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She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Carolyn Hax: Friends say to break other plans to avoid offending new man

Ask Amy: Should my husband get a say in what I do with my inheritance?

Carolyn Hax: Is it weird to ask other people to care about you?

Lawyer preparation suggests Trump won’t testify in New York trial

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Kyle Finnegan’s rare hiccup helps Phillies to a 4-3 win in 10 innings

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

In photos: The 149th running of the Preakness Stakes

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

Trump cameos in campaign ad filmed during N.Y. trial recess

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real.

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

The other side of Punta Cana: A crackdown on Haitians

Top White House aide to meet Netanyahu, who is under political pressure

With its energy network nearly destroyed, Ukraine already fears the winter

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

Trump

You’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/opinions-pm/?method=SURL&location=ART&initiative=TOP" target=_blank>Sign up to get it in your inbox.</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/brittney-griner-excerpt-russia-prison/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" target=_blank>Brittney Griner recalls the airport nightmare that landed her in prison</a>

Stormy Daniels <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-hush-money/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>pulls a Trump on Trump</a>. But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/07/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>will that help him</a>?

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/biden-immigration-border-crossings-decline/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target=_blank>Illegal border crimes are way down. Thank our allies.</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/macron-europe-russia-warning/?itid=lk_inline_manual_7" target=_blank>Emmanuel Macron is punching below his weight</a>

Photo for The Washington Post

Reading <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/brittney-griner-excerpt-russia-prison/" target=_blank>Brittney Griner’s account of the events</a> leading up to her detention in Russia two years ago, you can see her life slipping out of her control, bit by bit: her passport, one carry-on bag, then another conveyed away from her on the airport security belt.

As she describes the search of those bags — “next he pulled out the heap of charger cords, as tangled as my insides” — you are right there with her. Finally, out come the two almost-empty cartridges of cannabis oil that would land her in a foreign prison for more than nine months.

Griner’s retelling for Post Opinions is adapted from her new memoir about the nightmare ordeal, “Coming Home.” Obviously, we know the story’s end — right there in the title, thank heaven — as well as its gnarly middle.

But still, as Griner’s narration propels her (and us) toward disaster, you find yourself longing for an out. The tipping point comes as Russian agents pressure Griner into signing a document she cannot read. No, no, no, no, no.

She relents eventually, with the thought that turned out so horribly wrong: “Maybe if I sign this, I can go.”

Chaser: On Monday, when imprisoned Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza was awarded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/06/vladimir-kara-murza-pulitzer-prize-commentary/" target=_blank>a Pulitzer Prize for his commentary</a> opposing the Putin regime, Evgenia Kara-Murza, his wife, spoke on his behalf in The Post newsroom. Here, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/opinions/he-won-a-pulitzer-prize-while-imprisoned-in-russia-opinion/2024/05/07/1df2ab95-6589-4a9c-b07d-23ed66bd4c24_video.html" target=_blank>you can watch video, produced by Shih-Wei Chou</a>, of the moving speech.

“For nearly a decade, [Donald] Trump has been the nation’s main chaos agent,” Dana Milbank writes. “He causes the mayhem, and the rest of us have to react, adjust, adapt and try to stay calm. But for one day, somebody else was causing the chaos, and Trump and his lawyers were the ones who had to react and adapt.”

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-hush-money/" target=_blank>Dana’s column captures in all its glory</a> the adult-film actress’s barnburner of a day testifying in the hush money trial of the former president. There are the outbursts of laughter, the salacious accusations, the questioning about sex positions and condom use, the mugging for the cameras that weren’t even there.

In other words, Dana writes, Daniels “pulled a Trump on Trump.”

As delicious as this flip is, Dana worries: “There’s no way to know whether the Daniels testimony will hurt Trump or only make him look persecuted. Jurors were visibly uncomfortable during parts of her testimony.”

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/07/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels/" target=_blank>Ruth Marcus zooms out to assess this problem</a> vis-à-vis the trial writ large. She sees a way in which Trump could turn his gag order and general humiliation into a “political windfall.” The man who has always made himself out as a victim has a particularly powerful opportunity in the threat of a brief jailing for violating a judge’s gag order.

“The bed won’t be as comfy as his Trump Tower mattress,” Ruth writes, “but the martyrdom in the eyes of his fans might be worth it.”

From <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/biden-immigration-border-crossings-decline/" target=_blank>Catherine Rampell’s column on the border cri</a> … well, can we still call it a crisis?

Sure, especially if you’re a Republican. Illegal crossings are still historically high, but the sharp drop (during a time of year when crossings usually increase) is making the talking point less and less credible.

Mostly, Mexico is to thank. Our neighbor to the south stepped up a whole range of efforts to stop migrants from reaching its northern border. Other allies, too, are cracking down on smuggling or just absorbing more migrants themselves.

But as Catherine points out, countries do not simply do this out of the goodness of their hearts. “Deportation and migration are at heart diplomatic issues,” she writes, and one candidate this cycle is a whole lot better at garnering global goodwill than the other.

Emmanuel Macron recently released <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4xUgS6u-Uy/" target=_blank>some photos</a> of his biceps bulging during a boxing workout. Once you’re done looking at those (no judgment), let <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/macron-europe-russia-warning/" target=_blank>Lee Hockstader explain why the French president is punching</a> below his weight.

Macron is exactly right in his warnings about the existential threat Europe faces from Russian aggression and U.S. disengagement, Lee writes, but his weak position at home makes him a horrible messenger. Lee surveys the slew of contradictions and hypocrisies, especially over European integration, that plague him.

“At this point in his presidency — his standing diminished, his archrivals ascendant,” Lee writes, “his words amount to little more than a glancing blow in the fight over Europe’s future.”

Campus crackdowns on protests over the war in Gaza have now gone way too far, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/08/campus-protest-backlash-crackdown/?itid=lk_inline_manual_43" target=_blank>Perry Bacon writes</a> — intense, aggressive and wrongheaded.

The State Department’s special envoy to Iran has been suspended for nearly a year without any official explanation for the investigation into him. Finally, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/07/malley-iran-envoy-suspended-congress-letter/?itid=lk_inline_manual_44" target=_blank>Josh Rogin reports</a>, some new information is coming to light.

The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/07/ftc-noncompete-ban-help-workers/?itid=lk_inline_manual_45" target=_blank>Editorial Board writes that the Federal Trade Commission’s</a> near-blanket ban on noncompete clauses oversteps. It would prefer a more tailored proscription from Congress.

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.

Have your own newsy haiku? <a href="mailto:drew.goins@washpost.com?subject=Opinions+Newsletter+Feedback" target=_blank>Email it to me</a>, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA in journalism and Hispanic linguistics

Drew Goins is a newsletter writer and editor in the Opinions section.

Drew Goins

Today’s Opinions: Jail for Trump could be the best thing for him

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Opinion Jail for Trump could be the best thing that happened to him

Your passport, please