Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda June 26, 2026 Despite years of crippling economic sanctions, Iranians were still able to put bread on the table. Until now. Soaring costs and supply shortages exacerbated by the war with the United States and Israel have left much of Iran’s infrastructure and industries in tatters, fueling runaway inflation and joblessness. Bread has historically been among the few staples kept affordable through government subsidies, with the state supplying flour to bakeries at low prices. But bread prices have doubled from a year ago in places such as Tehran, leaving many struggling to put the staple on…

Today we take a look at a custom piece we just finished before it goes off to its forever home. This is a side sword or rapier in Spanish or possibly Italian style from around the year 1520. The hand forged steel hilt features a fan shaped peg and diagonal sweep on the outer guard and a basic staple turned toward the point for an inner guard. This style was very popular during the time of the conquest of the Americas and is similar to historical swords held in the Real Armoria in Madrid, including swords that belonged to Hernan…

Despite having to make more than 100 changes to the tax code as a result of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, employing about a quarter fewer employees and experiencing leadership turnover, an independent IRS watchdog reported that the tax agency conducted a largely successful filing season in 2026. But the Taxpayer Advocate Service also warned that staff cuts made it harder for taxpayers who needed assistance to receive it. “In the end, the IRS performed better than expected in most respects. The vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay,” National Taxpayer…

Your words deserve more than one place to land. A great post can reach readers on your site and viewers on the platforms where short-form video thrives, including Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Until now, doing both usually meant opening another tool, learning video editing, or getting in front of a camera. Feature Clips is an experimental preview that helps you create a short vertical video from a post or page directly in the WordPress editor. Your post remains the full story. A Feature Clip gives you a simple way to introduce that story to people scrolling through social…

Introduction – The Steam Summer Sale Is Live! The wait is finally over. The Steam Summer Sale 2026 is officially live from June 25 to July 9, 2026, delivering two weeks of massive historical low discounts on thousands of PC games. If you are a strategy fan, this is the ultimate opportunity to clear out your backlog and grab those massive, hundred-hour time sinks without breaking the bank. Whether you prefer the grand scale of grand strategy, the meticulous optimization of city builders, the tactical tension of turn-based combat, or classic real-time strategy (RTS) adrenaline, sorting through the Steam store…

09:57 26.6.2026 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi said that a “very strong” verification system is needed in Iran to ensure the country does not develop nuclear weapons and complies with any US-Iran peace accord. “I think the objective of this agreement is to ensure that there is no development of nuclear weapons in Iran,” Grossi said on June 26, referring to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the United States and Iran signed last week. “The government of Iran has clearly stated that this is not their intention,” Grossi told reporters in Japan. “But of course, intentions…

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook is a quarterly series produced by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Science and Assessments (MARISA) program, a collaboration funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the RAND Corporation and researchers at Pennsylvania State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, Cornell University, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. This series draws information from regional climate centers, news and weather information, and high-resolution climate data sets for the benefit of policymakers, practitioners, residents, and community leaders in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a focus on the Chesapeake Bay watershed.…

The Department of Justice has issued about $17 million in payments to 629 people, mostly military family members, in connection with the toxic fuel spills that poisoned their water in Hawaii in 2021. These are the first payments for settlements resolving about 3,600 claims resulting from the poisoned water, which caused numerous health problems for military families living in military housing, and for other civilian families in Hawaii whose water was provided by the Navy. Another 3,000 people haven’t accepted the government’s offer, which their attorney describes as “paltry.”And service members affected have received no payments, said Kristina Baehr, attorney…

Ukraine’s Global Mark has just unveiled its first-ever Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) at the Eurosatory 2026 defense exhibition in Paris: the Sea Trident ST-1000. Known previously for their aerial drones and powerful electronic warfare (EW) systems, Global Mark is taking things below the surface. This steel-hulled, oval-shaped underwater beast is built for heavy-duty strikes, logistics, and neutralizing enemy underwater threats—and it’s small enough to fit inside a standard ISO shipping container for rapid road transport. According to Global Mark, Sea Trident is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed for long range missions in maritime environments capable or delivering payloads of…

Tokyo, Japan, 26 June 2026 – Airbus has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Under the MoU, Airbus, in cooperation with  Kawasaki Heavy Industries, will analyse opportunities to work on a Japanese anti-submarine warfare variant of the U950 Eurodrone, Europe’s first Large Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS). Japan has held observer status in the Eurodrone programme since 2023. The Eurodrone is ideally suited for countries like Japan that need to monitor large maritime areas. Compared to its nearest competitor, Eurodrone has very long flight endurances and can fly with much more mission payload, including sonobuoys and…