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Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today, we’ll be covering Trump’s cartel strike, Florida’s vaccine mandates, Israel’s West Bank plans, China’s big parade, Google’s monopoly case, a Harvard lawsuit, and a suspicious deal by the Clippers.

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ― Haruki Murakami

Trump Makes An International Splash

On Tuesday, a U.S. Special Operations aircraft fired a strike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people onboard. In a TruthSocial post (accompanied by footage of the attack), Trump wrote that the vessel was being used by the Tren de Aragua cartel to ferry drugs out of Venezuela and into the U.S. The White House hasn’t given any legal justification for the attack, though Trump described the passengers as “narcoterrorists,” meaning he might use Tren de Aragua’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization to justify the strike. While that’s not an actual legal justification for blowing up a boat, the U.S. is not a signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, meaning it likely won’t face any legal consequences for the attack.

“The fact that U.S. officials describe the individuals killed by the U.S. strike as narco-terrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets,” said one professor of international law. “The U.S. is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organization… Not only does the strike appear to have violated the prohibition on the use of force, it also runs afoul of the right to life under international human rights law.”

Despite the U.S.’s concerns about China’s aggression in the Pacific Ocean, this strike is far more aggressive than anything Beijing has done in the region over the past two decades. “In all of my years of doing this,” said one former senior federal law enforcement official, “I’ve never seen the U.S. military say, ‘OK, this is a drug shipment,’ and then just blow it up.”

The State Of Sunshine And Also Measles Outbreaks

Florida is making history, but not in a good way (unless you’re an infectious disease). Yesterday, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, announced that Florida plans to end all of its vaccine mandates in the latest anti-vax policy shift from Trump-aligned public health officials.

“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” said Ladapo, an outspoken anti-vaxxer. “Your body is a gift from God.” The surgeon general promised that the state government would be “working to end” all vaccine mandates, adding that “every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” It’s not clear exactly how Ladapo is planning to get rid of the mandates, as his agency doesn’t have the authority to undo all of Florida’s vaccine requirements – instead, he’ll have to rely on a vote by the state legislature to undo the mandates.

“We’re going to start having vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks at school,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the U.S. Senate’s health committee. “You’re going to have children who come to school with measles and infect other people who either have not been vaccinated or have some sort of disease, like cancer.”

Surprising: Settler Calls For More Settling

• Yesterday, Israeli finance minister Bezazel Smotrich publicly stated that his country should annex the vast majority of the West Bank. His controversial suggestion was a response to a growing number of countries – including Britain and France – officially recognizing Palestinian statehood and demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza.

• “The main goal is to remove, once and for all, this idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich told reporters on Wednesday. He clarified that his plan for the West Bank would involve Israel annexing 82% of the territory, calling it “a preventative step against the diplomatic assault that’s planned against us.”

• Smotrich, a far-right settler, was selected to become Israel’s finance minister by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his right-wing coalition government despite his… unsavory past. In 2005, after Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza, Smotrich was caught in possession of 700 liters of gasoline – authorities believe he was planning to blow up an Israeli highway in protest of the country’s withdrawal from the strip. He’s also described himself as “a proud homophobe,” has told Arab members of the Knesset that they’re “here by mistake,” and repeatedly advocated segregation between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

A Big Day In Beijing

• China held a massive military parade yesterday in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, showing off its newest military technology in a much-anticipated display of nationalism. During the parade, the People’s Liberation Army showed off its unmanned drones, hypersonic anti-ship missiles, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and airborne combat vehicles which can be dropped off by transport planes behind enemy lines. These new military assets give us a hint into the type of conflict China’s military is preparing for: something overseas, requiring air superiority, and perhaps involving a lot of naval warfare? Sounds like a certain island nation off China’s southeastern coast fits the bill…

• At the parade, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had a hot-mic moment. Like comic book villains, the pair were caught talking about modern methods of extending life: “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one's still a child,” Xi's translator told Putin, whose translator responded with, “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality.” Through his translator, Xi replied, “Predictions are, this century, there's a chance of also living to 150 [years old].” 

More Mixed Nuts

• At Least 15 Dead After Lisbon Funicular Derails and Crashes, Officials Say (NYT, $)

• Israeli military database indicates only a quarter of Gaza detainees are fighters (Guardian) 

• UAE warns against Israeli annexation of West Bank as strikes in Gaza kill 31 (AP)

• Search for painting looted by Nazis may have found more stolen art (BBC)

• Why China can build so quickly and America can’t (Vox)

• Indonesian students to stage parliament protest, await meeting with government (Reuters) 

Google Gets Away With It

• Ever seen a trillion-dollar company dodge a bullet? You probably have – many times, actually – but this week was a closer call than most. Earlier this year, Google was found to have a monopoly in the search engine market, and federal judge Amit P. Mehta gave his ruling in the case on Tuesday. While the U.S. government has been pushing to break up the power of big tech with a series of antitrust lawsuits over the past year, the Justice Department’s case against Google fizzled out with Mehta’s ruling after he told the tech giant that it could resolve the monopoly problem by simply sharing some of its search data with “qualified competitors.”

• Ahead of Mehta’s ruling, Justice Department attorneys were pushing for Google to sell off its Chrome web browser, so this result seems like a slap on the wrist. Apparently, the judge decided to put on his techno-optimist hat while figuring out his ruling, writing that the growth of generative A.I. “changed the course of this case.” Thanks to his decision, Google stocks jumped over 8% after the ruling, hitting an all-time high of $231.10 on Wednesday.

Harvard Law Brings Down The Hammer

• On to the next ruling: yesterday, Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court in Boston decided that the Trump administration broke the law by withholding billions of dollars of funding for Harvard University earlier this year. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling, but Burroughs’ decision could provide Harvard with a leg up in settlement negotiations if the case comes to that.

• In April, the Trump White House threatened to withdraw Harvard’s federal research funding if the school didn’t get rid of its DEI programs, set up “merit-based” admissions, and audit “programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.” The university declined to make those changes, and its funding was taken away within days – Harvard quickly sued soon after, alleging that the government had ignored its First Amendment rights by revoking the funding. “We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other,” wrote the judge in her decision. 

More Nuts In America

• Democrats foil justice department lawsuit by negotiating to keep 98,000 North Carolina voters (Guardian)

• Trump appeals to US Supreme Court to rule on legality of tariffs (BBC) 

• G.O.P. Thwarts Epstein Disclosure Bill as Accusers Plead for Files (NYT, $)

• The suspect in the fatal ‘ding dong ditch’ shooting of an 11-year-old boy is a US Army vet. Here’s what we know (CNN)

• Trump suggests National Guard could go into New Orleans, a blue city in a red state (AP)

• Trump Is Crossing a Line That Dates Back to the Revolution (Atlantic)

Something’s Rotten In Inglewood

• According to NBA reporter Pablo Torre, the LA Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer have broken the league’s salary cap rules by giving Clippers star Kawhi Leonard $28 million in extra pay via an under-the-table deal. Torre’s reporting shows that Leonard was offered a $28 million endorsement deal with a company named Aspiration, which was funded in part by a $50 million investment from Ballmer himself.

• While NBA athletes sometimes sign endorsement deals with companies that work with their teams, the terms of the deal are particularly eyebrow-raising. First, the deal would be voided if Kawhi ever left the Clippers. Why would an NBA player who might be traded at any time ever agree to that? Second, it also allowed Kawhi to “decline to proceed with any action desired” while still being paid in full. Why would the company agree to pay Kawhi millions of dollars without him ever lifting a finger? Torres described the endorsement deal as “a no-show job” for Kawhi, and that might be a fair accusation – it appears that the NBA star did exactly zero promotion for the company at all.

• Making things worse is the fact that Dennis Robertson, Kawhi’s uncle and agent, was investigated by the NBA for soliciting extra benefits from prospective teams during Kawhi’s free agency in 2019. Those requests, according to the Athletic, included ownership stakes in the team, access to private planes, free housing, and guaranteed endorsements. The NBA says it’s investigating Torre’s report, and punishments could include a fine, suspensions for the team’s ownership, or the loss of draft picks.

More Loose Nuts

• A $1.4B Powerball jackpot is up for grabs after 40 drawings without a winner (AP)

• AI Is Eliminating Jobs for Younger Workers (Wired)

• If You Must Play One Sport, Make It Tennis (Atlantic)

• SNL announces 5 new cast members, including one from 'Please Don't Destroy' (NPR)

• The search for Earth’s most mysterious creatures is turning up extraordinary results (Vox)

• Is absurdist comedy pure nonsense or is there more to it? (Psyche)

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