Trump Brought Venezuelan Gold to the U.S., but Refiners Won't Touch It  —  After the oil, President Trump went for Venezuela's gold.  The White House brokered deals potentially worth billions.  I went to Venezuela's mines to see for myself how it was playing out.  —  Anatoly Kurmanaev

Andrew Bailey, a Deputy Director at the F.B.I., Leaves His Job  —  Mr. Bailey, who was part of a three-person leadership team atop the bureau, lasted barely a year.  —  Andrew Bailey, who has served as deputy director of the F.B.I. as part of an unusual leadership arrangement …

Trump to Unveil Planned $15 Billion Iowa Steel Project  —  The announcement comes as Trump is looking for wins ahead of a tough midterm election for Republicans  —  WASHINGTON—President Trump will announce a Minnesota company's plan to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa …

‘I want public executions’: Texas GOP candidate's extreme posts extend beyond racism  —  Race & ethnicity Oil & gas DOGE Social media  —  Bo French, the Republican nominee for one of Texas' most powerful statewide offices, is facing bipartisan criticism over a racist post about the crowd at a University of Texas football game.

The Moves That Backfired on Trump and Drove Interest Rates and Inflation Higher  —  The president's advisers said fiscal restraint and deregulation would bring down prices and borrowing costs.  Then came tariffs, war and an investment boom.  —  In the early days of President Trump's second term …

UK Releases Airbase Suspects Amid Probe Into Foreign Link  —  Security Raised at UK-US Base Before Terror Incident  —  Video Player is loading.  —  Unmute  —  Current Time 0:01 Loaded: 46.97% Playback Rate  — captions off, selected This is a modal window.  —  Unmute

District attorney reopens case of alleged Cornell University ‘gang rape’  —  A student alleged that seven fraternity members sexually assaulted her in 2024.  —  Peter Charalambous, Olivia Rubin, Courtney Wilson, and Aaron Katersky  —  Prosecutors in central New York say they are reopening …

US Tax Dollars Now Used to Secure Deals for Trump Family Cronies  —  This has gotten very little attention, as far as I can tell.  But it sounds quite sleazy and another example of the US government becoming a de facto investment arm of the Trump Corporation/TrumpaNostra.

Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students  —  The Education Department announced Monday it has formally rescinded the Biden-era Title IX interpretation that gave sex-based discrimination protections to students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Untold Origins of Trump's Plan to Sharply Restrict Mail-In Voting  —  Earlier this month, the Supreme Court blocked an executive order from President Donald Trump restricting voting by mail in ways that could have thrown the upcoming midterms into chaos.

Who's Winning the Race for Congress?  2026 Midterm Elections  —  Five weeks out from the midterms, Republicans are panicking over prices — and apparently over the president, too.  —  In Iowa, Michigan and Ohio, the party's Senate candidates have urged President Trump to bring an end to the Iran war.

“They don't understand the scale of the hunger!”  - An unfolding crisis at the nation's food banks  —  Weeks before the midterm elections, the cost crisis is hammering food pantries in red and blue states  —  Add MeidasTouch as a preferred Google sourceUse your Google account to add this to your settings

Judge strikes down Trump's bid to cut states' anti-terror funds unless they impose new voting restrictions  —  The Trump administration cannot leverage grants meant to help prevent terrorist attacks to force states and local governments to adopt a slate of new anti-voting measures, a federal judge ruled Monday in a major win for voters.

Jasmine Crockett Excludes Talarico in New List of Endorsements  —  Rep. Jasmine Crockett's leadership PAC left state Rep. James Talarico off of its latest list of endorsements for the 2026 midterm elections, part of what she has said is a goal of focusing on “down ballot” candidates.

The Question Boasberg Won't Drop, and Team Trump is Desperate Not to Answer  —  Judge Boasberg's contempt investigation reaches key hearing.  —  On Tuesday, the full D.C. Circuit will hear argument in a case that began on a Saturday evening in March 2025, when a federal judge ordered …

Affordability Is a Winning Message for Democrats.  But There's an Even Better One.  —  After years of fumbling around for an effective campaign message, Democrats seem to have finally found one in affordability.  The idea couldn't be simpler: Life's essential goods have become intolerably expensive …

America Can Pull Back From the Slippery Slope to Rome  —  Dear Readers:  —  I am very excited to announce the launch of Deep Cuts, a new weekly column by Andy Craig, The UnPopulist's resident constitutional sage and the head of our Reconstruction Agenda.  Every Monday, around noon …

Trump Asks the Supreme Court to Back Limits on Transgender Inmate Care  —  The policy would bar surgeries, hormone therapy and social accommodations for inmates with gender dysphoria.  — Copy  —  The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow its policy limiting …

Did Anthropic's A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own?  —  An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company's A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.  —  When Anthropic, the artificial intelligence giant …

DOGE vs. Civic Tech  —  DOGE wielded extraordinary power during the first months of the Trump administration.  It was more important than any Cabinet official.  The fact it has been completely memory-holed by this administration says much about its purpose and impact, and the politics of non-accountability under Trump.

In reversal, Justice Samuel Alito steps aside from major climate case  —  Alito will sit out the first case heard by the Supreme Court this term after facing calls from the left to do so because he owns stock in oil companies.  He had previously pushed back.

Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever  —  After public backlash, the Trump administration changed its tactics from ‘siege’ to ‘soft feet’.  Now, ICE is everywhere  —  Those who lived through it describe the ICE raids as a “siege” or an “occupation”.

253. Introducing “The Court We Need”  —  Welcome back to “One First,” a newsletter that aims to make the U.S. Supreme Court more accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.  I'm grateful to all of you for your continued support, and I hope that you'll consider sharing some of what we're doing with your networks.

Republicans fuming at Hegseth as war costs build  —  The News  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is running into a wall of congressional GOP resistance as he tries to secure $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon next year.  —  Lawmakers' growing reluctance to fulfill Hegseth's eye-popping budget …