Kim Jong Un called for North Korea to boost its nuclear capabilities “with increasing speed” and said the “bloody situation” in the Middle East makes his nuclear push the “most correct and unique way” to defend the country, state media reported.
The Iran peace train is, for now, still on the tracks after an initial meeting in Switzerland involving Vice President Vance and high-level officials from the Islamic Republic. There are massive perils ahead that will require painstaking navigation, however, including negotiating the nitty-gritty of Iran’s nuclear program and keeping a lid on the volatile situation…
Iran's foreign ministry says it made "no new commitments" on nuclear inspections after talks in Switzerland.
Vice President JD Vance is in a politically precarious spot.
Photographs smuggled out from behind tarp-covered scaffolding at the Kennedy Center reveal what President Donald Trump has spent nine days trying to hide.His name is gone.The images, first obtained by activist group Hands Off the Arts and independently verified by The Washington Post, show two rows of blank square panels on the performing arts venue's marble facade, where Trump's name had been affixed since December."This is the picture the Trump administration does not want anyone to see, so it’s all the more important … that people have an opportunity to witness when they’re winning," said Mallory Miller, co-founder of Hands Off the Arts.The name came down in the early morning hours of June 14. A 14-member crew completed the court-ordered removal around 3 a.m., hours past the judicial deadline. Rather than pull back the scaffolding and let the public see the results, the Kennedy Center left tarps and barricades up, with security guards blocking any view of the facade. A spokeswoman said the scaffolding "will remain up as crews address maintenance needs of the marble and soffit panels." The tarp cover was "starting to arouse suspicion," with some questioning whether the name had actually been removed.U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last month that Trump's board had violated federal law when it voted to rename the venue. Only Congress, which created the Kennedy Center, has the authority to change its name.Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), whose lawsuit forced the removal, accused Trump's allies on the board of willfully sabotaging the facade in "a petty act of defiance." Trump had railed against the court order on social media, vowing he had "no interest" in continuing what he called a "hopeless journey."
21st Century Road to Housing Act, which aims to boost supply and stop investors buying up homes, heads to HouseSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan measure aimed at lowering housing costs by streamlining construction and permitting, ending months of fraught negotiations on a priority for both parties ahead of November’s midterm elections.The 21st Century Road to Housing Act would limit investors’ ability to buy homes, waives some federal permitting rules in a bid to ease new construction, and authorizes pilot programs to facilitate grants for home improvements and planning affordable housing. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, with a vote of 85-5, and now heads to the House of Representatives. Continue reading...
Iran appears to have identified and systematically exploited President Donald Trump's rapidly decaying cognitive abilities.That's according to Atlantic staff writer and national security scholar Tom Nichols, who joined MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline: White House" on Monday. Wallace argued that Trump is operating inside an "artificial reality" constructed by aides who feed him selectively curated social media posts to shield him from negative information about the economy and the war. The arrangement, Wallace said, explains moments like Trump's repeated insistence that the country is "hot."I used to think he was lying. Now I think he's deluded," Wallace said, calling it a "threat to global stability."Nichols agreed with the withering verdict. "Delusion is the word I was going to use when you were asking about this, because he is self-deluded," Nichols echoed. "I have said many times on this show that I think his cognitive abilities are decaying rapidly."Aides who once told Trump hard truths have stopped doing so, he said. "He doesn't want to hear it. I mean, now we're just seeing a more extreme version of the problem that Donald Trump has always been uneducable and unbriefable. He doesn't listen. He's a narcissist. You can't tell a narcissist that they're wrong about something when they've decided that they're right," said Nichols.Drawing on the upcoming new book "Regime Change" by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, Nichols said the portrait that emerges is of a president who has turned previous positions completely upside down. A regime once called an existential evil is now a negotiating partner, he said, and nuclear material that sparked the Iran war may now remain in the country indefinitely.Nichols argued that Iran had "figured something out" that Trump refuses to accept: that two months of high gas prices would damage him politically far more than depleting U.S. weapons stockpiles. That assessment tracks with earlier reports that Iranian negotiators were recruiting senior psychologists to tailor messages for what they described as Trump's "impaired mental state."Analysts have warned that Trump's split-off-from-reality problem has cascaded from domestic politics onto the global stage, leaving adversaries better positioned.
VP JD Vance defends fragile Iran MOU in Switzerland as reports suggest internal administration split over whether Tehran can be trusted on nuclear deal.
U.S. official says VP JD Vance made great progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks in Switzerland, calling snub reports foreign propaganda from Iran media.