Today on Highway to Hill: Congress has passed legislation to heavily sanction Russia in the midst of its ongoing aggression towards Ukraine, but the president is taking as… more of a suggestion, even though he signed the law! What is in the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026”, why is Trump suddenly ignoring the entire point of the bill, plus the return of our least favorite villain from Season 1 of the second Trump administration: Elon Musk.
This week’s syllabus 📚
* “Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin” (Thomas Grove, Warren P. Strobel, Aruna Viswanatha, Gordon Lubold and Sam Schechner, Wall Street Journal)
* “Pentagon awards SpaceX with Ukraine contract for Starlink satellite internet” (Amanda Macias and Michael Sheetz, CNBC)
* “Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say” (Erin Banco and Gram Slattery, Reuters)
* “Did Ukrainian strikes on Russian datacentres reduce online disinformation?” (Aisha Down, The Guardian)
* “H.R.5334 - Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026”
* Raines v. Byrd | 521 U.S. 811 (1997) (Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center)
