The News You Need on Friday, March 20th, 2026.
The news you need today from Scott Horton and Charles Kaiser.
A Rare Supreme Court Victory
The Supreme Court Just Heeded One of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Sharpest Dissents
Slate
Charles: The great Mark Joseph Stern celebrates a big win for the judicial wisdom of Justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson—and at least a temporary reprieve for 350,000 Haitian and Syrian immigrants. For once Justice Brown’s colleagues were shamed into avoiding the dark docket which they have used so often to advance the goals of our fascist president.
“No one is more vindicated by this unusual exercise of judicial restraint than Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. For 10 months, Jackson has been fighting her colleagues’ callous treatment of immigrants whose legal status was abruptly terminated by the Trump administration. At times, she has been the lone justice willing to speak out. In one extraordinary dissent, she alone castigated the conservative supermajority for its “grave misuse” of the shadow docket to privilege the “bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the stability our government has promised them.”
Trump and Putin Grow Closer
Scott: Inside the NATO capitals, the belief that Trump is doing all he can to undermine the Atlantic Alliance while building a new “special relationship” with the Kremlin has never been stronger. Another piece of evidence that has gained little attention inside the US: A special US delegation has arrived in Minsk, apparently with the intention of inviting Putin’s Mini-Me, the dictator Oleksandr Lukashenko, to a rare state visit in the United States. The move is seen as another step in Trump’s plan to normalize relations with the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.
Trump administration prepares possible visit of Lukashenko
Der Spiegel
Autocratization in the USA
Scott: “US democracy is currently in a much faster deterioration process than any other democracy in modern times,” says the V-Dem Institute at Göteborg University in Sweden, the leading academic monitor of adherence to democratic values. “Trump’s second term can be summarized as a rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency.” The scholars express special concern about the coming midterm elections, noting a determined effort by US Republicans to block access to the polls in a nation that already has the lowest voter turnout of any developed nation on earth. “The 2026 American midterm elections will be a critical test for the quality of elections, and democracy, in the United States. If election indicators also decline, the U.S. will fall even further”
Ossoff v. Gabbard
Senator Ossoff questions Director of National Intelligence
Senator John Ossoff on Facebook.
Charles: Congressional Democrats are routinely derided for not doing enough to control the Republican lunge toward fascism, but a great many of them manage to eviscerate any Trump administration official who comes before them on the Hill. Georgia Senator John Ossoff shows Tulsi Gabbard how it’s done.
Putin Critic Sent to Psychiatric Hospital
Putin Henchman Tossed in Psych Hospital After Shocking Plea to Russians
Daily Beast
Scott: Ilya Remeslo, a prominent Russian blogger who made a name for himself doing the Kremlin’s bidding was sent to a psychiatric hospital after publicly turning on Vladimir Putin in a shocking manifesto earlier this week. This marks the highest profile case yet in which Putin has revived a practice that marked Soviet authoritarian rule from Stalin to Gorbachev: declare your most dangerous critics “insane” and lock them up.
Launch Plume: SpaceX Jellyfish
Scott: The featured image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 4. The launch happened 52 minutes before sunrise, and the second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the rising sun.
Sexual Humiliation Tactics Are Routinely Used by Illegal Israeli Settlers
Palestinian man in the West Bank says he was sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers
CNN
Scott: Just another day in the West Bank. Jeremy Diamond interviews the victim: “They cut my belt off with a knife, as well as my boxers. They zip-tied my penis, tightened it and then dragged me all around the village.” An interview with a Palestinian man who says Israeli settlers sexually assaulted him. Sexual humiliation tactics are routine in confrontations involving illegal squatters in the West Bank, but they are only rarely reported in US media.
There Is No Ceasefire in the Gaza Wasteland
The ceasefire doesn’t seem to be achieving the promised results
Richard Engel on Facebook
Charles: Veteran NBC foreign correspondent gets a rare permission from the Israelis to visit Gaza to record its “total destruction…as far as the eye can see, mountains of debris.”
The vicious war crimes of October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 Israelis do not justify Israel’s much bigger crimes—75,000 dead in Gaza accordidng to the Guardian including 42,200 women, children and elderly who died between 7 October 2023, and 5 January 2025.
The Strait of Hormuz is Open for Iranian Allies
Iran allows handful of favoured ships through Strait of Hormuz
Financial Times
Scott: Is the Strait of Hormuz closed? Well, no, actually. It’s closed to the “United States, Israel and their allies.” Iran is letting a handful of vessels use its territorial waters to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which shipping executives believe is designed to demonstrate Tehran’s control of the strategic waterway. At least 8 vessels have this week transited the strait.
Harriet Taylor Mill Finally Gets Recognized for Her Work
“On Liberty” Now Officially Has Two Authors
Daily Nous
Scott: On Liberty is generally reckoned the Bible of the nineteenth century British notion of liberal democracy. But who actually wrote it? Many know that John Stuart Mill said that his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, “was the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that is best in my writings […]. Like all that I have written for many years, it [On Liberty] belongs as much to her as to me.” Now a group of scholars have concluded that this seemingly passing statement is right, and that it’s time to fully credit Harriet Taylor Mill as a co-author.
Harvey Weinstein’s Jailhouse Laments
Harvey Weinstein: The Rikers Interview
The Hollywood Reporter
Charles: Hollywood Reporter editor Maer Roshan is famous for never pulling his punches, and his Rikers Island sit down with Harvey Weinstein was no exception.
But Weinstein remains unrepentant:
“Maer: Let’s talk about your crimes. There are dozens and dozens of women who tell a variation of the same basic story. You followed them to their hotel rooms or trapped them in yours. You forced them to have sex with you. You got furious or retaliated when they turned you down. You claim that none of this is true. But what accounts for the uniformity of all these reports? Why do you think all these people are so willing to lie about you?
Harvey: For a lot of reasons. But mainly because there’s money involved. You know, one woman got half a million dollars. Another got paid $500,000. A third got $3 million. All anyone had to do to walk off with a check was fill out a form that said I sexually assaulted them. [But Weinstein never paid those settlements. He told Maer Disney’s insurance company took care of most of them.]
Some of your accusers — like Gwyneth Paltrow — were close friends. Others had worked with you for years. None of them took a cent. Are you really claiming that they’re all in it for money? Is there any part of you that acknowledges that you wronged them?
Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully? Did I overplay my hand? Yes. Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that. Look, I should never have gone out with the people I went out with. I was married to a fantastic woman who had no idea what I was doing. I lied all the time. I improperly used my staff to hide these things. But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.
Do you think you’ll ever be able to repair those relationships [with his children]?
Yes, I do. I’m confident that I will — when I get out of here and I prove my innocence. I won the last appeal. I’ll win this one, too. When I lay in that cell and think about them, I just want them to know that I love them. I didn’t do the things they think I did. . . I have bone marrow cancer. I’m dying here. And the DA’s idea is probably to have me dying in prison. But I am dying.”
Trump’s Ambition to Take Over Greenland Remains Intact
Denmark prepared for possible attack from the US: Flew bags of blood to Greenland and prepared to blow up runways in the air
DR
Scott: American media have long treated Trump’s territorial claims against Greenland as something to be dismissed rather than treated seriously. Today we learn in some detail via DR (Danish state radio) exactly how seriously they were viewed by Denmark, the UK, Germany and France, based on NATO intelligence assessments (from which the US was excluded): “Trump's ambition to take over Greenland remains intact.” Denmark had prepared for a potential US attack, according to sources cited by DR, as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen continues to describe the situation as serious. Explosives to take out major airstrips were shipped, as was a stock of blood to treat civilians and military personnel who might be injured in fighting with American invaders. While Frederiksen stopped short of directly addressing the revelations about Danish preparations for a possible American attack on Greenland, she said the situation has evolved since January. “Fortunately, we are now in a position where we are seeking to reach an agreement with the Americans. Negotiations are ongoing, and I am hopeful for a positive outcome.”
St Patrick’s Dinner
Scott: Years of being forced to eat a few weeks of corned beef sandwiches after St Patrick’s Day led us to coventure an Irish dinner with friends. Ireland has plenty of emerging gastro pubs, and they furnished the inspiration for this meal.
Your Moment of Zen
Charles:
Edward Norton Does Walt Whitman
Edited by Imogen Sayers.