After US strikes on Iran, JD Vance says: ‘violence will be met with violence’
After US strikes on Iranian targets on Friday, in response to an Iranian drone attack on a cargo ship using a route through the strait of Hormuz Iran did not approve, the US vice-president wrote on social media:
“Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.”
As we reported earlier, a senior Iranian diplomat argued in a post earlier in the day that Iran’s reading of the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran requires ships passing through the strait, even on routes closer to Oman than Iran, to coordinate with Iranian coastal authorities.
Key events
Vanilla Ice concert at Trump’s Freedom 250 celebration rained out
The Great American State Fair, a celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence on the National Mall that kicked off on Thursday with a deeply partisan speech from Donald Trump, announced on Friday that it was closing early due to “inclement weather”.
That means that a scheduled concert by Vanilla Ice, the rapper whose rendition of his 1990 hit “Ice, Ice Baby” at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve thrilled Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, if no one else, has been rained out.
In May, when seven of the original nine acts backed out within hours of the concert series being announced, Rob Van Winkle, who has performed under the stage name Vanilla Ice for four decades, was the only musician to express excitement at the idea of taking part in the celebration of Trump’s America.
Earlier on Friday, he showed the stage near the Washington Monument to his Instagram followers and promised them an “epic” concert.
The schedule for the Freedom 250 celebration includes a Fourth of July speech by the president, which will be the seventh anniversary of his rain-soaked address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, when he memorably claimed that US troops, in the war of 1812, “took over the airports”.
Troops patrolling the fenced-off Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool are warned: ‘Loitering is not permitted in this area’
As the independent video journalist Amanda Moore reports on Friday, even national guard troops patrolling inside the newly fenced-off perimeter of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool are triggering an automated warning to leave the area.
Moore recorded four troops being scolded, as they passed an automated surveillance device on the south side of the pool, by a disembodied voice that informed them: “Loitering is not permitted in this area. Please proceed to a designated location. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Moore’s video shows that the troops appeared to be surprised that they had triggered the recorded announcement, turning their heads as they walked to see where it was coming from.
After US strikes on Iran, JD Vance says: ‘violence will be met with violence’
After US strikes on Iranian targets on Friday, in response to an Iranian drone attack on a cargo ship using a route through the strait of Hormuz Iran did not approve, the US vice-president wrote on social media:
“Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.”
As we reported earlier, a senior Iranian diplomat argued in a post earlier in the day that Iran’s reading of the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran requires ships passing through the strait, even on routes closer to Oman than Iran, to coordinate with Iranian coastal authorities.
George Chidi
Pete Buttigieg, the former US transportation secretary, said on Friday an anonymous and – police say – meritless accusation led Child Protective Services to investigate his family.
In a Substack post published on Friday, Buttigieg described the incident – which resulted in him being separated from his four-year-old twins – as “among the darkest hours of my life” and likened the accusation to “swatting”, the practice of calling police with a false report of an emergency to trigger a law enforcement response.
“Now imagine the same concept, but with Child Protective Services instead of a SWAT team,” Buttigieg wrote. “Hadn’t thought of that? Me neither, until a few days ago when a police officer and a CPS worker showed up at our home and politely asked to speak with me.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Michigan state police acknowledged the incident, saying the department had received an “anonymous report” earlier this week and “determined the report was false”.
“The Michigan state police and Child Protective Services responded and determined the report was false,” said Shanon Banner, the department spokesperson. “False reports are dangerous and divert law enforcement officers and Child Protective Services workers from responding to legitimate emergencies and protecting vulnerable children and families.”
According to Buttigieg, the social worker and police officer investigating the accusation required the former transportation secretary and his husband, Chasten, to separate themselves from their children for 24 hours. Buttigieg sent their children to their grandparent’s house, he said. The accusation was found to be unsubstantiated and politically motivated, he said.
US strikes on Iran are reportedly over
US officials told CNN and the New York Times on Friday that a wave of new strikes on Iranian missile and drone targets, in response to an Iranian drone attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz on Thursday, ended after about 90 minutes.
Four Iranian sites along the coast and on the Persian gulf island Qeshm, were carried out by US air force F35s and F16s, an official told the Times.
Senior Iranian diplomat says ceasefire agreement with US requires ships passing the strait of Hormuz to coordinate with Iran
Before the US launched strikes on Iranian targets on Friday, in retaliation for an Iranian drone attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz, Iran’s deputy foreign minister had warned in a social media post that safe passage for ships was only guaranteed if ships coordinate their passage with Iranian authorities.
“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz under vague arrangements, parallel routes, or decision-making outside Iran’s considerations as the coastal state is not guaranteed,” Gharibabadi wrote on X, according to a translation of the Persian post from Iran’s Mehr News.
“Any valid framework must be based on coordination with Iran and the provisions of paragraph 5 of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. Otherwise, the result will be the suspension of the designated parallel route,” he added.
Section 5 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran reads:
Upon the signing of this MoU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles, and de-mining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be instated within 30 days. The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman, to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussions with other Persian Gulf Littoral States, in line with applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps promises ‘swift and decisive’ reply to US strikes, Iran’s state TV reprots
After new US strikes on Iran on Friday, Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) promised a “swift and decisive” response, Iranian state television reported early Saturday local time in Tehran, according to Reuters.
The IRGC said its forces had repelled an attack by the US on Sirik, on the coast near the strait of Hormuz.
Iranian media reports strike on pier in southern Iran near strait of Hormuz
According to Reuters, Iranian media reported on Friday that a pier in Sirik, on the coast of southern Iran near the strait of Hormuz had been struck.
The report came after the Pentagon announced it had conducted strikes against Iran in response to an Iranian drone attack on a Singapore-flagged commercial ship in a part of the strait close to Oman.
Citing an Iranian military source, Iranian media also reported that warning shots had been fired hours earlier on Friday toward “violating vessels” in the strait of Hormuz.
The UN’s International Maritime Organization said on Thursday that it was pausing its plan to move stranded ships with more than 11,000 sailors out of the Persian gulf through the strait using a route that Iran’s military called “unacceptable and completely dangerous”.
The vessel that was attacked was not part of the evacuation effort, said Arsenio Dominguez, the UN agency’s secretary general. “I have been informed of an attack today in the Gulf of Oman on a vessel which passed through the Strait of Hormuz,” Dominguez said in a statement. “This vessel did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework.”
The Iranian drone strike on the ship came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route through the strait without Tehran’s permission.
The Ever Lovely, the cargo ship that was struck, had been following a route through the strait recommended by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations when it was struck, the ship’s owner, Evergreen, said.
“All crew members remain safe as does the vessel itself and all cargo,” it added.
Pentagon official tells Fox News US strikes on Iran are ‘ongoing’
US airstrikes on Iranian targets are “ongoing”, a senior US defense official told the Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported on social media minutes ago.
Pentagon says US ‘conducted strikes against Iran’ on Friday in response to strait of Hormuz ship attack
United States Central Command, which directs US military forces in the Middle East, said US forces “conducted strikes against Iran, June 26, as a powerful response to yesterday’s attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.
U.S. aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran hit M/V Ever Lovely on June 25 with a one-way attack drone. The Singapore-flagged cargo ship was exiting the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast at the time of Iran’s attack.
The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire.
The strikes came shortly after Donald Trump was asked if Iran would face any consequences for violating the ceasefire with a drone attack on a commercial ship in the strait on Thursday.
“Well, you’ll find out,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump hints at US response to Iran attack on cargo ship
Donald Trump has said “you’ll find out” when asked if Iran would face any consequences after firing drones on a commercial vessel in the strait of Hormuz on Thursday.
Trump accused Iran of a “foolish violation” the ceasefire in a subsequent Truth Social post, adding that Iran fired at least four one-way attack drones at ships transiting the strait, of which the US shot down three, while the other hit the ship.
Asked if he considered the ceasefire to still be in effect, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he didn’t like the fact that Iran had taken shots. “They shouldn’t be doing that, so you’ll find out.”
Pressed to say if he would respond, the president repeated: “You’ll find out.”
Trump made the remarks during an event with the White House Religious Liberty Commission in the Oval Office. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Texas makes Bible passages required reading for millions of public school students
Marina Dunbar
TheTexas education board has approved a broad new statewide reading list that, for the first time, will make passages from the Bible required reading for more than 5 million public school students.
Under the new initiative, Bible stories will become mandatory reading for millions of public school students in addition to a more standard collection of books, renewing debate over growing efforts in the US to increase the role of religion in classrooms.
The rollout will be staggered, starting with elementary school students in 2030.
The Republican-controlled Texas state board of education gave final approval to the plan during a vote today. Last year, Texas became the largest state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom.
House speaker Mike Johnson will officially transmit the bipartisan housing bill to the White House on Monday, NBC News is reporting citing two people with direct knowledge of the process, after Donald Trump decided to hold the landmark bill hostage earlier this week.
Johnson said yesterday, after a lengthy meeting withTrump, that he would be “transmitting the housing bill to the White House” but did not specify when that would take place (see my earlier post).
It remains unclear whether this means Trump will also sign the bill on Monday, or indeed if the president plans to sign it at all. Once the bill is officially transmitted, it triggers a 10-day clock for the president to either sign or veto the legislation, or it becomes law at the end of that window.
David Smith
Earlier I was at the Washington Hilton hotel, where Donald Trump made his first appearance since being rushed off stage after a failed assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April.
Security was unsurprisingly tight. Roads were closed and police vehicles conspicuous as I approached the hotel, which is hosting the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference. Just as in April, I went down an escalator and stood in line for airport-style metal detectors operated by the Secret Service.
I emptied my pockets as usual and noticed the officer seemed especially diligent in rummaging through my bag and asking me to turn on my laptop to ensure it was real. But ultimately the people in front of and behind me seemed to pass through without trouble.
The hotel’s vast underground ballroom has patriotic red, white and blue lighting. I could see the spot where I dived for cover under a dining table the night shots were fired when Cole Allen allegedly stormed a security checkpoint with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives.
This time there were rows of seats for delegates at this event for religious conservatives, where speakers have included House speaker Mike Johnson and treasury secretary Scott Bessent. Trump himself took the stage just before 2pm ET.
“I remember this place not so long ago,” he quipped. “Hopefully, we’ll have a little more pleasant – we’re going to have a little more pleasant experience.”
Trump calls democratic socialist victories in New York ‘most serious threat to US in its history’
In bizarre, hateful remarks earlier at the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, Donald Trump rambled for some time about the democratic socialist candidates who swept primary elections in New York earlier this week, calling them (wrongly) “ruthless communists” and branded the leftist wave in the Democrat party “the most serious threat to our country in its existence”.
At the same time he boasted that he “would be the greatest communist in history” but said it would lead to Americans living in squalor, railing against the leftists who “hate” America.
I looked at some of the people that got elected the other night in New York. These are in many ways stupid people, in some ways, and intellectually probably pretty smart, but they’re people that want to destroy our country.
They hate our country, they hate our people, they hate the Democrat party. The Democrat party is in big trouble, because this isn’t stopping with New York.
The president added:
It’s ironic we’re celebrating a very important birthday … 250 years, and instead of speaking about Christ and freedom and victories of all different kinds, we’re speaking about yet another threat to the foundations of America.
Among the wild (false) claims he made, Trump said “the hardcore, godless communists” would “take American down” by targeting churches and Christians, turning buildings into “ghettos and slums”, and that everyone would leave New York, and that this would spread across the country “like an uncontrollable cancer” and leave the United States a “third-world country”.
Donald Trump gives remarks at the Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton. Photograph: Nathan Posner/Shutterstock
