In face-off with Iran, escalation may depend on who prevails inside Washington and Tehran

In face-off with Iran, escalation may depend on who prevails inside Washington and Tehran

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The New York Times reports: As Iran and the United States face off in the Gulf of Oman, the risk may not be just at sea, but in Tehran and Washington, where both Iranian and American hard-liners are seizing on the moment for political advantage. The attacks this week on two tankers in the gulf, instantly attributed to Iran by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then President Trump, emboldens the hard-liners in both countries, each able to argue their…

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‘There’s no accountability’: Trump, White House aides signal a willingness to act with impunity in drive for reelection

‘There’s no accountability’: Trump, White House aides signal a willingness to act with impunity in drive for reelection

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The Washington Post reports: Slumping in the polls and at war with his political rivals, President Trump has signaled a willingness to act with impunity in his drive for reelection, taking steps over the past week that demonstrate a disregard for legal boundaries meant to hold him accountable and protect the sanctity of American democracy. Trump said in an interview that he would accept damaging information on his election opponents from foreign entities, defiantly unrepentant after spending 2½ years trying…

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Paul Manafort seemed headed to Rikers. Then the Justice Department intervened

Paul Manafort seemed headed to Rikers. Then the Justice Department intervened

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The New York Times reports: Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman who is serving a federal prison sentence, had been expected to be transferred to the notorious Rikers Island jail complex this month to await trial on a separate state case. But last week, Manhattan prosecutors were surprised to receive a letter from the second-highest law enforcement official in the country inquiring about Mr. Manafort’s case. The letter, from Jeffrey A. Rosen, Attorney General William P. Barr’s new…

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Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, dies in court

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, dies in court

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The New York Times reports: Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, collapsed and died while on trial in a Cairo courtroom on Monday, six years after the military ousted him in tumultuous circumstances that pushed Egypt back to autocratic rule. Egyptian authorities gave no official cause of death, but critics blamed the poor conditions in the prison where Mr. Morsi had spent the past six years. They said the authorities had deprived him of vital medicine for diabetes, high…

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Isaac Asimov on creativity

Isaac Asimov on creativity

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In 1959, Isaac Asimov wrote: The history of human thought would make it seem that there is difficulty in thinking of an idea even when all the facts are on the table. Making the cross-connection requires a certain daring. It must, for any cross-connection that does not require daring is performed at once by many and develops not as a “new idea,” but as a mere “corollary of an old idea.” It is only afterward that a new idea seems…

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How the Sunrise Movement changed the Democratic conversation

How the Sunrise Movement changed the Democratic conversation

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Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna writes: “When we were taught about the civil rights movement as kids, it was told to us as if a few big marches just happened and then the laws changed,” Emily LaShelle told me last weekend as she smoked a cigarette. Behind her, a group of her peers played Frisbee in a field while the sun set behind them. “But there was so much more work and effort by activists behind the scenes,” she said. “And that’s the…

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Joe Biden and the ‘electability’ delusion — and why the media keep making the same mistake

Joe Biden and the ‘electability’ delusion — and why the media keep making the same mistake

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Margaret Sullivan writes: As Iowa journalist Robert Leonard talks to voters around his state, he finds himself baffled at the national portrayal of Joe Biden’s dominance in the presidential campaign. The local Democrats he encounters respect the former vice president, he told me, but many of them also feel his time has passed. They’re far more excited about other candidates, five in particular: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.); Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind.; Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.);…

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Sucker: Netanyahu’s ‘Trump Heights’ publicity stunt fools no one — except for Trump

Sucker: Netanyahu’s ‘Trump Heights’ publicity stunt fools no one — except for Trump

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BBC News reports: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights, named after US President Donald Trump. At a naming ceremony on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said Trump Heights honoured Mr Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory. Building work has yet to begin but a sign bearing Mr Trump’s name and US and Israeli flags was unveiled. Critics called the move a publicity stunt with no legal authority. Israel seized…

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What made Sarah Huckabee Sanders so good at being so despicable

What made Sarah Huckabee Sanders so good at being so despicable

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Lili Loofbourow writes: Sanders didn’t just defend the president from the effects of his own statements; she offered herself as a kind of prosaic presence whose function it was to act like anything Trump did, no matter how shocking, was no big deal. She exemplified the stolid approval Trump wanted for everything from family separations to tax cuts for the rich. As her tenure ends, we can now see how much her reliance on reassuring phrases like “make a determination”—and…

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Kenneth Clarke: ‘If there’s no other way you’ve got to bring the government down’

Kenneth Clarke: ‘If there’s no other way you’ve got to bring the government down’

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The Observer reports: Since he entered parliament in 1970, Kenneth Clarke has served under eight Conservative leaders, from Edward Heath to Theresa May. He has also stood three times, in 1997, 2001 and 2005, to be Tory leader himself during difficult periods for his party. But throughout it all he has never known a political crisis remotely like the present. Now aged 78, he still describes himself as “a natural optimist”. But a combination of Brexit and the Tory leadership…

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These animal migrations are huge — and invisible

These animal migrations are huge — and invisible

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Carl Zimmer writes: Last week, ladybugs briefly took over the news cycle. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service were looking over radar images in California on the night of June 4 when they spotted what looked like a wide swath of rain. But there were no clouds. The meteorologists contacted an amateur weather-spotter directly under the mysterious disturbance. He wasn’t getting soaked by rain. Instead, he saw ladybugs. Everywhere. Radar apparently had picked up a cloud of migrating ladybugs spread…

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Tehran has held firm in its tussles with Trump

Tehran has held firm in its tussles with Trump

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Martin Chulov writes: For much of this year, two beliefs have held firm in the halls of power in Iran: US attempts to strangle its economy cannot be tolerated and Donald Trump has no intention of going to war. Far from wilting under the barrel of a global superpower’s guns, Iran’s leaders have signalled an intent to defend their interests, by damaging those of their foes. Iran’s anger at the US, and its alleged role in the attacks on six…

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U.S. escalates online attacks on Russia’s power grid

U.S. escalates online attacks on Russia’s power grid

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The New York Times reports: The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said. In interviews over the past three months, the officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets as a classified companion to more publicly…

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