
The Free Press

It’s Monday, June 16. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Congressman Dean Phillips on the assassination of his friends in Minnesota—and how to fight political violence; Jed Rubenfeld on the legality of Trump “sending in the troops”; Joe Nocera on the latest Boeing disaster; a new episode of Conversations with Coleman; and much more.
But first: The latest on the war between Israel and Iran—and the looming question of what Trump will do next.
Israel’s war against Iran’s nuclear program began some 82 hours ago. In that time, Israel has managed to take out almost the entire leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and at least 14 nuclear scientists, and targeted top Houthi commanders in Yemen. It has damaged Natanz, the country’s largest uranium enrichment site, and hit a uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. Israeli officials say that they have achieved “freedom of action” in the skies above Tehran.
It’s an astonishing feat—one that has not been carried out just from the air, but also, according to Mossad, via agents on the ground who launched drones that crippled Iranian missile launchers.
But as many have pointed out: Even all of this has not eliminated Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. To do that requires destroying the uranium enrichment site at Fordow, buried half a kilometer below the mountains near Qom.
That’s where America comes in. It is widely believed that only the U.S., with its B-2 bombers and bunker buster munitions, is capable of breaching Fordow from the air. Which is why Israel seeks America’s support.
The big question is: Will the U.S. offer it?
With Trump sending mixed messages on Iran policy—apart from his statement that Iran can’t enrich or possess a nuclear weapon—his party’s foreign policy camps are in a furious fight to guide him to their view of the appropriate level of American involvement. In his report for The Free Press today, Eli Lake lifts the curtain on this crucial, combustible showdown.
From Washington to Jerusalem, and our Israel correspondent Matti Friedman. He describes the mood among Israelis and explains why a country losing patience with its government’s strategy in the war in Gaza is behind the strikes on Iran. Read Matti’s view from the ground.
—Bari Weiss
Tune In Live: Bari, Dexter Filkins, and Niall Ferguson on War in the Middle East
Join Bari, Dexter Filkins, and Niall Ferguson at 11:30 a.m. ET today for a livestream conversation about the war between Israel and Iran, what comes next, and how it fits into the larger clash with China and Russia. Watch here or on our homepage.
Last night, Minnesota police arrested Vance Boelter, 57, who allegedly posed as a police officer and murdered Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark—and wounded State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who threw herself in front of her daughter to shield her. The victims were humble, hardworking people who “did not care about their brands. They cared about doing right,” writes Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who urges his colleagues not to turn this tragedy into “yet another piece of destructive partisanship.”
Was Boeing to blame for the tragic Air India accident last week? To many of the airline’s critics, the answer was obvious. But when The Free Press’s Joe Nocera called up aviation experts, he discovered that not a single one thought the manufacturer was at fault. “When a company loses its reputation, it takes a long time to get it back,” writes Joe.
Last week, a California judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell LA’s anti-ICE protests was illegal. Was he right? Free Press legal columnist Jed Rubenfeld delivers his verdict on this murky area of the law where, as he puts it, “Anyone who says they know for sure what’s legal is talking out of their ear.”
New York just took a big step toward legalizing what critics warn is the most permissive assisted suicide law in the U.S. In this poignant essay, Dovie, a 34-year-old New Yorker with a rare neuromuscular condition, shares his firsthand fears that the bill could “undo an assumption we all depend on—that the state is in the business of saving, not ending, lives.”
Conversations with Coleman
You can’t understand the war underway in the Middle East unless you understand Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Thankfully, Coleman Hughes’ next guest is an expert on exactly that. On the latest episode of Conversations with Coleman, he talks to Mark Dubowitz, an expert on Iran’s nuclear program who breaks down the science and history fueling the conflict—and offers essential intel on what comes next.

More than five million people joined “No Kings” protests across the United States on Saturday in opposition to the Trump administration. While many demonstrations remained peaceful, a rally in Portland, Oregon, exploded into a full-blown riot at a local ICE facility, where three were arrested as demonstrators reportedly tried to force entry into the building.
Top Democrats attended the lavish Hamptons wedding of Huma Abedin, former aide to Hillary Clinton, and Alex Soros, the son of Democratic megadonor George Soros, this weekend. The ceremony was a who’s who of liberal royalty—guests included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi.
Flash flooding devastated parts of West Virginia this weekend, killing at least five. Rescue teams are still searching for three people reported missing, Governor Patrick Morrisey said yesterday.
The G7 summit kicked off yesterday in Alberta, Canada, bringing together seven of the world’s most powerful leaders. At the top of the agenda: trade tensions, the war in Ukraine, and the Israel-Iran conflict.
Oil, gold, and the U.S. dollar have jumped in price as investors brace for the impact of the Israel-Iran conflict. “Volatility is here to stay and markets have not adjusted for the geopolitics question marks yet,” one analyst told Semafor.
The Trump administration has scaled back its deportation strategy by pausing raids on hotels, farms, meatpacking plants, and restaurants. Trump had signaled the change last week when he conceded that his administration’s approach was hurting the farming and hotel industries.
Law enforcement officials recaptured two of the four men who escaped a New Jersey ICE detention center last week following what the city’s mayor called an “uprising.” The other two men remain at large.
J.J. Spaun won the U.S. Open, the penultimate golf major of the year, yesterday after heavy rain disrupted the tournament at the Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh. Spaun, who secured his victory with an astonishing 64-foot putt on the 18th, will receive $4.3 million in prize money.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. This has been updated. The Free Press regrets the error.