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March 5, 2026

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Notable

Of course Trump bombed Iran. “When politicians inflate a threat and stigmatize peaceful means of handling it, an enterprising leader will one day reach for a radical solution.”

— Robert Malley, a lecturer at Yale, and Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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Yet another way Trump has brought elite law firms to heel. “He forced the largest and purportedly most powerful law firms in the country to demean themselves and bow before him. They proved to be such cowards that they surrendered when the president didn’t even have the law on his side.”

— Jeffrey Toobin, a contributing Opinion writer

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Alabama knows he’s not a killer. It’s about to execute him anyway. “It is exceptionally rare for someone like Mr. Burton to be executed when all sides agree that he did not kill the victim. Governors of other states with similar laws have granted clemency under such conditions. Yet Mr. Burton’s execution date remains fixed.”

— Elizabeth Vartkessian, the executive director of Advancing Real Change, a nonprofit that conducts mitigation investigations in criminal cases

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Spotlight

Lars Tunbjörk, via Loose Joints

Your Job May Already Be in Jeopardy

Michael Steinberger on how A.I.’s impact on white-collar jobs may transform politics and society.

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ICYMI

‘He’s got a lot of work to do’: A Texas writer on James Talarico’s chances in a U.S. Senate race. “I have to let some air out of the balloon right away: No, Talarico can’t turn Texas blue in the way you’ve been hearing it predicted for the last two decades.”

— Christopher Hooks, a contributing editor to Texas Monthly, in conversation with John Guida, a Times Opinion editor

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Listen (or Watch)

The New York Times Interesting Times with Ross Douthat Does the Iran War Put America First? How the antiwar right sees Trump’s foreign policy. 58 MIN LISTEN

More in Opinion

The Conversation What Is Trump Up To in Iran? Well, that was a week. By Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens

David Wallace-Wells Data Centers Are a Distraction. The Real Fight Is Elsewhere. We are trying to decide what role A.I. will have in our lives. By David Wallace-Wells

Guest Essay Trump Is Playing a Dangerous Game With Iran Hungary. Cuba. Afghanistan. Iraq. Now Iran? By Peter W. Klein

letters What Our Industrial Food System Can’t Do Readers respond to a guest essay, “Stop Worrying, and Learn to Love Industrial Food.”

Jessica Grose The Fantasy of a Comfy Retirement Has Always Been a Mirage On the sorry state of retirement savings in the United States, and a policy that could help. By Jessica Grose

In Your Words

Re: “We Are Finally Free From Khamenei’s Suffocating Gaze”

However the world may have been freed from Khamenei, no one, including the Trump administration, knows what the consequences of the war will be or what new dangers may have been created.— A comment posted by Ron C. from Huntsville, Ala.

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

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