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IMPORTANT Message From MeidasTouch Co-Founder

Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Jan 8

By Ben Meiselas

Hello Meidas Mighty. It’s Ben Meiselas, co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network. I’ve been looking forward to sending you this message.

Although I have done several live shows on Substack and multiple video posts this year, I have been holding off on sending this important message to you until I was able to fully execute one of the major promises that I made to you at the end of last year. I am proud to announce we executed the plan.

As you may know, I’ve been working tirelessly to successfully launch the MeidasTouch Washington, D.C. Bureau. As with everything we do, it was critical that the launch be perfect, given how historic it would be if we pulled it off correctly. We’ve been meticulously planning all the details. We selected the best team. We worked on the most impactful distribution model, and we launched this week.

By now, you’ve probably seen our D.C. Bureau. We had Pablo Manríquez join our team. We’ve been asking the politicians on Capitol Hill — from both parties — all of the questions you’ve wanted to ask them and not the watered-down stuff you see on corporate news. Since we launched this week, we’ve already conducted around 50 interviews on, and around, the steps of the Capitol and have broken major news, whether it’s interviewing AOC or Rand Paul or Ro Khanna or Lauren Boebert or Thomas Massie or Ted Lieu or Jim McGovern or James Lankford, and the list goes on. Our capabilities and capacity to break news on Capitol Hill now exceed the corporate news networks.

Given Trump’s invasion of Venezuela, his cover-up of the Epstein files, his threats to invade Greenland and virtually every other country in the Western Hemisphere, and the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good, it’s been critical that we upgraded our capabilities to meet the moment as you expect of us. In addition to building out a D.C. Bureau, we’ve worked to expand our partnerships with incredible groups like Status Coup News and to uplift their reach to expand our on-the-ground reporting. The courageous reporters at Status Coup helped us bring exclusive footage in Minneapolis that no one else was getting.

In addition, we’ve maintained our commitment to covering shadow hearings and other critical live events. We covered all the January 6 shadow hearings that were held by the Democrats as Republicans tried to cover up what happened on January 6, 2021. We covered Governor Walz’s press conference. We covered the invasion of Venezuela live with footage of the invasion before corporate news got it. We will be covering Governor Newsom’s final State of the State Address today. It’s been a busy few days.

I am writing this because I want to make it clear that when MeidasTouch says it’s going to do something, you can always count on us to deliver. As CBS is out there crashing worse each day, and corporate news has been an abject failure in their coverage of all of these events in 2026, it’s critical that Meidas continues to grow. I think it’s fair to say that while we are still a scrappy independent news network that has grown largely from Substack subscribers, we are making the corporate news look small and outdated. If 2025 was about building the infrastructure for revolutionary change in news distribution, 2026 is the year when we execute at the highest level and ensure accurate data and truthful and fearless reporting reaches the most people here and abroad.

We are all in this together. I don’t expect this will be easy. But I do expect this will be a year when democracy triumphs and fascism will fail. The power of this community has fueled the growth of this network, and with the growth of this network we’ve been able to fight back against the lies and propaganda and go on the offense with the truth.

I am more energized than ever in my life to continue to build together. To that end, if you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one now as soon as you finish reading this to help the MeidasTouch Network continue to grow and stay on this vital trajectory. Your paid subscriptions to this Substack have been the biggest game-changer in the growth outlined above.

Let’s keep building and let’s keep growing and let’s keep fighting. Always together.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The text I got from Colin on Jan. 6, 2021

           

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“Whatever happens, I love you.”

That was the text I got from my husband, Colin, on Jan. 6, 2021.

When a violent mob had breached the U.S. Capitol with Colin inside, my stomach dropped.

I was seven months pregnant at the time with our second son, and my mind was going a mile a minute: Was I about to lose Colin? Was this really happening in the United States of America?

After what seemed like forever, I finally got word that Colin and his colleagues were safe – and I breathed a heavy, heavy sigh of relief. Thank god.

We’re now five years past that dark day, but it’s as fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. The fear, the anxiety, the sadness.

And unfortunately, the threat to our democracy remains just as real.

Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are attacking our fundamental rights – and their extreme agenda has gone completely unchecked by Republican majorities in Congress. They’re making life harder and more expensive for working families, and we’ve got to fight back.

That’s why Colin is running. He’s ready to give Texas’ 33rd District the bold representation it deserves and return to Congress to serve as a critical check on Trump’s MAGA agenda – but he can’t do it alone.

So, Frank, I’m personally asking: Will you make a contribution of $25 or whatever you can spare today to power Colin’s grassroots campaign? Every dollar makes a huge difference.

Thank you for being with our family in this fight. We’re so grateful.

Aly

Emails are the best way for us to keep in touch with our supporters and deliver important campaign updates – they’re critical to helping Colin win.   Paid for by Allred for Texas Allred for Texas PO Box 601631 Dallas, TX 75360

POLITICO NIGHTLY: So maybe the economy won’t tank after all?

 

View in browser   BY BEN WHITE With help from Lisa Kashinsky THE END (MIGHT) BE IN SIGHT — Rep. Kevin McCarthy flipped 15 detractors in his hunt for the speakership today, but fell just short of being elected — for now. The House is adjourned until 10 p.m. EST this evening. The six Republicans who remained opposed to McCarthy throughout the day were Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.) and Matt Rosendale (Mont.). If McCarthy can keep the rest of his conference together, he only needs two more flips from the remaining six to secure the speakership, assuming all House members are voting. Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve. | Win McNamee/Getty Images WELL-BALANCED — You wanted the perfect Goldilocks jobs report — not too hot, not too cold? Well, you pretty much got exactly that in December with hiring still quite strong at 223,000 but slowing down a bit with wage gains easing. The jobless rate ticked back to a forty-year low of 3.5 percent, the Labor Department said today, as nearly half a million Americans returned to the labor force. That means, at least for the moment, that the fabled and rarely achieved economic “soft landing” — in which the Federal Reserve’s campaign of rate hikes cools off inflation but doesn’t tip the economy into recession — is still very much a possibility, if a fairly narrow one. And the new economic conventional wisdom that any recession would probably be short and shallow looks like it could actually be correct. To be clear, a foam-the-runway style, fiery crash landing remains quite possible. But as the new year begins, it’s no longer fashionable to be an economic doom-and-gloomer. And with pretty good reason. Just look at the numbers. Job gains are now at their lowest point in two years as the flood back from Covid runs its course and Fed hikes start to pinch businesses and limit hiring plans. But they are still quite strong. That’s great from a Fed perspective. And the central bank’s biggest concern, a wage-price inflation spiral in which ever-rising compensation forces companies into more and bigger price hikes on consumer products, does not appear to be happening. The Fed — and American workers — love wage gains. But not if they run out of control and drive up overall consumer inflation. And in December, wages ticked up 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, less than what Wall Street forecast. Wages are now up 4.6 percent on an annual basis, down from a March peak of 5.6 percent. In the short term, this is rough for workers as it now means their pay hikes are again being entirely eaten up by inflation. Still, it’s good news for the Fed. Chair Jerome Powell and his central bank colleagues can now point to some pretty concrete signals that the hot labor market is finally cooling a bit. While still high, wage gains are slowing down, which is exactly what the Fed wants to see. And nearly half a million Americans rejoined the workforce in December, perhaps a signal that depleted Covid-era savings are finally forcing people back into jobs. That good news for the Fed could lead to a smaller rate hike of just a quarter point next month. And that, in turn, meant good news for Wall Street, with all major averages jumping around 2 percent on the news. Big Wall Street banks are mostly no longer calling for an imminent recession, though risk levels remain high. Instead, what appears to be happening at the moment is the American economy is very slowly starting to resemble what it was before Covid: slow growing, plagued by inequality and other systemic issues but generally… basically pretty OK. The “Goldilocks” analogy — cliche though it is — dripped from nearly every economist’s lips today. And the report came as strong news for Democrats and President Joe Biden as their argument — that the president’s big fiscal and social policy wins from the last two years will help avoid recession — now appears to have some more merit. But, but, but … and you knew this bit was coming. It’s not like a soft-landing is a lock, or the economy is fully healed from Covid. There are already significant layoffs in the interest rate sensitive technology and financial services sectors as companies prepare for a Fed-dampened economy. Temporary help has fallen by 110,000 over the past five months. New orders for manufactured goods dropped by 1.8 percent in November, the Commerce Department said, well above the expected decline. “The third straight hefty drop in temp hiring, down 35,000, is an ominous sign,” Pantheon Macroeconomics’ chief U.S. economist Ian Shepherdson wrote in a client note today. “We think substantially slower payroll growth is coming very soon.” And a business survey on activity in the services sector showed a decline in December for the first time since early in the pandemic. The labor force is still 2.6 million people smaller than it was before the pandemic. And it was already way too small. That means continued pressure on wages until more people get back to work. While encouraging for the Fed, wages are still growing faster than they would like — as is overall inflation. If current trends don’t continue on inflation, the central bank will absolutely err on the side of sparking recession with more big hikes. So keep the cigars unlit for now. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Contact tonight’s author at bwhite@politico.com or on Twitter at @morningmoneyben . Rep. Kevin McCarthy votes on a motion to adjourn while speaking with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). | Francis Chung/POLITICO HOUSE GRINDS TO A HALT — The House must select a speaker before swearing in members or passing a new set of chamber rules and the paralysis affects lawmakers, staffers and constituents alike. Here are four ways the turmoil has disrupted normal operations. Security clearance: Lawmakers still don’t have the clearance needed to take classified briefings with intelligence, military and senior administration officials on an array of sensitive issues. Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), Mike McCaul (R-Texas) and Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) issued a joint statement criticizing the turmoil for hindering their ability to perform White House oversight. Staffer pay: According to guidance provided by the House Administration Committee , if by the end of Jan 13. a rules package has not been adopted, “no committee will be able to process payroll” since authority would rest in the new Congress. That disrupts payment for staffers as well as the processing of student loan forgiveness programs for House employees. Constituent casework: Several lawmakers have said some federal agencies have been unable to process casework until the new Congress is officially sworn in. That puts a dent in everything from renewing passports, updating tax information and applying for federal benefits. One GOP staffer told POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers they are “not sure people realize the non-political ramifications this has on our ability to help folks.” C-SPAN gone wild: While the majority party typically imposes strict rules on the kinds of shots that can be filmed , procedures are peeled back for special events like the election of House speaker. As the drama unfolds, C-SPAN has deployed roaming cameras filming whatever and wherever they like. The shots offer rare glimpses into high-stakes negotiations served directly to the public. GRIM ANNIVERSARY President Joe Biden presents a Presidential Citizens Medal to Al Schmidt, former Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner and incoming Pennsylvania Secretary of State, during a ceremony to mark the two-year anniversary of the January 6th 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images THE LONG SHADOW — Today marks the two-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. House Democrats gathered on the steps of the Capitol to commemorate the day, joined by only one Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. Nightly compiled stories that are worth reading to understand the day and its legacy: Biden to mark Jan. 6 anniversary by warning the Big Lie remains in POLITICO Who repped who in the Jan. 6 probe: A look at the frequently used witness lawyers in POLITICO Enablers, line-straddlers and quiet resisters: How GOP lawmakers contributed to Jan. 6 in POLITICO What the Jan. 6 Committee Report Left Out in POLITICO (Opinion) What Really Happened on January 6 in The Atlantic Two Years Later, Prosecutions of Jan. 6 Rioters Continue to Grow in The New York Times And, if you want to read a fascinating story about another deeply contentious election in America: The ‘Stolen’ Election That Poisoned American Politics. It Happened in 1984. in POLITICO WHAT'D I MISS? — Covid cases, hospitalizations spike as new variant gains foothold: Covid-19 cases are spiking as a new variant, which may be the most transmissible yet, spreads across the country. Roughly 6,500 people in hospitals in the U.S. have tested positive for Covid-19 , according to the CDC, more than double the number from one month ago, and more than 10,000 people have died from Covid in the last month, the highest four-week total since the summer. — Miami Democrats face internal feud after disastrous 2022 midterms: The 2022 midterms saw Republicans win Miami-Dade County for the first time in 20 years. Now, the Democratic infighting has begun . Ten party officials in Florida’s most populous county are asking the statewide Florida Democratic Party to audit the county party over alleged campaign finance “improper activity.” The request comes after Republicans won nearly every race in the county, which Hillary Clinton won by nearly 30 percentage-points just six years ago. The county has long been held up as an overwhelming Democratic home turf. AROUND THE WORLD PEDDLING PROPAGANDA — Latvia’s intelligence services arrested Latvian national Marat Kasem , the editor-in-chief for the Lithuanian edition of Sputnik, the Kremlin-backed news website. He is suspected of “providing economic resources to a Kremlin propaganda resource” under European Union sanctions last Tuesday, the state’s Security Service announced in a statement. Baltic news outlet Delfi identified Kasem, who has been placed in detention, writes Nicolas Camut . Both Sputnik and Russia Today (also known as RT) have been banned from the EU since last March after spreading disinformation about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ban extends to all platforms and the two outlets’ content can no longer be accessed from inside the EU. “The person is employed at one of the information resources of the agency ‘Rossiya Segodnya’ [Russia Today], which is under the Kremlin control and disseminates narratives in line with the Kremlin’s interests, including regularly discrediting Latvia and its allies,” the statement from the Latvian agency reads. NIGHTLY NUMBER $10 million The amount of money that the 147 members of Congress who objected to 2020’s election results have received from corporations that pledged not to give to election-deniers, according to analysis conducted by POLITICO. RADAR SWEEP TRUE CRIME-MANIA — We live in an era where true crime podcasts accounted for 17 percent of those mentioned in year end lists from publications such as Esquire and The New York Times and Netflix’s “Dahmer” saw viewing times exceed one billion, so it’s no secret that serial killers are an entertaining (and profitable) topic for many. What is the root of this fascination with murder? Who is the typical true crime fan and what does their love for the subject really tell us? The Believer’s Sarah Marshall explores these topics through a history lesson on the serial killers of the 70s and 80s and a deep dive into the topic’s current popularity . Unpacking the women’s liberation movement and the way killers are depicted in media such as “Criminal Minds” or “Silence of the Lambs,” Marshall covers all facets of the serial killer phenomenon. PARTING WORDS Maura Healey walks toward the House Chamber at the Statehouse, in Boston before inauguration ceremonies. | Steven Senne/AP Photo SMOOTH TRANSITION — While a bitterly divided Washington slogs on under the shadow of Jan. 6, Massachusetts Playbook author Lisa Kashinsky writes in to Nightly about a just-completed transfer of power between parties that was almost jarring in its level of civility and collegiality. After eight years as chief executive, Republican Charlie Baker handed the key to the Massachusetts governor’s office over to Democrat Maura Healey in a ceremonial exchange of gifts this week that ended with not just one hug, but three. The newly elected governor is also keeping one of Baker’s Cabinet secretaries and retaining another as a transition adviser. In her inaugural address Thursday, Healey even vowed to pursue some of the policies — tax relief, chief among them — that Baker failed to get across the finish line. Solidly blue Massachusetts, of course, doesn’t have a recent history of bitter partisan conflict. (Republicans here are too busy fighting themselves ). But the state has a habit of electing moderate Republican governors to balance its Democratic supermajority Legislature. Baker was in that tradition, a bastion of old-school, centrist New England Republicanism even as his party moved away from it . He left office having been consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most popular governors. His decision not to seek a third term paved the way for Democrats to retake the corner office and usher in a new era of one-party rule on Beacon Hill. Healey, a progressive former prosecutor who repeatedly sued former President Donald Trump’s administration in her role as state attorney general, has consistently lauded the outgoing GOP governor and sought to ensure a smooth transition. In December, she surprised Baker by calling into his monthly radio program and thanking him for “his incredible service.” The first woman elected governor of Massachusetts, Healey’s tenure is starting off as something of an extension of her Republican predecessor. And that’s won her plaudits from Republicans and Democrats alike. “Charlie did a terrific job as governor. It can’t hurt by taking the best of Charlie and whatever it is that she wants to put her own stamp of approval on,” White House climate envoy John Kerry, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts who was on hand for Healey’s inauguration Thursday, told reporters. “But I think there will be continuity. I don’t think it’s going to be craziness like we’re seeing down in Washington. Far from it.” And Healey, addressing reporters from the executive suite for the first time today, said that’s “the way it should be.” “I hope our state can be an example to others at a time where unfortunately across this country we’ve seen a lot of divisive rhetoric and ugly political discourse, and too many politicians looking to divide and really exploit misinformation, disinformation and even people for their own perceived politician gain,” she said. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Katherine Long @katherinealong Ari Hawkins @_AriHawkins   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Biden’s looming student loan crunch

 

View in browser   BY MYAH WARD ROCK AND A HARD PLACE — President Joe Biden has just 12 days to meet his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline to decide whether he’ll use executive action to forgive thousands of dollars in student loans for millions of Americans. The timing matters here: The president’s long-delayed decision is now set to arrive around Labor Day, traditionally the start of the fall campaign. For months, Democrats have nudged Biden to announce loan forgiveness — and fast — with the hope this could give the party a much-needed enthusiasm boost among young voters in the midterm elections. While Biden is expected to extend the payment pause , the White House has offered few hints about what the president will do on loan forgiveness. Biden has been slow to embrace the expensive and, depending on who you ask, controversial, move to cancel any amount of student debt. When Nightly asked about Biden’s upcoming decision, the White House responded with an answer from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s Aug. 9 briefing, in which she said the president would have a decision by the end of the month. “When it comes to the cancellation — look, I just said the president understands firsthand the burden — the burden that a student loan has on families, it puts on families. And we’re just going to continue to assess our options for cancellations. So, no decisions have been made on that,” she said. It won’t be as simple as deciding if $10,000 — the baseline amount the administration has been eying — is the right amount to forgive. Biden will also have to decide if he’d like to target this relief to certain borrowers, such as those earning less than $125,000. Progressives are calling for universal forgiveness — though the president has indicated his preference for limits on who receives the relief. Whatever he decides, Biden is bound to spark a noisy debate. “The one thing this discussion doesn’t lack is people with an opinion,” Jonathan Fansmith, director of government relations at the American Council on Education, which represents 1,700 colleges and universities, told Nightly. Loan forgiveness will fuel GOP talking points about big government spending, with a populist dimension. As Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s office framed it: “Democrats Want Working Families to Eat Elites’ Grad School Debt.” On the campaign trail, Republicans like Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has carried a similar tune, calling loan cancellation a “massive windfall to the rich, to the college educated, and most of all to the corrupt university administrators of America.” The University of Michigan. | Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Many Democrats are also bound to be frustrated. Progressives have called on Biden to go big or go home, and cancel up to $50,000 for student loan borrowers with no income caps. As Fansmith put it, the party’s left wing may dismiss a smaller figure than that as a “half-gesture.” Then you have the school of moderate Democrats — some shudder at the prospect of just $10,000. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, in a floor speech this summer, slammed the notion that loan forgiveness will do anything to “address the absurd cost of college or fix our broken student loan program.” Bennet backs loan forgiveness only if it’s tied to other reforms to fix the lending system. His address tapped into another critique of loan forgiveness — the price tag of the plan. At an estimated $230 billion if Biden moves forward with the $10,000 income-based plan, Bennet argued that this money could accomplish other policy priorities such as a two-year extension of the child tax credit. Among the general electorate, a majority of Americans — 55 percent — generally support a move to forgive up to $10,000 of a person’s student loan debt. But this support narrows as that dollar figure rises, an NPR/Ipsos poll found in June. And Americans, at a whopping 82 percent, would rather the government focus on making college more affordable, while just 16 percent said forgiving debt should take priority. The division is clearer along partisan lines. An Economist/YouGov poll from July showed that just 28 percent of Republicans support forgiveness, compared to an overwhelming 70 percent of Democrats. Fansmith notes that Biden could avoid the fraught middle ground by going all in or all out. The president could move forward with universal forgiveness and please a larger group of Democrats, or he could announce he’s decided against loan relief all together — acknowledging the reality that debt forgiveness is really just “a band aid on a gunshot wound” when it comes to the underlying problems driving the student debt crisis. “Middle ground usually leaves most people dissatisfied,” Fansmith said. “That’s what they say — the mark of a good compromise is that everybody’s a little unhappy. Well, that might be good for a compromise, but it’s not good for political outcomes.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at mward@politico.com or on Twitter @MyahWard.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Judge: Prosecutors cannot enforce Michigan’s abortion ban: A Michigan judge today blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state’s 1931 ban on abortion for the foreseeable future after two days of witness testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state’s chief medical officer. The ruling comes after the state Court of Appeals said earlier this month that county prosecutors were not covered by a May order and could enforce the prohibition following the fall of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. David Kallman, an attorney representing two Republican county prosecutors, said an appeal is planned. Gov. Gavin Newsom. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images — California voters want Biden to step aside — and see Newsom as a top contender to succeed him: Californians overwhelmingly do not want Biden to seek another term and see Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom as a prime contender to succeed him, according to a new poll. A new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll of California voters underscored the peril for Biden and potential for Newsom. A resounding 61 percent of voters surveyed online Aug. 9-15 said Biden should not run in 2024, including about half of Democratic voters and most independents. Newsom and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — who finished first in the 2020 California primary — were tied as Democratic and independent voters’ top choice to replace Biden, followed by Vice President Kamala Harris. — Appeals court backs ruling to release DOJ memo on Trump prosecution: A federal appeals court ruled today that the Justice Department must make public an internal memo senior lawyers there prepared in 2019 about whether then-President Donald Trump’s actions investigated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia amounted to crimes prosecutors would ordinarily charge. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Justice Department failed to meet its legal burden to show that the memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel was part of a genuine deliberative process advising then-Attorney General William Barr on how to handle sensitive issues left unresolved when Mueller’s probe concluded in March 2019. — Louisiana officials stall New Orleans flood funds over abortion: A Louisiana commission is withholding approval of New Orleans flood control funds over city officials’ opposition to the state’s strict abortion ban. The Louisiana State Bond Commission has twice voted to delay approval of a future $39 million line of credit for a power station to run New Orleans drainage pumps that would protect the city’s 384,000 residents from flooding and have been described as critical for the city’s ability to adapt to climate change. AROUND THE WORLD Liz Truss. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP — Liz Truss’ conservative allies in Washington adore her. Democrats opposed to Brexit distrust her. The Georgetown set wonders about her intellectual capacity, writes Ryan Heath and Ella Creamer. Speak to 19 people who’ve worked with Truss — as POLITICO did, from the White House and Congress to federal agencies, think tanks and the British diplomatic ranks — and you’ll hear about as many different versions of the woman poised to become Britain’s next prime minister. That represents a branding problem in Washington for Truss, who needs support from both parties to have any chance of securing a long-sought bilateral trade deal with the United States. Working most obviously in her favor is simply that she is not Boris Johnson. The White House shed few tears over the political undoing of the outgoing prime minister. But that doesn’t mean Truss will be embraced. While close advisers prefer to call her “values-driven” and “pragmatic,” colleagues in London concede she can be “ideological.” One thing is certain: Britain’s chief diplomat isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.   INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     NIGHTLY NUMBER $775 million The cost of the new military package the United States is sending to Ukraine . The U.S. will send a slew of weapons including new drones, armored vehicles and artillery. The shipments indicate that Washington and Kyiv expect hard fighting on the ground in the coming weeks. PARTING WORDS ASK THE ‘COUPOLOGISTS’ — More than 18 months after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Americans are still struggling to understand what happened that day, writes Joshua Zeitz. So… was it an insurrection? A coup, albeit a failed one? A political protest gone awry? A pathetic show of white power cosplay or the portent of something darker and more dangerous in our nation’s not-distant future? The oft-repeated assertion that “this is not who we are” — that Jan. 6 was an aberration — ignores a deep tradition of antidemocratic violence that courses through the veins of American history — from the mob that killed the abolitionist newspaperman Elijah Lovejoy in 1837 to Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s, from the Civil War itself to Reconstruction and Redemption, Jim Crow and the destruction of Native American nations in the service of building homesteads for free white people in the American West. This may not be who we are, but it’s most definitely who we’ve been. So what did happen on Jan. 6? To help answer that question, POLITICO Magazine assembled a roundtable of distinguished scholars and writers — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University; Ryan McMaken, editor of Mises Wire and The Austrian; Scott Althaus, political science professor and director of the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Matt Cleary, associate professor of political science at Syracuse University — who specialize in the study of political instability and polarization, not just in the United States, but globally. Over the course of an hour, they came at that question from multiple disciplines, different regional and historical frameworks and diverse ideological viewpoints. Read their conversation here. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh Myah Ward @myahward Naomi Andu @naomiandu   FOLLOW US

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