Riley on news · June 18th

Good evening, this is Really American. It is Wednesday, June 17, 2026. Trump stood at the G7 podium today and his own face gave away the deal he just cut. Tonight we’re breaking down the Iran deal Trump is calling a win even though he just handed Tehran billions of dollars and gave up the leverage he spent months bragging about. We go inside his rambling 32 minute closing speech, where he kept bringing up a man who has been dead for six years because he couldn’t bring himself to talk about the deal in front of him. The $14 million Reflecting Pool renovation he promised would be flawless is already growing algae. And Trump’s own handpicked Fed chair told him no on interest rates, in public, on day one. Before we get into it, we need to talk about who controls the news you read every day. Fox just struck a $22 billion deal to buy Roku. The Ellison family got the green light to put Bari Weiss in charge of both CBS News and CNN at the same time. Bezos still owns the Washington Post. That is one media landscape getting smaller and smaller, controlled by fewer and fewer billionaires who all have business in front of this administration. Really American is the opposite of that. No billionaire owner, no corporate boss, just readers funding the journalism directly. If you have been reading on a free subscription, tonight is the night to upgrade. Subscribe or upgrade right now. Trump’s administration released the text of its Iran deal today, and the fine print tells a very different story than the victory lap he tried to take. The deal lifts the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, opens the door to lifting international sanctions, and unfreezes billions of dollars in Iranian assets that Trump himself once fought to keep frozen. Trump told reporters “I guess we’re going to have to give it back,” about the very money he used to brag about seizing. There is also a plan for a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, even though Trump now insists the US is not paying a dime of it. Iran’s chief negotiator did not even pretend to be gracious about it. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called the agreement “a record of US failure” and said people would judge for themselves. Hezbollah’s own leader called it a “great victory.” According to the Guardian, the agreement does not even mention Iran’s ballistic missile program, the exact weapons system Trump spent years saying he would never let them keep. This is the same president who promised maximum pressure on Iran. Now Tehran gets its money back, its ports reopened, and a path to billions in reconstruction cash, all while Trump tells the cameras the market “loves it.” Trump’s closing G7 press conference was supposed to be his victory lap. Instead it turned into 32 minutes of him talking about anything except the deal he just signed. According to the Independent, Trump spent the bulk of his remarks returning again and again to Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general the US killed back in 2020. He called Soleimani “a mad genius” and credited the entire Iran deal to that killing, years before this war even started. At one point he turned to his own Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and asked him on camera whether the stock market was “more brilliant” than he was. He thanked Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for staying “neutral” during the war, said Afghanistan is “kissing our ass,” and stopped mid sentence to swat at a fly. When a reporter pointed out that the actual text of the deal does not say anything specific about stopping Iran’s nuclear program, Trump’s answer was “doesn’t have to be.” A president who is confident in what he just signed does not spend half an hour avoiding the subject. This is what it looks like when even Trump knows he gave away more than he got. Trump’s administration is now begging federal workers to volunteer for 12 hour cleanup shifts at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, just weeks after finishing a $14 million renovation Trump personally promised would fix it for good. According to reporting from MeidasTouch, National Park Service employees received an email saying officials need “additional personnel” immediately to handle “scrubbing and pump out operations” before July 4th. The cleanup has reportedly been elevated to a “regional and national priority.” Workers have been vacuuming algae out of the pool and pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water just days after the project was unveiled. Trump stood at that same pool in April and told the country “there’ll be no leaks, there’ll be no anything, it’ll look gorgeous, beautiful.” Less than two months later, taxpayers are footing a second emergency cleanup bill on top of the original $14 million. This is what happens when a rushed photo op project gets jammed through ahead of a deadline instead of done right.

Wang Yi and Iran’s foreign minister Araghchi talked on Wednesday. Araghchi updated China on the first‑stage memorandum of understanding that Iran and the United States have reached, thanking Beijing for its role in pushing the talks forward. He said the agreement should be put into practice, including a call for Israel to stop its military actions in Lebanon, and expressed a desire to deepen trust and cooperation with China across all fields.

China’s foreign ministry released a white paper on global governance, outlining its vision for a more inclusive, multilateral system that balances state sovereignty with collective problem‑solving. The document stresses the need for reforms in international institutions to better reflect the interests of developing countries and to address climate, health and digital challenges.

Domestically, China unveiled an employment plan aimed at creating millions of jobs in high‑tech and green sectors, while the G7 discussed coordinated economic policies and security issues. In the United States, officials signaled a pause on new technology export restrictions, citing concerns about market impacts and the need for further review.

Last night, Mike Collins won the GOP runoff to face me this November. The general election is underway, and I can’t win here in Georgia without you. I’ll explain what comes next in a moment, but if you already understand how important this Senate race in Georgia is — and are ready to make today one of the biggest and best days of my entire campaign… use the link below to chip in $10. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ossoff-fr-substack-2026 Otherwise, here’s what’s next. I expect my race in Georgia to be the biggest and most expensive Senate race in the country. Trump and MAGA want me defeated

NADWORNY: What made you want to memorize so much Shakespeare? SUTTON: To prove to the other actors that I could memorize Shakespeare, I guess. NADWORNY: (Laughter). SUTTON: When I first had the idea, oh, yeah, I’m going to learn them all. I (vocalizing). I did not realize how much work it actually was. NADWORNY: Do you think memorizing Shakespeare helps you memorize other things? SUTTON: Yeah. I do. I also believe that just memorizing Shakespeare is just good for your soul. From this interview at NPR.

After a vacation, friends ask, “How was it?” and you answer, “Fine” or “Great” or bedeck the moment with an anecdote because that’s all you’ve time for. An immensity of impressions sits mute before absence of interest and scarcity of time. We cram our lives too full to savor. We carry home mementoes which we mean to distil into a shareable account, and they stare at us until, what the hell, we chuck them, who has time – life goes on. Consumers and discarders of so much, how much do we digest? I write to save time.

In this episode of Private Life, Matthew Aucoin joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss the state of music criticism, the work of music composition, and the life and writing of Aucoin’s former professor and mentor, the poetry critic Helen Vendler. Listen on Spotify below and on all other streaming platforms here. The two also talk about “Inside the Music,” Aucoin’s essay from the Review’s November 6, 2025, issue about the decline of music reviews in mainstream media, as well as “Chronicles of Love and Loss,” Vendler’s review, from our May 11, 1995, issue, of o James Merill’s final book of poetry, A Scattering of Salts.(1995). Aucoin is a composer, conductor, and writer. His operatic song cycle Music for New Bodies, inspired by the poetry of Jorie Graham, premiered in 2024 and was staged at the Lincoln Center in the summer of 2025. He is the author of the book The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera (2021), and he has been a contributor to The New York Review of Books since 2018. Also in 2018 he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Vendler was an academic and literary critic, known most for writing about contemporary poetry. Over a six-decade career she taught English and poetics at Cornell, Boston University, and Harvard, where she retired as the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor Emerita in the Department of English. Vendler was also a longtime contributor to the Review, beginning in 1975 with an essay on William Carlos Willaims. Private Life is a podcast from The New York Review, hosted by contributor Jarrett Earnest. Each episode offers intimate, in-depth conversations with distinguished voices from across the literary landscape—about their lives, their work, and the ideas that shape both. Along the way, they revisit pieces from the Review’s robust sixty-year archive (some episodes of the podcast will feature newly recorded readings of these classic essays) to situate arguments within contemporary culture. The show also includes discussions of titles from our book publishing arm, New York Review Books.

Trump’s administration just announced a 60‑day cease‑fire framework with Iran. The deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift all U.S. sanctions on Tehran and channel roughly $300 billion in aid to Iran, while Iran repeats its pledge not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Nothing in the agreement forces Iran to stick to the terms, and the president hinted he could resume bombing if the timeline slips.

Republican senators are already calling it a major foreign‑policy misstep, and the plan runs into a snag with Israel. The framework asks Israel to halt strikes against Hezbollah, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has signaled he will keep pressure on Lebanese militants, especially with elections looming. An administration official told The Atlantic that the president’s decision is final, but the lack of Israeli buy‑in makes the deal fragile.

Critics also point out there’s no mechanism to ensure Iran complies beyond the threat of renewed military action. Even the lead negotiator of the previous Iran nuclear deal praised the current arrangement as better than the alternatives, but many see it as a costly concession that gives Tehran cash without securing tangible benefits for the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump‑backed candidates are stumbling in other races – a Trump‑favored Georgia lieutenant governor lost his primary, and the party’s Senate hopeful there now faces a tough contest against incumbent Jon Ossoff. The ripple effects suggest the Iran deal is just one piece of a broader political wobble for the administration.

World Cup fans are swapping stadium chants for a taste of America, joking that they’ll need unlimited refills to keep up with the heat. The segment riffs on how the tournament’s global buzz is spilling into everyday cravings, and the crowd’s playful demand for “all‑you‑can‑drink” vibes.

Meanwhile, a tongue‑in‑cheek bit imagines Trump urging everyone to gulp his “Iran Kool‑Aid,” a satirical nod to the former president’s habit of turning foreign policy into a party trick. The joke lands on the absurdity of mixing geopolitics with happy‑hour culture.

In D.C., the bar scene is experimenting with a bright green algae cocktail that’s being billed as the summer’s trendiest sip. Patrons are lining up for the novelty, and the hosts chat about how the drink’s earthy flavor is surprisingly refreshing.

Bruce Vilanch, the legendary Hollywood writer, offers a wry side‑eye to the early days of LGBTQ representation on screen, pointing out the clichés that have finally given way to more authentic stories. The episode wraps with Myki Meeks announcing a new direction for the show, hinting at more bold, unapologetic conversations in the weeks ahead.

A senior White House official outlined the key points of a new memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran. Both sides say they’ll halt all military actions, including in Lebanon, and promise not to start new conflicts or interfere in each other’s internal affairs. The deal also calls for the U.S. to lift its naval blockade and withdraw forces from the region within a month, while Iran will open commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz at no charge for two months and work with Oman on future maritime arrangements.

In addition, the agreement promises a $300 billion reconstruction plan for Iran, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the removal of all U.S. sanctions, including UN resolutions, pending a final deal. Both parties agree to keep Iran’s nuclear program at the status quo for now, with negotiations on enrichment and stockpiles slated for the next 60 days, though no firm timeline is set.

The final piece hinges on a binding UN Security Council resolution that would cement the terms. Critics in Israel see the bargain as forcing the country to curb its Lebanon operations in exchange for keeping the Hormuz waterway open, a trade‑off many view as precarious.

So Tommy Tuberville has challenged Doug to a debate, and Doug is more than happy to accept. He thinks this debate will show the people of Alabama where Tuberville's priorities really lie. Apparently, Tuberville hasn't been talking about issues like healthcare costs, education, or voting rights. Instead, he's been focusing on things like immigration and sports.

Doug says Tuberville has been supporting corruption and making it harder for people to vote. He claims Tuberville is more interested in playing political games than actually helping Alabama families. Doug is running for governor because he wants to focus on the real issues facing the state.

It's worth noting that Doug is using this opportunity to ask for campaign donations and to gauge interest in the potential debate. He's also questioning whether the debate will actually happen. Overall, it seems like Doug is trying to position himself as a serious candidate who cares about the issues, while portraying Tuberville as more interested in politics as a game.