Dan De Luce

NEW >> Trump administration is scuttling 3 big corporate merger cases and refusing to enforce anti trust laws that for nearly a century have protected US consumers from monopolies and price gouging . W @KDilanianMSNOW ms.now/news/trump-app…

In a sign of how decision-making has shifted from the absolute power of the father to a more collective process under the son, Iran’s vice president for executive affairs, Mohammad-Jafar Ghaempanah, recently said the new supreme leader did not have the last word. The ayatollah’s opinion, Mr. Ghaempanah said, was like those of other officials and should be debated and considered. “If we are supposed to only implement the supreme leader’s opinions, then why do we have a Parliament and a national security council?” he said in an address to senior government leaders. Such declarations would have been unthinkable under the former supreme leader. nytimes.com/2026/07/05/wor…

🚨 BREAKING: The European Commission has demanded “fair play and transparent competition” in sport after a suspension for U.S. star Folarin Balogun was overturned following a call between Donald Trump and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino. Full story: politico.eu/article/eu-fai…

NEW: A White House task force is gathering thousands of pages of documents from U.S. intelligence agencies, with plans to declassify some of them, so President Donald Trump can amplify new accusations about past elections, three people familiar with the effort said. w/ @ckubeNBC @ryanjreilly @dandeluce nbcnews.com/politics/white…

Paralyzed at 7, she fought for the life she wanted. Medicaid cuts threaten to take it away. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…

How a once-mocked argument against birthright citizenship got four votes at the Supreme Court nbcnews.com/politics/supre…

When you’ve spent as much time in Bosnia as @julianborger has, you’re able to detect subtle shifts in public attitudes, and write about them in compelling, historically-informed fashion. A great piece on the ‘return’ of the golden lilies to Bosnia. theguardian.com/world/2026/jun…

One Russian paper today writes Ukrainian drone strikes “aim to create a sense of crisis among Russians.” In Crimea “the sale of fuel to the public is suspended.” Another paper: Russia’s offensive in Ukraine will go on: “for that we will always have enough fuel.” #ReadingRussia

Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country's socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing US sanctions reut.rs/4fVrYe2

New: New records obtained by ProPublica detail at least a dozen SpaceX investors with addresses in mainland China, Hong Kong or Russia who acquired stakes in SpaceX years ago through a middleman firm in the U.S. called Tomales Bay Capital. propub.li/4xBG1vE

“the parameters of a viable diplomatic agreement between the U.S. and Iran ‘were already put forward’ to Witkoff and Vance by the Omani mediators, with input from the Saudi, Qatari, and Emirati systems more than a year ago.”

How Trump’s agreement with Iran compares to Obama’s — both share the same formula that Trump previously slammed: US sanctions relief in return for concessions from Iran nbcnews.com/politics/white…

Here @Wiswesser explains the activities of Russian intelligence services. It's an important 3 minutes. He quotes one Russian operative, when asked why Russia doesn't engage with diplomacy with Ukraine, "Diplomacy doesn't matter. We're trying to destroy the system the United States set up... They want to destroy the way the world functions, liberal based democracies and law functioning societies. They want to destroy it." "I believe it's all meant to coerce the West, to intimidate European partners not to help Ukraine in particular." "The most important thing is to understand how they think... Their culture is a thugocracy. These intelligence services are like giant mafia bands... They have no equivalents. A lot of people say the FSB in Russia is like the FBI in the United States. Nothing further from the truth." "It's a bully culture, and that goes back to the Chekist traditions of the KGB."

News: Secret Service officials are furious that FBI Director Kash Patel prematurely announced on Tuesday morning the details of a sealed and ongoing criminal investigation into a plot to attack the UFC fight event this weekend with drones, according to three people familiar with the incident. Secret Service and FBI agents had been partnered on the investigation into a group of individuals discussing plans for a drone attack at the White House in the last week, and had discussed unsealing the case and making an announcement later that day. The problem with Patel’s social media announcement, the sources say, was the case had been sealed in court and roughly ten suspects had not yet been arrested and placed in custody at the time Patel made his public social media post. Secret Service and FBI officials had discussed seeking to make more arrests, unseal the case by late Tuesday afternoon and make a joint public statement, and were surprised by Patel “jumping the gun.” “We all woke up this morning to see this on Twitter,” said one administration official, who like others, asked to speak confidentially to discuss sensitive matters. The threat to the UFC event became known to the Secret Service and FBI in the last week when a relative of one of the suspects contacted local police in the Cincinnati area, according to two people briefed on the probe, and reporting that their relative was talking about engaging in some vague plot in DC. An advanced threat interdiction team at the Secret Service, with the help of the FBI, began seeking a subpoena for an encrypted Signal chat thread and then were able to identify the plot being planned and some of the people discussing using drones and possible snipers to attack the UFC fight event at the White House’s South lawn. Authorities then arrested one suspect on June 13 and moved immediately to seal the case so the FBI and Secret Service could continue investigating and identifying and arresting additional suspects. The Secret Service also dramatically increased its plans for security around the event as a precaution, and put out an alert to its law enforcement partners to be on the lookout for people with drones in downtown Washington and other identifying information. Matt Quinn, the Secret Service’s deputy director, called out Patel’s premature announcement in a Tuesday news conference but did not use his name and said the Secret Service made a conscious decision not to reveal the existence of the probe prematurely. “I’ll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office and that’s `Don’t choke on your own smoke,” he said. “I’ll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I’ll tell you that case is ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.” He said he was choosing not to discuss extensive details of the case because it remained sealed and ongoing. With @CarolLeonnig @MarcSantiaNews @lawofruby

Sabotage is an integral part of Russia's hybrid warfare strategy. Our research has examined the threat from multiple perspectives: Russian Sabotage of NATO Infrastructure: Identifying Alliance Vulnerabilities explores how sabotage campaigns target civilian infrastructure and logistics to expose weaknesses in NATO's preparedness and resilience. Read: bit.ly/4vOd7qj Responding to Russian Sabotage Financing examines how social media, cryptocurrency and proxy actors enable sabotage operations, and what governments and the private sector can do to disrupt them. Read: bit.ly/49TnqjB The Gender and Identity Analysis Framework for Hybrid Threats provides practical tools for integrating gender and identity analysis into the assessment of and response to hybrid threats, helping NATO allies and partners better understand how adversaries exploit societal dynamics to undermine resilience. Read: bit.ly/4oqHWPj

Russia was behind arson attacks targeting UK PM Keir Starmer, BBC reveals bbc.in/3Q3lOy1