Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“The 60-day extension of the ceasefire between the United States and Iran may lead to lasting peace or it may be over within a week, doomed by the dysfunctional alliance between the US and Israel. If it holds, it could mark the beginning of a transition away from the doctrine of ‘low-intensity conflict’ that has shaped US foreign policy for decades. Talks between the US, Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar began in Switzerland on June 21. But Iran was firm that it holds the United States responsible for Israel’s violations of the US-Iran memorandum and cannot move forward with other parts of the agreement until the US fulfills its part in Article 1, which requires an actual Israeli ceasefire and withdrawal from Lebanon.” (06/23/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/iran-challenges-us-war
Source: Engadget
“China has taken the world’s fastest supercomputer crown for the first time since 2017. LineShine from the nation’s National Supercomputer Center hit 2.198 Exaflops of performance, beating the previous champ El Capitan (1.809 Exaflops), located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA. Lineshine, a previously unlisted machine, is the first supercomputer to exceed two exaflops of ‘sustained double-precision performance using CPUs only,’ according to Top500.org. China’s new machine was able to beat its US counterpart despite technology embargoes because it doesn’t rely on GPUs like other leading models. Instead, it’s designed around a custom 304-core processor, with 13.79 million cores running at 1.55GHz and linked by a proprietary interconnect. It draws around 42.2 megawatts of power, for an efficiency of 52.07 Gigaflops per watt.” (06/23/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2199608/china-lineshine-supercomputer-is-worlds-fastest/
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly chat with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. If you’re needing a quick reality supplement, this is an extra-strength dose, served up in less than 30 minutes.” (06/23/26)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-82vuf-1af6aac
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Mark Twain popularized the phrase, ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.’ This phrase could equally well be adapted to depict the role of socialist narratives taught as ‘history’—narratives that wreak even more economic havoc than outright lies. Lies can be debunked with facts, but socialist narratives appeal to political and moral ideologies that are less easily dislodged once they take root.” (06/23/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/lies-damn-lies-and-history-capitalism
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“The most controversial part of last week’s article on the Midjourney ultrasound scanner was medical experts’ recommendation against whole-body screening (including existing whole-body screening technology using MRI). Isn’t this crazy? Whole-body screening can save lives by detecting serious diseases like cancer. The experts counterargue that it finds so many false positives – minor zit-like imperfections that would never have caused problems, but which cost patients time, money, anxiety, and side effect burden to investigate – that it ends up net negative. But isn’t this just a problem of setting thresholds correctly? Can’t you commit to only investigating the most obviously bad things, then ignore the rest?” (06/22/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/should-people-avoid-whole-body-screening
Source: SFGate
“The Rev. Al Sharpton’s staff and advisers stood around him just outside the doors of a cozy theater, where some of his most fervent supporters waited to greet him in the newly renovated headquarters of the National Action Network. When doors flung open, Sharpton entered to a standing ovation that continued until he was perched behind a lectern, on a stage decorated with a floor-to-ceiling video screen. The audience was not anticipating a call for justice. Instead, the rabble-rousing youth minister turned go-to national advocate was there to declare his organization was officially an owner, no longer a renter, in the historically [b]lack Harlem neighborhood it has called home for more than two decades. ‘I want to make something permanent,’ Sharpton said recently to the gathered crowd of NAN board members, local clergy and other allies. ‘When people see that you’ve bought a building, they say, ‘Wait a minute, they’re not going nowhere.’’ (06/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/from-renter-to-owner-sharpton-locks-in-national-22316653.php
Source: The Dispatch
“Will Trump Interfere with the 2026 Midterms?” (06/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/will-trump-interfere-with-the-2026-midterms/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Graham Markiewicz
“The pattern is obvious. In an overworked House office, whoever has time and capacity to produce a clean draft often decides what gets written. On defense portfolios, that is increasingly a uniformed fellow on detail from the Department of Defense. In practice, executive-branch detailees do not supplement staff capacity; they replace it on key tasks, shaping agendas, drafting text, and gatekeeping information that will later govern their own departments. About ninety military fellows cycle through the Hill each year, with roughly two dozen each from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and a dozen more from the Marine Corps. Their credentials are strong and intentions usually public-spirited. The problem is institutional. A congressional staffer owes undivided loyalty to Article I. An officer owes loyalty to a chain of command that runs to Article II. When workloads are crushing, that conflict is resolved by inertia rather than deliberation.” (06/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/graham_markiewicz/2026/06/22/when-military-fellows-replace-hill-staff
Source: Reason
by Reem Ibrahim
“If Boston can trust adults to ‘sip and stroll’ during the World Cup, it can trust them all year round.” (06/22/26)
https://reason.com/2026/06/22/boston-is-temporarily-legalizing-outdoor-drinking-for-the-world-cup-why-not-make-it-permanent/
Source: Politico
“A federal judge on Monday scrapped a set of state pilot programs intended to restrict the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program money to purchase unhealthy foods. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, wrote in her decision that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the SNAP program, misapplied federal law in approving requests from states to allow them to impose limits on what participants can buy with funds from the nation’s largest food aid program. Her ruling applies to Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia. ‘With her solicitation and approval of the pilot projects in this case, the Secretary purports to waive not just a mere administrative or technical obstacle, but the very definition of ‘food’ as it was laid down by Congress,’ Berman wrote.” (06/22/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/22/judge-snap-junk-food-rules-maha-00970700
