Top Items:
David A. Lieb / Associated Press:
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redistricting plan, dimming party's midterm hopes — The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans …
Discussion:
Axios, The Message Box, Washington Post, NPR, Democracy Docket, Washington Examiner, The Hill, New York Post, Bloomberg, Pluribus News, HotAir, NBC News, UPI, MeidasTouch, Washington Times, MS NOW, New York Sun, Semafor, Raw Story, BizPac Review, WJBK-TV, Al Jazeera, Townhall, KEYT-TV, Adam Kinzinger, The Independent, Cardinal News, The Gateway Pundit, WVEC, LifeNews.com, Newsweek, American Thinker, Ace of Spades HQ, American Greatness and The Virginian-Pilot
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New York Times:
In Huge Blow to Democrats, Virginia Court Strikes Down House Map — The decision is a major victory for Republicans, wiping away a measure approved by voters to allow Democrats to gain as many as four House seats in the midterms. — Virginia's top court on Friday struck down a congressional map drawn …
Discussion:
Fox News, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Free Beacon, oag.state.va.us, Daily Caller News Foundation, twitchy.com, Deseret News, The Intercept, The Guardian, Breitbart, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Wire, Erick Erickson's Show Notes, Election Law Blog and The Hill
Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The glaring error in the Virginia Supreme Court's gerrymandering decision — By a 4-3 vote, the Virginia Supreme Court just struck down that state's recently enacted congressional maps, which were intended to give Democrats four additional seats in the state's congressional election after the upcoming midterms.
Andrew Solender / Axios:
House Dems despondent over “sickening” Virginia decision — House Democrats fell into a state of anguish on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that would have netted them as many as four seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Discussion:
HotAir, CBS News, New York Post, The Daily Wire, CNBC, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com, NewsMax.com, Raw Story, Washington Examiner and Political Wire
Khaya Himmelman / Talking Points Memo:
Virginia State Supreme Court Strikes Down Dem Redistricting Proposal — In a major loss for Democrats on Friday, the Virginia state Supreme Court rejected, in a 4-3 decision, the state's recently approved redistricting proposal, which could have given Democrats four additional congressional seats …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, CNN, ABC News, RedState, The Hill and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries
Louise Radnofsky / Wall Street Journal:
Virginia Supreme Court Deals Blow to Democrats' Midterm Hopes
Virginia Supreme Court Deals Blow to Democrats' Midterm Hopes
Discussion:
Bloomberg and The Daily Caller
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
California Republican Incumbents Race to the Right as Redistricting Forces Standoff
California Republican Incumbents Race to the Right as Redistricting Forces Standoff
Discussion:
NBC News
New York Times:
ABC Accuses Government of Violating First Amendment — The network's argument, made to the F.C.C., is the most aggressive posture taken yet by a television network toward the Trump administration. — ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of violating its free speech rights …
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
The simple statistical error Republican Supreme Court justices used to gut the VRA — The Court says vote dilution can be proven only after “controlling” racial polarization for partisan polarization. This is a nonsensical and impossible test … The six Republican-appointed justices …
Discussion:
The Downballot
The Guardian:
Supreme court's Voting Rights Act ruling cited misleading data from DoJ — Exclusive: Data in justice department filing quoted by Samuel Alito in his opinion relied on unusual methodology, a Guardian analysis has found — The claims Samuel Alito, a supreme court justice …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Wonkette, New Republic, New York Times, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
Liz Essley Whyte / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary — The doctor, a MAHA advocate, has had a tumultuous tenure that has included clashes over vaping, abortion and vaccine policy.
Discussion:
MedPage Today
Oren Cass / New York Times:
Is Trump About to Invite In the Biggest Predator in the World? — “If you look at my old speeches when I was young, very handsome,” President Trump said while announcing his “Liberation Day” tariffs last year, “I'd be on a television show. I'd be talking about how we were being ripped off.”
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Catherine Bouris / The Daily Beast:
MAGA Rep Accused of Brutally Beating GOP Senator's Daughter — FAMILY TRAUMA — Rep. Max Miller was elected in 2022 and previously served in the Trump administration. — A MAGA congressman has been accused of years of physical abuse against his ex-wife, the daughter of a prominent Republican senator.
Discussion:
Charleston Daily Mail, BizPac Review, New Republic, New York Post and Raw Story
Jonathan Lemire / The Atlantic:
Trump Is ‘Bored’ With the War He Started — He wants out, but Iran could likely keep going for months. — President trump really, really wants the war with Iran to end. He has declared victory many times, including about three weeks ago, when Iran briefly reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Discussion:
Commentary Magazine, Asia Times, DNYUZ and CNN
Julia Ingram / CBS News:
Thousands of asylum-seekers abandon their cases as ICE seeks to deport them to nations they aren't from — Add CBS News on Google — Willian Yacelga Benalcazar's asylum case followed what had become a similar pattern in immigration courts across the country: After telling a judge …
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The Economist:
Secret document reveals Russia's plans to aid Iran — Unjammable drones would be used against American forces, according to proposals seen by The Economist — There are many reasons why America's war on Iran has been failing. One of them is the effectiveness of Iranian drones.
Discussion:
NewsMax.com, GV Wire, Washington Examiner and News Talk 105.9
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Joshua Yaffa / New Yorker:
For Putin, Problems (and Paranoia) Keep Mounting
For Putin, Problems (and Paranoia) Keep Mounting
Discussion:
HuffPost and NewsMax.com
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Stephen Miller's closed system of white supremacy — PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ — 🔁 Subscribe to PN 🔁 — Working in the Trump administration these days is no doubt a dream come true for Stephen Miller.
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Pentagon Releases Files on U.F.O.s — The initial files are murky images that show what could be anything. The government said more would be released on a rolling basis. — The Pentagon released what it called “new, never-before-seen” files on U.F.O.s on Friday, hailing the step …
Discussion:
CBS News, NBC News, New York Post, ABC News, The Atlantic, The War Zone, TechCrunch, Scientific American, Deseret News, Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera, UPI, TMZ.com, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Axios, KTLA, UNILAD and Forbes
Julia Angwin / New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg Is Running Meta Into the Ground — There is a moment when internet companies get the stink of death on them. For AOL, it was 2003, when it became clear that its users were abandoning its clunky dial-up internet service for far-faster broadband.
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
Anti-woke Vivek Ramaswamy confronts racism in his run for Ohio governor — Vivek Ramaswamy built a political brand casting racism as an obsession of Democrats. As a Republican running for Ohio governor, he's facing racism on the right. — Summary — CINCINNATI — Vivek Ramaswamy …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com
Fox News:
Trump admin releases highly anticipated files documenting UFOs, ‘extraterrestrial life’ — Release includes Apollo operator transcripts describing ‘jagged, angular fragments’ seen from the spacecraft — FIRST ON FOX — The Trump administration on Friday released a batch of “never-before-seen” …
Associated Press:
Trump says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to his request for a 3-day ceasefire and a prisoner swap — President Donald Trump says the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have agreed to his request for a three-day ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners. Trump said Friday that such a halt …
Discussion:
New York Post, Reuters, CBS News, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, Fox News, RedState, Human Events and GB News
Thomas Frank / Politico:
Trump gets his chance to upend FEMA … That would help the agency meet one of Trump's biggest complaints about FEMA — that it's too slow to deliver money. The report says payments to states would occur within 30 days of a flood, storm, wildfire or other disaster.
Discussion:
RedState, Washington Post, New York Times, NewsMax.com, UPI, Federal News Network, NOTUS, GovExec.com, The Independent, CBS News, MPR News, Washington Times, New York Sun, Associated Press and The Hill
Julie Bosman / New York Times:
Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Rob Sand Is Worrying Iowa Republicans … At a recent stop at a brewery in Des Moines, Rob Sand, a Democrat running for governor, didn't hold back about what the matter with Iowa is. — The state has among the worst economies of all 50 states in the country, he said.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Radio Iowa
Raquel Rutledge / ProPublica:
Puerto Rico Lawmakers Call for Investigation Into Alleged Drugs-for-Votes Scheme After ProPublica Report — Federal and local lawmakers in Puerto Rico, as well as civil rights and advocacy organizations, have called for investigations after ProPublica reported how a federal probe into a drugs …
Discussion:
MS NOW
Gillian Tett / Financial Times:
Humans still matter more than AI in finance — Recruiting digital natives with critical thinking skills is going to be crucial — A few months ago a New York financier told me he had just experienced a “first”: his 2025 summer interns “were the first true AI natives I have seen”.
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Did Amazon just deliver a blow to Josh Shapiro's White House dreams? — There are many hurdles facing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro if he truly hopes to make the transition from a popular governor, seemingly cruising toward reelection this November, to a Democratic presidential contender in 2028.
Emily Peck / Axios:
Ted Cruz: Trump accounts are personal Social Security accounts — At a conference earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the new Trump accounts, the “401(k)s for babies” that launched this year, could be a way to push forward the Social Security privatization effort that failed during the Bush administration.
Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:
DOGE's Termination of Humanities Grants Is Ruled Unconstitutional — A lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Humanities drew wide attention for revealing how DOGE had used ChatGPT to cancel grants. — A federal judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration's cancellation …
Discussion:
Townhall, The Verge, Washington Post, ABC News, Associated Press, Techdirt, Reuters, Washington Examiner, Straight Arrow News, Raw Story, RedState, CBS News and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Samuel Chamberlain / New York Post:
AOC mocked after she claims no one can ‘earn a billion dollars’: ‘Her entire salary is stolen from people’ — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been roundly scorned after she claimed on a podcast this week that the idea anyone can earn their way to billionaire status is a “myth.”
Discussion:
Townhall, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Reason, The Daily Wire, Mediaite, HotAir, The Wrap and twitchy.com
Alex Roarty / NOTUS:
Thomas Massie Is Really In Danger of Losing His Seat — Allies of the occasional Trump adversary acknowledge his race is tightening, just as Trump's intraparty dominance reemerges. — Copy — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie's lead in his primary later this month is slipping …
Discussion:
Washington Times, MeidasTouch, The Dispatch and Washington Examiner
New York Times:
We're at the Dawn of the Ozempic Era — and It's Really Weird — This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts. — Here's a number from a KFF poll that actually shocked me when I learned it: One out of eight American adults is taking a GLP-1.
Discussion:
Deseret News


