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President Donald Trump wants to make Vice President JD Vance the fall guy on the pending Iran deal, according to a D.C. insider and analyst on Tuesday.Trump's move to make Vance the face of the war negotiations — despite whether the vice president wants to take on the job or not — could ultimately backfire on his 2028 presidential run ambitions, reported David Gardner for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack."Vance made no secret of his opposition to American involvement in foreign wars before his boss dived headlong into a major conflict with Iran, and he has been ducking and diving ever since, trying to tap dance his way through the MAGA minefield," Gardner wrote."Trump sent him off to Pakistan for no-hope negotiations that ended, as widely expected, in an impasse. Now the president, in France for the G-7 summit, is heading home on Thursday rather than skip across to Switzerland for a planned signing ceremony on Friday to formalize a peace deal memo with Iran," Gardner explained.And there could be a reason behind that."It seems he wants Vance’s signature on the flimsy deal. Just in case it fails," Gardner wrote."He will need all his faith to get through this mess because Marco Rubio, his number one rival for the presidential nomination in 2028, is catching him in the polls," Gardner added.

Longtime campaign adviser Mark McKinnon burst into laughter on Tuesday morning when the subject of Vice President JD Vance running for president came up.McKinnon, who has worked with politicians on both sides of the aisle, was joined in his laughing by Jim Messina, once known as President Barack Obama’s “fixer.”Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” to discuss Donald Trump’s increasingly mysterious peace deal with Iran, the conversation took an off-ramp into discussing awkward politicians who proved to be easily defeated at the polls.After “Morning Joe “ co-host Joe Scarborough brought Vance’s interview about the peace deal on Monday where he implied the Revolutionary Guard would be easier to deal with than the previous Iran leadership, Messina quipped, “You say to yourself, ‘Oh my god, what was he thinking?’ Mark McKinnon is sitting over here giggling because he'd love to make an ad against that clip. It is remarkably bad politics.”“That's like, that clip is like when I first saw [former Secretary of State] John Kerry windsurfing, right? That ad made itself in 10 seconds,” the laughing McKinnon interjected.“This is why I'm just so far off the JD Vance train. Like this guy will not be the next president of the United State,” Messina predicted.“I agree with you 100 percent,” McKinnon offered. “I mean, that guy just has no natural skills. I mean, I think the coin of the realm in politics these days on either side is just pure authenticity. Is this person like, real? Can I believe him? He has none of that, not an ounce.”As he added, “He is so wanting and desperate,“ Messina interrupted with, “Correct. He makes Al Gore seem like, you know, a combination of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.” - YouTube youtu.be

Japanese technology company at centre of Post Office IT scandal is negotiating settlement with UK government over faulty softwareBusiness live – latest updatesThe chair of Fujitsu, the Japanese technology firm at the centre of the Post Office IT scandal, has resigned after its board became aware of his “woman-related inappropriate conduct”.The company said on Tuesday that Hidenori Furuta had stepped down after two years in the role. Continue reading...

Despite President Trump's Iran war peace deal, suspiciously announced on the weekend of his birthday, Republican campaign consultants and candidates are still bracing for a GOP midterm disaster, convinced that voter economic anxiety has hardened beyond repair before voters head to the polls.GOP insiders close to the White House openly acknowledge that even if gas prices drop, the damage is already done. Voter perceptions of economic hardship are "baked in and irreversible," according to Republicans interviewed for Politico reporting.According to the report, the political math is shaping up to be devastating for Republicans. Trump and the GOP were already grappling with affordability concerns before the Iran war began at the end of February. Merely returning to pre-war economic conditions won't be enough to shift voter sentiment, GOP strategists argue—particularly given that economic anxiety is the primary driver of midterm voting behavior."Economically, I don't think there's time. I think it's too late, essentially, to really change a voter's mood," confided one Republican to Politico. "But I mean, hey, I'll take it. We'll take whatever we get, right?"The White House strategy is now damage control: laser-focused messaging that Trump improved the economy in his first term and can do it again—and that now the war is over, economic recovery can resume."The argument is: Trump improved the economy in the first term, he can do it again, he knows how to do it, and now the war is over, we're going to get back to it," said a White House insider. "The economic trend pre-war was actually pretty decent. Could we get back to it fast enough? I don't think so, but let's try."However, as Politico is reporting, the Iran deal's durability is uncertain. While the U.S. and Iran have digitally signed a framework agreement to end the war, neither side has published the text, leaving critical questions unanswered about tolls for strait transiting and Iran's nuclear commitments. Israel's stated plan to remain "indefinitely" in Lebanon further threatens the agreement's viability.A senior U.S. official acknowledged that Hormuz would be "open toll-free for 60 days," with permanent reopening remaining one of many ongoing negotiation points. Oil tanker owners remain hesitant to transit the strait due to mines and attack risks, the official conceded."I think we'll get a very long way there over the next couple of weeks, but it's going to take a little time because you have some crews that are extremely risk averse," the official told Politico. Gas price relief faces a ceiling regardless. Global oil inventories have been thoroughly drained to multi-decade lows—the market is missing more than a billion gallons of crude oil supply. If the deal holds, prices could dip below $4 a gallon, according to Bob McNally, head of energy consulting firm Rapidan Energy and a former George W. Bush administration energy adviser. But low inventories will eventually reverse that trend.If negotiations fracture, prices could spike above $5 a gallon. Either way, volatility will likely persist beyond summer as new oil supply reaches markets.For Republicans facing midterm voters already convinced the economy is broken, even temporary gas price relief may come "too little, too late," Politico's Megan Messerly and Scott Waldman wrote.

The accomplished musician, who recorded over 70 albums in his career, died peacefully in Germany after a short illnessThe South African jazz composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91.His family announced his death in a statement released on Monday. Continue reading...

The internet was stunned on Monday after Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Iranians could gain access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund, one of the terms in the Iran agreement.In an interview with CBS, Vance described that component of the agreement and argued that Tehran hard-liners would emphasize the benefits of the deal and not what the country will have to give up to secure it."That's the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation," Vance said, adding that Iran would have to make concessions regarding the country's nuclear program, including oversight of it.Social media commentators and political experts were quick to question the agreement."Can we talk about the scale of problems that are going to arise from spending 300 billion? This is 500%-600% larger than the entire annual budget of the Iranian govt. It is one year of Iranian GDP *of the ENTIRE COUNTRY.* This is insane," Karl Rohe, Statistics Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote on X."Kinda makes Obama's giving back $1.7 billion of Iran's own money seem insignificant," Scott Greenfield, Criminal defense lawyer and blogger at Simple Justice, wrote on X."We are going to pay Iran $300 billion to rebuild from the war we started. Wrap your head around that when they claim that Trump is a master negotiator," Fred Wellman, a U.S. Army veteran and Lincoln Project communications strategist, wrote on X. "Oh, look. Trump’s deal is explained as providing no money for Iran…unless they stick with the deal. Which means, of course: IRAN IS GETTING MONEY under the deal. Yet, Trump said 2 months ago it’d already been agreed Iran would receive no money 'in any way, shape, or form,'" Joel Lawson, political strategist and former chair of Gender Action, wrote on X.We are going to pay Iran $300 billion to rebuild from the war we started. Wrap your head around that when they claim that Trump is a master negotiator. https://t.co/smHwEohk2z— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) June 15, 2026

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's jobs may be at stake if they continue to oppose President Donald Trump's Iran deal, a senior White House official warned.The threat emerged in a report published Sunday by the right-leaning Israeli daily Israel Hayom, which detailed a bitter internal White House battle over the emerging memorandum of understanding with Tehran."The debate has been settled. Those who oppose it may pay a personal price," a senior US official told the outlet.According to the report, Vice President JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump envoy Jared Kushner have driven the push for a deal, arguing the Iranian regime is unlikely to collapse soon and that Gulf states — particularly Qatar — have pressed hard for an agreement.Rubio and Hegseth argued the opposite: that Iran is buckling under economic pressure and Washington should tighten the screws, not ease them. The two men had been the public faces of that harder line — touting "Project Freedom," a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, only for Trump to shelve it hours after they publicly praised it.Trump has since sided firmly with the deal camp. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly warned that lifting sanctions would be nearly impossible to reverse, but the Israel Hayom report said his objections changed the terms only slightly."This is an American game being managed with utter foolishness…Trump is acting badly and against the American interest, not only the Israeli one," Oded Ailam, a former senior Mossad official, told Israel Hayom.Sanctions on Iranian oil sales are expected to be lifted — at least in part — after the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens, according to the report.

President Donald Trump celebrated the tentative deal his administration reached with Iran Sunday to end the war, but according to one veteran journalist, the president’s troubles related to the conflict were far from over given the persistence of a key issue that risks reigniting the conflict.“Let the oil flow!” Trump broadly boasted Sunday after the tentative agreement was reached, adding that the Strait of Hormuz would be accessible to sea vessels immediately.As part of the tentative agreement, however, Iran has demanded that Israel halt its bombardment of Lebanon, which it’s currently occupying around 10% of. Israeli officials have instead announced they will not be withdrawing troops from Lebanon, likely ensuring continued attacks from Hezbollah, which Israel has vowed to respond to forcefully.“Ultimately, as those who announced the deal said, it’s only a ceasefire, good for 60 days while yet more talks take place,” journalist Martin Pengelly wrote in an analysis published in Zeteo Monday. “It’s not a nuclear agreement or a peace treaty. And new hardliners have emerged in Tehran, determined to make the U.S. suffer in response to this war of aggression. In other words, Trump made this mess; it’s still all over the floor, and he’s by no means free of it yet.”Israeli officials have been explicit in their threats to continue the bombardment of Lebanon, which since Israel’s most recent invasion of the country in March has killed more than 3,750 Lebanese, injured more than 11,600 and sparked a humanitarian crisis by displacing millions.“Trump's agreement does not bind us,” wrote Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to an automatic English translation from Hebrew. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!”Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned that “for every shot fired toward our territory, ten buildings will fall” in the Lebanese city of Dahiyeh.And Iran has been explicit in its demand that Israel cease hostilities with its northern neighbor in its negotiations, leading Pengelly – who previously worked for Raw Story as an investigations editor – to conclude that the U.S.-Iran agreement was far from settled.“Five days until a promised deal signing in Switzerland, after Trump has attended the G7 summit in France, is plenty of time for Israel to intervene,” Pengelly wrote. “The Israelis were not directly party to the talks that produced the U.S-Iran deal. In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, discontent is widely reported.”