Bhaskar Sunkara writes: After Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, AOC went to dozens of her constituents who had voted for both her and Trump and asked them why. She wanted to understand them rather than lecture them. Their answers – that she and Trump both read as outsiders, that both sounded like they were on the side of working people – informed her politics in the months to come. Some of the people who once formed the base of the…
Zoe Williams writes: ‘I am acutely conscious,” said Andy Burnham outside 10 Downing Street on Monday, “that I am the sixth person in the last 10 years to walk up this street.” It was good to hear him say it because, beneath all the cabinet gossip and rune-reading, there is a feeling of terror about the immediate future and also about ourselves, the electorate. Is this who we are now? Wildly enthusiastic one minute, seething the next; as passionate about…
Asharq Al Awsat reports: Iran’s government is unlikely to soften its negotiating position as a result of the ongoing US military strikes, according to a new intelligence assessment described by current and former US officials. Analysts at US spy agencies have also concluded that Tehran and Washington are, for now, stuck in an indefinite limbo between peace and war, the officials told The Washington Post — an uneasy dynamic given the increasingly deadly nature of the tit-for-tat hostilities between the…
The Guardian reports: Israel’s far-right minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined thousands of Jewish extremists who stormed Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday. Escorted by armed police, they prayed, waved the Israeli flag and sang the national anthem in a provocative display of political power. Under a fragile, decades-old agreement known as the status quo, non-Muslim prayer is banned at the site, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Ben-Gvir has…
Will Sommer writes: Prominent manosphere influencers and accused sex traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by U.S. marshals in Miami last weekend, as they were set to host—what else?—a bare-knuckle boxing match. Video of their arrest, which quickly went viral, showed Andrew Tate dressed in clamdigger pants and an unusual purple shirt unbuttoned down almost to his navel. But maybe the most surprising thing is that it happened on American soil at all. That’s because, despite years of accusations…
Jake Tapper reports: “Someone’s going to get killed.” The warning, from an agent of the federal Homeland Security Investigations division, sent a chill through the other officials in the room. It was early January 2026. The HSI agent explained how the team was afraid about what was coming, about what seemed preordained as the Trump administration sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents and controversial Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino into Minneapolis for…
Politico reports: The war in Iran has entered a bleak new phase. After weeks of fragile peace and stalled negotiations, the weekend deaths of multiple U.S. service members — coupled with new reporting showing there may be more previously undisclosed injuries — have left White House allies afraid the president is rapidly running out of ways to extricate the U.S. from an unpopular, expensive conflict ahead of the midterms. “This is what a quagmire looks like,” said one person close…
J. Brian Atwood and Kevin Byrnes write: When Elon Musk and his youthful Department of Government Efficiency warriors boasted of taking a “chainsaw” to the U.S. Agency for International Development, they did more than destroy a government agency. They violated the law by summarily firing USAID’s public servants while placing millions of people around the world in mortal danger. The thousands of public servants, fired without due process, care deeply about the agency’s mission. They did not deserve to be…
The Associated Press reports: How many women hold executive-level positions at top U.S. companies? What is the racial and ethnic breakdown of those roles? What is the gender and racial breakdown of the lowest-paid roles at those companies? The Trump administration is making it harder for the public to know, moving to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency…
Politico reports: The Justice Department has been lavishing nine-figure policy wins on Alaska — and openly touting what a “huge” time it’s been for the state — as attorney general nominee Todd Blanche is scrambling to lock down support for his confirmation from its senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski. A July 7 settlement over the federal government’s unfinished work on the port of Alaska resulted in a $180 million payout to Anchorage — an announcement Blanche, who is currently the…
ABC News reports: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called it “unacceptable” Tuesday that attorney Alan Dershowitz failed to appear Monday for a scheduled transcribed interview as part of the committee’s probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Your counsel failed to provide a reason for your refusal to testify,” Comer wrote In a letter sent Tuesday to Dershowitz. “When Committee staff followed up with your counsel via email on July 15 and 17, 2026, your counsel again failed…
The Washington Post reports: The Pentagon faces an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the war in Iran, with some critical lines of funding set to run out within weeks even as President Donald Trump escalates the conflict with Tehran, according to lawmakers and current and former U.S. officials. The funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness, according to four current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity…
The Guardian reports: Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthis have warned shipping companies that their tankers risk being attacked if they use Saudi Arabian ports, as the militia moved quickly to enforce a blockade announced the previous day. The Houthi warning for the Red Sea, coming on top of Iran’s threat to shipping on the other side of the Arabian peninsular in the Gulf, could affect the substantial Saudi oil exports that have so far been unscathed by the months-long conflict and deepen…
The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is dismantling a wide array of federal energy-efficiency programs at the same time that war in Iran is raising oil prices, climate change is fueling record heat that is driving up demand for air conditioning and new data centers are straining America’s electricity supply. “The turn away from efficiency has been oddly timed,” said Christine Egan, chief executive of CLASP, a nonprofit group that works on efficiency policies worldwide. “Energy prices are…
Wired reports: The lettuce supplier at the center of the turbo diarrhea outbreak has spent millions of dollars to sway sentiment around food regulation and elect Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans, according to public filings. Taylor Farms donated more than $2 million to conservative political groups in 2025, according to Federal Election Commission filings. That includes a $1 million donation to MAGA Inc., the Trump-centric super PAC, and $1.1 million to other super PACs dedicated to electing Republicans. From…
The Guardian reports: Nicaragua’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has said the country will hold no further elections to prevent the opposition from coming to power. The 80-year-old authoritarian leader, who has been in office since 2007, also said he would work with the congress he controls to pass new laws that would “build a wall” against the opposition. Ortega made the announcement on Sunday during the official ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which he…