Geoff Ward

[Geoff Ward @GeoffWard11]

@MichaelVaughan we never bowl first when we are confident. I also don't get the logic or psychology of bowling first .... if you are worried about pressure on your batters surely it's worse to walk out 450 runs down

[Geoff Ward @GeoffWard11]

@cric_blog the most rogue selection decision in the history of cricket

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Sam Neill (2025): “It’s not a happy place, America, and I wasn’t happy there. I’m interested in the condition of America now. It beggars belief what’s happening there now. When you hear a slogan like Make America Great Again, it makes a sort of weird sense because America could be great again, but at community level. Not with sort of strange billionaires making weird decisions”

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Back in March I wrote 👇 that Iran was winning, and not only strategically but tactically too, but I genuinely didn't expect it would eventually lead - 3 months later - to a complete US surrender.

Because, make no mistake, this is what the "deal" that was just signed is: a complete US surrender, the likes of which it has never signed in its entire history.

Let's compare it with the 2 other most famous US capitulation agreements: the Paris Peace Accords with Vietnam in 1973 and the Doha Agreement with Afghanistan in 2020.

The most significant difference is that both the Vietnam and Afghanistan deals, despite being documents in which the US effectively conceded defeat, contained at least some face-saving provisions for the US.

For instance, in the Vietnam deal, North Vietnam accepted the continued existence of the South Vietnamese government, promised peaceful reunification, agreed to maintain the 17th parallel as a dividing line, and accepted international supervision. These were real (if ultimately unenforceable and unenforced) concessions.

Same thing with the Taliban: they guaranteed Afghan soil would never again be used to attack America, and agreed to negotiate a political settlement with the then Kabul government. The latter commitment was never seriously pursued - but both existed and gave the US a narrative: at least it could claim its post-9/11 objective had been secured on paper.

The deal with Iran is completely different: it doesn't contain a single meaningful concession from Iran. The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is merely the reversal of a wartime measure they took in response to the US-Israeli attack. And the "reaffirmation" that Iran won't build nuclear weapons is just this: a reaffirmation of a position Tehran has had for decades.

As a reminder, there is a 2003 fatwa by Khamenei that forbids the production and use of any form of weapon of mass destruction, so "reaffirming" it costs Iran exactly nothing.

Meanwhile, the list of concessions and costs on the US side is staggering:
- Permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon
- A US pledge to respect Iran's sovereignty and not interfere in its internal affairs
- Full lifting of the naval blockade
- Withdrawal of all US forces from the region within 30 days after the final agreement
- A $300 billion reconstruction and development fund for Iran
- Termination of all sanctions: UN, IAEA, and every unilateral US sanction, primary and secondary
- Immediate Treasury waivers for Iranian oil exports and all related banking, insurance, and shipping services
- Full release of all frozen Iranian funds and assets, to be spent however Iran's central bank sees fit

So very concretely this is the US agreeing to 1) end the war and withdraw its forces, 2) end all hostile measures towards Iran that were in place before the war (the sanctions, the frozen funds, the interference in internal affairs, etc.), and 3) send hundreds of billions of dollars in what are, effectively, war reparations.

If that's not a complete surrender, I genuinely don't know what is.

And, cherry on the cake, in an absolutely perfect touch of historical irony, Trump literally signed this surrender agreement in Versailles (I'm not kidding: https://t.co/VLSduQtRJW).

History rhymes, but rarely this loudly, all the more because the historical 1919 Versailles Treaty was also signed in June!

Of course, it's fair - very fair, even - to suspect that Trump will not honor this deal. If he's proven anything in his political career, it's that he is agreement-incapable. Plus there's the Israel dimension: the document does say that the war should "end on all fronts, including Lebanon," but Israel has already made clear it considers itself unbound by the agreement.

As such, what I suspect will happen - as I wrote the day the MOU was announced (https://t.co/Hbh669Gvta) - is that the deal will split in two. The immediate concessions - blockade lifted, oil flowing, funds unfrozen - will happen (some already have) and probably stick, because reversing them would mean restarting the very war the US humiliatingly lost.

The deferred provisions - the negotiations on nuclear, the sanctions schedule, the reconstruction fund - will probably enter permanent limbo because, as I wrote then, the US won't get better terms on nuclear after showing they couldn't get them on the battlefield. And given sanctions relief and the $300 billion are tied to a final deal that requires resolving the nuclear question, and the nuclear question requires leverage the US no longer has, the whole structure is circular and never-ending.

On the Israel-Lebanon question, things are trickier. Israel, in some way, finds itself in a South Vietnam situation with its patron having negotiated a surrender over its head. The difference is that Thieu was too weak to sabotage the Paris Accords, whereas Netanyahu isn't: his ability to escalate in Lebanon gives him a de facto veto over the deal's most fragile provision.

Realistically speaking though, it's hard to imagine the US willing to restart the war, which is its own form of deterrence: if Israel keeps striking Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire, Iran can now retaliate with far greater confidence that the US won't come to the rescue - which ought to give Israel pause.

In effect, the end result is that the US security umbrella over Israel just got a lot thinner. Which means that, for the first time in a long time, Israel has to calculate the cost of provoking Iran without assuming the US will absorb the consequences. This points towards restraint, at least for any rational actor. But then again, the same government that dragged the US into this war in the first place has not exactly been a model of strategic rationality...

In any case, it's undeniable that Iran has just achieved something no other country has managed, ever: it withstood the full force of the US and Israeli military machines, and extracted a surrender agreement that makes the Paris Peace Accords look like a US victory by comparison.

To refer back to the title of my article below 👇: this was the first multipolar war, and Iran has definitely earned its place as one of the poles.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

This agreement is far worse than I expected. To reopen the strait— a strait that was open before the war— we and our partners are transferring billions to the autocrats. We get nothing else— no elimination of enriched uranium, missiles, or terrorist support. And to add one final gift, we agree to not help the Iranian people pursue their democratic aspirations. Just incredible.

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

New “Art of The Deal” is out, and it’s short:

“Give your opponent everything they ask for and declare victory”

[David Marcus @BlueBoxDave]

I’ve defended the administration��s America 250 plans, because I trusted they really would be non partisan, really would bring us together. But I was wrong. And it sucks. I also apologize to the musical acts who dropped out who I criticized. They saw it.

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

Trump’s total surrender to Iran is a humiliating display of national weakness that Trump is trying to cover up with faux displays of strength via some dudes kicking the crap out of each other on the White House lawn. A disgrace for the ages.

[Dave Wolber @dwwolber]

@craigunger @joncoopertweets The Russians certainly have kompromat on Trump. But more generally Trump is a central node in an international network of kleptocrats and oligarchs helping each other make $$ and tear down democratic institutions that constrain them, mob bosses integrated into governments

[Zoldyck @Michealkaiser_]

This is what a holocaust looks like.

[Jon Favreau @jonfavs]

Elon Musk held up a chainsaw, fed USAID into the wood chipper, and at least 600,00 people have already died as a result - two-thirds of them children.

History's first trillionaire.

[Nathan J Robinson @NathanJRobinson]

Instead of discussing how Elon Musk is now the world's first trillionaire, we should talk about how he killed hundreds of thousands of people through his dismantling of food and medical aid to poor countries
https://t.co/8kY171r5w1

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney

[Craig Foster @Craig_Foster]

Chill.

Unless you’re a fan whose visa was denied, losing your life savings.

A referee whose participation was withdrawn after a lifetime of work.

A player who couldn’t focus without certainty as to if, or when, you were going to be allowed to play in the biggest moment of your young life, and most precious memory as you will age.

A country that had to change venues because you’re being bombed by the hosts.

A staff member denied a World Cup after years of dedication in qualifying.

A spectator who sold your house to pay for exorbitant tickets.

Aside from that, relax.

[Colin Monaghan @ColinMonaghan6]

@btselem Yet another video proving sickening war crimes from the self-professed "most moral army in the world"...

[stranger @strangerous10]

Update: Chris Sidoti has again spoken out & called on federal authorities to investigate Australians who have served in the IDF since October 2023 for potential “war crimes” and “genocide.”
“The full force of Australian law should be applied”💥 #auspol

[sarah @sahouraxo]

This is South Lebanon today.

Israel has now bombed Lebanon more than 3,500 times during a so-called “ceasefire.”

Read that again.

3,500 Israeli bombs dropped during a “ceasefire”.

[Craig Foster @Craig_Foster]

This is beyond ridiculous.

And yet FIFA is silent while fans, players, staff, officials are denied entry to play in, work in, or watch their own World Cup.

Crazy times.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

An appropriate post from Zelensky on the anniversary of D-Day. Nothing from Trump. Which is appropriate, since Zelensky is a fighter against tyranny, unlike Trump.

[Nick Bryant @NickBryantNY]

Fearless questioning from Kristen Welker - a model for news organisations -which produces the biggest on-air meltdown of Trump 2.0. Grotesque to hear him call her “crooked” and “stupid”. Yet another attack on a female journalist of colour. She exposed his lies. He couldn’t cope.