I am about to hop on a flight for the next several hours, so I wanted to get you the evening news rundown before I lost wifi for a bit. If you did not see, today, we were featured in Rolling Stone. I am still truly honored and floored.
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With that, here’s the news:
United States and Israel v. Iran
The US military struck three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend.
According to an early US intelligence assessment first reported on by CNN, the strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program, only setting it back by a few months.
The assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), based on a battle damage assessment by US Central Command.
These early findings contradict President Trump’s claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also claimed that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “have been obliterated.”
Two sources familiar with the assessment that spoke with CNN said:
Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile was not destroyed.
The centrifuges are largely intact.
The strikes likely set Iran back “maybe a few months, tops.”
The White House acknowledged the assessment but rejected its conclusions.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the assessment “flat-out wrong” and accused a “low-level loser” in the intelligence community of leaking it.
Leavitt defended the mission, emphasizing that dropping fourteen 30,000-pound bombs resulted in “total obliteration.”
The US military maintains that the operation was an “overwhelming success.”
A comprehensive assessment is still in progress; the DIA assessment may differ from the views of other intelligence agencies.
The US continues to gather intelligence from within Iran to assess the damage.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz thanked the US and President Trump for acting against the Iranian nuclear threat.
Acting US envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea, told the UN Security Council that the strikes “effectively fulfilled” the goal of degrading Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.
Israeli leadership was reportedly “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s public rebuke of both Israel and Iran after Israel continued strikes before Trump’s ceasefire took effect.
All other news:
ICE is increasingly arresting immigrants with no criminal history, with recent data showing over 11,700 such detainees as of mid-June — a 1,271% increase — contradicting Trump administration claims that enforcement focuses on violent criminals, despite DHS officials stating their priority is targeting violent offenders.
The Trump administration will rescind the 2001 “roadless rule,” which prohibits road building and logging on roughly 59 million acres (24 million hectares) of national forest land, including nearly a third of national forest lands and the largest old growth forest in the country, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump appeared to cast doubt on the US commitment to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, saying there are “numerous” definitions of it and stating, “I’m committed to saving lives,” while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte insisted Trump remains committed to the alliance.
Emil Bove, Trump’s nominee for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a senior DOJ official, allegedly said the department should consider telling courts “fuck you” when facing orders blocking deportations of undocumented people, according to whistleblower Erez Reuveni, who described DOJ leadership as willing to defy courts and fire those who objected, in a letter obtained by the New York Times.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will wait to see how tariffs impact US prices before considering rate cuts, resisting Trump’s repeated demands and personal attacks, including Trump calling Powell “very dumb” and blaming the Fed’s refusal to lower rates—partly due to Trump’s own economic policies—for harming the US economy.
A 21-year-old Norwegian tourist was refused entry to the US and deported after ICE found a JD Vance meme on their phone, according to the Daily Mail.
The US House of Representatives rejected an effort to impeach President Trump by a vote of 344-79.
Senator Thune plans a Senate vote on Trump’s tax bill for Friday, according to Axios.
According to a Punchbowl text alert, McConnell said people are upset about Medicaid cuts but “they’ll get over it.”
See you in the morning.
— Aaron
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