Friday: Hili dialogue

July 10, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Friday, July 10, 2026 and National Kitten Day.  Here’s a ten-minute video of kitten antics to brighten your day. My favorite bits are when kittens jump sideways.

It’s also Don’t Step on a Bee Day, Martyrdom of the Bab Day, National Piña Colada Day, Pick Blueberries Day, World Kebab Day, and Teddy Bear Picnic Day.  I was going to put up Rosemary Clooney’s version of “Teddy Bear’s Picnic,” but it isn’t on YouTube.  It was my favorite song as a child, and I still know all the words. Here’s an acceptable version by Anne Murray:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 10 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Footy news: Both Matthew and  watched the France-Morocco match live, but Matthew had to stay up late in Manchester. However, we are both France fans (though my favorite team is Argentiina), so we were glad when France won 2-0 after a scoreless first half. And of course Mbappé scored one goal, tying Messi in this World Cup with eight goals each.

Kylian Mbappé recovered from a missed penalty to score his 20th World Cup goal and help send France through to the semifinals of the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Morocco.

Didier Deschamps’ team took control of their quarterfinal tie on Thursday early in the second half with two goals in six minutes to set up a meeting with either Spain or Belgium in the last four.

Mbappé had his first-half penalty saved by Yassine Bounou, but scored a wonderful opener for France shortly after the break with a curling effort into the far corner for his eighth of the tournament to draw level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot.

It was followed soon afterwards by another from Ousmane Dembélé — quiet up until that point — when the Paris Saint-Germain forward calmly passed his finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

. . . France had 13 shots in the first half compared to just one from Morocco, who struggled to make an impact in the final third.

If their game-plan was reliant on keeping France out, it broke down early in the second half.

With Morocco struggling to create any chances of note, first Mbappé and then Dembélé made them pay as France became only the third nation to make three straight World Cup semifinals.

And here are the highlights. On the video you can see goal-scoring plays at 7:30 and 9:34. Today Spain plays Belgium at 3 p.m. Eastern time.

*A NYT “news analysis” suggests that Iran may have jumped the shark by reigniting hostilities:

Iran, fearing that its hold over the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes was gradually slipping away, risked overplaying its hand by again firing on oil tankers and potentially rekindling a major war with the United States, analysts said.

Both sides threatened on Wednesday to scuttle the Memorandum of Understanding that they had signed on June 17 to establish a blueprint for peace talks and extended a wobbly cease-fire in place since April. American warplanes carried out even more intensive attacks on scores of targets across Iran overnight, while Iran vowed to ratchet up drone and missile strikes against U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.

The basic bargain in the vaguely worded, 14-point Memorandum of Understanding was that Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping in exchange for badly needed economic relief. Thornier issues, including the fate of Iran’s nuclear program, were kicked down the road for further negotiations. But very little changed.

“The M.O.U. increasingly looked like a mirage,” said Vali Nasr, a veteran Iran analyst and a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “The view from Tehran is that the U.S. is engaged in a concerted effort to take control of the Strait out of Iran’s hands, to weaken its position in Lebanon and to regain its own strength in order to put even more pressure on Iran or to go back to war.”

As the 60-day clock on the agreement ticked away, Iran grew increasingly frustrated that the U.S. Navy was encouraging maritime traffic to take a southern route along the coast of Oman rather than respecting Iranian demands that all traffic register with its newly minted Hormuz transit authority, a precursor to charging fees. Traffic last weekend was about one-third of the prewar level of more than 100 ships daily, split evenly between the Iranian and Omani sides of the waterway, according to Kpler, which tracks marine traffic.

In addition, the United States was working to conclude a separate peace between Lebanon and Israel that would include the long-elusive goal of disarming Hezbollah, Iran’s main proxy force in Lebanon. Finally, in public discussions about financial aid, the scale kept shrinking.

Instead, even amid the weeklong funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader killed in the war in February, the Iranians decided to strike rather than wait for their leverage to dissipate, analysts said. Projectiles hit three tankers transiting the strait on Tuesday, although Iran did not claim responsibility.

*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, we have a new piece called “The art of no deal.“, hinting at what outcome of the war Segal, an Israeli journalist, thinks Israel is hoping for:

It’s Thursday, July 9, and for the second night in a row the US struck Iranian targets, and for the second night in a row Iran retaliated against US targets in the Gulf. Despite his declaration that the MoU is “dead,” Donald Trump has reportedly told his advisers that he will not “resume the war“ unless Iran kills US servicemembers.

Assuming Iran refrains from crossing Trump’s line, that still leaves quite a bit of escalation ladder to climb before it pays the ultimate price. The regime’s willingness to attack ships in the strait—fully aware it would trigger US retaliation—reveals its strategy. It can absorb a few strikes now and then; what it cannot survive is losing control of the strait.

Over the past month, the Israeli defense establishment tried to find a scenario in which something good might come out of the bad situation in Iran. They thought and thought, scratched their heads, and then said: maybe a Sadat will rise in Iran, abandon missiles and nuclear weapons, offer peace to Israel, and economic cooperation to the US. That is how faint the hope was. One of Trump’s close associates said something similar: maybe, he tried to convince his Iranian interlocutors, you will realize that instead of collecting pennies for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, you will make huge money on oil after giving up the nuclear program and having sanctions lifted.

Well, much to everyone’s surprise, it turns out there is no Sadat for peace in Iran yet, nor a Roosevelt for economic development. The fanatics won, as usual. They inhaled the reports in the American and Israeli media about their own colossal, historic victory, acted with arrogance, and the end is well known. The sanctions returned before a single barrel of Iranian oil even reached its destination.

Of course, there is no need to be overly impressed by President Trump’s words about “the end of the memorandum of understanding,” just as there was no need to take too hard his words about peace with Iran last month. As the dust settles over recent months, the picture is quite clear: there will be no agreement that removes the nuclear program, it is highly doubtful that the war will return in full force, and Israel may awkwardly and strangely get its preferred scenario: neither war nor an agreement. Only the continuation of sanctions and the siege in a way that collapses Iran’s economy slowly, but surely. Top security officials are convinced that if the US persists, this will lead to the collapse of the regime by the end of 2026, maybe a few months later.

If they’re right and the regime collapses, what’s to ensure that the new regime will give freedom to the Iranian people and agree that they won’t make nuclear weapons? If the strategy is as Amit Segal describes above, stay tuned.

*Three Jews—J. B. Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel, and Josh Shapiro—appear at this moment to be credible Presidential candidates for 2028.  But of course how do they get elected in a party rapidly distancing itself from Israel and Jews. Emanuel, as I wrote recently, just gave a speech in Israel dissing Israel, and I see him as a traitor and an opportunist. I haven’t heard Pritzker, my governor, say anything, but I haven’t heard everything he said. Ditto for Shapiro. The WSJ discusses the problems they’ll face running as Jews:

As the latest wave of military conflict flared in the Middle East, Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday tried to navigate the increasingly complex relationship between Israel and his fellow Democrats.

The potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, speaking in Tel Aviv, called for an end to the “American taxpayer’s subsidy of Israel’s defense budget” and for the sanctioning of construction and finance companies supporting “illegal settlements” in the West Bank. He emphasized his decadeslong frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As one of three Jewish Democrats believed to be contemplating 2028 presidential bids, Emanuel sought to defuse tension over Israel among his party’s primary voters by arguing it is possible to support Israel while being critical of its actions toward Palestinians.

American Jews have traditionally been among the party’s most stalwart supporters. But progressives, who are a powerful force in the presidential nomination process, have become increasingly critical of Israel in the aftermath of the war in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas.

That puts Emanuel and Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and JB Pritzker of Illinois, two other Jewish Democrats contemplating national campaigns, on potentially tricky ground as they navigate deteriorating views about Israel and rising antisemitism within the Democratic Party.

Here’s the bad news, with a graph taken from a Gallup poll:

Roughly two-thirds of Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, according to polling by Gallup. Sympathy for Israelis this year fell to 17%, from 40% in 2022. Over the same period, support has climbed to 65% from 38% for Palestinians.

OY, MY PARTY!

Within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the shift away from supporting Israel and toward championing Palestinian rights has become one of the most animating issues. That could complicate the presidential bids of the Jewish candidates, who hold diverse views on the Middle East, but who might be perceived by progressive voters as reflexively pro-Israel.

Jewish candidates will have to address Israel head-on because of the shifting Democratic Party dynamic, said Joel Rubin, who led Jewish outreach for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign.

“Things have gone really crazy within the party,” Rubin said. “The clash between the progressive wing of the party and where the grassroots voters are is stark.”

How do the other two stand? Better than Emanuel:

Pritzker, a billionaire former Aipac donor, declined an interview. He has previously said he stopped giving to Aipac more than a decade ago because he saw it moving to the right.

A driving force behind building the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, Pritzker’s ancestors fled Russian persecution in modern-day Ukraine in the late 19th century. He often uses his family’s experience to emphasize his belief that Trump has fascist tendencies.

When asked earlier this year about deaths of Gaza children, Pritzker acknowledged the unique position he is in. “These are particularly challenging, hard questions when you’re asking someone who is Jewish,” he said on the “I’ve Had It” podcast.

“We have to recognize when atrocities have occurred and then we, as an important carrier of values in the world, need to do what we need to do in order to squash the atrocities and stand up for those who are innocent,” he said.

Shapiro, who also declined an interview, has championed a two-state solution for decades though he concedes it now feels far away. He has also been forthright in his condemnation of those who deny Israel’s right to exist and call it an apartheid state.

An observant Jew who wrote in his memoir that he lives his faith “out loud,” Shapiro keeps kosher and attended, and then sent his four children, to Jewish day school. In his memoir he writes that he frequently recites the Shema—the central prayer in Judaism—while he is on a long drive or waiting for a plane to take off. In 2022, he launched his first run for governor with a television ad explaining that he he always makes it home on Friday to celebrate Shabbat dinner with his family.

I don’t give props to Jewish candidates for being observant, but I would take off marks for saying dumb stuff about Israel, especially the (currently) moronic call for a two-state solution, which for several reasons is the touchstone of a blockhead.  I am not a one-issue voter, but I live in a Democratic state whose electoral votes are all going to whoever the Democrats nominate for President. Let’s hope I don’t have to write in a non-candidate Democrat.  But what we know now is that no Jewish candidate will ever express sympathy or approbation for Israel.  

*Finally, I learned from the AP’s “Oddities” section that famed eater Joey Chestnut once again won Nathan’s Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, leaving his opponents in the dust but falling short of his own record (you get just ten minutes.  Chestnut was eating more than one dog every ten seconds (with a bun!):

Crowds gathered in the sweltering heat Saturday to celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday by watching famed competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut defend his world hot dog eating championship in Coney Island, where he downed 66 hot dogs in just 10 minutes. Miki Sudo defended her title as well in the women’s division.

Saturday marked the 18th time Chestnut, 42, won the so-called Mustard Belt in just 21 appearances at the internationally televised Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest. He beat out 13 competitors who came from around the country and world, trekking from the Czech Republic, Australia and South Korea.

“It’s a dream, it’s electric, there’s no place better on Earth,” Chestnut said breathlessly in an interview immediately after the showdown, donning a bulky, bejeweled necklace bearing the name of the sports betting company “Polymarket” around his neck. In a video posted on Instagram before the competition, Chestnut called competitive hot dog eating “the most patriotic sport we’ve got.”

Chestnut handily defeated the second-place winner, Patrick Bertoletti, 41, who ate 50 hot dogs, but fell short of his own 2021 record of 76 wieners and buns — or approximately 7.6 hot dogs per minute.

Defending champion in the women’s division, the 40-year-old Sudo of Tampa, Florida, won the bright pink Mustard Belt for the 12th time, downing 38.75 dogs. In 2024, she ate a record 51 links.

After competing, Sudo joined the crowd to watch her husband — who proposed to her in 2021 immediately after downing 50 boiled eggs in just over 3 minutes to set a world record — compete in the men’s event.

I blame the difference on women being smaller. I’d like to see Leah Shutkever in this contest! Heeeeere’s Joey!:

You can read more Chestnut here. I love the commentary on this contest; it’s hilarious!

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is joshing with the credulous Szaron:

Szaron: Something’s moving over there.
Hili: Be careful, it could be an alligator.

In Polish:

Szaron: Tam coś się rusza.
Hili: Uważaj, to może być aligator.

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

From Kitty Litterposting:

From Things With Faces; look at the shadows:

From CinEmma:

From Masih. It’s hard to believe that Iran greeter representatives of other Arab states this way at Khamenei’s funeral:

From Luana; Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife, rakes in the cash by distorting history:

Let’s check in on the Jew-hating Ana Kasparian, who may become the Official Website Antisemite®

From Jeff Maurer, who deserves more followers. The tweet is a bit late to the party, but still . . .

Two from my feed. We must all love opossums!

And my favorite parrot, New Zealand’s flightless kakapo.  Look how few of them are left!

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

And one from Dr. Cobb. The first is a real photo; the car is full of white supremacists on their way to a march. As good cowards do, they’ve covered their faces:

“.. Members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C.”@reuters.com

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T14:56:47.382Z

27 thoughts on “Friday: Hili dialogue”

  1. You didn’t mention the potentially huge news that Mbappé left the match early with some sort of foot injury.

  2. Mbappé had his first-half penalty saved by Yassine Bounou,…

    After another Bounou save when the score was 0-0, Stu Holden (?) said ‘France still haven’t found what they are looking for.’ Ouch. I wonder what took him so long.

  3. UK News: (As you likely know, Andy Burnham is likely to be Prime Minister shortly, taking over from the unpopular Keir Starmer; recall that in the UK system the PM is not directly elected, but is whoever commands the confidence of the House of Commons, where Labour have a majority.)

    From The Times today (paywalled):

    “Andy Burnham has apologised for Labour’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza and said the government needs to “do better” under his leadership.”

    “He said: “I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza, my party didn’t get it right and I am sorry about that.”

    “Let’s be honest, the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire and we must now do more to strengthen our approach,” he said.

    He added that action would include “looking at further sanctions, both on those involved in the violence in Gaza, but also looking at measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements”.

    “Burnham said there was “increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed”, …”

    “He said he was “appalled by what I have seen and read about the destruction of Gaza”, describing the experience of Palestinians in the territory as “a scar on our collective conscience”.

    2. Burnham is just pandering to the imported Islamic vote in the UK, which Labor now depends on just as the party of the same name does here in Oz.

  4. I am not sure that Pritzker, Emmanuel, or Shapiro have much of a chance with the Democratic Party, if what’s happening in Maine is any indication. Yesterday, Shenna Bellows, the Secretary of State of Maine, threw her hat in the ring to replace Plattner in the Senate race. This is how one writer responded:

    Shenna,

    Because of your past role at the holocaust and human rights center, some have extrapolated that to assume you would have policy that is too sympathetic to Israel in general.

    It is obviously perfectly fine to think that the holocaust was atrocious, that Israel has a right to self-defence AND that the current situation in Gaza is a horrific genocide that far exceeds any claim to self defence.

    But in a short campaign, given your background, what will not be ok is ambiguity on policy around these issues.

    Can your team formally put on the record your stance on the following questions:

    1) Do you support the outright ban of offensive weapons to Israel?

    2) Do you support the withholding of all defensive systems to Israel until there is a full and complete withdrawal from Gaza?

    3) Do you support a two-state solution?

    4) Do you support a US investigation into war crimes in Gaza?

    5) Do you support the US becoming party to the ICC?

    While other candidates have other major policy points that will be the crux of this race for them, your occupational background raises these as fair questions in the minds of voters.

    However, that same work means you more than many deeply understand the horrors of genocide and the costs of staying silent.

    So if you have no problem in calling out these abuses, then that is something the voters in Maine need to know, on the record, as soon as possible.

    I don’t think any of the three could go as far as this guy wants Bellows to go, and this guy seems representative of the Party on Israel these days.

      1. Interesting. I know the technical reason, but not the YouTube Roolz reason why. I’m on a VPN and YouTube thinks I’m in Bangkok Thailand. There’s a lot of factors ranging from how the uploader configured it to YouTube policies. It was worth a shot!

        1. Yes, the video is available when I’m using a VPN (and YouTube thinks I’m in the Netherlands), but not when the VPN is disabled (and YouTube knows that I’m in the USA).

      3. It works in Canada. YouTube apparently has a lot of country specific rules. I don’t pretend to understand it.

        Many videos you load appear to me as “not available in your country.”

        ???

  6. Being a NY libtard I’ve voted Dem my entire adult American life and while I admire PCC(E)’s optimism on that score, the Jewish candidates just aren’t going to win.
    Rahm Emmanuel’s delicate threading of the needle is typical of him, he’s a bright guy (and our former Ambassador to Japan).

    The Dems – and the British left (right Coel?) have basically BECOME Palestine now in that destroying Israel is their most sacred belief and the very core of their identity now.

    Then there’s the troons/genderwang with the Dems. I’m out.

    D.A.
    NYC 🗽

  7. It troubles me that one could favor the continuation of Republican ‘leadership’ after their recent record. No single issue differences with democrats could disqualify them from my support.

  8. Funny how a segment of our society claimed they could not breathe through masks during COVID but have no problem breathing through masks while marching on hot summer days.

    1. Hmmm good point… or are they just displaying their modesty and are fans of the niqab?

  9. Genocide in Gaza is now a more perverse and more sincerely held litmus test than the stolen 2020 election.

    1. I agree. One person told me that Harris lost because she wouldn’t call the Gaza situation a “genocide.”

      Of course a) it isn’t and b) Trump certainly didn’t pass that test either. It’s become pervasive. Very discouraging.

      Another very common litmus test: did the candidate take AIPAC money? If so, do not support.

  10. Kittens are insane little monsters!

    While I’m neither friend nor foe of Rahm Emanuel, I strongly recommend watching his speech in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/live/aCJPA4EN7VU?is=pkGf2x7f_G_kcwSI. Yes, he’s threading a needle in opposing today’s Israeli policies while still being supportive of Israel. He’s a smart guy, as several correspondents have said, so he has little choice. But he may actually be sincere. After watching his speech, I came to conclude that Emanuel is a friend of Israel. I’m going to give him a chance and will pay attention to his campaign. YMMV.

    Jewish candidates are in a bad spot, in that winning will require them to express an acceptable amount of disdain for Israel. As many writers have said, this demand comes close to requiring Jewish candidates to repudiate part of their Jewishness. Jews around the world have been saying “Next year in Jerusalem” since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, irrespective of how “observant” they are or whether they believe in God at all. (I don’t.) Jews should not have to trade their Jewish heritage in order to run for office in the United States.

    I don’t think that a Jew can be elected President in 2028. The candidates may distance themselves from Israel, but they can’t distance themselves from being Jews.

    1. 10 years ago Norman I’d have said it was not only possible to elect a Jewish president but pretty likely if the right guy turned up.
      Now, after a few years of woke and tiktok university of Middle East politics I think it is utterly impossible, lower chances than an atheist. And we know how popular atheists are!

      best regards,
      D.A.
      NYC 🗽

    2. Maybe sing this loudly at campaign rallies …

      Oh Rahm oh Rahm oh Rahm Emanuel
      Please don’t abandon those in Israel
      (Who mourn as friends now disappear)
      Just for advancing your hoped-for career

      © 2026, no charge for noncommercial use, all other rights reserved.

  11. Interesting projections from Segal. But he makes them in a vacuum, without incorporating Ukraine into the equation. For starts, right now the collapse of Russian control of Crimea isn’t much mentioned. Russian shadow fleets are hugging the German coast in transiting the Baltic to avoid detention/impoundment by Sweden. The Russian fleet is getting hammered – by Ukrainian underwater drones among other things. And the Russian military, with casualties exceeding recruits, has started to snatch people off the streets.

  12. Mrs. Toasty requests the presence of Toasty at her picnic. Better hurry—they have a 6pm curfew (bedtime)!

  13. I am very pro-Morocco. Why? Because of “The First Salute” by Barbara W. Tuchman.

    “It can absorb a few strikes now and then; what it cannot survive is losing control of the strait.” Oil is around $71 today. The market thinks they have lost control of the Strait.

  14. PCC(E) How’d the eye surgery go? Wasn’t it today?
    Hope you’re doing well.

    D.A.
    NYC 🗽

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