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You may have noticed I haven’t done a big interview lately. There’s a good reason: I am getting a new camera rig installed in my studio — high def, sharp picture, great sound. Hit one button and the lights, camera, and mic will all come on. At least that’s the plan. (As a kid, my dad said I had an electromagnetic field that makes electronics misfire so, we’ll see.) It’ll be up and running soon — more interviews with experts, not pundits, looking and sounding sharper than ever.
In today’s newsletter: A court blocks abortion pills by mail. Eight tech companies get Pentagon AI contracts; the one with concerns about autonomous weapons does not. Meta threatens to leave a state rather than follow child-safety rules. Trump declares the Iran war “terminated,” with troops still very much deployed. DOJ releases new video in the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. Someone is making an impressive amount of money off this war. And the Met Gala enters its labor unrest era.
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New Gang of Eight: The Department of Defense on Friday announced it has signed contracts with eight tech companies to use their AI tools, saying those tools will make the Pentagon “an AI-first fighting force.” The companies are Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, SpaceX, Oracle, Reflection, and OpenAI. Notably missing is Anthropic, which the Trump administration blacklisted after the company insisted its AI tools not be used for mass surveillance of US citizens or to operate fully autonomous lethal weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Anthropic’s CEO an “ideological lunatic” for wanting those guardrails. The Pentagon’s agreements with the other eight firms greatly expand what the military can do with their AI tools, permitting all “lawful operational use” — far beyond the limits Anthropic sought. For example, Nvidia’s contract reportedly permits the Pentagon to use AI to develop autonomous weapons systems.
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What’s Up, Zuck: Meta is threatening to remove its platforms from New Mexico if the state implements a court-ordered changes to how the company operates. A jury found Meta endangered children and ordered it to pay a $375 million fine. The state proposed safety rules. Meta objected. Among Meta’s objections: It claims many of the rules, such as detecting child sexual abuse material with a 99% accuracy rate, are “technologically impractical or completely impossible.” New Mexico’s attorney general was not impressed: “Meta’s refusal to follow the laws that protect our kids tells you everything you need to know about this company and the character of its leaders.” He noted that dozens of other states are pursuing similar lawsuits, and suggested that exiting New Mexico altogether would simply “deflect and delay the inevitable.… It would be better for … communities all over the country if they just started to do the real work to prioritize safety.” A judge will consider whether to impose the new rules next week.
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Who’s Watching: Meta severed ties with a Kenya-based company it contracted to help improve the AI used in some of its Ray-Ban smart glasses after workers reported seeing, erm, personal footage. Workers were tasked with reviewing videos filmed by the glasses. That footage reportedly included people going to the toilet, handling bank cards, having sex… “We see everything,” one worker said. “People can record themselves in the wrong way and not even know what they are recording.” In some cases, workers said the footage seemed to have been taken without the owner’s knowledge — such as a woman undressing after someone left their glasses recording in a bedroom. Meta cut ties with the contractor in April, claiming it didn’t “meet our standards.” “The standards they are talking about here,” said the co-founder of the Africa Tech Workers Movement, “are standards of secrecy.”
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Fight, Fight, Fight: Thousands took to the streets across the US and around the world on Friday to protest growing economic inequality and the Trump administration’s actions. Organizers said activists in the US alone planned 3,500 events under the banner “May Day Strong.” Participants shut down intersections in Washington DC, blocked a bridge in Minneapolis, and occupied the lobby of a Portland Hilton allegedly housing DHS officials. In Havana, thousands marched past the US embassy — as Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against Cuba’s government. May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is an official holiday in 66 countries. Its roots lie partially in the fight for an eight-hour workday in the US — yet it is not officially recognized here. Instead, US lawmakers fearful of communism’s influence designated May 1 as “Loyalty Day,” defined as a “special day for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States.”
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Skyrocketing: Oxfam released a new analysis showing that between 2019 and 2025, workers around the world saw their pay drop 12% in real terms. In the same period CEO pay rose 54%. The report concluded that income inequality is worse in the US than globally; in 2025, pay for US CEOs increased more than 20 times faster than for workers.
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New Management: Pope Leo announced Friday that Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, who came to the US in 1990 as an undocumented immigrant, will be bishop of West Virginia. He also elevated Rev. Robert Boxie III, a Trump critic who has spoken up in defense of diversity and now becomes the country’s youngest bishop. Experts note the appointments signal where the Pope stands — on immigration, on diversity, and on his independence from Washington.
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Means No: Trump on Thursday withdrew his pick for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, who Health Secretary RFK Jr called “the pre-eminent MAHA mom.” Democrats and some Republicans had opposed her nomination, in large part due to her views on vaccines. Trump’s new nominee is Dr. Nicole B. Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News contributor. RFK Jr described Saphier as “a long-time warrior for the MAHA movement.”
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Who Could Predict This: Senators on Thursday unanimously agreed to ban themselves and their staff from betting on prediction markets. (Why not stocks?) Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) called the move a “good first step,” and called on the “House to follow suit” and pass a bipartisan bill prohibiting “all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information to bet on a prediction market.”
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Who Shot First: The DOJ on Thursday released video footage of the gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro argued the footage proves Cole Tomas Allen shot a Secret Service agent — answering a question that had lingered for days: Whether the agent was shot by Allen or by friendly fire. Prosecutors had charged Allen with discharging a weapon, but stopped short of charging him with shooting the agent.
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Monkey, Dolphin, Giraffe: Trump on Thursday bragged again about acing basic cognitive tests. Presidents Obama and Biden, he implied, couldn’t have managed it. “I took the Exam three times during my (“THREE!”) Terms as President,” Trump wrote, “and ACED IT ALL THREE TIMES — An Achievement that … according to the Doctors, has rarely been done before!” During a 2018 interview, Fox News host Chris Wallace said he’d taken the same test, and noted it asked the patient to identify an elephant. “The first few questions are easy,” Trump responded. “But I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions.”
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The Terminator: Trump told Congress on Friday the Iran war is “terminated,” relieving him, he claims, of any need for congressional authorization to continue it. Yet substantial US forces remain in the region, the US blockade of Iran continues, and Trump warned that “despite the success of United States operations … the threat posed by Iran … remains significant.” Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, after 60 days presidents must obtain congressional approval to continue a military conflict. That deadline was Friday. On Thursday, Republicans rejected a war powers resolution for the sixth time, though one more GOP senator joined Democrats in the latest vote.
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Just (Family) Business: Trump’s sons are making bank off the war — from government contracts. The US Air Force is buying drones from a firm backed by Donald Jr and Eric Trump. The firm also tried to sell interceptor drones to Gulf nations targeted by Iran. “This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off war,” a former White House ethics lawyer said. Meanwhile, Eric Trump in April bragged about a $24-million military robotics contract landed by another company he’s affiliated with. “Is the Pentagon just a cash machine for Trump’s kids now?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked. “This looks like corruption in plain sight.”
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Black Gold: Oil prices hit a wartime high Thursday after Trump told top energy executives the US blockade of Iran may continue for months. The average price for gas hit $4.39 a gallon on Friday, up 47% since the start of the war. Investors, at least, were pleased. April was the best month for the S&P 500 in almost six years, and oil companies are cashing in. BP, for example, just announced it doubled its profits in Q1. Leading oil firms are on track to make almost $3,000 in profits every second this year. Dozens of advocacy groups and some Democrats are calling for some of those profits to be shared with consumers in the form of a windfall tax. Lawmakers in Australia and across Europe have also called for taxes on excessive oil profits. Europe and the UK tried the same thing after Russia invaded Ukraine — and brought in billions. Advocacy groups wrote to Congress, arguing that “a windfall profits tax would ensure that extraordinary profits generated off the backs of US families during periods of crisis are returned back to the public.”
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Retaliation: The Pentagon on Friday announced it is removing 5,000 troops from Germany. A senior official said Trump was “rightly reacting” to “inappropriate and unhelpful” remarks from Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Earlier this week Merz said that “the Americans obviously have no strategy” and are “being humiliated by Iran.”
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Bezos Ball: The Met Gala, the “Oscars of the East Coast,” is on Monday. This year’s honorary co-chairs are Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. The fashion world has thoughts. One source described the centibillionaire couple’s presence as “hurtful and disturbing” — a “real slap in the face” to those in the fashion community. In part, that’s because Amazon’s relationship to high fashion is, let’s say, complicated. But the deeper grievance lies with a couple who have, for many, become representative of growing wealth inequality, and are speculated to have given seven figures for the honor of being the event’s sole lead sponsors (they’ll host a private pre-party this weekend). Walk around New York City and you might see posters calling for a boycott of the “Bezos Met Gala,” with references to Amazon’s alleged mistreatment of workers and relationship with ICE. The posters are the work of a protest group called Everyone Hates Elon, which says it raised over $13,000 for the campaign and a planned action outside the Gala. “If Jeff Bezos wants to fund cultural institutions,” a representative of the group asked, “why does he avoid so much tax?” One notable no-show: Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend, breaking a yearslong tradition. “My focus is on affordability,” he said.
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Sequels: Amazon is reportedly considering rebooting The Apprentice, Don Jr hosting. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “He’s probably good. He’s got a little charisma going.” A ringing endorsement, by family standards.
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