memeorandum: The US and Iran have blown past red lines as they lurch back toward all-out war (Joseph Krauss/Associated Press)

12:55 PM ET, July 18, 2026

Top Items:

Dasha Burns / Politico:

‘Pulte got really scared’: Inside the White House debate over Trump's elections speech — President Donald Trump's Thursday night speech was far tamer than some of his closest aides feared. — Acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte, a favorite of the president's …

New York Times:

Trump's Election Claims and SAVE Act Push Find Muted Response From G.O.P. Lawmakers — Most G.O.P. lawmakers had little to say about the president's claims of election vulnerabilities, and he did not appear to move the needle on the voting restriction bill he championed.

Discussion: The Hill, The Guardian, HuffPost, Raw Story, Newsweek, NOTUS, Salt Lake Tribune, Daily Mail, Wall Street Journal, Military.com, Al Jazeera and NewsMax.com, more at Mediagazer »

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Low-T, High Chair

Discussion: Raw Story and Althouse

Maggie Miller / Politico: Trump's rhetoric is more dangerous than voting machine flaws, experts say

Associated Press:
Trump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. Here's what they really say

New York Times:

They Were Charged With Assaulting ICE Agents. The Cases Are Crumbling. — The Trump administration has lost or abandoned hundreds of criminal cases against protesters and immigrants, a Times investigation found. — In its nationwide immigration crackdown, the Trump administration …

Politico:

Trump administration activates never-before-used ‘alien terrorist’ deportation court — The Trump administration has activated a secretive and never-before-used legal process to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be “alien terrorists” or their immediate family members.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Court Watch, Newsweek and Raw Story

Lulu Garcia-Navarro / New York Times:

Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. And He Intends to Spend It. — Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times — Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City is riding high. In an era when the public is sour on politics, recent polls show him actually becoming more popular among New Yorkers.

Discussion: The Times of Israel

Sally Goldenberg / New York Times:

Mamdani Says He May Still Order Netanyahu's Arrest — Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in an interview with The New York Times that he was in “an active conversation” with New York City's Law Department on whether he had the authority to arrest the Israeli leader.

Discussion: Haaretz

Politico:

'It's scary': Scandal sends Wisconsin Dems into freakout mode over governor's race — LAKE TOMAHAWK, Wisconsin — Sara Rodriguez had a prime opportunity this past Saturday to show voters gathered for a gubernatorial candidate forum in Wisconsin's rural Northwoods that she was the person …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, RedState, NewsMax.com, NBC News, WPR, UPI, Washington Examiner, The Times of Israel, Associated Press, Townhall, NOTUS, Election Law Blog and Vox

Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:

‘Insane’: Republicans Push To Punish Canada For Wildfires — “We will not tolerate this incompetence,” vowed Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who may not understand how climate change works. — WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump and other Republicans on Friday threatened to punish Canada as smoke …

Discussion: Breitbart, The Parnas Perspective, The Gateway Pundit, Electrek, The Columbus Dispatch, Raw Story, New York Times and NOTUS

Kyla Guilfoil / NBC News:
Trump fumes over Canadian wildfire smoke and issues tariff threat

Discussion: CNN, Axios, Reuters, The Daily Caller, CBS News, The Daily Wire, Raw Story, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, New York Post, Washington Times, New York Times, Business Insider, NewsMax.com, The Hill, Forbes, New Republic, UPI and HotAir

Senator Moreno:
Moreno Announces Bill to Sanction Canada for Wildfire Pollution Emergency

Discussion: MS NOW, Forbes, One America News Network, OutsideTheBeltway, KECI, The Guardian, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, Politico, Semafor, Washington Examiner, Truthout, NewsMax.com, Daily Mail and CNBC

John Hendel / Politico:

‘Mr. Carr, please say even crazier autocratic stuff’: Inside the GOP backlash to the FCC chair … Brendan Carr's use of the Federal Communications Commission to punish President Donald Trump's critics is lighting a fire among old-school conservatives who dream of abolishing the agency — or at least clipping its wings.

Marco Margaritoff / HuffPost:

Top Tax Official Pushed Out After Clashes With Trump Administration: Report — Assistant Treasury Secretary Kenneth Kies will be leaving the administration after reportedly warning that it might be breaking the law. — Assistant Treasury Secretary Kenneth Kies has been ousted after warning …

Discussion: Al Jazeera and MS NOW

Andrew Prokop / Vox: Did Trump fire someone trying to stop IRS abuses?

Alix Martichoux / The Hill:

GLP-1 insurance change impacts millions of Americans: What to know, how to tell if you're covered — (NEXSTAR) - Insurance coverage just changed for as many as 56 million Americans when it comes to the popular GLP-1 medications used to promote weight loss. — Medicare announced …

Andrew Dorn / The Hill:

Could the ‘explosive diarrhea’ parasite affect grocery prices? — (NewsNation) — A cyclospora outbreak that health officials have linked to lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in five states is raising a new question for grocery shoppers: Could it affect produce prices?

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, Ars Technica, NewsMax.com, The Gateway Pundit, New York Post, UPI, MyNorthwest.com, Legal Insurrection, KVIA-TV, Breitbart, NPR and KTLA

Forbes:
Taylor Farms Recalls Iceberg Lettuce Traced To Farm In Mexico Amid Cyclosporiasis Outbreak

Discussion: CBS News, New York Post, STAT, The Hill, The Verge, Reuters, Daily Mail, KTLA, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Deseret News, abc7NY, Futurism, Associated Press, MyNorthwest.com and One America News Network

Wall Street Journal:

The New Washington Temptation: Inside Information and a Prediction Market Account — White House officials are grappling with how deeply political betting has worked itself into fabric of government — WASHINGTON—Alarm bells went off inside the White House Counsel's Office earlier this year …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Emily Brooks / The Hill:

Push to defund Planned Parenthood turns up as policy left out of reconciliation 3.0 — Anti-abortion groups are turning up their activism after a prohibition on Medicaid funding going to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood was left out of Republicans' reconciliation 3.0 framework.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Nancy Lapid / Reuters:

Doctors question evidence behind Pentagon plan for testosterone screening — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ordered annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, which he says will help to maintain military readiness.

Discussion: The Verge, Ars Technica, Stars & Stripes and LGBTQ Nation

Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American:

Yesterday President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller all threw the weight of the U.S. government behind a far-right conspiracy theory that says Trump and his loyalists are defending the United States of America against a communist takeover.

Jude Joffe-Block / NPR:

ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn't supposed to have with Palantir — After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings.

NPR:

Ex-wife says ICE agent who killed man in Maine had racist beliefs, violent tendencies — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who allegedly fatally shot a Colombian man in Maine on Monday was prone to violence and held racist beliefs, according to some of the people who were close to him.

Discussion: New York Times and Forbes

Amy Fried / MS NOW:

The ICE shooting in Maine upended Susan Collins' re-election race — Nothing has absorbed Maine politics like the candidacy of Graham Platner. Almost from the moment he announced his run for the U.S. Senate in mid-August 2025, he drew big crowds and lots of attention.

Astead Herndon / Vox:

How the Michigan Senate primary became a battle for Democrats' soul — The Democratic Party is at war with itself, and nowhere is the fight clearer than the Michigan Senate primary. On one side: Rep. Haley Stevens, backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the establishment …

Discussion: The Hill and NOTUS

Bryan Walsh / Vox:

The most important thing about the big new federal housing law — Physicists have longed for a theory of everything, a single framework that would explain every force in the universe. After the better part of a century, they're still looking. But social science, improbably, may have beaten them to it.

Jesse Sarles / CBS News:

Employee of Aurora ICE Processing Center arrested, accused of shooting Colorado protester — Add CBS News on Google — An employee of a group that operates a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainment center in Aurora, Colorado, was arrested after police said he shot and wounded a woman Thursday night.

Discussion: The Guardian, The Colorado Sun, NewsMax.com, MS NOW, The Gateway Pundit, New Republic, Blaze Media, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Daily Mail and Denver Post

Riley Rogerson / Politico:

AIPAC drops online donations to Dems who backed Israel aid cut — The campaign finance arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is curtailing online contributions to House Democrats who voted to cut Israel aid this week, in the latest rift between the party and the influential advocacy group.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com and Jewish Insider