For the past 40 years, Henry and Margaret Tanner have been crafting leather shoes by hand from their small workshop in Boca Raton, Florida. "No shortcuts, no cheap materials, just honest, top notch craftsmanship," Henry says in a YouTube advertisement for his business Tanner Shoes. Henry has been able to do all this despite his mangled, twisted hand. And poor Margaret only has three fingers, as you can see in this photo of the couple from their website. I discovered Tanner Shoes through a series of YouTube video ads. Having written about men's fashion for years, I was curious about these bespoke leather shoemakers.

When I read a tweet about four noted Silicon Valley executives being inducted into a special detachment of the United States Army Reserve, including Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, I questioned its veracity. It's very hard to discern truth from satire in 2025, in part because of social media sites owned by Bosworth's company. But it indeed was true. Boz is now Lieutenant Colonel Bosworth. The other newly commissioned officers include Kevin Weil, OpenAI's head of product; Bob McGrew, a former OpenAI head of research now advising Mira Murati's company Thinking Machines Lab; and Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Palantir.

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether the US should join Israel's war on Iran, the tragic Minnesota assassinations and why US political violence is surging now, and the Supreme Court's unsurprising but willfully obtuse decision to uphold Tennessee's youth transgender care ban. Here are some notes and references from this week's show: Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, and Dustin Volz for The Wall Street Journal (Exclusive): Israel Built Its Case for War With Iran on New Intelligence. The U.S. Didn't Buy It. Thomas L. Friedman for The New York Times (Opinion): The Smart Way for Trump to End the Israel-Iran War Oren Cass for Understanding America (Substack): Is Israel the Ideal "America First" Ally? Warren P. Strobel, Alex Horton, and Abigail Hauslohner for the Washington Post: Navigating Iran crisis, Trump relies on experience over star power Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Court upholds Tennessee's ban on certain medical treatments for transgender minors Abbie VanSickle for The New York Times: Sotomayor Writes the Court'Abandons' Transgender Children to'Political Whims' Ella Lee for The Hill: Clarence Thomas urges courts to end deferring to'experts' on gender-affirming care Ian Millhiser for Vox: The Supreme Court's incoherent new attack on trans rights, explained Here are this week's chatters: Emily: A Family Matter by Claire Lynch; The Fall of Affirmative Action: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education by Justin Driver; A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland. John: Mary Cunningham for CBS News: Federal Reserve holds its benchmark interest rate steady at today's FOMC meeting; ABA Banking Journal: Fed's Powell says some areas of U.S. may be'uninsurable' in next decade David: Trip Gabriel for the New York Times: William Langewiesche, the'Steve McQueen of Journalism,' Dies at 70 For this week's Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the exciting possibilities and likely limitations of using AI tools for historical research and writing.

As fears of all-out nuclear war intensify, scientists are sounding the alarm that the decision to launch a catastrophic strike could soon rest not with world leaders, but with a machine. In a stark warning, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an independent group that monitors global security issues, reported that the decades-long decline in global nuclear arsenals has come to an end. Instead, nations are now modernizing, expanding, and deploying their stockpiles at a rapid and alarming pace, signaling the onset of a new, high-tech arms race. While AI and similar technologies can accelerate decision-making during crises, scientists warn they also raise the risk of nuclear conflict through miscommunication, misunderstanding, or technical failure, the report stated. In a nuclear standoff, decision-makers often have only minutes to assess threats and respond.

'The Art of the Surge' is available to stream on Fox Nation, taking viewers behind the scenes of President Donald Trump's campaign and road back to the White House. President Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign took a deadly turn when an assassin made an attempt on his life during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Now, Fox Nation subscribers can uncover new, previously unreleased footage from the shocking event. As shown on Wednesday's edition of "Fox & Friends," new drone footage featured in Fox Nation's "Art of the Surge: The Donald Trump Comeback" captures the scene of the Butler rally, as well as close-up footage of the Secret Service protecting Trump after shots rang out. Also shown are shocking videos of the crowd's reaction as everything unfolded, highlighting the fear of those who were there that day.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol make arrests as rioters continue to create havoc in LA. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital) LOS ANGELES – As the protests against Los Angeles' immigration raids spread, state law enforcement leaders are sounding the alarm on the dangers facing officers on the front lines of the riots. "I've been around a very long time, and I have seen similar to what we're facing now," Jake Johnson, president of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP), told Fox News Digital. "But I've never seen the amount of onslaught." Thousands of protesters descended on Los Angeles in the last two weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers began conducting raids throughout the sanctuary city. The violence included rioters hurling projectiles at law enforcement officers and lighting numerous self-driving electric vehicles on fire.

Russia's flagship economic forum kicked off Wednesday with stalls selling Russian President Vladimir Putin-themed merchandise and humanoid robots, but Westerners were few and far between -- despite warming ties between Moscow and Washington under U.S. President Donald Trump. Once dubbed "Russia's Davos," the annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is designed to attract foreign investment and is the biggest showcase of Russian technology and business. Some 20,000 guests from 140 countries are set to take part in the forum over the next four days, both online and in person, according to the Kremlin.

On Wednesday, June 18, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced it had seized 225 million in cryptocurrency connected to pig butchering scams. The seizure involves funds stolen from 400 victims worldwide, and as CNBC reports, it's the largest-ever seizure of its kind. A pig butchering scam is a common type of online scam in which cybercriminals gain a victim's trust and then convince them to invest in a fake crypto investment opportunity. It's a cruel, crude, crypto con, but one that can be extraordinarily effective. Such swindles can involve elements of other scams we've written about at Mashable before, such as tech support scams or romance scams.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., spoke with Fox News Digital about his bipartisan bill to codify oversight of foreign adversaries, including China, buying American farmland. EXCLUSIVE: Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is leading the charge with Democrat Sen. John Fetterman to codify oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland. The bipartisan Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure (AFIDA) Improvements Act seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land. "Communist China is our greatest geopolitical threat," Ricketts told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview, adding, "This is a way for us to improve the disclosure that's going on with regard to the purchase of this agricultural land, so we can take other action if necessary to make sure we're not giving Communist China the opportunity to buy agricultural land." The bill's proposal comes as two Chinese nationals – a University of Michigan post-doctoral research fellow, Yunqing Jian, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology student Chengxuan Han – were held in federal custody after they were accused of smuggling biological materials into the United States.

Garrett Butts details military drone innovation effort aimed at speeding deployment and reducing cost in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. As the war between Israel and Iran intensifies, one Army drone expert is warning that the U.S. must stay ready, and fast. Garrett Butts is helping lead the charge by building smarter, cheaper unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in-house for the battlefield. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Butts described how his team is creating drone technology from scratch, often using parts it took nearly a year to legally obtain. "We're a transformation and contact unit," said Butts, who serves with the 1st Cavalry Division.