Extra, Extra
The Great Haul of China: “The Middle East conflict that Trump started, and seems unable to finish, will cast a long shadow over two days of talks amid fears that he might be tempted to weaken US support for Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China, in return for Xi’s assistance.” Trump lands in China for high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping. It’s pretty clear from the Air Force One manifest that this trip is more about business than any other topic. Who was on Trump’s plane to China? Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO and more.
+ RSVPlease: “Dear NATO Members: I get it. You despise President Trump for all the right reasons. He has walked away from Ukraine. He has threatened to seize Greenland and annex Canada. He has coddled Vladimir Putin. He is eroding America’s democratic institutions and norms. He insulted each of you so much that the German chancellor recently barked back that Trump’s America was being ‘humiliated’ by Iran. I get it. Now get over it.” Thomas Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article) with an invitation he knows will be declined. NATO, Please Help. Trump Has No Strategy for Iran. Meanwhile, “Secret new assessments say Iran has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that its military remains far stronger than President Trump has asserted.” (Maybe because he’s an assertified liar?)
+ Shark Bait: “The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder County in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.” Backlash as Utah approves datacenter twice the size of Manhattan. “The proposed project is backed by Kevin O’Leary, the venture capitalist who appears on the TV show Shark Tank … ‘I don’t think there’s a bigger site in the world than this … It shows the Chinese and the rest of the world we are not messing around, we are going to get this done, move it forward and provide the compute power to our AI companies that defend the country.'”
+ Murdaugh, She Wrote: “In a unanimous opinion, the State Supreme Court said that ‘shocking jury interference’ by a court clerk who oversaw jurors during the 2023 trial meant that Mr. Murdaugh’s convictions must be overturned. Mr. Murdaugh, 57, will remain in prison because he also had pleaded guilty to various charges related to stealing millions of dollars from his law firm and his former clients.” Murdaugh Murder Convictions Overturned by South Carolina’s Top Court. (Does this mean more docuseries are on the way?)
+ Senate Chambers: “A burst of gunfire rang out Wednesday night in the Philippine Senate, where authorities have tried to arrest a senator who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for a charge of crime against humanity.”
+ Trading Blows: “Welcome to lower Manhattan’s Church Street Boxing Gym, where steel usually sharpens steel. But on this Thursday night, the ring is occupied by traders buying and selling cryptocurrencies—bitcoin, ether, even Pengu, a penguin-themed memecoin. The prize: $10,000 in cash and an ornate Japanese katana. And Parillo, a partner at a venture-capital firm, is methodically, brutally, pounding his rivals into submission.” WSJ (Gift Article): He’s a VC Partner by Day, Crypto Fighting Champ by Night. (The overlap between crypto trading, sports betting and other forms of gambling will become more and more clear. It’s not just that people are using crypto to make deposits into gambling sites. It’s that crypto traders are exhibiting the same addiction symptoms as other gamblers. )
+ Whatever Floats Your Bloat: “As many as 1,700 passengers are being held on board a cruise ship in southwest France, after dozens of cases of possible gastroenteritis on board.” (Cruises don’t seem awesome.)
