court on Monday delivered a split decision for the Trump administration, handing the president a historic expansion of executive authority over the federal bureaucracy while simultaneously rejecting a Republican-led effort to restrict mail-in ballot deadlines. Although these dual rulings represent a "win-some, lose-some" day for President Trump’s immediate political agenda, legal experts say the long-term implications of the court’s actions could fundamentally reshape the relationship between the White House, independent agencies, and the American voter. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a rare oral dissent, warned that the ruling "reshapes our Government," shifting "tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the President's hands."

Harvard’s housing report has a darker message than affordability—the middle-class home was always a historical accident

Nick Lichtenberg
Mon, June 29, 2026 at 12:09 AM PDT 9 min read

A new Harvard study documents a housing market in crisis. But its real argument is more unsettling: the era when an ordinary American could expect to own a home may have been the exception—not the rule.

For half a century, Harvard has been writing versions of the same warning. In 1977, researchers at what was then the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies observed that only the most affluent families in the United States would be able to own their houses if housing trends from the time continued. In 1970, nearly half of all families could afford a median-priced home. By 1975, only 27% could. The study's authors warned that an average home could cost $78,000 by the 1980s—a number they offered as a sign of alarm. The median price of a new single-family home in 2025 was $417,400.

Why SCOTUS Spared Cook, Cooked Trump but "Slaughtered" Slaughter

Source: NBC News

June 29, 2026

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook while simultaneously granting him the power to remove a Democratic appointee from the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter. But that was not all...

Περί Στωικισμού και Λήθαργου

Σκεπτόμενος... Τους Πολέμους του Μάρκου Αυρήλιου και του Ντόναλντ Τραμπ

Τίμοθι Σνάιντερ / Substack / 27 Ιουνίου 2026
Μετάφραση, Επιμέλεια: Γιάννης Δαμέλλος

Καθώς ο Ντόναλντ Τραμπ ανακοίνωνε τον αλαζονικό του πόλεμο ενάντια στο Ιράν, εγώ διάβαζα για μια άλλη αυτοκρατορική εκστρατεία, πολύ πιο παλιά, εναντίον ενός αρχαίου ιρανικού φύλου.

Στα τέλη του δεύτερου αιώνα μ.Χ., η Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία αντιμετώπισε εισβολείς που είχαν διασχίσει τα σύνορα της στον ποταμό Δούναβη και είχαν φτάσει ακόμη και στις Άλπεις στη βόρεια Ιταλία. Μεταξύ αυτών ήταν οι Ιάζυγες, ομιλητές μιας ιρανικής γλώσσας, που κατάγονταν από την ουκρανική στέπα.

Of Stoicism and Stupor

Thinking about...
The Wars of Marcus Aurelius and Donald Trump
Timothy Snyder
Jun 27, 2026

As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.

In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.

National Weather Service Warns of 'Extreme' 115-Degree Heat Through July 4 Weekend for 18 U.S. States - See the Map

Jessica McBride

Sun, June 28, 2026 at 11:52 AM PDT

3 min read

Key takeaways

• The National Weather Service is warning at least 18 states in the eastern U.S. of an extreme heat wave with temperatures soaring over 100 degrees.
• The heat wave is expected to start on Sunday, June 28, 2026, and linger through the July 4 weekend, with heat indices potentially reaching 115 degrees.
• The NWS advises staying hydrated, limiting outdoor activities, and checking on vulnerable individuals to stay safe during the extreme heat wave

A new report finds few sunscreens meet safety standards

Updated: 12:04 PM PDT Jun 27, 2026 Editorial Standards ⓘ
Sandee LaMotte, CNN

It’s time to stock up on sunscreen, but few choices on store shelves today are both safe and effective, according to an annual report by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a nonprofit health and environmental advocacy organization.

NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth

The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week.
By MARCIA DUNN 

AP Aerospace writer
June 28, 2026, 5:20 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver.

U.S.-Iran ceasefire could go up in flames

8 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Barak Ravid

This is more fire than cease:

• Over the past few days, tension between the U.S. and Iran has been escalating with another exchange of strikes on Saturday. President Trump threatened on Truth Social to resume the war and "complete the job."

Canada advances to World Cup Round of 16 for first time after beating South Africa 1-0 in extra time (photos)

Vancouver, BC

June 28, 2026 - 2:22 pm PT

Los Angeles, CA - It may not have been the most exhilarating football game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but it nevertheless marked a significant moment in Canadian history! Canada, having already made waves by advancing past the group stage for the first time ever, pushed into uncharted territory by defeating South Africa 1-0 in this tense knockout round!