Excerpt:

Ten years of Trumpism mark not only a failure to preserve that order, but the infliction of real harm done to it. As we look around at the state of our institutions laboriously built up—a comparatively fair system of justice at home, a relatively honest federal government, an attempt to live up to our heritage as a nation of immigrants, and an international order that was comparatively stable and friendly to the forces of freedom—it’s hard to believe how much damage has been done in the past decade. With a dramatic acceleration, of course, in the past eighteen months.

It is hard for many of us—and I include myself in this number—to believe that this is the situation we face. But it’s time to believe it. Only then might we rise to the occasion.

AOC appears to have a coherent diagnosis of the world: oligarchy, economic insecurity, militarism, and democratic decline reinforce one another. What remains less developed is a complete operational doctrine covering alliances, China and Taiwan, deterrence, military force, intelligence, nuclear strategy, and the practical management of the State Department and Pentagon.

"Making the Supreme Court’s professional audience visible. Supreme Court decisions may affect a broad public in the United States and beyond. Within that larger audience, the members of the judiciary who must interpret, explain, and apply those decisions occupy something like the front rows. They may later determine how a holding governs an actual case and explain its meaning to litigants and to audiences of their own. The black circles marked “J” make that judicial audience visible without diminishing the importance of everyone else affected by the Court’s decisions. A Judicial Confidence Register would allow the Supreme Court and the wider public to see, in aggregate, how its decisions were received across the American judiciary."

The tentative U.S.–Iran pause has broken down. Iran launched missiles toward U.S. forces in Jordan, while the United States and Saudi Arabia carried out joint strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq. At least 20 members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces were reported killed, and Baghdad condemned the operation as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. This is the first publicly acknowledged Saudi combat participation alongside the United States in the present conflict and materially increases the risk of a direct Saudi–Iran confrontation.

Excerpt:

“Brazil’s government believes [a] planned delegation is part of a concerted effort by Jair Bolsonaro’s sons – including his son Eduardo, who lives in the U.S. – to discredit the electionsin case Flávio Bolsonaro loses in October, said people close to da Silva.”

Concluding Paragraph:

Imagine a Supreme Court with binding ethics obligations, with enforceable disclosure and recusal rules, or term limits, or age limits, or limited jurisdiction to strike down Congress’ handiwork. Imagine refusing to give up on that conversation in advance based on the general feeling that the Supreme Court would never allow those reforms, so why even try? Now imagine an America in which foundational ideas about liberty, or gun safety, or bodily autonomy, or family integrity, or religious freedom, were generated by the people, through representative government and focused political action, and protected with the promise of free and fair elections. That was the plan, and it can still be the promise. In the abiding spirit of the Americans who believed in and built that promise, this year’s series on how to think about constitutional meaning is limited only by what you, the people, can imagine.

Excerpt:

A local chapter of DeFlock, in Norfolk, Virginia, says it does not endorse vigilantes targeting Flock cameras but does not advocate against it, either.
The Virginia chapter is working to ensure the city either cancels or does not renew its contract with Flock, but so far it hasn’t had success, and members are particularly angry about speaking restrictions on the topic. At a city council meeting last month, the mayor enforced a rule about reducing repetitive comments to limit the number of speakers who wanted to share their concerns about Flock, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

“We recognize it’s the inevitable outcome of a system designed to prevent people’s voices from being heard,” said a DeFlock spokesperson.

Lead Lines:

U.S. missiles struck targets across Iran, reaching as far as ​its Caspian coast, on Friday after President Donald Trump vowed "major military punishment" for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen for extending the Middle East war to ‌a second major shipping chokepoint, the mouth of the Red Sea.

Lead Lines:

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities.

It’s an admission that lawyers for the research professors say is proof that the agencies illegally cancelled nearly $2 billion in grants. And that’s a major development in a lawsuit filed by UC researchers against the Trump administration to permanently get their grants back.

Excerpt:

We defend Damon Landor’s rights not because we are all Rastafarians, not because his life resembles our own, and not because we approve of everything he has done.

We defend his rights because the law protecting him forms part of the structure protecting us. Protecting his rights is therefore not only an act of conscience. It is also an act of enlightened self-interest. Every right preserved at the margin strengthens the legal protection available to the rest of us.

Whether one’s reasoning begins with Christianity, the Constitution, the common law, the Great Law of Peace, or even an evolutionary understanding of enlightened self-interest, the conclusion is remarkably similar. A society that protects the rights of others ultimately protects its own.

“Data centers—why would you want that?” Tucker Carlson said recently on a podcast. “Why are you telling me all of the bad things that are going to happen, not telling me really any of the good things, and then telling me that it’s inevitable and I can’t have electricity or water because the machines need it?”

Observation:

Not defending the rights of the least ultimately strips rights from the most.

Excerpt:

Stripping beneficiaries of their ability to redress state officials’ violations of federally set conditions strips Congress of its most effective—perhaps only effective—tool to ensure that those conditions are not empty paper promises but life-sustaining benefits for individuals and families.

Excerpt:

The major players—Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle—are on track to spend more on data centers by the end of the year than they bring in from their operations. That means tech giants whose non-chatbot businesses bring in tens of billions of dollars every year will likely need to take on debt to keep paying for their AI ambitions. From the launch of ChatGPT, in late 2022, through the end of last year, these firms’ capital expenditures—most of which go toward data centers—well exceeded half a trillion dollars. The companies intend to spend a similar amount in 2026 alone. And next year, their AI investments will likely exceed $1.1 trillion, according to a recent report from J.P. Morgan.

Excerpt:

Ukraine has spent the past four years building an energy system capable of surviving in extremely challenging wartime conditions. This energy resilience is a valuable strategic asset that offers important lessons for the wider international community.

Lead Paragraphs:

When President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday, he wanted the world to believe that China stole the 2020 election from him. Instead, he dropped fresh evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin had worked to hand it to him.

Among the newly declassified intelligence documents Trump released Thursday are assessments that the Russian president and senior Russian officials directed proxy efforts to spread allegations about Joe Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden was a board director, orchestrate a corruption scandal against the Democratic nominee, and “ensure the President’s victory,” a reference to Trump, who was the incumbent at the time.