August 15, 2026

Nobody Tells Trump What's Happening. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “The growing complexity of the administrative state and the enlarged responsibilities of the office led presidents, beginning in earnest with Harry Truman, to create new, institutionalized processes designed to get the best and most accurate information available.... Trump, according to Haberman and Swan, has not simply junked this process in its entirety — he has set up his White House to affirm his frequently arbitrary instincts above all other considerations. He has insulated himself from opposing views and made internal dissent verboten. At no point does Trump receive neutral information; just about everything is tailored to his whims, impulses and mercurial disposition. The result is that he is isolated from reality to the extent that he is practically living in a fairy tale.... Recent controversies, from the depletion of our military’s stock of sophisticated munitions to worsening conditions on some of our naval vessels, are easier to fathom when you consider the strong odds that Trump is told precious little about the actual conditions of his war.” The link is a gift link. 

Mark Satter & Connon O'Brien of Politico: “The Pentagon is shutting congressional Democrats out of classified briefings — and even Republicans are shocked by the brazen partisanship. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trekked to Capitol Hill at least twice in recent weeks to make closed-door pitches for his record $1.5 trillion defense budget. But lawmakers in both parties say he followed an increasingly familiar pattern of excluding Democrats. The freezeout underscores the Trump administration’s hyperpartisan approach to Congress — particularly the Pentagon’s penchant for secrecy under Hegseth. Whether keeping lawmakers in the dark about the rationale behind prolonged boat strikes in the Caribbean or a decoy Air Force One flight, the administration risks jeopardizing its main priorities by cutting out key players. 'He calls himself the secretary of war, but ironically, he doesn’t want to go to war and win the argument with nearly half the members of the Senate,' said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). 'You got to engage.'”

Marie: Say, why can't we have White House reporters like this? Watch Denver 9 News anchor Kyle Clark press GOP/MAGA gubernatorial candidate Scott Bottoms a couple of months back on Bottom's claim that 50,000 Tren de Aragua gangsters had invaded rural Colorado: ~~~

     ~~~ If they can do it in the hinterlands, why not in the nation's capital? Imagine if White House correspondents would at least tag-team each other to force President* Fartz-a-Lot to back up some of his outlandish false claims: But what's your evidence, Mr. President*? 

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Marie: It's pretty hard to read some of today's linked entries and assume that the POTUS* is sane by any professional definition of sanity.

Marie: Yesterday Akhilleus wrote, "I keep reading that Democrats are asking for answers about what's going on with the USS Abraham Lincoln which has been beset with problems.... How is it that only Democrats care about these debilitating conditions caused by Fat Hitler's ridiculous War of Ego? Well, that's the answer then, isn't it? The Party of Traitors lackeys and craven cowards want no part in an effort to find out WTF Drunk Pete's military is doing here, especially if the answers might reflect badly on the Fat Fascist." Good question. Good answer. Plus, Republicans were probably waiting to see exactly what Trump would say about the conditions on the aircraft carrier. He did eventually weigh in, but only because a reporter asked. His answer was more shocking than even a seasoned Trump observer might have expected. 

Q: The family members of US service members are concerned about the conditions on the USS Lincoln TRUMP: No they're not Q: Has the deployment gone on too long? TRUMP: No no no. Not nearly long enough.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 14, 2026 at 1:16 PM

~~~ Trump Says Sailors' 244-Day Tour of Duty Was "Not Nearly Long Enough." Julie Tsirkin, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Friday dismissed concerns from families of service members about the grim conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment had been overextended in the Middle East due to the Iran war.... Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, NBC News asked Trump if the deployments have gone on for too long and if he’s worried about troops’ mental health. 'No. No. No — not nearly long enough,' Trump said. In interviews with NBC News and other outlets, family members of some of the thousands of people aboard the ship have described a lack of supplies and food and an overall deteriorating mental health situation with multiple sailors having attempted to jump overboard.... The vessel has been at sea for 244 consecutive days." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Erica Green & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “When the reporter said that the crew members’ families were concerned, Mr. Trump said, 'No, they’re not.'... Later on Friday, while speaking at an event in Garden City, N.Y., Mr. Trump continued to defend the war and boast about its progress.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Cadet Bone Spurs Suggests Sailors Are Wusses. Steve Benen of MS NOW: “The suggestion that the family members of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Lincoln are not concerned about conditions on the ship is genuinely bizarre. There’s no shortage of reporting, from MS NOW and other news organizations, about the extent of these Americans’ fears, especially amid reports about an apparent recent suicide attempt. Trump, given an opportunity to address those concerns, decided to insist they don’t exist.... But adding insult to injury was to hear the president — who avoided military service himself during the Vietnam war, citing 'bone spurs' — casually make the claim that brutally long deployments haven’t gone 'nearly long enough.'” ~~~

~~~ Priya Sridhar & Lindsey Pipia of MS NOW: “The U.S. Navy has scrambled in recent days to deploy a different aircraft carrier to the waters off Iran after the families of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln confronted military leaders about poor conditions last week. During a contentious meeting in San Diego on Aug. 6, Navy leaders told family members that the Navy was planning to send a different carrier — the USS Theodore Roosevelt — to switch out with the USS Lincoln.... In that meeting at Naval Air Station North Island, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington was not considered an option for replacing the Lincoln because the U.S. has to maintain a presence in the South Pacific.... But in the days since that meeting, as public pressure mounted to bring the sailors on the Lincoln home, those plans changed, and the Washington was moved from the waters off Vietnam toward Iran. The Washington is now heading toward the Middle East.... Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral..., said that moving the George Washington Carrier Strike Group will leave the U.S. military with 'limited naval presence' in the Pacific for more than 18 months, because once the ship returns from the Middle East, it will need to go into a routine maintenance period.” 

~~~ John Ismay, et al., of the New York Times: “The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln’s supply problems began soon after the first day of the war, as Iranian missiles and attack drones fell on a Navy base in Bahrain. The Iranian attack, retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault on Tehran, destroyed much of the base. And as it went up in smoke, so did a major logistics hub that the Navy has relied on for decades.... With the threat of Iranian attacks at other ports in the region, the Pentagon looked to a base under British command on the island of Diego Garcia as its supply hub.... At the war’s outset, Keir Starmer, then the British prime minister, denied the Pentagon access to Diego Garcia for use in the operation against Iran. That decision drew Mr. Trump’s ire, and Mr. Starmer ultimately relented on March 1.... The Navy began using Diego Garcia as the main shipment point shortly after the Navy’s base in Bahrain was heavily damaged.” The link is a gift link. MB: Diego Garcia is about 2,200 miles from where the Lincoln is located now, yet as nearly as I can tell, it's still the “supply hub” for the carrier because closer established supply hubs are “well within the range of Iranian missiles.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Patty Nieberg, et al., of Task & Purpose: “The Navy is sending more mental health support to the USS Abraham Lincoln as it prepares to leave the Middle East, officials said. The effort comes as the Acting Secretary of the Navy acknowledged that the service had 'treated' sailors’ mental health on the aircraft carrier.... On Friday, Acting Secretary Hung Cao confirmed that the USS Abraham Lincoln would soon sail home, following an extended deployment.... 'A small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life,' Cao said in a statement on X.... 'The Lincoln was extended because the mission demanded it. Deployments are hard. Combat operations make them harder,' Cao wrote. 'War is hell and normal routines are disrupted.' Cao’s statement comes after the service initially denied news reports about the mental health decline of sailors aboard the Lincoln earlier this week.... In his statement, Cao said that sailors’ meals were 'adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable without a single meal being missed' and that their calls to family and friends at home were 'limited when the operational threat was too high.'... On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier reports 'completely misrepresented' the conditions on the ship. He also said that the Pentagon makes sure every ship and crew has 'everything we can provide them at every single moment.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the higher you go up the chain of command, the bigger the lies. Cao: there are small problems and we're addressing them; Drunk Pete: none of the reporting is true; we're doing a great job; Trump: nobody complained and the deployments should be much longer. ~~~

~~~ P.S. No harsh conditions for Trump. He has deployed for the weekend to his Bedminster golf resort. ~~~

~~~ Marie: In fairness to Trump, maybe some of his lies aren't lies as much as they are nutty fantasies. Here he is sharing another delusion about the Iran War at a campaign rally (more on the rally linked below): ~~~

~~~ The Strait of Trump. Julia Manchester of the Hill: Donald “Trump claimed during remarks on Long Island, N.Y., on Friday that he will make the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory, despite the fact that Oman and Iran share jurisdiction of the waterway. 'Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,' Trump said during an address highlighting his administration’s efforts to combat crime in the U.S.” 

Finya Swai of the Hill: “Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) blasted ... [Donald] Trump on Thursday for ordering the U.S. Navy to revert to older catapult systems on its aircraft carriers, arguing the change would be costly while questioning Trump’s qualifications to make such a call. 'He’s a marginally failed real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies,' Kelly said in an interview with MS NOW. 'He shouldn’t be weighing in on systems, on aircraft carriers.'... Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot and NASA astronaut who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned the move would force the Navy to redesign ships that are well into development and are 'probably going to cost billions of dollars.'” Video embedded yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lawrence Hurley of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to continue construction of a sprawling ballroom adjacent to the White House. The emergency application follows an Aug. 7 ruling by an appeals court in Washington upholding a federal judge’s decision that would block aboveground work on site while litigation moves forward." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

And a geegaw here, and a geegaw there, here a geegaw, there a geegaw, everywhere a geegaw. ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond & Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump plans to affix gold-colored presidential seals to the outside of his White House ballroom, breaking with the restrained aesthetic of the executive mansion, according to renderings that the administration shared publicly Friday. The Trump administration included the renderings as part of an emergency request to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to allow them to keep building the ballroom. The renderings also feature images of lighting sconces, hanging lanterns and yellow marble floors inside.”  

     ~~~ Marie: I take back everything I said. I'm now totally for the ballroom. It's gorgeous. It's worth a billion dollars. I'm ashamed I ever doubted Donald Trump's vision & good taste. The only thing missing -- so far -- is giant shiny gold statues of the 45th and 47th presidents* flanking the entrance there and welcoming dancers into the Trump Grand Ballroom to Beat All Ballrooms.  

Cheap Chinese merch wasn't enough. Steaks weren't enough. Even a fake university wasn't enough. Now it's ~~~

~~~ The Bank of Trump! Michael Stratford & Declan Harty of Politico: “The Trump administration has granted preliminary approval for a cryptocurrency venture backed by ... Donald Trump’s family to operate a federally chartered trust bank, over the protests of Democrats who decried the decision as riddled with conflicts of interest. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the bank regulatory arm of the Treasury Department, said in a letter on Friday that it was conditionally approving World Liberty Trust Co.’s application for a trust bank charter. The company must still meet additional requirements before it receives final approval, the regulator said. The decision stands to give new powers and federal credibility to a venture in which Trump and his family retain a substantial financial interest. It’s also among the most direct official actions that the administration has taken involving the president’s private finances.”

Josh Gerstein of Politico: “The BBC is seeking to subpoena ... Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner in connection with a $10 billion defamation lawsuit the president is pressing against the U.K. broadcaster. Lawyers for the BBC say the Trump family members 'without question have personal knowledge' about ... Trump’s intentions in delivering the speech at the heart of the case: his Jan. 6, 2021, address to supporters at the Ellipse as the Capitol attack was getting underway. The president’s lawsuit alleges that a BBC documentary aired in the U.K. in 2024 defamed him by splicing together distant parts of the speech to make it sound like he was endorsing violence. The BBC has apologized for the editing but denies that it is valid grounds for a suit.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “With the midterm elections 81 days away..., Donald Trump traveled to Long Island on Friday to tout declining crime statistics with longshot Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.... The rally highlighted the uncertainty about what role Trump will play in the midterm election campaign as he grapples with approval numbers significantly worse than nearly every other modern president at this point in their tenures and growing backlash within his own party over the unpopular Iran war.... Trump has a years-long relationship with Blakeman, and as a native New Yorker, is uniquely connected to the state he seeks to represent. It remains to be seen if the president will go to the same lengths for other vulnerable Republicans.” Here's a Politico story. Related WashPo story about Trump's false boasts about crime reduction linked below. ~~~

~~~ "Thank You, Sir! Thank You. Thank You, Sir." Marie: When I read RAS's first comment in today's thread, I thought it was a parody of Trump: quite a good parody, but still insane enough to be unbelievable. But no. RAS was citing something else Trump really said at the Friday-night rally. Here's the Joe.My.God. post whence it comes.   

Everybody on Trump's Payroll Is Corrupt. Reis Thebault of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump fumed late last year over Colorado’s imprisonment of Tina Peters, a convicted election denier, a White House special assistant organized an urgent 'brainstorm call.' The goal, outlined in an email sent to officials at five federal agencies, was to prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities, the assistant, Emily Underwood, wrote on Dec. 15.... The next day, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy, whose representatives were invited to the brainstorm, announced they were canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for Colorado projects.... [Colorado is suing the Trump administration.] Judge R. Brooke Jackson of U.S. District Court expressed shock at the revelation.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ And Then There's Sweet Karoline. JoJo From Jerz of Are You F'ng Kidding Me? has some words for Karoline Leavitt. Lots of words. Choice words. MB: I suspect JoJo went to the Akhilleus School of Creative Writing & aced all her classes. (Also linked yesterday.)

Journalists, left for unwitting decoys on Air Force 1 while Donald Trump and his personal aides sneaked away to another plane, discuss being deceived and tricked into becoming targets for Iranian missiles. Here's a New York Times dialog (gift link) and here's a Washington Post report.

Jacob Knutson of MS NOW: "Less than a week after Senate Republicans confirmed him as U.S. attorney general, Todd Blanche spoke at a political rally and appeared to endorse a Republican candidate for New York governor — a move that further politicizes the country’s top law enforcement role. Blanche praised Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the GOP’s nominee challenging incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), while speaking at an event on Long Island that doubled as an effort by the Trump administration to highlight recent reductions in crime.... The episode shows the degree to which President Donald Trump and Blanche have turned the Department of Justice (DOJ) — which traditionally tries to distance itself from partisanship — into the president’s personal law firm and an extension of his political agenda." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If it was even mentioned at the rally that Trump's lawyer was also the attorney general (and certainly he was IDed as the AG), then Blanche also was violating the Hatch Act. He'll have to prosecute himself. A real attorney general would know better than to even attend a political rally, much less speak at one. 

The President, the Porn Star and the Judge. Oh, And the Prosecutor. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago has spent the past year investigating a Democratic fund-raising firm once co-owned by the daughter of the judge in ... [Donald] Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, according to court filings and people familiar with the inquiry. Last August, the U.S. attorney, Andrew S. Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois, directed Authentic Campaigns Inc. to turn over a broad range of internal communications with clients. They included former Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and the Democratic National Committee, according to a grand jury subpoena reviewed by The New York Times. Loren Merchan, the daughter of Juan Merchan, a supreme court judge in Manhattan, was the firm’s vice president until late 2024 and was also on the list. 

“The Merchan family has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump and his allies, who have made unsubstantiated claims that the judge was out to get him and that his daughter profited from accusations aired at the trial. The trial ended with Mr. Trump’s conviction in 2024, in the midst of his campaign for a second term, on 34 felony counts stemming from his efforts to keep a porn star from publicizing her story of a liaison with him.... The inquiry is the latest indication of the extent to which U.S. attorneys offices across the country, once largely removed from political machinations in Washington, have increasingly been drawn into the Mr. Trump’s effort to target his adversaries.” The link is a gift link.

Donald Trump, Wasting Your Taxpayer Dollars on His Conspiracy Theories. Peter Elkind, et al., of ProPublica: In late March, “the federal government was scrambling to find criminal cases to back up ... Donald Trump’s claims that illegal voting by noncitizens was tipping the scales in American elections. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a massive federal law enforcement agency, had been dispatched to work leads across the country.... HSI deployed its tech platform to find noncitizens on voter rolls, despite warnings from agency insiders that it would lead to an 'ungodly' number of false positives.... DOJ leaders ignored internal concerns that transferring voter lists to HSI for criminal investigation might not be legal.... An investigation by ProPublica reveals for the first time how the Trump administration came to harness HSI’s personnel, technology and sweeping legal authority in service of its election agenda — and how meager the results have been, despite the prodigious resources sunk into the effort.... Despite intense White House pressure, the effort has produced only a few dozen noncitizen voter prosecutions nationwide — and even fewer convictions.” (Also linked yesterday.)

It's the Same Guys! Steve Held of Unraveled Press: “A shocking but familiar scene unfolded [in Virginia] on Monday when federal agents pointed a gun in a woman’s face as she sat behind the wheel of her vehicle. Two viral videos captured by the woman, Carolina Molina, show masked men cut off her car and jump out of their vehicles....  As has become common practice for federal agents surrounding drivers in their vehicles, the man who pointed his gun at Molina can be heard claiming she attempted to 'run [them] over.'... Molina’s dashcam video shows a different series of events, however. She slowly drives past the agents twice. On her second pass, the agents pull forward to cut her off and block her vehicle.

Unraveled has verified the agents in Molina’s videos ... [are a] team [that] has been recorded inflicting violence on immigrants, protesters, and observers in the Chicago area since last summer, including outside the region’s ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois that became the epicenter of anti-deportation protests during Operation Midway Blitz last autumn. Members of the same team were also recorded intimidating and threatening drivers in the Twin Cities in mid-January — in the brief period after federal agents killed Renée Good, and before U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents killed 37-year old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti.... ICE watchdog Ismael Cordová-Clough first identified 40-year-old Chicago native Martin Lagunas as the ICE agent in the Virginia video....” ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: Read on. Funny how some of these more violent agents manage to show up and even make news in various spots around the country. Steve Held is an investigative reporter based in Chicago whom federal agents allegedly targeted and definitely detained overnight last September for reporting on the infamous Broadview deportation protest.

By Bill Bramhall. Thanks to RAS for the link.

So far this administration has made our food less safe, not safer.... By firing food safety experts, by reducing the number of inspections, by tracking fewer pathogens, and by failing to set up a traceability system that makes sure that we’re able to to clear the shelves quickly. -- Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group ~~~ 

~~~ Christina Jewett & Julie Creswell of the New York Times: “On July 1, [Michigan state health officials] asked [Taco Bell] for its supply chain records, crucial information in tracing ingredients that may have caused [an] outbreak [of cyclosporiasis ].... [It wasn't until July 13, after the state enlisted the help of the F.D.A., that] the agency received all the records it needed to pinpoint lettuce from a Taylor Farms plant in Mexico as a source of the outbreak.A federal rule that had been scheduled to take effect in January would have required Taco Bell to send those records within 24 hours. But last year, the Trump administration delayed the implementation of that rule until mid 2028, saying companies needed more time to prepare. Food safety experts say the postponement has hindered the response to the outbreak.... Many point to an erosion of food safety oversight during the Trump administration, stemming in part from its aggressive efforts to roll back regulations and shrink the federal government. Last year, the F.D.A. laid off many of the staff....” The link is a gift link. 

Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: “Violent crime and murder rates across the United States fell sharply between 2024 and 2025, according to FBI data, the largest year-to-year decrease since the federal government began tracking nationwide crime rates in 1936. The 2025 murder rate of 4.1 killings per 100,000 residents is the lowest the country has seen since the mid-1950s, the agency said. The FBI released those figures Friday as part of its annual national crime statistics analysis.... The unveiling of this year’s report, though, was unconventional. Instead of the announcement originating from the FBI or the Justice Department, it came from ... Donald Trump, who broke the news during a visit to the New York police academy on Long Island on Friday.

“'Today, I’m thrilled to announce that the FBI has just released the new Uniform Crime Report, showing that in 2025 we achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history,' Trump said to applause. Together, we’re showing what is possible when you finally have a president in the White House who supports our police, who lets you do your jobs, and who always backs the blue.' Many criminal justice experts take issue with that analysis, at least in part, since violent crime began falling well before Trump took office.... [One expert analyst pointed] pointing to Canada, where crime rates have also been dropping but where U.S. law enforcement policy is irrelevant.”

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: “A woman was arrested on Friday morning in connection with the vandalization of the National World War Two Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, the capital’s federal prosecutor announced. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, announced mid-morning that a suspect was in custody and had been charged with federal crimes. The memorial had graffiti scrawled on it and the pool polluted with soapy bubbles.” Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Tim Craig, et al., of the Washington Post: “Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty Friday to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and admitted that he shot the executive outside an investor conference in late 2024. Mangione, 28, read a statement in court in which he described tracking Thompson to the conference in Midtown Manhattan and shooting Thompson with a 3D-printed gun equipped with a silencer.... He is scheduled to stand trial next month on state murder charges.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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Europe. Dying of the Heat. Josh Holder of the New York Times: “A week of stifling heat in Europe this June was unusually deadly, mortality data shows, producing a historic spike in deaths in a continent where major heat waves are becoming more common. Around 16,000 more people than usual died in Europe during the heat wave, according to an analysis by the European Mortality Monitoring Network. Most of the deaths were in northern countries — France, Belgium and Germany — that are not accustomed to such high temperatures and struggled to respond.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Jeanna Smialek & Koba Ryckewaert of the New York Times: “Europe is the fastest-warming continent, yet large parts remain ill prepared. As heat waves scorch its nations this summer, they are killing thousands in countries with strong health systems.... Belgium, known for cold and damp, not searing heat, had the highest excess deaths in Europe, making it a case study into what went wrong. In Wallonia, the region that makes up the country’s south, the death rate was 77 percent higher than what would be expected between mid-June and early July. Some hospitals were overrun, with gurneys and patients lining the hallways and medical staff working without breaks in the unrelenting heat.... Belgium is a stark example of why heat waves can become deadly in countries more accustomed to cool weather. Emergency systems in some cases buckled under the pressure, and structural challenges left the most vulnerable to suffer.” The link is a gift link.

Israel/U.K. Emma Graham-Harrison & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: “The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the UK 'the Islamic republic of Britain' in a podcast interview, where he also described the country as the 'first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon'. His comments, made during an interview for Israel’s army radio, played into a common far-right Islamophobic trope about Britain’s small Muslim population.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel. Gary Shih & Heidi Levine of the Washington Post: “When Israeli extremists arrived [in the West Bank] this week seeking to evict Palestinians from their hilltop homes..., besieged residents, huddling indoors and running short on food and water, hoped the Israel Defense Forces would come to their aid. Instead, the soldiers drank coffee and prayed with the assailants. When the Israeli general in charge of the occupied West Bank, Lt. Gen. Avi Bluth, came Wednesday and promised to protect residents, they allowed themselves to feel a glimmer of relief. But IDF troops evicted other Palestinians from their homes and declared the area a military operation zone. They drove away some settlers — but allowed others to continue their siege.At a time when settler attacks in the West Bank have become a daily occurrence, the effort this week to oust the Palestinians by cutting off their food, water and electricity has stood out not just for its aggression, but for the response of the Israeli military, which appeared incapable of confronting extremists — or complicit in their attempt.”

Indonesia. Muktita Suhartono, et al., of the New York Times: “At least 38 people were killed in eastern Indonesia on Saturday after it was rocked by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake, one of the largest the region had experienced in decades, officials said. The earthquake hit just north of Flores Island, according to the United States Geological Survey, about a thousand miles east of Jakarta, the capital. It caused several buildings to collapse on the island, and was one of the largest temblors to hit the area in more than 30 years, said Wijayanto, the director of earthquake and tsunami affairs at the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency in Indonesia.” The link is a gift link.

U.K. Mara Hvistendahl, et al., of the New York Times: “When Cambridge University interviewed Jason Arday for one of the most prestigious sociology positions in the world, he was an early career scholar and underqualified, by the school’s own standards. Cambridge’s requirements, reviewed by The New York Times, called for 'an outstanding research record of international stature” and a “proven successful track record' supervising Ph.D. students. Dr. Arday had a modest publication record and had bounced from one university to the next — not staying long enough to oversee a full three-year-or-more doctorate. Cambridge hired him anyway in 2023.... Dr. Arday was found dead in London on Friday, days after resigning his job amid accusations that he had plagiarized chunks of his papers, embellished parts of his recently published memoir and fabricated aspects of his life story. The controversy exploded along cultural fault lines — race, neurodiversity and academic hiring.” The link is a gift link.