A Draft U.S.-Iran Plan Is Said to Be on the Table.  Here's What to Know.  —  U.S. and Iranian officials say they are closing in on the terms of a preliminary agreement.  Yet sticking points, particularly over the Strait of Hormuz, remain.  —  For weeks, mediators between Iran and the United States …

Inside Bari's ‘60’ Bloodbath … “They're killing ‘60 Minutes.’”  —  That's how the iconic newsmagazine's former executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last summer citing corporate interference, put it to me by phone on Thursday as news broke about the firings ordered by the widely disliked …

Summary of Key Changes in OMB's Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule  —  https://www.federalregister.gov/ public-inspection/2026-10817/regulation - for-federal-financial-assistance  —  Thanks for reading!  Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Why so much election analysis is basically useless  —  Last Friday, I (reluctantly) wrote a long piece about the Democratic National Committee's finally published “autopsy” of the party's 2024 campaign.  In that post I argued that the single biggest cause of Trump's win was the economy/inflation …

Trump Might Already Be a Lame Duck  —  President Trump has never really cared about the Republican Party per se.  He basks in its adulation, and it's beneficial to him when the GOP controls Congress.  But he's never adhered to its orthodoxies or honored its heroes.

There's No Escaping the Rot in This Justice Department  —  The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois used to be considered one of the best federal prosecutors' offices in the country, but the last week has shown that Donald Trump's administration is driving it off the rails.

Judge temporarily blocks payouts from Trump's $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ settlement fund  —  A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for the Republican president's allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government.

Boat Strikes Have Failed to Curb Flow of Cocaine to U.S., Experts Say … With deadly precision, the Trump administration has launched dozens of attacks on small boats in the waters off South America, killing nearly 200 people in a campaign U.S. officials say is meant to curb the flow of illicit drugs to the United States.

Biden just won't go away  —  Some of us haven't yet finished wishing Barack Obama would just go away.  A decade after leaving the Oval Office, the former president still hovers over our politics issuing sanctimonious tweets in support of dishonest causes, such as the Democrats' botched gerrymander in Virginia.

Habeas Flight Watch: New tool helps track ICE flights to your city  —  Activists have been quietly piloting a live map of ICE flights to help immigration attorneys with habeas filings.  Now they say it's ready for everyone to use.  —  A group of activists have built a new online tool …

He hasn't been seen in Congress for months.  Now Republicans are worried.  —  Rep. Tom Kean Jr.'s New Jersey district is among the country's most competitive, and his absence from the House since March has sparked increasing alarm in his party.  —  Summary

The 2026 race that's a presidential proxy  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Good Friday morning, this is Adam Wren coming to you from beautiful and crisp Michigan, which feels these days like the center of the midterm universe.  Get in touch.  —  In today's Playbook ...

James Talarico Is Playing to a National Audience That Won't Be Voting for Him  —  Every national election cycle features some candidates whose greatest opponents are themselves.  Republicans of a certain age (mine) know all too well that we have endured our share of them.

China is building launch pads near its nuclear missile silos  —  In a remote Chinese desert, a vast military complex is taking shape that some security scholars say appears built to ensure no American first strike on China's nuclear arsenal could reliably knock out Beijing's ability to hit back.

Vietnam moves its dead for Trump golf course  —  Project has become symbolically important for relations between Washington and Hanoi  —  In a small cemetery nestled between fruit farms in northern Vietnam, farmers who for decades buried their dead near family plantations are digging up the graves.

FBI interviews election workers in a swing state amid Trump's false 2020 claims  —  Agents in Wisconsin have been following up on debunked conspiracy theories as part of their queries, after pursuing 2020 ballots in other swing states.  —  Summary  —  MADISON, Wis. — The FBI in recent weeks …

A court in Kenya blocks U.S. plan to keep American Ebola patients in Africa  —  A facility built by the U.S. military on a Kenyan air base was intended to isolate Americans exposed to Ebola during the growing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  —  Summary

The Record Divide Between Corporate Profits and Worker Pay  —  Labor's share of economic output just hit an all-time low, while the profit share hit a near record.  It helps explain why consumers feel so glum.  —  To understand why people are so miserable about the economy …

White House Whipsaws Once Again on Iran  —  Plus, President Trump's face could appear on a $250 bill and the U.S. agrees to a deal with Kenya to establish Ebola quarantine center for Americans  —  Good morning.  On Saturday, President Trump said on Truth Social that a deal with Iran was near complete.

Suit Says Black Infants Were Subjected to Experimental Vaccine Without Consent  —  The babies were part of a vaccine trial for a respiratory virus in the 1960s and died shortly after.  Their families said they had been unaware of the trial until recently.  —  The families of two Black infants …

Democrats press Patel for information after ‘VIP snorkel’ trip  —  Senate Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) are pressing FBI Director Kash Patel and the Department of Justice's acting inspector general for answers about whether Patel …

Inside Putin's $26 Billion Quest for Longevity  —  From mini-pigs and organ printing to cryotherapy and genetics, Russia's president has turned antiaging research into a Kremlin priority  —  When Vladimir Putin was captured by a hot mic telling Xi Jinping that humans could achieve immortality …

AI billionaires brace for pitchforks … - Populist politicians, particularly on the left, have cast this as capitalism's next great reckoning: an even deeper concentration of wealth and power in an economy already rigged for the elite. … Many suggest the answer is not deceleration or wealth taxes, but shared abundance.

The Rise and Fall of the House Freedom Caucus Leaders  —  As Trump's power has grown, the influence of the conservative group has waned significantly.  — Copy  —  As he came down the center aisle of the House for his February State of the Union address, President Donald Trump shook …

Andy Kim: Nothing's Improved Since Minnesota—Except Private Prison Profits  —  We spoke to the Senator pepper-sprayed outside ICE's Delaney Hall detention center.  —  “I certainly didn't see anything at Delaney Hall that gives me a sense that things have changed since Minnesota,” Andy Kim told me.