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"President Donald Trump said a conflict would Iran 'wouldn’t last very long' because of American military might but also ruled out sending large numbers of ground troops into the region."

"The National Security Agency collected records about U.S. calls and text messages that it wasn’t authorized to obtain last year, in a second such incident, renewing privacy concerns surrounding the agency’s maligned phone-surveillance program, according to government documents and people familiar with the matter."

"It will recover much faster and to a much more dangerous level from the far larger force it still has today."

Ukraine's armed forces have begun to pull back from the town of Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk region, one of only six civilian crossing points along the 450-kilometer line of contact in the Donbas war zone.

"Four men with suspected ties to the Islamic State (IS) group were arrested in Nicaragua after crossing illegally from Costa Rica, officials say."

"A raid on June 3 used U.S. intelligence to seize group’s leaders and weapons."

"In an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital for talks with Afghan officials, Mr. Pompeo said on Tuesday that progress has been made in reaching a comprehensive settlement of the nearly 18-year war and that neighboring Pakistan has an important role to play. 'I hope we have a peace deal before Sept. 1,' Mr. Pompeo said."

"President Trump and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran shifted back to a sharply confrontational footing on Tuesday, trading accusations while U.S. officials and international leaders worked toward expected talks aimed at defusing the conflict at a global summit at the end of the week."

"War is often filled with its share of mistakes and errors in judgment. It’s the nature of this lethal business. Some are the result of changing circumstances on the ground, while others are more systemic. The United States has committed more than a few during its 18 years in Afghanistan."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hopes for a peace deal with the Taliban "before September 1,” as he spoke to reporters in Kabul during an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital on June 25. Pompeo met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other high-level Afghan officials as well as General Scott Miller, who leads NATO's Resolute Support Mission and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.

Iran and the United States have traded insults, with Tehran accusing Washington of "lying" about its willingness to hold talks to steer the two nations away from military conflict, a statement President Donald Trump called “very ignorant and insulting.”

"The U.S. is prepared to wipe out areas of Iran if the country decides to attack ‘anything American,' President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday morning on Twitter."

"Experts said that the operation signals U.S. government leaders are becoming increasingly comfortable with cyberwarfare as a tool in the arsenal and, in some cases, now view cyber operations as a half-step removed from a kinetic conflict."

"The UN says tens of thousands of Islamic State fighters and family members being held in Iraq and Syria must be tried or released."

A major who served in Afghanistan with the Coldstream Guards, Mr Hennessy-Barrett wondered if the counterinsurgency techniques adopted by the British army in Taliban strongholds could somehow be repurposed to make the poor richer.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed what he described as "hard-hitting" new financial sanctions on Iran Monday, specifically targeting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Iran’s navy chief warned the United States on Monday that Iranian forces could shoot down more surveillance drones if they violate the country’s airspace, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks with Arab allies in the Persian Gulf."

"Homeland Security is looking for innovative robots that can navigate underground tunnels and communicate with headquarters."

"The U.S. plans to impose major new sanctions on Iran, signaling it won’t ease pressure despite a diplomatic push by European leaders to persuade Washington and Tehran to show restraint."

Via Yahoo News - "... U.S. Cyber Command launched a retaliatory digital strike against an Iranian spy group that supported last week’s limpet mine attacks on commercial ships, according to two former intelligence officials."

"... It’s the start of a four-year effort, known as Project Metropolis, that leaders say will transform the way Marines train for urban battles. The effort is being led by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, based in Quantico, Virgina. It comes after service leaders identified a troubling problem following nearly two decades of war in the Middle East: adversaries have been studying their tactics and weaknesses, and now they know how to exploit them."

Senior government and opposition leaders in Afghanistan have warned that armed hostilities in the country will continue if ongoing negotiations between the United States and the Taliban fail to jump-start a sustainable intra-Afghan peace dialogue.

President Trump sought to lower tensions with Iran on Saturday, extending an olive branch to “start all over” with nuclear talks and even thanking Tehran for its “wise” decision not to shoot down a U.S. military plane with personnel on board.

"‘These people want to push us into war... It’s disgusting,’ president told confidant."

"President Trump approved an offensive cyber strike that disabled Iranian computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches, even as he backed away from a conventional military attack in response to its shoot-down Thursday of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone, according to people familiar with the matter."