curated citations to news sources
BBC: Trump faces major headache with incidents in Qatar and Poland
Into the two big foreign policy arenas sucking up much of the Trump administration’s time and effort come two major challenges in less than 24 hours.
Israel’s air raid on the offices of Hamas in Doha and a Russian drone incursion deep into Polish airspace represent two massive headaches for the White House.
And, arguably, two major affronts to the president’s authority.
After all, these are conflicts – Ukraine and Gaza – US President Donald Trump said he would deal with swiftly and decisively.
In each case, a leader he sees as a natural, if problematic ally – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – has thrown a massive spanner in the wheels of White House peace-making.
(BBC more…)
Reuters: Israel will kill Hamas leaders next time if they survived Qatar attack, Israeli official says
Al Jazeera: Trump response to Israel’s Qatar attack undermines US credibility
WSJ: NATO Planes Shoot Down Russian Drones Deep Inside Poland
Polish prime minister says line has been crossed; ‘Closest we have been to open conflict since World War II’
Hill: NATO’s Article 4 invoked over Russian drones in Poland: What to know
Jay Kuo: Russia Provokes a Crisis
This was no errant drone that strayed out of Ukrainian airspace.
Atlantic: The Beginning of the End of NATO
WSJ: Putin Taunts Trump and NATO
The Russian seems to think he can do what he wants without fear of U.S. sanction.
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – September 10, 2025
Last night, Polish forces shot down 19 Russian drones that invaded Poland’s airspace during a massive Russian air attack on Ukraine. Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Polish operation was backed by NATO member forces. Today, Poland officially activated Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which triggers a consultation whenever “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
TNR: Russia Ramps Up NATO Attacks With Threat to Finland
Vladimir Putin apparently took Donald Trump’s bizarre response to drones over Poland as a green light to escalate.
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Miles Taylor: The ritual of remembrance is different this year. Here’s why.
A quarter-century after 9/11, the threat is coming from within.
Qasim Rashid, Esq.: Three Lessons, 24 Years After 9/11
As we mourn and reflect on the past, three key lessons to ensure we do right by the future
(Qasim Rashid, Esq. more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – September 10, 2025
This afternoon at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, a gunman shot and killed 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist and founder of Turning Point USA, which pushes for right-wing politics on high school, college, and university campuses. The killing appears to have been targeted. A manhunt is underway for the killer.
Although nothing more is currently known about the event, President Trump in an address from the Oval Office blamed “the radical left” for the shooting and vowed that his administration “will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
Trump listed incidents of what he called “radical left political violence.” As The Guardian noted, absent from his list was violence against Democrats, including the murder in June of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband by a man who had a hit list of 45 Democratic elected officials.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Slate: Charlie Kirk Was a Trump Force Like No Other. It’s Clear What Comes Now.
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Political violence now seems to be perversely expected in the United States, and many have noted the irony that, in what we now know were his final moments, Kirk was debating the nature of gun violence in America. The kid at the lectern asked him how many mass shooting incidents occur in the country every year, and Kirk responded with a gross comment about whether or not he should consider gang violence as part of that total, taunting liberal college kids to the end. His martyrdom, I imagine, will be quickly consecrated by his followers. They will seek vengeance. They’ll redouble their efforts to inflict Kirk’s poisonous vision onto our bodies and institutions. The long night creeps onward. Even here, in the afterlife, Kirk is good at his job.
(Slate more…)Wired: ‘War Is Here’: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting With Calls for Violence
Frederick Joseph: The Gun’s Eulogy For Charlie Kirk
“It’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.” — Charlie Kirk
Jennifer Rubin: Economically Tone Deaf and Selectively Outraged
The murder of Charlie Kirk and shooting at a Colorado high school are abhorrent reminders that we cannot become numb to violence in any form. Political violence is never acceptable. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, Donald Trump has chosen to politicize Kirk’s murder, blaming the rhetoric of the “radical left”—all before anyone has been identified, let alone arrested for the murder.
Sadly, he and the MAGA troops reserve outrage only when Republicans are targeted (compare the near-silence when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was targeted, the mockery when Paul Pelosi was nearly killed, and the snide remarks when two Minnesota Democrats were assassinated). As we saw yesterday, Democrats condemn political violence whoever is targeted, as such acts have no place in a democracy. Nor does selective outrage or scapegoating broad swaths of the country for violent attacks.
As we commemorate 9/11, we hold the families and loved ones of those lost in our hearts and remember the heroic conduct of so many Americans on that day.
We can be a good, brave, and decent people. We must demand the same of our leaders.
Bulwark: Why Charlie Kirk Mattered So Much to the Right
More than anyone not named Trump, he changed the way conservatives understood modern media.
Dean Obeidallah: Trump orders flags lowered for Charlie Kirk but after Trump supporter killed Dems in Minn, he refused to even call Governor
Trump then stokes hate versus Dems
Thom Hartmann: Killer Democracy: How a Corrupt Supreme Court Turned Debate Into Death
Scalia’s Heller ruling — and the decisions that followed — didn’t just reshape gun laws; they transformed political disagreements into open-season assassinations…
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James Eagle: US deportation on an industrial scale
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The chart below reveals the sheer scale of what’s being built: a deportation infrastructure funded at industrial levels. This isn’t a moral judgement, simply an observation of facts. What we’re witnessing is a fundamental transformation in how America approaches immigration enforcement. It is a shift so dramatic it rewrites decades of precedent.
…On a separate note…
Last week, the Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia was raided. Federal agents detained 475 workers in what became ICE’s largest-ever worksite enforcement action. Construction halted immediately, diplomatic tensions with Seoul erupted, and critical EV supply chain timelines shifted overnight.
The reason this is particularly interesting is that it reveals there’s much more to Trump’s immigration policy than meets the eye. This isn’t simply about deportation. It also achieves certain political objectives.
Consider that Trump has strong views on climate change and actively supports the oil industry. It’s difficult not to see this as a politically motivated raid. Why else would you raid a foreign company’s battery plant? This appears to be a direct attempt to disrupt America’s energy transition infrastructure, which Trump openly dislikes.
(James Eagle more…)Guardian: Leaked ICE document shows worker detained in Hyundai raid had valid visa
At least one of the Korean workers swept up in a huge immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor factory site in Georgia last week was living and working legally in the US, according to an internal federal government document obtained by the Guardian.
(Guardian more…)
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Noah Berlatsky: Pritzker Scares Trump Away
This week Trump announced that he would not be sending National Guard divisions to Chicago after all. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed as much.
This was a striking reversal. This weekend Trump posted an ugly meme referencing the Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now and suggesting that the federal government was going to invade and wage war on Chicago. Now, suddenly, he’s given the whole idea up. What changed?
Trump fears resistance
We can’t know for sure what Trump is thinking because he lies all the time, changes his mind on a whim, and is barely sentient enough to have actual motivations. But to the extent he explained himself, he seems to have decided that he would prefer to send troops to places where he’s going to get more support from elected officials.
(Noah Berlatsky more…)
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Intercept: Rand Paul Reveals Venezuela Boat Attack Was a Drone Strike
The senator told The Intercept the attack defied rules of engagement and came from a drone. A legal expert calls it murder.
(Intercept more…)
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404 Media: The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes
Linkedin has been joking about “vibe coding cleanup specialists,” but it’s actually a growing profession.
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Judd Legum: Trump’s $10 billion Epstein lawsuit takes a big hit
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Borowitz: Trump Claims Hunter Biden Traveled Back in Time to Forge Epstein Drawing
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Decoding Fox News: Fox News: The Jeffrey Epstein Vortex
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 9/7/25
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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