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Now, let’s get to the news.
The Trump DOJ is rushing to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell to try to find out what she knows. This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that they reached out to Maxwell’s counsel in an effort to meet with her and find out whether she has any information that would lead to the prosecution of others. The only issue, however, is that Maxwell does not have an incentive to meet with prosecutors unless they would be willing to reduce her ultimate sentence. She is currently serving 20 years in a federal prison in Pensacola, Florida.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, announced there will be no vote on releasing Jeffrey Epstein files before Congress’s summer recess, despite pressure from Trump-aligned lawmakers pushing for transparency—saying the administration should have space to act first and that further congressional steps may come “if necessary” in September.
In his first monologue since CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert fired back at Donald Trump’s mocking post with the blunt retort, “Go f**k yourself,” while also slamming CBS parent Paramount’s $16M settlement with Trump over a voter interference lawsuit as a “big, fat bribe”—fueling speculation over political motives and prompting a Senate investigation into a possible secret deal between Trump and Paramount’s future owners.
Despite strong objections from Martin Luther King Jr.’s family, the Trump administration released 200,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on the civil rights leader, prompting condemnation from civil rights advocates and the King family, who warned the files could be misused to undermine MLK’s legacy and deflect attention from Trump’s Epstein-related controversies.
After the release of over 230,000 pages on Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, his daughter Bernice King publicly challenged Donald Trump to also release the full Epstein files, calling the MLK document dump a political distraction amid rising scrutiny of Trump’s ties to Epstein and criticism that the move was not about transparency but deflection from ongoing scandals.
Coca-Cola announced it will launch a new cane sugar version of its soda this fall—following a claim by Donald Trump that he convinced the company to ditch high-fructose corn syrup, though the original recipe remains unchanged; health experts warn the move doesn’t make soda healthier, while critics argue the focus should be on reducing sugar overall, not just changing the type.
FEMA’s urban search and rescue chief, Ken Pagurek, has resigned and will return to the Philadelphia Fire Department, reportedly due to frustration over the agency’s flood response efforts in Texas.
Tom Homan defended ICE officers wearing masks, saying the gear is necessary for safety due to threats fueled by inflammatory rhetoric—specifically blaming members of Congress who’ve compared ICE to Nazis, which he claims emboldens extremist actions from the far left.
Homan dismissed polling that shows most Americans oppose Trump’s deportation policies, stating, “I don’t believe the polls.”
Tesla is facing a major financial blow as a new GOP-backed law eliminates penalties for automakers failing emissions standards, drying up the market for Tesla’s lucrative regulatory credits—which brought in over $10 billion since 2019—and potentially pushing the company back into quarterly losses amid an ongoing sales slump and thinner profit margins.
Harvard University’s publishing arm abruptly canceled a nearly finalized special issue of the Harvard Educational Review focused on Palestine and education, citing vague procedural concerns amid intense pressure from the Trump administration and fears of antisemitism claims—sparking outrage from scholars who view it as a clear case of academic censorship, part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech and a growing erosion of academic freedom in U.S. universities.
Israel has launched a new ground offensive in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, with the UN reporting that nearly 90% of the strip is now under evacuation orders or within Israeli-controlled zones; the WHO says its warehouse was attacked.
The foreign ministers of 25 Western nations criticized Israel’s “drip feeding” of aid into Gaza, calling the model dangerous; over 1,000 people have reportedly been killed while seeking humanitarian relief since May.
Israeli strikes in Gaza and Syria last week reportedly caught President Trump “off guard,” prompting a call to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to “rectify” the situation, according to the White House.
An investigation by The Insider revealed that Russia is systematically recruiting children to design and test military drones used in the Ukraine war through gamified competitions and state-backed education programs—despite international laws banning child involvement in armed conflict—with some teens even working in drone factories or training soldiers, while being told to mask the military purpose of their projects.
China has imposed exit bans on a U.S. federal employee and a Wells Fargo banker, Chenyue Mao, preventing them from leaving the country—marking the first known case involving an American government worker; while Mao is reportedly tied to a criminal investigation, the federal employee is believed to have been flagged for not disclosing government employment on his visa, highlighting China’s growing use of exit bans for legal and diplomatic leverage.
See you this evening.
— Aaron
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