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UFC Freedom 250 First Fight Ends In Brutal Knockout ... At White House Published June 14, 2026 6:21 PM PDT The first fight of the night is officially in the books ... and it ended
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UFC Freedom 250 Way More Than 50 Stars at this Event ... Mackenzie Dern, Joshua Van & More Published June 14, 2026 4:38 PM PDT UFC Freedom 250's got more stars than the American flag
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Play video content Oliver Tree laid out the details of his will during an interview just weeks before his death ... and he says his family's not getting a dime. The singer-songwriter -- who tragically
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Donald Trump We've Got A Ceasefire with Iran Recalls Navy From Strait of Hormuz Published June 14, 2026 3:24 PM PDT President Donald Trump got a great 80th birthday present from Iran ... an alleged
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Firefighters work on the site of an aircraft crash in Butler, Missouri, US, June 14, 2026, in this still image taken from a video. REUTERS Wreckage lies in a field next to Butler Memorial Airport
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Iran expanded its nuclear program, deepened its regional influence, and became more militarily assertive. The following analysis outlines the core strategic mistakes that shaped this outcome.1. Withdrawal from the JCPOA without a viable alternative. Trump’s 2018 decision to exit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is widely viewed as the foundational error. The International Atomic Energy Agency had repeatedly verified Iranian compliance, and US intelligence concurred. Yet the administration withdrew without a replacement framework, assuming Iran would capitulate under pressure.Former Centcom commander Gen Joseph Votel warned that leaving the deal “removed a key tool for visibility into Iran’s nuclear program”. European diplomats echoed this concern, with the EU’s Federica Mogherini calling the withdrawal “a mistake that risks undermining global security”.The result was predictable: Iran resumed enrichment at higher levels, installed advanced centrifuges, and reduced cooperation with inspectors. The US lost the multilateral leverage that had constrained Iran’s nuclear ambitions.Donald Trump’s Iran policy was defined by maximalist rhetoric, tactical improvisation, and a persistent mismatch between ends and means. While the administration claimed it sought to “force Iran back to the table,” senior US military officials, diplomats, and think‑tank analysts across the political spectrum argue that the strategy produced the opposite effect: Iran expanded its nuclear programme, deepened regional influence, and became more militarily assertive. The following analysis outlines the core strategic mistakes that shaped this outcome.2. The “Maximum Pressure” strategy lacked a theory of victoryThe administration’s sanctions campaign was intended to force Iran into accepting a more restrictive deal. But as the RAND Corporation noted, “maximum pressure lacked maximum diplomacy”. Sanctions were escalated without offering credible off‑ramps, leaving Iran little incentive to negotiate.Iranian strategist Hossein Mousavian argued that the policy “united hardliners and moderates in Tehran against Washington”. Instead of weakening the Islamic Republic, it strengthened the factions most hostile to the US.Moreover, sanctions on humanitarian channels — despite exemptions — created severe economic pain for ordinary Iranians, fuelling anti‑American sentiment without altering elite decision‑making.3. Misreading Iran’s deterrence calculusTrump repeatedly asserted that overwhelming US military power would deter Iran. But Iran’s deterrence model is asymmetric: calibrated retaliation, deniable proxies, and strategic patience.The administration underestimated this. After the US withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran responded with tanker attacks, drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities, and rocket attacks by Iraqi militias. The 2019 strike on Saudi Aramco — which temporarily removed 5% of global oil supply — demonstrated Iran’s ability to impose costs without triggering full‑scale war.A senior US defence official told ‘The Washington Post’ that Iran’s actions “exposed gaps in US assumptions about escalation dominance”.4. The assassination of Qassem Soleimani escalated without a planThe killing of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 was tactically successful but strategically destabilizing. Trump claimed the strike restored deterrence, yet Iran responded with a ballistic‑missile attack on Ayn al‑Asad Air Base, injuring more than 100 US personnel.Gen Mark Milley later testified that Iran’s retaliation was *“intended to kill”— a significant escalation. Think tanks such as CSIS argued that the strike “removed a key Iranian strategist but did not degrade Iran’s regional networks”. In fact, Iranian proxies intensified operations in Iraq and Syria. The administration had no articulated plan for the day after, leaving U.S. forces exposed to a cycle of retaliation.5. Alienating allies and collapsing the international coalitionOne of the JCPOA’s strengths was its multilateral nature. By withdrawing unilaterally and threatening secondary sanctions on European companies, the US fractured the coalition that had pressured Iran effectively.European states created INSTEX — a mechanism to bypass US sanctions — signaling unprecedented transatlantic divergence. As a senior German diplomat put it, “Washington isolated itself, not Iran”. This fragmentation weakened US diplomatic leverage and allowed Iran to portray itself as the aggrieved party adhering to international law.6. Overreliance on economic coercion without diplomatic engagementSanctions can be effective when paired with diplomacy. But Trump’s team often dismissed diplomatic channels, insisting Iran must first accept 12 sweeping demands outlined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Brookings Institution noted that these demands “resembled terms of surrender rather than a negotiating framework”.Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded that the US approach “made negotiation impossible by design”.Without diplomacy, sanctions became an end in themselves — not a means to a political settlement.7. Domestic political signaling overshadowed strategic coherenceTrump frequently framed Iran policy through the lens of domestic politics, emphasizing toughness and unpredictability. While unpredictability can be a tool, excessive volatility undermines credibility.The most striking example was Trump’s last‑minute cancellation of a retaliatory strike in June 2019, announced via Twitter. A former Pentagon official told Foreign Affairs that the episode “created confusion about US red lines and decision‑making processes”.Iranian leaders concluded that Trump sought to avoid war at all costs — reducing deterrence rather than strengthening it.Conclusion: A strategy that strengthened Iran’s handBy 2021, Iran had more enriched uranium, more advanced centrifuges, deeper ties with Russia and China, and a more assertive regional posture. The US, meanwhile, had fewer allies aligned on Iran policy and diminished leverage.As the Carnegie Endowment summarised, “maximum pressure produced maximum resistance”.Trump’s Iran policy was not a failure of power but a failure of strategy: ambitious goals unsupported by diplomatic, military, or political coherence(The writer is a prominent news anchor, programme presenter and media instructor)
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Vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. (Reuters) US vacationers are barreling into peak summer driving season just as the gasoline market faces a supply crunch, with resilient domestic demand and surging fuel exports threatening to strain thin inventories and send pump prices climbing.Surging summer demand from American motorists has not stopped US refiners from increasingly prioritizing lucrative diesel and jet fuel production to backfill global shortages caused by shipping disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz. The critical passageway handles nearly a fifth of global oil flows and has effectively closed since the start of the Iran war.Analysts warn that a supply deficit is looming as US gasoline demand has remained robust despite US pump prices having surged roughly 40% since the war started, hovering above $4. Also, some analysts are worried that US refineries may not be able to keep running close to capacity, noting that there have been more unplanned outages than expected lately.The once-comfortable US gasoline supply cushion built during the low-demand winter months had evaporated by the end of May, when summer driving season kicked off during the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. US peak summer vacation season traditionally runs until early September.In the first week of June, gasoline inventories sank to their lowest seasonal level in a decade, just 215.1mn barrels, according to government data. Inventories have declined by more than 34mn barrels since the war started. Even more depleted distillate fuel oil inventories fell to a 23-year low in May, leaving the supply highly vulnerable to any more sudden shocks.With domestic gasoline demand holding up in the face of high pump prices and exports strong, analysts warn that total demand for US-produced fuel could reach 9.5mn barrels per day (bpd) this summer. That would outstrip the 9.2mn bpd that fuel makers are currently capable of churning out. “Balances will definitely be severely tight because (refining margins) incentives still support jet fuel and we all know that Middle Eastern refiners are not coming back quickly,” said Sumit Ritolia, lead analyst for refining supply and modeling at Kpler.US refiners, less reliant on Middle Eastern crude than Asian and European counterparts, are relatively shielded from the shipping disruption and able to maximise distillate output to capture strong margins. In late April, the four-week average of US jet fuel production surpassed 2mn barrels per day for the first time on record, the EIA said this week.The US exported 54.65mn barrels of diesel and jet fuel in May, the highest in Kpler data going back to 2017. The country exported 22.52mn barrels of gasoline in May, up from 20.10mn barrels in April.“This has left gasoline as the neglected stepchild of the refinery slate,” said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil Associates. Historically, the US could rely on European imports to ease regional gasoline deficits. That fallback option is logistically difficult and less economical now. Europe’s fuel supplies are also tight, while freight rates are soaring due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.“Even if export rates stay where they are now and don’t rise with the desperate need of countries elsewhere, one can make a case for gasoline inventories to drop by 2 or 3mn barrels per week during summer crunch time,” said Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser to Gulf Oil. The refined products supply remains tight even if refineries continue to run unfettered.Analysts question whether refiners will be able to keep running their plants hard to capture these high margins. US refiners ran their facilities at 95.3% of capacity in the first week of June, the highest in nearly a year.There are already reports of some planned maintenance in the fall getting postponed, or moving to a smaller scope, said Raul Calzada, refining analyst at Energy Aspects. “If you defer maintenance, there’s a chance later that you know you’ll pay,” said Calzada.Some cracks are starting to show: April recorded the highest average unplanned US refinery outages in the last five years, with roughly 483,000 barrels per day of crude oil processing capacity offline, according to IIR Energy data.
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Indian investigators said they were still analysing evidence from last year’s Air India Boeing 787 crash and gave no timeline for a final report, as families of the 260 victims pressed for answers on the disaster’s first anniversary.The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said it had made “significant progress” examining aircraft systems, flight recorder data, engine components, maintenance and operational records.It did not provide a timeline for the final report, saying it would be issued only after all investigative work is completed and required international reviews are carried out. The update, one year after the June 12, 2025 crash, was met with scepticism from some families, who gathered in Ahmedabad to mourn the victims.“It’s been 365 days since the incident. The government should have been able to tell us the root cause of the crash,” Tanay Gajjar, who lost his mother Jaya, said. The Air India Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in the worst global aviation disaster in a decade.Reuters reported last month that investigators were likely to delay a final report and instead issue only an interim update, given the probe’s complexity. A source said on Thursday the delay was tied to completing an analysis of the plane’s engines. Under international rules, a final report is due “if possible” within a year of an accident, but if this is not met, authorities should issue an interim statement on each anniversary.The AAIB said it had undertaken “an extensive and rigorous examination” of all technical, operational, organisational and human factors over the past one year.More than 250 relatives, representing over 100 victims, gathered at a hotel in Ahmedabad to share memories and hold a candlelight vigil. Vihar Parikh, 18, who lost his grandfather Chaitanya Parikh in the crash, said the family had yet to receive his phone and belongings. Investigators have not determined the cause of the crash. A preliminary report last year showed the Boeing 787’s engine fuel control switches moved almost simultaneously from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’, starving both engines of fuel shortly after Flight AI171 took off for London.A cockpit voice recording supported the view that the captain cut fuel flow to the engines, according to an early assessment by U.S. officials reported by Reuters last year.In an interview aired by the BBC this week, Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, father of captain Sumeet Sabharwal, pushed back against suggestions his son could be blamed. He said his son had flown the aircraft for years with an incident-free record. “How can you blame him?” he said. — Reuters
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NFL Star Aldon Smith Reportedly Found Unresponsive in Truck by Friend Published June 14, 2026 1:55 PM PDT New details surrounding Aldon Smith's sudden death are coming to light ... with the reports the former
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Oliver Tree See His Last Days in Brazil Before Fiery Helicopter Crash Published June 14, 2026 1:28 PM PDT Oliver Tree's death in Brazil happened suddenly ... and fans have rushed to social media to
