It’s Monday, April 20. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Iran’s hard-liners take control. Elise Stefanik on Ivy League rot. Jed Rubenfeld on the real problem with the “shadow docket.” And much more. Plus: Tune in to our newest podcast, Second Thought, with Suzy Weiss.
But first: Will Americans pull the plug on AI?
A small Ohio community and a big tech proposal. It’s a local fight that’s still unfolding.
In Scioto County, Google has proposed a large data center campus that includes hundreds of acres, major tax incentives, and the promise of jobs and long-term investment. Local officials framed it as an economic turning point for a region that has struggled for decades.
But opposition has grown steadily, as Frannie Block learned when she arrived to investigate. Some residents say the process moved too quickly and lacked transparency. Others question whether the tax breaks are too generous, or whether the long-term benefits will match the scale of the project.
With tech firms racing to build the infrastructure of the AI revolution, similar disputes are happening in towns across the country. The campaign to stop them is expanding on the left, with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushing to freeze new construction until they can impose nationwide regulations.
As the politics of AI begins to take shape, what’s happening in Ohio is part of a larger question: Who bears the costs—and who decides—when the infrastructure of the digital economy moves in? Read Frannie’s dispatch from the front lines in one of the most important political fights of the moment.
—Mene Ukueberuwa
The Latest in Iran
The cessation of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran is set to formally expire on Wednesday, but the region has hardly been quiet. On Friday, the Iranians effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz just hours after President Trump announced they had agreed to reopen it. Two India-flagged commercial vessels were fired upon on Saturday, and the U.S. Navy interdicted an Iranian-flagged vessel on Sunday.
Trump announced Sunday that he is green-lighting a second round of negotiations with Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan. Before the Americans jet off, Eli Lake writes, the president should probably figure out who is actually running Iran, a country that has kept the status of its leadership obscured—only to its advantage. Read Eli’s latest reporting on who America is negotiating with, and what the biggest challenges are ahead of possible talks this week.
If negotiations prove fruitless or the ceasefire expires without an extension, that will tee up a possible resumption of the war—a war that, as Michael Doran argues in a sweeping essay today, is badly misunderstood. Michael examines the seven myths that have clouded and misrepresented the logic and progress of Operation Epic Fury. If you want to understand why the cognoscenti keep getting this conflict wrong, read this piece.
Poison Ivies and the Future of College
Last week, a Yale University committee published a report acknowledging that American colleges in part have themselves to blame for declining trust in higher education. That may seem like a statement of the obvious to a Free Press reader, but it was a strikingly honest confession from inside the ivory tower.
So are America’s top schools finally getting it? And what, if anything, can they do about their many issues? One person who has spent a lot of time thinking about the ways in which American colleges have lost their way in recent years is Rep. Elise Stefanik. The Republican congresswoman played a key part in exposing campus antisemitism after October 7—including by grilling former Harvard president Claudine Gay and other college presidents. Now she’s written a book about higher ed, called Poisoned Ivies. She sat down with Maya Sulkin to discuss it as well as what the future holds for higher education, the GOP, and her own career as she departs Congress.
It’s not just radical politics. American colleges face a litany of threats—from financial pressure to AI. So is higher education’s decline terminal? That’s the question at the heart of Tyler Cowen’s latest column. Read Tyler’s predictions for the future of college:
On Saturday, The New York Times reported on leaked emails from Supreme Court justices during an Obama-era ruling that birthed the “shadow docket.” The report frames these emergency rulings as a raw power grab, but Jed Rubenfeld is less sold on the idea of bias at the Court. But there’s a different problem with the shadow docket. As the Court offers more emergency rulings, it has to be careful to show its work—especially when attacks on its legitimacy are mounting.
In case you missed last week’s big news, Suzy Weiss has launched a podcast! On the second episode of Second Thought, Suzy and comedian Dan Ahdoot discussed everything from greedy Airbnb owners and Justin Bieber at Coachella to overpriced rotisserie chickens.
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is making good on his promise to tax the rich. But no matter how much the mayor scapegoats the ultra-wealthy, taxing them is not going to dig his city out of its prodigious budget hole, the editors write. Rather, it’s bound to drive away the top 1 percent who, though vilified by Mamdani’s comrades, account for 40 percent of the city’s income tax revenue.
More people visit Wikipedia online than Netflix, according to recent estimates. It dominates quick searches for fast facts and synopses on important issues. So why is it susceptible to disinformation that, most of the time, favors the world’s worst regimes like Iran? Ashley Rindsberg has spent years researching and writing on this very issue. On the latest Conversations with Coleman, Rindsberg tells all about how Wikipedia became a tool for rewriting history.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
Eight children are dead after a “domestic issue” turned into a mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, early Sunday morning, according to local authorities. The victims, seven of whom were the suspected shooter’s children, range in age from 1 to 14 years old. Police killed the suspected shooter after he stole a vehicle and fled from the scene.
President Trump signed an executive order on Friday to make certain psychedelic drugs more available to treat mental health conditions. The order provides federal funds to make them more accessible and orders the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track a review of drugs such as psilocybin and ibogaine.
Former president Barack Obama and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani led a sing-along and read to preschoolers at a local childcare center on Saturday. It’s the first time the former president and the mayor have met during Mamdani’s term, and comes days after Trump said Mamdani is “DESTROYING New York” with tax increases and threatened to yank federal funding for the city.
Two U.S. Army soldiers based in Anchorage, Alaska, were injured after a brown bear attacked them during a training exercise on Friday, CBS News reported. “Both individuals sustained injuries and are currently receiving appropriate medical care,” read a statement provided by the 11th Airborne Division. Both soldiers were able to ward off the bear using bear spray.
Oil prices surged Sunday after tensions in the Strait of Hormuz intensified over the weekend. Futures on crude oil deliveries spiked nearly seven percent. Oil prices had seen a 11 percent plunge on Friday before the weekend close.
Former Bulgarian president Rumen Radev and his party, Progressive Bulgaria, won a landslide victory on Sunday, likely securing a parliamentary majority of the NATO country. Radev has been an outspoken opponent of providing aid to Ukraine and is likely to pursue closer relations with Russia.
Six-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Cup Series team, 23XI, is dominating. Tyler Reddick, one of three 23XI drivers, won at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, securing his fifth win this year in the first nine races, the first driver to do so since Dale Earnhardt did the same in 1987. “When you win, it’s always fun,” Jordan said after the race.
"Two India-flagged commercial vessels were fired upon on Saturday..."
TFP editors: please do not use the passive tense in news reporting or analysis. Who fired upon the two vessels?
The Mandelson Affair in the UK continues. Starmer is giving a statement in the Commons about how he didn't know that Mandelson failed his Deep Vetting for a high level security clearance until last Tuesday. (Is he lying or incompetent -- the last time he could have known was 11.9.25 as that was when the scandal started to break and why did he not find out where all the bodies were buried then?) The sacked civil servant Olly Robbins is testifying tomorrow and people expect that he has receipts.
Starmer is clinging on by his fingernails but the most likely way he will go is through a Labour leadership challenge (given the widely predicted local election rout in 2 weeks, this was pretty much on the cards any way). It is interesting that the Guardian first broke the story late on Thursday. Someone leaked as they were uncomfortable about the potential for cover up.
This is the BBC live coverage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce35qnexlv8t