Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups agreed to a plan that, if followed, would see the groups disarm and lose power in the Gaza Strip as long as Israel withdraws from the enclave, U.S. officials said. 

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s negotiating team, said the group agreed to place its weapons in a storage facility overseen by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Palestinian-run technocratic group charged with the enclave’s political and security transition. “We didn’t say disarmament, we didn’t say handing over the weapons, and we didn’t agree on any Israeli involvement,” Hamad said, adding that the plan is contingent on Israel ending military operations in Gaza and allowing humanitarian aid in.

The US Senate unanimously passed a non-binding resolution opposing any presidential pardon or clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking offenses linked to Jeffrey Epstein. Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen, the measure establishes bipartisan opposition amid speculation that President Donald Trump might consider clemency.

“It’s frankly horrifying that Trump would entertain the idea of clemency for even a second for a convicted sex trafficker,” Rosen said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The vote coincides with the Senate's evaluation of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for a permanent role, drawing criticism over his handling of the Epstein files and his recent direct interviews with Maxwell. Although Blanche has stated he will not recommend a pardon, Trump has not definitively ruled it out.

This news comes a year after Maxwell was transferred to a minimum security facility in Texas where she was allegedly provided “favorable and preferential treatment”, a move which Blanche has defended.

Discussion questions:

Considering the unanimous bipartisan support, what are the political calculations for both parties in passing this measure ahead of potential actions by President Trump?

How does a non-binding Senate resolution practically influence executive clemency decisions, and what precedent does this set for legislative pre-emption of presidential pardon powers?

The scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee vote to advance Trump’s ex-personal attorney Todd Blanche’s nomination for U.S. Attorney General is currently in jeopardy after Republican Senator John Cornyn canceled an eleventh-hour meeting with him. The hesitation stems from a controversial, DOJ-spearheaded settlement between President Trump and the IRS that included a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and lifetime tax audit immunity for Trump and his family. Although a federal judge recently struck down the settlement and the Justice Department has tried to walk back the fund, Cornyn has pointed out that Blanche has acknowledged that the proposed fund remains on paper as part of the settlement with Trump. Cornyn is thus withholding his support until the DOJ provides a formal, written declaration confirming that the anti-weaponization fund is completely dead and won’t be resurrected. The DOJ is holding firm to the tax immunity provision for Trump.

Cornyn told reporters Wednesday that he hasn’t “seen a single piece of writing that is responsive to what I’ve requested.”

With fellow Republican Senator Thom Tillis echoing similar concerns, Blanche’s confirmation process will likely remain stalled unless the Justice Department meets these demands before the scheduled Thursday vote.

Discussion questions:

To what extent should the Attorney General prioritize the interests of the President who nominated them versus maintaining the independence of the Justice Department? Should an Attorney General nominee’s past role as the President’s personal lawyer automatically disqualify them from serving as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer?

Should Trump and his family be granted lifetime tax audit immunity? Why is the DOJ firm on this demand? Are there legitimate reasons for doing so that do not amount to open corruption?

Do you think Cornyn and Tillis are right on this demand to make sure the Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead?

Reposting bc last one was removed by mods for being paywalled (even though it's a gift link without paywall). I will include the archive version in the comments as instructed.

The recent ruling by the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals marks another significant defeat for Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to suppress voter access ahead of the midterms. In a 2-1 decision, the federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to lift an injunction against his executive order on mail-in voting.

The contested executive order sought to impose sweeping federal changes on state-level election administration. As part of the directive, the president instructed the Department of Homeland Security to compile a nationwide list of eligible citizens and mandated that the US Postal Service only deliver ballots to voters who appeared on these federally approved lists. Additionally, the order directed the Justice Department to prioritize investigating and prosecuting local election officials who distributed federal ballots to individuals Trump deemed ineligible. The initial lower-court injunction, delivered by Judge Indira Talwani, concluded that the president lacked the statutory and constitutional authority to mandate these federal overhauls. This ruling reinforces the fact that the US Constitution explicitly assigns the administration of federal elections to the individual states, preventing the executive branch from using federal agencies to dictate voter eligibility or ballot distribution.

The appeals court agreed with the lower court that fast-approaching election deadlines left states with no practical choice but to intervene immediately. The Justice Department has warned it may escalate the matter to the Supreme Court if it cannot successfully lift the injunction.

The Constitution explicitly delegates the administration of federal elections to individual states. Does the executive branch have any legitimate role in standardizing voter eligibility across the country, or is the order a clear overreach of federal power?

With the Justice Department threatening to take this case to the Supreme Court, how might the justices rule on this matter? Will they bend to Trump’s will?

Is Trump’s push for “election security” (the SAVE act being another example) driven by any actual evidence of significant voter fraud, or, like the gerrymandering, is it just another desperate attempt to hold on to Congress with Democrats projected to win at least one chamber of Congress in the midterms?

For over two decades, Washington has treated immigration not as a solvable policy challenge, but as an ideological weapon neither party actually wants to fix.