A new test for Democrats - where they stand on Israel
The New York City primaries underlined divisions in the party over Gaza, with implications for the 2028 election.

A new White House hire of a controversial former Donald Trump adviser could land Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in court.On Monday, a report claimed the White House is in talks to bring Jason Miller, long associated with the president since his first term, back to help with communications issues before the midterm elections. That potential hiring did not go unnoticed by Miller’s former girlfriend A. J. Delgado who has been waging a war with him for years over child support.Delgado, a former Trump 2016 campaign aide, immediately questioned the hiring decision, with a flood of posts on X, including notifying Wiles she can expect to hear from the court that is hearing her lawsuit aimed at Miller.In previous public statements, Delgado has alleged that Miller engaged in "a cycle of sexual coercion, rape, sexual assault, abuse, battery, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking." The accusations carry substantial weight given her proximity to Trump's inner circle and her detailed familiarity with Miller's behavior.Beyond the assault allegations, Delgado has characterized Miller as deliberately evading child support obligations—a pattern that extends back years and now faces fresh scrutiny as Miller assumes a prominent White House role. Following the new hiring announcement, she wrote on X, "30 days out from a child support trial, Jason Miller suddenly joins the White House (salary of $195,000), when he earned $14 million in the past 12 months. Nothing to see here. Just a 98% reduction in income. Wink-wink. The timing is a total coincidence, am sure."She added, "Hi @SusieWiles47 , I'm moving the court to allow me to take your deposition. Am curious when/why this decision to hire (disgraced) Miller was made, reducing Miller's income by 98%... quite conveniently, a mere 30 days out from my son's long-awaited child support trial..."
The New York City primaries underlined divisions in the party over Gaza, with implications for the 2028 election.
Speaker Johnson's plan to merge the SAVE America Act with the defense bill faced resistance from GOP holdouts demanding stronger Senate assurances.
The Trump administration's effort to broker peace in the Middle East is being shaped — and at times complicated — by competing approaches from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.A top Trump adviser described the two men as representing different instincts within the president's own thinking on the region, with Rubio leaning more pro-Israel and Vance more skeptical of Israeli positions, and one U.S. official told Axios the secretary of state has purposefully taken a back seat in the negotiations."He is waiting to see if Vance self-destructs," that official said.However, another senior U.S. official dismissed that take as "boneheaded and wrong," adding that "both Marco and JD are executing the president's will," and White House spokesperson Anna Kelly denied a political dynamic existed."There is one camp — President Trump's camp — and the entire administration is fully behind the president's efforts to ensure Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," Kelly said.However, their competing approaches could be seen across three separate but overlapping agreements – a June 17 memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran negotiated by Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner; a follow-up Vance-brokered arrangement with Iran on June 21 concerning Lebanon; and a peace framework between Israel and Lebanon, finalized Friday, that Rubio oversaw.Rubio's framework sought to limit Iranian influence in Lebanon, while Vance's earlier arrangement gave Tehran a role in shaping the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The contradiction grew confusing enough that negotiators from both Israel and Lebanon asked American mediators last week to clarify which track reflected actual U.S. policy. Hezbollah and its allies rejected Rubio's deal outright and called instead for the Vance-negotiated MOU to take precedence.Officials close to the process maintain that the apparent inconsistencies are not signs of dysfunction, with one adviser comparing Rubio and Vance to complementary tools rather than opposing factions, adding that Trump ultimately directs the strategy. A senior official added that the two men's portfolios diverge geographically more than ideologically, overlapping primarily in Lebanon.Insiders don't see conflicts over individual deals authorized through Rubio or Vance as an impediment for the president, and even suggested the competing approaches would be beneficial."This is all about moving toward peace – the more peace deals, the better," aid one senior administration official. "If Iran wants peace, there will be peace. If it wants war, there will be war."That official disputed the notion of conflict between the vice president and secretary of state."[They're] working in concert with each other," that senior official said. "It's not that one has the pro-Israel bucket and the other has the anti-Israel bucket. It's not how it works internally."
Vice President JD Vance revealed the new scheme he has cooked up to salvage what's left of his political career during a recent talk at the Nixon Presidential Library, according to one political analyst. David A. Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argued in a new edition of "The Atlantic Daily" newsletter that Vance's comments about Watergate being a 12-hour news story today were revealing for all of the wrong reasons. Vance may have been trying to make a point about the state of the American media, but instead exposed that he is cozying up to President Donald Trump's corrupt side as he seeks a way to take the MAGA reins once Trump leaves office. "If it’s true that Watergate wouldn’t make a dent today, that is a reason to lament the fallen state of politics, not to conclude that Watergate was just fine," Graham wrote. "This would be a powerful argument coming from the vice president, who has worried about what he sees as insufficient morality in American society and has said that his role is 'to try to apply moral principles in ways that get the best outcomes,'" he added. "Instead, Vance has concluded that his best chance at political advancement is to hitch himself to the corrupt and unethical Trump. Such cynicism would do Nixon proud."Vance's comments were made at a time when analysts have called out multiple deals the Trump administration struck that appear to financially benefit the president and his family. For instance, the New York Times reported on a mining deal in Kazakhstan involving Trump's sons, Don Jr. and Eric, that could also net Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's family a financial windfall.
A Republican lawmaker slammed the calamity the Trump administration has created by revoking Temporary Protected Status for thousands of immigrants. Last year, the Trump administration abruptly revoked TPS for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, a move that impacted approximately 356,000 people currently living in the U.S. The order was swiftly challenged, but the Supreme Court recently ruled that President Donald Trump has the authority to unilaterally revoke TPS, an opinion that stunned many legal analysts. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) slammed the decision during a new interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead." "As I have stressed to the administration for over a year, while I don't dispute the president's ability to end TPS ... it is foolish to do it at this moment because we are going to create a calamity within our own health care system as a result," Lawler said. Lawler, whose district includes one of the largest Haitian immigrant populations in the U.S., noted that many of these immigrants work in health care, caring for the elderly and disabled. He added that he's asked the administration to instead extend work visas to the immigrants, some of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades. Lawler also noted that it would be dangerous to send Haitian and Syrian immigrants back to their home countries, which raises a host of questions about the timing of the move. "The fact is, from a humanitarian standpoint, it is disastrous to send them back home at this moment, and it will have a profound negative impact on the American people," Lawler said.
Iran allegedly attacked commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to counter a new southern corridor developed by the U.S. and Oman, analysts say.
The Supreme Court is expected to make a long-awaited ruling on birthright citizenship today, on the high court's last day of its term. And, the U.S. murder rate approaches a record low.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was confident his likely successor, Andy Burnham, would maintain the UK’s commitment to defense, as he laid out plans to invest an extra £15 billion ($20 billion) to modernize the British military.