The Week Magazine June 27, 2025

Nothing is more American than flaunting your immigrant heritage. Every March, Boston, New York, Philly, and other cities are festooned with Irish flags and their sports bars fill with people clad in green, many of them also smeared in face paint. More than 31 million Americans claim Irish ancestry and plenty of them celebrate it on St. Patrick’s Day. My own family always had a big blowout party on that day, even though our most recent Irish-born person, an ancestor on my mother’s side, came over way back in the 19th century. Such parties were pretty common when I was growing up, maybe a bit less so these days as the great wave of Irish immigration recedes into the distant past. For my father’s side, the Scottish side, we…

What happened President Donald Trump signaled this week that the U.S. could join Israel’s assault on Iranian nuclear and military sites, calling for the Islamic Republic’s “unconditional surrender” and declaring that his “patience was wearing thin.” Administration insiders told media outlets that the president was impressed by Israel’s initial surprise attack on its longtime regional foe, which involved more than 200 warplanes, a fleet of drones smuggled inside Iran, and commando forces on the ground. Dozens of targets were hit in the first wave of Operation Rising Lion, which killed some of the country’s top nuclear experts and eviscerated the highest ranks of its military command. The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard was among the dead. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’d ordered the attack to counter…

If the U.S. does target Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility, it will turn to a formidable weapon that’s “never been used in combat before,” said Kat Lonsdorf in NPR.org. That’s the 20-foot-long, 30,000-pound GBU-57—or Massive Ordnance Penetrator—designed to burrow up to 200 feet below ground before exploding. The Pentagon has about 20 of the high-density-steel “bunker busters”—so heavy they must be dropped from a B-2 stealth bomber, “which only the U.S. possesses.” Experts agree the bombs could wreak serious destruction on Fordo, but “whether it would be enough to stop Iran’s nuclear program” is another matter. If the U.S. strikes, Iran will “almost certainly have to respond,” said Stephen Collinson in CNN.com. It could hit U.S. bases and personnel in the region; Trump would then have to strike back “in…

What happened Authorities this week arrested the man suspected in a shooting rampage targeting Minnesota state Democrats that killed two people and gravely wounded two more, the most severe attack in a growing wave of political violence. Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was captured after a dayslong manhunt and faces federal charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder. In the indictment, prosecutors say he dressed as a police officer and went to the home of state Sen. John Hoffman, shooting Hoffman nine times and his wife, Yvette, who was shielding the couple’s disabled daughter, eight times. Both survived. He then briefly stopped at two other Democratic lawmakers’ houses before reaching the home of state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former state house speaker, where he shot and killed her and her…

■ After Mykale Baker’s high school graduation in a suburb of Atlanta, he went to work in a local Burger King, still wearing his graduation sash and medals. Maria Mendoza, a drive-through customer, was so struck by the sight that she posted a TikTok video. After it went viral, Mendoza started a GoFundMe for Baker’s college education—quickly raising more than $200,000. Baker plans to enroll in technical college in the fall. “The kindness that you put out there always has a way of coming back to you,” he said. ■ Marine Corps officers Kathleen Spangler, 29, and her husband Michael, 30, have long dreamed of having a home overseas once they leave the military. After the Dayton mother of three gained her Irish citizenship last year, she browsed Irish…

In the space of a few days last week, President Trump “politicized the military,” said The Washington Post in an editorial. And “it wasn’t just the parade.” Yes, the procession of troops, tanks, and artillery that rattled through Washington in nominal celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary—but before a president who just happened to be celebrating his own 79th birthday—was a pointless show of “muscle-flexing.” Americans could shrug off that sparsely attended pageant, which cost up to $45 million to stage, if not for the fact that it came just days after Trump sent 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to help quell immigration protests in Los Angeles, over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Presidents have deployed troops before on U.S. soil, but always as a…