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🚨 HAPPENING NOW: President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning before signing a security deal with Greenland and Denmark.
🔥 STUNNING: Record number of US college students say violence is OK to stop controversial speakers - NY Post
👀 NOTABLE: In Trump, Xi Sees ‘Rare Window’ to Convince Taiwan That Resistance Is Futile - WSJ (free)
‼️ OUTRAGE: Family sounds alarm after 83-year-old grandma dies under Canada’s assisted-death program - Fox News
🇨🇳 QUESTION: Will an AI hotline between the US and China emerge as the only meaningful outcome of the summit? - Axios
➡️ JUST RELEASED: Hayden Panettiere died from accidental overdose involving fentanyl - AP
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Last week, the longlists for the National Book Awards were announced. Among the 20 authors in the fiction and nonfiction categories, nearly all are straight white males. Most are also on the political right, some even on the far right. Remarkably, mainstream media outlets haven’t reported this, perhaps because they don’t think it’s noteworthy. It’s as if we were living in 1956 rather than 2026.
If you’re scratching your head at this “news,” well, it’s because I made it up. Or rather, I inverted the particulars about the authors’ identities and their political views to make a point: If today, as a reader, you recoil at the thought of a time in which minorities were systematically marginalized when it came to the literary world’s public honors (and so much else), shouldn’t you also recoil now that the tables have been almost completely turned? And if you object to the right’s efforts to politicize the arts, won’t you also object when the efforts come from the left?
Full story at NYT (free).
"It’s deeply ironic that the UN has an entire institution devoted to protecting cultural heritage, yet they promote mass migration and are actively destroying the greatest cultures and most extraordinary heritage."
Trump taunted Iran with annihilation as the Iranian representative sat in the room.
Vice President JD Vance’s antifraud task force is set to remove hundreds of thousands of enrollments from the Affordable Care Act’s public exchanges, saying those enrollees don’t meet eligibility requirements or don’t exist at all.
Tuesday’s enforcement action, directed by the Vance-led White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, represents one of the largest administrative purges targeting individual insurance exchanges since the Trump administration’s crackdown on fraud began last year.
Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, are set to announce they are canceling subsidy payments for allegedly unauthorized and fraudulent enrollments in the ACA, also known as Obamacare, for 760,000 individual accounts, according to administration officials. They say those cancellations would amount to saving an estimated $2.2 billion in taxpayer funds.
Full story at WSJ (free).
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new program aimed at recent high school graduates and college dropouts that will identify and train young talent building artificial intelligence products.
The so-called Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a free program that offers housing, computing resources and travel funds, is meant to be an alternative for students that might otherwise attend elite universities, the firm said in a blog post Tuesday.
According to the firm, it’s looking for people who are already experimenting with technology and want to “learn at the speed of Silicon Valley,” through a combination of training from seasoned founders and building their own projects.
Full story at Bloomberg (paywall).
The GOP faces an ominous landscape this November. President Trump’s job-approval rating is underwater. Voters prefer Democrats to Republicans. Inflation remains above target. Interest rates and gasoline prices continue to rise.
The map favors Democrats. They need to net only three seats to win control of the House. A swing of four seats puts them in charge of the Senate. They expect a blue wave. “Donald Trump is absolutely on the ballot in November, and the American people are going to send a message loudly and clearly on Election Day that even Donald Trump cannot ignore,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said recently.
Look at each state, however, and it’s a different picture. The list of competitive Senate seats is growing—and not entirely in the Democrats’ favor. The complex scene is a reminder that local problems and individual candidates can matter more than the national environment. The ghost of Tip O’Neill haunts the 2026 election.
Full story at WSJ (free).
GOP Sen. John Curtis calls for probe of Trump Jr. after wedding party bankrolled by Russian oligarch -
APToys ‘R’ Us is opening 120 new stores as grownup collectors fuel toy sales -
NBCRepublicans’ Cash Blitz Meets a $5-Gas Election -
PoliticoU.S. proposes exchanging AI safety alerts with China -
NBCThe data center backlash is reshaping American politics — one community at a time -
NPRThe rising price tag of romance -
AxiosAre we developing a distaste for effort? -
FT(paywall)
For years, I’ve warned about the dangers of big banks using the financial system to push political agendas. But thanks to Consumers’ Research and the Open Banking Rule, consumers have access to more competitive banking options than ever before. That’s why I’m proud to stand with Consumers’ Research as they fight to keep you in charge of your financial future, not big banks that discriminate against conservatives and crush competition. Learn more about their work here.
For years, my friends at the American Energy Institute sounded the alarm on the progressive war on affordable energy. But thanks to the Trump administration’s commitment to safe, reliable nuclear energy, America’s energy future is brighter than ever. That’s why I am partnering with my friends at American Energy Institute to drive economic prosperity through abundant, affordable, and reliable energy for everyone. Learn more about the bright future of American energy here.