What A Day Crooked Media

We’ve been hearing that the far-right is on the rise in Europe for a decade now. And yet, with a few exceptions, these parties are nowhere near taking power. Even in the EU Parliament, where the far-right made gains for the third election in a row this week, nationalist parties are STILL expected to end up marginalized and powerless. What's driving them and what's stopping them? Max and guest host Josie Duffy Rice take a look at the rise of the German far-right AfD party to illustrate what’s going on across the continent and how we got here.

In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court preserved broad access to the abortion drug mifepristone — at least for now. The justices dismissed the case on a technicality, ruling that the anti-abortion groups and doctors who brought it didn't have a legal right to sue. But the court's decision isn't a solid win for abortion access. The justices didn't weigh in on the substance of the case, meaning it could end up back in front of the court. Already, three Republican-led states are trying to make that happen. Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project, explains the ruling and what's next.

And in headlines: President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders agreed to finance a $50 billion loan to Ukraine to help pay for its war against Russia and rebuild the country's infrastructure, former president Donald Trump schmoozed with House and Senate Republicans during his first visit to Capitol Hill since the Jan. 6 insurrection, and the ACLU and immigrant rights groups sued the Biden administration over the president's executive order severely limiting asylum claims at the southern border.

House Democrats on Tuesday launched an official task force to take on the far-right agenda Republicans envision under a second Trump presidency. The group of Democrats aims to directly counter the plans outlined in “Project 2025,” a 1,000 page policy blueprint floated by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for eliminating federal agencies like the FBI and Justice Department, restricting access to contraception, and concentrating more power in the presidency. Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin is on the task force. He joins us to talk about why a second Trump term could be more destabilizing than the first.

And in headlines: President Joe Biden and other world leaders are convening in Italy for the G7 summit, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a non-binding resolution that condemns the use of in-vitro fertilization, and White House Press Secretary avoided giving a definitive answer on whether Biden will consider commuting his son Hunter’s eventual sentence on federal gun charges.

A Delaware jury on Tuesday convicted Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, on three federal felony gun charges. The verdict makes Biden the first member of a sitting president’s immediate family to be convicted of a crime. A sentencing date hasn’t been set yet, but the president’s son is facing up to 25 years in prison. Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axios, was in the courtroom during the trial. He breaks down the verdict and the reactions in Washington.

And in headlines: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was back in the Middle East to put pressure on Hamas to formally agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel, embattled Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is in hot water again after a secret recording caught him agreeing with Christian conservative viewpoints, and a federal judge struck down Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Justice Department to weigh in on two cases that deal with whether cities and states can hold fossil fuel companies responsible for the effects of climate change. While we wait to see what happens, one thing is abundantly clear: climate change is already affecting our health. Vox Media, Grist and The 19th News teamed up for a series on how our changing climate is reshaping the reproductive cycle from menstruation to menopause. Lead reporter Zoya Teirstein joins us to talk about the series, “Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis.”

And in headlines: Voters in the key swing state of Nevada head to the polls today to vote in the state’s primary election, the United Nations Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored ceasefire resolution for the war in Gaza, and researchers say wild African elephants call each other by unique names when communicating.

Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, resigned from his post on Sunday. His announcement came one day after Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in an operation that killed scores of Palestinians. Gantz, who’s also Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief political rival, said Netanyahu is “preventing us from reaching real victory” and called for new elections.

President Joe Biden wrapped up a five-day visit to France on Sunday. While the trip was nominally about commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Biden also used it to defend the idea of democracy itself, drawing parallels between World War II and the war in Ukraine. Behind the scenes, European leaders are privately panicking over the prospect of a second Trump term. McKay Coppins, senior staff writer at The Atlantic, says he encountered “an undercurrent of dread” in almost every conversation he had with European officials while traveling across this continent this spring.

And in headlines: A New York probation official is set to interview former president Donald Trump today following his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, Conspiracy theorist and Info Wars founder Alex Jones asked a bankruptcy court for permission to liquidate his personal assets to pay the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, and the head of the United Nations’ World Food Programme says Sudan could become the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”