“India, Poland and Hungary launched their first astronauts in more than 40 years Wednesday, sending them on a private flight to the International Space Station. The three countries shared the tab for the two-week mission. Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the deal, put the ticket price at more than $65 million per customer. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center two weeks late because of space station leak concerns. The capsule on top carried not only the three newcomers to space (none of whom were alive when their countries’ first astronauts launched) but America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson. Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts sometimes pressed into temporary duty.” (06/25/25)
“Zohran Mamdani came in a clear first in the Democratic mayoral primary, and so a pretty sure bet to win once all the ranked-choice rigmarole counting concludes — and thus becomes the favorite to be New York City’s next mayor. But not the prohibitive favorite. … Credit Mamdani for running an energetic campaign with a forward-looking feel, for charm and grace under fire. Pity those who voted for him, believed his false promises and mistake his idealistic social media feed for real life. … We remain convinced that a Mayor Mamdani would be a disaster for New York City, and believe a majority of voters will agree … if he faces a credible opponent in November.” (06/25/25)
“Thousands of protesters against police brutality and government corruption clashed Wednesday with Kenyan police who hurled tear gas canisters and wielded batons, leaving several people injured as demonstrations spread around the country. The protests were timed to mark the one-year anniversary of anti-tax demonstrations in which 60 people were killed and 20 others remain missing. Parliament and the president’s office in the Kenya’s capital were barricaded with razor wire, with all access roads blockaded by police. The protests, which have spread to major cities including Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Nyahururu, have morphed into calls for the president to resign over poor governance. During last year’s protests, demonstrators stormed Parliament where legislation to increase taxes was passed, burning part of the building as lawmakers fled. Bodies lay in the streets, and medical workers and watchdogs said police had opened fire. The military was deployed.” (06/25/25)
“On June 24, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a truce between Israel and Iran following nearly two weeks of open warfare. Israel began the war, launching a surprise offensive on June 13, with airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, missile installations, and senior military and scientific personnel, in addition to numerous civilian targets. In response, Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles and drones deep into Israeli territory, triggering air raid sirens across Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba and numerous other locations, causing unprecedented destruction in the country. What began as a bilateral escalation quickly spiraled into something far more consequential: a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran. On June 22, the United States Air Force and Navy carried out a full-scale assault on three Iranian nuclear sites (Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan), in a coordinated strike dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer.” (06/25/25)
“One afternoon, as Isabella left school for the day, someone thrust a leaflet into her hand. ‘Do you want to make money with your beauty?’ it asked. She says a studio looking for models seemed to be targeting teenage pupils in her area in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. At 17, with a two-year-old son to support, she desperately needed money, so went along to find out more. She says when she got there, it was a sexcam studio …. Models perform sexual acts which are streamed to viewers around the world, who message them and make requests via intermediaries, also known as monitors. The next day Isabella, whose real name we are not using, says she started work — even though it is illegal in Colombia for studios to employ webcam models under 18.” (06/25/25)
“At the birth of the internet age in the early 1990s, the U.S. and Europe took opposite approaches to advancing this new economy-changing technology. Europe tried the approach of industrial policy: They allowed government to regulate, subsidize and then tax the swarm of new tech companies that emerged. Here in the U.S., Congress and the Clinton administration made a wiser choice. We passed laws that kept internet startups regulation-, tax- and lawsuit-free. It was the Wild West of startup technology companies. A Darwinian race to excellence and survival. Some of the big initial companies like AOL, Netscape and MySpace gave way to superior competitors like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. We all know the end of this story. For three decades America and Silicon Valley came to entirely dominate these earliest innings of the digital age.” (06/25/25)
“Armenia’s security services arrested one of the country’s top religious leaders on terrorism charges Wednesday and accused him of plotting to overthrow the government, the second arrest in a week of a prominent political opponent. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a major figure in the influential Apostolic Church, was arrested by Armenia’s Investigative Committee, which accused him of planning to carry out bombings and arson attacks to disrupt power supplies and stage accidents on major roads to paralyze traffic. His lawyer described the charges as ‘fiction.’ Galstanyan leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement and has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was the focus of protests last year by tens of thousands of demonstrators after Armenia agreed to hand over control of several border villages to bitter rival Azerbaijan and to normalize relations between the neighbors.” (06/25/25)
“The private burial of former President Edgar Lungu in South Africa was halted on Wednesday after the Zambian government succeeded in getting a last-minute court order on the day of the funeral to stop proceedings. Members of Lungu’s family were forced to delay their appearance at a burial service and instead attend a courtroom hearing in the South African capital dressed in black funeral attire to hear the case. The Pretoria High Court ruled that both parties had agreed after consultations that Lungu would not be buried until the case over where his funeral would be held was decided. The judge set an August 4 date for another hearing. The legal challenge by the Zambian government against Lungu’s burial in South Africa was the latest development in a nearly month-long dispute with Lungu’s family over the details of his funeral and final resting place.” (06/25/25)
“So now that Iran’s dream of nuclear weapons has been buried under the mountains (the result of the Trump administration’s Midnight Hammer and massive, 30,000-pound Bunker Buster bombs dropped by U.S warplanes over the last weekend) do you breathe a sigh of relief? Are you pleased that the decrepit old Supreme Leader of Iran doesn’t have his coveted nuclear weapons? Or are you of the bitter ones unable to ignore the demons of your Trump Derangement Syndrome as the latent Democrat inside you licks at your soul? Is that the same internal demon that hushed the Democrats when Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden dropped bombs on the Middle East without seeking Congressional approval?” [editor’s note: I wish that the decrepit old Supreme Leader of MAGA didn’t have his coveted nuclear weapons either! – TLK] (06/25/25)
“RIP, Marge Simpson. Well, sort of. ‘The Simpsons’ Season 36 finale revealed that the Simpson family matriarch died in a flash-forward scene. The episode, titled ‘Estranger Things,’ focuses on the sibling bond between Bart and Lisa, who grow apart after they stop watching the kids’ show ‘The Itchy & Scratchy Show.’ Marge is fearful that her kids will become estranged — which turns out to be a reality 35 years later after Marge has died. In the future, Lisa is the commissioner of the NBA and is paying for her widowed father Homer to live in a retirement home that Bart is running unlicensed. There’s a brief scene from Marge’s funeral where Homer is standing in tears over his wife’s grave while surrounded by family.” (06/25/25)
