News of the Week for May 17th, 2026
- 2026 Election
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Socialized Medicine
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
2026 Election
A Private Call Reveals Democrats’ Desperation Over Tossing of Map
A conversation involving House members from Virginia and the top House Democrat reflected the fury and desperation that has gripped the party after Friday’s ruling in the state.
Want to run for Congress in Nevada? It pays to be rich.
A growing share of challengers are putting up six-to-seven figures of their own money to run for office. One candidate was blunt: “It sucks.”
Rove says new GOP election maps could backfire in House races
Republican strategist Karl Rove said Sunday that his party’s redistricting push could have unintended consequences in the midterms.
The redistricting war is wild. Here’s who’s winning — so far.
The parties are engaged in an increasingly brazen effort to redraw House lines.
The Road to November
It is May 12, 2026. There are 176 days until the midterms. Tonight, I have to present a paper on the state of the race. For the past month, I have been working with some polling friends who have helped me dive deep into American polling trends. Below is the executive summary of the information.
A Conspiracy Theory About QR Codes Has Led to Chaos Ahead of Georgia’s Midterms
The state of Georgia banned the use of QR codes for elections, based in part on the assertions of a man who’s boosted false claims about Israel and 9/11. Now no one knows how ballots will be counted.
Kemp calls special session to redraw 2028 maps, overhaul voting process
The June session will create new political maps for 2028 while also addressing a looming July 1 voting-system conflict.
McMaster plans to call special session to redraw South Carolina House map
The decision would tee up the state legislature to pass a new 7-0 map favoring Republicans this cycle.
Maryland Looks Into Drawing Its One House Republican Out of His Seat
Rep. Andy Harris could be targeted after Republicans make gains in the South.
Independent candidate from Norfolk launches bid for 1st Congressional District race
An independent candidate is launching a campaign for the 1st Congressional District race, which recently saw incumbent Republican Mike Flood and Democrat Chris Backemeyer win the partisan primary tickets.
New nonpartisan push in NE-01 as Austin Ahlman jumps into race
Ahlman says some of Chris Backemeyer’s State Department work was a factor in his running and that he preferred another Democrat
Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, after 19 years in Congress, ends reelection bid
After nearly 20 years in office, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is ending his bid for reelection to Congress, he announced on May 15.
Kemp signs metro Atlanta elections overhaul as prosecutors vow lawsuit
The measure could complicate reelection bids for Fani Willis and other Democratic prosecutors while setting off a constitutional fight.
Abortion
Court Cases & Legislation
Supreme Court Keeps Telehealth Abortions Legal
This afternoon, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that will keep telehealth abortions legal in the short term.
Gun Rights
Virginia’s New ‘Assault Firearm’ Ban Is Plainly Unconstitutional, a Federal Lawsuit Argues
Last month, Virginia became the 12th state to enact an “assault weapon” ban, which Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law on April 13. That new law is plainly unconstitutional, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and two other Second Amendment groups argue in McDonald v. Katz, a lawsuit they filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Tradition HOA bans firearms in common areas, sparking debate and pushback from Port St. Lucie official
The Tradition Community Association in Port St. Lucie has approved a controversial new rule prohibiting firearms and other weapons in all common areas, creating debate among residents and drawing sharp criticism from a local elected official who vows to fight the policy.
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Climate Pseudoscience Debunked: Livestock Methane Fears are Baseless
Policymakers are demanding that farmers scale back meat production, reengineer agricultural systems, and burden consumers with higher grocery bills to prevent a fabricated climate catastrophe. This is fearmongering based on false claims that methane emitted as a byproduct of livestock digestion contributes significantly to allegedly dangerous atmospheric warming.
Socialized Medicine
Government in Healthcare
No clear autism link to antidepressant use during pregnancy, large study finds
The use of antidepressants while pregnant does not raise the children’s risk for developmental ?disorders such as autism, according to an analysis of data from more than 25 million pregnancies that appears to contradict assertions ?by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
War & Terror
Iran selected for a vice presidency post at UN’s nuclear non-proliferation confab
US envoy tells conference that Tehran’s selection is an ‘affront’ to the NPT, given that the Islamic Republic has ‘long demonstrated its contempt for non-proliferation commitments’
How Russia Inadvertently Expanded NATO
The ministries of foreign affairs of NATO’s Eastern flank countries — Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — want Americans to know that no matter what they may have heard about some other NATO members (COUGH Spain COUGH), they are staunch and steadfast American allies, and are eager to demonstrate their contributions to protecting both continental Europe and American interests. So, the foreign ministries have invited a group of American journalists to see how their national security, defense, cybersecurity, border patrol, and other joint efforts work. My journey begins in Helsinki, and if you’re reading this, it’s a sign that Russia’s habitual jamming of GPS signals over the Baltic Sea did not deter my flights to get here.
This Is What It Looks Like When a Great Power Is Losing a War
In the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States is “losing.” In fact, the president may have already “lost” his “disastrous and irrational war” with the theocrats in Tehran. Trump is reportedly chastened by his failures, and the far-reaching consequences that America will suffer as a result of this epochal setback are only beginning to come into view.
Cruise Control
Uncertainty over the relationship between the U.S. and Europe’s NATO members is already triggering a revival in European arms production, and the current spat between the White House and Germany may speed up that process a little more. As we noted in a recent editorial, not only has the Trump administration announced the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, but there was also some confusion over the status of the planned deployment in Germany of greater American long-range missile capability.
Southern California mayor resigns, will plead guilty to acting as agent for Chinese government
A Southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, and has resigned from her city position, officials said Monday.
The Best-Prepared City in the World for Withstanding an Aerial Bombardment
Perhaps no other city in the world has done more to prepare for being bombed than Helsinki. What started as a response to hard lessons from the bombing of Finland’s cities in World War II by the Soviets accelerated through the era of nuclear fears of the Cold War, and continues to this day and demonstrates a particularly Finnish approach to how you protect your citizens from aerial bombardment. Join me for a walk through one of the largest and most complex underground structures in the world.
Kuwait says Iran attacked an island where China is helping to build a port
Kuwait accused Iran of launching a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port in the Middle East nation.
NATO scrambles fighter jets over Europe as drone sparks explosion in Poland
NATO member Poland scrambled fighter jets on Wednesday in response to an onslaught of Russian strikes on neighbouring Ukraine
The Wrong Way to Talk About the Iran War
As Donald Trump prepared to embark on his trip to China, he was asked by a reporter if Americans’ worsening “financial situation” had motivated him to “make a deal” with the Iranians. “Not even a little bit,” the president confidently replied. “The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran: They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
On Patrol for Russian Gray-Zone Warfare
Join me out on the sea as the Finnish Border Guard show off their fast boats and discuss the threat of Russia’s hybrid warfare against underwater infrastructure in the Gulf of Finland, the lingering problems created by Russia’s shadow fleet, and Ukrainian drones entering Finnish airspace on their way to targets near Saint Petersburg. Then, a chat with the Finnish foreign minister, where she lays out how her government agrees with President Trump.
Closing the Window of Opportunity for a Russian Invasion of the Baltics
My journey through NATO’s eastern flank continues in Latvia, where military spending is set at 5 percent of gross domestic product by law, and the government is undergoing some unplanned changes because of a pair of drone incursions.
In Iran, What Now?
There’s no avoiding blunt reality.
What If Fully Autonomous Combat Drones Are Already Here?
A Latvian official offers a theory about a recent controversial drone strike on his country’s soil that raises serious questions about how autonomous modern combat drones have become; the Latvian state security bureau shares its thoughts on the militarization of the Russian economy and its consequences; and how internal documents from Russian institutions indicate how the widespread sanctions against Russia have had a crushing effect on that nation’s economy.
Kicking an Ally
Poland has for years been one of this country’s best friends in Europe. Far from being one of the freeloaders that President Trump has rightly complained about, Poland will likely spend 4.8 percent of GDP on defense in 2026, more (in percentage terms) than any NATO country. Poland has called on other NATO members to increase their defense-related spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2030, five years ahead of target. In Warsaw’s view, sticking with a 2035 date risks leaving things too late. That’s worth noting. After all, Poland, along with the Baltic States, was warning about the dangers of Russian revanchism long before almost anyone else. These are countries which understand their neighbor.
Explosive Device Found in Important Alabama Water Reservoir is Safely Detonated
More investigation is clearly needed to determine if the “grenade” was someone’s attempt at easy fishing gone awry or something more sinister such as an attempted sabotage.
National
An FCC Commissioner Tells Disney the Agency Is on a Campaign to Censor It
In letter to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, Commissioner Anna Gomez criticizes agency for trying to curtail press freedom
Artemis II Success Sets Up High-Stakes Mission Artemis III for Late 2027
Artemis III Will Test Tech, Teamwork, and the Future of Moon Missions
Federal Trade Commission Agrees To Permanently End Administrative Investigation of Nonprofit In Win For the First Amendment, Due Process, and the Rule of Law
Earlier this week, Media Matters, an organization that engages in speech protected by the First Amendment, announced a historic settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, permanently ending the agency’s investigation into Media Matters after it successfully blocked the FTC’s administrative demands in a pre-enforcement constitutional challenge. Whether one agrees with Media Matters’s message or not, this is an important victory for free speech and the rule of law that should benefit those facing agency investigations they believe to be unconstitutional.
OpenAI Codex system prompt includes explicit directive to “never talk about goblins”
Directions also include system instructions to act like “you have a vivid inner life.”
Rand Paul’s Son William Hurled Antisemitic Insults at Rep. Mike Lawler
The younger Paul interrupted Lawler at a Capitol Hill bar to say “Jews” would be to blame if Rep. Thomas Massie loses his primary.
UCLA med school illegally discriminated based on race, DOJ concludes
The Department of Justice has announced that following an investigation, UCLA was found to have explicitly shaped its admissions process to focus on race. The DOJ is now seeking a voluntary resolution agreement with the school to bring it into compliance with federal law, as the investigation found that UCLA was setting ‘diversity goals.’
Stanford Medicine quietly renames DEI offices but keeps diversity programs after DOJ probe
Stanford School of Medicine has removed diversity, equity, and inclusion language from its website following a DOJ investigation into its admissions practices, prompting concerns about whether the changes are substantive or merely cosmetic. The medical school rebranded its diversity offices but maintained programs aimed at health disparities, leading some experts to criticize these actions as superficial and potentially misleading. Federal pressure has shifted the dynamics around DEI in higher education, pushing institutions to reconsider their diversity policies, which previously relied on government mandates for justification.
North America’s largest commuter rail system faces a potential shutdown
North America’s largest commuter rail system is facing a potential shutdown as a deadline nears to reach a deal with unionized workers to avert a strike.
Another One
For a while, it looked like the president was gearing up to engineer a resolution to his claim that the federal government under Joe Biden had been “weaponized” against him — specifically, that the IRS is implicated in the release of his personal tax returns to the New York Times in 2016 — in which the government would agree to a settlement. In short, the president would direct his Justice Department to concede to his lawyers’ claims, compelling his Treasury Department to shovel taxpayer-provided largess into his pockets.
Texas orders Dallas-based Muslim university to cease operations
Demand comes amid questions over religious status and international students
Trump administration to create $1.776B ‘Truth and Justice Commission’ to compensate allies: Sources
Trump plans to drop his IRS suit in exchange for creating a compensation fund.
ABC Drops Scathing New Deets on Trump’s $1.7 Billion IRS Deal To Drop Suit
ABC News dropped new details on the alleged deal President Donald Trump will get to drop an IRS lawsuit, including a figure that’s a nod to the United States and behind the scenes maneuvering that originally included a plan to have the president paid directly.
Comer says he’s planning on running for governor
Kentucky Rep. James Comer (R) signaled this week that he intends to run for governor in the Bluegrass State next year.
Pennsylvania man charged with making terroristic threats allegedly had ‘hit list’ of elected officials
All the victims were Democratic state lawmakers, according to police.
A Circuit Split Gives SCOTUS an Opportunity To Overturn a Federal Law That Makes Home Distilling a Felony
The 6th Circuit upheld that 158-year-old law, while the 5th Circuit concluded it could not be justified as a revenue measure.
Scientists Say They’ve Invented a Serum That Activates a Dormant Ability to Regrow Lost Limbs in Mammals
For millennia — since at least the time of Aristotle — medical thinkers have pondered why certain animals like salamanders are able to regrow entire lost limbs, while mammals like us humans have to make due without any appendages we’ve lost.
Suspicious Betting in Washington Is on the Rise—and Authorities Are Playing Catch-Up
Regulators are seeking information from Kalshi and Polymarket over wagers tied to political events and military operations
Trump’s More Than 3,700 Trades Astonish Wall Street Insiders
President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, involving major companies that have dealings with his administration. The transactions, which include purchases and sales in broad ranges, have raised conflict-of-interest concerns and questions about the potential dollar value of the trades. Trump’s disclosures have sparked criticism and surprise from some on Wall Street, with one expert saying the trading volume is “an insane amount of trades” and another saying they are “baffled” by the amount of trading.
Border Patrol chief Michael Banks hit with prostitution allegations by agents
The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner.
Economy & Taxes
Trump Admin Appealing Trade Court’s Invalidation of Section 122 Tariffs
On Friday, I posted on the ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of International Trade (CIT), holding that the 10 percent across-the-board tariffs President Trump imposed were invalid under Section 122 — the 1974 Trade Act provision on which the president purported to rely in setting them. Trump announced the Section 122 tariffs in February, right after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs he’d imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); those tariffs, too, had initially been invalidated by the CIT.
Student Loans: A Multi-Generational Financial Trap
In North Carolina as elsewhere, federal largesse has made things worse.
Consumer prices rose 3.8% annually in April, the highest since May 2023
The consumer price index rose at a seasonally adjusted 0.6% for the month, putting the one-year pace at 3.8%, the highest since May 2023. Excluding food and energy, the core CPI increased 0.4% and 2.8%, respectively, keeping inflation well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal. Though energy and in particular gasoline has been much of the headline story, inflation pressures also came from a variety of other areas. The report also contained bad news for workers, as real average hourly wages slipped 0.5% for the month and fell 0.3% annually.
Why the Nordic Model Wouldn’t Work in the U.S.
The welfare states were developed during a post-war economic boom, and they rely on taxing the middle class and the poor.
Beef Tariffs Are Doing What They’re Supposed to Do
The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House was planning to temporarily reduce tariffs on beef imports to bring down prices for consumers. That’s funny, because this administration claims that higher tariffs do not increase prices. Yet, somehow, lower tariffs can reduce prices? One of these statements must be false, or political convenience is bending the laws of mathematics.
The War on Billionaires Is Dangerous Nonsense
How to explain this sense — expressed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, among others — that billionaires are taking from society rather than contributing to it? I argue in Project Syndicate that there are several reasons, including the view “that the economy is a zero-sum game, in which the only way for your income to rise is for mine to fall.”
Brief Stay (So Far) of Trade Court’s Ruling against Trump’s Section 122 Tariffs
Yesterday, the Federal Circuit issued an administrative stay, suspending last week’s ruling by a divided three-judge panel of United States Court of International Trade (CIT) that invalidated the 10 percent across-the-board tariffs President Trump ordered in February.
The Thirty Years’ Warning
The immediate trigger was the rise in wholesale (PPI) inflation, which rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent in April (an annualized 6 percent), a lot higher than expected.
Student stabbed with 21cm knife, murder trial told
A first-year university student was stabbed to death by an attacker captured saying “I am a bad man” moments before inflicting the fatal wound, a court has heard.
Schlitz beer production ends after 175 years
Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous, is no more. Pabst Brewing Co. is ending production of Schlitz, which began as a Milwaukee tavern brewery and was once America’s largest brewer. The company, founded in 1849, was bought by Pabst in 1999.
International
The Democratic Socialists Need a New Model
The capitalist enterprise is alive and well, even in that “paragon of collectivism,” as the Wall Street Journal put it: Sweden.
Japan ‘robot wolves’ in high demand to scare off bears
A Japanese company making ferocious-looking robot wolves is being swamped by orders after record numbers of fatal bear attacks on humans last year.
UK health secretary resigns, setting up a Labour leadership challenge to Keir Starmer
Efforts to unseat British Prime Minister Keir Starmer from inside his own government broke out into open rebellion Thursday, with one potential rival resigning from the Cabinet and another clearing the way to enter any future leadership contest.
Venezuela Presses Guyana Land Dispute at U.N. as U.S. Secures Nuclear Material
Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez heads to the Hague as Venezuela’s enriched uranium is now in U.S. hands.
Nurseries urged to report ‘racist toddlers’ to police
Taxpayer-funded guidance backed by Labour advises childcare workers to call authorities if incidents could be deemed hate crimes
Opinion
How Maximum Partisan Warfare Gives Way to a More Centrist Politics
With the overturning of Virginia’s partisan gerrymander by the state’s highest court and the Supreme Court’s ruling that the majority-minority districts once mandated by judicial interpretations of the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 are unconstitutional, Republicans look like they’re set to win the mid-decade redistricting wars that Donald Trump inaugurated. It looked touch-and-go there for a while. But the GOP’s victories could yet be pyrrhic.
Is Ireland the worst run country in Europe?
There is no cost control. And no one seems to care about what we are getting for all this spending
The OPT Foreign ‘Student’ Work Program: End It, Don’t Mend It
Recent months have seen a series of blockbuster fraud stories: childcare fraud in Minneapolis, Medicaid fraud in Ohio, hospice fraud in California. Vice President JD Vance held a press conference this week targeting fraud at the state level. The latest revelation comes from the Department of Homeland Security: massive abuse of a work program for former foreign students.
The Future Is Not Chinese
We have Apple, the NBA and Sydney Sweeney. What do they have?
Lepore grasp of the Constitution
Notwithstanding its title, Harvard professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore’s new book, We The People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, is not a history of the Constitution but of constitutional amendments — that is, of efforts to change the Constitution. And the reason that the subject interests her is that she doesn’t think much of the Constitution to begin with.
Jill Lepore’s Untrustworthy (but Pulitzer-Worthy!) History
I congratulate Jill Lepore on the award of this year’s Pulitzer Prize in history. She seems like a nice person, she writes very well, and I learned some interesting things from the book that earned her the prize, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. But as I said in my review of the book in the March issue of National Review, it is not, in the final analysis, a good book. Lepore’s engaging narrative history is marred throughout by a silly polemic against originalism, an interpretive approach to the Constitution that she shows no sign of really understanding. And her skewed reading of America’s legal history — peppered, for instance, with repeated denials that women were even citizens before they gained suffrage — should make it difficult for any historically informed reader to take the book seriously.
Are Democrats Now the Party of Free Markets? Don’t Bet on It.
Even the abundance wing of the left wants “a much stronger government,” in movement champion Ezra Klein’s words.
Cutting the Gerrymander Knot
The Supreme Court rules against using race in districting
