Donald Trump appeared to offer confirmation that the United States is now participating in Israel’s attack on Iran in a Tuesday social media post.

Amid escalating tensions and the exchange of bombings after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities last week, Trump has faced questions about the extent of U.S. involvement in the conflict.

In a new post on Truth Social using the term “We,” Trump wrote: “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured “stuff.” Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

‘We Now Have Complete And Total Control’: Trump Confirms U.S. is Part of Conflict With Iran

President Donald Trump appeared to confirm that the United States is now a part of Israel's attack on Iran during a Tuesday morning social media post.

^{Colby Hall (Mediaite)}

The NAACP filed an intent to sue Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Tuesday over concerns about air pollution generated by a supercomputer located near predominantly Black communities.

The xAI data center began operating gas turbines last year, emitting air pollution, without first applying for a permit under an exemption that allowed them to do so for 364 days.

The permit application now being considered by the Shelby County Health Department calls for the use of 15 turbines, though the Southern Environmental Law Center says there are as many as 35 turbines located at the sprawling facility.

https://apnews.com/article/memphis-xai-elon-musk-pollution-naacp-571c16950259b382f9eae61bd59260ef

Securitization allows banks to repackage and resell debt, famously explained by actress Margot Robbie in a bubble bath in the film “The Big Short.”

The European Union wants to breathe new life into a financial practice most commonly associated with causing the 2008 financial crisis as it tries to jump-start banks’ lending to the economy.

On Tuesday, the European Commission will publish a package of legislation aiming to revive the industry of “securitization,” after strict postcrisis laws almost stamped out the use of the practice in the bloc.

Securitization is the practice where banks repackage and resell debt, famously explained by actress Margot Robbie in a bubble bath in the film "The Big Short." The engineering allows banks to move some assets off their balance sheets, giving them more space to extend new loans.

EU resurrects banking practice that caused the 2008 financial crisis

^{Kathryn Carlson (POLITICO)}

Americans are feeling a hangover from their tariff-fueled buying frenzy early in the spring.

Retail sales fell by 0.9% in May from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, down sharply from April’s downwardly revised 0.1% decline. That was the steepest monthly decline since January and worse than the 0.7% decrease economists projected in a poll by data firm FactSet.

The figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not inflation.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/17/economy/us-retail-sales-may

A sheriff's deputy in Colorado briefly pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves before immigration agents detained her. Now county officials are conducting a review.

Questions are surfacing about the immigration detention of a 19-year-old college student from Utah after a traffic stop in Colorado this month.

Caroline Dias Goncalves, a student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff's deputy pulled her over. The stop lasted less than 20 minutes, and "Dias Goncalves was released from the traffic stop with a warning," the sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday.

Then, shortly after she exited the highway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.

Dias Goncalves is one of nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the United States. The word “Dreamer” refers to undocumented young immigrants brought to the United States as children.

ICE detains Utah college student in Colorado after brief traffic stop, raising questions

University of Utah student Caroline Dias Goncalves was briefly pulled over by a sheriff's deputy in Colorado before immigration agents detained her; now county officials are conducting a review.

^{Nicole Acevedo (NBC News)}

I just got a new laptop, put Debian 13 on it, installed Plasma, started configuring all the tools. Everything works great but when I get to set up the screensaver I realize it's Wayland. So no xscreensaver. So no IFS.

I had those fractals welcoming me when my computer wakes up probably for 20 years now. Now I'm supposed to just setup normal lock screen and move on? Nope. xdm, .xsessionrc, xscreensaver. Now it feels like home again.

But it's stupid, right? Just use new tools. They have more features. Better integrations. I'm still thinking about switching back to Wayland...

So, do you suffer from software nostalgia (a term I just made up)? Do you stick to good old tools even when the modern replacements are better? Or do you always chase the latest tools without looking back?

Nayib Bukele has come to be known as the face fighting against gang violence and justice. However, a new ProPublica investigation reveals that image may be misleading.

The bombshell investigation comes from ProPublica, which gathered information from a long-running U.S. investigation of MS-13 as an effort to dismantle the gang's leadership and later expanded to focus on whether the Bukele government cut a secret deal with the gang in the early years of his presidency.

According to ProPublica, Bukele's allies blocked extraditions of gang leaders whom U.S. agents viewed as potential witnesses to the negotiations and persecuted Salvadoran law enforcement officials who helped the task force.

Further, the investigation suggests that the Bukele government may have diverted U.S. aid funds to the gang as part of the alleged deal to provide it with money and power in exchange for votes and reduced homicide rates. In 2021, agents drew up a request to review U.S. bank accounts held by Salvadoran political figures to look for evidence of money laundering related to the suspected diversion of U.S. funds.

El Salvador President and Trump Ally Bukele Accused of Cutting Deals With MS-13 Gang Members Using U.S. Aid

^{Maria Villarroel (Latin Times)}

Tehran “is the principal source of regional instability and terror,” declare G7 leaders in a joint statement.

The leaders of the G7 countries on Monday issued a joint statement saying Iran should not have nuclear weapons and affirming Israel's right to defend itself.

"Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror. We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon," declared the statement, issued by the leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, along with the EU.

They pledged to "remain vigilant to the implications for international energy markets and stand ready to coordinate, including with like-minded partners, to safeguard market stability."

G7 leaders: ‘Iran can never have a nuclear weapon’

^{Giorgio Leali (POLITICO)}

A federal judge ruled Monday it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination.

U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a hearing Monday on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could be canceled for that reason when some were designed to study health disparities as Congress had directed.

After 40 years on the bench, “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young added. He ended Monday’s hearing saying, “Have we no shame.”

https://apnews.com/article/nih-research-trump-cuts-dei-rfk-4fec9f308f3ff427185a12e88f260c81

The flow of migrants has dropped significantly, but thousands are still trying to cross, and smugglers are increasingly finding ways to send migrants alone through treacherous terrain.

Despite a more than 90% drop in the number of migrant apprehensions at the border since Donald Trump took office, people continue to try to reach the United States — and smugglers are taking them along more dangerous routes, according to authorities and groups assisting migrants.

In recent months, human smugglers have adopted another method to bring migrants into the country via the southern border: They are sending them alone through inhospitable terrain while guiding them remotely using cellphones, Jesus Vasavilbaso, a Border Patrol agent in Tucson, Arizona, told Noticias Telemundo.

An increasing number of people are being found by law enforcement in the desert without a "coyote," or smuggler, he said. They're dehydrated, dressed in camouflage and with pieces of carpet stuck to the soles of their shoes in an attempt to hide their tracks on the sand. The clothing is part of a crossing package that coyotes sell them, the Border Patrol agent said.

Amid Trump's southern border clampdown, smugglers and migrants use deadlier routes into U.S.

^{Ronny Rojas (NBC News)}

Six of the Group of Seven leaders are trying on the final day of their Tuesday to show the wealthy nations’ club still has the clout to shape world events despite the early departure of Donald Trump.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and his counterparts from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan will be joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO chief Mark Rutte to discuss Russia’s relentless war on its neighbor.

World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran on Friday, and Iran has hit back with missiles and drones.

https://apnews.com/article/g7-summit-canada-trump-departure-ukraine-6c86a0a8463603c9b1a3e950382af0a2

Chinese authorities are carrying out rescue operations but the efforts have been complicated by a risk of additional explosions and the lack fo a large water source nearby.

An explosion at a fireworks factory in a village in central China's Hunan province has left at least nine people dead and 26 others injured, state-run National Radio said.

The blast occurred at 8:23 am local time (0:23 GMT) in the Hunan province on Monday. The reported death toll was as of 9 am (0:53 GMT) Tuesday, with rescue operation still ongoing.

The radio channel reported a "complicated" rescue effort as there was a risk of additional explosions. The factory was in a "mountainous area with no large water source."

China fireworks factory blast leaves several dead

^{Mahima Kapoor (Deutsche Welle)}

Hello, everybody. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that I'd like to install some Linux distro on to use as an eBook reader. Does anybody have any experience or recommendations for a distro that's touchscreen-friendly? Thanks in advance!

Edit: I'm using Linux Mint on my main PC. I like it, but haven't tried it on the Surface yet.