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Jun 6, 2026 - World

The New York Times on Saturday added significant new detail to a bombshell report first published by NBC News — and covered by Raw Story — revealing that the Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to "critical," its highest level.The most striking addition: a senior U.S. official's characterization of what Israel has been doing. The aggressiveness of Israeli intelligence collection on top Trump administration officials, the official told the Times, has been "unhinged."The Times also identified the specific American officials Israel is believed to have targeted: Steve Witkoff, Trump's chief Iran negotiator; Elbridge A. Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official; and Colby's deputy for Middle East policy, Michael P. DiMino IV.The paper also reports American personnel in Israel found that software to intercept their communications had been installed on their phones.That last detail underscores what officials described as a self-inflicted vulnerability. Senior Trump officials have routinely conducted national security business on personal cellphones, flown on private aircraft, and declined embassy staffing support abroad — habits that make them easy targets, according to the new report."The tendency of some senior Trump administration officials to fly on private aircraft, to conduct national security business on their personal phones and to reject staffing from U.S. embassies abroad made them especially vulnerable targets," a former senior official told the Times."Other current officials also acknowledged the use of personal cellphones by top American officials have made them easy targets for eavesdropping," the Times states.Israel's threat designation now stands higher than any other U.S. ally and higher than some adversaries, the report notes. The Pentagon declined to comment. The White House called the account false. Israel's embassy said Israel "does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone U.S. government officials."

Jun 6, 2026 - World

An amused Democratic strategist and an appalled Republican Party strategist agreed on MS NOW that Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, hurt both her own image and damaged the Trump administration with a decision to boast about the purchase of an island when Americans can’t fill their gas tanks.In a clip from the David Senora podcast earlier in the week, the woman known as the first daughter expressed her joy at discovering the 1,400-acre luxury Mediterranean island off the coast of Albania where she and her husband Jared Kushner hope to build a resort.“For me, it feels more like a challenge than anything else. The culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly are wanting to live, and trying to really build something that’s a tangible manifestation of that,” she joyously recalled.After watching the clip with MS NOW’s Alex Witt, former House Speaker John Boehner adviser Maura Gillespie has a few critical things to say. “I just don't, I don't understand why she would go out and do an interview about this,” she began. “I mean, it comes across so tone deaf. She's not a, you know, leader or an elected official, but she obviously is the president's daughter.”“And by doing these interviews — I wonder, who's their PR person? Who is their press person?” she asked. “Meghan [Hayes] and I both did columns for officials and people who are in government positions or positions of power, and I just don't understand who advised her to do this or why she thought this was a good idea.” “I don't think she's striking the right balance,” she continued with a laugh. “I think that when people are struggling to pay for their groceries and gas, talking about taking a boat, which I'm assuming is a yacht, to do a nice swim in the Mediterranean Sea, I mean, it's just really tone deaf.”Democratic communications expert Hayes then piled on.“She used words that ‘the opportunity became available for us to do this,’ which I think says to the American people, this is corruption,” she observed. “They worked with the government, they made deals, and it just spells more corruption by the Trump family. I mean, I've been to Albania, it's gorgeous, I understand why you would want to do something, a development there, but not in this way, not in this time. It's just completely tone deaf and it just feels [like] more corruption from the Trump family.” - YouTube youtu.be

Jun 6, 2026 - World

Donald Trump is confronting a bitter irony as he seeks to extricate himself from the Iran war he initiated: reaching a peace agreement may require exactly the kind of financial concessions to Tehran that he spent years attacking the Obama administration for making.According to Wall Street Journal reporting, the central obstacle to resolving the conflict is Tehran's insistence on immediate access to frozen assets—a demand that has created a "politically hazardous" trap for the president.The political trap is inescapable. Any Trump decision to release Iran's frozen assets would inevitably invite comparisons to the Obama administration's 2016 nuclear accord, which Trump repeatedly vilified as "the dumbest deal perhaps I've ever seen in the history of deal-making." During a 2016 presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump specifically attacked the $1.7 billion in cash the U.S. sent to Iran, quipping it was "enough to fill up this room."As the Journal notes, this past spring Trump vowed to negotiate a "FAR BETTER" deal than Obama's—a promise that now appears increasingly hollow as negotiations drag on via mediators between Washington and Tehran.Iran's demands are reportedly substantial and non-negotiable, seeking $12 billion upfront and an additional $24 billion over a 60-day negotiation period to be triggered by an initial agreement. Access to tens of billions in frozen U.S. sanctions funds is described as "a critical demand for any deal," offering immediate economic relief to Iran's deeply damaged economy.Meanwhile, Trump continues to threaten renewed military action while simultaneously predicting imminent breakthroughs—even as sporadic fighting continues across the Persian Gulf region. The Iran war itself has become deeply unpopular domestically, adding urgency to Trump's desire for a resolution.Richard Nephew, a former top State Department sanctions official, suggested a potential workaround that might minimize political exposure. "The fastest thing they could do is to quietly remove sanctions on Iranian pots of money being held in Qatar, Oman and Iraq because it's a relatively small, discrete amount of money that is more controllable given where it's located," Nephew told the Journal.Yet even this limited option carries significant political risk given Trump's own past denunciations of Obama-era financial arrangements with Iran.

Nov 21, 2025 - World

The Queen's coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall until her funeral on Monday.View Entire Post ›

Sep 20, 2024 - World

The Brazilian “King of Football” had been treated for colon cancer since 2021.View Entire Post ›