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Europe is now divided by pro- and anti-Trump political parties

Europe is now divided by pro- and anti-Trump political parties

Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard write: When U.S. President Donald Trump was elected for a second term, he launched a political revolution that is fundamentally transforming the political identity of entire countries. In just six months, the U.S. shifted from championing liberal democracy and free trade to promoting illiberalism and protectionism. Now, that revolution has arrived in Europe, and it’s forcing the bloc to alter its view of the world — along with its place in it. After talking to…

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Machines that teach us how to think, produce minds no more creative than machines

Machines that teach us how to think, produce minds no more creative than machines

Kyle Chayka writes: In an experiment last year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, more than fifty students from universities around Boston were split into three groups and asked to write SAT-style essays in response to broad prompts such as “Must our achievements benefit others in order to make us truly happy?” One group was asked to rely on only their own brains to write the essays. A second was given access to Google Search to look up relevant information….

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Initial U.S. intel assessment suggests Iran’s nuclear program only set back by months, at most

Initial U.S. intel assessment suggests Iran’s nuclear program only set back by months, at most

CNN reports: The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by four people briefed on it. The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central…

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In the Iranian regime ‘everyone is now a hardliner’

In the Iranian regime ‘everyone is now a hardliner’

The Economist reports: On June 23rd Iran’s regime ignored President Donald Trump’s warnings and attacked American military bases in Qatar and Iraq. Missiles could be seen over skyscrapers in Doha, Qatar’s capital. While the damage and casualties appear minimal, the war has reached the Gulf, whose glimmering cities offer an alternative vision of the Middle East and whose energy the world needs. The strikes outside Iran come alongside a sudden, ominous power shift inside it. Military hardliners are grabbing power…

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Emil Bove, now a federal court of appeals nominee, proposed defying court orders, former DOJ colleague says

Emil Bove, now a federal court of appeals nominee, proposed defying court orders, former DOJ colleague says

Politico reports: A top Justice Department official who has been nominated for a federal judgeship suggested to colleagues that the administration would defy court orders in order to carry out President Donald Trump’s aggressive plan for mass deportations, according to a whistleblower letter submitted by another attorney who was present. The official, Emil Bove, proposed ignoring court orders as administration lawyers strategized in March over expected legal challenges to the president’s plan to assert wartime powers to rapidly deport some…

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Stephen Miller’s conflict of interest: a financial stake in ICE contractor Palantir

Stephen Miller’s conflict of interest: a financial stake in ICE contractor Palantir

Project On Government Oversight reports: Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s powerful deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, is more than just the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policies: He has a personal financial stake in them. Miller disclosed from $100,001 up to a quarter million dollars of stock in Palantir, a tech company woven into the operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and used by other federal agencies such as the Pentagon. That stock ownership is previously unreported; this new information…

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The Supreme Court just stripped thousands of immigrants of their right to due process

The Supreme Court just stripped thousands of immigrants of their right to due process

Ian Millhiser writes: In a short, one-paragraph order, the Republican justices ruled on Monday evening that President Donald Trump may effectively nullify a federal law and an international treaty that is supposed to protect immigrants from torture. The Court’s order in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. does not explain the GOP’s justices’ reasoning, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor responds to their silent decision in a 19-page dissent joined by her two Democratic colleagues. The Court’s order is only temporary, and…

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Gaza and the undoing of Zionism

Gaza and the undoing of Zionism

Yakov M. Rabkin writes: During a sabbatical I spent in West Jerusalem in the late 1980s, my 7-year-old daughter was enrolled in an Israeli school. One day, she came home and could not find her tricycle anywhere. “Arabs must have stolen it,” she said. We later found the tricycle behind the building, but her immediate assumption gave me pause. Just a few months in, an Israeli school had already planted seeds of anti-Arab prejudice in her young mind. In response,…

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Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present

Science reports: There’s a lot more than just raw materials within the medicines in your bathroom cabinet or the watch on your wrist. These objects are also packed with knowledge, which is why they can only be produced by complex economies with the right mix of know-how, infrastructure, and technology. A new analysis of Roman gravestones, presented at the NetSci conference in Maastricht, Netherlands, on 4 June, suggests this kind of knowledge tends to stick in place—even over thousands of…

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U.S. air strikes probably only delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions — and reinvigorated them

U.S. air strikes probably only delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions — and reinvigorated them

James M. Acton writes: Speaking on Sunday morning, Vice President JD Vance stated that the Saturday U.S. air strikes on Iran had “set their nuclear program back substantially.” His comments came soon after President Donald Trump said that the operation had “completely obliterated” key nuclear facilities in the country. Satellite images of bombed buildings and cratered mountainsides certainly give credence to these claims. But these statements from Vance and Trump are far too confident. In reality, Iran can likely reconstitute…

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The perils of Middle East triumphalism

The perils of Middle East triumphalism

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: To many outside the Middle East, the American and Israeli war with Iran reads like a linear narrative: the two allies’ formidable militaries and intelligence agencies arrayed against their adversary, poised to prevail, on the cusp of indisputable, decisive triumph. The fight and its expected outcome are viewed through the prism of familiar antecedents: Hitler’s Germany overwhelmed, defeated, willing to acquiesce to the victor’s demands; Japan following suit. When proponents of this war speak…

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How Trump has helped Iran increase its uranium stockpile

How Trump has helped Iran increase its uranium stockpile

You will find more infographics at Statista The New York Times reports: President Trump declared a “spectacular military success,” saying that American bombs had knocked out key pillars of Iran’s nuclear program. Even if he is right, the operation may not have delivered a death blow to a program that is deeply embedded in Iran’s history, culture, sense of security, and national identity. Since Iran first embarked on an ambitious civilian nuclear program in 1974 under the shah, Mohammed Reza…

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As U.S. braces for Iranian retaliation, ‘FBI and Justice Department are completely unprepared to respond to a crisis’

As U.S. braces for Iranian retaliation, ‘FBI and Justice Department are completely unprepared to respond to a crisis’

NBC News reports: As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a “brain drain” in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyberattacks from Tehran, according to six former senior DOJ and FBI officials. Staff levels in the DOJ National Security Division’s Law and Policy section have dropped by as much as two-thirds, two former DOJ officials said. Its counterintelligence and export control section — which…

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Why the Senate’s Byrd Rule could mean big trouble for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Why the Senate’s Byrd Rule could mean big trouble for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Time reports: She wasn’t elected and she doesn’t cast votes. But over the past week, Elizabeth MacDonough, the quietly powerful Senate parliamentarian, may have had more influence over Donald Trump’s legislative agenda than anyone else in Washington. After meeting with Republicans and Democrats behind closed doors, MacDonough in recent days has significantly shrunk the size of the President’s sweeping tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by striking several measures that violated an arcane, decades-old Senate rule known…

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