The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. The FBI's anti-corruption squad was circling Susan Collins — until Trump got in the way, ProPublica reports. The pattern is familiar: an inquiry into a powerful ally goes quiet the moment it turns politically inconvenient, and the machinery of accountability answers to the president, not the public.
The fight over who pays for the AI boom is spreading. Spending on data centers, the backbone of the artificial intelligence industry, has reached new highs in 2026, and the backlash has escalated from a niche local concern into a defining issue ahead of the November midterms, leaving Republicans on the back foot. It is part of a broader grassroots revolt against pollution aimed at the dirty data centers, toxic industrial farms and polluting factories communities are made to host. Behind closed doors Republicans privately admit they are doomed in November.
The administration keeps trying to control the frame. Trump is blocking reporters from the White House even as TV networks deny him the attention he craves; days after banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW, the White House launched Trump TV, a 24/7 stream critics call state-run media. He posted about magic beds that cure cancer — a conspiracy theory that was killing people even before the president amplified it to millions who believe it is real.
Abroad, Russia has coerced thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war to denounce their leaders and country in forced propaganda videos, with the consequences following them home. And activists with Swifties Against Genocide are moving to make UNICEF cut ties with Pink after she backed Macklemore's firing — pressing a cost for trampling pro-Palestine voices.
Zoom out: From a corruption inquiry killed from the top to a swelling revolt against the data centers capital is throwing up everywhere, the day tracks power protecting itself while ordinary people organize against it.