Tangle

On Saturday, French authorities  arrested Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov as part of an investigation into illicit activity on the messaging app, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and child abuse. The arrest comes as governments across the globe grapple with how to best regulate social media and messaging platforms. Durov has  not been formally charged  but can be h...

On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  suspended  his presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump. Kennedy plans to remove his name from the ballot in ten battleground states but remain an option in safe Republican and Democrat states to give his supporters in noncompetitive states the option to vote for him without playing spoiler. Kennedy has already taken action to rem...

On Sunday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC)  released  the party’s 2024 platform. In a press release, the DNC  noted  that the platform had been passed on July 16, prior to President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race, but that the document “makes a strong statement about the historic work that President Biden and Vice President Harris have accomplished hand-in-...

I'm out at the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago. A lot of readers have been asking why we didn’t go to the Republican National Convention. The answer is pretty simple: We applied for press passes to both, but the RNC didn’t accept us. We don’t know why. It is not because of any perceived partisanship — the RNC approved many liberal reporters, and here at the DNC I’ve seen everyo...

On Thursday, the Biden administration  announced  an agreement with drugmakers to reduce the prices of 10 of the most common prescription drugs covered under Medicare Part D. The agreement marks the first time the federal government has negotiated with pharmaceutical companies on drug prices, and the administration estimates the lower prices will  save Medicare $6 billion  when...

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris  announced  a set of economic policy plans at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. Those proposals included an expanded Child Tax Credit, financial assistance for first-time homebuyers, cutting regulations to boost homebuilding, and a federal ban on price gouging on food. The price gouging plan in particular represents one of Harris’s most notable p...

On today's episode, Isaac and Ari talk about the questions they would ask Kamala Harris if she would actually sit for an interview, the no tax on tips policy proposal, and some kind of hard to believe Senate polls. And as always, the Airing of Grievances. You can watch the entire Tangle Live event at City Winery NYC on our YouTube Channel! Check out Episode 5 of our podcast series, The Undecideds....

Less than a month after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his bid for reelection, Democrats have transformed their ticket, spurring a shift in the polls and  renewing  voter engagement. With Vice President Kamala Harris officially replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee and naming Gov. Tim Walz (MN) as her running mate, both parties have sought to reestablish their footing...

On July 29, three girls were  killed in a stabbing attack  at a dance class in Southport, England. Eight children and two adults were severely injured in the attack, including Leanne Lucas, 35, who organized the event and was stabbed while shielding two girls from the attacker. A 17-year-old suspect, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, from Banks, England, was  arrested  for the attack an...

On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd in Nevada that she would  eliminate taxes on workers’ tips  if she becomes president, just two months after former President Donald Trump  made the same proposal . Trump said he embraced the idea of no tax on tips after  a Nevada waitress  who served his table explained that the government was taking too much of her mo...

Tim Walz’s service record. Over the past week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has  faced scrutiny  over his time in the Army National Guard. Republicans, led by the party’s vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (OH), allege that Walz has misrepresented his time in the Guard to enhance his political profile, and they question the timing of his retir...

On today's episode, Isaac talks with Scott Klug, a former Congressman, journalist, and lobbyist. They discuss the polarization of American politics and the need for more civility and collaboration, the disappearance of the political center in Congress and the need for more balanced and local coverage. You can listen check out his podcast, Lost in the Middle, here. You can watch the entire Tangle L...

The Olympic boxing controversy. Last week, Imane Khelif became the center of an Olympic controversy when Italian boxer Angela Carini retired from their match after just  46 seconds , suggesting the force of Khelif’s punches was overwhelming. The bout’s surprising end brought attention to Khelif’s disqualification from the 2023 world championships after the International Boxing Association (IB...

Tim Walz. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris  announced  Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 election. Walz is a 60-year-old former high-school teacher and military veteran. He represented Minnesota's rural 1st District in Congress from 2007 to 2019, was elected governor in 2018, then re-elected in 2022. Harris’s pick followed her certification as  the Dem...

The global market disruption. On Monday, leading indices used to gauge the investor market across the globe plunged.  In the United States,  the S&P 500 slid by 3%, the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 2.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite index decreased by 3.4%. In Europe,  the pan-European Stoxx index fell 1.5% , its worst one-day drop in over a year, while London’s FTSE 100 fel...

The U.S.-Russia prisoner swap. On Thursday, the Biden administration  announced  a prisoner exchange between several European nations, the U.S., and Russia to secure the release of three U.S. citizens, one U.S. legal resident, and twelve others. Eight prisoners were sent back to Russia in return, three of whom had been held in the U.S. The swap was  the largest of its kind  sin...

On today's episode, Isaac and Ari talk about Tangle's five-year anniversary, Kamala Harris's pick for a running mate, and the debate around Supreme Court term limits. They also discuss the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif, a female boxer at the Olympics, the release of journalist Evan Gershkovich from prison, and Trump's appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. A...

Trump and Project 2025. On Tuesday, The Heritage Foundation’s Paul Dans  announced  he was stepping down from his position as director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, also known as Project 2025. Dans’s exit comes after weeks of Democratic criticism of the project on the campaign trail and repeated disavowals from former President Donald Trump, who has insisted Project 2025 i...

On Monday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela announced that President Nicolás Maduro had won Venezuela's presidential election, defeating challenger Edmundo González by a total of 51% to 44%. The results were immediately contested, with leaders from a coalition of opposition parties claiming that vote tallies they received showed González up by 40 points . Protests over the results...

Biden’s Supreme Court reforms. On Monday, President Joe Biden  proposed  a set of reforms for the U.S. Supreme Court. The proposal recommends two new laws: one that sets an 18-year term limit for justices, and another that creates an enforceable code of conduct and ethics rules for the court. Additionally, Biden called for a constitutional amendment ensuring that presidents do not have i...

Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  addressed  Congress, his fourth such address as Israel’s leader. Netanyahu was invited to speak by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA); the next day, he visited with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, then met with former President Donald Trump.  You can read today's po...

In today's episode, Isaac and Ari discuss Kamala Harris, her strengths and weaknesses, where she differs from Biden, and the potential criticisms coming from her opponents and the media. And, as always, the Airing of Grievances. Imagine this: There are over 100,000 people on this mailing list. If every person got one friend to sign up for Tangle, we could  double our readership overnight.&nbs...

Kamala Harris’s pick for vice president. Four days after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris has  reportedly secured  the support of enough Democratic delegates to become the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Harris is now weighing her options for running mate and will likely make her selection within  the next two w...

Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation. On Tuesday, Kimberly Cheatle resigned her position as Director of the Secret Service (USSS) following the  attempted assassination  of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. In a  statement , President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her “decades of public service” and said he would appoint her successor to...

The Republican National Convention (RNC). Last week, Republicans convened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2024 election. The four-day event featured speeches from the party’s most prominent figures as well as celebrities, political commentators, and activists. Former President Donald Trump, who  survived an assassination attempt...