Análisis de Stephen Collinson, CNN

Los populistas modernos del mundo están descubriendo un rasgo común que parece servirles más a ellos que a los votantes a los que dicen defender.

Cuando estalla un escándalo, no es más que una nueva prueba de su profecía autocumplida de que una turbia camarilla de élites del “Estado profundo”, empeñadas en suprimir la democracia, va a por ellos.

A ambos lados del Atlántico esta semana, los políticos parecían preguntarse WWTD (What would Trump do?): ¿Qué haría Trump?

En Maine, el ex candidato demócrata al Senado Graham Platner culpó del colapso de su campaña —por acusaciones de agresión sexual y violencia en las citas, que él niega— a jerarcas distantes del partido que, según dijo, conspiraban para acabar con su movimiento progresista.

En Gran Bretaña, el líder del brexit Nigel Farage renunció a su escaño parlamentario en medio de preguntas sobre su financiación personal que desestimó como una artimaña del establishment. Someterá la cuestión de su conducta “al pueblo” en una elección especial que ha tomado un giro surrealista, ya que su principal oponente podría ser un hombre disfrazado de cubo de basura.

Y en Francia, la líder de ultraderecha Marine Le Pen dijo que se presentará a la presidencia el próximo año llevando una tobillera electrónica después de que se confirmara su condena en un caso en el que Le Pen, su partido Agrupación Nacional y 11 altos cargos fueron condenados por malversar millones de euros de fondos públicos para pagar a trabajadores del partido en Francia. Haciéndose eco de Trump, Le Pen califica las acusaciones de “chasse aux sorcières” —una caza de brujas— por parte de las autoridades estatales.

La embriagadora implicación de los populistas es que sus propias dificultades solo prueban su tesis: que están proponiendo una reordenación tan radical del poder político que fuerzas oficiales siniestras no se detendrán ante nada para derribarlos. En algunos casos, las acusaciones de conducta indebida incluso pueden reforzar la reputación de un populista como alguien que rompe las reglas de la política.

No es que estos líderes populistas no hayan sabido conectar con un sentimiento político legítimo en un momento de agitación global.

Trump acuñó su definición más pura de su atractivo populista personal en su primer discurso de toma de posesión, en enero de 2017, rodeado por las eminencias del establishment político, jurídico, económico y de seguridad nacional del país.

“Durante demasiado tiempo, un pequeño grupo en la capital de nuestra nación ha cosechado las recompensas del Gobierno mientras el pueblo ha soportado el costo”, dijo. “Washington prosperó, pero el pueblo no participó de su riqueza. Los políticos prosperaron, pero los empleos se fueron y las fábricas cerraron”.

Todos los populistas modernos explotan una veta de profundo descontento público, argumentando que las fuerzas globalistas crearon una nueva clase de élites ricamente recompensadas que han inclinado aún más la balanza. En la derecha, Le Pen, Trump y Farage también convirtieron en arma el resentimiento por la inmigración. Este trío hizo crecer sus movimientos durante años y reconoció astutamente la potencia de los temas políticos insurgentes mientras gobiernos centrales disfuncionales dormitaban.

Los demócratas esperan al heredero del senador independiente de Vermont Bernie Sanders, quien utilizó apelaciones económicas populistas en sus dos campañas presidenciales fallidas que, sin embargo, construyeron un ferviente movimiento progresista. Platner había parecido un heraldo de una nueva generación que podría ayudar a liderar un movimiento antiestablishment en la izquierda, aunque su carrera ahora parece condenada después de que abandonara la contienda por el Senado de Maine. Sin embargo, encontró éxito temprano al dar voz a la frustración entre los activistas con los líderes moderados del part

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Friday dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against several Proud Boys members — granting a request from Trump’s Justice Department and undoing one of the Biden administration’s most celebrated victories against those who it said inspired the January 6, 2021, attack on American democracy.

US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, begrudgingly agreed to drop the case against the four members, saying he “lacks the authority to compel the Executive to pursue a prosecution, full stop.”

“President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6—whether those views are based on fact or fiction—are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them through the Executive Order,” Judge Kelly said, referring to Trump on his first day back in office signing an order commuting their sentences.

Trump’s order granted pardons to over 1,000 people convicted in the attack but left in place the convictions of the four Proud Boys members — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

In April, the Justice Department under Todd Blanche moved to vacate their convictions.

Dismissing the case against the Proud Boys associates erases some of the most serious convictions from the sprawling investigation of the US Capitol riot, one of the largest federal investigations in US history. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were found guilty in 2023 of seditious conspiracy and a range of other charges. Pezzola was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy but convicted on other charges related to January 6.

The US district judge who sits in Washington, DC, said in his order that the Trump administration sought to “treat this case essentially the same way it has all January 6 cases, without regard for the seriousness of the conduct at issue or even whether the case was initiated after President Biden took office or, like this one, while President Trump was still in power.”

“The decisions to issue the Executive Order and to abandon this prosecution—even after the Government secured convictions for serious crimes relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6—are solely the Executive’s,” Kelly continued. “No one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions.”

Rehl, one of the Proud Boys members, celebrated the dismissal in a post on X, saying, “Finally, it’s all over! January 6th can now be a thing of the past for me!”

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the group who had also been pardoned by Trump, was also quick to boast on X Friday night: “Justice is served! Proud Boys don’t lose. We win. This is our victory.”

Trump has long lambasted the January 6 prosecutions as an injustice against his supporters, even referring to those in jail as “hostages.”

The president has repeatedly called January 6, 2021, “a day of love and peace” and claimed his supporters posed “zero threat.” His comments are contradicted by hundreds of video clips of Trump supporters beating police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats; deploying stun guns and chemical sprays; and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police officers.

The judge, calling the insurrection “a perilous event,” said it was “an attack on people, including police officers, many of whom were injured. It was an attack on a coordinate branch of gove

By Jessie Yeung, CNN

(CNN) — Without so much as a wave of his flipper, Neil the boisterous young elephant seal departed Tasmania this week, leaving behind a legion of fans – and questions about what happens when he gets even bigger.

When Rebecca Thomson heard that Neil was back in town in June, she had rushed to the beach to see one of the Australian state’s best-known celebrities.

Then Neil, with all his 2,200 blubbery pounds, began following her.

“It’s like this giant slug coming at you,” laughed Thomson, who lives in the Tasmanian capital Hobart, and made sure to keep a safe distance from Neil. “It was really exciting and intriguing, and yes, definitely a bit intimidating, too.”

All southern elephant seals come on land a few times a year to breed, shed their fur, and interact with each other in gatherings of the otherwise solitary animals. But while most of his peers do this on remote subantarctic islands, Neil chooses to hang out with humans in the Australian island state during his seasonal visits – and wreak havoc.

After following Thomson to the parking lot, Neil began rocking a van, as bystanders laughed and the hapless driver tried to extract his vehicle. Other videos show him blocking roads; slamming into street signposts; peering through residents’ screen doors; and happily flattening traffic cones with his bulbous body. (He hasn’t, to date, threatened any humans.)

His stardom has only grown with each visit, winning him enamored fans around the world, and even a theme song. “He’s more ungovernable than ever,” one video caption read on a TikTok fanpage with more than 1.7 million followers.

“He features in advertising, local insurance ads, so yeah, he’s definitely become an icon,” Thomson said.

However, officials warned his virality had drawn too much attention, potentially jeopardizing his safety – a problem set to become worse as he grows in size and his online popularity skyrockets.

A solitary seal

Neil’s story began in 2020, when he was born off the southeast coast of Tasmania, not far from Hobart.

This, already, was unusual. Most southern elephant seals in this region are born on the uninhabited Macquarie Island, about 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) south of Hobart, and return to the same site to breed and give birth, said Clive McMahon, a research ecologist at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

But Neil’s mother may have been young and inexperienced and didn’t make it back to Macquarie Island on time. She was ready to give birth, and the Tasmanian beaches were right there – so out popped Neil.

Elephant seals “return to the place where they were born. So Neil is doing exactly what we would expect a good elephant seal to do… it just happens to be that he’s doing his normal behavior in a strange place,” said McMahon, who also lives in Hobart.

In the last four decades, as far as scientists know, only a handful of southern elephant seals have been born in Tasmania and survived, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE Tas). Residents in Tasmania’s southern coastal towns now see Neil a few times a year on shore, where he’s legally protected as a vulnerable species.

There’s his molting season in December and January, when seals shed their old fur and outer layer of skin; breeding season, which takes place from September through November; and the enigmatic “mid-year haul-out,” which scientists still don’t fully understand.

During the haul-out from April through August, in the Tasmanian winter, elephant seals will gather and interact with each other – especially young males who

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — The 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bipartisan bill that aims to tackle housing affordability, officially became law early Saturday, despite a series of attempts by President Donald Trump to stall the legislation.

Its passage signals that lawmakers recognize the frustration many Americans feel about the high cost of housing. At a time of elevated mortgage rates and near-record high home prices, many feel locked out of homeownership or struggle with monthly rent payments.

Supporters of the law have touted it as the most comprehensive housing reform in at least three decades. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the new law “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American History,” in a social media post last month.

But Trump, who had previously expressed support for the law, has since turned critical.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump said he refused to sign the bill in protest of the Senate’s failure to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter ID measure he has argued should be Congress’ top priority.

Last month, after the bill passed Congress, Trump also canceled a signing ceremony just two hours before it was scheduled to begin, later calling the bill a “big yawn.”

Regardless, the measure became law automatically on Saturday morning under the Constitution, since he did not veto it.

Trump’s last-minute criticism capped months of bipartisan negotiations on what would become the largest housing affordability legislation in a generation. Instead of promoting their efforts, Republican lawmakers were left scrambling when the president abruptly withdrew his support over a separate political fight.

The nation’s housing affordability crisis did not stem from a single event or policy failure. It is the result of years of underbuilding, restrictive local zoning, rising demand and policy decisions and, in many cases, policy inaction.

The legislation reflects the complexity of the crisis, combining a total of 47 proposals aimed at increasing housing supply, reducing costs and expanding access to affordable homes.

But immediate relief may not come just yet for homeowners and renters, said Yonah Freemark, a housing research associate at the Urban Institute. Building new homes takes time, and the law gives short-staffed federal government agencies a new workload to manage.

“We’re talking about a situation where not only will the federal government have to make changes, but then state and local governments also will have to make changes and then businesses, developers, etcetera will have to make investments, which itself takes time,” Freemark said.

Here’s what the new law does – and doesn’t do – to address some of the housing market’s biggest challenges:

Supply constraints

In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, homebuilding has lagged, creating a housing shortage that has pushed prices higher.

The law primarily aims to tackle America’s housing affordability problem by increasing supply. It includes provisions that promote manufactured housing (homes built in factories) and office-to-apartment conversions. It also would authorize a pilot program to offer grants and forgivable loans to fix older homes that have fallen into disrepair.

But many housing experts point to local zoning and red tape as the root of the slowdown in homebuilding. It is difficult for the federal government to intervene, since local governments make their own rules, but the law includes provisions to encourage states and local governments to adopt land use and zoning policies that are more supportive of housing development.

If land-use regulations were relaxe

By Joseph Ataman, Frederik Pleitgen and Claudia Otto, CNN

Tehran, Iran (CNN) — It’s been a historic week in Iran.

For just the second time in the nearly 50-year history of the Islamic Republic, the country has buried a supreme leader. Ali Khamenei ruled Iran – as a spiritual leader and an iron-fisted autocrat – for nearly four decades. For many in Iran, he’s the only leader they have known.

Then, as the frenzied funeral events reached their climax, US bombs and missiles struck across the country in retaliation at Iranian strikes on civilian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Just months ago, these strikes would have been an earthquake for the region. But after two wars in nine months, there was a sense of tired resignation when news of the airstrikes hit Tehran Wednesday.

Just a week in the Iranian capital has offered an eye-opening insight into where the country is today.

Show of power

The government claimed north of 10 million mourners attended funeral events for the late Ayatollah Khamenei this week. An independent assessment of the numbers is almost impossible, but in Tehran, hundreds of thousands at least flooded streets for Monday’s funeral procession. Much of the 20-kilometer (12-mile) marching route was a river of black-clad mourners carrying the red flags of martyrdom and revenge.

While many in Tehran chose to (literally) distance themselves from the funeral – we drove into Tehran past traffic jams as locals left the city to enjoy the nationwide holiday elsewhere – the funeral events were filled with Shia faithful and those loyal to the government.

The weight of support evident this week puts into question the notion that regime change in Iran is a feasible proposition for Iran’s enemies abroad – after all, US President Donald Trump called for the Iranian people to overthrow their leadership when the US and Israel launched their war on the country in February.

Boiling anger

The funeral events – especially Monday’s procession through Tehran – were highly emotional affairs. That’s not unusual among followers of Shia Islam, whose tradition is one of outward displays of faith. But the funeral seemed deeply personal for many present.

“I even loved him more than my father. It’s as if I lost my father again,” 30-year-old Nafiseh Sadat Sadri told CNN. “I feel that I’ve become an orphan, it burns in my heart.”

“He was our leader. He was a great man,” 25-year-old Fatemeh said. “I am going to continue his path.” She had driven through the night from the central Iranian city of Kashan to catch the funeral procession.

Others wanted payback.

“We have come here to avenge the blood of our leader, and not for one second will we put this aside,” a young woman named Mahtab Ehsani told CNN as the crowd waited for Khamenei’s coffin on Monday. “Blood must be repaid with blood.”

“We will not rest until we have killed Trump,” said Ghassem Kalateh, a cleric from Tehran.

The call came from officials too. This week “was not merely a farewell ceremony and mourning, but… a call for vengeance for that beloved figure, signed by millions of grieving mourners,” Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a statement Thursday.

Anger at America – and above all Trump – was everywhere. Every day, dozens of mourners would come up to us with promises to kill the US president in revenge for the assassination of their leader.

Throat-slitting gestures and chants of “kill Trump” and “death to America” chants were common reactions to seeing a team of international journalists, though the CNN team also encountered greetings of “welcome,” polite questio