The Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz for June 21
Summer temperatures are officially here, Chicago. A heat wave is moving across the region this weekend, with potentially record-breaking temperatures and dangerously high humidity. Luckily, the city's pools reopened just in time. For the first time since the pandemic, Chicago's outdoor public pools will be open seven days a week this summer. What else happened this week? Let's jump in.
President Donald Trump left the the Group of Seven summit in Canada early as the war between Israel and Iran intensified. The president said he will decide the level of U.S. involvement in the conflict within two weeks. The Federal Reserve also kept its key rate unchanged this week, waiting to see how new tariffs will impact the economy.
On Sunday, the man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses was taken into custody following a two-day manhunt. Several prominent Illinois politicians were among the names listed in the alleged shooter's notebooks.
Tensions over immigration continued to flare this week. Following news that President Trump was directing federal immigration officials to ramp up deportations in Democratic-run cities and possibly targeting Chicago with a military response similar to Los Angeles, Mayor Brandon Johnson warned that such a move would be challenged in the courts, saying the president should respect the Constitution. And several Illinois Democratic congressmen were denied entry at an ICE facility in suburban Broadview, despite demands to check on the conditions of the detainees held there.
In state financing news, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Illinois budget Monday, while Cook County projected a $211 million shortfall for 2026. Funding for Chicago-area transit also remains unresolved in Springfield — as does the question of who will lead the Chicago Transit Authority. The Tribune discovered this week that the mayor didn't conduct a national search for a replacement for Dorval Carter, who left the CTA earlier this year, despite claiming otherwise.
As the school year comes to a close, Pedro Martinez's tenure as Chicago Public Schools CEO is over. In his final week as schools chief, Martinez delivered remarks at the City Club about his time leading the district.
Summer break often means more large gatherings of young people downtown. In an effort to curb these sometimes violent and chaotic 'teen takeovers,' Chicago City Council narrowly passed an ordinance that would give the police superintendent the power to declare a 'snap curfew' anytime, anywhere. On Wednesday, Mayor Johnson said he would veto the measure and on Friday, followed through on that promise, issuing the first mayoral veto in nearly two decades.
Preparations for this year's NASCAR street race have begun, but will the race be held in Chicago again next year? The Tribune reported this week that a tourism commission in Southern California is currently in negotiations to move the race to San Diego.
In other news from the world of sports and entertainment, the Chicago Fire offered a detailed look this week at their stadium plans, Cubs legend Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field and the James Beard Awards were announced. Plus, a popular gay bar in Chicago's Northalsted neighborhood could soon have another location at O'Hare International Airport. If the proposal is approved, Sidetrack would be the first LGBTQ+ bar in a U.S. airport.
That's all for this week! Here's the Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz from June 15 to 21. Missed last week? You can find it here or check out our past editions of Quotes of the Week.
Until next time, stay cool, stay hydrated and be safe out there, Chicago!
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CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Man found dead near roadway on DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Lakeview
Chicago police are investigating after a man was found dead early Saturday morning on the city's North Side. They said the man was found near the street, in the 3600 block of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive, shortly after 3:30 a.m., unresponsive, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The exact age of the victim is unknown. The Office of Emergency Management and Communication said northbound lanes are closed from Recreation Drive to Irving Park Road for investigation. Drivers are advised to seek an alternate route. Area 3 detectives and the Major Accidents Investigation Unit are investigating. No further information was available. CBS News Chicago will continue to update.
Atlantic
an hour ago
- Atlantic
How Tehran Might Be Playing Trump
President Donald Trump is being pulled toward war in the Middle East by his predator's eye for a victim's weakness and his ego's need to claim the work of others as his own. But since his 'unconditional surrender' social-media post on Tuesday, other Trump instincts have asserted themselves: above all, his fear of responsibility. Trump enjoys wielding power. He flinches from accountability. Days ago, Trump seemed to hunger for entry into Israel's war. A dramatic victory seemed poised to tumble into somebody's lap. Why not his? But as the hours passed, Trump reconsidered. Instead of acting, he postponed. He said that a decision would come within 'two weeks.' Time for diplomacy to work? Perhaps that might be the case in another administration. In this one, as attentive Trump watchers have learned, the 'two weeks' promise is a way of shirking a decision altogether, whether on Russia sanctions (deadline lapsed June 11, without action), trade deals (deadline lapsed June 12, without result), or a much-heralded infrastructure program (deadline lapsed May 20, 2017, without action then or ever). During his first term, Trump claimed to have taken the U.S. to the verge of war with Iran in the summer of 2019, only to cancel the mission (again, by his own account) 10 minutes before mission launch. The story, as Trump told it, can hardly have impressed the rulers of Iran with the U.S. president's commitment and resolve. But the experience of 2019 could suggest to the Iranian regime a strategy for 2025: Step 1: Absorb the Israeli strikes, as painful and humiliating as they are. Step 2: Mobilize Russian President Vladimir Putin to dissuade Trump from military action. Step 3: Agree to return to negotiations if Trump forces a cease-fire on Israel. Step 4: Dawdle, obfuscate, and generally play for time. Step 5: Reconstitute whatever remains of the Iranian nuclear program. This strategy would play on all of Trump's pressure points, especially his unwillingness to ever do anything that Putin does not want. It would leave Israel in the lurch, but over the years Trump has left many other allies like that. Trump is vulnerable to the negotiate-to-delay strategy because he has not taken any of the necessary steps to lead the nation into the war he once seemed ready to join. Trump has not asked Congress for any kind of authorization. The decision, he insists, will be his and his alone. Which will be feasible if the operation turns out as Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada did in 1983: over in a few days with few U.S. casualties and at minimal cost. But Grenada was a nearby island nation with a population of less than 100,000; Iran is a regional power with a population of more than 90 million. War with Iran will also need real money. The 78-day air war against Serbia in 1998 cost the U.S. and its NATO allies a comparatively modest $7 billion (about $14 billion in today's dollars). Iran is likely to prove a more dangerous enemy than Serbia was. Israel's air war against Iran costs about $1 billion a day, according to estimates published by Ynet News. A fight with Iran will likely require some kind of supplemental appropriation above the present defense budget. Congress may balk at funding a costly war it did not approve in the first place. Trump has not put competent leadership in charge of the nation's defense or domestic security. Trump's secretary of defense is accused by his own former advisers and friends of playacting a role that completely exceeds his abilities. If Iran retaliates with terror attacks inside the United States or on American interests abroad, it will find the U.S. desperately vulnerable. Trump purged experienced leaders from counterterrorism jobs. He installed underqualified culture warriors atop the FBI, and appointed at the Department of Homeland Security a cosplaying partisan who diverted $200 million of agency resources to a 'Thank You Trump' advertising campaign. Trump has not mobilized allies other than Israel. The United States has generally fought its major wars alongside coalition partners. Even Trump did so in his first term. France, the United Kingdom, and many other partners shouldered heavy burdens in the 2014–17 campaign in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State terror group. But Trump did not assemble that coalition; he inherited it from the Obama administration. Trump shows no inclination to try assembling his own in 2025. Trump has not rallied domestic public opinion. Before this year, only a minority of Republicans and not even a third of Democrats regarded Iran as an important security threat to the United States. George W. Bush went to war in Iraq with almost three-quarters of Americans behind him. As late as the spring of 2006, half the country still supported Bush's war. Trump will begin a war with Iran with less support than Bush could muster after three years in Iraq. Nor does Trump have any evident path to broadening support. As my former Atlantic colleague Ronald Brownstein quips, Trump is governing as a wartime president, but the war into which he has led the country is red America's culture war against blue America: Even as Trump weighs the deployment of U.S. air power against Iran, he's leading a federal military occupation of California. Trump seems to recognize that he cannot unify the nation and therefore dares not lead it into any arduous or hazardous undertaking. That may be the secret self-awareness behind Trump's 'two weeks' hesitation. This is not a self-awareness that will help Israel or secure the United States' long-term interest in depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon. But in the absence of any strategic planning or preparedness, that self-awareness is all we have to guide the country through the next fortnight and, very possibly, a long succession of 'two weeks' after that.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Could the Israel-Iran war lead to regional peace?
In Middle Eastern politics, hidden agendas, unintended consequences and surprise outcomes are the rule, not the exception. That's why what began as a catastrophic Israeli failure on Oct. 7 may yield not only an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions but to progress in the region and an end to the tragedy in Gaza. There are at least two ways to view Israel's attack on Iran. Critics would argue Israel has not been transparent about its intelligence, its coordination with the U.S. or its true aims, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu —who is a defendant in an Israeli criminal corruption trial — is playing politics and can never be trusted. But another interpretation holds that Israel seized a historic opportunity to neutralize a threat that the world's powers have long failed to confront. For decades, Iran's clerical regime has pursued a nuclear program under the guise of civilian energy while bankrolling terrorism and proxy wars abroad. Its proxy militias have undermined a broad swath of the region: Hezbollah has dominated Lebanon and embroiled it in unwanted wars with Israel, while also propping up the murderous Assad regime in Syria; the Houthis have caused the deaths of 400,000 in Yemen, attacked Saudi Arabia and ruined Egypt's Suez Canal revenue; the web of Shiite militias has undermined the sovereignty of Iraq; Hamas, in massacring 1,200 people in Israel, launched a war that has brought devastation upon Gaza. Moreover, there is absolutely no civilian purpose to Iran's insistence on enriching uranium at the 60 percent level, which is near-weaponizable and has been confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel's concerns about Iranian leaders' statements that the Jewish State must disappear are not paranoia. The Islamic Republic's insistence on the right to do all this — while grievously oppressing its own people, whom it governs through fear — has been a thorn in the side of the region and the world for decades. So far, Israel has executed its campaign at an astoundingly high level. Israeli jets have controlled Iran's skies, shattered nuclear infrastructure, eliminated part of the Iranian military's missile capabilities and assassinated a shocking number of senior security and nuclear figures. The success has been so dramatic it appears to be tempting the Trump administration into reconsidering its initial position of implausible deniability. It is well within President Trump's brand to jump on a winning bandwagon and then take credit for it — which would imply increased American involvement quite soon. One path might be a U.S. operation to take out Fordow, the key Iranian enrichment site, which is so deep underground that only U.S. bunker busting bombs can destroy it. This is, plainly, what Israel wants. That would also, of course, risk catastrophic escalation, with possible attacks by Iran on American bases in the region, or a rocket that causes major loss of life in Israel turbo-charging the war, and other dangerous scenarios in between. Then again, it could also enable the U.S. and Israel to declare victory and end the war. Down another path lies a renewed U.S. push for negotiations, which Iran has signaled it would welcome — this time from a position of greater leverage, with the Iranian regime having been thoroughly humiliated. Iran would probably face an ultimatum to not only hand over its enriched uranium but end the production of long-range missiles and foreswear any further interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries. In all the scenarios, there is now an increased possibility of a collapse of Iran's theocratic regime. The most likely scenario here is not millions in the streets but a palace coup by the military or security agencies — not unlike what happened in Romania in 1989 and Egypt in 2011 (events fancifully remembered as simply 'revolutions'). The chances are not yet high, but these things percolate below the surface. It could happen both if the ruinous war goes on or if Iran endures a humiliating surrender — which is what Trump seems to be aiming for now. And if Iran is thusly defanged, the consequences for the region could well be transformative. For starters, it would be the nail in the coffin for the 'axis of resistance.' In recent months, Lebanon finally formed a government that seems determined to disarm Hezbollah. Shorn of any Iranian support, the militia may have little choice but to comply — which may also unblock massive assistance earmarked for the economically desperate country from Gulf states. It would also free Iraq of the interference of the Shiite militias which Iran has backed and guided, enabling a measure of democratic progress in that country. In Yemen, expect a counteroffensive by the internationally recognized government to retake the heart of the country, lost to the fanatical Houthis. That would also enable a full resumption of maritime trade through Suez, hugely aiding Egypt. The main benefit could be in Gaza, where over 50,000 people, including tens of thousands of civilians, are believed to have died in Israel's ham-fisted effort to dislodge Hamas — which, despite huge degradation, somehow still holds on and has over 50 Israeli hostages, dead and alive. But if Hamas is stripped of Iranian backing, Arab states may finally feel emboldened to pressure the group into surrendering. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar could unite to compel Hamas to cede control to the Palestinian Authority, which would be bolstered with Arab security forces on the ground. Palestinians in Gaza, exhausted and bereft of hope, would support that move, creating yet more pressure for Hamas to lay down its weapons, hand over the hostages and accept exile for its remaining leadership. Of course, Israel too would need to be compelled. Netanyahu has been resisting versions of this scenario for fear that his coalition's far-right flank — which yearns to reoccupy Gaza and build settlements for Jews there — would bolt and bring him down. But the equation after a huge success in Iran, especially one partly owed to the U.S., is different. Netanyahu, too, would have to play along. And Israelis overwhelmingly favor an end to the war and any scenario that returns the hostages. That is especially true if the new landscape includes an expansion of the Abraham Accords — with a host of countries no longer fearing Iran, whose central foreign policy was cementing opposition to the existence of Israel. That applies not only to Saudi Arabia, but also notably to Syria — whose new leadership is headed by former jihadists desperate for global legitimacy and investment. Syria's new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has been remarkably silent about the war and has put out feelers to Israel. Under such a spectacular regional realignment, Netanyahu would not need to worry about his government falling; the moderate opposition would give him a parliamentary umbrella. In the elections that must by law be held next year, he might actually become electable again. Netanyahu has been a divisive, polarizing leader. But history is full of examples of hardliners who changed course: Nixon going to China, de Klerk dismantling apartheid, Sadat flying to Jerusalem. And as for Trump? He might win his Nobel Peace Prize after all. Considering that it will have begun with a historic massacre committed by Iranian-backed Hamas, that may be the most unintended consequence of all. Dan Perry led Associated Press coverage in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including the Israel and Iran bureaus. He publishes Ask Questions Later on Substack.
