The New York Times' Thomas Friedman argued in his most recent column that the day President Trump won the election should be a date that lives in infamy, not unlike Dec. 7, 1941, when more than 2,400 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor, or Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorist attacks left nearly 3,000 dead:

We need to rerun the tape. Ladies and gentlemen, we were attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, we were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and we were attacked on Nov. 8, 2016. That most recent attack didn't involve a horrible loss of lives, but it was devastating in its own way. Our entire intelligence community concluded that Russia hacked our election by deliberately breaking into Democratic National Committee computers and then drip-by-drip funneling embarrassing emails through WikiLeaks to undermine Clinton's campaign. And what have we done about it? Other than a wrist slap against Moscow, we've moved on.

That is not okay. [The New York Times]

What America needs to do now, as was done in both previous incidents, is to ask questions and demand answers, Friedman writes. At this point, it's not clear "whether Russian oligarchs own [Trump] financially or whether Russian spies own him personally because of alleged indiscreet behavior during his trips to Moscow" — but Americans "need to know," Friedman says.

He implores Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to consider what they would do if the tables were turned, and the "CIA, NSA, and FBI had concluded that the Russians had intervened to help Hillary Clinton get elected." If that were the case, Friedman writes, "you would have closed the government and demanded a new election." "Now it's all okay?" Friedman asks. "So you can get some tax cuts?"

Read the rest of what Friedman has to say about Trump and Russia over at The New York Times. Becca Stanek

Former President Barack Obama has mostly confined himself to private life since leaving office last year, declining to comment with any regularity on the choices of his successor. That silence is intentional and strategic, a lengthy New York magazine profile published Sunday night reveals.

Per New York, Obama has at least three significant reasons to keep quiet. First, he's following institutional tradition at a time when many institutions seem to be in flux:

Modeling his political engagement out of office after George W. Bush's, of all people — privileging the customs and traditions of our democracy rather than upending some in order to fight for others — may be among the most optimistic choices Obama has ever made. [New York]

Second, he doesn't want to crowd out new voices:

"He's recognizing that the party and our country will benefit from other voices having an opportunity to weigh in, and that opportunity would be all but completely obscured if he were regularly sharing his opinion on these issues," says [former White House Press Secretary] Josh Earnest. [New York]

And third, Obama is hyper-aware that inserting himself into the news cycle could help, rather than hinder, President Trump's agenda:

Obama believes more than ever in his capacity to spark an immediate backlash among Trump fans and to make any policy matter far more partisan. ... "It's pretty clear what President Trump's political strategy always is, which is to find a foil," says Earnest. "And with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton, his most prominent foil has been Barack Obama. That's been a very effective strategy for President Trump to galvanize his base and effectively put Republicans on Capitol Hill in the fetal position." [New York]

Read the full report on Obama's post-presidency life here. Bonnie Kristian

Pope Francis decried suppression of press freedom in "so-called democratic" countries in a Monday Reuters interview.

"The right to information is a right that must always be protected," he said. "States that have something they don't want to be seen always stop the media and freedom of the press, and we must fight for freedom of the press. We must fight."

The pope specifically addressed the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim-majority minority in Myanmar whose violent persecution by government troops as well as Buddhist mobs and militias has been labeled by the United Nations a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." Two Reuters reporters covering the Rohingya crisis have been jailed by Myanmar since December.

"I would like that the reason why they are in prison be clarified. If they have committed a crime or not. But it is important that the situation be clarified," Pope Francis said. "In some countries maybe things are going well, but there are many ways to silence the media." Bonnie Kristian

President Trump's brief tenure in office has been marked by a record-setting rate of Cabinet dismissals and other high-profile staff resignations. Defense Secretary James Mattis has hung on longer than many, but a Monday NBC News report citing unnamed current and former administration officials says he is increasingly marginalized by the president.

Last month, for example, Mattis learned second-hand that Trump had decided to exit the Iran nuclear deal, and NBC reports he had to rush to get in touch with Trump to discuss the news before it was made public. Likewise, Trump told Mattis about his plan to suspend Korean "war games" after he'd promised the change to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Trump "blindsided and overruled his defense secretary by publicly directing the Pentagon to create a sixth military branch overseeing operations in space."

Mattis and Trump "don't really see eye to eye," one source told NBC, while another said the defense secretary, though garnering Trump's respect, has "never been one of the go-tos in the gang that's very close to the president." On foreign policy questions, Trump is more likely to seek the advice of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or National Security Adviser John Bolton, both of whom take a more hawkish approach. Bonnie Kristian

A team of teenage soccer players and their coach still appear to be trapped in a flooded Thailand cave nearly two days after they first went missing.

One player's mother reported him missing after he didn't return from Saturday practice, and police found the team's bikes outside a cave that night, The Associated Press reports. Divers have been searching for the 12 boys and their coach as rain continues to pour, and Thailand's Navy recently joined the search, per The Nation.

Thailand's rainy season is in full swing, so the cave was closed off from visitors. But the team apparently entered the cave after its regular Saturday practice anyway, ducking inside before the 5-mile-long cave started to flood, says the Bangkok Post. Divers went about 2 miles into the tunnel, which contains water as deep as 20 feet in some spots, before it got too unsafe to continue. The team is thought to be in a dry area a little farther inside the cave, says The Nation, so Navy SEALs are blasting sand out of a blocked passageway to get there from another direction.

There's still no sign of the team, which was likely trapped by a flash flood. Rescuers thought about pumping the cave dry, but will likely wait for water levels to drop naturally, per The Nation. They've sent enough food and water down the tunnel to last the team a week. Read more about the rescue efforts at the Bangkok Post. Kathryn Krawczyk

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of Brendan Dassey, whose murder conviction gained widespread attention due to the 2015 Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer, Wisconsin's Post-Crescent reports. Dassey and his uncle, Steven Avery, were sentenced to life over the 2005 rape and murder of photographer Teresa Halbach in eastern Wisconsin; Dassey's lawyers argue that the then-16-year-old was led into a false confession by police who "exploited his youth and borderline intellectual disability," NBC News writes.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice believes Dassey's confession was voluntary and valid, with the state solicitor general saying: "The only plausible source for his admissions was his guilty conscience." The Supreme Court did not give a reason for declining Dassey's appeal, although four of the nine justices would have had to agree to accept the case for it to be heard.

"Juveniles and those with intellectual deficits are at particular risk of confessing involuntarily — and often falsely — under the strain of coercive police tactics," argued former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman, who had pushed for Dassey's case to be heard by the country's highest court. Jeva Lange

Algeria has abandoned thousands of migrants in the Sahara desert over the past year, forcing them to walk for miles on end until they reach neighboring Niger or Mali, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Migrants are reportedly being rounded up, put into trucks, dropped in the desert, and told to walk across the border, sometimes at gunpoint. The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 13,000 people have been forcibly expelled from Algeria this way since May 2017.

The number of migrants sent out of Algeria has spiked from 9,290 in 2016 to 14,446 over the past 10 months, reports AP. Officials are increasingly expelling migrants through the deadly Sahara, including pregnant women and children. Algerian police are leaving truckloads of people in scorching temperatures around 115 degrees Fahrenheit at points that are 18 miles from a water source, and migrants report that dozens in their groups succumbed to the inhospitable conditions.

"There were people who couldn't take it. They sat down and we left them. They were suffering too much," Aliou Kande, an 18-year-old from Senegal, told AP. Janet Kamara, a Liberian who was pregnant when she was stranded in the Sahara, said she spent several days walking before giving birth to a stillborn baby while in the desert. "Women were lying dead," she said. "Other people got missing in the desert because they didn't know the way." Read more at The Associated Press. Summer Meza

Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announced Monday that it will move the production of its European Union-bound motorcycles to sites overseas as a direct result of President Trump's escalating trade war, the Financial Times reports. Harley-Davidson said that European Union tariffs, which were imposed in retaliation to Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, would increase the average cost of a motorcycle to the EU from the U.S. by around $2,200, Marketwatch reports.

"Harley-Davidson believes the tremendous cost increase, if passed onto its dealers and retail customers, would have an immediate and lasting detrimental impact to its business in the region, reducing customer access to Harley-Davidson products and negatively impacting the sustainability of its dealers' businesses," the company said, adding that it plans to "shift production of motorcycles for EU destinations from the U.S. to its international facilities to avoid the tariff burden."

The company's decision is a blow to Trump's goal of "America first" economic policies. The manufacturing jobs will reportedly be moved to plants in India, Brazil, and Thailand, Harley-Davidson said. Jeva Lange