curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
C.J. Atkins @ People’s World: After over 100 days of war, U.S.-Iran deal restores status quo
Workers in the U.S. and around the world paid the price for a war that, by its own ceasefire terms, ends up restoring much of what existed before the first bombs fell, leaving many questioning why the war against was even launched in the first place.
Not everything is like it was in the pre-war world, though. Costs are up, incomes are down, and some of the biggest weapons, energy, and finance corporations are far richer than when the war started.
The United States and Iran announced a framework agreement this week to end more than 100 days of war, with President Donald Trump declaring on social media that the “Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete” and ordering the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports. Negotiations over details continue, but a formal signing is set for June 19 in Geneva.
(C.J. Atkins @ People’s World more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 17, 2026
A senior U.S. official read the text of the fourteen-point memorandum of understanding with Iran over the phone to reporters today, and there’s a reason it has ignited a firestorm.
A memorandum of understanding is usually a nonbinding agreement outlining shared goals and intentions, but in this case, although there is much vague or confusing language in the text, what the White House says is an MOU actually has firm language in it.
First of all, after months of the White House insisting Trump does not need congressional approval for his strikes against Iran because they did not constitute a war, the MOU straight up calls the conflict “the current war.”
The MOU commits the U.S. and Iran “and their allies” to stop military operations “on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” a reference to Israel’s bombing of what it says are Hezbollah camps there. Israel has suggested it will not consider itself bound by any such agreement, but as Anton Troianvoski points out in the New York Times, the language will enable Iran to pressure the U.S. over Israeli attacks in Lebanon or Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in what Israel calls a “security zone.”
The MOU says the U.S. will “terminate all types of sanctions” against Iran, and it lifts the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, giving Iran the access to world trade the U.S. previously prevented in order to pressure the regime. It also permits Iran to begin selling oil immediately on the world market.
The MOU says Iran will use “its best efforts”—not a guarantee—“for the safe passage of commercial vessels” through the Strait of Hormuz “with no charge for 60 days only.” It continues: Iran and Oman will decide how to “define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz,” an indication that Iran intends to charge fees for transit of the strait.
The MOU says the U.S. will thaw frozen Iranian assets immediately and also “develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development” of Iran to repair the damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes. It says the U.S. will grant “[a]ll required licenses, waivers, and permissions needed for the relevant financial transactions,” apparently readmitting Iran to full participation in world financial markets.
In exchange for these concessions, Iran “reaffirms” in the MOU that it will not try to develop or procure a nuclear weapon. That word “reaffirms” is important: it signals that Iran is simply reiterating what it said in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Trump tore up in 2018.
But, unlike the JCPOA, the MOU contains no language about a process to guarantee Iran’s promise not to pursue a nuclear weapon. When a reporter asked Trump about that absence, he said that what would guarantee Iran’s compliance is fear of renewed U.S. bombing. But Iran has shown it can withstand such attacks, and in any case, the U.S. has no stomach for them.
It looks as if Trump’s war on Iran has cost the U.S. the lives of thirteen service members, injuries to 400 more, and at least $132 billion so far in immediate costs, lost income, and higher consumer costs, only to leave the U.S. in a significantly worse place with regard to Iran than before Trump started bombing.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Alex Miller, Morgan Phillips @ Fox News: Trump’s Iran deal ‘giving a lot more to get a lot less’ than Obama’s, senator says
Dean Blundell: Former Israeli Spy: “Netanyahu Is Holding The Epstein Files, And Will Release Them To Blow Up Iran Peace Deal.”
The claim is almost impossible to verify. The timing is almost impossible to ignore.
Heather Delaney Reese: Trump didn’t want any of this to come out
Borowitz: Ayatollah’s ‘Art of the Deal’ Becomes #1 Bestseller
Garrett Graff: The Oxymoron of Trump and “Intelligence”
We spend $100-billion-a-year on US intelligence that Donald Trump can’t be bothered to read.
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Home of the Brave: DOGE Cuts Left America Exposed to a Flesh-Eating Super-Parasite
The New World Screwworm could wreak havoc on the country’s cattle. Thank Elon Musk.
(Home of the Brave more…)
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Matt Naham @ Law&Crime: Donald Trump appears ready to wave the white flag in showdown with niece Mary Trump after discovery reversal completely changed the game
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Joe Lancaster @ reason: Police Kill 1-Year-Old Boy by Shooting Into Car of Suspected Shoplifters
The suspects—his mother and aunt—were accused of shoplifting diapers from Walmart.
… It’s not yet clear if they were actually shoplifting, but that’s beside the point; even if they were, pilfering diapers hardly merits an armed response.In Mississippi, shoplifting is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine or a few months in jail—certainly nothing that justifies deadly force. …
(Joe Lancaster @ reason more…)Carlos Miller @ Atlanta Black Star: ‘It’s Just Too Much’: Mississippi Cop Who Shot and Killed a 1-Year-Old Black Baby Over Alleged Stolen Box of Diapers Placed on Leave After Protests
Robyn Nicole Sanders @ Slate: Another Racially Charged Verdict Has Split Americans. Here’s the Real Scandal.
… The equal protection clause is not an exercise in demographic accounting. Constitutional rights are not vindicated through racial substitution. A Black juror is not interchangeable with a Latino juror.
Nicole Santa Cruz @ ProPublica: More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program
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Jay Kuo: How the DOJ turned a Facebook post into evidence of a federal conspiracy
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Thom Hartmann: For Decades, Americans Learned the Treasonous Truth After the Votes Were Counted. This Time Is Different.
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Joyce Vance: The Administration’s Assault on the Civil Rights Community
Joyce Vance @ MSNOW: SPLC is standing up to Blanche’s bullying — and so is this judge
(Joyce Vance @ MSNOW more…)
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Kelly Hayes @ truthout: The uprising at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, has become a focal point for broader resistance to ICE
(Kelly Hayes @ truthout more…)Joseph Cox @ 404 Media: ICE Appears to Be Buying Immigrants’ Tax Identifiers from a Data Broker
A $10 million procurement reviewed by 404 Media indicates ICE is buying records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers. “It looks for all the world like Trump is trying to skirt the law and a court order to fuel his mass-deportation campaign,” Senator Ron Wyden said.
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Paul Kedrosky: AI Has Doubled Computing’s Share of U.S. GDP; Nvidia Under Inference Pressure
- AI data centers’ share of GDP (not just GDP growth) is now material.
- A new report buries the lede with respect to how the inference transition is already affecting Nvidia.
Dan Robinson @ Register: Only half of US datacenter capacity planned for 2026 is actually under construction
Another fun example of AI hype and reality colliding
Jowi Morales @ Tom’s Hardware: Researchers recycle old phones and cluster them into ‘computing platforms’ that operate as a low-cost data center — says processors on modern smartphones deliver higher single-core performance than comparable multicore servers
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Dell Cameron, Yulia Almazova @ Wired: Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ Society
More than 200 of the world’s elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking.
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Anthony M, Public Historian: How Black Women have been ascribed Masculinity throughout history
In the shadows of both history and our present-day discourse, Black women have endured a unique and painful distortion of their identity. The masculinization of Black women is not a recent phenomenon nor a mere social media slur—it’s a deeply rooted historical pattern. To truly understand why these attacks persist, we must go back to the 19th century, when pseudo-scientific fields flourished in service of racial oppression.
During slavery, enslaved Black women were depicted as possessing superhuman strength and endurance—not to honor them, but to justify brutal labor practices. …
(Anthony M, Public Historian more…)
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Matthew Facciani, Ph.D. @ Your Local Epidemiologist: Cancer falsehoods and rumors are killing people
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Why cancer is uniquely vulnerable- Cancer is extraordinarily complex.
- Most cruelly, the diagnosis itself disarms the patient.
- Recommended treatments often have terrible and sometimes lifelong side effects.
- There’s money in exploiting it.
(Matthew Facciani, Ph.D. @ Your Local Epidemiologist more…)
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Dr. Howard Markel @ PBS: This genetic brain disorder turned Woody Guthrie’s life from songs to suffering
Beth Mole @ arsTECHNICA: “Truly evil” FDA rejection of gene therapy overturned after Trump official ousted
Gene therapy company UniQure had another FDA meeting after Vinay Prasad’s exit.
A gene therapy for Huntington’s disease has a new path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration after the ouster of several Trump officials, particularly Vinay Prasad, who rejected the therapy in a shocking move one former FDA official called “truly evil.”
(Beth Mole @ arsTECHNICA more…)Jorge Arévalo, Joanne Wojcieszek, M.D., P. Michael Conneally, Ph.D.: Tracing Woody Guthrie and Huntington’s Disease
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Brad Plumer @ NY Times: Trump Administration to Pay $765 Million to Cancel 4 More Wind Projects
It’s the third such deal the Interior Department has struck to pay firms to abandon plans for offshore turbines, spending roughly $2.5 billion to get companies to abandon their wind projects.
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
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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