Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, U.S. Report Says
“The attack sealed off the entrances to two nuclear facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, classified findings indicated. The report suggests that President Trump’s earlier statement on the strike’s success was overstated.”
Read more at New York Times
AP
Trump bristles as Iran attack questions linger
“The White House is ramping up its defense of President Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites after an intelligence assessment has added to growing scrutiny over the effectiveness of the strikes.
Trump, who has sought to parry criticism of the intervention by touting a fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran clinched after the bombings, has bristled at media reports casting doubt on his claims.
Appearing at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump insisted there was ‘total obliteration’ at the Iran nuclear sites, putting Tehran's nuclear program back ‘basically decades.’
The president in a Truth Social post late Tuesday accused news outlets of teaming up to ‘DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY.’
An initial U.S. intelligence assessment reported by multiple media outlets Tuesday found the strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites delayed Tehran's nuclear program by a matter of months — and possibly fewer than six.
The assessment is preliminary and could change, the reports noted, but it cast doubt on whether the bombings against the sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had ‘obliterated’ the program as the president has claimed.
The core components of Iran’s nuclear program reportedly remain intact, raising new questions about Tehran’s next moves and whether the U.S. might revisit additional military action in the future in its goal to destroy it.
Trump has declared success and suggested no new plans for U.S. intervention against Iran in support of Israel, and chastized both countries on Tuesday as both sides claimed the other had violated a ceasefire.
The White House has moved quickly to dismiss the contents of the intelligence assessment, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt casting the agency analysis as ‘flat-out wrong.’
‘The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission,’ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement to The Hill.
Vice President Vance, addressing a GOP fundraiser in Lima, Ohio, on Tuesday night, told the audience, ‘Not only did we destroy the Iranian nuclear program, we did it with zero American casualties.’
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the U.N. Security Council the U.S. operation ‘effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran’s capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.’
Trump indicated Wednesday Israel was also conducting assessments of the strikes. Hegseth said the Trump administration plans to investigate how the intelligence assessment was leaked to the media.
The Hill: Trump’s “both sides” approach to Israel, Iran comes into question.
The White House on Tuesday abruptly postponed lawmaker briefings about the Iran mission until later this week, infuriating skeptical Democrats and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky), who has criticized the strikes.
‘The Top Secret Israel-Iran war briefing we were supposed to receive today was canceled. They say it was 'postponed,' but no new date was given. What the Hell?’ Massie wrote on social media platform X.
‘If the press reporting about the impact of last weekend's strikes in Iran is true, and I cannot confirm them, then that might be the reason why the administration postponed our classified briefing today at the very last minute,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Trump earlier in the week had criticized ‘sleazebag’ journalists for reporting uncertainty about the extent of damage from the U.S. strikes, stating the sites ‘were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it.’
The president then turned his focus to announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which appears to be holding after some initial shakiness.
A White House source told CBS News that Trump was ‘exceptionally firm and direct’ in his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about what needed to happen to sustain the ceasefire, and the source said Netanyahu had ‘understood the severity of the situation and the concerns President Trump expressed.’
Netanyahu said he had held off on tougher strikes after talking with Trump.
The Hill: Trump tensions with Israel, Netanyahu surface.
The Hill: The president’s push for a ceasefire soothed MAGA nerves.
Israel has touted its 12-day military campaign against Iran as having an impact on setting Tehran's nuclear program back.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York City on Tuesday it’s ‘too early to assess all the strikes’ and too early to hold diplomatic talks with Iran but talks could happen soon.
‘We know we were able to push back the program,’ he added. ‘We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had.’
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told senators on Tuesday during a confirmation hearing that Iran still possesses ‘significant tactical capability.’ He said that capability was demonstrated by a limited retaliatory missile strike against a U.S. military base in Qatar, which Iran telegraphed ahead of time to make a point while preventing any casualties.
In response to a question about whether Iran still poses a threat to U.S. troops and Americans around the world, Cooper replied, ‘They do.’” [The Hill]
SCOTUS runs the gamut with immigration, pornography, religion and health care
“Supreme Court decisions coming as soon as Thursday will resolve whether President Donald Trump can enforce his changes to birthright citizenship while his new policy is being litigated. The ruling could make it harder for judges to block any of the president’s policies. The justices will also issue decisions on how states can keep minors from accessing online pornography and on defunding Planned Parenthood. Other rulings will determine if health insurers have to cover certain medicines and services, like HIV-preventive medication, and whether a federal program that subsidizes phone and internet services through carrier fees is constitutional. Here’s a look at what’s still to come.” [USA Today]
What is 'Alligator Alcatraz'?
“A new migrant detention facility officials are calling ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is slated to open in Florida's Everglades next month, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The federal government on June 23 approved a proposal to open a 5,000-bed detention facility on 39-square miles of land in the Everglades, Uthmeier said in an interview posted on X. Uthmeier said he believes the facility will house both detained migrants from Florida as well as from other states around the country. Meanwhile, local advocates are calling out concerns about potential impact on the surrounding environment and community.” [USA Today]
DOGE firings
“Even as the Department of Government Efficiency continues its campaign to shrink the federal workforce, agencies are rehiring and ordering back from leave a number of employees who were laid off. Some firings were stopped by the courts, while other reinstatements came at the request of lawmakers and the industries and groups they serve. Many federal workers were reinstated when the administration realized it needed their expertise and experience in areas such as the bird flu, mine safety and weather forecasting. Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said the firing and reinstatement of workers ‘shows the mosaic of incompetence and a failure on the part of this administration to understand the critical value that the breadth of government expertise provides.’ On Tuesday, a federal judge also blocked President Trump’s efforts to terminate the collective bargaining rights of more than 1 million federal employees.” [CNN]
NYC mayoral election
“Zohran Mamdani declared victory in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor after his top rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded. CNN projects that the democratic socialist and three-term state assemblyman’s initial support will remain below 50%, meaning the race will be formally decided by ranked-choice votes and announced in July. However, it appears Mamdani’s platform — which includes a rent freeze, making city buses free, affordable childcare, raising taxes on the wealthy — struck a chord with New Yorkers. And his strong performance at the polls will likely provide a nationwide boost to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. If elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim mayor.” [CNN]
Homeland Security
“President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced numerous appointments to an advisory council inside the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. Some of the experts Trump tapped for the council include his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, right-wing political commentator Mark Levin, and Chris Cox, a chainsaw artist who founded the political group Bikers for Trump. The council provides ‘real-time, real-world and independent advice on homeland security operations.’” [CNN]
GOP plan to sell more than 2 million acres of federal lands is found to violate Senate rules
“A plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands has been ruled out of Republicans’ big tax and spending cut bill after the Senate parliamentarian determined the proposal by Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee would violate the chamber’s rules.” Read More at AP News
Politics
Justice Department official suggested ignoring court orders on deportations, whistleblower claims
Emil Bove, attorney for then former President Donald Trump, attends Manhattan criminal court during Trump’s sentencing in the hush money case in New York, Jan. 10, 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via AP, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday.
The whistleblower’s claims about Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove come a day before Bove is set to face lawmakers Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become a federal appeals court judge.
In a letter seeking a congressional and Justice Department watchdog investigation, the former government lawyer, Erez Reuveni, alleges he was pushed out and publicly disparaged after resisting efforts to defy judges and make arguments in court that were false or had no legal basis.
The most explosive allegation in the letter from Reuveni’s lawyers centers around a Justice Department meeting in March concerning President Donald Trump’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act over what the president claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Reuveni says Bove raised the possibility that a court might block the deportations before they could happen. Reuveni claims Bove used a profanity, saying the department would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you,’ and ‘ignore any such order,’ according to the filing.
‘Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove’s statement because, to Mr. Reuveni’s knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership - in any Administration – had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with’ an expletive, the filing says. In the weeks following the meeting, Reuveni says he raised concerns in several cases about efforts to violate court orders through ‘lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation.’
Reuveni’s claims were first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the allegations ‘utterly false,’ saying that he was at the March meeting and “at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.”
‘Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it should be tolerated,’ Blanche wrote in a post on X.
Reuveni had been promoted under the Trump administration to serve as acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation after working for the Justice Department for nearly 15 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Reuveni’s firing came after he conceded in an April court hearing that a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, should not have been deported to an El Salvador prison, and expressed frustration over a lack of information about the administration’s actions. After that hearing, Reuveni says he refused to sign onto an appeal brief in Abrego Garcia’s case that included arguments that were ‘contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue.’
‘The consequences of DOJ’s actions Mr. Reuveni reports have grave impacts not only for the safety of individuals removed from the country in violation of court orders, but also for the constitutional rights and protections of all persons — citizen and noncitizen alike — who are potential victims of flagrant deliberate disregard of due process and the rule of law by the agency charged with upholding it,’ Reuveni’s lawyers wrote.
U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg in April found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating his order not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg had told the administration to turn around any planes that already headed to El Salvador, but that did not happen.
The administration has argued it did not violate any orders, saying it didn’t apply to planes that had already left U.S. airspace by the time his command came down.
Trump nominated Bove last month to fill a vacancy on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was already expected to face tough questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee given his role in some of the department’s most scrutinized actions since Trump’s return to the White House in January.
The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, said Tuesday that the allegations from Reuveni are part of a ‘broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department’s commitment to the rule of law.’
‘I want to thank Mr. Reuveni for exercising his right to speak up and bring accountability to Mr. Bove,’ Durbin said in a statement. ‘And I implore my Senate Republican colleagues: do not turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.’
Democrats have raised alarm about several other actions by Bove, including his order to dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case that led to the resignation of a top New York federal prosecutor and other senior Justice Department officials. Bove also accused FBI officials of ‘insubordination’ for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot, and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.” [AP News]
Robert Garcia elected to lead House Oversight Democrats
“California Rep. Robert Garcia will be the next top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee after beating Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch in a 150-63 caucus vote Tuesday.
Garcia, 47, won a first-ballot majority after winning the backing of the caucus’ powerful Steering and Policy Committee Monday evening.
Serving just his second term in Congress, Garcia has quickly risen through the ranks. He’s currently a member of Democratic Caucus leadership and served as a co-chair of Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.
In a contest that had tested House Democrats’ desire to set aside its penchant to reward seniority in favor of promoting younger voices, Garcia had pitched himself to his colleagues as a consensus candidate with managerial experience as a former mayor of Long Beach.”
Read the latest at POLITICO
Florida building 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention centre in Everglades
“The Everglades are an ecologically sensitive area, and are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Florida has begun building a detention centre - dubbed the 'Alligator Alcatraz' - to temporarily hold migrants on an air strip in the Everglades.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the facility would be funded ‘in large part’ by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's shelter and services programme, which was previously used to provide accommodation and other aid for undocumented migrants.
The plan has been criticised by several lawmakers, including the mayor of Miami-Dade County, who argued it could be environmentally ‘devastating’.
The proposal comes as Trump tries to deliver on a campaign pledge to ramp up deportations of illegal migrants….” [BBC]
Vincent Alban/The New York Times
New York City Hits Its Hottest Temperature in More Than a Decade
“The official temperature gauge in Central Park reached 99 degrees this afternoon for the first time since July 18, 2012. And it could climb even higher.”
Read more at New York Times
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
Systemic failures led to a door plug flying off a Boeing 737 Max, NTSB says
“National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday that the heroic actions of the crew aboard Alaska Airlines flight 1282 ensured everyone survived the incident last year when a door plug panel flew off the plane shortly after takeoff. An NTSB investigation found that bolts securing the door plug panel were removed and never replaced during a repair.” Read More at AP News
Why Factories Are Having Trouble Filling Nearly 400,000 Open Jobs
For every 20 positions, there’s one qualified candidate, says one manufacturing chief executive. Some of President Trump’s policies are likely to exacerbate the problem.
“President Trump’s pledge to revive American manufacturing is running into the stubborn obstacle of demographic reality.
The pool of blue-collar workers who are able and willing to perform tasks on a factory floor in the United States is shrinking. As baby boomers retire, few young people are lining up to take their place. About 400,000 manufacturing jobs are currently unfilled, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a shortfall that will surely grow if companies are forced to rely less on manufacturing overseas and build more factories in the United States, experts say.
Difficulty attracting and retaining a quality work force has been consistently cited as a ‘top primary challenge’ by American manufacturers since 2017, said Victoria Bloom, the chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers, which produces a quarterly survey. Only recently has the issue slipped down on the list of challenges, superseded by trade-related uncertainty and increased raw material costs due to tariffs, Ms. Bloom said.
But the scarcity of skilled blue-collar workers remains a long-term problem, according to Ron Hetrick, an economist with Lightcast, a company that provides labor data to universities and industry.
‘We spent three generations telling everybody that if they didn’t go to college, they are a loser,’ he said. ‘Now we are paying for it. We still need people to use their hands.’
The hiring challenges faced by American factories are multifaceted.
The president’s crackdown on immigration, which includes attempts to revoke deportation protections for migrants from troubled countries, may eliminate workers who could have filled those jobs.
Many Americans aren’t interested in factory jobs because they often do not pay enough to lure workers away from service jobs that may have more flexible schedules or more comfortable working environments.
For some companies, remaining globally competitive involves the use of sophisticated equipment that requires employees to have extensive training and familiarity with software. And employers cannot simply hire people right out of high school without providing specialized training programs to bring them up to speed. That wasn’t the case in the heyday of American manufacturing.
Attracting motivated young people to manufacturing careers is also a challenge when high school guidance counselors are still judged by how many students go on to college.
College graduates, on the other hand, often do not have the right skills to be successful on a factory floor.
The country is flooded with college graduates who can’t find jobs that match their education, Mr. Hetrick said, and there are not enough skilled blue-collar workers to fill the positions that currently exist, let alone the jobs that will be created if more factories are built in the United States.
The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group whose members are chief executives of companies, has started an initiative in which executives collaborate on strategies to attract and train a new generation of workers in skilled trades. At an event last week in Washington, executives commiserated about how hard it was to find qualified people and swapped tips onstage for overcoming the gap.
Their ideas included combing through existing company job descriptions to prioritize relevant experience over college degrees and recruiting high school students as young as sophomores for experiences that could draw their interest in manufacturing careers.
‘For every 20 job postings that we have, there is one qualified applicant right now,’ said David Gitlin, the chairman and chief executive of Carrier Global, which produces air-conditioners and furnaces and services heating and cooling equipment.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, Mr. Gitlin said, demand has exploded for technicians to service data centers, which are built with cooling systems called chillers. He estimated that each data center would require four technicians to maintain a single chiller.
‘We have 425,000 technicians today,’ he said, referring to the heating and air-conditioning industry as a whole. ‘We are going to need to hire another four to five hundred thousand over the next 10 years.’ But the number of young people going to vocational schools and community colleges, he added, is dropping, not growing.
At the Business Roundtable event, executives praised Mr. Trump’s efforts to revive the country’s industrial base. But some executives acknowledged that the president’s immigration policies posed challenges to any effort to fill the factories that he has pledged to bring back.
Peter J. Davoren, the chairman and chief executive of Turner Construction Company, said that he would like to see ‘a clear path for citizenship’ for immigrants in the construction industry and the food industry.
The Trump administration’s aggressive cuts to training programs for blue-collar workers have also hurt efforts to train a new generation of factory workers. The administration has taken steps to eliminate the Job Corps, a 60-year-old program that provides at-risk youths from 16 to 24 with a path to a career in the trades. Huntington Ingalls Industries, the country’s largest shipbuilder, hired 68 Job Corps graduates in December in its bid to beef up its work force.
‘The gap between available skills and needed skills in the work force is widening,’ Chris Kastner, the president and chief executive of HII, said. ‘Technology is evolving fast but education and training systems too often lag behind.’
The Trump administration has rolled out an initiative called Make America Skilled Again, which consolidates existing work force training programs into one initiative that would give states grants if the states met certain criteria. At least 10 percent of the new Make America Skilled Again funding must be spent on apprenticeships.
In April, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that directed the secretary of labor, the secretary of commerce and the secretary of education to submit a plan to create one million registered apprenticeships. But it is unclear if that ambitious target can be achieved with the funding in Mr. Trump’s budget bill, which trims $1.6 billion from work force training.
In April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent drew the ire of many federal employees when he suggested that American factories could get the labor they needed from the ranks of laid-off government workers. ‘We are shedding excess labor in the federal government,’ he told Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host. ‘That will give us the labor we need for the new manufacturing.’
But recruiting laid-off federal employees never came up at the Roundtable event. Instead, participants spoke of efforts to train high school students and veterans.
Blake Moret, the chairman and chief executive of Rockwell Automation, a Milwaukee-based process-automation specialist, said his company had created an academy of advanced manufacturing that trained returning service members for 12 weeks.
Sara Armbruster, the chief executive of Steelcase, a company in Grand Rapids, Mich., that designs furniture, said businesses must begin recruiting in high school to educate students and their parents about how rewarding a career in manufacturing could be.
Students often change their minds about a career in manufacturing when they visit the company’s shop floor and see that a modern factory is clean, high-tech and ‘cool,’ she added.
‘When they have that moment, it really changes everything in terms of opening up possibilities for them in their career,’ she said.” [New York Times]
SCIENCE
A powerful new telescope in Chile released its first, stunning images.
This image shows a small section of the telescope’s total view of the Virgo Cluster. (Vera C. Rubin Observatory/AFP/Getty Images)
“What to know: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun a survey of the universe. It’s already discovered more than 2,000 unknown asteroids — see more amazing photos here.
Who was Vera Rubin? An astrophysicist and mother of four who discovered dark matter. Read her remarkable story.”
Read this story at Washington Post
SPORTS
The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are getting a 400% pay raise
“This year, the world-famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are seeing additional pay coming their way — to the tune of a 400% raise. It's been a long battle for raises from cheerleaders, some of whom make only $15, who have cited concerns dealing with financial stress in recent years. Veterans and rookies are on different pay scales, with the former earning more money with more experience. The El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, noted that ‘a veteran will see her pay increase from a reported $15 per hour to $60 per hour, and there will be many appearances by the team outside of game days.’ Even though they received an increase in compensation, the group still does not receive health insurance from the team.” [USA Today]
Ex-teen idol Bobby Sherman dies at 81 after stage 4 cancer diagnosis
READ FULL STORY→ USA Today