NASA's April Fools' Mission & Trump Eyes Cuba

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the FCC’s wartime crackdown, a MAHA misfire, Trump’s plans for Cuba, the U.S.’s lonely war in Iran, a mortifying slipup from Trump, the heatwave in the West, and NASA’s April Fools’ Day plan.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to send any comments or feedback to [email protected]!

“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

The Federal Communications Crackdown Commission

The country of free speech and television appears to be cracking down on free speech on the television. On Saturday, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of companies that don’t air favorable coverage of the U.S.’s war with Iran.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Carr broadcast his threat as top Trump administration officials – including Trump himself – have become increasingly frustrated with how American companies are covering the war in Iran. Recently, Trump wrote a social media post bemoaning The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of an Iranian airstrike that damaged five U.S. refueling planes in Saudi Arabia, calling the headline “intentionally misleading.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also chimed in, complaining about CNN’s coverage of the war and announcing that he can’t wait until Trump ally David Ellison gains control over Warner Bros. Discovery, the media giant that owns CNN. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech group, has called Carr’s comments “shocking — and dangerous.” Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy officer, also chimed in, stating that “when our nation is at war, it is critical that the press is free to report without government interference.”

MAHA Misfires

On Monday, a Massachusetts federal judge issued a major decision that shut down much of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. In his decision, Judge Brian Murphy blocked many vaccine decisions passed down by the Department of Health and Human Services under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He also reversed all decisions made by Kennedy’s appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which decides what vaccines that the federal government recommends to all Americans.

Murphy’s decision hinges on the idea that the vaccine committee has historically issued its recommendations based on a review of the scientific literature of each vaccine, which in his words is “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” The current regime, he claims, “has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.” 

Besides taking aim at the vaccine committee’s recommendations, Murphy also criticized the panelists’ professional experience, highlighting the fact that just 6 of the 15 committee members “appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines,” which he said are “the very focus of ACIP” It’s a sure bet that the decision will be appealed by the White House, but the timing means that the ACIP won’t be able to hold its next meeting, which was scheduled for this week.

They’re Coming For Cuba Next

• While the war with Iran is still chugging along, President Trump has already the U.S.’s next target in its series of foreign interventions. That target is Cuba. On Sunday, the president announced that the U.S. was in talks with Cuba’s government to resolve decades of disputes between the two countries. Those tensions have existed since the Cuban Revolution in 1959; the U.S. has tried (and failed) to invade the island nation multiple times since then. 

• Now, though, the White House is looking to capitalize on an economic crisis that’s pushed Cuba to the brink. Thanks to decades of punishing U.S. sanctions, Cuba relies on imported oil to keep its power grid – that supply was largely cut off when the U.S. invaded Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro. Without the oil needed to keep the economy running, Cuba has now been forced to negotiate with the Trump administration to keep its people fed. 

• “Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we ​have to do,” Trump said. The next day, Cuba’s deputy prime minister announced that the country would be lowering its economic barriers, allowing U.S. companies and Cuban nationals living abroad to “invest” in the Cuban economy. In practice, this will give both of these groups massive power over Cuba given its current economic situation

Trump Calls, But The Avengers Don’t Assemble

• Apparently, the U.S. needs help in its war with Iran. Over the weekend, President Trump called on China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the U.K. to help the U.S. gain control over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil shipping that’s been shut down by Iran. “The Countries of the World that ​receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — ⁠A LOT!” Trump wrote in a social media post. “The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that ​everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.” None of those countries agreed to participate in Trump’s war since that request.

• The president has also tried to rope in NATO to a similar response, warning that allied countries not lending a hand would be “very bad for the future of NATO.” Those allies, though, have also been hesitant to lend a hand, pointing out that NATO is a defensive alliance and that Trump didn’t seem to care about the organization just a few months ago when he was threatening to annex Greenland. Despite that caution, though, NATO countries do need the U.S. to support them – U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has stated that his country is involved in discussions to work out a “viable plan” to join the war, but noted that he needs the effort to involve “as many partners as possible” and have some sort of “legal basis.”

Additional World News

• Israel is running critically low on interceptors, US officials say (Semafor)

• Suspected suicide bombers target Nigeria’s Maiduguri city, killing 23 people and injuring over 100 (AP) 

• Drones, rockets fired at US embassy in Baghdad, security sources say (Reuters)

• Afghanistan says 400 killed in strike by Pakistan on Kabul hospital (Guardian)

• Iran war prompts Donald Trump to delay meeting Xi Jinping in China (BBC)

• What Do Africans Think of Trump’s Travel Ban List? (NYT, $)

Uhh, Can He Say That?

• On Monday, President Trump shocked his own party by publicly announcing that Florida Representative Neal Dunn “would be dead by June.” The president revealed the previously-private medical information during a nationally televised press conference at the Kennedy Center as he was praising House Majority Leader Mike Johnson for keeping the GOP in control of the House despite it holding just a two-vote majority since the start of this year.

• During the chat, Trump asked Johnson about one GOP Representative who was “very ill.” Johnson replied that Dunn had been facing “real health challenges” and a “pretty grim diagnosis” – Trump then decided to jump in and add that it was “a terminal diagnosis,” and that the Congressman “would be dead by June.” ”Ok, that wasn’t public,” Johnson replied.

That’s One Way To End Winter

• March is usually the time of melting snow, blooming flowers, and the start of spring. But this year, March is bringing a massive heat wave across California, Nevada, and Arizona. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued heat warnings for California’s Bay Area and central coast regions, most of Nevada, and north-west Arizona, with temperatures expected to breach 100 degrees in many of those areas between Wednesday and Sunday. 

• “Dozens of daily high temperature records are expected, and many locations are likely to set both all-high temperatures for the month of March and their earliest 100 [degree] temperature on record,” the NWS said in its statement about California temperatures. Officials are already worried about the weather’s effects on the state’s water supply, which relies heavily on snowpack that sits atop California’s mountain ranges, slowly melting into streams and rivers over the course of the year. Hot weather this early in the year means less snow in general, but also melts that snowpack reservoir faster, doubly affecting the state’s water reserves.

Additional USA News

• Cheese from largest US raw milk distributor linked to E coli outbreak (Guardian) 

• I Predicted the 2008 Financial Crisis. What Is Coming May Be Worse. (NYT, $)

• Trump says presidents 'should not have learning disabilities' as he mocks Newsom's dyslexia (BBC)

• How Canada's embrace of Chinese EVs could scramble the American market (Politico)

• Sprawling storm drops feet of snow, knocks out power with high winds and disrupts thousands of flights (CNN)

• Airport Security Lines Grow as TSA Goes Unpaid in Partial Shutdown (NYT, $)

Definitely Not A Fool’s Mission

• No, this isn’t an elaborate April Fools’ joke – NASA has announced that it plans to launch four astronauts for a trip around the moon as soon as April 1. The space agency made the announcement last Thursday while updating the public on the timeline for its Artemis II mission, which will see four astronauts take a trip as far as the dark side of the moon before returning home (without touching the lunar surface). The mission was initially supposed to launch in February of this year, but NASA cancelled that attempt due to a hydrogen leak that occurred during a launch rehearsal.

• “It’s a test flight, and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” said Lori Glaze, an official from NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. As long as NASA sticks to its prep timeline, she said, “we are on track for a launch as early as April 1. And we are working toward that date.”

• The four astronauts aboard the mission will be: mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The four space travelers are scheduled to go into quarantine ahead of the mission on March 18, and their rocket – the Space Launch System – will be rolled out onto the launchpad on March 19. If something goes wrong on April 1, NASA has also identified the next five days as possible launch windows barring any catastrophic issues. In our professional opinion maybe they should plan for an April 2 launch date, just for good luck.

Additional Reads

• Everything that happened at the 2026 Oscars (LA Times) 

• How Gin, Wax and Heat Guns Make Onscreen Meals Look Delicious (NYT, $)

• AI is moving fast. Should you ditch the job you love? (Vox) 

• Are we close to a cure for seasonal allergies? (BBC) 

• Is This Cuddly, Big-Eared Rascal Leading Russia to Ruin? (NYT, $) 

• US judge dismisses $100,000 suit over spiciness of New York taqueria’s sauce (Guardian)

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