Welcome to Thursday, June 25, 2026, and it’s Bourdain Day, celebrating the affable and engaging Anthony Bourdain, chef, writer, presenter, and foodie traveler, who was born on this day in 1956 (he committed suicide in 2018). Here he is visiting and reviewing the Waffle House:

It’s also Color TV day, celebrating the first color television broadcast on this day in 1951, National Catfish Day, National Strawberry Parfait Day, and Global Beatles Day, explained this way:

The day was founded in 2009 by Faith Cohen. It takes place on June 25th, because that marks the day that the first live satellite production was broadcasted globally. It was a British program titledOur World [1967], and it ended with the Beatles’ performance of “All You Need Is Love”. Artists from nineteen countries were included in the program, and it is estimated that at least 400 million people watched it, which was the largest television audience up until that time.

Here’s the performance (stop it after you’ve heard enough or it will play continuously). Note George Martin in the control ro

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 25 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

Footy News:  Another first: South Africa beat Korea 1-0, advancing to the knockout stage for the first time:

As South Africa’s football team danced the night away in Guadalupe’s Monterrey Stadium after making World Cup history, fans in Johannesburg were celebrating in the streets long before the sun came out and heralded what would become an unparalleled day in the nation’s football history.

Two red cards, one loss, a draw and a win later, South Africa did it all in their group stage matches at the World Cup and advanced to the knockout round of the tournament for the first time.

Thapelo Maseko fired into the net in the 63rd minute to give Bafana Bafana a stunning 1-0 win over South Korea, who now straddle the uncertain line between possible round of 32 qualification or elimination.

Monterrey Stadium will long reverberate with the raw emotions of South Africa fans and players celebrating the win in a fairy-tale ending to their group stage run that began with a disastrous opening match loss for Hugo Broos’ side.

While much of the nation had yet to wake up to the team’s historic achievement, die-hard football fanatics sacrificed sleep to watch the South Korea kickoff at 3am, oblivious to the quiet countdown of history about to be made.

Below are the game’s highlights.  The play that scored the one goal for South Africa begins at 6:13 on the video:

*Is the “progressive” Left, or even their more radical allies, the Democratic Socialists, ready to take over the Democratic Party? That’s what the victory of three Mamdani-endorsed New York Democratic primary candidates suggests, with Mamdani, a man I detest, now described as a “kingmaker”. It’s a scenario that brings chills up my spine.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies swept a series of congressional primaries in New York City on Tuesday in a remarkable show of strength for the insurgent left that sent shock waves through the Democratic Party.

Mr. Mamdani’s candidates toppled a pair of incumbents backed by the city’s political establishment, including major labor unions and the House Democratic leader. Another candidate backed by the mayor won an open House seat, and a handful of democratic socialist challengers he supported were winning down the ballot.

For months, Mr. Mamdani threw himself and his energized political organization into the three marquee congressional contests, campaigning late into the night in the race’s final days and calling the election a referendum on the direction of the party.

All the winning candidates share Mr. Mamdani’s progressive economic platform, and they each ran campaigns that focused intently on ending American support for Israel, a sign of how far public opinion has shifted on the issue, even in New York.

Late Tuesday night, the mayor stood beaming at a victory party in Brooklyn, where supporters chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “D.S.A.” After embracing many of the same advisers who led his own successful campaign last year, he declared “a new chapter in our party’s history.”

“A year ago, it was not the end of a political movement,” he said. “It was the beginning.”

Mr. Mamdani’s deep involvement amounted to an audacious gamble for a brand-new mayor trying to lead an already fractious city. He alienated key allies along the way, but the payoffs were far-reaching.

Indeed, and the thought crossed my mind “If I was much younger, I’d contemplate moving to Israel.” Or, as a friend of mine—a long time liberal Democrat but now an independent—emailed me mournfully, “We are homeless.” It’s not just the Jewish Democrats who are becoming homeless, but the centrist Democrats as well. The chant of “Free, free Palestine” at the victory party really means “Erase, erase Israel.” It’s appalling. See the post on one of the victorious Democrats later today.

*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal tells us about “The peace Washington missed.”

It’s Wednesday, June 24, and there is a famous phrase: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” For Israel, the experience has been closer to “If you want peace, be at war.” While fighting still raged in Gaza, while Israel was striking Syria, and while another war with Iran loomed, peace with two of those countries looked genuinely within reach. Lebanon might finally be rid of Hezbollah; a newly independent Syria might normalize with Israel. Now that the fronts have gone relatively quiet, both of those options are off the table.

At the outset of yesterday’s talks—the fifth round between Lebanon and Israel—Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Leiter remarked that “we all got on the same train.”

“We sat in the same car and traveled to the same destination, with the United States serving as the locomotive. The train was heading in a very clear direction: full peace between the countries, Iran and its malign influence out of Lebanon, the disarmament of Hezbollah, and peace and security for Lebanon and Israel. Today, this train is in danger of derailing. I hope we can get it back on track,” Leiter said.

The truth is, it’s already a wreck. What began in April as a desperate Lebanese effort to stop Israel’s advance on Hezbollah has completely inverted. The supplicant now makes demands: President Joseph Aoun set the tone before talks even started—”we accept nothing less than an end to the Israeli occupation”—and Lebanon is reportedly now pressing for a complete Israeli withdrawal, with Hezbollah’s disarmament looking less and less like a precondition it is willing to accept.

The roads to peace have largely disintegrated because, instead of peace going forth from Jerusalem, it is being dictated by Washington.

. . .Egypt and Saudi Arabia are currently pushing a plan to integrate Hezbollah into the armed forces—which, apart from being unlikely, seems to require a complete Israeli withdrawal as a precondition. It’s unclear whether the plan is even being discussed in higher circles, but the question remains: Why are Egypt and Saudi Arabia effectively helping Iran?

Because, contrary to what some might assume, there are not two axes in the region but three. There is the anti-Iran axis, with Israel at its center; there is the Axis of Resistance, with Iran at its head; and then there is the go-along-to-get-along axis, which includes Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

. . . Personally, I’ve got a suggestion for President Aoun: if you want to regain the south, start with the north and work your way down. Once you’ve reclaimed sovereignty in the Bekaa Valley and Dahiyeh, I’m sure Israel will be happy to hand you the land south of the Litani.

Let us suppose, for a moment, that the U.S. had demanded normalization from Syria as a precondition for sanctions relief, or that it had maintained overt pressure on Iran rather than opening negotiations. There is a real possibility that an Israeli embassy would now be under construction in Damascus—while, with no other option remaining and plenty of regional backing, Hezbollah was being driven out of Beirut. As the vice president has been fond of saying recently, the U.S.’s and Israel’s interests are not always aligned—but I believe that would be a region better for all involved.

*The NY Post reports that “Left-leaning Wikipedia blocked founder from editing site—after he campaigned to make it more balanced.”

Left-leaning website Wikipedia has taken the drastic action of permanently blocking one of its founders from editing pages — after he had campaigned to make it more balanced and fair.

Last month, Larry Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID), a group designed to help reinforce the online encyclopedia’s “original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,” by emphasizing neutrality and transparency.

However, Sanger — who coined the name “Wikipedia,” drafted the site’s foundational set of rules and guidelines, and launched the site alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001 — is now indefinitely blocked from editing, the most drastic action the site can take against an editor.

“I am flabbergasted,” Sanger told The Post, saying the decision was made by a group of the site’s volunteer editors. He described the modern Wikipedia community as being like a “mob or a blob,” noting users do not feel obligated to a specific vision of the rules, but rather to each other.

“They are constantly trying to gauge what other people think, and this is the way ultimately these people are able to influence each other,” Sanger said. “Even a lot of the hard and fast policies are regarded as just guidelines if everybody is on board.”

Sanger became unpopular among the site’s most prolific editors for making public calls for those whose viewpoints have typically been underrepresented — Hindus prominently, but also, most pointedly, American conservatives — to be more involved. The exact reason for his blocking was not given.

Wikipedia makes a lot of noise about how its content is created by volunteer users, citing a figure of 267,000 people contributing or editing over the last 30 days on its website.

However, Sanger has long argued the real power rests with a small, largely anonymous class of Wikipedia administrators — who he has identified as being just 62 accounts, which he calls the “Power 62,” of which 85% hide behind their screennames and have never revealed their true identities.

For Sanger, the swiftness of the block highlights a glaring lack of procedural fairness. “There is no due process,” he argued. “People are being blocked—in other words, disciplined—and yet there is no respect for certain expectations that any other serious disciplinary procedure would be held to.”

He likened the platform’s arbitration to being judged by a “faceless mob,” with the absence of basic structural safeguards like a distinct prosecutor, jury, or opportunity to mount a formal defense.

After making the fact he had been blocked public on X Monday, Sanger was permanently banned from Wikipedia and any avenue for appeal was closed by the site.

, , ,The campaign to oust him was instigated by one of the most combative editors on the platform, who goes by the handle TarnishedPath. The same editor was a driving force behind one of the most controversial maneuvers in Wikipedia’s recent history: a 12-month “moratorium” that froze the lead of the site’s “Zionism” article, locking in a sentence that critics — and this reporter, in Tablet Magazine — have documented as effectively equating the movement for Jewish self-determination with ethnic cleansing.

TarnishedPath has been extremely active in gender issues on Wikipedia, pushing strongly to have JK Rowling labeled “anti-trans” or “transexclusionary radical feminist” (TERF). The editor eventually placed a banner on Rowling’s entry alleging it expressed a non-neutral point of view. “She should be referred to as having ‘anti-trans’ or ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’ views,” the editor wrote last June.

Whaddya know? The progressives have taken over Wikipedia!  Luana recommends Grokipedia as an alternative, but I haven’t yet investigated it.  It of course uses AI to write entries.

*The Reflecting Pool Story continues: the latest is that there seems to be no evidence of vandalism that resulted in the pool’s peeling paint and fulminating algae growth.

President Trump says the peeling blue coating and algae blooms that mar his $16.4 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are the fault of vandals working with “knives” in the “dark of night.”

But government documents obtained by The New York Times show that while National Park Service workers found two cuts in sections of foam between the pool’s expansion joints, those were not directly related to the “American flag blue” coating that is now peeling, or to the algae that has turned the pool a bright shade of green.

Even as the documents show workers were attempting to address deteriorating conditions, Trump administration officials were insisting publicly that the pool was pristine.

The pool had been drained, resealed and then refilled by June 5. Four days later, Park Service workers discovered holes, cracks and peeling caulking in parts of the pool, along with cuts in sections of the foam, according to the documents.

The cause of the cuts was unclear. While a June 9 report by the U.S. Park Police described the cuts as “razor blade slashes” made along a 20-foot-long stretch of the foam, the administration has yet to present evidence supporting that assertion. The documents reviewed by The Times described them as two 171-foot blade cuts but did not address how they were made.

By June 16, workers had noticed that chunks of blue sealant that covered the pool’s bottom were peeling and floating to the surface, the documents show. That sealant was separate from the foam in the pool’s expansion joints, which allow its concrete slabs to expand and contract.

The workers had also discovered that some devices installed to kill algae were not working as intended, according to the documents. And enormous algae blooms had turned portions of the pool bright green instead of dark blue.

. . . . Mr. Trump also told reporters on Monday, without offering evidence, that vandals had poured fertilizer into the pool to feed the algae.

Neither the Interior Department nor the White House would provide charging documents, citations or the names of anyone arrested. They did share the Park Police incident report, which said any suspect or suspects were unknown. The report also did not mention any damage to the pool’s blue sealant, nor did it describe any vandals dumping fertilizer.

Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, did not answer specific questions about the government documents but said in an email on Tuesday that the pool was “clear” and “reflecting beautifully.”

I now think that nobody has been arrested, or have been arrested and there’s not enough evidence to mount a case against them.  But I’m still wondering why this one issue is dominating the news!

*Daily anti-Semitism news: NBC News reported that a Jewish congressman in New York has been attacked by and barred from a local coffeeshop because he’s a “genocide enabler”.  He went in to find a restroom for his daughter, and bought about $10 worth of coffee to compensate. He was treated cordially (the man was one of the Democrats who lost to a Mamdani-endorsed candidate), but then got this from the coffee shop:

A New York coffee shop said on Instagram that Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., should never return to it because of his pro-Israel views

The post came just ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections in New York, where Goldman was defeated by former City Comptroller Brad Lander, NBC News projects, in one of the most notable races in the state.

Both candidates are Jewish, and Goldman had been endorsed by pro-Israel lobbying groups J Street and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, while Lander was backed by progressives like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

In the harshly worded post, Poetica Coffee alluded to Goldman’s stance in support of Israel, which progressives like Lander and human rights groups have strongly criticized over the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and mentioned genocide and AIPAC.

“Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice?” the post said, accompanied by what appeared to be a security image of Goldman looking at his phone while he was at the register.

“See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between,” the post continued, according to screenshots that circulated on social media and were reported by several news outlets. “Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.”

. . . . Goldman wrote in response that he was “sorry to see this post,” adding that the barista “could not have been nicer to my 7-yr-old daughter and me” because the shop allowed her to use the bathroom without making a purchase first.

“I made sure to buy a coffee in return for her kindness,” he added. “I hope you at least make sure she gets the tip that she deserved.”

Poetica Coffee and its founder, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, could not be reached for comment. The coffee shop’s Instagram account appears to have been deactivated.

On its website, Poetica Coffee says it goes by the credo that “whoever walks through the door is treated with unconditional dignity.”

In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday afternoon, Goldman said he was shocked by the post, “because the interaction in the shop could not have been nicer.”

“I walked in, a woman, who, the only employee there was a woman in a hijab. She was exceptionally nice,” he added.

Goldman said that he “certainly had no problem” if the coffee shop wanted to oppose the Israeli government.

“I do too, and I’m really, really upset and angered by what this Israeli government has been doing in many ways. And I voiced that a lot. But to take out frustration or opposition to what another country’s government is doing on American citizens who are only affiliated to that country based on religion is outright discrimination and prejudice,” Goldman said.

. . . . “Now, I may disagree as to whether or not there’s a genocide, but come on, we’re better than this, and we need to be better than this,” he told CNN in a separate interview.

The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into this incident. This makes me really angry; it’s like a bad joke: “A Jew and his daughter walk into a coffeeshop.”  And how did they find out who the guy was?  Goldman’s temperate response is admirable, and it’s sad he was defeated by a Jew-hating Mamdani supporter.  I hope the shop is found to have violated the civil rights laws (imagine if a black customer got a similar response based on their ethnicity!).   Every Jew and Israel supporter should simply stop patronizing Poetica Coffee.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili becomes Taxi Driver Cat. Look at that wistful expression!

Andrzej: Get off the table.
Hili: Are you talking to me?’

In Polish:

Ja: Zejdź ze stołu.
Hili: Do mnie mówisz?

*******************

From somewhere on Facebook:

From Funny and Strange Signs:

From Richard:

Another Iranian protestor held without proper counsel, tortued, and even subjected to two “mock hangings”!  The regime that did this is the one we’re supporting:

#PeyvandNaimi remains imprisoned nearly six months after his arrest, held without charge, trial, or access to legal counsel.

He has endured torture, two mock hangings, and other abuses as authorities attempt to force a false confession.

Iranian-American journalist and human… pic.twitter.com/9g3Yhr3rzp

— Bahá’í International Community – Human Rights (@BahaiBIC_Rights) June 24, 2026

From Luana: scientific misconduct by promoters of “affirmative care”, including the falsification of data:

Skandale avslørt: Tre ledende trans-forskere i Norge felt for grov vitenskapelig uredelighet.

Norske forskere ved Nasjonal behandlingstjeneste for kjønnsinkongruens har i årevis manipulert studier på barn og unge som får kjønnsbekreftende behandling – uten samtykke fra… pic.twitter.com/qYCd91ffkU

— Christopher (@ChrisBellNor) June 23, 2026

From the Number Ten Cat, who’s hot. I didn’t realize England was as hot as this:

It’s 30c in London at 1030 in the morning. This is not a day to be covered in fur. I wonder if the Prime Minister of Iceland needs a cat?

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) June 24, 2026

One from my feed. First, a final flight for a Southwest Pilot, announced by his First Officer, who happens to be his daughter!

This is so great. pic.twitter.com/xE9MkhFlXk

— Ned Ryun (@nedryun) June 24, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

This German Jewish boy was gassed to death as soon as he arrived at Auschwitz. He was four years old, and would have been 88 today had he lived. https://t.co/W7hUsTsB07

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) June 25, 2026

Two from Dr. Cobb. First, a mystery:

Small fish in the tarn at Sunnegga trying to get close to the inflow, presumably because of higher O2 and nutrient levels. How did the fish get there? The traditional answer is as eggs on bird’s feet or plumage. But has anyone observed this?

— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2026-06-15T13:18:26.898Z

And a squidworm!

The squidworm (Teuthidodrilus samae) isn't a squid. It's a swimming polychaete from ~3,000 m down in the Celebes Sea. The ten "tentacles" off its head are sensory appendages as long as its body, used to smell and feel through the dark. #WormWednesday #marinelife Images from doi.org/10.1098/rsbl…

— Dr Craig R McClain (@drcraigmc.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T14:15:46.204Z

Welcome to a Hump Day (“le milieu de la semaine” in French): Wednesday, July 24, 2026 and it’s Museum Come to Life Day.  Here’s Sue, the famous T. rex owned by and on display at Chicago’s Field Museum (the original head is displayed elsewhere, but the head here is an exact replica). Look at those tiny arms!  It’s estimated that 90% of the skeleton was recovered.

It’s also National Parchment Day (once made from animals, it’s now made from plant cellulose),  and National Pralines Day.

I have a big writing assignment to do, so posting may be light for the next week, or even ten days. Bear with me: I do my best.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the June 1 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

Footy news: Playing for Portugal in the World Cup, 41-year-old Christiano Ronaldo scored two goals in a 5-0 drubbing of Uzbekistan, setting a record: the first man to score a goal in six World Cups.

Call it ego, call it drive or determination, that’s what has made him who is, what has pushed him to places on a football field very few have come close to even seeing.

So, of course, he was going to strut out for matchday two against Uzbekistan, head held high, that jaw pointedly jutting out, and score inside six minutes. He’s been doing this for two decades now, why is anyone remotely surprised?

The goal itself was a throwback to just what makes him the most prolific goalscorer of our times: the movement, the timing, the finish.

If you rewatch the goal, keep an eye on Ronaldo in the box. When João Cancelo raced down the right wing, everyone in Portugal red moved forward with him – except Ronaldo, who moved horizontally, moving closer to the spot he knew the cross was going to come through. As everyone (Portuguese and Uzbek) stood still waiting for the ball to get to them, Ronaldo was on the move.

He went forward with everyone else first, before stopping. Pushing past Bruno Fernandes, blindsiding the defenders, he zipped forward to the near post where once again he jinked back to keep the defenders on their heels, before darting out in front. There, he met the low, bouncing cross perfectly on the half volley, leaning back and absolutely hammering it into the bottom corner. The sharpness of the movement had allowed him the time and space to execute that finishing technique perfectly. It was goalscoring 101, a lesson in how to do it from the master himself.

The play in which Ronaldo scored his first goal starts at 1:56 in the video below. His second goal run starts at 7:56, and later there’s an own goal by Uzbekistan.

Here are the highlights:

*Three anti-Israel Democratic Socialist representatives, all endorsed by NYC Mayor and antisemite Zohran Mamdani, have won their primary races in New York.

Three Democrats who made criticism of Israel central to their political identities swept to victory in House primary races in New York City on Tuesday, signaling a new era of skepticism in their party toward the Jewish state and its actions.

The striking results reflected a fast-moving shift in liberal politics. Democratic voters are now more likely to be critical of Israel and its government than they are to be supportive, according to several recent polls, a monumental change in American sentiment.

And while many Democratic officials remain supportive of Israel, next year’s class of congressional Democrats is on track to be more wary about America’s relationship with Israel than at any other moment since the Jewish state was established after World War II.

The Democratic Party is rapidly becoming populated with Jew haters, and I do not say that lightly.  Right now Jews and sympathizers with Israel are losing their political home.

*The latest hangup with the U.S./Iran ceasefire talks is a report that both sides give conflicting accounts of what’s been agreed on.

President Trump and Iran offered conflicting accounts on Tuesday over whether Tehran had agreed to open some of its most sensitive nuclear sites to U.N. inspectors, as top officials from both countries sought to secure support for a lasting peace agreement.

After the latest marathon round of U.S.-Iran negotiations, dueling narratives have also emerged over two other key issues: the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz and frozen Iranian assets. The disputes reflect not just the high stakes of the talks, but also the morass of details still to be resolved.

Mr. Trump insisted in a social media post that Iran had “fully and completely agreed to the highest level Nuclear inspections,” hours after two Iranian officials said that the nuclear program had not been discussed in detail in talks over the weekend in Switzerland.

The president accused Iranian officials of making false statements and said: “If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said earlier on Tuesday that Tehran had no plans to invite inspectors from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency to nuclear sites that were hit by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in June 2025.

“It is too early to discuss these things,” Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said in a separate news conference. Both Iranian officials asserted that the nuclear issue would be addressed in later rounds of negotiations.

But the I.A.E.A.’s director general, Rafael Grossi, said in an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK-World published on Tuesday that inspections would commence, adding that the agency believed “the sooner the better.” He said the I.A.E.A. would seek to inspect Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, although it was not clear how it could get access to facilities that were attacked and partially destroyed.

If Iran is allowed to continue enriching uranium, there must be not only strict and frequent inspections by the IAEA, but also unannounced inspections.  Iran will not be stopped in its pursuit of nuclear weapons, just as North Korea could not be stopped. To these countries it is essential—self defense is the issue for the DPRK, the destruction of Israel for Iran.

*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal argues that J. D. Vance is in a toxic relationship with Iran.

It’s Tuesday, June 23, and I’m no professional, but I think I can spot the signs of a toxic relationship. Threats of violence. Desperately defending the partner’s behavior. Cutting you off from your friends. Draining your resources. Gaslighting. By most of these measures, Vice President JD Vance is in a toxic relationship with the Islamic Republic.

Coming out of the talks in Switzerland yesterday, Vance hailed a “good foundation” for ending the regional war. He claimed Iran had agreed to let the International Atomic Energy Agency back into the country—only for Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei to state flatly that Tehran had not negotiated on its nuclear program and had accepted no new commitments.

Then there’s the intimidation. Even as it talked peace, Iran kept a hand on the region’s throat, threatening to shut the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israel’s actions. Trump answered threat with threat, warning Tehran it “won’t even make it back” to its own country if it closed the strait. And when Iran turned the same pressure on the talks themselves—threatening to storm out of the summit over insults from Trump—Vance ran interference, waving it off as mere “social media threats” and insisting all was fine because, after all, they’d kept talking late into the night.

Next comes the lopsided exchange. Yesterday, the US Treasury issued a general license letting Iran freely sell crude oil and petrochemicals through the 60-day negotiation period, while talks continued on releasing frozen assets—a potential economic windfall worth billions. And what did Washington get in return on the nuclear file? According to the Iranians, nothing. Vance even tried to pass off appeasement as boundary-setting, reportedly insisting the freed-up money could only go toward American wheat and soybeans. Iran didn’t bother to counter. Its officials simply made clear they’ll spend their money however they please.

Then there’s the isolation. Iran has maneuvered the US into a Lebanon “deconfliction” mechanism built around Washington, Qatar, Pakistan and Tehran—but not Israel, the country actually being shot at. On its face, that’s a loss for Israel. But Tehran may have overplayed its hand. Unlike Hezbollah, and contrary to Iran’s assumptions, Israel is not a U.S. puppet—and a seat at this table would have been more trap than prize. Inside the mechanism, Israel would face constant, hard-to-refuse pressure to stand down; outside it, those calls are far easier to ignore. An invitation would have forced Israel into an awkward bind: either sign on to a framework stacked against it, or openly reject Trump’s solution. By shutting Israel out, Iran inadvertently spared it that choice.

. . .As Netanyahu surely understands, when a friend is trapped in a toxic relationship, lecturing them about how awful their partner is rarely works; it only breeds resentment. The best you can do is hope they see it for themselves. And given how brazenly Iran is behaving, I’m growing optimistic that they will.

So all that’s left to say is: JD Vance, I hope you get help.

I think they should have used the term “abusive relatinship” rather than “toxic relationship” as it’s clear that Vance is being abused by Iran and saying that everything is fine.  I still worry that Trump is going to hold Israel responsible if the talks fail.

*At the Free Press, Niall Ferguson tells us Why Britons really regret Brexit.

Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of Brexit, the referendum on British membership of the European Union. It is also the day after the admission by yet another party leader, Keir Starmer, that the game is up, and someone else must ascend what the Victorian Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli memorably called “the greasy pole” to occupy the post of prime minister.

As Cowling might have said, this is not the first time in British history that the stability of party politics has been disrupted by a big and divisive issue. Not only electoral reform but also free trade and Irish home rule had comparable impacts in the 19th century; appeasement of Germany and the Suez Crisis in the 20th. To Cowling, who despised liberalism and grudgingly respected Marxism, European unification was just the latest disastrous utopian enterprise of the insufferably high-minded liberal elite who ran nearly all the Cambridge colleges (though not his own, reactionary Peterhouse). And, as in previous political crises, stable majorities in the House of Commons have become infernally hard to command—hence the high turnover at the top.

The difference is that Britain’s battle over Europe appears to have shattered completely the old two-party system, so that the opinion polls today have Reform UK—a lineal descendant of previous pro-Brexit parties—ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives, who are only a few percentage points ahead of the Greens and Liberals. By an irony Cowling would have relished, British party politics has never looked more like Continental European politics than it has since Brexit.

So what exactly happened?

. . . The simple answer is that British voters opted to “Leave” by 52 percent to 48 percent for many of the same reasons that the U.S. electorate opted to gamble on Donald Trump later that same year. It was a populist backlash against an elite project that prioritized globalization, mass migration, and multiculturalism over the economic and cultural preferences of the white working-class.

Ten years on, however, Brexit has fallen short of its twin promises to revitalize the British economy and curb immigration—in marked contrast to President Trump’s two administrations. Result: mass disillusionment with “broken Britain,” manifested as a tendency to rotate through prime ministers as rapidly as Italy in the 1970s.

There is no doubting the public disillusionment. The most recent polls have 57 percent of voters saying Brexit was the wrong decision, against just 30 percent who think it was the right one. More than two-thirds of voters say Britain is worse off as a result. Yet this narrative fails to explain why Brexit failed to deliver.

Ferguson argues that Brits voted against Brexit because they didn’t want to join an elitism “United States of Europe,” losing autonomy, and worried about increased immigration if they joined the EU. They also thought it would drag down the economy. Well, the economy tanked anyway, and immigration increased—just not from the EU.

Can Britain come crawling back to the EU now with another referendum, crying for admission? As Ferguson notes, “a majority of Britons (55 percent) say they would support undoing Brexit altogether and rejoining the Brussels fold, a shift in sentiment which has as its counterpart a decline in public support for the ‘special relationship’ with the United States.” But he says that structural problems in the UK are more pressing than rejoining the EU, which wouldn’t solve them (Ferguson means economic problems, but he fails to specify the problems he’s talking about).  As I said, though, it’s clear that British politics have never been the same since Brexit.

*Trump’s claim that there’s been extensive vandalism at Washington D.C.’s Reflecting Pool is still unsubstantiated, but he’s increased the presence of law enforcement in the area.

The Trump administration stepped up the law-enforcement presence Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as the White House made new claims that vandalism was the chief cause of problems at the renovated site.

President Trump said he had photographic proof of someone cutting a 350-foot gash into the pool’s bottom coating, but he and others in the administration have provided few details to support the claims and no gash that large was visible earlier in the day.

“I saw it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They cut it very violently.”

The president and other officials began making vandalism claims over the weekend, after problems at the reflecting pool appeared to be getting worse, with visible tears in the pool’s new flooring and algae blooming despite cleanup efforts.

Five individuals have been arrested for vandalism, and five more were issued federal citations, an Interior Department spokesman said midday on Monday. No public records were immediately available.

A White House spokeswoman declined to provide The Wall Street Journal with copies of the police reports, citing ongoing investigations. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in Washington said her office had received a handful of citations and was reviewing them.

This should all be on the public record now, but it’s a mystery. Where are the police reports and names of individuals charged? Beyond this mystery is another: why is this debacle one of the main news items in both print and television?  Is it because people are both amused and incensed by a needless waste of money, or are they seeing this as yet another sign of Trump’s ineptitude? I too have been drawn into this controversy, but largely because of its effect on waterfowl:

. . . .  the Washington Post reports that a duck carcass was found in the pool and two other dead ducks nearby (h/t Wayne).

They expressed concern that the construction activity is placing additional stress and “drama” on the ducks and their habitat. They also worry that algae blooms containing toxins called cyanobacteria, or chemicals from the paint in the Reflecting Pool, could harm wildlife. Certain types of algae are part of a duck’s natural diet, but if the birds consume blue-green algae, it can be toxic. 

*In The Atlantic, Ed Yong reports a discovery that the conventional wisdom about lichens—that they involve a mutualism between one species of algae and one species of fungus—is wrong. Biologists have missed all along that another, third species of fungus is essential (h/t Marion).

Lichens have an important place in biology. In the 1860s, scientists thought that they were plants. But in 1868, a Swiss botanist named Simon Schwendener revealed that they’re composite organisms, consisting of fungi that live in partnership with microscopic algae. This “dual hypothesis” was met with indignation: It went against the impetus to put living things in clear and discrete buckets. The backlash only collapsed when Schwendener and others, with good microscopes and careful hands, managed to tease the two partners apart.

Schwendener wrongly thought that the fungus had “enslaved” the alga, but others showed that the two cooperate. The alga uses sunlight to make nutrients for the fungus, while the fungus provides minerals, water, and shelter. This kind of mutually beneficial relationship was unheard-of, and required a new word. Two Germans, Albert Frank and Anton de Bary, provided the perfect one—symbiosis, from the Greek for “together” and “living.”

. . .In the 150 years since Schwendener, biologists have tried in vain to grow lichens in laboratories. Whenever they artificially united the fungus and the alga, the two partners would never fully recreate their natural structures. It was as if something was missing—and Spribille might have discovered it.

[Toby Spribillie] has shown that the largest and most species-rich group of lichens are not alliances between two organisms, as every scientist since Schwendener has claimed. Instead, they’re alliances among three. All this time, a second type of fungus has been hiding in plain view.

“There’s been over 140 years of microscopy,” says Spribille. “The idea that there’s something so fundamental that people have been missing is stunning.”

The fungus thought responsible for the mutualism was an ascomycete in the kingdom Fungi. But the third partner, also in the kingdom Fungi, is a basidiomycete—in this case a yeast. There’s a yeast in the cortex [tough outer layer] of all lichens, and it appears integral to the structure. The authors have not yet combined all three individual components to see if they can get lichens; that may be impossible if the components cannot all be cultured separately.

Here’s the Science paper; click to read. A summary is below the screenshot:

Lichens assemble in three parts

Lichen growth forms cannot be recapitulated in the laboratory by culturing the plant and fungal partners together. Spribille et al. have discovered that the classical binary view of lichens is too simple. Instead, North American beard-like lichens are constituted of not two but three symbiotic partners: an ascomycetous fungus, a photosynthetic alga, and, unexpectedly, a basidiomycetous yeast. The yeast cells form the characteristic cortex of the lichen thallus and may be important for its shape. The yeasts are ubiquitous and essential partners for most lichens and not the result of lichens being colonized or parasitized by other organisms.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Szaron are curious.

Hili: What are you studying?
Me: A very old book.

In Polish:

Hili: Co wy studiujecie?
Ja: Bardzo starą książkę.

(Photo D.M)

*******************

From Funny and Strange Signs; more humor from the London Underground:

From Kitty Litterposting:

And another great medieval letter from TherionArms:

Masih, who can sing, has an article in the Free Press about what happens to women in Iran who do sing. (Guess!)

The ink on the Iran deal wasn’t even dry before the Islamic Republic showed its true face, writes Masih Alinejad. Its first move? Sentencing singer Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes for singing without a hijab. https://t.co/ETqrx9McL6

— The Free Press (@TheFP) June 23, 2026

From Luana. A survey of Pakistani genomes reports that nearly one-third of all human genes in the population are homozygous in some individuals for knockout mutations; that is, they produce no proteins. Yet the Pakistanis are doing fine. This high frequency may be due to inbreeding; see here for more information.

Was an honor to serve as a reviewer on this amazing paper in @nature reporting gene knockouts in ONE THIRD of all human protein coding genes. Yes you read that right… https://t.co/EypCpoZSLO

— Vagheesh Narasimhan (@vagheesh) June 18, 2026

The Number Ten Cat will soon be serving under another Prime Minister—his seventh, I believe:

Another one bites the dust. pic.twitter.com/qjVMNYcjdg

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) June 22, 2026

From JKR, but the law is the law:

The Scottish government has finally been dragged, kicking and screaming, into compliance with the law. https://t.co/twCs3jmUTB

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 23, 2026

One from my feed. and I wonder if it’s true:

Bear in Russia was seen waiting at a bus stop… waiting for someone to get off the bus.

At 8 in the morning, a woman was walking toward the bus stop when she saw a bear standing there like it was another passenger waiting for the next ride. At first, she froze.

The woman kept… pic.twitter.com/o6B8JIp3m3

— Mr PitBull Stories (@MrPitbull07) June 22, 2026

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial, a survivor:

This woman is photographed with her hair, but her head was shaved later when she escaped and was recaptured. She survived the war, living three years in camps. https://t.co/3VnYTzESW4

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) June 24, 2026

And two from Dr. Cobb. First, a video of two young herons watching a whirly bird:

Young great blue herons watching a helicopter. Filmed June 20, 2026, at Oak Woods Cemetery.

— Robert Loerzel (@robertloerzel.bsky.social) 2026-06-22T22:22:09.368Z

And an interspecific adoption. I hope the duck survives!

At Clennon Valley Lakes, Paignton, Devon the Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula is still being raised by a pair of Coots Fulica atra and is growing fast. Interesting how it has adopted the behaviour of a baby Coot and goes to the adults for food, it does dive on its own as well.

— John Walters (@johnwalterswildife.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T03:36:00.646Z