This story includes spoilers through Season 2, Episode 4, of HBO’s House of the Dragon.
If only Princess Rhaenys had unleashed her dragon, Meleys, in the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon. Back then, the Targaryen royal (played with a quiet gravitas by Eve Best) had the perfect opportunity to end a war before it began. But she left the throne’s usurpers unharmed, later explaining that such a conflict was not hers to start.
As it turns out, it was hers to lose.

An epiphany isn’t always heralded by trumpets or bolts of lightning. I once had a flash of clarity while unlocking my bike: As if I had also unlocked my mind, I suddenly knew that I had to end the relationship I was in. It was one of those rare moments when you face a truth you’ve been avoiding or see life from a new perspective. The resulting vision isn’t always pretty (I started crying as soon as I got on my bike), but it sparkles with lucidity.

One of the surprising themes of the Supreme Court’s term that effectively ended this past Monday was how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit—the federal appeals court in New Orleans that hears cases from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—won even as it lost.

Most of America’s allies would like Joe Biden to win the U.S. presidential election in November. He has been a fine president. His foreign-policy team is first-class. But what if Donald Trump should win instead? In the aftermath of Biden’s poor debate performance, the anxieties in allied capitals are spiraling.
Allied leaders know that Trump views their countries not as friends but as freeloaders.

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Our editors compiled a list of eight absorbing reads for your Independence Day weekend. Spend time with stories about a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, the search for America’s Atlantis, why Americans can’t access some of the world’s best sunscreens, and more.

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The Supreme Court made history this week by issuing a landmark ruling that dramatically expands the power of the presidency and helps protect Donald Trump from criminal prosecution.

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Walking on the beach on the Fourth of July, I witnessed America the Sunburned. Reddened beachgoers strolled with ice cream or hot dogs; it would have been a lovely sight if not for the secondhand pain I was feeling.

This weekend, first lady Jill Biden has a momentous choice to make. Does she encourage her husband to overlook his personal well-being, recover from last week’s debate debacle, and keep up the campaign until November? Or does she persuade him to step aside, and yield the nomination to someone else?
Biden isn’t the only first lady to face a choice like this one.

Last week, former Israeli Minister and retired General Benny Gantz said that Israel could destroy Hezbollah’s military in a matter of days. But if such a thing could be done, Israel would have already done it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu similarly promised “total victory” against Hamas after October 7.
These declarations are dangerous bluster.

On Monday, Tucker Carlson wrapped up the seventh in a series of speeches to right-wing Australian audiences. To attend the event, I had to walk under a bright-pink sign acknowledging that the “traditional owners” of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre are an Aboriginal people, the Wurundjeri Wol Wurrung. Judging by the speech I heard, this sign was not put up at Carlson’s request.