Yes, big doings at the UN today.
We’ll get to that. But the buzz-producing story this morning is the continued fallout from 1619 author Nikole Hannah-Jones’ agonizing Sunday New York Times article on educational choices she made for her daughter.
Headlined “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” Ms. Hannah-Jones’ article today made the cover of the New York Post, quite an achievement. Emblazoned on the cover: “Husband of New York Times writer says she’s like MLK Jr. for ‘sacrificing’ their daughter to terrible New York school.”
Unlike her father, the couple’s daughter, Najya, is not so complimentary about the choice; she is depicted as being angry about the lack of opportunity in her chaotic and failing school
“Lessons from Nikole Hannah-Jones’ School Experiment” is the headline at The Free Press’ lead story. Subtitle: “The creator of the 1619 Project sent her young daughter to a struggling public school, convinced that upper-middle-class parents could lift it up. A decade later, the results are in.” While the results of the experiment were not so hot, Coleman Hughes suggests that it is unfair to pile on harsh criticism of Hannah-Jones:
At the time, Hannah-Jones’ rationale was that bad schools are caused by a lack of upper-middle-class parents. Those parents, she argued, have the resources and connections to lobby on behalf of the entire student body (including poorer students from dysfunctional families), raise additional funding, and generally improve the quality of the education for all. As an upper-middle-class parent herself, Hannah-Jones … felt she had an obligation to be part of the solution, which meant sending Najya to a bad school. On the progressive left, her experiment read as noble. To everyone else, it was madness.”
Okay. That was then. This is now. How well did Hannah-Jones learn from the experiment? Not so well, according to a New York Post editorial:
Time and again in her essay, she falls back on the beliefs she started with: The schools are under-resourced; “a system of inequality” that stems from “outside the school walls but is magnified within them” makes change near-impossible.
This is why Hannah-Jones’ “1619 Project” had so many gross factual errors: She’s blinded by ideology.
In the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression section, Matthew Hennessey writes about “The Oblation of Nikole Hannah-Jones.” Rich Lowry addresses how Hannah-Jones’ “perverse priorities [led her to] put her cause before her child.” Well, at least the wicked 1619 Jamestowners never practiced child sacrifice.
President Trump addresses the United Nations today:
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters the president’s speech will focus on “how he has, and his administration have, confronted complex problems head-on around the world” when past administrations “kicked the can” down the road. Waltz said the president will talk about ensuring that Iran won’t have a nuclear weapon, and will give an update on progress on the Gaza peace plan implementation.
But will we hear the speech? In response to the White House’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, five networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC) have suspended the press pool that ordinarily covers presidential events. More on the media boycott. Trump is also expected to speak about a much-needed UN overhaul.
We will also see (press pool willing?) a state visit by China’s President Xi, who will be afforded a state dinner. Semafor’s Andy Browne writes that the meeting between Trump and Xi “won’t break the US-China stalemate.” Trump and Xi will discuss AI. Walter Russell Mead explores what AI means for Xi:
The arrival of the internet led many in the West to predict the fall of Chinese communism as the torrents of free content on the global web undermined the party’s control of information and empowered individuals….. Thanks to the web, the Chinese government can use an unprecedented network of cameras, centralized information gathering and other forms of surveillance to build the most powerful form of social control the human race has ever seen. The government tracks your purchases, your movements and your online activity and has access to everything from your medical records to your credit information.
This is the template that Beijing’s planners bring to AI. The question is whether it can work….
While the U.S. should seek cooperation with China when it comes to reducing the dangers AI poses to both countries, we have no interest in helping the Communist Party harness the power of AI to cement its increasingly totalitarian hold on Chinese society.
American officials discussing AI with their counterparts should remember that the two governments want different things.
In “Who’s Stronger, Xi or Trump?” Bill McGurn addresses the fate of Jimmy Lai, the heroic Hong Kong newspaper owner who languishes in a Chinese prison. “What Does Trump Want from Xi?” an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, suggests that the president “Start with no more help for Iran to target and kill Americans.”
“Good News for the GOP: Some Politics Is Still Local,” by Matthew Continetti, who sees several hopes for the Republicans, despite national trends favoring Democrats:
Look at each state, however, and it’s a different picture. The list of competitive Senate seats is growing—and not entirely in the Democrats’ favor. The complex scene is a reminder that local problems and individual candidates can matter more than the national environment. The ghost of Tip O’Neill [who famously said that all politics is local] haunts the 2026 election.
Although the last GOP senator from Michigan was elected in 1994, former Rep. Mike Rogers is neck-and-neck with Abdul El-Sayed, the former public health official and pal of anti-American livestreamer Hasan Piker. The Real Clear Politics polling average has Mr. El-Sayed 2 points ahead of Mr. Rogers, well within the margin of error….
The Maine Senate contest was rocked by Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s sudden departure in July. His replacement, Troy Jackson, is Mr. Platner without the charm. Incumbent Susan Collins narrowly trails Mr. Jackson, but his lead is tiny and Ms. Collins has outperformed polling before.
The most unexpected polling comes from Minnesota, which hasn’t elected a GOP senator since 2002. Yet recent Senate polls show Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter, close behind Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Meanwhile, Chadwick Moore introduces us to the “US Army vet running a California baby factory for Chinese nationals to have American kids“:
Wealthy Chinese couples are implanting their embryos into American women so their children can be born as US citizens, The Post has learned.
The service is provided by a surrogacy agency, Patriot Conceptions, which operates between China and the US and has been accused of hiding details of who the biological parents are from surrogates….
Patriot Conceptions is run by a high-energy US Army vet named Haotian Bai — who founded the international surrogacy agency and last year received a prestigious fellowship from a top Republican think tank, which describes him as a “pioneering entrepreneur in the third-party reproduction” sector.
Ms. Must tends to regard AI hysteria as—well—hysteria. But to be fair, I want to note that the estimable Alex Berenson has a piece at The Free Press headlined “I Didn’t Fall for Covid Fearmongering. But AI Terrifies Me.” Subtitle:
At first, I was skeptical that AI posed a grave danger to humanity. I now believe the White House, the U.S., and the world must move forcefully to reduce the risks of AI. Here’s what changed.
A Few for the Road. “The Lion, the Witch and the Gender-Swap“: Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming movie is a remake of C.S. Lewis’s classic “Narnia” stories for children. Spencer Klaven warns that the movie betrays the source by making the Christ figure a woman. … Gerard Bajer of the Wall Street Journal warns that he feels a bad case of TDS coming on. … After a pleasant chat with President Trump, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani renews his call for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in town for the U.S. meeting, to be arrested as a “war criminal.” Fortunately, he lacks the power to do this.
Ms. Must is off for a week in New Orleans. See you back here September 30th.
