Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama

The GOP Loves Losing • Accountability in the Court • Trouble in Tennessee

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Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama

Good morning from the Hive newsroom! Are we watching Rupert Murdoch’s swan dance? Gabriel Sherman asks as much in his meaty feature on the 92-year-old News Corp owner’s potential succession plan, which is likely to involve passing the torch to one or more of his children. “He pitted his kids against each other their entire lives,” one source says of the media magnate. “It’s sad.”

Elsewhere, Molly Jong-Fast wonders why Republicans seem addicted to losing as they pursue a perpetually unpopular agenda on abortion and democracy. Plus, Eric Lutz divines whether Democrats can actually rectify the Supreme Court’s ongoing accountability crisis. Thanks for reading!

Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama

With the $1.6 billion Dominion lawsuit threatening to hobble Fox News, the ink on his divorce to Jerry Hall still wet, and his broken engagement to Ann Lesley Smith even fresher, it’s been a chaotic 12 months for the 92-year-old conservative media baron. As Fox and family insiders tell it, this could just be the beginning.

Between the Tennessee Three, Abortion, and Trump, the GOP Just Loves Losing

The GOP turned three Tennessee Democrats into celebrities, the unpopular antiabortion crackdown is still in full force, and the party is rallying around an indicted Donald Trump. What politically disastrous decision will Republicans make next?

Can Democrats Actually Hold Clarence Thomas—And the Supreme Court—Accountable?

With revelations that Thomas secretly accepted gifts from a conservative billionaire for decades, Illinois senator Dick Durbin has called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate misconduct in the court.

The GOP’s Antidemocratic Stunt in Tennessee Isn’t Playing Out So Well

The two Democrats expelled by the state’s Republican House could be reappointed. Meanwhile, their ouster has called attention to concerns over whether the state’s GOP House Speaker lives in the district he represents.

Birth Control and Vaccines Could Be Next If SCOTUS Upholds the Texas Ruling Against Abortion Medication

Upholding Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision would set a shocking, dangerous precedent.