Principals

1. Jamaal Bowman’s last stand
2. Julian Assange deal
3. Semafor doubles down on live journalism
4. Court blocks student loan plan
5. SCOTUS takes up transgender health care
6. New Obamacare estimates
7. Gallup global emotions poll

PDB: Louisiana sued over Ten Commandments law

Blinken warns Israel against escalating conflict with Hezbollah ... Bill Gates wants AI and data center companies to push down the costs of climate tech ... US ambassador says China undermining engagement

The Bowman/Latimer race reaches its ugly end

Rep. Jamaal Bowman will seek to stave off challenger George Latimer today in the most expensive House primary in history. The NY-16 race is a major test of “the Squad’s” durability, Semafor’s David Weigel reports, the mini-caucus that rose to prominence by ousting safe-seat moderates and now faces a well-funded backlash from pro-Israel groups. “It is one of the most significant elections in the modern history of this country,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said at a rally for Bowman. “This election is about whether billionaire super PACs can buy our democracy.” Bowman was vulnerable before the Israel-Hamas war, but the bitter divisions over it have made for one of the uglier races of the year. Latimer has accused Bowman of being an “extremist” and ignoring Jewish constituents; Bowman has accused Latimer of harboring “anti-Black racist” views after he credited Bowman with an “ethnic benefit.”

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange reaches plea deal with US

Julian Assange’s legal fight with the US is coming to an end. The WikiLeaks founder is pleading guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of conspiring to illegally obtain and disseminate national defense information. Assange will appear in federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific, because he opposed traveling to the continental US. According to the plea deal, the US Justice Department will seek a 62-month sentence, which is equal to the time Assange served in a UK prison while he challenged extradition to the US. The deal will credit him with time served, and he will be allowed to immediately return to his native Australia.

Semafor doubles down on live journalism

Semafor has appointed PBS News Hour co-anchor, Amna Nawaz, former Wall Street Journal writer, Jon Hilsenrath, former Wall Street Journal and Washington Post editor, Marcus Brauchli, and former New York Magazine journalist and Mixed Signals co-host, Nayeema Raza, as contributors. The contributors will work alongside Semafor’s editorial and events teams in Washington, D.C to produce and moderate compelling news-driven events, and we’ll bring their voices into our newsletters when we can. In addition, Semafor has promoted Meera Pattni, its head of communications, to oversee its global live journalism business, working closely with senior editor Gina Chon. Pattni, a founding member of the Semafor leadership team, will be responsible for expanding and enhancing the company’s global events portfolio. Maggie Soergel, formerly the head of events, has been promoted to general manager of live journalism.

Judges halt more of Biden’s student debt plans

Joe Biden’s efforts to tackle student debt are once again running aground in court. Two federal district judges on Monday temporarily blocked critical pieces of the president’s new, more generous loan repayment plan, known as SAVE. The rulings, delivered by a pair of Obama appointed judges, came in lawsuits by Republican State attorneys general arguing that the administration had overstepped its authority in crafting the program. A judge in Missouri ordered the administration to stop forgiving loans under the plan, while a judge in Kansas halted the Department of Education from cutting borrowers payments by as much as half starting next month. The new round of challenges are being brought by some of the same officials who successfully sued to stop Biden’s mass debt cancellation program.

In the latest episode of Mixed Signals from Semafor Media, presented by Think With Google, Ben, Nayeema, and Max report from Cannes, decoding the year ahead for the ad business amidst the panels and parties. While enjoying the Côte d’Azur, they discuss Washington’s move to ban TikTok and the company’s denial of what’s unfolding. Then, they weigh in on whether Will Lewis, CEO of the Washington Post, will survive.

Listen to this episode of Mixed Signals wherever you get your podcasts.

Supreme Court to take on trans health care

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to Tennessee’s law banning transgender health treatments for minors, plunging itself into one of this decade’s defining cultural and medical battles. The Justice Department argues the state’s statute — which bans puberty blockers, gender-transition surgeries, and hormone therapies — discriminates against individuals based on sex, in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Twenty-five states have similar laws on the books, and the decision is expected to “bring much-needed clarity to whether the Constitution contains special protections for gender identity,” as one lawyer for Tennessee put it. Some key history to remember: Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief John Roberts found discriminating against trans workers was a violation of the Civil Rights Act back in 2020. Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern considers that “cause for some very cautious optimism” that they could deliver another trans-rights friendly ruling.

CBO: Extending Obamacare subsidies would cost $335 billion

Avoiding next year’s Obamacare cliff is going to be pricey. On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that permanently extending the more generous subsidies President Biden added onto the health law would insure 3.4 million more Americans at the cost of $335 billion over a decade. The credits — which capped premiums for higher earners and zeroed them out for some lower-income enrollees, helping to push enrollment to 21 million — are set to expire alongside large swaths of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2025. GOP Reps. Jodey Arrington and Jason Smith — who chair the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees, respectively — assailed the subsidies as a costly sop to insurance companies and the wealthy. However, a majority across partisan lines backs keeping the subsidies, per a recent KFF Tracking poll.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

The countries where positivity reigns

And now for some good vibes. Gallup is out with its regular poll of global emotions, and it finds that the world’s mood improved a bit overall in 2023, finally recovering to where it was pre-pandemic. More than 70% of people said they either felt well-rested, experienced a lot of enjoyment, or smiled and laughed a lot the previous day. Latin and Central American countries continued to dominate on these measures, with Paraguay, Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico taking the top four spots worldwide, and El Salvador and Costa Rica helping to round out the top 8. Southeast Asian countries followed close behind, with four entries spread through the top dozen.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Newly independent Sen. Joe Manchin’s leadership PAC will start making donations to both Republicans and Democrats who emphasize bipartisanship.

Playbook: Politico launched an interactive ballot-access tracker to see how the third party presidential candidates are faring in their efforts in key states.

WaPo: Progressives are upset House Democratic leaders haven’t done more to protect incumbents like Bowman facing primary challenges from moderates.

Axios: Fortune 100 CEOs haven’t donated to Trump, despite support from some big-name donors.

White House

• President Biden said Monday he was “appalled” by violent clashes by pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters outside a synagogue in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Congress

• Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Monday she will force a vote this week to direct the House sergeant at arms to arrest Attorney General Merrick Garland for not turning over audio of the interview of President Biden with former special counsel Robert Hur. (The rarely used tool was last considered in 2019 when then-House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler was pressured by Democrats to hold Trump administration officials in “inherent contempt” for not responding to House investigations of President Trump’s conduct and finances.)
• The House Ethics Committee said Monday it will review a congressional watchdog report that found “substantial reason” to believe Texas Republican Reps. Ronny Jackson and Rep. Wesley Hunt used thousands of dollars of campaign funds to pay for memberships at private social clubs.
• The House is getting a new prayer space. The “Interfaith Staff Prayer Room” opens Thursday in room 467 of Cannon and will be open to all House staff and interns for prayer and meditation starting next Monday, per a dear colleague letter from the Office of the Chaplin.
• The US Army has confirmed that Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, does not qualify for the Combat Infantryman Badge that he wears on his lapel. — NOTUS

Economy

• Democratic wonks have been busy picking away at Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips. Some interesting points raised by former Biden economist Ernie Tedeschi at the Budget Lab: He argues the cut wouldn’t benefit that many low-income Americans, since tipped employees only make up about 2.5% of the US workforce, and 37% of them already don’t pay any federal income taxes. Of course, a lot more people might start working for tips if there were tax savings involved.
• The Federal Reserve is floating a weaker version of its planned bank-capital overhaul that would significantly lighten the load on Wall Street lenders. — Bloomberg
• The Social Security Administration said Monday it will eliminate most obsolete unskilled jobs, such as pneumatic tube operator and microfilm processor, from its outdated database used to deny disability benefits.

Courts

• Civil liberties groups have sued to block Louisiana’s new law to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, saying the measure is unconstitutional.
• Hunter Biden has requested a new trial, arguing that his conviction on three felony gun counts three weeks ago should be vacated because that trial began before a circuit court formally issued a mandate denying his appeal. His attorneys argued in a separate filing that the Supreme Court’s ruling this week barring people under domestic restraining orders from owning guns supported their motion for an acquittal or at least a new trial since Biden never acted violently or misused the gun.
• Actor Jay Johnston, known for his roles in “Mr. Show” and “Bob’s Burgers,” is expected to plead guilty on charges tied to his participation in the Jan. 6 riot. — NBC News

On the Trail

• Donald Trump is building ties with Glenn Youngkin, hoping the Virginia governor can help him flip the state in November. — NBC
• Planned Parenthood plans to spend $40 million supporting Democrats this cycle. —AP

Polls

Trump leads Biden 43-38 among likely voters in Georgia, according to a pre-debate Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll.

Foreign Policy

• The Kremlin on Monday warned of “consequences” for the US after it accused Washington of involvement in deadly attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea that used rockets made in the US.
• US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has accused China of undermining engagement between the countries. — WSJ
• Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Ultra-Orthodox men are required to perform military service, potentially splitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. —AP

Technology

• The Biden administration is investigating China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicorn over concerns they could exploit access to US data through their cloud and internet businesses by providing it to Beijing. — Reuters
• Apple rejected Meta overtures months ago to integrate the social-networking company’s AI chatbox into iPhones. — Bloomberg

Big Read

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis was seen as an impediment by London detectives in the investigation of a phone-hacking scandal when he was an executive with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2011, The New York Times reports. He was supposed to cooperate with the detectives, identify wrongdoing, and steer the company through the crisis. Police suspected the company was trying to blame a few journalists “while steering the investigation away from other journalists and editors,” a lead detective said in a previously undisclosed summary of events. Meanwhile, as police were negotiating for access to evidence, the company was deleting data from its servers and not telling them until it was too late. Plaintiffs in lawsuits against News Corp. say records show he was involved in the deletion of millions of internal emails. Lewis has denied any wrongdoing.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, according to data from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: CNN anchor Kasie Hunt cut off an interview with Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Monday after she attacked colleagues Jake Tapper and Dana Bash during a segment on the preparation taking place for Thursday’s presidential debate.

What the Right isn’t reading: Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of Newbern, Ala. who had been locked out of office in 2020, will be reinstated under a settlement reached in federal court.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Jordan Weissmann, Morgan Chalfant

Editor-at-Large: Steve Clemons

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel pay for memberships at private social clubs.