‘The president has mused about skipping the midterms as approval for his administration continues to slip…’ (Nikki McCann Ramirez via Rolling Stone)

‘On Friday, Russia attacked Lviv, a major Ukrainian city near the Polish border, using Oreshnik: an intermediate-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile. Security-camera footage captured brief flashes in the sky, the missile’s multiple warheads entering the atmosphere at 10 times the speed of sound, and then—impact. The missile that struck Lviv did not carry a nuclear payload, but it did carry a political one, at a moment when Vladimir Putin appears to be cornered and Donald Trump is more belligerent than ever.…’ (Andrew Ryvkin via The Atlantic)

‘Chances of a democratic transition are slim…’ (Daniel Block via POLITICO)

‘Verizon is offering customers a $20 account credit following a massive outage that brought down service across the US on Wednesday. In an update on X, Verizon says you’ll receive a text message when the credit is available, which you can redeem by logging into the myVerizon app and accepting it.…’ (Emma Roth via The Verge)

‘Today, Donald Trump announced that he is considering using the Insurrection Act to send the U.S. military to Minneapolis if state officials do not quell anti-ICE protests there. Deploying federal troops on American soil against the objections of state and local officials is an extreme measure––and seems likelier to inflame than to extinguish unrest there, given that needlessly provocative actions by ICE officers helped create conditions on the ground. Yet the president seems eager to suppress the actions of people he calls “professional agitators and insurrectionists.” For months, members of his administration have laid the rhetorical groundwork for a martial crackdown.…’ (Conor Friedersdorf via The Atlantic)