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I’m back from a week off. Thank you to Rohan for holding down the fort.
My break was restorative, and gave me the chance to view the newsletter from a new perspective. So I’m going to try some small adjustments as we head into an especially noisy midterms stretch.
First, we work hard to translate the news into digestible language. We strive to use plain English, defining the terms everyone throws around as if we were all born knowing them, and explaining why they matter. Now, we’ll put those definitions in italics so they’re easy to spot and save.
We also are committed to surfacing consequential stories that deserve national attention and aren’t getting enough of it. Now we’ll experiment with flagging those as undercovered stories, so you can track them.
And then there’s the slightly more personal piece. I’ve been experimenting with ways to calm my own nervous system that actually work. I’m tempted to share what’s effective but I have reservations. On the one hand, obviously. On the other, will one newsletter about the benefits of putting your legs up the wall end a year later with me giving you an affiliate code for beef-tallow face cream and a red-light nose wand? (That’s a joke.)
Let me know what you think. I have a few other ideas I’ll share as we go, all aimed at making the news more human and a little easier to metabolize.
In this newsletter: The Supreme Court clears Trump’s dance floor. Army leadership, now with less leadership. Nepal flood exposes the costs of DOGE cuts. In undercovered news: Cities are breaking up with Flock. The Met’s redemption challenge. And in News That Doesn’t Suck: A different weight loss bet.
Breaking: A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davisguilty of first-degree murderin the death of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur. Catch up on the casehere.Let the Wrecking Ball Proceed: The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in an unsigned order that Trumpmay proceed with constructing his ballroom. The Court’s conservative majoritydid not decide whether the project is legal. Instead, it said the challengers likely lacked standing and blocked a lower court ruling that had paused above-ground construction while the lawsuit proceeded. Chief Justice John Robertsjoined the Court’s three Liberals in dissent. He warned the construction was “likely unlawful” and said allowing Trump to proceed was “no victory for the separation of powers.”Brain Drain: Army Secretary Dan Driscollresigned after months of tensionwith Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His resignation leaves the Army without a single Senate-confirmed civilian or military leader, following Hegseth’sintense and ongoing purge. This much turmoil at the Pentagon would be remarkable in peacetime, let alone six months into an active… non-war.
More Dystopic Than Fiction: Officials in Nepal haveraised the death tollof thedisastrous flash flood to 939. More than 4,200 people are missing, including roughly 85 Americans. Thousands have been rescued. The flood was caused bythe collapseof a massive section ofglacier and mountainsidehigh in the Himalayas. Millions of tons of ice, rock, and debris plunged thousands of feet into the river valley below withsuch forcethat it initially registered asan earthquake. The flood wave raced down a gorge atspeeds up to 120 miles per hourandreached heights of 130-160 feet. We shared video on Instagram, which you can watchhere. The flood appears to have taken some communities almost completely by surprise. Some estimatessuggest up to 70%of residents in parts of the upper valley were killed. “I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace,”one 68-year old survivor said. “But she was swept away by the mud.” Downstream, people had just minutes to prepare. One principal received frantic calls, including from parents, andevacuated his entire schoolof some 900 students — just minutes before the flood buried the building in mud. The lack of warning was caused, in part, by afailure of the region’searly warning system, which waspartially destroyed. A former USAID lead for disaster relief𝕏noted that DOGE cancelled all 7 of USAID’s disaster risk reduction projectsin Nepal last year — including a collaboration with NASA to predict floods and provide early warnings. Now rescue teams arebattling heavy rain,thick mud, and therisk of more floodingto rescue those missing, including hundreds of workers trapped underground inhydropower project tunnels. The U.S. haspledged $3.6 million in humanitarian aid. Scientists have not determined what caused this collapse but it’s clear that climate change is making conditions more dangerous.The Himalayas are, and Nepal’s mountains have lost one-third of their ice in the last 30 years alone.warming twice as fast as the global averageAt Home, Too: Flash flooding in Grand Canyon National Parkkilled at least two peopleand 15 remain missing. Dozens were evacuated by helicopter. The flooddamaged a key water pipeline, promptingharsh restrictionsand closing overnight accommodations. Scientists suspectEl Niñointensified the monsoon rains that come this time of year. (El Niño heats the Pacific Ocean,increasing atmospheric moisture, which in turn raises the chance of extreme rainfall. Researchers believeThe National Park Service is requesting assistance locating those still missing. Find more informationclimate change is makingthe extremes more severe.)here.Neo-Colony: Trump announced an unusual deal with Venezuela thateffectively gives the U.S. control over 65 billion barrelsof the country’s oil reserves. The deal reportedly involvesAlejandro Betancourt López, a controversial Venezuelan businessman longaccused of corruption, whose family controls the country’s second-largest private oil company. Trump says the deal wouldhelp refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which isat a 40-year low, andlower gas pricesin the U.S. Experts say it could takeyears before the dealproduces oil and critics𝕏question whetherit is evenlegal in eitherthe U.S. or Venezuela.By the Way: The Trump administrationtook control of Venezuela’s oil exports(and its exports of other key resources, like gold) at the start of the year, after capturing Nicolas Maduro. Since then, analysts believe Venezuela hasexported more than $13 billion worth of oil. The Trump administration hasnot disclosedhow much revenue it has generated, who controls the money, or where it is going. We’ve flagged this lack of transparency before, and are doing so again because it deserves sustained attention, not just a mention in one news cycle.
Stamp Out This Plan: A federal judgetemporarily blocked the Trump administration’s planto limit mail-in voting justdays before the first ballots are due to be sent out. Under Trump’s plan, the USPS would refuse to deliver mail ballots from states that failed to meet new federal requirements for voter lists and ballot envelopes. TheTrump administration appealed, so the case could soon be before the Supreme Court.Groundhog Day: The US and Iran areonce again trading strikes, after the US militarystruck Iran for the first time in a month. It comes two weeks after multiple senior military leaders warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against extending forces in the Middle East,according to the Washington Post. The war haslasted over six months; Trump initially promised it’d end in four to six weeks.The Pentagon now puts the total number of, creating potential shortfalls for sailors.troops injured at 776.The Guardianalso reports the Navy is tapping payroll funds to help finance combat operationsThat Should Help: One of the sailors who jumped from the struggling USS Abraham Lincoln isfacing disciplinary action, and could lose half his pay. His wife said he was treated for a few days, then sent back to work without seeing a therapist. “They’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help,”she said. “Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.”
Bending the Knee: Interior Secretary Doug Burgumsaid Trump“reached out to Apple directly” about changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Trumpsigned an executive order renaming the Great Lakeas tensions with Canada escalate. Googlealready changed the nameon its maps (theyalso cavedon “Gulf of Mexico”). Trump’s order doesnot requireprivate companies to accommodate his naming whims. MapQuest refused to change Lake Ontario’s name, and promptlysurged to its highest-ever rankingon the App Store.
Read on to find out…
Undercovered News*: The fight against a controversial AI-powered camera network taking over America’s streetsCulture, Not Noise: Inside the debate over legendary fashion designer — and convicted anti-semite — John Galliano’s doomed Met Gala exhibitionNews That Doesn’t Suck: Move over, Ozempic. A new compound burns fat without any change in appetite or exercise*
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