TMI

White House envoy Steve Witkoff did some serious bonding during his quality time with Vladimir Putin. “I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me … I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.” He also was moved when Putin told him that, after Trump was shot, “he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president.” As Anne Applebaum explains: “If you ever wondered how the KGB manipulated foreigners and got them to repeat Soviet propaganda, spend some time listening to Steve Witkoff talk about his wonderful conversations with Vladimir Putin.”

+ Andreas Kluth in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Russia and the US Both Want to Finlandize the World. Russia and the US Both Want to Finlandize the World. “Finlandization is about weaker countries having to cede sovereignty to appease stronger bullies, such as Russia and, now, the US.”

+ Greenland’s prime minister slams ‘highly aggressive’ visit by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance. (Maybe Putin will pray for Greenland, too.)

I worry that in a few months we’ll be reading a lot of stories about another major hit to the American economy: a drop-off in international tourism. The warnings are already coming. NPR: “Some European countries, as well as Canada, are warning their citizens who travel to the United States to strictly follow the country’s entry rules or risk detention as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration enforcement.” And The Guardian: US tourism industry faces drop-off as immigration agenda deters travellers. There are the fears around detention risks, but the bigger numbers will be around those for whom the American brand is losing its luster.

+ Travel abroad from the US might pick up. At least one way traffic. “In February, Trump proposed that America start offering a U.S. ‘gold card’ for $5 million … But if Trump expects a flood of takers, he has it backwards: The international rich aren’t trying to come here, so much as Americans are trying to get out. U.S. citizens now represent the majority of clients looking for an exit, through foreign citizenship, permanent residence, or a visa that allows them to live abroad.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Americans Are Buying an Escape Plan.

“Is it important that your lover be a biological human instead of an A.I. or a robot, or will even asking this question soon feel like an antiquated prejudice? This uncertainty is more than a transient meme storm. If A.I. lovers are normalized a little—even if not for you personally—the way you live will be changed.” The New Yorker: Your A.I. Lover Will Change You. “Gargantuan, weird outcomes can start small in the tech world, and often innocently. The creation of A.I. lovers involves a degree of fabulous overreach, but it has primarily been driven by clean, practical problem-solving. The flaws in the tech world are usually not owing to ill intent but to amnesia and myopia.” (We were promised Teledildonics and we got A.I. chat buddies…)

Ruler v Rules: “Trump has made great progress in this offensive in only a matter of weeks. Day by day, he has shown Americans what unraveling the rule of law actually looks like: He has issued trollish and almost certainly unconstitutional executive orders, unleashed verbal fusillades against jurists (as well as various law-enforcement officials and prosecutors), and forced government lawyers to stand tongue-tied as they struggled to answer simple questions from judges. He has sent his minions, including the vice president of the United States, out in public to argue that a president has the right to ignore court orders, making an eventual showdown with the federal bench practically inevitable. Worse, Trump supporters have stepped up physical threats and various other forms of harassment against judges and their families.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Judiciary’s Last Stand. Plus: Trump targets lawyers who he says file ‘frivolous’ lawsuits against his administration.

+ A (Blame)worthy Opponent: “Tens of thousands of people across Turkey have been protesting the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Protesters have been fired upon with tear gas and rubber bullets in what has become the worst unrest in the country for more than a decade.” Why are thousands of people protesting in Turkey? This is part of a broader unraveling. Israeli cabinet moves to remove attorney general.

+ This Won’t Go Over Easy: “There used to be 3,000 hens on Kakadoodle Farm — scratching, pecking, following the farmworkers around. Creating a din so loud you could barely hear someone yell from the other end of the coop. Now there are none.” How bird flu has devastated one American farm. Meanwhile, “the U.S. has almost doubled imports of Brazilian eggs once used only for pet food and is considering relaxing regulations for eggs laid by chickens raised for meat.”

+ DNA Hole: “The company said there will be ‘no changes’ to the way it protects consumer data while in bankruptcy court. But unless you take action, there is a risk your genetic information could end up in someone else’s hands — and used in ways you had never considered.” Delete your DNA from 23andMe right now.

+ Dash Sans Cash: DoorDash will let users buy now, pay later for fast food, a possible worrying sign for the economy.

+ Dad Nod: “Among those in attendance for the Pelicans-Timberwolves game at Target Center was Jacob Ingles, the son of Minnesota veteran Joe Ingles. Jacob has autism, and earlier this week, he achieved the milestone of watching an entire game in person. The only downside: His dad didn’t play. But that changed Friday night.” Wolves’ Ingles makes 1st start since ’22, as son Jacob watches.

+ Forward March: NIL money seems to have turned March Madness into just March. What happened to March Madness? This year’s tournament is lacking in upsets.

“Going back at least a century, spaghetti has been the subject of rigorous studies. Through this research, physicists continue to learn new things about the solid state of matter, the chemistry of food and even draw connections to the origin of life. The steady torrent of spaghetti science helps to demonstrate that deep questions lurk in our ordinary routines, and that there are plenty of hungry physicists who can’t stop asking them.” Spaghetti science: What pasta reveals about the universe. (Next: What my glucose monitor alarm reveals about pasta.)

+ Since 2011, more and more videos increasingly take place outside the airplane. You read that correctly. They take place on beach resorts, basketball courts, tropical islands, and even fancy symphony halls. But not on airplanes. One reason is that these videos double as tourism ads — if you sell the destination, you sell the ticket.” Hustle on the booming, high-stakes arms race of airline safety videos.