US conducts strikes on Iran after attack on cargo ship
US Central Command says it has struck missile and drone storage facilities and coastal radar positions.

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson's warning about electing Democrats ended up sounding like 'a good time' to online critics.During a full-throated speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition "Road to Majority" Conference on Friday, Johnson (R-LA) tried to admonish voters, "If we lose the midterms, these Democrats will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body.""They'll go after the president's family, the cabinet, his donors, friends, half of you in this room will be targeted," Johnson said.The reaction on X to Johnson's warning was a mix of suspicion that the House Speaker is confirming the Trump administration has something to hide, and critics of Trump said the prediction sounded enticing."Don't threaten us with a good time," political commentator Jamie Bonkiewicz joked."Good point," Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of Pod Save America, wrote in reaction to Johnson's warning. "If you think politicians, billionaires, elites, and members of the Epstein Class should be able to do whatever they want without any accountability, vote Republican this fall.""It'd be nice to have a Speaker who'd say: 'And let them, we have nothing to hide, and they'll look like fools for doing it,'" posted Tom Nichols, veteran political commentator and a staff writer at The Atlantic. "But what he's saying here is: They're gonna uncover a lot of stuff, and you don't want that."The account for the political news network MeidasTouch similarly interpreted the warning as "Mike Johnson giving Democrats more reasons to vote.""He's admitting that they are criminals," progressive news personality Alex Cole posted. "Wow.""Just the Speaker of the House pledging that if you vote Republican he will continue to make sure all the corruption and criminality happening in the Trump admin will be covered up by him and his do-nothing committee chairs," Ron Filipkowski, political commentator and editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, wrote.
US Central Command says it has struck missile and drone storage facilities and coastal radar positions.
MS NOW analyst Steve Benen says House Speaker Mike Johnson dropped an unexpectedly corruption-friendly reason for protecting the House’s GOP majority against its near inevitable collapse in the November midterms.“If we lose the midterms, these Democrats will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they'll go after the president's family, the cabinet, his donors, friends, half of you in this room will be targeted,” Johnson said — and then added out loud that “I run the protection program. We’ll take care of you.”In the final two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, there was a Republican Congress and a Democratic president, said Benen, and Republicans “put aside any legislative ambitions and spent 2023 and 2024 … investigating all sorts of perceived controversies related to the Democratic administration.”But after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the GOP-led Congress completely switched gears and clanked the Congressional vehicle into protection mode.“This time, lawmakers also abandoned their oversight responsibilities to an almost cartoonish degree, pretending not to notice any of the incumbent president’s many abuses and scandals,” said Benen.In fact, Congressional Republicans have done so little oversight, The Washington Post reported last month, that the White House Counsel’s Office, expecting Democrats to reclaim a majority in at least one chamber, recently began “giving private briefings to the administration’s political appointees on how to best prepare for congressional oversight,” said Benen.That same article added that the roughly 30-minute briefings have included “a PowerPoint presentation about how congressional oversight works and best practices for handling it.”Regarding his statement, Benen notes the GOP leader did not appear to be reading from a prepared text. He was just shocking shooting GOP intent from the hip before a live audience.“What was on his mind was a near future in which a possible House Republican majority spends 2027 and 2028 shielding the president, his team and their allies from the kind of scrutiny that Congress has a responsibility to do as a matter of course,” said Benen. “This isn’t altogether surprising,” he added, “given everything we’ve seen from Capitol Hill over the past year and a half, but it was nevertheless remarkable to hear a sitting House speaker declare, out loud and in public, that he wants and expects to run a ‘protection program’ — a phrase more commonly associated with organized crime — on behalf of the White House.”Republicans have already been using their majority to shield the president from the fallout of the Epstein files, with Kentucky Republican and House Oversight Chair James Comer being accused of using "a new strategy" to "contain" the ability of lawmakers to issue subpoenas against "high-profile figures in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation."Before that, Republicans used their majority to stall the passage of a new law making the Trump administration’s release of the files legally mandatory. And after failing in that effort, Trump himself targeted Republicans who favored the release for ousting in GOP primaries.The GOP’s labor to protect Trump from incrimination is well noted, but Benen said “usually, GOP leaders are a bit more subtle about their anti-oversight posturing.”Johnson’s protective oath sounds odd considering how hard Trump appears to be working to get the Republican majority removed from Congress, however. Trump’s polling is at historic lows, and his recent effort to blowup a hugely popular housing bill in the Senate is souring voters to both the administration and his party.
Pochettino has been in charge of the US since late 2024Former Spurs and PSG boss likely to have club interestMauricio Pochettino has been offered a contract extension that would keep him in charge of the US men’s national team through the 2030 World Cup, multiple sources familiar with the offer said on Friday. Sources spoke with the Guardian on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.Pochettino and the US Soccer Federation have been discussing a new deal for about three months, said one source. Pochettino, along with US Soccer CEO JT Batson, have spoken publicly about the negotiations as recently as late May, around the time that Pochettino was reported to have had talks with Serie A side Milan. Pochettino was coy when pressed about Milan’s interest, but Batson spoke openly about it, saying that the federation had received many inquiries in regards to Pochettino’s services. Continue reading...
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., clashes with reporter over whether socialist candidates winning New York primaries could threaten Hakeem Jeffries' speakership bid.
The U.S. military struck Iran on Friday after Tehran attacked a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command announced the strike, calling it a “powerful response to yesterday’s attack.” The renewed fighting came after the United States and Iran agreed to engage in peace talks last week. “U.S. aircraft struck Iranian missile […]
Ambassador Julianne Smith says US strikes on Iran, which CENTCOM says came in response to an Iranian attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, could "spiral into something bigger," but says the US and Iran have reason to preserve the ceasefire. Smith, former US Ambassador to NATO under President Biden, says companies may hold back shipments as they wait to see whether Iran responds. She speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg's Balance of Power. (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.S. military said it conducted strikes against Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar locations on Friday, a day after Tehran struck a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes by U.S. forces in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) came after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a Singapore-flagged container…
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