curated citations to news sources
The Substack Post: Standing up for free speech, even at the border
Earlier this month, Alistair Kitchen—a writer based in Melbourne—was detained, interrogated, and sent back to Australia by U.S. border agents, evidently in response to articles he had published on Substack.
Kitchen, a former Columbia University student, had written firsthand accounts of the student protests that took place last year.
“Look, we both know why you are here,” a border agent at Los Angeles International Airport told Kitchen, according to his account of the incident for The New Yorker. “It’s because of what you wrote online about the protests at Columbia University.”
Border agents questioned him about his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, combed through his phone, and pressed him about the details of his intended visit. He was held in a windowless holding room for hours, alongside other detainees, before eventually being put on a flight back to Melbourne.
(The Substack Post more…)
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NY Times: Cassidy, in Break With Kennedy, Calls for Vaccine Meeting Delay
The chairman of the Senate health committee, in his first significant break with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called for a delay in this week’s meeting of a panel of vaccine advisers, saying the group Mr. Kennedy appointed lacks the experience and diversity of opinion necessary to ensure public faith in its recommendations.
(NY Times more…)arsTechnica: CDC’s once-revered vaccine panel now a “farce”—calls grow to scrap meeting
The panel is scheduled to meet Wednesday with an anti-vaccine agenda.
Reuters: US CDC vaccine presentation cites study that does not exist, author says
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Allison Gill: New Evidence that DOJ Intentionally Defied Court Orders and Lied to a Judge
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Times of Israel: Questions abound on Iran’s remaining nuclear capabilities after US strikes
Tehran’s stock of 60% enriched uranium will be difficult to track down, expert says, as IAEA chief demands access to struck enrichment sites
Popular Mechanics: Iran’s Concrete May Be Unbreakable, Scientists Say
ABC: Early US intel assessment finds strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program only by months
CNN: US strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say
Daily: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Melts Down After Trump’s Iran Failure Exposed
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attacked the initial US assessment which found that Trump failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
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The Trump administration canceled the classified briefing about the Iran bombing to Congress and didn’t give a reason why, but the reason is fairly clear.The administration could go to Congress and tell them that the bombing had failed.
Many experts had suggested that bunker-busting bombs would not be able to get deep enough to impact the Iranian nuclear program, and multiple attacks would need to be conducted on the same sites to eliminate Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.
The White House won’t admit that Trump lied in his remarks on Saturday night, and that the bombing has failed.
If anything, Trump’s actions accelerated Iran’s nuclear program.
Hakeem Jeffries: Statement on Trump administration canceling congressional briefing on Iran
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 24, 2025
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In fact, Trump’s victory lap seems designed to be the finale to a triumphant storyline that can convince his loyalists he has scored an enormous victory before reality sets in. According to a new CNN poll, Americans disapprove of the U.S. military strikes against Iran by a margin of 56% to 44%.
…Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky suggested today that the Obama administration had the right approach when it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that limited Iran’s nuclear program. Paul said: “I’m arguing that the intervention, the military intervention, may not have been successful, as people are saying, and also that there may not be a military answer to this, that ultimately the answer to the end of the nuclear program is going to involve diplomacy.”
A video on Trump’s social media feed posted at 7:15 tonight recalled Senator John McCain’s 2007 call to “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.” Trump’s version used McCain’s “bomb Iran” chorus but was longer and had visual imagery of planes dropping bombs. In Trump’s version, the soundtrack to the video used the melody of Barbara Ann to say things like: “went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks, tell the ayatollah gonna put you in a box,” and “old Uncle Sam, getting pretty hot, gonna turn Iran into a parking lot.”
It is a truism that, like other authoritarians, Trump tries only to appeal to his supporters, but I confess this video, from the president of the United States, left me aghast. It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Conversation: Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 − it pushed program underground and spurred Saddam Hussein’s desire for nukes
(Conversation more…)
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NY Times: Iran’s Attack on a U.S. Base in Qatar Is a Nightmare Come True for Gulf States
The countries have long worried about being sucked into regional war as they juggle relations with Washington, their security guarantor, while seeking to improve ties with Tehran.
Doha, the quiet capital of Qatar, is usually known for public safety and manicured malls. So the panicked scenes there on Monday after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at an American military base near the city were unlike anything its residents had seen.Smoking and blackened shrapnel fell from the sky. Interceptors that collided with the missiles and exploded midair were visible from The Pearl Island, a man-made land mass filled with high-end apartments. …
(NY Times more…)
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NPR: Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.
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Michele Hornish: A Losing Battle is Still Worth Fighting
“Do Not Obey In Advance” isn’t just a saying
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Rolling Stone: Mumia Abu-Jamal on Trump’s America: ‘All Is Not Well in Babylon’
(Rolling Stone more…)
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Nashville Banner: ICE Arrested a Pregnant Tennessee Woman — While in Detention in Louisiana, She had a Stillbirth
(Nashville Banner more…)
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TNR: Nancy Mace Is the Future of the Republican Party
The South Carolina representative isn’t just a bigot and a laughing stock. She’s pioneering a media strategy that her GOP colleagues will follow.
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TNR: Donald Trump Is Doing Socialism Now
The same Trump administration that labels its Democratic opponents “communists” recently acquired (in perpetuity!) a government ownership stake in United States Steel.
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TNR: Trump’s Anger at AOC Boils Over—and Reveals a New Way Forward for Dems
… What struck us about this is that Trump let himself get spectacularly triggered precisely when his propagandists are blaring forth the message that his Iran saga shows him to be a statesman of world historical stature. Democrats should do more to bait Trump to trample on his own message at key strategic moments.
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Daily: Trump Cognitively Collapses In Front Of The World At NATO Press Conference
Donald Trump was asked about the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites at the NATO press conference and somehow ended up on calling Joe Biden a “deadhead.”
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Borowitz: Some Amazing Things Happened Today
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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