Politics today is defined by pressure, legitimacy, and the costs of public scrutiny. In the Middle East, that pressure turned deadly, with two U.S. service members killed, one missing, and others injured after an Iranian missile and drone attack in Jordan, sharply raising the stakes for Washington and its regional partners. In Germany, senior CDU figure Jens Spahn resigned after backlash over his use of surrogacy in the U.S., a personal decision that collided with both German law and his own past political stance. In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is testing the limits of municipal authority as he reviews whether he could order Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest during a U.N. visit, though no decision has been made. And in South Carolina, Rep. Ralph Norman has entered the race for the Senate seat left open by Lindsey Graham’s death, opening a new Republican contest shaped by legacy and Trump’s influence.