Trump says he ordered cutting off all trade with Spain  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had ordered his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with Spain, calling Madrid a “terrible partner” in NATO.  —  Trump was speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead …

White House launches 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations in this region  —  The White House launched 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations, all selling fuel at $3.47 a gallon.  —  The White House announced the initiative on July 7 on X with a video of customers thanking President Donald Trump for lowering gas prices.

Graham Platner, isolated, defies Maine Democrats as they try to hatch a plan  —  People close to the Senate candidate's campaign say that they know he has to drop out but that Platner has struggled with the decision.  —  Summary  —  Increasingly isolated from the Democratic Party …

MAGA Host Melts Down at Scott Jennings Over McConnell Claim  —  NOT BUYING IT  —  Rob Finnerty was skeptical of the pundit's claim that he spoke to Sen. Mitch McConnell on the phone.  —  Newsmax host Rob Finnerty opened his show by mocking a MAGA rival's claim that he had a lengthy conversation with Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5.8M after jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed her  —  E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5.8 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Donald Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed …

Iran targets Bahrain and Kuwait after US launches strikes and limits the sale of Iranian oil  —  The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Wednesday, hours after it revoked a license authorizing the sale of Iranian oil in retaliation for what it said were Tehran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Pathetic in Ankara  —  Who's afraid of the big bad Trump?  —  A recent report in the Wall Street Journal describes a tense meeting among European leaders early this year, convened after Donald Trump threatened to use military force to seize Greenland from Denmark.  According to the Journal,

How much and why ACA Marketplace premiums are going up in 2027  —  Every spring and summer, health insurers submit rate filings to state regulators detailing expectations and premium rate changes for individual market health plans for the coming year.  This analysis focuses on individual market filings …

US judge throws out Trump's $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post  —  Suit stemmed from 2023 Post article that said bank with ties to the porn industry helped fund Trump's media operation  —  A federal judge in Florida has thrown out Donald Trump's $3.8bn defamation lawsuit …

Former Wisconsin judge spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest of Mexican immigrant  —  Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The End of Reading Is Here … twenty-three hundred years ago, the legend goes, King Ptolemy I of Egypt asked his court adviser to assemble a comprehensive collection of the world's written works.  Ptolemy, who had served under Alexander the Great, envisioned a library that would safeguard the sum total of humanity's knowledge.

Parents of Some Babies Face Delays Opening Trump Accounts  —  Families were receiving error messages when opening new type of investment account; issue appears to affect limited number of people  —  Parents of some babies have been unable to set up Trump Accounts, the new investment program for children that opened on Saturday.

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Accused of New ‘60 Minutes’ Meddling  —  MEDDLE MANAGEMENT  —  Bari Weiss pulled a seasoned correspondent off a Trump-adjacent story to put one of her new hires on it instead.  —  Insiders have accused the MAGA-friendly editor-in-chief at CBS News of interfering in a report on a key Donald Trump ally abroad.

Trump's ‘great’ fair limps to its conclusion  —  This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🎡 Subscribe to PN 🎡  —  Happy Birthday, America!  To celebrate your 250th, President Trump got you something amazing!

Son demands independent probe after father shot and killed by ICE officer in Houston  —  A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site …

It's Not Polarization; It's the Radicalization of the Political Right  —  Keywords  —  Political polarization radicalization democratic backsliding radical right authoritarianism democracy  —  Few concepts have shaped contemporary political analysis as much as polarization.

It's Shocking to Consider the Roberts Court Perspective on Race  —  Over a century ago, when the Supreme Court helped usher in Jim Crow, Justice John Marshall Harlan took his colleagues to task for betraying the promise of Reconstruction.  Dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, Harlan insisted that …