The U.S. Budget, Billionaires In Saudi Arabia, & A Box In A Basement

Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the U.S. budget, Russia and Ukraine talks, Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the economy, UnitedHealth’s CEO shakeup, and an unsavory discovery in Argentina. 

Here’s some good news: Apple has announced multiple new accessibility features, including: accessibility nutrition labels in the App Store, a magnifier, Braille access, live Apple Watch captions, vision accessibility on the Apple Vision Pro, and new technology to help with motion sickness. Also, fewer babies went to the hospital struggling to breathe from RSV after the debut of a new vaccine and treatment this season, according to the CDC. 

Heads up, readers – we’ll be switching the platform we use to send Daily Pnut. It shouldn’t affect your experience, but the editions might look a tiny bit different and it will be coming from a different email address.

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” – Eddie Cantor

Rushing To Start Cutting

House Republicans are looking to rush their budget package through Congress, despite internal GOP disputes about how to fund Trump’s priorities. Yesterday, Republicans tried to get key parts of their spending bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Agriculture committees, all of which need to give certain parts of the budget the green light before the legislature is allowed to vote on them.

The Energy and Commerce Committee was tasked with marking more than $880 billion for cuts, which it did by proposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients and suggesting more frequent eligibility checks and budget cuts for states that use the system to provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants. The Agriculture Committee, which was supposed to find $280 billion in cuts, proposed slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by forcing states to fund more of the program while also making it more strict about work requirements.

What’s the point of all these budget cuts? Despite Elon’s rhetoric about digging the government out of debt, most of the money will actually be used to make up for Trump’s proposed tax cuts, which include promises of no tax on tips, overtime, and car loan interest payments. 

Face To Face For Peace?

For the first time since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, diplomats from the two countries are set to meet face-to-face in Istanbul. Putin finally gave in to Kyiv’s demands to meet in person after the Trump administration repeatedly expressed its frustration with the Kremlin for refusing to agree to a 30-day ceasefire deal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing for the leaders of each country to be present at the talks, though Putin has yet to agree.

“We will do everything to make this meeting happen. If Putin is really ready to meet not only in the media, but in real life,” Zelensky told reporters yesterday. “Then at the level of leaders we will do everything to agree on a ceasefire. Because it is with him that I must agree on a ceasefire. Because only he decides this.”

While Kyiv quickly announced that its representatives would be attending the meeting, European leaders expressed skepticism about Russia’s sincerity. “If they were interested in peace, they could stop [attacking Ukraine] right now,” said the E.U.’s foreign policy chief yesterday. “Russia is clearly playing games, trying to buy time.” In Europe’s eyes, Putin is stalling in the hopes that his military will make significant progress in a summertime offensive, granting Moscow more leverage in future talks.

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The President’s Petrostate Pop-In

• Trump touched down in the Middle East yesterday, and the concentration of ostentatious displays of wealth was too much for the fabric of our universe, tearing open a wormhole and sucking the president and half of the planet’s billionaires into an alternate dimension. Just kidding, but the president did visit Saudi Arabia yesterday. There, he met with Saudi leaders and tech billionaires over lunch, and a few important announcements were made. 

• Probably the biggest outcome of Trump’s visit was his decision to lift America’s back-breaking sanctions on Syria at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The decision was made in the wake of last December’s regime change in Syria, which saw President Bashar al-Assad deposed by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group. Without U.S. sanctions, Syria’s new Islamist government will now be able to engage with more of the world economy and access more aid from humanitarian groups.

• The Riyadh meeting also saw the announcement of a couple of massive deals between the U.S. and the Saudi kingdom. First, the U.S. will sell the Saudis $142 billion worth of military equipment, while the oil kingdom promised a $600 billion investment in the U.S.  The Saudi investment will be spread across multiple areas, including AI data centers, energy infrastructure, and other sectors, though the White House release regarding the deal was not very specific on the numbers.

• At lunch, a disturbing number of tech billionaires and business leaders joined Saudi royals and U.S. diplomats at the table. Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Blackstone’s Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang were all in attendance, alongside a couple of dozen other billionaires. What they talked about wasn’t publicly announced (cue “The Room Where It Happens”), though with all that money in the building, we’re sure it was nothing good.

More Mixed Nuts

• U.K. counterterror police investigate suspected arson attacks linked to prime minister's properties (NBC)

• Cooper backs PM over 'island of strangers' remark (BBC)

• Six killed in Tripoli clashes after killing of militia leader (Guardian)

Middle East Mixed Nuts

• Scoop: Hamas approached pro-Trump activist for secret talks that freed Edan Alexander (Axios)

• Ms. Rachel doubles down support for children in Gaza (NBC) 

• Gaza journalist Hassan Aslih killed in Israeli strike on hospital (BBC)

• Hasan Piker: Pro-Gaza streamer detained for hours at US airport (BBC)

Inflation Dips, Anxiety Creeps Up

• The annual inflation rate dropped in April, down to 2.3% from 2.4% in March, according to a new inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, hit an annual rate of 2.8% in April, compared with an annual 2.4% increase in March.

• Despite the (slightly) encouraging information, a new poll found that for 60% of Americans, being unable to afford something or anxiety around the current economy has affected at least one of their major life goals. People are putting off a move, marriage, kids, and more because of concerns about where the economy is headed.

The Cursed Executive Office?

• UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty has stepped down from his position. UnitedHealth became one of the nation’s largest companies under Witty’s leadership – total revenue topped $400 billion last year, a 55% increase from the $257 billion UnitedHealth brought in the year before Witty became CEO.

• After its first quarterly earnings miss in more than a decade, UnitedHealth withdrew its 2025 financial forecast entirely yesterday, saying that medical costs from new Medicare Advantage members were higher than expected. “I’m deeply disappointed in and apologize for the performance setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal challenges,” Hemsley said.

More Nuts In America

• Anti-Democratic, anti-trans Facebook posts of Pope Leo brother draw scrutiny (Guardian)

• 3 wildfires continue raging in northeastern Minnesota; 20K acres burnt so far (CBS)

• In Illinois, ‘Crime-Free Housing’ Laws May Evict Some for Minor Offenses (NYT, $)

• Trump administration to end deportation protections for Afghans (CBS)

• Menendez brothers' long-awaited resentencing hearing to begin Tuesday (ABC)

Nazis? In Argentina? Can’t Say We Didn’t See That Coming.

• Where did the Nazis go after losing World War II? That depends on the Nazi, but for many of the defeated fascists, the answer to that question was Argentina. Unfortunately for the locals, that meant that some of the Germans’ ideology followed them to the New World. On Monday, Argentinian judicial officials announced the discovery of more evidence of the great Nazi migration, specifically a box of secret Nazi documents in the basement of the country’s Supreme Court. According to the court, the papers were “intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina.”

• That might sound like the Supreme Court was somehow influenced by Hitler’s leftovers, but that’s luckily not the case. The Nazi documents were actually seized alongside a whole shipment of German goods in 1941. The packages, brought into Argentina by a Japanese ship (alarm bells should have been ringing at this point), were being imported into the South American nation under the pretense that they were the personal effects of German diplomats. 

• When customs officials opened up the boxes in 1941, they found the Nazi propaganda documents, flagging them to the country’s foreign minister at the time. A federal judge soon ordered the documents to be seized, and they were put in possession of the Supreme Court for further inspection. After that, the papers were forgotten in the court’s basement until their recent unearthing. Researchers are set to comb through the documents in the coming weeks.

More Loose Nuts

• Ticketmaster begins up-front ticket pricing as Biden admin "junk fee" ban takes effect (CBS)

• Pope Leo XIV trading card sets Topps record (Guardian)

• Audible unveils plans to use AI voices to narrate audiobooks (Guardian)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli - I’m not superstitious, but you won’t catch me looking for a job at UnitedHealth any time soon, that’s for sure. 

Marcus - The Saudis have gone from (allegedly) funding al-Qaeda to funding the U.S. – talk about stepping up in the world!

Editor In Chief: Kayli Woods

Head Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella