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Ideas · Essay

A Himalayan flood, a climate report, and a $20 million claim. The record is thinner than the headlines.

A study from World Weather Attribution linked the Himalayan disaster to human-caused warming, but its methods were later described as deeply flawed. Nepal’s government is now planning to take a $20 million compensation claim to the United Nations.
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The Front Page
Ideas · Essay

American AI faces a regulatory trap. China is positioned to sprint ahead.

Democratic leaders are calling for a slowdown, while Trump is pushing pro-AI policies. The real contest is not just technical; it is whether the U.S. regulates itself out of the race.
By Tessa Vaughan · Sep 21
U.S.

Trump bars Politico, MS NOW, and CNN from the White House. The First Amendment fight is now on the record.

President Trump said on Truth Social that the three outlets are banned, then told reporters there is something wrong with a country that allows people to write purposely negative stories. The clash is not subtle: the White House is testing the boundaries of press access, and the press is invoking the First Amendment.
By Ruth Barrow · Sep 21
World

Israel won the battles. The war now turns on accountability.

Three years after October 7, Hamas is still active, Israel faces international isolation, and tens of thousands of civilians have died. With elections nearing, the fight over who bears responsibility for the failures has moved to the center of Israeli politics.
By Elias Navarro · Sep 21
Ideas · Essay

Taylor Lorenz’s new libertarian pitch puts free speech back at the center.

The technology journalist says America’s First Amendment is what makes the country great, and that freedom of expression is being destroyed. Her frame is less about politics as usual than about whether the internet still rewards liberty over alarmism and control.
By Tessa Vaughan · Sep 19
Ideas · Essay

Yom Kippur is a reminder that time is scarce, and that changes how we live

David Wolpe writes that confronting death can sharpen what matters, even as ordinary irritations return. On Yom Kippur, he argues, that clarity is the point: not to despair, but to live more deliberately.
By Tessa Vaughan · Sep 19
Ideas · Essay

A conservative warning says radical ideas are moving inside the movement

Erick Erickson says extreme views are being funded and placed inside conservative institutions and church organizations. The fight is no longer about the margins, but about who controls the machinery of American conservatism.
By Tessa Vaughan · Sep 19
Ideas · Essay

Hasan Piker’s remark is a warning about the political left’s standards. Democrats keep rewarding it.

Hasan Piker said America is 'worse' than al-Qaeda in terms of deaths, then argued that a U.S.-made Tomahawk missile strike in Iran was 'an act of terror.' The real story is not his reach. It is the willingness of Democrats and progressives to keep amplifying him.
By Tessa Vaughan · Sep 19
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