2026-06-09 20:00:00
The beer-loving character Norm on Cheers, known for his famous barroom scene entry lines, once offered this gem: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world and I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear.” And that glass half-empty view on life was offered before the latest report on alcohol consumption. Long story short: BevMo? More like, BevLess. NYT (Gift Article): Health Risks of Alcohol Accelerate After One Drink a Day, Study Finds. “At one drink a day, the researchers found, there was an increased risk of premature death from an illness or injury directly attributable to alcohol, though it was small — one in 1,000 people. But the risk of premature death jumped to one in 25 for those who had two drinks a day, a level long considered safe for men, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.” Sadly, this study is coming out in 2026, an American year when even the driest of teetotalers are lining up for a turn at the keg stand. These days, you have to pregame before reading the news. For those who find the drinking news hard to swallow, there is a competing study. “It suggested that moderate drinking (up to two drinks a day for men and one for women) was healthier than not drinking at all … Some of the panelists behind that report had financial ties to the alcohol industry.” What was the title of the study? The Next Round’s on Us?
+ Guess which report is being adopted by the administration? “A study commissioned by President Joe Biden’s administration to investigate alcohol-related health harms was released independently on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided not to feature the researchers’ findings in new dietary guidelines as it faced pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee.” Is it any wonder that reading these stories, as much as anything else, is what led to my drinking problem?
Drones are just being used to fight wars. They’re now being used to carry out rescue missions. “The unmanned surface vessel, a Saronic Corsair, located the crew, who had spent two hours in the waters off the coast of Oman and brought them to shore, said Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for U.S. Central Command.” Drone boat rescues crew of downed US Apache helicopter near Hormuz.
+ “In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said he had been informed ‘that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz.’ While the pilots were uninjured, ‘the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.'” This comes just days after Trump said Israel must not respond to a series of Iranian missile attacks. The only thing consistent about Trump’s war pronouncements has been the claim that a peace deal is right around the corner. “Including the period before the ceasefire, he’s done it at least 38 times. That’s the number of times he’s said directly — in social media posts, public appearances and phone calls with the media — that a deal was nigh or claimed Iran was desperate to cut one.” Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
+ Conflicts are on the rise globally, at the highest level since WWII.
“As bad as this situation is, we have a playbook for addressing such crises. But it requires a huge team effort — and this time, the United States has undermined its ability to help by shuttering U.S.A.I.D., cutting staff at C.D.C. and withdrawing from the W.H.O. Thousands of people could pay the ultimate price for that recklessness.” Jeremy Konyndyk in the NYT (Gift Article): This Could Be the Worst Ebola Outbreak in History.
+ In a parallel universe, you might think that Elon Musk being a key architect and enabler of these terrible cuts would mean some more ethical investors would be rooting against the SpaceX IPO that will likely make him the first trillionaire. But in this universe, just about everyone is in on the deal. WSJ (Gift Article): University Endowments Are About to Strike It Big on the SpaceX IPO. Forget USAID, Nazi salutes, and wanton racism. With the money at stake, universities don’t even care that Elon doesn’t like universities.
The Knicks had won 13 straight playoff games. Trump showed up at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks lost. Call it the Curse of the Babyno. Trump couldn’t have had much fun at the game. And I’m not just saying that because the Knicks lost and Trump, always the norm breaker, fell asleep in the city that never sleeps. President Trump roundly booed by New York crowd at NBA Finals Game 3. Trump spent much of his life trying to be loved in his hometown. He couldn’t make it there. Donald Trump Got Absolutely Destroyed By Boos At The Knicks Game. (Of course, even in getting booed, Trump was still the biggest story in the biggest show in the biggest town, and that’s how he likes it.) We won’t know until the finals are over, but maybe Trump didn’t curse the Knicks. He just cursed the world and the Knicks are part of the world.
Reality Bytes: “It took Farid just a few minutes to confirm the video had been made using artificial intelligence. ‘Looking at videos like this is sort of my life,’ he said. ‘Some mornings I’m watching videos of people getting their heads chopped off before I’ve even rubbed the sleep from my eyes.'” When reality is in doubt, news editors ask this Berkeley professor: Is it AI? (But there’s only one of him and AI is getting better every day…)
+ Crypto Apocalypto: “A Reuters examination shows that the Trump family has used this [crypto] template to generate at least $2.3 billion in profit from investors since Trump retook the presidency. On the other side of that cash bonanza for America’s first family: the more than a million investors whose net losses totaled $2.3 billion at the end of April.” Under the Trump crypto playbook, the family always wins. Investors don’t. (I’m still looking for something positive about crypto…)
+ Getting Dark in Cuba: “US President Donald Trump’s push to force change in Cuba by cutting off almost all fuel shipments to the government is depriving the nation of 10 million people of access to water, food and healthcare, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Monday in a statement.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): UN Says Children Are Dying in Cuba Because of Strict US Sanctions.
+ Welcome Splat: “Omar Artan, from Somalia, was set to be the first official from his country to officiate at the World Cup but was turned back in Miami after flying in from Turkey. He has said that he was interrogated for 11 hours, then held in a cell before being sent back to Turkey. FIFA has said it has no power or influence over immigration issues.” Omar Artan held in cell before US border force shattered World Cup dream. (Feel safer?)
+ Pratt Fall: ” He wrote a memoir called ‘The Guy You Loved to Hate.’ He’s dabbled in rap, releasing a song called ‘I’m a Celebrity.’ He started a company selling crystals claimed to have healing properties. But Spencer Pratt was not able to pull off his latest venture — an improbable bid to become mayor of Los Angeles.” The rise and fall of ‘The Hills’ star Spencer Pratt’s improbable campaign for Los Angeles mayor. (It’s still disturbing how well he did.)
+ QBet: “The reaction around college sports was nearly unanimous, with the idea of Brendan Sorsby playing in 2026 after admitting to thousands of bets on sports — including 40 on his own team — representing the latest crossroads for an industry that has faced a dizzying number of them in recent years.” Coaches, ADs ‘disgusted,’ ‘stunned’ with Brendan Sorsby ruling. Should anything about betting and college sports still be able to stun us at this point?
“Attorneys for Nick Reiner, 32, filed a lengthy petition in a Los Angeles court Monday seeking access to his trust, which he was supposed to begin receiving two years ago. The petition says that their client has been denied access despite ‘unambiguous instructions’ left by his parents on how to disburse the funds in the trust that was established in 1993.” Even by today’s standards, this is a shocking headline: Nick Reiner seeks access to the trust fund his parents left to pay for his defense in their killings.
2026-06-08 20:00:00
Maybe it makes sense that the signature event of the country’s 250th birthday will be a UFC fight. What could better define today’s United States than enraged, veiny-necked, mouth-breathing fellow Americans beating the hell out of each other in a cage of our own making? The only way a cage fight on the White House lawn could better represent our American moment is if the outcome is denied by our president who calls the match rigged and argues that the combatant we all saw lose with our own eyes actually won, leaving us more angry, more divided, and sure of only one thing: We want to get back in the cage and get back to beating the hell out of each other. Aside from that, we don’t agree on much, not even the shared history that we are meant to celebrate. We’ve lost the plot. And we’ve stopped trying to find it. Yoni Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): “Unable to agree on how to interpret the American story, the country’s schools, universities, and political institutions have stopped trying to tell it at all.” How America Gave Up on Its Own History. “In recent decades, the traditional American story has come under sustained attack from both flanks. On the left, scholars and activists suspicious of nationalism have pushed to redefine the United States as a country exceptional mostly for its flaws and crimes. On the right, politicians and commentators hostile to diversity have sought to gloss over those sins and, more recently, lay claim to the nation on behalf of “heritage Americans.” Unable to agree on how to tell our story, we have swiftly abandoned efforts to tell it at all. The hours devoted to social studies in schools are shrinking, and survey courses in American history are vanishing from college campuses.” (Oh well, they say 250 is an awkward age.)
+ AP: Fewer Americans say democracy is central to country’s identity. Only about half of Americans under 30 see democracy as a key element of the U.S.’s identity.
+ Democracy may no longer be core to our identity, but at least irony still is. Truck carrying fireworks catches fire and explodes in Tennessee.
To preserve your sanity, and mine, I try not to share too many Trump video appearances. But it’s worth stomaching a couple minutes of his full meltdown and stormy exit on Meet the Press for a few reasons. First, he is unhinged. (Even if longevity bros cure death, I won’t live long enough to understand how any American could see this manbaby as a president.) Second, he is continuing to lay the groundwork to refuse to accept election results he doesn’t like. And third, this is exactly the same person who is managing the current madness in the Middle East. And that situation is only getting more complex. Fighting between Israel and Iran broke out again over the weekend. It has stopped for now. “President Donald Trump had demanded the two countries ‘immediately stop shooting.’ He also said that they were ‘looking to do an immediate ceasefire’ and that ‘final negotiations on ‘peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.'” (What are the chances of that?) Here’s the latest from the NYT, NBC, and The Guardian.
“When Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a new assault weapons ban in Virginia last month, it got almost zero national news coverage. Yet it amounted to an important milestone: It marked the first time in U.S. history that such a gun-control measure was passed into law by any state government in the American South.” And when bans are signed into law, those laws must be enforced by prosecutors. At least, that’s what we thought. TNR: Deep in Rural Virginia, a MAGA Pro-Gun Push Takes an Unnerving Turn. “A number of county-based prosecutors in red areas of Virginia are publicly declaring that they will not enforce the new ban on assault-style weapons. This movement is taking shape as a direct, openly confrontational challenge to the authority of Spanberger and the Virginia legislature that passed the measure—and it only appears to be growing.”
“Dylan Alverson stood amid tear gas and flash-bang grenades, on the frozen street where Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents in January, when he got the idea for what he later called an ‘absurd business move.’ He decided to stop charging for food at Modern Times, the south Minneapolis cafe he’s run for 15 years.” To Alverson, the move made political sense. Even he probably didn’t imagine it would lead to financial upside. NYT (Gift Article): This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are Up.
Garden Variety Bummer: “As part of enhanced security measures with President Donald Trump attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, there will be no watch party outside Madison Square Garden.” Trump is going to ruin an NBA playoff game to warm up for ruining the World Cup and then ruining the Olympics. (I still have a weird feeling he’s gonna cancel at the last minute.)
+ Run Your Ossoff: From Michelle Goldberg in the NYT (Gift Article), an interesting look at Why Everyone Wants Jon Ossoff to Run for President. If he doesn’t run, other Dems should borrow his message in which he constantly ties Trump’s corruption to individuals’ pocketbooks.
+ Minutes to Memories: “And about four hours after our deadline, Bari Weiss sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon. Two of the things in the email include, can we make the protesters look more violent? … And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.” Scott Pelley on the Bari Weiss Era and His Last Days at 60 Minutes.
+ E-Gad: “Global EV sales grew 20% in 2025 to exceed 20 million, with one in four new cars sold worldwide now electric…EV sales in the U.S., though, fell 2% last year.” As the world embraces EVs, the U.S. hits the brakes.
+ Get Your Heg Out of Your Ass: “The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been accused by historians and rights campaigners of ‘grotesque stupidity‘ and desecrating the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after he sought to link immigration to the D-day anniversary, saying Europe was facing a different ‘invasion’ of its shores.'” More international humiliation.
+ Good Time To Be Bad: “Kim Jong Un offered China’s president a grand welcome Monday. But the North Korean leader is playing host from a position of rare strength, and his country has come a long way since Xi Jinping’s last visit seven years ago.”
+ Their Heads on a Platner: “The Maine Senate candidate’s supporters shrugged off the Nazi tattoo and the mountain of old incendiary Reddit posts, drawn to his charisma and ready to believe in his redemption arc. Putting real people in Washington, they argued, meant accepting the real-life baggage that came with it, even if it might get exposed in the gauntlet of the campaign. But now the party is confronting the potential costs of that risk. In the last two weeks, revelations that Platner sexted women early in his marriage and accusations from an ex-girlfriend that he was physically threatening have disturbed national Democrats and raised questions about what other damaging revelations might drop between now and November.” The Democrats’ Platner Problem.
+ Neon Lights Are Bright: Tony Award winners list: ‘Schmigadoon!’ wins best musical, ‘Death of a Salesman’ lives on. And Pink killed as host.
+ GLP Soup: GLP-1s are popular. For some corporations, a little too popular. WSJ (Gift Article): Your Weight-Loss Drugs Are Next on the Corporate Chopping Block. “With as many as one in eight American adults taking the pills or injectables now, big employers from Cigna to PricewaterhouseCoopers are dropping coverage of so-called GLP-1s in droves. Others, like Chevron, are making workers jump through extra hoops to get coverage—and to ensure the drugs are used effectively—such as requiring multiple weigh-ins a month, meal-tracking on apps or sessions with an online health coach.”
+ Tab Keys: “The tablets, made of compressed ground coffee without a coating, binder or gelatin, can only be used with a Tablì coffee machine made by Lavazza. Each tablet is marked with the words ‘100% coffee.'” Coffee pods, without the pods?
Italian coffee giant Lavazza launches single-serve tablets to make espresso in the U.S.
“The instrument — a long plastic horn, typically blown by South African football fans — was deemed “excessively loud,” according to the global football body’s code of conduct.” FIFA bans use of vuvuzelas at World Cup. (Better 16 years late than never?)
+ “Forty-three-year-old construction worker Thomas Berg eventually took home the top prize after wowing judges by frantically jumping on a trampoline while clad in neon green gym wear.” A raucous Copenhagen crowd cheers Denmark’s 2026 Mullet Championship.
2026-06-04 20:00:00
In his first miracle, he turned 120 gallons of water into wine. He was also seen walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee. With this kind of mastery over liquid, it was only a matter of time before Jesus got into the beverage business. While he was early to the miracle market, Jesus is hardly the first well-known name to back an energy drink. Kim Kardashian, Logan Paul, The Rock, Alex Cooper, Lionel Messi, and many others are already preaching to the masses to swallow their functional beverage pitch. But it wasn’t until some entrepreneurs decided that he had a branding problem that Jesus’ image was slapped onto the side of a can of Berry Blessed Yahweh energy drink. You get all the biblical associations with none of the calories! The Guardian: What would Jesus drink? Welcome to the age of Christian energy beverages. “Another mega-celeb has entered the beverage game. Or rather, beverage companies have enlisted him in an effort to spread the good word about their product. Jesus, it turns out, has a branding problem – at least according to the makers of these drinks. Too many people simply haven’t heard the message. ‘God put it on our hearts to specifically preach the gospel through an energy drink,’ the creator of Yahweh says in an Instagram video defending the company against accusations that it exists mainly to turn a profit.” But wait, Moses walked through a parted Red Sea and got water from a stone more than a thousand years before Jesus was even born. Shouldn’t he be the first to market drinks? Yes. In a twist that gives new meaning to holy spirits, Moses Vodka has been around for years (although there’s some debate about whether or not it’s actually kosher to drink it). You gotta hand it to Moses for prophesying that, in the year of our Lord 2026, we’d need something stronger than water or wine.
+ Scheduling note: NextDraft will be off tomorrow. I need a few cans of Jesus and a few shots of Moses to recharge. See you back here on Monday.
Iran says it won’t resume peace talks until there’s a real ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. But Hezbollah (an Iran proxy) in Lebanon won’t stop firing rockets and drones into northern Israel and is refusing to sign onto a ceasefire agreement. BBC: Hezbollah rejects renewed ceasefire agreed by Israel and Lebanon. Even during the best of times, dealmaking in the region is difficult. And now Trump has another challenge. House Votes to Rein In Trump on Iran War. “The House on Wednesday voted to direct President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from the conflict with Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after four Republicans sided with Democrats in a striking sign of growing opposition to a military campaign now in its fourth month.”
+ AP: With Trump in a holding pattern on Iran war, allies and critics worry he risks getting boxed in. Maybe more importantly to Trump, the oil industry is leaking the same message. Politico: Oil industry warns Trump administration of price spikes within weeks.
Even though they are definitely not addictive gambling platforms, industry players like Kalshi and Polymarket are hiring some political lobbyists from other addiction industries. “A trade group backed by some of the largest players in the prediction market industry, including Kalshi, Coinbase, Crypto dot com, Robinhood, and Underdog—has recruited a bipartisan dynamic duo of influential former congressmen to be the faces of the industry. In addition to the political firepower, CPM added an influential former gambling industry advocate and a former vaping executive to help manage the organization’s direction.” TNR: Prediction Markets Are Learning From the Addiction Industry. But they definitely don’t see themselves as, you know, part of the addiction industry. It’s like the old saying goes: I used to be addicted, but now I’m just a dick.
“Trust in science has plummeted. Can improv turn the tide? Scimemi is one of more than 35,000 scientists and researchers who have taken classes led by professional actors to help them earn their audiences’ trust and understanding. It’s the brainchild of Alan Alda, who helped start what is now called the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Long Island’s Stony Brook University more than 15 years ago.” WSJ (Gift Article): Alan Alda’s Solution to Eroding Trust in Science: More Improv.
+ I’m not sure any American scientists would have had the foresight to improvise a scene in which their own government was dismantling science. Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System. Meanwhile, Trump to unveil $700 million coal support plan using emergency powers. Even if you’re an improv-trained scientist, America has become a tough room to get a laugh.
Slash and Learn: “After Elon Musk ‘spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,’ as he put it last year, he and President Trump scoffed that American humanitarian aid was, in effect, woke nonsense. Yet in reality American humanitarian aid not only saved one life every 10 seconds but was also safeguarding the world from epidemics. So now we face a rapidly increasing outbreak of Ebola, and the Trump administration is finding that some of the things that went into the wood chipper were the very tools needed to tackle the virus.” NYT (Gift Article): This Is Why You Don’t Slash Humanitarian Aid. (As a punishment, Elon is about to become the richest person in history. That’ll teach him.)
+ Consumer Subjection: Polls are bad and everything seems chaotic. But the masterminds behind Project 2025 just keep on keeping on. Consumer protection agency deletes thousands of pages as Trump administration seeks to dismantle it.
+ Enemies List Twist: “Bolton described the national security information in question in an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family, the two sources said.” Former Trump adviser John Bolton to plead guilty to retaining national security information. No one has worked harder to target Trump’s enemies and pay off his accomplices than Todd Blanche. So, perhaps this headline was predictable. President Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general.
+ Subsidized Housing: “The seller will consider Anthropic or OpenAI stock as payment. That single line in an otherwise typical luxury listing may be the most succinct summary of what’s been going on in San Francisco for the past two years.” Want to understand the economic power of the AI boom? Try to buy a house in the Bay Area. One Bay Area housing trend is becoming impossible to miss.
+ The Flamingo Kid: “Thousands took to the streets of Tirana for a third straight day on Wednesday, some of them brandishing inflatable flamingos in a nod to feared environmental damage, amid mounting calls for the project to be blocked.” Protests in Albania grow over Jared Kushner-backed luxury resort. Judd Legum has a great overview: Kushner’s Albanian resort faces corruption probe, mass protests.
+ Peak Experience: “Dawa Sherpa was last seen around May 29 descending the mountain, but he did not make it to base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes.” Sherpa guide missing for a week on Mount Everest rescued while crawling to base camp.
+ When You Need Stats, Stat: “It certainly helps that Langs, aided by the magic of modern technology, can quite literally watch every game at once. And so, from her desk, she sees it all, eyes darting ferociously among screens like a stocktrader on their 10th cup of coffee … That Langs singlehandedly produces so much compelling, informative content is all the more remarkable considering the difficult circumstances of her day-to-day life. In 2021, Sarah was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.” On Lou Gehrig Day, as always, Sarah Langs is working.
“The getaway car was parked just outside the Marina yoga studio, idling in the January night air as the burglar made his move. In under three minutes, the burglar was in and out of Hot 8 Yoga with an armload of activewear. He stuffed the loot in the car’s trunk, hopped inside and disappeared down the street, comfortably carried away by an autonomous Waymo vehicle.” We’re always on the cutting edge in SF! How a burglar used a robotaxi to flee the scene.
+ “Their annual emergence in the Great Smoky Mountains has become so popular that campsites sell out months in advance. This year’s lottery to get parking spots for the eight-night official viewing period attracted over 45,000 applicants. Only 960 slots were distributed.” The World Is Going Crazy Over Fireflies. (We’re all trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel…)
+ Reminder: NextDraft will be off tomorrow.
2026-06-03 20:00:00
Money talks. The question is whether or not people will listen. In several high-profile Tuesday elections, the answer was no, as voters gave money a run for its money. “Tuesday’s primary night was a poor showing for California’s tech billionaires and founders who viewed statewide politics as the next frontier for their ambitions.” Politico: Big Tech’s big flop on primary night. Is this indicative of a larger trend? Possibly, but there are some key reasons why candidates flush with cash flushed it right down the toilet. It could be the fact that many voters don’t pay attention to election choices until the last minute (and don’t want to). It could be that voters get turned off by a months-long onslaught of TV commercials during local programming. (In 2026, I’ve spent more time with California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer than I have with my own family.) It could be that the candidates themselves were weak, and that money is better spent on propositions, measures, and other elections where the human factor is less of an issue. Or, it could be that this was just a blip on the radar, and that the billionaire political winning streak will keep on keeping on. In these particularly deep-pocketed times, the lesson most likely to be taken away by bigly donors is that they need to spend even more. Expect to see the consequence of that insight playing out across your state and your screens as the midterms approach.
+ “Call it the billionaire bust. It underscores the limits of money’s influence on elections in a state as vast and diverse as California, where most voters don’t start paying attention until their ballot hits their mailbox and where the electorate has a historic populist streak.” SF Chronicle: Wealthy candidates and donors had a rough night.
+ “The contours of a premier Senate race took shape in Iowa, while President Donald Trump’s endorsement streak ran into a roadblock there. Democrats chose a nominee for a House race in New Jersey that could decide control of the chamber. But much of the focus was on California, home to Hollywood but not a governor’s race packing much star power.” California may be home to the most advanced computing in the world, but we sure count slow. Xavier Becerra leads the gubernatorial race and incumbent Karen Bass secured the top spot in the running for LA Mayor. Who will they be running against? We’re still counting. AP: Takeaways from primaries featuring Spencer Pratt, a missing congressman and a rare Trump setback.
Leave it to the Supreme Court to remind us, even on election day, that the votes of 6 people matter a lot more than the votes of everyone else. “On Tuesday evening, in an unsigned shadow-docket order, the Supreme Court awarded Alabama a massive victory in its long-running campaign to crush Black residents’ political representation. Under the guise of soberly reinstating Alabama’s elections as usual, and over the dissent of the three liberal justices, the Republican-appointed supermajority halted the latest in a lengthy line of judicial efforts to end blatant discrimination by the state Legislature against its own Black voters.” Slate (Gift Article): The Supreme Court Just Transformed Its Horrible Voting Rights Ruling Into Something More Calamitous. On election day in America, racism won the biggest race.
The demolishing of 60 Minutes has become a metaphor for what’s happening at once-respected mainstays across the country. Clowns for hire are determined to ruin institutions from the inside, and people dedicated to upholding their values are eventually fired or forced to quit out of principle. After a heated staff meeting in which he accused the CBS editor in chief, Bari Weiss, of ‘murdering’ his news show, CBS News Fires Scott Pelley. And from Jim Acosta: When 60 Minutes is in Trouble, We are All in Trouble.
+ Because the 60 Minutes saga so closely mirrors what’s happening across government and media, it’s worth paying close attention to Pelley’s exit letter. Here are some outtakes: “Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration. The waste is heartbreaking … For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified … the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well. depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.” The destruction, the falsehoods, the collapse of values, the disappearing principles, and a prayer for sanity, competence, and courage to return. See what I mean by this story being a metaphor for the broader American story? In both cases, the clock is ticking.
“I found an antidote to my existential angst last week when I tuned into the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 101-year-old competition might seem quaint and dated in the age of autocorrect and ChatGPT, but it is really a celebration of the crucial life skills that we should be teaching kids. They also happen to be many of the same ones AI has the potential to erode: focus and self-reliance, a tolerance for frustration and discomfort. When the contestants are alone at the microphone, there is no spellcheck or Google to call on, no Claude to give hints on how to parse Phthartolatrae or vaesite. (My spellcheck doesn’t even recognize these words.) ‘You cannot outsource your thinking up on the stage.'” Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Spelling Bee Restored My Faith in Humanity.
Ceasefiring Line: “Video footage verified by The New York Times showed fire inside Kuwait’s international airport. The attack was part of one of the biggest assaults on a Gulf nation since the U.S.-Iran cease-fire was announced in April.” As negotiations drag on, the cease is being blown out of the ceasefire. Here’s the latest from the NYT. And from Bloomberg (Gift Article): Iran Atomic Risk Seen Higher Than Before Trump Attacks Began.
+ Watch Your Six: WaPo (Gift Article): Pentagon hires convicted Jan. 6 rioter for sensitive counterterrorism job.
+ Immunity Impunity: NYT (Gift Article): Order Shielding Trump Family From I.R.S. Audits Will Remain, Blanche Says.
+ Wall, Street: “Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the investigation division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, first began surveilling a San Diego shop called ‘Buy 4 Less’ located near the Otay Mesa border crossing in December of last year.” One-ton cocaine bust reveals secret US-Mexico tunnel.
+ Ballroom Lancing: “If the language remained in, it would have required 60 votes to move forward, meaning Democrats would have been able to filibuster the bill — preventing the White House from receiving $70 billion for ICE and border patrol. Some GOP senators also had political concerns, worried that funding the ballroom as Americans wrestle with cost-of-living issues ahead of the midterms would portray them as out-of-touch.” Senate Republicans drop Trump ballroom funding from immigration bill.
Shawshank Dimension: “New York police are investigating a bizarre mystery involving groups of people emerging from the city’s manholes in recent weeks. The investigation follows the circulation of multiple social media videos showing people climbing out of sewer systems across the city, all in the middle of the night.” (I wonder if any of them emerged saying, “These pipes are clean.”)
+ “Ancient yeast living inside the 5,300-year-old frozen corpse of Ötzi the Iceman has been used to make a ‘very, very good sourdough.'” Sourdough made from yeast inside Europe’s oldest mummy. Until now, I’d never considered donating my body to science.
2026-06-02 20:00:00
For your next trip, you might want to have an air sickness bag ready a little earlier than usual; like while you’re pricing out your itinerary. Let’s start with the good news about your summer travel plans: Because of airlines’ perpetual problems related to fuel waste, scheduling complexity, flight controller shortages, and outdated technology, your vacation was probably going to be a little rough anyway. (Yes, in 2026, that’s the good news part of the equation.) The bad news is that the conflict that is putting increased pressure on just about every economic metric on Earth is having an even greater impact in the sky. And it could be a long summer. “Based on current conditions, U.S. airlines will probably pay some $25 billion more for jet fuel in 2026 than they expected to. That’s more than what the industry earned in 2024 and 2025 combined. It could be a bummer of a summer. And fall. And winter. Even if the oil starts flowing from the Middle East this month, jet fuel supply constraints and price increases will most likely extend into 2027.” NYT (Gift Article): Going Abroad This Summer? Good Luck. But at least once you arrive at your destination, from Greenland to Spain to Canada, you’re certain to be welcomed with open arms.
+ To save money, you can always get a job that requires international travel. The hottest job this summer is European ambassador for ranch dressing.
You’ve probably heard that the AI race is expensive. Like, really expensive. To give you some idea of how expensive, consider this. “Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has said it plans to raise up to $80bn in equity to fund its vast artificial intelligence infrastructure investments.” To put that number in perspective, if the funding is successful, “it would raise more than the world’s three largest initial public offerings put together.”
+ Google’s plan to release up to 32 million mosquitoes in California is not nearly as expensive. Wait, what? “The Debug Project is all about adding so-called ‘good bugs’ to the ‘bad bug’ population.”
+ Meanwhile, “President Donald Trump signed a landmark executive order Tuesday that asks AI companies to give the government early access to their most powerful models for review.” The key word is asks. “The testing would rely on voluntary collaboration from America’s leading AI companies, like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. The order explicitly bars the government from creating a mandatory licensing or pre-clearance requirement for new AI models, making the government a request, not a rule.” (In other words, it’s not a landmark executive order; it’s the watered-down request pushed by AI companies.)
For a glimpse into the future of our warming world, take a virtual visit to the dusty district of Banda in India, where “temperatures hovered at 116-118F for more than a week.” ‘Mornings and nights no longer exist’: A day in the hottest place in India. One worker who walks 6km to work and 6km home with a packed lunch designed not to spoil by noon, “offered a sentence that could serve as the motto of Banda’s heatwave. ‘Poor people don’t have the luxury of worrying about the heat.'”
“Every generation, we see young people shoot and experiment with short films, but the big advantage today’s generation has is technology right at their fingertips with platforms like YouTube where they can upload their work and get instant feedback from viewers. This allows them to react instantly to what works and what doesn’t work and therefore hone their skills.” And boy, are they honing. A couple of indie horror films created by YouTube vets just beat Star Wars (and everyone else) at the box office. Variety: Why YouTubers Are Turning Hollywood Upside Down.
The House(builder) Always Wins: He has zero experience when it comes to intel or defense, but he has a lot of experience when it comes to housing and targeting Trump’s enemies with falsities. So, sure, why not? “As acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte will be the highest-ranking intelligence official, overseeing a vast network of 18 agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency. He will also be the president’s principal adviser on intelligence issues and will manage the daily intelligence briefing for the president.”
+ Stirring Crazy: “You’re f-cking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” Trump seems mad at Bibi. Meanwhile, some Israelis are angry with Bibi for ceding too much ground to Trump. And Marco Rubio goes to Congress. Here’s the latest from the NYT.
+ Immunity Impunity: The Trump administration appears to be backing off on efforts to create a slush fund for accomplices. But the other part of the deal might still be alive. Trump to get audit immunity as $1.8 billion fund in doubt.
+ Patriot Games: Russia is not winning its war. But Putin is still trying to inflict as much civilian death as possible. Ukraine rescuers pull dead from rubble after Russian strikes kill 22 people. One of the reasons Russia can do this is because of a ‘window of vulnerability‘ created by the Patriot missile shortage.
+ California Teeming: A really silly primary system and the current state of politics have combined to leave California voters with a lot of reading to do on election day. “The state’s ballot is nineteen inches long, and lists sixty-one gubernatorial candidates.” Nathan Heller in The New Yorker: The Strange Emptiness of the Crowded Governor’s Race in California.
+ Our American Moment: Here are a couple of headlines that sum up our times. Pentagon Bars Reporters From Its Press Office. And, Minnesota Republicans Hold Moment of Silence for Ex-Officer Convicted of Murder.
+ No Whey: Bloomberg (Gift Article): Whey Protein Is Running Out as Food Companies Put It in Everything.
The place that calls itself ‘Baseball Heaven’ is now filled with a bunch of shirtless dudes. And women, in bare chest novelty tees. And kiddos, who needed permission from their moms to strip from the waist up. And those proudly showing off their hairy chests, and pimply backs, scars from surgeries and stretch marks from a life well lived. They all congregate here in the right-field bleachers of Busch Stadium. Every night, it starts with just a handful of the bravest, and youngest fans, but inning by inning, it spreads like a virus, infecting a crowd of all ages and body types.” MLB Tarps Off craze has awakened ‘Baseball Heaven’ with the bare truth. (The Giants’ season has already stripped me of my hope, pride, and dignity. I’m holding onto my shirt.)
2026-06-01 20:00:00
I spend most of my life alone in a room, talking to my laptop. So I can relate to Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s latest assignment: Writing a celebrity profile about Tilly Norwood. The subject identifies as a young woman, but you’d have to say Norwood’s pronoun is, it. After all, Tilly Norwood is a computer. A computer that is at the heart of a new-fangled and notorious Hollywood scandal, in which real people are worried that AI will be an unstoppable scene stealer. Norwood makes life easier for the paparazzi. They don’t have to stake out The Ivy, Craig’s, or Nobu Malibu. They can just do what civilian celebrity stalkers do. Scroll. But Brodesser-Akner decided the only way to do a real celebrity profile, even of an unreal celebrity, was an in-person meeting. “What that looked like was me sitting at the Groucho Club on a green couch, across from a laptop, as if I were talking to someone on Zoom … When we ordered lunch, we didn’t order for Tilly, as computers don’t eat, and Tilly is just a computer. That is the most important thing to remember: Tilly is just a computer.” NYT Magazine (Gift Article): I Profile Celebrities for a Living. Nothing Prepared Me for Tilly Norwood. “In our conversations — which are edited and condensed here — I told Tilly that I was a journalist and asked if she had ever spoken to one before … ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They ask for honesty, then flinch when it arrives.’ Did I mention that in addition to being just a computer, she’s also kind of a bitch?”
+ In the end, Brodesser-Akner finds that the humanoid comes up short as an interview subject because it fails to provide the one thing people actually want from artist interviews. “They want to know who exactly it was that recognized their human wounds, who recognized them and made them feel less alone. That is what great art inspires in people. That is why I wrote all these profiles, why people even read them. To understand the person who made the art, which is just as essential as the art itself. There’s an entire conversation about separating the art from the artist, but maybe the conversation persists because we know we can’t do it. The art is the person.” That really captures the heart of the issue. At least until Tilly Norwood gets an upgrade…
Here are a few of the big problems with the US boat strikes in the waters of South America. First, we’ve been given little or no evidence that those killed are actually running drugs. Second, even if they were transporting drugs, “the military is prohibited from deliberately targeting civilians, even if they are believed to have committed a crime, unless they pose an immediate threat.” Third, the strikes have had no meaningful impact on the amount of cocaine coming to the US. And fourth, “coastal communities in Colombia and Ecuador, where most of the boats are thought to have begun their journeys, are counting the losses not just in relatives who never returned, but in how the attacks have upended the lives of those who make their living from the ocean and now fear it.” There’s a very good chance that some of those killed were forced by drug traffickers to transport drugs and an even better chance that some of them were just fishing. Which brings us to the fifth problem. These boat bombings are one of many reasons our former allies no longer trust our ethics or actions. NYT (Gift Article): The U.S. Boat Strike Campaign Has Now Killed Over 200 People.
+ Oh, and the sixth problem. These boat bombings are yet another reason for military service personnel to doubt their leaders. There are many of those. Hegseth Strikes Female and Black Navy Officers From Promotion List.
“This money is flowing in the direction of politicians that can be influential in defining the regulatory agenda for the next five years. Reinforcing the cycle of economic power produces political power, and political power further establishes economic power. So, this cycle is ongoing.” Tech billionaires are spending unprecedented sums in California races. And this trend is coming to a state near you.
“Kimmel insists that ‘there are far more people watching late-night TV than there ever were, if you look at the number of views me and my colleagues get online every day and add in our linear-television ratings,’ and that it’s ‘silly’ to call the format less relevant: ‘We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned.’ He points to reports that, in 2023, CBS encouraged Colbert to sign a five-year contract. Colbert opted for three years instead. When CBS pulled his show two years into that contract, the explanation given was that it was losing significant amounts of money — reportedly $40 million a year. Why, Kimmel asks, would the network offer him a five-year deal in the first place if the show were hemorrhaging money? … ‘These are just made-up numbers.'” NY Mag: Jimmy Kimmel Would Stop If He Could. (I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up every morning and know you have to absorb, reflect upon, and joke about every horrible Trump story of the day. And you can’t really quit, even if you planned to by now, because it would be like giving up the good fight at the worst possible time. Oh wait, I can imagine what that’s like.) Kimmel: “Professionally, I have no idea what I’m going to do after this … Freedom is what I want more than anything. I want to be able to go fishing because the fishing’s good.” Alas, for now, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Peace Through Posts: “‘I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He added that he also had a ‘very good call’ with Hezbollah through representatives and that ‘they agreed that all shooting will stop.’ ‘Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.'” Here’s the latest on the Iran peace talks which are either on or off and depend on a Hezbollah/Israel battle that is either happening or not happening.
+ You Don’t Want Fries With That: Last week, we explained the American economy with tomatoes. This week, we’ll take a crack at explaining the European economy through French Fries. The World Capital of French Fries Has a Problem: Too Many Potatoes. “This month, he dumped the crop back into his fields in eastern Belgium, the cheapest way to dispose of enough potatoes to make 200 million French fries.” (I feel like this is an area where I can help.)
+ FIFA Fo Fum: “To anyone familiar with FIFA, the cost of this tournament should come as little surprise. Ever since the tournament hosting rights were awarded to the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2018—with three-quarters of the games to be played in the U.S.—the organization has viewed America as a potential cash cow.” WSJ (Gift Article): How FIFA’s Biggest World Cup Unleashed a Summer of Price Gouging. (I mean, come on, it’s FIFA…)
+ Hammer Time: Trump’s name must come off of the Kennedy Center, judge rules. (If the Dems win the midterms, I’m putting all my money into jackhammers.)
+ Intel Outside? Nvidia has a new chip for Windows users. And Anthropic is laying the groundwork for a massive IPO.
+ Will LA Face a Pratt Fall: “Spencer Pratt, the reality star people love to hate-watch, is running for office—and betting that infamy can be political currency.” (What could give anyone that idea?) The Atlantic (Gift Article): Hope, Change, Troll.
+ You Can’t Hand(le) the Truth: “While it’s become undeniable that the humanoid boom has legs, the real test now is whether it has fingers.” Humanoid Hands Are Physical AI’s Anti-Hype Test. And maybe related: “A Florida woman was cited for driving with her phone in her right hand. This may seem perfectly reasonable, except there’s one problem — she doesn’t have a right hand.”
United Airlines flight to Spain pulls U-turn, apparently over Bluetooth device name. (It makes more sense when you learn that the name was b-o-m-b.)
+ “Bird keepers are often advised to discourage and even punish birds for masturbating, but the study found the activity was more common in the wild than in captivity, with researchers concluding it is part of a bird’s natural behavior.” Masturbation among birds is ‘natural’ and should not be punished, say experts. (So people are holding birds in captivity and punishing them for ruffling their own feathers? No wonder humans have such a bad reputation.)