New Leadership At X, Hegseth vs. Trump, & A Canadian Terror Plot

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today, we’re covering new TSA rules, X’s CEO resigning, a Canadian terror plot, Trump’s trade ambush, the click-to-cancel rule, a White House-Pentagon spat, and Nvidia’s new valuation.

Here’s the good news: a few days ago, the first malaria treatment that’s safe for babies and young children was finally approved for global use. The disease is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 5 every year, and this new drug will help children in need of treatment avoid the risk of overdose posed by current malaria medicines.

“Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.” – Paul Samuelson

Please Keep Your Toes Stowed

The next time you head to the airport, please don’t let your dogs out. Yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that passengers will no longer need to take their shoes off at airport security checkpoints, to the relief of pretty much everyone with summer plans vacation across the country. The announcement officially reverses the “shoes-off” policy enacted by the Bush administration in 2006, though a few airports have allowed travelers to keep their shoes on for a few days now.

Apparently, other travel security rules are also being looked at by the White House. “Every rule is being evaluated,” Noem added in her announcement. “All of you have traveled and all of you have known that sometimes checkpoints can be cumbersome and unpredictable based on what the situation is. With removing your technology, your liquids, your belts, your coats, your shoes, all of them are being evaluated and looked at.”

The streamlining is in part a response to U.S. airports seeing record numbers of travelers this year. On June 22, the TSA screened almost 3.1 million people, and that record was almost broken on Sunday when just over 3 million travelers passed through security checkpoints. That’s a whole lot of smelly feet that TSA agents will be spared from. 

Looks Like AI Took Her Job, Too

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X (Twitter) announced her resignation yesterday. The former NBCUniversal executive served a surprisingly long term at the helm of “the Everything App” over the past two years, but it appears she wasn’t able to weather the platform’s latest Grok-induced storm.

“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App,” she wrote on her way out.

Let’s take a look at some of that “free speech” she’s talking about – over the past few days, Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has been running rampant on X, where it’s allowed to publicly reply to queries from users. We wrote about this in Tuesday’s email, but the bot only went more insane after that, calling itself “MechaHitler” and making even more blatantly antisemitic tweets. Since that rampage, the chatbot has been blocked from making text replies to users, and xAI – which develops Grok – is reportedly tweaking its algorithms once again. 

Your retirement nest egg? It could be gone as you read this.

Sorry, We Have To Confiscate Your Terrorist Weapons Cache

• On Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested and charged four people for allegedly “planning to create anti-government militia” and to “forcibly take possession of land” in Quebec. The group included three mid-20s men and a fourth in his thirties, with multiple active military members among them. According to the RCMP, this was the largest weapons cache ever confiscated as part of a terrorism investigation in the organization’s history.

• “The three accused were planning to create [an] anti-government militia. To achieve this, they took part in military-style training, as well as shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises. They also conducted a scouting operation,” the RCMP said in a statement. Their weapons stockpile included 16 explosive devices, 83 firearms, 11,000 rounds of ammunition, and a variety of other equipment. 

• “We’re not talking about al-Qaida and Islamic State,” said one Canadian defense consultant. “We’re talking about anti-Muslim, ‘Incel’ or anti-government extremists. And I think that’s one of those things that Canadians don’t necessarily understand. The Islamic State makes the news, but it’s really this other type of terrorism that’s the real problem in this country.”

Trump’s Tariff Trap

• Ambushes are a normal occurrence in physical wars, but they’re not so commonplace in economic conflicts. The Trump administration, though, pulled off a surprise attack on Brazil yesterday, announcing 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports into the U.S. The massive tariffs, according to the White House, are a response to Brazil’s alleged “witch hunt” against former president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump supporter currently facing trial for attempting a coup after losing Brazil’s 2022 presidential election.

• “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a letter announcing the tariffs. “Brazil is a sovereign country with independent institutions that will not accept being abused by anyone,” Lula replied, adding that Bolsonaro’s fate “is the sole responsibility of the Brazilian Judiciary.”

Additional World News

• ‘Punishing workers for getting old’: how South Korea’s wage system impoverishes the elderly (Guardian) 

• Kyiv hit by new massive Russian drone attack, Ukraine officials say (BBC)

• Search for survivors after Houthis sink second Red Sea cargo ship in a week (BBC)

• Landmark ruling finds Russia shot down MH17 with 38 Australians on board (Guardian)

• South Korean court approves new arrest of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over martial law decree (AP)  

• A British Surgeon Shares What She Saw in Gaza’s Hospitals (NYT, $)

Click-To-Cancel Gets Canceled

• Yesterday, a federal appeals court struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule just a few days before it was set to go into effect. The rule would have forced companies to allow people to cancel their subscriptions in the same way that they signed up for them. Thanks to the court’s decision, though, they’ll still be able to force you to chat with agents or dig through obscure menus if you want to cut down on your monthly payments.

• According to the appeals court, the commission that established the rule failed to follow certain parts of the FTC Act as it was trying to establish the “click-to-cancel” regulation. “While we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission’s rulemaking process are fatal here,” the court said in its decision. The FTC will likely restart the rulemaking process in response to the decision, meaning we’ll eventually get a “click-to-cancel” rule sometime, eventually.

A Semi-Working Relationship

• Last week, the Pentagon paused its weapons shipments to Ukraine, shocking both Kyiv and the rest of Europe. On Tuesday, the White House reversed that decision, with Trump announcing that U.S. arms shipments to Kyiv would continue. According to five sources familiar with the matter, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth didn’t notify the White House before the pause, indicating a serious disconnect between Trump and the Defense Department. 

• Trump publicly displayed his displeasure with Hegseth’s pause on Tuesday, telling the media that he wasn’t responsible for the move. When pressed about who made the decision, the 79 year-old lashed out at a reporter, asking them, “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson tried to clear the air, telling CNN, “Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government,” while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the media that “the President has full confidence in the Secretary of Defense.” The press secretary doth protest too much, methinks.

Additional USA News

• Camp Mystic Cabins Stood in an ‘Extremely Hazardous’ Floodway (NYT, $)

• The US faces more frequent extreme weather events, but attitudes and actions aren’t keeping up (AP)  

• He Spent His Life Trying to Prove That He Was a Loyal U.S. Citizen. It Wasn’t Enough. (Atlantic)

• DoJ subpoenas clinics and doctors who offer gender-affirming care to minors (Guardian)

• Laura Loomer, Trump’s Blunt Instrument (NYT, $)

• ‘Could become a death spiral’: scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of US honeybees (Guardian)

The Chipmaker Stacks Some Cheddar

• Nvidia broke a massive record yesterday, becoming the first public company in history to reach $4 trillion in market value. The U.S. chipmaker has been trading the title of “most valuable company in the world” with Microsoft over the past year, but its shares experienced a large dip in April thanks to Trump’s tariff plans. Since that low point, $NVDA has stormed back to the top of the world, gaining 74% over the past three months.

• According to one analyst, Microsoft (which is currently worth $3.75 billion) will likely also pass the $4 trillion mark “this summer” on the back of the AI hype tsunami. “Over the next 18 months the focus will be on the $5tn … as this tech bull market is still early being led by the AI revolution,” he added. Apple, which is worth about $3.1 billion, is trailing the two, but its lack of investment in AI might keep it from breaking the $4 trillion mark anytime soon. What does this mean for normal people? Not much, except maybe that experts will continue telling us that the economy is doing great as more and more people get laid off.

Additional Reads

• Futurist Adam Dorr on how robots will take our jobs: ‘We don’t have long to get ready – it’s going to be tumultuous’ (Guardian)

• What are the Health Benefits of Sunshine? (NYT, $)

• How Christianity conquered the Hot 100 (Vox)

• How a big shift in training LLMs led to a capability explosion (Ars Technica)

• McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants' Data to Hackers Using the Password ‘123456’ (Wired)

• OpenAI’s open language model is imminent (Verge)

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