Today's Headlines: Trump posted that New Mexico should immediately rename itself “New America,” claiming it would raise home values and incomes and maybe even make its elections honest again. Speaking of elections, over 10 million Americans have already voted early in the midterms, with Texas early voting kicking off in the Talarico-Paxton race, where Paxton is reportedly losing suburban women even with Elon’s hundreds of millions behind him. Less fun: Wired reports election offices in at least 32 states have received suspicious white powder letters, some intercepted but others not, with at least four states evacuating offices and similar letters hitting congressional offices in both parties, including one to Rep. Hillary Scholten warning of an “impending civil war.” On top of that, Iran is reportedly obsessed with using oil prices in the final two weeks to punish Trump at the polls, Carter-1980 style, and those energy prices are also tied to the war in Ukraine, where Trump says he’s open to Putin’s Beijing summit but wants to talk “denuclearization” rather than Ukraine since Russia has been “fine” there. Fine?! Meanwhile, Zelensky told Bloomberg he believes steps have been taken to push Ukraine to capitulate, and Trump responded by posting that Zelensky probably never wanted peace. Over in France, the weekend’s riots led to curfews in Paris, Nice, and Lille, including an 11pm to 6am curfew in two looted areas of Paris, while the interior minister offered to resign (Macron declined), the justice minister admitted the government failed to contain the violence, the damage count doubled to at least 3,000 pillaged businesses, and another mass protest is being called for next weekend. In performative generosity news, Elon responded to Anthropic putting 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund by promising one SpaceX share to every kid in America next year, roughly $10.66 billion at $146 a share, with no details on how it would work, so let’s believe it when we see it. Finally, it was a big day at the Supreme Court, which refused to revive plea deals that would have spared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad the death penalty, keeping it on the table for his June 2028 trial, and then agreed to hear a case on whether Congress could constitutionally ban home distilling in 1868, which will decide whether your bathtub gin habit is a federal crime.
Resources/Articles mentioned:
WaPo: Trump says New Mexico should ‘immediately’ change name to New America
NBC News: Tracking the 2026 Early Vote: Midterm Elections
Wired: Election Offices in at Least 32 States Have Received Suspicious Letters
WaPo: Tehran seeks to punish Trump in midterms with oil price pain, Iranian officials say
WSJ: Trump Says He Would Be Open to Meeting With Putin and Xi
NYT: Trump Is Pushing Ukraine to Surrender to Russia, Zelensky Says
NYT: France Imposes Curfews in Parts of Paris and Other Cities After Nationwide Rioting
AP News: Musk pledges to give a share of his SpaceX company to 'every kid in America'
Axios: Accused 9/11 mastermind loses Supreme Court plea deal bid
AP News: Supreme Court agrees to review a Reconstruction-era ban on distilling spirits in private homes
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