Today\u2019s read: 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
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A series of attacks across the country are being investigated for links to terrorism. Plus, we break down the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan. <\/p>\n
Our latest.<\/p>\n
In the last few days, we\u2019ve published a couple of subscribers-only editions that you may have missed. <\/p>\n
Last Friday, Senior Editor Will Kaback published the latest installment of his \u201cWhatever happened to\u2026\u201d series with a look at net neutrality<\/a>. Then, over the weekend, Executive Editor Isaac Saul interviewed The New York Times\u2019s David French<\/a> about James Talarico, Trump, and writing for The Times. Though you can watch Isaac\u2019s conversation with French in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>, only paid subscribers are able to access the full written editions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to become a paid Tangle member today!<\/p>\n Quick hits.President Donald Trump is reportedly working to assemble a group of countries to reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid rising oil and gas prices. The effort may include an operation to seize Kharg Island, a critical Iranian oil export hub that the U.S. struck on Friday. (The latest<\/a>)Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested news networks could lose their broadcast licenses for airing \u201choaxes and news distortions\u201d about the conflict in Iran. The comments came in response to a post by President Donald Trump criticizing the media\u2019s coverage. (The posts<\/a>)A federal judge blocked subpoenas served by the Justice Department to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ruling that prosecutors had produced \u201cessentially zero evidence\u201d that Powell had committed a crime. The Justice Department is investigating Powell for his management of the central bank\u2019s renovation of its Washington headquarters. (The ruling<\/a>)South Korea\u2019s military said North Korea fired over 10 ballistic missiles toward the sea off the country\u2019s east \u200bcoast as the U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted drills on Saturday. (The missiles<\/a>)President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday creating a benefits fraud task force chaired by Vice President JD Vance. The group will seek to develop a national strategy against fraud in state and federal programs. (The order<\/a>)<\/p>\n Peaceful News is Possible<\/p>\n In case you missed it, the news has been extra heavy recently. If headlines have been weighing you down more than usual, you\u2019re not alone\u2026 but it doesn\u2019t have to feel that way.<\/p>\n Meet The Pour Over<\/a>: a Christian news company that believes staying informed doesn\u2019t have to mean sacrificing your peace. <\/p>\n They deliver unbiased news that hits just what you need to be caught up on current events, plus brief Biblical reminders that keep you focused on what matters most: the Good News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Join 1.6M Christians<\/a> reclaiming their peace with The Pour Over.\u00a0<\/p>\n P.S. The Pour Over\u2019s not just hopeful, it\u2019s also funny\u2026 sometimes. Get their welcome email, and if you don\u2019t smile, they\u2019ll send you a full refund<\/a> (which is $0, because TPO\u2019s always free). <\/p>\n Today\u2019s topic. <\/p>\n The recent attacks in the U.S. Over the past two weeks, a series of attacks has taken place across the United States, with suspects allegedly linked to Islamic terror groups or ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: Tangle does not name perpetrators of attacks because of the well documented contagion effect<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday, a man drove his truck<\/a> into a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, then opened fire on the building. According to authorities, synagogue security engaged the assailant, who then shot himself inside his vehicle. One security guard was taken to the hospital after being struck by the vehicle, but no one else was injured. The suspect was born in Lebanon, entered the U.S. on an immigrant visa in 2011, and was granted citizenship in 2016. The suspect had lost several members of his family \u2014 including his brother, niece, and nephew \u2014 in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike earlier in March. The Israeli military said<\/a> the suspect\u2019s brother targeted in the airstrike was a commander of Hezbollah.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also on Thursday, a gunman opened fire<\/a> in a classroom where Army Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps (ROTC) members were gathered at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The suspect allegedly shouted \u201cAllahu akbar\u201d before the attack, killing one person and injuring two others. According to authorities, students in the classroom subdued and killed the shooter. The suspect was identified<\/a> as a native of Sierra Leone who became a naturalized U.S. citizen and served in the U.S. Army National Guard. In 2017, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempting to support the Islamic State (ISIS); he was released from prison in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Saturday, March 7, police subdued and arrested<\/a> two men from Pennsylvania who allegedly attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) outside Gracie Mansion, the New York City mayoral residence (the IEDs did not detonate, and no one was injured). The attempted attack occurred during an anti-Islam protest<\/a> led by far-right influencer Jake Lang that had inspired counter-protests. After their arrest, the suspects reportedly told police they are supporters of ISIS and were partially inspired by the terror group.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, on March 1, a gunman opened fire<\/a> on patrons of a bar in Austin, Texas, killing three people and injuring over a dozen others. The alleged shooter, who was killed by police, was a Senegalese national and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2013. According to authorities, he was wearing a sweatshirt that said \u201cProperty of Allah\u201d and an undershirt with an Iranian-flag theme when he carried out the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the wake of last week\u2019s incidents, three Republican lawmakers published posts on X focused on the attacks\u2019 alleged connection to Islam. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) reposted<\/a> a picture of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) next to an image of the 9\/11 attacks, writing, \u201cThe enemy is inside the gates.\u201d Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said<\/a>, \u201cWe need more Islamophobia, not less.\u201d Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) posted<\/a>, \u201cMuslims don\u2019t belong in American society.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, we\u2019ll cover these attacks and their link to heightened terror threats in the United States, with views from the right and left. Then, Executive Editor Isaac Saul gives his take. <\/p>\n What the right is saying.Many on the right say the attacks underscore the need for a broad rethinking of immigration policy.\u00a0Some criticize the media\u2019s coverage of the attacks.Others say modern terror threats increasingly come from inside the U.S.<\/p>\n In The Federalist, Brianna Lyman argued \u201cthis week\u2019s terror attacks prove immigration isn\u2019t \u2018good\u2019 just because it\u2019s legal.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOn Thursday [an assailant] \u2014 a Sierra Leone national \u2014 opened fire at Virginia\u2019s Old Dominion University, killing Brandon Shah. [The man] came here legally\u2026 That same legality didn\u2019t stop 41-year-old [another assailant] \u2014 a Lebanese national who came to this country in 2011 and was naturalized in 2016 \u2014 from crashing his car into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday while armed with a rifle,\u201d Lyman said. \u201cMeanwhile New Yorkers were spared on Saturday after two radical Islamists whose parents immigrated here from Afghanistan and Turkey allegedly tried to bomb anti-Islam protesters outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s official residence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades Washington has operated under the false pretense that immigration is objectively good so long as it is done legally. That assumption has led to us to suicidal decisions,\u201d Lyman wrote. \u201cIt has also\u2026 led to the displacing of American workers and students, as well as a disruption in national unity and cohesion. As these terrorist attacks show, legality alone does not make someone American in culture and norms, nor does it ensure that these immigrants share the same political and religious values that underpin our republic.\u201d<\/p>\n National Review\u2019s editors wrote \u201c[the] media can\u2019t hide the truth about [the] Gracie Mansion bomb attempt.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt as to their motivations: Both men spoke freely and unrepentantly to police at the scene, proudly claiming inspiration from ISIS and stating they had intended their terrorist atrocity to be \u2018bigger than Boston,\u2019\u201d the editors said. \u201cYet one would know none of this were one to go only by the headlines and framing devices the mainstream media have consistently used to explain this story to American readers, who \u2014 like it or not \u2014 primarily consume their news in headline rather than article form.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is impossible not to notice that all of these headlines \u2014 or countless others from similarly situated media outlets \u2014 are carefully crafted to avoid stating a politically inconvenient truth: Islamic terrorists came horrifyingly close to detonating bombs in a crowd of protesters. Instead, our attention is directed toward the \u2018hateful\u2019 nature of the rally,\u201d the editors wrote. \u201cThe media are consistently choosing not to report on the attack outside Gracie Mansion honestly, instead employing all of their creative writing skills to craft craven, obfuscatory headlines that aim to deceive by omission and suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Wall Street Journal, Kevin Cohen said \u201cterrorists are now often made in the USA.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWestern counterterrorism operated for decades on a simple premise: Threats came from somewhere else. They crossed borders. They arrived with suspicious travel histories, fraudulent documents or known affiliations. Stop them there and the interior remains secure. That premise is no longer holding. The days since the Iran war began have seen at least four apparent terrorist attacks in the U.S.,\u201d Cohen wrote. \u201cIncreasingly the danger emerges inside societies that still treat admission as the end of a security process rather than the beginning of one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSeen one by one, these incidents look like separate crimes. But they share several threads: lawful presence, few warning signals, online radicalization, and attacks carried out without the fingerprints of an organized network,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cRadicalization rarely follows a single path. For some ideology comes first. For others the trigger is grievance, isolation or personal instability, which gradually hardens inside online echo chambers, where resentment circulates freely. Social media has accelerated the process, allowing extremist narratives to spread quickly and widely.\u201d<\/p>\n What the left is saying.Many on the left express concern over the rising number of domestic attacks.\u00a0Some note the danger posed by terror attacks and anti-Muslim bigotry.Others criticize Republicans for their shifting national security policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Newsday editorial board said \u201c[the] terrifying Temple Israel, Old Dominion attacks bring home danger.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cA pair of terrifying incidents Thursday brought home the fear and uncertainty prevalent on the global stage, leaving Americans rightfully feeling more vulnerable and concerned for what could come next,\u201d the board wrote. \u201cThe ongoing conflict has opened the door to increased radicalization and terrorism, and to the potential for more terror to come\u2026 Antisemitic violence has intensified, too, with active shooter incidents at three Toronto synagogues, an explosion outside a Belgium synagogue and a security incident outside a Norway synagogue, just in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile those threats are real, nothing excuses sweeping, racist rhetoric that targets Muslims coming from those like Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who Thursday posted to social media, \u2018The enemy is inside the gates,\u2019 accompanied by a retweet of a photo of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani paired with a photo of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. That\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d the board said. \u201cRadicalized individuals don\u2019t represent entire religions, just as synagogues and Jewish schools don\u2019t represent Israel or its military.\u201d<\/p>\n In USA Today, Sara Pequen\u0303o argued \u201cdon\u2019t let [the] Gracie Mansion bomb scare obscure far-right\u2019s danger.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe news media has been \u2014 rightfully \u2014 focused on the potential harm these IEDs could have caused. Political violence is never the answer, no matter the views being espoused. But the presence of far-right, Islamophobic protesters in New York City is also deplorable, and failing to get the attention it deserves, regardless of how the protest ended,\u201d Pequen\u0303o said. \u201cThe protest, titled \u2018Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer,\u2019 was organized by far-right influencer Jake Lang. Lang\u2026 roasted a pig in front of Gracie Mansion as part of the protest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLang presumably lives in Florida; he\u2019s running to replace former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio there. Yet he\u2019s traveled north to spew hate in New York,\u201d Pequen\u0303o wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s pathetic that someone would come all the way from Florida because they\u2019re outraged that New York City has a Muslim mayor\u2026 The entire weekend was full of chaos, but that chaos could have been avoided if Lang had just stayed in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n In The American Prospect, James Baratta wrote \u201cplaying politics with national security is a dangerous game.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cNational-security experts contend that geopolitical escalations amplify the risk of lone-wolf extremism, in which self-radicalized actors commit violent, ideologically motivated attacks without material support from organized terrorist networks,\u201d Baratta said. \u201cBut the ongoing erosion of counterterrorism resources and expertise, recent shift in priorities across U.S. intelligence agencies toward immigration, and historic lack of oversight over the FBI\u2019s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which has developed a reputation for wrongfully targeting activists and communities of color, appear to be softening the nation\u2019s counterterrorism readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cApart from the shift in priorities across U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the Trump administration appears to be diminishing the nation\u2019s counterterrorism capabilities in other ways,\u201d Baratta wrote. \u201cDays before Trump ordered U.S. Central Command to initiate Operation Epic Fury, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly fired a dozen agents, analysts, and staff tasked with monitoring threats from Iran due to their involvement in the federal investigation into Trump\u2019s alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.\u201d<\/p>\n My take.<\/p>\n Reminder: \u201cMy take\u201d is a section where we give ourselves space to share a personal opinion. If you have feedback, criticism or compliments, don’t unsubscribe. Write in by replying to this email, or leave a comment<\/a>.<\/p>\n What worries me most about these attacks is the lack of obvious warning signs.Preventing these attacks isn\u2019t as simple as reducing immigration or deploying more surveillance.Solutions for our mass violence problem are as elusive as ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n Executive Editor Isaac Saul: Unfortunately, we\u2019re making up a lot of ground here all at once. So I think it\u2019s worth taking these attacks in the order we reported them in the introduction and thinking about the common threads from the stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the man who drove his truck into a synagogue in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Obviously, the congregants at that temple were innocent and did nothing to provoke such an attack. At the same time, it\u2019s also obviously relevant that the attacker recently lost family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. When I say<\/a> \u201cviolence begets violence\u201d and we have no way to truly understand how many more extremists this war will create, this is a good example of what I mean. The suspect\u2019s brother was reportedly a commander of Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. I\u2019d like to imagine our federal law-enforcement agencies could have identified someone like that as a threat, but it’s hard to imagine exactly how they could have stopped him without some kind of predictive surveillance apparatus that borders on \u201cpre-crime.\u201d Or, if you take the killer\u2019s purported rationale at face value, I suppose preventing Israel from bombing Lebanon is a solution, but it\u2019s one we obviously don\u2019t control.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Old Dominion University, a person with a record of trying to help the Islamic State opened fire in a classroom, killing one person and injuring two others. The man reportedly yelled \u201cAllahu akbar\u201d before his attack but was killed while being subdued, so we won\u2019t know what really drove him over the edge or why he targeted this classroom. The shooter had previously been sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempting to supply support to ISIS; it\u2019s easy to fault the fact he was on the street, but by the same token, 11 years is a long time. He served almost eight of those years in prison and was still under court-mandated probation. He was also a U.S. veteran, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and an online student at Old Dominion.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the Gracie Mansion attack, two young men who claimed to be supporters of the Islamic State terror group showed up in Manhattan with the stated intent to create an attack worse than the Boston Marathon bombing. The men drove to New York with materials for a homemade bomb they bought in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (where I grew up). While the corporate media\u2019s truly embarrassing and biased reporting<\/a> on the story led many to believe Mayor Zohran Mamdani was being targeted, in reality, the two men were allegedly going after a far-right rally titled \u201cStop the Islamic Takeover of New York City: Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer.\u201d One man said he was inspired by ISIS materials he watched on his phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally: The Austin shooting, which occurred just a couple days after some of my team and I attended a conference a few streets over. The shooter acquired his guns legally in 2017, was a naturalized citizen, and was unknown to officers before the act of violence. There are reports he may have had a mental illness.<\/p>\n What stands out to you when you look at all these cases?<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy, as some people have done, to simply point to the association between all these attackers and Islam, then chalk this up to a failure of our pluralistic society. Or, alternatively, that the attacks were carried out mostly by immigrants or naturalized citizens, meaning that our immigration system requires better vetting. But this is a simplistic response that would fail to actually prevent these attacks. Each of the naturalized citizens was seemingly radicalized after being naturalized, which means a vetting process to become citizens would not have stopped them. Again, I think it is a good and reasonable argument that we should already have denaturalized the suspect in the Old Dominion attack, or that the denaturalization window ought to be larger for supporting terrorist organizations. At the same time, I think it\u2019s equally valid to say we should treat naturalized citizens the same way we treat all citizens; that means not solving our problems through deporting them, but through putting them through our justice system the same way we would a U.S.-born citizen.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more interesting to me is that almost always, when we cover acts of mass violence, the warning signs<\/a> become immediately obvious \u2014 social media posts, family members throwing up red flags, a history of violence, an encounter with police. But so far, those typical warning signs were fewer and less obvious than usual.<\/p>\n The strongest warning sign was the Michigan attacker reportedly not showing up for work in the days before the attack. Otherwise, law enforcement would have had almost no early indicators to go on. The Old Dominion attacker only had his prior record, the Gracie Mansion would-be bombers only their recent search history, and the Austin shooter only his history of mental illness. I don\u2019t think we\u2019d want the feds to use any of those things to justify investigations.<\/p>\n And, of course, it\u2019s hard to separate these ideologically motivated acts of violence from the larger spate of violent mass shootings in our country, which are typically<\/a> carried out by disaffected young men, often homegrown and white, with no immigration story and no relationship to any foreign country. To me, solving for the four stories in today\u2019s newsletter with \u201cstricter immigration\u201d would be just as ineffective as trying to address homegrown violence with \u201creducing exposure to violent video games.\u201d If you\u2019re in the mood to be maximally cynical, some very dark jokes online about this kind of violence being the most quintessentially American thing an immigrant could do in 2026 is really not that far off; we are uniquely bad in this respect, and the root cause is not \u201cimmigration\u201d or \u201cIslam,\u201d even if this spate of attacks has been carried out by Muslims with relevant immigration stories.<\/p>\n To be direct: I\u2019d feel much more optimistic about where we were as a nation if resolving mass violence like this were as simple as restricting immigration. But I\u2019m not. What actually makes me despondent about acts of mass violence \u2014 both the ones we\u2019ve witnessed in recent weeks and the ones we\u2019ve witnessed for the last two decades \u2014 is the conglomeration of all the issues that create them. The online radicalization, the loneliness epidemic, the disaffected young males, the Islamic extremism, the far-right extremism, the terribly enforced gun laws, the culture of glorifying violence, the mental health issues, and so on. And for the recent attacks, consider some of the uniquely wonderful things about America that are being used against us for evil:<\/p>\n Our robust freedoms of speech and assembly allow a far-right group to gather in an anti-Islam rally outside the Muslim mayor\u2019s residence in our biggest, most diverse city, which predictably incites a counterprotest. Then a pair of teenagers allegedly radicalized by freely disseminated information show up ready to inflict mass damage. The brother of a Hezbollah commander is welcomed to our society as an individual, one able to live freely without the weight of his family association, and he uses that freedom to retaliate against innocent American Jews for a military strike conducted by a foreign country in another foreign country. A naturalized citizen who once tried to support ISIS is told he can return to civil society after he serves an appropriate punishment, and leverages that opportunity at redemption to murder a teacher and injure several others. Even the Austin shooter, also a naturalized citizen, benefits from our gun laws once he becomes naturalized, in the spirit of being treated as any other citizen, and he possesses a firearm for nine years without using it illegally\u2026 until he does.<\/p>\n How do we address these problems without uprooting the values we espouse and often live out as a nation? How do we protect ourselves without dynamiting the very pluralistic society these values produced, and yet are now being abused? How do we turn our attention to violence here with a giant foreign entanglement occupying the federal government\u2019s time? And what leaders are going to offer solutions that don\u2019t involve mass surveillance or ignoring the religiously motivated violence or violating our civil liberties or widespread immigration crackdowns or revoking gun rights?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that I don\u2019t know the answers, it\u2019s that I can\u2019t even realistically imagine a holistic solution in this political moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Staff dissent \u2014 Associate Editors Audrey Moorehead and Lindsey Knuth: Strong evidence shows that each of these attackers were motivated to commit crimes out of religious extremism, and we think that Isaac didn\u2019t fully tangle with that evidence, or with the potential for further violence after two senior Iranian clerics called<\/a> on Muslims worldwide to seek revenge for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s death as a \u201creligious duty.\u201d At the same time, Isaac also failed to address the statements of some U.S. lawmakers unfairly demonizing<\/a> the broader U.S. Muslim population as a result of these attacks. These attackers\u2019 extremism is an outlier among the U.S. Muslim population, the vast majority of whom live and practice their religion peacefully, oppose<\/a> violence in the name of Islam, and have<\/a> condemned<\/a> each<\/a> of the recent attacks.<\/p>\n Take the survey: What do you think could have prevented the recent attacks? Let us know<\/a>. <\/p>\n Disagree? That’s okay. Our opinion is just one of many. Write in and let us know why, and we’ll consider publishing your feedback.<\/p>\n Your questions, answered.<\/p>\n Q: While all our eyes are fixated on Iran, there is also fighting going on between Iran\u2019s neighbors Afghanistan and Pakistan. What is this conflict about and is it connected to the U.S.\/Israel campaign at all?<\/p>\n \u2014 Hannes from Glendale, WI<\/p>\n Tangle: On February 26, Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government launched an attack<\/a> on Pakistani military bases near their shared border, claiming retaliation for Pakistani strikes on Afghan bases several days prior. Pakistan responded by bombing Afghan border provinces and the capital of Kabul \u2014 the first time Pakistan has ever launched a confirmed attack on Afghanistan\u2019s major cities. Pakistan\u2019s defense minister described the situation as an \u201copen war.\u201d<\/p>\n Details about casualties and civilian deaths are divergent and difficult to verify. Afghanistan claims Taliban attacks early in the conflict killed<\/a> 41 Pakistani soldiers and wounded 53 others, while Pakistan claims<\/a> it inflicted heavy casualties and material losses on Afghanistan while targeting 41 border outposts. Most civilian casualties have been on the Afghan side, and the United Nations says that Pakistani attacks have killed<\/a> 75 civilians and displaced 115,000 more.\u00a0<\/p>\n The current Afghanistan\u2013Pakistan War is not directly tied to the outbreak of war in Iran, but its implications could exacerbate regional destabilization. At the core of the conflict, Pakistan asserts<\/a> that the Afghan Taliban is offering a safe haven for the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), a jihadist militant group formed in 2007 with the goal of overthrowing the Pakistani government (the Taliban rejects these claims). Pakistan originally helped to create the Taliban and was one of its principal supporters, so the current conflict represents a dramatic reversal in Pakistan\u2019s position towards the militant group governing its western neighbor.<\/p>\n Want to have a question answered in the newsletter? You can reply to this email (it goes straight to our inbox) or fill out this form<\/a>. <\/p>\n Under the radar.<\/p>\n On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order authorizing the Department of Energy to accelerate oil and gas development under a Cold War-era law. Energy Secretary Chris Wright then directed oil company Sable Offshore Corp to restore drilling operations off the southern California coast, which could produce roughly 50,000 barrels of oil a day. One of the pipelines that Wright ordered to reopen was the site of a 2015 spill that released 100,000 gallons of oil into the ocean and damaged marine life. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) criticized the order and said he will sue to stop it. The Los Angeles Times has the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n Headlines Weighing You Down? There’s a Better Way<\/p>\n The Pour Over delivers politically neutral news for Christians\u2014just enough to stay informed, with Biblical reminders that keep the Good News in focus. No anxiety spiral, no rage bait<\/a>. 1.6 million readers trust their approach. <\/p>\n It’s free, it’s funny (sometimes), and the welcome email might actually make you smile.<\/p>\n Join The Pour Over<\/a>.<\/p>\n Numbers.23.<\/a> The number of deaths in foreign-born terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during President Barack Obama\u2019s two terms, according to a Cato Institute analysis.\u00a012.<\/a> The number of deaths in foreign-born terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term.\u00a01.<\/a> The number of deaths in foreign-born terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during President Joe Biden\u2019s term.\u00a08.<\/a> The number of deaths in foreign-born terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, to date. One year ago today we had just answered your questions in a Friday mailbag edition<\/a>.The most clicked link in Thursday\u2019s newsletter was the ad in the free version for Finance Buzz<\/a>.Nothing to do with politics: The new license plate designs for 2026 just dropped<\/a>.Thursday\u2019s survey: 1,248 readers responded to our survey on the Live Nation settlement with 45% opposing it and saying it won\u2019t improve ticketing. \u201cI think the settlement might improve ticketing marginally, but the situation called for a much tougher one,\u201d one respondent said. \u201cThese post-COVID buyers are also at fault as consumers \u2014 a concert SHOULDN\u2019T cost $600, and we shouldn\u2019t be willing to pay that. We\u2019re feeding the monster,\u201d said another. Until recently, the waters off Gujarat, India, were ground zero for whale shark hunting \u2014 up to 500 of the world\u2019s largest fish killed every year, mostly just to waterproof boats. Then a beloved Hindu spiritual leader began weaving whale sharks into his sermons, likening them to daughters returning home to give birth, and the fish went from nameless to the \u201cvhali\u201d \u2014 the beloved one. Since 2002, fishers in Gujarat have rescued over 1,000 whale sharks, and hunting has ceased almost entirely. \u201cThe whale shark is like my daughter,\u201d fisherman Ganeshbhai Devjibhai Varidum said. \u201cIf she hurts, I hurt.\u201d Reasons to Be Cheerful has the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a nice day.<\/p>\n