Extra, Extra
Port of Call My Broker: Percival Everett’s James won the Pulitzer for best fiction. Here’s a look at All the Winning Books and Finalists. And a little closer to home (or least to NextDraft HQ), here are the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. The winner for illustrated reporting, Ann Telnaes, who won for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions” recently left WaPo in protest.
+ Rogue One: Pete Hegseth has had a terrible, and at times embarrassing, stint as Defense Secretary. But he’s still got the gig. And he’s still purging people who actually know how to do their jobs. And this report from Reuters is just plain scary. Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard.
+ Jersey Oys: “Those 30 seconds of silence when communication went down – and controllers’ temporary loss of radar contact with the planes they were supposed to guide – ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system. The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed system.” Inside the multi-day meltdown at Newark airport.
+ Trill Seeker: “OpenAI has decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit organization, after the company initially announced that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization.” You’ll have to ask ChatGPT about all the details. But this point certainly stands out: “CEO Sam Altman said he thinks OpenAI may eventually require ‘trillions of dollars’ to fulfill its goal of ‘[making the company’s] services broadly available to all of humanity.'” (I’ll serve all of humanity for half that.)
+ Houthis on First? “We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing.” U.S. will stop bombing Yemen after Houthis “capitulated,” Trump says. (This comes at a confusing moment as the Houthis bombed the airport in Tel Aviv over the weekend and Israel just retaliated with strikes “conducted in coordination with U.S. Central Command.”)
+ Drill Baby Drill: “At Donated Dental, providers expect their monthslong waitlist for children’s procedures to grow significantly and their need for volunteer dentists to skyrocket.” How Utah dentists are preparing patients for the first statewide fluoride ban.
+ Ego, Superego, and I.D. What you need to know about the REAL ID requirements for air travel.
+ The Right Puff: “Wait, you might say, haven’t I seen this movie? It sounds like the intrigue-laden, Oscar-winning film ‘Conclave,’ starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal who oversees a papal election beset by rivalries. Except this is the real-life version.” WSJ (Gift Article): Real-Life Conclave Rivals Drama of Movie Version.
+ Little Ditty ‘Bout Barry and Diane: “I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers. We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends. Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years. And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane. I can’t explain it to myself or to the world. It simply happened to both of us without motive or manipulation. In some cosmic way we were destined for each other … What others think sometimes irritates but mostly amuses us. We know, our family knows, and our friends know. The rest is blather.” Barry Diller on Diane von Fürstenberg: The truth about us, after all these years.
