“The soldier above all other people prays for peace,” General Douglas MacArthur reminded West Point cadets in 1962. “Lethality is your calling card,” Pete Hegseth instructed them last month. (“You can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy,” he added, for good measure.) Our Lexington columnist compares the secretary of “war” with the American military giants who came before him, and finds he comes up depressingly short.

One Christmas, probably in the early 2000s, my sister and I were the happy recipients of Harry Potter Legos. We were entertained for days building our Lego Hogwarts. Since then, the brickmaker has pursued all sorts of collaborations with media brands, from Pokémon to “KPop Demon Hunters”. Other toys are following suit.

And today’s episode of The Insider examines the growing popularity of socialism, especially among the young. Our journalists ask how dangerous their bad ideas are and consider the good ones.