Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
Life Story Magic
I truly LOVE doing Life Story Magic interviews. So what the heck, let’s keep the Life Story Magic for $299 deal going a bit longer — that’s 40% off the regular price.
No offer code needed. No trying to find the right discount link. Just click through and buy—and support both LSM and Understandably!
Older Adults Are No Longer Staying in ‘Empty Shell’ Marriages
Rates of gray divorce have risen sharply over the past few decades as people live longer and expect more from marriage
In 2021, after more than 30 years together, Alan Hickenbottom and his wife filed for divorce—but he still believes their marriage was a success. Their early years together were fun and exciting. They bonded over a shared love of books and art, and a desire to do good things in the world. Then they threw themselves enthusiastically into raising their two children. But as often happens, when the kids left for college, Mr. Hickenbottom realized that he and his wife were more like colleagues and roommates than romantic partners. Two years of marriage counseling didn’t fix things. “I didn’t want to devalue the life that we built, but that was not how I wanted to live,” Mr. Hickenbottom said. He might have another 40 years, he thought. “What do I want to do?” he recalled asking.
Rates of “gray divorce”—splits among those 50 and older—have risen sharply in the United States, doubling between 1990 and 2010. Though those rates have stabilized since the pandemic, nearly 40 percent of divorces today occur between people 50 and older. While divorce rates have been dropping across age groups in recent years, the exception to that trend is among Americans ages 65 and up. Some Gen Xers and baby boomers are increasingly unwilling to stay in what sociologists call “empty shell marriages.” These are relationships in which there is no real connection or vitality, where one or both partners are not happy. Traditionally, such couples often decided to stay together for the sake of their kids, in view of economic stability or out of fear of stigma. Now, that may be a thing of the past.
Link: New York Times (Multiple reporters)
What’s Actually Wrong With the Reflecting Pool
President Trump’s repairs address surface problems but ignore the leaky pipes destroying the Lincoln Memorial’s iconic landmark
When the architect Henry Bacon designed the Reflecting Pool, he envisioned it as a quiet, mirror-like surface that would reflect the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the surrounding sky. But beneath the smooth surface, major engineering problems have lurked since it was constructed in the 1920s. The pool was built on unstable mudflats that have shifted over the decades, cracking the pool’s concrete and causing massive leaks. And the stagnant, shallow water has become a petri dish for algae. It has posed a headache for other presidential administrations, and the first Trump administration formed a plan to fix some of the pool’s problems, but it was never carried out.
Twelve-inch pipes under the surrounding parkland are responsible for moving large volumes of water from the pool to the treatment plant and back again. But these pipes often break and leak. The Park Service has said their plastic walls fail under pressure from the surrounding soil. “It’s almost impossible to maintain the water level that is required to make the pool reflective,” said Kym Hall, a former National Capital Area director for the National Park Service. “It’s like pouring water into a colander.” When the pipes break, they have to be shut off, and the pool is disconnected from its filtration system. It is left stagnant, sometimes for weeks. In Mr. Trump’s first term, the Park Service said the only solution was to replace thousands of feet of pipe. But it has still not done so.
Link: New York Times (Lazaro Gamio, David A. Fahrenthold, Maxine Joselow)
Another Top General Is Out at the Pentagon
General C. D. Donahue, the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan, becomes latest casualty in Hegseth’s purge of senior military ranks
General Chris “C. D.” Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal. As the head of Army forces in Europe and Africa, he has helped bolster Ukraine in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. Now Donahue has become the latest casualty in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s purge of the military’s senior ranks. Donahue’s abrupt departure, after just 18 months in his role, is another sign of the upheaval. He was widely seen as one of the Army’s rising stars—a legendary Delta Force leader who was considered a top candidate for Army chief of staff or even chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—having distinguished himself in wars of the past two decades. But Hegseth has sought to oust anyone who doesn’t fit his idea of a military leader, including those involved in the calamitous American exit from Kabul under President Biden—no matter how well they performed there.
A career Ranger and Special Operations commander, Donahue served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, climbing through the ranks during two decades of counterterrorism wars. As the U.S. military shifted its focus from hunting terrorist networks to preparing for conflicts against technologically sophisticated adversaries, Donahue did as well. In recent years, he took on a top role in Europe as the Pentagon adapted lessons from Ukraine and other modern battlefields. His departure continues the exit of a generation of combat-tested leaders at a time when Hegseth is reshaping the military’s senior ranks under a banner of “less generals, more GIs.” Donahue would be at least the sixth three- or four-star Army general to depart unexpectedly, out of the roughly 60 generals in the service who hold those ranks.
Link: The Atlantic (Nancy A. Youssef and Missy Ryan)
As Trump Purges Immigration Judges, One Speaks Out
The Trump administration has systematically pressured judges to deport more people faster, firing 115 judges and installing inexperienced “deportation judges”
What’s so unique about the immigration court system is that the courts and the judges are not part of the judicial branch. They are part of the executive branch. So although they wear robes, they’re called judges, ultimately, they are employees of the executive branch. And they report up to the attorney general, and by extension, up to the president. Immigration judges are appointed by the attorney general and can be fired by the attorney general. And immigration judges have a lot less freedom to make their decisions based just on the law. They ultimately have to follow the policy that’s being put forward by the administration.
The administration has put really systematic pressure on judges to deport more people and do it faster. They have really tried to turn this court into a deportation assembly line. And judges right now are granting asylum in fewer than 10 percent of cases, which is the lowest it’s ever been for the 20 years we could examine data for. So in total, about 115 judges have been fired by this administration. And that’s not even counting the ones who quit or retired because they saw the writing on the wall. The top official in the immigration court sends out a memo telling judges that it’s come to the administration’s attention that some of them are tolerating bias “in favor of an alien and against the government.” Judges clearly take that as a sign that they could be disciplined if they rule against the government. In hiring for these roles, the administration actually put out an ad specifically saying they were looking to hire, quote, “deportation judges.” Not subtle. Literally changing the definition of the job. It’s very in-your-face. And what my colleagues have found in some of their follow-up reporting is that the administration is actually sometimes putting as many as 100 hearings on a judge’s calendar per day. And the idea is basically that you flood the zone. A judge has to move so quickly that they’re ordering deportations, perhaps because the immigrant hasn’t been given a heads up on the fact that the hearing is happening, and they don’t show up, or that they don’t have a lawyer and can’t properly defend themselves.
Link: New York Times Podcast “The Daily” (Nicholas Nehamas)
How the Prairieland ‘Antifa’ Verdict Threatens the Anti-Trump Resistance
The first conviction of alleged Antifa members on terrorism charges raises red flags about the right to protest and government overreach
Late last week, federal prosecutors notched a victory in an unprecedented and controversial trial that sought to tie alleged members of “Antifa,” a decentralized anti-fascist movement, to domestic terrorism. A Tarrant County jury returned a mixed verdict for nine defendants, who were accused of a variety of crimes stemming from a July 4 “noise demonstration” outside the Prairieland immigrant detention center in Alvarado and the nonfatal shooting there of a police officer. Prosecutors argued the defendants constituted a “North Texas Antifa cell” that shared anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and anti-government beliefs—and that all nine played a role in the shooting that occurred, despite several government witnesses, who took plea deals, testifying at trial that they were surprised when the protest turned violent and that they and the other defendants did not belong to the purported Antifa group.
The case represents the federal government’s first use of material support for terrorism charges against alleged Antifa members. Experts say the outcome will give the Trump administration the green light to take a more aggressive stance against left-wing activity and further politicize the use of domestic terrorism laws. “It probably will embolden them to perhaps offer additional characterization of entities or groups … animated by some sort of anti-administration agenda as some species of Antifa,” said Tom Brzozowski, former counsel for domestic terrorism at the Department of Justice. Mike German, a former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism, told the Observer that the case demonstrates the broad scope of domestic terrorism laws and the ability they provide prosecutors to target behaviors that most people wouldn’t consider terrorism. On June 23, eight defendants in the Prairieland case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years.
Link: Texas Observer (Steven Monacelli)
AI Models Capable of Devastating Attacks Months Away, Five Eyes Warns
Intelligence agencies from five allied nations issue rare joint warning as Trump administration blocks foreign access to Anthropic’s advanced AI tools
Powerful AI models capable of devastating new cyber attacks on governments and businesses are mere months away, intelligence agencies for the Five Eyes have warned in a rare joint statement, urging leaders to “act now.” The surprising public intervention by signals agencies for Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada comes after the Trump administration earlier this month decided to block “foreign nationals” from using a much-hyped AI model built by tech company Anthropic, called Fable. The statement said while AI “would help us improve cyber defence over time, it also accelerates the speed, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats.” “Frontier AI models are anticipated to exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. The timeline is not years, it is months,” the warning by Five Eyes agencies said.
Generative AI models are powerful new tools capable of looking for vulnerabilities in cyber security systems, and they can help exploit those vulnerabilities as well as repair them. “What’s different about the latest ones is they’re very good at generating exploits,” said Olivia Shen, an expert in national security and AI at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre. One of the major tech company’s latest inventions is called Fable 5, a supposedly more community-friendly version of Mythos—a powerful AI model released earlier this year capable of detecting vulnerabilities in cyber systems that is only available to vetted organisations and companies because of concerns it could be exploited. Both of Anthropic’s models were suspended for use by “foreign nationals” in June by the US government, which cited advice by national security authorities.
Link: The Guardian (Sarah Basford Canales)
‘I Don’t Know How to Save My Daughter From Her Husband’: The Brutal Reality of the Taliban’s New Marriage Law
Afghanistan’s new decree makes it nearly impossible for women to escape unwanted or abusive marriages, even with family support
When Fatima arrived at a district court in northern Afghanistan in late 2025 with her parents, she hoped a judge would finally allow her to leave her calamitous marriage. She had never met her husband before their arranged wedding in the summer of 2024. Each time her family asked to see him, they were told he was shy. It was only on the wedding day, relatives say, that Fatima understood what had been hidden from her: her husband had severe intellectual and physical disabilities and could not eat, wash or dress himself without help. In the months that followed, Fatima cooked, cleaned, cared for her husband and tended the family’s livestock. She was rarely allowed to leave the house. Whenever she visited her parents, she wept and begged them not to send her back. Finally, her parents agreed to go to court and help Fatima ask for a divorce. Two Taliban soldiers pointed their weapons at Fatima’s parents as her in-laws seized her and dragged her toward their car.
In April 2026, the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a new decree on the judicial separation of spouses, setting out 12 grounds on which a marriage can be dissolved. On paper, some appear to give women a path to court. In practice, each path is blocked by the authority of men: the consent of a husband, the discretion of a judge, the testimony of witnesses, or the power of male relatives. Even in cases of abuse or neglect, the decree states that judges and arbiters cannot grant a divorce without the husband’s consent. The decree also legalises child marriage. It allows male relatives to marry off children and says that once those children reach puberty, they may ask a court to nullify the marriage in limited circumstances. Habiba, who has spent four years trying to escape from her abusive husband, was ordered to return to the house or pay 1.6 million Afghanis to her husband. “I am still here,” she says. “I am waiting for this government to fall, or for money to appear. One of those two.”
Link: The Guardian (Multiple reporters)
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Just to save you scrolling all the way to the top, here’s the Life Story Magic offer again. See you in the comments!
Wow! Those are some heavy articles! While in a sense I realize that oppressive decisions are happening, you have curated some important information. It is very discouraging the direction we are heading. But honestly, thank you. And I was unaware about the deportation judges!
Bill, if the bashing of this admin continues, I'm out. I've really enjoyed your take on so many topics, but....