Saturday Hashtag: #MassiveEncryptionThreat
Welcome to Saturday Hashtag, a weekly place for broader context.
Recent Stories
As If Iran Is Not Bad Enough, Lebanon Presents a Whole Set of New Problems
An exit from Iran may depend on resolving what to do with Hezbollah. Iran’s surrogate in Lebanon is wounded, but still remains a problem.
Reflections on How Our Games Are Played, On and Off the Field
Once the rules go, you don’t have a game or a contest, you have total war, in our case asymmetric.
Power Without Ideology Is Doomed
When an authoritarian regime offers no ideology, no story, no reason to believe, it plants the seeds of its own destruction. Minneapolis and Iran show this story.
Painful Loss to Biden Keeps Haunting Trump
Donald Trump was once again up in the middle of the night on Thursday, coming up with schemes that might erase the shame of his 2020 election defeat.
World’s Smallest Deer, a Pudu Fawn, Born at San Diego Zoo
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More Crops Grown for Fuel and Livestock Feed Than for People, New Study Finds
Cutting back on beef and biofuels could help improve food security and mitigate climate emissions.
Viktor Orbán’s Defeat in Recent Elections Divides Ukraine’s Hungarian Minority
Viktor Orbán’s lost election has cleared the way for the EU to give a badly needed loan to Ukraine. The wild card is Ukraine’s Hungarian minority.
Virginia Voters Give Democrats a Big Win in Redistricting Fight
Donald Trump reaped what he sowed Tuesday night as Virginians handed him a painful defeat in the gerrymandering war the president declared last year.
Insects Are Disappearing — Here’s How to Help
The world depends on healthy insect populations. As climate change and other threats cause their declines, simple actions can give them a much-needed boost.
Trump Makes Up Inflation Numbers and the Media Just Shrugs
With more than two-thirds of Americans disapproving of the job he is doing to bring down prices, Donald Trump turned to one of his favorite strategies: gaslighting voters.
Politics Is Always Downstream of Sex
What Swalwell, Gonzales, Trump, and Epstein all share — and what Washington keeps pretending to forget about the nature of men in power.
Trump’s Ignorance of Scripture Is Biblical
By reading from Scripture on Tuesday, Donald Trump will once again try to convince evangelical Christians that he is one of them. And, in a sense, he is… because none of them seems to be familiar with the teachings of the Bible, either.
Alaska’s Wildfires Heat the Planet, but Canada’s Cool It
Using two decades of satellite data, researchers learned that wildfires in North America don’t follow the same script: In western Canada, snow reflectivity drives a cooling effect, whereas in Alaska, permafrost burning leads to net warming.
God Makes an Endorsement
Hope he sticks around and performs some miracles — we’ll need one to clean up the toxic mess Trump has created.
Carney Paints US as Threat to Canada, Offers Model for Others to Cut the Cord
Highlighting the increasing isolation the US faces because of Donald Trump’s actions, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday laid out his plan to make his country less dependent on its neighbor and main trading partner.
Cult Following — What It Will Take to Succeed Trump
The 2028 Republican primary will be an absolute circus. Here is a preview of some of the main acts.
Donald Trump Knows More About Jesus Christ Than Anyone, Even the Pope
This week we all had the joy of witnessing Trump sticking his finger in the eye of the Prince of Peace.
Religion in the Military: A Dangerous Motivation
Iran, Israel, and the United States have all embraced a crusader’s mentality.
Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Shutdown Highlights the Worth of Trump’s Proclamations
The highly anticipated reopening of the Strait of Hormuz didn’t last long, which is hardly surprising since Iran and Donald Trump live in different realities.
Trump Versus the Catholic Church
Taking on the pope and posing as Jesus in a country with 60 million or so Catholics is a move even the madman theory might struggle to explain.
Giddy Trump Celebrates Opening of Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump celebrated a genuinely good day for him in style — with a string of social media messages and a shot at NATO.
Iran, Hungary, Ukraine: The World Is Running on Legacy Software
The old rules are gone. The new ones aren’t written yet. And no one in charge knows how to write them.
After Him, the Deluge: Trump Creates a Tough Environment for GOP’s 2028 Hopefuls
At the rate he is going, Donald Trump will leave a political and economic wasteland in his wake that will be extremely difficult for the GOP’s 2028 presidential candidates to navigate.
These States Could Give Big Oil a Free Pass
State legislatures are pushing bills to block lawsuits over climate damages. Here’s how they could play out.
Politics Obstructs a US-Iran Nuclear Deal
Having backed out of an existing deal makes negotiating a new deal tougher. So do domestic political and ego-driven imperatives to “win.”
Trumpflation Ruins GOP’s Tax Day Celebration
Republicans were looking forward to taking credit for the modest additional tax benefit given to regular Americans this year, but the affordability crisis exacerbated by Trump’s war in Iran has made this a challenge.
Eyes on Epstein: The Story Keeps Moving up the Ladder
Melania Trump’s dangerous move, and other developments you may have missed this week.
Forest Service Reorganization Is Illegal. USDA Lawyer Told Them to Do It Anyway.
Congress prohibited the Forest Service reorganization in its FY26 appropriations bills. Two high-ranking USDA officials are defying them.
Orbán’s Defeat in Hungary’s Elections Sparks a Wide Range of Reactions
Even among the many celebrants, there’s a spectrum of concerns about what comes next.
Trump Gives Democrats a Texas-Sized Gift
Six weeks ago, Donald Trump promised to end the contentious Senate GOP primary in Texas, which would put Republicans in a much better position to retain the seat. To the Democrats’ delight, he still hasn’t made an endorsement in the race, and with each day that passes, James Talarico’s odds are improving.
How EVs Could Solve a Problem With America’s Rickety Grid
With “vehicle-to-grid” technology, EVs turn into a vast network of backup power. That could help stabilize the system and accelerate the adoption of renewables.
Claude AI: Gods and Monsters
The tough choices we all have to make these days on so many things.
The Epstein Accords, Part 1: The Road to Riyadh
An unholy alliance between the Israeli right wing and Arab royalty – thanks to Jeffrey Epstein
After Attacking the Pope, Trump Shares Image Depicting Himself as Messiah
When it comes to lashing out at anybody who offers even the mildest criticism of him or his job performance, Donald Trump is infallible.
Hungary’s Orbán Gets the Boot, America Gets a Lesson for the Midterms
For years, Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s government served as a model for the MAGA movement. On Sunday, it suffered a crushing defeat that teaches an important lesson on how to defeat wannabe authoritarian regimes like that of Donald Trump.
Trump Announces His Own Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz
In an effort to put more economic pressure on Iran, Donald Trump on Sunday announced that the US, too, would block the Strait of Hormuz.
A Bad Day for JD Vance As Peace Talks Stall and He Misses Out on UFC Fight
At their peace talks in Pakistan, the US presented Iran with an offer it could refuse. While that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a shaky ceasefire, it doesn’t bode well for their ongoing conflict.
Melania Trump Spotlights the Epstein Files. How Can Trump Shut Her Up?
Did Melania go rogue by putting the focus back on the Epstein files? President Trump may have to give her a great gift to keep her from talking further.
Poem: ‘An Old Man Alone Among the Crags at Night’
Quester, cad, or both? Reimagining an epic hero who could not rest from travel.
The Swalwell Scandal — One of These Things Is Not Like the Others
While Republicans routinely turn a blind eye toward even the most credible sexual assault allegations, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) can kiss his gubernatorial ambitions goodbye after four different women accused him of various types of sexual misconduct.
AI Is All Humans, All the Way Down
The inside story of how greed, ambition, and rivalry destroyed AI’s safety mechanisms — and why human failings, not technology, are driving us toward catastrophe.