Good morning! A small town in Mississippi just proved the importance of counting each and every vote. After a city council race came down to a 154-154 tie, Holly Springs chose the winner by flipping a coin (state law also says you can draw straws). Whether someone voted or not is public record, sooo good luck to any friends of the loser who thought they could get away with skipping.

In other news, today marks 10 years since Donald Trump took his infamous ride down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his 2016 presidential campaign. That one scene in “Home Alone 2” hasn’t looked the same since.

WORLD

🌍️ Israel, Iran continue trading blows

There’s a persistent theory in Washington, D.C., that if the pizza joints near the Pentagon are all busy simultaneously, something big is going down. That turned out to be true on Thursday night riiiight around the time Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iran.

• This isn’t really relevant, but Caitlin Jenner was stuck in Israel for about two days after the attacks began.

The short story: Iran basically hates Israel. A May 31 U.N. report found Iran was building a nuclear weapon, which Israel believes was just weeks away from completion. So Israel attacked Iran to prevent it from finishing that nuke.

Before we go further, some super exciting background info:

What’s up with Israel? Has 10 million people. Is about the size of New Jersey. About 75% of Israelis are Jewish. About 20% are Muslim. The only democracy in the Middle East, and the only country in the region that respects women’s rights, gay rights, etc.

• Israel is often criticized today for occupying territory that’s also claimed by the Palestinians. It’s currently waging a different war in the (Palestinian) Gaza Strip.

• Israel’s elaborate Iron Dome defense system automatically shoots down incoming missiles, but it isn’t perfect.

• Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu: Israel’s longtime, very conservative prime minister. Also a Harvard and MIT grad and onetime coworker of Mitt Romney in Boston.

What’s up with Iran? Officially, the Islamic Republic of Iran. The artist formerly known as Persia. Has 86 million people. Is about the size of Alaska. Most of the Middle East is ethnically Arabic and practices Sunni Islam. Iran is ethnically Persian and practices Shia Islam.

• The Islamic Revolution overthrew Iran’s sorta normie government and monarch (the shah) in 1979. They’ve since gone more than a lil cuckoo.

• That shah’s son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, lives near Washington, D.C. Reza’s daughter and hypothetical heir is an Instagram girlie.

• Ali Khamenei, aka "The Ayatollah": Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and ultimate authority over government and religion. The president’s boss.

Now, back to the story at hand…

The attack: Israel’s attack took out much of Iran’s nuclear equipment, many of its top nuclear scientists, and many of its top military officials. Israeli intelligence spent months smuggling complex weapons systems into Iran and may have even built an entire drone facility there. After the attack, agents supposedly used those systems to destroy Iranian missile launchers to hamper any response.

The responses: Iran fired about 100 small drone strikes at Israel in round one. Israel later struck Iran's oil refineries and took out more of its military leadership. Iran, of course, continued firing back at Israel. After three days of this, Iran said its death toll stood at 224. Israel's is 14.

U.S. involvement: The Trump administration has been negotiating with Iran for months, trying to end its fledgling nuclear program. His opponents say he’s just trying to avoid embarrassment, but President Trump claims he “knew everything” about Israel’s attacks ahead of time and is fully behind them.

• The U.S. has helped Israel shoot down at least some incoming Iranian missiles, and Israel buys plenty of American military hardware.

World reactions: Most world leaders are urging restraint to prevent the war from spreading. Nearby countries in the Middle East roundly condemned Israel’s preemptive attacks. But some believe they’re secretly happy about this, since they’re also not exactly fans of Iran.

Iran’s future: Netanyahu spoke directly to the “proud people of Iran.” He told them that this is their opportunity to fight back against the regime, “which has oppressed you for almost 50 years.” And at least some Iranians agree with him. TBD on if this goes anywhere, but Trump reportedly vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the Ayatollah.

Nuclear talks are obviously on hold, but Trump wants Iran to come back and “make a deal, before there is nothing left.” Trump being Trump, he also pointed out that “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back.”

GOVERNMENT

🤝 U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel are free to merge after an executive order from President Trump. Federal law lets the president intervene to block certain big mergers in the interest of national security. President Biden did just that before leaving office. Trump also opposed the deal in 2024 before reversing course this year. The two companies had to promise $11 billion in new steel investments by 2028 and sign a national security agreement to win Trump's approval. The U.S. government will get a nondescript "golden share" in the new company, giving it some amount of control.

👑 The military parade celebrating the Army's 250th birthday (along with Trump's 79th) went off without a hitch on Saturday despite the rain. Meanwhile, hundreds of anti-Trump No Kings protests took place across the country on Saturday. Organizers claim nationwide attendance hit 5 million, but the good people over at the Crowd Counting Consortium (apparently a real thing) say they’ll need some time for an accurate assessment.

POLITICS

💔 Tragedy strikes in Minnesota

Tragedy rocked Minnesota’s political world on Saturday after an assassin posing as a police officer targeted two state lawmakers at their homes. State Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife survived and are stable after surgery. Sadly, State Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband weren’t so lucky.

The FBI offered $50,000 for more information, and the suspect was caught after a massive 43-hour manhunt.

• Vance Boelter, 57, was appointed by two Democratic governors (including almost-VP Tim Walz) to a low-tier council on workforce development.

• That loose party affiliation probably doesn’t mean much, though. He also had a hit list of ~70 names, including state and federal lawmakers and prominent pro-choice activists. Crazy gonna crazy.

Saturday was the eighth anniversary of the congressional baseball game shooting that nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). Though this weekend’s attack was directed at state-level lawmakers, it has sparked renewed fears from members of Congress about their own security. Outside of specific threats, only the top members of congressional leadership receive 24/7 protection.

CONGRESS

🏛️ U.S. senator tossed by Noem security

Over in California, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was forcibly yeeted out of a press conference given by the secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. The controversial deportation raids in Los Angeles are her department’s doing, and Noem was giving an update on the situation. The exact details differ depending on who’s telling the story.

• According to Noem’s security, some guy burst in and started shouting. The Secret Service thought he was a whacko and dragged him out.

• Padilla’s team says he identified himself as a U.S. senator but was slammed to the ground anyway for daring to ask a question.

Democrats slammed the security team’s reaction as “abhorrent” and a “sickening disgrace,” while Republicans called the incident a planned political stunt by Padilla and noted that he shoved law enforcement. Either way, Noem and Padilla did meet for 15 minutes afterward and exchange phone numbers. Here’s the full video for your viewing pleasure.

Congresswoman charged: Padilla isn't the only congresscritter to get tangled up with security over immigration concerns. A federal grand jury just indicted Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ). She's facing prison time for "assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering" with federal officers during a tussle at an immigration detention center in New Jersey. McIver maintains her innocence and says the charges are politically motivated garbage. For the curious, members of Congress charged with crimes typically don’t resign unless they’re convicted.

TRIVIA

Happy belated Flag Day! It was Saturday, by the way. Flag Day isn’t really a federal holiday, so nobody gets off work for it (sad!). But it is an official day to commemorate the ever-changing Red, White, and Blue. It’s been a while since a new state joined the Union, though, so the flag hasn’t changed in a hot minute. In what year was the American flag most recently changed?

Hint: It was updated to add a 50th star on the next July 4 after Hawaii became a state.

BRIEFS

● The New York Supreme Court, which is bizarrely not the state’s highest court, will hear a lawsuit claiming the 2024 election was rigged. The case is limited to one county in which an abnormal number of voters voted mostly Democrat but didn’t vote for Harris.

● President Trump pulled the U.S government out of a Biden-era deal to boost salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest. His order emphasizes the energy provided by hydroelectric dams over environmental concerns.

● A federal district judge blocked parts of a Trump executive order that would require proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections. She claimed federal elections have to be regulated by Congress, not the president.

● Members of the prestigious Fulbright Foreign Scholarship’s board resigned en masse to protest alleged interference by the State Department. State administers the program, but members claimed it had become too involved in how scholarships were awarded.

QUOTE

ANSWER

The flag added its 49th star on July 4, 1959, about six months after Alaska joined the club. Six weeks later, in August, Hawaii became a state. As is tradition, the flag was updated again on the next Independence Day: July 4, 1960.

Fun fact: Each new state also used to get a new stripe. Thankfully, they eventually realized that was stupid and cut it back to 13 instead of making the big jump from 15 stripes to 20.