Oof.

The Biden administration had a bad week. A Federal Drug Administration advisory committee voted against recommended the widespread booster shots the Biden White House had called for weeks ago; France withdrew its ambassador from Washington in protest of a new U.S. military partnership with the U.K. and Australia; the Pentagon acknowledged that its drone attack on ISIS-K terrorists in Kabul late last month had in fact taken out an aid worker and his family, including seven children; and more than 10,000 migrants—mostly Haitian—congregated beneath a bridge near Del Rio, Texas, adding to a growing crisis on the southern border. And all of that was just on Friday.

We’re sure that one of these weeks, we’ll be able to write to you celebrating some good news. This week was not that week. And so for now, we’re just going to get right to it. Please check out our best stuff from the last seven days, and thanks for reading.

Goodbye to All That

Iran has spent the first year of the Biden administration ramping up its uranium enrichment, building better centrifuges, and dumping on the nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency. In return, all we’ve gotten is six rounds of failed talks in Vienna about restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran nuclear deal). And yet, the Biden administration continues to pin its hopes on a new deal. Reuel Marc Gerecht argues this lackluster response will usher in an era in which we have no actual Iran policy, at the same time the Islamic Republic will be establishing a hegemony over the Middle East. He writes: “By 2025, it’s game, set, and match. For the United States, without Israeli intervention and the possibly productive regional disturbance and uncertainties it would bring, we have likely already lost.”