“The White House announced Monday it had sent Blanche’s nomination to the Senate, a move Trump telegraphed last week during remarks at a private event in the Rose Garden. Blanche formerly served as one of Trump’s personal lawyers before the president picked him for the No. 2 position at the Justice Department.”

“For now, the large lettering on the building’s facade still features “Donald J. Trump.” But the Kennedy Center’s general counsel said in a memo to staff that they have until June 12 to remove it to comply with the court order.”

“But as it became clear the Israeli leader wouldn’t ignore a direct attack, Trump shifted his tone. Keep it limited, and don’t let it escalate, he said according to people familiar with the conversation.”

“Trump had hoped to contain the flare-up in fighting to keep it from disrupting work on a peace deal he is trying to hammer out with Tehran. His struggle to squelch Israel’s retaliatory strikes shows the difficulty of managing a situation in which the U.S. and Israel’s priorities are diverging sharply, particularly over Lebanon, as he tries to wind down the war.”

“New district lines in states like California have pitted once friendly House incumbents against each other, while other candidates attempting to make political comebacks are willing to use their sharp elbows against their successors to get ahead. Some races in both parties have centered on who is the most or least MAGA, showing the central role of President Trump in the elections.”

“While political races have always had a certain degree of ugliness, some campaigns this year have also embraced artificial intelligence to create fake images of their opponents and give a new look to negative ads.”

“Trump administration officials say the immigrants failed to disclose unlawful behavior during their naturalization proceedings.”

“Since 2022, many public arguments about the war, even in Europe and the U.S., have adopted the narrative put out by Russian propaganda, tacitly assuming that Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, would eventually lose. Helping Ukraine was a way to stave off disaster, nothing more. When the Trump administration stopped sending military and financial aid to Kyiv in 2025, some in Washington expected (and maybe wanted) the end to come quickly.”

“Instead, Europeans have provided money. Ukrainian society produced networked situational awareness. And when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured the Gulf states in late March and signed a series of security agreements, something changed in the international narrative.”

“Vaccine manufacturers have prepared updated versions of the annual flu shot, as they normally do. The FDA has green-lighted those recipes, as it normally does. And normally, the next step would fall to the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel, known as ACIP, which guides the agency’s recommendations for which Americans should take those shots…”

“But in March, a ruling from a federal judge effectively suspended ACIP, on the grounds that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had violated the lawful procedure for selecting new members when he hastily remade the panel’s roster last June. Currently, no functional ACIP exists to guide this autumn’s immunization campaigns.”

“Starmer is facing a revolt in his own party — he may be ousted by a man who’s not even in Parliament yet — and were Trump to submit to a secret confidence vote from his party’s senators, he’d likely confront a similar fate.”

— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), on X.

“The pushback from some members of Trump’s own party, who have long said they have constitutional concerns about the program, comes amid broader intraparty friction. Last week, several conservatives voted against advancing legislation to reauthorize the spy program alongside Democrats, who are protesting Trump’s pick of Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the intelligence community.”

“As the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz drags on and US gasoline prices remain high, Trump’s approval ratings have slumped near the lowest in either of his presidential terms. In particular, Americans have soured on his handling of the economy, a category that’s usually top of mind for voters and had long been Trump’s silver bullet in a career marked by tumult and scandal.”

“President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said Monday he’d warned Hochul of the surge before she signed a bill late last month curbing operations and banning masked ICE agents in her state.”

Said Homan: “You’re going to see more ICE than you’ve ever seen in New York City, and it’s coming. I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming.”

“Around the same time, an arsonist comparing himself to Mangione set fire to a Kimberly-Clark warehouse outside Los Angeles. This follows all sorts of free-floating rage that has been going on for months and years, like attacks on Tesla property and vehicles, increased targeting of homes and property in wealthy neighbourhoods like Beverly Hills, Manhattan tyre slashing on rich blocks and May Day protests at the NYSE.”

“From South America to Southeast Asia, governments and private companies are being forced to look inward and take steps to harness what they can domestically, even when doing so raises upfront costs. Call it the era of me-first energy.”