“There is no power in the world that will push us to commit a public suicide, because that’s what this is, to stop our war against Hamas,” David Mencer, a spokesman for the Israeli government, told the BBC. From Israel’s perspective, the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7 have not yet all been returned; exerting military pressure on Hamas and trying to wipe out the terrorists responsible for the massacre is a huge priority—but international support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza is dwindling.

Chase Oliver wins the L.P. presidential nomination: This past weekend, while the rest of us were drinking mai tais on the beach and barbecuing for our friends, those concerned with the Libertarian Party’s inner workings were forced to hang out in a hotel in Washington D.C. for the party’s convention.

After the seventh round of ballots, and receiving 60.6 percent of the vote in the final round after struggling to top 50, Chase Oliver won the presidential nomination. “I will continue to bring a hopeful and positive message of liberty to both those who consider themselves libertarian and those who don’t know they are libertarian yet,” Oliver said in his victory speech. He narrowly beat Michael Rectenwald, the Mises Caucus contingent’s preferred candidate (who conspicuously ate an edible before delivering his speech on Saturday night), in the sixth round.

I was frankly glad to avoid the circus. But for those like me who are playing Tuesday morning catch-up: former President Donald Trump gave his speech, which was the primetime slot on Saturday night and involved hours of line-waiting to get through security. He mocked libertarians for generally getting only 3 percent of the vote (we wish!) and told libertarians to vote for him. He said he’d commute the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht—something he chose not to do when he had the chance the first time around but claims he’ll actually do this time, pinky promise—and put a libertarian in his cabinet if elected president.