OUR PICKSICE’s Mind-Bogglingly Massive Blank Check | How NASA Engineered Its Own Decline | We Fact-Checked the Trump Administration’s Climate Report, and more

Trump’s Desperate Move to Quiet the Epstein Scandal  (Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic)
The president tries to distract his followers with revisionist history about the Russia investigation.
Trump’s strategy of promiscuous dissembling often allows his smaller lies to be injected into the country’s political bloodstream as his more extravagant lies draw attention. In this case, his main intention is to change the subject from Epstein to literally anything else. That he is simultaneously managing to inscribe his revisionist history of the 2016 election into the public record is a secondary victory Trump does not deserve.

ICE’s Mind-Bogglingly Massive Blank Check  (Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic)
Congress has appropriated billions with few strings attached, creating a likely windfall for well-connected firms.

Donald Trump’s War on Climate Science Has Staggering Implications  (Economist)
Even a policy of “drill, baby, drill” would imply more climate research, not its evisceration.

Between Security and Strategy: Considerations for the Terrorist Designation of the Muslim Brotherhood  (Mahmut Cengiz, HSToday)
The Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational political and religious movement, has come back into focus in U.S. political discussions. This renewed attention follows the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas—an organization widely seen as the Brotherhood’s affiliate in Gaza—which have increased scrutiny of the group’s international activities and ideological influence. The debate intensified after an incident on June 2, 2025, where Mohamed Sabry Soliman targeted a group of Jewish individuals in Colorado with incendiary devices. Investigations later showed that Soliman had publicly supported the Muslim Brotherhood on social media. Amid growing concerns regarding the Muslim Brotherhood’s potential links to violent extremism, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025 was introduced on July 16, 2025. The proposed legislation seeks to establish a formal process for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under U.S. law.  This article critically examines the group’s history and ideological roots, considering the potential impacts—both advantages and limitations—of such a designation.

ICE Detains Police Officer Even After DHS System Approved Him for Work  (Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post)
Federal officials arrested a Maine police officer they said overstayed his visa. His department said DHS had earlier verified the officer’s work eligibility.

We Fact-Checked the Trump Administration’s Climate Report  (Shannon Osaka, Anusha Mathur, Evan Halper and Jake Spring, Washington Post)
The Energy Department released a report this week promising a “critical review” of climate science, coinciding with the Environmental Protection Agency’s move to end climate regulation across the federal government.
But scientists say the report, drafted by researchers known for questioning mainstream climate science, is riddled with errors and cherry-picked data.
“They cherrypick data points that suit their narratives and exclude the vast majority of the scientific literature that does not,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and the climate research lead at the payment company Stripe, whose work was cited in the new report, said in a text message. “This gives a terribly skewed view of the underlying climate science.”

How NASA Engineered Its Own Decline  (Franklin Foer, The Atlantic)
The agency once projected America’s loftiest ideals. Then it ceded its ambitions to Elon Musk.