Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about Russia & Ukraine, the “big, beautiful bill,” another overseas prison, Danish airbases, another blow for immigrants, Trump coming after Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé, and manga predicting the future. 

Here’s some good news: China's emissions have dropped over the past year, showing a 1% decline compared to the previous March. Also, a tentative agreement has been reached to end New Jersey's first statewide transit strike in more than 40 years.

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“It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

The Subtle Art Of Giving Up On The Deal

President Trump hopped on a call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday, intending to establish a long-term ceasefire in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. After two hours on the line with Russia’s chief executive, the president stated that a lasting peace deal would need to be hammered out in person between Kyiv and Moscow, possibly with the help of… the Pope?

“Big egos involved, but I think something's going to happen,” Trump said after the call. “And if it doesn't, I'll just back away and they'll have to keep going.” Apparently, Putin has repeatedly emphasized that a peace deal must address the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine – he’s stated that the main cause of the invasion was Kyiv’s attempts to cozy up to Western powers, a shift that he believes threatens Russia’s ability to defend itself.

“We’re more than open to walking away,” said Vice President JD Vance before the call. “The United States is not going to spin its wheels here. We want to see outcomes.” Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy appeared concerned about the U.S. disconnecting from the peace talks, saying, “It's crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace.”

Healthcare? Ugly. Billionaire Tax Cuts? Beautiful!

It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s going to cut Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. On Sunday, the House Budget Committee voted 17-16 in favor of advancing Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to the House Rules Committee – if the Rules Committee approves the Trump budget bill, it will then be put to a vote on the floor of the GOP-held House of Representatives. It should be passed by House Republicans eventually, though Speaker Mike Johnson probably won’t enjoy getting his colleagues in line.

The Big Beautiful Bill introduces many government-wide budget cuts to fund steep tax cuts, a Trump campaign promise. Despite White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s promise that “this bill does not add to the deficit,” analysts say it will add more than $2.5 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years.

A large chunk of the budget bill’s cuts – at least $880 billion worth – target Medicaid, which provides health insurance to over 71 million low-income, disabled, and elderly Americans. The new bill will slap work requirements onto Medicaid recipients, many of whom lack the physical ability to work in exchange for health insurance. “We know an overwhelming – almost nine in 10 individuals – who are enrolled in Medicaid who can work are working,” said one health advocacy executive. Multiple studies have shown that work requirements for insurance don’t actually push people into the workforce, and checking for employment would add significant administrative burdens.

From Alsace-Lorraine To The Amazon Rainforest

• Overseas prison facilities are so hot right now! Yesterday, France announced plans to build a high-security prison facility in French Guiana, a rainforest-covered French territory on the northeast coast of South America. According to Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, the facility would be used to keep top drug kingpins and Islamic terrorists away from their criminal contacts in continental Europe (I guess the other kinds of terrorists aren’t scary enough to be shipped off to a prison in the Amazon).

• In an interview, Darmanin said that the facility would hold up to 500 of “the most dangerous drug traffickers” under an “extremely strict carceral regime,” providing France the “lasting means of removing the heads of the drug trafficking networks” from operating within France’s borders. French prison officials have struggled to prevent mobile phones from circulating the nation’s prison system, and France has also faced a series of attacks on prisons in recent months, raising concerns about security.

Danes Done Dirty By Outdated Deal

• In 2023, Denmark signed a defense agreement with the U.S. granting Washington “unfettered access” to all Danish airbases. That was probably a totally reasonable agreement in 2023, given the U.S.’s long history of backing NATO allies, its air force’s capabilities, and the growing threat of Russia in Europe. Now, as Trump looks to annex the Danish territory of Greenland, it’s beginning to look like – in the president’s own words – the “worst deal in the history of deals, maybe ever.” 

• Luckily, the agreement has yet to take effect, but Denmark’s parliament is set to vote on its adoption in June. According to Denmark’s ministry of defense, the deal would allow U.S. soldiers to “exercise powers over civilians on Danish territory if necessary for the use, operation and defence of, and control over, the agreed facilities and areas by the American forces.” It also allows the Pentagon to conduct training and maintenance programs as well as store military equipment at Danish bases. 

• “If the bill is passed, we risk that American soldiers will have the right to crack down on a demonstration outside one of their bases, in order to maintain security and control of the base,” said one Danish human rights researcher, adding, “If the bill is passed and American soldiers carry out illegal acts in Denmark, it will be beyond Danish control and outside the reach of the Danish legal system to prosecute such actions.”

More Mixed Nuts

• 5 years since Brexit, Britain and the EU announce fresh ties (NPR)

• Pope Leo XIV receives White House invitation in meeting with JD Vance (Guardian)

• Iran and Britain summon envoys over alleged spying in UK (BBC)

Middle East Mixed Nuts

• Netanyahu says he'll allow some aid into Gaza under pressure, but none appears to have entered (AP) 

• Israel orders Khan Younis evacuation ahead of 'unprecedented attack' (BBC)

Another Day, Another Shot At Immigrants

• Yesterday, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration permission to reverse a Biden-era decision to extend protections for almost 350,000 Venezuelans under the federal Temporary Protected Status program, which means the White House will revoke special legal protections for thousands of Venezuelan immigrants.

• Litigation will continue in lower courts. “This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the lawyers representing Venezuelan plaintiffs in the case. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the application.

Coming For Kamala (Again)

• Over the last few days, Bruce Springsteen has been using his concerts to absolutely roast President Trump, and the president is taking it in stride…just kidding, he’s crashing out online about it. After calling The Boss “not a talented guy” and attacking his physical appearance, Trump took to Truth Social early yesterday to call for a “major investigation” into former Vice President Kamala Harris’ list of celebrity endorsements.

• Springsteen is among those being called out, as are Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Bono. “Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” he scream-wrote, adding, “This was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL!”

More Nuts In America

• Letitia James: FBI director confirms federal probe into New York attorney general (CNN)

• Storms and tornadoes continue to ravage central US after killing dozens (AP)

• CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon steps down (Axios)

• JP Morgan chief warns of ‘complacency’ as markets look past credit downgrade (Guardian)

Drifting Away From Tokyo

• Tourists planning trips to Japan are being turned away from the island nation’s shores. Not by Japanese people, but by a Japanese comic book. In 1999, manga (Japanese comic book) artist Ryo Tatsuki published a comic called The Future I Saw. In it, she predicted that a major earthquake would hit Japan in March 2011 – when that date came, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the country’s northeastern coast, causing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown disaster. In a new edition of The Future I Saw, Tatsuki has predicted that another massive quake will hit Japan on July 5 this year, and other supposed psychics are backing up her claims, causing some superstitious tourists to cancel their trips.

• Japan has a long history of massively destructive earthquakes thanks to its location on the seismically-hyperactive Ring of Fire, and a government agency predicted in January that there’s an 80% chance of a large earthquake hitting the country’s south in the next 30 years, raising concerns about a potential “big one” coming soon. In China, one Japanese psychic predicted that the “big one” would hit on April 26 (though the date passed without a quake), and another feng shui master told tourists to avoid Japan starting in April, driving many Chinese tourists to cancel their trips.

• While Tatsuki told the media that she viewed it “very positively” that her manga has made people more aware of disasters, she warned readers not to be “overly swayed” by predictions and “act appropriately based on expert opinions.” One Japanese prefectural governor spoke out against all the earthquake fear-mongering, saying, “I believe it is a serious issue when the spread of highly unscientific rumors on social media has an effect on tourism.”

More Loose Nuts

• Microsoft employee disrupts Satya Nadella’s Build conference keynote (The Verge)

• Aaron Gordon Thinks There Should Be More Time Between Games During the NBA Playoffs (Sports Illustrated)

• Biotechnology company Regeneron buying 23andMe for $256 million (AP)

• Netflix picks up worldwide streaming rights for Sesame Street (Axios)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli - (me, seeing a story about Japan) How can I make a “Tokyo Drift” joke out of this?

Marcus - This budget is a great way for the GOP to lose a whole lot of voters who rely on Medicaid to get by.

Editor In Chief: Kayli Woods

Head Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella