It’s Monday, July 13. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Can AI really think? What do Maine Democrats do now? Why does Wikipedia think Lionel Messi is a Mossad agent? And much more.
But first: The death of Lindsey Graham.
In the 24 hours since Lindsey Graham’s sudden death was announced, the punditocracy has raced to define South Carolina’s senior senator. Even as he was being praised by President Donald Trump, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, his critics focused on his willingness to ally himself with a man he had once described as “a wrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party.” In The New Yorker, Ruth Marcus said that in befriending Trump, Graham had abandoned most of his principles. On X, Steve Schmidt, a “Never Trumper” and former adviser to the late senator John McCain, called him “a simple, tragic man” who “lacked a moral core.”
Our Eli Lake has a less jaundiced and, we dare say, more dispassionate view. By making his peace with Trump’s victory—and becoming the president’s friend and adviser—Graham was able to “catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Graham’s advice, writes Eli, “helped guide Trump to take military action against Iran, reconsider a premature and sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, and perhaps avoid a full breakup with NATO.” Unlike so many other politicians who couldn’t countenance working with Trump, Graham got results.
“The republic lost a giant,” Eli writes. Read his appreciation to understand the full breadth of Graham’s influence.
—The Editors
Sentient Robots and Cheating Students: Two Dispatches from the AI Revolution
Last week, Anthropic published a paper arguing that its Claude AI models have “developed a small collection of internal neural patterns,” and that the AI has private thoughts. It is the latest example of Silicon Valley claiming AI might be more than just a tool used by humans—and that it could have a consciousness all its own. Not so fast, says Spencer Klavan, who pushes back on the creeping movement to equate AI with humans, as if large language models that use mountains of data are reasoning the way humans do. Read Spencer’s column to understand why AI really is a machine—nothing less, but nothing more.
On the other hand, if there is one thing AI has become very good at, it’s helping students cheat on their exams. Brown University professor Roberto Serrano estimates that half his students are using AI to cheat. That would be bad enough. But then Serrano alerted the school—and was shocked to discover that administrators didn’t seem much interested in punishing the cheaters. “What happened in my class should be a lesson to all,” Serrano writes: “In our new AI era, if you do not expose and punish cheating, you will encourage it. We must all have the strength to choose otherwise.”
A month after winning Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, Graham Platner is officially out of the race. The state’s Democrats now have two weeks to nominate another candidate to take on Senator Susan Collins in November. What are their chances? Is this the time the Democrats finally defeat her? Or will she once again glide to victory? Political reporter Mark Halperin has some answers.
For all the talk of creeping antisemitism on the right, MAGA Republicans still overwhelmingly support Israel. But such support is much harder to find on the other side of the aisle, where, writes John Podhoretz, the scourge of political antisemitism is strongest right now. As John points out, it hasn’t always been this way: Democrats were once strong supporters of Israel and fierce opponents of antisemitism. In his latest essay, he traces how the left went wrong and how, at least for now, the GOP is holding back antisemitism.
A thrilling FIFA World Cup round of 16 battle between Argentina and Egypt will be remembered less for the last-minute heroics of Lionel Messi than for the wild conspiracy theories that spread after the final whistle. One of the nuttier theories—that the Argentine team is connected to the Israeli Mossad and the referee for the match, François Letexier, is Jewish (he is not)—found its way onto Wikipedia. Ashley Rindsberg explains how it happened—and why Wikipedia remains so vulnerable to antisemitic conspiracies.
How responsible are elites for the world’s problems? The conventional wisdom, of course, is that they’re responsible for a lot. But on the latest episode of “Conversations with Coleman,” the political commentator Richard Hanania joins Coleman Hughes to offer a defense of the elites in this age of populism.
Have you ever read a Free Press article and had questions about it? Do you ever wonder what other readers think? If the answer is yes to either, you need to check out The Free Press Forum, where FP authors and subscribers can discuss and debate the biggest stories of the day. Join now!
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
The United States conducted new strikes on Iranian targets throughout the weekend, according to United States Central Command. The strikes culminated in a Sunday barrage aimed at degrading Iranian ability to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
A preliminary medical examination determined that Senator Lindsey Graham’s cause of death was aortic dissection, a tear along the inner layer of the main artery, due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Emergency radio dispatch reported a “cardiac arrest” event from Graham’s Capitol Hill home.
Jannik Sinner won his second straight Wimbledon championship on Sunday, defeating Alexander Zverev. It was also his fifth Grand Slam title overall. In the women’s final, Linda Noskova beat her fellow Czech Karolina Muchova. It was her first Grand Slam title.
Toronto Police are still searching for a gunman who killed two people and injured four after opening fire Saturday at the city’s Salsa on St. Clair festival. At least 13,000 people attended the festivals.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the former Emir of Qatar, died on Saturday, Qatar’s top governing body announced Sunday morning. Al-Thani assumed power in 1995, handing over the reins to his son, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, 18 years later. He was 74.
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell broke his monthlong silence to announce that his absence from the Senate was due to a fall the 84-year-old took—and that he suffered a case of pneumonia while in the hospital. The senator said he is not yet able to return to the Senate floor, but remains engaged with his staff from a rehabilitation center.
The Trump administration issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after they reported that Trump was unable to use his new Qatari-donated Air Force One due to security concerns. The paper’s top lawyer called it a brazen attempt to “intimidate journalists from doing their jobs.”
The long-awaited return of UFC’s Conor McGregor to the octagon ended just a minute into the fight after the UFC superstar reinjured his leg in the opening seconds. “This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell,” McGregor wrote in a post after the fight.
“Steve Schmidt, a “Never Trumper” and former adviser to the late senator John McCain, called him “a simple, tragic man” who “lacked a moral core.””
————————————————-
John McCain reversed everything he ever promised to his voters regarding healthcare so that he could spite Donald Trump because he didn’t like Trump’s personality.
Steve Schmidt is best friends with someone who is known to engage in things I am not allowed to type in the comments section.
Steve Schmidt wrote that as a joke for everyone who knows Steve Schmidt.
Lindsey Graham (R) was obviously bleeped by bleep in order to send a message to other bleeps.