Plus: A thwarted terror attack in the United Kingdom.
• The bad news is that the Omani copilot is now leading in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Rhode Island.
• A FlyDubai flight destined for Tel Aviv and carrying more than 170 people was targeted in what top Israeli officials are now calling an attempted terrorist attack. The flight’s captain was suddenly stabbed by his copilot, which caused the airplane to fall 17,000 feet in less than two minutes. The copilot intended to take over the airplane and crash it. But his plans were thwarted by the flight’s heroic passengers and crew. According to testimony, the captain of the flight opened the cockpit door before he collapsed from his wounds. Several Israelis entered the cockpit, subdued the terrorist, and took back control of the plane. Two off-duty pilots then took over and safely landed the plane in Saudi Arabia. The quick thinking of the passengers prevented a disaster, and the fact that everybody survived will allow for a thorough investigation. But this near-tragedy should serve as another reminder that although 9/11 is now a historical memory, the evil that animated it has not gone away.
• The effusiveness of President Donald Trump’s welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping was nauseating. Perhaps it reflected a veteran New York real estate macher’s view that some schmoozing rarely goes amiss. But it was never going to sway Xi. The meeting’s outcome was meager. The U.S. and China will talk more about AI and establish some sort of “hotline.” There was some tariff easing, and the current trade truce was extended slightly. Amusingly, the world’s “green leader” will resume buying U.S. coal. There are few signs of genuine détente. Jimmy Lai was not freed. Meanwhile, relations between China and the European Union are heading for major turbulence. The increasing sophistication of China’s industry and its depressed domestic economy have led to a surge in exports to the EU of such a size and range that Brussels is now talking about the threat of deindustrialization. For its part, Beijing is warning that higher tariffs will be met with retaliation. This will be messy.
• The Republican Party’s prospects in this fall’s midterm elections are deteriorating, and much of the blame rests on Trump’s sweeping unilateral tariffs. The tariffs were destined to make many goods more expensive, and Americans have felt the pinch. In turn, they have grown distrustful of Republicans on cost-of-living issues. Trump’s repeated insistence that foreigners pay the full burden of tariffs and that the affordability crisis is a “hoax” has understandably fallen on deaf ears. Additionally, many states with competitive House and Senate races—such as Ohio, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, and Iowa—have many businesses that depend on overseas parts and materials and have suffered from tariffs. The Iran war has added to the pain, but it at least had a national-security justification. The tariffs are a bad economic policy, and the political backlash against them is yet another reminder of the wisdom of the Founders, who believed that major changes needed to be approved by Congress. Trump chose to govern by decree, and Republicans increasingly look like they will pay a hefty political price.
• Alongside chief executives from leading AI companies, Trump signed an executive order rebranding the technology as “Super Intelligence” within the executive branch. We’re not sure how that name is supposed to be less frightening. Trump seeks to head off AI regulation and data center restrictions, mostly from state and local governments. If he wants true federal preemption, Congress must pass a law. Trump also inked a “morally binding” agreement with the AI executives under which they will self-police their products through internal controls and external audits. That is the right approach, though companies should worry more about legal liability for negligence than the president’s disapproval. Yet many incumbents would rather face a regulatory regime that absolves them of risk while blocking potential competition from upstarts and open-source models. Compared with that rent-seeking scheme, even a toothless promise from companies is preferable.
• There were many objections to President Joe Biden’s brief, unconstitutional student-loan forgiveness program. Among them was the concern that many borrowers would default when repayments were set to resume and they discovered how much interest had accrued since Biden hit the pause button. Well, that’s what happened. By the outset of the second Trump administration, nearly 10 million borrowers were past due on their bills. That number is still over 9 million—about 50 percent higher than the rate of default ten years ago. The administration is doing what it can to claw back that roughly $250 billion in delinquent debt, but it’s also trying to prevent borrowers from going so deeply into debt in the first place. The Department of Education has finalized a rule that will limit borrowers’ access to federally subsidized student loans if they intend to pursue degrees in disciplines that typically lead to lower-paying jobs, such as social work, teaching assistance, music, drama, and cosmetology. The virtue of these fields is not at issue. If the government is lending money at all, however, it ought to be looking for a return on its investment.
• Even by the standards of our era, the controversy surrounding a reelection ad for Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a bizarre one. The ad features an absurdly obese young man named Brad playing video games. “Brad has turned relaxing into a full-time profession,” Sanders’s voice-over declares. “But you, you actually work hard. You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad, who just choose not to work. That’s why I launched a welfare-to-work requirement.” Commentator Jack Posobiec, who has never encountered a topic too dumb to turn into a social media controversy, decried the ad as an attack on white men and urged Sanders to apologize. Other commentators followed suit. Most recipients of food stamps and Medicaid in Arkansas are, however, white. Huckabee declared on X, “If you’re young, healthy, and get government assistance, you should work, go to school, or volunteer.” She’s right, and critics of the ad are demonstrating an almost woke-ish hypersensitivity to any negative portrayal of a white man—not to mention ignoring that the ad ends with a lighter Brad smiling as he straightens his tie, presumably to go to work.
• A state judge ruled that New York City’s government improperly rolled out its pied-à-terre tax on high-value secondary homes. The lawsuit was brought by homeowners, who argued that the city failed to do its due diligence before sending out 17,000 notices warning of tax liability. The judge agreed, finding that the botched process violated plaintiffs’ due process rights. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tax is blocked for now, and the city will have to make individualized determinations for each property. The levy has other legal defects that could come before courts. New York’s constitution limits property taxes to 2.5 percent, so Mamdani has labeled his cash grab a “surcharge.” A surcharge on what, if not property values? The tax is also openly discriminatory against a subset of nonresidents who can’t affect the policy through local elections. Mamdani campaigned on taxing the rich simply to punish their existence, and that is what he intends to do—however haphazardly.
• Contrary to hysterical reporting, the Supreme Court did not green-light the Trump administration’s practice of removing illegal immigrants to third countries (that is, countries other than their original homes). Congress explicitly grants the executive branch that power by statute, and any restrictions on it should come from Congress. The Court’s conservative majority did, however, exert discipline over renegade lower-court judges. In 1996, Congress stripped jurisdiction over removal issues from district judges. That’s because aliens with no right to be present in our country do not have the broad due process protections of citizens. In 2024, the Supreme Court invalidated nationwide injunctions, by which imperious district judges were trying to impose their policy preferences on the parties before them and on the whole country. Yet District Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee in Boston, tried to dictate novel due process protections for removable aliens, and he did it by certifying a class of such aliens to create the effect of a nationwide injunction. A First Circuit panel, including two Biden appointees, tried to let him get away with it. The Supreme Court stayed Murphy’s ruling and fast-tracked the case for full consideration later this year—and rightly so.
• Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from the Supreme Court’s consideration of Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. Alito correctly said that ethics rules do not require him to recuse, which is why he didn’t step aside when the Court first took the case. But after the usual left-wing agitation, he told Bloomberg that recusal was “the prudent step.” This illustrates the depressing power of activists’ recusal campaigns and the absurdity of the Suncor case. Activists have sued two energy companies in state court, claiming that they can use local tort law to impose ruinous liability on individual oil and gas companies for their contribution to global climate change. If Alito owned stock in the defendant companies, he would be required to recuse. He owns stock in other oil and gas companies, however. If the Suncor theory is permitted, any company in the American energy sector could face materially devastating losses at the hands of blue-city juries. Indeed, under the logic of Suncor, the same fate could await any company that uses oil or gas energy. This is most of the economy. Indeed, the suit threatens anyone who drives a car or heats a home.
• In what could prove to be a turning point in the conflict against Iran, U.S. Central Command has largely reopened the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military created a safe passage that hugs the coast of Oman and has been providing military protection to ships transiting through it. At the same time, the Gulf states have begun shuttling oil through the strait with vessels often controlled by the producers themselves, then pumping that oil onto commercial tankers from the safety of the Gulf of Oman. By some estimates, the amount of oil getting through the strait is about 80 percent of the pre-war level. The military effort is resource-intensive and not sustainable over the long run, and the Iranians could always choose to escalate in surprising and unwelcome ways. But there is much less temptation now to give the Iranians a generous memorandum-type deal in exchange for opening the strait. After exhausting some unpalatable alternatives, the U.S. is increasingly denying the Iranians use of what they assumed was their trump card.
• Five men were arrested outside Royal Air Force Fairford, a military base in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there are “strong indications that Iran played a part” in a suspected terror plot on the air base. Some speculated that this wasn’t a terrorist attack at all. But if this were garden-variety fuel thievery, as the theory holds, you’d figure there would be easier targets than a military base. Still, the last thing Burnham—a member of the Labour Party and self-described socialist—wants is to get sucked deeper into the U.S. conflict with Iran. Unfortunately for him, and for everyone else, the Iranians may not be giving him much of an option. Considering the stakes, it seems a little incongruous that the five men were released on bail. The prime minister said the men were released “with the strictest possible bail conditions” and that authorities have this case under “the strongest grip and the closest control.” We hope he’s right.
• Russia’s shadow war against the West is intensifying, as arsonists recently set fire to a drone factory in Estonia. Three suspects have been arrested, and Estonia has accused Russia of being behind the attack. Formal if implausible deniability over acts of sabotage is part of Moscow’s game. Estonia’s using evidence to publicly point the finger sends a message to Moscow that intimidation won’t work. Given Russia’s war against Ukraine and aggression elsewhere, it’s not surprising that Trump’s decision to invite Vladimir Putin to the G-20 meeting in Atlanta this fall is controversial. The best that can be said about it is that maintaining channels of communication at a dangerous time can reduce the risk of misunderstandings. It could also be an opportunity to send a quiet warning behind closed doors. But it should not be a moment to forgive or forget.
• The story of an alleged 2024 gang rape of a female student at Cornell by seven members of a fraternity has become a social media sensation. Politicians such as New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and celebrities have joined in the demagoguery. But the facts of the case remain unclear. No criminal charges have been brought. According to the district attorney, the alleged victim provided a written statement showing that she had consented to the events that she later described as rape. If so, the fact that the young men behaved with boorish depravity is not a prosecutable crime under New York law. The case only went viral this month after the victim filed suit seeking money from an array of defendants, including Cornell, the bar that had served her that night, and the national organizations of the fraternity and her own sorority. Cooler heads should wait for more evidence. We can already say, however, that the picture of debauchery and moral callousness by all involved is appalling.