It’s Wednesday, August 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: How did Cambridge fabulist Jason Arday get away with it? Tyler Cowen on why nothing can stop the AI juggernaut. Arthur Brooks on whether socialism is a fad. And much more.
But first: A crossroads for the Democratic Party.
Ahead of Election Day, the polls suggested that the closely watched Democratic Senate primary in Michigan would be a clear win for Abdul El-Sayed—and the ascendant left wing of the party—over moderate Rep. Haley Stevens. Last night didn’t turn out that way. As of early this morning, Michigan was still counting votes, and the race was too close to call. (At 5.30 a.m. ET, with 95 per cent of the votes counted, El-Sayed had 48.6 per cent and Stevens had 47.4 per cent.)
The tight Senate race chimed with the broader story, with the Democratic Party’s dueling factions fighting themselves to a draw. In St. Louis, the establishment won: Rep. Wesley Bell crushed former Rep. Cori Bush’s comeback bid. In Michigan’s House races, the progressives made gains. One notable example: Will Lawrence, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, who was backed by Bernie Sanders, won in Lansing.
The results, in other words, show a Democratic Party split down the middle—between progressives and moderates, between the Democratic donor class and the socialist influencer group chats, between the Blue Dogs and the Mamdani acolytes.
As the Democratic Party figures out a way forward, our political editor Mene Ukueberuwa says the party isn’t paying nearly enough attention to the candidates who could actually deliver a durable majority. Read his column on the pragmatic Democrats hiding in plain sight, and what Democrats nationwide can learn from two Senate races—one in the booming Sun Belt, one in the stagnant Rust Belt—that say more about the party’s potential future than any of the far-left spectacles getting the headlines.
Longtime readers will remember Evan Barker’s explosive 2024 essay in The Free Press, “I Raised $50 Million for the Democrats. This Week, I Voted for Trump.” Her new book, Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative, was published last week—but here’s the thing you probably didn’t know about Evan: She used to work for El-Sayed. Whatever Michigan decides, she’s seen exactly how the party got here. Today, she sits down with Lucy Biggers for a tell-all—about her former boss, and how progressives like him captured the Democratic Party from the inside.
—The Editors
Jason Arday made history as the youngest black full professor at Cambridge University. He has a remarkable life story—or what, until recently, seemed like one. He is autistic and could not speak until the age of 11. He learned to read and write only at 18. He once ran 30 marathons in 35 days. But last week, it all came crashing down—his résumé, his published research, the ruses he pulled off to get to the top of his profession. How did Arday get away with it for so long? The answer has little to do with Arday himself, writes Yuan Yi Zhu, and everything to do with the ivory tower insiders who enabled his ascent—and the deserving researcher whose career was cut short because a serial fabulist got the job they deserved.
Is democratic socialism the future of America, or just the latest fad? Arthur Brooks makes the case for the latter. Nearly two-thirds of Americans under 30 now hold a favorable view of socialism, and DSA-backed candidates are winning primaries across the country. But Arthur argues America has always been a nation of political fashions mistaken for permanent truths. Read his recent column on why this one will pass, and what to do in the meantime.
Tech stocks have been volatile lately. Just ask Leopold Aschenbrenner, whose AI-focused hedge fund lost $35 billion in just a few weeks last month. It’s the latest incident to trigger fears that the AI bubble is about to burst. We asked our favorite economist, Free Press columnist Tyler Cowen, what he thought. His verdict? Firms may rise and fall, but nothing will stop the AI juggernaut.
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THE NEWS
Todd Blanche cleared his biggest hurdle to becoming attorney general Tuesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination 12–10 along party lines. The confirmation came just one day after he rescinded, in writing, the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that had holdouts John Cornyn and Thom Tillis threatening to sink him.
The U.S. has burned through “virtually all” of its long-range precision missiles in five months of war with Iran, along with nearly half its global supply of Tomahawks, sources familiar with U.S. weapons data told Reuters—raising alarms about America’s readiness for a future conflict with Russia or China. In response to the report, the Pentagon insisted the military “has everything it needs.”
OpenAI agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it discriminated against American workers by steering jobs to visa holders. Fewer than 10 positions were at issue, but the message to Silicon Valley was clear: It’s the DOJ’s 13th such settlement since 2025.
The Trump administration unveiled new guidelines urging states to tighten oversight of autism therapy providers, after federal data showed Medicaid spending on applied behavior analysis jumped 421 percent between 2021 and 2025. Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the recommendations target “fraud schemes that exploit children with autism,” while critics warned the crackdown could squeeze families who rely on Medicaid for care.
A 37-year-old man with a prior manslaughter conviction was arrested for arson in connection with the largest of three wildfires ravaging the Spokane area, where more than 700 buildings have been destroyed and 67,000 people remain under evacuation orders. Governor Bob Ferguson called it likely “the worst natural disaster in Spokane history.” No deaths have been reported.
Guatemala evacuated hundreds of villagers as the Fuego volcano erupted Monday, prompting authorities to declare an “orange alert” and close a major highway. In 2018, a Fuego eruption killed 215 people and buried an entire village.
Singapore banned the two core members of the band Massive Attack from reentering the country after they unfurled a Palestinian flag and shouted “Free Palestine” onstage at a concert last week. Police issued the British duo “stern warnings,” citing threats to the city-state’s racial and religious harmony; the band said it was proud of the gesture and urged Singapore to let its citizens express their views “without fear of state persecution.”
Mike Lindell is stepping down as CEO of MyPillow to focus on his Trump-endorsed run for governor of Minnesota. “This decision is not about walking away,” Lindell said. “It is about stepping forward to serve.” He is expected to win next week’s primary and face Amy Klobuchar in November’s general election.
Europe’s brutal drought has dropped the Danube so low that at least 20 Nazi warships—some still loaded with explosives—have become visible, along with the bones of a woolly mammoth. The wrecks have surfaced before, in 2022 and 2024, though the mammoth is new.
I had an interesting thought hit me today after seeing so many social media posters on facebook trying to draw some meaningful distinction between what they believe as "Social Democrats" and what the declare they are not -- "Democratic Socialists".
The problem is, their distinction does nothing to assuage the person who will still vote against them even if it means we have to vote for President Trump in order to do so.
No, if they want to defeat Trump .... if they want to defeat MAGA ... they have to embrace capitalism and market forces. Absolutely embrace them. They have to make it clear that their social programs are not even possible without the incentives of a capitalist/free market system.
They SAY they believe in capitalism and market forces as they are trying to distinguish themselves from the "Democratic Socialists", but ALWAYS and ONLY apologetically. Timidly. Never without adding that their main goal is to rid us of the greed and abuses of capitalism. Never without criticizing and apologizing for capitalism and demonizing capitalists.
Can't do it. Can't go there. You have to convince America FIRST that you are not, in fact, the Marxist with whom you willingly coalesce WITHOUT the qualifiers you always have to attach to the brand of capitalism you still find almost tolerable.
Nope, if you want to defeat MAGA and Trump you have to convince America that you are a capitalist and that you understand the indisputable power of the market. Otherwise, Americans will continue to vote against you as the Socialists you appear to be.
If you can't praise capitalism for the productivity and economic freedom it has created, and you find yourself comfortably politically coalescing with the Democratic Socialists because you believe you share a common compassionate goal...
...then you are a Democratic Socialist -- a Marxist -- because you do not understand what it takes to achieve that goal of workable social programs. You agree with the Democratic Socialists that it is possible to have social programs by simply redistributing wealth.
Having been in strategy for 40 years... I can sum this up pretty quickly.
Sponsored by tyrannies and lie.......
You too can be a Democrat "winner"