California Democrats Have A Problem & Is The US Leaving NATO?

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering birthright citizenship, Trump’s NATO comments, Trump’s Iran speech, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border conflict, DHS funding, a problem for California Democrats, the Artemis II launch, and chocolate drama

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“Gromit, that's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!” – Wallace from Wallace & Gromit

You’ve Got To Pick Your Court Battles

On the first day of his second term in office, President Trump issued an executive order blocking birthright citizenship rights for children born to parents in the U.S. illegally or temporarily. In case you forgot your U.S. history class, the 14th Amendment of the Constitution grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Since then, that executive order has been challenged in multiple different lawsuits, bringing the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

The court is slated to issue a full ruling on the case sometime in the early summer, but justices heard arguments from both sides yesterday. Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the hearing, marking the first time that a sitting president has ever attended arguments at the Supreme Court. But while the president’s presence seemed designed to put pressure on the court’s conservative justices to lean his way, the gambit didn’t seem to work. Chief Justice John Roberts referred to the government’s arguments as “very quirky” at one point, and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh (both Trump appointees) also expressed skepticism about the government’s choice to fight against what’s considered a pretty well-defined part of constitutional law.

After leaving the hearing, Trump parroted the White House lawyer’s arguments via a TruthSocial post. “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!,” he wrote. Fact check time: he’s very clearly wrong – 32 other countries have strong birthright citizenship laws like the U.S., while over 50 others have stricter birthright laws in place.

Nice To Know You, NATO

Yesterday, President Trump said that he’s “absolutely” considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO after the (defensive) alliance declined to support his war with Iran. In an interview with the Telegraph, the president said that the idea of maintaining U.S. membership in the alliance was “beyond reconsideration,” insisting he had never been “swayed by NATO.” The president then went on to say that he “always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”

“This is by far the worst crisis Nato has ever confronted. Military alliances are, at their core, based on trust: the confidence that if I am attacked, you will come help defend,” wrote one former U.S. representative to NATO. “It’s hard to see how any European country will now be able and willing to trust the United States to come to its defence.”

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, though, seemed unruffled by Trump’s threats, dismissing them as just “noise.” “Nato is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen,” Starmer said, reiterating the U.K.’s stance on the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict: “this is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it.”

The Stone Age Speech

• Last night, President Trump delivered his first prime-time speech since the U.S. and Israel began their war against Iran. While you might expect the president to take the opportunity to offer the world some new information on the war, Trump instead spent the 19-minute speech rehashing talking points that he’d already posted on social media over the past few days.

• According to the president, the U.S. military’s “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.” More specifically, he stated, “The nuclear sites that we obliterated with the B-2 bombers have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust. And we have it under intense satellite surveillance and control. If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we’ll hit them with missiles very hard again.” He then went on to say, “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” before promising to “finish the job” within a few weeks.

• Outside of that new timeline, Trump also called on countries across the globe to get involved in freeing up the Strait of Hormuz. “Let South Korea, you know, we only have 45,000 soldiers in harm’s way over there, right next to a nuclear force -- let South Korea do it,” Trump said. “Let Japan do it. They get 90% of their oil from the strait. Let China do it.”

Some Neighborly Diplomacy

• Since late February, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been involved in a deadly border conflict that’s claimed the lives of dozens of soldiers and hundreds of civilians. Yesterday, the two countries announced that they were holding a new round of peace talks in China, as Beijing looks to gain diplomatic status by mediating a peace deal between the neighboring nations.

• Both sides briefly paused hostilities in observance of the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday, but the violence resumed last week when Pakistan launched missiles in response to an alleged attack by Afghanistan. The war was sparked by border tensions between the two Muslim nations, as Taliban drones from Afghanistan have been able to hit targets deep within Pakistan. It’s hard to gather an accurate account of the damage from the conflict, as both sides are publishing vastly different casualty numbers, but most of the civilian deaths have been Afghan citizens.

Additional World News

• Iran Threatens to Start Attacking Major US Tech Firms on April 1 (Wired, $)

• Mass robotaxi malfunction halts traffic in Chinese city (BBC) 

• UK gathers more than 30 countries to plot ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz (AP) 

• Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits off Indonesia, killing one (BBC)

• As arms agreements fray, China secretly expands its nuclear weapons infrastructure (CNN, $)

• Ahead of Greek social media ban, parents desperate to separate children from phones (Reuters) 

The DHS Gets Its Dollars

• After weeks of deadlock, Congress has finally agreed on a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Last night, House Speaker Mike and Johnson Senate Majority Leader John Thune – both Republicans – announced that the House will soon vote on a measure that will fund all of DHS besides Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

• The measure was actually passed by the Senate last week with support from Democrats, but many hardline Republicans including Trump and Johnson were opposed to funding the rest of DHS without giving money to ICE. After giving up on that battle, Republicans are now turning to a so-called reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP without any help from Democrats. It will likely take Republicans weeks to work out the nitty-gritty details of that funding bill, but the Democrat-approved funding measure for the rest of DHS is likely to pass as early as next week, meaning we probably won’t see any more extra-long airport lines this year.

A Blue Problem For The Golden State

• While the leadup to this year’s midterm elections has been filled with good news for Democrats, the California governor’s election is proving to be a massive thorn in the party’s side. But how is the race to govern one of the most Democratic states in the country an issue? In short, the answer is the state’s “top two” primary system, which sees Democrats, Republicans, and independents all compete in a single primary election. After ballots are counted, the two candidates with the most votes – regardless of their party affiliation – go up to the state’s general election, which is held in November.

• Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem for Democrats. The state is a true-blue Democratic stronghold, and normally a single Democrat like Jerry Brown or Gavin Newsom gets all of the party’s backing, helping them coast through the entire election. This time, though, the party’s votes are being split between eight established candidates, raising the chances that a Republican makes it through to the general election. According to the numbers, two Trump-supporting Republicans and three Democrats are in a tight pack at the top of the polls, meaning the GOP could snag a surprise win in the Golden State during the June primary.

Additional USA News

• Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide (AP) 

• Manhattan judge delays Luigi Mangione state and federal trials (Guardian)

• Trump’s new attack on mail-in voting, briefly explained (Vox)

• Trump has discussed ousting Attorney General Pam Bondi, sources say (CNN)

• Pete Hegseth's broker faces insider trading claims after FT investigation (CNBC)

• Model was ‘paid $25 a minute to talk dirty with Kristi Noem’s cross-dressing husband’ (Times) 

Two Big Steps For All Mankind

• Yesterday, humanity experienced two massive breakthroughs. Let’s start with the first: in the afternoon, NASA’s Space Launch System successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the start of four astronauts’ journey to the moon. The Artemis II mission will bring NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch (and also Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen) to the moon’s orbit, where they’ll conduct various tests and experiments before returning back to Earth in about 10 days.

• What could the second breakthrough be, you ask? Here it is, without further ado: The Hershey Co. has promised to once again use real chocolate in all of its products by next year. The move is a response to Brad Reese, the grandson of the man who invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, who made headlines earlier this year by flaming the company for using a “chocolate-flavored coating” instead of actual chocolate in some of its Reese’s-branded products. 

• Now, Hershey says it will use “classic milk and dark chocolate recipes” in all its Reese’s and Hershey’s products by 2027 – it also plans to tweak its Kit-Kat recipe, giving the chocolate-covered wafers “a creamier taste and texture,” and is also “on track” to remove all artificial colors from its products by the end of next year, too. “If this is true, the people who deserve the credit are the loyal fans who were alarmed by what Hershey was doing,” Brad Reese replied. “But I am seeing a lot of red flags here. I think what Hershey is trying to do here is change with PR narrative.”

Additional Reads

• New DNA testing links Ted Bundy to unsolved 1974 murder of Utah teenager (Guardian)

• FIFA boosts World Cup ticket prices once again (NPR) 

• The Artemis Moon base project is legally dubious (Verge)

• Endo dreams of sushi: a trip around Japan with one of the world’s greatest chefs (Guardian)

• Why chatbot therapists can’t offer what we need (Psyche)

• Are domes and spheres the future of entertainment? (BBC) 

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Peanut For Your Thoughts

Watching the Artemis launch was actually so impressive. Like I was surprised by how impressed I was while watching it.

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella