It’s Monday, May 18. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: the architect of a genocide who died without facing justice. How teachers’ unions became political big spenders. Did MAHA just sink a senator? Plus: Michael Shellenberger joins Conversations with Coleman.
But first: the Jewish prosecutor yanked from a case against campus protesters.
Last week, I got a video call from Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen. It was late, and he looked tired. When I asked how things were going, Rosen smiled wanly. Earlier this month, a judge removed Rosen from a high-profile case because he had been a vocal opponent of antisemitism.
Rosen’s father emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust to seek a better life in America. He achieved that in Los Angeles, and for decades, it felt as if the family had escaped forever the backwardness of the Old World. That started to change when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. In June 2024, anti-Israel protesters broke into the president’s office at Stanford University. Rosen and his team were tasked with prosecuting them.
But now Rosen has been barred from finishing that job.
I wanted to talk to Rosen about what has happened to him, and about how much the world that Rosen thought he knew, the world that his father created here in America, has turned dark and uncertain.
—Peter Savodnik
Teachers’ unions have long said that their top priority is advocating for the rank and file, from pay and pensions to working conditions in the classroom. But a new report accuses the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) of putting politics first. Frannie Block reports exclusively on the findings, including that only 9 percent of the NEA’s disbursement budget in fiscal 2025 was spent on activities directly representing its members.
Félicien Kabuga was an architect of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed almost a million Tutsi. He died on Saturday after being held in custody for over five years. He had been declared unfit to stand trial due to dementia. Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a former United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide, explains how Kabuga managed to evade justice, and what is lost when we do not hold monsters like him to account.
Donald Trump never forgave or forgot that Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was one of seven Republicans in the Senate who voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial after the 2021 attack on the Capitol. On Saturday night, Trump got his revenge at last: Cassidy was trounced in his primary race. Tanner Nau explains how the president was helped by the MAHA movement, which spent big on Cassidy’s challenger. Read his piece for a look at whether MAHA will be a force to be reckoned with this cycle.
Michael Shellenberger is the author of “San Fransicko” and “Apocalypse Never,” a former progressive activist, and one of America’s most prominent nuclear energy advocates. As Coleman Hughes, Shellenberger also is “a rare public figure who actually evaluates and sifts through the evidence of conspiracy theories on a case-by-case basis.” Listen to their discussion of everything from Shellenberger’s political journey to what he makes of the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
Claude, the AI without ads
Anthropic keeps conversations with Claude ad-free: no sponsored links, no advertisers shaping answers, no paid product placements you didn’t ask for.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency following an outbreak of a rare variant of Ebola in Congo and Uganda. Health officials have tracked over 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths as of Sunday. The outbreak claimed 50 lives before being detected by health officials, with the first known death in late April. The WHO has not declared it a pandemic.
Ukraine carried out deadly drone strikes on Russia on Saturday, including one of the largest attacks on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia’s defense ministry said that over 1,000 drones were shot down or jammed. The strikes were seen as retaliation for a Russian drone attack that killed 24 people in Kyiv last week.
Two Navy jets collided in midair at an air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on Sunday afternoon. All four pilots successfully ejected before their Boeing EA18-G Growlers crashed, about 50 miles outside of Boise. The pilots were unharmed.
Cuba has been discussing plans to use drones to attack the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay and even the Florida Keys, according to classified intelligence described by Axios. The Cuban government now has over 300 military drones, Axios said. On Sunday, the Cuban embassy in the U.S. said Cuba “has the right to defend itself against external aggression.”
“Our rights do not derive from the government. They come from you, our creator and heavenly father,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson in a prayer gathering on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. The event was promoted as a “rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”
Claude, the AI without ads
Anthropic keeps conversations with Claude ad-free: no sponsored links, no advertisers shaping answers, no paid product placements you didn’t ask for.
Our rights are inalienable. This is the truth for all of humanity. But the US is unique in that this concept is enshrined into law. We must never forget that this was the mantra of the US from the very beginning. And that it is our government who is curtailed in everyday life, not the People. If we forget that and allow the government to abuse its authority, then we have only ourselves to blame.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety- Benjamin Franklin
And yes, it is frighteningly ominous that a judge removed the Jewish DA and his office from prosecuting antisemitic actions because he was Jewish. She never said that the DA was not doing his job or that he had violated any rights. But CAIR said that a Jewish person by definition of being proIsrael was suspect in their job. Did a judge ever remove a Muslim sho supported CAIR, which supported October7? Did anyone ever remove a DA from prosecuting because they were too leftist? They were recalled in an election. It seems to be that the California judge has a Jew-hate problem. Which also seems par for the course for California right now.
Several blink and you’d miss them follow ups to stories the FP covered:
1. Friday’s unsealing of Al-Saadi indictment showed that the US believes the arson attacks and possibly Golders Green stabbings were directed by IRGC. This is significant because Starmer’s government has repeated said that Britain is not at war with the Islamic Republic, except the Islamic Republic is blatantly at war with Britain, particularly Britain’s Jews as demonstrated by the outing of this proxy group. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/terror-group-behind-london-attacks-iran-proxy-79xmgqvtw or https://archive.ph/vL5wn
2. The Met Police have unreservedly apologized to Graham Linehan for the arrest last September at Heathrow airport. This is a result of the work that the Free Speech Union has done on the case. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/17/met-police-apologises-graham-linehan-heathrow-arrest/ or https://archive.ph/R2FwO
3. Many long term readers of the FP will know the FP’s origin story – namely that Bari Weiss was forced to resign from a toxic workplace. On Saturday, Unherd published a piece by veteran journalist Rob Burley about the toxicity of the BBC and its capture by trans ideologues. The big scoop was the first interview with ousted BBC News Director Fran Unsworth who attributes much of her ousting to trans activism. The piece is long but details a deep scandal within the BBC, exposing part of its rotten core. It forgot the maxim in journalism – you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. As I know many FP readers have deep misgivings about the BBC’s coverage on other issues, I suspect a careful read of the original article will provide fascinating insight. https://unherd.com/2026/05/inside-the-capture-of-the-bbc/ or https://archive.ph/hxJFg
David Yelland, a former editor of the tabloid newspaper The Sun (readers don’t care who runs the country as long as she has big tits) and currently a presenter of BBC Radio 4 objected to the piece, not because it was inaccurate but it was published by Unherd who dislike the BBC. The article apparently wasn’t compassionate enough. The ‘be kind’ mantra is part of the reason this issue has not be covered properly in the first place. Yelland is also married to the former BBC Director of communications Charlotte Elston. https://x.com/davidyelland/status/2055605769832222901
The Telegraph covered in the story in a shorter format and featured it on the front page of the Sunday print edition. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/16/bbc-news-boss-fran-unsworth-driven-out-by-trans-activism/ or https://archive.ph/4lHEQ
As did the Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15823709/Ex-BBC-news-boss-Fran-Unsworth-progressive-madness-trans-activists.html
Both based on the original Unherd article
When you understand the extent and ferocity of the capture, hopefully it will make you grateful for the FP , its stance against omni-cause identity politics, and the way it encourages debate in its comments.