Iran launches retaliatory strikes; Platner advances in key Senate race
President Donald Trump has said peace could be close, but the bombs continue to fall. U.S. forces strike Iran again after an American helicopter is shot down, leaving a major question about the president’s prediction of a deal within days.
Plus, Graham Platner survives weeks of controversy to win Maine’s Democratic Senate primary. Now both parties are staring at one of the year’s most closely watched Senate races.
And the U.S. is finally getting a sunscreen ingredient much of the world has used for years.
These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Editor’s note: Straight Arrow is experiencing technical difficulties. The Unbiased Updates video will be available shortly.
Iran reconsiders peace talks as new strikes complicate US negotiations
Iran is reassessing its path to peace talks with the United States after another night of military escalation across the region.
Iranian officials said they need time to evaluate their relationship with Washington before moving forward with negotiations. It’s a potential setback after Trump said a peace deal could be reached within days.
It comes after Trump ordered U.S. strikes in response to the downing of an American military helicopter. Iranian officials said the strikes hit two water storage facilities in southern Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched attacks targeting U.S. bases across the region. Bahrain’s military said it “confronted, intercepted and destroyed” multiple aerial threats. Officials in Jordan said they shot down five missiles, while Kuwait reported intercepting what it called hostile aerial targets.
Iran has not claimed responsibility for shooting down the American helicopter.
Tehran accused the U.S. of acting under a “false pretext” and warned that any further U.S. attacks would be met with what it called “devastating and more wide-ranging strikes.”
Despite the latest exchange, Trump has maintained that efforts to reach a peace agreement remain on track.
Platner overcomes scandal to win Maine’s US Senate primary
Several states conducted primary elections Tuesday, but the focus was on Maine, where one of the most scrutinized Senate races in the nation is now set for November.
The results were expected. Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins won her party’s nomination, while Democrat Graham Platner secured his.
But the win still marked a major test for Platner, who has spent weeks trying to move past allegations that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women while married.
In his victory speech, Platner acknowledged those controversies and told supporters he knows he still must rebuild their trust.
“Any of those who feel let down or disappointed or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith and support,” Platner said. “And I will spend every day of this campaign, and if I have the privilege, every day in the United States Senate doing exactly that.”
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette heads to a June 23 runoff against Attorney General Alan Wilson after no candidate won a majority in the five-way Republican field.
Another Trump-backed candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, easily won his party’s nomination.
Democratic Rep. James Clyburn also cruised to victory in his primary.
And in Nevada, the Republican primary between retired Lt. Col. David Flippo and former state Sen. James Settelmeyer remains too close to call.
Becerra and Hilton advance to November race for California governor
California’s race for governor is now officially set, and it’s shaping up to be a high-profile clash between a former Biden cabinet secretary and a Trump-backed former Fox News host.
After a week of ballot counting, The Associated Press projected Republican Steve Hilton had locked up the second spot in California’s top-two primary. That sets up a November showdown with Democrat Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. Health secretary, California attorney general and longtime congressman, who finished first in the primary.
Hilton, a former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, later became a Fox News host. He moved to California in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. A win would make him California’s first Republican governor in over 15 years.
Becerra is running on his experience in state and federal government, while promising to push back against Trump’s policies and tackle issues such as insurance and utility costs.
Hilton heads into the fall as the clear underdog.
Democrats hold nearly a two-to-one voter registration advantage in California, and no Republican has won the governor’s mansion since Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011.
House sends $70 billion border funding package to Trump
The House narrowly passed a bill that allocates nearly $70 billion to immigration enforcement and border security, sending it to the president’s desk for his signature. The measure passed 214 to 212 in a nearly party-line vote. It would lock in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the remainder of Trump’s term.
The White House said the package includes $38 billion for ICE, $26 billion for CBP and billions more for operational costs. Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, said the bill ensures the administration has the resources it needs to carry out its deportation agenda without having to return to Congress year after year.
“There is not a Democrat here who voted to support that. But what we’ve done now by funding it for three years is we’ve taken away their ability to cut that funding, to block that funding or to take hostage the funding for the remainder of the Trump administration,” Johnson said.
Democrats fought the bill from start to finish, arguing it adds tens of billions of dollars to ICE and border enforcement without new oversight or reforms.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called it a $70 billion slush fund for the lawless and unaccountable agencies of ICE and CBP with zero reforms.
The bill now heads to the White House, where Trump will sign it later this morning.
FDA approves first new sunscreen filter in 25 years
When it comes to sunscreen, the U.S. has been playing catch-up, but that may be about to change.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first new sunscreen ingredient for the American market in more than 25 years. It’s called bemotrizinol and has been used for decades in Europe, Japan and South Korea.
Experts said the ingredient provides strong protection against both UVA and UVB rays — the types of sun exposure linked to sunburn, premature aging, and skin cancer. Unlike many mineral-based sunscreens, it also does not leave the chalky white residue that some users complain about. The FDA said the ingredient shows little absorption into the body and is safe for adults and children six months and older.
Supporters say Americans have waited years to access the same sunscreen technology already available in much of the world. Products with the new ingredient are expected to hit store shelves in the U.S. later this year.
NASA names Artemis III crew
Just two months after NASA’s Artemis II crew completed a record-setting lunar flyby, the space agency is already looking ahead to its next major test flight. NASA has officially announced the four astronauts who will fly on the Artemis III mission in 2027.
Retired Marine Colonel Randy Bresnik will command the mission. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will serve as pilot. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, a former Army helicopter pilot, joins the crew along with Andre Douglas, who will be making his first trip to space.
The mission won’t head to the moon. Instead, the crew will remain in Earth orbit, practicing the complex docking maneuvers that NASA says will be critical for future lunar landing missions.
“We are certainly humbled as a crew to be able to be your crew that executes this Artemis III mission in space, being that unifying link between the phenomenal Artemis II mission we just had two months ago, and the Artemis IV mission that will follow ours.”
Randy Bresnik, Artemis III commander
During Tuesday’s event in Houston, Texas, Artemis II astronauts passed the baton to their successors.
NASA said the flight is another key step in its plan to return astronauts to the moon later this decade and eventually establish a long-term human presence there.
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Millions of Americans lack clean tap water. Can the US close the gap by 2040?
Rosa Runyon has lived her entire life inside the “water gap” — emptying the rain barrels she positioned beneath her gutters to use later to wash her clothes, and hauling home water from a nearby spring for cooking, bathing and drinking. That’s how she lived for decades while raising her children.
When Runyon, 81, and her husband moved into their current home in McDowell County, West Virginia, the couple had to lay their own pipes to bring “mountain water” from an abandoned mine to their home.
“In the summertime, we worried about it going dry because you know when it gets hot-like, there’s no water,” she told Straight Arrow. When the unburied pipes froze in the winter, her husband would have to climb up the hill with small torches to melt the frozen water — even at the age of 83.
And Runyon is not alone.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
