The Frontlines

The New Yorker has published what is both a disturbing yet also encouraging report about the threats election officials around the country are facing from Trump’s followers: “…persistent lies about voter fraud, a centerpiece of Trump’s political narrative, have set loose torrents of hostility toward the men and women who oversee balloting nationwide.”

• In Utah, the lieutenant governor, a Republican, lives under constant threats to her life since standing up to Trump by opposing his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

• In a national survey of local election officials this year, a third of them reported that they had personally been subjected to threats, harassment, or abuse because of their work. Half said they feared for the safety of their colleagues.

• This year, multiple federal agencies, following Trump’s directives, attempted to strong-arm state election officials long before the first votes were cast.

• In a string of nearly identical lawsuits, filed beginning in September, 2025, (Trump’s Justice Department) accused chief election officers in thirty states and the District of Columbia of violating Title III of the Civil Rights Act by failing to hand over electronic copies of their unredacted voter-registration lists. All but one state fought the lawsuits, including seven that had Republican chief election officers.

• Since the litigation began, twenty-seven U.S. district judges and one appellate panel have reached decisions. All of them ruled against the Trump Administration. The Trump Administration’s efforts to cull the electorate before the midterms have, by and large, failed. Courts stripped the President’s executive orders of meaningful impact.

• If one thing has been decisive in safeguarding the nation’s electoral machinery, it is the tenacity of state officials who willingly accepted the political, financial, and personal risks of defying the President. They did so in a strong majority of states, including some under Republican control.

There is much more in this excellent article, which is worth reading in anticipation of what’s to come during this year’s midterm elections, State election officials form the frontline in defending democracy from the man who would be king.

HEADLINES:

• The State Officials Defending the Midterms from the President (New Yorker)

• Brazil Re-Elects Lula, Rejecting Predecessor’s Son (NYT)

• Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado returns after months in exile (NPR)

• Student List wins Serbian election in political earthquake as Vučić concedes defeat (EuroNews)

• Blanche defends DoJ’s pre-emptive suit to block Alaska Senate results certification (Guardian)

• Trump’s DOJ told a judge how to rule. Then it pulled her from court. (WP)

• Trump Says He Doesn’t ‘Give A Damn’ About Gas Prices As US Making ‘Fortune’ (Newsweek)

• ho's on Air Force One? Trump's midterms entourage includes strategists, aides and aging athletes (AP)

• Let’s talk shop about every Senate race (Silver Bulletin)

• How Ohio Trump Voters Reacted to Vivek’s Attack Ad (Bulwark)

• The winners and losers of Trumponomics (Economist)

• Trump administration has pushed off 13% of Americans enrolled in food stamps (Guardian)

• He resigned from CDC leadership. Now he’s fighting RFK Jr. from the outside. (WP)

• Police arrest a 15-year-old in shooting near Florida A&M stadium that injured 12 (NBC)

• Measles surge exposes Republicans’ vulnerability on vaccines (FT)

AI NEWS:

• Google’s AI search changes upended online publishing (Verge)

• An inside look of the massive data center tearing a Wisconsin community apart (NPR)

• Grok releases the first seven minutes of its AI-generated ‘Odyssey’ (TechCrunch)

• To make AI morally good, tech companies are turning to religion. But some say it isn’t that simple (AP)

Bad Bedfellows

 Elon Musk says he was behind the slowdown in Starlink service in Ukraine that resulted in Russian missiles killing civilians. As others have noted, it is outrageous that a private citizen has the power to conduct U.S. foreign policy, especially during a war.

But this isn’t unprecedented. Younger readers need only Goggle “William Randolph Hearst and the Spanish-American War of 1898.”

I seriously doubt Musk acted alone. It’s obvious his sudden order to slow down Ukraine’s Starlink connection due to a “violation” was in concert with Trump’s attempts to bring new pressure on Zelenskyy to come to the bargaining table with Putin.

Trump favors Putin and is trying to give him an upper hand in any future ceasefire negotiations. As Trump’s biggest backer, the world’s richest man is also one of the most corrupt.

Bad Bedfellows.

HEADLINES:

• Sporadic violence flares as hundreds of thousands protest in France (Reuters)

• More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as Paris clashes erupt (PBS)

• Is Iran planning attacks on Americans; why is the US on alert? (Al Jazeera)

• Iran has “increased efforts to target U.S. personnel,” intel chief warns (CBS)

• Iran says won’t allow US warships to get close as Trump ponders new attacks (Al Jazeera)

• Musk says he was behind Starlink speed restriction after service in Ukraine is restored (AP)

• Inside the US-Starlink relationship (Reuters)

• How Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia crippled the world’s second-largest diesel supplier (CNBC)

• Russian diesel is coming to America (Reuters)

• Trump’s Words Used Against Him in Alaska Lawsuit, DOJ Sanctions Sought (Newsweek)

• Obama Issues Searing Attacks on Trump, Ramaswamy in Return to Campaign Trail (NYT)

• Trump says he ordered suit to block Alaska Senate results if GOP loses (PBS)

• Why Are We Still Talking About Voting Rights in 2026? (Reveal)

• Cook Political moves Ohio governor’s race after Ramaswamy attack ad (WP)

• The EPA Is Quietly Killing its Web Archive (Mother Jones)

• Jon Ossoff’s films exposed corruption. Then his colleague was murdered. (WP)

• Records offer a picture of the Oregon school shooter’s tumultuous home life (NBC)

• Kim Jong-un Makes First Visit to China in Over a Year (NYT)

• ‘A bow isn’t simply a greeting’: The unspoken rules of Japanese body language (BBC)

• What is a neutrino anyway? A look at the science behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics (Phys.org)

• A Mother on Trial (New Yorker)

• Elizabeth Holmes Whistleblower Says Nathan Fielder ‘Chose to Ignore the Truth’ to Make a Better Movie (The Wrap)

AI NEWS:

• Sam Altman: ‘I No Longer Think We’re Gonna Be Able to Just Patch All the Bugs’ (Gizmodo)

• Google told to halt work on Finnish data centers after clearing an estimated 250,000 trees before environmental review was done (Fortune)

• How AI is transforming economic research and analysis (Axios)

• AI ad mocks Talarico as Bible-defacing radical. Democrats bet it will backfire. (WP)

• ‘Most likely to kick some ass’: Before founding Anthropic, Dario Amodei was a standout at Lowell (SFC)

• ‘Now My Breasts Are Over Here,’ Announces Sydney Sweeney Peeking Out From Oak Tree (Onion)

The First Move

The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block Alaska’s Senate race if the Republican candidate loses is the first open move by the Trump administration to cast doubt on the results of the midterm elections.

While this lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed in court, Trump’s larger goal appears to be to sow chaos, giving him the excuse to declare an election emergency.

This development comes as the scope of the likely Democratic victory becomes clearer. Democrats are leading in most House races and have a narrow lead in Senate races. They also appear to poised to flip a number of Governorships and make gains in state legislatures across the country.

Should those prove to be the results on Election Day, it would amount to a stunning defeat for Trump and Trumpism.

And we all know that the one thing Trump never admits is defeat.

Accordingly, a small group of national security official are advising state leaders what to do should Trump try to discredit the election results. In that context, the Alaskan lawsuit may be only the first move of many by Trump in a desperate attempt to hold onto power.

HEADLINES:

• Justice Dept. Moves to Block Certification of Alaska Senate Race Results if Republican Loses (NYT)

• Trump says he told DOJ to sue to block possible Alaska election of Democrat to Senate (Reuters)

• Alaska’s Senate Race Could Be Decided by Salmon (New Yorker)

• DOJ gives local California registrars 48 hours to quarantine suspected noncitizen ballots (SFC)

• As Republicans brace for election losses, Musk prepares for war (WP)

• Do these Senate-governor splits make sense? (Silver Bulletin)

• Dolly Parton’s Sister Stella Claims Voting Machine Switched Her Ballot to Republican, Officials Push Back (Yahoo)

• If Democrats rout Republicans from Congress in November, they’re expected to go hard on the Trump administration. But a formidable opponent looms: the U.S. Justice Department. [HuffPost]

• Speed restrictions on Musk’s Starlink lifted in Ukraine, defense ministry says (Axios)

• Starshield slowdown probe sought by Silicon Valley Democrats (Politico)

• How Starlink slowdown hit Ukraine’s front line soldiers pushing Russia back (NBC)

• Elon Musk’s Moral Confusion on Ukraine (TNR)

• Melania Trump helps secure a ceasefire deal in Russian-occupied Oleshky, the White House says (PBS)

• Thousands march in Paris and other French cities as protests take place across Europe (Guardian)

• Trump at South Florida rally revives the idea of military intervention in Cuba after Iran (AP)

• Iran in ‘Advanced Stages’ of Planning Attacks Against Americans, Officials Say (NYT)

• Netanyahu Calls for West Bank Lockdown After Deadly Attack (WSJ)

• New electronics reach Iran, but prices soar as gov’t fees, US sanctions hit (Al Jazeera)

• China Cannot Remain the World’s Factory. What Comes Next? (Time)

• Almost all of Taiwan shut down ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Champi, which is forecast to bring strong winds and ‌torrential rain, and though the storm is weakening it could still make direct landfall on the island. (Reuters)

• Why So Many Men Aren’t Working (Atlantic)

• New ‘Scentronic’ technology can detect and transmit aromas remotely (Reuters)

• Hegseth Barred Trans Troops. Military Boards Are Rejecting Those Orders. (NYT)

• Breakthrough vaccine for the deadliest skin cancer cut risk by almost half (WP)

• EPA has failed to tackle cancer-linked pesticide pollution, lawsuit alleges (Guardian)

• America’s vaccine system is an operations failure waiting to happen (The Hill)

• Ex-FBI employees charged with lying to Congress over Hunter Biden inquiries (NPR)

AI NEWS:

• AI agents are changing how money moves (Axios)

• Top Anthropic engineer says Claude now writes ‘literally all’ her team’s code (BI)

• MIT scientists build a tiny robot that swims using living muscle cells (ScienceDaily)

• Lasers, Robots and AI: The Fight to Save Salmon Goes High-Tech (WSJ)

• After School Uploads 6-Year-Old’s Photo to AI, Her Furious Mom Wants Answers: ‘I Will Not Be Stopped’ (Yahoo)

• Should we panic and turn off the internet? (BI)

• Students at an A.I. School Were Supposed to Learn Faster. Many Aren’t. (NYT)

• AI-discovered bugs may soon trigger fresh disruptions. (Reuters)

• A.I. Is Embedded in Your Election Experience. So Are Its Dangers. (NYT)

• Increasingly Healthy Pope Asserts He Will Soon Be Strong Enough To Battle God (Onion)

 

Story-Telling Now

Mobile devices and streaming are changing the way people find and view stories in these troubled times. Many rely on cellphones to feel connected to the world and to find relevant stories.

Meanwhile, streaming services like Netflix demonstrate that serial story-telling is what brings users back for more.

These two trends crate a dilemma for those of us in the news business. A significant number of people find out about news at Instagram or TikTok. Their loyalty to news brands like the New York Times or CNN is uncertain.

Finding topics that can be serialized can take advantage of the streaming technology that has replaced legacy platforms like television. If that seems irrelevant to the news business, think again.

Virtually all news stories fall into buckets: politics, business, sports, entertainment, culture, weather, etc. At any given point in time, a few of those stories can be packaged as mysteries. Users can then be invited to participate in the story by guessing/predicting how it will turn out.

The potential power of this approach to grow audiences across multiple news cycles is why we now see news brands like CNN partnering with prediction markets like Kalshi.

For those writing the news, this requires ledes and kickers that leave readers hungry for more. The trick is to deliver a satisfying experience while maintaining our traditional journalistic standards of accuracy, timeliness, fairness, balance and objectivity.

The bottom line is that story-telling has to evolve.

HEADLINES:

• Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC (NBC)

• ‘This is despicable’: Amy Acton responds to Ohio attack ad featuring her estranged mother (BBC)

• Trump Defends Ramaswamy’s Attack Ad as Ohio’s Republican Governor Joins Backlash (NYT)

• White House takes new swipes at press, blocking a reporter and threatening an outlet (WP)

• Netanyahu orders closure of West Bank after two soldiers killed in shooting attack (CNN)

• Many states deciding control of the Senate are seeing a big boost in early voting (AP)

• Blanche won’t rule out DOJ post-election action in a ‘doomsday’ scenario (NBC)

• Fake polls are a real problem (Silver Bulletin)

• Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Corey Lewandowski (NYT)

• Workers hit hard by rising employer health insurance costs (The Hill)

• Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it. (WP)

• Investigation finds hundreds of U.S. citizens detained by ICE (PBS)

• Trump’s war on the environment heats up (Money Trail)

• Musk’s clash with Ukraine accelerates demand for Starlink alternatives. Few exist (CNBC)

• Trump Called Musk and Asked Him to Lift Ukraine Starlink Restrictions (WSJ)

• Publishers, advertisers call EU, UK antitrust regulators to suspend Meta’s new commercial terms (Reuters)

• Trump’s green card curbs test Indian tech workers’ American dream (BBC)

• China’s Economy Has a Huge Weakness (Atlantic)

• ‘Open War’ Between Afghanistan and Pakistan Adds a Volatile Element (NYT)

• Experts expect a mass hacker intrusion into vulnerable websites (Reuters)

• A remarkable new picture is emerging of how the air around us could harm the brain (WP)

• “The Diplomat” reminds us that political couples used to be smart (Salon)

• I’m a Therapist Trained to Read Facial Cues. This Is Why ‘You Can See Everything’ Is So Unsettling (Today)

• The New Age of Reading (New Yorker)

AI NEWS:

• The anti-AI writing police are everywhere. What are they looking for? (CNN)

• Why Big Tech is building more data centers in rural America, and what effect it has had on those communities (NBC)

• Hackers Used Claude and Grok to Automate Attacks on Banks (The Information)

• U.S. banks are taking hits from AI agents (Marcus)

• For Clues About How A.I. Will Change Work, Look to the Past (NYT)

• Many people have problems with artificial intelligence, but they have AI to thank for catching critical vulnerabilities that lurked for years in a widely used programming language. (Reuters)

• Take Ten-Thousand: Egocentric Data Collection for Humanoid Robots (China Talk)

• Whoever Says My Name On TV Gets My Vote (Onion)

 

Our 'Big Chill'

(Ann Arbor expats gathered in my apartment in the Fillmore District of San Francisco in the early ‘70s.)

I was born in Detroit two years after the end of World War II. My family moved into one of the city’s expanding suburbs, Royal Oak, amidst a cluster of other families that consisted of returning soldiers, wives and boys and girls named David, Susan, Bill, Bob, Jim, Mark, Bonnie, Nancy, Kathy, Fred, Peter, Carole, Paul, Diane, Mary, John, and so on and so forth.

We were the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation -- a cohort so large that we broke every institution we encountered. When we got to school, there were never enough classrooms, chairs, desks, books, or other resources. Teachers suddenly had to handle many more students at once than had previously been the case.

When we reached our teens, there simply was not enough beat in the music that our parents and older siblings enjoyed. Thus, the mass market for rock and roll was born.

Meanwhile, the political economy of the nation newly victorious in the second war of wars dictated that America become an empire, as all conquerors since time immemorial have done. 

As we grew up, America’s capitalist empire -- imperialistic, arrogant, and driven by opposition to communism -- spread globally.

We were served books like “Our Friend the Atom,” a distinctly propagandistic reader that was our government’s attempt to convince us, years before we could vote, of the rightness of its policy to develop nuclear weapons to protect us from the Russians, Chinese, and other socialistic foreigners.

Much of the rest of my generation’s story is written contemporaneously in music, in poetry, in film, and in our collective memory. Confronted with the worldview that our fate was to conquer the world, many of us rebelled, begging to differ. 

We opposed the war in Vietnam. We marched in support of the civil rights movement. We launched the modern women’s liberation movement and the gay liberation movement. We smoked dope and dropped acid and danced in the streets. We flocked to the nascent environmental movement.

We were idealists and cynics, hippies and radicals. For our guides, we had Dylan and the Beatles, the Stones, and so many more. The music always reflected us as the ragged edges of a churning chainsaw that sliced our way through society trying to establish a new way of being.

Did we succeed in doing that? Probably not. Progress requires struggle and there have been many setbacks. The culture wars rage. It often looks bleak but three-quarters of a century later, many of us are still trying.

(I published the first version of this essay in 2006.)

HEADLINES:

• Putin tells Witkoff he is ready to resume direct peace talks, Russia releases U.S. detainee (Axios)

• When Starshield Cut Out, Ukrainian Drones Fell From the Skies (NYT)

• Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to restrict some medical treatments for transgender inmates (CBS)

• DOJ’s noncitizen voter list is unreliable (NPR)

• Trump Approval Hits New Low Two Weeks Before Midterms, Poll Finds (NYT)

• Fasten Your Seatbelts: Trumpism Is Beginning Its Final Descent (Bulwark)

• Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Deceiving Users on Privacy (NYT)

• Ohio governor’s race in uproar over ad featuring Democrat’s estranged mother (WP)

• Toledo Residents Ordered to Evacuate After Chemical Explosion (NYT)

• World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says (Guardian)

• United Nations report highlights significant increase in U.S. climate pollution (NPR)

• U.S. and Israel Draw Up Plans for Renewed Strikes on Iran After Elections (NYT)

• Iran’s enriched uranium re-emerges as point of contention in US talks (Al Jazeera)

• In San Francisco, a Family Earning $325,000 Qualifies for Government Aid (NYT)

• The tech helping crack decades-old cold cases (BBC)

• Trump Pushes to Evict the Press From the White House (NYT)

• ‘The Diplomat’ Team on the Real World Inspirations for Season 4’s “Authoritarian Behavior” and What’s Next After Dramatic G7 Scene (Hollywood Reporter)

• Scholars conclude ‘beyond doubt’ that Shakespeare was main author of Edward III (Guardian)

• ‘I lost all respect’: Warriors rookie blasts Lakers star Luka Doncic after blowout loss (NBC)

AI NEWS:

• Most Americans give a thumbs down to AI and how Trump is handling it (WP)

• Using thousands of AI agents to uncover new leads in biological data (OpenAI)

• A $345,000 writing job at Anthropic says a lot about what humans still bring to the table (BI)

• MOFCOM’s New Rules and the Future of Chinese AI (China Talk)

• The AI agent boom is here, along with a new set of privacy concerns (AP)

• AI capabilities mean America needs a Manhattan Project for biodefense (WP)

• Start-Up Claims to Use A.I.-Created Viruses to Treat a Patient (NYT)

• Executive Order Designates Shaking Empty Beer Can At Wife As Official Language Of U.S. (Onion)

 

Whispers in the Castle

According to the Washington Post, a small number of national security officials have “discreetly advised” leaders in ten states about the possibility that Trump will attempt to undermine the midterm elections.

These obviously are sensitive conversations to have behind Trump’s back. It would not surprise me to learn that similar conversations are occurring among the those around the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Given what happened on Jan.6, 2021, responsible people in positions of power have got to get ready for a potential constitutional crisis if Trump reacts badly to Democrats gaining control of Congress, which polls and prediction markets now agree is likely to occur.

According to Kalshi, Democrats now have a 90 percent chance of winning the House and a 66 percent chance of winning the Senate. Also, there was volatility at Kalshi Tuesday over the question of whether Trump will declare some sort of election emergency. That reached 42 percent Tuesday before falling back to 30 percent. 

This morning it is up to 75 percent!

Given Trump’s inability to accept defeat of any kind and his willingness to incite mobs of his most violent followers, officials know that they have to be prepared for almost anything.

So do the rest of us.

HEADLINES:

• U.S. officials have advised states on how to deal with potential Trump election meddling. A small group of U.S. national security officials has discreetly advised officials from 10 states on what to do if the Trump administration interferes in the midterms. (WP)

• Will Trump declare an election emergency? (Kalshi)

• Trump Warns America Will Burn if Republicans Lose This Election (TNR)

• Would Trump accept GOP midterm losses? 7 in 10 Americans doubt it. (WP)

• US citizen Stephen Hubbard freed by Russia as Trump envoy meets Putin (BBC)

• France riots become Republican midterm boogeyman (Axios)

• What’s Behind the Protests in France and What Happens Next (WSJ)

• France’s crisis sounds familiar. Is America next? (CNN)

• Huge setback for Alberta’s separatist movement after decisive defeat (BBC)

• US inequality is getting worse in ways you might not expect (The Conversation)

• The Limits of American Power (Foreign Affairs)

• The big questions about who’s to blame for Starshield disruptions in Ukraine (CNN)

• A Billionaire Wanted a Trump Pardon. His Family Gave Alina Habba a $50 Million Deal. (NYT)

• Why the BBC wants to talk to Jack Smith, and why Team Trump wants to block his testimony (MS Now)

• Justice Dept. Charges 28 in California With Voting-Related Crimes (NYT)

• Michigan voters have returned nearly 790,000 ballots with two weeks until Election Day (CBS)

• Trump Says He Plans to Spend at Least $400 Million by Election Day (NYT)

• Faith leaders unite across religions to counter voter intimidation on Election Day (AP)

• Desperate SF renters are going viral. Their stories reveal a city at its limit. (SFGate)

• Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching Earth: the story of the biggest one. (Reuters)

• Iran warns US against renewed attack, says it has ‘unfinished jobs’ too (The Hill)

• 35 years ago, I was one of the first reporters on the scene of the Oakland-Berkeley Firestorm (Berkeleyside)

AI NEWS:

• This new theory on how AI ‘thinks’ could impact whether it kills us all (BI)

• Former OpenAI exec has quietly built $1.5 billion startup, betting AI can revive U.S. manufacturing (CNBC)

• DeepSeek Dials Up the Pressure on OpenAI and Anthropic With Open-Source Inference Tool (Gizmodo)

• How AI revealed 400 years of seafaring history (BBC)

• Altman Describes Three Endgames for AI, Including One Where a Single Firm ‘Melts Everyone Else’s GPUs’ (The Information)

• When AI goes rogue, its human overseers may be to blame (ScienceNews)

• AWS’s CFO joked about the financial toll of AI. An internal recording reveals why. (BI)

• The U.S. and China need an arms control pact — for AI (WP)

• Ahead of massive IPOs, AI companies are sketching plans to share their wealth (AP)

• AOC Tidies Up In Case Federal Agents Stop By For Raid (Onion)

Patriot/Traitor

Against the will of most Americans and almost all of our country’s allies, Trump has allied himself with Russia in its war on Ukraine.

This is another moral failure to go along with Trump’s many others overseas, including bombing fishing boats in South America, cutting off life-saving aid to poor nations in Africa, and undermining Taiwan in China, among others.

Trump is basically on the wrong side of every conflict in the world. In the process, he is putting the men and women in our armed forces in the virtually impossible position of defending our enemies and attacking our friends.

in August, Air Force Major James Watson no doubt spoke for many in the military when he called for Trump’s impeachment on the steps to the Capitol, though no one came to his side. He is languishing in military prison and is likely to face a general court martial in military court. 

The charges against Watson are “a rare test of the line between an officer’s free-speech rights and the military’s rules on contemptuous speech toward civilian leaders,” according to Military.com. 

I guess Watson is to be labeled some type of a traitor, but when it comes to treason, in my view they’ve got the wrong man. Watson is a hero and a patriot for speaking out.

The traitor is the guy in the White House.

HEADLINES:

• Marseille braces for more unrest after protests give way to ‘apocalyptic’ disorder (BBC)

• France Imposes Curfews in Parts of Paris and Other Cities After Nationwide Rioting (NYT)

• The rioting across France is a symptom of a much larger public and political crisis (CNN)

• Alberta voters reject plan for referendum to leave Canada (Guardian)

• Justice Department charges more than 2 dozen foreign nationals in California sweep targeting noncitizen voters (PBS)

• Trump and Zelensky escalate feud as Ukraine war strains alliance (WP)

• Johnson says he warned White House of ‘unintended consequences’ from Russia sanctions waiver (The Hill)

• America Is Now an Ally of Russia (Atlantic)

• Republicans Call for Investigation Into Ukraine Starlink Disruption (Newsweek)

• Bessent warns Zelenskyy to ‘be very careful’ about claims U.S. is throttling Starlink (CNBC)

• Musk Vows to Give Each U.S. Child a SpaceX Share (WSJ)

• Rubio says Ukraine without access to Starshield, future ‘under discussion’ (Al Jazeera)

• Drone Dominance (China Talk)

• Israeli police arrest 10 following weekend attacks by settlers on journalist and diplomats (AP)

• Air Force Major Arrested for Protesting Trump Could Face Court-Martial Over ‘Contemptuous’ Words (Military.com)

• Warning signs over threats to Australian politicians were rising before MP hit by car (BBC)

• Mahmoud Khalil Appeals to Supreme Court to Halt Deportation (NYT)

• Deep-red districts are now House battlegrounds. These are the races to watch. (WP)

• A Trump Backlash Endangers Susan Collins, the Only Blue-State G.O.P. Senator (NYT)

• Blood and Politics: The Religious Roots of a White/Christian Nationalist Movement Gone Mainstream (SmirkingChimp)

• Meta apologizes after suspending “No Kings” Instagram account (Reuters)

• He thought he was done paying his student loans (BI)

• Why anxiety can feel worse at night and what to do about it (WP)

• Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell Explain the Bombshell Ending of The Diplomat Season 4 (Town&Country)

AI NEWS:

• Inside the long, bitter fight over one man’s quest to build the biggest AI datacenter in California (Guardian)

• Data Centers Have a New PR Plan: Your Kid’s Field Trip (Wired)

• OpenAI bugging case: Saudi consulate offers to pay bail for suspect (CNBC)

• What smart people are saying about Anthropic’s 5% ‘public benefit’ pledge (BI)

• The Fear of a One-Man-Band Weaponizing AI Agents Is Becoming Reality (Gizmodo)

• San Francisco’s shuttered downtown mall is being eyed for an AI data center (SFC)

• Extinction potential’: This alarmist AI narrative is more than bad PR (WP)

• This Is the Good Scenario? (NYT)

• Trump Boasts Tariffs A Huge Success At Making Things Expensive (Onion)