News of the Week for March 30th<\/sup>, 2025<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Battle Brewing Over Abortion in Wisconsin<\/a> <\/p>\n Why the ‘Ghost Gun’ Regulation Was Upheld 7\u20132 by the Supreme Court<\/a> What VanDerStok Says about Agency Interpretations of Statutes<\/a> Second Amendment Roundup: Attorney General to resume removal of disabilities<\/a> It’s Ladies’ Night at the Gun Range<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n From Soup to Nuts<\/a> Renewables 101: Energy Intermittent, Subsidies Permanent<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism<\/a> RFK Jr. Plans 10,000 Job Cuts in Major Restructuring of Health Department<\/a> Some measles patients in West Texas show signs of vitamin A toxicity, doctors say, raising concerns about misinformation<\/a> Proposed California ballot initiative ‘Luigi Mangione Act’ would make it harder for insurers to deny medical care<\/a> Dutch euthanasia for mental illness surges 60%, including teen with autism<\/a> RFK Jr. body shames W.Va. governor<\/a> ‘Disappointed but not surprised’: Measles cases explode in 19 states, new outbreak confirmed<\/a> RFK Jr. and HIV Denial: He Says He Is Neutral, But…<\/a> Texas Never Wanted RFK Jr.’s Unproven Measles Treatment<\/a> The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations<\/a> <\/p>\n Falling for Putin<\/a> Trump Envoy: Hamas ‘Duped’ Me; ‘I Don’t Consider Putin a Bad Guy’<\/a> The Arms of . . . Rheinmetall<\/a> The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans<\/a> From Berlin to Tokyo, the fears of a new nuclear arms race<\/a> Start Spreading the Nukes<\/a> A Regular Guy Mishandling Classified Information Doesn’t Get the Hegseth Treatment<\/a> Bad Signal: An Ugly Mistake, and No One Will Be Held Accountable<\/a> As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia<\/a> Not Classified?<\/a> Private Data and Passwords of Senior U.S. Security Officials Found Online<\/a> Securing the Seas Is Deeply American<\/a> Republican Senators Want the Signal Group Chat to Be Investigated \u2014 Just Seemingly Not by Them<\/a> US pushes for expansive new deal to control Ukraine’s minerals and energy<\/a> Over 120 Hamas terrorists planned on invading Beersheba on October 7 – report<\/a> Satellite imagery confirms possible strike prep on Iran<\/a> Four U.S. soldiers still missing in Lithuania<\/a> Mike Lee Demands To Know Why US Nuclear Research Projects Are Tapping Into Sanctioned Chinese Supercomputers<\/a> Russian propaganda network Pravda tricks 33% of AI responses in 49 countries<\/a> Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School detained in U.S., faces deportation and likely arrest upon return due to anti-war stance<\/a> Price of critically needed Navy fuel ships soars at San Diego shipyard<\/a> Trump says he’s ‘very angry’ and ‘pissed off’ at Putin during an NBC News interview<\/a> Russian attack on hospital, shopping center leaves 2 dead as Ukraine braces for fresh offensive<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mia Love, R.I.P.<\/a> US Supreme Court turns away casino mogul Wynn’s bid to challenge NY Times v. Sullivan defamation rule<\/a> If Trump didn’t sign the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, who \u2014 or what \u2014 did?<\/a> Tolkkinen: $10 to see Rep. Fischbach, and they didn’t even get to ask their questions<\/a> Why Maui Still Hasn\u2019t Recovered<\/a> Appeals Court Seems Skeptical Regarding Trump DOJ’s Stance on Deportations<\/a> Judge Boasberg Denies Motion to Vacate TROs<\/a> Lawyers Who Anger the Feds Face New Penalties by Decree<\/a> Ohio: Poll shows CD 6 Special Election within margin of error<\/a> The Nondelegation Doctrine Returns to the Supreme Court<\/a> U.S. sent Venezuelan man with pending political asylum case to El Salvador mega prison<\/a> Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador withdrawn, Trump says<\/a> GOP Threatens Judges Who Block Trump \u2014 But Was Happy When They Blocked Biden<\/a> Should Universities Cater to Retirees?<\/a> Trump-Targeted Law Firm Paul Weiss Was Already Bending the Knee, in Another Direction<\/a> Babysitter checking for monsters finds man hiding under child’s bed<\/a> Less Than 1\/4 of Americans Want to Defund NPR and PBS<\/a> DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse<\/a> Inside Iowa Politics Exclusive: State senator confirms possible U.S. senate run<\/a> Louisiana voters reject 4 constitutional amendments, handing Landry major defeat<\/a> A Vietnam vet found a dream senior living community. Then new owners jacked up the rent by 365%.<\/a> Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News there are methods’ for doing so<\/a> Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n New Income Tax Proposal Is Progressive and Unworkable<\/a> Billion-Dollar US Levies on Chinese Ships Risk ‘Trade Apocalypse’<\/a> Trade War Explodes Across World at Pace Not Seen in Decades<\/a> Consumer confidence in where the economy is headed hits 12-year low<\/a> Florida debates lifting some child labor laws to fill jobs vacated by undocumented immigrants<\/a> Trump’s Tariffs Will Have the Last Word\u2014at the Bar<\/a> US, Canadian steelworkers hit with layoffs amid tariff uncertainty<\/a> Why the United Auto Workers Supports Tariffs That Will Hurt Auto Workers<\/a> Tariffs: Carmaggedon<\/a> Two Visions of Industrial Policy, Both Flawed<\/a> Trump’s Bidenesque ‘Fact Sheet’ on Tariffs<\/a> No, the U.S. Industrial Base Is Not Collapsing<\/a> Trump ‘chaos’ threatens US oil output, say shale executives<\/a> Poland to Surpass Japan in GDP per Capita<\/a> Cleveland-Cliffs lays off more than 1,200 workers as tariffs hit demand<\/a> Trump might let taxes rise for the rich to cover breaks on tips<\/a> Once an Economy Switches from Rules to Deals, It’s Hard to Go Back<\/a> The s-word rippling through Wall Street and Main Street<\/a> Michigan’s auto industry boondoggle: billions in subsidies, 287,000 jobs lost<\/a> Challenging Trump’s Tariffs Under the Major Question Doctrine<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Turkey protests: 1,133 detained amid unrest over president’s main rival being jailed<\/a> German group files further legal challenge to planned Polish deepwater port<\/a> Thousands feared dead after powerful earthquake rocks Thailand and Myanmar \u2014 toppling buildings and leaving behind hundreds of miles of destruction<\/a> U.S. officials went door-to-door in Greenland to find anyone who wanted to be visited by the Vances. They found no one<\/a> Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions<\/a> Hundreds of thousands flood Istanbul streets as Turkey marks 10th day of protests: ‘The nation is united against the oppressor’<\/a> Prime minister of Denmark to visit Greenland in wake of Vance’s trip<\/a> Police arrest parents for complaining about school on WhatsApp<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!’<\/a> The Costs of Research funding Delays at NIH<\/a> Striking the Houthis Does Not Constitute ‘Bailing Out Europe Again’<\/a> The Trump Administration Falls Back on Flippancy<\/a> An Ominous Rattle in the Engine for the GOP<\/a> Sometimes, It’s Best Just to Say, ‘We Screwed Up’<\/a> The Last Defense of the Signal Scandal Died This Morning<\/a> America is now in the business of extortion<\/a> The Left Still Stinks, Even on the Trump Administration’s Bad Days<\/a> A Disclosure Violation Is Still a Violation, Even If It Wasn’t a Worse Violation<\/a> Here’s what Starmer must do now to see off America’s tariff threat – and help our economy soar<\/a> Is the Trump Administration Sabotaging Its Own Peace Deal?<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Abortion<\/h1>\n
Dobbs Decision<\/h2>\n
\nWisconsin’s Supreme Court Election has been shoved into the national spotlight, with Elon Musk and others funneling tens of millions into the race, making it the most expensive judicial campaign in American history. The election will determine the ideological makeup of the court for the next decade \u2014 and the future of abortion in the state.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nI warned back in October, after the argument in Bondi v. VanDerStok (then captioned Garland v. VanDerStok) that the Supreme Court seemed unexpectedly willing to uphold the Biden-era Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulation on so-called “ghost guns,” i.e., the practice of buying kits that could modify certain unfinished gun parts into a gun. That potential outcome seemed surprising given the rigorous view of the language of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) taken when the Court struck down the Trump-era ATF’s bump-stock ban last June in Garland v. Cargill, with all six of the Court’s Republican appointees joining Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion limiting the definition of “machinegun” by reference to the mechanical function of the gun itself.<\/p>\n
\nThe Court’s opinion upholding federal regulation of “ghost guns” makes passing reference to Loper Bright Enterprises.<\/p>\n
\nATF is prohibited by appropriations riders from considering petitions.<\/p>\n
\nLuxury shooting complexes offer country club amenities to woo a new wave of firearm owners<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &<\/a>“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nImagine the thought process that has led dozens upon dozens of activists over the years to conclude that defacing priceless cultural artifacts was a great way to win friends and influence people. It is a conclusion adjacent to the notion that blocking traffic, disrupting athletic events and theater productions, or screaming while semi-nude into the faces of passersby are the sorts of behaviors that turn the wheels of history.<\/p>\n
\nSubsidy regimes, once established, are very difficult to overthrow as, doubtless, taxpayers and consumers will discover once higher tariffs \u2014 a form of subsidy that will doubtless give birth to subsidiary subsidies \u2014 become more entrenched.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nA long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism.<\/p>\n
\nChanges would reshape the nation\u2019s health agencies and close regional offices<\/p>\n
\nDoctors treating people hospitalized as part of a measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico have also found themselves facing another problem: vitamin A toxicity.<\/p>\n
\nA proposed California ballot initiative, named after alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, has been recently submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office.<\/p>\n
\nLawmakers in the U.K. and Canada should be looking at the rise in young people opting for euthanasia for mental health reasons with enormous alarm.<\/p>\n
\nRobert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to put the governor of West Virginia on a diet.<\/p>\n
\nMeasles cases nationwide jumped dramatically this week, according to new numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.<\/p>\n
\nWhen President Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice for HHS secretary, many health experts were left scratching their heads \u2014 and more \u2014 because of what they see as large catalogue of beliefs that are contrary to science. This morning, Kennedy is scheduled to sit for the first of two Senate hearings when senators will question him about those beliefs and decide whether to vote for his confirmation.<\/p>\n
\nKennedy made a show of shipping vitamin A to measles-stricken communities. The state’s public-health department didn’t take up the offer.<\/p>\n
\nThe move \u2014 along with the CDC’s explanation \u2014 is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nSteve Witkoff is a U.S. presidential envoy. Describing a recent phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said, “It was these two great leaders coming together for the betterment of mankind.” I discussed this in a post last week. In my opinion, Putin is not a great leader and has no interest in the betterment of mankind. Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n
\nBefore I dive into the Ukraine comments by President Trump\u2019s envoy, Steve Witkoff, let’s take a brief look at his comments regarding Hamas breaking its word and not releasing the remaining hostages, which the president has demanded several times \u2014 threatening “hell to pay” \u2014 and that Hamas has promised to do, several times.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s a marker of a changed world \u2014 and a changed Europe \u2014 that the market capitalization of the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall now exceeds that of Volkswagen, still something of a surprise even allowing for VW\u2019s well-publicized difficulties. Rheinmetall is now looking at taking over a VW plant in Osnabr\u00fcck, which could be retooled to manufacture armored vehicles.<\/p>\n
\nU.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.<\/p>\n
\nWashington extended an atomic umbrella over its allies. Now some feel it may be time to seek their own weapons<\/p>\n
\nThe Financial Times has run a good piece on the possibility that a fraying American security guarantee will lead some of the countries that once sheltered under Uncle Sam’s nuclear umbrella to start developing their own nuclear weapons. The article’s authors quote Denis Healey, a significant (Labour) British politician for much of the second half of the 20th century, who was, at different times, defense minister and chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister). He had other roles besides.<\/p>\n
\nOur supposed betters can’t get it through their thickly pomaded heads that tossing around classified info as if it’s a derivative meme is not only morally wrong, as it endangers the lives of servicemen and could foil the United States’ foreign policy aims, but also a heinous breach of regulations. I wrote some time ago about Biden’s failures on this count, and now our new civilian military leadership forces its exhumation.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: The highest levels of the administration display a jaw-dropping casual disregard for laws regarding the handling of classified information; officials refuse to hold themselves to the standard they held their predecessors, and their response indicates a deep-rooted culture of irresponsibility, excuse-making, and blame-shifting.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials \u2014 and inadvertently, one journalist \u2014 on the messaging app Signal, a CBS News analysis of open-source flight information and Russian media reporting has revealed. <\/p>\n
\nParticularly after reading Mark’s post, I am trying to wrap my head around how Trump administration officials, including the intel chiefs who testified before the Senate today, could maintain with a straight face that what they discussed on Signal was not classified information (or, to the extent the Espionage Act could be relevant, national-defense information).<\/p>\n
\nDonald Trump’s most important security advisers used Signal to discuss an imminent military strike. Now, reporting by DER SPIEGEL has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including mobile phone numbers, is freely accessible on the internet.<\/p>\n
\n“Ijust hate bailing out Europe again,” Vice President JD Vance said in the group chat Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to. Vance’s comment was in reference to ramping up strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, which the Trump administration has been doing in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\nThe Senate Armed Services Committee is asking for an inspector general probe, as another senator says she\u2019s waiting for the NSC investigation.<\/p>\n
\nLatest draft sent to Kyiv steps up demands and offers no security guarantees<\/p>\n
\nSecurity forces believe that since their plans were thwarted, they headed to Gaza border communities, overwhelming them in sheer number as a result.<\/p>\n
\nAccording to commercial imagery from Planet Labs shared by the Indo Pacific Watch Center, three B-2 bombers were clearly visible on the runway at Diego Garcia on March 25. The image also shows at least seven KC-135 \u201cStratotanker\u201d aerial refueling aircraft nearby, supporting what analysts believe could be part of preparations for extended-range strike missions targeting Iranian nuclear infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\nThe search for four U.S. soldiers who went missing during a training mission in Lithuania was ongoing Thursday, a day after their vehicle was found submerged in a body of water.<\/p>\n
\nSenate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mike Lee sent letters to three U.S. national lab directors asking why their research facilities funded projects using Chinese government supercomputers sanctioned by the U.S.<\/p>\n
\nJust in 2024, the Kremlin’s propaganda network flooded the web with 3.6 million fake articles to trick the top 10 AI models, a report reveals.<\/p>\n
\nA Russian scientist working at Harvard Medical School (HMS) has been detained in the United States and placed in immigration detention. According to multiple independent Russian media outlets and the scientist’s friends, she now faces possible deportation to Russia, where she could be subject to political persecution over her anti-war stance.<\/p>\n
\nGeneral Dynamics-NASSCO says it has been hustling to iron out production and scheduling issues.<\/p>\n
\nTrump said in an early-morning phone call that if he believes Russia is at fault for a ceasefire not being reached with Ukraine, he may impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil.<\/p>\n
\nVladimir Putin praised his troops’ ‘strategic initiative’<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nThe former Republican representative has passed away, age 49, far too young, after a determined battle against brain cancer. The Utah lawmaker should be remembered for many things \u2014 she was, after all, the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress. <\/p>\n
\nThe U.S. Supreme Court turned away on Monday a bid by casino mogul Steve Wynn to roll back defamation protections established in its landmark 1964 ruling in the case New York Times v. Sullivan – a standard that has been questioned by President Donald Trump and two of its own conservative justices.<\/p>\n
\nDid Trump misspeak? Is he trying to deflect a decision under heavy legal scrutiny onto Secretary of State Marco Rubio?<\/p>\n
\nAt a rural Minnesota event dominated by protests and hecklers, Fischbach avoided pressing the flesh.<\/p>\n
\nA crushing regulatory burden and anti-growth policies have stymied efforts to rebuild homes and businesses lost in the 2023 wildfires.<\/p>\n
\nA three-judge federal appellate panel appeared skeptical about the Trump Justice Department’s defense of the president’s deportation of over 200 Venezuelan nationals on March 15. The D.C. Circuit panel was hearing oral argument on the Trump administration’s appeal of a temporary restraining order issued by Chief Judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., which has halted the deportations. (The argument, which was streamed live, is available on the circuit’s website.)<\/p>\n
\nIn a meticulous 37-page opinion issued this morning, Judge James Boasberg has denied the Trump administration’s request that he vacate his temporary restraining orders that prohibit it from using President Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation as the basis for immediately deporting detainees it has designated as members of the Tren de Aragua gang.<\/p>\n
\nThe Trump administration’s assault on lawyers that represent its perceived adversaries has so far targeted by decree three major firms and quickly taken down one of them, the venerable Paul, Weiss. (Earlier posts in this series here, here, and here.) With a presidential memorandum published March 22, it has now abruptly expanded to a more general scheme of penalties against opposing law firms that take legal positions that it regards as baseless, vexatious, or unreasonable across the range of courtroom disputes in which the federal government is a party.<\/p>\n
\nRepublican Randy Fine holds the edge ahead of a Special Election for Congress. But his lead over Democrat Josh Weil falls within the poll’s margin of error despite the heavy GOP tilt of Florida’s 6th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
\nCan Congress give a private industry group an unlimited power to tax?<\/p>\n
\nFrengel Reyes Mota was supposed to be dealing with his ongoing asylum case as he fought for his chance to stay in the United States. Suddenly, he instead found himself locked up in a mega prison thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n
\nRep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador has been withdrawn, President Trump confirmed Thursday, with the president saying he’s asked her to remain in Congress. <\/p>\n
\nRepublicans are acting so mad about judges issuing injunctions that halt Trump’s plans. Guess how they acted when judges did this to Biden and Obama?<\/p>\n
\nAs the population ages, academic offerings for seniors may help fill empty seats.<\/p>\n
\nWe should never have reached the point where presidents can threaten law firms over whom they hire and represent.<\/p>\n
\nA 27-year-old man has been arrested after a Kansas babysitter found him hiding under a child’s bed, police said.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Donald Trump and his allies have railed against NPR and PBS for years, accusing them of bias, targeting them with investigations, and threatening to cut off taxpayer funding. But a new Pew Research Center poll shows that is not what a majority of Americans want, even among Republicans.<\/p>\n
\nSocial Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years\u2014DOGE wants it done in months.<\/p>\n
\nState Senator Zach Wahls, a Coralville Democrat, called on U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign for his role in a group text message discussing a forthcoming military action and also confirmed to Gray Media Iowa that he is considering a U.S. senate run in 2026.<\/p>\n
\n‘No on All’ campaign dooms major tax and budget changes<\/p>\n
\nResidents of senior living facilities typically expect to live out their remaining years when they buy into a community. But a new dynamic in the industry is altering the deals these residents agreed to.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Donald Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call that he was “not joking” about a third term, adding that “it is far too early to think about it.”<\/p>\n
\nFacsimile fun, federal funding freezes, and fateful photos.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nCommerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the Trump administration wants to eliminate income taxes for those making $150,000 or less\u2014an unprecedented shift with major consequences.<\/p>\n
\nCritics will tell a hearing on Monday that the move against commercial ships could be more disruptive for global trade than Trump’s tariffs.<\/p>\n
\nProliferating tariffs engulfing U.S., China and their partners draw parallels to 1930s protectionist spiral<\/p>\n
\nThe Conference Board’s measure for future expectations tumbled 9.6 points to 65.2, the lowest reading in 12 years. The board’s monthly confidence index of current conditions slipped to 92.9, a 7.2-point decline and the fourth consecutive monthly contraction.<\/p>\n
\nFlorida has been working for years to crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants. But that presented a problem for businesses in the state that are desperate for workers to fill low-wage and often undesirable jobs.<\/p>\n
\nThey will inflate the price of a classic cocktail.<\/p>\n
\n1,400 job cuts affect operations in Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario and Quebec<\/p>\n
\nThe union doesn’t represent most autoworkers.<\/p>\n
\nThe Trump administration has announced it will impose 25 percent tariffs on imports of cars and certain auto parts, in most cases from April 3. Cars manufactured in Canada and Mexico, the other parties to the USMCA (NAFTA 2.0), will be treated a bit more gently.<\/p>\n
\nIn the Wall Street Journal, Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker have a piece about how the Trump administration’s sweeping agenda of protective tariffs, meant to restrict imports to create a manufacturing renaissance, will fail. These authors propose instead a sprawling array of subsidies, tax credits, and federal grants aimed at coaxing domestic production in “strategic” industries. These are the two dominant industrial-policy frameworks today \u2014 and they are both deeply flawed.<\/p>\n
\nIt would be nice if economically illiterate White House “fact sheets,” a regular occurrence under the Biden administration, were a thing of the past. But Trump’s fact sheet justifying auto tariffs is positively Bidenesque.<\/p>\n
\nOur manufacturing output, even adjusted for inflation, is near all-time highs.<\/p>\n
\nDallas Fed survey shows mounting alarm among Texas drillers at the administration’s energy strategy<\/p>\n
\nAny cross-country economic comparison is going to be complicated because there are so many factors involved. A major one that some people might point to instead of free markets to explain Poland’s success is its membership in the European Union. EU membership has no doubt been good for Poland’s economy, as it has been for all of the former communist states that have joined.<\/p>\n
\nA number of North American steel manufacturers are struggling to deal with the impacts of the Trump administration\u2019s trade policy.<\/p>\n
\nThe Trump administration is discussing a surprising option to help fulfill his campaign-trail promises: Allowing the richest Americans’ tax rates to rise in return for cutting taxes on tips, a senior White House official tells Axios.<\/p>\n
\nAmericans of all political affiliations will miss the checks and balances that Donald Trump is trying to dispense with.<\/p>\n
\nThat pattern, most vividly seen in the 1970s, is particularly painful because it means people experience pain from both lack of job opportunities and higher prices. It also leaves the Fed and other economic policymakers with less ability to cushion the blow because a move that might address one side of the problem could worsen the other.<\/p>\n
\nState’s manufacturing workforce keeps shrinking<\/p>\n
\nGeorgetown law Prof. Jennifer Hillman explains why Trump’s tariffs are vulnerable to challenge on this basis.<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nHundreds of thousands of people defied a ban on gathering in Istanbul to take to the streets for a fifth night on Sunday \u2013 where protesters were met with tear gas and rubber bullets from police.<\/p>\n
\nThe organisation, Lebensraum Vorpommern, which describes itself as a “citizens’ initiative” demands the immediate suspension of the project’s environmental impact assessment, which was approved last month after Lebensraum Vorpommern’s earlier appeal was rejected.<\/p>\n
\nThousands are feared dead after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Southeast Asia on Friday, bringing down a towering skyscraper in Thailand and toppling buildings, including a mosque, in neighboring Myanmar.<\/p>\n
\nNo one wants to talk to Usha Vance\u2014at least no one in Greenland. US officials have reportedly been traveling around the Danish-controlled territory looking for locals who wanted to receive a visit from the Second Lady, according to a report from Danish TV 2. Greenlanders’ response? No thanks.<\/p>\n
\nSurveys in 36 countries find that Christianity and Buddhism have the biggest losses from ‘religious switching’<\/p>\n
\nHundreds of thousands of protestors flooded the streets of Istanbul Saturday, as unrest raged for the 10th day over the jailing of Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top political rival. Supporters waving Turkish flags and banners with Imamoglu’s face read aloud a jail letter from the Istanbul mayor to a cheering crowd.<\/p>\n
\nDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet with Greenland’s leadership and residents. Vance did not receive an invitation from the government.<\/p>\n
\nParents Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were arrested in January for allegedly harassing their daughter’s primary school, Cowley Hill Primary School, through emails and WhatsApp messages.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nWe are 64 days into Donald Trump’s second administration, and it sure feels like a lot has been happening. We’re constantly told that this is an exceptionally transformative presidency that will leave a durable mark \u2014 one of the big ones.<\/p>\n
\nHow a weeks-long freeze of the grant review process has stymied a myriad of scientific studies.<\/p>\n
\nThe most interesting and consequential revelation in The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg\u2019s piece revealing that he was accidentally privy to secret plans for imminent U.S. military action against the Houthis is the revelation itself. It’s embarrassing enough that the journalist was included in a Signal app chat along with senior members of the administration where sensitive intelligence was discussed \u2014 and not just because the secretary of defense emphasized the need for “100% OPSEC” on that very chat. It’s not just mortifying; it was inexcusably reckless.<\/p>\n
\nOfficials have responded to the text-thread security failure and other weighty controversies with sass and indifference.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: It’s special-election season again. Yesterday, Pennsylvanians went to the polls for a pair of state legislative races; in less than a week, Floridians elect the replacements for Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz; and Wisconsinites will soon make their choice in a key state supreme court race. On just about every front, the early numbers are not where Republicans would like them to be \u2014 an indicator that either Republicans in Washington are less popular than they think they are, or the Democratic grassroots are enraged and fired up and showing up for early voting, while the GOP’s grassroots are growing complacent and tuning out the special elections.<\/p>\n
\nFair warning: I’m about to be naive again. Here goes: Why don’t politicians \u2014 in both parties, and across all of our institutions \u2014 just come out and say “I screwed up” when it’s perfectly obvious that they screwed up? If the last couple of decades are any indication, our eminent leaders seem to be under the impression that admitting error is about the worst thing that you can do. In most cases, though, it’s really not. In the real world, acknowledging that you tried something and that it didn’t work \u2014 or, simply, that you made a flat-out mistake \u2014 is quite relatable. And, even when it’s not relatable, it’s preferable to telling stupid lies that \u2014 and here’s the key point \u2014 that everyone knows are stupid lies.<\/p>\n
\nThe last talking point in the Jeffrey Goldberg Signal scandal died this morning. Readers will recall that, ten days ago, the Atlantic Monthly editor in chief was inexplicably invited onto a private chat between the Trump administration\u2019s national security principals, who were candidly debating the value of strikes upon Yemen\u2019s Houthi terrorists amongst themselves. This chat was held on a private platform, Signal, whose end-to-end encryption may be reasonably tight but whose operational security was clearly not \u2014 as evidenced by the fact that Goldberg (much to his own mystification) was present there in the first place.<\/p>\n
\nThe Atlantic Signal leak spelt out baldly quite how self-destructive the Trump administration’s foreign policy really is<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: We’ll get the spring webathon business out of the way, then take a long look at the many, many, many . . . many ways that the modern Left and Democratic Party stinks.<\/p>\n
\nIn my earlier post debunking Trump officials’ suggestions that the commercially available Signal encryption app is permissible for classified communications, I analogized Signal to the public portion of a congressional intelligence committee hearing. I also said I’d post separately about another bit of administration legerdemain: the claim that patently classified communications were not classified. That brings to mind another analogy \u2014 a favorite tactic of defense lawyers in criminal trials.<\/p>\n
\nThe chief victims of Donald Trump’s new tariffs will be Americans. The President’s 25 per cent levy on all imported cars, to sit alongside those on steel and aluminium, will inevitably result in price rises.<\/p>\n
\nOn Monday, the Trump White House announced that it had reached separate but contingent agreements with Ukraine and Russia to pause their respective attacks on each other’s maritime and civilian energy targets. In exchange, the White House agreed to provide Russia with sanctions relief. Ukraine, by contrast, got little more than constraints on its ability to execute some of its most effective asymmetrical operations against Russian targets. But that agreement, if there ever was an agreement, was not to last.<\/p>\n