Dangerous Threshold: Long Range Implications Of Bombing Iran's Nuclear Facilities

In a dangerous escalation of U.S. foreign policy, Donald Trump announced on June 22 that the U.S. had bombed 13 Iranian nuclear facilities in support of Israel. The Israeli-Iranian conflict has already left hundreds dead—including scores of civilians—and now risks igniting a wider regional, if not global, war.

While Trump claimed to broker a ceasefire, Israeli missiles struck Iranian targets just hours later. Iran denied any retaliation but was quickly blamed for alleged missile fire—charges used to justify further Israeli attacks. Trump publicly rebuked both nations, saying he’s “not happy with Israel,” even as White House officials praised his supposed diplomatic intervention. With the region in crisis, global powers maneuvering, and questions mounting over legality and legitimacy, we examine the broader implications for peace, international law, and U.S. democracy. BreakthroughNews

Guest - Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition and a longtime critic of U.S. imperialism and military intervention. A leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, he’s also a leading voice in the movement to end the occupation of Palestine.

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Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy

Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy is a new book by our own co-host Heidi Boghosian. Heidi explains how the erosion of civics education combined with widespread digital illiteracy, leaves Americans vulnerable to manipulation—by Big Tech, foreign adversaries, extremist movements, and even our own government. She argues that we’re not just under-informed—we’re being actively rewired by the very systems we depend on daily.

Yet people are fighting back and taking cyber citizenship seriously. They include librarians teaching patrons to use Tor, activists leveraging open-source tools, educators using justice-themed games to teach critical thinking, and whistleblowers risking everything to expose abuses by governments and tech giants. Heidi’s earlier books include Spying on Democracy and I Have Nothing to Hide, and her writing has appeared in outlets like the LA Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the ABA Human Rights Journal. She’s on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology and the Media Freedom Foundation.

Guest - Heidi Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations. Before that she was executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Her book ““I Have Nothing to Hide”: And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy was published in 2021 (Beacon Press). She received her JD from Temple Law School where she was editor-in-chief of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review. She has an MS from Boston University’s College of Communication and a BA from Brown University.