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April 30, 2026

Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Notable

Why the U.S. is in a stalemate with a second-rate power. “The war in Iran has provided a road map for any country that wants to resist the United States in the future, including Russia and North Korea.”

— The editorial board

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The ‘rich face’ takeover. “Designer bags may be silly, overpriced and quite often unethically made. But at least there’s little to no chance they will disfigure you.”

— Amy Odell, the author of the Back Row newsletter

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The Supreme Court just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. “In the name of disentangling race from politics, the Supreme Court has given white voters more power at the expense of racial minorities.”

— The editorial board

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Spotlight

Ben Denzer

Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass

Jasmine Sun, a writer who covers artificial intelligence and Silicon Valley culture, writes that the people building A.I. fear that we have only a short time before advanced A.I. disrupts the labor force.

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ICYMI

The loneliness of Donald Trump. “Trump may not care about the power of his words. But those words still matter. They weigh on society.”

— Jamelle Bouie, an Opinion columnist

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Listen (or Watch)

Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Why Are We Still Driving? Confronting the weirdness of a Waymo future. By Interesting Times

More in Opinion

The Conversation I’m Not a King, but I Play One on TV Is there something to this whole monarchy thing? By Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens

There’s a 900-Year-Old Answer to Our Most Modern Problem What should we do when a chatbot behaves like a criminal? By David French

Nicholas Kristof Two Cocky Authoritarians Blocking Hormuz: What Could Go Wrong? In the Iran war, we have two overconfident administrations facing off, each believing that time is on its side. By Nicholas Kristof

David Wallace-Wells The Iran War Might Be an ‘Everything War’ It won’t be so easy to extract ourselves from this conflict. By David Wallace-Wells

letters Comey and Kimmel: Seashells and a Joke Readers discuss the James Comey indictment and the Jimmy Kimmel joke. Also: The U.S.A.I.D. tragedy; privatizing the mail.

In Your Words

Re: “White Drivers Got a Warning. Latino Drivers Got Detained.”

I am a naturalized citizen from India. Been in the country for 39 years. My wife, also naturalized, and I told our only daughter, who was born in the U.S., to carry her passport. We live in Connecticut. My daughter just finished her masters from Boston. This is our home and the only place we have felt everyone has a fair chance to be treated fairly. With this administration, that has changed.— A comment posted by Matthews from U.S.A.

Read more comments on the story here and check out our Letters to the Editor.

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