It’s Monday, March 16. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Alysa Liu’s father on what he learned about freedom from his daughter—and Jimmy Lai. Tyler Cowen on how to win the AI arms race. Charles Lane asks: Can a Democrat with a Nazi tattoo win a Senate seat? The UAW reins in Columbia’s politically obsessed grad students. And much more.
But first: The war in Iran—and terrorism here in America.
The war in Iran shows no sign of stopping, with the U.S. suggesting it will ramp up strikes over several more weeks. But achieving the chief war aims will require more than explosions. Jay Solomon has the story on the next phase of the war: ending Iran’s nuclear program for good. Destroying or seizing uranium would be a fiendishly difficult task but Jay talks to U.S. officials about how it might be done.
It’s hard to see how it all could end—especially since Iran’s foreign minister told CBS News on Sunday that “we don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans.” Michael Oren doesn’t know when a ceasefire will come, but he has a good idea of what it will take. The former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. believes the Iranian regime will hold out for anything it can call victory—and that the goal of the U.S. should be to cut off any hope of success the mullahs have.
Since the start of the war, Americans have faced a string of terror attacks. Over the weekend, vivid evidence emerged of the most recent attack’s close connection to the war. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali—who stormed a synagogue and school in Michigan on Thursday before guards stopped his advance—was the brother of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon. Soon after the brother was slain by an Israeli air strike, Ghazali attacked America’s largest Reform synagogue.
The Hezbollah affiliation should frame the whole story. A U.S. ally killed a terrorist abroad, and his brother became a terrorist at home.
Yet much of the media is missing the story—or distorting it—just as they have with a whole spate of terrorist attacks that have struck Americans since the Iran war began. Read our editorial on how the war came home, and what the U.S. must do if it hopes to beat the extremists.
Noah Bernstein grew up attending a synagogue not far from the one attacked Thursday, and he describes how antisemitic protesters in his hometown of Ann Arbor were emboldened by the almost deadly rampage. He asked people there how they were dealing with this dangerous new reality.
—The Editors
Arthur Liu, father of Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu and a 1989 “most wanted” student leader, connects his daughter’s transcendent performance in Milan to the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, the man who helped rescue him from China.
On Saturday, Tucker Carlson claimed that the CIA was reading his text messages and preparing a criminal referral against him because he had been in communication with “people in Iran.” If what Carlson is saying is true, it would be an outrage, says Eli Lake. But it would be an outrage rich with irony, given Tucker’s fondness for questioning other Americans’ loyalty to their country.
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Charles Lane argues that Democrats are so desperate to win back working-class voters that they’re overlooking Graham Platner’s alarming baggage, from a Nazi-related death’s head tattoo to an appearance on an antisemitic podcast, because the Maine Senate candidate looks the part of a “working-class hero.” Lane calls Platner “a politically inexperienced internet troll” who’s actually polling best among wealthy liberals.
Tyler Cowen writes that “neither nationalization nor an AI slowdown are feasible strategies for the U.S.” and that the biggest risk isn’t rogue AI companies but that “the government with the most powerful AI systems becomes the bad guy itself.” A bracing case for why America must win the AI arms race while staying vigilant about its own power.
“UAW won’t support our [proposals] in their current form because they have too much crazy shit in them,” one Columbia PhD student said in summary of a meeting with United Auto Workers officials. Jonas Du reports on the behind-the-scenes clash between the grad students’ union and its powerful parent organization over politically charged demands, which could jeopardize student workers’ right to unionize nationwide.
On this episode of Conversations With Coleman, Coleman Hughes speaks with Justin Marozzi, a historian and travel writer whose new book, Captives and Companions, explores the history of slavery across Islamic societies. What happens, they ask, when historians begin to examine subjects that have long been treated as taboo? And how should we understand the troubling reality that slavery has not entirely disappeared?
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Russia has disabled mobile internet in Moscow and dozens of regions recently, severely disrupting payments, navigation, taxis, and messaging for millions. The Kremlin calls it necessary for security against Ukrainian drones, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the goal is to “ensure security,” but foreign analysts see it as testing a nationwide censorship system modeled on Iran’s.
The U.S. State Department has cut the fee for renouncing citizenship by about 80 percent, from $2,350 to $450, effective April 13. The reduction, following legal challenges from groups like the Association of Accidental Americans, restores the 2010 fee level amid criticism of the higher cost tied to rising expatriate renunciations.
A new review in The Lancet Psychiatry highlights emerging concerns that AI chatbots can validate and amplify delusional thinking—particularly grandiose delusions—in people already vulnerable to psychosis, drawing from media reports of “AI psychosis” rather than fully causing new cases.
The University of Florida deactivated its College Republicans chapter, after the Florida Federation of College Republicans reported a photo of a student leader performing a Nazi salute.
Security at the 2026 Oscars has been dramatically increased, including rooftop snipers, SWAT teams to counter potential drone threats, zigzag vehicle approaches, undercover officers, and bomb squads around the Dolby Theatre, following an FBI alert about possible Iranian drone strikes from vessels off the U.S. coast targeting California.
One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the 2026 Academy Awards, with Paul Thomas Anderson also taking Best Director for the film. Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his performance in Sinners, while Jessie Buckley earned Best Actress for her role in Hamnet. (ICYMI: Read Liel Leibovitz on Why ‘One Battle After Another’ Is Irredeemable.)
"Since the start of the war, Americans have faced a string of terror attacks."
We've always had terror attacks by Muslims, only now the media can acknowledge them -- in order to blame Trump.
In New York City, our cops have foiled any number of plots. Halal stand guys in Times Square have alerted the NYPD about strange cars, and it turns out they're loaded with pipe bombs. Or bearded assailants actually do attack people, or synagogues, only the news won't pick it up -- they're not white supremacists.
I'm sure more bearded bros will crawl out from beneath the woodwork. They have Hollywood's and the Democrats' permission, along with Mr. Mamdani's (who claims that Islamophobia is making him depressed, and that his wife is a private citizen even though she is living in Gracie Mansion, with all utility and fuel bills and repairs courtesy of New Yorkers like me).
Isn't it interesting that the legacy media that fawned allover Eileen Gu somehow didnt know that Alysa Liu's father was a Chinese dissident. That the legacy media celebrated Gu, someone with absolutely no moral compass because she crapped on the country that gave her everything- the USA -while there are people like Arthur Liu and Jimmy Lai who risk everything for freedom that barely get a mention. YOU DON'T DESPISE THE LEGACY MEDIA ENOUGH.
Finally people in high places that can do something about it are noticing that Tucker Carlson is a traitor. But someone should tell him that the CIA has no power in the US and cannot collect data on anyone in the US. It's going to be the FBI that will arrest his Judas ass.
It will be the trajectory the democrats have been on that they will take a Jew- hating-nazi-lover over an accomplished democratic politico. It's actually really sad if you think about it. Over 400,000 Americans lost their lives fighting garbage like Platner and now the democrats are happy to embrace the likes of him. Why? Because he has lied his way into making people believe he is working class? Because he promises free stuff? But then again they did elect that Islamo-Nazi running NYC didn't they?
It really is about time that someone stood up and stopped the idiocy of washing away the evils that Islamic empires committed.
I am so done with Hollywood for a very long time. Didn't bother to watch even the red carpet last night. The over indulged entitled ill-educated narcissistic sociopathic amoral imbeciles who call themselves "actors" need to be reminded that they are not our betters because they play pretend for a living. And of course, last night, there was the normal call for genocide against at least half the world's Jewish population which got a resounding applause. They probably all love the guy with the totenkopf tattoo and are rooting for him to win.