Helen Fessenden

We identified 12 shootings by federal agents that led to the deaths or injuries of citizens & immigrants since Sept.

Nearly every time, the Trump admin blamed the injured and dead. Experts say this apparent lack of accountability demands that local authorities step up to investigate federal agents.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

EU rushes to defend Spain from Trump’s embargo menace President Donald Trump’s threat to cut all ties with Spain after it opposed his war on Iran again puts the bloc’s unity to the test.

During the Greenland standoff, the EU avoided rushing into a forceful response, patting itself on the back for remaining united.

Now, the bloc is dealing with a Trump riled up by a SCOTUS decision that overturned his core tariff agenda.

With @aitorehm.bsky.social

www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...

Anthropic’s AI tool Claude central to U.S. campaign in Iran, amid a bitter feud Anthropic’s AI tool Claude is playing a key role in the U.S. military’s campaign in Iran, amid a bitter fight with the Pentagon over the terms of its use in war.

Less than 24 hours after the Pentagon declared Claude a threat to national security, Anthropic's chatbot was helping identify targets as the U.S. launched strikes on Iran www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

From Hamas attack to U.S. war with Iran, violence forges a new Middle East An Iran-led order that long backed the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis – is gone. What will follow is one of the top questions of modern geopolitics.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel to transform the Middle East.

It did, on a scale comparable to the carving up of the Ottoman Empire a century ago — but not remotely in the ways Sinwar had in mind

The great Steve Hendrix reports from Jerusalem

wapo.st/3N6j0yl

Spanish prime minister slams Trump’s war in Iran, escalating feud By criticizing the U.S.-led attack and refusing to bow to Trump’s threat of trade retaliation, Pedro Sánchez set himself apart from other European leaders.

SPANISH PM PEDRO SÁNCHEZ DENIES U.S. USE OF BASES FOR MIDDLE EAST WAR

“Twenty-three years ago, another American administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East. ... We must learn from history, and we cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions of people.”

wapo.st/3OLyzfy

'Substantial reason to believe' Tony Gonzales had sex with his staffer, House probe finds The matter is now in the hands of the Ethics Committee as some colleagues demand his resignation.

EXCLUSIVE: Congressional investigators have found “a substantial reason to believe” that Rep. Tony Gonzales had a sexual relationship with a subordinate — an apparent violation of House rules.

Bettors wagered $54 million on Khamenei’s death. Now they’re not getting paid. Kalshi, a prediction market site, has sparked outrage after freezing $54 million in bets on the death of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, citing a rule against profiting from death.

New: I talked to the traders who bet Khamenei would die.

One, an Israeli ex-pat, would've won $63,000 before Kalshi froze the bet: “I was booking my trip to Courchevel.”

“American commercial immorality on steroids," @chrismurphyct.bsky.social told me

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

The U.S. torpedoed a ship w/ 180 crew that was 2k miles from Iran

It had just been in a joint exercise that....the US had also been in.

The ship “thought it was safe in international waters,” said Hegseth, “instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,”

Just 32 survivors.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/w...

Trump Is Expected to Endorse Cornyn Republican strategists hope the endorsement will make the Texas Senate race less expensive and less competitive.

NEW: President Trump is expected to endorse John Cornyn over Ken Paxton in the Texas GOP primary runoff, three people briefed on the deliberations told @ashleyrparker.bsky.social and @michaelscherer.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

A new Rembrandt discovered! Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633) has just been confirmed as an authentic work by the young Rembrandt. 

The painting will be on display at the Rijksmuseum from March 4.

👁️ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/themes/rembrandt/story/a-new-rembrandt-discovered

Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death The capital city is Finnish’ed with car-related fatalities.

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.”

All I can think about is Jeff Bezos saying that he slashed jobs at the Washington Post — including those of foreign correspondents in the Middle East — based on "the data," and a few weeks later a whole war breaks out in the Middle East that these laid off folks would have covered as true experts.

Democratic state lawmakers in New York to back tax hike on rich The state Senate and Assembly budget proposals are set to include plans to boost taxes on millionaires, a plan opposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Democratic state lawmakers in New York to back tax hike on rich

* U.S. JUDGE RULES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNLAWFULLY SOUGHT TO UNDO NEW YORK'S MANHATTAN CONGESTION PRICING PROGRAM

@reuters.com

New York Times runs in-house ad asking listeners to “support any news organization dedicated to original reporting” The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has voiced a new ad encouraging listeners to support any news organization dedicated to original reporting — even if it's not the Times. It's Sulzberger's...

"Not asking you to click on any link, just subscribe to a real news organization with real journalists doing firsthand, fact-based reporting."

A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, urging people to support "original reporting" wherever they find it.

www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/new-...

ICE training was slashed, records show, corroborating whistleblower claims Previously unreported records also offer new details about what was cut from ICE’s basic training program. Concerns about the quality of ICE agents’ training have mounted for months.

"The DHS records obtained and analyzed by The Post show that the program was first cut to 47 days in August and further reduced in September to 42 days. Since then, all trainings have been on a 42-day schedule, the records show." www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

For bigger companies, the idea that companies would quickly raise prices on existing inventory to reflect rising input costs from tariffs was never really how it was going to work. The pass-through was more likely to come when those businesses roll out new model year inventory.

Supreme Court weighs whether smoking weed can eliminate your right to a gun The issue before the court is whether the law meets a strict Second Amendment standard that any gun restriction must be consistent with the “Nation’s historical tradition.”

SCOTUS talked A LOT about drugs today -- and not just weed. Lots of hypotheticals about Ambien of all things, but also references to ayahuasca (!!). Some justices seemed unconvinced that taking a weed gummy a few times a week is enough to take someone's gun away. We'll see.

Coordinated with Macron - sometimes that Franco-German cooperation does work - Merz announces that France and Germany have set up a 'nuclear steering group' and that DE will participaty with conventional forces in French nuclear exercises.

France offers to station nuclear weapons across Europe for the first time President Emmanuel Macron lays out nuclear doctrine of ‘forward deterrence’

Long speech (as expected) but will comfort many EU countries worried about Russia and lessening of US security guarantee. Also important for FR to lock in deeper cooperation before 2027 election.
www.ft.com/content/45d9...

I help a lot of people with their budgets but I don't go item by item and tell them what not to spend their money on. Only you know which items are a necessity. If a $7 cup of coffee is going to keep you from slapping a coworker and getting fired, by all means, spend that $7 on a cup of coffee.

Sanders pitches $4.4 trillion tax on billionaires, in 2028 marker The measure comes as Democrats began to jostle ahead of the upcoming presidential primary.

New: Bernie Sanders to unveil $4.4 trillion tax on America's ~1,000 billionaires, saying it would pay for:
— Medicare to cover dental/vision/hearing
— Teacher pay at $60K/yr min.
— $3K/person checks (under $150K/yr)
— Universal childcare
— Housing expansion
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

When newsroom salaries and ink barrels get too expensive.

These are all AP feeds.

“.. this is more or less offering a proxy market on assassination,” Amanda Fischer, a former chief of staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote on X ..

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/middle...

LINDSEY GRAHAM: Our goal is to make sure Iran cannot become again the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

WELKER: Does the the president have a plan to guarantee that happens?

GRAHAM: No. It's not his job.

An Ohio newspaper has a new star writer. It isn’t human. At the 184-year-old Cleveland Plain Dealer, a top editor’s push to let AI draft news articles is boosting traffic — and spooking staffers.

At a Cleveland newspaper, reporters assigned to the suburbs “are now expected to file four stories a day with the help of AI.”

Also: one reporter “said they were caught off guard when their annual performance review indicated insufficient AI use.”

Gift link wapo.st/4aX44e1

Trump starting a war against Iran is perhaps the most unpopular major use of military force in recent memory, as measured by polls taken just after each attack. Eg, support *among Republicans* is lower than overall approval was for invading Iraq
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/polls-trum...

NEW: Behind the scenes, a lobbying alliance of Saudi Arabia's MBS and Israel's Netanyahu urged Trump to level a major strike against Iran in the days before the president's decision (even as as Riyadh publicly advocated for diplomacy) www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...