Friday, June 19, 2026
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It’s heartening to see foreign soccer fans, especially the Europeans, marvel at their U.S. discoveries. They’ve been awed by Buc-ee’s, Waffle House, and Bass Pro Shops, the best examples of Americana. But what we’re seeing also makes us wonder how long America will still be America.
“Soccer fans like Freddy from Germany are embracing U.S. culture as they crisscross the country — and going viral,” says Danielle Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute.
“Thousands of Europeans are seeing more of America this summer than many New York Times staffers ever will,” tweets Jimmy G.
Germans and Scots are singing “American Pie” while the English sing “Sweet Caroline” at a … Texas rodeo.
A federal judge on Thursday said she’ll only consider parts of challenges to President Trump’s executive order that seeks to restrict mail-in voting, ruling the plaintiffs need to wait before raising concerns about elections beyond this year.
A group of voter education nonprofits and Democratic-led states separately sued the Trump administration in April in an attempt to block the executive order, which also requires states to verify that only U.S. citizens are registered. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani denied the administration’s bid to dismiss the claims entirely, allowing challenges pertaining to the November midterms to go forward.
As Americans gather to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding, we should pause to appreciate how difficult it was to get 13 rebellious colonies to agree on anything—let alone on founding a nation.
Too many Americans today believe that our political differences have become so intractable and our discourse so toxic that our very democracy is at risk. What they fail to realize is that our political differences have always seemed insurmountable, and our democracy was never easy. The story of the birth of our nation 250 years ago is a story of disagreements, debates, compromises, and moral courage. It’s a story of a group of rebellious Englishmen who—
In January 1984, Robert Wharton and an accomplice forced their way into a Philadelphia home at knifepoint, then spent hours torturing, strangling, and drowning Bradley and Ferne Hart. On the way out, they turned off the heat. The couple's seven-month-old daughter was left alone in the dead of winter. She was found three days later, dehydrated and barely breathing. Wharton confessed. A jury sentenced him to death. Forty years later, a top official in the Philadelphia District Attorney's office tried to get him off death row and lied to a federal judge to do it. Now she's paying for it. Nancy Winkelman, former supervisor of Soros-
The alleged mastermind behind the foiled terrorist plot to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House Sunday, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed Thursday.
Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, was arrested by the FBI on Sunday in the small town of Western, Nebraska, and ICE subsequently lodged a detainer against him.
DHS said Alvarez failed to leave the country when his B2 tourist visa expired in 2001 and he was subsequently “granted DACA by the Obama administration.”
“This illegal alien should NEVER have been allowed in our country—
The Los Angeles City Council is facing criticism from a Republican Party leader after deciding to move forward with a Nov. 3 ballot initiative to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
The council voted Thursday to put the measure on the general election ballot.
“Yesterday's vote by the LA City Council, a body that cannot keep its streets clean of filth, save the lives of broken drug-addicted souls in encampments, fight fires or stop crime, is an affront to all Americans,” Roxanne Hoge, Los Angeles County Republican Party chair, told The Center Square, answering questions by email.
Zohran Mamdani made clear Democrats won’t be moderating anytime soon, urging the party to push further left at a New York City rally titled “Our Year, Our Team, ”alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, as they campaigned for a slate of democratic socialist candidates. “For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “It has seen its job as explaining why we cannot instead of showing how we can, and that old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes
Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte reportedly arrived early for his new role and requested a full list of the office’s roughly 1,800 employees to evaluate potential firings.
President Donald Trump has directed Pulte to shrink the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), describing the agency as “unnecessary and/or too big” and urging further staff reductions after previous cuts under former DNI Tulsi Gabbard, per The Wall Street Journal.
Pulte assumed the acting DNI post on June 19, 2026, succeeding Gabbard, who resigned last month, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. He will continue serving as director of
The Justice Department is indicating it will intervene in a lawsuit filed in New York by Catholic nuns after the state forced them to house biological men with women. (snip) The New York law requires long-term care facilities to provide rooms to transgender residents based on their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex, and forces facility staff to use preferred pronouns and names.
Catholic teaching says that biological sex is God-given and cannot be changed, and doing so is a form of lying. The nuns who run Rosary Hill Home place patients in single-sex rooms based on their biological sex
For years, a South Florida nursing school operator sold a simple proposition: Skip the schooling, buy the diploma, become a nurse. Nearly 3,000 people took her up on it. On Monday, the scheme caught up with her. Carleen Noreus, 52, of Plantation, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering following a two-week trial in Fort Lauderdale. She had taken her chances before a jury rather than accepting a plea deal, changing her mind mid-trial, a decision prosecutors say will factor in her favor at sentencing.
Conservatives by temperament only reluctantly admit that anything, anywhere, has ever improved. But this most certainly has.
In short, the Vietnam War veterans who returned home to neglect or abuse from liberals have received their just due.
On Thursday at the White House, President Donald Trump provided literal physical support to 88-year-old Retired Marine Maj. James Capers while bestowing upon the patient, patriotic, and impossible-to-kill Capers a Congressional Medal of Honor he ought to have received decades ago.
A federal judge on Friday denied former President Joe Biden’s attempt to block the release of dozens of hours of audio recordings he made while working on his memoir.
The audio tapes were obtained by the Justice Department during its investigation into concerns that Biden mishandled classified materials. The Heritage Foundation initially filed a Freedom of Information Act request in April 2024 to obtain the conversations after the DOJ declined to press charges against the former president. When the Trump administration in February indicated its intent to reverse a Biden-era DOJ hold on the tapes, Biden retaliated with a lawsuit, arguing he holds “a right to privacy
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued a plea to foreign travelers visiting the United States for the FIFA World Cup, urging those with a newfound love of ranch dressing to pack bottles in their checked bags when flying. "If you’re visiting for a very large sporting event & you happen to discover RANCH while you’re here… pls pack it in your CHECKED BAG on the way home. Thank you," the TSA wrote on Thursday. Other posts from the TSA on the subject of flying with ranch include, "ok, please avoid chugging your ranch outside security the airlines will check it for you,"
Joe Biden wanted you to believe his last-minute pardon spree on January 20, 2025, was an act of selfless protection for loyal public servants and family members under siege from the incoming Trump administration. New reporting on Dr. Anthony Fauci's pardon blows that story to pieces.
It turns out Fauci didn't sit back and receive a gift from a grateful and cautious Joe Biden. He asked for it. He pushed for it. His lawyers hounded the White House for it right up until the literal final hours of the Biden presidency. Does that sound like the behavior of an innocent man being shielded out of generosity? Not to me.
The Conservative Americans PAC has financed a series of outside efforts tied to multiple primary election races in which they tried to elevate weaker Democrat candidates over their stronger primary opponents.
The group participated in contests across Nebraska’s 2nd District, Pennsylvania’s 7th, Texas’ 35th, New Jersey’s 7th, and Maine’s 2nd District, including working alongside affiliated political action committees (PACs) such as Lead Left PAC and Real Change PAC, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller. Conservative Americans PAC admits it aimed to influence Democrat primary elections, boosting weaker Democrat candidates for the benefit of Republicans in November’s general election.
The governor of Illinois, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt hotel heir who is a possible 2028 presidential candidate, is facing sharp criticism after signing into law a state budget that adds $800 million a year in new taxes to a state already in the worst third of the 50 states when it comes to imposing tax burdens.
Unleash Prosperity, a pro-growth, free-market-oriented group, called Pritzker "a man who never met a tax increase he didn’t embrace." He’s more frugal when it comes to his own money. Pritzker had five toilets ripped out of a second mansion in what Cook County described as a fraudulent scheme to save $330,000
Trump shows off new Air Force One, thanks
Qatar for handing over ‘world’s most
luxurious plane’ replies
Qatar for handing over ‘world’s most
luxurious plane’ replies
President Trump unveiled the new Air Force One Friday — thanking Qatar for donating “the world’s most luxurious plane,” which he said would allow the United States to be “represented properly” as he travels the globe.
“It was built at a level that will probably never be seen again,” Trump told onlookers in a new hangar built at Joint Base Andrews for the larger jet, which Trump said would end the “ridiculous” situation of other world leaders having more imposing planes.
“This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody’s ever seen before,”
Joe Biden seems determined to prove he was unfit for the presidency, and boy, did he do so again during the opening ceremony for Barack Obama's presidential center.
I hate that I’m even talking about the event, but Biden’s “Biden moment” is just impossible to ignore. Video from the ceremony shows Jill Biden physically leading her husband onto the stage, which tells you everything you need to know about where things stand for Ol’ Joe before a single word was spoken.
And yes, things got worse from there.
As the ceremony wound down, Obama strutted around, playing air guitar to the music while Jill watched approvingly and then trailed him offstage.
The alleged mastermind behind the foiled terrorist plot to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House Sunday, is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed Thursday.
Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, was arrested by the FBI on Sunday in the small town of Western, Nebraska, and ICE subsequently lodged a detainer against him. DHS said Alvarez failed to leave the country when his B2 tourist visa expired in 2001 and he was subsequently “granted DACA by the Obama administration.”
“This illegal alien should NEVER have been allowed in our country—
83-year-old Joe Biden was abandoned by his wife and former boss on stage at the Barack Obama Presidential Center opening ceremony in Chicago on Friday, left staring aimlessly into the crowd.
The confused Biden was left behind as Obama danced off the stage, and Jill Biden followed him, forgetting about her husband.
The Bidens were included among four former presidents and former first ladies who attended the ceremony.
Biden looked distressed as he looked out into the crowd from the podium.
He took off his sunglasses and waved before asking the crowd one strange question.
“Where’s my granddaughter?” Joe shouted as the camera panned away from him and ended its feed.
I have been in Peru for the last year studying Spanish. Of the many countries I have been to over the years, Peru is one of the very most charming. It boasts a unique cuisine, beautiful colonial architecture, and some of the nicest, friendliest people you’ll ever meet anywhere in the world. And Peru’s future is looking distinctly brighter as it appears that Keiko Fujimori will win this month’s runoff election to become Peru’s next President.
She is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, who served as President from 1990 to 2000. Fujimori, the father, was and is widely hated by the Latin American Left.
Juneteenth is a powerful reminder that the Democrats lost their war for slavery.
Yes, the glorious news of Republican President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally made its two-year trek to the great state of Texas. On June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger delivered General Order No. 3 and proclaimed, in part: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” WHO IS JUNETEENTH FOR?
This freedom was made possible by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics who fought for the Union.
Russia’s Crushing Energy Crisis
replies
Welcome to today’s Morning Jolt. This is Noah Rothman with you one last time before Jim Geraghty returns on Monday.
On the menu today: Moscow is feeling the squeeze as Russia’s war of conquest in Ukraine evolves into a deadly slog on the battlefield and with Ukrainian air power increasingly bringing the war home to the Kremlin’s doorstep. But first, we hope you’ll consider contributing to NR’s “Defending America” fundraiser. If you support the work we do in championing America and its founding ideals, any contribution you can make would be immensely valuable.
With that, we turn to Russia’s torment.
The Memorandum of Understanding with Iran appears not to have lasted for 48 hours, as Iran has once again blocked the Strait of Hormuz:
Iran re-closed the Strait of Hormuz Friday instead of heading to Switzerland for nuclear negotiations, citing Israel’s refusal to pull forces out of southern Lebanon and US forces’ ongoing presence in the region.
In a statement read over maritime radio channels, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US was in violation of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, which President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed Wednesday.