You've read all the day's big stories.
South Carolina Republicans moved in May 2026 to extend their legislative session for the sole purpose of redrawing the state's congressional map — a maneuver reported by The Hill as occurring under pressure from President Trump, with Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's lone House Democrat, as the clear target.
Said Clyburn: "Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature began the process of extending their session to allow for the redrawing of the state's congressional map. We cannot let them succeed."
The Founders did not design the constitutional order so that the party in power could engineer its own permanence between census cycles. Redrawing lines to erase a sitting member's seat — whatever one thinks of that member — is the kind of move that corrodes the republic's foundation long after the immediate victor is forgotten. The oath is to the Constitution, not to the map that best serves the party holding the pen.
President Trump announced plans to cut American troop levels in Germany beyond the Pentagon's previously stated withdrawal of roughly 5,000 soldiers. Speaking to reporters in Florida, Trump said: "We're going to cut way down. And we're cutting a lot further than 5,000" — offering no timeline or final number.
The announcement sharpens an ongoing dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over who bears the cost of European security. Germany, the continent's largest economy, has spent decades sheltering behind American soldiers and American taxpayers.
Eisenhower warned in his farewell address that permanent overseas commitments — built to serve contractor balance sheets as much as national defense — would hollow out the republic from within. The question worth asking is not how many troops we pull back, but whether Congress, under its Article I war powers, has ever formally authorized this posture — or whether the boardroom and the bureaucracy simply kept renewing it without asking the American people.
Democratic Sen. Peter Welch (Vt.) and Rep. Dave Min (Calif.) sent letters to 17 recipients of Trump pardons or commutations this week, asking whether clemency was exchanged under pay-for-play circumstances, The Hill reported May 7.
The pardon power sits in Article II of the Constitution — placed there by the Founders as an instrument of mercy and justice, not a revenue stream. Whether the allegations prove out or collapse under scrutiny, the question itself demands an answer the republic can trust.
The Cadet Honor Code holds that a soldier neither lies, cheats, nor steals — nor tolerates those who do. That standard doesn't retire when a man leaves the field and enters public office. The republic's long memory is watching.
President Trump announced Thursday via Truth Social that the United States will give the European Union until July 4 to reach terms on trade or face significantly higher tariffs, according to reporting by The Hill. Trump described a prior call with European Commission leadership as 'great,' suggesting negotiation channels remain open — for now.
The date chosen is not accidental. July 4 is the republic's founding compact made visible — a reminder that American sovereignty, including sovereignty over its own commerce, was bought at a price no Brussels bureaucrat was present to pay.
The Founders vested the power to regulate foreign commerce squarely in Congress under Article I — a power too long delegated away to executive agencies and trade tribunals. Whatever one thinks of the leverage strategy, the underlying demand — that foreign markets treat American workers as equals, not marks — is the older and harder right.
A hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius — a cruise ship carrying passengers from at least 28 countries — is now a full-scale international health operation. The ship is docking off Tenerife after Spain agreed to admit it at WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's personal request. Roughly 145 people from 23 countries remain onboard. Three confirmed cases, including the ship's own doctor, were already evacuated to the Netherlands.
The working theory: a couple infected before boarding — during a bird-watching trip through Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina — brought Andes virus onto the ship. Andes is the only hantavirus known to spread person to person. The largest prior outbreak hit Epuyén, Argentina in 2018–2019: 34 confirmed cases, 11 dead.
Said WHO's Abdi Mahamud: "We are in a similar situation right now, a cluster in a confined space with close contact." Real public health work — contact tracing, genetic sequencing across labs in South Africa, Switzerland, and Senegal — is running. This is what functional disease response looks like. Pay attention.