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There’s a through line in a lot of the news I report and I don’t name it enough. Every era of backlash has the same instinct — target women.
The mullahs in Iran. Orbán in Hungary. And it’s certainly evident here at home.
There is a specific, targeted hostility toward women who refuse to comply — who speak, who show up, who don’t make themselves small. You see it in the violent attacks on women by their partners. You see it in administration policy.
I sat down with Jill Filipovic — author, lawyer, writer whose work I’ve admired for years — to talk about what’s happening and why. We start with Renee Good: shot by an ICE agent who walked away calling her a “fucking bitch.” “What all of us heard in that moment was not a man who was scared for his life,” Filipovic told me, “but a man who was angry at a woman for not obeying him.”
We talk about the macho recruitment machine behind ICE, the hyperfeminine aesthetic of women in the Trump orbit, and what authoritarian history tells us about why controlling women is never a side effect — it’s the point.
I asked her the question I keep coming back to: Is this the last gasp of a failing system? Or are we watching something darker take hold?
If you can’t watch this all today, it’s worth bookmarking and returning to. Filipovic’s answers are thought provoking. We taped this conversation before the start of the Iran war. But ensuing events only bear out how accurate these observations are.
You can find Jill Filipovic here on Substack at Throughline. She’s also the author of * The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness* and
That interview is at the top of this newsletter. Scan your eyes up to watch.
In today’s newsletter: The Trump administration says tariff rebates are coming — but not for households. Trippy news on psychedelics. Trump’s pick to run the Fed goes to the Senate this week. US negotiators are heading to Pakistan for peace talks that may or may not happen. And today we bring you extra News that Doesn’t Suck, including remarkable breakthroughs for constructing a human-made esophagus and battling pancreatic cancer. Because we need it.
Unilateral Negotiations: Vice President JD Vance issupposed to head back to Pakistanthis weekwith US negotiators for a new round of peace talks with Iran — talks Iran has not committed to. Iran’s foreign ministryon Monday saidit has “no plans for the next round of negotiations.” Trumpclaimed on Sundaythat the “concept of a deal is done” and insisted that “we have a very good chance to get it completed.” He alsothreatened that if Iran did not agreeto the deal he would “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” Butsome Iranian officials reportedly believeTrump is using the discussions as a cover to resume fighting. Iran state mediaon Sunday chargedthe Trump administration with making “unreasonable and unrealistic demands,” saying its “frequent changes of positions” leave “no clear prospect for fruitful negotiations.” The current ceasefire expires on Wednesday. Trumpon Monday saidit’s “highly unlikely” that he would extend it.That Didn’t Last Long: The US on Sundayfired on and seizedan Iranian-flagged cargo ship after warning it to stop for hours. It’s the first Iranian ship the US has seized in the blockade, and reportedly thefirst ship to try and evadeUS troops. This came after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again after briefly opening it; Iran’schief negotiator saidIran will not allow ships through while the US maintains its blockade. Iran has nowfired on two India-flaggedships. So, no progress.Dollar Down: With so much uncertainty about a deal and the Strait, oil pricesroseover 5% Monday. In a sign of just how concerned Gulf nations are about their economic stability, the UAE is reportedlyrequesting a financial backstop from the US— in the form of a “swap line,” which would give them cheap access to US dollars to ease the financial strain of the conflict. Emirati officials have reportedly warned that without the help the country may be forced to use other currencies, including the Chinese yuan, for transactions like oil sales. That would be very bad news for the US and the dollar;when the dollar dominates global trade, the USbenefits with things likelower borrowing costs and cheaper imports.
Payback: The Trump administration on Mondaylaunched an online portalto coordinate refunds for Trump’sillegal emergency tariffs.According to CBP, over 330,000 importers paid $166 billion, which means this could be thelargest tariff refundin history. Don’t expect to see this yourself. CNBC reports that mostcompanies surveyedsay they don’t plan to pass along the savings to customers. Theyaren’t legally obligatedto do so. That said, certain companieshave pledgedto make sure you see the benefits andmultiple class-action lawsuitsare looking to force them to do so.Elephants on Parade: Trump on Saturday signed an executive order toease restrictionson andencourage researchinto psychedelic drugs, including MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Many of these drugs are classified as Schedule 1, whichincludes those with“no currently accepted medical use” — despite agrowing body of researchsuggesting they can help with a range of issues, including addiction and mental health. Trump was joined in the Oval Office by officials and advocates, including podcaster Joe Rogan, whoapparently helped convincethe president to sign this order. Afternoting a studysuggesting ibogaine can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, Trump said, “Can I have some, please?”A Family, Gone: A 31-year-old man on Sundayshot 10 people, killing eight, in the nation’sdeadliest mass shootingsince 2024. Shamar Elkins killed his seven young children and a cousin, all aged 3-11, and shot his wife and the mother of the eighth child, both of whom were critically injured. Family memberssaid Elkins had mental health problemsand was distraught his wife wanted a divorce. Days earlier, a former Virginia politicianshot and killed his wife and himselfwhile their teenage children were at home. More than 70 women in the US areshot and killed by a partnerevery month, and mass shooters often target their partners and family members; themajority of children who die in mass shootingswere killed by their family members.Big Chair to Fill: Trump’s nominee for Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, will testify at a Senate hearing Tuesday, where he’lldescribe his plan for the central bankfor the first time. He’s spent monthspushing for lower rates, something Trump has repeatedly demanded. Warsh hasties with Silicon Valleyand the New York finance world; he worked in the George W. Bush White House and was previously on the Fed Board of Governors. He would be thewealthiest Fed Chair in history. A growing number of Republicans arepushing the Trump administration to dropits investigation of incumbent Fed Chair Jerome Powell, something Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has demanded as acondition for him advancing Warsh’s nomination.**Federal Bureau of Inebriation?**FBI Director Kash Patel on Mondaysued the Atlanticand its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick for $250 million. The magazinepublished a storythis weekend in which dozens of sources described Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences,” which they allegehampered the agency’s work. Patel, whom the story describes as fearing for his job, denied the allegations. Fitzpatrick and the Atlantic both said they stand by “every word” of her reporting. Patel on Sundayclaimed the FBI has evidenceto prove Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged, and thatarrests will be“coming soon.”
When Pigs Swallow: Every year, dozens of babies are born withmassive gapsin their esophagus, or food-pipe. They can’t survive without repeated, invasive, andcomplex surgeries. Sometimes this includesrepositioning the stomachto temporarily bridge the gap. But now researchers have developed a better solution and, for the very first time,proven it worksin pigs. Here’s what they did. They took the donor pig’s esophagus, placed it on a scaffold they constructed, then stripped away the pig’s cells, leaving behind the underlying support structure. Then they took cells from the recipient pig and injected them into the scaffold. A few weeks later they transplanted the resulting engineered esophagus. This worked not just once, but eight times. The engineered food pipes developed the muscles, nerves, and blood vessels needed to function correctly, and all eight pigs were able to eat normally and grow. The best part? The body recognized the new esophagus as its “own tissue,”one researcher explained. That “means it could grow with them over time, without the risk of rejection and without the need for long-term immunosuppression.” Theoretically, hospitals could store pre-prepared scaffolds, ready to be transformed into personalized food-pipes when needed — in a single operation, instead of the multiple often required today. The parents of one two-year-old born with this conditiondescribed“major operation after major operation,” which kept their little boy in hospital for half of his life and left him with damaged vocal cords. “The idea that there could be one operation early in your child’s life,”the boy’s father said, “and then we could move on, would be life-changing.”A Shot of Hope: Not all cancers are equal. Pancreatic cancer is one of the nastier ones. Symptoms don’t usually show up until it’s advanced, and standard treatments are often ineffective. After diagnosis, peopletypically survivefor just a few months. Three of every four patientsdie within a year. Nine of every ten are gone after two. But in a remarkable development, more than half of the participants who participated in atrial of a new treatmentare still alive, six years after diagnosis. The secret: a personalized mRNA vaccine. Dr. Vinod Balachandran had long wondered why some lucky few survived pancreatic cancer while so many did not. Herealized their immune systemswere somehow able to detect and destroy the cancer. Tumors areoften invisible to our immune systems— but in these patients, the tumors werereleasing a proteinthat essentially uncloaked them, making them a target. In the trial, researchers extracted tumors from patients and used them to create personalized vaccines to replicate something similar. Eight of the 16 participants[responded to the vaccine](https://www.nbcnews.com/health…
