On Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported that its sources said Israeli ministers had been told that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally ordered his military to attack Israeli civilian population centers. In 2012, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, speaking at of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, recalled, “In a private discussion we held in Tehran in October of 2000, Ali Khamenei told me that Israel must be burned to the ground and made to disappear from the face of the Earth,” adding that Khamenei declared that “Iran’s war against the United States and Israel is inevitable.” Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold asked Aznar, “When Khamenei was talking about wiping Israel off the map, was he referring to a gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state, or rather its physical-military termination?” “He meant physical termination through military force,” Aznar replied, adding that Khamenei was “working toward Iran defeating the United States and Israel in an inevitable war against them.” On Saturday the Jerusalem Post had reported that Israel had warned Iran it would strike strategic infrastructure if Iran targeted civilian centers in Israel; Iran has already launched missiles at Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ramat Gan, and Rishon Lezion. According to numerous reports, Iran has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel, many at Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest population center. “As of noon today, 13 people had been killed so far by the Iranian missile strikes and nearly 400 people were injured, nine of them gravely, according to the Israeli government,” The New York Times reported on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site where a missile struck in Bat Yam that destroyed a building, killing six people, three women, ages roughly 80, 60, and 50, an eighteen-year-old boy, a 20 year-old boy, and an eight-year-old girl. Search efforts are still ongoing to look through the rubble for more survivors.  “Even before most of the rescue forces arrived, the road here was littered with metal,” Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot said, “Dust covered all the vehicles and people were lying in the street—scenes reminiscent of the Twin Towers disaster. Right now, 61 buildings have been damaged, of which six or seven will likely have to be demolished—and that number may rise to double digits. It’s quite unprecedented to have to demolish this many buildings from a single strike. Unfortunately, the evacuation is still not complete. We expect the number to rise. We know there are still people trapped, and we hope there aren’t many,” Israel National News reported. Four Israeli Arab women were killed by an Iranian missile strike that hit northern Israeli Arab town of Tamra on Saturday night; after Iran launched dozens of missiles towards Israeli territory. A mother, her two daughters, ages 13 and 20, and another family member.

After the tyrannical Iranian regime turned off the internet in Iran — effectively preventing the Iranian people from knowing the damage caused to the regime by Israel’s military strikes and thus emboldening them to challenge the regime — free speech advocate Elon Musk confirmed he had turned on Starlink, allowing the Iranian people access to the Internet. Musk responded to Fox News host and radio host Mark Levin, who noted, “Elon Musk can put the final nail in the coffin of the Iranian regime by providing Star link internet to the Iranian people! Iran cut off all internet so that the people cannot organize a coup and communicate.” “The beams are on,” Musk succinctly responded. The beams are on — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2025 Iranian dissidents have cheered the Israeli strikes on Iran and criticized the regime for its war with Israel. Iranian scholar and filmmaker Faezeh Alavi, who saw her event “From Conflict to Connection: Israelis and Iranians in Dialogue,” at King’s College canceled in February after anti-Israel activists protested, responded to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu saying to the Iranian people, “Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years” by posting on X: “Bibi is spot on. We are sharing the same enemy. The Islamic Republic’s nuclear program must be stopped; otherwise, a nuclear war would start by this regime soon, and Iranian people would lose ANY chance of freeing Iran. Many world leaders also owe Israel for protecting them from this threat.” Bibi is spot on. We are sharing the same enemy. The Islamic Republic's nuclear program must be stopped; otherwise, a nuclear war would start by this regime soon, and Iranian people would lose ANY chance of freeing Iran. Many world leaders also owe Israel for protecting them… pic.twitter.com/MMNPIKGzax — Faezeh Alavi (@SFaeze_Alavi) June 13, 2025 “Only the deaths of Khamenei, his son Mojtaba, and Pazakhian will shorten the path to victory over the despotic regime of the jihadists in Tehran. After that, there will be no alternative leadership left — not even within the Revolutionary Guards. Otherwise, Iranians and Israelis are in for a very long period of suffering,” Professor Afshin Ellian wrote. רק מותם של ח'אמנאי, בנו מוג'תבא ופזשכיאן יקצר את הדרך לניצחון על המשטר הדספוטי של הג'יהאדיסטים בטהראן. לאחר מכן לא תישאר שום הנהגה חלופית — אפילו לא בתוך משמרות המהפכה. אחרת, צפויה לאיראנים ולישראלים תקופה מאוד ארוכה של סבל. — Afshin Ellian (@AfshinEllian1) June 15, 2025 Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians “to overthrow the Islamic Republic through street protests and nationwide strikes,” adding, “Ali Khamenei, the foolish leader of the anti-Iranian regime of the Islamic Republic, has once again embroiled Iran in a war; a war that is not [against] Iran and the Iranian nation, but [against] the Islamic Republic and Khamenei.” Famed Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad wrote on X, “The Islamic Republic’s insistence on continuing confrontation with Israel is based on illusions, ideological slogans, and unrealistic calculations, and it has no result other than the destruction of our Iran. A disaster whose costs will not only be political, but also human and security. And what’s even more bitter is that these costs will be paid with the lives of people who have no role or authority in these decision-making. How long will the Iranian people have to pay the price for a war that was neither their choice nor their benefit?” اصرار جمهوری اسلامی بر تداوم تقابل‌جویانه با اسرائیل، بر اساس توهمات و‌ شعارهای ایدئولوژیک و محاسبات غیرواقع‌بینانه است و بس و هیچ نتیجه‌ای ندارد جز ویرانی ایران ما. فاجعه‌ای که هزینه‌های آن نه صرفاً سیاسی، بلکه انسانی و امنیتی خواهد بود. و نکته‌ی تلخ‌تر آن‌که، این هزینه‌ها از… pic.twitter.com/6EmVZz84pn — Masih Alinejad ?️ (@AlinejadMasih) June 15, 2025

'Severe damage was done long ago'

'Innovation is freedom'

Her graduation from Boswell High School was only hours away—yet she was about to miss one of life’s most memorable moments. Laura Wiley’s kidney had become infected and the illness soon turned into severe sepsis, and she had to be admitted to the hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, on the night before her senior graduation. […] The post Nurses and Doctors Surprise Senior With Graduation Gala When She’s Too Sick to Attend High School Ceremony–WATCH appeared first on Good News Network.

I’m one of the lucky sons. One of the blessed sons. Because I not only had a father, but a good one. He provided for us and put a roof over our heads and food on the table. And he expected things of us. But he did so much more. He got married right after he graduated college, but he and my mom never took much time to be a married couple. There were always kids. By the time he was 30, he had four of us to take care of. Was he ready for it all? Fathers didn’t ask that question in the 1950s. They were probably better off. No matter how long we delay such things, we’re never ready. I remember as a kid looking at pictures of him before he was the man he became. He looked like a grown-up even in his high school yearbook. Why did he sacrifice so much for us? I learned as I got older that calling what he did a sacrifice would have irritated him: he did what people did. No one back then thought postponing adolescence into their 30s was an option. They started things. Started their lives. Started families and careers. One picture from his wedding is my favorite: the young groom grinning as he watches his bride cut their wedding cake, celebrating on a rooftop at a neighborhood building. No wedding planners. No exotic honeymoons. It was a drive to Niagara Falls and back to life. John and Christina Habeeb cutting their wedding cake in 1954. (Courtesy Lee Habeeb) After he left the Air Force, where he served as an officer training future officers, he started teaching history and coaching hoops at a public school in northern New Jersey. He became a department head, then assistant superintendent, and one day, he was the boss. There was a sense of inevitability about that outcome. Some people are born to run things. What were his dreams? The child of immigrant parents, he didn’t think much about such things. His generation was too practical. They didn’t sit around talking about how to change the world. They were too busy trying to change their world. My dad’s life—our life—was a slice of the American Dream. A rental house every summer at the Jersey Shore. Family night at the drive-in movies. Trips to New York City to see a Knicks game or a Broadway play. A pool in the yard and a basketball hoop attached to the garage. He was an old-school dad. There wasn’t a lot of hugging. Or praise. On the rare occasion he said something nice, it meant something. “Not bad,” he would say after a good effort. If it was a particularly good effort, he would say “not bad” twice. He wasn’t a man who looked back on life with regret. He had little use for taking his own temperature. He had a temper. I was afraid of him, but not physically. I was afraid to let him down. Disappoint him. When he yelled, it made me tremble. His temper had that kind of power. I remember the fights he had with my mom. I never understood what the fights were about, but what kid does? Sometimes, I thought one of them would just call it quits. But always, the next day came. They carried on. As time passed, the temper faded. As my dad got more comfortable in his own skin, as he was better able to navigate his own emotions, he got calmer. Meet him today, and you’d call him laid-back. As I got older, I came to appreciate the small things, the daily habits and rituals that my dad and my mom shared. Those rituals and rhythms of life gave me a great sense of stability. A great sense that relationships can last. That love can last. The coffee he started for my mom every morning. The daily run to the supermarket. The evening coffee out by the pool, listening to WOR on the transistor radio. The early dinners at a local bar for pizza and muscles marinara. The card games, which mom always seemed to win. The habits of love were there for me to observe. And imitate. The love I witnessed didn’t look like anything I saw in the movies. It looked like something better. Something within reach. The constancy. The consistency. The mutual understanding. None of it was terribly exciting. But it was good for me. It was good for my parents, too. “The most important thing a father can do for their children is love their mother,” Father Theodore Hesburgh, former President of Notre Dame University said. My dad, not a religious guy, would agree. And he would agree with theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said this in a letter to his niece before her wedding day: “It’s not your love that sustains your marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.” That lesson may be the greatest my dad taught me: marriage sustains love. My dad taught me big and small things. He taught me how to tie a tie and throw a spiral. He taught me to think through problems and see both sides of an argument. He taught me the importance of hard work, and that talent was overrated. He encouraged me to take risks but not be reckless. He taught me how to play blackjack and poker. How to lead and learn. He really taught me how to play basketball. And the importance of sticking things out. “Finish what you start,” he often told me. And always, he was shaping my character. Trying to draw out of me the best version of myself—which I too often resisted. Turning boys into men is no duckwalk. It’s something the state can’t do. Or a social worker. It’s something mothers can’t do alone, as hard as they may try—and as good and heroic as they are. Fathers are uniquely qualified to do this work. And uniquely situated. Dads play a critical—and underappreciated—role in their daughter’s lives, too. I know I would not be the man I am today, or the husband and father I am, without his example. He’s 94 years old and still influencing me. Still teaching me. To all of the good dads out there, thank you. Not enough is written about you, the men in this country taking on the responsibilities and pleasures of fatherhood. And disappointments too. Your steadiness and steadfastness may not make for good fiction, but it makes for a good life. Your effort to shape the next generation of husbands and fathers is the most important work in America. Originally published in Newsweek. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post A Tribute to My Father—and Good Fathers Everywhere appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Biometric surveillance is quietly becoming an integral part of everyday life, with the world of sports now serving as a proving ground. At the US Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, spectators are once again being offered “frictionless” entry through a system that captures their facial data. The US Golf Association has renewed its partnership with FortressGB and Wicket to implement chip-reader and facial recognition ticketing technology at this year’s tournament. Amanda Weiner, managing director of global media and ticketing at the USGA, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “We know that people are here to watch the best players in the world, not stand in lines. That’s core to why we invest in this technology.” But this convenience-oriented framing glosses over a deeper concern: the normalization of biometric tracking at leisure events where expectations of privacy should be higher, not diminished. More: World Cup 2026: Where Football Fans Face Off With Facial Recognition Spectators can still tap a pass or phone to enter, but Wicket’s face-based access system takes it a step further. Those who enroll their biometric data ahead of time can bypass traditional checks entirely, an approach marketed as seamless. It also facilitates access for staff and players, but the wider implications of such systems collecting, storing, and processing facial data remain unaddressed. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the NBA’s Clippers are accelerating this trend at their new Intuit Dome. Operated by Halo Sports and Entertainment, a company owned by Clippers chairman and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the venue collects data under the banner of personalization. The stadium takes this data-driven model further by measuring decibel levels at individual seats to identify and reward the loudest fans. Personalized screens greet visitors as they walk in. The legal and ethical dimensions of this technology have become impossible to ignore. With no unified national framework, responsibility has fallen to the states, creating a fragmented and inconsistent approach. While marketed as fan-friendly enhancements, these systems are reshaping the social contract between the public and the spaces they occupy. What’s offered as convenience may, in time, prove far more costly in terms of privacy surrendered. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Biometric Surveillance Expands in Sports: US Open and Clippers’ Intuit Dome Embrace Facial Recognition appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Why the CBO Almost Always Gets It Wrong

Iran to Cyprus, Oman, Qatar: Help Us Stop the War, Pretty Please

“Boys will be boys.”I know this because I have two of them — and I’m still one at heart. Give me a cardboard tube, and it quickly becomes a sword or a lightsaber (complete with sound effects). My sons do the same. My daughter? Not so much.Fatherhood matters — not just sentimentally, but statistically.But beneath the innocent play and imaginary battles lies something deeper, something wired into the heart of every man: the call to provide and protect.It’s a calling that many men feel innately, but tragically, our culture has done all it can to distract from this responsibility and delay the transition to true manhood. Worse still, modern messaging often reshapes manhood into a version that previous generations wouldn’t even recognize: one of detachment, passivity, or perpetual adolescence.Nowhere is this more evident than when an unexpected pregnancy enters the picture.Too often, fathers are overlooked or written off as irrelevant to the decision-making process, either by societal expectation or personal retreat. But at thousands of pregnancy help organizations across the country, that narrative is changing. These centers are not only supporting women. They are increasingly reaching out to men as well, challenging them to rise to the occasion and embrace fatherhood.In fact, in the past two years alone, programming specifically designed for men at pregnancy help centers has grown by 6%. It’s a quiet but powerful shift, one that recognizes that helping women also means equipping and encouraging men to be the dads they were created to be.Why does this matter? Because children benefit when fathers are present and engaged.According to research compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, children with involved fathers are more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, and avoid high-risk behaviors. Studies show that children with involved fathers are 43% more likely to earn A’s in school and 33% less likely to repeat a grade. Another study found that children with present fathers are significantly less likely to suffer from depression or engage in criminal activity.Fatherhood matters — not just sentimentally, but statistically.And yet the narrative of modern America too often casts men as optional or even unwelcome in conversations about parenting and family formation. If we want to change the outcomes for the next generation, we must change that mindset.We need a culture that encourages men to step up — not step back.That’s why many of us working in the pregnancy help movement have taken up the mantle of being a “dadvocate” — someone who sees the value in reaching men, even when they seem disinterested or discouraged. We believe that just as women deserve support and hope, so do the men who helped create a new life. Whether they choose to engage or not, we trust that something greater is at work: a call deep within them to be part of their children’s story.In a world increasingly confused about manhood, fatherhood, and family, perhaps the best gift we can give this Father’s Day is a renewed recognition of the vital role dads play — and the encouragement they need to step into that role with confidence and purpose.Let’s build a culture that welcomes fathers, equips them, and celebrates the irreplaceable part they play. For the sake of every child and every generation to come.