Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, June 24th. And today, in addition to a check-in on everything

going on in foreign policy, we are also talking about the Texas governor signing a Bitcoin bill.

Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it,

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pod. All right, friends, let's check in on whatever the heck is happening in the Middle East,

as it is, of course, setting the backdrop for everything else right now. The first part of the day

was all about the Iranian response. We started to get signals

that a response was coming and that it was going to be aimed at military bases in the region.

Now, when push came to shove, what happened was a very face-saving coordinated operation,

where a very well-telegraphed response was symbolic and coordinated, frankly, with U.S. and other

regional forces as a face-saving measure. In fact, 13 of the 14 missiles that Iran lob, with U.S. and other regional forces as a face-saving measure.

In fact, 13 of the 14 missiles that Iran lobbed at U.S. bases were intercepted with zero casualties.

And so with a sigh of relief, it appeared that the story would be all about de-escalation.

Last night, President Trump posted,

congrats to everyone, it has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will now be a complete and total ceasefire in approximately six hours when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in-progress final missions for 12 hours, at which point the war will be considered ended.

Officially, Iran will start the ceasefire and upon the 12th hour, Israel will start the ceasefire and upon the 24th hour, an official end to the 12-day war will be saluted by the world. During each ceasefire, the other side will remain peaceful and respectful.

On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate

both countries, Israel and Iran, on having the stamina, courage, and intelligence to end what

should be called the 12-day war. This is a war that could have gone on for years and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn't and never will. God bless Israel. God bless Iran. God bless the Middle East.

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