If the Pentagon had used bunker buster bombs and cruise missiles to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon facilities last year, a necessary act as the fanatical mullah regime in Tehran will never voluntarily give up on nukes, the congressional Republicans would be calling President Joe Biden’s action unconstitutional and saying that he was starting a war, while Democrats would be praising the president for ending a threat to the whole world.

What’s changed is that a Republican president ordered the strikes, so the Democrats are crying foul, while GOP leaders on the Hill are lining up behind President Donald Trump.

Democrats and Republicans agree that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. If the ayatollah would not abandon his nukes program through diplomacy, and after years and years of talks and deceptions and delays, he wouldn’t, then it would have to be ended by other means, including being bombed to bits. It shouldn’t matter which political party the president is.

Such partisanship is not about the consensus foreign policy, stopping Iran from having the bomb, but about who is in the White House. And that’s a bad prescription, especially since for decades, every president, of both parties, has been trying to deal with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, home to chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” seeking to acquire atomic weapons.

It was former President Barack Obama who showed the world that Iran was building a secret underground uranium enrichment factory at Fordo in 2009. It was also Obama who authorized the creation of a bomb big enough to destroy Fordo, buried inside of a mountain, the GBU-57A/B MOP. That stands for Guided Bomb Unit and Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000 pound, 20-foot long giant.

A squad of seven B-2 bombers flew the 37 hours roundtrip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Iran to drop their payloads of two bombs each. That equals 14 of these things, which is 420,000 pounds of bomb, landing on Fordo and Natanz, another nuke site.

Meanwhile, a U.S. sub offshore of Iran launched 30 Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan, the third nuke target hit in Operation Midnight Hammer in the dead of night in Iran over the weekend.

A week ago, as Israel was attacking Iran’s nukes and ballistic missile infrastructure (along with its military leaderships and atomic scientists and air defenses) the G-7, which consists of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan, issued a joint statement that said “Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror,” and “We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.” Let’s highlight that: “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump gave Iran chance after chance, even as Israel struck. But Iran would not cease its pursuit of nukes.

Iran has threatened retaliation, but they are very weak, their proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, either destroyed or degraded to impotency. Iran’s puppet state of Syria is no more and the militias in Iraq are far less a danger. Half their missile launchers are gone and Israel controls the skies over the country.

Give up the nukes for good and all the fighting ends, which is something everyone in Washington can agree on.

— The New York Daily News

By MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has authorized providing $30 million to a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group that is distributing food in Gaza, a U.S. official said Tuesday, an operation that has drawn criticism from other humanitarian organizations.

The request is the first known U.S. government funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution efforts amid the Israel-Hamas war. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue involving a controversial aid program.

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The announcement comes as violence and chaos have plagued the new food distribution sites since opening last month. GHF says no one has been killed at the aid sites themselves and that it has delivered 44 million meals to Palestinians in need.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading to the sites for desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks. The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner while going to the sites.

Israel wants the GHF to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Along with the United States, it accuses Hamas of stealing aid, without offering evidence. The U.N. denies there is a systematic diversion of aid.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that the American-led group had asked the Trump administration for the initial funding so it can continue its aid operation, which has been criticized by the U.N., humanitarian groups and others. They accuse the foundation of cooperating with Israel’s objectives in the 21-month-old war against Hamas in a way that violates humanitarian principles.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters earlier Tuesday that she had no information to provide on funding for the foundation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man charged with aiding the bomber of a fertility clinic in California has died in federal custody just weeks after his arrest, prison officials said Tuesday.

Daniel Park, 32, was accused of supplying chemicals to Guy Edward Bartkus of California, the bomber, who died in the May 17 explosion.

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The two men connected in fringe online forums over their shared beliefs against human procreation, authorities told reporters Wednesday. The blast gutted the fertility clinic in Palm Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, with officials calling the attack terrorism and possibly the largest bomb scene ever in Southern California. The clinic was closed, and no embryos were damaged.

Park, of suburban Seattle, was found unresponsive in Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles Tuesday morning and was pronounced dead at the hospital, prison officials said. No cause of death was provided.

Park shipped 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus in January and bought another 90 pounds and had it shipped to him days before the explosion, authorities said. Park purchased ammonium nitrate online in several transactions between October 2022 and May 2025, according to a federal complaint.

Three days before Park visited him in January, Bartkus asked an AI chat application about explosives, detonation velocity, diesel and gasoline mixtures, the complaint said. The discussion centered on how to create the most powerful blast.

Authorities said Park traveled to California to experiment with them in the bomber’s garage months before the attack.

Park was taken into custody at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, after he was extradited from Poland, where he fled to four days after the attack. Park had been charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

While the first couple major offseason dominoes have toppled — with Desmond Bane getting traded to Orlando and Kevin Durant going to Houston — another major tipping point takes place Wednesday with the first round of the NBA Draft.

This specific draft holds two of Minnesota’s most tradeable assets, the No. 17 and No. 31 overall picks. The 17th pick will be used Wednesday, while No. 31 is the selection that kicks off Thursday’s second-round proceedings.

Minnesota could trade either or both in an effort to upgrade the present roster as it aims to take the final steps of the team’s championship chase. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch hasn’t overly leaned on rookies to contribute during his time in Minnesota, and it seems likely that will hold true with any selections made this week.

If the Wolves are just a move away from climbing the final rung in the NBA ladder — they have lost in the Western Conference finals the past two seasons — such a move could be the tipping point in the organization parading through Minneapolis at this time next year.

But there are no guarantees there, and such transactions aren’t always as widely available as fans would hope.

Plus, youthful depth now does equal optionality later. As much as fans may have wanted to see more of Terrence Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark and Rob Dillingham at points in Minnesota’s most recent season, their presence allows Minnesota to better absorb the likely departure of Nickeil Alexander-Walker during next week’s free agency period.

The more a team can continue to stock the cupboard with young, talented players on cheap deals, the wider its window of sustained success will grow.

For an organization that continues to preach that the more times you kick at the door, the more likely it is to eventually crash down, drafting at least one, if not two, potential future contributors this week is a viable option, even as many clamor for more instant ammunition in the current Western Conference arms race.

Maybe there is a player in this year’s draft class that can make a timely contribution next season, or perhaps be a major cog in the Wolves’ machine for years to come.

Here are a few names for Minnesota to potentially nab over the next couple few days:

Egor Demin, point guard, BYU

The skinny: One of the more polarizing prospects in this draft, Demin is a home-run swing for a franchise that’s stable and deep enough to potentially take one in the middle of the first round.

Demin comes in at north of 6-foot-8 and is not just a legitimate point guard, but the clear-cut best passer in the draft. He has the type of craft and court vision that isn’t present in every draft class. It’s an elite skill, something NBA teams often covet in prospects.

What positions he can defend, how well he can shoot it from beyond the arc and whether or not he’s athletic enough to truly ascend high up the NBA ranks are all fair questions, but given his size and the way he processes the game — Demin ran one of the most electric offenses in college basketball last season at BYU — the 19 year old can redefine the way a team plays offense. And perhaps that’s something Minnesota could use down the road.

Cedric Coward, wing, Washington State

The skinny: The sharpshooter played just six games last season at Washington State and opened his career playing Division-III hoops before finding his way to Eastern Washington.

Coward is long, with a 6-5 frame and stunning 7-2 wingspan, and can shoot the ball effortlessly and efficiently. He knocked down north of 38% of his 3-point attempts in each of his last three collegiate seasons.

Coward knows how to play off the ball and can get to his spots and find others when playing off the catch, and his length helps make him a fairly strong defender. He simply looked bigger than everyone else at his position in his minimal playing time last season, and overwhelmed with his size and reach.

Coward, who turned down the chance to transfer to Duke to instead enter the draft, fits the mold of what looks like on of those true No. 2 wings that championship teams are sporting in recent years. And you might be able to grab soon-to-be 22 year old a few picks outside of the lottery.

Nique Clifford, wing, Colorado State

The skinny: There may not be some all-star top end with Clifford, but that’s the case for most guys in the middle of the first round. And he’s a 23-year-old wing who can play off the ball or make plays with it. And while this isn’t an exact comparison, the value of having an off guard like Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard, who can relieve pressure on the star player by creating and getting his own bucket when you need it, has clear value on a team that starts Anthony Edwards.

Clifford shot 38% from deep and was an efficient scorer on high-volume shooting with more than four assists per game last season with a 6-foot-5 frame.

Ryan Kalkbrenner, center, Creighton

The skinny: A ready-made, drop-coverage center who can patrol the paint and quarterback a defense from the rim. Kalkbrenner elevated Creighton teams that should’ve been average given the personnel to solid teams that could win because of his size and shot blocking acumen.

Offensively, Kalkbrenner has good hands, soft touch and the potential to be more of an outside shooting threat than was displayed in college. You don’t have to squint to see a Brook Lopez comparison here.

In the short term, Kalkbrenner could be stashed as Rudy Gobert insurance, while also serving as a potential succession plan as Minnesota’s center spot.

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